Home to the Tooky

I spent this past three day weekend at home in Henniker.  I fished The Contoocook River in downtown Henniker Friday night with no results. While the Tooky is great fishing in down town Henniker during the spring and early summer, it tends to get quite slow throughout the summer and fall.  This is due to the fact that there is not much holding water in this area.  Trout need cold and heavily oxygenated water to survive and without that, many die or migrate to new areas during the summer months.  If follow The Contoocook upstream into West Henniker, you will start to find deeper and faster water that are ideal holding areas for trout to survive the tough months of the year.  I believe that some of the best pools on The Contoocook are in this area and many are well off the beaten path, which means less fishing pressure and less fishing pressure=more fish!  And plus you get the satisfaction of enjoying the wilderness.

On Saturday, I didn't get to go out due to work.  Although, on Sunday I decided to go with my instinct and head upstream to where I knew there was a better possibility of finding some trout.  My buddy Steve came along with me again, it was only one of his first times really giving fly fishing a go.  A few casts in with an olive woolly bugger and I already had a hook up!  It was an average sized brown about 10 inches and put up a great fight!  I was ecstatic when I landed it because I haven't caught a trout from my home river since sometime in July!  After that, Steve decided to test his luck by himself and head to the next pool down. A few minutes later I decided to throw on a random old streamer that I got at a flea market. The hook was rusty and the feathers had clearly seen better days.  My antique ghetto fly wasn't pretty but apparently it looked appetizing to a brown trout I found attached to the end of it.  This one was slightly bigger than the first, about 11 inches and also put up a great fight.

I tried a number of techniques while I was fishing on Saturday.  The only one that seemed to produce was by casting straight into seams and letting my streamers sink down for a minute and then start stripping line in.  Much of the time, I use a small split shot placed directly above my streamers so that they can get down faster and are not immediately pulled to the surface once I start stripping line.  The fish usually strike in the first strip or two if they are sitting directly in the seam.  So cast, wait, strip and hang on! 

Steve didn't manage to catch anything but he did come back to the truck with a definite strike from a fish!  Got to give him props there, this is a tough time of year to pick up fly fishing and the fact that he was able to get a strike in November is a great accomplishment if you ask me.  

Can't wait to reunite with my river over Thanksgiving break next week!