The beginning to middle of May marks the time when ponds and lakes in northern Maine lose their ice for the year. For the past 30 years, my father and various collections of his friends have visited the pond in question, in search of large, native Maine Brook Trout. My virgin pilgrimage to the pond was last spring, and several weeks ago Wilkie and I made the voyage north again.Travel time to this pond is roughly 7 hours from Portland, so it’s a good ways up there. It always amazes me to think that you can drive for 7+ hours and still be in Maine. Wilkie and I got an earlier start this year, and we arrived in camp around 1:30 am, 3 hours earlier than the previous year, and this allowed us to sleep for two full hours before taking Wilkie’s new square stern’s virginity in the cool water.Fishing in this pond is slow, to say the least. Over the course of three full days of fishing, I caught three brookies. Wilkie caught two, Mitton five and my father netted seven. All fish were caught on streamers, the majority on the Woodville Special, “Woody” for short. The hog I brought to the boat took a white bead-head woolly bugger. Fishing is done by either trolling streamers around the shoreline or by anchoring and casting around structure, which, thankfully, there is a good amount of. Rockpiles, drop-offs, points, islands and logs all provided areas that we concentrated our anchored fishing to, and about half of all the fish caught on the trip were done so while anchored. Wilkie and I spent the vast majority of our time anchored, throwing sinking lines, but I will say that we both picked up one fish apiece while trolling on the last morning. In fact, 4 of the 5 fish we landed over the course of the long weekend were caught before 6 am, within the first hour of us being on the pond. This makes for a long day of fishing, especially when you’re throwing bead-heads from dawn ’til dusk.Long days on the water such as these offer much time for contemplation and reflection, fly changes, technique tinkering and conversation. At at any moment, that bruiser could strike, but they obviously don’t at every moment, so there’s a constant shifting of attention and energy levels while in the boat. At some times it seems that the cast you just made will surely produce a fish, then at others it seems like you’re just waiting for the sky to lighten or darken, and just casting in between to kill the time. My biggest fish came just before noon, and was the only fish of the day. I’m happy to say that I didn’t miss any strikes this trip, for they do come far and few between. Wildlife sightings included moose, deer, a bobcat, rabbits, a fox, numerous birds and also the first black bear I had ever seen in my life.I finally got around to piecing together some video and pictures from the trip. This is my first attempt at some edited fishing video, so please give comments and suggestions. You may notice that there aren’t any actual solid hookups on video; the very slow nature of the pond wasn’t conducive to such video-ing, but there’s some pretty sweet underwater footage and some great pics in there. The video does give a good short synopsis of the trip in general. The tune’s by Robert Earl Keen.
Book
- Alaska
- Guide & Fisherman
- Guiding: Choosing Your Guide And Choosing Your Customer
- Guiding: Do It Yourself With A Guide
- Guiding: Evolution Of A Guide
- Guiding: Freshwater, More Than Meets The Eye
- Guiding: Friends For Life
- Guiding: Know Where You Are
- Guiding: More Than Just A Fisherman
- Guiding: Mystery Of The Fisherman
- Guiding: Payment
- Guiding: Saltwater, A Different World
- Rough Fish
- Fly Fishing For Rough Fish: Why Do It?
- Introduced Rough Fish: The Carps & Other Invasive Species
- Methodology: Gear & Tactics For Pursuing Roughfish On A Fly
- More Roughfish: Bullheads, Whitefish, Goldeye, Burbot & Drum
- Rough Fish Environments: Where To Look For Rough Fish?
- Rough Fish Species: The Suckers
- Rough fish: A Lifetime Of Learning
- Rough Fish: Fishing For Dinosaurs (Gars & Bowfin)
- Rough Fish: What Are They?
- The Hook: Some Common Rough Fish Fly Patterns
- Spey
- Spey: Applications, Where Can You Do It?
