Anglers are optimists. Is there any activity on the planet where you can spend hours, casting tiny pieces of fuzz, in the hopes that an aquatic dweller will mistake the fuzz for food? Or hours watching a small piece of plastic floating in the water with a bait underneath, hoping that the plastic disappears? Or motoring around a lake dragging a lure attached to a ball weight hoping to drag it close enough to a fish that will mistake it for food?
Being optimists, anglers are also dreamers. Fishing remote streams way back in the woods. Fishing for trophy wild trout in a remote pond. Traveling to waters that have always been talked about. Finding the Hex hatch. Or the Alder fly hatch. Hiring a guide to float one of the big rivers. Catching a record fish.
With this as a background, here are a few New Year resolutions to chase in 2021.
Revisit ponds in the book “Fly Fishing New Hampshire Secret Waters.” Ponds visited last year were wild brook trout factories. These ponds prove that New Hampshire has brook trout fishing that rivals any New England state.
Work with New Hampshire Fish & Game on improving protections of wild brook trout. The fish will do just fine if we can protect their habitat and stop stocking over the wild fish.
Float the Androscoggin River from Bragg Bay to Seven Island Bridge during the Alder fly hatch. This trip is hard to get right as the bugs don’t always hatch at the same time of year and when they do hatch the guides are booked solid.
Fish the Scott Centric fly rod. After three years of fishing the Scott Radian, my go to pond rod, Scott has changed things up. If the Centric can perform as advertised, it may be the best rod Scott has ever developed.
Fish mice patterns. After watching videos of Labrador brook trout and Argentine brown trout taking mouse flies, time needs to be spent to see if the monster trout of the Saco, Andro and Connecticut River in Monroe will fall for the deception.
Catch a brown trout through the ice of Crystal Lake. There are some big brown trout in Crystal Lake and landing one while jigging hand tied jigs after spotting the fish on a flasher. I know the fish are there. I saw them porpoising for midges one night this past summer.
Work to replace a culvert on a feeder stream into the Swift River. This feeder stream has the potential to be a prime brook trout spawning ground. An important step in rebuilding the wild brook trout of the Swift River.
Monitor the Saco River erosion protection plan along Hussey Fields. This project has the ability to demonstrate that riprap is not the way to help save the Saco River. With any luck, the project will begin this year.
Introduce more anglers to the fishing in the valley. It was the highlight of 2020. It will be the highlight of 2021. The more folks that can get on the water to enjoy angling, the more folks will stand up and be the voice to help protect the river and those whose livelihoods depend on a healthy river.
On Jan. 5, 2021, at 6:30 p.m., Saco Valley Trout Unlimited will be having a virtual meeting with Bill Thomas of NH Department of Environmental Services to discuss long term science based practices to save the Saco River. To receive the meeting log in information, email svatroutUnlimited@gmail.com. This is an important way to learn about protecting the river and the species that depend on the river.
Steve Angers, a native to the Conway area, is the author of the book “Fly Fishing New Hampshire’s Secret Waters” and operates the North Country Angler.
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