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3/30/06 What brings me to this topic is a recent development on our forum of a fly system Jeremy Cameron and I call the Simplefly System. It’s something Jeremy and I cooked up for an integrated fly system that allows you to change fly style and color without having to cut your fly off and re-tie. (you can see what I’m talking about by following this link The heart of this system is a bead chain connector. The type you see hanging from old lights in the cellar or at camp. A lot of people who have looked at the new system question the strength of the bead chain link. So do I but I’ve tugged and pulled on enough of that bead chain in the last few day to satisfy myself that it is at least equal to a 15 pound test tippet – so the question has become – is 15 pounds enough? Well, Jim Teeny says he fishes with 12, 15 and 20 pound leaders and he’s happy with those ratings. Lee Wulff
often fished for big fish with light rods and light tippets. Here’s a quote
from his book “The Atlantic Salmon” about playing fish. “The tackle
includes a reel which is there to hold the line and to let a fish run. A
fish of 5 pounds can break a leader just as quickly as a fifty-pounder.
Anyone who tries to stop a fresh salmon of any size from running will break
his tackle. He has failed in the whole idea of playing a fish, which is to
give line whenever the pressure calls for it and before the tackle
breaks.” So what breaks tippet? Sudden changes in pressure or tension are the best I can come up with. If you have constant pressure and a gradual increase in tension allowing time to give line to a fish you will seldom have break-offs. Lee Wulff cited panic as a major reason for break-offs. Spook a fish with a failed net swipe or by stoning a pool and you get tippet-breaking spurts from that panicked fish. If the fish doesn’t just start running instead it BURSTS to top speed – there goes your tippet. Slow reactions are another cause. People often say tip-flex rods break tippets. Well they don’t – they might accent your slow response to a fish that turns and runs – but they get blamed for being the cause and they shouldn’t be. If your drag is set just tight enough to prevent the over-running or backlash of your reel a sudden run by a fish shouldn’t break your tippet. However, if when that fish runs you are palming the reel and don’t respond by releasing the spool – or you are a little slow about it bad things can happen. All to often, the penalty for not dropping your rod tip or releasing the spool is a broken tippet and blaming it on the tip-flex rod is as good a reason as any. More often the real reason is reaction time or drags that are set to tight. Rod angle is another tippet breaker. When I’m netting a fish and I have to point my rod at some spot high in the sky and behind me to get the fish close enough to net – I worry. There is no worse position to be in. I do all kinds of things to avoid that situation but sometimes I just can’t. When that happens I make sure I’m paying attention to pressure and tension and I try to anticipate any change in the situation that might allow me to reel in some additional line allowing me to change the angle of my rod back to a more horizontal position. Those three things, sudden changes in tension, slow reactions and bad rod angles are what break tippets. Those three things and the fact that sometimes the fish gods just want to mess with you. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic. Oh yea, one more thing - this is the last Thursday Review until next December. Starting
April 1st I'll be switching over to doing Friday Updates about the
conditions on the Kennebec River. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read these postings. - Mike
03/23/06
When I get to the water I get ready on the water’s edge and I MAKE myself wait before I begin fishing. Why I wait is so I can gather the clues that are right there in front of me. I look at the water and judge its color and speed, then check the air for flying insects and if I don’t see any flying around I check the streamside leaves for resting insects. In short, I observe and it took me years to learn to do this instead of just wading in and starting to cast. If there is a hatch – I try to match it with an imitative pattern. No hatch? I grab some suggestive patterns and search the water. No hatch and no response to searching patterns? Out come the attractors and I try to shock a response out of them. That’s why in last week’s post I mentioned that if my imitative patterns failed I grab a Bead Head Mini-Leech. Let’s start with an easy situation – there is a hatch. Matching the hatch can be simple. If you can capture a bug all you have to do is select a fly that has the same general size, color and shape. Often you’ll find those three factors are dwarfed by presentation. The most important of these factors, for me, is Presentation followed by Size, Color and then Shape. In the simplest terms I explain them as: Presentation – if the insects are drifting dead drift, low in or high on the water so should my fly, Color – try to come close, Size – pick a size and then go smaller and for Shape – well at its most basic level shape boils down to fat, thin, long, stubby, straight or curved. Those factors are my considerations when matching the hatch. Without a hatch to provide clues I start to search. When I play the searching game I use suggestive patterns. Some of my favorite searching nymphs are the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Zug Bug, Breadcrust and Prince patterns. On almost any water if I rig up with a Prince and a Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear I’m automatically able to fish with confidence because I know those flies work. With confidence gained I can concentrate on the water and seek out likely spots for trout – prime lies. Those with shelter from the current, shelter from predators and a steady supply of food brought by the current. Identifying prime lies is another confidence booster – there should be fish there – that puts it up to me. Presentation becomes my job and I present as carefully as I can. If I work a Prime Lie for awhile and it doesn’t produce I move on to another likely looking spot. Still nothing? That’s when I give up and throw imitation and suggestion aside. Out come the attractors. Attractors, for me, are a last resort. For many others attractors are the first things they try. It’s the old different strokes game and both are right – at times. My objective when I hit the water is to catch a fish and my favorite way is by tricking that fish into thinking my fly is food. As soon as I tie on an attractor – I’ve admitted I couldn’t do it the way I wanted to but that’s OK because I’m still in pursuit of my original goal. I’ve just switched triggers. Attractors trigger something other than feeding. Curiosity, startled reaction and aggression are now my friends and my objective. A good friend of mine Jim Thibodeau sums up the curiosity part of it with this favorite quote “fish got no hands ya know” and he’s right. Make a fish curious enough and they’ll take just to find our what that thing is. I use mildly bright and flashy flies to target curious trout – patterns like flash backs and beadheads with bright beads. Startled reaction and aggression are also effective triggers for strikes and for that I go bright and add motion. Give me a Copper John, with rubber legs and I’ve got the same confidence I talked about earlier – I’m fishing a fly I know works. In summary that’s my routine. I hit the water’s edge and look for clues. If the clues tell me there is or were recent hatches I imitate. No hatches – I search prime lies with imitative flies I know work. No hatch and no success with suggestive patterns I use “shock and awe” and try to trigger curious or aggressive strikes. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
03/16/06
Last year the Kennebec hit the 50-degree mark around May 20th
and within a couple of days the Hendricksons were hatching. It did us
little good as the river spiked to 70,000cfs that week. But before it hit
that temperature kicking off the early hatches and before it went spate,
nymphs were working. Which nymphs and what type of water you might ask.
