Water, Water, Everywhere

We are now certainly on the road to spring here in northern New England, especially on the upper Connecticut River watershed in northern New Hampshire. Numerous flood advisories are in effect in all three northern New England states, and the current conditions have greatly limited the fishing opportunities as would be expected.

To give you a little perspective on what’s happening at the moment, the current river flow below the Connecticut River / Indian Stream confluence is at 4,250 CFS (that’s a slight drop from what it was at last night), and the current flow out of Murphy Dam at Lake Francis is merely 230 CFS, meaning that little Indian Stream is responsible for over 4,000 CFS. Not only is that a whole lot of water, but it also shattered the record for that gauge on this date – the previous high was 2,840 CFS in 2002. To give another reference point on this amount of water, the average flow on a summer day at this gauge is anywhere from 350 – 550 CFS …

It’s the same all the way down the Connecticut River valley. In North Stratford, the river flow gauge reads 22,700 CFS. There’s quite a few major tributaries from Indian Stream to North Stratford NH, so a rise in the gauge number isn’t surprising, but it is when taking in to account the historical high of 14,400 CFS in 1950. A crazy amount of water to be sure, and the gauge looks like it’s trending upward as well …

We can thank Mother Nature for this perfect storm of flooding conditions. We had 229″ of snow this year in Pittsburg (that’s above our average of about 180″ a winter), and with a colder than normal March, much of it seems to have been melting in just the last two weeks. Still, we’re not close to done, as reports were that even this week there was still considerable snowpack in Pittsburg’s highlands.

As far as the fishing goes, about the only place to wet a line on the Connecticut River right now is below Murphy Dam at Lake Francis to the confluence with Indian Stream. While 230 CFS sounds like a decent flow to fish in, the water clarity was pretty cloudy when I fished down there a few days ago – all of the runoff coming in to Lake Francis from its tributaries has stirred things up considerably.

So what does an anxious angler do when they just have to scratch the itch of the fishing bug but the conditions might not allow it? This is the time when most of us that live up here take trips to other places to fish, whether it be out west, down to Florida, or even just to southern New England where the water isn’t at flood stage. The Farmington River in Connecticut was my refuge a couple of weeks ago and the fishing was superb – I got my “fix” for sure. My advice? Go somewhere …

What does this all mean for the much anticipated spring salmon run? I’ll rely on Cindy Howe’s advice. No matter what year and whether the melt is happening early or late, plan on Mother’s Day weekend as the time to chase salmon. The spring run is all about feeding for the salmon, as they chase their top food source (rainbow smelt) up tributaries. As long as the smelt are “in”, so too will be the salmon. How long the smelt are running is often determined by water temperature and river flow, so the best salmon runs are when we have cooler temperatures that delay the melting of the snowpack. Of course, well timed rains and dam releases can also help prolong the salmon run.

Let’s hope for that this year …