fish
Quick Morning On The White River
I knew I was about to have a busy few days, what with a big project finishing up and a final at the end of the week, so I decided to spend some time on the river on this lovely Memorial Day while I still had a little bit of free time early in the week. Immediately after I got on the road, I could tell that something was up – it was unreasonably hazy out, however I just figured it was another really humid day and went on my merry way. Only later that did did I realize that this obnoxious haze was the result of forest fires in Southern Quebec – I guess it really has been a dry spring.
So after all was said and done, I spent a few hours in the morning on the White River, but to no avail – still no fish. Oh well, I got to spend a few hours outside before the nasty week I’ve got coming up.
Not only was it really hazy out, but the water was really low – easily half a foot lower than the last time I’d been to this spot. That’s not so good for the fishing.
These Canadian Geese spooked fairly easily.
I still haven’t caught any fish yet in Vermont, but I reckon it’ll happen soon enough. I hope everyone else had a great Memorial Day!
A Couple Evenings On The Water
Here are a few shots from spending two evenings out on the water, (still) trying to catch some fish in VT. One of these days it’ll happen.
First, a few shots from the West Branch, near Rochester.
And second, a few shots from the following day on the White River proper.
I saw some nice sunsets, but alas didn’t see too many (read: any) fish. Oh well, it’s still nice to be outside.
Evening On The White River
After finishing up some work in the early afternoon today, I got a chance to spend some time trying my luck (yet again) on the upper sections of the White River with my father. It was a really bright and hot day, so we spent some time just driving around, looking for a good spot to fish (the bright mid-day sun often puts down the fish). After looking around for a while and checking out a few different spots, we finally settled on trying our luck on a stretch of very fishy-looking river near Rochester. We spent some time on the water there and saw an impressive caddis hatch going on, but alas the fish just didn’t seem too interested in anything that we had to offer – dry or wet flies.
My father trying his luck in the riffles.
Again, my father trying to raise some fish.
Although by no means a great photo, this one serves to illustrate just how many bugs there were out there – all those small spots are caddis flies (and there were lots more out that are not visible in the photo). It was a truly impressive hatch, but oddly enough the fish just didn’t seem interested.
After a little while of seeing absolutely no action down near Rochester, we headed up towards Brandon Gap to try the West Branch. We didn’t have much time as we were trying to catch dinner at the Harpoon Brewery (in Windsor, VT), but even up here we didn’t see any fish activity.
I’m still very unsure of how to fish this water, and clearly what I’ve been trying isn’t working, but hopefully soon on one of these days I’ll figure it out. For now, getting out fishing is still a good excuse to get outside, so… I’ll take that.
We did manage to make it to the Harpoon Brewery in time to catch dinner (often tricky, as their kitchen closes around 
and I even had one of the better beers that I’d ever had before – an oak barrel aged cask conditioned imperial IPA. Wow, what a mouthful, but more importantly, what a beer! (I even went back the next day for more – it was just that good!)
Moose On The Dog River
As my folks are up in New England for the week, I met up with them and off we went to go try our luck fishing on the Dog River. My father had heard from a local fly shop (in MD) that the Dog River was a good and somewhat technical river, so that was enough to spark his interest (actually, just the fact that it’s named the Dog River was probably enough to spark his interest). In any event, we headed out there, spent some time searching for a good spot to fish (it’s always so hard to fish a river you know nothing about), and finally decided upon a nice spot near the town of West Berlin. We fished for a little while, but the fish didn’t seem at all interested in anything that we had to offer. So it goes.
However, we did see the signs of Moose around.
After looking around a bit, we found the Moose! (Not what you were expecting??)
Yup, after giving up on the fishing we got our pal Moose out of the car and played around a bit. He’s a fan of all things play, especially when water is involved, so I’m sure he was a fan of our decision. Anyways, I like this following sequence:
Patience is a virtue, Moose. Ready…
Set…
Go!
Almost got that stick.
What a happy dog, swimming in the Dog River.
He explodes out of the water.
Now he’s got that stick.
I’m not too sure what was going on with the fish, but oh well. We had some good fun with Moose afterwards, and I’m sure that he was super pleased to get out of the car and run/swim around a bit.
A Day On The White
Wow, what a beautiful, summer-esque day we had here in New England today! I decided to take advantage of the sunny, 70° cloudless day to try to hook into some fish on the White River. Unfortunately, by the time I got out in the afternoon, the wind had picked up quite a bit. I ended up driving farther upstream and finding a few spots that weren’t too windy.
After all was said and done, I didn’t catch any fish today. There were bugs out, and especially more towards the evening (although I had to leave before I saw any fish come up to the hatch), so I’m not too sure as to why the fish weren’t interested. Oh well, so it goes – I still had a nice few hours on the river, and days like today don’t come around often enough.
Part of the lower section of the White River. It was really windy here.
After driving a little while longer, I found myself at this lovely spot. Unfortunately, not too much fish activity.
I mean common. There’s got to be fish along that seam.
Beautiful.
Frustrated. But it’s nice out. So it’s alright.