Well, for water I looked for deeper slots, pools at the foot of riffles and long fairly deep smooth glides. Then I fished my nymphs dead-drift and right on bottom. The right on bottom part dictated my fly selection. Deep slots, runs and pools call for weight and one of my favorite weighted flies is a double tungsten beaded stonefly in either black or brown. That will get me down and the fly is appropriate for that type of water. Stones are leaving the faster water that time of year and migrating to the shores planning on crawling out of the water and hatching. But Stoneflies aren’t the only things moving around down there. Mayflies too. Yep, those Hendricksons are getting ready to hatch; Blue Quills, Quill Gordons, Blue Winged Olives and March Browns are all likely candidates. I asked myself, why not hang one of them off the Stonefly as a dropper? This is roughly the thought process I went through picking my dropper. Which to fish – which to fish? Confusing to say the least when you throw out 5 or 6 mayflies to select from. I let the water type the nymphs like decide for me. Most mayflies can be pegged as one of four types: Clingers, Crawlers, Burrowers and Swimmers and each group likes different water conditions. The Quill Gordon and March Brown nymphs are Clingers and they’re up in the faster water Clingers like. The trout don’t want to deal with that kind of flow when the water is below 50-degrees, so that gets them off the list. Hendricksons and Blue Quills are Crawlers and could well be part of the “bugs” found in pools at the foot of riffles or deeper slots – good candidates for the water I plan to fish. Out of my list of five that leaves Blues Winged Olives (Baetidae) and they are Swimmers. And bless their little hearts they’re found in most water types, save the really fast water.
The other two are Crawlers (Hendrickson and Blue Quill) and
the Blue Quill nymph is imitated with a Sawyer Pheasant Tail (16 – 18) –
hey, we might be on to something here. That Sawyer Pheasant Tail is
sounding good. What about the Hendrickson? Nope it’s not that easy The Hendrickson, of course, is a little bigger, fatter and lighter in color. Nymph of choice for them is a Hare’s Ear (12 – 18) but that’s not all bad. We can fish three flies legally in Fly Fishing Only water so why not have at it. So, there was my selection process and those are my early flies. I rig them up with the Stonefly tied directly to my leader. From the bend of the Stonefly I tie on 18” of tippet (4X) and to that I tie on a size 12 Hare’s Ear. From the bend of the Hare’s Ear I tie 18” of tippet (5X) and to that I tie on a size 18 Sawyer Pheasant tail. And, if all that fails I just fish a Bead Head Mini Leech.
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
03/13/06 The river is running cold (34 degrees), fast and clear. I waded in by the beach area (Shawmut side) and to work to get through the new wood that has been deposited in along shore. Once I gained access to the gravel bar just beyond the pool despite the water level being just above my knee I was worried about wading – the flow is that fast. The gravel was washing out from beneath my wading boots just standing still. I fished around a bit and worked my way upstream to the rip above but even the pools after the small rips were so fast no fish would hold in that current unless there was major hatch. So I picked my way out and was wishing I hadn’t forgotten my wading staff. Wading staffs are good things, especially, around sunken logs with branches that reach out and grab your wading boots.
With these pictures of things I saw on
the way you have probable guessed that I don’t
have any fish pictures – if you did you’re right. My half-mile walk
downriver didn’t bring me to any productive water. It was nice to be out, I
enjoyed myself got some fresh air, found out the bottom has changed some and
is scrubbed clean (lots of fresh clean gravel in areas that were covered
with silt last fall). But my walk did bring me to some water that was at
least fishable and fish I did. So here’s what I gathered from yesterday’s adventure:
If you’re fighting the flow and having a hard time seeing bottom – take baby steps – it’s safer. If you want to go out and fish dries now – go ahead they aren’t biting on bottom either. The early little stones have started to hatch. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
03/02/06 The focus was on drift boat fishing and when you finished the article it made you want to plan your next drift. But what if you don’t have a drift boat and don’t plan on booking a drift boat trip. Well, in that case you fish from the bank. Bank fishing with streamers has been an early season tactic in Maine for as long as I can remember. Mainly out of necessity – no one wants to wade the river when the visibility is only 18”and the flow is fast but they do want to fish. After all, there is a big difference between not wanting to wade and not wanting to fish, they just aren’t the same thing. So my suggesting is break out that streamer rod and go fishing. A regular spring tactic is to watch for the conditions mentioned in the article and then search out points, ledges, pastures or other topography that allow for a backcast and then picking a favorite streamer and trying your luck. If you don’t do any early season “streamer swinging” you should give it a try this year. After all one
steadfast rule of fishing is to fish where there are fish. In the spring
fish are on the banks, often there are big fish. The chilly spring flow is
warmer in shallows, the current is milder and usually there are baitfish
hanging our in the shallows for the same comfort reasons. The big fish just
move in and find comfort in the warmer, slower flows and at the same time
get to take advantage of the limited visibility to ambush their dinner. You don’t
need any special gear for early season streamers. Most anglers use 7 to
9-weight
This is one of my favorite rites of spring. It gets me out of the house for some fresh air and requires a minimum of gear. I don’t bother to wear my vest or waders. A single box of favorite flies, my “guide lanyard”, high rubber boots and a little sunshine are all I need. Heck, I'll even give up the sunshine. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
02/16/06
So, I went and I had a good time casting and talking and while doing the casting I noticed that, on at least one occasion, when I aimed at a hoop out there on the floor I hit the hoop (happily) and I also hit the gym floor with the rod tip (unhappily). I made a little adjustment and cast the rest of the morning without doing any damage to any of the rods I cast but hitting the tip on the floor got me thinking about the casting stroke and follow through after the stroke. The casting stroke ends with an actual stop of the rod and if the tip is moving forward when you stop the stroke the line will continue on and present the fly. If the tip is moving down when the stroke stops the line will pile somewhere in front of but close to the caster. And, if the tip is moving up when the stroke stops the line will continue on gaining height and straightening until the energy is spent and the line falls completely at the mercy of the wind as to where it actually lands. That is just the way it is – Lefty Kreh is right when he says the line will continue in the direction of rod tip travel after you stop the casting stroke. But what happens after that? For me what happens after the stop of the casting stroke is follow through or drift. When the tip stops and the line starts rolling forward in a hopefully controlled loop my rod begins to drift slowly down to the water. Often ending its drift with the rod tip just touching the water or the gym floor, as was the case on the 11th. There are reasons for this drift and the main one is that with my rod tip low like that I have a good straight-line connection to my fly with little too no slack hanging from my rod tip. If I had left my rod tip up where it was when I stopped my casting stroke I would have a lot of line hanging straight down from my rod tip to the water and all that hanging line would be slack that would slow my strike if I got the hit I was hoping for when my fly landed. But with my rod tip low to the water and no slack I can quickly set the hook if I get the hoped for strike. It gives me an edge and I firmly believe that having the rod tip low like that will improve anyone’s hookup rate.
Another advantage to the low
rod tip is line pick-up. When I want to cast again starting the pick-up
with my rod tip low gives me a So if you don’t drift your rod tip low to the water after your casting stroke try it the next time you get our on the water. You may be pleasantly surprised at the advantages that low rod tip gives you. However, you might not want to drift the tip all the way down when you are casting someone else’s bamboo rod in a gym. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
01/12/06 "Trout, in southern Maine, are pitiful little creatures, harried and hunted by careless boys who drive old Ford automobiles along wood roads with the doltish recklessness of cretins, and seem to possess all the sporting instincts of gunmen. When we want trout, we have to go north, always from the billboards, overnight camps and roadside diners that have done so much to make Maine hideous. We go, say, to Aroostook County, where the unspoiled lakes, ponds, streams and brooks from which full-grown trout, bass, pickerel and salmon may still be taken are unbelievably numerous. Thanks to Mr. Wingate Cram, president of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, himself an ardent fisherman, I am able to attach a partial list of the fishing camps and waters that lie north of Bangor, within the incomparably beautiful region whose center is Mount Katahdin. It’s a long list, and to some it may seem dull; but I shall risk its dullness in the hope that it may be of benefit to