It’s Salmon Time …

I must confess … I don’t always listen to advice from my elder siblings, but in the case of fly fishing, trout and salmon, I listen to my sister Cindy. She was one of the first female fly fishing guides in New Hampshire back in the day, so her sage wisdom carries some weight.

Much like that E.F. Hutton commercial from so long ago, “when Cindy talks, people listen.”

When it comes to the timing of the annual spring salmon run, she states that it usually occurs around Mothers Day weekend, when the trout lilies are blooming and the trees are budding here in northern New Hampshire. The coincidence of these events usually occurs around the same time every spring, so in most years, we can predict with some certainty when the salmon run will occur.

Mothers Day weekend is nearly two weeks gone and we haven’t had too much to be excited about in regards to the salmon. A long winter and correspondingly cold spring seems to have delayed the arrival in mass of our local landlocks. In fact, there were grumblings that perhaps the salmon weren’t going to run at all … that this might be a spring without a salmon run. A worst case scenario for sure …

Well, we started noticing some trees budding around here this week (finally!) and Cindy saw her beloved trout lilies out and about as well, all good signs that we just might see a run of salmo salar after all. Well, it happened in the last few days, and they are in all of the usual places.

The water temperature at Magalloway Inlet is pretty good at 48 – 50 degrees and I saw a number of fish rising for BWO’s this morning. The flow is still good (296 CFS), but the lake level of First Connecticut Lake makes wading challenging – sharpen up on your roll casting. Nymphs are a solid method to use, but salmon were wantonly taking my Gray Soft Hackle Streamer this morning – there’s just nothing like that tug.

The salmon are also in at Lake Francis Inlet, but the water is colder here (43 degrees), as is usually the case at this time of year. Reports were that there were a few salmon coming up here today, but anglers should expect more action under the surface until the water warms a bit. Lake Francis is also high, so the best bet is to use watercraft of some kind to get at the fish.

The salmon are running, just two weeks later than we had grown accustomed to.