When most folks think of Maine, they think Salmon and Brook Trout. But, Maine has some amazing wild Brown Trout fisheries. I drove through sheets of rain on a mission to catch some of Maine’s more elusive and larger wild Brown Trout. I was fly fishing with my good friend Kenny Clark, who knows these waters like the back of his hand. When I got to my destination, I noticed the water was lower than I had seen it before and knew we would be hopping from one deep run, pool and pocket water to another. Kenny caught this beautiful Brown Trout in very low water by sectioning pocket water, tail outs and seems along the faster currents. I lost 2 nice fish because I did not let them run as I miscalculated their size. I had been told by others that this piece of water held no large fish, but you could get plenty of stocked sized fish. I looked down river and noticed Ken’s rod had been bent in excess of 5 minutes, a long time to play a 14 inch stocked fish. Ken yelled up that he thought this was a nice Brown Trout and not one of the easier to catch stocked fish that can be found up stream. This fish had taken a large floating Stone Fly with a yellow body. Fly fishing for these larger Brown Trout is a bit more technical than their stocked brothers and sisters. Longer and smaller tippet is sometimes required and a perfectly presented dry fly dead drifted with no drag on the fly is very important. On this section of river it seems that late afternoon and the last few hours of sunlight is the prime time. Better hatches tend to come off during these hours and, like all Brown Trout, these fish tend to move out from their daytime hiding spots to feed. Also, like most wild Brown Trout fisheries, this section of river can be very deceptive. During the high sun daylight hours, the Brown Trout seem to virtually vanish. Runs, riffles and pools that were thick with fish the night before will seem void of life during the high sun hours. But, those who have seen what happens in the hours just before dark, know that the fish are there.
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There were certainly some big Browns last nigh! we’ll do that again!
greg — good to see you and kenny out … i have bumped into kenny a time or two up in that neck of the woods .. i almost always see him fishing the spey rod .. were you guys fishing single handed rods? … anyway, very nice brown trout … it is true, there are some amazing brown trout waters in maine and no lack of big browns … but, catching the big browns is sometimes the tough part .. i can think of several spots where i see huge brown trout rising and as soon as i wade out, within casting range .. they vanish … elusive creatures for sure …
beautiful fish. It sure is fun pulling out a monster brown when everybody says that they are not there! Great job.
sweet catch guys. Glad you and Kenny got into a few. Nice job!
Fine article, greg, and good pic. of K2 and Brownie. Hope to see you on the rivers.
Marsh