Happy New Years! It was a pleasure guiding many of you in 2024. Here is a little timeline of what we were up to last season.
April: We started off the season targeting lake run rainbows and salmon in the lakes region. Numbers of both salmon and rainbows were up from past years. We saw more first and second year salmon which is a good sign for this coming spring. There was also a good year class of 2nd and 3rd year rainbows which were much more chrome in color than in the past and fought like wild fish! We look forward to seeing how big these fish will be in 2025. Later in April we began guiding the northern rivers with both nymphs and streamers targeting mostly large browns as the rainbows went through their spawning ritual. The jig and streamer fishing was on fire as water temps neared 50 degrees!
May
The brown trout fishing continued to be productive through mid-May. We landed over 20 trout on many outings with the average fish over two pounds with many in the 4-5 pound range including one monster that taped at 24.5” As water levels dropped in May our tactics shifted from fishing streamers and baitfish jigs to caddis and mayfly nymphs and dries. As the rainbows finished spawning by the second week of May we began seeing more of them in the mix as they fed voraciously after the spawn. The caddis hatches on the Connecticut and Adroscoggin were in full swing by about May 18th and we had some exceptional dry fly fishing on both rivers landing large browns, bows and landlocked salmon on these size 16 tan bugs. By the third week of May flows on the Andro were ideal and we had some unreal days landing over 30 fish, most of which were wild brookies, rainbows and holdover salmon.
June: The Andro continued to fish well in June specifically on the cooler days. The alder fly hatch started early, on June 10th. We landed some good sized browns and bows on size 10 to 12 olive stimulators, grey cdc caddis and X caddis. On days when air and water temps rose we headed to the Connecticut where we continued to have fun chasing large browns and bows on all stages of tan caddis, both nymphs and dries.
July: In July we had a couple of epic dry fly days after thunderstorms made for some high water on the Connecticut. Unfortunately a mega rainstorm blew out the river mid-month and forced us to give the fish a break, until road work and dropping water temps allowed our return in late September. Fortunately the small streams in the White Mountains fished very well through july as larger fish from the bigger rivers pushed up into the tributaires to take advantage of the cool runnoff from the mountains. We even found some decent salmon miles up from the Androscoggin! The dry dropper fishing produced well into August.
August:
In August we found some great fishing on the Saco earlier in the month. Mornings saw the coolest water temps and consistent midge hatches which were about as productive as you could as for as long as you could detect the subtle eats on small indicators. Later in the month we did some guiding on the upper Connecticut as water temps began to drop in the upper float sections. We found some decent sized wild brookies and native whitefish up there as well as some big wild rainbows. The fishing was so good that Kevin and I decided to hit it on a day off. We managed some more wild rainbows as well as a handsome 20” wild brown that ate a 4” white streamer and coughed up a 10” sucker boatside!
September:
The float fishing improved as soon as water temps dropped into the mid 60’s in late August but bite windows were early and late in the day on sunny days through the 3rd week in September. Still we caught some good sized wild bows on most days by griding through the slow periods and trusting the process. By late in the month water temps had stabilized into the low 60’s and the nymph bite windows lengthened. We had some good days for big wild bows on both the Andro and Connecticut with some very large fish from 16” to 23” making it to the net.
October:
The fishing in October was on fire this past year. With water temps dropping into the low 50’s the streamer bite was constistent for most of the month. While the upper Andro closed on October 15th we re-gained access to one of our favorite lower river stretches which produced some quality bows and browns into early November. While the trout fishing was productive we couldn’t help but shift some of our focus to pike fishing. Water temps dropped into the 40’s by mid month and the pike bite turned on as expected. We were able to land some quality fish over 30”s with some exciting topwater eats which gave us more confidence in fishing higher in the water column during this time period.
November: The pike bite continued to improve in November and we began to notice a pattern of which zones fished best on cloudy days and which zones were better on sunny days. Our theory, the clearer the water the better it is in the clouds, the darker the water the more sun you can get away with. Our last day of pike fishing was cold with an east wind. After a promising eat on our first drift we saw nothing for the next three hours. Finally after switching to a jig style streamer tied by the late Johnny Z, I made a cast and felt the line go slack as a 31” pike inhaled my offering. Knowing this might be my last fish before the ice came I stripped earnestly until the fish slid thrashing into the net. Two days later a cold front hit locking up the pike water until spring. It was a fitting end to a productive year.
We thank all of you who shared time on the water with us this past season. We are looking forward to another productive year in 2025. I’ve transitioned from guiding the flowing water to instructing on the frozen water. You can find me supervising the kids ski school at Attitash mountain this winter. Its been a cold one as of late and snowmaking has been cranking out new trails every week. Hopefully the jet stream shifts north and we can get in on this snowy pattern that the southeast is seeing today!
Our rates page has been updated for 2025:
Full day floats are $550, half day floats $425, Full day wades $500 and half day wades $350.
If you are looking to book a day in 2025 hit us up asap. We are about 50% booked for June and 25% booked for May. We highly recommend getting out with us in April to early May this year as we see some of our largest fish this time of the year. That being said I’ll be away on Vacation from April 19th to April 28th but our guide Kevin will be available if you want to get out during that time frame.
I look forward to seeing many of you this coming season. I hope you all stay healthy and warm this winter.
Tight Lines,
Nate