2012 Wrap-up/2013 Preview

As you may have noticed, we have been having some strange weather the last couple years. I guess we are experiencing “The new normal.”  Last year we had a dry spring and summer – same this year.  Last year we had a late season hurricane.  Same this year.  Last year we had an early snow storm. Same this year.  Last year we had a warm, dry winter.  This year? (Maybe not so warm!)  I sometimes feel like I'm a farmer, always watching the weather; second-guessing the weatherman; worried that it will be too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry.  Having been fly fishing so long, I've learned to adjust, based on conditions.  We always hope that we can execute Plan A, but we are always plotting Plans B, C and D as contingencies.  Last year we had to implement Plan B more than once.  Over the years, we have also learned that sometimes Plan B or C can be as much or more fun than Plan A.  We have found that oftentimes trout ponds are not as severely impacted by aberrations in the weather as rivers are, making them a great “Plan B” resource.  We are fortunate that New England in general and New Hampshire in particular has some beautiful trout ponds.  These ponds are deep, clear and cold remnants of the last glaciation period. My guiding partner Jim and I haul our canoes into some ponds each summer to fish the evening rise. There is nothing like fishing to rising brook trout on a NH trout pond.  We plan to haul a boat we just purchased into a fly fishing pond that is a short hike-in from a logging road. We fished it a couple times in September and were amazed at how many darkly colored brook trout were willing to rise to our flies. Let’s hope they are as willing to be caught when we fish for them next June!

Both our June and September Androscoggin River All-inclusive Special Package trips were a lot of fun.  The Alder Fly hatch was a little early again in June. We fished over rising fish for the entire two weeks, although the last few days we really had to work hard, since the fish were full of the plentiful zebra caddis that they had been feeding on for over two weeks. The hexagenia hatch on the ponds, as well as the evening rise on the river, also provided some stellar fishing. Here is a link to the overview photo-album of the June 2012 Androscoggin Trip.

The September Androscoggin Trip was also a lot of fun.  When we arrived in mid-September the trees were all green with just a touch of color. When we left two weeks later the trees were ablaze with color marking full-foliage in The Great North Woods.  Here is the September 2012 trip photo album.

We are well underway with plans for our Northeast Fly Fishing School and Androscoggin River Trips.  Dates and information about the intermediate and beginner classes are posted on the website.  Information about the Androscoggin River trip with availability calendar is also found on the website. You will note that we are already booking spots for the June trip, and the  last two years we booked-up early, so pick your dates and let us know ASAP.  For regular guided trips, we have limited weekend availability through June, but plenty of open spots on weekdays.  If you are limited to weekends and want a trip this spring, contact us ASAP before all the spots get filled.

For the next couple months there are plenty of opportunities for you to expand your fly fishing horizons.  Jim is leading some free fly tying classes in Manchester and Hooksett, NH.  There are also a number of presentations that we have scheduled between now and the end of April. Complete list of events and dates.   Finally, Jim is the chairman of the 11^th annual Fly Fish NH Show to be held March 2 and 3 at Pelham fish and Game Club. There are booths with fly shops, fishing guides, authors and other vendors; continuous seminars and demonstrations and other activities. This is a fun event that I can highly recommend to you.  Flyer with complete details.

If you are more into online than real world activities, check my YouTube Channel for fishing videos.  

Androscoggin Produces

I just got back from two weeks in Errol, NH guiding and fishing the Androscoggin River.  The dog days of summer are definitely behind us and the Andro has rebounded nicely.  Water temps started in the mid-60s and steadily dropped to the mid-50s - perfect!  It seems that every day the water temp dropped the foliage color increased, until both were at peak condition. This boded well for the fishing, which was much better than last September, in the aftermath of Irene. Early on there were some large orange caddis (about a 12), small black caddis (size 16) and a few Isonychia mayflies.  Later in the trip I saw some small tan/gray caddis. We caught a lot of fish on dries that imitate those insects.  The other big producers for me were woolly buggers (my woolly-crayfish and bruiser-woolly.) Some also were caught on soft-hackle droppers of the streamers and dries.  A couple days we had some free time, which I spent exploring/scouting/fishing. One day my partner Jim, his wife Barb and I spent a few hours drift fishing, which is shown in the video.  It was probably the best day of the trip.  We caught a lot of fish and had a great few hours on the water together.  Most of our time together is spent entertaining clients in the lodge or doing behind-the-scenes work, so this was a welcome diversion.  We also spent a couple hours fooling wild brook trout on a FFO pond.  I hope to get some time to put together some pictures/videos from that trip, as well as a few more foliage and client/fish pictures. 

