My younger brother Greg does
not fish. He dabbled with fishing when
we were kids but he never developed the passion like Becky and I. So when we were catching up over beers on the
camp porch last night after midnight and he said he wanted to join me at 5 am
today for an early paddle to go fishing at Wolfeboro, New Hampshire’s famous Back Bay, it took me by surprise.
Sure enough, at 4:45 AM I was
awoken to the sound of a vehicle starting.
Greg was going to town to get us some coffee. Despite the lack of proper
sleep I jumped up and gathered my gear to the canoe. About the time I was ready Greg pulled back
in our rocky driveway with coffee in hand.
He then stated he was paddling and I was fishing. All he wanted to do is enjoy the morning and
get some pics. What deal for me!
The early morning weather was
cool and damp. There were plenty of
thick clouds and it was evident we might see some rain. I had Greg ease me along Wolfeboro Bay
shoreline so I could fish smallies all the way to Back Bay.
The weather stabilized since
last night. Sure enough, the smallmouth
were back on the hunt. I landed at least
five good ones on our trip across to Back Bay
casting my popper around people’s docks.
However, although the smallies were fantastic, the fish that struck me
as the best fish was this slab of a sunfish.
There are many gorgeous species of sunfish and several are difficult to
tell from one another. The redbreast sunfish and the longear are two very tough ones to separate. After carefully studying this picture, I’m
going with redbreast on this guy. If
anyone can offer assurance or explain why this is a longear I’d very much
appreciate the lesson!
It wasn’t even 6 AM and Greg
and I were slipping under the low little bridge that separates Wolfeboro Bay
from Back Bay.
There were no other boats and the town and lake were quiet, something they
won’t be by Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Back Bay was
my favorite place to fish when I was a kid.
It was an incredibly peaceful place.
My main targeted species here were chain pickerel. There were so many of the mini-versions of
pike back then that you couldn’t go more than a few casts without a hook up. For a kid it was paradise. Sadly, over the years the shoreline of Back Bay has been developed and the pickerel habitat which
consists of shallow areas of lily pads and sunken logs disappeared – thus so have
the numbers of pickerel. Nonetheless, I came to NH with high hopes of scraping
out one good pickerel from Back Bay this
week.
I fly fish for pickerel with
a 6-weight and a floating line. The
Scientific Anglers bass taper is an excellent line choice because helps turn
over a big bushy fly - favorites of pickerel.
Most any fly patterns will work.
You can toss some bright streamers or a cool frog pattern. I like the same hard body popper I use for
the smallmouth. And although pickerel
are in the pike family and have a mouthful of teeth, pickerel are much smaller
and you don’t need wire tippet. I take a
tapered 9ft 0X leader and cut about three feet of the tippet off.
I never expected to catch a
pickerel right near the little bridge. Bait
fishers fish this area all day and boats whip by splashing big wakes up on the
bank. If I was to catch nice pickerel
this week I expected him to come far back in the bay in one of the few lily
areas left. That’s why when I cast to
the edge of the town park where one weed stuck out above the surface I wasn’t
expecting anything. But after I made one
pop with my popper a push of water charged from the edge of the grassy bank and
I hooked up with a sizeable pickerel.
I forgot how hard these
feisty fish fight and within a matter of seconds Greg was chasing my line
through heaps of weeds with the canoe. This scrapper had my 6-weight completely
doubled over. Finally I got him
untangled and tired out and landed this perfect specimen of a chain pickerel.
Greg paddled me through Back Bay for about three hours. We hit every nook and cranny and absolutely
demolished fish. In addition to our
already great day of smallies and the hearty chain pickerel, I picked up
another seven smaller pickerel, a few nice sunfish (mix of species) a dozen or
so rock bass and three quality largemouth including this dandy. All caught with the popper on my 6-weightRoss RX.
I was stoked to spend a quiet
morning with Greg. Greg lives in Massachusetts, a heck of a long way from Idaho. He has a family and we rarely get to see each
other let alone do something fun together.
So the time we spent this morning was exceptional. By the time we paddled back to camp it was
around 10 AM. We were absolutely
exhausted as Greg’s two daughters, Sammy and Montana excitedly met us at the dock. In the hands of these cute little nieces of
mine were their pink kids Ross Fly Fishing Outfits that Granny and I got them
for Christmas. No rest for Uncle Jeff,
it was time to teach the girls how to fly fish.
Sammy and Montana
have reeled in a lot of my trout over the years when out visiting Granny and I
in Idaho. These girls love fishing with me. Now Sammy is ten and Montana is seven. I took up fly fishing at seven so its time
they did too. After I taught them both
how to completely set up their rods without tying on a fly, I gave them the
full on fly casting demonstration. Then
one at a time I had them cast without a fly.
They did surprisingly well. Then
I gave them each a barbless mini popper, something a small sunfish could fit in
his mouth and helped them tie it on.
Next to our camp is the
Goodhue and Hawkins Boatyard. As kids,
whenever we needed a quick fishing fix, we fished around the boatyard
docks. There’s always fish there. Sure enough, the second Sammy’s fly hit the
water a small army of rock bass came out for a look. Then it was time for the next step, how to
hook a fish. And after a few misses,
Sammy landed her first fish on fly.
It was a little harder to get
young Montana
to set the hook. But she certainly
understood the game. Although she wasn’t
really casting, she was very strategically dapping her surface popper in a way
that drew strikes from the fish. Montana too landed a
nice rock bass.
Today was a heck of a
day. Greg and I had an absolute treat of
a time in Back Bay this morning. And Sammy and Montana have fallen in love with tormenting
the sunfish and rock bass of the boatyard with their pink rods. I am delighted that the girls fished most of
the day and in fact caught and released a heap of fish entirely on their own.
Looks like it was a nice day as well.
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