Connecticut River Fishing Report: April 5

Been plying the Connecticut River in Pittsburg, NH  fishing when the weather permits lately, with little to show for our efforts.  Air temps have been cold, and the water’s even colder – we think the trout are sleeping and simply don’t want to come out of bed until the water’s warmer and there’s more of it.

The water temperature as of earlier this week was 36 degrees – not much difference at all from where it was two months ago. To make matters worse, the weather has been so cold lately (12 degrees as I write this, with very healthy gusts breeze) that the snow really hasn’t melted too much, so there’s no runoff happening.  This keeps the lakes from filling with all of that snow melt, which, you guessed it, keeps the river pretty low too.

The Connecticut below Murphy Dam is currently 183 CFS (normal flow here is usually 300 – 400 CFS), and has been this flow for nearly two months. The trout need a change, pure and simple, to more and warmer water. This week I glimpsed a bald eagle, a large hawk of some kind, and … an otter in one of my favorite pools – none of these are good omens for my beloved trout, but I guess all of these predators have to eat too. The trout are hiding right now, and who can blame them?

To give you an idea of the kind of weather we’ve had in Pittsburg this winter (and early spring), someone cut a hole in the ice on Back Lake this week to check the depth – 26 inches, and we probably made ice a few nights this week! The ice went out on April 13 last year … I’m guessing we’re looking at early May this year.

However, all of this dreary news bodes well for the salmon run this May – we should have a good amount of water by that time, which didn’t really happen last year as a result from the early run off in March.

Keep watching the weather –  a “warm up” is supposedly on the way next week, but at this point I’ll have to see it to believe it.