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Waiting For The Right Day

1/20/2014

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1/20/14

I recently spent time in a high school gym fly casting with a friend.  It was nice to hold my Orvis five weight and work on my form after not casting since October.  Of course this practice session has made me gaze up the Cold River each time I drive through town and has me watching forecasts with other thoughts in mind besides travel plans and if I should cover the wood pile.  

There are some key factors to consider if someone plans to brave New England waters this time of year in pursuit of trout.  The recent edition of American Angler has a great article on the subject.  Beyond the safety concerns which don't exist in July that do now, if success is even a remote possibility the first step is to wait for the right day.  Trout do not feed on a regular basis during winter in New England, but during certain conditions  there are slight metabolism shifts that can make trout feed passively during short windows.  First, wait for times of decreasing air pressure but not pressure that is so low that the sky is filled with clouds and it is snowing.  Blue skies or scattered clouds are best so the radiant heat can warm the water slightly.  

That heat, of course, would be most intense at mid-day, so unlike fishing in warmer months when it is best to get out early or in the evening, during winter choose the warmest time of day.  Also, look for those days when there may be a temperature spike.  For instance, if the high temperatures for the past week have been in the teens and there are two days expected on which temperatures will get into the mid to upper thirties, those are your days.  During January trout will not necessarily hold in the same places they do in the spring and summer.  Also, in general, they will be less distributed throughout the river.  In other words, they will be congregated together in the rivers slowest pools.  

As we know insect activity is scarce during this time of year so most fishing will be sub-surface.  Trout will expend as little energy as possible during winter so a fast retrieve of a fly is usually not going to bring-about a strike.  Nymphs floated naturally are probably a good start.  I am here in Alstead waiting for the right day and I will report back after that day arrives.

Mitch Harrison 
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Red-headed Woodpecker

1/7/2014

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Many times people have come to me, knowing I like to watch birds, saying they have seen a rare bird at their feeder or in their yard and in most cases it turns out to be something very unrare, that is perhaps in some alternate plumage.  In some cases people have claimed they have seen a red-headed woodpecker and it turned out to be a red-bellied or a sapsucker.  Well, a recent claim from a friend made me learn to be less dismissive of people's claims.  The picture below is of a juvenile red-headed woodpecker.  This is a rare sighting anywhere in New Hampshire.  This picture was shot right here in Alstead by Lisa Therrein.  The Therrein's were the first to spot the bird and they have been gracious about letting people come on their property to see it.

Mitch Harrison

Picture
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Horned Larks

1/5/2014

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After a week of impressively low temperatures, including waking up one morning here in Alstead to -14 degrees F, we had a bluebird sky bringing the temperature to within a few degrees of the freezing mark. A perfect day to ply the deeper pools of our home waters for trout.  So I thought before taking a closer look at my favorite deep pools on the Cold River and realizing that with the arctic blast the week before they were reduced to a narrow thread of water surrounded by ice.  The winter fly fishing would have to wait for another day.
This beautiful day had to be enjoyed in some way, so I headed out to look for winter birds.  Searching snowy farm fields in Walpole, New Hampshire, I came across a flock of 28 horned larks.  These are birds of open, generally barren, land and tend to be nomadic in nature from November through March, ranging far from their  arctic breeding grounds.  The birds fed on insects on and around a manure pile as I admired their bright yellow throats in the late day winter sun.   The birding ended by seeing a pair of bald eagles perched in a tree overhanging the Connecticut River.  I wondered if this was perhaps the pair that bred just north of that location last year on the Vermont side of the river.


Mitch Harrison

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    Author

    Mitch Harrison's parents gave him his first fly rod at age 12 and more than 40 years later he is still casting, teaching and learning.  Another passion of Mitch's is bird watching.  Mitch is a licensed NH guide and a science teacher in Alstead, NH. 

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