Wed: This season's last day of NH trout fishing

New Hampshire (with some exceptions) officially shuts down to river and stream fishing after the Columbus Day weekend.  But in the small mountain streams it is very likely that the fish will shut themselves down in the next couple of weeks.  Of course, it all depends on the weather; but the colder it gets and the longer the string of cold days and nights, the sooner things shut down. Regardless, due to my schedule it is unlikely I will get up there again this season.

With this knowledge, my friend Paul and I decided to seize the day. Indeed, Wednesday was a beautiful day.  A bit breezy, but low humidity and temps in the mid-70s. There was nary a cloud in the sky... until we reached the mountains of Lincoln, North Conway and Pinkham Notch. But even then the landscapes and skyscapes were spectacular.

The fly of the day for me was Paul's Elk Hair Parachute Caddis.  This is one of the flies that worked so well for Paul on our trip to the Ausable River in New York in June.  [Just type in Ausable River in the search tool to read my series of posts about the Ausable River trip.]

Size 12 2xl hook

What we were catching were gobs and gobs of small wild trout.  Both of us lost count.  But you need to like small fish.  If you catch an 8-12 incher, it's probably a stocker.

Here are a few wild trout.  As you can see they are slippery and flip and flop and wiggle.  Most of the time if you just hold the fish, fly and leader out of the water the trout will flip itself right off the hook.

I rarely have pictures of me.  Paul took the camera and took this shot.