After learning two new patterns at the Annual Saco Valley Trout meeting at Hobbs’s Brewery, Bridget and I tied up a few.
But having the correct material made all the difference.
Small Streamers
small streams
Until the end.
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.
Fishing hard until the end of the season.
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.
So close to home.
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.
Finally
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.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas all. We are down in New Jersey on a whirlwind holiday visit.
A Quiet Thanksgiving
We had a quiet Thanksgiving. I was home for a change. Marylynn got the bird in the oven early and the sides were all ready to go. We took the downtime and went for a short walk. We have a trail that starts a couple of 100 yards up the street from our house. It runs for about half a mile along the East Branch of the Saco river. It was a beautiful New England day. Of course, I looked for where the Brookies might be hiding.
New Water
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.
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
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 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!
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.
Tap 'n' Trout 