We all lost a good friend and fly fisherman this week. Jon Howe, our “Guide Emeritus” at Tall Timber, net man for his wife Cindy on their many fishing trips, and my brother-in-law, passed after a long illness. He was a special person – universally liked and respected by everyone that met him, either personally or professionally, and so his passing is a hard one for those of us that knew him.
That was the temperature on the Connecticut River’s Trophy Stretch yesterday morning, taken by NH Fishing Guide Mickey Cunliffe. Simply put, that water’s too hot to safely catch and release trout and salmon, and it’s irresponsible to fish water in these conditions if you’re an angler. Fishing and releasing fish in water over 62 degrees is dangerous to trout and salmon.
Disclaimer: As some of you may know, I have been roaming the hillsides and alder runs of northern New Hampshire and Vermont lately in search of ruffed grouse and woodcock for my guiding clients. Therefore, I cannot devote the copious amount of time to the Fishing Blog it takes to give the kind of knowledgeable advice that our readers continue to visit this site for. In my stead, Tall Timber guests Jason Kauppi and Matt Sisk generously offered to dispense their recommendations and wisdom to our faithful readers during this final week of the fishing season. Enjoy …
It’s been a while since the last post, and I apologize for that. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Most of my time recently has been spent in the grouse woods of northern New Hampshire and Vermont, getting the dogs and myself tuned up for what should be a very good grouse season … that’s one excuse, and a very good one at that. The other is that water conditions have remained largely unchanged on the upper Connecticut River. In other words, the river is low and the fishing at times has been tough.
It’s more than three feet, Johnny Cash, and it might not yet be done rising. This is especially true at Lake Francis boat launch, where it is rare for the water level to be so high. The Connecticut Lakes are nearly totally full or overflowing, meaning that the river flows are correspondingly high below the lakes, and there’s still some snowmelt coming in from the northern part of town too. In other words, we’re not out of the woods yet.
We are now certainly on the road to spring here in northern New England, especially on the upper Connecticut River watershed in northern New Hampshire. Numerous flood advisories are in effect in all three northern New England states, and the current conditions have greatly limited the fishing opportunities as would be expected.