Fishing for Wild New Hampshire Rainbows

Take a trip with me into the cascades of New Hampshire in search of the elusive wild stream born rainbow trout.

First Pool

Cascade Rainbows

by: Brad Hardy

They say if you spend enough time wandering around the woods you either go crazy, or find something special eventually.  Well I'm already not right in the head,  so finding something special it is!  Come with me on a journey into the cascades of New Hampshire.

I hiked into this stream in early may as part of multi-stream scouting trip, no rod(cause I wouldn't get anywhere with one!)  Found the water to be way too cold, but nice looking, so I flipped some rocks and found tons and tons and tons of caddis larvae and mayfly crawlers everywhere.  Also spooked a bunch of fish after looming up on some pools, I'd be back for sure...in about a month.

Today I made that journey, armed with a bushy yellow dry and a small dropper I was off.  My second cast was rewarded by a tug and run all over the pool, a bulldog of a fish to hand and it was a.....wild rainbow of about 9 inches  :)   Before I could get a shot he was gone....lively bugger.   Next cast....another one.

Such color!

Well I thought, this is certainly not what I expected but I'll take it.  Moving on up revealed some large cascades and deep plunge pools, all full of eager fish.  I spent about 2.5 hours here this afternoon, covered about 1/4 mile of stream.  Encountered 30 + fish with a ratio of  10:1  Rainbows to Brookies.  Such interesting colors on these little guys, they act just the opposite of their brookie counterparts when hooked.  Instead of diving and staying deep the race all over the place, sometimes right back upstream at breakneck speeds.

Ah man.....out of time again.  Planning on visiting this place very soon.  

Cascade Rainbows