My day started at 4am September 15th when my Jimi Hendrix ringtone rattled on my nightstand alerting me it was time to get up and crush. I rolled out of bed eyes barely open stumbled into the kitchen to find my coffee machine wasn’t working; I didn’t have time to screw around with it so I grabbed my gear and headed down to my truck. I pounded half a 16oz Redbull that had been sitting in my center console since the day before. I was ready to rock and head for a classic Maine river. My first stop was in Oxford to pick up a buddy I work with and get some ice for the cooler of beer. I got to Oxford around 5am got all provisions need for the day. After the windy logging road we arrived at the trail head to the river. It was the last day of the season and there wasn’t another vehicle or person in sight…..which was awesome. We geared up and headed down to the river. The sun was shining and the air was cool and crisp with a light breeze. I tied on a articulated soft hackle streamer and began dredging a deep pool. On my sixth cast…slam! Fish on, a nice fat brookie. The morning started off with a bang I landed 3 fat brookies and salmon within the first hour. We decided we would hike down the lower river to and fish our back. We chilled on the side of the river for a minute had a nice cold Geary’s that my buddy had backpacked in. As we headed down stream the wind began to really pick up….not a big deal with sinking lines and the BII MX, but it did prove to be a challenge at times. We fished our way down to another pool and picked up a few smaller fish along the way including lots of smaller Small Mouth Bass, which got the woods release. It was now raining and we stopped for lunch and another cold beer. We decided to make the Bataan Death March through the woods back up where we had started and figured we would finish our day there. When we arrived we saw the only people we had seen all day. I decided I would head up to the pool below the dam and make a couple of casts while waiting for my buddy to arrive so we could hike out. Three casts into the pool and slam….my reel spinning fast as I scramble along the shoreline trying to keep the fish from getting into the rapids. Finally after putting the wood to him I steered him into shore where I was able to land this beautiful native brook trout. I snapped a quick pick and let him vanish back into the river. Fish like these are the reason we travel to native brook trout fisheries and the reason why native brook trout rivers are such a valuable resource. The day ended with the biggest fish of the day, and we trudged our way back up the trail to truck. We got to the truck battered and tired from hard fishing and hiking the river all-day. After cracking an ice cold beer we hopped in the truck, I turned the key to the sound of click click click…dead battery. Its now 5:30pm we are parked on an incline with a dead battery no cell phone service and an 8 miles to the nearest paved road. So we pondered a few ideas and decided to load up the packs and start hiking the dirt road towards civilization. After about two and half hours of hiking down the logging road we saw lights coming around the corner. We waved down a guy driving an older Cutless, he was a bear hunter who was headed home for the night. The man gave us a ride back to my truck, gave us jump-start and sent us on our way. As I was driving home I was thinking to myself “was it worth it” I grinned and thought… hell yeah it was! For those of you who haven’t fished the some of New Englands native brook trout, Maine has many and some of the nicest native brook trout rivers to fish. Big native brookies, remote and great scenery. Many of Maine’s brook trout fisheries are being negatively impacted by the illegal stocking of smallmouth bass. If the states fish and game law book asks you to kill any of the invasive species on select rivers, streams, ponds and lakes; I strongly encourage people to follow the states guidance and help to preserve some of Maine’s precious and fragile fisheries.
your narrative says “this” fish is 6 lbs…maybe you should clarify, it might save you some heat.
crowds are there any weekend, with the exception of this year’s high flows. anyone who fishes there knows about the bass, in my opinion your campaign to bring light to the bass situation is doing more harm than good. just sayin.
Geib – Sounds like a killer day (minus the dead battery). New England does have some pretty amazing brook trout fly fishing opportunites .. and Maine, specifically, has so many native and wild brook trout streams, ponds and lakes its almost mind boggling. Sounds like you found a pretty good one! I love fall fly fishing in Maine and just grabbing my Delorme map and heading in almost any direction from my house in Maine and going on the hunt for some nice Brookies .. cool water is easy to find, the mountains are all sorts of amazing colors and the Brookies too … Lot’s of fun too when the fish are interested in big meals and not just small nymphs .. I am always amazed to see the tenacity and predatory instincts of Brook Trout .. they almost always seem willing to throw caution to the wind and crush anything big that passes by their territory .. I have sometimes caught brookies that are smaller than the fly I am fishing … a tough and special species of trout for sure.
I can feel ya on the dead battery. I have walked back to my truck and found the same thing. Nice fish.
awesome story of a great day of fishng for maine’s premier fish. in my mind there is nothing prettier then a fall brookie.
geib, some time when you are on this site follow the link to carandtrucktips.com. I think there is an article there about carrying a battery jump pack in your truck when on those remote trips… lol…
thank you for “woods releasing” those damn bass, it is the only way we will stop their negative impact on trout and salmon fisheries
Gotta love fall Brook trout fishing in Maine.
We are blessed with more native brook trout waters than any other states in the nation combined.
Sweet fish, and nice story.
I laugh picturing you and Doug making the walk out…must have been a sight for that ol bear hunter.
good read and nice brookie.
yeah it was killer day on maine classic. The adventure will stand out in my mind probably more than the fishing….although the fishing was excellent
Great story and an awsome maine brook trout! i love the bit about the dead battery…it seems as though those types of things always happen right at the most inconvienient times for us fly fisherman. that is pretty cool how you walked the road and ran into the “bear hunter.” great fish and once again killer story! gotta love fall brook trout!
Sweet Brookie and nice article. Maine Brookies are the premiere species in Maine and remain highly valued in the North, to include Canada where sea run Brookies are common and great to catch! Not many catch them but they are remembered by all who see them. Catch some more before the season closes … nice fish.
Nice post. I love the Brookies. We don’t get many of them out west!
gotta love hendrix waking you up at 4… what was the song? the situation with the dead battery almost perfectly matches an episode from one of those survival shows on discovery channel. thank god you found that hunter, and sweet fish!
tight lines.