Hard to believe that we’re nearly in to August and that we’ve crossed the hump of the fishing season. Still, there are two and a half months of good fishing ahead and our weather over the next month or so may dictate what type of close we have to our season. While south of the notch has been extraordinarily wet in July, we have remained on the dry side in the north country – the Connecticut Lakes are low, and so is the river that flows out of them.
It’s difficult for some anglers to admit they need help when visiting a new area, or even advice on their fishing technique in general, but getting a qualified and professional fishing guide for a day or two can be money well spent.
That’s veteran TTL guest Richie Bernard on a drift down the Connecticut River with Chuck Degray of North Country Fly Shop & Guide Service yesterday. They had a good time, enjoying a beautiful day on the water and catching and releasing some fish too. Richie usually trolls lakes and ponds with flies, but he wanted to do something different yesterday and chose to cast flies on the river.
We all love catching trout, but we also need to be aware of how to release them, especially in this year of low, and sometimes warm, water. The state of Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife recently issued a release on how to help release those trout and salmon we catch in the warmer summer months.
Read on, fellow anglers …
Happy Independence Day everyone – we hope that you’re enjoying it with family or friends and thinking about all of the reasons that the U.S. is a special place to be. With the hexagenia hatch on Back Lake all but a memory now, you would think that the fishing on our lake is in the doldrums … not so!
It’s inevitable. The hex hatch begins … and then it ends.
We’re nearly two weeks (12 days now) in to the annual Hexagenia hatch at Back Lake, and the hatching activity unfortunately appears to be winding down. It’s about the right timeline, as the hex hatch is typically a two-week event, more or less. That’s only half the story, though, as it relates to the hex hatch. The trout and bass have still been active the last few evenings, taking the dwindling supply of hexes that are still available.
Our changing weather in Pittsburg over the last two days has led to changes for the hexagenia hatch on Back Lake as well. A cold front, trailing a string of storms a couple of days ago, has cooled the water’s surface of the lake the last two nights (down to the upper 40’s Tuesday night, and low 40’s last night), throwing a bit of a wrench in the plans of anglers that like to take advantage of the hex hatch.