Fly fishing the Penobscot River is an unforgettable experience. Fly fishing the Penobscot River with my friend Boz is a religious experience. The Penobscot River is a world class river in more ways than one. It is arguably the best Landlocked Salmon fishery in the United States and one of the best whitewater rafting rivers in the Unites States. Typically, the fly fisherman and whitewater rafters are there for two distinctly different purposes. However, my most recent trip to the Penobscot River was not typical. See, Boz is a 10 year whitewater rafting guide veteran. He has guided all of Maine’s most powerful rivers and a potpourri of wild rivers out west and over seas. Boz is also a fly fisherman and a licensed Maine fly fishing guide. So, Boz and I became friends over the winter while racking our brains trying to figure out the best way to tie a Simplefly. Boz would always say, “Dude, you gotta come up and fly fish the Penobscot with me. I can take you down sections of river that never see fly fisherman. Regular drift boats never fish these sections; it would be way too dangerous. We will have to go through some class 4 and 5 rapids, but the pools in between the rapids are amazing and hold some beautiful Salmon.” I knew this was not just another run of the mill experience. So, Boz called me last week and said, “Jer, I am up here in the Penobscot and would love to take you down the river. The fly fishing has been great and I can even take you to some of my native Brook Trout ponds. The Hex’s/Drakes are coming off!” When I heard that, I couldn’t resist. I shifted my schedule around and opened up a couple days. Put it this way, it was un-freaking-real. The river was beautiful with jaw dropping Salmon pools. I was in heaven. I lost count of the Salmon I hooked and caught a few nice fish that I will forever be burned in my memory. The dry fly action on the river was unbelievable and, to top it off, the dry fly action on the Brook Trout ponds was even better. We showed up to one of Boz’s secret ponds at about 5pm. By 6pm there were countless native Brook Trout rising to Hex’s/Drakes all around me. I was throwing out some huge dry fly patterns and it was unreal to watch the Brook Trout pounce on my flies. Maine ceases to amaze me. There is so much water and seemingly endless possible fly fishing choices and new experiences. I am not the type of fly fisherman who necessarily enjoys fishing the same water over and over again. I like to be constantly learning new waters and experiencing new things. This fly fishing adventure was one of the most dynamic and awe inspiring experiences I have ever experienced. Thank you Boz.
Book
- Alaska
- Guide & Fisherman
- Guiding: Choosing Your Guide And Choosing Your Customer
- Guiding: Do It Yourself With A Guide
- Guiding: Evolution Of A Guide
- Guiding: Freshwater, More Than Meets The Eye
- Guiding: Friends For Life
- Guiding: Know Where You Are
- Guiding: More Than Just A Fisherman
- Guiding: Mystery Of The Fisherman
- Guiding: Payment
- Guiding: Saltwater, A Different World
- Rough Fish
- Fly Fishing For Rough Fish: Why Do It?
- Introduced Rough Fish: The Carps & Other Invasive Species
- Methodology: Gear & Tactics For Pursuing Roughfish On A Fly
- More Roughfish: Bullheads, Whitefish, Goldeye, Burbot & Drum
- Rough Fish Environments: Where To Look For Rough Fish?
- Rough Fish Species: The Suckers
- Rough fish: A Lifetime Of Learning
- Rough Fish: Fishing For Dinosaurs (Gars & Bowfin)
- Rough Fish: What Are They?
- The Hook: Some Common Rough Fish Fly Patterns
- Spey
- Spey: Applications, Where Can You Do It?
- Spey: Atlantic Salmon, A Significant Fish
- Spey: Defined And Demystified
- Spey: Gear, The Nuts And Bolts
- Spey: Lines, They Are That Important
- Spey: Steelhead, New Traditions & A Modern Movement
- Spey: The Energy
- Spey: The Flies
- Spey: The Swing
- Spey: Two Critical Casts
- Striped Bass
- Striped Bass: Fishing Rocky Shorelines
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Beaches
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Flats
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Reefs
- Striped Bass: Fishing Tidal Rivers
- Striped Bass: Flatwing Swing
- Striped Bass: Fly Line Options & Choices
- Striped Bass: Gear, The Nuts & Bolts
- Striped Bass: Migration Patterns
- Striped Bass: What They Eat
- The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: A Natural Drug
- Fly Fishing: A Validation Of Freedom
- Fly Fishing: Don’t Fight The Current
- Fly Fishing: It Is What It Is
- Fly Fishing: Socialization For Asocial Individuals
- Fly Fishing: The Allure Of The Fish
- Fly Fishing: The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: The Simplicity Of It All
- Fly Fishing: Time Flies
- Fly Fishing: Times You Remember & Try To Forget
Damn. Does it get better than that? Great water, great fish and an unreal look at parts of the Penobscot that most will never see. Thanks much guys. Great duo on the song too.
All I can say is WOW!!!!
Mickey
P.S.
I hope my trip next week to the Beaverhead is that good….
That was unreal, those cliffs, the water, the pictures, the river, the fish, wow. Then the drakes, great footage, makes me jealous as h__l. leaves me dumbfounded as to the qulaity of fishing there. It’s nice to know that there are some real jewels that aren’t touched that often. In this case the Penobscot as it is so hard to get to.
