Upper Connecticut River Fishing Report: 7/12

The fishing’s been pretty good and the weather has been fantastic lately here in northern New Hampshire – it seems that there’s been plenty of caddis, mayfly and stonefly hatches happening, and lots of hungry fish harassing them in turn …

Tall Timber Guide Mickey Cunliffe provided documentation of his day on the water with his clients today, and after a slow start they ended up having a good day on the Connecticut River. Sounded like a mixture of nymphs and dries did the trick, so perhaps how you like to fish is what will really determine how you catch your fish.

Still, delicate presentations are your best course of action, as they can be finicky at times. When they have the feed bag on however, which I witnessed a couple of evenings last week, even minor disturbances to the water (like my casting) don’t seem to have a tremendous impact on the feeding habits of our hungry trout.

Recommended Patterns:

Nymphs: BH Prince, BH Pheasant Tail, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, JQ Caddis, Red Copper John, Black Stone, Yellow Stone, Super Pupa, BH Z-Wing Caddis, TB Dirty Bird, Pat’s Rubber Legs.

Wets: Angus’s Red & Black, Pheasant Tail, UV Soft Hackle Glitter Olive, Hatching Pupa, Hatching Pupa Olive, Chuck’s BWO Swing Fly.

Dries: Klinkhammer, Elk Hair Caddis – take a variety of body colors with you!, UV Olive Caddis Pupa, X-Caddis, Picket Pin, Stimulator (Olive and Yellow), Yellow Crystal Stimi, Light Hendrickson.

As usual, if you’re a streamer guy, Soft Hackle Streamers in a variety of colors will always work, properly presented. The Olive Soft Hackle Streamer was a killer for me a few nights ago.

Flows remain stable below First Lake Dam and Murphy Dam at Lake Francis, but the flow was raised to 110 CFS below Second Lake Dam a few days ago. We’re not sure how long the flow in the No Kill Stretch will remain at this level however.

Take some time off from your busy schedule and get up here this summer – time’s a wastin’!