Early Everything

Whether you call it climate change, global warming, a natural cycle, a hot spell, a heat wave, or whatever, it is clear that the weather for almost a year has been turned on its head. The warm, dry winter continued the cycle into spring.  Our trip to the Androscoggin River the last two weeks of June had it all.  When we got there on  June 15 the Alder Fly hatch was in full bloom.  Water levels were good for both drifting and wading and the fish were on to the flies.  Not as good as last year, but still very good.  (A bad day of fishing during the Alder Fly hatch is better than a good day of fishing just about any time or place the rest of the year.) This trip we had clients from Quebec, Minnesota, NY State, along with the some regulars and new clients from New England. It was fun teaching clients to fly fish, how to skate a caddis and then how to fight and land a fish.
It was great having my friend Mike, who lives near Minneapolis, and his son Paul come fish with us for three days.  Here is a video of some of the highlights of their trip.
Then the heat-wave hit - upper 80s for a couple days and the river and the local ponds were cooked.  I made the mistake of doing a little rain-dance to cool things down and the rains came, the river level went up beyond safe wading, and we were scrambling to get our clients into fish.  We spent a few days fishing the Connecticut River, both the area from Colebrook to Columbia and the area in Pittsburg.  I ran into some guys from the Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell - Hi Dean, Chris and David! We also spent a couple days fishing some of the headwater wild brook trout streams.
Matt and Andy, friends, regular clients and followers of this blog hit the tail-end of the Alder flies and the beginning of the heat wave. Here is a video of their trip.
The last week of the trip the conditions gradually improved, the water level and the temperature in the Androscoggin dropped and the Alder flies were still out.  More dry fly action with skating caddis and Stimulators right up to the end of the trip.   Here is a video of Greg landing a nice rainbow on a caddis larva.
Since getting back from Errol, I've been to the Sugar River in Newport.  Water is low and starting to warm up.  Still some fish on dries.  Then I took a couple of beginner Brits to the Swift River in central MASS.  We caught fish on sulphurs in mid-morning and on a variety of small nymphs in the afternoon. I'll probably make a couple more trips there in the next couple weeks.

Autumn splendor

Last week we had our Autumn all-inclusive Sporting Lodge trip  to  the Androscoggin River in and around Errol, NH.  Nine days in a row with maximum capacity every day have Jim and I ready to take a break.  Jim and Duchess (his English setter) are waiting out the rain to go bird hunting.  I am busy booking trips for tomorrow, Friday, Sunday and next week!  The Androscoggin was running high and warm - 2,710CFS, versus a normal 1,500CFS and 64F to 68F versus 55F to 60F normally.  Either because of the real hot summer, or the high water from Irene and other unnamed storms, the fish were spread out.  Also due to high water, I couldn't get to all my good wading spots.  That being said, we still had a great time and some pretty good fishing. Everybody got some fish and a few (that means you Kevin and George) got a lot of fish and some real nice ones, too! Here is Susan from Pepperell with the largest trout she has caught on a fly, a beautiful 14-inch rainbow caught on a soft-hackle as a dropper behind a Stimulator.  She landed a 12-inch rainbow about 10-minutes later - nice job Susan!  Earlier in the trip, Kevin and Mike got into some nice fish, including this nice brookie that Mike is holding in the photo above. As usual, we had quite a few beginners and novices
with us and it was gratifying to see the progression in their skill.  There were quite a few "first fish on a fly; first on a dry fly; first brookie" so the excitement level was always high.  Fun for the clients and fun for Jim and I. We had a few clients that are experienced and have fished out west and around the world.  They enjoyed the beautiful river, foliage and NH fish.  Here is Shawn having a great time with a NH brook trout.
We caught a lot of fish using soft-hackle droppers off the bend of dries or streamers.  Others took the dry or streamer.  On the boat, Jim also had quite a few on nymph rigs with indicators. I took dozens of pictures that I will send to the clients, but these should give the flavor of the river, the fish and the foliage.
The MA rivers are receiving their fall stocking this week and the SE NH rivers will get their fall load of trout on Oct 15 and 16.  They should also be putting in the broodstock Atlantic salmon soon.  NH Fish and Game biologist Matt Carpenter said that since returns of sea-run fish was so good this year, there would probably be extra fish stocked.  I can't wait to get one of them on and hear the drag singing!  Tight lines!

