Massachusetts Series Eastern Region
New Hampshire Series Western Region
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by Gerry Crow
Anglers, fly anglers in particular, are often intimidated about fishing stillwaters. They frequently have experience fishing streams and rivers where you can see well-defined holding areas for fish: pools, pocket water, etc. Lakes and ponds often don’t reveal their secrets so readily. You drive up to a lake or pond, launch your watercraft or pull on your waders and look at a flat expanse of water and the questions begin: Where do I start to fish? What rod to use? Floating line? Sinking line? Intermediate line? What fly to tie on? What retrieve to use? The answer many fly anglers arrive at is to drag a woolly-bugger around until they get a strike. Although that’s not a bad strategy, especially when all else fails, you can increase your odds by targeting areas that are likely to be more productive.
Fish in a pond or lake are like fish everywhere, in that they need certain basic things:
- Oxygen/Temperature to suit their metabolism
- Protection from predators
- Food
- Spawning habitat
Look for these basics and you will find the fish and how to approach them. I usually fish for trout or smallmouth bass, but these tips will apply to most fish you find in New Hampshire. I’ll list in descending order of importance the things to look for in any body of water.
- Surface activity – The “no-brainer” approach is to look for fish rising to the surface to feed on insects or hunt for baitfish near the surface. That doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation, but to increase your odds of success it helps to be prepared for the insects you might find on a lake or pond in the various seasons of the year.
- Spring - In spring, when the water warms up to levels that cause the fishes’ metabolism to get them feeding, look for mayflies and caddis that hatch in midday. As the season progresses, the emergence will be later and later, until mid-summer, when you find mayflies hatching at or after dark.
- Summer - Some of the best fishing of the year can be experienced starting in late June through the month of July, especially on ponds and lakes that have coves with muddy bottoms. The Hexagenia Limbata or “Hex” is a giant mayfly, averaging may be well over 2-inches long including the tail. This giant chunk of tasty protein will attract large fish to the surface to feed. If you happen to fish a lake or pond that experiences a Hex hatch, there should be no doubt that when you see these huge insects popping to the surface, especially at dusk there will be huge splashes and swirls from the feeding fish. In the morning, look for the nymphal shucks in the surface film from the night before. Early in the morning you might even see the end of a spinner fall when fish are feeding on the surface at a more leisurely pace.
- Mid-Summer - When the water warms the most likely insect emergence is dragonflies and damsel flies. They don’t pop up to the surface like mayflies, but swim to shore and crawl up onto rocks and trees to emerge from their nymphal shucks. Match the hatch by casting from shore into deep water with a sinking or sinking-tip line, let it sink near the bottom and then begin a slow, jerky retrieve using a small olive woolybugger with a short tail.
- Fall – As the days begin to shorten look for flying ants. Beginning late in August, especially a day or two after a rain shower, you will should look for flying ants that fall upon the water. Fish will feed voraciously on these flies whenever they are available. Fall is also a good time to use an attractor like a Royal Wulff, or a terrestrial like a hopper or beetle to cruise the shoreline and fish to overhanging trees and bushes.
- Winter – Tie some flies or go ice-fishing!
- When there is no surface activity, where do you start?
- Moving Water - Look for fish that cruise along near inlet and outlet streams. If it is early in the season look for shallow water on the north side of the pond or lake. That water will get more sun, warm up quicker, and is attractive to baitfish and predator fish. If there are rainbow trout in the pond or lake, look for the windward side of the lake. Most rainbows look to spawn in the spring and seek well-oxygenated water on a gravelly bottom. Also, the shoreline of the windward side of a lake is where food is blown onto the surface water, which could include aquatic insects or baitfish.
- Transition Areas – The area between shallow water and deep water is always an area to find fish. Deep water offers protection from predators from above and cool refuge. Shallow water offers cover for baitfish and aquatic insects. The zone between the refuge and the food is often where fish will be found.
- Cover – Weedbeds, fallen trees, and boulders are all structural features that can hold fish. They provide protection for both baitfish and the predators that like to ambush them. A small streamer imitating a baitfish or a woollybugger imitating a leech, crayfish, or dragonfly nymph will often bring a jolting strike when fished through these zones.
- What should be in your fly box? Everybody has their own favorites, but the following flies, or a close substitute, should be in every fly angler’s stillwater flybox.
- Dry Flies – Adams and Parachute Adams, Elkhair Caddis, Stimulators, hoppers, ants and flying ants, Griffiths gnats, and Royal Wulffs – in sizes from 12 to 20. If the Hex hatch is a possibility, then size 8 or 10 White Wulff and Hex emergers should be added. Also include some poppers and gurglers that imitate frogs or wounded baitfish if you are after bass or pickerel.
- Nymphs – Prince, gold-ribbed hairs ear, pheasant tail, and a few softhackles, such as grouse-and-flash, or partridge-and-orange in a variety of sizes from 12 to 22.
- Streamers – Olive, black, olive/black, white and brown woolybuggers from size 8 to 16. Gray Ghost, Black Ghost, Barnes Special, Golden Demon and Moby Dick patterns in size 6 to 10. Various colored Clouser deep-minnow and a few muddlers, some tied with white or yellow marabou size 8 and 10. When there are bass, pickerel, or pike, go to larger sizes and add some Dahlberg-divers, Lefty’s Deceivers and larger Clousers, in white, chartreuse/white, and black for low-light or murky water conditions.
- What rods and lines to use? I recommend a nine or ten-foot rod, with line weight matched to the conditions and fish you are after:
- 7 or 8-wt for casting bass-bugs or streamers in windy conditions,
- 4 or 5-wt for smaller flies in calm weather
- Full sinking lines for trolling streamers, and
- Floating line for most other situations
- If you have a sinking-tip line, use it for casting streamers, since casting a full-sinking line can be very difficult from a canoe or float-tube.
This is some information to get you started and is not meant to be a comprehensive how-to on fishing stillwaters. As you meet other anglers on the water, visit local fly shops, and gain more experience you will find your own favorite flies and special techniques for conditions on local waters. My best advice is to be flexible, and if one technique or fly isn’t working, change. Continue change flies, change your presentation, and change your location until you find the right combination. When you do find the right combination that produces fish, remember to respect the resource and the regulations. Be good stewards of the environment for your enjoyment and others. Remember to handle fish carefully and release them to be caught another day.
Every time I go fishing, I learn something new and am awed by the beauty of the fish, the water, and the surroundings we have in New Hampshire. I give you my best wishes for your enjoyment of fishing stillwaters in New Hampshire.
Gerry Crow
Fly Angler
Licensed NH Fishing Guide
Let’s Go Fishing Instructor
Trout Unlimited Active Member |
