Saco River

New water

/ Tim Burns / Leave a comment

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.

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.

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.