- Spey: Atlantic Salmon, A Significant Fish
- Spey: Defined And Demystified
- Spey: Gear, The Nuts And Bolts
- Spey: Lines, They Are That Important
- Spey: Steelhead, New Traditions & A Modern Movement
- Spey: The Energy
- Spey: The Flies
- Spey: The Swing
- Spey: Two Critical Casts
- Striped Bass
- Striped Bass: Fishing Rocky Shorelines
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Beaches
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Flats
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Reefs
- Striped Bass: Fishing Tidal Rivers
- Striped Bass: Flatwing Swing
- Striped Bass: Fly Line Options & Choices
- Striped Bass: Gear, The Nuts & Bolts
- Striped Bass: Migration Patterns
- Striped Bass: What They Eat
- The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: A Natural Drug
- Fly Fishing: A Validation Of Freedom
- Fly Fishing: Don’t Fight The Current
- Fly Fishing: It Is What It Is
- Fly Fishing: Socialization For Asocial Individuals
- Fly Fishing: The Allure Of The Fish
- Fly Fishing: The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: The Simplicity Of It All
- Fly Fishing: Time Flies
- Fly Fishing: Times You Remember & Try To Forget
Great stuff! Loved the video and the tune .. that guy RIPS on the guitar for sure .. will have to download some of his songs. Beautiful Brook Trout! Some of those roads in looked pretty nasty and just barely navigable. Loved the shot of the 2 moose running down the road .. I saw a ton of Moose this spring .. no bear for me though .. everyone else seems to be seeing them this year but me … I have not done too much pond fishing in Maine; although the times that I have its been awesome .. I have caught the hex hatch a couple times and both times it was outrageous .. big brookies eating huge bugs off the top .. Does this pond also get a hex hatch? … How does this pond and this region fish throghout the summer? .. Great article, pics and video!
PS.. I always wondered what your tag name stood for “bfc06” .. I figured it out from watching your video “Bates Fishing Club” .. I think.
muy bueno !!! el tema no es pescar …..es estar pescando , disfrutar ese momento
saludos
Miguel (Bariloche)muy buena la musica !!!
Epic trip, nice vid…..
Great video of a great Maine experience. I have not made it to the Allagash but am now thinking about getting some friends together for a trip. Thanks for the video!
Great video I’m a robert keen fan to. I’m visiting my brother in Maine this summer and after that video I cant wait to see it.
hey thanks man. you should definitely check out robert earl keen’s music. funny, that’s the only real instrumental he has, but he and his band really rip. my father turned me on to pond fishing for trout and salmon when i was very young, and there’s no looking back now. we’ve caught some pretty epic hex hatches together, and like you said, they can be outrageous. as i mentioned in the story, my dad’s been fishing this pond for 30 years and he’s never seen a hex hatch, so that’s why he/we get there for ice out. he was actually up at this pond this past weekend and got skunked in two full days of fishing ha! a slow pond, to say the least. the catch of my father’s life, a 5 1/4 pound brookie, came out of that pond. i’m not sure if the hexes don’t show up there or if he’s just never seen them, but they’re definitely in the area – the pond’s off the pinkham rd.
bfc – bates fishing club, you got it. this club was a fraternity-esque collection of characters who i spent the majority of my college time with. we got a budget that we’d spend on gear and trips and clinics for the club and the college; pretty sweet. wilkie and i were both presidents during our time.
thanks again. hey, what program did you use to convert that video from .mov to .wmv?
i’ve seen REK in concert 3 times now and he puts on quite a show. you should get to one if you can.
when you come to maine, let us know where you’re headed and you’ll without a doubt get some good info on places to fish and what to use. thanks
i had my college friend who majored in spanish translate for me, ha. thanks for the comments.
you said it man, “to be fishing” means so much more than trying to catch fish and casting.
take care
jesse
the hexes should be starting to hatch any day now up there, definitely worth a trip. my father and i got into a ridiculous flying black ant hatch one evening in the allagash that i’ll never forget.
thanks for the comments, take care,
jesse
Beautiful brook trout… and I really enjoyed the video. I love Maine and can’t wait to get back there. I spent a lot of time as a child fishing and camping with my family up north it really is vast and wild. Alex
For fast conversion from almost any kind of video type to another kind of video type .. I use Videozilla. Just google it. Pretty cool and useful little tool.
PS. I meant to tell you … I also loved the shot where you are tying your knot and break it and the look on your face is a look of frustration that I can very much relate to .. the only thing worse than that .. is doing it TWICE in a row! which i have done on several occassions.
ha yea, that’s Wilkie, but i loved that expression too and had to include the still.
oh by the way, the song is called ‘The Death of Tail Fitzsimmons’; you should check it out
Maine can’t wait for you either, Alex.
take care,
Jesse
Great trip up north and an awesome video to highlight your trip. Good Job guys
4th Round pond, the smaller Nesowadnehunk ponds, Cedar and many more are all super. Great video, great location.