September Report... Fall is here!

As I write this the leaves are turning from green to gold. The fish in our waters are in their prime fall feeding rhythms at the moment. With the last few weeks of cooler weather our fall hatches are well underway. The andro is seeing good Isonychia mayfly hatches and Rhyacophila caddis hatches almost every day. We have already seen the bite window shift from early mornings to late morning into the early afternoon. For all of you who like to catch fish but hate getting up early or staying out late now is your time to shine! Best bites this time of the year are 9am to 5pm….yes bankers hours.

Andro:

We have seen some very high numbers of fish on the upper Andro this fall. Larger fish have been harder to find simply because there are soooo many fish. But we have been able to find a few good fish on most days. The lower river from Berlin to Maine has produced good fishing as well with slightly lower numbers but good chances at larger fish in the 14-18” class. We enjoy the challenge of this water and we know it well enough to stay consistently successful.

Saco:

The Saco has seen some good flying ant hatches as of late but with the cooling weather look to fish midges, bwo’s or bigger streamers when the water bumps up. Nymphing can also be successful with larger stones and mopflies when the water bumps. We have seen some larger browns this time of they year when flows bump so keep an eye on the forecast. I got out last week after a rain and missed two browns in the 20” class. Still thinking about those ones an hoping to get myself or a client into one of them if we can get the water.

Mountain Streams:

The mountain streams continue to fish very well with dry flies, a small orange stimulator is hard to beat this time of the year as it represents the october caddis that commonly hatch on mountain streams this time of the year. With the cold fall we are having these streams might shut off a little earlier than normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if the brook trout go lock jaw by mid September. The Rainbows will be heading to the bigger rivers where they will feed until the snow falls.

Wild Brook Trout waters:

Our wild brook trout waters have been fishing exceptionally well as of late and we were able to find some new water this fall that we are very excited to share with our guests. This is some of our favorite fishing and the fall is a great time to see the colors of the pre-spawn wild brook trout. Check out our instagram page @hillcountryguides to see some vieos of recent wild brook trout action.

Trophy Trout trips:

This fishing is turning on right now. The big fish are waking up and we look forward to hitting this water with our clients who are ready to hunt for a few quality fish over going for numbers. While this isn’t a game for those who need constant hook-up’s we are confident that if you work hard you will get shots at some fish of a lifetime. Please let us know if you are interested in learning more about these excitiing trips.

While there is still some time left to get on the books Fall is here and you don’t want to wait to set up your October or Late September trips.

Looking forward to seeing many of you this fall.

Tight lines,

Nate

This is how good the Andro has been as of late. See our instagram page for more pics @hillcountryguides.

Mid-August Report (Eary Fall Fishing is here!)

I felt compelled to update this report today after yesterdays trip. We had one of our most productive days on the water this year yesterday. Cold temps up north have dropped water temps on the upper andro into the upper 60’s and the trout and salmon have responded in a big way. It looks like the long range trend is for cooler weather up north over the next few weeks so if you have been wondering when to book a trip now is the time. We have a few dates open through the end of August as well as dates in early September. While many people seem to want to wait for fall foliage to fish there is no reason not to fish right now. The bites last all day and the fish are taking advantage of cooler water than they have had in over a month. Here is what is going on with all of our fishing.

Small streams:

The small streams continue to fish well and we have been seeing good dry fly fishing with stimulator style dries and flying ants becoming more important over the past few days. Warm days will trigger flying ant swarms, this means great dry fly fishing even when it is warm out.

Ellis River:

The Ellis has slowed a bit but should turn on soon with cooler weather and wild brookies getting their feed on before the spawn. Cover water and fish dry droppers to find fish.

Saco River:

The Saco river continues to fish well in the mornings and evenings with hoppers, ants and beetles, BWO nymphs and dries and Golden Stoneflies just before dark. Be prepared for flying ants here as well. You will want to cary cinnamon and honey colored ants in size 16-22 the smaller male ants can also be a chocolate brown in color.

Androscoggin:

As stated above the andro is on fire right now. Cooler weather in the forecast for next weekend means a continued strong bite. Isonychia mayflies are getting more and more active and we are also seeing a smattering of BWO’s and tan Caddis around. If you like fishing dry flies but want the productivity of nymphs a bouyant parachute style Isonychia with a havey pheasant tail dropper is hard to beat right now.

I hope you are all getting out and hitting the water because now is the time! A few of our recent catches.

Chris with a hard fighting wild rainbow.

Michael Chalsen with a 4lb rainbow.

One of seven doubles to the net from Sunday August 18th.

Early August Report (updated August 11th)

AUGUST 11th update!

We have had cooler weather over the past few days and it looks to continue into the next few weeks. Now is the time to float the Andro! With lower water temps trout will be active for longer windows during the day. We have dates available through the end of August and into September!

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Fishing has held on strong this summer with good bite windows on all of our waters continuing into August. If the fishing wasn’t already good enough it looks like we have rain and cooler temps in the forecast this week.

Saco:

The Saco continues to fish well with a mix mayflies coming off on most mornings. We’ve done well swinging hares ear nymphs when fish are tough to take on dries. We have seen some black flying ants but the big swarms of cinnimon and honey ants will come later in August. We got out the other evening as temps began to drop and found a few good fish chomping on large golden stoneflies. This evening bite should improve a bit with slightly cooler days over the next week.

