Mid-Oct report

Well it has been a while since I have posted a report. When I’m guiding every day it is hard to find keyboard time. After a very wet summer flows finally stabilized this September and we had some great fishing for all trout species. Over the last two weeks of the regular season we got into some very nice rainbows and browns. Now it’s onto focusing on extended season waters, like the lower Andro, and chasing Pike!

Rob with a fine brown trout caught October 15th.

Current Trout Conditions:

With the regular trout season closing on Oct 15th we are focused on fishing the extended season water on the lower Andro which is open year round for catch and release fishing. We were out on monday and the BWO hatch was in full swing. This is some of the most consistent dry fly fishing we see all year and it should continue into November, with warmer calmer days being the best. I’ll be out on foot today with my boy on my back chasing heads! Pre-hatch and post hatch we’ve been doing well throwing a variety of nymphs including pheasant tails, squirmy worms, mop flies, and eggs.. When bug activity is low we’ve also done well swinging and stripping black and grizzly buggers. If you want to get in some quality dry fly fishing before winter the next few weeks offer a great opportunity, don’t hesitate to give us a shout!

At 88 years young, Joe was crushing the big browns!

Pike Conditions:

With seasonably cool temps forecasted over the next few weeks the pike fishing should ramp up as they put on the feed bag in preparation for winter. Pike prefer cold water temps below 50 F. Typically cold nights followed by mild but not hot days are best with low pressure days being even better. With water levels on the pike stretches of the Connecticut on the low side, even a little rain shouldn’t throw the conditions off too much. It looks like we have seasonable temps over the next ten days which should set up consistent bite windows mid-morning and early afternoon as the sun rises and sets. Pike will be holding on drop offs and dying grass beds chasing perch, suckers, fallfish, and trout that move into the slower sections and edges of the river to winter over. We’ve caught pike on a variety of baitfish and trout patterns ranging in size from 5 to 12 inches. It really depends on what you are comfortable throwing but our Exocett Predator rods from Thomas and Thomas make the job a lot easier. We like Beuford style flies for when the fish are elevated in the water column and active while we do well with jig style streamers when the fish are sitting on bottom and more lethargic. Best activity revolves around times of slight not drastic temperature bumps as well as low pressure. Fish are less active during high water events, or times of water temps dropping during the day, as well as spikes in water temp over a 2-degree change. During these times we resort to smaller jig style streamers to force feed the pike. We look forward to showing you these amazing fish as we love watching people tighten up on a thrashing pike!

Kevin with a fine pike caught off a drop off during a late day bite window.

In Summary

While the general trout season is over there are still plenty of options to get out and fish here in NH. We can find fun fishing for trout and or pike on most days through late November. If you have any questions about late fall fishing feel free to drop us and email or give us a call!

Tight Lines,

Nate

Mid- August Report: Cool Temps and Dropping Flows

It has been a crazy summer for sure with high water and cooler than normal temps. The fishing has remained very consistent this August with river temps staying in the 50’s and low 60’s on all of our mountain streams. And as of this writing even the Androscoggin is running around 66 degrees and should cool off more in the week ahead! The flows on the Andro are also scheduled to drop TODAY, meaning prime time float fishing THIS WEEK!

The mountain stream fishing has been about as good as it gets this August!

Current Conditions on Mountain Streams

We’ve been doing well with a variety of techniques on area tributaries. On warmer days we’ve done well with hoppers, and beetles as well as attractor patterns like the royal PMX. Fish are well spread out with all the high water we have and we have done well covering water with dry dropper rigs. On cooler days it seems the fish are keyed in more on the dropper, with a size 16-18 WD40 nymph taking most fish. Streamers have also been effective with cooler weather and higher water with buggers and baby trout parr patterns taking fish most days. Surpisingly we’ve also done well with egg patterns and it could be that some of our wild brook trout are already spawning due to these unusually cool August temps. Flows should be dropping closer to average over the next week and will be in prime shape for wade fishing.

We’ve been seeing some larger than usual wild rainbows on our smaller streams this summer. They’ve been moving upstream in all the high water we have had.

The wild brook trout fishing has also been some of the best we have seen this August.

Looking forward:

The Androscoggin river is scheduled to drop at the dam in Errol today to 1200 cfs. This will put the river at ideal flows with good water temps as night time lows drop into the lower 40’s this week. We have dates available from now through mid-October and we recommend booking a trip sooner than later as this fishing should turn on as of this writing! We expect some of the best fishing in years on the Andro as these fish have been feeding all summer long with little fishing pressure due to the high water.

The Isonychia hatch has already been coming off a bit on cooler days and should ramp up this week with lower flows and cooler weather. The flying ants really haven’t started yet but we expect to see them on any warmer days from here through early September. Golden stoneflies and October caddis will also be in the mix this week along with a constant trickle of BWO’s coming of almost every day.

