Under My Nose: Fishing on New Hampshire's Upper Connecticut River

"How could I have never fished this?” I asked our 33-year-old guide Mickey Cunliffe.

“It’s a bit of a sleeper area,” he replied. “Very popular locally, but thankfully the area doesn’t have a national reputation that would draw hordes of fly anglers, at least in the fall.”

After just one day on the upper Connecticut River in far northern New Hampshire, I wondered how these stretches of blue ribbon trout and salmon water have escaped the limelight. By all rights, they shouldn’t have, since the upper Connecticut turned out to be the most productive watershed I’ve ever fished in northern New England. And although it enjoys a statewide reputation, it’s lightly treaded by visiting anglers. This water had been under my nose for decades, unrecognized for its excellent fishing and conserved habitat.

The Fishery

Cunliffe is a patient, calm guide. He’s a single man, accompanied by his 80-pound half-Lab, half-Great Pyrenees dog Tilly. The upper Connecticut presents some challenging water, quick with veins of currents and difficult-to-reach, roiling eddies. My wife Darcie has a lot of saltwater fly-fishing experience, but had never angled a river, let alone one with no backcasting options that mandated a technical approach to each pool. Cunliffe was the perfect instructor, and despite three days of rain, he brought her tight on dozens of fish.

Located in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, the mighty Connecticut River courses south, defining the Vermont–New Hampshire state line and flowing through Massachusetts and Connecticut before eventually emptying into Long Island Sound. The Connecticut River strings together (from south to north) Lake Francis and First, Second, Third, and Fourth Connecticut lakes. There are two primary fly-fishing-only stretches. The Trophy Stretch runs from south of First Connecticut Lake to the entrance to Lake Francis. And the no-kill catch-and-release section is between First and Second Connecticut lakes. Both are less than 3 miles long, and both contain many holding pools, spawning beds, and barrier waterfalls inside tight, mossy canyons, with an array of perfect habitat for wild spawning landlocked salmon, as well as brook, brown, and rainbow trout.

While the no-kill stretch is catch-and-release and contains all wild trout, the Trophy Stretch is stocked and has a two-fish daily creel limit. New Hampshire Fish and Game stocks the Trophy Stretch annually, supplemented by another 1,000 browns, brookies, and rainbows from the Pittsburg Anglers Association, a nonprofit founded by the owners of Lopstick Lodge and Tall Timber Lodge.

Conserving the Land and Water

Lopstick Lodge co-owner Tom Caron has been vocal during the decades-long battle to conserve this entire watershed, something that was successfully completed in October 2003. The Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Project marked the placement of 171,000 acres of land and water into permanent conservation. Through money and investments made by the Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, Lyme Timber Company, and others, parcels of land were systematically acquired at a cost of $42 million. This private conservation area is New Hampshire’s largest such contiguous block, comprising 3 percent of all the land in the state.

In 2024, New Hampshire Fish and Game announced that they were considering changing regulations on all stretches of the upper Connecticut River, making bait and spin fishing legal in many areas that are currently fly-fishing-only. However, Fish and Game did allow for ample public comment. During these sessions, which ended in September 2024, there was a public outcry for patience and more consideration on these regulations. Overall, the consensus was that maintaining the fly-fishing-only stretches was not only critical for conservation, but also vital for the local economy. The fly-fishing-only sections are crucial to recreation tourism, which would be harmed if the fishery were allowed to be degraded in any way. At this time, the proposal has been shelved and no significant changes were made.

Easy Navigation

The Trophy Stretch between First Connecticut Lake and Lake Francis has a number of well-known, named pools, very much like the Atlantic salmon pools on rivers in the Canadian Maritimes. Most of the approaches require short, 5- to 15-minute walks on easy-to-follow paths. The Trophy Stretch abuts Route 3, the main road through Pittsburg, and there are plenty of parking areas. The Trophy Stretch can get crowded, especially in the spring and summer.

June and July are revered as the best months to fish this water, but most of the fish caught then are smallish stocked rainbows. However, mixed in are some much larger trout in the 2- to 4-pound-class, and plenty of wild natives as well. Fall is less crowded, and the fishing can be red hot, accented by the stunning autumn foliage.

The water temperature in the Trophy Stretch is consistently around 60 degrees F. thanks to the bottom-release dam at First Connecticut Lake. The release comes from 80 feet underwater, providing cool, reliable tailwater flows. Typically, the current runs around 150 cfs, which makes for  ideal fishing conditions. The evening of our arrival, Darcie and I started at Doc’s Pool, where riffles iron out into a smooth pool punctuated by an active beaver dam. A mother beaver and her young one occasionally startled us, but the fish still rose and we still caught them.

We skipped the easy-to-access pools to avoid other anglers, and opted for a nondescript run of pools, bends, and rips known as “the in-between section.”

“If you’re willing to walk ten minutes, you can have so much water to yourself,” says Cunliffe. This area is one of his favorites and was quite productive, keeping us taut all afternoon with a mix of landlocked salmon and brown trout up to about 16 inches.

