Maine Fly Fishing

05/24/13 – Back from Grand Lake Stream

By Mike Holt | Published May 24, 2013

05/24/13 – Sorry about missing last Friday’s Update but I left for Grand Lake Stream about 5:00am and once up there there is little to

GLS Landlock

no internet access. Good and bad in that Thinking that might have changed I went into the Pine Tree Store and asked if the town had public internet access. The guy (don’t know if he is the new owner or a guy who was just filling in) replied “there’s Wifi at the Town Office and we have it here but you need the code” and without another word or pause he turned and walked away from me. I didn’t ask for the code or where the Town Office was – didn’t buy anything either – and two days later when we needed to resupply things like coffee – we drove to Princeton.

Fishing on the lake wasn’t very productive. Few fish to the guys in our group that were trolling streamers or lures (mostly Mooselook Wobblers) but the one guy who still takes the time and makes the effort to fish sewn-on bait – well – again we gave him the dollar for the biggest fish.

However, I only fished the lake Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I figured I’d make my way to the stream after the weekend crowd left. I’m sorry I waited – the fishing was good.

Most of my fish came to streamers – best producer – Supervisor – designed by Joe Stickney, of Rangeley. While Streamers were the best producers I had the most fun with the Blue Winged Olive hatch. Love that Blue Winged Olive parachute pattern.

Now I ran into a couple of guys who said they saw Hendricksons. I didn’t. I did use my net seine each time I saw a hatch and each time it was Blue Winged Olives that I got. I figured I had made a proper identification because I was catching fish. Right or wrong the fish liked the pattern.

Not a sign of a caddis. No surprise there as over the last 30-years or so of my 3rd week of May trip to GLS I can count the times I caught a hatch of any type on my fingers. But happily there were hatches and few black flies.

One of the Salmon I caught and released just swam out of my hands and then about five feet downstream stopped, turned, settled on bottom and hung there. I couldn’t resist that offer so I got out my camera and shot a video of him. It’s only a minute and a half if you want to watch it. I didn’t have much luck with nymphs. Further proof that you have to use them to catch fish with them It’s not that I don’t nymph it just that I don’t nymph until all else fails and other things were working.

So much for GLS. I returned home hoping against hope that the Kennebec would be fishable but no such luck. And with two more days of rain coming it’s going to be awhile.

05/10/13 – All Systems GO

By Mike Holt | Published May 10, 2013

05/10/13 – The Kennebec is running well within it’s banks. Unusual for this time of year. A normal flow would be in the 20,000CFS range but we’re running a very wadable 6,500CFS or so. Nice – but scary because the water is warming fast. We’re already getting 53 degree water – violets are up on my lawn and hatches will start soon. Don’t miss it when the good hatches start because it might be all over be very quickly if this warming trend continues.

All up and down the river you’ll find good flows. Good flows but light on the insect activity for the time being. So I guess all the river systems are GO, now we’re just waiting on the bugs.

The Gorge feeding down to the Forks will be high for the Rafter Flush (oops I mean the Rafter BUMP in flow) which will be a small bubble for them to ride. The rest of the river is showing wadable flows. Even Bingham is peaking out at only 4,000CFS – top edge of wading but still wadable and fishable water. Solon is only running 3,000CFS and it’s like that all up and down the river. Heck the East Outlet is only running 500CFS – Moosehead must be low.

I just got back from the Millinocket area and I can tell you the West Branch area has some 45 degree water still but sections of streams and lakes are up near the 50 degree mark. No hatches to speak of – some Stones flying around and I did see a couple of Mayflies but couldn’t capture one to examine.

However, I can tell you the Salmon and Brook Trout are both hitting well. This afternoon rain or shine I’m hitting Shawmut and tomorrow I’m heading south to find some Hendrickson Mayflies – they’ve got to be out down around Kittery, I’ll post and let you know.

In the meantime here are a couple of pictures from the West Branch, Penobscot River drainage. These two and others would only take steamers (floating smelt started it off for me – Thanks Ray) and then only certain ones. I’d put nymphs down through a run, fish it with wets and then go through the same run (after honestly fishing it hard) with a streamer and it was almost certain I’d hook up. So I know those fish were seeing my nymphs and wets they just didn’t want them.

