Upper Connecticut River Fishing Report: 7/13

He’s at it again – Chuck DeGray of North Country Fly Shop brought in some of those big browns again, as he had what he described of one of his best nights of dry fly fishing in recent memory. He caught several nice browns like this one last night, and they all prowl the depths of the Connecticut River once more.

Now, actually getting the all important information of what fly he used is another matter entirely – sounds like it was small (18 or 20) and a caddis of some sort. Whatever it was, it was working well and he said that there was good rising activity for most of the evening.

The Trophy Stretch continues to fish very well – there’s lots of fish there in all of the likely spots. The flow remains the same (150 CFS), so any change would probably be good for the trout and anglers.

They’ve seen it all, but carefully presented nymphs should do the trick. The best set up right now is a heavily weighted beadhead nymph (Prince, PT, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Copper John) followed by a smaller caddis pupa or soft hackle wet fly.

The good thing is that there are many droppers to choose from, so if one isn’t working, switch it up. It also appears that olive or green on that dropper is working well at the moment – they just seem to be gravitating toward green flies.

On Back Lake, the worm has turned … it appears as though the hex hatch has officially come to an end, but there’s still trout coming up in the evening, taking real small stuff.

Cindy recommends the Morris May Emerger, Gray CDC Caddis and Drymerger Baetis (all size 18) for Back Lake right now. The only bad part is that you have to take off the 2X or 3X leader that you were using for the hex hatch and put on a 5X or 6X leader now.

Bummer!