Trout Waters

We had a great time. It really doesn’t get much better than what we had this past weekend with three days of fishing. One day wading a tailwater of the Andro, another drifting the Androscoggin River, and the third day divided between a backcountry pond and the Little Magalloway River. Salmonids Rule! And our boat had a ‘Grand Slam‘ of the same. We landed brook trout, browns, rainbows and a salmon. It just doesn’t get any better than that and what with bluebird days and a great group of guys, I couldn’t have been more pleased.

Rick Estes of ‘Owl’s Roost Outfitters‘ is one of the nicest gentlemen that ply trout waters and I mean that with all sincerity. Rick was entirely focused on our having a great time and worked hard to make sure he put us on the best opportunities for fish and with the water being as high as it was, this was not an easy task. This is a man that quietly exudes the knowledge and experience of a lifetime. I had misplaced my wading belt and Rick just owned that. He went way out of his way to help me find it–the loss was such a small thing to me–and yet Rick was over the top helpful. By the way. I found it, Rick.

The second boat was piloted by Carter Davidson of Gray Ghost Productions and those fellas had the same great time. Carter is a first class guy. Soft spoken and humble in his knowledge. Carter’s wife provided most of the food for the stream side lunch and she and the drift cook did a fantastic job! Thanks guys. I am definitely going to go back for more.

The back country pond shall remain nameless, but what a jewel it is. The brook trout are all native fish and though we didn’t catch any large fish, we had a period of a couple of hours of targeting one rising fish after another. All along the shore line there were non stop dimples that gave them away and they sipped readily on our dry flies. What a treat it was. A jewel of a pond giving up the ruby of the salmonids.

We met with some very challenging fish on the Little Magalloway, but each of us caught a few fish and lost even more. One of our party, I fella named Ron, whose camp we stayed at while up there, caught twice as many as each of the rest of us. He doesn’t want to hear it because he is the kind of guy that enjoys the surroundings and the fishing nearly as much without the catch as he does with it, but Ron was king that evening. Thanks, Ron. By the way, I still have your ant.

As is usually the case, none of us took as many pictures as we maybe should have and the ones we did shoot are not pro quality. Its mighty tough for amateurs to get good shots while dealing with feisty fish that want to be released quickly–but we have a few that you might enjoy, nevertheless.

~ by John McGranaghan on May 22, 2012.