Connecticut River Fishing Update: 5/16

What the fish gods giveth, they also sometimes take away. Looks like the salmon run at Magalloway Inlet may be coming to a premature end, but the good news is that we have other fishable sections of the Connecticut River, and there’s some fish hitting too!

The salmon are still in at the Magalloway Inlet on First Connecticut Lake, but the river flow is coming down rapidly now with all of the great weather that we’ve had, so they might not be there much longer. We are supposed to have some rain moving in to the area this weekend, which could freshen things up a bit for the salmon and keep them around. Streamers in a variety of colors (gray, white, olive) were still working up there as of yesterday morning.

As of Sunday, the water temperature there was 50 degrees (it definitely came up some more on Monday, when we had temps in the 70’s), but the flow below Murphy Dam (currently at 517 CFS) at Lake Francis was a chilly 38 degrees yesterday. While a somewhat challenging flow for wading purposes, it’s a great rate of water for the resident trout down there. Simply put, they feel pretty comfortable under such conditions, and feel free to move around as they see fit. They can literally be hanging anywhere at that flow, and are not restricted to the deeper pools and runs when the flow is down at 300 CFS or so. We do expect the flow below Murphy Dam to keep coming down however.

The brown trout pictured above was one of two healthy specimens to find the bottom of my net, among several others that let me know that they were there. A White Soft Hackle Streamer was the fly of choice yesterday for me, but other colors surely work under the right conditions. With the water at this temperature, nymphs and streamers should be your best option of attack down there.

The flow has also been reduced to 175 CFS in the Trophy Stretch between First Connecticut Lake and Lake Francis, which is the sweet spot for wading and fishing purposes. It was really ripping in this section recently however, so the thought is that salmon and trout could be coming up from Lake Francis at this time.

There are trout and salmon in Lake Francis Inlet right now, so if you’re tackling the Trophy Stretch in the next few days, you might want to work your way up from the campground and hit the pools above it. Not sure what the water temp is in this section, but you’ll know it if your waders are leaky …

As far as stocking goes, there are rumors that the Trophy Stretch might be stocked by N.H. Fish & Game in the next couple of days, which would be a welcome sight for our fishermen this weekend. The Pittsburg Anglers Association stocking will take place on Sunday, May 20 (feel free to donate to the cause, if so inclined), so the Trophy Stretch should be locked and loaded next week.

This is the time we’ve been waiting for … get up here!