Fall Update

A lot has happened since my last post in June. My pediatric rotation FINALLY finished- it was a very long three months with no free time. Treatment planning and quarterly reports consumed all my time, leaving no time for fishing. I have been longing for my 30+ inch striper but I guess I'll have to wait till next season (hopefully we are still around). I did go out with my daughter after my rotation ended and wrangled in a few schoolies which was fun.

Donuts in hand

Heading out to the jetty

Apple cider donut from the famous Holy Donut

Breakfast of champions 

Wouldn't touch it

Family have come and gone, and now fall is full swing here in Maine. There are still some stripers around, but the majority have gone. As of late, I have hung up the 9wt in search of trout and salmon. A trip to Moosehead was planned and I was stoked for round 2.

Much to my dismay, I did not catch anything at Moosehead, again. This time I even had my sinking line, but still did not catch anything. This lake is a mystery to me. I read an article stating there were "too many fish". I certainly did not see any, except for small minnows. Granted, the lake is HUGE and if I ever try again I will go to a completely new area.

On one of the mornings we headed out to a river I had read about just north of us. When we pulled in there were already 5 other vehicles there. Wonderful! My dad being the social person he is, walked right over to a couple guys who were breaking down their rods. Meanwhile, I rigged up and tried to hurry as quickly as possible as the boss was feeding the baby and my time was limited. In all honesty, my wife is awesome and lets me go fishing all the time. However, in this circumstance I did not want to take too long as they would be waiting in the car.

I walked aways down from the bridge and began tossing my line. The stream was beautiful, and larger than expected. All the other anglers were up by the bridge tossing a line into the deep pools in hope for a big Atlantic salmon. I saw a few small fish rising, and eventually hooked into one but it got off. As I made my way up the bridge all the other anglers had cleared out except for one. Though I was fishing where others just were, I decided to try a few casts as the water looked too promising. I caught nothing. This river is supposed to hold nice Atlantics and brook trout, but unfortunately I did not get to the stream early enough. Until next time...

Recently, I fished a river that I fished last October with Hugh. I caught one brown last year, and this year I only caught one fish as well.  When the fish ate my dry, I pulled back on the rod and the 4-incher flew past me and off of my fly. I honestly had no clue what kind of fish I caught but believe it was a brookie. Even though fishing was not what I had hoped, it felt great being the first one on the river. There was a low morning fog, and I had fun tossing my fly over the plethora of colorful fall leaves on the water.

Destination two that day was another river that was close that supposedly held brookies. This stream was smaller but just as beautiful. I caught some nice browns on a purple wulff pattern I got in Montana a while back. It was fun tossing dry flies between rocks, and logs, something I had not done in a long time. Since moving to Maine my 9wt has seen the majority of daylight. Stripers in the ocean have been too much fun. But tossing dries to small trout hits a chord in my soul that always brings a smile to my face.