Author: Tim Burns

This one is in the books.

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Here in New Hampshire, the trout regulations are a little wonky, but most trout fishing ended today. I went out Friday and today to close out the season. I did okay on the little mountain stream I have been fishing lately. No trophies. Just little heathy wild Brook Trout.

All in all, it was a great season even with all the rain we had. The weather forced me to explore all the tiny mountain streams we have around here. I was able to fish the headwaters when the bigger rivers were too high to fish. All the rain really spread the fish around and allowed me to keep fishing through the whole season.

I may head out to a local pond and through some feathers at some pickrel to keep the fishing joneses at bay. Explore more places to fish in the spring and check out some of the rivers that are open all year. Most of those are a bit of a drive. Then I will be gearing up for some hard water fishing.

Until the end.

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Trout season in New Hampshire closes on October 15 on most streams and rivers. I am going out as much as I can up until the end.
I hit a mountain stream that I really have fallen in love with. The water is quite a bit lower than just four days ago. I picked up a few nice wild brookies and half a dozen little tiny ones. I am amazed at how aggressive these little fish are. A beautiful fall day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This is the proper time for pumpkin beer.

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I love pumpkin beer. Not all pumpkin beer but a good bit of what’s on the market today. However, I have a strong opinion about when it should be enjoyed. That time is when there is a little bite in the air. That means the end of September and October. When you need to put a flannel on when you sit on the pouch watching the sun go down. I hate that the distributors push sales earlier and earlier in the year in their constant fight for shelf space.

So after a little leaf peeping here is a toast the the proper time.

Tuckerman Revine, Pinkham Notch NH

Fishing hard until the end of the season.

/ Tim Burns / 1 Comment

The end of trout fishing season is fast approaching here in New Hampshire. The brookies are moving upstream to spawn and my old fishing haunts almost appear to be fishless. I have found a new tiny stream to fish it’s very much off the beaten path. Every time I go I feel like I spent the day rock scrambling which I have. This stream comes down off the side of a mountain it truly is a headwater stream. This is a waterfall plunge pool, waterfall plunge pool type of fishery. To move from pool to pool you have to climb up a rock jumble waterfall. I am amazed at the little pools that I’m catching brookies in. At the end of the day I’m quite tired. However like I’ve said hundreds of times the reason I love trout fishing is because of the beautiful places that you do it in.

New water

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So I got out today on the Saco River in between rainy days. I wanted to check out the area where the proposed new fly fishing stretch would be. This is a beautiful area and a little bit difficult to get to. So the hope is that the fly fisherman won’t have to deal with the tourists and their float tubes all summer long.

I’m told there are some large brown trout and rainbows here. I hooked into one large fish from underneath the dead fall tree however by the count of 5 the fight was over and he was off. A long distance release.

I had one other small fish rise to a dry fly but that was it. It got very hot and all fish activity stopped. It was about 11:30 anyhow so I moved on to a wild trout stream where it stays cool and shady all the time. Where I know I would catch some fish.

The Saco River looking north towards the presidential range

Headed over to the Ellis River. This is become my go-to stream. I love to fish right at the base of Mount Washington. Almost always get a handful of wild brookies.

Small wild brookies are always abundant in our Headwater streams.

High rivers & very wet!

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So far it appears that in July to date we have had 7.5 inches of rain. For every two nice days, we have 3 rainy days. This will keep the temperature down on most of the local streams and rivers and spread the stocked fish around. However, all the rain leaves most rivers, even the headwaters, too high to fish.
What is a guy to do? Well after owning a float tube for about a year I finally took it out on a trout pond. I went up to Saco Lake in Crawford Notch State Park to try it out. This is a new style of fishing for me but very popular here in New Hampshire.
Basically, you float around a peaceful lake in a floating chair. You wear your waders and fins to propel yourself around the lake. I cast to rising fish and caught two 12-inch brook trout. I lost two more at the boat. There is a bit of a learning curve. This is a really relaxing way to fly fish. The tube is big enough to carry all your stuff plus some snacks and drinks. I will definitely be doing this more often. Maybe put the backpack straps on and hike into one of the many remote trout ponds.

The main stem of the Saco River.

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I went to check out the Saco River today. I have been a little apprehensive about fishing this river mainly because there is so much water to fish. The river starts as a small lake in Crawford Notch State Park and travels 136 miles to Saco Bay in Maine.
Today I fished the fly fishing-only stretch in North Conway NH. The special Regution area stretches from Lucy Brook downstream to the confluence with Artist Falls. About three miles of river. This is a beautiful area. Easy access and a lot of fish. Thanks to New Hampshire Fish and Game. However, as summer rolls on access gets a little tougher as North Conway activates strict park regulations at the acces point at First Iron Bridge, because of the popularity of river tubing. The fly stretch may get moved upstream in the future to avoid the conflicts that happen between tubers and anglers.
I only fished for a short time. It was more of a reconnaissance trip. These two guys walked right past me and waded through the fish I was scoping out. So much for etiquette. I still rolled one fish. I decided to call it a day as the state stocking truck pulled up and more “sportsmen” crashed into the water to catch the freshly stocked trout.

Here are the guys that waded through my fish.
The view of White Horse Ledge from the Saco.

More wild jewels from the end of the street.

/ Tim Burns / 2 Comments

Summer is struggling to kick off, Rain and low temps prevail. The rivers are high so the best places to fish are the headwaters of local rivers and streams. Lucky for me I am close to quite a few. I hit the East branch of the Saco today. I just follow my road to where it ends in the National Forest and go down a trail to the river. This is a boggy area, so the mosquitoes are terrible. You have to cover up or get bit up pretty bad.

I start with my go to dry dropper setup. A size 14 Patriot dry with a size 20 Grey RS2 hanging off the back. If the water condtions are good i will usuelly pick up a few of this jems.

So close to home.

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At the end of my street is a gate to the White Mountain National Forest. Marylynn and I have been up there several times. One of our favorite hikes is around Mountain Pond. The headwaters of the East Branch of the Saco, which is the river that is across the street from my house, is up there. Last fall I did a little hunting for wild trout in the East Branch and Slippery Brook with no luck. This season I made a point of checking it out in the spring.

Town Hall Rd goes into the National Forest and changes into a dirt forest service road. I followed it as for as I could go to a big turnaround/parking area. As soon as I got out of my truck I was attacked by mosquitoes, so many that I think I weighed ten pounds more with all the bugs on me. I slathered myself up with bug dope and I was on my way. I followed a trail to the river and Popped out of the woods at The East Branch of the Saco, which here is a beautiful mountain stream.

I was set up with a dry dropper rig, Patriot dry, and a pheasant Tail nymph dropper. Two or three casts and I picked up my first fish a beautiful but small wild brookie. It took the nymph after taking a swipe at the dry.

After hooking two or three fish in the first pool I headed upstream. It certainly was a lot of work scrambling over rock jumbles and boulders. At each plunge pool, I would pick up a few fish.

I pulled one last fish out from up a large boulder at the end of a big rock garden. The poor guy must have had a run-in with a Heron or an Otter. One gill plate was all but missing.

At about 11:00 AM the fish just shut down. So I headed home to beat some incoming weather. All and all a great day. Some new water was explored. well, over a dozen fish were caught and released and home before noon. I beat the thunderstorms by about an hour and a half.

A little dry fly action, but still a little slow.

/ Tim Burns / 1 Comment

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.