It was off to one of my favorite fishing haunts today with one of my best fishing pals. I went to Back Bay in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire with my niece Sierra. Back Bay isn’t a blue ribbon trout stream or a trophy bass lake. Its just the relaxing place where I grew up fishing.
The last couple years the bass aren’t common like when I was a kid and the chain pickerel that we used to catch and release a heap of on any given day are rare. But I still enjoy being back there and luckily the bluegill and pumpkinseed sunfish still thrive. I enjoy catching these beautiful little fish and it’s a magical place to take a kid fly fishing. But today I noticed things weren’t right.
First was the fishing. This is a place where you catch sunfish on every cast and there were hardly any. The lily pads looked sick and the water was brownish and the bottom looked filthy. Suddenly a person on the bank shouted to us, “You know they poisoned the weeds last week. They told us to stay away for 48 hours. You should be ok now. THEY SAY the poison doesn’t kill the fish and turtles. No sure how that works? Good luck.”
I didn’t know and instantly felt sick. It was that same feeling I got last year in Yellowstone Park when I learned they were killing all the browns and rainbows in the Gibbon River because they’re nonnative. Even though they have thrived there for nearly 100 years!
It seems the brilliant scientist will always continue to play God no matter where we fish so as an angler you need to be savvy. My answer to the predicament I was paddle to the back of Back Bay where the river dumps in. My theory was there would be enough current to inefficiently poison the area. Lucky for us I was correct and Sierra and I caught some fish.
While there won’t be any return trips to Back Bay this week we had one fish to remember. Sierra was fishing a Chernobyl ant along a current line and landed one of the biggest bluegill I’ve ever seen in Back Bay. This fish is a stunner. The dinner plate sunfish also gives me hope that next year there will be fishing in Back Bay.
Amazing bluegilll.
Tad
I was stoked to see this fish take the fly Tad. The nieces are getting it done this summer!