The Maine-side of the Whites - Fly Fishing

[Artex]

I'm thinking of camping at one of the grounds off of Rt. 113 in Maine in mid or late June, tentatively June 22-24. Primarily, I'd like to fly fish the Wild River, but will also go trail running and do some light hiking.

Anyone interested? I was thinking it might be a good chance to explore this often overlooked portion of the Whites. Of course, feel free to set your own agenda for hikes and what not. And if you do fly fish, it'd be nice to have you along.

 

[chinooktrail]

Last year we camped at The Basin, which I don't really reccomend, it was ok, but just ok.

A few years back we camped at Wild River, which if memory serves me, has no reservations, it is only first come, first served... Which can be dicey depending on when you can arrive and how far you have to travel. But it was a really great place to camp, felt like you were backpacking almost.

Emerald Pool is a must see, if you have never been there. Maine's little version of Aculpulco...

I love Evan's Notch and think many people overlook this little gem of an area.

Have fun!

 

[yellow dog]

I happened to be at the Emerald pool yesterday. Jamie it reminds me of Indian's Last Leap on the Mousam.

I'll probably be up fishing in the area that weekend but I much prefer floating the Andro compared to fishing the Wild.

 

[Artex]

I'm targeting June 20-22 (Wed-Fri) to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation. If anyone cares to come along for all or part, let me know, though I realize the likelihood of that is unlikely for you non-teaching folk.

 

[LarryD]

Fishing the Wild is a treat. Last year, I fly-fished it near the old Spider Bridge site and had some luck. The river has brook trout (like most White Mountain streams) and also wild rainbow trout (which are rarer).

If you fish near Route 113 keep in mind that the NH/Maine border criss-crosses the road in several spots. Make sure you have the correct license(s) for wherever you fish.

 

[Artex]

Fishing the Wild is a treat. Last year, I fly-fished it near the old Spider Bridge site and had some luck. The river has brook trout (like most White Mountain streams) and also wild rainbow trout (which are rarer).

If you fish near Route 113 keep in mind that the NH/Maine border criss-crosses the road in several spots. Make sure you have the correct license(s) for wherever you fish.

A rainbow would be sweet. Thanks for the tips. Yes, I plan to be careful about what side of the border I'm on. Have a Maine license, but don't want to fork over the money for a NH one.

 

[Puck]

Artex
Not to put you off, this sounds like a great trip. I have a plan with my son which has a possibilitiy of falling through. Such a trip as yours could be a nice backup.

So are you going to use nymphs?

 

[Artex]

Artex
Not to put you off, this sounds like a great trip. I have a plan with my son which has a possibilitiy of falling through. Such a trip as yours could be a nice backup.

So are you going to use nymphs?

Cool, I'll be there if you can make it. Yep, nymphs, woolly buggers, elk hair caddis... whatever works. I also tied some pretty sweet black ant flies the other night. I'll give you a few if I end up seeing you there.

 

[SherpaKroto]

Just back from an Andro trip this past weekend myself. Water was quite high on Saturday making for some lousy wading. We needed to resort to "old Man fishing" (sitting on shore, drifting a line, and waiting for strikes). Fishing was slow, but we eventually did find some size: 20, 17, (2) 14 in Landlocked, (2) 16+ 'bows, a ton of small LL, a fair amount of 9-12 inch 'bows, a handful of 8-10 in brookies... and sadly more smallies than I like to think about. Swamp caught a nice sized one at Errol Dam - fun to catch, but not a good sign as they have really taken hold there. He had a good weekend, catching over 20 fish on his first weekend flyfishing. He's a natural. Overall, we caught about 60 between the 3 of us, 10 quality fish. They don't come easy: we were out there about 12 hours in all.

I'll be back on the river the same weekend as you, Artex, again north of Berlin. You want 'bows? You'll find them pretty much any spot alongside the Andro, but you do have to work for them. If you plan to stay in Maine, the confluence of the Wild and Andro just before dusk has produced well for me in the past, occasionally drawing sopme large browns up to feast on teh many landlocks in the cooler water of the Wild.

The Wild: some small muddlers always seem to produce there. Tease them between the rocks at the head and tail of the small pools and riffles. depending on your prowess with dries, floating a small elk hair caddis does some damage also. And a Hornberg never fails. I'm not a Wild River fan though: too much work for too little success. Had a lot of famine there with never a real feast. Good luck!

 

[Artex]

Thanks SK. Food for thought for sure. And congrats on a bountiful weekend! You guys had some major success.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Those are cute little fish you are catching up there, eh? We call them bait.



bikehikeskiFISH

 

[SherpaKroto]

BHF: yes, but we have the Whites, Mahoosucs, Nash Stream, Kilkenny, etc to play in. I turned down this trip to head to Kasa Kroto:

Guess which one is my son, Andrew?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Nice fish! Striper fishing is a prime example of how conservation allowed the species to recover. For years and years, the limit was 28" - and we'd catch 26", then 30" and we'd catch 28"... then 36" for 4 or 5 years and suddenly we were getting 38-42" fish regularly. Now it's 28" and a bag limit of 2 fish, and we regularly get them in the 40s. This one was 48" and around 50 pounds -- the scale max, but since I released him, I didn't spend much time getting an accurate weight.

I hope that the 24" x 10 fish limit allows the cod to come back...

Here's the full size:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2812342220097994563KUYuUY?vhost=outdoors&vhost=outdoors

Oh, and I certainly understand the beauty of fishing in the whites. I have just as much fun catching sunfish with my kids, as I do catching smelt in the winter off a dock in the middle of the night, as I do catching big stripers and tuna.

Tim

 

[Artex]

Nice fish from the both of yous! I've caught around two dozen stripers so far this season, but the biggest has only been 19".