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