We're here on the Connecticut River this morning at Sumner Falls, just a few miles south of white River Junction.

The Native Americans fished here for probably thousands of years for sturgeon and salmon.

Well, those fish are long gone, but we're going to drift the river today in a drift boat and fish for smallmouth bass.

♪ Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

And I'm going fishing.

Now, joining me for today's adventure are two other characters: John Marshall, a river guide and an old friend, and Rich Masse, a New Hampshire writer.

Now, each of these gentlemen have interesting reasons for being on the river today, and we'll talk about that once we get in the boat.

We'll also talk about the Connecticut River history, why it attracts anglers from all over the country, and we'll discuss the art of drift boat fishing.

So, shall we shove off?

Sounds like a great idea.

Let's get after it.

Yes!

[water spreading] Here we go.

[Willem chuckling] We’re off.

Drift boat fishing is pretty much what the name implies drifting down a river and fishing as you go.

Like the old dories used by anglers back in the 1800s, drift boats are powered by oars and moving water.

Well, I've been I've been running a drift boat now for 25 years.

This is a special drift boat, right?

Yes.

I had it custom built in Portland, Oregon.

The theory of a drift boat with a deep rocker on it is that it's just the shape of the trough of a big wave.

Exactly.

So when you go into the hole, you don't get water over the bow or stern.

And you can also turn the thing on a dime.

Right.

Which is good unless you're trying to go straight.

[Willem chuckling] Yeah.

They're great.

Very safe, very comfortable.

Yeah.

Terrific boat.

But they're not for everyone because... it requires a bit of work.

Yeah, it does.

But I love it.

I love to keep in shape.

I'm the kind of person who likes to exercise for long periods, so it suits my personality perfectly.

This will do it.

♪ This is bigger than a usual drift boat, isn’t it?

Yes.

This is an eight-foot model.

And I had this one specially made for this river.

A little bigger, a little more comfortable, and a little more stable.

And yet, we'll still go through rapids.

But it offers my guests incredible stability and comfort.

♪ John Marshall is an old friend of mine and one of the best guides on the Connecticut.

He knows the river well and the fish even better.

They get lethargic when the water gets warmer.

Yeah, pretty much until we get the release.

The release is what turns them on.

Okay.

And also in the morning at this time in the morning they can be turned on because it's the coolest part of the day.

The water temperature is the coolest because of the cooler nights.

Yeah.

Remember Art Flick in the Streamside Guide?

He figured that whenever water temperature changed, that's when the fish started to hit.

Yeah, and it only takes a couple degrees.

Yeah.

Up or down.

Yeah.

♪ Nice cast, you idiot!

There are a lot of similarities between us.

Will, I'm the same way when I fly fish.

I'm my own worst critic.

Yep.

♪ I fly cast for fish and so does John.

Rich spin casts, which is fine, but perhaps later we'll work on changing that.

I notice quite often I have folks ask me the difference between a fly rod and a spinning rod.

You know, I guess you could probably answer that by saying, Well, what's the difference between a cat and a dog?

They're both lovable pets, and they give a great deal of satisfaction, but they're different.

And a fly rod is pretty much a tool in which you’re casting the line and the lure is going along for the ride.

So it's a matter of learning the technique to cast a line, and then the leader and fly go along for the ride.

Now, with a spinning rod, you're casting the lure on the line, and the weight of the lure is what casts with the... tip and forward section of the rod.

I find a fly rod is stronger than a spinning rod too... when you hook a fish.

If it's a really big fish, it comes in much sooner with a fly rod than a spinning rod.

With a spinning road you’re just cranking and hoping the line doesn't break.

Fly rod, you have all that length of rod pulling on the fish, and it seems to work better.

♪ Nice stretch of river, John.

Yeah, well, I've been floating this for 25 years.

I started on the upper river 25 years ago, fishing strictly for trout.

I would come down here from the... middle of July to early September for smallmouth because the trout fishing would heat up there.

Well, as the years went along, I started to notice that the smallmouth fishing was terrific all summer long.

Well, John... There we go!

Keep on him.

Keep him tight.

Yep, I got him.

[Willem chuckling] That’s a start.

I saw your rod bending, but you never said anything.

Yeah, well, I wanted to be sure.

That’s a start.

Sure?

[Willem chuckling] I've had too many false alarms.

All right.

Oh, nice one.

It's putting up a good fight.

Doesn't want to come up.

Yeah, the smallmouth never knows when he's licked.

That's the beauty.

All right.

There you go.

Put a little put a little pressure on him and he may jump.

Okay.

Let's see if we can get him to do it again.

Raise your rod up high.

That's it.

Raise your rod up a little higher.

There you go.

Excellent.

There we go.

Oh... he just [escaped].

I think he did.

Oh no!

The jump works.

It did.

It did work.

Right, right.

[Willem chuckling] That was a smallmouth bass.

Yeah.

About our average about a pound and a half, two pounds?

Yep, looked like it was.

Nice fight to him.

Oh, yeah.

They're great.

Bass fishermen get very upset with us trout fisherman because we think we're fishing for the king of fish.

We are, of course, but the bass fight unbelievably well.

