[Soulfrk]

For my 30th Birthday my Girlfriend got me a guided fly-fishing trip with NH Rivers Guides.

First my testimonial:

I’ve been trying to figure out Fly Fishing a bit by trial and error, and a bit by picking the brains of people I know who Fish (like Dudley). Spending just one day on the Connecticut River with Jim helped me make more progress than I managed to accumulate in the past two years. Not only did he take care of EVERYTHING (including lunch) he was also incredibly informative; sharing tips about casting, trout behavior, water temperature, river flow etc… There is no question in my mind that I’ll hire Jim again to help plan trips in the future.

Now the trip:

We spent about 7 hours on the Connecticut River covering 11 miles in Jims drift boat. The tally for the day was 1 brookie, 1 brown, and 5 rainbows. We also saw: 2 bald eagles, 2 cranes, a moose and an osprey.

The put in was across from the rest stop just north of Colebrook. It’s a dirt road that I would not recommend exploring without a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Here are the approximate GPC coordinates: N 44 55.465 W 71 30.569.

The first 3 miles were pretty slow. All I got was a couple of hits that spit my fly. One even came clean out of the water to get it, but I didn’t set the hook in time. It was surprising with the river flow being so high (4000-4500) that they were hitting dry flies all day. In fact we fished streamers on and off, but didn’t get anything with them. I was using an Elk Hair Stimulator with a midge drop on it, and my girlfriend who came with us was fishing a Tan Caddis pattern. (she caught 2 of the five rainbows btw)

We stopped for lunch at the bridge that crosses from Colebrook to VT (I forget the name) Jim shared a couple of hiking destinations in whites that he said don’t get to much ‘pressure’. He rattled of 4 or 5 locations but I can only remember two or three of them.

Around 4pm we landed at the take out, which was right off of VT RT 102. The approximate GPS coordinates N 44 49.826 W 71 33.573. It was very steep and getting the drift boat up the incline was tricky, but Jim had a system and it only took 20 minutes or so to pack up all the gear.

Needless to say it was tough to get back to work on Monday. I’m already trying to find an excuse to get back up north again. – not that I really need an excuse.

[dudley]

Sounds like fun.... I need to get out more
Any pictures?



This is like deja vu all over again..... I thought I responded to this yesterday

[Soulfrk]

dudley, on Aug 12 2009, 03:24 PM, said:

Sounds like fun.... I need to get out more
Any pictures?

It was one of the most satisfying days of fishing I've ever had. I'm really itching to get back out soon

Here's the link to some pictures

We didn't get very good pics of the wildlife because 99% of the time I had Rod, and Line in hand. There was one fish that we didn't get a pic of because he jumped out of the boat as soon as we took the hook out. (it was 20" if it was an inch! -- it actually was only about 8 or 9inchs, but still an honest catch)