Earlier in the week, in the pouring rain, the Saco River in NH was fishing pretty well.
Time to try it again in sunny weather.
The last time I was here, the fish seemed to be mostly in the riffles. At least the ones that were interested in my flies were.
Like this.
The picture's a little deceiving. It's deeper than it looks, 1-2 feet mostly.
The last time, I caught all browns. This time started the same.
Finally, later in the day, I caught the first (and only) brookie. Nice fish, about 15".
Once again, everything wanted dry flies. I tried WB's in all colors, streamers, a bunny leech (fish chased it but turned away), and CJs (caught one on that). Met one other fly fisherman. He was using a black WB and catching nothing. I told him what I was using. Don't know if he did any better as we were headed in different directions and I didn't see him again.
Which dries? The fly had to have some bright color - white or yellow, for instance. EHC didn't work well. Neither did all black. All white worked. Royal Wulff was good. Gray with a yellow body seemed like the best today.
I started a little after 6:00 AM. By 2:00 PM it was 84°. I had walked a long way on the river because I started just skipping over all the pools to get to the next set of riffles. So, I quit for the day.
Long day for my old bones, but fun just the same.
Time to try it again in sunny weather.
The last time I was here, the fish seemed to be mostly in the riffles. At least the ones that were interested in my flies were.
Like this.
The picture's a little deceiving. It's deeper than it looks, 1-2 feet mostly.
The last time, I caught all browns. This time started the same.
Finally, later in the day, I caught the first (and only) brookie. Nice fish, about 15".
Once again, everything wanted dry flies. I tried WB's in all colors, streamers, a bunny leech (fish chased it but turned away), and CJs (caught one on that). Met one other fly fisherman. He was using a black WB and catching nothing. I told him what I was using. Don't know if he did any better as we were headed in different directions and I didn't see him again.
Which dries? The fly had to have some bright color - white or yellow, for instance. EHC didn't work well. Neither did all black. All white worked. Royal Wulff was good. Gray with a yellow body seemed like the best today.
I started a little after 6:00 AM. By 2:00 PM it was 84°. I had walked a long way on the river because I started just skipping over all the pools to get to the next set of riffles. So, I quit for the day.
Long day for my old bones, but fun just the same.
