Spring In Northern Maine: Prehistoric Landlocked Salmon

by | Fresh Water

Maine Salmon

This past weekend we drove over 500 miles on back roads through the northern Maine woods in search of Landlocked Salmon and Brook Trout. The fishing report and weather report looked grim but we pushed forward with optimism. Luke and I showed up to our first river of choice and the flow was lower than normal but still very fishable. I cast my nymph rig into a slick on the edge of a seam and boom, fish on. I laughed at Luke and said “that guy’s report at the fly shop was way off.” Not long after that Jeremy met us and we fished down stream finding a pod of suckers (a.k.a hot rubber). We each hooked a rubber mouth and did a u- turn back up river to find some more Salmon. Jeremy knew a spot on the upper stretch of the river and we all took positions in the hole. Luke and I were startled when we heard “Oh my God, this thing is huge! It’s my biggest salmon ever!” Jeremy was right. Upon landing this fish we were all in total awe, a prehistoric war warrior from the deep depths of the river crushed his olive wooly bugger. The fish was easily 6 pounds and a beautiful display of the Salmon species. Things started to slow down so we thought we would try our luck on another river which was near by but difficult to access. We glanced at the map and picked our route to find this piece of water that none of us had ever fly fished. After 20 miles of dirt roads, wrong turns and directions from 3 logging trucks and a 2 mile hike we found the river. It didn’t take Luke long to dial into the fish. While Jeremy was scaling the dam and I was falling in the river Luke was battling a big Salmon. He brought the monster to hand that measured 23.5 inches on the dot. Luke’s biggest Landlocked Salmon ever. We watched as it swam away back to the depths of the river and took in the beauty that surrounded us. Day one ended with a long trek back to the car and a solid night sleep at camp. The next morning Jeremy headed south and Luke and I headed north on yet another adventurous search for Landlocked Salmon. The ride brought us over the rugged Maine mountain tops, plenty of rivers and finally to our destination. We fished wooly buggers and nymphs having the most luck on nymph patterns. Luke and I each hooked numerous Salmon and Brook Trout in the 16-18 inch range with a couple of bigger ones breaking us off. We explored the river finding new runs and untapped pools. The light breeze and bright sun made for a great day on the river. On the way home we reminisced about the weekend and both agreed that this spring has been the best Landlocked Salmon fly fishing in a number of years. Thank you Luke and Jeremy for the company and great weekend, there will be many more to come.

11 Comments

  1. waterwhippa on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    This is just getting way out of hand. Well done. Yet another reason why you can never rely on reports from anyone but yourself. If you don’t go you don’t know has been my motto for a long time now. Everone fly fishes differently so reports are always relative or bias. Great vid guys!

  2. patm on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    nice looking fish. great story

  3. Shaq on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    well, what can you say. I just mest up my keyboard at work. Thanks guys!!! What a trip!

  4. joe-m on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Nice work you guys are making me home sick!! Great video!!

  5. Keith on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Nice fish boys!! Looks like you are ticking off some good rivers on your hit list. Got to love those Maine LLS rivers, some of my favorites. Keep slaying them!!!

  6. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    ya …well … come home from florida! after all, we were on your stomping grounds! i told joey that you were the one who introduced me to those salmon drifts. i tried to bring him up to your favorite hole below the waterfall …. but he got lazy and couldn’t go the distance:) …. i said, “hey joey, your dad showed me a hole up there that is awesome!” he looked up stream and saw what it would take to get there….and i could tell by the look on his face … that he wasn’t going to go the distance…. oh well, too bad for him …. 🙂 — me and you will hit it when you get back to maine — or should i say, if you ever get back to maine. i just know that pull is full of big salmon … remember i got that one out of there a few years ago on the black ghost! that was an awesome day and an awesome fish … hope we can do it again this season when you get back … hope all is well joe … give me a shout when you are back .

  7. KodiakCommando on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Great job guys, looks like a lot of fun. I love the title, i always refer to big trout as prehistoric or dinasour fish!

  8. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    right on — i hear ya — they always look like they don’t belong … as if something from ancient times still surviving in a world that has evolved … I am sure you see many trout/salmon in alaska that could be described as such …

    i spent a good deal of time in southeast alaska – and i must say – outside of the ice-burgs — our states are very similar — big pine trees – everything is green green green (in late spring and summer) – the land just seems to sever into the ocean and the intimidating and darkly colored cliffs and ledges line the ocean shorelines… i bet you would come to the same conclusion if you ever visited maine .. but then again – i never made it to kodiak – so maybe not..

  9. wrh on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    that video, …………leaves me speechless. great tunes, looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing it and taking us along.

  10. Luke on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Nice job on the video! What a great weekend. Chalk up another one.

  11. KodiakCommando on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The north side of kodiak is a lot like southeast in the ways you mentioned as is a lot of other parts of alaska. The souther end of kodiak and northern and bristol bay alaska are more tundra, very little trees lots of shrubs bushes and wide open flatness.