Category Archives: Kennebago Lake

Mayfly Hatches

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The major mayfly hatches are winding down with a few hexes still emerging in northern climes. From what I have heard, it was a pretty good hatch season. Little rain and warm temps encourage good hatches I think. Of course, it isn’t great for rivers and streams. Most of Maine is now in some sort of drought condition (again), much of which is classified as the moderate category.

In Windham, we have had very little rain for going on three months and we must be at least six inches below normal. My lawn in many spots is totally brown and we have had to water so much that I am concerned about our well. Streams are very low. This is the fourth year in a row in our part of Maine we have been in some sort of drought for at least part of the summer. Maybe this is the new normal.

The Western Maine Mountains enhanced or created some thunderstorms and has seen more rain but still could use some real soakings. Rivers and streams are really too warm to fish for trout and salmon now without risking their survival, although anglers are still finding rising fish in larger lakes and ponds.

Lindsey and I did hit the brown drake hatch pretty well and because it was earlier than normal and fairly windy at the time, we had the rising fish to ourselves. We fished for two days, took a week break, and fished two more days. Lessons learned: Just because the lake isn’t calm, doesn’t mean the flies are emerging and fish keying on them. It is just harder to see. The fish were fat and healthy and Lindsey in particular landed dozens between 14 and 19 inches.

Many boats went right by us and didn’t stop. My observation is that as more anglers’ fish out of bigger boats with more powerful engines and go faster, they miss subtle clues about what is happening on the lake. I still do a fair amount of rowing from my Rangeley Boat or very slow cruising in order to be able to closely observe. People stop me all of the time as I am rowing and ask if I need assistance because they don’t understand why anyone would row if they had a functioning outboard.

A few landlocks migrated up Kennebago in the spring, but not many. I did hook several one morning that were substantial. My experience is that salmonids of the same size tend to school together. The first was a good three pounds although he wiggled free at my feet. I then missed a hard strike, and then hooked a salmon that took me into my backing (that rarely happens) and changed directions so fast that I had a hinge in my fly line. It confused me when my rod was pointing one direction and the salmon jumped way off my right shoulder. I have had bonefish do that. After landing him (without a net), a quick measure against my rod showed him to be a broad shouldered 23 or 24 inches. One of the largest I have ever

.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

October Fishing Review

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The timeliness of my  blog has certainly escaped me recently. If I don’t do better, I will have to call it a b-late-og instead of a blog. This post will cover October with another post about November posted soon.

October featured seasonal weather but night time temperatures rarely fell below freezing even in the mountains, with a number of calm sunny days in the 60’s. The growing season continued with gardeners avoiding frost in many parts of Maine. My garden as well as my family’s gardens had late maturing squash, leeks, carrots, beets, and tomatoes, and all continued to grow and ripen before winter weather arrived. My reseeded lawn went from dying, brown crabgrass to lush green fairway-quality grass.

Fall colors on the edge of Dundee Pond

Fall colors on the edge of Dundee Pond

I explored some new access trails to the Presumpscot River and discovered surviving trees and vines from an overgrown area that was obviously once a farm. I came home with a different type of catch – yellow delicious apples and concord grapes – that soon became grape jam and apple pie. Yum!

Unexpected harvest of wild golden delicious apples and concord grapes.

Unexpected harvest of wild golden delicious apples and concord grapes.

We finally got much needed rain in big bursts. My rain gauge in Windham showed a 5- inch storm, followed by 3 and then a 1- inch event. The ground was so dry, it absorbed much of the precipitation so rivers and streams only rose moderately. I wish we could have received some of this rain in August and September.

Higher levels of testosterone are also required to pass a driver skills examination, a final evaluation to test the cheapest viagra tabs things you’ve learned during classes. Not only that the reliable service provider for the best solution. buy levitra devensec.com You need to take cialis store basically on empty stomach and if it is not possible make sure you finish your meal at least 2 hours before getting indulged into sexual activities to ensure its proper absorption. Now I’m actually talking in particular about WordPress best price for viagra blogs here. Between the moderate weather and rain, fishing was very good in October where there was adequate water flow. Kennebago Lake fished well all month with several calm days leading to heavy midge hatches and rising trout. Anglers had a choice – fish small dries for 6 to 12 inch brookies, or stay deep with streamers for the occasional trout in larger sizes. I opted for casting dry flies with my little six foot bamboo rod and had a blast. Trout sipping midges are not pushovers and require delicate casts delivered accurately and quickly to specific rising fish. Video below shows fall midge fishing weather – after the sun is off the water.)