those who know only the portions of Maine that have been half-wrecked by civilization. And I think it shows, as almost nothing else can, the vast extent of the sportsman’s paradise that crowns the state. South Lagrange, thirty-one miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Birch Stream, Dead Stream and Ten-Mile Brook, all trout streams. Lagrange, thirty-five miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Coldbrook Stream and Hemlock Brook. South Sebec, forty-nine miles from Bangor, is headquarters for those who wish to fish Sebec Lake for pickerel, bass and salmon. Dover-Foxcroft is fifty-six miles form Bangor. Within fifteen miles are Bear Pond for white perch, Bennett Ponds for black bass and pickerel, Peenuguma Pond for smallmouth bass; Sebec Lake for perch, pickerel, and salmon; Benson Ponds, Burdin Pond, Buttermilk Pond, Crooked Pond, Forth Pond, Greenwood Ponds, Little Grindstone Pond, Millbrook Pond and Millbrook Stream for trout and togue. From Guilford, sixty-four miles from Bangor, fishermen can reach Foss Pond, Sebec Lake and Sylvan Lake for trout and salmon; Lake Mahannock, Punch Bowl and Piper Pond for trout. From Abbot Village, sixty-seven miles from Bangor, fishermen make excursions to Bear Brook, Foss Pond, Piper Pond, Thorne Brook and Sylvan Lake for trout, togue and occasional salmon. Monson, seventy-six miles from Bangor, is the center for those who wish to reach such excellent trout waters as Bear Pond, Bell Pond, Doughtery Ponds, Eighteen Pond, hedgehog and Brown Ponds, Lake Hebron, Long Pond, Meadow Pond, Monson Pond, North Pond, Onawa Lake, South Pond, and Two Greenwood. Blanchard is seventy-five miles from Bangor. The trout waters near it are Bald Mountain Stream, Blackstone Brook , Bog Stream, Bunker Pond, Crocker Pond, Douty Pond, Lake Hebron, Lily Pond, Marble Pond, Mud Pond, Ordway Pond, Piscataquis River, Spectacle Pond and Thanksgiving Pond. At Shirley, eighty-five miles from Bangor, fishermen can stay in the Buckhorn Camps and take trout from Gold Brook, Gravel Brook, Indian Pond, Main Stream, Moxie Pond, Notch Pond, Oakes Bog, Ordway Pond, Round Pond, Spectacle Pond, Trout Pond and West Bog. Greenville, ninety-one miles from Bangor, is headquarters for those who wish to visit the innumerable ponds, streams and brooks that feed beautiful Moosehead Lake. The camps and hotels near Greenville are the Mound Kineo House, Harford’s Point Camps, Moosehead Lake Highlands, Wilson’s, Piscataquis Exchange, Spencer Bay Camp, Squaw Mountain Inn, Thorofare Camps, West Outlet Camps, Lily Bay House, Nelson Camp, The Birches, Seboomook House, Tomhegan Camps, and Camp Caribou – all of which are for those who wish to specialize on Moosehead Land and its immediate neighborhood. Camps for outlying waters are Camp Chesuncook, West Branch Pond Camps, Little Lyford Pond Camps, Big Lyford Pond Camps, Maynard’s Camps, Rainbow Lake Sporting Camps, Yoke Pond Camps, Henderson’s Camp, Camp Phoenix, Kidney Pond Camps, Kokad-jo Inn and Sporting Camps, and Wilson Pond Camps. The principal waters to be reached from the Greenville section are: Attean Lake, Benson Pond, Big Lyford Pond, Big Squaw Pond, Burnham Pond, Chesuncook Lake, Crocker Lake, Daisy Pond, Fitzgerald Pond, Heald Pond, Horseshoe Pond, Indian Pond, Lake Onawa, Lake Parlin, Little Lyford Pond, Lower Wilson Pond; Moosehead Lake, Moose River, Mountain Pond, Prong Pond, Rainbow Lake, Roach Pond, Rum Mountain Pond, Spencer Pond, Squaw Bay, Squaw Mountain Pond, Upper Wilson Pond, West Branch Pond, Wilson Stream, Wood Pond, Yoke Pond, Sourdnahunk Lake and Kidney Pond. Milo, forty-four miles form Bangor, is headquarters for Alden Brook, Sebec River and Schoodic Lake. Brownville Junction is the town from which fishermen set out for beautiful Lake Onawa. Near Katahdin Iron Works, sixty-two miles from Bangor, are Big Houston Camps, Big Lyford Pond Camps and Yoke Pond Camps. Other adjacent waters are Big Houston Pond, Big Lyford Pond, B Pond, Dam Pond, East Chairback Pond, Horseshoe Pone, Indian Pond, Little Houston Pond, Long Pond, Lost Pond, Middle Branch Brook, Mountain Brook Pond, Pleasant River, Silver Lake, Spruce Mountain Pond, Spruce Pond, West Brach Pond, West Chairback Pond, White Brook and Yoke Pond. Schoodic, fifty-nine miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Cedar Pond, Jo Mary Lakes and Schoodic Lake. Packards, sixty-three miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Cedar Pond, Northwest Pond, Seboois Lake Pleasant River, and Bear Brook. West Seboois, sixty-eight miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Bear Brook, Patrick Brook, Ragged Mountain Pond & Stream, Seboois Lake, Seboois Stream, and Upper Jo Mary. From Ingalls, seventy-one miles from Bangor, fishermen can reach Cedar Pond, Cedar Lake, Trout Pond and Flatiron. Norcross, seventy-six miles form Bangor, rivals Greenville as a fishing and hunting center; and from Norcross one has access to the beautiful lakes just south of Mount Katahdin. The camps in the Norcross section are Buckhorn Camps, Cypher’s Camp, Given’s Camps, Kidney Pond Camps, McDougall’s Camps, Norcross House, Pleasant Point Camps, The Antlers Camps and Whitehouse Camps. The waters reached from them (in most cases by steamer) are: Abol Lake, Ambajejus Lake, Ambajenackomus Lake, Beaver Pond, Daisy Pond, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Debsconeag Lake, Foss and Knowlton, Hurd Pond, Lower, Middle and Upper Jo Mary Lake, Katahdin Stream, Kidney Pond, Millinocket Lake, Minster Pond, Nahmakanta Lake, North Twin Lake, Passamagamoc Lake, Pemadumcook Lake, Penobscot River Pollywog Lake, Rainbow Lake, Sourdnahunk Lake, Sourdnahunk Stream and South Twin Lake. Millinocket, eighty-two miles from Bangor, is the center for approximately the same waters – Ambajejus Lake, Daisy Pond, Katahdin Lake, Kidney Pond, Millinocket Lake, Millinocket Stream, Nollesemic Lake, Pemadumcook Lake, Penobscot River, Schoodic Brook, Smith Brook, Sourdnahunk Lake and Togue Pond. From Grindstone, ninety-one miles from Bangor, fishermen reach Lunksoos Pond, Meadow Brook, Messer Pond, Penobscot River, Round Pond, Salmon Stream Pond, Sand Bank Brook, Schoodic Brook, Soldier Pond and Wassataquoik Stream. Stacyville, one hundred and two miles from Bangor, is the jumping-off place for Davidson Pond, Katahdin Lake, Kellogg Pond, Lunksoos Pond, Messer Pond, Moose