I just had something, I think.

Another follow?

Yeah.

Good, good.

That’s good.

They're looking at the repel, and maybe they're starting to wake up a little bit.

♪ Rich Masse is an avid angler and a writer.

He recently retired as the regional editor of the Nashua Telegraph.

So now he's free to fish.

He's here with John and me, thanks to his wife.

Now, Rich, question for you.

I understand you're here because of an unusual circumstance.

Well, that's right.

You fish anyway, right?

That's right.

Well, my wife knows that I'm a great fan of your books, and... of the programs Windows to the Wild and Wildlife Journal.

So, when New Hampshire Public Television auctioned an opportunity to take part in the program, she bid on it and kept at it and eventually won.

Oh, man.

So it was a present from your wife?

That's exactly what it was.

Now, did she have fun doing that?

Did she have anyone bidding against her?

She certainly did.

Oh, did she really?

Absolutely.

You can imagine.

That must’ve been exciting.

Yeah.

I'm far from the only one who would have loved to be here.

Well, that's great.

Well, I'm glad she did.

This is fun.

And so am I. She probably had a quarter as much fun betting on it than you’re having right now.

I'm sure she did.

All you have to do is fill in the other three quarters.

Exactly.

Well, we're doing that already.

It's been a great day already.

♪ Now, you’re still writing, right Rich?

Well, the writing I do now is mostly volunteer.

I do a little bit of work for New Hampshire Public Radio.

Yeah.

And... in Wolfeboro, I'm involved in helping write a grant application for a watershed manager.

Oh yeah?

Sometimes I do a little bit of writing for websites.

But it's all pro bono?

Yeah, exactly.

Oh dear.

You know what Samuel Johnson said about that?

What's that?

No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.

[chuckling] ♪ Over there?

Yeah.

I took a trout here before, too.

Right in between see where that current is?

Yeah.

Right on the seam.

There we go.

There we go.

Yeah.

Good job.

Not a monster, but we'll... Lost him.

He get off?

Ah.

It’s all right.

They're here.

♪ What's your usual fishing, Rich?

Well, I live on Lake Wentworth in Wolfeboro, so that's where most of my fishing takes place.

A fair amount of it is just live bait fishing.

Wentworth is well-known as a smallmouth bass lake.

A lot of tournaments there.

And so, when I do go out in the summertime, I'll use crayfish.

But we know where the holes are and we just drop the bait over and, as often as not, have a little bit of luck.

Yeah.

♪ Fishing the Connecticut is fun because of what the river has to offer history, wildlife, and some fast-moving water.

Mother Earth.

[lapping and scraping] [water splashing] ♪ By midday, the fish take a break and so do we.

John brought along lunch, and I don't mean your ordinary fare.

♪ Ah yes.

Thank you, my good man.

[Willem chuckling] Yes sir.

♪ What you haven't heard until now, Rich... is that John is a graduate of the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, New York.

Really?

Among other accomplishments.

It was a long time ago, but I'm able to bring that schooling into my business now.

Did you ever use it?

Yeah.

Yeah, well, I'm using it now.

[laughing] Now, I have two different types of cocktail sauce.

I have one that’s what they call regular it’s very good.

And I have one that has a bite that's a little hot.

That's what they used to catch here.

♪ Nothing like that in the river anymore.

No... They tried.

...it’s kind of disappointing.

Put millions of dollars into it and extremely minimal results.

This is rather nice, wouldn't you say?

I would say so.

It's a little different than the usual fishing expedition but... Yeah.

The trick, though, Rich, is not to feel that you deserve it.

[Rich chuckling] Because, you know, you'll be expecting it every time you go.

[Willem chuckling] Even after feeding the camera crew, there are a few leftovers, which, being an old Yankee, by God, I won't let go to waste.

Did you throw that shrimp away?

Yeah, I did.

It fell on top of lettuce.

That’s okay.

We have to get a shot of this: Will eating out of the garbage.

Thank you.

The NHPTV auction item that Rich's wife bid on was to have him spend a day helping the program's production crew.

Steve, the guy who films Windows to the Wild, reminds him of that.

Rich, you thought you'd be lugging gear is what I heard.

Well, that was my understanding of what the... ...what the offering was.

This works out a lot better.

Oh, I see, like, lugging gear.

Thought he’d be part of the crew.

Being like a caddy for the camera guy.

Yep, exactly.

Bring them coffee, you know?

Had it been a long hike up, you probably would be carrying something.

♪ So, here we are, sitting beside a river, the temperature hovering around 90 degrees or so.

And what does John serve up for dessert?

Wait till your wife sees this on TV, Richard.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think... She’s going to wish she came herself.

By God, not too shabby, John.

You guys leaving the ice cream there?

Ready for a little fly casting lesson after dessert?

Sure.

Glad to try it.

You guys put your hats on.

Give you an idea of... what it's like.

♪ While I take a nap, John and Rich take to the river for a lesson on fly casting.

And pretty much you’re at 1 o’clock, 11 o’clock.

That’s where your pole is.

1 o’clock, 11 o’clock, and slowly drop.

Think of that 11 to 1.

And then the next thing is the line control system.