 

Rivers that remained open, with dam-controlled flow such as Upper Dam and the Kennebec provided great fishing. Rivers such as the Rangeley River suffered from low flows and even lower lake levels. Southern Maine rivers stocked in the fall such as the Presumpscot, Royal, and Pleasant River (most now within 10 minutes of  my winter home) provided immediate action with perfect water temperatures and flows. Here is a video of an upper Presumpscot male brook trout.

In other news, I did finally make a full recovery from Lyme Disease. I also received a new shipment of all three of my books so I have books available for those looking for Xmas presents signed by the author.

April Fools Day Leads to April Thaw

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On April fools Day, only fools were fishing. Strong winds and temps in the teens in the Rangeley area made any outdoor excursion seem like midwinter. I went up to Kennebago Lake on the last few days of March to check on my camp and the snow was still four feet deep with drifts on the causeway road up to fifteen feet high. Great snowshoeing and xcountry skiing but it seemed a long way to fishing season, although open water was beginning to show where there was significant current.

 

I am standing on top of 15 foot snow drift. I could have touched the power lines

I am standing on top of 15 foot snow drift. I could have touched the power lines

I am standing above the famour Thomas Logan Pool on the Upper Kennebago River. Only a sliver of water shows.

I am standing above the famour Thomas Logan Pool on the Upper Kennebago River. Only a sliver of water shows.

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The last weekend of March was the Maine Sportsman Show and there was quite a turn out. It was great to chat with friends, other people in the industry, and loyal readers of my books. I got to meet new anglers and my presentations each day on :”10 Best Flies for Trophy Brook Trout” allowed me to meet more folks. I particularly enjoy chatting with folks that are new to the sport and eager to learn.

I also get to talk to Senator Angus King (I have known him for some time), the new Commissioner of the State of Maine Fish and Wildlife Department, Judy Camuso, and Governor Janet Mills – an avid fly angler herself.

A reminder: I am now posting to Instagram almost everyday with some fun fly-fishing related  photos. Follow me on Instagram@mainelyflyfishing.com. If you are not on Instagram, I suggest you download the free app. It is an easy way to enjoy great videos and photos of your favorite topics and I find it quicker and easier than Facebook. Give it a try.

Mud Season?

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Along the coastal plain of Northern New England, snow is melting and the landscape is more mud brown than white. This is not the case as you move inland and into the mountains where it is snowing today, adding to what is already a high and dense snowpack. If you look at webcams from places like Bosebuck Camps, it looks like midwinter. Future weather is always uncertain, but it looks like ice out is a long way away.IMG_0088 (2)

Kennebago Lake Ice Out on May 4 2018

Kennebago Lake Ice Out on May 4 2018

For those of you interested in running into yours truly, I will be selling books at the Sebago Lake Trout Unlimited Banquet tomorrow night .Then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (March 29, 30, and April 1)  is the Maine Sportsman Show in Augusta. I will be at the Maine Sportsman Booth Friday night from 5-7 pm. I am giving presentations (and selling books) each day. My presentation each day is ” 12 Best Flies to Catch Trophy Brook Trout: The times are: Friday at 3:00 pm, Saturday at 1:00 and Sunday at 11:00.
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I have expanded my digital communication efforts and am now on Instagram@mainelyflyfishing. I will try to post an interesting video or photo on as many days as I can.

A reminder: I still need reviews of my new book on Amazon.

September Update

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First, the bad news…. It seems that for the next five years Middle Dam on the Rapid River is going to be replaced. Here is the information:

On August 15, 2018, Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (the owner of a number of Maine dams) filed an application with the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) to rebuild Rapid River’s Middle Dam (the river’s start from Richardson Lake). Work is already underway by upgrading roads. Actual dam work will start in 2019 and not be completed until 2023 – five years later.

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This project is similar to the replacement of the famous Upper Dam (on
Mooselookmeguntic Lake) over the last five years. This is not good news for fly fishers. Those who fish Upper Dam know that during the replacement phase, changing water channels, loud noise from construction efforts, and having to evade construction vehicles really diminished the fishing experience. The completed Upper Dam has eliminated prime fishing spots on or near the dam, concentrating anglers at the tail of the pool and reducing angler capacity. The fear is that we are in for the same situation with Middle Dam.
The plans for Middle Dam completely change the current dam configuration, including
elimination of the three fishing piers. The dam proposal has a spot on the dam labeled “Fishing Platform”, but the actual area for anglers is small and may not allow effective flycasting. It is critical that anglers make their desires known to (1) minimize fishing disruption during construction (2) not uniformly riprap the entire pool, (3) to construct usable fishing platforms so that the finished dam doesn’t eliminate fishing opportunities at what is arguably one of the best trout and salmon fishing spots in all of Maine.
Interested fly-fishing groups and individuals wrote to LUPC during the month of August
requesting a hearing. For the lasts up to date information,contact Trout Unlimited, the Native Trout Coalition, Rangeley Heritage Trust, or Friends of Richardson Lake for the latest information and how best to get involved.
Fishing during the first ten days of September was slow. Water was still warm and river and stream flows were also modest due to lack of recent rain. As a result, the fish weren’t moving into rivers or feeding on the surface. In fact, fishing was so dead in the Rangeley area that it was like a chemical spill had killed all of the fish.
But recent cold nights and over an inch of rain last night are livening things up considerably. Salmon and trout are starting to be caught. I got a report that the upper Mags is getting hot.

Of course, being out fishing is always worth while even if the fish aren’t cooperating, Check out this sunset from a few nights ago over Little Kennebago Lake.

Sunset too beautiful to focus on the fly

Sunset too beautiful to focus on the fly

IMG_0352

Finally, for those of you who are interested in reading more of my stuff, a reminder: I write a freshwater column  approximately every other month for the Maine Sportsman magazine/newspaper. Look for it in the September Issue available at news stands now, and also in November and December. I will also have several articles in upcoming issues of Eastern Fly Fishing Magazine.

Ice Out at Kennebago Lake

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I am fortunate enough to be up at my camp on Kennebago Lake during ice out, which I believe will be tomorrow although the ice is almost gone from my part, the far northwest corner of the lake. Between snow melt and rain, water is cascading down the hillsides and the lake is up into the bushes. Weird weather. Warm and humid with fog over the cold water, then colder and humid, and then severe thunderstorms with pouring rain. Enjoy the photos.IMG_0080 (2) IMG_0085 (2) IMG_0088 (2)

I also took my first Maine fishing trip of the year to Collyer Brook in Gray, Maine. This year was by my reckoning, my 30th year fishing this local small water and if memory serves, I have never been skunked there in the Spring. I know though that a number of years I only caught one fish, I probably stayed as long as it took to catch one. Usually, Collyer is the place I go for my first trip of the year. This week, the fish were in a real biting mood, sometimes stocked fish are not. I even caught a small wild or holdover trout although I didn’t get a photo.

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Welcome Spring!

October continues summer weather

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As I write this on October 15, I just got back from Upper Dam, where I fished in a teeshirt because it was 70 degrees. The water temperature…58 degrees…much warmer than expected for this time of year. Anybody still doubt our climate is changing?

After a warm and dry September (again), some trout and salmon finally started moving up rivers and streams at the very end of the month. Fishing turned on in Kennebago River for example on the last two days of the season as water temperatures finally dropped and water was released from the dam.

I never guide the last day of the season, reserving that time to fish with friends or family. I got up at 0-dark-30 to have a few hours on the Kennebago to myself. At a pool by the name of Green Island, I fished uneventfully and unsuccessfully as the light slowly brightened on a cloudy day. On my last cast before heading home for a very late breakfast and maybe a nap, I sleepily cast a prince nymph as  far across the pool as I could in order to tighten the line on the reel in an orderly fashion. I was abruptly shocked awake by a strong take. The female salmon that I eventually landed turned out to be the largest I have ever landed on Kennebago – somewhere around five pounds, certainly no less. Tough to get any sort of photo by yourself if you don’t want to put the fish on dry land but you get the idea of his size given that I have big- can palm a basketball – hands…IMG_1285Later on in the afternoon, in some sort of cosmic karma balancing, my wife caught the largest landlocked in her life on the exact same prince nymph fly. IMG_4688
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With water temperatures still relatively warm, for waters that are still open, I assume that lake and pond fishing will stay good until the end of the month as will river fishing  where there is sufficient water.

 

July Rains Keep Fishing Productive

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What a difference a year makes. Last year, July marked the continuation of a deepening drought with low and warming water. This year, almost continuous thundershowers have kept rivers so high as to be unfishable at times. This in turn has  brought landlocked salmon into many rivers from the lakes where they usually spend their summers. These salmon will  now stay in the rivers all summer. Some anglers believe that salmon only run up rivers in the spring and the fall, but during high water, salmon will enter and move up the rivers regardless of the calendar.For example, fresh salmon moved into both the Magalloway and the Kennebago Rivers in early July, and anglers who intercepted these fresh salmon did well.

