The local weather patterns are starting to stabilize. Today I did some hill road work. The hills where steep and different lengths. The route was only 7 miles on some nice country roads.
My goal today was only to work on my breathing and elevate my heart rate.
I will be returning to Maine in 159 days for two weeks. During this time, I will be seeing places I have never seen before. I will be taking a lot of photos like I did the last time I was there. I will also be doing a lot of fishing, one with the bug rod and the other with the eggbeater. I wanted to show you folks where I will be taking some photos based upon your recommendations and if you have other suggestions, please let me know. I will be up in Maine from Sept 21st until October 5th.
This will be the latest trip in Maine I have ever done. I am limited to where I can take my vehicle because of the vertical clearance she has. Not to say I won’t chance it while practicing some common sense lol. She is going to be replaced next year with another Soob that has higher vertical clearance.
Because of extreme sensitivity and respect for the fishery and my friends I will not be talking about where I am fishing or accessing the areas I will be at. For those who know you don’t need a map lol.
So, my first screen shot here is of the Height of Land area. I have found three vistas via Goggle Earth Pro and Google Maps.
Here are the coordinates for one of the vistas: 44°51'9.51"N 70°42'12.60"W. The second vista is here 44°49'22.77"N, 70°42'20.62"W and the third vista is here 44°50'18.75"N 70°42'37.02"W.
Here is one of the places I will be headed too Quill Hill located here: 45° 2'40.76"N 70°31'17.70"W
I will be also going to the site of the B-52 crash to pay my respects located here 45°31'40.40"N 69°26'5.10"W.
I won’t give details about where I will be in the following area, but for discussion we can call it Baxter State Park. I will be up here in this area for three days. I will be float tubing a pond and fishing one other bodies of water up there that will remain nameless by me due to respect for all. I have rented a cabin that will be amazing to call home for the time I am up there.
I will be returning to base camp after this which is down coast and while I hope to fish with a few old friends and possibly new ones after a few days of that I will return to Acadia.
I will be rock crawling and scrambling for three days. I will be taking a lot of photos of the seascape and going up to Cadillac Mountain. I will be using an eggbeater here because the majority of the shoreline will not allow you to overhead cast. The Pollock will be my main quarry here and trying for something larger with the larger rod rigged for deeper water around sunken structure.
The information I am only looking for is places to take photos and I do not want any fishy access information. As you know enough about me by now, it’s all about adventure.
Needless to say, I am all tied up for Maine saltwater flies and freshwater flies are all done. I am leaving my bobbers at home. This will be a swinging trip and a still water tactics trip.
Wow I almost forgot so while headed up north and around the
Rangeley area are there any good places to get a meal? I do not require anything fancy but what I do
want to experience is anywhere you would get that feeling of home. I am looking
for any and all recommendations.
lol I am glad I don’t make a living from taking photos! The cloud cover with my
dark lense made it tough to get a good composition for any photo. The
high cirrus clouds diffused the sunlight so well I should have had a 12 s stop
for the shoot. If this had been a completely clear sky, then maybe it would
have been better, but I will never know lol.
So, the totality shot was blown because I did not use my grey polarizer
for the totality shot. I am glad I did
not wait my whole lifetime for this moment lol.
I have
fished the Fuego River for several years and she has never ceased to amaze me,
but today she raised the bar.
I grabbed my
custom Rainshadow IF1086-4 – 10’8” 4pc (6wt) rated for 275-375 grain weight
window. I slapped on a 375-grain max
short 20’8” head Skagit along with it a “don’t laugh” 10’ salmon steelhead
sinking leader 2”/sec. This is the same exact setup I used in Montana. I used 3 feet of 8-pound test floro for tippet
(the three feet was added so I am less likely to blow my anchor).
I did not
hit the water until about 1400. The overnight low was just above freezing and
so for me there was no point showing up any earlier.
I drove west
like Fieval to get to the Fuego River. I arrived to the urban jungle and got ready.
People looked at me like they often do like I have a screw loose! Chuckling, I
headed to the river.
I found her
to be very low for this time of year and with most of the reel steelheaders up
on the tribs I was assured to have this all to myself.
I got there
and saw ppl enjoying the sun and the nice weather. Our winter this year has
been mellow. We will pay the price in the summer while the west is on fire we
will join them with our drought.
A former friend of mine Marc Crapo made me a nice fly wallet that I decided to bring with me today. It’s been a while since I have used my fly wallet.
I start covering
the traditional holding waters for any warm water fish species.
I did not care
if I hooked any fish today. It’s been a minute since I have cast one of my two
handers. I cack handed “look up that
definition lol” step casted downstream for about 100 yards and with no love I
went elsewhere.
So, at this
point I had been casting for maybe 40 minutes. Then I made a move down stream
by maybe 10 miles.
