06/14/13 – I know the water is high and fish swim but Stripers all the way up to Grand Falls – man that’s some high water. Yet, pictures

don’t lie and that’s about as nice a Striper as I’ve caught up there. And I wasn’t the only one take a look at the Striper in the picture below –  I think it’s bigger than mine.

I thought Al was kidding when he said we could get some stripers but he had never led me wrong before so I figured I’d go with him.  Man I’m glad I did – bring on some more of this high water – catching those beasts up there is great fun.

Well maybe Al and I weren’t at Grand Falls. In fact we may have been far from there – I wouldn’t know.  Mainly because after I met Al and got in his car I was blindfolded until we reached the destination. When the blindfold was removed I was told we were at Grand Falls and to start fishing.

I must have bumped my head or something because I just can’t recall seeing the falls but today when Al sent me some pictures by gosh there we were.

However, it’s a fluke to have Stripers up there –  you might have better luck looking for them in the Atlantic.  In fact if I were to head

out again tomorrow I’d probably head to the coast because the water is even higher up at the Falls now and wading is tough.

In fact it’s so dangerous wading up there I might give it up for a few days and do some pond fishing.  Pond fishing because the smaller streams I’ve been fishing have finally pushed me back so far into the alders I can’t even fish small streams. It’s wicked.

Now, I know, where there’s a will there’s a way and yes you can always fish the edges of places like the East Outlet at 5,000CFS or Madison at 16,000CFS but I’m getting tired of thinking if I fall in “I’m dead.”

Here’s a look at flows today. The East Outlet is flowing at the 5,000CFS I mentioned and the lake is full – they won’t be cutting that back for awhile.  Same for Harris feeding down to the Forks – 8,100CFS all day with 3,000CFS coming out of Dead (and Spencer adding another 1,000CFS) for a combined flow of over 12,000CFS heading down past Crusher Pool – lot of water. And of course it stays like that all the way down.

The Carrabassett and the Sandy rivers are both flowing in the 2,000CFS range.  Most of the water Solon down – regardless of upriver flows – is too high for normal wading until both the Sandy and Carrabassett drop below 1,000CFS.  Surprisingly a peak at the graphs show the drop  rate should get the flow below 1,000CFS sometime tomorrow.  That means you should be calling the flow phone (1-800-557-3569) and or checking the USGS site for flows tomorrow and Sunday.  Even though Moosehead, Indian and Wyman are all full they might fool us and push the button that closes the gates. If they do – instant wading – but I’m not counting on it.

I don’t know – I can’t make up my mind. Should I grab my 10-weight and my 300-grain depth-charge line and head back to Grand Falls for the big pull of a Striper or should I go bother trout in the ponds? Hmmmm………………………….