Hatch! #77

Pop Quiz, when I say “Hatch”, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, I can tell you the the first thing that comes to a fisherman’s mind is bugs, bugs, bugs and more bugs coming into life for the first time, in great numbers and landing on the water, which make the fish go into a feeding frenzy. Remember that you don’t exactly know when a hatch is going to take place, and for most bugs, it only happens once a year, so often times you miss it. Why is a hatch so good? Well, glad you asked. It is because if you have a similar fly to the one that is on the water, you just might be able to join in the fun of lying it down on the water and that fish rises up, takes it and then you are off to the races.

That is exactly what happened to TC and I this past weekend. We decided that we would go to one of our favorite ponds and see what we could conjure up. The wind seemed to be cooperating, the clouds were abundant and we were willing. When we got there, we quickly put our rods together, loaded the canoe and out on to the pond we paddled. Now, this particular pond has one good area where we do quite well. The big ones tend to lay in the weeds until it is time to feed. My first instinct was to put on a march brown fly and give that a try. I got TC to put on a green drake over her objection that she wanted a blue dunn. As we got on the water, it become apparent that we were in the middle of a hatch. They came in swarms and landed on the water, only to see the fish rise, take them and go back into the deep. We gave our flies a try, casting them into the ring the fish were making when they broke the surface, but to no avail. They would rise right by our flies, take the bug next to ours and descend. As any good fishermen knows, your luck can be really good if you have the right fly during these times. Well, it just so happened that we had tied up a few before coming. Yes, the old blue dunn was the bug of the day and for some reason, TC had called it right, back at the truck. 

With little effort, I pulled two blue dunns out of our fly box and we quickly attached them to our tippet line. 

As a fish would rise, we would throw our line into the ring they made and on four occasions, we pulled up some very nice brook trout.  First, an 11” red bellied trout, then another 11” and then a 10” which we put back. And finally a 13” trout that was nice and fat. When TC hooked it, her face came alive, her poll bent and she sprang into action. I grabbed the net and watched as she kept control of it and made sure her line was good and tight. In short order, she had that beautiful fat fish next to the boat and I did my part by scooping it into the net and in the boat.

Soon after that, we decided that it was time to pick up anchor, paddle to shore and pack up for the two-hour journey home. It is not often that you hit it like we did this day. Hatches come and go very quickly, but it is always exciting. This was TC’s first experience with a hatch and she enjoyed herself. Our day was over, but not forgotten. We had been successful and any fishermen will tell you that is the ultimate goal.

On our way out, we saw a white bird on the side of the road pecking away at the little pebbles. We came to a stop, took a few photos and I actually got out of the truck and walked toward it as it wobbled back and forth. It didn’t seem to be bothered by me in the least. I got back in the truck and changed by iphone to video and started to take a few frames. That bird must have been photogenic because it walked right toward my truck. The more frames I took, the closer it got. We said our goodbyes and headed down the road, careful to make sure that it was not in our path as we left. I looked in my rear view mirror and it went back to picking away at the pebbles.

Now, I got a photo from a friend of mine. He too was successful and grabbed this nice salmon. Looks like that will be really good eating.

Our First Foray of 2016 is Uneventful #76

The 2016 fishing season started a bit early this year, but that really didn’t have any effect on TC and my schedule as we really did not get started until last weekend. So, we decided that we would just take a ride into the North Maine Woods and see for ourselves what was going on. We packed up the truck with our lunch, stream fishing gear, and away we went. No canoe this trip as we were not sure the ice would be out of the ponds yet. After paying for our annual pass and passing through the six mile gate, we headed to Mooselook Stream for a bit of wading action. The day had turned out very nice and the sun was warm. On our way to the stream, we saw four deer alongside the road, a good sign that they may have weathered the winter well. Two of them were together and the other two were by themselves. Now, I have seen a lot of deer, but one in particular really turned out to be different. We spotted this particular doe just standing on the side of the dirt road with its head down eating something in the roadway. As we drove quietly closer to it, TC took out the camera and started taking photos of it. We got closer and closer and it did not move. As we got to within 20 feet, it pulled its head up and slowly moved to the side of the road and just watched us. As we continued toward it, the doe moved slightly and just stood there. We stopped the truck and took more photos as we got within 5 feet of it. She just stayed on my side next to my door. We completed our photo session, said thank you to the deer for being so cooperative and photogenic and decided we should move on and let her get back to whatever she was eating. As we drove off, she came right back to the spot she had been feeding at.

We finally made it to Mooselook Stream. The water was not that high so we put our waders on and in the water we went. It was good to be back in the woods fishing as the winter had been a long one. After a time, we decided to move on to Machias Stream, so we packed up and headed to that location.

When we got there, we had a little lunch before going into the water. It just seems like lunch is always better in the woods than it is at home and this one was no exception. After eating, we got our rods out and down to the rips we went. This was really TC’s first excursion into the fast water, but she did really well. I kept a close eye on her and at one point noticed that she lost her footing and in the cold water she went. She handled it like a pro, holding onto her rod and finding her way back up. She didn’t miss a beat as she continued to cast the line out into the fast moving water. After a while, we climbed out of the cold water and up the bank we went to the truck.

Our first ride into the woods had been good. The weather had cooperated and the traffic had been light. We always think about how lucky we are to live so close to this treasure and to be able to take advantage of what it has to offer. We are already planning a few overnight trips before June ends. I expect you will get to read about them here as we continue to explore the North Maine Woods.