I kept hearing about Upper Connecticut River, especially the Trophy Stretch between Lake Frances and First Connecticut Lake, so I decided to give it a try last weekend. Most of the rivers of central New Hampshire only hold stocked trout and I'm always looking for the wild one. The high waters over the whole season encouraged me, that means that fishing pressure was quite small over the summer. A week ago the flow rate was over 300 cf/s but just a few days before my planned trip it went down to 191. And I have to tell you I LOVE that flow rate. It is low enough to allow me to cross the river in a few places, without a wading staff, but high enough to make the river perfect for nymphing.
I got there Saturday night, at sunset. On the way to the campground, on River Rd. I see a guy that was coming out from the river, ready to wrap it for that night. I asked if he got lucky that day and he told me that he did, fishing with dries. "Great!" i though, my goddard caddises are gonna have some work to do tomorrow. I first learned how to tie this elk hair caddis last week-end at W . S. Hunter shop in Concord, with Jed and Jimmy and I really love it. It floats excellent, is very visible and fish love it.
At 6 am I was up, I skipped the breakfast and headed for the river. The weather was cloudy and I had some ugly thoughts for the guys of Yahoo Weather, especially after a few short showers. My rain coat was still in the car because the forecast was saying: "mostly sunny".
The water didn't inspire me to start with dries, no rises, so I decided for the bead heads. First small pools right upstream from the camp were pretty frustrating. First five fish that tried my nymphs were totally against coming out of the water, and after a second or two got loose. I couldn't understand why this happened even after I changed the flies, thinking that the hooks were bad. Then I realized that the overlaping layers of water were moving in different directions, so it was very hard to keep the line straight in the current. Therefore i was noticing that I had a strike only a few fractions of a second later, so the fish got extra time to notice the fraud.
one of the first things I've caught was some line, definitely not coming from a fly fisherman. Fish and Game, what's going on???? Not to mention the guy fishing with a bobber right where the river was entering the lake. Is that legal??? Anyway, there is no cell phone coverage in the area to call the good guys.
Finally, I got a few fish, a couple of small brookies and a tiny rainbow. The bigger ones were still hard to convince to come out of the water for a picture. Then I got to the Skating Rink. I realized that is the name of the pool as soon as I saw it. Perfect pool for dries.
I exchanged the nimphs for a goddard caddis and as I was tying it on, I spotted a fish sipping flies from the surface. First cast and it was fighting at the end of the line.
I only got a few more strikes over the next half an hour, although I combed every square foot of the pool, but the fish didn't take the fly. At the upper end of the pool and I was able to hook a nice brookie, where else, but next to a fallen tree. I'm telling you, these trees are gold!
That was the last fish caught on a dry that day. I was around 8:00 am. I went back to nymphs, a little dissapointed by the strike rate. And I didn't regret it. Because the brookies and rainbows were fighting over my heavy #12 tungsten bead nymphs. That's when I lost count of the fish I landed. Not to mention that probably 30% of them managed to escape before landing. The ratio was around 2 rainbows to 1 brook trout, all beautiful and strong fish. To have an ideea of their size, on my rod there are 3 silver rings. The middle one is at 30 cm (12 inches) from the butt and the third one at 40 cm (appx. 16 inches).
I hooked the first salmon by the tail of the current, in pretty shallow water. I knew it's different from the others by the way it jumped out of the water and it was fighting by shaking its head. I first thought it was a brown trout, based on the yellowish color, but the lack of red spots, the forked tail and big black spots convinced me it was a salmon.
Then more brookies, some of them in spawning colors, fighting like bulls, and nice rainbows.
I was getting ready to go when I hooked the second salmon. First I believed I got my hook between two rocks, because I got no reaction after setting the hook. Only after I gave it a couple of thrusts, trying to recover the line I realized it started to move. I witnessed two 2 feet tall jumps out of the water but it gave up pretty easy after that. The fly instead was totally destroyed. I estimate it around 17 inches. After releasing it I sat down for a second thanking GOD for a wonderful day. It was 1 pm, and that was the time I got the first ray of sun.
Quick lunch, then I set my vise on the steering wheel to tie a couple of flies. I didn't have any orange nymphs left, and those ruled the morning. Then I moved tot the bridge over Perry stream, thinking to fish the junction pool, where the stream meets the Connecticut River. There were a couple of guys there, one on each side of the river so I fished the riffles above and below the pool. Results: 2 rainbows and 2 brookies in 20 minutes.
I slowly moved downstream to Doc's pool, where I only got a rainbow and a salmon, probably the smallest of the day, around 13-14 inches. It was almost 5 o'clock and I wanted to try the pools bellow the dam, so I moved on.
The parking lot was kinda packed, around 7 cars. I waded all the way down to Jurry's box (a wonderful pool), where I got my last salmon of the night. The picture is blurred but I only have one because it took off before having the chance to take more. Good job!!
On the way there I caught a few brookies. I spent a lot of time changing flies, few feet away from 3-4 beautiful brookies, trying to find the one to make them take a bite, but no success. I could see their orange belly in 2 feet deep water and I have to say It was a little frustrating, but I think those fish were so used to people, and probable hooked for so many times, that it wasn't easy to fool them again.