Well, what I
did not know until just now they stock rainbows in this section of the Fuego
River. So, although it was on the swing
I thought it was really rare, but apparently knot!
The pattern
was pretty basic tied on a number 1 2220 Daiichi streamer hook. The body is white schlapen “wide palmered to
be sparse”. Then tye in a sparse collar of flashabou and then a heavy palmered
collar of mallard flank.
This is as simple as it gets, I think for a swinging minnow pattern and lol if this one head gets any bigger it’s going to need two zip codes! So, funny thing this is also my gar fly pattern! The streamer hook is other than being a huge hook size for trout, it is 4X long!!!
I got to my
second spot and waded out a third of the way out to the river. Onlookers are
like what in the world is he doing?
This perch was looking over downstream a slick in the river. A slick is
a piece of water that is relatively flat in the middle because it’s between two
tailouts!
So, at this
point its been over an hour since I started to drown flies. In reading the
water I put down stream mend in my cast to sed the fly screaming across the
river. From what my friend has told me
who fishes out west in Oregon for saltrun steelhead this will trigger fish if
they are present!
Holy
snickers it happened! My line went stiff
mid current! I put side pressure on the fish and he/she did not like that! The
fish leapt out of the river and I bowed to it like my Pap taught me.
This would
be the moment I realized it was a trout I hooked! A trout how in the sam hell
was this a trout and how in the hell did it get here?
The fish
fell back into the river and snuggled with the gravel digging in. I rotated the
rod to be perpendicular to the riverbank and the trout did not like that at
all.
The fish
tried to dislodge the hook, but that number one streamer was buried deep in the
jaw!
I brought
the fish to hand and treated it with all due respect and turned him/her loose
to fight another day. I would hook two more and broke them off because I was genuinely
worried others would see me hook these fish. Later I learned that these fish were
stocked lol!
I will be back
again someday for another challenge!
Be well,
Sonder
It was a great day and here are some videos and other interesting items from our day!
Hello folks,
Well winter
has been strange to say the least and on February 10 I am going to swing flies
in northeast Ohio in 50-degree weather.
Meanwhile there are states in the Pacific Northwest that have only 50%
of the snowpack for the season.
Today’s
outing of swinging flies was more for exercise than anything else. I headed way
up stream on the Grand River. I found the river to be running a little low for
swinging at 340 cf/s and she had a solid 24” of visibility today.
I brought my
Scott switch rod (2H1157/4) and I have it strung up with a SA 440 grain skagit.
My tip of choice today was a 1.5”/sec sink rate leader. I also chose a more subtle and natural
colored fly.
Its spring
and the majority of the fish have either spawned or are actively on gravel. I
have no desire to fish for bedding fish.
I made my
way up the riverbanks that are budding with life already. The wild rose bushes
were turning back to green after being dormant over winter. They should still
be in their dormant state, but these temps over the several weeks have changed
that.
A lot of these areas up here on the river are low lying areas and prone to flooding. I did notice some type of swamp plant that was also coming out of its dormant stasis.
I found my
first perch and covered the water to the best of my ability. I worked the casts
long and short to cover the holding lies well enough in the hopes of making a
fish rise.
After over an
hour I began my mile plus hike back to the car. I could hear turkeys going off
in the distance. I heard deer snort at me I yelled out “whatever”.
I got back
to the car a little less for wear and headed to the “jawbone River”.
Here I would settle in once I made the over mile trek to the river and make a pot of boiling water for my coffee press.
The river
here was nothing like her easterly cousin. Here is river was green and had exceptional
flow for February. I keep coming back here to see her to hopefully one day she
will grant me the experience of hooking a steelhead in her river. I made my coffee
and continued to traverse the river. I swung every part of that river that I
thought could hold a fish. I tried to redefine the definition of insanity but I
failed to do so and called it a day. Battered and beaten, but with a smile on
my face I turned the car to the east and drove home.
Well, it’s February and in the past I didn’t like fishing until the spawning fish are out of the rivers. I need to get some exercise and get my casting arms a workout. I will be headed to the Grand River and the “Jawbone River”.
I will start up high on the Grand and then traversing down to a middle section. The overnight low is supposed to be 50 degrees with a south westerly wind with speeds up to 8 to 11 miles per hour. There is no reel reason to get here before first light. I will be in the gorge area and it will take some time for any sunshine to warm up the river valley.
There should be less fish and idealistically less people up in this stretch of water too. I long for the old days of seeing less people and I know it’s the popularity of Mr. and Mrs. Instagram to take their hero shots. We are all guilty of it at one time or another in our journey of life.
With the weather forecasts being this who would not want to go out and swing some flies to relax.
I will then turn to fish the “Jawbone” River. Here I will fish down low in the hopes of connecting with a drop back fish. Hell, who I am kidding I want more than anything to just hook a fish!
Stay tuned, I will have some new videos and photos to share.
Be well and get outside
Sonder
