This gorgeous brookie ate a caddis emerger imitation at the tailout of a plunge pool. All photos: Charles Hildick-Smith
The northernmost town in New Hampshire, Pittsburg borders Canada, Vermont, and Maine, but more importantly, it’s at the headwaters of the Connecticut River. The river rises just 300 yards from the Canadian border and flows through a series of lakes, between which are gorgeous stretches of freestone water, each with its own character.
My friend Bill Bernhardt had opened new new fly shop and guiding operation, Points North Outfitters, in the spring, and he invited me up to check it out. I made the five-hour drive north in late June, where I met up with three of my oldest fishing buddies and my young photographer friend, Charlie Hildick-Smith. The evening before we were scheduled to fish, we checked in with Bill and his wife Emily—the brains of the operation who runs the fly shop—to talk about our plans for two days on the water. I looking forward to catching fish, but I was also stoked to fish with Bill for the first time, though we’ve known each other for almost two decades.
Tim Bayha with the first fish of the trip, a pretty brown that ate a dry fly, as guide Bill Bernhardt looks on.
Day One: Trophy Stretch and Exploration
At 8 a.m. the next day, my pal Tim Bayha and I hopped into Bill’s truck and headed to the Trophy Stretch below First Connecticut Lake Dam. We hiked through the woods for about 10 minutes and emerged onto a beautiful stretch of water, with no other anglers in sight. Bill set up Tim in a run, and he and I set off to scout downstream. When we returned, Tim was fighting a nice brown trout, which had taken a caddis emerger off the surface.
Bill set me up with a double-nymph rig, featuring a Roza’s Pink Pheasant Tail and a caddis-larva imitation. On my second cast, I hooked a decent rainbow, which came to the net after a short fight. Fifteen minutes in, and both Tim and I were on the board. Over the next three hours, we worked our way upstream, catching all four available species—brookies, rainbows, browns, and landlocked salmon. At one point, Tim and I hooked up at the same time, and Bill netted and brown and a landlock together. Then, as if someone had flipped a switch, things went cold.
Tim and I doubled up on a brown and a salmon, which Bill had in the net at the same time.
After lunch, Tim joined our other friends, while Bill took Charlie and me on a tour of logging roads to check out some native brook-trout streams. Once you’re off the pavement, wilderness stretches in all directions, and you really get a sense for the remoteness of the area. Unfortunately, the water in both streams we fished was pretty warm, and although we got a few hits on dry flies, and no fish were landed. We returned to the Trophy Stretch and landed several more trout and salmon before calling it a day.
Day Two: Cold, Rain, and Fast Action
The next day, we decided to check out the tailwater section section downstream, below Murphy Dam. It’s a bottom-release dam, and the water was just 48 degrees. The air temperature was just a couple degrees higher, and dark clouds promised rain. This stretch is known for big browns—we’d heard rumors of a 36-incher(!) landed there—but they were certainly going to be harder to catch.
The big pool just below Murphy Dam offers fast, deep water and some great-looking seams.
We started on the closest pool to the dam, which was deep and fast, but a double-nymph rig nor a streamer produced a strike. Bill suggested we head downstream to swing flies through long, flat stretches. The skies opened up, and a steady rain drenched us for the next few hours, driving the cold into our bones.
We covered a lot of water and landed a few cookie-cutter rainbows, but we could find a big brown. On our way out, we went back to the top pool where I finally hooked an 18-inch brown on a San Juan Worm. The fish made three impressive leaps right in front of us and spat the hook. That seemed to be a sign that we should head in to get warm and eat lunch.
This muscular rainbow, accustomed to living in fast water, fought well for its size.
We finished up on a different part of the trophy stretch, where the action was fast and furious on both nymphs and dry flies. The salmon were particularly frisky, taking to the air immediately upon being hooked. The highlight was the biggest brook trout I’ve caught in awhile, which came from a plunge pool below a large rock.
Bill has been guiding on these waters for a long time, and fishing with him was a great way to learn the best techniques and flies for the Upper Connecticut. Catching the Grand Slam of salmonids was icing on the cake. I plan to head back up in the fall when the big landlocked salmon move out of the lakes and into the river.
As this screenshot from my TroutRoutes app shows, the northern tip of New Hampshire is rife with trout water.
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