I've spent a lot of time fishing the beaches and not so much the mountains this season.
Monday the weather forecast was for moderate rain, so that looked like the ticket for a trip to the mountains.
I started at a small stream and caught the expected small brookies.
Wooly buggers, my usual 'go to' fly, were completely useless today. Different sizes or different colors didn't work at all, so I switched to dries pretty early on.
Because it was a small stream, I was using my 1 wt. TXL-F 7' 10" rod. Also, an excellent dry fly rod.
I spent the morning on that stream (an hour of which was walking out. My mistake.)
A number of people have said that I should try fishing for browns with dry flies in the Saco River, one of NH's major rivers. I'd never done that.
When I got to the Saco, it was raining more than 'moderately'. Nobody fishing, as I expected.
I didn't take the time to switch rods, partly because it was pouring, so I fished the Saco with the 1 wt.
I started fishing deep holes and caught two and lost one on a #14 Royal Wulff. All nice fish, 11-14". OK, but a little slow, I thought.
So, I moved a bit upstream to a section of river that was fast ripples and pretty shallow, 1-3 feet.
Things improved quickly.
The river was full of willing fish.
Same sizes that I was catching in the deep holes, but lots more of them. Although they were browns they jumped like rainbows, while hitting the fly and while hooked.
Even though these are certainly stocked fish, they look pretty good.
Altogether a fun day. Wet, but fun.
PS: A bit of housekeeping. I've ditched Photobucket. These images are hosted on my own web site. If anyone has problems with them I'd like to know. Thanks.
Monday the weather forecast was for moderate rain, so that looked like the ticket for a trip to the mountains.
I started at a small stream and caught the expected small brookies.
Wooly buggers, my usual 'go to' fly, were completely useless today. Different sizes or different colors didn't work at all, so I switched to dries pretty early on.
Because it was a small stream, I was using my 1 wt. TXL-F 7' 10" rod. Also, an excellent dry fly rod.
I spent the morning on that stream (an hour of which was walking out. My mistake.)
A number of people have said that I should try fishing for browns with dry flies in the Saco River, one of NH's major rivers. I'd never done that.
When I got to the Saco, it was raining more than 'moderately'. Nobody fishing, as I expected.
I didn't take the time to switch rods, partly because it was pouring, so I fished the Saco with the 1 wt.
I started fishing deep holes and caught two and lost one on a #14 Royal Wulff. All nice fish, 11-14". OK, but a little slow, I thought.
So, I moved a bit upstream to a section of river that was fast ripples and pretty shallow, 1-3 feet.
Things improved quickly.
The river was full of willing fish.
Same sizes that I was catching in the deep holes, but lots more of them. Although they were browns they jumped like rainbows, while hitting the fly and while hooked.
Even though these are certainly stocked fish, they look pretty good.
Altogether a fun day. Wet, but fun.
PS: A bit of housekeeping. I've ditched Photobucket. These images are hosted on my own web site. If anyone has problems with them I'd like to know. Thanks.
