Stuck

It’s been downright dreary lately in northern New Hampshire. Feels like that movie “Groundhog Day”, where Bill Murray wakes up unendingly each morning to relive events from the day before, and that’s how our weather has been: gray, rainy, sometimes cool or muggy, for what seems like days on end. In other words, it’s been good for fishing, but a change at some point would be nice …

The upper Connecticut River has continued to produce good days for anglers and guides of Tall Timber lately. While an assortment of nymph / emerger combinations have been very successful (check out the most recent Fishing Blog post), dries have also worked very well at times when the caddis, mayflies and stone flies are prevalent. Who doesn’t love a dry fly eat on top? Sulphur patterns, as well as Adams, Usual or Royal Wulff would be good options for mayflies.

Caddis? The patterns to employ are nearly endless. CDC Caddis, Elk Hair Caddis, X-Caddis, and Hot Mess Caddis have all been producing fish. There’s even been some anglers throwing out terrestrial patterns with success here and there, so needless to say, there’s excitement out there for the surface fishing enthusiasts.

As for Back Lake, we are still waiting anxiously for the start of the Hexagenia hatch, but there is nothing to report yet. As many of you know, hot and humid weather typically signals the hex nymphs in the muddy depths of the lake to start their journey toward the surface. The weather has been cool and rainy instead, so my belief is that the hex hatch may be a bit delayed this year. How much it is delayed will depend on our weather coming up in the next week or so.

Usually, our hatch of Brown Drake mayflies immediately precedes the hex hatch, and we have not seen any Brown Drakes yet. Instead, we have had a copious Brown Caddis hatch that’s been coming off, so imitating that might be your best bet to get top water action on the lake. Otherwise, trolling Hornbergs and the Golden Demon has paid off for some of our guests, while others are trolling with assorted hardware and having success.

Let’s hope for a change in the weather, and especially more summery temperatures soon to get the Hex hatch going!