It was 8 am on Friday and the humidity was already discouraging me from thoughts of fly fishing. Reaching abnormal temps of 93 degrees and bright sun killed my energy for venturing out. My friend Ken called and suggested we meet at a place with hard running cold water, so I headed out without any great expectations. As I was pulling in, I realized I had left my waders at home. I was 60 miles out and decided to wet wade, forced decision. With perspiration and profanity dripping from my face, I turned my trousers into shorts and got in the game. I found the water to be quite cool and the flow of the river quite calming. I figured if I caught nothing I could do the typical song and dance, “no fish but the water was great”. There were small emergers and Sulphers coming off the water and I did the match the hatch thing. I caught a Brown Trout roughly 4 inches and at about 6 pm there were larger fish breaking water for something I could not see as they were mid river. Over time I have found that putting on something big will attract big fish from the bottom. I put on a yellow Bugmiester and began casting and creating my own hatch. Let the fly touch the water, tiny movement as if drying it’s wings and repeat 3 or 4 times and on the final cast dead drift. Bottom of the swing he hit and the fish was on. “Let him run!” Ken said while perched on a rock enjoying the spectacle of me trying to get the fish in where he could net it. When all was said and done, I got my 19 and a half inch Brown into the net and it made my day. This was about Sunset, so I guess on hot days find cool water and wait until the shadows cover the water or you can say “the water was pretty.”
greg .. nice fish!!! glad to see you got your april fish in september … i agree with you … big flies catch big fish and something big and tasty is sometimes what is needed to get the bigger fishes attention and up from sulking on the bottom … great picture too …
Good work greg….i know that every year you go for that one big brown trout, and you got it. Are the rivers starting to cool off up there?
It really is the Spring fish I exspected in April or at least May. I figure if you haven’t caught a decent Brown in Maine you haven’t cast enough.
Nice fish Greg, I dig the picture! Are you making the pilgrimage to steel country this Fall?
absolutely!!!! I would like to take a shot in rivers in the Catskills