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