Weather

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.

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.

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

Spring Fever?

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

Here I am suffering from a bit of Spring Fever. I’m reading nothing but fishing literature, tying flies, and buying equipment in preparation for spring fishing. People from New Jersey are posting pictures of all the trout they are catching.

I woke up this morning to another snowy morning. We had 12+ inches on Monday and a forecast for another 10 inches Friday into Saturday. Mother Nature has waited until the end of winter to hit us with all the snow. I really am thinking of strapping on my snow shoes so that I can get to the river to swing some streamers.

Out my front door
Out my back door