I fished in several spots along the Ellis River. I started up in Pinkham Notch where I have caught some wild brookies before. The river has changed quite a bit from last fall because of the big rain event we had earlier this spring. Where The New River meets the Ellis has been channelized. Last year it was a little plunge pool that held a couple of fish. I hooked a couple very small brookies on a two-nymph rig, my go-to search rig a bead head prince, and a RS2. Not a whole lot of action.

I moved downstream to the fly fishing-only stretch just below the Jackson covered bridge. The water looks very fishy, but no luck. Again

I moved downstream to Timmy’s bridge. I watched a fellow angler hook a fish. When he set the hook his reel fell off into the water. He had to fish his reel out with his net before he could land the fish.

I move a little closer to the Goodrich Falls Dam so that I did not bother the other gentlemen. Fish were rising all over this big pool, so I changed over to a dry dropper rig. A size 16 Adams dry with a size 20 Grey RS2 emerger off the back. After a few casts a nice little brookie came up and took the Adams. I found myself chasing rises to no avail. I calmed down a bit and concentrated on one fish. the rises were not big and splashy, more like just the backs and tails showing. After two or three passes to a promising spot, I hooked the beauty below on the emerger pattern.

After the sun went down a few more degrees it got hard to see. So I called it a night. The locals I have spoken to have said that we are about two weeks behind a normal fishing season. I hope that the action picks up a bit.