First Contact With Trout in Days

Well my fishing adventures for today started off a little hectic.  Shortly after pulling out of my dorm onto Route 3  my gas pedal got stuck about halfway to the floor. Luckily I was able to shift Big Red (my 95 F-150 with 270,000 miles on it) into neutral and pull over without anything bad happening.  With some help from Dave the good Samaritan and his silicone spray I was back on the road in no time and determined to catch some fish.

I had ambitious  hopes of finding some broodstock Atlantic salmon in the Pemigewassett in Bristol.  Fish and Game stocks the Pemi with Atlantic salmon every spring and fall, ranging anywhere from 2-18 pounds.  The fall stocking usually takes place in the first week of October.  I swung around some classic Atlantic salmon patterns for a while with no results.  Considering it's only the 1st, I realized they probably haven't stocked them yet and decided to target trout in the same area.  I observed a large amount of very small mayflies and few caddis flies coming off the water.  I was pretty sure that the tiny mayflies were blue winged olives (BWO) so I tied on a size 22 Baetis Zinger even though I didn't see any surface activity.  The Baetis Zinger is a small dry fly meant to imitate the mayfly genus "Callibaetis" which are fairly similar to BWO's.  Whether the insects flying around were BWO's or from the genus Callibaetis, I'm not exactly sure but I was fairly confident in my choice of pattern.  After about twenty minutes of blind casting I was about to change patterns when I saw a small rainbow come full airborne out of the water.  I took a few steps up stream and was proud of myself when I made an accurate cast about three feet above where I saw the trout leap.  When it drifted over the trout's lie, it took instantly.  In a matter of about three seconds, the trout made multiple leaps and was already disconnected from the hook.  The fish may have been lost but my spirit was up.  It's such a great feeling when you successfully entice a strike from a fish that you spotted feeding on the surface.  Fly fishing and hunting really have many similar aspects.  If you're not familiar with hook sizes, a size 22 hook is  about the size of a shelled sunflower seed.  When using flies this small, it's not about hooking the jaw of the fish.  You're really focusing on hooking the skin of the fish's mouth, so the hook set and play of the fish must be fragile!   I will definitely be going back to that spot on the Pemi soon!

This is the Baetis Zinger:

 Here's and example of a NH broodstock Atlantic salmon stocked in the spring of 2011:

I can't even imagine what it would be like to fight a fish like that!  There's a reason that Atlantic salmon are called the king of fish!  Go get 'em Nation!