Memorial Day Weekend Report

I hope you are all excited for the long weekend. We wanted to let you know that we will be doing half priced casting lessons this sunday at the Jackson kids pond as part of the Wildquack Duck Race and Music Festival. Find out more abou the event here Lessons will run from 10am-12noon and 1pm-3pm. We hope to see some of you there!

We have been busy guiding and fishing as of late. Although the rivers are high we are finding fish. Last week I was fortunate to get out on the Saco with my good friend Brian Boyle and fellow HCG guide Kevin Gordon. We had a great day chasing predatory brown trout on the Saco, landing 3 out of 5 hooked. Unfortunately we lost our largest fish which ate one of Brians 6” Drunk and Disorderly streamers and broke 20lb test. Just another reason to keep working for these mythical fish.

This fish hit hard!

Kevin with the first fish of the day

In other news, we have been exploring the pond and lake fishing from the boat and have been finding good action for rainbows and browns on midges and streamers stripped just under the surface. We guided Doug of Texas for a half day on tuesday and he managed to land four large rainbows from 14-16” as well as over half a dozen browns.

Doug and one of the four big bows he landed…a few were camera shy.

Along with ponds we have been exploring our wild brook trout waters. While they were running behind schedule for almost three weeks the bugs are now active ! We did well yesterday fishing caddis dry flies in the riffles.

The Androscoggin River continues to Run high due to rain. We are looking forward to the andro dropping as there will be alot of large drop-down salmon and brook trout to catch, along with the everpresent wild rainbows. We will keep you posted as to when the Andro is floatable.

Please let us know if you would like to get on the books for this spring, summer or fall, dates are going fast.

Tight lines,

Nate

Time for Wild Brook Trout

With continued cold and rain into May it’s felt like we’ve been on the verge of spring for at least a month now. Although it is snowing on Mount Washington as I write this we are on the verge of warmer weather and next week is looking, dare I say, pleasant.

Wild Brook Trout waters:

I finally got a chance to chase wild brook trout yesteday. I always try to balance exploration with check in’s on my older finds. After exploring a new stream with no luck I stopped by one of my favorite wild brook trout streams and landed three feisty fish in short order before the wife calle d me to ask what was for dinner.

My first wild NH brookie of the season….now’s the time to chase these fish.

The Saco:

With continued rain the Saco is still floatable for chasing large browns. Our last outing resulted in more missed fish than landed fish but that’s how it goes. This fishing is challenging, with only a few shots a day , but the rewards are worth the effort. I’ll be out again on Thursday with hopefully better results.

The Andro:

Right now the Andro has just dropped down from flood stage. We are crossing our fingers that it will continue to drop and be fishable by memorial day weekend. When the water does drop we are predicting good fishing for the hungry rainbows, brookies, browns and salmon that have been waiting for spring to come.

New Explorations:

Brian Boyle with a streamer eater from our new float stretch.

It’s getting to that time of the year for me where my personal fishing time is dwindling as I get ready for the busy month of June. I was, however, able to get out and explore some new water with my Good friend Brian last weekend. We were happy to find some wild fish in a less known stretch of water. I still have a long list of water I’m dying to explore . Most of which will need to wait until I get a day off.

Speaking of which, we do still have dates available but they are going fast so be sure to give us a call asap if you want to get in som e spring fishing.

Spring fishing is on!

We are currently winding down a long period of snowmelt here in the White Mountains. With flows at fishable levels we hit the water today for a short float. Guide Mason Thagouras got on the board with this fine female brown. Water temps today struggled to break 41 degrees, making for slow fishing. Luckily things look to change over the next few days. With residual snowmelt and rain showers keeping flows at fishable levels and warmer weather bumping water temps, the bite should be solid for the next ten days.

Guide Mason Thagouras with a healthy hen.

The southern lakes region has been fishing well for a couple of weeks now for salmon and rainbow trout. The northern lakes region has been flirting with a good salmon bite for about a week now and it looks like this warmer weather will have the salmon and rainbows chomping at the bit. We have some water where you can catch salmon, rainbows, browns and smallmouth bass all in the same day. We guided our client Jon Habif on this water last week and he managed 3 out of four catching all salmonoid species. This fishing will be prime next week. We have dates open.

Client Jon Habif with a chrome salmon.

Wild brook trout waters should be turning on any day now. Lower gradient and slower waters will turn on first with caddis and mayfly hatches starting very soon.

The Androscoggin river is running at fishable flows in the north country and getting close below Berlin. The andro will be fishing soon. We will keep you posted on that!

Tight Lines,

Nate

Male salmon from a recent float trip

Client Jeremy Webber with his first salmon

Snowmelt in Full swing time for Salmon and Rainbows!

Where we are at.

Well we had a good run of pre-snowmelt brown trout fishing but we are now in the thick of snowmelt season. While this has shut off the fishing on the Saco and Andro there is a lot of good news with this. First is that the snowmelt started on schedule and all this melting should get our rivers in shape for good fishing from mid-May and June.

Als o while snowmelt is affecting the northern rivers to our south the lakes region is fishing well with higher flows drawing salmon and rainbow trout into lake tributaries. I had a half day on the water yesterday and found good fishing in 2 out of the four spots I stopped at. Timing is everything with these fish and right now is the right time to target them. There is probably no better opportunity to catch large fish in small water than during these spring feeding migrations of lake fed trout and salmon into small creeks where they gourg e on sucker eggs, stonefly nymphs, leaches and smelt. If you are interested in one of these trips we have dates available and with more northern tribs turning on in early May we should have good tributary fishing until about memorial day.

What is to come?

Lake tributaries will continue to fish well and more northern tributaries will turn on over the next ten days. We will see rivers like the Saco and Andro stay high for at least another week with snowmelt and rain in the forecast. But all of this melting will allow water temps to climb and once the water drops we will have a good streamer bite on the Saco followed by hungry fish ready to gourge on nymphs, streamers, and dries on the Andro. We are filling up fast for late May and June. If you want to get in on some of the best fishing of the year contact us asap!

A lake run rainbow trout caught 4/24/19

Lake Run salmon caught 4/24/19

April Update

We have had a great start to the season with fish to the boat every day out! With early season streamer fishing any time you land a fish is a good day and we have the code cracked with when where and how to get it done. The past two weeks provided good bite windows and every HCG guide who hit the water landed some impressive fish.

While we had a good pre-snowmelt bite we are currently in a window of high water, with rain today coupled with snowmelt flows are up and water temps are down fish metabolisms will bottom out today into tomorrow. The silver lining is that when flows drop fish will need to feed in order to make up for lost time. It looks like we could see a window on thursday and or Friday before the next rain on satruday.

All of this water is a good thing for our lake run fisheries. Higher tributary flows and warm air will allow ice do diminish on area lakes. This will then allow waters to warm and activate salmon and rainbow trout. We plan to get out on this water later this week to see where thigs are at, chances are good that the bite will turn on within the next few days.

If you are looking for some early season fishing we have dates available for wade and float fishing from late April through May. While conditions are variable we know when it’s worth getting out and we’ll make sure that if and when we hit the water we have chances at fish. This is truly the best time of the year to target large trout and we look forward to showing you waht we mean.

Tight lines,

Nate