FFIM

On Friday I made my first fishing trip of the season up to the North Maine Woods - I visited 3 streams in the uppermost reaches of the Penobscot watershed - one was an old favorite, one was a new stretch of a stream I had fished before and the other was a rank wildcat - they were what I'd call medium to small streams and all had very different, pleasing personalities - unfortunately, all of them were considerably lower and warmer than they usually are at this time of year, but they still fished well - as usual, I had all of them to myself and only one of them had any signs of being visited recently - the stream I ended the day on was as pretty as any stream I've fished in Maine - the entire stream bed was a solid sheet of sculptured blue shale and it was full of very fishy pocket water - the fish in that stream were unusually non-committal - they would rise to and flash at my flies but hookups were tough - I think it may be because the water temp had reached 72* by that point in the day - muddlers & buggers fished on my 6.5', 3wt were the best producers - wildlife was kinda sparse - I only saw 2 moose and no bears, but I'm sure the heat & sunshine had a little to do with that...at any rate it was one of those quintessential northern Maine days kicking about in the woods and streams - hopefully I'll get a few more in before things heat up for good...Tight Lines!

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The best things in life...aren't things.

Nice fish and cool geology.... 72 degrees on Memorial Day? How is that possible? Has the air even been that warm this spring? Definatley not on the free time of this weekend warrior.

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"Fishermen...spending their lives in the fields and woods...are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation." - Thoreau

TGIF, I know it's hard to believe but I think it was a combination of: the stream slides off the top of a shallow pond, a couple days of hot, dry, windy weather, most of the state's (free-flowing) streams are at between 1/3 and 1/2 of their "normal" flows and the stream flows thru a large amount of unshaded, rocky streambed - I might be bass fishing before I know it...
Another bit of irony - after Brookfield held back all that water, then let it blast, the upper West Branch of the Penobscot was as low as I remember seeing it on Memorial Day weekend - go figure...

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The best things in life...aren't things.

Wow! That is remarkable! I would suspect the large surface area of a shallow pond is the culprit. First trip to Maine this weekend for CFR... excited to get back to the stomping grounds.

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"Fishermen...spending their lives in the fields and woods...are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation." - Thoreau

Well, unfortunately- in addition to the confirmation of LMB in the Lewey's Lake/Grand Falls Flowage by MEDIFW last year, I'm hearing rumors that there have LMB caught in three headwater lakes to the Machias River system, and know that LMB eDNA was recovered from Syslodobsis Lake (tributary to West Grand Lake, meaning they're in WGL now too). I suspect more lakes will be found to have been subject to bucket biologist intervention when folks head out to fish this year.

Regarding water temps- unwetted rock soaks up a lot of solar energy and acts as a heat source long after the sun sets. I'm guessing your water temps were largely influenced by the amount of exposed bedrock.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues

Regarding water temps- unwetted rock soaks up a lot of solar energy and acts as a heat source long after the sun sets. I'm guessing your water temps were largely influenced by the amount of exposed bedrock.

I'd guess it was the sun. Six easy words.

Ron

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The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of something that is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.

Sir John Buchan

Nice little stream!

Are you going back to Labrador this summer?

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues

Thanks Northernfly, good to hear from you! I'll be heading thru your home town on Aug 19 & 31, to/from either northern Quebec or Labrador. Have a nice summer & tight lines!

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The best things in life...aren't things.

Hunter,
When I was home over Memorial day and mowing the lawn it was dry and rough as a cob. Normally Memorial Day week-end I'm finishing winter clean-up and rolling my lawn. This past week-end I may as well have tried to roll out the road as the lawn was just as hard. A month before I cleaned up what I could and figured things would be (once all the snow melted) prime for rolling. Dry enough to roll but moist enough to flatten. Far from it.

Now every time I come home I'll have to worry about the well.

Ron

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The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of something that is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.

Sir John Buchan

I know a good well driller if you find you need one.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues

I've always wanted to be an unwetted rock...

You'd make a fine glacial erratic.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues

Ok then.....quick question for Hunter or anybody.

The entire state seems to be needing water........then why is Grand Lake Stream running at least twice what it normally should be on June 1st? Doesn’t seem to make sense to me. The stream just down the hill from my house is virtually bone dry. That didn’t happen in prior years until August.

Dave M

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"Fish the West every year. Life is short; and you'll be dead a long time." Chris Hutchins--2009

There is a lot of storage in the WGL and EGL systems. The dam owner is not overly active in managing gates, so I’d expect them to close it down, but not until the lake storage is substantially tapped. And then it will remain low until the rains come. They’re trying to maximize hydro production downstream before they’re forced to shut the turbines down due to inefficient flow ranges. But that’s just my guess.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues