New England Fly Fishing - by Lloyd Mathews

While planning a trip to visit my sister Jayne in New Hampshire over the 4th of July holiday, I decided a couple of fly fishing trips would not upset the week long schedule. When traveling and on a short schedule it is almost a necessity to hire a guide to ensure a successful day of fishing. A search of the internet was fruitful for two trips. The first one I found was Reilly McCue, of Marshman Guide Service, www.massachusettsflyfishing.com, a salt water guide specializing in striper fishing along the New Hampshire – Massachusetts coastal border.We traded some E-mails and worked out a schedule, this also gave me a sense of Reilly’s personality. Why book a guide if the two of you are not compatible, (or is that for a marriage)?

The trip was scheduled for 5:30 AM at Newburyport Harbor a very old and picturesque whaling port in Massachusetts. The severe changes in tides along the east coast control the fishing schedules. So this meant leaving NH at the unholy hour of 3:30 AM to catch an outgoing tide, those of you who know me will understand how uncharacteristic this is! I invited my nephew Doug along as I knew he was an avid fisherman and could easily stay awake on the early morning drive!

We met Reilly at the parking lot of a State Park and had a chance to check out his boat. It was a wide beam aluminum boat with a large platform at the bow and a jet outboard motor, perfect for shallow water fly fishing. We were on the water at 5:30 AM in search of stripers. The water was calm with an oily looking surface, excellent for spotting schools of stripers. Not 100 yards from the ramp we had seen some swirls and began casting, Doug was using spinning tackle and throwing a medium size white plastic and I was using a 4 inch skinny white and black sand eel imitation, the primary food for stripers, on an eight weight rod. Doug hooked up immediately with a nice school size striper. The downside to fishing in the harbor is, once the other boats around us saw the hookup, we were surrounded!

Reilly decided to make a break for calmer waters. We caught stripers all morning and kept two over 28 inches, the minimum legal limit, for a family dinner. The fishing lasted until noon when the tide had taken all the water out of the harbor and boats were laying on sand banks. It was a day of fishing I will remember for a long time!!

The next day’s trip was scheduled with Scott Hutchins of Trout Hunters www.trout-hunters.com for some native trout and salmon on the Andsoscoggin River in northern New Hampshire. The trip was scheduled for 8:30 AM, a more civilized time by my relaxed standards! The trip to Errol from Wolfeboro, where my sister has her summer home, was a beautiful drive with views of mist covered mountains and small ski resorts nestled in wooded valleys. While taking in these wonderful views and day dreaming of catching native trout, I was able to miss a few turns and extend my drive, but still arrived on time to meet Scott. I had traded E-mails with Scott, the same as with Reilly and knew I was in for a good day of fishing. Scott met me at the river with a well outfitted ClackaCraft drift boat.

We started out at the base of a dam that protected a nice sized pool. I was throwing a black Wooly Booger at the base of the dam and was stunned by a 20 plus inch rainbow breaking the surface for a shot at my fly. The bad news was trying to get the slack out of my line because the fast current was pushing the line back to me. After missing several shots like that the fish become bored and we moved back in the pool to pick up some nice rainbows and smallmouth bass.

Drifting further down the river I started nymphing with a golden stone caddis and a #16 pheasant tail as a dropper. I caught most of the fish at the end of a drift when the dropper would start to rise. The best spots were at pools formed from other streams joining the Androscoggin. We drifted down the river several miles catching plenty of fish and enjoying the mountain views.

A leisurely shore lunch prepared by Scott gave me time to reflect that I would rather be fishing this beautiful river than working back in Texas! The river had not been stocked in over ten years so all the fish caught were native, Browns, Rainbows and Salmon. The shy Brook Trout eluded me but I was impressed with all the fish caught, what they lacked in size they made up for in fighting ability.

My recommendation for anyone who is taking a trip and loves to fish, why not do both! You can find guides on the Internet or call the local Fly Shops, they are only too happy to recommend someone. Both guides I fished with were very professional and provided excellent service at a reasonable rate. Reilly is a full time guide and can take you hunting for ducks in the fall. Scott is a part time guide when he is not teaching school and his love of fishing shows in his guiding. I am now back in San Antonio to plan my next trip, chasing “Texas Reds”.