The Shortest, Sweetest Salmon River You’ll Ever Fish – Lou Forbringer
Our daughter, who lives in Bangor Maine, gave birth to her first child and our first grandchild on April 19th. All parties are healthy! My wife and I had planned a while ago to visit for a few weeks and try to help her as she and her husband acclimate to the demands of parenthood.
Since I was going to be in Maine anyhow, I figured I may as well do a little fishin’. So, I contacted Mike Hegarty, the guide I booked back in 2019 and we decided to fish Grand Lake Stream. In Trout Unlimited’s book of 100 Best Trout Streams, it is described as The shortest, sweetest salmon river you’ll ever fish. They have no argument from me!
We left Bangor by 6:00am on Monday, May 10th and were on the water by 9:30am. The weather forecast had originally been for rain on Monday and Tuesday, but on Monday it actually held off and turned sunny, instead …I took it as a god sign! There were only a few other fishers on the water and we started by offering streamers on a 10’ 5wt. with a sinking tip line. We tried Golden Retrievers, Grey Ghosts, and some other traditional flies, but the salmon weren’t interested. So, we switched to fishing nymphs on floating line under an indicator and things stared to pick up. Since the water temp was 48 degrees, low and slow was the ticket. Tandem rigs of yellow stone flies, green caddis bead heads, copper johns, prince nymphs and other patterns (mostly size 14) all produced. We did best on a section of river called the “Bathtub”. After a full day of fishing, we retired to a cabin at Grand Lake Lodge (within minutes of where we fished) and Mike prepared a dinner of steaks, baked potatoes, salad and dessert.
We were back on the stream by 7:30am Tuesday morning, starting at the Hatchery Pool with no luck, so we went back to the Bathtub Tuesday and did some more fishin’ and catchin’ using the same rigging set up.
What a blast! The water is, as they say, gin clear. The rain stayed away, for the most part, and we caught fish. As a bonus, we even saw a moose, a bald eagle and a pileated woodpecker. Overall, it was a total Main Experience!
When I showed the pictures to my adult kids, they asked if they could join me the next time I book a trip! Fishing with your children…It doesn’t get any better than that!!
BTW, my grandson’s name is William Isaac. I like to think they chose his middle name in honor of Izaak Walton.
