Fishing - Myron and the Rapid

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Myron and the Rapid

We picked up Myron at the South Arm dock a little after 8 in the am.
We were greeted not only by this smiling big man with a sparkle in his
eyes, but also some rain drops. By the time we got back to Lakewood
and suited up, the heavens had opened and it was raining, gentle at
first, only a prelude for what was to come.

We started off at Middle Dam because it has been producing lots of
fish and the water was relatively cold. Myron forgot his raincoat,
but fortunately I had packed two. He fit quite well into my SST.
Because of the rain I decided to wear my G3s with more than 450 days
on their wear-meter, while Myron wet waded. (Hey, Richard. They are
free now, and I only paid a buck a day to use ‘em!.) Unfortunately
when it briefly stopped raining, I took off the raincoat and placed it
on a rock, the inside exposed to the weather. Of course it started to
rain again, and by the time I got to the raincoat, it was soaked .
Nothing quite like a soggy raincoat.

I gave Myron the secret flies (all Harry's Troutflies.com wonders).
Myron had a hard time hooking up; he'd get a hit, but just couldn't
get the hook up. After lunch I had him change to a 4x leader with a
5x tippet and we went to Pond in the River to fish the Currents. A
boat was necessary as the flow was 1300 cfs - a bit high to wade out
to the island. The water was warm, and the fish were down. We saw a
couple of rises from small salmon, but none of the usual suspects in
the usual places. After an hour, we decided the dam was better.

I gave Myron first choice and he selected the rocks on the northern
side of the dam, while I crossed the dam and took up station on the
first long spillway at Zimmerman's Run. Right away Myron was into
some fish, 12 - 14 inch salmon. In just a few minutes he had 4 or 5,
losing a monster or two. He was happy. I had a hard time keeping my
dry afloat in the rain, so switched over to a small (size 20) black
soft hackle nymph. Now we were both landing fish and didn't mind the
rain. Myron was using the fly that he tied for his first roff fly
swap (black body with an orange/red feather tied on as wings. It
looked like it was made for the Rapid.

I gave up about 5 to head back to camp for something to drink. We
left camp after lunch without Myron's little backpack which not only
contained our water, but also our raincoats. I was just too wet and
too thirsty to fish. I ended the season with a nice fat 17 inch
salmon. A bottle of water, hot shower, and a vodka tonic with lime
got me into a relaxin' mood. We were sitting on the porch of our
cabin when a line of thunderstorms came through. The wind had built
up and was blowing the rain onto the porch, so we settled inside with
our drinks and relived the day with a tale or two.

Myron was impressed with the cabin and the food, so he decided to
spend the night. He went fishing after dinner for an hour or so and
caught several nice salmon. I think he liked the river!

He must have been very tired, because my snoring from the next bedroom
did not awaken him. After a filling breakfast with lots of hot
coffee, we made our way back to South Arm and parted company, vowing
to do another trip. Great guy, Myron, with lots of interesting tales
about his worldly travels. I think we now have another Rapid River
fan. Great trip, worth the miserable traffic jams on the way home
(folks going to York and Hampton Beaches and Plum Island).

Dave

Myron and the Rapid

On Jul 19, 2:45*pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:
We picked up Myron at the South Arm dock a little after 8 in the am.
We were greeted not only by this smiling big man with a sparkle in his
eyes, but also some rain drops. *By the time we got back to Lakewood
and suited up, the heavens had opened and it was raining, gentle at
first, only a prelude for what was to come. *

We started off at Middle Dam because it has been producing lots of
fish and the water was relatively cold. *Myron forgot his raincoat,
but fortunately I had packed two. *He fit quite well into my SST.
Because of the rain I decided to wear my G3s with more than 450 days
on their wear-meter, while Myron wet waded. *(Hey, Richard. * They are
free now, and I only paid a buck a day to use ‘em!.) Unfortunately
when it briefly stopped raining, I took off the raincoat and placed it
on a rock, the inside exposed to the weather. *Of course it started to
rain again, and by the time I got to the raincoat, it was soaked .
Nothing quite like a soggy raincoat.

