2019 Wrap Up, Winter Trips and Gift Certificates

2019 Wrap Up

This was another season for the record books with more fish over 20” landed in 2019 than any prior year. W are very excited to be able to provide world class fly fishing here in New Hampshire and we look forward to another epic year in 2020. We want to thank all of you who spent your hard earned money to fish with us this year. It is truly an honor to be able to share the river with so many great people. We are blessed to have the river as our office and we have our loyal customers to thank for making this possible. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Winter Trips!

That being said we are now offering winter fly fishing trips in 2020. These trips are for anglers looking to target trophy sized trout and will run on weekends and some weekdays weather dependent. Please give us a shout if you would like to book one of these trips. We have figured out when, where and how to catch these fish and we are confident that we can get you on these fish in the right conditions. If you book one of these trips we will plan to fish as long as air temps are reasonable and water flows are conducive to catching fish. We will only take payment once trips run! We want to ensure that if we go out you are going to get good chances at large trout.

Gift Certificates: Pre-Christmas offer and Cyber Monday/ Tuesday Bonus Deal!

Right now we are offering a free HCG hat with the purchase of a gift certificate or booking for 2020. This offer will go until Christmas Eve or while supplies lasts. As a cyber monday bonus get 10% off the purchase price of any gift certificate or booking. This bonus offer will be good through Tuesday December 3rd ! Give the gift of experience this holiday season! Please shoot us an email or give us a call to take advantage of this offer! nate@whitemountainflyfishing.com or 603-835-3358.

Here are some pics from this past season! Looking forward to seeing more of these soon!

HCG Guide Kevin Gordon with a fine specimen

Yours truly with a nice one…I do get to fish once in a while!

Jordan Hill with a thick fish.

Kevin with a two footer.

Kevin with another pristine specimen

Kevin fought this guy for nearly ten minutes!

Late October Report (it's all about the flow)

We have had a great fall of guiding so far and the fishing continues to remain consistent. We floated the Andro yesterday and saw fish on nymphs, streamers and dries. While the upper river in Errol is closed we are still doing well on the lower river from Berlin to Maine as well as the stretch below bog brook in Cambridge.

Flows have been up and down on our open waters this fall and we have kept a close eye on flows in order to ensure our guests productive days on the water. Time has taught us when it is and isn’t worth fishing different flows and we have been consistent in keeping our clients rods bent by carefully selecting when and where we fish.

While we often think of the fall as a great time to streamer fish, and also associate good streamer fishing with higher water, this is not always the case in Autumn. Bumps in flow while often good at stirring up minnows, can, in the fall, increase the amount of debris in the water which shuts fish off and makes presenting streamers very difficult, couple high water with high winds and it can get even tougher. Along with debrise in the water, Austumn rains often come with cold fronts that drop water temps and consequently, fish’s metabolisms. This is not to say that one cannot catch big fish when waters are high and chocked with debris, but your chances will be higher if flows are more moderate and water temps are on the rise vs fall.

Our Client Jay Shields landed this nice male on a large streamer during a period of low flow with good cloud cover.

Of course with all things in fly fishing there are exceptions to these “rules”. A warm rain with good cloud cover after the leaves have fallen can be an excellent time to hunt big fish, especially in water that has definned eddies and inside seems that form during high flow. Fall is the best time of the year to focus on softer water, especially when flows are up. Another exception in regards to bumps in flow is when they are associated with tailwater dams. Because this water is often coming from a deeper reservior, higher flows do not as often cause increased debris in the river. With this, small bumps in flow can be just enough to trigger a bio drift of bugs, especially when the bump coincides with nymph movements during times of temperature change. Typically the larger bumps in flow are tougher to fish as they spread fish out making them simply harder to find.