The last spot I checked out. I fished a little bit below here, and saw a pretty good hatch coming off. The fish, however, were not interested.
It would have been nice to have caught a fish, but I’m still trying to figure it all out. Plus, fishing isn’t all about catching fish (as long as you’re catching fish). In any case, it’s certainly a great excuse to spend hours at a time outside!
Twofer Tuesday
During my outing on sunday, I knew that it had been snowing a little bit up in the hills of Vermont. I even saw a little bit of snow on top of the hills as I was driving past Middlebury Gap. However, I didn’t really think much of, having read the forecast that was calling for at most 1-2 inches. That night, I found out I was quite wrong – it had snowed a fair bit up near Stowe. I realized that I might still have a shot at getting some May turns in, if the weather would hold out for for another few days for me (unfortunately, I had work to be doing on monday).
On monday evening, I saw more photos that showed that there was in fact still snow left up in them thar hills. And so, I made plans to head out on tuesday morning to get some May turns at Stowe. It was somewhat ironic that I would be skiing on this day, as this was the day that I was finally getting getting rid of the snow tires and putting the normal summer tires back on my trusty steed. But hey, when Ullr gives us a May dump, we might as well go out and play in the snow!
After a bit of hiking, I spotted my objective, National, from below.
Wait, I’m supposed to skin up this?!
The skinning was thinning. (Heh-heh-heh).
Nearing the top of Nosedive.
Looking out towards Smuggler’s Notch with more of Mansfield on the left.
I passed some neat icicles on the way up.
And before I knew it, I was at the top, sitting out on the deck of the octagon and enjoying my lunch – a peanut butter, jelly and granola wrap. It may not sound great, but trust me, they’re delicious. Especially after climbing a mountain.
Mt Mansfield and Smuggler’s Notch looking awesome.
The outdoors make me happy. Very happy.
After my lunch, I decided to ski down part of Nosedive and then go back up to hit my main objective, National. I only skied down a little bit, but it was glorious. My tracks are the ones on the left.
A closer view of my tracks (on the left), including the spot that I fell. As I was skiing down, wearing my baseball hat, I was musing to myself about the fact that I’d never before skied in a baseball hat (if you’ve seen any of my photos from winter, I always wear a helmet – the few times I’ve skied recently without a helmet, it just feels weird – I don’t like it). Just as that thought was going through my head, lo and behold my hat flew right off my head. I tried quickly stopping, but due to the stickiness of the snow, that turned into falling down the hill. I did manage to stop myself before I went too far down, quickly grabbed my hat, and continued down.
After those too few turns, I switched over to skinning and headed back up. Soon enough, I was back at the top.
Looming in the distance is Mt Washington and the Prezzies (left) and Franconia Notch (right). Click to enlarge. The photo isn’t the greatest (due to the haziness), but trust me when I say it was really impressive.
After a brief rest, I skied off the top and hit my main objective of the day, National. I even had a chance to open it up a bit and make some bigger turns – what great fun. It was quite challenging skiing though since the snow was really getting baked under the intense sunlight. My tracks are on the left.
I finished skiing down National and was able to make it a bit farther down, including a stream crossing in skis, before I had to take the skis off to hike the last little bit. Here’s the end of the snow.
And when I got back to the car, I had a wonderful IPA waiting for me. Mmmmmm…
Although I was done skiing for the day, I wasn’t ready to head home just yet. I decided to finally get out on the water and spend a few hours trying my luck on the Cotton Brook, a small stream in Moscow, VT.
Nice looking water.
It was good to be out again, if only to work out the kinks from not having fished for around 6 months or so.
Beautiful water.
Alas, I wasn’t able to catch anything. I do think that the water was a bit too cold for much fish activity, especially since most of the runoff feeding this stream was in the form of melted snow. Oh well, maybe next time.
All in all, it was a great day. I got some May turns in (making this the 6th consecutive month on skis) with beautiful weather, was able to spend a few hours on the river, and after all that, I finished it out with a beer or two at the Alchemist. And really, any day ending at the Alchemist is a good one, if you ask me.
Morning Fishing On The Gunpowder
Went out for the morning to fish tricos up above Falls Rd on the Gunpowder River. Those tricos are really impossibly small – sizes 22 or 24 – but it’s a lot of fun fishing with them.
After the tricos ended, we went a little lower down to try our hands at some streamer fishing – that didn’t go too well, for whatever odd reason.
The players were me and my father.
Here are a few I caught on the tricos, ending a few days of getting skunked.
My father laying out the streamer.
As always, it’s nice to get out, and especially since I was able to catch a few fish, which hasn’t happened in a few outings. Of course, I practice catch and release fishing, so those fish were back in the water as soon as I’d snapped a few pics. It’s a good way to maintain a healthy population of browns in the Gunpowder.
A Foggy Morning on the Gunpowder
Out for a nice foggy morning on The Gunpowder with pops.
Layin out the line with the bamboo.
Got a brown on the line.
And he landed a nice Gunpowder brown! Of course, we practice catch and release fishing, so this guy was let go a moment or two later.
