Mainely Outdoors: Dry fly tactics trick trout

An unusually rainy spring and early summer had regional farmers frustrated and disgusted as wet ground dictated crop care. Although their livelihood isn’t at stake, area anglers also continue to deal with long-term disappointment as frequent showers keep favorite waterways notably high, fast and off-color. Trout fishing neighborhood streams and ponds is one of Aroostook’s traditional pastimes that local sportsmen truly enjoy and when prolonged poor weather interferes, outdoorsmen become edgy, then innovative.
During a normal summer, local waterways would have warmed up and receded by now and trout would be schooled up near cold seeps, spring holes and creek inlets. Currently the fish are still well spread out all along the rivers and brooks, but due to high water levels and fast current the trout are laying up in eddies, slow runs, near dam spillways, and below rocks and small islands. Wet flies have been very productive during the day and several fishermen are enjoying steady action using size 10 or 12 dry flies and retrieving them like a wet fly.
Just a week ago I fished Little Madawaska Stream catching and releasing over two dozen brook trout in 90 minutes from a 100-yard stretch of water. Most of my fun resulted from happenstance rather than planning. I spotted a couple of nice rises amidst a long set of slow riffles about two or three feet deep. Two dry flies patterns yielded a pair of raises and one small fish, while a couple of wet fly patterns also led to a single seven-inch trout. Meanwhile, I spotted several more brookies raise but they ignored my offerings.
Thinking that a larger dry fly might do the trick, I rooted through a couple of boxes, located and tied on a size 12 grey slim Jim. Half a dozen casts and floats produced no interest, but when I was lax on the last cast and the current drug the dry fly under causing a wake, a 10-inch brookie rolled up and grabbed it. For the next few casts I purposely cast the slim Jim cross current and let it swing like a wet fly or streamer, another nice trout took the surface-dragging fly.
Over the next hour and several more pools I caught and released 15 trout and lost a couple more. I cast a couple more dry flies to no avail, but wet-fished an Adams, a Henryville Special and a mosquito with consistent action.
A friend of mine visited the covered bridge pool on the Meduxnekeag two nights later and also used the wet-fished dry fly with excellent results. There was nearly a full moon so he didn’t even begin fishing until 8:30 at night and kept at it until 10 o’clock. Both brook and brown trout are plentiful in the Meduxnekeag and the bragging size fish generally feed from dusk into the late evening.
Although occasional rises occurred, the large, fluffy Wulff patterns my buddy was using got minimal results. It was when he began skating and dragging the flies across the surface, or just under water that the interest perked up. This past weekend another couple of angling buddies used the same trick on Dow’s Hole and got several nice trout including a 16-1/2 inch brookie and an 18-inch brown trout.
If you visit the Meduxnekeag, be sure to have a royal Wulff, a rat-faced McDougal, and a hare’s ear in sizes 10, 12, and 14. A white irresistible and a yellow humpy are two more proven fat and fluffy dry flies that work great after dusk and create an attractive surface wake when fished wet.
Another evening recently I managed an after-supper outing to Whitney Brook and Three Brooks in Bridgewater and Blaine. Once again traditional patterns yielded only spotty results but when I randomly selected an orange-bodied grasshopper the trout went wild. Terrestrial patterns like grasshoppers, crickets, ants, caterpillars and beetles work best during August, but current water conditions and trout distribution seems to have changed that this season. Other anglers are finding the same thing, a yellow, green or orange bodied ‘hopper will take fish day or night under current stream conditions.
Foam bodied grasshopper flies will float higher and longer, but I prefer the wool bodied patterns in case I choose to fish them like a wet fly once they are water-logged. Whichever style of retrieve is used, remember to use a lot of wrist action to make the rod tip, and therefore the fly, skitter, twitch and wriggle across the water surface like an insect in distress. That’s what a real ’hopper does when it lands in a stream by mistake, and such realism coaxes the big fish to bite.
The trout fishing is top rate in most brooks, creeks, beaver ponds and rivers right now, so regardless of how you choose to present your dry fly, get out and about and enjoy the action.