Opportunity Knocks

Guys, some may be aware that our all-inclusive trip (lodging, meals, gear and guided fishing) to the Androscoggin River in the Great North Woods of NH has been sold out for over a month.  Today we had a cancellation, so we now have an opening for three people to arrive September 27 in the afternoon and fish with us all day September 28.  This is the only day we have an opening for the last week of September and beginning of October.  You can find the details here. The water has cooled and the fish are still there, since the Androscoggin didn't experience the high water from Irene and also fared better over the summer than did a lot of rivers in the hot/dry summer.  This is prime time in the north country on one of the premiere rivers of the northeast.  Some of the regulars on this blog have fish the Andro with us and none came away disappointed! Here are a couple pictures from last September. NOTE: ALL SPOTS ARE NOW FILLED ! Thanks!

Right before Irene came rolling through I fished the Sugar and the Pemigewasset Rivers and found fish in each.  I also found a couple fish in the mainstem Pemi AFTER Irene, but unfortunately, I think most south/central rivers will need a visit from the stocking truck before we see fishing return to optimum conditions.

The proverbial calm after the storm

Irene came and went. Luckily for NH she stayed to the west over VT.  Even so, there was unbelievable flooding of the Pemigewasset, Ellis and Saco Rivers.  You can check out some of these YouTube videos to see what happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1I6A1zkM0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3VqsC2HPM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLNTJ7J3KF8&feature=related

Yesterday I made the rounds of some spots on the Pemigewasset River in Franklin, Bristol and North Woodstock.  It is still real high, but the further upriver you go, the better current conditions.  I am certain the Pemi in North Woodstock is fishable today (don't expect to find a lot of fish though!)  I imagine I'll have to learn the new contours of the riverbed, too.  At least the ponds were not affected.  There were fish rising on Sky Pond, Profile and Echo lakes.
As the nights get short and cooler, the fishing in some of the rivers should pick up. In particular the upper and lower Androscoggin, CT river from Pittsburg down through North Stratford and the Contoocook and Sugar Rivers.  Hopefull NH Fish and Game still has a few fish they can put out to sweeten the fall fishing.

Alder Fly Bonanza

Our 14-day Androscoggin Adventure is complete and fishing AND catching was great.  We had some epic days at the beginning of the hatch from June 19 through 23 and very good fishing through the end of the trip.  In fact, the biggest fish of the trip were caught the last day, July 1.  The fish were leaping out of the water at the beginning of the hatch, but were getting a lot more selective as the hatch progressed, so we had to work for them.  The hatch came out down-river below Pontook dam on June 18 and got to our HQ on the FFO area in Errol on June 22.  Before the hatch got going the fishing was excellent, and at the beginning of the hatch ranged from phenomenal to unbelievable. I don't like hype and maybe some of the folks who were there can back me up on this.   FFNE fans, brothers Alan and David had an epic couple days at the beginning of the hatch.  Matt and his gang from upstate NY had a great time until some rain put a damper on things.  Overall, rain was not a factor, other than keeping the flies in the Alders until the sun peeked through.  As always, the big golden stone flies were out along with the caddis and many fish succumbed to the charms of a size 8 Stimulator.  We are already booking our September trip when the foliage is bright, the water is cold and the fish are hungry.  Next up a report on the hex hatch on the ponds.

Better late than . . .

Thanks for your concern (a couple of you called and emailed to make sure I could still fog a mirror!) But no worries, I was either too busy or too lazy (go with the latter.)  Summer got to be pretty boring.  I had a lot of beginners out (that part was exciting) but the only place that had enough water flowing to float a strike-indicator was the Pemi around Woodstock/Lincoln.  Every time we fished it, fewer fish wanted to play the game, so it became pretty much an exercise in casting, mending, etc. without a lot of fish-landing practice.  Then we opened the house in Errol for our fall trip and all hell broke loose.  Fish everywhere!  Not copious quantities, but enough to keep things interesting, and some fish with some real girth!  That river is so fertile that you can't pick up a rock in the FF-only section without having caddis larva and stoneflies crawling over your hands. That is why the fish are so fat, and it also bodes well for the Alder fly hatch next June!  There was not a lot of dry fly action, although we did see a couple October caddis and quite a few Isonychias and we did get a few on Stimulators and Adams dries. When I get around to it, I'll be putting up a webpage with picutres, but these will have to do for now.

 

Oh, BTW, Mass Wildlife stocked last week, and you can't throw a rock into the Swift, Squannacook or Nissitissit Rivers without hitting a 12+ inch rainbow.  Other rivers are also stocked, but these are the ones I can personally attest to.

