Obviously, the fishing season is in full swing and with relatively normal temperatures and rainfall, conditions have been good in most places and certainly better than last year’s early low and warm water. Most plant growth and flowering and hatches are earlier than normal by several weeks. At my camp north of Rangeley, we have Indian Paintbrush blooming already and I usually associate their red flowers with mid July.

My wife and I were able to try our hands at a few days of salter brook trout fishing in Acadia in early June. So fascinating to explore these unique brackish and coastal ecosystems. No wonder that brook trout historically were so widely distributed. They can adapt and thrive in widely diverse waters – deep lakes, fast flowing rivers, swampy bogs, tiny high-elevation streams, and brackish and saltwater creeks. Salters are not easy to find; they move around, populations are not high, and they mix with non-salter populations.

Salters are generally of modest size and we found them in small creeks including one that actually went underground on the beach and then the water came up through sand and rocks at waters edge. I assume the trout can actually only get to the ocean and back during very high tides, storms, and major run-off events, although saltwater no doubt mixes with the fresh water through the sand and gravel.

I always try to fish Damariscotta Lake during late May or early June and have managed it for 50 consecutive years! And after all of those decades, I might have had my best morning ever. Fishing a small popper on an early foggy morning, I hooked dozens of smallmouth and largemouth bass including at least 10 that between three and four 1/2 pounds. It was so much fun with constant action from large fish. I was in a rowboat, so I didn’t fish more than half a mile of one shoreline.

It is possible that the bass are growing bigger because of the massive alewive runs now. Baby alewives in the millions represent a lot of food.

Now is also the time of the big drake hatches – brown, green, and Hexes. In Rangeley the drakes start about the time the lupine are in full flower. Get out there and try to find them. I know I will.