We will be out tomorrow scouting the upper Connecticut river. Word has it the bite has been good up that way and we have a few floats up there next weekend. Higher flows have kept those fish fat and happy this summer as well and with lower flows and a lot of smelt in the river the fishing should be very productive.

We have openings August 23rd and 24th as well as August 29-31st if you are at all able to get up here we highly recommend taking advantage of these prime conditions. We also have dates available in September and just had dates open up for October 6th and 7th as well as Oct 14th and 15th so let us know if you want to grab any fall dates as well!

We have enjoyed guiding many of you this season and look forward to some great fishing this fall as well!

Tight Lines,

Nate

July Report...plenty of water these days!

Hi all, after a productive May and first half of June we have had a good deal of rain through early July. While this has forced us to be creative with where and when we fish, the fish are happy and well fed. I always try to look at the silver lining when we have challenging high water conditions. The fish can be harder to get to and bite windows are less predictable. Fish have a constant stream of food and feed on the rise and fall of each rain event. With low water conditions bite windows are predictable as fish feed on a predictable hatch schedule. When flows are constantly changing fish feed on a wider range of food items and hatches are less predictable and effected more by weather. For example last week we saw fish feeding on a black caddis hatch all day through a light rain. Conversely on this past saturday fish were only eating on the surface very sporadically in the morning and late in the day with nymphs taking most fish early and late as well.

We had some very good small stream fishing last week as flows abated and fish were eager to rise to dries on the first casts into every pool. Once they wised up to dries we were able to get them on BWO nymphs. As of this writing our small streams are back on the rise and it looks like we’ll have to wait a few days for flows to drop back to fishable flows as we are seeing a couple inches of rain tonight.

During high water we’ll look to target bass ponds as well as wild brookies in beaver ponds. We’ll also keep an eye on the dam controlled sections of the Andro and Connecticut as these sometimes provide fishable flows even during high water periods.

So back to that silver lining. The best conditions for fishing are not always the best conditions for fish. Low water means higher predation rates, warmer water temps and less food for trout. Conversely while high flows make fishing more difficult fish are well fed and protected in higher flows. While some smaller fish may perish in extremely high water, trout are accustomed to changing water levels and move to slower water and hydraulic cushions when flows rise. Higher water provides an influx of food items and long periods of high water actually grow larger fish. Considering that trout gain the majority of their weight from May through October these high flows during the peak of growing season will mean we’ll have some fat trout to target once flows abate.

While August can be a challenging time of the year, we will likely have prime time fishing this August whenever flows drop to fishable levels. Fortunately our mountain streams are high gradient and flows drop quickly even after big rain events. We are talking one to three days between rain events for flows to drop to fishable levels.

While we try to get out and find good fishing conditions for our guests whenever possible we always allow cancellations or postponements when conditions are simply too unsafe or unproductive. That being said we encourage you to be open minded and take the advice of our guides. We’ll have some really good fishing whenever flows allow this summer. We look forward to getting you out whenever possible!

Tight lines and pray for a little less rain!

Nate

A nice dry fly fish from late June.

A fat streamer eater from one of many rainy days this June.

Late May Report

What we’ve been seeing:

We have seen a lot of good fishing since my last report. Flows have been ideal on most rivers, with the Andro fishing best as of this writing. Hatches of Hendricksons and tan caddis have been in full swing with some golden stones in the mix as well.

This landlocked salmon gave us a run for our money! We weren’t as lucky when the next big fish ran straight up a rapid and broke us off!

Over the past few weeks we’ve been guiding both the upper and lower andro and the fishing has been good to great. Bite windows have been typically 8am to about 11am and 2pm to 4 or 5pm. On low pressure days the bite windows seem to turn on and off more randomly with good fishing most of the day. We have seen a couple of good dry fly windows on cloudy days. We had a good Hendrickson hatch on the lower river last saturday and a good tan caddis hatch on the upper river yesterday. Fishing a comparadun size 14 in a rusty cream worked well on the Hendricksons and a size 16 tan X caddis got it done for the caddis. We fish this fly on a dead drift with some wiggle and a swing at the end to mimic the emerging bugs. We should see these hatches last another week or so before the Alders and stones become more predominant.

A fine holdover brown taken on a stonefly nymph.

We’ve also been doing very well nymphing a variety of bugs. Our biggest fish yesterday were taken on a Thomson’s double bead stone which does a good job of imitating an Alderfly nymph. We’ve done very well with size 12-14 pheasant tails and large golden stones. Interestingly the fish didn’t seem to want the smaller tan caddis nymphs yesterday but those should also produce at times.

