TR: Killer day on the Andy...

As I sit typing this my hands are a mess of line burns and deep cuts.
It's been awhile since a day of fishing caused me this much pain.
It feels good...

I hit the highway straight from the office Friday afternoon, joining a few
hundred thousand vehicles in the mass exodus out the Greater Boston Area
before the DNC, the media peeps and the fantastically ridiculous security
arrive. (A capitol city is virtually *closed* because of fear of terrorism -
didn't we promise we wouldn't do such stoopid stuff lest "the terrorists"
win?) But I digress...

Anyway, the forecasts for Friday nite and Saturday were looking anything but
fair, and indeed it was raining, varying from light to deluge, with the
resulting Vehicular Nitwit Factor adding a good ninety minutes to my driving
time from office to the confluence of the Wild and Androscoggin rivers. I
hoped to wet a line there, before continuing deeper into Maine to meet up
with Dave "Flyfish" Bottom and Frank Church and float the Androscoggin on
Saturday.

As the rain varied I vacillated between stopping to fish verses continuing on
directly to Dave's home an hour further. When I arrived at the bridge in
Gilead I couldn't see anyone on the river - very unusual, there's almost
always someone fishing that spot well past sunset. And the rain had pretty
much stopped. So I banged a U-turn and headed off along an old skidder trail
that brings one within a few hundred yards of the rivers.

There was in fact one person fishing just below the confluence that couldn't
be seen from the bridge. Nice enough fellow, he'd had middling luck before I
arrived, but he hauled out shortly as another wave of rain washed over us, so
I had the entire place to myself when the rain stopped a few minutes later.

With trout rising all around me I started with a #16 EHC which drew nary a
whit of interest, switched to a small Pheasant Tail for a bit of nymphing that
produced nada, then finally switched to a #20 BWO dry which brought in a
trifecta of one brookie, one rainbow and one brownie, before I ran out of
light around 9:30pm.

Hauled out, repacked myself into the rusty Pathfinder and hit the road to
Dave's. Arrived a hour later to find Dave keeping the simulated skies safe
from godless terrorist on-line airmen, Frank having hit the rack earlier
(driving all the way from Indiana just for the fishing, he deserved an extra
couple of hours of sleep ;-) Hung out with Dave for long enough to wind down
then also hit the rack.

Saturday morning we were up by 5:30am, awakening to solid cloud cover and
clear threat of rain. It was great to see Frank again - last time had been
down in NC at one of Waldo's conclaves - and he's looking good. After swinging
over to the breakfast joint we arrived at the carry-in boat launch parking
area by around 8, and once we'd put Dave's two pontoon boats together (Frank
brought his own, pre assembled) we were off and floating the first mile of a
roughly 8 mile chunk of Androscoggin River - with the weather rapidly changing
to blue skies and warm temperatures. Nice.

I think we all started using small poppers. Dave and Frank may have switched
to other bass flies at some point but I'm certain we all ended up using
poppers. I used the same fly all day long - a chartreuse-and-frog colored bass
popper that Dave had picked up at Kittery Trading Post - and it was a killer
fly for me. I had packed my 9/5 Winston, plus a 9/7 Sage RPL in case wind and
big flies were happening. For this popper, plus the middling breeze that came
and went, the Sage was easily the better choice, and I was glad to have it.

We were bringing up the rear of a decent flotilla of small boats, including a
pair of guided McKenzie boats with two or three sports on each. But the Andy
is a good size river, so while the lead boats may have hit on some number of
fish there were plenty left for us.

These Andy smallies are just fantastic fighters. Pound for pound, inch for
inch, river smallies are the toughest freshwater fish I've come across, with
dogged strength that goes on forever. Five minute fights on a 7wt were not
unusual - and Frank had one on that went at least a couple of extra innings.
Throw in the multiple jumps, the tail-walking and wrapping around sunken tree
limbs and they're a handful.

They have the size, they use the river current, and they employ dramatic
aerial acts to shake barbless hooks. I lost at least half as many as I landed,
and I landed somewhere around two dozen smallies (no chubs! :-) ranging from
fifteen inchers up to a pair of massive nineteen inchers (the stripping aprons
have handy measuring guides).

