Some Chilly Browns

Howdy Nation!  It has been quite some time!  I haven't been able to fish as much as I would like lately due to all the school work that comes with the end of the semester and annual snowboard instructor training.  But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  In less than a week I will be on Christmas break and hopefully spitting out fishing reports like it's my job.

I've managed to sneak in a few hours on the water here and there over the past few weekends since Thanksgiving.  I had quite the streak going of catching one trout every time that I went out over the past few weeks... until today.  I hit The Contoocook at around 9:00 this morning and fished for about two and a half hours.  You know that it's going to be an interesting day when your guides start to ice up on your second cast.  My first stop was at one of my favorite pools that's been producing really well lately.  Only this time I fished it from the opposite side of the river that I always have.  Despite needing to scale a vertical granite ledge covered in ice, I really liked the approach from that side.  After observing no fish activity in that pool, I made my way onto some other ones that have been fishing well lately.  Between the next two pools I had three definite hits and a possible fourth one.  This morning was my only chance to fish today, I think it probably would have been better in the middle of the day once things "warm up" slightly.

Here's a few brownies from the past couple weekends.  Both caught on... you guessed it, woolly buggers!

The first one really had some great looking bright red spots that unfortunately didn't show up on my phone's camera.  The second one is probably one of my better browns this year.  I didn't measure it but was probably over 14 inches.  My dad really wanted to eat a trout for dinner so I decided to give this one to him.    I'm a strong believer in catch and release fishing but I do enjoy eating a nice trout dinner every once in a while.

One tip that I would really like to give for using streamers and woolly buggers (which can really fall under any of the "wet fly" families) is to use mending to your advantage to control depth.  Many of the fish that I've caught lately were when I mended my line so that my fly would swing deep through the bottom of pools.  Especially this time of year, the fish are going to be down on the bottom and don't want to move very far.  For example, lets say your fishing the main run of a pool and there's slack water in between you and the faster water where you think the fish are sitting.  You cast at about a 45 degree angle upstream and then mend your line downstream so that it creates a 90 degree angle in your line.  By the time your line straightens out in front of you, your fly will be dredging the bottom and ready for a nice slow retrieve or you can mend downstream even more for a deep swing.

The 12 Days of Winter Fly Fishing

Tis the season of frozen eyelets and numb toes!  I know that for most people, the open water fishing season is probably over but for those other die hard anglers out there, I'd like to give a few tips about fishing rivers in the winter.  While I may be new to the fly fishing game, this year will not be my first rodeo when it comes to winter trout fishing.  It can be a very frustrating thing and even miserable under certain conditions.  Many people shy away from it because they just assume they couldn't catch anything or maybe they just don't want to be out in the weather.  But the truth is, there are still hungry trout out there in the winter that can be caught!  So here are a few tips to help make your winter fly fishing experiences more enjoyable.

1.)  Save the fishing for nicer days.  It is pretty hard for anyone to enjoy themselves standing in an icy cold river with single digit wind chill in the middle of January.  Trout are also less likely to bite on those really cold days, they become extremely lethargic.  Especially take advantage of those random unseasonably warm days that were oh so common last year.  You might be surprised how active the trout can be on those days.  I've also had success on days when we've been hit by big snow storms.  Don't ask me why but it has proven to be successful for me multiple times.  I find fishing in the snow to be extremely peaceful and relaxing.  I'm lucky to have the luxury of being able to walk to The Contoocook from my house on snowdays but I'm sure plenty of you have 4x4 vehicles.  Snowshoes and waders make a great combo!

2.)  Don't go out expecting to catch fish.  I'm not telling you to lower your goals, but the reality is that it's going to be a lot harder to catch trout in the winter.  Key word there: harder, not IMPOSSIBLE!  Isn't that what everyone loves about fishing, that it's a challenge?  My philosophy is that I'm going out to enjoy being outside, and if I catch a trout on top that, what a great day!  That way if you don't catch anything you're not getting skunked, you still managed to beat the cabin fever.

3.)  Take advantage of your gear.  They make warm clothes for a reason so, use it.  One cold miserable day on the water could spoil a whole season of winter fly fishing.  I like to wear a pair of wool gloves with the fingers cut off and they also have a mitten flap that can be folded over when you don't need your fingers.  Wool and fleece clothing still have insulative properties when wet so leave the cotton at home!  I use 3.5mm Cabelas neoprene waders with insulated boots.   I know they also make some products that you can apply to your line and eyelets to help prevent them from icing up.  Anything that can give you the upper hand against the cold weather will add to you're enjoyment.

4.)  Stick it to the pools.  Many of the areas that hold trout for the rest of the year could be a baron waste land when winter rolls around.  Trout need a decent sized pool with well oxygenated water to winter over in. They don't feed as much in the winter so they're not going to waste their energy trying to sit in a fast run.

