When I met Christian and Doug at East Outlet for a morning of guided fishing August 23, ’04, the air was fall-crisp and the river was still at 2400cfs. The two Empire State guys followed me to a spot on the river where I’d seen rising fish the previous Friday, a spot that two novice anglers would have plenty of room to cast. We rigged for nymphing and deep water streamer-stripping and taught a few techniques while we waited for the sun to bring the hatch on. In the eddies, we noticed lots of Caddis shucks bunched up and stuck together, a sign that a hatch had recently taken place, perhaps only a few hours ago before sunrise.

As the sun warmed our faces and the morning fog began to lift, the tiny ‘snaps’ of rising trout began to appear in the slack water of the pool. I called out to Chris who was upstream nymphing, “Time to switch over to a small tan Caddis, Chris. Come down here and put your fly right on the rise when you see one!”

Chris stood motionless in position “A” where I’d seen the rising trout and tied on a small Caddis. He saw a flicker of a rise right near shore and cast once to the tiny ring. “Marsh!”, he yelled as his arm stretched upward, his rod bent in an arc. I stumbled awkwardly to his side, rod in my teeth, pulling out my camera with one hand, wading staff in the other. This fish was not a small one, judging by the arc of Chris’ rod, and he dug deep, burrowing towards the current. As I struggled closer to Chis, I was shouting out suggestions…”Let him run!…Play him from the reel!…Keep your rod high…Use side pressure!…,etcetera. I was as excited as Chris, but tried to sound calm and authoritative. Doug waded upstream to us as we landed this beauty, the best fish of five we hooked that morning. The guys from New York will definately be back on this great river of Maine!