ASF’s winter 2005 edition of the Atlantic Salmon Journal had a great article on the Penobscot and the restoration effort going on there, including the removal of several dams.
I hope that with the all the effort that people are putting in, increased numbers anadromous atlantic salmon and other indigenous sea run fish will result. It would be wonderful for such a beautiful river to have big atlantics coming back en masse again. It would be even cooler if there was a good atlantic salmon fishery south of the border. Kudos! Great vid!
Not gonna be…IS KILLER. Great job on a remote location. DOesn’t get any better than that. Great just Killer!
Jeremey and Austin,
Good work with the video guys! You’ve really captured the essence of flyfishing the West Branch of the Penobscot, which is not an easy task.
Jeremey, like you I too like the experience of learning new waters, and seeing new things. The Penobscot’s West Branch has literally been my backyard for nearly 10 years and still amazes me daily. I look forward to a lifetime of flyfishing and exploring the region and can’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.
You guys saw just a small piece of the river and surrounding area, so I’m sure you’ll be back soon.
Any river, any day, anytime there’s a seat in my raft for you both
Just a total jaw dropper. No one else around, unmolested fish and runs. It just really couldn’t be any better. Boz nice work on the oars and vocals. Some of those rapids look a little hairy. Austin, very impressive shots. I have got to float that someday.
Foolishness! Just plain foolishness!
Nice work, guys. Loved the WHOLE thing!
Jeremy,
You never cease to amaze me. You must have been a sanit in a prior life to be living the one you are living now (LOL).
As always, it is a pleasure to live vicariously through your adventures. That is a great story and really touched something in me as I have always wondered what it would be like if I could get to some of those unreachable pools in various rivers.
You’ve actually done it!
Congratulations…….George
Sick video! Hey boz i like the footage of stylin it with row frame in the gorge. Good wook ol’ boy. Peace
– Josh
P.S. I’d like to say boz is amazing fisherman and teacher, ive learned s#*tload from him. This spring I fished the Rapid River with Boz and another buddie of mine who had never caught a fish on a fly rod. Boz showed him the flies to use and where throw em’ and he had my friend lacing into fish left and right.
Salmonflies too. Unreal!
Sick!
sick!
Wow. You have no idea what that did for me after this long working day! I used to be a WW guide in Colorado, BUT was not yet a flyfisherman. Seeing both of my passions combined was incredible (and now I’m doing some thinkin’…) – Thanks!
~Mike
Wow, a kranefly sighting…must be a great video
I KNOW!!! – a VERY rare occurance .. the KRANEFLY only ‘hatches’ … on select occasions….. hopefully we can entice him to ‘hatch’ on a more regular basis. but, that might take some seriously quality content ..and/or BIG steel or BIG delaware browns … i bet an atlantic salmon would bring him up to the surface too ….:)
dude, NO KIDDING! did you see the size of that fly … i did not want to get into the symantics of what they were (salmon flies/dobsob flies/huge stone flies) … to be honest .. i didn’t really care much … i classified them all a HUGE FLIES … and i am not kidding … usually i find myself digging through my box looking for something smaller … no joke .. this time … i was searching through my box looking for something BIGGER … i even pulled a few saltwater flies out 🙂 … if you go bring HUGE chernobal ants, huge golden stones and anything else that looks like a big huge nasty clump of fur floating down the river …. and hang on .
hey everyone,
thanks for the comments … i really do appreciate them … i put in allot of work on the water and on the computer trying to write articles/shoot photos/shoot video that is as “real” as possible … i really try my best to make it NOT the “look at me with big fish … bragging type content” … and more so content that is focused on the experience of any given trip … i enjoy TRYING to capture the “essence” of a trip (the people/the fish/the travel/the water) and it makes me feel good when all you guys recognize that as such ….
and that is what is so awesome about fliesandfins.com as a whole … through the years … fliesandfins.com has kind of characterized itself .. and its so fun that its at a spot that its at … no “know it alls” … just people who love to fly fish .. and share the experiences that they have .. and just as much as you guys enjoyed and lived vicariously through this piece of content … i love to do the same when others post their fishtales — it makes me realize that there is SO many experiences out there … some of which i may get to experience in my lifetime and others that I probably will never get a chance to do … so, point being, if i never get a chance to make it to cabos st. whatever in mexico to fly fish for rooster fish … the next best thing is living vicariously through jason-c’s articles/photos/videos ….. so, it feels cool to be just one piece of the puzzle to a much bigger picture … because fliesandfins.com without ALL OF YOU .. would really be nothing more than just another website …
thanks again… i am glad you guys like the content
Jeremy,
It’s definately not “just another website”. Thanks to you for providing it. Keep up the GREAT work!
…….George
Jeremy,
This video is killer…fisherboy did nice work. Sorry you & I didn’t have a little bit better luck the morning after in the Hyde. I still owe you a picture of the fish I was bragging about up there….soon to come, I’m still using the old 35 mil for my fish pics…and I don’t burn through the film like I used to. I was back up at the WB again two weeks ago…fishing was fair but unbelievably, me & my two buddies were just about the only guys on the river. Back on it September 9th…
Clouts
I haven’t been to the West Branch for a few years. Any reports on how it is fishing this season?
wow. great story and fish. Is this the upper west branch above chesuncook or is it Ripogenus Gorge?