May 21
Rain has definately been the story of May, and we are hoping that story will end with the beginning of June tomorrow! Unfortunately rain dominated the forecast over the Memorial Day weekend and has left us some extremely high rivers, the east outlet topped out at a little over 13,000 cfs yesterday, I didn’t add a zero either! Keep in mind that good wading in the outlet is at 1000-2000 cfs range. There usually is a reward on the back end of high water though…more fish. In the entire month of May there was one day when wading was even possible, and I bet most of you missed it! The river will be filled with fish in the coming weeks as the water subsides, remember, these are fish that have yet to see a fly! They will not know what a grey ghost, pheasant tail, or elk wing caddis even is, so things are setting up for a really nice June.
With the cooler temps the fishing has really been excellent the past few weeks, as long as you can find a place to get in. Fishing in the Moosehead area has never been called..easy, so its important to keep in mind a plan A, B, C, and even a plan D. One option recently has been the West Outlet of the Kennebec, for the most part this is a completely ignored spot that is actually quite a sleeper that always holds plenty of fish. The West Outlet water flow remains at a constant 136 cfs throughout the year, and contains close to 10 miles of excellent fishing. Although its generally known for some of our warm water fish, the faster moving water contains excellent populations of landlocked salmon and brookies, both stocked and wild. The west is a slow moving, muddier version of the east outlet and a mayflies dream. With steady water flows and more plant life to hold onto mayflies can come off like wildfire here. Fish will rise to dries, chase streamers, and love to sip on soft hackle emergers.
As far as other waters go the Roach River is currently running high but same story here higher water pulls more fish so as this comes down the fishing will heat up. The East Outlet and the Moose are currently coming down, and as long as we do not get significant rainfall, this should continue. Ponds should really be kicking in to gear this weeks with the warmer temps the mayfly hatches should really be on!
