The most glorious month of the year

Yes, May is the best.  Winter is certainly gone and spring is firmly established - at least it is south of the notches.  Up around Errol it is still tinged with winter.  What to do when you want a little jump-start to the season - head south! No, not Florida - Connecticut!  The Farmington River to be precise.  Even down there the season is lagging a bit - the Hendricksons usually start to emerge down there by the third week of April.  I had a client trip scheduled for Tuesday, so Stan and I did an advance trip on Monday. Not a lot happening in the morning, but by mid-afternoon a few mayflies started popping up.  Stan got his nice brown on a Hendrickson nymph just as the hatch started.  I succeeded in fooling a fish into striking my dry Hendrickson and then breaking it off on the hookset. Cest la vie! Better to have fooled him and lost, rather than not to have fooled him at all!  Tuesday turned out to be an even better day than Monday.  Many more fish rising and eating the emerging mayflies.  The river is loaded with big browns and feisty 'bows.  The hatch should last another week to ten days, so tie up some pink size 12 mayflies and head down to New Hartford!
In addition to some scouting expeditions to the Souhegan, Piscataquog, Nissitissit and Squannacook Rivers, we have run a couple sessions of our Northeast Fly Fishing School.  We had our first ever Intermediate/Advanced class last weekend and we had a beginner class earlier in April and have three more beginner classes scheduled from this weekend through early June.  All the classes are full except a few open spots in the June 4 & 5 class.  We haven't scheduled another Intermediate class yet. but if you are interested, let me know.
Tomorrow I am off to the Contocook River to check things out for a couple trips next week.  Tight lines!

First among many

Many times I have remarked (both here and in the "real world") how lucky I am to share so many "firsts."  Yesterday was one among many, with each one even more special than the last. Sometimes it is a first fish, or a first trout, other times it is a first brown, etc. Yesterday it was all of those and more - the first fly fishing trip of many, many more to come between old friends.  Jeffrey, a long-time follower of this blog, wanted to spend a day on the water with me, but his real motive was to get his friend Matt hooked on fly fishing.  Mission accomplished! I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice to say Matt is a convert to the gentle art of the long rod.  Way to go, guys! 
The Hendrickson hatch is now history.  Now we have a few March browns; some BWO; plenty of brown, tan, black and green caddis; and one Eastern drake.  Most dry fly action is late afternoon, into the evening.  I hit the Farmington River in CT on Friday.  Another one where a regular client of mine wanted to indoctrinate his friend in the way of the long rod.  Mission accomplished, and after they went their way, it was time for the guide to take a few minutes to fish on his own time. 
Nice brown on a dry at dusk. Enjoy!
Now it is off to the Contoocook River with four more converts to indoctrinate! Tight Lines!
PS Here is one of the "converts to the long rod" with his first fish on a fly/first trout/first rainbow caught on a size 18 softhackle cast to a rising fish.  Way to go Tom!

End of the season Rush

What a rush - big browns on dry flies! Stan and I hit the Farmington River yesterday in the upper TMA. We hit the usual spots: Hitchcock Chair, Whittemore, Church (just to look and have lunch in the sun), central riffle and Ovation. Stan got a couple nice browns in the run into Whittemore on softhackles, while I had to work hard for a couple salmon parr (big ones about 9-10 inches.) As we moved down river things picked up even more - I think the warming sun had something to do with it, as we saw more insects as the day wore on. There were BWO, a couple different caddis and a few of what looked like Isonychias, although I couldn't catch one to verify. We finished up at my favorite pool and found some large, hungry browns. Some were more interested in spawning than food, but quite a few were willing to take a well-presented dry. I caught most on a gray parachute Adams, about a size 12. Pretty exciting to see a 16+ inch brown slowly suck-in your dry fly and then go berserk when it realizes it is hooked. Probably not too many days like that left in the calendar.
Last weekend and early this week I had clients out wading on some ponds (a few rising brookies); the Newfound River (nice rainbow on a heron fly); the Contocook River (afternoon hatch of black caddis, tan caddis and BWO brought some nice browns to hand.) The biggest disappointment continues to be the broodstock salmon - small, scarce and heavily pounded by anglers.
Get out there and enjoy the end of the season fishing. The water is cool, still some hatches and the foliage is spectacular.

