MAINE - Life in the Slow Lane
Tom
You did well, very nice pictures, I really like the underwater shots of the fish. Did you fish upstream from Meloon Road?? How far up stream did you fish?? Lots of good fishing there and that is only one of many good rivers in the area. Joel, Peter and I fished that river on Sat and it was great for us as well, I am working on the story now.
Thanks for the nice report.
See Yah
Lee
Lee,
Yes, we fished up from Meloon Road, probably went twice as far up as the power lines, if that makes sense.
I had read that there was a trail to walk-out from the power lines, but wasn't completely sure which side it was on. Did see an overgrown trail on the western side of the river, but decided not to chance it and walked back down the way we came.
-- Tom
Tom excellent report . I will second the pictures of the Brookies underwater are awesome great shots .
Tom
Another question, what camera do you have?? I am in the market for a new one and taking all info I can.
See Yah
Lee
I purchased a Panasonic DMC-TS10 from NewEgg for $110 plus memory card for $18 when it was being discontinued. Its about the size of a deck of cards.
There are several newer Panasonic models that are normally in the $200+ range, but sometimes go on sale for much less.
I bought it to keep in the boat bag, and it has done well. Have brought it on hikes and hundreds of fishing trips, and the kids even spent a day with it taking underwater pictures and movies in a pool without any trouble.
-- Tom
Thanks Tom for that info, all good.
See Yah
Lee
Quote by: TomSIt was a long trip to make in a day, so next time we will try for an overnighter while staying at a campground. I was hoping to find a spot where we might be able to park overnight and hike in to fish and set up camp but came up empty.
Definitely open to suggestions if anyone has any ideas.
-- Tom
Tom, like I said in another post check with the ranger station on the east end of the Kank highway and see where you can setup a remote camp. There may be areas that you can do this and they will tell you where you can do this. If you do this the chances of you getting into trouble are minimized a lot. They are very nice at that ranger station, I stop in quite a few times a year with the wife for info.
See Yah
Lee
Great report! I haven't been fishing too much as of late. So I'm super envious of you and your trip. Great pics!
Made another trip up and back on Saturday morning. Fished the same area, but moved a little quicker to do more exploring further upriver from where I stopped last time. Found a couple more good pools with some fish, but things started to taper off a bit as the water got skinnier and there were more pronounced dropoffs between different areas of the river.
As far as I could tell, we went all the way up to the point where the Wildcat and Davis Rivers split.
I think the bed & breakfast brought down some Adirondack chairs for their guests to use at one of my favorite spots. Have to admit I didn't like seeing the chairs on the river as it kind of ruined the wildnerness feeling, but my friend Jim put one of them to good use for a quick photo-op.
-- Tom
Finally had a chance to head north into the White Mountains and try some of the small stream brook trout fishing I had been looking forward to since joining the forum this spring.
I picked up my friend at 5:15 and it took us about two hours to make the trip up to the Wildcat River. Thanks to Lee and others and their numerous reports I knew exactly where to go and what to expect, what flies to bring, etc. This was a huge factor in making the trip a success. I think most of you have fished these or very similar waters for these beautiful fish before, but this was my first trip like this in probably 10 years.
I used the Tenkara rod for the entire trip and it was the perfect tool for the job, especially once I cut down the tippet to a length more appropriate for these smaller waters. I started with a mix of small traditional and Tenkara style wet flies and had some success (including my largest fish of the day) but nothing like the numbers I had with size 14-16 elk hair caddis.
The river and the fish were absolutely gorgeous. We were both amazed at how clean and untouched the area appeared, with absolutely no signs of other fisherman (or anyone else, for that matter) which was a real plus. We fished for about 2.5 to 3 hours before heading back to the car and doing some exploring to check out the waters downstream and closer to town.
We had lunch at Jackson Falls and then headed over to the fly shop to check it out and pick up some flies. The last stop was over to Jericho Road to check out the Rocky Branch. We drove in as far as you could go and walked down to the river. It was much wider than the Wildcat and with the bright sun and crystal clear waters, neither of us were too motivated to hike back up and back to the car to get our gear and figured we were better off trying to beat the traffic home and save this river for another day.
From reading the reports here I understand this area was hit hard by Irene, and we would probably find much better fishing the further we went upriver. It looks like the road used to extend almost four miles further north to a trailhead that would be an ideal starting point. We had one last pit stop before heading back home.
It was a long trip to make in a day, so next time we will try for an overnighter while staying at a campground. I was hoping to find a spot where we might be able to park overnight and hike in to fish and set up camp but came up empty.
Definitely open to suggestions if anyone has any ideas.
-- Tom
Wildcat 8/26/2012