fished the middle stan. from wendsday till sunday morning, fished with Brian for the first day and a half and overall the fishing was slow. Sorry Brian to drag ya all the way down that road for what turned out to be overall poor fishing. I think I landed maybe 5 that first day but it was really working it hard. I figured the next morning I'd hike way upriver to see if I could find something happening, Oh I did all right, As I stopped and stood on a small cliff overlooking the river I could clearly see 2 very nice trout steadily rising, Was going to be hard to get down to em and make a good cast but figured I'd try, I get about 20 yards from a big bush and it starts to move around like a gust of wind but there is no wind, As I stopped and stood there a freaking HUGE bear walks out and stops and just stares at me, It had to be a 500 pounder ! Holy crap ! 20 yards from this badboy, Tried not to make eye contact and very slowly walked backwards until I was about 50 yards away and then walked away at a very fast pace. Looking back he seemed to have a playfull curiousity about him but honestly it was pretty scary at the time. At that point I say well looks like I'm fishing downriver today, Wich has no trail and is pretty gnarly walking. It payed off a little bit I guess, I did find a great pool that i managed to take maybe 15 fish from the next few days, mostly rainbows with a few browns decent size for the water all around 10 to 14 inchers. Daytime was a complete bust, The last few days I only fished about 3 hours in the a.m and the last 3 hours of daylite. Good caddis action in the evening. Did hook 3 what I'm pretty sure were very nice fish, 2 hung me on the same log and one came unbuttoned. Wasn't all that bad I guess, since i didnt hammer away all day everyday the burnout factor wasn't there and was able to stay sharp when i did fish. I think fall will be better fishing on that river.
ya it wasnt too bad, i had fun and hooked a bunch of fish, but only landed one nice 15" rainbow. and on all things a olive krystal flash wooly bugger. that was my go to fly for those 2 days. first day i hooked 10 and landed one. the fish would come up and just hit the back end of the hook and not fully take the fly so as soon as the fish would take off with it i would set the hook the fish would stay on for a millasecond and come undone. i was starting to get frustrated. i even hooked 2 fish in the same shallow run about 12-18"s of fast water one looked like a brookie he did a nice air show then came undone, the other shot up stream so fast i could barley set the hook. i guess it was the hook and that quick disconnect point on it or something. then i managed to hook another one with the same problem below this fast shallow run. so after a rough first day, my knees on fire, we both decided to call it a drinking night, and shoot off a few rounds and wake up the neighbors, hahaha. man that was so freaking fun. so whats your profession, i toss veggies, specifically i toss watermelon and corn, not to get confused with tossing salad. not even close. hahahahahahaha.
anyways woke up kinda late the next day, and we both went different directions, i wanted to fish that shallow run first and work my way back down and leave by noon, and shaun wanted to start low and work up and we meet in the middle. let me tell you this. there are some big fish in this river. will fishing this shallow run, i saw a few fish in the 15-18" mark, tried to get them to come after the wooly and they didnt want anything to do with it. i got one look and the fish disappeared. so i then moved down to the deep pool below the shallow run. and first cast swinging this bugger across the current i got hammered, and not thinking i set the hook right away, and i knew this fish wasnt gonna stay on, because i didnt give it time to set the hook itself, withint about 10seconds i lost the fish, but i did get a great look at the fish. a very healthy fat 18-20" brown. what a beauty, gave me a few hard headshakes a quick little run then one more hard headshake and that was it, the fly flew back at me. by that time i was very tired, and needed to get back to base camp i called it a day. middle stan will have to wait until the fall just as you said shaun. but i did have fun. definitly have to do it again. maybe next time we will take the jeep so we can zoom down that dirt trail.
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Fishing isnt about catching fish, its not about who caught the most, or who caught the biggest, its about the experience that you have on the water, and the life long bonds you make with others on the journey to becoming a better person inside.
My friends were in Alaska a few years ago backpacking when they came across a huge bear track. They were both tripping on the size of it when all the sudden it slowly started to fill with water. Talk about fresh tracks!
its pretty hard to fish anywhere in the north maine woods and not see bear tracks. ive been fortunate enough not to have a bad encounter, but the bears we have here arent anything like yours!
Was it a black bear or a brown bear? What do you mean by playful curiosity? Sounds like it might have been a more dangerous encounter than you realize. Did it follow you? The ideal reaction for any bear when encountering a person is for the bear to run away. You did the exact right thing (since you didn't have bear spray) and it may have saved your life. Sometimes you hear to yell and scream (with black bears) but this can provoke a deffensive reaction. Bells, by the way are now questioned as an effective deterent, but most experts agree that talking loudly if you spot bear scat is not a bad idea. Pepper spray is over 95% effective, but should only be used on charging or aggressive bears. The little buggers are so darn cute that we humans often confuse aggressive or predatory behavior for playful curiosity. Good bear spray like counterstrike is only about $30, and if the area you are in has bears you should carry it. I am admittedly a bit paranoid about it since I watched Grizzly Man (don't get me started on what that poor guy did wrong) but a friends father was mauled by a brown bear in Yellowstone, and it can happen to you. In Maine you guys have black bears right? Attacks are more rare with black bears, but when they do attack it is predatory so instead of mauling you and letting you go they will probably kill you and eat you. Brown bears usually attack deffensively so they often maul you a bit and then let you go if you play dead. If you are attacked, fight back against black bears anyway you can, play dead with brown bears, and remember sometimes black bears can look brown in color.
I was surprised at how big it was, Pics and tv don't do em justice. I think it was just curious, Not aggressive at all. And yes it was very light brown not black at all. Quit a noble creature. Thats pretty funny dutchmen.
