Happy Leap Day!

The Upper Connecticut River continues to provide some solid winter angling these days, even with the river at a very low level. This morning’s rainbow (17″ and very healthy) was landed on a Goomie Worm, one of the best patterns to use up here, at any time of year. 

The river flow at Murphy Dam was lowered last week (down to 170 CFS) in response to the heavy rains we received, in order to keep the river from flooding too badly downstream.

We anticipate no change in the flow any time soon, as the lack of snowfall that we’ve gotten this winter may have long term effects for our spring run off, which annually fills the Connecticut Lakes.

Don’t panic yet however, as we still have a couple of months of possible precipitation to go before we go full scale “chicken little” mode.

While nymphs have been the preferred way to go over the last week or so, it seems as though you’ll really have to work hard if you want to entice these spooky trout in to taking a streamer. They are really hunkered down with the flow this low, so fishing down deep with nymphs is probably your best bet.

BH Pheasant Tail, Caddis Pupa, Midge patterns, San Juan Worm and the Goomie Worm seem to be the most popular patterns at the moment.

Looks like we have colder weather moving in for the rest of this week and the weekend, but it should warm up next week for some comfortable fishing weather.

Another Point:

If you visit this blog somewhat often, you probably already know that it is Catch & Release, artificial lures only, and barbless hooks from now until the fourth Saturday in April from Murphy Dam to the Route 114 bridge in West Stewartstown, NH.

We worked hard to get this rules change, and we want to make sure that it is as productive as possible. If you see something funny going on, please report it to our local NH Fish & Game Officer.

The Quest to catch a fish each month in 2016:

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

(Yes, those last two months may be a bit tough, since the Connecticut River closes October 15 – but I have some ideas for catching fish, any fish, in November and December!)