Another exception to high water being bad for fall fishing is on migratory fish waters. Lake and ocean spawning runs often coenside with bumps in water flow. Here in NH, lake run Landlocked salmon begin their spawning runs into lake tributaries during spikes in flow. These fish are often followed by rainbow trout who seak to feed on the salmons eggs. Here in NH a few waters remain open and allow a good oportunity to hunt for large lake fish in riverine environments. Right now these fish are starting to move as recent rains have finally raised waters enough to trigger their migratory urges.

A female salmon caught by the Author that just entered an area lake tributary.

In the long run, time on a given water will teach you which flows are ideal for different styles of fishing, at different times of the year.

Autumn is one of our favorite times of the year to fish. Anglers are few, bite windows tend to fall in the middle of the day, and the fish are as pritty as the leaves. We still have dates open if you are looking to get your lines tight before the snow falls.

Tight lines,

Nate

October= Big Trout

Well we had September for the record books as to very high numbers of fish landed on our floats. We had many days with multiple doubles to the net and 40 even 60 fish days were the norm. Now that October is here we are still getting high numbers of fish but we have also been getting into bigger trout. With water temps in the 50’s on almost all of our waters and rain bumping flows the larger browns and rainbows have awaken and our trophy trout trips are in full gear!

We have spent years honing our trout hunting skills in order to get to a point where we feel confident in guiding over larger predatory trout. Last year was a breakthrough year in the learning process and this year we have been able to put that knowledge into our guiding. We are fortunate to guide some fishy people who are able to make it happen when the strikes come and we are thankful for the large trout our guests have been able to land this season.

The extended forecast looks promissing for good bite windows through October and into November. If you are interested in catching the trout of a lifetime now is the time to book your Fall trip. We have dates available for the rest of October and November.

Here is what we are seeing on our local waters right now.

Andro:

The epic Isonychia hatches are still coming off on warmer days and BWO’s have begun on our cooler days. We had rising fish yesterday but they were tough and we did better with nymphs. Fish have transitioned form the fastest water to mid depth and mid speed riffles. Streamers are beginning to become more important as well.

Saco:

The Saco is getting a good bump of rain as I write this report. This means now is the time to throw big flies for big fish. If you are going to try this on foot a type five sink tip works great along with a 6 or 7wt high quality rod like the Helios 3D. From the boat we prefer full sink streamer lines like the Orvis Depth charge or Airflo streamer max. I like bright flies in brown trout colors this time of the year. A drunk and disorderly in orange, tan and yellow is hard to beat. Look up Mike Schmidt at www.anglerschoiceflies.com if you are looking to get your hands on some high quality brown trout streamers. I’ve been using his flies for years now and they move in the water just the right way to trigger the predatory instincts of alpha trout.

Mountain Streams:

Now is not the time to fish mountain streams. Most the brook trout are lock jaw due to their focus on spowning or their post spawn funk. Look to bigger water where fish migrate to winter over.

Wild Brook Trout Waters:

Our wild brook trout waters are still fishing well bright colored baby brook trout streamers are working well on these waters right now. I tie a modified woods special streamer that seems to always get these fish’s attention. This fishing will hopefully be good until their season closes on October 15th.

So While the regular trout season ends on October 15th here in NH we still have open water with good fishing opportunities available through November. Please let us know if you are interested in pursuing these late season opportunities. Here is some of what we have been catching lately.

Rob Wolfchuck with an absolute beast.

Dave Warlick with the biggest rainbow of his life…24” and very fat.

Charlie Houghton with the biggest brown of his life…another 2 foot trout.

Tight lines,

Nate

September Report... Fall is here!

As I write this the leaves are turning from green to gold. The fish in our waters are in their prime fall feeding rhythms at the moment. With the last few weeks of cooler weather our fall hatches are well underway. The andro is seeing good Isonychia mayfly hatches and Rhyacophila caddis hatches almost every day. We have already seen the bite window shift from early mornings to late morning into the early afternoon. For all of you who like to catch fish but hate getting up early or staying out late now is your time to shine! Best bites this time of the year are 9am to 5pm….yes bankers hours.

