Upper Connecticut River Fishing Report: May 22

“603”, “506”, “810” … a collection of numbers that often represents area codes (especially 603), not usually river flows, but this has certainly been a different kind of spring, hasn’t it? The beat goes on up here in northern New Hampshire, and New England in general for that matter. Cool, windy and rainy weather at times has made it challenging for anglers so far.

It seems like we take a step forward and a couple of steps back this spring, as the river comes in to shape nicely and then a good jolt of rain sets us back again. That happened on Sunday night and Monday morning – we received at least 2″ of rain overnight and in to the morning, and it may have been closer to 3″.

The powers that be held river flows back a bit to prevent further flooding downstream for a day or so, but then had to increase flows to create some holding space in the lakes – the “chain effect” when we get inches of rain when things are already high. What does this mean for the fishing, especially if you’re coming to our area this weekend?

Nymph fishermen and streamer guys should be okay with these flows. The nymphers should plan on having their split shot handy and the streamer anglers should bring an assortment of sink tips of varying densities to deal with fast flowing water and changing conditions. The dry fly guys and gals may be out of luck however – it seems that very little surface activity has happened to this point in the season. A warm up would help this situation greatly.

That was the bad news … so it’s time for some good news. The Pittsburg Anglers Association conducted their annual trout stocking of the Trophy Stretch last Sunday, so there’s fish there for sure, it’s just hard to get to where they are at times. We’ve also heard news of N.H. Fish & Game stocking trucks in the area this week, so some other areas have gotten fish too.

The best news that I heard today is the rumor that there may be salmon at Magalloway Inlet at First Connecticut Lake … I certainly hope so, as this may have been a year without a salmon run if things continued the way they were going. We’ve had good reports from our guests fishing Back Lake and the outer brook trout ponds too, so they are viable options if the river proves to be too high.