Too busy fishing to post?

Sorry, but too much time on the water to post - Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' too it! Here is an update for the last couple weeks:  Fished the Swift River three times with diminishing returns.  Caught fish each time, but had to work a lot harder for them each time. On two trips I explored the Bondsville section as recommended by Millerbrown on his blog.  See link on the side of this page.  On one trip I ran into Al, a regular on this blog (hi Al!)  He was also checking out the Bondsville section.  For Swift River regulars, that area is quite a revelation.  (Although the lack of crowds normally seen at the Y-pool, will be a thing of the past if all you guys head out there!)  If somebody blindfolded you and took you there without telling you it was the Swift River, you would never guess that is where you are.  Mixed pools, pocket-water, fast runs, deep slow pools, etc.  Caught some rainbows on dries and also a nice wild brooktrout.  Fishing at the usual Swift River haunts was spotty.  The hatchery pipe area was like a ghost-town!  The only fish in the entire area were tucked in behind the fallen tree about 50 yards below the pipe.  A few fish were spread out a couple hundred yards downstream near Cady Lane. Most fish are found from the route 9 bridge and upstream, and so are most of the fly fishers. With this heatwave and drought it is one of the few places to find fish.
I must confess that I have been finding some fish in the Pemigewasset River.  Had a few guided trips up there this week and last for beginners and/or out of towners.  Here is a video of a family from New Orleans, none of whom had ever fly fished, having a great time learning on the Pemi. And here are some pix/video of a trip I did today, teaching a NHer to fly fish on the Pemi.  Practicing indicator nymphing turned up some nice rainbows.  The fish were dark, perfect fins and no hook marks. Water temp was 64F in the morning and 66F in late afternoon.  Glad some freestone rivers are holding up well.
My partner Jim and friends Dick and Jerry just got back from 12 + days in Montana.  They had a great trip and I hope I can report when they will be doing a presentation about the trip at our TU chapter meeting. Jim is up north guiding on the CT and Androscoggin and Saco/Ellis rivers.  He reports that water temps are good and plenty of fish have made it through the hot, dry summer (at least so far!)
This bodes well for September and October fishing.  Stay tuned for information our September All-inclusive package trip to Errol, fishing the Androscoggin River.

Androscoggin River Trip - end of June

Well, I finally got around to uploading, compiling, editing and publishing some of the pictures and videos of our two weeks on the Androscoggin River.  The Alder Fly hatch was almost two weeks earlier than the usual emergence, so many of our clients saw only the very end of the hatch.  The water level in the river was great and at a perfect temperature and the fish were really active.  As the trip went on the fish became more and more selective, but we were able to fool a lot of fish.  We mostly caught brook trout, but also got quite a few salmon and some rainbows, too.  Here is a video of Rob (a frequent visitor here) and his dad Joe catching some fish and having a great time.

Brothers David and Alan (frequent visitors/participants in this blog) also spent some time with us on their way to Grant's Kennebago Camps. Here is a picture of Alan with a really nice alligator-jaw landlocked salmon he caught on an Alder Fly pattern. They also had a great time fishing the hex hatch, but no pictures from that evening excursion have surfaced. 

You often hear/read about the Alder Fly hatch on the Androscoggin, and it is hard to describe what it is like, unless you are there at the beginning of the peak emergence.  Here is a video I took on the first day I guided the Androscoggin on this trip (June 18.) It shows the mats of spent caddis floating in an eddy. 

This is probably 5+ days into the hatch and the fish have gorged themselves. A couple days earlier the fish would literally be hurtling out of the water, eating zebra caddis, but now tens of thousands of flies are available for them to eat at their leisure.  Surprisingly, most of the rises on naturals and our flies was to ovipositing (egg-laying) females as they danced on the water.  No way for me to tell for sure, but my theory is that the females with eggs taste better to the fish than the spent flies that are dead on the water.  Anybody want to volunteer to eat them and let me know which taste better?

Brookie on an Alder Fly Dry Fly

I had a couple hours off to scout some "fresh water" on Saturday morning. I shot this video of a NH brookie that succumbed to the charms of a skated Alder Fly dry in the FFO section of the Androscoggin River in Errol.  This is right across the road from our "virtual fishing lodge" where I will be for the next 10 days.

