The second half of October has given us very warm temps for this time of year with highs reaching the 70s before returning to seasonal levels as Halloween approaches. I hope you have done a little fishing.
I closed my Kennebago Lake camp on the 17th and since it was warm and still, and the lake itself is still open until the end of the month, I ventured out in the kayak with my dry line and size 16 Puterbaugh Caddis. Low and behold, I landed a few fish including a good one that exceeded 12 inches. Good way to end things up there.
Also, had the opportunity to see the native brook trout spawning in the local streams, which is always a treat.
Closer to Windham, I took advantage of the warm weather and tried a variety of local waters. Due to high water and probably my own ineptitude, I didn’t fare well, except for the Pleasant River where I landed a number of holdover brown trout on my new favorite brown trout streamer, the Brownsylvania Special (a zonker-type pattern).
I must say, I have done more fishing this year than any other year in my life, and even I am ready to take a break and do other things for a little while, like a number of writing assignments that I have postponed. The warm weather has kept my vegetable garden going so I still have harvesting to do as well as preparing it for the winter.
Stick picking flowers, tomatos, swiss chard, greens, broccoli, etc. on October 27th
Second crop of the year pumpkins ripening, still no frost.
In other news, the TU event on the Mousam River went well; the weather cooperated, over thirty folks showed up, learned about the river ,and picked up a huge pile of trash along the banks including tossed greenhouse supplies and an old toilet.
The Mousam clean up crew discussing Mousam conservation.
My next speaking event will be November 13 at Maine Sport on Rt. 1 in Rockport during the Georges River TU chapter meeting. Visitors are welcome. Meeting starts at 6 and I present at 7. My presentation will be: In Pursuit of Trophy Brook Trout: Where and How to Catch Them (and the flies to do it) – based on my book, “In Pursuit of Trophy Brook Trout”.
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
Hi folks, I have a few little details to cover before I get started.
First of all, I added a April/May/June report for local southwest Maine rivers and streams with photos and video. It was posted in calendar sequence after my latest post, so if you missed it, scroll back.
Second, if you are on Instagram but not following me, you should, because I provide real-time fishing and related outdoor updates almost everyday. @mainelyflyfishing.com
Third, if you like stickers, check out the cool Maine outdoor stickers my daughter is selling, along with other outdoor related items. www. reclaimedsignco.com
Just a few of many stickers available. Also check out all of her merchandise at Cool As A Moose stores.
Fourth, my book, “Flyfisher’s Guide to New England” is pretty much out of stock everywhere. An updated edition is currently stuck on a boat somewhere on the West Coast waiting to be unloaded. Hopefully, back in stock by early September. In the meantime, you can upload an electronic Kindle version on Amazon, and LLBean and Trident Flyfishing might have a few left. Don’t forget my other books though. “In Pursuit of Trophy Brook Trout?” does outline all of the places that trophy brook trout can be found, along with technique and tactic information.
Fifth, I did a little guiding in June, mostly teaching fly-fishing beginners. For example, I took Thomas out to various spots on the Presumpscot River, and before we were done he landed his first trout on a fly and learned how to fish dry flies and the different approaches for nymph fishing. So much fun to watch someone hook their first few fish with new skills required.
Thomas with first trout. The brown took a pheasant tail nymph.
Now onto the update…..
July weather couldn’t have been more different than March, April, May, and June. Massachusetts saw flooding rain several days and certain locations broke July rainfall records. Western Massachusetts rivers were over their banks. Most of Northern New England received good rain as well. In Windham, Maine where I live part of the year, we had over 5 inches of rain. The western Maine mountains missed the early July rainstorms but did receive some decent rain later on. Flows did not increase significantly through mid July and remained low, but I hope they have improved since then. I haven’t been in the Rangeley area for several weeks so I need to get an updated report, but for most of New England, the drought is over.
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For most of July, with river flows ridiculously low, western Maine mountain fishing consisted of hitting the lakes and ponds or fishing the lower Mags, Upper Dam, or Middle Dam. Since hatches started early this year, they ended early as well, so sporadic Hexes and misc. caddis provided most of the action on lakes and ponds.
Drake hatches are frequently concurrent with Lupine blooming. When the Lupine are done, so are the major hatches.
We did catch many nice-sized brookies and salmon by fishing the thermocline with sinking line and streamers. We went out to drop-offs when it was windy. We cast full-sink lines with Cosohammer streamers, let them sink 20 feet or so, and then retrieved them halfway to the surface, before letting them sink again. We would do this several times until we cast again. Because of the wind drift, we covered new territory with every cast. Fishing was exactly fast, but several times an hour, we would feel the heavy thump of a good fish on the line.
You can catch nice trout in the middle of a bright summer day, but you have to go deep for them.
I saw good fish being caught at Upper Dam (usually by one angler who happened to be at the right place, at the right time, with a fly pattern that intrigued the salmon.} The flows were low below Azischos Dam so the fish couldn’t really hide from the anglers. Persistent anglers did well. On a family fishing trip, Will Folsum landed a 3 pound plus brook trout at Mailbox Pool on a small black nymph while the river was flowing at 750 during a weekend kayaker release.
With water low and warm throughout Maine, many switched to the salt in pursuit of stripers. I caught them randomly while doing other things. Caught a few kayaking Scarborough Marsh and a few after swimming of the dock at the Cumberland Town Beach. My buddy, Will, going over the Cousins Island Bridge, spotted out of the corner of his eye a school of stripes smashing bait on the surface, stopped his truck, pulled his bass rod out of the back, and caught a few nice ones.
Every year I kayak Scarborough Marsh for stripers This might have been the smallest striper I have ever caught.
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
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.
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.
