Nice brookie, caught and released by our guest Jeff Molesso, under the expert guidance of TTL Fly Fishing Guide Mickey Cunliffe. Let’s be honest, that’s a nice fish, but take a look at his nephew’s fish (Lucas, below), and you be the judge …
The beat goes on up here in the northern reaches of the upper Connecticut River. We have entered the “sweet spot” of the fishing season, as the river flows are good, numerous caddis, mayfly and stonefly hatches are occurring, and the trout are present and active. Many thanks to TTL Fly Fishing Guide Mickey Cunliffe for his image above, a common sight for his clients so far this season.
The fishing season is well underway here in New Hampshire’s north country. Trout are being found in nearly every body of water at the moment, whether you’re fishing the big lakes, Back Lake, any of the outer brook trout ponds, the smaller streams, and of most importance to some of us, the Connecticut River. The options are literally endless right now, and Pittsburg has plenty of fishing opportunities, in case you’re visiting for a week or a weekend.
Smoking hot out there the last couple of days. Sweltering for someone like me that prefers the cool of spring and fall to the heat of summer, but summer is what it has felt like up here lately. We had 4″ of snow fall just a few weeks ago, so this has been quite amazing. While an excessive amount of vitamin D has been great, especially after winter, the high sun has affected the fishing a bit, as most of the fish are staying low in the water column.
Not too many earth shattering revelations coming in this post, dear readers. The river flows are exactly the same as they have been all summer long (180 CFS out of Murphy, 95 CFS out of First Lake Dam, and 49 CFS out of Second Lake Dam), the trout and salmon that are in the various stretches have literally “seen it all”, and today it was pretty warm in the north country, but probably not nearly as warm as where you are …
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.