Scintillating Saturday Scenery

“The Tug is the Drug”.

That’s the saying we’ve all heard in regards to fly fishing, but it is especially true for us that prefer to streamer fish. It really doesn’t matter how the tug is achieved, whether the fly is dead drifted, subtly manipulated in the water currents, or sporadically stripped … as long as a fish finds your offering appealing.

This angler was across the river from me on Saturday afternoon and was delighted to feel the tug from what turned out to be a nice lake trout. It was good that day while I was there – a number of salmon and a strong laker found the bottom of my net, but fishing during the salmon run can be a fickle thing.

One moment it’s hot … the next moment, it’s not. Persistence pays off, too. Quite a few anglers came and went the other day, quickly moving on after not having much action. Changing flies and sometimes even giving the water a rest can be the difference for us anglers.

The bigger story in northern New Hampshire is the amount of water we have in the lakes (they’re full to the brim) and the corresponding river flows out of the lakes. The flows remained stable this weekend out of each of the dams. Second Lake was 306 CFS, First Lake was 415 CFS, and Murphy Dam was 810 CFS.

The flow out of Second Lake Dam is pretty much perfect for the salmon and lakers running upstream in search of smelt – it should stay that way for a few more days, perhaps longer. The flow at First Lake Dam is high for most anglers, as the Trophy Stretch tends to fish best in the 175 – 225 CFS range. It’s still possible to fish it at this high flow – just pick your spots carefully.

The flow out of Murphy Dam is high, but fishable in spots – be especially careful in this section as the water here is very swift and cold.

In regards to the weather, we badly need a dry stretch in order to get the flows down. Saturday night’s weather didn’t help, as we got .75″ of rain overnight, and the forecast looks a bit dire midweek up here. The better news is that as long as we get rain it should keep the salmon run going on the Magalloway stretch.