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.
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.
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.
Tap 'n' Trout 