I thought that I would try some new water today. The East Branch of the Saco is across the street from my house. I have not had any luck in the lower stretch by my house. Not a nibble. So I went upstream into the White Mountain Nation Forest. T picked a spot where Slippery Brook joins the East Branch. Rumor has it that this is a good spot for wild brookies. This is a little less than 5 miles from my house. I parked at a twin campsite that I will surely check out next spring. I started fishing slippery Brook heading downstream to the East branch of the Saco. I saw several grasshoppers jumping in the streamside rocks so I changed from a bead head prince to a hopper/dropper rig. The area looked very fishy but no fish came to hand.

I had no luck so I explored a bit. I traveled up stream a couple more miles to where the road crosses the East Branch. I found a little concrete damn that formed a bridge pool. I made a couple of dozen casts upstream into the pool with a dry /dropper. Again no luck.

The day turned out to be a good recon trip for the spring, but the lesson learned was don’t prospect during the marginal season for trout. Go to where you know there are fish.