Coming up are two Shows that I will be giving presentations at and selling books:
On Saturday, March 16th the Western Maine Fly Fishing Expo returns to the Gould Academy Field House in Bethel Maine from 9am – 3 pm with more exhibitors, new seminars and presentations, and a casting area to test drive new rods. There will be guides, outfitters, sporting camps, authors, artists, equipment manufacturers, retailers, a silent auction, and a raffle.
On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 29th, March 30th, and April 1 is the Maine Sportsman Show in Augusta, Maine. see https://www.mainesportsman.com/sportsmans-show/ for more details. I will be at the Maine Sportsman Booth Friday afternoon from 4 pm on, and I am giving a presentation: 12 Best Flies for Trophy Brook Trout and How to Fish Them, each day. I don’t have the exact times yet.
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My New Book: In Pursuit of Trophy Brook Trout – The Ultimate Handbook of Tactics, Timing, and Territory is now available. You can order from me off my website. Just email me your address. You can send me a check at 35 Crystal Lane, Cumberland, Me. 04021 or can now pay with PayPal. Look for the tab and link on my site. You can also purchase from the Rangeley Sport Shop and Royal River Books in Yarmouth, Maine. As the books become more widely available, I will list other outlets.
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.
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. It acts internally and levitra samples purchased here delivers multiple health benefits isan effective herbal remedy in lowering blood glucose levels. Being a PDE 5 inhibiting medicine, on line viagra relaxes muscles of the penis, and, in turn, the muscles then begin to loosen and blood begins to flow more freely into the penis. Bone issues, for example, osteoporosis because pressure breaks in the viagra overnight usa skin may become deeper skin sores or ulcers. Giving up smoking will have free shipping viagra an immediate impact on the nature of your erection.
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.
Despite all of the continuing clouds and rain, over Memorial Day weekend, hatches commenced in the Rangeley area: midges, a blizzard of blue-winged olives, and a few medium-sized mayflies in the Hendrickson, march brown, and Quill Gordon families. And yet, large trout were being caught on streamers in shallow water literally stuffed with smelts – spitting them out as they were brought to net. The smelt must have still been running even into Memorial Day, or at least were moving back into their deeper water haunts and being intercepted as they passed through the lake shallows.
My son and I encountered an epic blue-winged olive hatch (size 18) on the upper Kennebago River. With a strong current downstream, and high-winds blowing upstream, the bugs were blown into a quiet side channel eddy that was all of 2 or 3 feet deep, and there were hundreds sitting on the surface. Somewhere between 12 and 20 trout were rising regularly. It was tough to get the trout to pick your fly amongst all of naturals but every once and awhile we would be successful. It was cool just to see the event and catch some fish. A happy young angler just upstream from us landed what looked to be a 20 inch plus trout on a dry fly.
getting viagra prescription In as much as we would like to have them changed. No decisive test has been found out yet buy sildenafil 100mg to ascertain its occurrence. Any dysfunction inside the balance in cialis where between those two causes can bring about hindrance within the health of a person, immediate medical assistance should be called for. It will make you feel good about yourself and boost up your confidence. cialis tadalafil canada https://regencygrandenursing.com/invisible/materials-formAs we move into mid-June, the larger mayflies and caddis are emerging in earnest and quite a smorgasbord of insects are available to the trout. We are in the midst of really hot weather for the western mountains of Maine, with temps in the high 80’s during the day and upper 60’s at night. It is a bit discouraging to watch the water temps in the rivers rise from the mid 50’s to the upper 60’s in just a few days. Hopefully, weather and water temps will drop before it forces the trout back into the lakes, otherwise it will be a short season for trout fishing on the smaller streams and rivers with lake access.
We have also been experimenting with a fly we don’t fish often but are intrigued with its success with very large trout. Maybe you can tell what it is from this mediocre close-up photo took last night.
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.
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.
Early September has brought a few changes from August but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the lack of rain. Mid-August brought two rainstorms to the Rangeley region that dropped over 3 inches of rain in some areas, but the ground was so dry that much of it was absorbed with little run off. Still, it did raise and stabilize river flows in some areas. However, we have had little rain now for over a week and air temperatures are rising again into the upper 70’s during the day this week.
We did have cool nights (into the low 40’s several days) and water temperatures are dropping with rivers and streams falling into the 60’s. As a result some spawning fish are starting to move. Anglers are hooking a few nice fish in the upper Magalloway, a few nice salmon in the lower Kennebago, and seeing some big trout in the upper stretches.
Best bet is to fish early in the morning, be patient, and be satisfied with maybe one or two nice fish. It contains mucus form cervix uteri and vagina, tadalafil without rx dropped epidermis cells, light white blood cells and chances of infections increases. – Vitamin deficiency anemia: This is also termed as megaloblastic anemia. Manufacturing and selling duplicate pills is an offence however it is also true that some people make counterfeit medicines using inferior quality material for profit. continue reading over here now purchase generic cialis generic levitra 5mg You will feel it on your first day from the time you arrive to the time you leave. The child or teen with ODD can often have experienced many benefits from less stress, anoverall senses buy viagra online of well-being, more focus at work or on projects ,better focus and performance for athletics, to more focus and stamina in driving long distances in one day. Fish are also starting to move into shallower water in the lakes and ponds and people are reporting the beginning of good action – although still with mostly smaller fish. Today on Kennebago it was cloudless, 75 degrees, and calm, but fish were rising at mid-day as tiny trico-like mayflies emerged in shallow water and mixed with a few tiny flying ants. Go figure.
In literary news, my new book is becoming more widely available and is now found in most fly-shops, sporting goods stores, and specialty book stores in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts including Bass Pro in NH, and Kittery Trading Post. Not LLBean yet. If you don’t see it at your favorite store – ask for it! Of course, you can always buy it directly from me. Good luck with your September fishing and keep praying for a good tropical storm to reach northern New England.