Knowing that there was a good chance a bass would rocket out of the water with
the popper kept the anticipation level in the "Intense!" zone pretty much all
day.

My technique was Popper 101: I used a short leader with a stout chunk of .009"
FC as a tippet, and shoot the popper right to the river bank, way back under
overhangs, along side floating mats of weeds, along standing weed banks, all
those typical bassy looking spots. Then I'd give the fly a quick pop, let it
settle briefly, then strip it back with short, gurgling pops, occasionally
varying the pace. Pretty basic stuff.

The smallies would almost always take the fly vertically and with great
exuberance, often completely clearing the water on the take. One of those
19"ers proved the exception - it shot a good four feet horizontally with its
upper half out of the water to smash the fly. Major rush.

And they were cocky fish (if there is such a thing), often coming back for a
whack at another cast after missing the first. The second of my two big bass
came near the end of the float: he didn't hook up on his initial attack, but
just before I floated out of range I sailed a Hail Mary cast back at him and
WHAM! He nailed it! And another stand-off had begun, using up all that the 7wt
RPL had in it.

I think I had mentioned on another TR covering this same stretch of the Andy
that we had seen a bald eagle and thought we'd almost spotted its nest. This
trip, a certain distance along the float as we bobbed along the south bank,
there was an incessant screeching coming from the other bank. I didn't pay it
much notice at first as I was busy hooked up with another brute and had to
drop anchor to play him in.

When I finally got the fish released I looked to see what the heck was making
all that noise and immediately spotting one of the massive baldies struggling
about its nest to feed its fledglings. We see "lots" of eagles up here these
days but this was the first time I'd spotted eaglets. Too cool - between the
friends, the fish, the now spectacular weather, and sighting an eagle family,
this was turning into a banner day all around!

So we caught fish all the way down to the take-out, occasionally doubling-up,
with Frank catching his best fish less than 100 feet from the end to cap off
the day. After retrieving the launch vehicles, disassembling Dave's boats and
getting everyone packed back in their respective trucks, we said our goodbyes
while making plans for another float in the early fall.

I passed through Gilead with just enough light left to hit the Wild again, but
as I crossed the bridge downstream I could see a goodly sized Saturday crowd
already encamped in "my" spot. So I gave it a miss and continued on towards
home, catching a picture postcard of a sunset behind Mount Washington, just
one more facet of a wonderful day...

Huge thanks to Dave and Frank for the invitation, the shore lunch and the
camaraderie. And that popper - I'll replace it for the fall trip :-)

/daytripper

"daytripper" wrote...
As I sit typing this my hands are a mess of line burns and deep cuts.
It's been awhile since a day of fishing caused me this much pain.
It feels good...
snip

Don't you ever work? Nice TR, 'trip.

SWMBO and I were thinking of things to do yesterday and thought it would be a
nice day to go into Boston and just walk around the Common and surrounding area.
Then dawn appeared over Marblehead. . .
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

"daytripper" wrote in message
...
As I sit typing this my hands are a mess of line burns and deep cuts.
It's been awhile since a day of fishing caused me this much pain.
It feels good...

/daytripper

Hi 'tripper,
Nice TR. It has been well over a decade since I fished for smallies.
Thanks. It got the 'ol gears crankin' about how fun they can be.
Bestwishes,
DaveMohnsen
Denver
(uhh . . . I have been salivating with the other smallie trip reports in the
last few months, as well. Neat stuff. ) But I will struggle to persevere
with the offerings here

Dave wrote:snipDenver
(uhh . . . I have been salivating with the other smallie trip reports in the
last few months, as well. Neat stuff. ) But I will struggle to persevere
with the offerings here :

Seems like some of those trip reports were from Willi, so there must be some
not too far from you.