Andro:

We’ve done well on the lower Andro recently with cooler temps filtering in. BWO nymphs and dries as well as Isonychia dries and grey caddis have all done the trick. If that isn’t working be sure to try flying ants as they work on the Ando as well as the Saco. We have avoided the upper river due to lack of cold water over the past few weeks but that should change now with colder overnight temps and warm instead of hot days. We are predictiong some good to great late summer fishing in the Errol area very soon.

Small streams:

We have been doing well on small streams with Grey Caddis and tan caddis nymphs along with PMX dries. If you fish this water be sure to cover pools thoroughly and keep moving. Often the fish are where the habitat is best, sometimes that is five pools in a row and other times it is a pool and then a quarter mile to the next stretch of good water. The fun is in never knowing what lies upstream or down. We love the adventure of this type of fishing and would love to show you why!

Trophy trout hunts:

We have been doing more focused trips for larger trout this year. We are confident that we can get shots at these larger trout on most days and we look forward to seeing you hook these impressive fish. It has taken years to get dialed into where when and how to target these larger fish and we are happy that our hard work is paying of dividends for many of our clients. Last weekend we guided Matt Lawton on one such trip. After a morning of hooking many fish we spent the afternoon searching for larger trout and Matt got into three fish over 18”. A great way to end an awesome day! Too catch up more of what we have been up to be sure to follow us on instagram @hillcountryguides.

Now is the time to get out and fish. We have guides available on most days!

Tight lines,

Nate

Mid- July Report

Well it has been a long time since we have updated this report. As always that is not because the fishing has been slow but because we have been on the water 24-7.

Androscoggin River:

The andro was fishing well earlier in the week but we have been staying away with the recent warm temps. When conditions are right we have caught fish on everything from streamers to nymphs and dries. Samller Pheasant tails, mop flies, buggers and purple haze dries have all been on the menu. A cold front this week may drop temps enough for early day floats again.

Saco River:

We have been doing well on the Saco during early mornings. Amazingly we are still seeing Grey Drake mayflies along with smaller rusty spinners and BWO’s. We’ve also seen a good deal of clinger mayflies moving about the rocks as of late and this has resulted in some successful nymphing both dead drifted and on the swing. We have been playing with some terrestrials but they really have not been keying on hoppers, ant’s or beetles as of late.

Ellis River:

The Ellis has been fishing well this season but has slowed a bit with warmer weather. Fish the upper river and deeper pools. Dry flies early and dry droppers later in the morning.

Mountain Streams:

Our mountain streams are all fishing very well right now. Yellow foam EHC have done well to represent the small yellow sally stoneflies that are always around in the morings. Pairing that with a small cream colored caddis pupa can be deadly. Fishing a royal PMX or similar attractor dry when the water starts to warm has been working well.

While we have been busy lateley we have some time on the calendar over the next few weeks so give us a shout if you want to hit the water. We think you will enjoy it!

If you are looking for pictures to update you on what we’ve been catching check us out on instagram @natefish83.

A recent streamer eater from the andro see more @natefish83 on instagram

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

Nate

June fishing is here!

It’s been a busy start to the season. I finally got my one day off in June which gives me just enough time to report what we’ve been up to.

It was a late start to the season for the Andro fishing but the flows have dropped to below average. This is ideal for both nymphing and dry fly fishing. While hatches were sporadic early this June they have gotten more consistent over the last few days and we’ve had good luck nymphing mayfly, caddisfly and stonefly patterns. We’ve had a few fish rise do mayfly dries but not much for consistency on top yet. The good news is that with the cooler spring and low flows we should see a banner year for the famous Alder fly hatch. This is the bug that can bring up trout measured in feet not inches and we are looking forward to hunting for them on dries soon!

Rob WolfChuck with a wild Andro rainbow.

An Andro Double.

While the upper andro was fishing slow this spring I took a chance and guided my regular client Charlie Houghton on some new water that I’ve been getting to know over the past few years. My intuition was that the flows were perfect and we would see a couple of large fish that would reward our efforts. Luckily I was right and Charlie did his part in landing a 24” rainbow two 16-18” rainbows and two 16- 18” browns. I’ve guided five trips on this water and while we never catch high numbers of trout we have landed at least one fish over 20” on each trip. We seem to be averaging three big fish a day with a few smaller fish mixed in. All and all everyone has felt the fishing well worth the effort and I look forward to chasing these fish with experienced anglers and my repeat customers.

Charlie Houghton with a large wild bow.

A fine specimen of a brown trout.

Walt Sysun with a very large brown. Hard to tell but this fish was massive.

Right now the Saco is still a streamer game for larger trout. Hatches are just starting on the Saco and Ellis and fish should be looking up very soon if they have not already. I’m really looking forward to the dry fly fishing of late June and July. I’m predicting that this July is going to be one of the best for fly fishing that we have seen in years. It is looking like water temps will be ideal and with all of the water we have had insect hatches should be prolific.

We still have June and July dates available so please let us know if you would like to book.

Tight lines,

Nate