Ken Allen Saturday, May 26, 2007

A two-hour drive can get folks to the state's hottest brookie action, and annually, the sixth month reigns as the best time to hit these jewels. Hatches can be predictable, and even when they're not, astute anglers can find honey holes where brookies congregate now.

In early June, this colorful member of the char family hangs around pond shallows next to inlets and outlets and over gravel bars and dark-bottomed coves, which warm first and activate forage items such as invertebrates and baitfish.

Brookies like shoreline springs, too, easy to see now. Ferns and other ground cover next to the bank grow so much more lushly than places without seepages.

As the month progresses and slides into July, deep holes and springs in the pond bottom hold brookies in the light of day, too, so fish lie densely packed far beneath the surface, creating hot spots for anglers with skills to find such places.

Fly rodders with super-fast-sinking fly lines and maybe weighted flies can bottom-dredge down 20 and even 30 feet to reach brookies that hang near bottom much of the day. Spinning rods with trout jigs work wonders, too, for pond depths.

When fishing brookie ponds, two rigged fly rods make sense:

n One rod, a 9-footer with a 6- to 8-weight, super-fast-sinking line, is the right tool for bottom-dredging when the wind blows or hatches aren't bringing trout topside. I prefer an 8-weight because the big rod allows me to cast long distances with ease, important when waiting as much as a full minute or more for the line to sink to the depths.

n The other rod, a 9-foot, 4- or 5-weight with a floating line, throws a dry fly, emerger or nymph well for covering rises. Rod size matters less here -- up to a point -- because the floating-line outfit comes into play when the wind isn't blowing, but I prefer a 5-weight model to the smaller 4-weight.

Here's how a typical day might work:

While the wind kicks up waves, common in Maine on most days, fly fishers anchor a canoe over a spring or deep hole and cast with the sinking line. Usually they pound the bottom, and the fly's point ticking rocks or catching weeds tells them the offering is down where trout are holding.

The wind might die and trout start dimpling the calm surface. It's time to reel in the sinking line and pick up the lighter rod with the floating line. When the pond flattens out in the evening to an obsidian-like sheet and a fly rodder works rises, we're talking about the quintessential Maine experience.

The right fly cast to a rise ring within seconds of the trout making it often results in a strike, wicked exciting. Fly rodders must cast quickly and accurately, knowing that if they do it right, the fish will sip the fly.

Sometimes, it's imperative to drop a dry fly right into the circle when the wavelets are still spreading. Other times, folks must cast ahead of the trout in the direction it might be going, easy to tell when one trout sips flies one after the other. Then the cast should land four to six feet ahead of the last rise. Emergers and nymphs are cast near the rise and worked into the trout's field of view.

Spin-fishers do well on June brookie ponds, and Tom Seymour, a friend and outdoors writer who lives off the land, swears by his ultra-light spinning outfit and Trout Magnets. This somewhat miniature jig looks like a small version of bass jigs with a rubber lure and twisty tail. Seymour has no aversion to using live worms or baitfish, but he claims the Trout Magnets work as well as anything going.

One key to matching the hatch with a fly begins with catching the insect interesting trout and then matching it in size, color and silhouette.

In short, knowledgeable fly rodders put the natural insect or baitfish in the net meshes or palm and choose an imitation that 1) is the same size; 2) matches the color scheme; and 3) has the same body shape and/or up-wings or down. For matching color scheme on insects, hatch matchers ask the following: What color is the thorax? Abdomen? Tails? Wings? Legs? Then the imitation might match the same color sequence. It's that simple.

On some days, brookies splash the surface energetically but ignore presentation after presentation. Often enough, when that happens, start fishing an Elk Hair Caddis or particularly a Compara-dun dry fly beneath the surface a la wet fly. