fish
Technical
Well, now that I’m back from Jackson (another great trip, even if the snow gods haven’t been very kinds this year), it’s on to fishin’ season!
The Hendricksons have been coming off very sporadically (if at all) over the last few days, but it hasn’t quite been enough to get the fish excited about those big mayflies… yet. However, the fish are definitely still out there and hungry, as evidenced by the hundreds we’re seeing every evening feasting on the various midge hatches. So with little recourse, we’ve found ourselves fishing teeny tiny midges, and with pretty good success at that.
Starting out the season fishing such tiny flies as these (#22 – #26!!) has been a bit more of a technical start than I would have liked, but it’s nice to see that I haven’t lost my edge over the winter months.
Look carefully, the #26 midge my father’s holding in front of his thumb is super tiny!
Now this has been great fun and all, but bring on the Hendricksons!
Solstice Tiger Trout
Well, I’m back in Maryland for the holidays. And since it’s not snowy around here (or New England, for that matter… ugh!), we decided to spend some time out on the water today throwing around some streamers. Unfortunately, since I’d been running late all day on the shortest day of the year, we weren’t left with too much time on the water, but we made do with what we had. I guess it didn’t help that I forgot my wading boots at home on the first go…
After getting suited up, my father showed my the streamer technique that had been working on the Gunpowder of late, and I headed upstream to start swinging flies. A few minutes later, I hear him yell out “holy shit!” Excitedly, I ran over to see what he’d gotten himself into…
And found he’d caught a tiger trout!
Tiger trout are an infertile hybrid of brown trout and brook trout, and they’re quite rare in the wild. But I guess there’s got to be at least a few of them out there.
Looking sly with his solstice tiger trout.
Although not a great shot, here’s a close-up of the fish. They’re pretty damn cool lookin’.
We had another half hour or so of fishing before it became too dark, and although I had a few hits, I wasn’t able to connect with any fish. Seems to be about right given my luck on the Gunpowder this year… Suppose I’ll be out and back at it again sometime in the next few days, especially since there sure isn’t any skiing to be had around here.
I sure do wish it was snowing, but hey, since it’s not, this wasn’t a bad way to spend the solstice. Now LET IT SNOW!!
43° And Raining
I woke up today at 6:30 in the morning. All of a sudden, it was 8:30. And it was pouring outside. A quick check of the radar proved of no help as well. It went without saying that my plan to meet up with Dalton to go fishing had been called off. Bummer.
Still kind of groggy, I decided to lay back down for a bit. Well, as things go, a bit turned into a long while (I’m embarrassed to actually say when i woke up…), but when I woke up the weather was looking better. That is to say, it was no longer pouring… Ugh. And the radar looked a little more promising, with my destination at least momentarily being out of the rain. After a quick call to the Midd Mountaineer, I decided it was worth taking a drive up and over the mountains to go fishing for at least a few hours, even it was going to be miserable all day and I didn’t really expect any action.
When I got to the river, conditions were uninspiring to say the least – it was 43° and varying between strong mist to light rain. Not so fun, but I’d driven over so I had to give it a shot.
A lot of the water looks like this, although I imagine it’s flowing high right now from all the rain (this is my first time fishing on this stream, so I’m not sure).
I spent an hour out there throwing various streamers without any luck before I began to get rather chilled. I did get one good tug towards the end of the hour on a small white marabou muddler, but nothing else. As the rain was also intensifying, I decided to take a break and drive up to visit the guys in the Mountaineer. I picked up a bunch of awesome and enormous flies from those guys and also got some great info before heading back down to the river.
I tied on one of the biggest flies I had just gotten, a #2 sleazeburger, and started chuckin’ it around, working the same bit of water that had previously given me a hit. Strip, strip, pause… strip, strip, pause… recast. And repeat. As I worked deeper into the hole, I paused for an extra second. All of a sudden, the line went taught. Yehaw, fish on! By the feel of it, it was a good sized fish, but I didn’t realize just how nice until I brought it up to the surface.
After a few minutes of play, I finally netted the fish! He turned out to be my third biggest fish of the year, and definitely my biggest VT fish! I was plenty stoked.
That’s a mighty fine lookin’ fish.
Fall browns are awesome!
And letting go.
Wow.
I fished for a few more minutes before it became too dark to see anything, but I only managed to lose a few flies and didn’t see any more action. That’s alright though, as the fish I caught was not only beautiful but big 
. Now hopefully I can get out here at least one more time this fall…
Tricos Are Tough
I got out on the Gunpowder this morning to hit the tricos, which have been going off pretty well lately. Although I had planned on going up to the Falls Rd access, I got turned around by some BG&E workers who were dealing with a tree and power line down in the road. Going back downstream to the Masemore access, I saw tons of fish feeding right in the parking lot pool, the ultra-flat, very technical and arguably most fished pool of the entire Gunpowder. I was feeling some odd mix of both lucky and stupid, so I decided to try my luck right there. With no other anglers (or any people at all, for that fact) to be seen, it was a rare opportunity to get pool without any other ruckus.
Well, I spent about 2 hours trying out just about every trico pattern I had with me, but at that point it seemed that the dumb feeling was taking over, quickly joined by some serious frustration. By then the hatch was mostly over, but there were a few fish here and there still rising. My father showed up to join me, and we moved down stream a few hundred yards to work our way up the pool from the bottom.
Well, after an outrageously long and perfectly placed cast, my dad landed this wild brownie.
I ended the day out fish-less, which is pretty frustrating, but that seems to be the way the Gunpowder has been lately (ugh). Either way, I’m glad to see that the tricos are in full swing.
A Hot Day Floating The Green
Oh boy, here we go! It’s one of my most anticipated days of the year, the day we go on a float trip. I only go on a float trip once a year (although I did canoe down the White River once or twice this summer, but that’s not quite the same), so I definitely look forward to it. And I’ve caught some big fish on float trips before, like this big brown I caught last year on the Green. So here’s to hopin’ we get into some nice fish today.
With an early start, we met our guide, Chris, at the shop. After picking up a few flies, we began the haul towards Pinedale (and the Green River), barreling down the road with a Clackacraft in tow. When we finally arrived at the put in, it was already getting warm out, and light cloud layer was disappearing quickly. Maybe not optimal fishing conditions, but I’m sure things will fall into place.
We got out onto the water and within a few minutes my father was into a fish. A whitefish, but it was a good start.
One of the things I like about floating the Green is the killer view of the Winds.
An amazingly craggy set of mountains and some beautiful looking water. What’s not to like?!
We floated along for a while as the activity on the water picked up. I watched as my father caught one fish. And another. And a third. All decently sized browns, but nothing huge. The fish were to keying into a 14 grey parachute adams and would have nothing to do either my 18 grey parachute adams or a hopper pattern I had out there. We switched out my smaller adams for the bigger one, and within minutes I was into a nice fish, maybe 13″. From there on out we had a great day of fishing.
One of the nicer browns my father caught.
Some of the river flows along these cliffs.
Looks like the badlands.
One of my bigger browns for the day.
Yet another brown putting a good bend into my father’s 5wt as Chris nets the fish
A healthy Green river brown trout.
The fishing was great for a few hours and then slowed to a halt in the late afternoon. It was a really hot day out though, probably at least in the 80°s. As the day wore on and the winds picked up (too strong, casting in such winds was a serious pain in the ass!), it began to cool down a bit. Accordingly, the fish began to get hungry again. We both caught more and more fish. The fish didn’t want anything to do with our grey adams anymore, but were now keying into a yellow hopper pattern. Man those fish love twitching hoppers! The fishing continued to heat up until the very end. The last few minutes of the float were a crazy few minutes for me, boating 3 nicer fish.
One of fish I caught right before the take out.
Well, we didn’t catch any monsters today (yup, alas no 22″er like last year), but all in all the fishing was great. We did catch some decent 15-16″ers, and between my father and myself we must have boated at least 30 fish, maybe even more – I lost count . Casting into the wind was a pain, and I’ve forgotten just how worn out you can get from standing out in the hot sun all day, so I’m pretty wiped out, but I couldn’t be happier with how the trip went. Tomorrow we’re off to Goodwin Lake up in the Gros Ventre. Woohoo, go Go GO!
Taggart And Bradley Lakes, Along With Some Flat Cr. Action
After getting turned around from hiking up to Taggart and Bradley Lakes yesterday due to some nasty storms, we were all relieved when we woke up to perfectly blue skies this morning. Eating breakfast quickly, we left the house early in an attempt to both beat the crowds (this is probably one of the most popular hikes in the park) and the midday heat and sun. Although it wasn’t supposed to get that hot (low 80°s), the elevation of the valley (~6,200ft) makes the sun that much more intense.
Hiking out towards Taggart Lake on an amazing, cloudless day.
Before we knew it, we had reached Taggart Lake.
We took a few minutes there to take a look around and snap a few photos before heading on our way up and over a glacial moraine separating Bradley and Taggart Lakes. Although not a long or difficult stretch of trail, this little bit between the lakes seems to be one of those sections of trail, with a hill that’s seemingly much longer than it has any right to be. But up and over we went, and before long we found ourselves at Bradley Lake. We ate our lunches and then walked around a bit more to snap some photos.
Not a bad view of the Grand from Bradley Lake.
On our way back to the car, we encountered this irritable fellow, who tried to charge us at least once or twice. I’m not sure how that would have worked out if his plan to get us had succeeded, but I guess you gotta give ‘em some credit for being so damn bold.
Before heading back out of the park, we stopped by this spot to throw a few flies into the water. All it took was a single cast with a ridiculous red hopper before my dad had hooked into a nice lookin’ cutty.
Upon getting home, we reorganized the car, split a beer (a delicious double IPA, Odell’s Myrcenary) and were off – it’s time to hit Flat Creek, one of the most notoriously difficult pieces of water around. When we got there, I was stunned by how much water was flowing through the small creek – just another reminder of the banner snow year that was just finishing up. I walked around the twisting and winding creek slowly, studying the water just off the banks for subtle rise forms. I finally spotted a few fish consistently rising right along the bank, just as I’d expected. Seeing a bunch of caddis fluttering about, I tried out a variety of patterns, all to no avail. My father, having seen a spinner fall a bit upstream of where I was, suggested I try out a rusty spinner. As soon as I threw that fly out into the water, I was hooked into a decent ~foot long brookie (interestingly enough: although I’d never really thought about it before, I had no idea until this moment that there were brookies in Flat Creek). In my excitement, I played the fish a bit too roughly and he got away before I could land him. Ugh, I felt like a fool. However, shortly after that disappointment, I was hooked into another fish.
Not a monster by any means, but I was pleased to be on the board on such a tough stream.
We continued fishing for a little while longer, but neither of us saw any more fish were looking up. Of course, the action started up again just as we had to leave. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
“Just 5 more casts…”
Well, we couldn’t have asked for better weather for our second day here in Jackson. The fishing was ok and I’m glad I caught that brookie on Flat Creek, but I really want to hook into some of the local cutties. Hopefully it won’t be long before that happens.
Bears, Thunderstorms and Even Some Fishing: I’m Back Out West!
After a long and troublesome day of flying yesterday, I just barely made it out to Jackson. Summer in VT and back at home home in MD has been very good to me, but man I love coming out to Jackson. Everything just moves at a totally different wavelength out west and it’s a welcome change of pace from the humid and warm east coast.
This morning, we finally left the house after a late start, heading on our way towards our normal first day hike up to Taggart and Bradley lakes.
Driving across the Moose-Wilson road, we came across this cinnamon black bear cub. While everyone was stopping to take photos, he was just doing his thing, not caring in the slightest bit about the hordes of camera-wielding tourons.
After a short stop in Moose (we needed some of those amazing butterscotch cookies), we realized that our hike today wasn’t going to happen: the skies were clouding up and darkening rather quickly. Instead, we opted to just take a drive through the park. Just as we had suspected, it wasn’t long before the deluge began.
On our way back towards Jackson we stopped at this classic photo spot.
Later in the evening, after the weather had cleared up a bit, we spent some time fishing on the Gros Ventre. I knew that it had been a banner snow year and the runoff had likewise been enormous this year, but it didn’t really hit me until we got to the river. It was huge and fast! It took us a few minutes to convince my father that this was the same spot that we had been fishing as last year, as the river was so changed. With the water moving as fast as it was, it was no wonder that I didn’t catch anything. Oh well, we’ve got plenty more time to fish out here.
Overlooking the Gros Ventre river in the evening.
Man I’m so glad to finally be back out west. Although the weather today was a bit off, the rest of the week looks roughly about perfect. Let’s just hope the fishing falls into place soon.
Quiet And Foggy Mornings
Here’s a quick shot from another foggy morning getting skunked on the Gunpowder. Man, I hope the fishing gets better soon before my time in MD is over…
Another Tough Day On The Gunpowder
I went out again this morning for another session on the Gunpowder. Having heard that the tricos are really starting to pick up in the mornings, I was excited to get out to fish these tiny (#20, #22 and even #24!) flies. I had my best day ever on the Gunpowder last year fishing tricos, and I actually quite enjoy fishing these barely visible flies, so I was excited when I saw the fish rising as I got out into the water.
However, the river is still flowing low (33cfs) and the fish are spooky as ever, so the fishing has remained extremely technical. Ultimately, I wasn’t able to catch any fish on tricos, and although I did get a few hits on a big carpenter ant pattern, I wasn’t able to hook any fish.
My father, however, was able to catch a few for the day.
The Hardest I’ve Ever Worked For A Fish
After a disappointing day on the Gunpowder yesterday, I decided to get out again this afternoon to try my luck with these wily browns.
Once I geared up at the parking lot, I walked downstream for a good 10 minutes studying water I was going to be fishing through. As I continued down the trail, veering towards the river, I could see the fish darting about every which way. Were the fish really spooked from just my walking down the bank? Oh boy, this could be a tough day on the water.
I watched the fog rolling around the river as I was fishing through the flats.
Little Fishin’
This morning I hooked up with my buddy Dalton and we headed out to check out a new (to me) river, the Little River, a tailwater of the Waterbury Reservoir just outside of Waterbury (obviously).
After a quick bagel in Waterbury, we headed out to the river. As we drove up the small dirt road paralleling the river, I caught a few rocky glimpses of the river. However, I had no idea that just a bit upstream the river worked its way through a stunningly beautiful gorge. We shuttled my car to the top of the stretch that we were going to be fishing and drove back down towards the rocky gorge.
When we got out on the water, I was amazed by both how small this stream was and by how murky the water was. I was certain that this wasn’t going to end up well, but Dalton assured me that the last time he’d been out here the water was just as murky. Odd, but ok—I’ll accept it for what it is. Working our way into the flat waters of the gorge, I was quite surprised to see fish slurping flies off the surface. Trying out a variety of dries didn’t turn any heads, but the trusty guide’s choice hare’s ear ended up being the winner for the day, landing us a bunch of fish.
Dalton landing his first foot long rainbow of the day.
Back To the Upper CT
Aaahhhh, finally time to head back north north to fish the Upper Connecticut. It’s been a while since I’ve been on an exclusive fishing trip (back in early June I went for a few days to the Ausable in the DAKs) and even longer since I’ve been back to the Upper Connecticut, so it’s a real treat on a variety of levels to get back to the north country. And of course heading north will bring a welcome respite in the rough heat that we’ve had lately.
For as bad as the heat around Norwich and central VT has been lately, it doesn’t even begin to compare to how bad it’s been back at home home in MD. So for my father and brother, both of whom will be joining me up north, the cool temperatures will provide a welcoming change and the hopefully good fishing should provide a nice change in pace, fishing-wise, from the Gunpowder.
[After the fact:] As well, some of these pictures were featured on my home shop’s website. Go check it out here. But read this page first.
Day 1
After the drive up north from Norwich, we set up our camp in the Lake Francis state park campground and rushed to get a few hours on the water before the sun set. Having never been to the Bridge Pool and not seeing too many cars there, we decided to try our luck on the water there. After walking upstream a bit to get away from some of the people by the bridge, we began fishing through some nice riffly water.
My father was the first to catch a fish, albeit a little one, using some caddis pattern.
Soon thereafter I hooked into this little brookie with a pheasant tail pattern.
And this land-locked salmon.
A little while later and in some deeper water, I hooked this nice ~foot long rainbow.
While I was hooked into that rainbow, my father headed back downstream to fish by the bridge. When I showed up, I was greeted by one of the most noxious fishing scenes that I’ve ever seen. Within 100 feet upstream and downstream of the bridge, there were at least 5 people fishing, with once guy nymphing well into the area that my father was fishing in. It was a total mess, and nothing that I ever want to deal with again when I’m fishing.
Day 2
Waking up later than we would have liked, we quickly ate some breakfast (consisting of oatmeal, of course) and headed on our way to the river access. When we got there, we noticed someone had beat us to it that morning.
After our Moose chased away the moose, we walked down to river. Once I finally got in place, I began pulling my line out. However, something just didn’t feel right. Quickly inspecting my rod, I noticed that it had broken! ARG! What a terrible way to start the day, especially since another angler took over my spot as I made my way back towards the car to get one of my father’s back up rods.
After that whole fiasco, it took me a little while to get back out on the water. When I did, it was under fairly drab skies. Although the caddis were supposed to be going off, neither myself nor my father saw too many bugs buzzing about on the surface. Trying out a variety of caddis patterns netted me a few small fish in the 6-9″ range, but nothing serious. With the top-water action just not happening, I switched it up to a flash-back pheasant tail, one of my go-tos here on the Upper CT. However, this didn’t work as well. Exasperated, I searched through my flies looking for a solution. Finally, it struck me – I had recently bought two small #18 olive hare’s ear nymphs and thought that this could just do the trick imitating either a small caddis pupa or a nymphal BWO.
With this small nymph tied on, it wasn’t long until I hooked into this nice rainbow that had rejected everything else I’d passed by his face.
Pleased with my success, I continued to work my way up the riffle into deeper water. Adjusting my thingamabobber accordingly, I started tossing the fly in front of a large rock. A few casts in, my bobber suddenly dropped. Lifting my rod up, I instantly felt some serious weight on the end of the line. As I slowly lifted the fish up, my jaw dropped. After a surprisingly short, but very tense fight, I netted the monster.
And a monster he was, coming in at a hefty 20″ of fish!
That’s quite the back.
Yup, that’s a whole lotta brookie.
I spent a while reviving him until he was finally able to swim away to the safety of an eddy behind a rock.
Wow. I was left totally speechless after having caught such an enormous and beautiful fish. I guess even after having broken my rod, this will end up a successful trip no matter what .
I headed back upstream to reconvene with my father and hook him up with one of the killer flies. After some lunch, we proceeded to catch a bunch of smaller 9-14″ rainbows throughout the afternoon using that small olive hare’s ear, only switching to caddis (smaller goddard caddis to be specific) near dusk as the hatch began.
One of the nicer rainbows my father caught.
Pops hooked into another rainbow.
The fruits of his labor.
One of the pools that’s always proven productive for us. Just don’t fall, because if you do, you’re going for a ride.
I ended the day out with this wonderfully colored rainbow.
Day 3
Although today it’s time to head back south in order to prepare for a backpack trip somewhere in the Greens, we still took some time to fish this morning. When in Rome…
We started the day out by hiking down to Doc’s Pool, but between falling in the river not once but twice and not seeing any fish on the surface (or below, for that matter), we headed back upstream to try out the spot where I had caught the big brookie yesterday. However, before we left the lower section of the stream, we took a few minutes to fish the Junction Pool. After adjusting our nymph rigs to get deep enough, both my father and myself successfully caught a few ~foot long rainbows.
My father was the first to land a fish that day.
Shortly thereafter, I joined the club.
A pretty fish.
After a brief few minutes at the Junction Pool, we left and headed on our way to the last pool, the one where I had caught that enormous brookie. I set my father up in the same exact way I had caught the fish yesterday, hoping he too could catch a biggun in that spot. Even if that brookie wasn’t in there, the structure of the river certainly allowed for some other large fish. Well, before I had even began fishing for myself, my father was hooked up.
Hooked up big time.
He played the fish carefully, but it just did not want to budge. The fish was holding as deep as it could. When the fish finally swirled up to the surface, my jaw dropped (as did my father’s). He was hooked into an enormous rainbow, one that was an easy 2ft fish! As soon as we saw the fish, it dropped back down into the depths. Playing such an enormous fish in this spot wasn’t going to be easy – the run the fish was in had only another ~50ft before it dropped into a few hundred feet of rapids. With the difficult wading in this river (the rocks are so slippery, especially with rubber boots [say no to didymo!]), if that fish made it into the rapids, there was no way it was going to stay on the end of the line. All of this hypothetical talk of rapids and what not became totally trivial when in the longest instant ever, the fish rubbed the (seemingly already nicked) tippet along some rocks and POP, it was no longer on the end of the line. In an instant, it was gone. A truly heart-wrenching moment, I could feel the disappointment hanging in the air like the thick fog on a hot and humid Gunpowder morning.
Oh well, as disappointing as it is, that’s how it goes sometime. Needing to begin the drive home to Norwich anyways, we reluctantly packed up our gear, had some lunch and headed on home through some vicious thunderstorms. Although this summer trip wasn’t as overall successful as the last one, I did catch a huge brookie and a fair number of other nice fish. And of course, even if I hadn’t have caught the fish, we all had a blast in the northlands. Now I just can’t wait to get back up here for some more great fall fishing…
Saved By The Last Resort
With a (relatively) cooler and cloudier day here in VT, I decided to get out on the White for a few hours of evening fishing.
When I got on the water, I tried all sorts of patterns, starting with a variety of nymphs (golden stones, hares ears, batman price nymphs and pheasant tails, amongst others). Having no luck with the nymphs, I moved on to try a few stimulator patterns (including a killer x-stim from the Midd Mountaineer), but nothing I was offering up seemed to peak any interest with the fish. Frustrated, I got back in the car and drove up a mile or two to the next hole. Trying out a few more nymphs, again with no success, I finally gave in a tied on a streamer.
Now I know that the best way of catching the largest fish is normally with streamers, but I’m just not a fan of throwing streamers. My rod, a 5-weight, isn’t quite heavy enough to properly thow such huge and heavy flies, so casting is a pain. On top of that, I generally find streamer fishing a somewhat monotonous activity. All this being said, there are certainly times when streamers are the best way to go. Having exhausted all other options, this was one of those times.
Lo and behold, 4 casts in at dusk, I caught this beauty with a wolly bugger.
After letting this guy go, I spent the next 25 mins snagging and losing flies as I fished into the dark. Frustrating! Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes.
Making A 5:35 Wake-Up Time Worth It
If you’ve been up and around New England for the past few weeks, you know it’s been awfully hot and quite sunny, with very few exceptions. While these sorts of days are generally enjoyable during the summer, as a fisherman it does somewhat complicate things. See, the thing is, trout aren’t too fond of warm temperatures. In fact, if the water’s warmer than 70°, you really shouldn’t be out fishing, as the fish are already too stressed from the temperatures alone (nor is it likely worth your time to be fishing in such warm water). Not only do the fish not like the warm temperatures, but they’re also not terribly fond of the bright sunlight that’s out surprisingly early these days.
These factors in play necessitates an early start if one wishes to have any chance at actually catching fish in the lower lands (there’s a little more leeway with the mountain streams as they come out of… the mountains). Wait, did I say early? No, not early. Really early. Like getting up at 5:35. Yea, I know – this is nuts.
I’ve never really considered myself a morning person, although I’ve been becoming more of a morning person in the last few years. There really is something great about being out and about in the early mornings – it’s still cool and brisk out, there are only a few people around, and the tranquility of the early morning just can’t be matched. Anyways, after I dragged myself out of bed for the second day in a row at 5:35, I made myself some espresso and headed off, back to the White River in Royalton. I did this same thing yesterday, so I knew the water was good – deep and strewn with boulders. When I went out yesterday, I got some big tugs on my golden stone, but never actually landed any fish. After having talked to one of the guys in my local shop, I thought I had it all figured out and was ready to catch a bunch of fish.
Finishing my espresso as I got to the parking lot, I suited up and gingerly waded my way out into the slow moving river.
Floating and Fishing the White River
With the beautiful weather hanging around New England (with temps in the mid/upper 80°s and sunny clear skies), Krysta and I decided to try something different today, something that we’ve been talking about doing for a while – paddling! After some discussion as to our plans, we settled on canoeing from Bethel to South Royalton on the White River.
There was only one catch – I was planning on fishing along the way (of course). I’ve heard a lot about the fishing on this section of the White River (including lore of 27″ browns!!), and while I’ve been out on the White a few times (only last year), I’ve never had any luck. I think that part of the reason for this is that this lower section of the river (below Bethel) is simply big water, and water that is best fished from a boat. Since we were canoeing down the river, I had the perfect opportunity to finally check it out.
After dropping Krysta’s car off in South Royalton, we headed up to Bethel to put in. It must have been around 86° with a nearly cloudless sky, so the fishing conditions weren’t looking too great, but in either event I was excited to check out this water.
Krysta was pretty excited to be out on the water as well.
Fishin’ The Ausable
Whew! I’m finally done for the term, and only one more term to go! Clearly, that means it’s time to go adventuring! For the next week, I’m planning on adventuring around a lot, so it should prove to be a good week!
For the first few days, I decided to throw some flies. I realized that it had been over 8 months (?!) since I’d been fishing last, and I’ve been jonesin’ for a while to get out on the river, so I decided to head out to the West Branch of the Ausable River in the Adironacks (NY). The conditions on the river were sounding pretty good, with the water levels falling off nicely and lots of fish feeding, so this had the makings of a good trip.
Day 1
Monday, the 6th, started slooowly for me. A bit headachy and groggy, I woke up way earlier than I would have liked get my car dealt with – it was finally time to get rid of the snow tires (and I also finally got that alignment I’ve been needing for a while), a very symbolic way to end out the ski season. The mechanics worked surprisingly quickly and I was on my way by 9AM, much earlier than I had expected. I stopped by the fly shop here in town (Hanover Outdoors), grabbed some groceries and then after packing up the car, I began my drive.
As I drove through the Green Mountains towards the ‘Daks, with windows open and music blaring on this beautiful day, I couldn’t help but to think to myself that right then and there, with not a worry in the world, life could not have been better. I was living and loving it.
After some complications involving a ferry and a closed road which was very much under water, I found myself in the Adirondacks. I continued on to Lake Placid to quickly buy a fishing license and some food for the evening and then headed out to set up camp near the river. Once that was all taken care of, it was finally time to fish!
When I made it onto the river, I tied on a big March Brown and started looking for fish. Within 5-10 casts, I had hooked into my first fish in months!
And he’s a nice one at that!
I caught two more that evening, including this guy. There sure are some pretty fish in this river.
I made my way off the river after 9 and drove back to my campsite to make some dinner and sit by a small fire.
Day 2
When I woke up on Tuesday, the 7th, I found another picture perfect day outside the walls of my tent. Maybe even too picture perfect, with not a cloud in the skies and temperatures raising rapidly. After eating some breakfast and checking in at the campground, I headed out to get a few hours on the water before it got too bright and warm out.
The scene I found when I got on the river.
With the cliffs of Wilmington Notch in the background, this is simply an amazing spot.
Yup, amazing.
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch any fish that morning (although I did miss one big one on a golden stone nymph), but I wasn’t really expecting it with the bright skies. After I got off the water, I drove around and hung around a bit, including a stop at the Hungry Trout. I ultimately decided to take a hike up Big Crow Mountain, right outside of Keene. I’ve put those pics into a separate post that you can check out here.
After the hike I got back onto the water, however this time I tried my luck in the upper stretches of the river.
I managed to catch this smaller fish and one other dink as well.
However, I realized that with the extremely flat water and my rustiness with a fishing rod, I wasn’t going to have even the slightest chance at any fish of a decent size. Heading back down stream yielded some nice results though.
One of the two nice fish that I caught later that evening.
An Ubu Ale is a great way to round out a great day.
Day 3
Unfortunately, Wednesday, the 8th was the day I had to be back in Norwich. So after waking up (again, to a picture perfect day), I broke down my tent and drove back to the river for a few more hours of throwing flies before the drive home.
Surprisingly enough, the fishing that morning turned out to be rather productive, quite the contrary of what I had expected. That being said, I was having all sorts of technical issues so even though I hooked into around 9 or so fish, I only actually caught 3. Oh well, I’m working the kinks out for the rest of the season.
One of the beautiful browns that I caught that morning, about 3 minutes before I told myself I was going to leave. And yes, I stayed around for an extra 15 minutes .
Satisfied with that morning’s fishing, I headed on my way home, although not before stopping to buy a pie (blackberry crumb, clearly) at the Noon Mark Diner. I may not have caught as many fish as I would have liked to, but this was still a great trip and a great start to summer. And not to worry, my week of adventures will continue tomorrow, so get stoked and get outside!
Fall Fishing On The Upper Connecticut
Although I’ve only been back to school for thee days up here in VT/NH (I am now living in VT, and still schooling in NH), when friday came around I knew that I needed to get out of the Upper Valley for the weekend. Crashing down into reality after a glorious, if hot, summer takes it toll, ya know? We had our first of the fortnightly CS friday beer events on friday, so I was staying put for that night. When saturday came around, I slowly decided that I wanted to spend another weekend fishing on the Upper Connecticut River, up near Pittsburg, NH.
I left town entirely too late, but ready for an adventure and some supposedly tough fishing conditions. The drive up was great, with the autumnal colors really starting to show their best in the NEK. Any pictures that I may have taken while driving turned out terribly, so I’ll spare you that.
When I got into Pittsburg, I quickly set up my tent in the campground at Lake Francis State Park and then hurried to get out on the water. It was late in the day, but I had a few hours of fishing left.
There was some great foliage along the river.
Upon getting set up where I wanted to be on the river, I noticed the distinct lack of any bug/fish activity on the surface of the water. With this fact in mind, I decided to fish a double dropper nymph rig – by no means elegant to cast, but hopefully something that would work. Initially I started with a SJ worm and a pheasant tail, based on previous successes in this stretch with the pheasant tail nymph. That didn’t turn any heads, so I switched out the SJ worm for a garish looking stonefly nymph.
I fished these two flies for a bit, making my way towards the top of the pool I was at, but again with no success. Right as I was going to pull my line out of the water, I saw a flash and all of a sudden I had this nice brookie on.
I went back to the top of the pool where I caught the previous fish, with high hopes of hooking into another brookie.
What I ended up hooking into was beyond my wildest expectations. Look at those colors!
This fish was so fat that it didn’t fit in my outstretched palm. (I’m guessing she is full of fish eggs).
With that, my first day of fishing was effectively over. I had maybe another 10-15 minutes, but the light was quickly waning and I still had to cross the river to get back to my car – a somewhat intimidating task, even when it’s light out.
When I awoke in the morning on sunday, I found incredibly drab and overcast skies. When I got out on the river, I again saw absolutely no rising fish. I decided to continue swinging nymphs, but that didn’t seem to be working out this morning. This is where I started out on saturday.
Eventually I managed to do something right and caught this nice rainbow.
After that one rainbow, I wasn’t able to catch anything else in that lower stretch of river. I decided to head upstream, to where I had been fishing the day before. However, on my way up I saw a nice spot of water that just had to hold at least a few fish.
Within a few minutes I managed to catch this beautiful brown beast.
Anywhere you looked, the foliage was great.
I also managed to catch this nice little rainbow in the same spot.
As my time was limited (I still needed to drive back to Norwich tonight), I left that pool soon after having caught the last rainbow and drove upstream to another access point.
There were a few more deciduous trees up there, so the autumnal colors were even better.
I spent some good time fishing the pool above the falls.
I didn’t manage to catch anything in this last stretch of river, but it was (sadly) time to leave.
Lake Franics as I was driving out. Although It’s not terribly obvious in this photo, the colors were really awesome along the lake.
And finally a nice panoramic of the lake, which if you enlarge (click it!) will give you a much better idea of the foliage that was going on there.
After the brookies of the previous night and the brown trout from today, I’m quite pleased with how this little trip went. The fishing was definitely tough, but it was fun nonetheless, and the colors were great – 2-3 days from peaking, I would imagine. A great weekend, all in all.
Ginormous Ridiculous Zonkers
This morning, my father and I were gearing up this morning to go fish the great caddis hatch we’ve been having here on the Gunpowder since the flows were raised up to around 115cfs during the previous week. Well, before leaving I decided to check out the stream gauge to make sure the fools running the dam (it is part of the city water supply) didn’t do anything silly. To my great dismay, they had raised the river up to 250cfs, just about as high as it can be to wade and fish the river. Well, that certainly changed our plans… We grabbed our heavy gear, and after a quick stop in at the local shop, we were on our way to the river to throw some streamers.
We worked our way through a good stretch of river, not getting much attention to the few flies we were trying out, so mostly in jest, I decided to tie on a ginormous ridiculous zonker that I had pulled out of my father’s streamer box. Well, not too long after tying that bad boy on, my zonker was rabidly attacked by one of the wily Gunpowder browns, and I hooked into the biggest fish that I’ve ever caught on the Gunpowder, around 15 inches!
[Edit:] I managed to get some pics from this post featured over at our local shop’s website! Check it out here.
Zonkers do the trick, especially ginormous ridiculous ones!
This guy has a nice blue shine to him.
A little while later, I managed to hook into another great Gunpowder brown, this one around 14 inches! Woohoo!
I just love the vibrance of the red on that adipose fin. These fish are so beautiful.
That ginormous ridiculous zonker really did the trick for me today! Although I much prefer dry fly fishing, the higher flows and the streamers did allow me to get into some seriously big Gunpowder browns, so all in all, I’m not really going to complain. Unfortunately, I did loose this zonker in a wood pile the next day, but I know exactly where it is, so once the water comes down the magic fly will be back in my hands.
Fishing The Upper Connecticut River
I’m back in New England for a few days to move my life from my apartment in Hanover into my new apartment in Norwich. Now that I’ll be living across the river, I’ll finally be able to say I’m a Vermonter (albeit still technically illegitimately, but who’s really keeping track anyways?).
Anyways, the best part of moving isn’t actually the moving (the moving actually really sucked), but rather the fact that my father and I decided to make a trip out of it. I mean, we’re already making the drive to New England, so why not? We decided to go back north again – all the way north in New Hampshire, to the Connecticut River Lakes Region. We’d been here once before, during last summer, but hadn’t really enough time to check it all out, plus it sounded as if the fishing was good then. Done and done, we were going to the Upper Connecticut.
[After the fact:] As well, some of these pictures were featured on my local shop’s website. Go check it out here. But read this page first.
Day 1:
We got out of the Hanover/Norwich region a bit later than expected and after the 3.5h drive up north, we didn’t have too much time to get out on the water. When we got out, my father set up below this small waterfall.
I went a bit further down the river, and not seeing much surface activity decided to tie on a pheasant tail nymph rig. On my first cast into the pool, I saw an enormous flash and was instantly into a huge fish. Having been used to fishing for the small Gunpowder browns, this caught me somewhat off guard, and sadly after a short while fighting this enormous fish, it managed to break free. I can’t even begin to say how large it was, but it sure seemed enormous. Of course, the ones that get away always are…
Here’s a nice rainbow that I caught that first evening near the top of the Trophy Stretch of the Connecticut River.
As it was getting dark, we went back to our campsite at Lake Francis. However, with 20 minutes of light left, we decided to see if we could find any fish just above the inlet to Lake Francis. My father caught this nice fish.
While I only managed this one…
Day 2:
On our second day up in the Connecticut Lakes region, we woke up to find just another beautiful and cool day out there – a very pleasant change from how the summer had been going back home in MD. After making some breakfast and (more importantly) some coffee, we decided to try fishing another stretch of water that’s downstream a ways from where we had been fishing the previous evening.
Upon getting in the water, there didn’t seem to be terribly much going on down there.
Although I did manage to catch this nice rainbow.
After a few hours trying our luck with minimal success, we decided to head back up river. After a quick snack, we walked down to the river where I managed to secure myself a great spot to fish and my father was in an equally nice hole, with a small water fall separating us. I waded out into the pool and on one of my first casts, I saw my thingamabobber dive quickly into the water. I struck quickly and was instantly fighting my way towards landing a nice foot+ rainbow. I landed the fish and then proceeded to let it go, getting ready to cast again. And amazingly enough, within a few more casts I was hooked into yet another nicely sized and playfully fighting rainbow. While I continued to catch more and more rainbows, my father was doing the same in the pool below me. Then, I head him calling out that he had a nice fish on. I ran down to see that he had pulled a nice 15 inch brookie out of the hole. Although a bit deformed on the dorsal fin, it’s still a beautiful fish.
I went back up to my pool, where I caught a few more rainbows like this one.
As the fishing was seemingly slowing down, I started to cast back into areas that I had already pulled fish out of with high hopes for luring some more in. Then, all of a sudden I saw my thingamabobber drop once again, however this time with a much heavier feel to it. As I played this fish gingerly with my 6X tippet, I saw a few flashes and suddenly realized that I had hooked into a very large fish. Much larger than everything that we had been catching.
When I netted this brookie, I was beyond stunned. What a seriously enormous slab of meat.
I’m stoked right now.
It’s like a battleship.
Well, that brook trout confirmed for us that this hole was simply too good to leave for the rest of the day. I grabbed some food and very appropriate beers from the car, and we kept on fishing and catching more fish. Life doesn’t get too much better than this, I reckon.
Myself getting back out into the water and trying to find my way into a few more fish.
Like this nice brookie.
This gives you a sense of where we were fishing.
And what we were fishing for: my father landing a nice and far rainbow.
This was a great few days of fishing, and probably some of the best fishing I have personally ever had. Just on the second day, between my father and myself we easily netted 2 dozen fish, if not even 30. And clearly, the one brook trout I caught isn’t leaving my mind anytime soon. I do wish we’d had more time up there, but I’m sure I’ll be back soon enough. For now, I’m off to do a quick backpack into the Whites.
The Tricos Are On!
Knowing that the trico hatch had begun, I went out for a serene and foggy morning to catch the hatch this morning. After battling some wasps for my waders, I got to the water only to find a disturbing number of cars in the small lot – oh well. I headed out anyways hoping that there wouldn’t be anyone where I was heading, and when I got there, I was shocked to not see a soul around me. Ok, so part of that was due to the thick and heavy fog sitting on the river, but even so, it was wonderfully quiet out there.
A few minutes after I had gotten into the river, I landed my first fish for the morning, and it was a good sized one at that. After that, I just kept on catching and catching fish, and they were all (except for one) good sized fish for the Gunpowder! I ended the day with a total of 11 fish – wow!
And so it begins.
These fish are beautiful.
Just one little guy.
And finishing the morning out with yet another good sized fish. And a pretty one, at that.
After I let the last one go, he went and hid out under this rock. These fish are sneaky…
This was an unbelievable morning – by far my best day on the Gunpowder ever, and probably my best day fishing anywhere. I can’t wait to get out again for this hatch.
Maine Day 4: A Little More Rangeley, Grafton and Out
Ah, our last day in Maine (although this isn’t really day 4 of this trip, but again, who’s counting?). After waking up to another beautiful day, we packed up our tent, got some quick breakfast at the local bagel shop in Rangeley, and went out to spend a few hours fishing on the Magalloway River. Of course, things are never as easy as they ought to be. After making the ~45min drive from Rangeley, we drove up to the river to find it looking very full of water, and frankly not at all wadable. We bumped into someone else who had been fishing and he told us that they had just raised the flow to about three times what it had been at, bringing it to nearly 1000cf/s. Well, with the Magalloway a washout (literally!), we decided to drive back to Rangeley and try our luck again on the Kennebago. We had spent a few hours last night out on the Kennebago, with little to no real success, so it was nice to get another shot at catching some fish there, even if we were going to be getting onto the water entirely to late into the day.
Upon gearing up and wading out into the river, we realized that our chances of catching fish that day were not too great, as it was just too warm. The water was roughly piss-warm. Roughly. (A thermometer reading had it around 74°, which is entirely too warm for trout). We were geared up already, so we decided to try our luck by throwing some streamers, hoping that this strategy might turn a few fish. As predicted though, we ended up getting skunked. Still, it’s a beautiful river and more generally a beautiful place to be.
It’s a pretty river, nonetheless.
My father trying to find some fish in the deep waters of the Kennebago.
After a few hours on the water, it was unfortunately time to leave northern Maine. We headed south from Rangeley and along the way we got a great view of Mooselookmeguntic Lake (man, that’s a mouthful).
And a nice panorama of the whole scene. Click to make it big!
Further south on our way out, we drove past Coos Canyon, a random roadside stop next to a very neat looking canyon.
There were lots of people hanging around (ok, I guess it was July 4th weekend), but it’s still a very neat place.
The rock is just so cool with all the striations.
After that quick stop, we continued southward, deviating slightly from the quickest path so that we could drive through Grafton Notch State Park. Interestingly enough, this notch is the geologic end of White Mountains. We took a quick hike to check out Moose Cave, a deep canyon of sorts. The light (vis-à-vis photography) in there was awful, but hopefully this single pic will help to give you an idea of what it’s like.
This short hike also had a sweet “moss forest.”
After the short walk, we continued down the notch and stopped at the main (maine?) attraction for us – Screw Auger Falls, a serious of truly beautiful cascades that Bear River has carved out over the eons.
I told you it was pretty.
We hung out there for a bit (it was hard to get any good photos without people in the frame), so we had some time to play around in some of the smaller cascades about the actual big drop. Moose was greatly pleased by this. On the other hand, my brother and mother, who were sitting in the back of the car with Moose, were not.
Here’s my folks with Moose above one of higher cascades.
Marc’s a bit of a photographer too, but he doesn’t do much with the photos… yet.
And that’s that – the end of the Maine trip. We continued south to our resting point for the night, N. Conway, and we ate yet another great meal at Moat (highly recommended). The next day we had the pleasure of being stuck in traffic all over the east coast on the way back to MD. From a parade in Lincoln to the standard summer traffic in the dirty Jerz, we hit it all… I guess that’s what you get for traveling during the 4th of July weekend.
All in all, it was a great trip. I’d never been up to northern Maine, or at least not the Rangeley Lakes region, but I was pleasantly surprised with what we found up there. Now I just can’t wait to get back.
Biggest Gunpowder Brown Yet!
Another day out on the Gunpowder, we went out on the water for a few hours in the afternoon. Although there wasn’t terribly much activity going on, I did manage to catch my largest ever Gunpowder brown trout! He was by no means huge, but certainly still a pretty decent fish for this small tailwater.
What a fish! Man, they love those beetles. I guess they must be quite tasty.
And back you go, fish.
I’m glad to finally have caught a good sized Gunpowder brown. Now if only the fishing would pick up a bit more… although, after today I suppose I’m not really going to complain!
Where Did All The Fish Go?
After having a few slow, but moderately successful days on the Gunpowder, the fish seem to have lost pretty much all interest in anything that I’ve been throwing their way. I did manage to find a few nice things to take pictures of though.
One of the nice things about going out in the early summer is that the lilies are in full bloom.
My father looking for some fish.
Although this shot is a bit blow out, I still think it’s a neat one.
Like I said, the lilies… they’re very pretty. As well, upstream and in the background, my father’s still looking for some fish. If I recall correctly he was able to nab one on a big hopper.
Another evening, another spot and sadly another fishless few hours. But the fog on the water is pretty cool, if you ask me.
Even though it’s tough to see in the photo, the fog was coming rolling over the river in some very distinct layers.
Although it’s still nice to be out on the water, I’m really hoping the fishing picks up soon.
Back On The Gunpowder
Now that I’m back home for a bit (in the unfortunately hot Maryland), I’ve had a chance to once again wet my line on the lovely Gunpowder Falls river. Here are some shots I’ve managed in a few outings, the late afternoon of the 14th and the evenings of the 15th and 16th.
We saw this guy as we were walking up to our fishing spot.
A little while later I hooked into this guy.
These fish sure love the beetles.
And a bit further upstream, I hooked into another nice brown.
And back he goes.
Now, onto the evening of the 15th. With the water running low and cold and the humidity running entirely too high, a nice fog develops over the water in the mornings and evenings.
Although it was getting dark and the visibility was tough, I did manage to hook into two fish that evening.
My father fishing in the fog.
Fishing once you can’t even see is, in a twisted way, surprisingly fun. Granted, actually catching a fish at this time of day (9pm) would be difficult at best.
Another hot and humid day (the 16th) brings a rather foggy evening on the river. Fishing through the fog is good fun.
Although the fishing wasn’t too great this day, I did manage to land two decent fish (I only took pics of the first one though).
It’s been nice to be back home for a bit and to get back out on the Gunpowder, and I’m especially pleased that I’ve finally hook into some fish this summer (although one of these days I’ll finally figure out those New England streams!).