Free as a Bird!

After spending the entire first half of my week preparing for the three exams I had yesterday, I found it quite suitable to blast Freebird on my way to the fishing hole this afternoon.  Once I got to Robartwood Pond in Campton, I couldn't really hear much but that didn't deter my excitement to fish.  I'm pretty lucky to have a pond that's open year round only ten minutes away from campus.  Robartwood doesn't look like your typical trout pond.  It can't be much more than ten feet deep at it's deepest point and is almost completely covered in vegetation.  I had major doubts about its ability to hold trout year round until one day last spring before they stocked it.  That day I caught multiple rainbows over 15 inches and lost brookie right at my kayak that was well over two pounds!  It's amazing how trout can find ways to survive in areas where conditions are least in there favor.

When I got there this afternoon there were thousands of tiny insects flying around the water.  Much smaller than any fly pattern out there.  They inspired me to throw on one of my smallest patters which was a size 22 baetis zinger.  There was a lot of small surface activity, most like bait fish feeding on these tiny insects.  I had a few very small fish hit the zinger but didn't hook anything. The bait fish activity gave me the idea to give a streamer a shot.  So I tied on a size 6 white marabou muddler.  After a lot of casting and line stripping the water exploded behind my fly!  It was a great feeling to finally feel a fish on the other end.  It wasn't much of a fight but I couldn't have been happier.  It was your average sized stocked brookie but it's beautiful fall spawning colors made up for its size.

For anyone who doesn't know, this is the marabou muddler:

I apologize for the poor quality photo. I accidentally left my camera in my room and my phone takes horrible photos. Here's one of the rainbows I caught there last spring.  I wish I landed that brookie that day, it was a real beauty!!!

Get out there Nation!  You can catch trout year round if you put the time and effort into it!  Nothing feels more rewarding than catching a trout when all odds are against you.  

Tight lines!!!!!!!!!!!

Some Expert Advice

Hahaha! This guy is hilarious!!!!

Short but Sweet Contoocook River Report

Hello Nation!  Sorry I haven't been posting much lately.  I haven't been able to fish much over the past few weeks.  It's been a long couple months at school being separated from my home river, The Contoocook.  I went home this past weekend and finally got to spend a decent amount of time on the old Tooky.  The red oak leaf bite was unheard of!  I caught and released about 50 of them in a matter of a few hours.  HAH.  But on a more serious note,  with Fridays rain, water levels went up quite a bit over the weekend.  From fishing the Tooky my entire life, I've found that it's usually not very good fishing just after the water goes up.  Once it starts going down again, trout activity usually heats up.  I was hoping for some brown trout action on the streamer but I was unsuccessful.  I did get to fish some new territory and one area I suspect there might be a native brook trout population.  If you know the Tooky well, you might think that I'm crazy from that last statement because of how high the temps in the Tooky get over the summer.  Guess we will just have to wait and see.  I can't reveal it's exact location but if I do find some natives in the area I will post some pictures of them and maybe give a hint or two about things to look for.  I'm not one who keeps secrets about fishing spots.  I like it when people catch fish, it's an amazing thing that everyone should experience.  I'll do what ever I can to help people get on the fish even if it's a complete stranger.  But when it comes to native brook trout populations, it's a different story.  These are usually small, fragile populations that could easily be affected in a negative way if they are not fished thoughtfully and respectfully.  It's truly amazing when stocked fish venture off into tiny tributaries and establish their own naturally reproducing populations.  Over the past few years, I've found a few streams like this that I don't believe anyone else really fishes.  I only tell people about them if I know that they are someone who will fish them respectfully and not tell the whole world about it.  It's really not that hard to properly handle fish and come to the realization that it's not every fish's destiny to end up in a frying pan with some butter.

I guess I should have thought of a proper title after I wrote this post... It's easy for me to get side tracked and go on and on about this stuff.  If anyone knew how much time everyday I spend thinking about fish, fishing and an infinite list of questions involving them, they would think that I'm nuts.

Although I didn't have any luck with the fishing this weekend,  I did shoot a banded Canadian goose on Saturday!  Shooting banded birds is a pretty rare thing and most serious duck hunters collect their bands.  Since I don't have any fish pictures to show on this report,  here's an awesome video that Orvis posted on Facebook.

Sweet Video!

Wish I could go out to Montana!  I know it's a few years away but thinking about going to grad school out there.  No where in the NH area offers a masters degree in fisheries biology so why not take that as my opportunity to go out West?!

Heading home this weekend.  Probably going to do some duck hunting and fish the Contoocook quite a bit.  Hopefully there will be some hungry brownies looking to crush some streamers!

Salmon Fever!

Good afternoon Nation!  Sorry I haven't posted much in the past week.  I went home to Henniker for the three day weekend last week and spent most of my time duck hunting.  Between me and my buddies, we shot a lot of birds over the weekend.  I manged to drop a beautiful drake wood duck which is going to make  for some great flies!

