October report: Pike and Trout are eating good!

With it being the last day of the regular trout season, we want to remind everyone that we still have some great float trip options. The Androscoggin River in Gorham is open to trout fishing year round and fishes well into November. The pike fishing on the Connecticut River and surrounding lakes and ponds is an adrenaline rush like nothing else we have found in fresh water! The Pike fishing typically gets better in late October and November and fishes well right up until waters freeze. The trout fishing is usually good into November as well, with warmer days being most productive the later into the fall we get.

The nymph bite really turned on for Susan on this October afternoon!

Androscoggin: late season bite is on!

Over the last 6 days cooler weather has dropped water temps from the lower sixties to the mid 50's on the andro. This means we are finally seeing good BWO hatches in the afternoons which mean the best dry fly opportunities of the fall. Look for calmer days above 50 to produce the best dry fly opportunities, especially in the slower pools. With the colder water we have also seen good streamer bites. Kreelix, yellow zoo cougars, black, olive and brown buggers and mini sex dungeons have all produced over the past week. If you get tired of throwing streamers, nymphing is still producing as well. We've been catching fish on pink worms, bwo nymphs, Joe Goodspeeds ESP caddis, large prince nymphs size 12-8 and tan and olive mop flies. We haven't needed to break out the egg patterns just yet but those should be on the menu as well. Flows are at 1030 cfs in errol and are scheduled to remain that way through at least Oct 23rd. Rain next week bodes well to keep flows at a great level for fall fishing!

Charlie with one of many fine wild ranbows he caught with us over 3 days of early October fishing!

Rob with his new PB brown trout at 24.5” caught with us this fall!

Pike Fishing:

We got out yesterday for a good scouting mission for Pike. Kevin and I both missed a couple of takes early on and I was just getting the rust off when I saw an absolute unit of a pike stalking my fly to the boat. The fish swam back to his log jam before I could entice him to eat but our good friend Alex Poland was kind enough to back the boat up a bit to give me another Crack. On the next cast I let the fly stall and fall into the depths. As I made slow dying strips with long pauses The fly instantly vanished into a dark submarine. With continuous hard strips I lifted into a freight train that bent my 11 weight to the cork. Finally I brought the fish thrashing to the surface and Alex made a decisive scoop with the net. We taped this one at 34.5” and very fat. Not a bad way to start the fall pike hunting season!

This fish nearly knocked my hat off!

With cooling waters we expect to see good bite windows for Pike mid morning through dusk. Cloudy and calm low pressure days typically result in the longest bite windows but the big one can hit at any moment. We did well yesterday on orange and white bucktail hollow style double decievers, and goodspeed good head flies. As well as somr jig style flies in yellow/ chartreuse and yellow and black. It's always a good idea to rotate colors and styles but once tou find what they like I prefer to stick with what I have confidence in as long as lighting and water conditions remain equal. With water levels low this year we are able to see structure much better and can get our flies in front of more fish in the shallower water that we have right now.

What's to come?

The long range forecast looks great for October fishing with highs in the 50s to low 60's most days and some rains and clouds mixed in. We find that fish respond well to a mix of sun and clouds this time of the year. With the sun activating their metabolism and the clouds giving them some cover to hunt under. We've seen good results in both clouds and sun with both pike and trout this time of the year. Wind can make things tricky at times but it can also push bait to hungry trout and pike so take out those streamer rods when the wind picks up! Water temps should remain favorable for good trout and pike fishing into at least mid-November. We have dates available so let us know if you want to get out before the water freezes!

Tight Lines,

Nate

September Report: Cooling waters mean float trip time!

We had a fun summer of chasing trout on our smaller streams with dry flies! Over the past week we have seen water temps drop over 10 degrees on our larger rivers. This means float fishing on the Andro and Connecticut rivers has been very productive as of late! While many of our rivers are very low as of this writing the Androscoggin river is running at 1000cfs in Errol and 1200 cfs in Gorham. These are ideal flows for chasing trout and salmon as they key in on fall hatches that have been firing with the cooler water temps!