And that is, you always hold the rod, like, comfortably with your four fingers and your thumb right up at the top of the grip.

Nice and comfortable.

And you always put the line either 1 or 2 fingers right there.

That's the control system.

That's called the two-point system, and it's a must.

And now when you’ve got just like that.

Okay.

Yep.

Those two fingers.

And never reach up here.

I've had people who have been fishing all over the world, really notable fly fishermen, and, you know, been fishing for 20 years, and yet every time they hook up, they reach up here, they take a pull, and then they’re dead they can’t do anything.

The fish is jumping all over the place, and they're trying to go like this.

They're going like this.

They're going like this and doing all this.

And whenever you see anyone put the line in their mouth and things like that, some folks think, That's accepted.

That's what they're supposed to do.

It's not.

It shows an inexperienced fisherman.

1 o’clock, 11 o’clock, abrupt snap, and the control system, which is never reach up here.

If you can remember that and always work like this, you're way ahead of most fishermen that’ve been fishing for 20 years.

Bang around with the control system till you’re ready to cast.

As soon as you're ready to cast, let go of the control system.

Just for casting.

That's the only time.

That's the only time you let go of the control system.

Now, hold on to this as you are casting.

Almost like nope.

Okay, a little better, a little better.

The coordination of everything.

You've got timing involved.

You've got angle involved.

Relax.

Nice and easy.

You’ve got the idea, you’ve got the idea.

A little easier.

As I told John, I think it's a question of muscle memory.

And, really, it takes a while to establish that.

You know, it seems like very, very there you go, there you go!

Excellent!

All right!

It's not something that I do routinely.

I watch John and Will do it, and it's clear they don’t have to think about it.

It’s like driving a car, right?

You don't have to think about how to drive a car.

After a while, your muscles sort of remember how to do it.

It's the same thing here.

You have to spend some time doing it until it becomes second nature.

Start working on that and much, much better.

Much, much better.

Well, near the end, it seemed like you were really starting to tune in.

You were starting to get the feel of it.

I think your suggestion about watching the line, watching where the pole was... Turning sideways.

...made a big difference.

That helped a lot.

Very good.

Very, very good.

♪ What I need, John, are a few clouds over that sun.

Yes, I think that's what's hurting us now.

Although the morning was nice and cloudy and we didn't have too much action.

Yeah, well, I know a spot where the trees are very, very high and very close to the bank where it's going to be a good shade line down a way on the Vermont side.

♪ Woah!

Okay!

[Willem chuckling] All right!

Give me the net.

[Willem chuckling] Well, that fly works.

You want somebody to net that for you?

Got it.

As soon as he gets it up here.

Yeah.

Well, seeing as we're not catching a million of them, I gotta take my time.

You're not going to make him jump, huh?

I'm not going to.

Yeah, right.

All right.

Nice fish.

Amazing how they dig, isn't it, Will?

A little higher.

Got him.

Nice fish.

Yeah, a couple pounds.

Very nice.

[line reeling] Get that in a second.

There.

Ready.

Well, we know that fly works, so we’ll stick with that one.

Yes sir, it does.

Worked just fine.

What I'm doing now is wetting my hands so that I don't remove the protective mucosa on the fish.

Did he swallow it now?

Nope.

Hooked beautifully right in the lip.

Good.

And now we're getting ready for the release.

And I really like to take my time releasing these fish.

Every one to me is just so special.

And I just take and there he goes!

He said he had enough of that.

They always give you a face full.

Let’s look for another one.

God, that's great.

We got one.

♪ There aren't many things nicer than having the sun overhead and the fish below.

And we still have an hour or two of river ahead of us before we reach the take-out point.

♪ People call those whistles that same way they used to call refrigerators ice boxes, but that's a horn.

Whistle is: Hoooooo!

♪ We got 3 or 4 fish right here.

I think they're hot for the two.

Okay.

But we got to give it to him.

Okay.

Did he pick it up now?

I’ve seen one fish come for it.

Did he pick it up?

No.

Okay.

We got about a dozen fish right out in front of us.

Had 4 or 5 bites but haven't quite hooked up yet.

If they had hands, they'd be thumbing their noses.

♪ Yeah there’s a little rut there, isn’t there?

[Willem chuckling] Okay, well, we made it.

We're at the take-out now.

We had a terrific day, eh?

Absolutely.

And met a new friend, which is great.

You're going to come again, I hope?

I’d love to.

It’s been a great time.

We didn't exactly deplete the river of fish today.

But you know that whole expression, A bad day fishing is better than good day doing just about anything else ?

You’re darn right.

Well, we interested a few fish, but there was a lot more out there.

They just weren't willing today.

[inaudible].

We landed one and hooked three.

So, that's all right.

One a piece.

And they were distributed equally too.

Who could ask for more than that?

Well, we could.

[Willem chuckling] Thank you, John.

A pleasure.

A pleasure, Will!

It was the usual fantastic time.

It's always a pleasure for me to spend a a day on the river.

And with two good men, it’s a bonus.

So it's again time to say goodbye.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

I’m Willem Lange, and I hope to see you again on Windows to the Wild.

♪