Summer arrived with water levels bouncing all over the place, often within a matter of a few miles. It was hard to keep your footing in waters pushed up my heavy thunderstorms, while the streams the next ridge over were down to a trickle. A lot of radar watching and time to make tracks at the right time.
You can see the matted down grass after a blast of high water.
But those flow bumps moved the browns all around and made for cool water temps and some fine dry fly fishing with Parachute Adams and EHC's all through July.
Those same high flow episodes pulled a few decent brookies out of the main rivers into the tribs.
And kept the upland natives active.
August brought dropping flows pretty much everywhere and marginal water temps for trout. One of my "go to" summer resistant spots, looked like this near the access road.
A mile or so downstream and with a number of ground water seeps joining in, the water looked liked this and was 57*.
Staying low, moving slow, and working the undercuts, had their rewards.
No summer would be complete without a visit to see Dad down on L.I. Sound. My son joined us this time. Decent scup dominated.
Along with some miscellaneous salt water species....not big, but adding variety.
And Dad still bobs around well for a guy just short of 90.
Back in Maine, with the ongoing low and warm water as August marches on, I've focused on bass in flowing water or quarries. I can certainly wade to water that would often be well over my head!
These waters are often crawling with 10"-14" smallies, and the occasional largemouth. 40-50 fish a trip is solid sport on the 5-weight
Regardless of how good the summer has been, I'm always ready to shift gears into fall