Fish have been spread out in the system with some rising in slower water and eating nymphs in the fast drop offs, runs and riffles. We have been throwing dries when we see fish rising and nymphing when we don’t. While you can still catch fish on nymphs when they are rising I prefer to take the opportunity to get them on dries when they are willing to eat off the surface. We had a blast watching fish slowly rise through the water column to inspect and sometimes eat our dries yesterday.

We’ve been getting some very strong fighting wild rainbows in the upper and lower river. Rainbows are definitely the dominant species in the system and seem to be the best at reproducing in the river. We’ve also been getting some very healthy landlocked salmon and brook trout up north with some browns in the mix as well. We got into a couple very nice holdover browns in the lower river as well the other day. It seems like the browns are holding over a bit more than in the past, perhaps due to the stocking of a better strain of brown trout.

Jared caught the two biggest trout of his life last Saturday. These wild bows put on quite a show!

Looking forward:

It seems we are in for a heat wave starting saturday and going through next week. This will mean early will be best on the andro for the end of may and start of June. Evenings will probably also produce but we prefer to fish in the mornings when the water is colder and the fish are more comfortable.

We are hoping that the next few cold nights keep water temps in the 60’s next week but if things get too warm we will run some trips on the Connecticut river where the tailwater dams provide colder water temps on warm days. We expect the Connecticut to fish very well next week as warm days spur good caddis hatches over there this time of the year.

Beyond next week it looks like a prolonged stretch of more seasonable weather with highs in the 60’s and overnight lows in the 40’s. This should make for some great prime time June fishing on the Saco and Andro.

Availability and Summer Fishing:

If you are looking to book with us this season we are booking through June but still have dates available July through October. July is probably our best month for wade fishing as the smaller rivers are still cold and hatches are prolific. Dry fly fishing small water is one of our favorite ways to fish and we look forward to sight fishing in the gin clear streams of the Whites this summer.

If you prefer to float we have good dry fly and nymph fishing opportunities on the Connecticut river through July and sometimes into August. This river is a bug factory and the hopper fishing can be great as well when flows are up and fish are pushed to the banks. To keep things interesting we will be offering smallmouth trips in late July through August. These fish are eager to rise to frog, dragonfly and damselfly patterns through the dog days of summer and put up a heart pounding fight on the fly rod.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you this season. Give us a shout if you want to get on our calendar.

Tight lines,

Nate

May Report...prime time is upon us!

Over the past ten days we have seen dramatic swings in both weather and fishing conditions. Exactly one week ago the Saco river hit 34,000 cfs. Over 20” of snow fell on the higher summits from last Tuesday to Thursday. Flows on rivers on the eastern side of the state were unfishable last week but are now dropping to fishable flows.

What’s happening right now:

The andro is now at 1800 cfs in Errol and should turn on any day now as fish acclimate to the new flows. Warmer weather mean water temps are hovering in the upper 40’s to low 50’s which means hatches of tan Caddis and Hendicksons are eminent. With highs in the 60’s and 70’s this week bite windows will vary based on fish acclimating to warmer water temps. We find that on the first days of major temperature swings the bite often shuts off for a day with the following day providing fast fishing. Last Saturday and Sunday were a prime example of this. On Saturday water temps climbed rapidly and the fishing was very slow (Like one fish to the net all day slow.) Then on Sunday the fish acclimated, and we were able to boat over 20 trout. We’ve done well on larger jig style nymphs and streamers as of late. Kreelix on the strip as well as our own crafty crayfish have done the job. As flows continue to drop the streamer game will fade in and out with the weather, but the bug game will get more consistent.

Client Tyler Stevens with a brown he battled with the 10ft 4wt the other day.

Looking forward:

We expect all rivers minus those above 1000ft to come into their prime over the next week or so. Warmer temps look to persist over the next ten days which should get fish metabolisms to even out and produce consistent bite windows. Expect the streamer bite to still be the main game on the Saco for the next couple weeks. The northern rivers like the Andro will start seeing hatches of Caddis, Hendrickson’s and March browns in the next seven days. Nymphing said bugs will produce best during sunny hours. Look for low light and warmth to find dry fly bites this time of the year.

Lucky to have our guide Kevin Gordon row me into this fine wild buck while streamer fishing the other day.

Booking status:

We have May 11,19 June 11,20,26,27,28 if anyone wants to get out with one of our guides. We also have dates available in July, a great time to wade or float depending on conditions. We will again be offering smallmouth trips this summer from Late July through Late August. This is some fun fishing for big wild fish! Let us know asap if you are interested as dates are all going fast!

We look forward to seeing many of you this season. It is shaping up to be a great year here in the White Mountains.

Tight Lines,

Nate