August presented few fly-fishing opportunities for cold-water fish given the extremely hot July. Lindsey and I did take half a day and fish Cupsuptic Stream, a river that stays cold no matter what the season. The trout, while on the small side , are beautifully colored and usually willing.
September brought the same kind of fall we seem to get now – a continuation of August. The month was warmer than normal throughout New England and the rest of the United States. Rainfall amounts varied dramatically depending on where you live. Most of Maine set a record for driest first three weeks of September with zero rainfall and the summer was dry. But Vermont received plenty, if not excessive rainfall.
In Maine, river fishing was tough. Rivers like Kennebago and the Roach River, just to name two that are representative of many, had low and warm water. Remember, July was the warmest on record for Maine. A few fish moved into the rivers here and there, but they didn’t stay long and moved into cooler tribs.
I ran into a fisheries biologist who was tracking tagged fish with radar, and she said her tracking fish were scattered throughout the Rangeley area river systems, but I saw only a few fresh larger fish the last week of September. Plenty of smaller fish though.
During the last week of September, I was amazed to see only a few anglers fishing the lower Kennebago River (except for Steep Bank Pool.) I think the fishing has been so tough (and crowded) the last half dozen years that anglers are becoming discouraged. I know that many who own camps on Kennebago Lake and used to fish the river every September, don’t anymore.
The key to success was to find where the fish were stacked up, waiting to migrate upstream. I know of one lake where the fish stage in an old river channel, and anglers in the know caught brook trout on almost every cast.
Most of my success came on fishing small stuff – tiny wet flies such as the Shakey Bealy, or unweighted size 20 princes, or size 18 or 20 foam caddis. I did have a wonderful last morning. I got up at 0-dark-thirty to claim my favorite pool, was mesmerized by peak colors of red, orange, and yellow, and caught a substantial landlocked salmon on a size 20 wet fly swinging in the current. A satisfying way to end the season.