Pond, Penobscot River, Salmon Stream Lake, Sand Bank Brook, Six Ponds, Spring Brook Pond, Wassataquoik Stream and Wassataquoik Lake. Sherman is one hundred and two miles from Bangor, and is headquarters for those wishing to fish Bowlin Pond, Macwahoc Lake, Molunkus Stream, East Branch (of the Penobscot), Salmon Pond, Salmon Stream, Salmon Stream Lake and Wassataquoik Lake. Patten, one hundred and thirteen miles from Bangor, ranks with Greenville and Norcross as one of northern Maine’s great game centers. The camps near Patten are Point of Pine Camps, Camp Fairview, Crommet House Bear Mountain and Pleasant Lake Camps, Hamm House, Jerry Pond Camps, McDonald’s Camps, Foster’s Wilderness Camps, Scraggly Lake Sporting Camps, Shinn Pond House, Myrick’s Camps, Peavey Inn, Kilgore’s Camps, Umcolcus Lake Camps and McKenney’s Camps. Patten is the center for Bowlin Pond, Crystal Lake, lake Wapiti, Fish Stream, Fowler Ponds, Grand Lake-Seboois, Green Pond, Hay Brook, Hay Lake, Hale Pond, Jerry Pond, Lower Shinn Pond, Matagamon Lake, Sawtell Brook Scraggly Lake, Seboois Stream, Second Lake, Snowshoe Lake, Trout Brook, Upper Shinn Pond, White Horse Lake and Umcolcus Lake. Island Falls, one hundred and seventeen miles from Bangor, is perched on the beautiful ridge that looks across to Mount Katahdin and the Traveller Mountains – a vista as magnificent as it is restful. From Island Falls fishermen go to Caribou Lake, Cole Brook, Dyer Brook, East Branch, Fish Stream, Mattawamkeag Lake and River, Otter Lake, Sly Brook, Pleasant Lake and Warren Falls. From Oakfield and Smyrna Mills, one hundred and twenty-six miles from Bangor, one reaches Dudley Brook, Green Lake, hale Pond, Hastings Brook, Mattawamkeag River, Mud Lake, Pleasant Lake, Pleasant Pond, Rockabema Lake, Spaulding Lake, Umcolcus Lake and Timoney Lake. At Howe Brook, one hundred and forty-two miles from Bangor, the fishing waters are Beaver Brook, Cut Pond, St. Croix Lake, St. Croix River and Tracey Brook. From Masardis, one hundred and fifty-nine miles from Bangor, the objectives of trout fishermen are Aroostook River, Beaver Pond, Brown Brook Pond, Chandler Brook, Clear Lake, Long Lake, Millimegassett lake, Millnockett Lakes, Mooseleuk Stream, Moose Pond, Munsungan lakes, Reed Pond, St. Croix River and Umcolcus Stream. Ashland, one hundred and sixty-nine miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Clayton Lake, Machais Lake and Stream, McNally Pond, Pratt Pond, Round Mountain Pond, Rowe Lake, Musquocook Lakes, Spectacle Lake and Mule Pond. Portage, one hundred and eighty-one miles from Bangor, is headquarters for Fish Lake, Portage Lake, Carry Pond, Chase Lake and Island Pond. Winterville is one hundred and ninety-eight miles from Bangor. From Winterville sportsmen take their tents and packs to the chain of fourteen Red River Lakes, let their beards grow, and eat trout until they almost burst. From Eagle Lake, two hundred and four miles from Bangor, one reaches Square Lake; from Wallagrass, two hundred and nine miles from Bangor, Blake Lake, Eagle Lake and Wallagrass Lakes; from Soldier Pond, two hundred and thirteen miles from Bangor, Round Pond, Sly Brook, and Third lake; from Fort Kent, two hundred and twenty-one miles from Bangor, Fish River, Five Finger Brook, Glazier Lake, N.B., Baker Lake, N.B., Umsaskis Lake and St. John River. St. John, two hundred and thirty-four miles from Bangor, is the headquarters for Black Lake, Blue River, Bow Lake, Cross Lake, Gilbert Lake, Glazier Lake, Hanowell Lake, Plourde Brook, St. John River, Santimos Lake, Savage Lake and Sinclair Brook. St. Francis, two hundred and thirty-nine miles from Bangor, is the point from which sportsmen go to Allagash River, Big Rapids (St. John), Five Finger Brook, Glazier Lake, Little Black River, St. Francis River and Umsaskis Lake. Ludlow is headquarters for Barker Lake, Cochrane Lake and Country Road Lake; New Limerick for Drew’s lake, Green Lake and Nickerson Lake; Houlton for Drew’s Lake, Meduxnekeag Lake and Nickerson Lake; Littleton for Cary Lake, Big Brook, Leary Brook, Logan Lake and Ross Lake; Monticello for Conroy Lake, Meduxnekeag Lake, No. 9 Lake and White Brook; Robinson for Burnt Land Stream, Mill Pond, No. 9 Lake, Prestile Stream, Three Brooks and Young Brook; Mars Hill for Presque Isle Deadwater, Presque Isle Stream and Young Lake; Westfield for Clark Brook, Prestile Stream and Young Brooks; Phair for Prestile Stream and Spragueville Lake. From Fort Fairfield, at the northern tip of Maine, one reaches Aroostook Falls, Brown’s Pond, Gannett Pond, Gillespie Lake and Tomlinson Pond, as well as the celebrated Tobique River in Canada. Near by are the Swedish Settlements of New Sweden, Jemtland and Stockholm, headquarters for Big Armstrong, Carry Brook, Cross Lake, Johnson Brook, Little Armstrong, McClusky Brook, Madawaska Lake, Madawaska River, Mud Lake and Square Lake. If a fisherman were so diligent as to visit all the streams, ponds and lakes here given, he would have done no more than scratch the surface of Maine’s potentialities as a haven for sportsmen – which goes to prove what was hinted at the beginning of this book: that Maine is too big a state to learn more than a little about in one short lifetime." Now - get your map books out and wile away the winter planning trips to some of these waters - that's my plan. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
12/29/05 I often get asked what do I need to have – what’s the minimum I can get by with to fly fish. The easy answer is rod, reel, line, leader and a fly but that’s not very practical. It’s nice for you to have something to cut a tippet with (besides your teeth) and nice for the fish if you have something to remove hooks with. That adds a nipper and a pair of forceps to the list. Forceps are pretty easy to keep hold of. They are either clamped to your shirt or vest or intertwined in your fingers so that don’t often get dropped. But nippers are a different animal than forceps – nippers seem to crawl up out of pockets and jump into the water all on their own. So I like to recommend a zinger to anyone who is buying a pair of nippers. That’s it, for me that’s the minimum. One fly, my rod, reel, line, leader, nippers with a zinger and a pair of forceps are all I need. That’s my short list and then I suggest people build up from there to whatever they are comfortable carrying. My first