The Western Maine Mountains rivers and streams have been fishing well all summer because of the coldwater flows from all the rain. Sometimes, most rivers have been unfishable because of the storms causing flooding, but in-between, iife has been good. Unlike the last few summers when low and hot water caused all of the fish that could to migrate into lakes and ponds, this year many fish have stayed put and pulses of water have actually drawn trout and salmon into the rivers and streams.

The last few summers I have fished the smallest tributaries – the blue lines you see on maps away from roads. In these small streams, the water stayed cooler and I had a ball catching hand-sized brookies on small rods. This summer I have fished those same headwaters for a different reason – they clear and return to normal flows fastest after a heavy rain washes everything else downstream. The hand-sized trout have been eager to hit a fly this year, but bigger fish, up to ten inches, have moved upstream, and we have enjoyed the surprise takes from bigger fish.

Last week, I checked out the Kennebago River downstream from the dam, visiting some of its more famous pools and was excited to see that a few large trout and salmon had already begun their spawning runs from Mooselookmeguntic Lake. How did I learn this? By fishing to them of course. The larger lake-run fish weren’t super abundant, but I caught one or so on every foray to the river along with smaller 6 to 10 inch trout and salmon. The sea-run fish all exceeded 16 inches and one salmon was one of the largest I have ever caught. Such a contrast with the last few autumns when the runs didn’t really get started until late September.

What fly patterns were I casting? I caught the largest salmon on a Wulff dry fly, another on a rubberlegs stonefly nymph, another on a Cosohammer soft-hackle streamer – so no consistency.

Even in early July, when Kennebago doesn’t always fish well, my son, son-in-law, and yours truly found some trout and salmon best measured in pounds.