Last Gasp?

What do you do if you’re an angler, the season on your home water is done, but you still have the urge to go fishing when nice weather hits? There’s a few options, and fishing doesn’t have to be over yet!

If you have a neighboring state with a fishing season that isn’t closed, you could go over there (Vermont, trout season has been changed from being open until October 31 to year-round). If there’s still water with special regulations in your state that is currently open, you could fish there (the Androscoggin River in NH, which has a couple of different catch and release sections that remain open). Or you could target another species where the trout and salmon season is closed (i.e. northern pike in New Hampshire or Vermont).

The recent spate of beautiful weather that we just had here over the last few days (and for a couple more to come) has drawn some of us back to the water to get in a few more casts, and take advantage of the scenarios above. A friend and I enjoyed a truly spectacular weather day on a local Vermont river recently, and while the fishing wasn’t “hot”, we did land a couple of colored-up rainbows in a beautiful setting.

Venturing over to the Androscoggin River in Gorham, NH this morning, I was able to cast my switch rod again on big water (much “bigger” than I wanted as a matter of fact – 3000 + CFS, which is quite a bit above what we wade anglers like), and though I only felt the tug from one fish, it was all good nonetheless. These trips to other, unfamiliar waters fuel the desire for more exploration, so there will likely be future adventures as well.

This is also the time of year to pursue northern pike, and a trip or two will probably be undertaken at some point in the next couple of weeks to go after the toothy critters. Then of course there’s the annual pilgrimage to the Salmon River in New York for a few days of steelhead angling that will probably happen in a month or so. In other words, there’s still more fishing to do between now and January 1.