The Season is Heating Up: Fishing Report
This is the time of year when fishing heats up for every species: Trout, Salmon, Bass, Pike, Stripers, Etc. in Ponds, Lakes, Streams, Rivers, The Salt. How is an angler to choose? Here is an excerpt of a column I wrote recently in the Maine Sportsman:
When the month of May arrives, almost everyone in northern New England gets a spring in their step (pun intended). And why not: days are longer and getting warmer, spring flowers are blooming, kids are counting down to the end of the school year, and vacation time is approaching. Life is good.
But not for me. I stress out during May and it gets worse every year. “Why,” you ask? It’s because this is the month when fly-fishing season gets into full swing and I can’t be everywhere at once. No drug can be prescribed that cures fishing fever.
Many Options
First of all, where I live, the local streams, rivers, and ponds are freshly stocked and the fly-fishing will never be better for the rest of the year. Further north, the native fisheries are producing their biggest trout and salmon of the year as they chase after smelt or gobble sucker eggs. In warm-water lakes and ponds, the bass are on their spawning beds (or soon will be) and they are at their height of aggressiveness towards topwater poppers. The stripers arrive by the end of the month and will not be this naïve for the rest of the summer. Pike continue to prowl in shallow water and are easy to reach. How is an angler supposed to choose where to fish?
I am paranoid about missing great fishing. Nothing is worse than heading to the water this time of year and not doing well. You lament the opportunity lost because you just know if you went somewhere else, you would be crushing it. I have sat in the car paralyzed because I couldn’t decide where to fish. This is not a recent psychosis. I was like this in my twenties.
May started out cool and water temps stayed in the upper 40’s but then we had a week with 100% sun and temps rising into the mid 80s or even 90 in spots and water temps zoomed. I took a reading on May 15 that showed surface waters approaching 60 degrees on Kennebago Lake, probably well over 10 degrees above normal. Trout started rising and we caught a bunch. My wife decided to wade a river in a tank top it was so hot.
By the way, I will be taking part in Rangeley’s Flyfishing Festival on June 4 with a table selling and signing books and chatting with folks and a presentation at 11:00 on How to Catch Trophy Brook Trout.
Back in my other house in Windham, in the early part of May, I found trout at most of the tailwaters and tribs of the Presumpscot River that are less than fifteen minutes from my house. You never know if you are going to find: nothing, stockers, holdovers, or wild trout. Click on link.
I have also been exploring southern Maine Wildlife Management Areas, several of which have walk in or difficult access ponds with wild trout.
I will try to post more frequently, but in the meantime follow me on Instagram @mainelyflyfishing.com. Enjoy the season.