Perfect timing, for once

That's what client John A. said about his trip with us to northern NH to fish the Androscoggin River and the trout ponds.  He hit the daily double with both the hex hatch on the ponds and the Alder fly hatch on the river at their finest.  The warm dry spring weather had the river at a great wadeable level and the caddis were hatching in epic proportions.  And the hatch on the ponds was really cranking, too.  Here is a video of the second-largest wild brooktrout he caught.
(The biggest one got away as I was netting it.) Every time I net one of these beauties it makes we wonder what it will take to have wild brooktrout like these in ponds and rivers throughout New Hampshire. John also fooled a lot of brooktrout and a few salmon skating Alder fly and Stimulator patterns on the river. When we booked the trip I thought it would be a little early for the Alder flies, but John hit it dead-on.  He remarked that when he goes on a fishing trip people usually tell him, "You should have been here last week.  The fish were really biting then!"  I think the fish will be biting next week too, but it was fun helping John enjoy a special time on one of my favorite rivers.  Glad you enjoyed being with us "Last week!"
PS. we still have a few spots open for the Alder fly and hex hatch now until July 1

Androscoggin Trip Openings and many river reports

Before getting into the fishing report, I wanted to let you know that we still have some openings for our Androscoggin Special Package Trips starting next Thursday and going through July 1.  We are now accepting one-day, as well as two-day trips, and we also have some openings for singles, offering the maximum in flexibility. Details including videos and pictures of past trips are found here. River flow levels are great and the Alder Fly hatch should be epic this year!

Since my last post I have been all over the southern and central part of NH and parts of MA, as well.  They say that the definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over and expecting different results.  Well, the Sugar River is driving me insane.  I went there again last week with the same results.  This time I only wasted an hour there before pulling out. "They MUST have stocked it by now," goes through my mind, but then I get proven wrong each time.  Well, I can report that the Mascoma River FFO section held some fish - browns, rainbows and wild brookies - all of which were caught on a Stimulator skated through all the likely looking runs, pools and pocket water. From the Mascoma, I went across route 4 and then 104 to Bristol to fish the Newfound River.  This entire trip was a "scouting expedition" to prep for a couple client trips.  The Newfound was hard fishing, but I got 3 landlocked salmon, a rainbow and a brookie in the white water run immediately below the dam.  (I don't consider this spot-burning, since I fished it hard for two hours and that is all I could dredge-up.) I got nothing in the dam pool or any other spot in the upper river on this trip.  When I took the clients out, we also got fish in the runs and pocket water down-river from the upper section.  Those fish were caught on green caddis larva under an indicator, woolly bugger, woodduck-orange, and elkhair caddis skated through the plunge-pools in the pocket water.  It was tough fishing, but the fish are there if you can get a fly in front of their nose.  We also hit the Contoocook River for a couple hours and were able to fool, but not hook a number of rising trout.  Then last night I went over the the Bertozzi WMA on the Nissitissit River and got a nice rainbow on a dry.  Also tough fishing, since when the water is low they have a lot of time to inspect your fly before biting. I'll be guiding the next couple days in the White Mountains.

Catching up

Last Wednesday I got back from our week in Errol on the Androscoggin River and didn't get to catch my breath before guiding on Friday, Saturday and Monday on the Contocook and Pemigewasset Rivers. I just now finished downloading some of the pictures and forwarding them to clients. If you want to see some beautiful foliage and beautiful fish, check out the flash files. Every day we were there, the fishing got better and better. On the last day there were fish rising to gray mayflies (Isonychia?) black caddis, pumpkin caddis and who-knows-what-else. The water was cooling down from the low 60s to the mid-50s and the fish loved it. We saw a lot more leaf-peepers than we did fishermen. Only on Saturday September 26 did we see many other anglers. One thing that surprised me was that we didn't see any moose - weird, since we saw at least 2 or 3 every day in June. We saw eagles, fox and grouse, but no moose. Did I mention that the brook trout were resplendent in their spawning colors and that the foliage was spectacular?
I took a father and son fishing for the broodstock salmon on Monday. Fantastic foliage on the Pemigewasset River in Bristol, but the salmon were a disappointment. We caught a 14" rainbow that was as big as the salmon we caught. Also caught a few small browns in Franklin, which was an added bonus. Hopefully my trips on this weekend will produce bigger fish.
Anybody been fishing the Squannacook or Nissitissit Rivers? They have been recently stocked and should be fishing well.

