It has been a crazy summer for sure with high water and cooler than normal temps. The fishing has remained very consistent this August with river temps staying in the 50’s and low 60’s on all of our mountain streams. And as of this writing even the Androscoggin is running around 66 degrees and should cool off more in the week ahead! The flows on the Andro are also scheduled to drop TODAY, meaning prime time float fishing THIS WEEK!
The mountain stream fishing has been about as good as it gets this August!
Current Conditions on Mountain Streams
We’ve been doing well with a variety of techniques on area tributaries. On warmer days we’ve done well with hoppers, and beetles as well as attractor patterns like the royal PMX. Fish are well spread out with all the high water we have and we have done well covering water with dry dropper rigs. On cooler days it seems the fish are keyed in more on the dropper, with a size 16-18 WD40 nymph taking most fish. Streamers have also been effective with cooler weather and higher water with buggers and baby trout parr patterns taking fish most days. Surpisingly we’ve also done well with egg patterns and it could be that some of our wild brook trout are already spawning due to these unusually cool August temps. Flows should be dropping closer to average over the next week and will be in prime shape for wade fishing.
We’ve been seeing some larger than usual wild rainbows on our smaller streams this summer. They’ve been moving upstream in all the high water we have had.
The wild brook trout fishing has also been some of the best we have seen this August.
Looking forward:
The Androscoggin river is scheduled to drop at the dam in Errol today to 1200 cfs. This will put the river at ideal flows with good water temps as night time lows drop into the lower 40’s this week. We have dates available from now through mid-October and we recommend booking a trip sooner than later as this fishing should turn on as of this writing! We expect some of the best fishing in years on the Andro as these fish have been feeding all summer long with little fishing pressure due to the high water.
The Isonychia hatch has already been coming off a bit on cooler days and should ramp up this week with lower flows and cooler weather. The flying ants really haven’t started yet but we expect to see them on any warmer days from here through early September. Golden stoneflies and October caddis will also be in the mix this week along with a constant trickle of BWO’s coming of almost every day.
We will be out tomorrow scouting the upper Connecticut river. Word has it the bite has been good up that way and we have a few floats up there next weekend. Higher flows have kept those fish fat and happy this summer as well and with lower flows and a lot of smelt in the river the fishing should be very productive.
We have openings August 23rd and 24th as well as August 29-31st if you are at all able to get up here we highly recommend taking advantage of these prime conditions. We also have dates available in September and just had dates open up for October 6th and 7th as well as Oct 14th and 15th so let us know if you want to grab any fall dates as well!
We have enjoyed guiding many of you this season and look forward to some great fishing this fall as well!
Tight Lines,
Nate