This last salmon concluded the day. It was almost 7 o'clock and I still had close to 3 hrs of driving ahead. It was my best day of this season and one of the best of my short life as fly fisherman. My only question: how can some people kill those incredible beautiful fish? I want more C&R waters in the state!
I got there Saturday night, at sunset. On the way to the campground, on River Rd. I see a guy that was coming out from the river, ready to wrap it for that night. I asked if he got lucky that day and he told me that he did, fishing with dries. "Great!" i though, my goddard caddises are gonna have some work to do tomorrow. I first learned how to tie this elk hair caddis last week-end at W . S. Hunter shop in Concord, with Jed and Jimmy and I really love it. It floats excellent, is very visible and fish love it.At 6 am I was up, I skipped the breakfast and headed for the river. The weather was cloudy and I had some ugly thoughts for the guys of Yahoo Weather, especially after a few short showers. My rain coat was still in the car because the forecast was saying: "mostly sunny".
The water didn't inspire me to start with dries, no rises, so I decided for the bead heads. First small pools right upstream from the camp were pretty frustrating. First five fish that tried my nymphs were totally against coming out of the water, and after a second or two got loose. I couldn't understand why this happened even after I changed the flies, thinking that the hooks were bad. Then I realized that the overlaping layers of water were moving in different directions, so it was very hard to keep the line straight in the current. Therefore i was noticing that I had a strike only a few fractions of a second later, so the fish got extra time to notice the fraud.
one of the first things I've caught was some line, definitely not coming from a fly fisherman. Fish and Game, what's going on???? Not to mention the guy fishing with a bobber right where the river was entering the lake. Is that legal??? Anyway, there is no cell phone coverage in the area to call the good guys.
Finally, I got a few fish, a couple of small brookies and a tiny rainbow. The bigger ones were still hard to convince to come out of the water for a picture. Then I got to the Skating Rink. I realized that is the name of the pool as soon as I saw it. Perfect pool for dries.
I exchanged the nimphs for a goddard caddis and as I was tying it on, I spotted a fish sipping flies from the surface. First cast and it was fighting at the end of the line.
I only got a few more strikes over the next half an hour, although I combed every square foot of the pool, but the fish didn't take the fly. At the upper end of the pool and I was able to hook a nice brookie, where else, but next to a fallen tree. I'm telling you, these trees are gold!
That was the last fish caught on a dry that day. I was around 8:00 am. I went back to nymphs, a little dissapointed by the strike rate. And I didn't regret it. Because the brookies and rainbows were fighting over my heavy #12 tungsten bead nymphs. That's when I lost count of the fish I landed. Not to mention that probably 30% of them managed to escape before landing. The ratio was around 2 rainbows to 1 brook trout, all beautiful and strong fish. To have an ideea of their size, on my rod there are 3 silver rings. The middle one is at 30 cm (12 inches) from the butt and the third one at 40 cm (appx. 16 inches).
I hooked the first salmon by the tail of the current, in pretty shallow water. I knew it's different from the others by the way it jumped out of the water and it was fighting by shaking its head. I first thought it was a brown trout, based on the yellowish color, but the lack of red spots, the forked tail and big black spots convinced me it was a salmon.
Then more brookies, some of them in spawning colors, fighting like bulls, and nice rainbows.
I was getting ready to go when I hooked the second salmon. First I believed I got my hook between two rocks, because I got no reaction after setting the hook. Only after I gave it a couple of thrusts, trying to recover the line I realized it started to move. I witnessed two 2 feet tall jumps out of the water but it gave up pretty easy after that. The fly instead was totally destroyed. I estimate it around 17 inches. After releasing it I sat down for a second thanking GOD for a wonderful day. It was 1 pm, and that was the time I got the first ray of sun.
Quick lunch, then I set my vise on the steering wheel to tie a couple of flies. I didn't have any orange nymphs left, and those ruled the morning. Then I moved tot the bridge over Perry stream, thinking to fish the junction pool, where the stream meets the Connecticut River. There were a couple of guys there, one on each side of the river so I fished the riffles above and below the pool. Results: 2 rainbows and 2 brookies in 20 minutes.
I slowly moved downstream to Doc's pool, where I only got a rainbow and a salmon, probably the smallest of the day, around 13-14 inches. It was almost 5 o'clock and I wanted to try the pools bellow the dam, so I moved on.
The parking lot was kinda packed, around 7 cars. I waded all the way down to Jurry's box (a wonderful pool), where I got my last salmon of the night. The picture is blurred but I only have one because it took off before having the chance to take more. Good job!!
On the way there I caught a few brookies. I spent a lot of time changing flies, few feet away from 3-4 beautiful brookies, trying to find the one to make them take a bite, but no success. I could see their orange belly in 2 feet deep water and I have to say It was a little frustrating, but I think those fish were so used to people, and probable hooked for so many times, that it wasn't easy to fool them again.
This last salmon concluded the day. It was almost 7 o'clock and I still had close to 3 hrs of driving ahead. It was my best day of this season and one of the best of my short life as fly fisherman. My only question: how can some people kill those incredible beautiful fish? I want more C&R waters in the state!
2 comments:
Very nice blog Seba, keep doing it!
Mersi stefan! sper sa mai vin cu niste poze faine pana se termina sezonul.
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