Trout School on the Jackson River 6-21

Orvis hosted a Trout School on the Jackson River (upper section) on Friday, June 21.  I had the opportunity to guide for Carl, Trish, Barb and Hans throughout the day.  They all fished extremely well, and required little guidance & instruction from me.  So I was happy to photo document their successes.  Needless to say, the fish were cooperative.

The river temp was 67 degrees.... getting warm for the trout, but if we could find some deeper or faster moving water,  aggressive rainbows could be found.

Here, Barb was working a run on the far side f the bank up against some rip rap rock structure when she hooked up to a nice fish using a #14 Prince Nymph.

.... the rainbows all pushed 16+ inches with broad shoulders.

Trish, shown here, working a stretch of river swinging some streamers down and across the current.

..... with a nice 'bow to show for her efforts.

Carl worked a streamer thoroughly through this run before striking paydirt with another hookup.

These trout were leapers and fighters.

Hans spent much of the morning nymphing and found success with a Pheasant Tail. This trout was laying under that overhanging tree shown in the picture.

This trout fell for a swinging streamer later in the day.
All in all, the day proved a tremendous success.  The water offered varied challenges for presenting the flies, and the group did an awesome job in getting the flies into the right feeding lanes for the trout to strike.

"Fish On!

Live Free or Die -- Flyfishing back home in New Hampshire

Duncan Lake camp

There's always something special about going back home.  Those who have served in the Armed Forces like Matt & I know and appreciate the feeling all too well.  We've spent the majority of our lives away from home, away from family, so when the opportunities come to return to our roots we can't less those chances slip past.  So here it was that I'm back in New Hampshire for my dad's 85th birthday.  Fitting, since he's the one who introduced me to fishing, and later fly fishing at a very young age.


Making the trip even more rewarding was the opportunity to fish with my brother Marc.  We usually fish the Route 16 corridor on the eastern side of the state, but we ventured over toward Waterville Valley and the Mad River to see what we could stir up after hearing that the river was worth giving a try.

The downstream section was 50-70 feet wide, offering a series of big boulders, pools, riffles and some pocket water.  We each landed a couple of stocked rainbows and brookies, but under a bright sky, we needed to find some water that offered a little more cover and shade if we were to have much success.

So we hopped back in the truck and headed further upstream, took a couple of back roads and pressed forward toward the headwaters... it was well worth the effort.

Over the next couple of hours, we landed upwards of 50 native brookies, mostly on dry flies -- with the #12 Stimulator and #14Purple Adams Parachute proving irresistible to these absolutely stunningly beautiful wild fish. The fish weren't huge in size, but the spots and colors - breathtaking.

After getting our fill on the Mad River, we headed across the Kangamangus Highway, fished a couple of spots off the road, and ended up in Jackson, NH on the Ellis River.  For about an hour we threw everything from big streamers to tiny dries, but we did pick up 3-4 brookies -- on a Stimulator, Woolly Bugger, Elk Hair Caddis and Golden Retriever.
We bugged out in time to catch the Bruins in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup ..... will leave that topic for another day.

Here's a pic of my dad's birthday cake.   Picture was from May 1966. At the time it was the 2nd largest Lake Trout ever caught in New Hampshire -- 21 lb, 14 oz, 39 inches.

...

... I miss NH already!

Smallmouth on the Rapidan with Conor

Conor and I hit the Rapidan up-stream of Ely's Ford looking for smallies and were not disappointed.   I was happy to see that the VDOT access at Ely's ford was clean as a whistle, I was going to clean it up but, thank whoever did.  The water was stained and running higher than I thought as we slugged our way upstream about a mile and a half to the cigar shaped island which was our target.  On the way up we saw a gorgeous bald eagle high up in a tree at the first rapids staring us down.  Past the red-neck swim hole we saw two deer crossing & splashing the river.  When we finally arrived at the island it began to spit rain.  We fished together up the left hand channel and began quickly picking up a mix of sunfish, shiners, rock bass and smallies.  Conor was using an ultralight spinning rod with a beetle-spin and I was using a 4wt with a yellow-jacket siz
e 6 popper and a size 8 green wholly bugger dropper.  Conor hopped on the fly rod after a half dozen fish on the ultralight and really improved his casting and catching.  The fish were generally tight to cover, but with the lots of water in the stream and no sun they were distributed throughout the river too.  As we reached the top of the island the rain
began pouring and hammered us.  In stead of fishing our way back down the river, by where Fritz caught the huge smallie we walked it out back to the canoe afraid that the river was rising around us.  All and all a great day of fishing and fun.  We ended the day with our 60th fish as we neared the canoe.

Jackson River - new waters/new venture 6-17

I had been wanting to hit the Jackson for some time.  With all the controversy surrounding the property rights and public access of the Lower Jackson, I hit the Upper above Warm Springs.  The water temp was 67 degrees which is pushing it for trout sustainability - I suspect many have hightailed it already in search for cool springs. 

The river ran mostly thru pastureland and was characterized by shallow runs, a few deeper bends and pools.  No real bug activity was going on.  Rainbows were the target, but were not the most caught species.  Over the course of the day, I brought to hand, a rock bass, 4-5 smallmouth bass, a handful of little steelhead stocked by Fish and Game and about 25 of these guys...... the notorious river shiner.

... most were in the 6-7 inch range, but I actually landed 3 that were pushing 16 inches. 

But on a day when the fishing isn't fast & furious, sometime any bend of the rod is a good thing, and these guys happily obliged.

I used my new Helios 2 8'4"2-wt for this trip.  It's as good as advertised, and hooking some 17-18 inch rainbows in moving current nearly doubles that rod over yet it has the backbone to handle it and control the fish.Here's the proof....

I never cracked the code for what was working today.  I picked up the rainbows on Golden Retrievers, Prince and Pheasant Tail Nymphs and one on a Green Weenie.   I did have some company by the river and he didn't seem bothered by my being on his (or is it her) turf. 

Downstream from Junction Pool With Bill

Bill and I had been looking for a time to get out and Fritz' promotion allowed us an opportunity.  I picked up Bill early in a driving rainstorm which thankfully dissipated west of route 29.  We enjoyed catching up, geared-up at Junction pool and headed down stream about 400 yds.  The water was gin clear and not blown out as we feared.  We could see recent tracks on the path so we knew that the deluge must have missed the upper Rapidan.  We were rigged with dries and droppers addressed the pools, riffles and pocket water without success. 

As we moved upstream we spooked fish so we knew they were there but couldn't get them to rise or take a take a shallow dropper.  I moved from a sulphur-parachute to an elk-caddis and finally had an aggressive top-water strike from a 7 inch brookie who hadn't received the "no-bite" message.  Bill picked one up as well as time expired on our short trip.  Scenery & Company: A, fishing D.   As as adjunct to this post I'm including a 20.5" Brown caught by my friend Jack Davis on his home waters in the Lehigh Valley -- way to go Jack.