Last Friday, Doug, Shane, and I closed the shop down around 7pm and head
north beginning our 10-hour drive through the night. Over the past year or so,
I have been working on a new program with localized travel. Trying to get
people excited about destinations that can be driven to. I was talking to our
Orvis rep, Doug Bear about it last year, and he loved the idea. He introduced
me to the head guide and owners of Lopstick Outfitters in Pittsburg NH, at
Somerset last year.
About six months ago they emailed Casey and I about coming up and
checking out their operation. A trip to NH for landlocked salmon, yeah we were
both in. Well Casey got a last minute call eight days before the trip, his
brother was getting married. That’s a whole other story, so Shane got to go
along.
Almost running out of gas, because the whole state of Vermont closes at
9pm, a family sized bag of M&Ms, at least three roadside bathroom breaks,
and standstill traffic on Rt. 222, we made it to Pittsburg NH with about an
hour to take a nap.
Now, on to the fishing, the salmon run was late, just like everything
this year, so we didn’t see the numbers of big fish that are normally around
this time of year, but we did manage to get into quite a few nice 14 to 18 inch
landlocks, and a lot of rainbows, brooks, and a couple browns. We were fishing
for three days, day one and three were trout and salmon trip, day two we
changed it up a bit and took the bass boat out for pike. With evening temps in the
low 30s, it was no surprise that the fishing didn’t really start until about
noon. When that sun finally came over the trees, the pike turned their feedbags
on!
The third day we fished on our own, and we had great success, with help
from our guide, telling us where we should spend most of the day. The fishing
was great, there was a trophy landlocked salmon landed and released without a
picture (Shane!), a rare moose siting, and a nice little swim (me) to finish
the trip strong!
All in all, Lopstick Outfitters knows their fishery and knows how to
treat guests well. I would highly recommend, changing your next Montana trip,
to a trip to New Hampshire.
Thank you Doug, Bill, and the staff at Lopstick for making up feel at
home!
More Photos to come from Shane's camera!
High quality stuff. Thanks for taking us along. There's a ton of great fishing in the east that people don't know about.
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