Mother Nature Reins Supreme #66

From fly fishing to “ice” fishing, all within twenty four hours, how can that be? I experienced that around Memorial weekend when TC, my son and his girlfriend decided to spend some time in the North Maine Woods fishing. Now Ryan and Amanda flew in to our little town and the next day we drove up to what would be our destination, Red River Camps, which is right in the heart of the Deboulie Region of Northern Maine. Jen Brophy owns and runs the camps which are nestled on Island Pond. These camps are quite a classy place. As we drove in, we found Gloria prepping some of the camps for the incoming visitors. She told us where to park our stuff and then we decided to try our hand at fishing. If you have been keeping track of the 2015 fishing season in Aroostook County, you know that out of all the days we have had to fish, 95% of them have been quite windy. Not that good for fly fishing, but that was not our biggest hurdle during this trip. I will get to that shortly. The Deboulie region is full of nice little ponds full of brookies, some fairly large. We fished that afternoon and evening, and although not successful, we enjoyed it. Ryan and I planned to get up early the next morning and try Island Pond. When we rose, we were shocked to find the ground no longer green but white and the snow was still coming down. The wind was howling and the temps had dropped dramatically. Jen, trying to make the most of it, had jokingly put up some Christmas lights on a little fir tree in the yard. It looked like a winter wonderland and the pond color looked like a thin sheet of ice. Not being denied, we waited until the snow stopped and when most of it melted away, we then set out for some more fishing in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, the wind kept us from fishing the ponds, so we decided to do a little stream fishing and give Amanda and Ryan a chance to put the waders on.

Red River Camps has two types of plans you can take. The first is the American plan where you are treated to three meals compliments of Gloria’s cooking and believe me, the meals are delicious. The second is the housekeeping plan where they have cabins equipped with all the necessities to cook your own meals. We opted this time to bring our own food, however we asked Jen if we could have dinner with them the last night and she was more than happy to accommodate us. So that evening, we dined with them and Gloria and Jen prepared steaks for the group, along with all the fixings. During the evening, we sat with a couple from New Hampshire. The lady told us that her father had recently passed away and had been coming to the camps for many years. He had told her that Island Pond was one of his favorite spots. That being said, she was there to experience it and his last wishes were to have some of his ashes spread over his favorite fishing hole on Island Pond, which she was going to do the very next day.

It’s always hard to spend the last night in camp knowing that you are going home. This one was even harder knowing that Ryan and Amanda would be boarding the plane soon. Time seems to go by fast when you are enjoying what you have around you. We set out for home, but not before we stopped to allow a little time for some more stream fishing. Amanda, although from Massachusetts, had attended the University of Maine at Orono, and during all her travels, she had never seen a moose. So that was on her bucket list for this trip. Fortunately, we were able to oblige. On the way out, just off on a side road, there stood the giant beast. It was looking straight at us, and standing there just posing for her. She took a number of photos and seemed happy that she had finally seen one.

If you are looking for a relaxing location to either do some fishing or just to put your feet up and relax, I encourage you to look up Red River Camps and fire off an email to Jen. You won’t be disappointed and hopefully, you won’t run into some snow.