Andro:

We have seen some very high numbers of fish on the upper Andro this fall. Larger fish have been harder to find simply because there are soooo many fish. But we have been able to find a few good fish on most days. The lower river from Berlin to Maine has produced good fishing as well with slightly lower numbers but good chances at larger fish in the 14-18” class. We enjoy the challenge of this water and we know it well enough to stay consistently successful.

Saco:

The Saco has seen some good flying ant hatches as of late but with the cooling weather look to fish midges, bwo’s or bigger streamers when the water bumps up. Nymphing can also be successful with larger stones and mopflies when the water bumps. We have seen some larger browns this time of they year when flows bump so keep an eye on the forecast. I got out last week after a rain and missed two browns in the 20” class. Still thinking about those ones an hoping to get myself or a client into one of them if we can get the water.

Mountain Streams:

The mountain streams continue to fish very well with dry flies, a small orange stimulator is hard to beat this time of the year as it represents the october caddis that commonly hatch on mountain streams this time of the year. With the cold fall we are having these streams might shut off a little earlier than normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if the brook trout go lock jaw by mid September. The Rainbows will be heading to the bigger rivers where they will feed until the snow falls.

Wild Brook Trout waters:

Our wild brook trout waters have been fishing exceptionally well as of late and we were able to find some new water this fall that we are very excited to share with our guests. This is some of our favorite fishing and the fall is a great time to see the colors of the pre-spawn wild brook trout. Check out our instagram page @hillcountryguides to see some vieos of recent wild brook trout action.

Trophy Trout trips:

This fishing is turning on right now. The big fish are waking up and we look forward to hitting this water with our clients who are ready to hunt for a few quality fish over going for numbers. While this isn’t a game for those who need constant hook-up’s we are confident that if you work hard you will get shots at some fish of a lifetime. Please let us know if you are interested in learning more about these excitiing trips.

While there is still some time left to get on the books Fall is here and you don’t want to wait to set up your October or Late September trips.

Looking forward to seeing many of you this fall.

Tight lines,

Nate

This is how good the Andro has been as of late. See our instagram page for more pics @hillcountryguides.

Mid-August Report (Eary Fall Fishing is here!)

I felt compelled to update this report today after yesterdays trip. We had one of our most productive days on the water this year yesterday. Cold temps up north have dropped water temps on the upper andro into the upper 60’s and the trout and salmon have responded in a big way. It looks like the long range trend is for cooler weather up north over the next few weeks so if you have been wondering when to book a trip now is the time. We have a few dates open through the end of August as well as dates in early September. While many people seem to want to wait for fall foliage to fish there is no reason not to fish right now. The bites last all day and the fish are taking advantage of cooler water than they have had in over a month. Here is what is going on with all of our fishing.

Small streams:

The small streams continue to fish well and we have been seeing good dry fly fishing with stimulator style dries and flying ants becoming more important over the past few days. Warm days will trigger flying ant swarms, this means great dry fly fishing even when it is warm out.

Ellis River:

The Ellis has slowed a bit but should turn on soon with cooler weather and wild brookies getting their feed on before the spawn. Cover water and fish dry droppers to find fish.

Saco River:

The Saco river continues to fish well in the mornings and evenings with hoppers, ants and beetles, BWO nymphs and dries and Golden Stoneflies just before dark. Be prepared for flying ants here as well. You will want to cary cinnamon and honey colored ants in size 16-22 the smaller male ants can also be a chocolate brown in color.

Androscoggin:

As stated above the andro is on fire right now. Cooler weather in the forecast for next weekend means a continued strong bite. Isonychia mayflies are getting more and more active and we are also seeing a smattering of BWO’s and tan Caddis around. If you like fishing dry flies but want the productivity of nymphs a bouyant parachute style Isonychia with a havey pheasant tail dropper is hard to beat right now.

I hope you are all getting out and hitting the water because now is the time! A few of our recent catches.

Chris with a hard fighting wild rainbow.

Michael Chalsen with a 4lb rainbow.

One of seven doubles to the net from Sunday August 18th.