I gave Myron the secret flies (all Harry's Troutflies.com wonders).
Myron had a hard time hooking up; he'd get a hit, but just couldn't
get the hook up. *After lunch I had him change to a 4x leader with a
5x tippet and we went to Pond in the River to fish the Currents. *A
boat was necessary as the flow was 1300 cfs - a bit high to wade out
to the island. *The water was warm, and the fish were down. *We saw a
couple of rises from small salmon, but none of the usual suspects in
the usual places. *After an hour, we decided the dam was better.

I gave Myron first choice and he selected the rocks on the northern
side of the dam, while I crossed the dam and took up station on the
first long spillway at Zimmerman's Run. *Right away Myron was into
some fish, 12 - 14 inch salmon. *In just a few minutes he had 4 or 5,
losing a monster or two. *He was happy. *I had a hard time keeping my
dry afloat in the rain, so switched over to a small (size 20) black
soft hackle nymph. *Now we were both landing fish and didn't mind the
rain. *Myron was using the fly that he tied for his first roff fly
swap (black body with an orange/red feather tied on as wings. *It
looked like it was made for the Rapid.

I gave up about 5 to head back to camp for something to drink. *We
left camp after lunch without Myron's little backpack which not only
contained our water, but also our raincoats. *I was just too wet and
too thirsty to fish. *I ended the season with a nice fat 17 inch
salmon. *A bottle of water, hot shower, and a vodka tonic with lime
got me into a relaxin' mood. *We were sitting on the porch of our
cabin when a line of thunderstorms came through. *The wind had built
up and was blowing the rain onto the porch, so we settled inside with
our drinks and relived the day with a tale or two. *

Myron was impressed with the cabin and the food, so he decided to
spend the night. *He went fishing after dinner for an hour or so and
caught several nice salmon. *I think he liked the river!

He must have been very tired, because my snoring from the next bedroom
did not awaken him. *After a filling breakfast with lots of hot
coffee, we made our way back to South Arm and parted company, vowing
to do another trip. *Great guy, Myron, with lots of interesting tales
about his worldly travels. *I think we now have another Rapid River
fan. *Great trip, worth the miserable traffic jams on the way home
(folks going to York and Hampton Beaches and Plum Island).

Dave

Yep, its all true, and thanks again, Dave, for a great trip, great
company, and invaluable insights on how to fish the Rapid.

For the rest of all y'all...
I had been to the Rapid befo last year I found GPS coordinates to
guide me through the maze of woods roads accessing the river from the
southside (they were listed on some whitewater kayaking site), so I
drove in and bushwacked into the ruins of lower dam and fished about a
100 yard stretch of river from that side. Caught a bunch of 8 inch
trout, a handful of bass and tons of blackfly bites before I
junglewacked back out and camped in the wild. The next day, I wanted
to try to find the outlet via canoe across the lake, but the winds and
rain shut me out at South Arm and I headed back down to central Maine
feeling vaguely unfulfilled. So having the Pirate guide me through the
fishable pools and proper set up was really appreciated this year.

One downside of fishing all over the planet (as I told Dave: "I fish
all over the place, but I don't necessarily CATCH all over the
place...") is that you have to retool your fishing style for local
conditions. The same size and variety of fish that were in the Rapid
(14-20 inch Salmonids) would be fished with #10-#12 hooks on 3x tippet
in Sweden, and #8-#10 hooks with 1x or 2x tippet in New Zealand, so I
was seriously overrigged for the timid New England fish. I started out
with #14 flies on 3x tippet, but after a morning with no hookups and a
lot of refusals, Dave dialed me into using 5x tippet and #20 and #22
flies. Man, what a difference...instantly I was successful (mostly
high-sticking) and having a ball. I was particularly happy to discover
that my most successful fly was, as Dave mentioned, the 'African
Devil' I had tied up for my first ROFF-swap about 6 years ago. I have
2 or 3 of them in size 18 that I never really considered legitimate
flies, as they were tied before I really knew anything about tying,
but the Rapid fish could not get enough of them. I was getting strikes
on almost every cast, and eventually started 'blind setting'...a sort
of bizarre method where I just randomly set the hook at a point in the
river, cast back over the same line and set the hook a foot farther
downstream, recast and drift, setting the hook another foot farther
downstream. I have decided (based on getting all sorts of hookups with
this method), that I am getting LOTS of takes without feeling them
with each drift, and by blind setting, I actually increase the odds of
hooking up.

