New Water

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

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.

Slippery Brook
Slippery Brook
Upstream veiw of the East Branch of the Saco
Downstream view of the East Branch of the Saco
The mouth of Slippery Brook

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.

Summer Trout

/ Tim Burns / 2 Comments

Unlike New Jersey trout season really never shuts down for the summer. Some rivers may get warm, but you just have to move upstream. Most rivers have their source up in the mountains. I never found water warmer than 64º. The reason I did not fish on hot days was that I was uncomfortable.

When I hit the mountain streams, the Ellis River being my favorite so far, I mainly caught wild brook trout. They are not big, but they are plentiful.

The Ellis River in Pinkham Notch.

The Ammonoosuc  River up by the Mount Washington hotel and downstream by Lower Falls, I did well drifting a big Royal Wulff dry flies or swinging a streamer. I had several double-digit days. When I say days I mean 2 hours after work.

Mainly fairly big stocked brookies with a few rainbows peppered in. I understand the state had a shortage of rainbow trout to stock this year. But I’m very happy with what I caught.

I am mainly a catch and release fly fisherman. However, I did take two home for the grill this year. One big stocked Brookie one big stocked rainbow.

Summer is over in New Hampshire!

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

I went out to fish today. Probably one of my last days in the official trout season. Just a couple more weeks left. It seems that weather and schedules conspire against me.

After a full day of downpours, which we need, fishing was tough. First I went and checked out the Ammonoosuc River up in Bretton woods. Checked a few places where I had done well though out the summer. All washed out. So I moved on to a new location in the Zealand Camp ground area in the White Mountain National Forest. The Zealand River is much smaller than the Ammo and a river I wanted to check out all summer but “you don’t leave fish to find fish”.

This is a beautiful area. I would love to camp here next spring. No fish. The water was still high for a small stream. I was battling high winds and temps in the low 40s. I tried my hand at a very small stream that comes down off the Presidential Range in Jefferson Notch. Mount Jefferson to be exact, Jefferson Brook. The weather had gotten worse. Fog or light rain the dirt road Jefferson Notch Road seemed to be getting slick. The stream is a high gradient pocket waterand water fall stream. I fished a few pockets. It was hard to get any kind of drift in the fast water. The weather got the best of me and I decided to move on and find some fishable water.

I move over to the East side of the Presidentials to Pinkham Notch. The weather was much better on this side of the mountains. Sunny scattered clouds, no rain or fog. It was like the mountains squeezed the rain out of the clouds on the west side. it was still a bit cold and the wind was gusting hard. I did really well here all summer, so I was optimistic. I started fishing where the New River comes into the Ellis River. The water did not seem as high and I could get some good drifts with a heavy tandem nymph rig. I fished down the river for about a quarter of a mile. Drifting my rig through every slot, pocket, and run I could. Not a tap. I tied on a Mickey Finn streamer and worked my way back upstream swinging that streamer through some of the pools and runs. No Luck. I decided to call it a day.

Finished up my day with a local Coffee porter watching the clouds drift by. Hopefully, I’ll be out again next week.

Work/Life Balance

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

Well, I have left the wonderful Omni Mount Washington Hotel. I will miss the grand old hotel and the people I worked with. My work /life balance was way off. Working 45 hours a week does not leave much time for much else. I commuted every day through Crawford Notch. A beautiful drive, but that tacked 40 minutes on my work day on both sides of my workday. That was on a clear day, add in snow and it has taken me two hours to get home.

Mount Washinton Hotel

I start my new job on August 29th. 1.1 miles door to door. Hopefully Marylynn and I will have more time to do the things we move to New Hampshire to do. Fingers crossed.