WOW! What a day! I have been fly fishing with Jeremy alot lately and today was arguably the best day i’ve had fly fishing with him. When Jeremy and I arrived on the kennebec, I was ready to catch some fish. Jeremy had been there the day before and had caught plenty of trout on dry flies, and now it was my turn. I was so psyched up, ready to get my first trout on a dry fly. We arrive at the access point and everything was dead. The river was high, and it was raining. But, thats not always a bad thing! It was exactly what had happened to Jeremy the day before, until 2:00 that is.So we pounded the water, throwing buggers, emergers, nymphs, and more buggers. Natta. We continued to fish, almost knowing that we weren’t gonna catch anything. So we hop in the car and take a drive to Dunkin Donuts. We called Marshall on the cell, hoping to fish with him. It is 1:45. We drive back to the river and see Marshall hiking down the bank, and we do the same. We reached the river and put on new 12-13 foot leaders, new #14 hendricksons and we were set. Than 1 trout rose. Than another. Soon we were pushing against the fast water to reach the rising fish. “It’s happening, it’s happening” Jeremy said! Fish were rising all around us, and bugs were hatching in large numbers. Jeremy than taught me how to fish the dry, and I got the perfect drift. I had set the fly upstream and it was slowly coming down, than something slapped something. I wasn’t sure if the fish took my fly or not, but I set the hook and the battle was on. This dark rainbow put up a good 10 minute fight, and it was an unbelievable experience. So much fun. We got out of there because the hatch only lasted an hour or so, and no fish were active any more. We drove back down south and fly fished for the stripers in the marshes, Jeremy got 1 scrappy one and a glove. No fifty billion pounders hooked today. I am still drawn back to that moment when the fish slapped the fly, I am now a dry fly fisherman. Thank you Jeremy for another great day.
Nice job, Austin!
I’m sure you’ll be back to the Kennebec.
2-3year old Rainbow by the looks of it. Any fins missing or clipped?
marshallD
Good for you! For me it was the opposite. I started with dry flies and have always liked surface action better. I have been spending a lot more time under water trying to perfect my skills.
Fisherboy …. That was probably one of the best fly fishing experiences I have had in years (outside of hooking 2 of my best steelhead this past winter)…. Fly fishing with you is so much fun for me…See, you think that it is “so nice of me to take you fly fishing.” But, let me tell you why it is a little more self-serving than you might think.
I get bored very easily – and it’s the passion that I crave. The end result of the things I do are merely a byproduct of my never ending quest for tapping into the things I am passionate about.
As long as I have lived, I have always been this way, with everything I do. It is not possible for me to do things half way or with half a heart. I either do things with undying passion or not at all. Many moons ago, my mom asked me if I wanted a guitar for my birthday. The answer did not come quickly..because I knew that if I said yes it would mean thousands of hours of studying music theory, reading music and trying to figure out the things that seemed impossible. I decided that I wanted to do that so she bought me a guitar. And guess what…I slaved over music and music theory for years and still do. Others might say, why do you that? Why can’t you just be satisfied with playing some simple chords around a campfire…I can’t do it..it’s not in my nature…I am always interested in the things I can NOT do…and the things that are hard to do…I find very little satisfaction in the things I can already do.
Then comes technology: I love my business because it is perfect for someone like me. The things you knew yesterday…may not matter tomorrow. Companies rise and fall in matters of months. One technology may be hot today and dead tomorrow. There is no time to think about what was…only about what is to come….and you better be learning something every minute of the day or your gonna get outdated. So, I eat it all up! Networking, wireless, php, java, html, xml, streaming media, graphics, asp, jsp, wan, lan, ip addressing, server technologies, remote file sharing, digital marketing, digital phones, flash, cold fusion……and on and on and on…..
NOW FLY FISHING!!!!! Many people ask me…why do you ONLY fly fish! It is not that I am opposed to any other style of fishing. They just do not do anything for me anymore. I have caught all of the big fish in the ocean. Literally….swordfish, mako sharks, tiger sharks, tuna, halibut, huge salmon and on and on and on….I have fished like I fish now ever since I was 5 years old. Rod and Reel, Trolling, Long Lining, Dragging, Gill Netting, Purse Seining…
SO HERE IS MY POINT: Big fish don’t really do much for me anymore. Lot’s of fish don’t really do much for me anymore…spin fishing does not do much for me anymore. Commercial fishing does not do much for me anymore. All I like is fly fishing…and who knows…maybe someday…fly fishing won’t do much for me.
