Chasing Salmon in Maine #7

Maine was everything we expected from this trip. Lots of time on the road, helpful fishing community, beautiful rivers, lakes and skies, and the occasional moose

After finishing up in Massachusetts, we decided to head to Grand Lake Stream after talking to a friend who had caught Salmon there previously. Salmon is not a fish either of us have experience in catching, so we needed help and advice. We made the journey up and after fishing there for a bit we ran into Michelle Cyr who works at Weatherby’s lodge, a fly fishing lodge at Grand Lake stream. She told us to come the next day and get some expert advice from the owner of the lodge, Jeremy Evans. We went to Weatherby’s the next morning and talked to Jeremy, who told us a few spots we could try. We then drove to the Roach River and tried there for a few days, and while we were there we met with a reporter from a Bangor newspaper, John Holyoke, who very generously offered to drive up to the river to meet us in person and conduct an interview.

Although the nearby Moosehead Lake was beautiful, and we saw some moose on the road and in the river, we didn't catch any fish. We decided to try the West Branch of the Penobscot river, and on our first day there we caught fallfish and perch. We tried further downstream the next day, starting in some deadwater and making our way towards a large portion of rapids. We caught more fallfish, and once we got to the rapids we decided to fish the little pools on the side of them, and switch to rooster tails from the assortment of spoons and small crankbaits that we had been using. We started catching brook trout, and in one of the pools I caught a small salmon as I was calling Daniel over. He then immediately caught one too on his very next cast. We finished up a successful day by catching a few more brook trout before heading off to Vermont.