5.)  Don't stress over "matching the hatch."  There isn't going to be much insect activity going on in the winter unless you are fishing a tail water or spring creek which are pretty hard to come by in NH.  Since the trout don't have many options to be picky eaters, they are going to feed very opportunistically.  It's pretty much going to be a nymph and streamers game throughout the winter.  For nymph patterns I would suggest the usual suspects; hares ear, pheasant tail, prince nymph, copper johns, egg patterns and a variety of stonefly nymphs.  I would use medium to large sizes of nymphs.  For streamers, there are a thousand different patterns that could work on any given day but I would especially suggest the legendary woolly bugger in olive, black, rust and brown and a pattern called the aggrevator.  The aggrevator is similar to a prince nymph but tied on a streamer hook with a marabou tail.  I mostly fish weighted patterns because the fish will be on the bottom.  Wet and dry midge patterns can be of great use in some waters, especially tail waters where temperatures are somewhat warmer in the winter.

6.)  Fish deep and slow.  Like I said before, the trout will be on the bottom of these pools.  In most cases, they are not going to move far to feed this time of year so you really have to get your fly right in front of their noses.  Really try your best to read the water and prospect where a fish would most likely be lying.  I like to target seams and any area of a pool where there is a significant change in depth.  Mending your line can really help your flies get down where you need them.  Anytime the water is pulling on your line, it is probably pulling your fly closer to the surface or preventing it from sinking.  When using a steamer, I would suggest slow stripping and swings.

7.)  Minimal fish handling.  If you are planning on releasing the fish you catch, minimal handling time is a must.  Keep them in the water if you can especially if it's a really cold day.  Think about how fast the feathers on your fly freeze when you take it out of the water.  The same applies to the fish, the freezing air temperatures can be damaging and even fatal.  We don't want to lose any fins to fish-frostbite!

I hope these tips are helpful for anyone looking to give winter fly fishing a shot.  Although people driving by will look at you like you've got 5 heads when you walk down to the river bank with a fly rod, you won't be the only one out there!  I will be fishing throughout the winter.  It can be tough but also very rewarding.  You might not catch many fish throughout the winter but the ones that I've caught have been some of the largest trout I've ever caught in NH.  Here's a 16 inch brown that I pulled out of The Contoocook last January.

Tight lines!  

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!

Hopefully Trout are Planning on Feasting Today

Happy Turkey day nation!  We've got a lot of fishing to catch up on over the the past week.

Last Thursday 11/15, a few friends and I fished the Pemi down in Bristol with ambitious hopes of tangling with a broodstock salmon.  We tried swinging and stripping streamers in spots that produced very well back in October with no results.  I feel that most of the salmon drop down from Bristol by this point in the year, especially after the high waters that Sandy brought.  We then switched over to target trout with just about every technique, also showing no results.

Last Friday, I went out to Mirror Lake up in Woodstock.  I don't have my kayak up at school as of now but Mirror Lake is an easy wade for most of the shore line.  I started with woolly buggers and streamers and just started blind casting and stripping.  For the first half of an hour that I was there, I kept seeing surface activity around a down tree off shore.  I crept over withing casting range of the tree and realized that there was a significant change in depth just on the other side of the tree where I saw the rises.  I was running low on woolly buggers so I threw on a black and orange egg sucking leech and attached a tungsten split shot just above the hook eye.  I threw it out just over the side of the drop off and instead of stripping it immediately, I let it sink for quite some time.  On the first strip the line was tight and my rod was bent in half!  I had the fish on for quite a while but it was staying deep.  It ran to the surface and did that all too familiar splashy hook shake move that gets all of us from time to time.

Sunday, I went to Robartwood Pond in Campton.  I totally was not expecting to find a completely frozen over pond when I got there but there was about an inch of ice covering the whole pond except for the area right next to the dam.  It was like fishing in a swimming pool with the amount of open water but I managed a scrappy little brookie on a white woolly bugger.  For the most part I was just throwing streamers and woolly buggers and stripping them back in.  I decided to switch up my tactics and try a very slow retrieve because I imagined the water was quite cold already and the fish may be slowing down.  I stripped in my olive woolly bugger veeeeerrrryyyy slooooowwwlly and hooked a small rainbow on the first cast of this method.  It shook not long after it was hooked.  That fish was hooked in only about 6 inches of water.  A few casts later, I was targeting the deepest part of the water that was open and retrieving right along the edge of the ice.  I let my bugger sink down to the bottom and started my extremely slow retrieve and then my indicator went under.  This fish had some real muscle to it unlike the last two.  It was a great fight and pretty unique to have it run under the ice.  I pulled it up on top of the skim ice that was directly in front of where I was standing and all of a sudden it shook free.  I immediately jumped down there breaking through the ice in just six inches of water.  And of course the beautiful dark red rainbow flopped right into the hole in the ice created by my feet.  I started moving the thick weeds around below my feet and saw a great spotted tail and lunged for it.  The fish escaped my grasps and freely swam back into deeper water.  All I wanted was a picture!  -__-

Here's the brookie that I caught there.

