When spring arrives in Maine, it usually means two things for fly fishermen; smelt and salmon. Locals and old timers are always “waiting for the smelt to come in”, creating new smelt patterns on the vise and changing up smelt patterns while on the water. But, this spring new discoveries and a break from tradition were in order. The wild salmon of Maine are always considered to be searching for smelt and smelt only. But during some parts of this early season we came to realize that smelt and smelt fly patterns were not necessarily the only thing on the menu. This spring the smelt did their annual rituals and invaded the rivers, lake shorelines and streams. In certain spots, the smelt were so thick and stacked on top of each other that the water appeared to be black. Sometimes there were Salmon mixed in with them and sometimes not. Sometimes, we could see the Salmon making blistering runs into these pods of helpless smelt. We would watch and actually see the Salmon, with their mouths wide open, literally inhaling as many smelt as they could get. A new discovery is always a great thing and this spring Jeremy and I made a new discovery. A mere week before, we could see tons of smelt in the waters we fished, but after a long time of chasing and eating the smelts, the salmon almost seamed to become lethargic and bored with all of our smelt patterns and even the real thing. Nobody seemed to be hooking the Salmon. Bait fishermen, spin fishermen and fly fishermen alike were having trouble tricking the Salmon with smelt. There simply seemed to be too much of a good thing. So Jeremy and I turned back to our roots and tied on the wooly buggers, big rubber legged buggy looking things and big leech patterns. We made long casts and swung them through the pools with sinking lines and floating lines; but the results were still not what they should be, considering the amount of Salmon in the waters we were fishing. The Salmon were swirling around and taunting us, but they just weren’t interested in chasing our flies down. So, almost as a last resort we decided to fish the faster currents dead drifting our big bugs, wooly buggers and leach patterns with small pheasentail nymphs used as dropper patterns. It was obvious that we found the magic key and unlocked the puzzle. There was no doubt that these salmon wanted our big buggy flies in the manner we were presenting them. We started consistently hooking some of the most beautiful salmon. The salmon would hit hard, immediately jump clear out of the water and continue to perform their trademark arial acrobatics until they were landed. Jeremy and I both caught and released some beautiful fish and it was such a feeling of accomplishment to crack this springs salmon code. Don’t get me wrong, smelt are a huge forage fish here in Maine and salmon love them. And, many times the smelt patterns and traditional streamer flies are the top producers. But, sometimes, when the go-to stuff isn’t working its magic for whatever reason, you gotta change it up and throw em’ a bone that they can’t refuse.
Way to go guys!! Nice fish. Sometimes it is the struggle before the reward that is most satisfying. Way to stay in there and figure them out.
Austin,
This article is your best-written one yet. A great topic for thought too…the tying…the presentation. All factor in to success. Thanks for taking time to write it all so well.
I have witnessed this LLS magic trick by Austin…..
Fisherboy,
Great story! There are few things more satisfying for a fly fisherman than finally throwing the right pattern and nailing the fish. Good work.
Austin:
Beautiful fish. I thought that I would add that my experience catching LL’s was restricted to fishing with nymphs and indicators. I caught a few small fish (probably too small to be considered grilse). I was then (and still am) quite the novice; however, if juveniles readily eat nymphs, then, they may be quite conditioned to the idea of insect meals rather than fish meals. It may not be a big stretch to get the old fellas to go for what they did in their youth!
From an old guy to a young (but more experienced) guy.
Dave
hey avidavid, great thinking. Maybe all fish think like that? the one great thing about landlocks is….at some point in time, they will eat any fly in your box. Like in the story, the fish did not want to see our wollybuggers and leech patterns stripped in, they wanted to seam them dead drifted. Remember presentation comes first! and you will get the big dog
Sweet fish fisherboy! I think your getting to good to be on the board. Whos the old guy your with?
ha yep greg he is getting old….. soon he will be having me push his wheel chair down to his favorate spots on the river!
hope to fish with you some more this season
you might have been mimicing helgramites or washed down newts………. awesome sotry by the way!!!!
you might have been mimicing helgramites or washed down newts………. awesome sotry by the way!!!!