Bridge Blather from Guest Bloggers

Disclaimer: As some of you may know, I have been roaming the hillsides and alder runs of northern New Hampshire and Vermont lately in search of ruffed grouse and woodcock for my guiding clients. Therefore, I cannot devote the copious amount of time to the Fishing Blog it takes to give the kind of knowledgeable advice that our readers continue to visit this site for. In my stead, Tall Timber guests Jason Kauppi and Matt Sisk generously offered to dispense their recommendations and wisdom to our faithful readers during this final week of the fishing season. Enjoy …

By Jason Kauppi and Matthew R. Sisk 

Shotgun blasts cut the crisp autumn air, signaling the arrival of Cast-and-Blast. The short run of days when bird hunting overlaps the fishing season poses a Sophie’s choice for the true sportsman.  

Your faithful proprietor, Tom, is actually a licensed hunting guide and not a fishing guide as some may assume because he writes this blog. Busy walking dogs and clients through dense undergrowth in pursuit of the elusive woodland drummer and timberdoodles, Tom is unavailable to attend to his regular fish blog duties.    

With his cell phone lit up by us texting him fishing pics, the weary yet successful woodsman invited us to guest blog.  As longtime lodge guests and sometimes fishing companions with Tom, we obliged.   

Columbus Day Weekend and the end of the fishing season is fast approaching.  A last hurrah for 2021.  From an early October excursion, here are six tips we would offer if we met on the bridge: 

1. Order off-menu. Don’t expect the usual flies to work.  The go-to hares ear-pheasant tail nymph rig was off the menu. 
2. They want protein.  Yellow eggs for brookies and red squirmy worms for salmon.  They work until they don’t. Then get creative with your fly selection. 
3. Eat fish.  Twist buggers and similar cone-headed streamers fished deep tempted brookies and rainbows. The key is to get it down there. 
4. Expand your palette.  The fall colors are peaking, and you should take a hint.  Dig into the fly boxes for the colorful nymphs.  Show the educated salmonids something they did not see from the previous angler or from you for the last 20 minutes. 
5. Be patient. Like albies off Chappy, salmon can also be the fish of a thousand casts.  A flashy, green caddis pupa on a long leader charmed large salmon in deep pools. 
6. Fish riffles. The water remains low but is now cold. Rather than crashing through shallow riffles to fish deeper runs, Czech nymph the water at your feet first. Even colorful brookies in their full fall glory are well camouflaged and hold in inches of water, escaping the prying eyes behind the Costa lenses. 

We, too, eagerly await the return of Tom to his blogging duties. Nobody chomps a cigar, spey casts and dispenses fishing wisdom quite like him.

Many thanks to Matt (left) and Jason for their contribution!