It was raining on our arrival, and on day two it rained an inch and a half, but we kept fishing and had the river to ourselves. We headed ten minutes north to the no-kill stretch between First and Second Connecticut lakes. This stretch is slightly warmer, but still below 64 degrees on average, because the dam at Second Connecticut Lake doesn’t have as deep a release point as the one at First Connecticut Lake. There are timed releases scheduled each fall, bringing flows from a sluggish 50 cfs to 150 cfs, in an attempt to lower the level in Second Connecticut Lake to aid in the spawning of the lake trout that reside there. Downstream fishing also benefits from this, as it allows for fish to leap their way up cataracts deep in the river canyon to reach the spawning grounds just below the dam at Second Connecticut Lake.

Within minutes after arrival on the no-kill stretch, I was tight to one brookie after another, all glowing bright orange, crimson, and emerald in their pre-spawn colors.

There were also landlocked salmon. My biggest was 18 inches—a mature fish that had made it up the falls to spawn. After a few hours we’d landed enough wild brookies and salmon and decided to head down into the canyon.

To access the canyon, we scrambled down steep embankments, threaded our way over slick, exposed roots, and tried  to avoid shearing out on the moss that covered every boulder and tree. The mist from the cascading whitewater pounding its way between the granite walls propagated so much greenery, ferns, and mosses that this looked more like the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State than anything in the East. We scrambled among slick boulders and waded into turbulent, pushy water to the edges of small pools that interrupted the whitewater chaos barreling down from above.

The angling was decidedly technical, flipping nymphs and streamers just below the crash point of each cascade. The most productive fly was a Bugger style known as a Golden Retriever. Euro nymphing, high-sticking, and quick flips and drifts were brief and thrown in rapid succession. Darcie had it mastered at this point, despite her previous inexperience, and was consistently drawing strikes. One strike was particularly vicious, and flossed her line through the foam as a big landlocked salmon tried to run downstream. She attempted to tension the fish out of the rapids and keep it in the small pool. But the fish started to gain ground, slowly nearing the next set of rapids, which would likely result in certain disaster. Cunliffe directed Darcie as she battled her foe.

“Reel, reel!” Mickey ordered Darcie.

“I can’t!” she shouted over the roar of the whitewater. “Because it’s gone!”

Her reel had fallen off the rod and washed downstream with the brisk current. She was almost handlining in a big salmon in fast water, tenkara style.

“Easy up, rod high!” Mickey directed, as he took a swipe at the fish with his net and came up with a blue-cheeked, handsome salmon of almost 20 inches.

“Nicely done,” he complimented her. “Both girls put up a great fight, but Darcie came out on top!”

With a thrash of her tail, in the misty glow of the canyon walls, the salmon swam away toward the bottom of the plunge pool to rest, face upstream, and go at it again toward the spawning grounds. After all, it’s the fight of her life, and she’s still there to keep on swinging.

If You Go

Since 1982, the Caron family has owned Tall Timber Lodge on the shore of Back Lake, a collection of cabins surrounding a historic log lodge built in 1946. Tom Caron and his four siblings operate the property year-round—it’s popular with snowmobilers during the winter. The siblings took over as second-generation owners in 1991. Tom is the designated grouse and woodcock hunting guide during the fall season, along with his five German shorthaired pointers.

There are rooms in the main lodge, but the lakeside cabins, many equipped with wood stoves and kitchenettes, are more private and were perfect for our visit. The lodge offers a fleet of teal powerboats for an evening of cruising or trolling. Each cabin has a fire pit and grill out front. The fire pit was the perfect place to warm up and dry off after long days of fishing in the cool rain.

Tall Timber Lodge can arrange guides, floats, and even shoulder-season cast-and-blast trips that include both fly fishing and wingshooting once grouse season opens. Visit TallTimber.com.

The upper Connecticut River fly-angling stretches are open from January 1 to October 15. As fall approaches, the landlocked salmon run up from Lake Francis to their spawning habitat just below Second Connecticut Lake. Brookies pre-spawn in autumn as well, when the fishing is still productive, but the crowds are gone. Spring and summer offer excellent fishing, but the Trophy Stretch is heavily stocked, and the crowds at that time of year can be thick.

Tackle and Flies

A 9-foot 5-weight fly rod with a floating line is adequate for most fishing on the upper Connecticut. Bring a 4-weight for the handful of smaller tributaries. Use 4X or 5X tippet in the upper, skinny water. While floating is possible, the great majority of the water here is accessed by wading.

Darcie and I found many dry/dropper combinations that were productive. Yellow Stimulators, Hornbergs, and various caddis imitations in #8-10 worked well. For droppers, #14 Copper Johns, Hare’s Ears, and San Juan Worms proved to be good choices. We recommend #4-10 Woolly Buggers in olive and tan, Grey Ghosts, Golden Retrievers, and Muddler Minnows as well.

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Brian Irwin is Fly Fisherman’s New England field editor. He practices medicine in North Conway, New Hampshire. He has a specialty in travel medicine and he accompanies adventure filmmakers around the world.

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