Fly Fishing

High rivers & very wet!

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

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.

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

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.

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

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.

Finally

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

I got a little fishing in this evening. My first trip. After dinner I went across the street to the East Branch of the Saco. I have not done well here, but I that I’d give it a try. I didn’t even put on waders. I got 7 brookies in about a hour. Most were caught on a pheasant tail jig fly with a pink collar. One took a larger Pat’s rubber legs stone fly nymph. The water was about 55 degrees. I fished until I could not see to untangle my leader. A good night.

We are a little behind.

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

So I believe spring has finally sprung here in the White Mountains. I have really been chomping at the bit to go fishing. The weather and mother nature have not been super cooperative. And I truly believe that “fishing season” really starts about a month and a half later than it does in New Jersey. All the fish porn the guys from New Jersey are posting are driving me mad.

Water temperatures remain quite low probably because of snow melt. We have also had a 7 inches of rain in a 3-day period rain event. Most of the rivers I would fish have remained quite blown out.

Most of the people I speak to here who are in to know about fly fishing have told me that the season really doesn’t kick off till after Mother’s Day. We will see.

Our yard no flowers just turning green
Telephoto of Mount Washington from Intervale Scenic Overlook
Mount Washington as seen from Intervale
East Branch of the Saco River

Squirrel and Herl Bugger

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

Tying up some streamers tonight. I hope to swing some of these through some of the deeper holes in the Saco River. Until now, I would have needed snowshoes to get to the river. Warmer temps and some rain are doing a good job melting the snow.

This is the Squirrel and Herl Bugger. It is basically a wooly bugger with a pine squirrel zonker strip wing in place of the marabou tail. This is a size 8, 3x long streamer hook, peacock herl, and an olive-dyed grizzly hackle. I use an olive-dyed pine squirrel zonker strip for the wing. you could use a natural-colored strip as well. The squirrel strip has just the right length fibers for this size fly. This is an easy fly-to-tie so you can tie up quite a few before you finish your beer.

I think this should look like the sculpin and minnows that swim around the rocking bottom of the Saco. Wish me luck.