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05/09/08 - Water temperature is up to 44 degrees. Wading is still
not an option as the flow is
 21,550cfs
and normal is around 6,000cfs - that is if I remember correctly as we
haven't seen that flow in quite awhile. The photo on the left will give
you an idea how high the water was - the gravel pile I circled was
washed up and shows the high water mark. You can see if my truck
was parked down by the present water level I'd be buying
a new truck. You can also see by the picture on the right that the path down river is flooded - if you plan to walk it bring your waders. That level won't change much until they close the  flood
gates and if you enlarge the next picture on the left you'll see they
have one full bay of floodgates wide open. When they're dumping
water like that we can only wait. The East Outlet flow is 9,650cfs - now that's a high, high flow for the East. No wonder though as the Moose River is bringing in 3,000cfs all by itself and when you consider all the other tributaries feeding into Moosehead you can understand the high flow of the East. However, West Outlet is chugging along at 156cfs so if you're in the area it might be worth stopping at the West for a few casts. The Carrabassett and Sandy are dropping fast (1,370 and 1,710cfs) and should be down below that magic number of 1,000cfs by the end of the weekend. (too late for most of us) And finally Flagstaff (Dead River) is running at 1,490cfs - another high source. The good part of all that is the natural flow waters of the Carrabassett and Sandy are going to be down to an acceptable flow soon by themselves and all it takes for the other sources is a flip of the switch to close gates and we're wading Shawmut. I'm still hanging in with my May 23rd date for Shawmut. And  last
but not least here's a picture showing the reason I've been talking
about going to local ponds and lakes to work the inlets and outlets.
Many baitfish are spring spawners and they are gathering (or already
have) to go spawn and when they gather bigger fish show close to shore.
The fish I'm holding was taken while casting from shore (well I did wade
out knee deep) on a streamer (Supervisor) and a week from now when the
spawning run ends fish like that won't be cruising the shores.
This is a short window - take advantage of it while you can. The
fishing might be slow (only fish I got in 4 hours of casting) but it's
good when it happens :-) |
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05/02/08 - Water temperature has dropped back to 35 degrees.
Wading is great except that while wading you really have to watch out to
keep from getting tripped up by the tree roots and casting while wading
through the woods 15' back from the river's normal edge is tough because
the tree branches keep grapping your line. Anyway I'm still planning on
wading to the White Rock by May 23rd :-) Here's a picture of our steps out back that go nowhere since the river stole our dock and platform - taken today.  Here's a picture of our steps out back that go nowhere since the river stole our dock and platform - taken two days ago. The highest I've ever seen it was just over the third step.  So not much to say about the fishing except you might want to hit some other waters than the Kennebec this weekend. Oh, there is one more thing of some interest. My bug collection crew has agreed to work the back  door
area of the shop and capture bugs for me. This is all they are
getting so far. Nothing but midges. They tell me if I don't feed
them some Mayflies or Caddis soon they are going to spin their webs
somewhere else. I've explained it'd out of my hands but they won't
listen to reason. |
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04/25/08 - Water temperature is 38 degrees. 40 degrees is when I figure
the chances shift from getting bump now and then to actually
hooking up. Flow out back is around 35,000CFS and holding.
Really this has been a great melt - no real threat of flooding yet -
just a slow steady melt. I'm liking it and I'm beginning to
believe my own tongue in cheek prediction of wading by the 23rd of May
at 6:00AM here in the
Shawmut stretch. East Outlet remains low at 511CFS (few fish reported - water is colder up there as it's still running out from under the ice) and so it's quite wadable. One thing about salmon though is they don't seem to mind the cold as much as many fish do. Case in point is GLS also running out from under the ice but producing fish. GLS is at 257CFS today. The Dead River is up as are both the Sandy and Carrabassett. I'm not hearing much about the Sheepscot or the St. George. Both tend to warm a little earlier than the Kennebec so they may be worth checking out. The KVCTU banquet was a success and we had a great turnout. If you missed it and want to attend at least one TU banquet to support the good work they do you still have a chance. You can go to the Merrymeeting Bay Chapter's banquet. Heck, even if you made ours you can go to theirs. Linda and I will be there - it's always a good one. Get the details at http://www.mmbtu.org/banquet.html Check it out now as the banquet is tomorrow night at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Brunswick. And finally here's another knot video for you The Duncan Loop. Click name to see video. |
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04/18/08 - Kennebec Valley Trout Unlimited banquet is tomorrow.