With all of that being said….I like fly fishing with you because your young and you have the passion. To see you catch your first trout on a dry fly yesterday was better than if I had caught 60 billion trout on the dry fly yesterday. To bring you places that I love and that I have gotten to know as world class fisheries…is infinately more satisfactory than going by myself. To fly fish with you and see things through your eyes..everything looks new again.
I would find no satisfaction in fly fishing with you, if you did not remind me so much of myself when I was your age. But this is not the case. I was exactly like you…As I grow older, meet more fly fisherman and flyfish all over the place; I have come to this conclusion. The waters of the world are littered with know it alls. The fly fishing companies of the world will sell everything to anyone and they invent these silly things and market them so well that people actually start to believe that you need them. Graphite, tungsten, tappered leaders, special this and super that…..It’s all marketing and it’s so tiresome. What i see missing is the passion! Who cares about the equipment. Who cares who catches more fish and bigger fish…Who cares about all the non-sense.
So – I pride myself on having terrible equipment…because its not about the equipment for me. I stopped falling for the marketing long ago…I have had the same 80 dollar reel for 10 years…it does just fine and I hope to never have anything else.
I look at it this way…if they played guitar on cat gut strings and fly fished with them too and caught fish…do we really need all the graphite and all that crap? of course not…the fish and the music haven’t changed. the fish are just as they were 100’s of years ago. people have just been tricked into thinking that the equipment is the reason for catching or not caching fish. in fact – it’s got nothing to do with the equipment….it’s just that it’s easier to blame it on the equipment rather than on learning where to fish…how fish feed and how to trick them with any equipment. think about this – you could have caught that fish without a reel.
SO – with all that being said….I look forward to fly fishing with you alot this season…..because….in the end….I am probably benefiting more than you. AND, if i ever geet bored with fly fishing…you can have all my equipment…but you probably wouldn;t even want it (one old cheap reel and and one old cheap rod)…a box of rusty flies…and a spool of straight 5 pound fluorocarbon.
Nice work on the dry fly austin….wait till you see where our next adventure will take us..
Great job I love to fish that area I never have much luck with dry’s.. Nice big fish!!!
same with me caddisshead…exactly the same as me…subsurface is where i am concentrating my efforts and trying to perfect my skills….i still have much to learn. THERE IS ALOT THAT GOES ON DOWN THERE. —– good comment – thanks.
joe-m:: === i hope you don’t mind….much of the reason for our success….was due to us fly fishing in the right spot. other sections of the river were DEAD. however, the “Joe and Joey’s Run” as I like to call it – treated us well – it always does. The only thing missing there was you and joey.
i would have been interested to see if you guys could have nymphed them up. we had no luck…but that means nothing…because i have sat there many of days with you and had no luck and you hook fish after fish….
Is that why you advertise Orvis at the top of the site?
Just playin with you Jeremy 😉
It is true, that you don’t need it all.
hmm? looked all around, did not see what you were refering to:)
Howdy!
Thank you Jeremy, and i’m glad I can help. Tight lines
Austin
Howdy!
Thank you everyone for your compliments. Marshall, no clipped fins that I noticed, but we had our hands full and weren’t really looking. I was chasing my net downstream half the time. I will be back on the k before you can say rainbows on dry flies.Tight lines
Austin
That’s is a great fish you caught. I don’t think I have ever seen a bow quite that dark in color. Nothing beats catching a trout like that on a dry. Landed my first of the season last Friday on a tan caddis dry.
Looks like I picked a good time to take a Maine vacation also. Can’t wait to head up there this weekend and get a shot at some of those fish.
Great story Fisherboy, keep them coming.
You are right!, It’s all gone.:-/
Im a sucker for Orvis stuff. 🙂
Well said Jer.
You win the monthly writing contest with this one response. It may not be a ‘fish tale’ but a winner for sure.
I watched/heard you guys land that fish.
thanks marsh – i appreciate your comment.
how are the flows up there where we were…? or do i even want to ask?
Well written article. Great fish.
Congrats
It’s completely blown out for now. 2 guided floats already postponed. tying flies….I hear Sebago is letting water out. It’s like we need an ark.
Nice article. Sounds like you both have the very same passion for flyfishing. Beautiful fish Austin! Congrats.