Finished off the end of the general open water fishing season with a bang on September 30th. The morning started out with frozen guides and slinging streamers, and then went to dead drifting little red nymphs mid morning through the afternoon. This particular river is catch and release only, with good reason. The fish are stacked up right now making their spawning runs and are very aggressive. Brook trout and landlock atlantic salmon are in their spawning stages. Caught a few brookies over 18"; the biggest being 22", 3.5-4lb (my new personal best on fly tackle). My buddy caught a pretty impressive salmon that was probably 22", 5-6lb. One of the most memorable days on the water in my life.

Enjoy.

Lots of great color there, and appears to be a good time as well. Envious,

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like a great time.

Nice pics.

Brookies are the fish.. Totally AWESOME!!! Some day if I live long enough, I must try the Maine fishing.. Best wishes, and thanks for the outstanding photos..

Matt,
Awesome Brookie pictures. Thanks for showing the fly.
Mike C

Pretty fish!

What part of Maine?

I used to fish for trout and landlocked salmon in the streams in the Rangley area. One of my favorite streams was the connection between Parmachenee and Aziscohos Lakes.

Very very nice! My wife and I fished out of an old Maine camp several years ago for Brookies and Landlocks and had a ball.

http://www.lakewoodcamps.com/

These are Moosehead lake region fish. All wild, no stocked fish there.

Headed to Grand Lake Stream tomorrow to chase salmon spawn there because it's still open for fishing. Hopefully have some pictures of colored up salmon. Not holding my breath, water is dangerously low.

Nice looking fish! Thanks for posting these.

I'm surprised not to see more fall color on the deciduous trees in your pictures.

Yeah they've changed rapidly here in the last week or so.













The water was really low as expected, and still very warm. There were not a lot of fish in the river. It was cold and rainy all day. Didn't do as well as I hoped, but for conditions it was pretty decent. Need more rain and cooler temps to really draw the fish down into the river from the lake. That last salmon is pretty big for this river, easily over 20" and 4lb. May be my biggest in 9 years fishing there.

Beautiful pics! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice fish.

By far my favorite trout!! Congrats

I miss that River and fishing in general in Maine

Used to make a few trips up north andfish every year when I lived in NYC

Great pics of fall spawning colors


Boy I remember those land locked salmon and how they jumped and fought
Thanks

Years ago, my favorite brookie flyfishing area was Red Feather, CO. Loved to see those beautiful spawning colors.
My favorite fish to eat.

That Maine river there is beautiful. Nice fish!

too bad photobucket destroyed your photos. I would have liked to have seen them!

Me to!

I'll see if I can dig the pictures up and repost them. It's starting to be that time of year again for colored up brookies. I'll have some new ones in a few weeks

From a hike in mountain lake a few weeks ago

starting to color up. Great eating

Excellent.. We are off on a hunting,camping, fishing trip on Thurs.. Hope to get enough brookies for a meal.. Only got one mess this summer..

3-4 inches of rain here since Sunday has broght the rivers up nicely. The male salmon I have been catching in the lakes have kypes now and the brookies are getting that Fall coloring. I'm ready

Still pretty hot in central Maine. I'll be up around Moosehead the last couple weeks of September and then Grand Lake Stream mid October. It won't be long. The best time of the year.

I live along the Aroostook River and it went from bone dry to blown out. Not wadable right now.

Thanks for reposting. Beautiful fish.

With the exception of some of the TN darters, the Brookies are the most beautif fish I know of in the US of A.
They have fallen out of grace with many of the western fishery managers but I like them and Browns too.