suggestion for an addition to the above gear is a fly box, with some flies of course. That can be an Altoids Tin to a snap locking C&F fly box but a box of some sort to carry flies in. Then, since I like to fish dry flies that float, I add some floatant (Gink is my favorite) along with some of the appropriate tippet for my leader. Speaking of leaders if I’m in my minimal mode give me 4X leader and tippet. Pockets will do to carry anything I’ve listed so far and so no vest or chest packs are needed; nope, nothing else – no waders, no boots, no rain gear. No first-aid kit, no compass, no split-shot – nothing else is needed. Now I wouldn’t be comfortable going on stream or river with so little gear but in my opinion it is all you need. In fact, for a long time it was all I carried. Then I got waders and boots. Then a vest and if there is empty space well you just have to fill it with something and I did. When my vest was full I got a gear bag and carried “extra” stuff in it. Yep, went right from one extreme to the other. For awhile that was OK but I began to have a hard time keeping track of all my gear and decided to cut back. I got rid of my vest and gear bag and got a chest pack. If I couldn’t carry it in my chest pack and wader pocket it didn’t go. That lasted about two seasons – I confess I’m a gear hound. I have convinced myself I need all that stuff I listed at the beginning of this and I carry it around with me on almost every fishing trip. I don’t have to have it and can get by without it but not as well as I can if I have it with me. So I carry it all, enjoy it all and use it all. There is the one test a piece of gear must pass to stay in my gear bag. I have to use it. At the end of each season I empty my vest and gear bags. If something is low (like Gink) I replace it – if something went the season unused I remove it. The only things that are exempt from this test are my wader patch and first-aid kits. I'd just as soon not have to use either of those. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic. 12/22/05 - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. Planning a trip south this winter? Florida, Belize, Bahamas calling to you – well, pack up and go – bring a golf bag full of fly rods and I’ll be your flats caddy. That is if you’ll buy my plane ticket and pay my lodge fee. If not well you’re on your own – no caddy work from me. Maybe you don’t need a caddy – you can get by with just one rod. When planning my first trip to Belize I decided on several rods. I had two 9-weights, 7-weight, and a 6-weight and I checked them all. None of them got there and I fished the whole week with a Powell 9-weight that the lodge loaned me. With that 9-weigh I was a little over gunned for the bones in Belize, just fine for permit and a little light for the one tarpon I hooked up with. So you don’t need a whole bevy of rods should you go but if I were going tomorrow I’d sure take more than one rod. I’d also take 4-piece rods so I didn’t have to check them or if I checked my 4-piece rods they would be packed away in my suitcases not checked in rod tubes. Rod tubes should be painted red and have white letters on them that read – STEAL ME – because the theft of rod tubes is common. I don’t worry as much about checking rods on domestic flights but if I were leaving the USA I’d rather not check my rods. My number one consideration for flats fly rods isn’t the size of the fly or the fish – it’s the wind. Flats are windy – count on it. Oh, one can hide out in the lee of an island or find a small sheltered bay to get out of the wind by there’s no guarantee the fish will be there. Just like fresh water fishing the trick on the flats is finding fish and if the winds are blowing strong where you find them, well, you just have to deal with the wind. With the wind in mind make my lightest rod a 7-weight and give me a size two Crazy Charlie to cast. I’d be happy but I’d be even happier with an 8-weight. That would take care of the Bonefish for me. Permit are another story. Permit can be caught and played in with an 8-weight but if I had by trusty rod caddy carrying my rod bag I’d probably ask him for a 9-weight. Part of my reason for stepping up to a 9-weight for permit is distance and distance in the wind may well call for a heavier rod. Bonefish are spooky permit are something worse. People often spook permit while trying to get into range. Permit are also more powerful than bones and unless you have unlimited backing you may find you need the added backbone of a 9-weight rod to slow and tire them. That same 9-weight will do fine for tarpon, but I’d rather have a 10-weigh. If your quarry is some of the back country, mangrove hugging “tar-babies” in the 20lb to 30lb range, maybe you could drop back down the 8-weight but those deeper water “big boys” the 70lb plus fish will make you cry if you hook into them with and 8-weight. Those 70lb to 100lb fish will beat you up if you don’t have a rod with a tremendous amount of butt strength and lifting power. As a matter of fact, if I’ve got a rod caddy lugging everything give me a 12-weight – just don’t make me cast it all day long. Yep, if the southern waters are in your plans for this winter you can get by with a 9-weight. Notice I said “A” 9-weight, but I’d never go with just one rod. If I were taking two, as my back up I’d give serious thought to another 9-weight – another whole outfit rod, reel, line and backing. That may sound crazy but if you broke your primary rod you’d still have a rod for most situations you’d find yourself fishing. If I were taking three fly rods I’d take an 8-weight, 9-weight and a 10-weight. That would be sweet. And if I were taking a golf bag full of fly rods and a caddy to tend my gear I’d slip in a 6-weigh, 7-weight and a 12-weight. Man, talk about having the bases covered. Yea, that works for me. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
