Troutnarnia

I hope eveyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I know I did, I was determined to catch a Thanksgiving trout so I went down to one of my usual spots on The Contoocook that I hadn't check out all week.  The weather was perfect, sunny and in the mid 50's.  After I caught that brown the other day on my own woolly bugger, I've been able to fish them with much more confidence lately so that was what I started with.  I remembered a podcast that I listened to recently that talked about fishing streamers from this time of year through winter and the guy said that most of the hold over trout can be found in the heads of pools.  So I started with a nice swing right at the head of the pool.  After a strip or two of line, my woolly bugger got clobbered!  Ahhh finally a rainbow!  I had been wanting to land one for so long because it seems that all I could find in the river were browns! Which I am okay with, it was just nice to see some variety.  It was a great fish, about 15-16 inches and very thick. Put up a great fight.

I didn't get to fish much on Friday but me and my buddy Steve got to head out for a while yesterday.  It was quite chilly with some wind mixed in.  We started at an old favorite pool of mine and didn't get a single bite.  So we decided to head down to the next pool which was a little bit less windy and happened to be the same pool I caught a brown in on Wednesday.  A few casts into that pool and I hooked a fish by dredging my olive bugger across the bottom of the pool.  It put up a great fight and ended up to be one of the biggest and prettiest browns I've ever caught in The Contoocook and NH for that matter.

That fish was at about the middle of the pool so after that, I started to work the tail while Steve was at the head.  No action for either of us.  After casting through the wind I realized that my line got completely tangled around the tip of my pole.  As I worked to untangle it, my woolly bugger dangled on the surface of the water just five feet downstream from me.  All of a sudden a nice little brownie went full airborne after my bugger and missed it.  I tried working the bank where it was with no results.  After a while, me and Steve switched spots and he tried his luck with the stubborn fish.  Steve's toes were just about frozen and he wanted to leave but he decided to take a few more casts.  When I first saw his rod bent and heard him yelling I thought he was snagged and just trying to trick me.  But after I saw the infamous tip bounces I knew it was the real deal.  Steve's first trout on a fly rod!  I threw my pole on the ground and ran over to ensure that the fish was landed.  

You can ask Steve, when I throw my pole on the ground, someones either got a really big fish on or it's a very important one to land.  We've had a few of those moments that didn't exactly turn out the way we would have hoped for.

The fish are still out there nation!  Water levels are low which has made prospecting much easier!  Fish seams and the bottoms of pools.  Also try fishing the banks, but be sneaky.  You might be in for a surprise!