Which streamers – Floating Smelt, Bead Head Minnow, LLama (got brookies galore on that – lost my last one after the trout below) and Light Edson Tigers were the big producers.

Posted in Friday Update | Tagged brook trout, landlocked salmon | Comments Off

04/26/13 Still High Water but Warming

By Mike Holt | Published April 26, 2013

04/26/14 – We’re still running high on the Kennebec. Some of the tribs like the Dead River are being held back. Flow on the Dead today is 153CFS – very fishable. But the main stem of the Kennebec River is high from Harris down (however, East Outlet is only 1,008CFS).

Water temps are getting up in the decent range – slowly. I’m getting mid 40′s around here. No bugs yet – not even black flies.

If you’re going out this weekend be sure and check the Flow Phone (1-800-557-3569) for Kennebec and Androscoggin River flows.

Check online at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/me/nwis/current/?type=flow for other moving water levels.

Not much more to report but if you want to see a Hendrickson Nymph swimming instead of crawling check out this video – it’s only a minute or so.

Not bad swimming for a three tailed, flat bodied crawling nymph. I begin to understand why they say fishing a Hendrickson nymph on a swing isn’t a bad thing to do. By the way I took that video down in the Kittery area a couple of days ago. Water down there read 53 degrees by late in the day – Hendrickson hatches will start soon down there. I’m making another trip next week to see if they start.

Posted in Friday Update | Tagged hendrickson | Comments Off

04/19/13 Ice Going Out

By Mike Holt | Published April 19, 2013

04/19/13 – Lakes and ponds are opening fast now. If you’re curious about a pond or lake there is a State of Maine website that contains historical ice out data along with current ice out dates as people phone them in. The website is maintained by the State of Maine, Division of Parks and Lands and I check it often. The site also provides you with a list of webcams that show various waters

Ice will go out soon

around the state. This photo of Mt. Katahdin and a lot of gray ice – that’s Pemadumcook Lake where Linda and I have a camp. I’ll know what day our lake opens.

In the meantime the rivers are rising every day. Flows up and down the state are showing the effects of the melt but in places they are holding back water while they can. So the COLD, COLD upper reaches of the Kennebec are at fishable levels. The East Outlet is at 511CFS all day. The West Outlet is only 101CFS but from there on down the water runs high all day today and I’d guess most of the next week or longer.

Harris Dam is up and down but mostly high today and Bingham and Solon are over 7,oooCFS – but you might be able to sneak off to a section of the Dead River this weekend – today it’s only running 147CFS. That might change tomorrow so keep the flow phone number handy and call before you strike out. Flow phone is 1-800-557-3569 or 1-800-557-FLOW of that’s easier to remember.

I didn’t have any luck in Belgrade for Pike – haven’t quit trying yet. Between the cold wind and 40-degree water there isn’t much going on that I could see. I saw other people trying and they didn’t have any luck – at least none that I saw. I plan to give it another shot if we could just get a warm day I think things would start to pop out there.

Things will have to happen soon or I won’t get an early season pike this year because this week I’m heading south to start the Hendrickson Hunt. I figure if our water is in the 40 to 44 degree range then water in the Kittery area must be approaching the 50 degree mark. Time for me to do some poking around down that way.

Posted in Friday Update | Tagged hendrickson, high water | Comments Off

Flows Ramping Up

By Mike Holt | Published April 12, 2013

April 12,2013, Well finally the melt has started. The Kennebec River in Sidney is about 15,000CFS and that’s close to the historical flow for the middle of April – just a bit low. Most of the online USGS site reports are active now but Spencer Stream near Grand Falls on the Dead River stills reads ICE. That sure tells me the water is still way below the comfort level for both the fish and I – still in the mid 30′s in the main stem of the river.

However, up in the headwaters area (Moosehead) they are holding water back. I’m not sure why – perhaps Moosehead didn’t fill up over they winter as they expected. I say this because along with all the unrecored inflow to the lake the recorded inflow (Moose River) is dumping over 1,200CFS into the lake – way over normal flow. Yet, the two monitored outflows from Moosehead only show a combined outflow of about 250CFS (West Outlet only 94CFS and East Outlet only 150CFS – if I heard the guy right). The lake may be lower than normal for this time of year but that ice has to be lifting up with all that inflow.

