In article , Dave
LaCourse wrote:

Jo and I arrived before lunch last Sunday, and after a great feed, I suited up
and headed for the river. By 5 pm I had landed several nice brookies (14 -
15inch) and lots of "rat fish" (landlocks smaller than 12 inches). I tried
several different versions of the green rock worm, and although it met with
some success, a small "Bruiser PT" had more success.

TR snipped

Me too. I leave in the morning for another week.
Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

Yep, what he said. Indeed a great trip.

The Monday arrival and evening Hendrickson hatch was nice. River was
flowing at 390 CFS so very wadeable everywhere. Dave was truly a
gentleman in giving me all the best spots and supplying me with flies,
split shot and other things I forgot (I supplied him with Yuengling and
anti-inflammitories). Right away he put me on a nice 15 inch Brookie on
a small green caddis. During the Hendrickson hatch I caught no brookies
but got three salmon. No Hendricksons in my box but I did have some
size 18 March Browns and that did the trick.

The next two days were exactly as he described, weather more Alaska in
Sept than Maine in June. I scrapped and scraped and picked up two or
three small salmon each day and Wednesday pm got invited by Harry the
dam keeper down to the Pond in the RIver where I caught a 13 inch
Brookie in 5 minutes in water so shallow his dorsal fin stuck out.
Then nothing at all for the rest of the evening.

But just as in golf there's that day that brings you back.

Thursday started 60 degrees and clear and rapidly warmed to a perfect
70. Yes, I watched Dave take his reverse Reid just as I realized that
my waders were leaking in the small of my back. Nothing like 50 degree
water slowly trickling in to wake you up (unless it's full submersion).
A few sporadic rises taking advantage of the caddis hatch so I tied on
an 18 EHC with a 18 olive emerger dropper about 12 inches back. Truth
be told the dropper was a foam winged olive from one of the fly swaps
so I just clipped the foam off. (my small size flies were running short
by this point). Then the fun started. Over the next four hours I caught
6 Salmon (all on the emerger) two were in the 15 to 17 inch size the
rest 10 to a foot. Then my fish of the year nailed the EHC and ten
minutes later, doubled over in the net was a 23 inch brook trout with
colors so vibrate it hurt the eyes. By that time the hatch had petered
out so went to shore to find Dave's underwear hanging in the sun. We
quickly ate lunch (my stomach couldn't really take the idea of the
Pirate going commando under that rain jacket and waders) Started again
at the dam and worked my way up to the old pilings as fish started to
rise again and caught 4 small salmon on the same rig. Moira and Jo,
along with Henry and Finn the wonder pup showed up and we walked up to
watch Dave lose that fine brook trout. He headed back to recloth and I
started casting again. Twice had nice brookies rise, once clean miss,
the second put the steel to it for a flash, caught another small salmon
then a very nice 18 inch Brookie that hit the dropper this time. Landed
him and just decided the day could not be any better so finished up.
Although I didn't fall in both my shins were bruised and battered from
rock collisions and now I have to find that leak in my waders.

Overall for the trip. Very surprise at the small flies. I came well
equipped I thought but next time there will be many more 18 and 20's in
the box. Remember to bring cocktail hour snacks as by the time you wade
around that river and get back in time for a beer before dinner you
need some of the three major food groups (fat, salt and preservatives,
Sorry Roger!) and if you can get there when the Pirates aboard he'll do
his best to cram his 15 years of experience into your head to make your
trip as good as possible. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Allen
Catonsville, MD