12/15/05 There were a number of lines other than my selection of a sink tip for a second line. Intermediates, Full Sink, Looped Sink Tips and Shooting Heads were all mentioned. All are good lines and meet a particular purpose. All of those line types are in my gear bag by the way. That’s one of the benefits of being a shop owner. As a shop owner one has the built in excuse of “I have to have a spool with a 350 grain Depth Charge on it so I can become familiar with the line in case someone asks about it.” Then comes “I have to have a spool with an Intermediate line on it so I can become familiar with the line in case someone asks about it.” And then…….. Anyway, back to line selection. One thing that became clear after reading last week’s follow-up posts was that selection of a second line depends a lot on what type of fishing you do. I primarily wade rivers and am partial to moving water and that pushes me to a short sink tip line for two reasons – depth and mending. When wading rivers depth is a factor but not a great one. Except for the deep slow runs, as a wader, you aren’t normally looking to get real deep. A floating line with added weight on the leader is normally fine for water 3 to 5 feet deep. A 350-grain Depth Charge would be overkill and keep you hung on bottom most of the day. So for those deep runs switching to a sink tip gives me that additional extra sink I need without the hang-up problem. Mending is a problem with full sinking lines. Actually mending is more than a problem with sinking lines it is downright impossible. If one wants to mend a full sinking line it has to be done in the air by using a reach cast. However, with a short sink tip mending is almost as easy and effective as with a floating line and mending is an important presentation tool – at least in moving water. And there’s a water feature that has a big influence when selecting a line – moving water or still water. Mending is a lot less of a consideration in still water. Depth often becomes the controlling factor. Bring on the full sink Type IV and V lines if not the Sinking Shooting Heads. If getting a Dragon Fly imitation down to the top of the weed beds in 10 – 12 feet of water is your goal even a 15 foot sink tip is hard pressed to do it effectively, but a full sink Type IV or V makes easy work of it. (remember you don't get into a Type IV or V sink rate until you get into the six and seven weight fly lines) And then there’s the salt. Salt water with its density makes things more buoyant and that includes your fly line. Buoyancy along with swells combine as good arguments for doing away with the normal selection of a floating line for your primary line. Many feel that your primary line for salt should be an Intermediate Line and your secondary line should be a Depth Charge. I’m hard pressed to argue with them. Swells impart unwanted motion and slack as you present your fly if your fly line rides high on the surface. Intermediates will lessen the influence of the swells yet let you fish a popper effectively. Depth Charge lines will get you down to the depths you want despite tidal influence and buoyancy. So what’s the point of all this? I guess the point is that my question of – Do you need any line other than your floating line? - should have been – How many lines other than your floating line do you need? And the answer to that is – It depends on how many types of water you fish. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic.
12/08/05 Yes, because if you fish ponds and want to work some of the deeper ridges or weed beds a sinking line may well be the best (read that quickest) way to get down to the fish. Or if you fish moving water and the flows are fast a sink tip may well be the best (read that quickest) way to get down to the fish. No, because if you fish ponds and want to work some of the deeper ridges or weed beds a floating line with a long leader, added weight and PATIENCE will get down to the fish. Or if you fish moving water and the flow is fast a floating line with a long leader, added weight and PATIENCE will get down to the fish. Patience is the primary key to working many situations with a floating line. How much time? How much patience? What decides? The answer to those three questions is determined by weight. How much time you need to allow is determined by the amount of weight you add. However, there are practical limitations to how much weight you can add. Two pounds of lead would get your fly down in a hurry but you might have trouble with your backcast. When you reach the weight limit of your rod - time - is the only thing you can add to go deeper. Unfortunately time is often at a premium when I’m fishing. I wish it weren’t so but I can’t change that fact so I work around it. Time is why I have a second fly line – a sinking line to go along with my floating line. Actually a sinking tip fly line. It saves me a lot of waiting and keeps me working my flies at the depths I want. My reasoning is, if the limit of what I can comfortably cast for added weight is three split shot and I add them to a sinking line the whole rig will reach my desired depth quicker than three split shot added to a floating line. To meet accepted standards a 5-weight fly line must weigh 140 grains. That standard applies to both floating and sinking lines. Add three split shot to the floating set up and those split shot have to offset the floating line's buoyancy. Add three split shot to a fast sinking tip and those three split shot have to have nothing to slow their sink rate as the line is sinking as fast as they are. Yet three split shot added to either line weighs the same – 140 grains plus three split shot. So if you can cast a floating line with three added split shot you can casting a sinking tip with three added split shot. That’s why my answer to “Do I need any other line than my floating line?” is both yes and no. The answer is no if you have both time and patience. The answer is yes if you’re lacking either time or patience. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on the topic. 12/01/05
Well, welcome back to the Thursday Review to some of you and welcome to
