You’ve met my friend Dan Swift (Danimal) before. We used to fish together around Cody, WY. Most recently was last year when we fished his cottage lake house waters over around Alton, NH. Dan and I go way back. He worked for me in the fly shop in the 90’s and went on in the real world from there. He still loves to fish although he doesn’t get to do it as much.
Dan has never been on Lake Winnipesaukee so instead of me heading right to Alton, he came up here and met. I’d have made big plans for fishing him on the lake but we had threatening weather and a steady 15 mph northeast wind. It wasn’t exactly safe for canoeing. However, I took him into one of our somewhat sheltered areas and Dan was able to stick two very handsome smallmouth, a dozen rock bass and a hearty bluegill.
The fun thing about the bluegill was that we saw an entourage that included two fancy bass boats and a film crew. It turns out it was New England’s fishing TV host, Charlie Moore and crew. They found it particularly unique that two grown men were out fly fishing from a 50 year Old Town in a windstorm and filmed us rousting up a few fish with fly rods (few people fly fish here).
After a wonderful Garwood’s lunch it was time to get off the big lake. Conditions worsened and the threat of heavy rain lingered. We arrived at Dan’s to calmer conditions. It was evening by now but his lake also has great protection. He generously paddled me around and I caught at least a dozen nice little largemouth bass, half a dozen nice bluegill, one yellow perch, one smallmouth bass and a chain pickerel. Every fish was on a popper!
I love this place. I love warmwater fly fishing. Dan’s lake is a peaceful one and its late spring so its lush green everywhere you look. Tomorrow will be a good fun day!
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