The fly fishing season started early in the North Woods of Maine and both the ponds and the rivers were producing. I started guiding on May 12 on remote ponds and we were seeing afternoon hatches of Hendrickson on a regular basis. We were successful with Quill Gordon’s, Blue Duns, Red Quills and attractor patterns, and also Dark Hendrickson wet flies. When topwater action slowed down we were successful with sink tip line using damselfly nymphs, olive wooly buggers, and a variety of streamers.
The East Outlet also fished well and water levels were suitable for wading or drift boat fishing. We were consistently catching 18” salmon using attractor dry flies with small dropper flies like Griffith Gnats. As June arrived the East Outlet was very productive with nymphing and swinging soft hackle working well. The caddis hatch heated up the second week of June and cdc caddis and elk hair caddis and caddis emergers were the hot flies. As July entered the picture the lack of rain started to take its toll on the rivers and ponds.
The Green Drake hatch hit around July 5 and the fishing was good for a few weeks on the ponds. We caught a lot of big Brook Trout on Green Drake patterns mostly the last hour before dark. On July 12 Brookfield dropped the water levels in the East Outlet to 800cfs and this effectively ended drift boat fishing in the river. I turned my attention to the Penobscot below Ripogenus Dam and the fishing was very good thru July and August. Caddis were king in the evening and weighted buggy streamers during the day and nymphing was also productive. Once Labor Day passed Brookfield gave us some water in the Kennebec and the fishing was good all fall. The Roach also was very productive with streamers and nymphing working well
All in All, it was a great fly fishing season in the North Country