You can get tickets at the door. For more information go to the
KVCTU website at
www.kennebecvalleytu.org. Now the river. Water is high about 31,000CFS out back and the water temperature is 37 degrees. All in all this is a good melt as we could well have had flooding. The water clarity is surprisingly good and even with this high flow I plan on swinging streamers from the bank over the weekend. The better chance would be to work the inlets and outlets of some local ponds and logic may win out and send me visiting some ponds instead of working the river. Last year about this time I made a post and had to close it early to go plow snow. Glad that's not the case this year. With the melt going well and 70 degrees predicted for today with a week of 50 degree weather following I'm sticking with my optimistic guess of wading at Shawmut by the 23rd of May - 6:00am :-) Here are some flows for you: Bingham - 10,200CFS, Flagstaff - 201CFS, East Outlet - 511CFS, Carrabassett - 5,500CFS, Sandy - 8,740CFS and Grand Lake Stream - 287CFS. I've done another knot video and this one is the Orvis Knot. (click name to see video) A good strong knot for attaching a fly to a leader. This is the knot I tie most of my flies on with - it's an easy knot to tie and best of all you can do it with cold fingers. |
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04/11/08 - River is getting higher each day. Started to get dirty
this week also. Not much fishing going on in the lower Kennebec
because of those problems. However, the East Outlet is only
flowing at 500cfs and if you bring your snowshoes you can get to
fishable water. Better to come to the shop here tomorrow and
participate in the Tie and Lie we are holding.
From Williams (Solon) down the water is just too high. However, the flow out of Flagstaff is down to 201CFS and the Moose River which is open is running at 584CFS. Just remember you have to deal with snow up there and the temps are cold. Water temp out back is 34 degrees. Here's another knot video for you. This one is the Perfection Loop. The Perfection Loop provides a nice straight pull and is an easy knot once you've done a couple. You can also make a small, strong loop with the Perfection Knot which makes it great for a line to leader connection. |
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04/04/08 - Not much has changed. Some people are catching fish but
not a lot of catching going on. Locally the main stem of the
Kennebec is running high but clear. Places like Belgrade
sluiceway, Weeks Mills, Sheepscot, and the Sebasticook below Ft. Halifax
Dam are worth looking at. As usual Grand Lake Stream produced some opening day fishing. Flow today is over 700 at GLS so while high it is fishable. There are dams scattered around the state that like GLS provide a reasonable flow until the melt really starts. Many of those don't provide good fishing except for this time of year so you may want to check some local spots like lake outlet dams and pond inlets that normally don't produce - you may be surprised. For those interested in keeping an eye on the Kennebec the webcam in Augusta is working and you can view it at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/me/nwis/uv?dd_cd=01&format=gif&period=7&site_no=01049320 Not much else to say right now but I've got a new video for you here's a Blood Knot (click name to watch video) for those of you who want to tie some up but aren't sure how. |
 04/01/08
- Well it's a typical April Fools Day and once again the joke is on us.
Not much fishing to be had but there is some good news. There are
some stoneflies moving about as you can see by enlarging the photo on
the right. Actually, these guys have been on the move for a week
or so and with the melt we'll have today and tomorrow they should
continue to be active. But
the access is hard in the places I visited this morning.
 Wyman
Dam is pretty well fogged in the snow is up to the top of the guardrails
along the roadside. But that didn't stop three guys who were there
at 7:30 this morning. Nope it didn't seem to slow them down at
all. One was fly casting and the
 other
two had spinning rods. I have to admit I didn't walk down to ask
how they were doing. You could walk on the crust and so the snow
wasn't much of a problem but by mid-morning each step is going to break
through and the climb back up the bank is apt to be a tough one.Solon was at a reasonable level with similar access. The picture on the right  shows
the picnic tables at Evergreen Campground - the table tops are about at
the top of the snow pack. Looking up and down river about all you
 see
is fog and some bare ground right along the river edge indicating the
river has been higher. With the next couple of days of warmer
weather my guess is that open bank space
 will
soon be under water.At the bottom of the page I've put up some pictures from last year's April Fools run. You can see there's quite a difference from one year to the next. Dropping downriver to Shawmut where the edges are also bare the picture isn't much better. The snow in the parking area is deep. As you drive around the  Fairfield
area and looking at the snow banks you could get the idea that the snow
is almost gone but if you get out and go walking around you find out
differently. I was some glad I didn't break through to knee
level with every step I took as it wasn't easy getting back on top of
the snow. Same old story you take a few steps and things are swell
and then - bang - you drop through and when you push hard to lift
yourself out the other foot breaks through - not fun.Here's what the entrance road looks like and it'll be awhile before anyone is driving down to the landing. Someone will try it though and soon is my guess.  They
do it every year and tear up the road for everyone else. Some
people shouldn't be allowed to have 4-wheel drive. Anyway, once
you get down to the water at Shawmut it doesn't take long to figure out
that wading isn't a good idea. The level is high and the flow is
fast.  Half
the flashboards are down and there's a lot of water coming over the dam.
The rest of the flashboards will go with the onset of a good thaw and
then we'll begin the long wait for them to put them
 back
up. My guess is we won't see that until we get past the middle of
May - perhaps not until the first week or so of June. So that's about it for this Friday Update. Stay tuned - keep checking in and I'll give you to lowdown on the river conditions. And finally below is the first post from last year just to give you an idea of difference from one year to the next. |
04/06/07 Welcome back to the Friday
Update. As usual the river is just what you would expect - cold
and
high. Not as high as some years but high for wading. Great
for boating in the Bingham area as you'll see in some of the pictures I
took on opening day but generally to high for wading.Here's a rundown of what I saw Opening day. First Bingham. As I drove into Bingham I could see the river was up but not the normal almost flood stage ones often sees in April. The section across from the Bingham Motel was almost inviting. I kept on going and crossed Austin Stream and wished that was open as the levels in it looked good. However, the wild rainbows of Bingham deserve protection during the spring spawn so it was only a passing thought. So I drove on to visit Wyman Dam my usual starting point for my April 1st run. When I got to Wyman I was surprised to see the flood gates not only weren't open but they hadn't even been washed clean of snow. A sure sign the melt hasn't really started upcountry. There were people fishing and I took a couple of photos and tried to highlight the guys with red outlines. You can see two guys who must have walked down on the power line side to get some wading in. A few people had caught fish and one guy
came in yesterday with a picture of a 20" plus Splake or Brookie.
I There were people using the new boat ramp and when I headed back down river towards Solon I saw a group of people at the head of the Multi-Use trail so there must have been some wading going on down below. Bingham is still not real high as you can see by this chart. The flow is being regulated and only a few spikes of really high water so far.
I didn't see anyone wading but they certainly could have. That may change soon with the melt we're bound to have but until it starts Solon might well be a good area to try. Looking downstream the river was clear of ice. As a matter of fact all of the upper river sections looked to be free of ice. It was a different story when I got down to Madison. Madison had ice and snow. Now after yesterday's storm everyplace has snow but there wasn't all that much on the first when I was driving around. That is until I got to Madison. There I saw lots of snow and quite a bit of ice on the river.
My next stop was Shawmut and it was high. High enough so that they had one bay of the mechanical gates wide open. That's right you guessed it the White Rock wasn't showing. It might be awhile before we see that. All in all it's a typical April. Water is low when you think about what we have coming in the next few weeks and it's tempting to think about some serious wading. But for my money I'll take the edges and shoreline for my casting and fishing. That water is just to cold to risk much wading and at 33 to 36 degrees I can tell I DO NOT want to fall in. Yep, I'll be fishing the smaller feeder streams and lake inlets for awhile and leaving the main stem of the river to the soon to be returning Ospreys. |
looked at the picture and couldn't tell - tail was pretty square and it was a handsome
fish. The guy wasn't sure either but said other than being curious
he didn't really care and his son (who caught the fish) surely didn't
care. His son was just happy to have caught such a fish on opening day.
Then
down to Solon which was fairly low. As you can see looking upstream
there were people out in canoes and the rock pile just above the bridge
was showing. 
And,
I saw a lot of geese. One field that had some large open areas had
a lot of geese. Enough so that I heard them before I saw them.
Those birds sure can make a racket. A nice bonus that comes with spring
days is being able to ride around with your window part way down so you
can hear such things. 
