Nissitissit TR
 

My Mass license arrived in the mail the other day, so I took the
opportunity to check out a spot on the Nissitissit that I'd been
wondering about. A short walk from the road along the edge of a field,
down an embankment, and there lies the Niss. Downstream, there's a log
lying across the river creating a small spillway. Hmmm ... looks like
the ideal spot! I follow a trail along the river to a point just
downstream of the aforementioned spillway, turn to walk down to a
convenient-looking spot, and I encounter a heavy cable strung across
the path sporting a big "no trespassing, hunting, fishing, blah, blah,
blah .. violators will be persecuted .. blah, blah, blah..." (or words
to that effect).

I walk back upstream and take a somewhat more difficult path to about
the same place - no signs, shotguns, or constabulary encountered.
Perched on the roots of a big stump, I throw a little line into the
flow and let the fly drift with the current. I can't backcast, so I use
a roll-cast to reposition the fly in the current. A few casts and
something tugs & lets go. Try again - this time the fly is taken,
underneath the surface. The 6'6"/3wt bends nicely as I pull in a 10-12"
Rainbow and net it. Safely released, I try again. Another hit! This one
is nearly in the net but gets off. A few more hits with no results,
then things go quiet. I leave that spot & move back upstream to where I
came down the embankment. There's a small tributary flowing into the
main river so I decide to give the outlet a try. One bite, a few jumps
-one right at the fly, but he missed(!). No more action, but I go home
a happy camper.

Hope to return one day soon...

mark

Thanks for the update.
I took my daughter out to the Hopkinton State Park last weekend early,
and we started working the slow moving water - it was more an excuse to
use the license than anything else, but turned exciting as fish started
pulling down flies from the surface -

So we spent some time matching what we thought they'd take, and we
started working it - and pulled in a bunch of pumpkinseed sized
sunfish. It's sort of like riding a moped when you really, really want
to be on a Harley Davidson - still very fun, but you're embarrassed if
someone sees you type of thing...

We felt ok about our fishing prowess, until I saw a piece of wood
floating by, and all the sunfish hitting it.

Well, at least the kid had fun.

"NoAnacin" wrote in news:1116675966.854750.139470
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

We felt ok about our fishing prowess, until I saw a piece of wood
floating by, and all the sunfish hitting it.

Well, at least the kid had fun.


I met someone once who lived on a pond in Lawrence, Mass area. One
evening we went out on his deck and and he says, watch this. The guy
produces a a plastic bag full of 10 inch stale pita bread and frisbees
it out about 15 feet. These dark shawdows of huge sunfish follow it in
the air to meet it at its landing point and then rip it shreds like so
many pirhana. If Dave Whitlock was there he would be forced to
conclude that sunnies are smarter than trout and smallies ;). I was
thinking the same until the 'piece of wood' comment. Maybe it was
infested with an insect/worm or something?

It was rotten and punky, like my 14 year old, but with the insect
variety. How is that for cryptic?

They are pretty voracious, and they only respond to serious twitching -
and, basically, don't give a crap about how close you might be wading
to them, so they're near perfect for a 9 year old kid trying to sling
line out there and catch something.