Chasing Landlocked Salmon & Wild Trout in Northern Maine & New Hampshire

I come from a fly fishing family.  I have buckets of memories of my dad taking me fishing up to his favorite destinations like Dan Hole Pond, Connor Pond, Loon Lake and Duncan Lake. He was always chasing trout... lakers, rainbows and brookies. In 1966, he caught New Hampshire's 2nd largest Lake Trout on record with a 21+ pounder. The fish was bigger than me at the time. We (dad, my brother Marc and I) have caught some nice trout over the years too and this year we got together for a pic with our personal best Brook Trout -- Marc's 3.75, my 3.25 and dad's 5.5 pounder. Marc & I caught ours on Prince Nymphs and dad landed his on a Mickey Finn.         But let's get back to some real fishing.....

Marc and I headed to northern Maine's Rangely Lakes Region with hopes of wild Landlocked Salmon and Brook Trout. Our target was the famous Rapid River, regarded as one of America's top trophy wild brook trout rivers.  Well, we spent two days and never found it! Mainers (aka. Mainiacs) are a strange lot. You would think a renowned trout river would be fairly easy to find for travelers to this upcountry land. But not in Maine. No one could tell us how to get there and all maps were sketchy as unrecorded logging roads complicated all off road exploration. After much reflection, I do not believe the Rapid River exists.

Since we were up there for a few days, we hit the Magalloway River first.  This stretch of water was wide, fairly deep and had a pretty constant current that made me wishing I had my wading staff.
We swung streamers and drifted nymphs through likely holes and caught a few rainbow trout and landlocked salmon (any yellow perch!).

I found one really productive run and caught 4 rainbows and one really feisty landlocked salmon that put on an aerial show of more than 10 acrobatic leaps downstream before I was able to safely land, photograph then release.

Salmon with an attitude!











Before the day was out, we tried one other short stretch of the Magalloway River just below the dam.  This was was fast, really, really fast. I mean ripping fast. We fished pockets along the shoreline, and found some wild brookies.  Now this was some kind of fly fishing.






We also fished the Rangely River before heading out of Maine.  The current in this river was hopping too as Marc went for an impromptu float of about 30 yards downstream.  Thumbs up equipment review for Orvis' Silver Sonic Convertible Waders as his iPhone remained completely dry in the waterproof pocket. The video below shows the river conditions.

 The next day we headed back to New Hampshire with our sites set on the Connecticut River trophy trout section below the First Connecticut Lake.  On our way over I saw a beautiful little river on the side of the road called the Mohawk River and we dropped in to see what it may hold.  The gin clear slow moving water provided a welcome respite from the knee-buckling currents of some of Maine's trout waters. What we discovered was native brookies hungry for dry flies. Yes. In about an hour we landed two dozen 5-7 inch colorful brook trout and could easily have caught dozens more.

 

 Reluctantly we headed for the Connecticut River, and are we glad we did. We hit the trophy trout section, and again found the river ripping fast, but you could see the pockets where the fish might be holding.  We switched tactics to high stick nymphing and were rewarded with a fishing bonanza that was memorable for both quality and quantity of trout and salmon. Check out the pics and the compilation video below.

Marc with a nice landlocked salmon that was fooled by a copper john nymph.

Scott with a rainbow caught in the fast water below the dam.

Marc landed two aggressive rainbows in this one hole

The best fish of the trip was this 15 inch brook trout caught in the very tail end of a pocket.
Nothing beats the amazing colors of wild brookies.


In only a couple of hours we landed well over a dozen trout and salmon.  We also had a fair number of breakoffs as these fish are smart and made for downstream fast currents that often earned them their freedom... this time.

This is an incredible stretch of water. Even though it's heavily fished, quality fish can be caught with the right techniques and strategies on the river.  I can't wait to revisit here again with my brother or any of my other fishing buddies.

I'm going back to full time employment... ask me in a year if it was the right call.
Tight lines!  ~scott