This past year has been a blast! We are looking forward to an exciting 2019 season, but couldn’t pass the opportunity to extend our deepest appreciation for everyone that chose us for their outdoor adventure.  Each trip was different in many different ways, but there was always a common theme among them.  Those that came out onto the water with us wanted to experience a little bit of Maine for themselves and entrusted us to lead them on that journey.  The beginning of the year saw us chasing salmon and brook trout up in Baxter State Park, which is always a chance for me to revisit where I grew up and began my journey of fly-fishing.  The middle of summer always finds us closer to home chasing our beloved smallmouth on our favorite river and lake trout on our favorite lake.  The end of the year is a smorgasburg of species for us to chase and is a perfect way to cap a great season off.

Never know where the trail and season will take us!

Sebago Salmon is always a great start to our season!

The moments shared with our clients this season have been very fulfilling.  There had been plenty of firsts this year.  The most notable was a young angler that had not been fishing before.  I was helping Dan out at the lodge and I took a father and son out on the lake and my only concern was getting the son on his first fish ever.  It was going to be one of the hottest days of the year and when we departed it was already getting really hot so I knew I had to work fast.  As any guide knows, in this situation you take your clients to your A spot, the one that you have the most confidence in, to ensure that you get them into fish quickly.  If that spot doesn’t work you just work backward through the rest of your spots to try and get them onto fish.  Well the A spot was on and on every drift we hooked and landed some very quality smallmouth bass.  Just seeing the smile on that young anglers face was worth the whole trip to me.  At this point in the season I had started to really focus on the whole experience so I never took one photo of this trip, though luckily the father took plenty.  As long as they leave happy with their time with me I am happy.

Always be available and ready for your clients

This was a memorable trip in many ways!

Some of the most fast action was fishing for smallmouth during the month of August for us.  On one particular trip I was trolling to another spot to give my clients a break as the fishing had been really good up to that point.  I guess a break means still catching fish while on the troll, but compared to what happened next it was a cake walk.  I noticed a piece of structure in the middle of the river that I had never noticed before as the fishing elsewhere was just as good.  I stopped everything and put whole new set ups on all of the rods.  At one point the fishing was so hot that I had all three clients waiting for me to put wacky worms on their hooks as all had hooked and landed some very nice fish all at the same time and that did not stop for a few hours.  This is not a bad issue to have while on a guided trip, which is catching so many fish you feel like a one armed paper hanger in a wind storm as my Dad would frequently say.  The highlight of this trip was the on the water equipment surgery I had to perform for one client.  He had just hooked into a nice smallmouth bass and I could see from the bend in the rod it was a quality fish.  At this point the line wrapped underneath the arbor and seized up.  I had to take the front of the reel off to unwind the line and then reattach everything while I could still feel the fish fighting.  We managed to land this fish and that was the highlight for me seeing the laughs and smiles from all of the clients

This was the fish that required on the water surgery on the reel to land it!

These anglers kept me busy all day long with landing fish

Then there were the moments that I am not sure the clients really realized how special they were.  One of the last trips in October found me on a familiar river, but the water was much higher than normal which usually brought different fish down from a larger reservoir.  I had the father and son clients working the water with one of my most reliable flies for that time of the year when the father came tight to a fish.  With the higher flows I just thought it was a nice brook trout.  However it was acting a little different and when I saw it I just looked at the son and made a motion with my hands that it was really large.  I think the adrenaline had taken over and the father was holding on real tight to the line and I had to pull some line off the reel to ensure that the fish had room to run.  This fish also found a nice place to hide and wasn’t moving and I thought he had wrapped the line on the bottom so I stepped out into the current and pushed the line away from us.  The fish took off and the fight was on.  With so many variables I made a quick effort to net this fish, which I failed and the fish made some impressive jumps in front of us.  When the fish finally came to the net it was a salmon over 26″.  I just looked at the father and said “I am not sure you realize what you just did.”  That was the largest salmon a client has ever caught with me.  After some pictures that fish was released to be caught again.

Yup, this happened and both our faces tell the story!

Fish are always better shared with those we care about

As great as the 2018 season was 2019 is shaping up to be an even busier year.  Get your requests in now as we are seeing some key times being taken already.  If we missed you last year this is now your time for us to reconnect on the water and share some new experiences.  If you are new to us give us a shot and see what we have to offer.  See you on the water!