I could get used to having springs like this in the north country. It has been magnificent weather in general in the northeast, but it seems especially refreshing this year. We’ve probably had it coming after what we’ve had to deal with over the last year, and “spring” can be a very fickle mistress in northern New England – lots of sun and warmth one day, and snow the next …
Yesterday was our annual “Guides Drift”, where five guides and myself fish together, tell jokes that everyone has heard before, and razz each other about our casting abilities (or lack thereof, in my case). Since the pike drift was such a big hit last year, we decided to do it again, on one of our hottest days of the summer …
I promised a picture of Jon’s healthy esox specimen and here it is … enjoy and keep your hands clear!
It’s an excursion that we’ve been doing for maybe five years now.
A celebration of another fishing season under their belts (I’m the only one in the party that doesn’t guide for fishing, preferring the woods in the fall for guiding hunters for upland birds) and another guiding season that is only six weeks away from ending. They’re slightly weary from the trials and tribulations of another season of guiding, and it’s apparent. Weather worn hats and sunburnt faces give it away – the toils of manning the oars of a drift boat day after day, providing clients with good fishing and a great experience in general has taken their toll.
A couple of the guides accompany wading fishermen and women on the river too – you can tell they are perfectly happy to be riding along in a drift boat today, relieved at not having to stumble around the Trophy Stretch with clients in tow for another day.
Yes, it’s that time of the year again … while the trout and salmon fishing seasons in New Hampshire have long been closed down now, the season for northern pike (esox lucius) never ends, so a few of us have been getting out there lately to pursue the toothy predator.
That’s Nik holding an impressive 37″ Connecticut River pike – the behemoth was turned loose to roam the depths again.
That’s Chuck DeGray of North Country Fly Shop, anxiously waiting for a northern pike to gulp down his orange and white offering (that’s the “Creamsicle”, in case you’re wondering). The problem today was that there was still ice in some places along the Connecticut River’s edges – no pike for either of us today …