Late September Maine Fishing Report

A few days remain in the season for some waters, while other locales offer extended seasonal opportunities. I strongly suggest playing hooky and abandoning all other responsibilities and get out fishing. Rain has come to all areas of Maine and flows are good. For some rivers, this is the first time they have been at normal flows since April, and the first time September flows have been normal in several years. So get out there.

I have been hopscotching around: both Kennebago Rivers, the Diamond Rivers in the Dartmouth Grant, N.H.’s Wild River, the Mags, the Roach and East Outlet of the Kennebec, to be more specific. I can’t say the fishing was easy, but persistence and changing approaches when required has yielded some good fish.

Releasing a nice trout from the upper Dead Diamond River on another hot September day.
A released Wild River brown trout resting a slow current.
This is my largest brook trout of the year and came from the Roach River. I didn’t want to take it out of the water but I am unhooking my fly from the corner of its jaw, and its tail goes past my leg. It was also very fat. 4 pounds maybe? The pattern you ask? Size 14 dark brown Klinkhammer, swung like a wet fly.

The average size of the salmon seem to be much bigger than normal this year. Doesn’t seem to be many of the skinny 14-inch variety, and a good number of 18-plus inchers.

Biggest landlocked salmon of the year, on a dry fly no less. Didn’t try to weigh or measure this big male, but somewhere north of 22 inches and four pounds.

The crowds on the rivers have been intense, but I can’t really blame anybody, no one has been able to fish some of these waters for months, and everyone seems in a good mood, just happy to get a line in some moving water.

A parking lot to one Little Kennebago Pool that holds at most three anglers but most often two.
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The weather has been unseasonably warm (along with the rain) and looks to continue to be that way. 35 years ago, fly fishing the last week of September on the upper Maggaloway River meant neoprene waders, down jackets and gloves. Water temps were in the 40s, air temps in the morning were below freezing, and the air might be spitting sleet and snow. I know that seems difficult to believe for you young-uns, but that is the way it was before climate change. The forecasted lows for the Rangeley area during the next week – first week of October – barely nudge below the upper 40’s. The change in seasons have moved at least three weeks later in the fall.

On the book front, my new 2021/2022 edition of Flyfisher’s Guide to New England has finally arrived and I am sending it out to stores and shops as fast as I can. You can also purchase from me directly. If you already own a copy, don’t feel like you have to rush out and purchase the new version. Overall, it has additional waters and some other updates, but not enough to warrant replacing.

In my In Pursuit of Trophy Brook Trout book, I discuss and give tying instructions for a number of patterns that I find very effective at hooking big brookies. One of these is the Lou’s Brookie Sculpin. Last week, I walked into The Warden’s Pool on the Roach River in late afternoon after it had been hammered by anglers all day. According to those leaving, success had been limited. Within the first few casts, a nice fat brook trout inhaled this pattern. Now, that sort of thing can happen with any pattern (to the dismay of anglers who are packing up to leave after a fruitless few hours on the same water), but this not the first time this has occurred with Lou’s Brookie Sculpin. Last year, I had a similar experience in October at Upper Dam.

A nice Roach River brook trout with Lou’s Brookie Sculpin in its mouth. See next photo for a close up of the fly.
You can see by the two eyes peering upward that this fly is tied with a sculpin head available now commercially. Search on Fish Skull to find them

As the official season winds down to it final days for native trout and salmon waters, I will leave you with an excerpt from my book, Flyfishing Northern New England Seasons,

On the last day I quit fishing for the last half hour before dark, even though fish may still be rising. I sit and watch the water, and reflect on the fishing season past and the fishing seasons still to come. It may be a long seven months until the ice breaks up and fishing begins again in earnest so I try to fix in my mind the good memories, long-time friends, and personal tranquility that fly fishing has brought me. During the winter I recall these mental snapshots. It helps me bridge the gap between seasons.

By then it is dark, so I gather up my gear and go home, to reacquaint myself with family and friends that haven’t seen much of me in the past month – but not without one last backward glance at the water, to see if the fish are still rising.

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