Valley Angler: Fishing with friends

Published Date Written by Bill Thompson

It has been raining so long it is hard to remember the last time we saw the sun. On Sunday the Saco was roaring along at a little over 17,000 cubic feet per second. Does anyone remember that only a few short weeks ago we were in a drought? However, between the deluges we have managed to get in some fishing.

We had a fine evening on the Ellis Thursday. When we arrived at the pool our friend Patrick was already there and fast to a trout. It didn't take us long to get rigged up and join him. Trout were rising and taking bugs with reckless abandon. It didn't take long before Janet had her first fish of the night. Patrick played the part of the gillie and netted Janet's trout and than took her picture. Janet, with Patrick's help, caught a couple more before I managed to hook and land one. Patrick dutifully took my picture as well.

All was going well when three other fishermen arrived on the scene. Two of these fellows did the right thing and took up positions well below where we were fishing. The third fellow boldly waded in between where Janet and I were fishing. Three fishermen in less than 50 feet is not a good thing for anyone. I mentioned to our new friend that he just might be a little to close for comfort. His answer was: "You fish up there and I'll fish here." He made no mention of the fact that Janet was just off his left elbow.

Patrick said that he might have taken a slightly more aggressive stance than I had. Truth is you do feel like forcing the issue sometimes, but I reminded myself that he was from a very small state to our south with a very large population and that perhaps he was used to fishing elbow to elbow. The irony was that Janet continued to catch trout while he flailed away and went fishless. In my frustration I snagged a tree behind me and managed to break off my fly. However, as soon as I had tied on a new fly I too caught fish. Eventually he reeled in and went off a little down stream to the left of Janet — still too close. Janet continued to catch fish much to the delight of Patrick and me. After I had landed a nice fat rainbow I reeled in and called it a night. Patrick took up my spot and was soon catching trout. I helped Janet land a couple of more fish and than she too called it an evening. When we left our friend was still fishless. Sometimes justice does prevail.

The next evening we fished the Wildcat. Janet and I have recently acquired new rods made by Bill Franke. Janet got hers for Christmas and I just recently got mine in a swap with Bill. Janet's is an 8 foot 4 weight and mine is a 6 foot 2 weight. Janet has been fishing her rod since the beginning of the season, but this was the first that I had to try mine out. The little 2 weight proved to be right at home on the Wildcat. We took turns swapping our rods back and fourth catch brook trout on almost every cast. Any serious angler who might have happened by might have thought that there was way too much laughter going on between us. The only deterrent to the evening was that eventually the noseeums drove us from the river.

See you on the river.

Bill and Janet Thompson own North Country Angler in North Conway.