The alarm went off at 4 am Friday morning, but the much awaiting anticipation for the first 2010 trip to Pittsburg, NH already found me in the shower and roasting a pot of coffee. Usually at this time of the morning during this time of the year, I would be sitting on the edge of a field clucking to gobblers that I roosted the night before, but I was fortunate enough to harvest a mature 21 lb, 9" beard, 3/4" spur gobbler in MA during opening day. With an unexpected ice-out on 1st Connecticut Lake of April 11th, it was sure to be an early smelt run in the north country, which of course would be followed by many hungry salmon.
I arrived at Lopstick Lodge at 8:30am, checked the daily flows (151 CFS 1st, 152 CFS 2nd, 759 CFS Murhpy) and bought some favorite local patterns. The smelt were in full swing with the water temperature hovering ~45 degrees. By 9:15, I was whipping a size 6 gray ghost cross current on the inlet to Lake Francis. Bright sunny skies and howling winds didn't make for ideal fly fishing conditions, but I was too optimistic for those salmon. Only 1 other spin angler was casting below be, catching 4 salmon, during the unproductive hour I was there. I journeyed up to Megalloway Road bridge, and fished the inlet to 1st lake where salmon were sporadically rising to BWO's along the shore. Using a double nymph rig with an indicator, I quickly hooked up on a beautiful 15" leaping salmon. For the next 1.5 hrs it was slow with the wind gusting soo fast that the fly line ended up in the trees more than on the water Positioning yourself for a downwind cast made casting efforts more efficient. The bite was slow, but a clear sunny day with no one else on the river except a fly fisherman in a canoe, and song birds singing the most beautiful melodies I ever heard, I was in heaven. However, there is a point where one can only go so long on a river without hearing the drag spinning from a fresh salmon swimming like a torpedo upriver.
After enjoying a quick salami and provalone sandwich on the shore, I ventured back to the Trophy Stretch to fish Junction Pool. After nymphing both seams on either side of the current with no prevail, I started swinging streamers. Second cast with a black ghost, I hooked and lost a fish stripping the pattern upriver. A repeated process proved successful the next time and actually 2 more times after that. Three brilliantly colored brookies with sharp healthy fins were brought to net, all in the range of 12 inches. With a fishless count on the Francis inlet during my first stop, I made the short trek downriver to hopefully redeem myself. The current in this section is hard for a fly angler to reach from shore. A small craft is almost indefinitely helpful for this short stretch. I was able to trick a few salmon to chase a Magog smelt close to shore, but unexpected hits resulted in poor hook sets. In hopes to work more manageable water, I headed back to the section below Magalloway road, where I saw Bill (guide from Lopstick) guiding a first timer, who looked to be having some success. He was excited non the less, which made for excellent attitudes on the river when he landed a salmon. Most salmon appeared to be in the slower water right down to the lake, but I managed a short-lived fight with a nice salmon in the upper currents. Temperatures dropped quickly around 6:30, so I headed back to Mountain View to set up camp and cook some beef stew. I considered it a successful first day.
Saturday morning, I was casting a fly on the inlet to 1st by 5:30am. Action was slow with only 2 hook-ups, but many fish were rising in the river and the lake to BWO's. The weekend warriors wandered to the river around 8:30, so both inlets became quite crowded by late morning. With above normal temperatures, I was expecting weekend crowds so I explored stretches of the river "in between" the popular pools. I caught no fish, but I found pockets of water and feeding lanes that I will revisit later in the season. I ended the evening where I started in the morning, and luckily had one salmon take a BWO parachute but my dry fly hook sets are unpracticed, thus slow to respond. The sun quickly disappeared with a dense cloud cover, and the bite began. Five hook-ups in 15 minutes brought 3 quality salmon to net.
Here is a strategic, but simple approach towards fishing popular water:
Fish the popular and easily accessible spots early. Prospect throughout that stretch of water trying to pick up fish within the vicinity. When crowds begin to trickle in, they are probably fishing spots that you have already probed which either provided you with or without action. Unless you enjoy combat fishing, this is the time to explore new or hard-to-reach areas, where the last place a weekend warrior would want to hike in to after he drank all night at the bar and woke up late only to eat a beyond imaginable "everything omelet". He's looking for the closest place from his truck to roll down the path to the river. Too bad he doesn't know you already caught those fish at 5am that morning. In all seriousness, these couple hours leading up to lunch time before those "anglers" head in for their afternoon cocktail and rib-eye steak enable you to explore the secluded stretches of river. If I plan to fish a popular spot for the evening feeding frenzy, I arrive early just in case I have to "claim" my stretch of river as unfortunate as that may sound. However, I have never run across any irresponsible anglers on the Upper Connecticut and would consider most of them respectable sportsmen/women. Sometimes, the bite won't happen until minutes before dark, so don't let the conversations of grey goose martinis persuade you to leave the river early.
With only Sunday morning to fish, I obviously hit the river early landed 2 of the 3 hookups. All fish were caught on double nymph systems floated under an indicator. Best salmon of the trip came that morning, measuring around ~18 inches, although the smaller fish were just as exciting with their leaping acrobatics. Looking forward to the next trip north when the salmon are further upriver!
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