Semper on the Fly: Brookipalooza in Northern NH

Exhausted from our two days on the upper Conneticut but armed with a Buck Rub Pub trout recommendation Henry and I decided to try for some back country Brookies in Columbia, NH. The guy who recommended this stream had downed a few pints and called the trout rainbows so we weren't sure what we'd find but as we headed up the stream side road his information seemed spot-on.

For Marc and Scott who hopefully will fish it in two weeks, turn off the main road, you'll pass a few stream side cottages in the first 200m then just keep rolling. About 12-min in from the hardball a well maintained snowmobile trail will intersect the road at 90 degrees. Turn left, the first left on the dirt road, drive in 50m until you come to a snowmobile bridge across the stream.

We fished up the river from here. If you look on google maps, Max the look-in, you can make out the snowmobile bridge. The stream also begins to bend away from the road after the bridge so be aware of this when your ready to walk out.

We arrived tired but excited and re-rigged 2wt rods w #14 elk hair caddis as we slipped under the bridge. I didn't know what we'd find and was excited to see two Brookies finning in pool under the bridge. My shadow having forcast my presence these specs didn't want anything to do with me so I crept behind an upstream Boulder with Henry and were treated to a National geographic moment watching aggressive Brookies both slurp AND LEAP OUT OF THE WATER for a heavy evening hatch.

There was so much insect action it was hard to parse, moderate mosquitoes, thick large black flies, biting horseflies, and what I best-guess was a HEAVY March brown hatch. They were just fluttering all around above the surface.

The stream lends itself to partner fishing its AMAZING pools so Hen and I took advantage one spotting & calling the casts, the other casting for trout after trout after trout. We took multiple trout from all the holes as we pushed them up pool even with a cautious approach.

We caught specs on caddis, adams and pale blue dun flies until it got too dark to see the flies. We didn't count but probably caught 25 trout in two hours with only one line in the water at any one time. Next time here I think I'd park at the bridge and then walk down stream on the road for a few hundred yards then fish back up stream and again hit it later in the afternoon.