High water is an inescapable environmental factor that changes the dynamics of any river. Usually, not for the better. But, if you want to get out for a few casts it can still produce results. Today, the water was outrageously high. The water was swollen way over its banks and creating micro tributaries in places that were typically dry. Whitewater and fast water seemed to be everywhere. My favorite runs were not only unfishable, they were unaccesible. My typical methods were certainly not going to work. So, what to do? Go home or give it a try. Very rarely, is going home an option in my book, especially without at least giving it my best shot. Today, however, it was almost my only option. But, since I was already there and geared up it made a tiny bit of sense to throw some sort of fly in the water. So, I looked at the water and realized that I needed to forget everything that had worked before. I reverted back to the very very basics. I put on a streamer. Big and white. A Black Ghost. I anaylyzed the water and looked carefully for any slow spots or seems. They were few and far between, actually there seemed to really only be one spot. This spot was created by a huge back eddie and it was a spot that is typically only fished by the worm dunkers. Yup, it is customary for the bait slingers to claim ownership of this territory and the fly fisherman walk by them and proceed downstream. These two groups of Maine’s fresh water fisherman, fly fishermen and bait fisherman, have so little in common and there is really nothing to say other than “gettin’ any?” Actually, they have one more thing in common. The bait guys, the lure guys and the fly guys all come to this spot for one thing and one thing only. Potentially, big Brown Trout! Oh yeah, they are there. Not easily tricked, but they are there. In fact, they torment everyone. They lay there, without a care in the world and ignore every piece of artificial nonsense that is put in front of them. Worms, lures and flies drift right by their faces and they never even flinch. Typically, the biggest fish are taken on nymph rigs and by the flyfisherman. But, I am a little biased and I am sure the bait guys would say the exact opposite. Whatever the case, it was a mute point today because nobody was there. So, I stood in an unconventional fly fishing spot high above the water and casted an unconventional Brown Trout fly into the seem. It had to be a long cast in order to get past the raging current. So, I stripped off a ton of line and went for it. I felt the rod load after one double haul and release the line, leader and fly. Perfect! Just where I wanted it to land. I could see the maribou start to work its magic as it entered the soft water. Bang! The Brown Trout hammered the fly. He didn’t even question it. It was awesome and it was one of those times that I could almost feel that fish hit before he really did. I know it has happened to you. It happens to everyone once and awhile and it is a cool feeling when you get a sixth sense that a fish is going to take your fly. That was it for the grace and action. After that first fish it went all downhill. I tried to fish nymphs in my typical runs but it proved to be as fatal as I thought. I was either hung up in trees or stuck on the bottom. I would re-rig and get hung up in the same spot that got me before. The only sixth sense that was working was my sixth sense telling me to go home. So, I called it quits and went home. I would not recommend going out of your way to fish any rivers when they are at flood stage. But, if you find yourself there by circumstance or without having known the conditions were such, it can’t hurt to take a cast. Unless you fall in.