October SalmonWatch Video
Have you ever had a dream that you are late for something important? Not just a few minutes late a couple hours. I woke up to that dream a half hour before my alarm went off. What a relief!! Walking out into the 27degree morning air I climbed into the truck and headed to pick up Luke. After getting gas and a cup of java we were northbound in search for big salmon. For the past week and a half I have been getting calls asking/telling me that I had to get up and fish for these monsters before the season closed. I finally made it up this past Saturday with a friend of mind. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day sunny and mid fifty’s which, might sound cold to those of you in other areas of the world but it was a break for us up here in the northeast. We arrived to the river with a light fog hovering above the surface; the cool morning air chilled our bones as we walked 500 yards down stream to find ourselves a salmon nirvana. Fishing was slow for the first half hour as the sun crept its way above the tree line, Luke was quick to tie on an olive green cone head woolly bugger and had a fish on after his second cast. After netting the fish we snapped some photos and life was good. I stuck with my traditional 2 nymph rig, a prince followed by a size 22 miracle nymph. This paid off once the sun hit the water and warmed things up. “Fish on, there he is, you’ve got to be kidding me” were the common phrases for the next couple hours. Luke and I could not keep them off our lines. 90% of all fish were males with bulging jaws and brilliant colors. And just as quick as it turned on it switched off and the fish were no longer taking. Being more than satisfied we decided to pack up and head home. Driving through the North Maine woods, the sun lit up the nearly gone fall foliage. Hints of yellow, orange and red traced the sky line as we passed by flowing rivers and rolling mountains. The flyfishing was remarkable only to be surpassed by the country they thrive in. My dreams will now be filled with jumping salmon and screaming reels- I don’t care if I am late for anything.
nice – nice fish…very sweet – thanks for letting me throw in some of my content from a couple days earlier. man – i wish more sections of the kennebec stayed open later than oct 31 — oh well – we’ll just go steelheading —— way to zip up the season in maine though joey and luke – those are some sweet fish for sure.
miracle nymph hey? — where did ya pick that up?
Outragous!
Austin
I had no idea your landlocks got that big, that’s awesome. I would love to go to maine someday and fish for those babies.
kodiak – neither did I 🙂
I picked them up out west. Just a tiny tanish grey nymph with some green flash no bead head- they work miracles.
Thats what I was catching all those fish on it is amazing they can even see anything that samll
Great fish. One weekend to go.
I’m curious about the landlocked salmon. From the pics they look a lot like big brown trout. Were they stocked at one point or are they native to Maine? Are they really hard fighters? Difficult to fool? Nice story and cool video.
Pete the salmon are in their spawning colors so they do look like a brown. If you catch them in the sprin or summer they are silver. They fight very hard jumping and darting through the water. The salmon are native to Maine although some are stocked. In this section of the river I think most of the fish are native with some stockers mixed in. Jeremy or marshalld would be able to give you more accurate info on the salmon. Glad you liked the post.
Thanks
j-
Nice fish guys great way to button up the Maine season!
I wish I had not gone to work Great day, nice fish ,good friends What else is there?
What a sweet way to wrap up the season!
The scenery reminds me A LOT of NY’s Adirondacks. And it also reminds me that I didn’t get to take my trip to the Ausable this year 🙁
Hey joey, sweet day! Please post a picture of the Miricle Nymph for us Tyers when you can.
marshalld
Most of the Salmon are wild fish in that stretch.