It’s wonderful that the US is close to putting the pandemic in the rearview mirror but I already miss flying on half empty planes. Last week my flights to Memphis were packed and crossing the country Tuesday was like the old days of crowded airports and one or two dip ****s holding up departure because they couldn’t jam their king-size bag into the overhead bin. Nonetheless, planes get you where you need to be and Granny and I have arrived in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire for our annual family visit.
The trip is also a warmwater fly fishing trip. You know me, there’s a full arsenal of Winston’s handy. The one I use most this trip is my 6-weight Air with the floating Scientific Angler Amplitude and a hardbody popper. That’s my smallmouth bass rig and Granny and I were on Lake Winnipesaukee as the sun rose.
Fishing was decent. My boat here is a green worn out 1970’s Old Town Canoe. I love the vessel but today it was hard to handle. It’s unusual for early morning, but we had strong wind and heavy chop to deal with. I found a few points to hide behind but overall it meant only one of us fishing at a time because the unsteady canoe needed to be steered and paddled at all times.
Granny did the majority of the angling and plucked a few greedy rock bass from the shallows and a couple little smallmouth bass on poppers. I had my smallie luck going as usual and despite about ten casts or less, I managed two in that 14” class. Each sipped my popper like a trout on a mayfly and were impressively aerial.
After the morning fishing we had a nice lazy day. Lots of sunbathing, napping in the porch swing and even a few afternoon brews with my brother. Tonight we had our first family feast. I’m certain there will be more to come along with plenty of beautiful warmwater fish species each day!