Lincoln, Maine

Today also had a rather rough start. Woke up at 2am stupid hot because I was wore a sweatshirt in my sleeping bag and went to bed. Unlike last year where the night temperatures dipped into the low 30's, I don't think it got below 45°. So instead of going back to bed, I decided I should try night fishing with some big streamers. I drove half an hour over to the Magalloway, only to see the sign that read "Open from dawn to dusk". So, I had a plan be, and drove the half hour back to Rangeley. I fished the dam on the Rangeley for a good hour, but I didn't have any action. I then left about an hour before sunset to go back to the Magalloway. When I got there, I immediately headed to the big pool I remembered from last year. At dawn, there were fish rising intermittently, but my goal was to catch a big one, so I was jigging a streamer through the run and pool. Again, nothing was happening, when another guy showed up on the opposite bank and started slaying fish. He probably caught 10 fish in the hour. While he was pulling in 14" brook trout, I was struggling to make a nymph rig. Even after I made the rig, I was not catching fish. My size 12 ptails that I tied for the trip weren't doing anything. Hotspot nymphs, yellow stonefly, midges, nothing was working. All I could see from the guy was a bright green fly at the tip, ao I thought it was a greenie weenie. Turns out, it was some type of yarn indicator, as I saw it half way up his fly line when he left the pool. There were probably 4 other guys that came to the pool, caught fish, and left while I was struggling to figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out, I was just oblivious to my surroundings. There was a massive size 16 tan caddis hatch going on. I had just thought the ptail would be good enough, but when I talked to one of thr guys who had fished the hole, he said they were specifically keyed in on the size 16 tan caddis. Sure enough. I tied on a caddis pupa he generously gave me and my own size 16 hares ear and stsrted to get bit After about 5 hours on the Magalloway with no luck, I finally got a fish. I had moved on to pocket water at this point, as the big pool was heavily fished over. All 4 fish I landed came from slow moving pockets mixed in the fast currents. None were over 10", but they were all plump. I probably missed another 4 fish as well, befor calling it at 1, tired from 9 hours of fishing. So there is this new found thing in fly fishing called match the hatch. Turns out if you give the fish a fly that looks like what they're eating, they'll probably eat it. I wasted so much time in the morning trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and I probably could have been slaying fish like the other guy if I had realised they were keyed in on the one insect that was present in the thousands. Hopefully I can use this as a learning experience. Tomorrow, I am going to visit Acadia. Although I would've loved to try and saltwater fish, the nor'eastern makes that impossible. I am going to try and target some salter brook trout. It's supposed to rain half an inch tonight into tomorrow morning, so I am hoping the little creeks don't get blown out.

Today was another amazing day of fishing. It started out a bit rough, but once I found the spot, it was great. This morning, i slept in, because I was running on 8 hours of sleep combined from the previous 2 nights. I first tried to head to the Kennebago River under Kennebago dam. What i failed to realize was that it is privately owned by a camp. They turned me away at the gate, and I had to find a new spot. My next idea was the cupsuptic river. I headed into the woods on another dirt road, and when I gor to the river crossing, the water looked almost stagnant. I knew there were better places so I kept looking My third spot of the day was a good one, the Magalloway River. Right after the dam, there is a nice parking lot and easy access to the river(much smaller threat of moose). The river was pumping, and at first, I thought it would be hard to fish since the flows were higher, but I was able to find plenty of pocket water along the bank to euro nymph. I probably caught 4 brookies and missed many more in this small pocket water. I was pretty much fishing runs that were a foot off of the bank, so there wasn't too much water to cover. I kept walking down when I got to a very nice pool. This was 100x bigger and better than any other pool in the river, so I fished it hard. I started off with a streamer, and immediately missed a nice brook trout. The next cast I hooked up. This time it was a salmon, and I had him feet from my net before he popped off. I fished this pool for 2-3 hours with the streamer and a double nymph- indicator setup, and kept catching brookies, the biggest one was probably only 9". Nonetheless, they were all beautiful and in fall colors, and i had plenty of action. I was a bit bummed I couldn't catch a salmon, but it paid off later. The evening session was so good it needs its own post.