In the middle of September, the rains arrived, and did they. A swath in the western Maine mountains got over five inches of rain in a short period of time. Bridges in Jackman washed out and plenty of rain fell in southern Maine as well. It was too much of a good thing because rivers blew out and remained too high to fish well. I don’t know what others’ experiences were, but even with all of the rain, it either didn’t bring many fish up the rivers and streams, or they came up but didn’t hang around and kept moving way up to into the headwaters. Air and water temperatures were above normal so perhaps they were looking for cooler water.

I can’t speak about everywhere, but in western Maine, the Kennebago, Roach, East Outlet of Kennebec (just to name a few), you had to work for every fish you caught. Hopefully, you had better luck in other places.

I saw reports from the Miramachi that Atlantic Salmon did the same thing, and didn’t stage in the usual famous pools, but just kept moving upstream.

In October I did not see one redd in the Little Kennebago for first time in my memory, perhaps confirming that fished spawned further upstream this year.

Lake and pond fishing stayed good with hatches continuing becase of the warm weather and fish looking up during the calm days. We had plenty of windy days as well though.

I hope the traditional fishing season was good to you!