Big Dale

daytripper wrote in
:

Huge thanks to Dave and Frank for the invitation, the shore lunch and the
camaraderie. And that popper - I'll replace it for the fall trip :-)

No problem. I hereby testify that tripper was the uber angler of the day,
my fishing was much less successful, but the float, and the friends there
made it worth the trip. Not only did I have the pleasure of Tripper and
Frank, but one of the drift boats were guided by a friend I hadn't seen in
quite a while, and two others stopped by before deciding to fish elsewhere
while we were still constructing the pontoons.

A good day all in all, despite my poor showing with the fish.

Flyfish

Flyfish wrote in
:

daytripper wrote in
:

Huge thanks to Dave and Frank for the invitation, the shore lunch and
the camaraderie. And that popper - I'll replace it for the fall trip
:-)

No problem. I hereby testify that tripper was the uber angler of the
day, my fishing was much less successful, but the float, and the
friends there made it worth the trip. Not only did I have the pleasure
of Tripper and Frank, but one of the drift boats were guided by a
friend I hadn't seen in quite a while, and two others stopped by
before deciding to fish elsewhere while we were still constructing the
pontoons.

A good day all in all, despite my poor showing with the fish.

Flyfish


....what those guys said. Flyfish was nice enough not to mention that I
did a full reid in 4 inches of water. Went tits-up in front of all those
people at the lunch stop. Tripped while walking backwards towing my
p'boat up onto the rocks. Made it back home to Indiana within 24 hrs of
leaving Dave's house in Mechanic Falls, ME. It is always worth the trip
to float the Andy with Dave, and this time a pleasure to see Tripper
again and listen to his whooping and hollering every time a fish grabbed
his bug. Hey Trip, thanks for the breakfast and good company, I hope we
can do this again in Sept.
And of course, as usual, Dave and his SO Donna took good care of me,
always outstanding hosts. Thanks Flyfish. BTW, my last fish was the best
for me,sizewise, I marked his length on my oar and just now measured it
at 19", not the 20" I had earlier guessed. I can live with that. ;-)

Frank Church

Frank Church wrote:



...what those guys said. Flyfish was nice enough not to mention that I
did a full reid in 4 inches of water. Went tits-up in front of all those
people at the lunch stop. Tripped while walking backwards towing my
p'boat up onto the rocks. Made it back home to Indiana within 24 hrs of
leaving Dave's house in Mechanic Falls, ME. It is always worth the trip
to float the Andy with Dave, and this time a pleasure to see Tripper
again and listen to his whooping and hollering every time a fish grabbed
his bug. Hey Trip, thanks for the breakfast and good company, I hope we
can do this again in Sept.
And of course, as usual, Dave and his SO Donna took good care of me,
always outstanding hosts. Thanks Flyfish. BTW, my last fish was the best
for me,sizewise, I marked his length on my oar and just now measured it
at 19", not the 20" I had earlier guessed. I can live with that. ;-)

Frank Church

You guys take any pictures of the water and the fish?

Willi

Willi wrote in
:



Frank Church wrote:

You guys take any pictures of the water and the fish?

...I think Flyfish got a few, I didn't get any at all, don't know about
Daytripper.

fc

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 22:35:27 GMT, Frank Church
wrote:

Willi wrote in
:



Frank Church wrote:

You guys take any pictures of the water and the fish?

..I think Flyfish got a few, I didn't get any at all, don't know about
Daytripper.

Nope, didn't have a camera with me. The Andy ain't the most photogenic of
rivers on a good day, and Saturday it was chocolate brown from the runoff most
of the float. Dave had a few shots left in the camera when we started and he
used 'em all up, so there's some proof we actually did this thing ;-)

/daytripper

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 22:35:27 GMT, Frank Church
wrote:

Willi wrote in
:



Frank Church wrote:

You guys take any pictures of the water and the fish?

..I think Flyfish got a few, I didn't get any at all, don't know about
Daytripper.

Nope, didn't have a camera with me. The Andy ain't the most photogenic of
rivers on a good day, and Saturday it was chocolate brown from the runoff most
of the float. Dave had a few shots left in the camera when we started and he
used 'em all up, so there's some proof we actually did this thing ;-)

/daytripper