Challenging fishing conditions yesterday – the wind was up and so was the water after two days of rain, but there were some fish working, when the conditions permitted. This weekend calls for good weather, so that should help the Connecticut River resume normal levels soon.

First things first, the water temps in various sections of the river are all around 45 degrees, a little chilly for the trout and salmon, and a far cry from the 50 degrees that the Magalloway Stretch was just five days ago. By the way, just a piece of advice: wear two pairs of socks under those waders, as my feet felt like frozen meat after a few hours of wading. Every now and then Mother Nature slaps me in the head for not planning ahead!

Magalloway Bridge on the Connecticut River, May 11
Where are all the anglers? Don't worry, they'll be there this week with the good flows and salmon participating.

The Magalloway Stretch had a fair amount of salmon, many of which were openly giving us the “fin”, taking emergers and dries. There were some BWOs of various sizes coming off sporadically, but most of the action for us and several others that hooked up was on nymphs. My successful combination was on a BH Prince trailed by a Jailbird, and Jon had much the same kind of setup going. If you go here, bring along BWOs in every stage, and keep some Hendricksons and CDC Caddis handy just in case. Streamers are still a good bet here as well.

At Lake Francis Inlet, the Trophy Stretch coming in to it was high and muddy (from Perry Stream), but things will probably clear out there by Saturday. Lake Francis is way up right now, so fishing here from a water craft of some kind is recommended. Using streamers and all of the patterns given above would probably work at the Inlet. The Trophy Stretch definitely has fish in it, but it is flowing at 250 CFS or so, so it’s challenging wading – fish the slack water on the edge of runs and pools where the fish are stacking up.

The Connecticut River south of Lake Francis is also flowing fast (600 CFS on Friday), but there’s still some opportunities. Use a lot of weight, and “go low and slow” to get down to where the fish are. That’s how I hooked the 3 + lb. brown in the picture (I know, another trout in the net photo!), but that was the only one that came to my offering (the SJ Worm). At least it was a good one …