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wschmitt3

Took some insect and river pictures on the Connecticut River today

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Took these today at a spot I fish a few hundred feet from my apartment. Not great photos or anything its just where I fish. Pretty good fishing water most of the time, dangerous wading because of very strong current. No luck after fishing a few hours the last few days though.

 

The collapsed bank in the pictures has slowly been making its way into the water for the last two years and now that mass of soil is sitting right on exposed gravel I used to fish from. I hope that when we get some rains and high waters it cleans it off because it was pretty good fishing in that channel against the bank and as it is now its unreachable with out climbing up on that unstable mass of soil.

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Yea, Vermont and NH can fish the Connecticut River Dec 31 - mid April catch and release with artificial only. I have been out a few times the last few days but no luck yet.

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If the bugs are that active, the fish should be, too.

Some of those pictures look like you're standing in the water. I'd be casting if I was there ... too pretty not to.

I sure wish we had hard bottom creeks and rivers like that here.

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pittsburg nh area?

 

nice assortment of golden stones, caddis and mayflies

 

water temp is probably in the mid 30 so fish aren't going to move very far to hit a fly

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Flytire, I'm way south of Pittsburgh, NH. I wish I lived up there I have heard the fishing up that way is amazing. This is the strech of river between Wells River, VT and Woodsville, NH. The Water temps just broke 40 yesterday in the afternoon in the sun but have remained in around 35 every time I have checked and are probably back down there again it was cold overnight. We have a surprisingly large number of stone flies here. I find tons of them when I kick netting.

 

Mike, Those weren't bugs I caught in the drift. I caught those by disturbing the bottom and netting them.

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I particularly like the rock worm and the cased caddis. You got some pretty good shots. Lots of food should mean lots of trout. On cold days, fish the shallow riffles where the sun can penetrate through to the rocks below. 40's aren't ideal, but there should be feeding trout.

 

By the way, what's all that white stuff I keep seeing?

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Thanks phg, Other than the fact that that is really close to home the depth is pretty much why I was there. Most of the water, other than the area below the collapsed bank and the eddy just up stream from it, is less than two feet deep. During the summer that eddy holds some hogs because tons of food gets deposited in there, I have had more than one large trout break off due to a combination of size and fast current in there, also I have a bad habit of undersizing my tippet.

 

I assume the white stuff your referring to is the snow. There is still allot of it around in many places. In fact most of the smaller order rivers are still iced over.

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W., you know it's funny but I don't remember that section of the river being wadable. I lived in East Thetford for a few years and used to fish the Wells. I know down by where I lived you needed a canoe or other watercraft to fish the CT and I never caught trout, it was a smallmouth and pike fishery.

 

Steve

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You are kinda right Stevester, At times it is not wadeable. Right now flows are right for wading but after a rain it can take a few days for the water to come back down to wadeable flows. Even then its dangerous, if I weren't in good shape and a little crazy I wouldn't wade in this section of river. I have had a few close calls after loosing my footing and with logs and now ice (yesterday I almost got hit by a slab the size of a piano) and the flow is very fast. The area right below the Haverhill bridge (between Wells River and Woodsville) has gravel bars (not sure if thats the right term) that extend between the islands that you can wade on and because I have lived a very very short walk from them for the last few years I have kinda figured them out to the point where I can move between the islands with out a boat.

 

As for it being a small mouth bass and pike fishery you are right. It pretty much is. There are also chain pickerel, fall fish, white suckers and big walleye. But there are rainbow and brown trout in many places and brook trout over by the Ammonoosuc River dam. I saw a guy pull a 23" brown trout out of the area below the Ammonoosuc Dam last year with a Canadian crawler (I was casting to brook trout I saw rising with a parachute adams like 20' away) and I heard about a 2' rainbow getting caught on a rubber minnow last May in the mouth of the Wells River and I have caught a pretty good number of rainbows (10-17") and a few brown trout (9-12") out of the section pictured. I catch allot more trout in the Waits, Ammonoosuc and Wells River but I like the challenge of wading out to and fishing on the islands in the Connecticut I like that other people rarely fish from them.

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Cool. I never noticed that there were places to wade there. I was always more interested in making the left to go up the Wells although I did ride my bike over that bridge a few times. Down by where we lived (a little south of the bridge to Lyme) the river was literally in our back yard, I kept my canoe on the river bank so I could get out pretty regularly. I loved the fun fishing as opposed to working for trout. I know the locals did not like the pike very much but I thought they ere a hoot to catch. Plus they kept the bass and panfish populations in check. I also caught some big bluegills on the fly practically in my back yard. Still miss it.

 

Steve

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Right here there aren't allot of pike, I have caught a few smallish ones and I saw a pair of really big ones in the early spring last year hanging out in the Wells River right under the 302 bridge here in Wells River, once you get down stream towards Newbury when the flows slow some more there are a bunch and more bass (thats not to say there arent a bunch around here). I like catching pike I think they are a good time also (used to catch allot in the Winooski River when I lived in Burlington). The residents around here are mostly fishing for walleye for harvest and small mouth bass for fun. Many people I have talked to didn't even know that there are trout in the Connecticut around here, I think its because there mostly in places that are not in easy to reach, those that do know and target them have all caught some really nice ones on conventional gear but there are no other fly fishermen that I have seen or met that fly fish in the Connecticut.

 

I am intent on getting a good fishing kayak or a canoe this summer because I am less than 200 feet from the intersection of the Wells and Connecticut and I could access so much more water with a small boat.

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