After a snowy March spring has arrived in a big way over the last two weeks. With highs in the 80s late last week snowmelt season is here. Flows on the big rivers like the Saco and Andro are up. With cooler temps flows have started to drop on the Saco but remain high on the Andro. The good news is we should be beyond snowmelt by early May and are looking forward to chasing some post snowmelt trout and salmon on the Andro, Saco and Connecticut rivers.
Right now we’ve been focused on chasing lake run rainbows. We saw one big salmon in the mix on monday but for the most part the salmon have stayed in the lakes thus far this spring. If we can get a good rain some may push into the tribs but we are not holding our breath on that. Fish began moving in with suckers late last week and some rivers still have suckers as of this writing but others have already seen the suckers move out, and along with them most of the rainbows. Streams that are still seeing some higher flows due to snowmelt are the best bet and more northern streams will see more fish enter over the next few days, especially if we get more rain.
John with a fresh lake run rainbow from this week!
Fish have been moving a lot from day to day and different pools will produce on different days so it pays to cover water to find the fish. Yesterday was the first day where we saw the fish really keying in on sucker spawn patterns. Otherwise we’ve done well with squirmy worms, midges and small stoneflies, along with leachs and buggers. It is also worth fishing the mouths of streams into the lakes as lake temps are still in the 40’s and fish are close to the surface. We lost one fish in the lake yesterday but casting was tough with a brisk northeast wind. We have this Friday open if anyone is eager to get out and chase these large lake run rainbows.
The girth of these fish is impressive!
A “small” lake run rainbow.
Looking forward…
We will be out of town in Florida for the last week of April. We are hoping by May that the bigger rivers are dropping to fishable flows and we can chase some big browns as they put on the spring feedbag. We are also looking forward to finding some wild bows and drop down salmon and brook trout on the Andro. The bows should be spawning in early May and fishing for them will be better post spawn probably Mid- late May. When they come back in they are very aggressive. Expect most fishing in the first half of May to be throwing meat or nymphing large food items like worms, stones, leeches and crayfish. As water temps hit 50 degrees the early olives, and then hendricksons will hatch along with tan caddis. This usually happens mid to late May. We will keep you posted on how things progress in our next report.
We have a few dates left the first half of May mid-week. With a few dates through June with some of our guides. We still have plenty of dates in July which is a great time to wade fish and still good for trout floats on the Connecticut with windows for floating the Saco and Andro during summer rains and cold fronts. We will again be offering smallmouth bass floats from mid-July through August. This fishing is a blast so be sure to hit us up if you want to chase these aggressive hard fighting fish!
We are psyched to get out with many of you this spring! Looking forward to a great season!
Tight lines,
Nate