Small Streams:

Wild Brook trout from a recent small stream trip.

Flows are low and fish are spooky but willing to take a well presented dry fly. We are still seeing some black caddis and small grey stoneflies on most days with October Caddis and flying ants working as well. Small attractors like the Royal PMX are also still getting interest. Fishing has been best in steeper sections of these streams where pools are deeper, flows are faster and fish are less spooky. It’s been amazing to see how spooky the fish are in some of the slower runs. I’ve had fish spook with one wave of the fly rod or even when stripping out line to get ready to cast. Even if the fish do spook the may still eat a well presented fly so it is important not to loose all hope when you see the trout darting around. In these slower pools if you can get one fish out of the dozens that spook you should consider it a success. Fortunately the faster heads of pools offer less spooky targets that more willingly eat dry flies. We’ve done best fishing from the bottom up and targeting the heads of pools with accurate casts to the best water to intercept the most aggressive and usually largest trout first.

Ellis River:

With the low flows your best bet on the Ellis is to hit the bigger pools early or late in the day or cover a lot of water with a size 12-14 Orange Stimulator, small grey Elk Hair Caddis or small jig style parr pattern. The fish will be spread out in the lower river and you will do better to cover water as the brook trout will be moving around a lot over the next few weeks as water temps cool and they begin to move towards spawning locations.

Saco River:

The Saco has been tough lately with low flows and fish spread out in the bigger pools. We recommend covering a lot of water or focusing on sight fishing to cruising fish in the evenings. Midges and BWO’s can be the ticket to warry trout on the Saco this time of the year. A good rainstorm would be the ticket to wake up some of the larger Saco browns before the season closes Oct 15th.

Androscoggin River:

The Androscoggin River is fishing very well right now, probably better than any other water in the state as of this writing. With flows at 1000cfs it has more water than any other river in the state at the moment. The Andro fishes very well at these low average flows. Water temps in Errol were at 64 F on sunday and should remain in the trouts comfort zone through the fall. We are seeing a good amount of Rhyacophila caddis, smaller tan caddis and black caddis hatching in the mornings with Isonychia mayflies comming off from 2 to 5pm. At dusk expect to see Isonychia spinner falls as well as October Caddis and Golden Stoneflies popping off. Most of our success as of late has been nymphing with prince nymphs( size 14-8), golden stonefly nymphs (size 8), Purple pheasant tail nymphs (size 14-10), and Thompsons Double Bead nymph (a large olive caddis larva). We have been catching a good mix of wild and stocked bows along with a few browns and landlocked salmon in the mix. We haven’t seen many brook trout yet but expect to see more as waters continue to cool and they migrate back from the tribs.

Double from a recent float trip on the Androscoggin River.

Connecticut River (Float Sections):

The Connecticut has been very low for the last month but is fishing well in the faster and deeper runs. We have used the strategy of covering lots of water but only fishing the best looking water while moving quickly through less fishy slow sections. Water temps are generally in the low 50’s to mid 60’s from Indian Stream down to Lemmington. From Lemmington south water temps are highly variable depending on time of day and air temps. This stretch, from Lemmington to North Stratford is too low to float at the moment and will need a few inches of rain to become a float option this fall. We’ve done well with both nymphs and dries on the Connecticut depending on the day. A size 16 olive perdigon nymph off of a light bobber rig on 6X has done well as have size 16 and 14 frenchy style pheasant tails. Bwo’s continue to hatch sporadically throughout the day and the fish are often feeding on either the nymphs or dries. Small tan and black caddis have also been in the mix and a size 16-18 tan caddis pupae off a tag has been very effective. We’ve also done well on warmer days with Ants, and hoppers although those bites have been less consistent.

Mike with Grandson Cory and a healthy wild Connecticut River Rainbow caught on a recent float trip!

Looking Forward:

Fall is in the air and we anticipate solid float fishing from here through October. If water stays low the Andro will remain the best option going forward with plenty of fish looking to fatten up for winter. We exepect the nymph bite to remain strong into late September with dry fly opportunities increasing by mid-September and streamer fishing turning on as water temps fall. If we do get some rain expect more options to open up on more sections of the Connecticut and Saco. We have dates available through most of September with a couple dates left from early to mid October so let us know asap if you want to get out this fall! The time is now!

