The salmon are coming! The salmon are coming! Yes, my Revolutionary War / July 4th reference may be pitiful, but it is true, as there’s quite a few good landlocked salmon in the Trophy Stretch of the Upper Connecticut River right now.
This one was caught and released a couple of days ago by our guest Mickey Cunliffe – spending a few weeks home from China, where trout and salmon are very rare indeed.
We had a a rise in the river flows from the dams yesterday, and that led to quite a few of our guests having a good day on the river as well. Lots of healthy brookies were caught and released, and a big salmon too. Let’s hope the water keeps flowing strong!
I know … another fish in the net picture, but believe me, it was tough to manage a 2+ lb. Connecticut River brook trout in my net, my rod, my camera phone, and a cigar sticking out of my mouth all at the same time – this is the best I could do. This one (and the one before it) took a soft hackle hatching pupa trailing an olive woolybugger on a sinking leader on my switch rod.
Another class of fly fishing students graduated in to the world this weekend, thanks to the efforts of Angus, Alan and Dave. Everyone had a good time, studied hard, and some of them even landed a few trout, which, as we all know, is better on a fly rod!
Lots of water in the system right now, and that was the view from below First Lake Dam this morning – approximately 424 Cubic Feet per Second worth of H2O.
That’s the Inlet at Lake Francis, and there’s a lot of water in the inlet right now … cold water, like 40 degree water. This has made for some challenging trout and salmon fishing, and a slow start to our fishing season.