May 2016 Fly Fishing

May 2016 Fly Fishing

An early May brookie that fell for my snowshoe hare wing caddis emerger.  He was in good company - the fine wire ribbed dry flies lasted on average of 30 fish each before being destroyed... and I went through lots of them. :)

I rarely keep trout to eat, but early in the season I like to have a couple of fresh meals, and get a few meals worth in the freezer.  This May day I was fishing a local trout pond and fished for 6+ hours, with steady action nearly all day.  I must have caught and released more than a hundred fish, and put the ones I couldn't release unharmed onto the stringer.  The last fish of the day was that big boy in front.  He put me at the 5 pound limit.  For size comparison those other trout are all roughly the same size and about 9" long.  I didn't put a tape measure to the big fella, but he was a hog. :)

Below are the flies that did most of the work that day.  The larger one to the right was my version of a #14 caddis emerger with the brown translucent trailing shuck and snowshoe hare wing (there was a good hatch of similar looking caddis) and the #20 pheasant tail dropper, which looks like a ton of the small mayfly nymphs.  Not sure how many trout I've caught on tiny pheasant tails over the years, but it's A LOT. :)

Another freezer filling bunch of fat 14-16" brookies.

A smallmouth that took my soft hackle streamer below a dam on the Merrymeeting River flowing out of Lake Winnipesaukee in mid May.

While the Hendricksons were coming off in early May this is the duo that accounted for quite a few big brook trout.  Did better with the 2 nymphs than the Red Quill dry and Hendrickson dropper, even when fish were rising, for some reason. Go figure.

Another freezer filling limit of big brook trout.  Delicious. :)  The freezer is full, and unless a trout is injured beyond likely recovery they'll all be going back for the rest of the year.

I've got a gopro camera mounted on my net that takes photos periodically when I remember to press the button.  Below are some of those photos from May...