Tight Lines,

Nate

Early July Report

It was a busy spring here in the Whites. We had a ton of successfull float trips on the Androscoggin and Connecticut Rivers in May and June. This has been our best year for trout landed over 20”. We’ve had over 30 20”+ fish hit the net this season so far with many days of multiple fish over 22” and a few at 24”, of both browns and rainbows. We attribute the number of big fish to the high water of this spring and the past few years. The more water in our rivers the more food the fish have to eat, and the more habitat they have to grow and hide from predators. Now that water levels are down to average flows we can still get these fish when temps and flows are conducive.

Browns like this 21” male were very common this May and June!

Connecticut River:

In general the Connecticut has had water temps in the 50’s and 60’s on most trout sections with some sections going above 70 degrees but only on the hottest days. We’ve had some great fishing lately when flows have bumped from recent thunderstorms. Fish will take advantage of higher flows and colder water temps whenever they can this time of the year. We see some of our most productive fishing for both numbers and size of trout when we get cold summer rains. Recently we’ve done well with “creature” style mop flies in tan and brown, goodspeed’s Evolved Sparkle Pupae, size 12-18 pheasant tail nymphs, tan and peacock cdc X caddis, tan foam back CDC caddis emergers. Expect BWO’s and Pale duns to also be important in the comming weeks. The terrestrail bite hasn’t turned on that much yet but hopper season is right around the corner!

It was hard to beat the brown trout fishing of this past spring! Client Matt with one of two fish over 22” he landed in early June!

One of many fine wild rainbows we saw on the Androcoggin River this June.

Androscoggin River:

The Androscoggin River is currently too warm to target trout with water temps running consistently over 70 degrees. Head up tributaries if you want to find suitable trout water. It will take a few days of air temps in the 40’s to 60’s to get andro temps down enough.

Saco River:

Saco river water temps have been in the low 60’s to upper sixties for most days. On days over 85 degrees be sure to temp the river as you fish and avoid fishing when water temps exceed 70 degrees. This is usually after 1pm on most hot days so you still have a good window of fishing early in the day. Look for midges and BWO’s as we get into summer flows. Some evenings may still produce gray drake hatches although those will be winding down. On cooler days yellow sallies, grey and black caddis can be important with streamers still the ticket any time we get high water from thunderstorms. Expect ants, beetles and hoppers to become more and more important as we move into the middle of July. I like fishing a size 8 hopper as a searching pattern and if I find fish that get too smart to eat the bigger fly I’ll switch to a smaller ant, beetle or bwo pattern to dial in the picky fish.

Mountain streams:

Mountain streams have been fishing very well as of late. We’ve seen a good amount of caddis activity on most streams with a good mix of wild and stocked trout around on the more productive stretches of water. We have noticed that some streams have changed a lot over the past few seasons of high water events. It is a good idea to cover a lot of water if you aren’t finding fish as habitat has changed and places where you might have found fish in seasons past could be devoid due to changes in habitat. We’ve found that if you keep moving you will find new pools and runs that hold fish better now than in seasons past. We’ve been doing well with mostly dry flies as of late with tan and black caddis working best in the bigger slower pools and royal PMX dries taking fish out of the faster runs. Ants and hoppers have also been working .

A brown trout from the lower Androscoggin River caught during high flows this spring!

Looking Ahead:

It’s looking like this heat wave is taken over by a cold front starting tomorrow with waves of low pressure in the mix leading into nexts weeekend. It should be a good time to keep an eye on the hydrograph and chase water bumps that will have fish in a feeding fenzy wherever and whenever they occur. We have this coming friday and saturday (July 11th and 12th) open, if anyone want to get in on the action, give us a shout! As summer progresses we just have to keep hoping for a little rain here and there to keep the fish excited. Small streams and the connecticut river will likely offer the most reliable fishing through the dog days of summer. We have dates available from July through October so please let us know if you would like to get on our calendar!

