Mid-winter for all of the Northeast felt like autumn. Temperatures for November, December, and early January ran between five and ten degrees above normal depending upon where you live. There has was no snow to speak of. At my house in Windham, we have had green grass for most of winter so far as I write this in mid January.
I have no ice fishing report for you because except for the northern half of Maine and New Hampshire, lakes and many ponds do not hold enough ice to support the weight of anybody. Ice will form and then a warm spell and a little wind melts it. Final ice-in and ice-our may only be six weeks apart.
Rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds that remain open all year have been fly- fishable with little snow, ice, and below freezing temps to contend with. Nice browns and rainbows have been landed in the East Outlet, the Presumpscot River, the Saco, the Royal River (in Yarmouth, Maine), and the rivers of southeast NH such as the Lamprey. And those are just the ones I know about. Many of us put away our fly-fishing gear, took out our ice-fishing traps and paraphernalia, shoved that to the side, and took out our fly-fishing gear and boats again!
My vegetable garden kept producing and I harvested veggies until almost Christmas, only covering the plants on a few cold days. I remember when for all practical purposes, the gardening was done by early October with the ground freezing solid by early November.
I enjoyed catching up with long time fly-fishing friends at the Fly Fishing Show in Marlborough in mid-January. Because of Covid, I haven’t seen them much recently. I got to say howdy to Abbie Schuster from Kismet Outfitters, Brett and Sue Damm from the Rangeley Fly Shop, author Bob Mallard, guide Scott Whitaker, from Bucktail Guide Service, Brian from Pheasant Tail Guide Service, and Brian Comfort from Deerfield Fly Shop. I have to say, I enjoyed the social interaction.
Of course, I also enjoyed chatting with readers of my books, some of those made the trip to Marlborough hoping to meet me and say hi.
Will it be an early spring? Time will tell. ‘Til next time.