Anyway, it was a really fine day, and I hope to paddle my canoe over
to Lakewood another time this summer, say hello to the kind folks
there, and enjoy some more time on the late-season water on the
Rapid.

Thanks again for the great company and laughs, Dave.

--riverman

Myron and the Rapid

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 07:46:38 -0700 (PDT), riverman
wrote:

Thanks again for the great company and laughs, Dave.

Great report, Myron. And thank *you* for the great company, a look at
that African Devil fly, and all the laughs. After breakfast, Maureen
said to me, "You have the nicest friends." Yeah, I do.

We'll do it again, Myron, but next time we'll hit the Currents, the
wing dams, and some nice pocket water that I can point you to.

Dave

Myron and the Rapid

In article
,
riverman writes
On Jul 19, 2:45*pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:
We picked up Myron at the South Arm dock a little after 8 in the am.
We were greeted not only by this smiling big man with a sparkle in his
eyes, but also some rain drops. *By the time we got back to Lakewood
and suited up, the heavens had opened and it was raining, gentle at
first, only a prelude for what was to come. *

snip

Glad to hear you two got on rather well - with some good fishing to
boot!
--
Bill Grey

Myron and the Rapid

In article , Dave LaCourse
writes
Great report, Myron. And thank *you* for the great company, a look at
that African Devil fly, and all the laughs. After breakfast, Maureen
said to me, "You have the nicest friends." Yeah, I do.

Indeed we do :-)
--
Bill Grey

Myron and the Rapid

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:30:51 +0100, "W. D. Grey"
wrote:

Glad to hear you two got on rather well - with some good fishing to
boot!

We were very fortunate, Bill. Normally the river doesn't fish very
well the last two weeks of July and the first two of August. This
year, however, the spring was very cold with lots of snow run-off, and
many days of cold rain. The first week of June it was 34 degrees at 6
am one rainy morning.

BTW, Myron and I were the only ones catching fish. There were several
locals in via boat, but they caught nothing.

My best to you and Anne.

Dave
(PS: My youngest daughter and her husband just lost their beloved
black lab. Buffett was *16*. He had a great life.)

Myron and the Rapid

On Jul 20, 7:10*pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:

BTW, Myron and I were the only ones catching fish. *There were several
locals in via boat, but they caught nothing. *

Oh yeah, hee hee. That was another highlight.

--riverman

Myron and the Rapid

In article , Dave LaCourse
writes
My best to you and Anne.

Thanks Dave
Dave
(PS: My youngest daughter and her husband just lost their beloved
black lab. Buffett was *16*. He had a great life.)

They will miss him sadly.

Geraint will be 9 on the 24th July. The time seems to have flown.
--
Bill Grey

Myron and the Rapid

On Jul 20, 8:46 am, riverman wrote:

I was getting strikes
on almost every cast, and eventually started 'blind setting'...a sort
of bizarre method where I just randomly set the hook at a point in the
river, cast back over the same line and set the hook a foot farther
downstream, recast and drift, setting the hook another foot farther
downstream. I have decided (based on getting all sorts of hookups with
this method), that I am getting LOTS of takes without feeling them
with each drift, and by blind setting, I actually increase the odds of
hooking up.

Curious, did you have many foul hooked fish or fish hooked outside the
mouth? On rivers with lots of fish in them, doing the above would, in
my experience, result in lot's of foul hooks. Even without "blind
setting", dead drift nymphing (and other subsurface techniques)
through runs with reasonably dense fish populations results in not-so-
rare foul hookups. The main legal method for catching sockeye in
Alaska is to "snag" them in or near the mouth with a fly.