those who are visiting for the first time. The Something all of New England got an education on this season is fishing in high water. When asked to sum up this season I say, “it wasn’t bad considering we lost May, June, October and November to high water.” As I type this I realize I’ve fibbed to everyone I’ve said that to. I should have said we lost those months to FLOOD waters. So I’m going to list some of the things I did to get some safe fishing in this season and invite those of you reading this to add something to the Forum topic I’m going to start on our shop Forum. Click here to view the Forum and be sure and register so you can add to the post. Fish the edges – that’s one tactic I used a lot this season. I’d go to my normal runs and find I couldn’t even get three feet from the bank without the river threatening to sweep me away. So I’d look for a sun warmed rock and sit for a while watching the river flow. After a bit I’d notice a seam and eddy that didn’t exist at normal levels – actually the area the eddy was in often was high and dry at normal levels. But there it would be, a point of rock causing the current to swerve and creating a seam with enough depth to offer shelter from above and a feeding lane. Certainly not a normal lie for a trout since the bottom was often covered with grass (not aquatic grass) or ferns but a lie none the less – a prime lie at that providing shelter from the current, protection from predators and a source of food. Ponds – yep, even for guys who, like myself, love that moving water ponds offered that tug on the end of the line we all seek. I said last season I was going to fish lakes and ponds more. Mother Nature sure provided the push I needed to get out of the river rut I was in. Ponds produced well this year and the high water wasn’t much of a problem for pond fisherman. The canoes and float tubes just didn’t seem to care. Moving upriver - was another successful tactic. The Kennebec is about 140 miles long and we’re only about 45 or 50 miles from the ocean here in Fairfield. That means we get the water run off from about 90 miles of river valley coming our way. So upstream I go and I don’t have to go far. About 30 miles puts me above two of the larger tributaries and it is amazing how much difference those two tributaries make in the river level. As the season wore in I went higher and higher ending up at the headwaters of the Kennebec fishing the East Outlet. This moving upstream is effective and, unfortunately, expensive in both time and money given gas prices this year but moving up above big tributaries works. Fish the tributaries – that tactic also proved effective, especially early season when the runoff was more than just high it was dirty and dark. Little feeder streams and even some of the larger tributaries ran surprisingly clear during the dark water early season. It appeared to me that the fish didn’t like that dirty water anymore than I did. There were a number of smaller feeder streams that held fish, lots of fish, during the periods of high dirty water. Places I wouldn’t normally fish but places I’m glad I did. So those are the main tactics I used for finding fish during our summer of high water. I’m sure there are more and I’d like to hear about the methods you used to get some fishing in. Be sure and visit the Forum and share some of them.
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pools,
after I’ve tried a few casts with a dry, or when water temperatures are
below 50 degrees F.” What that says to me is my best bet for the next two
months, say until the middle of May is to fish a nymph. Why? Well it’ll
be May before our waters warm up to 50 degrees; at least in the big rivers
like the Kennebec.
So
having shut out Quill Gordon and March Brown nymphs (the Clingers) and
narrowed the possibilities to Hendricksons, Blue Quills and Blue Winged
Olives the question remains – what do we put in tandem with our Stoneflies?
Well the only swimmer of the group is the Blue Winged Olive and a good
imitation for that is a Sawyer Pheasant Tail (16 – 20). 
Having
established that flow everywhere, except the deeper pools and eddies, was to
fast for fish to be holding I decided to find some deeper pools. That meant
walking downriver and downriver I went. I saw a good deal of wildlife – I
wasn’t the only one with spring fever. The beaver is alive and well I not
only saw him but I saw evidence of his work. When I saw our friend the
beaver I reached for my camera but didn’t get it out before he dove never to
reappear. It
I pounded the bottom (weed free bottom so hook-ups came loose) and got
nothing but real estate. I did hook one clump of dead weeds that gave me a
thrill as the clump broke free when I set the hook and the current rolled
the clump downriver with what felt to me like a fighting fish motion.
However, as soon as the clump rolled out of the current into the slack water
I was fishing it quickly became clear what had happened. Nice quick thrill
though.
Bring
your staff – there’s lots of new wood in the river.
enough
for at least 18” of visibility and the level came out of the woods and back
into the “banks” (still high but within the banks) that was the time to
drift and pound the banks. 
floating
or sink-tip lines, which make tossing big bulky streamers like Wool-head
Sculpins, Muddlers, Double-Bunnies or Zonkers a little easier. Rig your
favorite rod with a 6 to 9-foot, 2 or 3X leader, tie a good knot and start
by casting short – as
in
start with only about
10-feet
of fly line beyond the rod tip. Flip that out in front of you – let it
swing while bouncing your rod tip – and when it gets down below you and
parallel to the bank let it hang for a bit – still bouncing the tip- and do
that three or four times before you lengthen your cast. 
When
you lengthen your cast only add about 3-feet of fly line and repeat the
process until you reach the limit of your gear. Don’t hurry – this is
spring fishing and fish are just starting to feed regularly after a long
winter. Give them a chance to remember how good a baitfish dinner is.
and he was right – what a collection of rods and good people. For
more details and information on how it went check out this post on FFIM
much longer pick-up stroke. If I were to
leave my rod tip high after the cast and decided to pick-up my line for a
backcast I just wouldn’t have enough stroke without breaking my wrist on the
backstroke driving my line into the water behind me. Think of it like this,
if my rod is horizontal to the water when I start my pick-up stroke and I
want to stop my pick-up stroke with the rod pointing straight up I only have
90 degrees of stroke available to me. However, if my rod tip is down to
water level when I start the pick-up stroke I’ve got another 45 degrees of
stroke available to me. The rod tip being low is what gives me that extra
stroke length and that extra stroke length allows for a smoother pick-up and
a higher backcast, maybe a high enough backcast to avoid those alder on the
bank that are trying to catch my fly.|
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