Tight Lines,

Nate

May is big fish month!

Hi all, we are back from the warm state of Florida and have already had a great week of guiding since we returned! Rivers are running at average to high flows for this time of the year with water temps running from the mid 40’s to low 50’s on most days. Fishing has been good to great on the Saco and Connecticut rivers while the Andro is high and tough to fish at the moment. On all rivers we have mostly been seeing browns as the rainbows are in spawn mode and water temps haven’t warmed up enough for brookies to get active. Looking forward we should start seeing a good number of Landlocked Atlantic Salmon, and Wild brookies in the Upper Andro as soon as the river drops to fishable flows. We will also be seeing more wild and holdover rainbows in the mix as they should be done spawning within a week or so.

Saco

The Saco has been fishing better than we have seen in a few years. As the Saco has a low density mostly wild browns, we are happy to have landed browns on all of our Saco floats so far this season. On our better days we have been landing four and seeing six or seven. We have found the streamer bite is best when flows are on the drop without too much rain water flushing an abundance of food into the water. On days with lots of rain water finding the right water to fish slower and deeper with squirmy worms, mops, and jig style streamers is the ticket.

Client Chris Johnson caught this beautiful wild brown on the Saco. His first wild brown on this River!

Andro

The Andro is currently running at 6k cfs out of Errol and up to 8k cfs in Gorham. Once flows drop below 3k in Errol fishing will improve dramatically. If you do fish the Andro hunt the slow edges of pools and slower sections of the river with large nymphs like mops, squirmy worms and stoneflies.Throwing streamers like olive buggers, circus peanuts, and the like should also produce.

Connecticut

The Connecticut was running from 2k to 4k this weekend from Colebrook south. These were ideal flows for throwing olive, yellow, tan and white, circus peanuts and sex dungeons and drunk and disorderly streamers. Nymph fishing with large food items like mops, jig style baitfish, and crayfish was also very effective. Flows went up Sunday night but have already been dropping in the upper river the river may bump again with tonights rain but should moderate again by this coming weekend. As long as you can find water with at least a couple feet of clarity you should be able to find some fish. We prefer throwing brighter streamers like a gold and copper Kreelix to find fish in the dirtier flows. We have been very impressed with the size quality of browns on the Connecticut so far this season. Many of the browns we saw over the past few days were over 17” with a few in the 22-24” class. The meat bite will continue until water temps consistently stay in the mid-fifties and caddis and mayfly hatches begin to distract fish to those food items. This should happen around the third week of May this year and will result in some of the best dry fly fishing of the season for large trout.

A healthy holdover brown caught by client Matt Mitchell this past Saturday.

Client Chris Chrisifides with his second biggest brown of the day.

Client Christian Mitchell had one heck of a first day fly fishing! He landed many browns including two at 22”!

Client Chris Chrisifides landed this 24” brown with a 14” girth. The biggest trout of our season so far!

Small Streams:

With the fishing so good on our larger rivers we have not been out on our smaller streams yet this spring. That being said, this recent rain should have wild brook trout moving from their winter holding water to their prime time feeding lies. If you decide to explore small water here in the whites look for deeper slow pools where these fish will spend more time as they move up the streams. Be prepared to cover a lot of water fishing a dace or baby trout pattern to get any trout around to move to a sizeable meal.

In Summary and availability:

May is a dynamic month on our rivers changing flows and water temps will have fish feeding heavily at times and so stuffed at other times that you will have to grind to get them to eat. As long as you stay patient and have confidence that the fish are there the rewards can be worth any slow hours you encounter! As the month progresses the fish will shift their feeding habits more to bugs and start feeding higher in the water column. We love the month of May for the big fish we find and the variety of ways in which we catch them. As of this writing Nate has May 12, 13, 22 open, and Kevin is wide open until May 18th, with some dates available through June as well. Please let us know asap if you want to get out this May or June and we will do our best to get you on the calendar!

Tight Lines,

Nate