Closing Day for Trout Ponds in NH

I (Clay) was telling my daughter (Z) yesterday that trout ponds were closing for the year. She said "Let's go get a trout after school!"
As a good father, possibly going for father of the year, I said "Sure let's go."

Z and Nolan skip their way to the fishing hole

 So after school we grabbed her best friend Nolan and her dad and we headed to Fall's pond on the Kankamagus Highway.

Rocky Gorge

After the short hike across the swift river and rocky gorge, we arrived at our fishing spot.

Chris (Nolan's Dad) was concerned that this pond would be fished out. I said "Have Faith My friend, I know where fish live!"

We set the kids up with a fishing pole a tiny hook, split shot and a little piece of worm. Our kids are 5 so sitting and waiting for a fish is hard work, so we attached little bells to the rod tips and the kids ran around and even played in the water while waiting.

We didn't have to wait long, within 5 minutes, the fish gods provided us with some very nice brook trout.

Nolan and Chris fight a nice brookie

After some quick pictures these fish were released and will not see a hook again until the third Saturday in April, when we will return and catch them again. Happy Fishing

In Search of the Longnose in Milan

Our friend Jake invited us to spend some time in the Androscogin Watershed in search of long nose suckers.. He was after trout, but that just seems too easy to us.

 So we checked in with Fish and Game and they told us about a spot that they shocked several dozen up so we headed out. Hopes high as always

 We fished this beautiful little brook, that was screaming "Fish Live Here" and we saw no sign of life.

 So we decided to float down the Andro and drag some lines on the bottom, there had to be a pile of longnose Suckers somewhere.

Jake found a pile of tiny yellow perch

 These weren't the fish we were looking for, so we kept floating.

Baby Smallie...

Still not the fish we're looking for

Finally Jake got into some game fish action... with this monster Large Mouth

When we hooked this monster fallfish on the bottom, we thought we had our Sucker, but we were snubbed, but this fallfish was a great way to end the morning. We just love these beautiful fish and love that these minnows fight with the same energy that any trout will fight with. So we kissed it goodbye and vowed to come back in the spring and get a longnose during the spawn.