I did fish a little bit when I was at home.  I caught two beautiful native brookies in a small tributary of the Contoocook River.  They were both in full spawning colors and put up quite a fight!  Both were about 6-8 inches.  Sorry, no pictures of them.  I wanted to release them immediately to aid in the sustaining of a natural population.  These natives will usually aggressively strike just about anything you throw in front of them this time of year.  Most stream fishing ends the 15th of this month, so get out there and take advantage of the fall weather and experience some of the most beautiful fish colors.

Since I caught my first broodstock Atlantic, addicted would be an understatement.  I've went to the Pemi the past two nights in search of them with no results.  I've seen a lot of salmon jumping out and was lucky enough to snap some pictures of a guy next to me who caught one yesterday.  There was a lot of anglers there last night and that was the only fish I saw get caught all day.  In a bit of a rush with this post so I can get back out there right now!  I've seen a lot of fish around 5 pounds jumping out of the water.  I saw a real whopper leap out yesterday that I swear had to have been over 10 pounds!  

Well I'm off to the Pemi now!  Going to hit it hard, wish me luck!

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Tight lines Nation!  Get out there!!!!!

The King of Fish!

My target for today's fishing adventures was the almighty Atlantic salmon.  My first quest was to the Newfound River in Bristol, hoping to find some landlocked salmon washing out from Newfound Lake for the fall spawning run.  I threw around streamers and wooly buggers for about an hour with no results and no sign of fish.  So I decided to head down the road to fish the Pemigewasset for some broodstock Atlantics.  I went to the same spot where I had the small rainbow on a few nights ago.

Before walking down the river bank, I did my best to pick out a pattern that I thought would entice a salmon to strike.  I chose a size 4 Jock Scott which is a classic Atlantic salmon pattern.  Since the salmon aren't actually feeding when they're in the river, there is no way to "match the hatch".  This can make it hard for a salmon newbie like me to choose a fly but it can also make your life a little simpler by just trying different patterns until you find one that works, instead of trying to analyze insects and find a matching pattern.

I started by swinging my fly through a fairly slow moving run that I had no idea if salmon were present or not but it was the only spot that I really knew in the area.  I tried all sorts of different techniques like stripping and dead drifting my fly in the same area with no results.  Right when I was about to give in and start targeting trout, I remembered something that I had read in a report from NH Fish and Game about fishing for broodstock salmon.  The report said that fishing the seams of fast runs is often a successful technique.  I noticed that the same run I was fishing was slightly faster just upstream with a massive bolder interrupting it.  The bolder was long and skinny and created a perfect seam between it and the current.

On my third cast along the seam, it felt like I had hooked into submerged freight train.  The fish went airborne  almost immediately after hooking it and started peeling off yards and yards of line.  After not even landing a trout in weeks, this was one of the greatest feeling I have ever experienced.  After 20 minutes of intense battle (on 2.7 pound tippet) I was able to land it.  It was a salmon!  My first true Atlantic salmon.  I've caught quite a few lanlockeds before but never the sea going type.  It was about 20-22 inches and in the 2-3 pound range.  My hole body was shaking with adrenaline but I somehow managed to snap a quick picture before releasing it immediately.  It readily swam back towards the seam that I pulled it from.  It was an amazing experience that I will never forget!

 This is the Jock Scott:

I wish I had something to compare it to in the picture but I was by myself so I had to make do.  More people should give the broodstock Atlantic salmon fishery a shot!  Can't wait to get back out there!

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!

Mad but Beautiful River

Hello Nation!  Hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the outdoors this weekend.  The weather might not have been ideal but if you're anything like me, a little rain is no big deal.  I actually find fishing in the rain to be quite enjoyable as long as you have the proper gear to stay dry.

I fished the Mad River yesterday in Campon, Thorton and Waterville mostly along Route 49.  Didn't catch anything but the magnificent foliage made up for that.  The foliage in NH never ceases to amaze me!  Especially up in the White Mountains.  If you have never been up there this time of year, YOU MUST GO!  It is truly mind blowing.  I'm not an expert but it seems to me that this Columbus Day weekend is going to be perfect timing for peak colors up in the Whites.

My new rod has been casting like a dream!  I'm not sure if it's because of the extra leverage I'm getting from the 9 feet or the fact that it's a brand new rod but I've been casting further and smoother than I ever have before.  I recommend the Cabelas Three Forks Fly Rod to anyone.  It is such a high quality rod for an unbeatable price.

If you've been following my posts, by this time you may be asking yourself if this guy even knows how to catch a fish.  I assure you it will happen soon!  Loads of homework and studying have prevented me from fishing as much as I would like to.  At the price I'm paying to go to school I can't afford to let fishing get in the way.  I've got the rest of my life to fish and only one shot at getting a degree.  But there is always some room for fishing :).  In the mean time to keep you entertained here's some pictures I took at the Mad River yesterday.  If I have time tomorrow I might go look for some brook stock Atlantic salmon in the Pemi in Bristol.  I'll also probably check out the Newfound River in Bristol for some landlocked salmon making their way out of the lake for fall spawning.

Tight lines everyone!