Head south for the fish

OK already, no more "Bring on the rain." This run of rain every couple days has really messed up my schedule. Two trips were rescheduled last week and hopefully they will be completed this week. Luckily, I had a trip booked for the Farmington River on Friday. That is a dam-controlled tailwater fishery that was not impacted by the rainfall. We dodged a few rain showers, but were able to find rising fish in a few different locations. My clients were from Westchester County, NY and I had guided one of them on two previous occasions. The mission on this trip was to teach his friend to fly fish, which I did. We found some blue wing olives in the afternoon and towards evening a few sulphers and a couple little yellow sally stone flies. We saw quite a few cedar waxwings picking off insects, which was cool to see. Almost all our fishing was done from Riverton up toward the dam. The water temp was about 63F which would be pretty good for local waters, but usually at this time of year the water temp on the Farmington is in the upper 50s. All this rain has caused them to release more water than usual from the reservoir, which is depleting the real cold water. Even though the water is warming, it is still an ideal temperature for trout. If this rain continues, I'll have to keep setting my sights on the Farmington as the only game in (or out of) town.

First steps

Every year I guide a lot of beginners - usually a couple family members, husband-wife, father-son, etc. Sometimes 15 or 20, in addition to those that attend my Learn-to-fly-fish classes. Every trip is different, but every trip has the same excitement and anticipation of many "Firsts." First successful cast; first fish on a fly; first fish on a dry fly, etc. This is all new to my students and they are naturally pretty excited by all these Firsts. But sharing all those Firsts keeps me energized, as well. Every time my students score a First, I get to share it, and it becomes my First, too. This week I had a lot of Firsts. For one, it is the first time I was a 25th anniversary gift. Yes, I took a husband-wife team out to learn how to fly fish for their anniversary. If that doesn't beat a honeymoon suite in the Poconos, I don't know what does! We fished the Contoocook River in Henniker, and although the hatches have slowed a bit, there were still a few fish looking for food and we fed them. First fish on a fly, First brook trout and first brown trout - sweet!
Then on Friday I took a father-daughter to the Farmington River in CT. Last year the father had spent a couple days in September with us on the Androscoggin River in the 13-mile Woods section near Errol, NH. He caught a lot of fish, improved his casting skills and had a great time. He convinced his daughter, a BC college student, to give it a try and they both had a great time. We chose the Farmington, since they live near "The City" and it is a river they can fish from home. After a few casting and mending lessons, we caught some of those highly-educated browns that the Farmington River is known for. Can you remember the excitement of your first fish on a fly? How about your son/daughter's first fish? How about their first fish on a dry fly? I do!

Contoocook Hordes and Farmington Hatches

The Farmington River in the upper TMA didn't offer a lot of solitude. The Hendrickson hatch is now out all the way up to Riverton and I think all the people laid off from the insurance companies in Hartford and the Wall Street financial guys were all there. In another week the hatch should be almost up to the dam. At least that will add some additional water for everybody to spread out a bit. Stan, Ron and I made the pilgrimage yesterday. We started below the TMA and caught a few fish on softhackle droppers, as well as on my favorite rootbeer woolly-bugger. Then we moved around the TMA looking for fish in relative solitude. We found both. I won't name the pools, but we caught fish on soft hackles and dries from about 11:00AM until about 6:00PM. There were plenty of small caddis, BWO and Hendricksons. We caught not only a lot of fish, but "quality" fish to about 20". Almost every fish was specifically targeted and was visible on the take. It was the best day of fishing I can remember. Here is a picture of Ron with one of the many fish he landed. Even though it got pretty windy as the day went on, we still caught loads of fish on top. We finished up using spinner patterns, although the wind was probably blowing all the spinners over to the Housatonic.
My buddy Jim reports that the flows and water temps on the Contoocook are real good, but the crowds are incredible there, too. Mid-week he said every pull-off access point had at least a couple cars and some pools had 6 or 8 people in them. He also reports not seeing anybody catch a fish. This level of pressure can't be good for the fish. Those that haven't been hooked and cooked are probably shell-shocked from everybody flogging the water every day of the week. The water levels are going down on the Smith, Bakers, Bearcamp, Saco and Ellis, among others, so hopefully the crowds will spread out and give the fish a break. Ponds are also a good bet right now.
Footnote: It has been brought to my attention that the hordes that descended on the Contoocook River were probably brought about by everybody seeing the video of Richard catching a fish there. H-mm-m-m-m, an interesting hypothesis!

Farmington River Trip

Wednesday Stan, Ron, Richard and I made a pilgrimage to the Farmington River in the upper TMA. It was pretty brisk with a stiff breeze blowing off and on all day long. We found a few fish rising to Winter/Summer caddis, about size 20. They seemed to be rising just out of reach, since we seemed to always be casting into the wind. Nobody got any fish, but it was a fun day. I was able to collect some small caddis and stoneflies for my class this week, so it was at least somewhat productive.