Hellow everyone,
So much to cover, I might have to break this into several blog posts…
Book News
I will be at LLBean on Monday, July 12, in the evening signing books and chatting with folks. Beans is starting up a Monday night author/speaker series. I won’t be giving a presentation but chatting with folks, signing books, and will bring a bunch of interesting video on my computer at the table. Stop on by.
My Flyfishers Guide to New England is sold out virtually everywhere. The book is printed in Asia and there is a shipping delay. My new edition is due in mid to late July and is updated. I made some changes to reflect new information and added new water for the 2021 edition. The changes aren’t large, just a few, here and there.
I do still have copies I can sell and send out, You can see how on this website. I also believe Rangeley Sport (Flyfishing) Shop still has copies as does Evening Sun Fly Shop.
Windham Fishing
What a diversity of fishing within 15 minutes of my house. In one 24 hour period a week ago, I caught brown trout, brook trout, big sunfish, smallmouth, largemouth, pickerel, alewives (accidently), and stripers.
I didn’t know alewives took flies but the few I caught had the nymph in the corner of their jaw. They fight and jump like crazy for their size. As I said, I caught them accidently while nymphing for trout.
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Brown Drake Hatch
The brown drakes started emerging at least two weeks ago in the Western Maine Mountains, which by my calculations was at least 10, if not closer to 14 days early. It means people that plan their fishing vacations to coincide maybe disappointed when they arrive and it is already at the tail end of the hatch. The warm and dry spring has collapsed all of the hatches together. Last week, I saw good trout eating midges, while others were after early caddis, while salmon were attacking brown drakes. At the same time Hexes started to emerge from the Connecticut River in New Hampshire to the Presumpscot River system in Maine. Better bring all of your dry fly selections with you.
My family and I managed to hit the brown hatch just right for a few days when it was just starting – meaning the fish were still hungry and relatively naive. We had some epic fishing. One morning my wife landed 20 salmon between 14 and 18 inches. My daughter Mary and her boyfriend Will landed over thirty salmon and trout in one outing. One day I landed three trout over 18 inches on drake imitations.
Early on during the hatch, trout and salmon attacked almost any size 8, 10, or 12 mayfly imitation as it was stripped across the surface. Even a strange pattern such as the Kaufmann Royal Wulff Stimulator wacked the salmon.
As the hatched progressed, the fish became pickier. When my wife caught all of those salmon, she was fishing a Quigley’s drake cripple size 10 but tied small. A regular size 10 and a regular size 12 took a few fish but not many. The trout and salmon wanted a size in between. Her one fly lasted for all of those fish until finally one broke her off. A new emerger pattern floated too high to interest the fish, After taking a bunch of fish, a pattern would start floating too low and the action stopped. The pattern had to float just in the film for success. Our floatant crystals got a big workout. As the fish got casting shy, it paid to leave the fly on the water for awhile before casting elsewhere. If it sat long enough, it would eventually trigger a strike if it was the correct size and silhouette.
The loons got to be a problem. Waiting for us to release the fish and then nabbing them. Our solution? Play the fish quickly – landing them while they are still fresh. Landing the larger fish with a long handle, large-diameter boat net, removing the hook, and then releasing the fish on the opposite side of the boat from where the loon(s) were. Loons don’t like to directly under the boat and the extra second or two gives the fish a better chance to escape. We revived our fish by cradling them with our hand underwater but inside the net. We waited until they were fully recovered before freeing them from the net, so they would swim away strongly and not be immediate loon food.
Here is a video showing a sampling of Brown Drake action on Kennebago Lake.
https://youtu.be/mCR74U4ZZiQ