Newspaper Article

The wild right angle on trout

Monninger, Joseph

2007

Overview

\"I've fished streams where I could jump from one side to the other without difficulty,\" [John A. Viar] said, \"but nearly all streams in New Hampshire hold fish. Small streams are an underused resource in most of New England.\" I have been fishing the small streams of the White Mountain National Forest for a decade. The other day I got out my gear and headed for the Baker River. Go to any fly-fishing website and you won't find the Baker mentioned except in passing. Yet it, like many small rivers and streams in New Hampshire, is a delightful, stony brook in its mountain stretches, a bright, shimmering band through fragrant pine forests. It is a classic trout stream, complete with overhanging cover, pale white rocks, and sufficient deep pools and cut banks to make most casts pleasantly hopeful. Eventually it broadens and joins with the Pemigewasset River in Plymouth, emptying finally into the Merrimack River watershed. But in its headwaters, not far from Dartmouth's Mount Moosilauke Ravine Lodge on Route 118, it is a tumbling stream that carries snowmelt out of the mountains. \"You can find fish from 4 to 8 inches in most of our streams,\" Viar said. \"But you won't find a brookie with a more striking appearance anywhere than our native wild fish. They are gems. And cooked up on a campfire, they're hard to beat.\"

• Publisher: Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
• Subject: Fly fishing / Tourism / Warren New Hampshire