Usually we spend a whole week up on the Roach River during the last weeks of September, but this year we only spent a few days up there. I knew I had to make this trip as it would help return some normalcy to my life. Water has an awesome ability to help heal and being in the Maine woods just felt normal for me. I arrived before everyone else so I had a few hours to spend on the river by myself to do a little exploring before the others showed up. I chose to stay on the upper section of the river by the village of Kokadjo. This section is heavily pressured and the fish that are holding have been there for a while and they are not as willing to take our offerings as “fresh” fish. When salmon are “fresh” they are more aggressive and take streamers with a little bit more aggression. When the salmon move in the evening and morning into a new pool the best thing is to swing a streamer to take advantage of this aggression. The upper section is usually full of salmon and trout, but also many other anglers. Patience is the name of the game here and being respectful of the other anglers will make life better for everyone.  I usually walk down the ATV trail along the river and see which pools are available.  I was surprised when one of my favorite pools was open.  This was where I first experienced this river during the spring time many years ago.  I swung my Grey Ghost streamer with the red floss body and quickly hooked and landed two plump salmon in succession.  I have been hooked ever since.  With no one else in this pool I took advantage of the extra space and swung my streamers, but did not have any takes.  It is always a good option to try if you have a pool to yourself and the fish had not been fished over for awhile.  I then switched to nymphs as I know there were plenty of fish in this pool.  I quickly hooked up with a nice fish that was a great primer for my time on the water.

Knowing that the others were going to be arriving I made my way back to the bridge pool, which is a meeting place for many anglers arriving or just looking to find out how the fishing has been.  I struck up a conversation with another angler when a group of three arrived from upstate New York.  One of them was obviously the leader of the group and all were well into their sixties.  When the leader heard that I was a guide he said “I guess you know everything” in a joking manner.  Well I surprised him by saying that in fact I love to learn something new every time that I am out on the water or woods and that I listen to those around me.  Everyone has something to contribute that I may not have heard and may work better than what I had been doing.  One would never know if they didn’t listen and learn.  Well I had his attention now and he said “you never hear that from youngsters like you.”  With that the camera came out and I was entertained with his exploits from years past and present and a full dissertation of the history of this region from his youth.  Come to find out he had deep roots in the Moosehead region and I learned many good facts just from listening.  That is my biggest piece of advice for many anglers starting out, especially fly-fishing, is to listen to the elders of the sport.  Do not dismiss them as not being part of the new age of fly-fishing with many of the new gadgets.  Remember, they were doing this before you were even in diapers.  A little respect for those that paved the way for us in this sport should never be forgotten.

Notice the upper jaw distorted with the lower kype jaw

Jeff with a strong brook trout

After Jeff, Eric and Garrett finally got to Kokadjo we moved to the middle part of the river.  This is by far my favorite section of the river as you have to hike in, which keeps fishing pressure lower, but the scenery is also beautiful.  I would have to say my favorite pool is located there and it would surprise many as this pool is often overlooked by other anglers.  We simply call it the “Glide.”  This section was also where I had the biggest scare of my life last year.  Jeff and I were walking through the woods when I saw a jet black object out of the corner of my eye.  For those of you that do not know this area is full of black bears and not far from this area the state record black bear was harvested, so we are always making noise to avoid any contact with bears.  The last thing you want to do is surprise a bear, which would likely not end well for us, especially a sow with cubs.  Jeff was behind me and when I stopped dead in my tracks he knew I had seen something that was not good.  I slowly turned my head and was relieved to see that the object was a black lab ahead of his owners coming up from the river.  I must have looked real funny to his owners as I was hugging their dog a lot longer than normal from my relief of him not being a bear.

Sometimes the salmon just don’t stay still

We use what we tie. This is the Grey Ghost with red floss body.

As expected we were all alone on this section and the fish were much more willing.  Jeff quickly hooked up with a solid brook trout followed up with a kype jaw male salmon that tail danced all through the pool.  This all happened during the middle of the day and is sometimes the best time to fish this river as many anglers have broke for lunch. Be very careful when you enter the water as fish can be anywhere on this river.  I was painfully reminded of this when I was walking down river around some quick water when I flushed a very respectable brook trout in only ankle deep water along the shore.  As he quickly darted away I mentally face palmed myself for letting my guard down and also for not having my fly in the water.  I am also reminded constantly of this from a conversation with another angler who said “there are no fish there” when Jeff and I were not fishing the pools.  Yes the majority of the fish are in the pools this time of the year, but not all of them.  Every year I hear about someone catching a brute out of some quick water during the fall and have done so myself.  Case in point was this year when Eric caught a very nice male salmon in very little current between two pools where we have never seen any fish before.  Words to live by here is you will never know if you don’t try, so give that section of river a good go and see what happens.

Banks of the “Glide”

The “Glide”

The next morning was absolutely stunning with the mist coming off the water on the pond and river.  Mornings like this always make me happy no matter what is going on in my life.  There was no question we were going to spend the majority of our day on the middle section of the river.  We met up with some anglers from another state that we met last year while working our way down the river to some productive water.  While we were talking I kept casting with one arm and hooked into a very nice fish.  The group just looked at me and said “if we didn’t know you that would have been weird.”  Fishing with this group is easy as everyone understands the ethics of fishing on a public river.  As I have said all along all it takes is striking up a conversation and not crowding other anglers to make our time together on the water that much more enjoyable.  I also witnessed a couple anglers that day that perplexed me.  We were walking back up to the “Glide” when we noticed two anglers fishing a pool that holds a tremendous amount of brook trout this time of year.  One said to the other that they must be here, indicating that they should be able to catch fish here.  I know they had only been at that spot for a few minutes.  I kept working up the river and not more than ten minutes later those same anglers were walking up river toward me.  They hadn’t even been in that pool for more than ten minutes.  Give yourself more time to work the water and change flies more often than normal.

Brook trout from the pool the other anglers only spent a fraction of time in

Mist along the river

The “Glide” just looks like a salmon pool.  Every time I am there it just evokes a feeling that this is what salmon fishing should look like.  This pool is long and smooth with steep banks with tall fir and spruce trees lining the banks.  The middle of the pool is only three to four feet deep, so it is not your typical deep pool that many associate with salmon pools.  However, the bottom is riddled with basketball sized rocks that are enough to hold some very nice fish.  In this pool I have found over the years that an active retrieve with my streamers never gets a sniff and a slow swing on a 45 degree angle is the ticket.  One other important note here is that I fish my streamers primarily on a full sinking line.  This is how I learned to salmon fish and I do not see many others that do this other than Jeff.  It may only get me down an extra foot or two in heavy current, but that is all I need.  Even with the sinking line there was a couple salmon on this day that came up with such force to produce an exciting boil on the surface.  Many times the salmon will hook themselves on the swing and all one needs to do is raise your rod to achieve an effective hook set.

Aggressive male salmon from the “Glide”

Even the smaller salmon are fun

Even with our short time on this river it always feels like home when we are there.  The memories that we have created and those that are still to be made are really what we strive for.  Sharing this love makes the experience that much better.

Wonderful view to start your day!