There wasn’t any fishing for us over the last few days. To say that Lake Winnipesaukee gets busy during the weekend is an understatement. Instead me, Granny, Mom, my sister’s family and brother’s family all headed up to his camp in Bartlett, NH near North Conway and relaxed, partied down and floated the Saco River. I had my Winston 4-weight Pure rigged in my kayak but never busted it out. It was insanely busy on the river up north as well.
Today however, with the weekend in the rearview, I awoke back in Wolfeboro and my niece Sierra and I hit Winnipesaukee bright and early at 5:30 AM. The blue sky we’ve been enjoying was replaced by thick low-lying clouds and light wind. Our goal, get Sierra a nice smallie on a popper.
Sierra can chuck a fly rod with the best of them. Sierra is my sisters’ kid and she lives up here in Wolfeboro and fishes almost every day of the summer. She’s caught a ton of fish including a nice smallie this spring but it was on a nymph. Today it was topwater or nothing.
Well it didn’t take her long. Literally at the first spot I took her she teased in a dandy. I say teased because I was watching her acting strange with her fly – what I mean was she had her popper under her rod tip and instead of casting she was staring at it. What I didn’t know was under her popper was a smallmouth stalking her fly and she was patiently waiting for him to sip it. I always tell the kids not to move the fly too fast for bass and boy was she following my protocol.
Sure enough that smallie sipped the popper and she laid the wood to him. Next thing I saw was her rod bent deep and a smallie two feet in the air. It wasn’t just a thrill for her but me too!
After a beautiful battle, Sierra was proudly posing with a fantastic smallmouth. I was stoked and off we went on a nice long morning where we landed 9 smallies between the two of us!
Of the 9 smallies only three were big guys. The rest were anywhere from 5” to 13” but all were fun. Along with the smallies we had a sprinkling of rock bass that ate the popper too. I’m looking a bit wild in the hair these days because I made a pack with myself that I’m not cutting it until I leave the country again!
The heat continues to roast New Hampshire. After we returned to camp around 9 AM the sun popped and in no time our temps were back up in the upper 80°’s. I love this stuff only because we could spend the rest of the day swimming off the dock.
This evening my cousin Adrienne came over with her man, Bill. Bill surprised me with 100 oysters. Bill and I shucked most and what we couldn’t bust open we roasted on the grill. I try not to overuse the word epic, but we had an Epic feast!
Jeff you continue to be a great ambassador to the sport of fly fishing. I think too many of us forget to go out of our way to involve the younger people in our lives in this sport we love. Great job! Coming from a bald man… nice bucket head of hair you got there!
Thanks Lance. And glad you like my Corona Dew!