Fish New Hampshire and Relax... We have what
you're looking for.
Try for Trout in SW New Hampshire By Mike Racine, Fisheries
Biologist, Region 4/Keene
Trout fishing is well underway
throughout the state. Hatchery trucks have been rolling since
early April stocking
our streams and ponds with brookies, rainbows, and browns. Region
4's stocking targets for brook trout are 9,500 fingerlings,
75,000 yearlings, 650 two year olds, and 80 three year olds. We
also put in over 32,000 yearling brown trout, over 57,000 yearling
rainbow trout, and approximately 2,000 tiger trout.
Local angler
Fred Gove reports catching some nice fish in Dublin Lake,
Dublin, NH during the opening
weekend. The 20" trout was stocked in the Spring of 2003.
Beginning in 2005, the daily harvest number of brook trout in
Dublin Lake in Dublin has changed from a "5 fish or 5 pounds,
whichever limit is reached first," to a daily limit of 3
fish (with no weight limits). The management decision backing this
move were
discussed in New Hampshire Wildlife Journal’s March/April
2005 issue (click
here to download* PDF 195 KB) and in the Hawkeye’s
April issue. Basically, the change was made to manage Dublin Lake
as
a quality
fishery.
The
lake has incredible forage leading to high brook trout growth rates.
We hope that decreasing the daily harvest limits of 5 trout to
3 trout per day will lead to increased numbers of holdover trout,
and thus larger fish for the following year. We expect this transition
to take several years to come into fruition.
Beginning in 2004, we started to stock trout into Franklin Pierce
Lake in Hillsborough. Last years stocking of brown trout will continue
and be supplemented with rainbow trout as well. The relatively
new and underutilized trout fishery should be producing some nice
fish this spring, summer, and into next winter (especially if the
browns are able to take advantage of the stunted white perch population).
Another new place to try to fish for trout is the lower Ashuelot
River in Winchester. We began stocking brown and rainbow trout
there in 2003. Although long regarded as being an extremely polluted
river, the Ashuelot has rebounded and, in places, offers trout
excellent habitat, water and very abundance food resources. Reports
indicate that trout stocked in past years are surviving the winter
and brown trout in these sections have the potential to reach sizes
up to 5 lbs within a couple years. This section of the Ashuelot
is a great place to fish, whether you want to use a fly rod or
spinning gear. Use big lures or flies that imitate minnow or crayfish
and hold on.
The smelt run in Dublin Lake and Nubanusit
Lake in Nelson were excellent this year. As John Viar’s
report last week noted, these runs are not the end-all be-all
in determining
the
abundance of smelt. However, these fish are excellent forage
for trout and salmon and seeing them in such numbers always makes
one excited about the great fishing to be had.
A
User-Pay, User-Benefit Program Researching and managing fisheries and teaching people
about aquatic ecosystems are funded by your license dollars and by the
Federal Aid in Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program. Your purchases of
fishing equipment and motorboat fuels make a difference to New Hampshire's fisheries.
Click here to learn more.
*To view this or any PDF document, you must
have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software on your computer.
To download the latest version of Acrobat Reader, click
here to go to the Adobe web site.