Yesterday I got to reunite with my home water again, The Contoocook!  I was eager to head back to the area where I caught trout last week.  Me and my good friend Lucas started at the pool where I caught those two browns with no results.  We decided to head to the next pool down which I haven't fished for years.  The last time I went there I was probably about 14 and for some reason decided I didn't like it so I never really returned.  When I got to the pool yesterday, I couldn't believe my eyes.  It is probably one of the most beautiful looking pools on the Contoocook.  There were steep rock ledges on the other side of the river with a small stream cascading down the rocks.  I started throwing an olive woolly bugger that I tied myself into the head of the pool right in the top of the seam.  A few casts later I hooked and landed a beauty of a brown, it was about 12 inches and appeared to be very healthy and thick.  We didn't have much luck after that but I'm heading back to The Contoocook today!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!

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!

Brookies and Buggers

So on Saturday, I unfortunately didn't go to the pond in Woodstock that I originally wanted to go to because I didn't have much gas.  Instead, I decided to go back to Robartwood which is right up the road in Campton.  Because of thick brush and posted land there is really only one area to fly cast from the shallows at Robartwood.  With my luck, there was a strong wind coming straight at me.  I felt like I was trying to throw a paper airplane into a box fan.  Although conditions were not ideal, my persistence prevailed and I managed to lay a few casts onto the water.  High line speeds and keeping it low are key when casting in high wind.  I also switched to a full sink line for a while which was casting much better into the wind.  Heavier lines are less affected by the wind.

I started out with a size 8 olive woolly bugger bead head.  It's one of my go-to searching patterns when I really have no idea what the fish are feeding on.  The great thing about the woolly bugger is that it doesn't resemble one particular food source,  it has characteristics of a large variety of foods that trout feed on.  There really is no wrong way to fish a woolly bugger.

For any beginners out there, this is your typical woolly bugger.  It's the perfect beginner fly, easy to fish and easy to tie.  You can fish it by stripping, swinging, dead drifting and even floating the un-weighted ones.  It catches trout and salmon all over the world.  There aren't many days that a trout won't bite a woolly bugger if fished properly.  They come in all colors and sizes.  You've just got to try them all to find out which ones you like best for different situations! 

Here's on that I tied myself.  Let me know what you think of it!

 About 20 minutes after I got there, the line finally became tight!  It was a beautiful female brook trout in it's spawning colors!  When I picked it up for the release a couple eggs fell out into the water.  Don't want to harm those!

After I released her I spent a few more minutes casting around the olive woolly bugger with no results.  I didn't even want to think about trying to cast an un-weighted fly straight into the wind so I threw on a rust colored woolly bugger size 6.  I had a couple hits from fast stripping the rusty bugger back in but didn't end up hooking anything.  I went with a new approach and decided to let it sink down for a while after I cast under an overhanging hemlock branch.  When I made my first pull to start stripping line back in it was already tight and my rod was bent in half.  The fish wasn't going crazy making any runs but it clearly had a good amount of weight to it.  After a few more rod tip bounces, the fish started causing a commotion on the surface.  I saw a wide off white tail covered in black spots come splashing out of the water and then... it was gone.  No more tension.  By the looks of it that fish may have been close to two pounds.  The massive splashing tail scene was almost an instant replay of a fish that my buddy Steve lost in the Tooky a few years back.  I guess that's just karma repaying me for the flak I gave Steve for losing that  beastly rainbow in the Tooky.

In a bit of a frustrated mood, I went back to stripping the rusty bugger in.  After a while I hooked another beautiful brookie!  This one was a male.  He actually had quite the kype (hook jaw) on him for such a little guy.  Can't really see it that well in the picture due to a very inconveniently placed piece of grass.  After releasing this one, fingers felt like they were going to fall off from the wind chill so I decided to call it a day.

I'm not exactly sure where or when my next fishing adventure will be but I will keep my results posted!  I will definitely be fishing the Contoocook this upcoming weekend.  The fish are still biting so get out there!  Can't be afraid of a little cold weather if you live in NH.  They make warm clothes for a reason!

Thank God It's The Weekend!!!!!

Hey there Nation!  Sorry I haven't been posting lately.  I've had no time to fish all week!  I can't wait to finally wet a line this weekend.  Tomorrow I think I will head to a pond up in Woodstock that's open year round.  I had good luck there in the spring.  Fish and Game stocks two year old brown trout and three year old brookies in this pond as well as one year old brookies, browns and rainbows.  Say what you want about stocked fish but the fact that they are already quite large when they're stocked leaves some tempting possibilities at catching a real hog.  I've heard stories from some local old timers about browns over 7 pounds!  A fish like that would make my whole season, but I would be delighted just to catch an 8 incher this weekend.  It's going to feel great just to get out there, fish or no fish.  Hopefully there will be some browns cruising the shallows!  Ponds are pretty much the only option right now.  Hurricane Sandy brought most of the rivers up to an un-fishable level.

One of my best friends and fishing buddy is heading out to the Salmon River for some steelies on Sunday.  I was supposed to join him but classes and money are tight for me right now.  I'm bummed that I couldn't go but I'm excited to hear how he does and will probably post a report about his trip on here.  So Steve, if your reading this, you better come back with some good fish pics!  And also anyone out there with recent fishing stories, feel free to share them on this blog!  If I'm not catching fish we might as well talk about someone who is!

Here's a great video I found today.  I know exactly how this guy feels, I often find myself in this same situation when doing home work.