Writing On The Fly: Technical Fly Fishing In NH

By George Liset, Writing on the Fly, InDepth NH

Fishing familiar waters has an advantage in that an angler usually knows what to expect. There are not many, if any, surprises. If the river experienced an unusually hard winter there might be a few trees or branches down in the river, but for the most part the fishing is the same. A fly fisher knows where the good spots are and where the fish will be holding and what flies will work. It also means that there will not be a lot of guessing and that an angler can get right into some nice fish, usually.

Then there was my last trip to the Trophy Stretch in Pittsburg, New Hampshire. My son Reed and I made our annual trip up to hit the upper Connecticut River. We have been up fishing many times over the years and have a better than average knowledge of the area and the fishing. We were driving by the Notch on our way up and were excitedly talking about where we were going to start fishing and what type of set-up we were going to use.

Reed enjoys fishing dry flies with the occasional dry dropper rig. I like throwing streamers and wanted to start off with a Hornburg pattern. I had great success with the Hornburg last year. I had caught a number of great fish. I landed a nice salmon on my first cast last year and expected the same this year.

We started fishing just below the dam at the top of the Trophy Stretch and pretty much had the water to ourselves. Reed tied on a size eighteen caddis with a size twenty Pheasant Tail nymph and I went with the Hornburg.

Within twenty minutes Reed had caught five nice fish and I was still on the struggle bus. After changing flies a few times with no luck, I finally went with a dry dropper similar to what Reed was using and got into what I initially thought was a big minnow but turned out to be a nice native Brookie.

I was excited about that Brook Trout for a number of reasons. The first was that I got on the board, the second was that I was excited to see the fishery was healthy when you can catch a native trout. We caught a few more nice fish before we went to dinner. We hit a local restaurant that is popular with fly fishers and ATV enthusiasts. The tables are close and it is easy to overhear conversations since the dining area can be loud.

As we were waiting for our dinner we could overhear a couple of fly fishers talking about how the fly fishing seemed to be more technical this year. Trying to catch fish this year was like pulling teeth, you really had to work to get a fish which was not usual for this fishery. Every once in a while you hear the term “Technical Fly fishing.” This term can be interpreted in a number of ways.

Technical fly fishing usually indicates the thought that the fishing is really hard and that an angler has to have their wits about them and an arsenal of flies to boot. Fishing can be hard for basically two reasons. The first is that there are not a lot of fish in the fishery. This plays out as it doesn’t really matter what you put on the end of your line because there are not any fish to bite. The second reason is that a popular fishery like the Trophy Stretch sees so much pressure the fish are not easily fooled and are wary of any fly that is not presented to them perfectly.

I was thinking that reason number two was what was happening, so the next morning, I decided to go with my secret weapon. My friend Glenn Grant, The Maine Man, had sent me some flies that he thought would work for my trip north. I picked out a streamer that I thought the fish may have not seen, trying to stay away from the usual popular patterns that other anglers were using.

After a few casts, I caught a nice Rainbow and a few more after that. Reed was still doing well with the dry dropper and after a bit I switched over to that rig as well. I had some luck but was still missing a lot of hits. I then put on a dropper as to what some anglers refer to as a junk fly, a San Juan worm. I was able to get into a few more nice trout to end the day.

On the way home I mentioned to Reed, trying to keep a straight face, how the fishing seemed to be more technical this year. Reed burst out laughing and replied, “Dad keep telling yourself that, you just got out fished.”

Maybe?

George Liset of Dover is an award-winning outdoor writer and avid fly fisherman who shares insights of his time on the water exploring New Hampshire streams and rivers as well of those around New England. George is a graduate of Wheaton College, Illinois, and the University of New Hampshire. His column Writing on the Fly has been honored by the New England Press Association and the New Hampshire Press Association.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.