Back Lake Fishing Report: 6/14

That’s a nice largemouth bass that one of our fishermen caught yesterday – one of many from what they said upon returning to the dock. Olive rubber worms were the big hit yesterday for the bass, so if you know how to fish for these eating machines, you could have a good time on Back Lake.

Back Lake Hex Hatch Update: Nothing happening at the moment, but we’re very close now, and traditionally it starts around June 20 – we’ll see if that holds true for this year.

The brown drake hatch on Back Lake was “hot” Saturday night from several guest reports – much like the hex hatch, the brown drakes do their thing in a short time span before dark, and like the hex, emerger patterns work really well. We have all of the best fly patterns in our Fly Shop for this hatch, if you’re coming up this week.

Outer Pond Recommendation: Shehan Pond

I received some relatively truthful intelligence (it is from fishermen after all, so each case of new information must be vetted) about Shehan Pond, one of the outer ponds in Clarksville, NH that I’ve heard much about but never taken the time to investigate.

What I had heard over the years was that the brook trout were bountiful as well as colorful and that this rarely fished piece of water was home to a better than average pond brookie. I also heard that the voyage to the pond is what made the pond inaccessible to your average fisherman, making for some excellent fishing.

Based on the possibility of a hex hatch (the intelligence), OMR, Cindy and myself ventured forth to investigate. We found that the reports, on every front, were very much true.

Observations:

1. The road in off of Cedar Stream Road is unmarked – you will need a GPS to find it, and going with coordinates from the NH Fish and Game website would be a must for your first time.
2. The “road” down to the pond is brutal – lots of large rocks, overhanging trees, and major mud puddles litter the road. You will need a 4 wheel drive vehicle with good ground clearance to make it, and if you love your vehicle, you might not want to do this.
3. At the parking area, you’ll still have a 10 – 15 minute walk down to the pond, and there are a couple of trails that go to Shehan Pond. The one straight ahead is maybe more direct, but is very muddy. Carrying my kayak in wasn’t much fun on this one, especially when I slipped and dropped my boat – my rod escaped any damage. Cindy and Jon took the trail to the right, which was longer, maybe not as muddy, but involved a knee deep stream crossing at one point – no picnic either.
4. In short, this is a gem of an outer pond – beautiful setting, as it sits in a small valley. Lots of birds were singing and feeding on the abundant mayflies and caddis coming off, and this place carries the expectation of a wildlife sighting at any moment.
5. Now to the important stuff – yup, there were lots of fish rising, pursuing the numerous green drakes coming off. In fact, they could have been taking a multitude of insects, but we were seeing green drakes in abundance. While I boated four or five brookies (a couple of which were in the 12″ range), Cindy picked up quite a few more, and OMR slayed ’em with a Green Drake Emerger – the Fish Hog probably landed 30 to 40 fish! Cindy did observe a few hexes coming off near dark, so it appears as though my intelligence was good.
6. We came off the pond before dark – if you’re planning on staying until dark, bring a flashlight, or it will be a long walk in the dark to get out of there.
7. Bring your bug spray too – they were hungry last night.