Moving downriver Harris is letting out a moderate flow most of the day and the Dead River is only running 300CFS or so out of Flagstaff. Pushing on down to Wyman the flow will pulse today from around 2,000CFS to around 4,500CFS about 7:00am and will flow at that lever or higher the rest of the day. That might make you think Solon would be high but William’s Dam’s reported flow for today is 4,000CFS all day.

longpondcastle

Then comes the unregulated flows from the Carrabassett and Sandy Rivers and together they put the flow below the Madison Dam up into the 7,000CFS range. With water temps like these I guess I’ll pass on Madison until things warm up a bit. I’ll work Madison at this level if the water and air is a bit warmer but I don’t like way it balances out when I weigh hypothermia risks against the chances of catching a fish with these temps and flows. Madison, in my opinion, has one of those trip you up and knock you down type of bottoms – sort of reminds me of the East Outlet in that respect.

And speaking again of the East Outlet at 150CFS that might be worth a good hard look. I’d be looking hard in that deep pool below the dam – at 150CFS there’s not a lot of other deep holding water around and salmon don’t seem to care if the water is squirting out from under the ice and wicked cold – they seem to feed anyway. GLS is another spot I’d take a hard look at. Plenty of salmon in that stream and the flow there is about 350CFS.

The picture above was taken from spillway looking towards Castle Island and the one below shows Belgrade Stream by Wings Mills Dam looking upstream towards the Long Pond. But Belgrade is where I’ll be spending the next few days I think. Long Pond is open along the shoreline (near the downtown spillway from Great Pond) and on could launch a small boat and troll there is so much open water.

wingsmillsnorth

If they stop talking about snow I may have to put my canoe in here and start looking for some Pike. They should be moving out from under the ice and into the slow shallow areas with dark bottoms which will warm small pocket areas of slow moving water. When the ice leaves the shallow bays they will migrate there but for now a slow section or small cove in a still moderate to slow moving meadow stream is a good bet.

If you decide to hit some rivers and streams or head north towards the East Outlet tomorrow be sure and check the flow phone as flows really jump around this time of year.

1-800-557-3569

Posted in Friday Update | Tagged east outlet, landlocked salmon, pike | Comments Off

Where’s the melt?

By Mike Holt | Published April 6, 2013

The river should be roaring, trees should be ripping from the banks and flooding should be creeping into all the low lying areas. But slow and steady is the rule of the day. Most people are finding levels that would fish well if the water wasn’t so cold. Temps are running in the low to mid-30′s and that doesn’t really get the fish moving.

Speaking of moving I didn’t get moving so well yesterday as yesterday was supposed to be the first Friday Update of the year. BUT, yesterday my site decided not to work and I couldn’t post on it. I made a call – got some help – and today the site is back to normal. So here’s the post and next Friday’s should be up on Friday.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Flows up and down the river are fair. East Outlet is running just over 1,000CFS, Harris is pulsing up to 5,000CFS but just for a short while. The Dead is at a fishable flow with 381,CFS, Bingham (Wyman Dam) is pulsing back and forth between 2,000 and 4,000CFS which is the norm and while high for some is fishable at 4,000CFS, Solon is at 2,900 all day and Madison is a bit higher because of the Carrabassett and Sandy River influence at 4,800CFS (high for this water temperature) and Shawmut – well the White Rock is under at Shawmut.

So that’s the river flow and for the most part right now – while fishable – the Kennebec isn’t the place to be. Try some smaller tribs that might be a bit warmer and cleaner. Even though the water was clear at Bingham it was already getting muddy by Solon and it just gets worse as you move downriver. Be sure and check the tribs that are running clean.

And last but not least remember the frost is coming out of the ground so it is soft. This guy found out the hard way that pulling over onto the grass isn’t always the answer. The wheel on the other side of his car is buried just as deep. The wrecker was on the way when I got there – glad of that because he didn’t ask me to try and pull him out.

And last but not least here’s short video of the Bingham area on opening day – it’s only a minute and will give you an idea of levels.

Posted in Friday Update | Tagged spring fishing | Comments Off