I foul hooked one 13" brown in 11-mile canyon in Colorado back in
June, out of about 6-7 hours of nymph fishing. Another time I was
streamer fishing on the San Juan in Texas hole right at sundown,
letting the streamer swing and then _slowly_ bringing it back up along
the current's edge. Willi and I think Danl were there. I tail hooked
two browns, both nice size, both on the very slow up current retrieve.
I imagine that either the fish felt the line hit their side/back/belly
and "darted" away, catching the line/fly with their tail, or they
purposely whacked the fly with their tail to stun it? see if it was
alive? get rid of it?

Jon.

Myron and the Rapid

On Jul 22, 1:25*pm, wrote:
On Jul 20, 8:46 am, riverman wrote:

I was getting strikes
on almost every cast, and eventually started 'blind setting'...a sort
of bizarre method where I just randomly set the hook at a point in the
river, cast back over the same line and set the hook a foot farther
downstream, recast and drift, setting the hook another foot farther
downstream. I have decided (based on getting all sorts of hookups with
this method), that I am getting LOTS of takes without feeling them
with each drift, and by blind setting, I actually increase the odds of
hooking up.

Curious, did you have many foul hooked fish or fish hooked outside the
mouth? On rivers with lots of fish in them, doing the above would, in
my experience, result in lot's of foul hooks. Even without "blind
setting", dead drift nymphing (and other subsurface techniques)
through runs with reasonably dense fish populations results in not-so-
rare foul hookups. The main legal method for catching sockeye in
Alaska is to "snag" them in or near the mouth with a fly.

I foul hooked one 13" brown in 11-mile canyon in Colorado back in
June, out of about 6-7 hours of nymph fishing. Another time I was
streamer fishing on the San Juan in Texas hole right at sundown,
letting the streamer swing and then _slowly_ bringing it back up along
the current's edge. Willi and I think Danl were there. I tail hooked
two browns, both nice size, both on the very slow up current retrieve.
I imagine that either the fish felt the line hit their side/back/belly
and "darted" away, catching the line/fly with their tail, or they
purposely whacked the fly with their tail to stun it? see if it was
alive? get rid of it?

Jon.

No foul hooks at all, Jon. But we were using #20 and #22 flies mostly,
so I sort of wonder if they could even foul hook, rather than skip off
the fish. But almost every one of my catches was in the fishes tongue
rather than the cheek or lip, which was new to me.

On this river, at least, I suspect I was getting 5 or 8 gentle takes
per drift, and not really feeling them. Or else the fish were watching
the nymph drift by, and hitting it when it suddenly moved. One of my
catches was just as I was retrieving to recast (not really a cast, as
I was nymphing...sort of a flip back upstream) and the fish leapt
right out of the water and seized the nymph as it broke the surface.

--riverman

Myron and the Rapid

Thanks for the great post.

Every year I take my family to Kezar Lake in Maine for a week in early
August. Since we're about an hour or so south of the Rapid, I used to
head over to fish it. I stopped making the trek a few years ago (it is a
trek, 10 miles of logging roads, then the mile hike) because of warm
water and crumby fishing. Your post has convinced me to try again. I
still think early June is the best but you sound like you had a great
day.

Thanks a bunch. I'll post how it goes.

Cheers!

--
McRiffle
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Myron and the Rapid

On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:21:16 -0400, McRiffle
wrote:

I
still think early June is the best but you sound like you had a great
day.

Whoooooa. Hold on. Early June IS the best time to fish the river.
Myron could only make it on the dates we went, and fishing was good
ONLY because we had such a very cold spring with lots of snow and cold
rain. Normally the Rapid shuts down before mid-July and doesn't begin
to pick up again until late August. September is pretty good fishing
because the days are cool and the evenings cold.

Right now, I expect the Rapid is fishing very poorly, with only the
dam pool producing any fish. The lake is still full (or near to it),
so September of this year should be very good.

Dave