My wife and I actually had a LLS double, both fighting leaping salmon at the same time, but not in the river. We were dry-fly fishing Kennebago Lake during the evening around July Fourth. We saw no sign of any of the drake hatch from the week before, but trout and salmon must have memories that last at least a week because for several nights, they were coming up and nailing a Quigley’s green drake cripple (emerger). The best trout was a fat 16 incher that gave quite a fight on my 3-weight rod.

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Here is a few photos with various family members holding up typical schoolie stripers. I highly recommend getting out there and giving it a try even if the water is warming up and the fish are getting a bit more difficult to come by.IMG_4469IMG_0996 (2)IMG_0965

Fishing Action Everywhere

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Hello everyone,

Sorry for the length of time between posts. How time flies when one is balancing fishing and work.

Late June was a month of weather contrasts, and how good the fishing was depended on what hour you were on the water on any particular day. It could be hot and humid part of the day, then pouring rain,  followed by a cold night and the next day. It led to frequent closet rummaging: Shorts to fleece, back to shorts, and then complete bug- coverage apparel as the little beasties swarmed. Often streams and rivers were too high to fish and ponds or lakes were the best or only options

The brown drake and green drake hatches on Kennebago Lake commenced on the east side of the lake on June 23rd and commenced up the lake until on the 27th bugs were popping opposite Grants on the north shore. It was very windy and rainy at times and fishing was tough under those conditions but those that were out during the lulls caught 12-16 inch trout and salmon on drake imitations. This author, alas, was otherwise occupied with guiding away and familial responsibilities, and didn’t get a chance to partake of above-mentioned hatch.
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A couple of interesting fishing stories….I was fishing a favorite stretch of the Magalloway River way down below Wilson’s Mills and on successive casts caught a good brook trout, a large fallfish, and a monster yellow perch. Where else can you do that? The water was almost too high to fish.

My favorite fish caught so far this year: I was high-stick nymphing on the Kennebago right at dark. Couldn’t really even see my line at all – certainly couldn’t see the sighter that I use for reference. I felt a sluggish resistance, set the hook, and eventually landed a very strong and fat 20-inch brook trout. I handed my 10-foot, 4-weight nymphing rod to my son-in-law and he hooked and landed another brook trout that seemed almost identical out of the same lie. We worked our way back to the car by flashlight, both with wide smiles on  our faces.

Authors Note: It is gratifying that my Flyfisher’s Guide to New England is selling so well and that readers are telling me that it is proving a good resource for them. For those of you that have found this book useful, I would like to remind everyone that my first book, Flyfishing Northern New England’s Seasons, is a “how-to” book that complements the Guide. It is written in a different style with instruction for sure, but also stories, observations, and anecdotes. It is available from myself, Amazon, and some fly shops. Finding new water to fish is only half the battle, one still needs to know what to do.

Ice Out

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My email these days is filled with folks asking me fishing questions so for this blog post, I will just answer them!

When was ice-out?

In the Rangeley area, it was within the last seven days, in fact higher elevations ponds still have at least a partial coating of ice. Further south, ice has been out for two weeks or so. However, the water remains cold because of cloudy days and cold nights. Patches of snow still linger in the woods in the Kennebago area.

How is the fishing?

Fishing has been slow because of high and cold water. In fact the lower Mags is running at 2000 cfs versus 350 for most of last year. I don’t know if I remember it being that high . A heavy snowpack melted quickly in Rangeley, followed by occasional rain. This is resulting in the spring run-off being closer to historical norms versus several dry springs over the last five years. While this means a slow start to moving-water fishing, it bodes well for sufficient water flows later in the year and good ground water levels.

Smelt are running in places, but perhaps not yet where water temps are still hovering around 40 degrees. Lake and pond fishing where smelt are running up brooks is where I would want to be fishing.

Does the high water mean that spring runs of salmon will push up rivers such as Kennebago?

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Do you have any fun fishing photos/stories?

Always. My guiding partner Abby from Kismet Ouftitters has been doing some drift boat guiding in western Mass. and found some really nice brown trout in the Hoosic River.IMG_3211 (2) IMG_2780

How is the new book selling?

Very well. We are going to start a second printing soon, which will allow me to update the book a little, correct a few typos and include a few more waters. “Flyfisher’s Guide to New England” can now be found in almost every fly fishing outlet in New England, but it does sell out quickly and doesn’t always find its way back onto the shelves in a timely manner. Remember, you can always purchase the book from me directly, signed of course. Just email me.

Enjoy the beginning of a new fishing season.

Lou