Androscoggin River Trip teed up next

Got home from Moosehead on Friday; taught 9 new fly fishers the way of the long rod on Saturday and Sunday at the Northeast Fly Fishing School; and now I am packed to head north for a week guiding the Androscoggin River in Errol. My partner Jim and I run our "Virtual fishing lodge" in Errol the last two weeks of June and the last week of September, the best fishing weeks of the season on the Andro. The forecast is super, the flows are great for both wading and the drift boat. H-m-m-m-m what can go wrong now? Let's hope the fish are cooperative. I am hoping for some caddis and isonychia mayflies, but there is always the woolly bugger when all else fails. We still have Saturday and Sunday openings if anybody can get away. No reports until next week.

Building up to the big trip(s)

Last Thursday and Friday I had some beginners wanting to catch the fly fishing bug. Both days we hit the Ellis and Saco. Both rivers have been pounded pretty good lately, so it has been harder and harder to come up with some fish. It took some pocket water for one group and a big pool for the others to score some brook trout. Each got their fish on dries after missing a few hits.
That is something hard to teach - how hard/fast to set the hook on a strike. Some people come by it naturally and others really have to work at it.
On Sunday Jim, Barb, Dick and I checked out the Sugar River. We have been fishing up north a lot and wanted to see how the Sugar had fared over the summer. There are still some nice fish there. The water is just starting to cool to a good level - about 63F mid-morning. The flow is perfect and should get even better over the next couple weeks as the water cools to the 55F range.
The second half of September I have two major trips. Tomorrow I point the car north towards Moosehead Lake, Rockwood, Maine. The 20th anniversary trip of the Bull Salmon Club will be held at Maynard's of Maine (Ain't nuthin' changed 'cept the linens in 90 years!)
Then next week my partner Jim and I host clients at our "virtual fishing lodge" on the banks of the Androscoggin River. This is my second most-favorite time of the year to fish - foliage is fantastic, fish are hungry and the rivers are less crowded. We have relaxed the double occupancy/multiple day requirement, so it is even a better deal than usual. There are even some prime weekend days still available. See details.
My next report won't be until after I get back from Maine. CYA then.

Keep the rain coming!

All the rain we have had may be messing up the beach vacations, but it sure is helping the fish. I was guiding the Saco, Ellis, Pemigewasset and Androscoggin Rivers this week and we had late-spring conditions, instead of mid-summer doldrums. The rivers in the White Mountains are running at wadable levels with water temps under 60F. Perfect! There were enough BWO, little yellow sallies and sulphers to keep the trout interested, as well as some caddis. I had both very experienced anglers, as well as beginners and all got some nice fish - almost all on dry flies. I hope the warmer weather in the forecast doesn't spoil the fishing.

Androscoggin River Alder-mania

The trip up north to the Androscoggin River in Errol, NH and the 13-Mile Woods wilderness area was fantastic. Our Androscoggin Special Package was booked full for 14 days straight. We had 17 beginners out of 27 anglers and all of them caught fish. One got a fish on his second cast with a fly and another took all of two days, but finally landed a (measured) 18-inch landlocked salmon. (See the picture)
We were really lucky dodging rain and high water. The first week we were there the river flow was low and we only had some occasional drizzle. All of our clients were relieved to find that the heaviest rain fell south of the White Mountains. During the second week we got a little more rain and they released more water from the dam, but we were still able to find quite a few fish. Jim drifted the CT River one day and had his best day this year with client Jerry D. who hooked into a lot of fish there and when I took him to a couple hot spots on the Androscoggin. We had a lot of father-son and husband-wife teams on the trip, which was a lot of fun for us and for them. Obviously, fly fishing is a life-long sport and it is satisfying to know that many of the people we taught on this trip will be fly fishing long after Jim and I are no longer around.
We target this trip for the Alder Fly hatch and this year we hit it good. I was able to get clients into fish on zebra caddis patterns starting around June 22 and continuing through July 3 when we left. Although there were huge swarms of Alder flies, the fish were not really turned on to them. Rarely did we see a fish rise to a natural, although we caught loads of fish on caddis dries. For those that haven't experienced the hatch, here is a video that will give you an idea of what it is all about.

In addition to Alder flies, there were plenty of golden stone flies, and Little yellow Sallies around also. In the evening we fished the hex hatch and our clients caught some beautiful brook trout This one was landed by good friend and client Dick Peterson. Here is a link to more pictures and videos of the trip. That is it for the June 2009 Andro-Adventure, and we are already planning the September trip. We will be offering the same Special Package the last week of September. Last year the September trip was spectacular, with crisp weather, peak foliage and lots of willing fish. Let me know if you want more info.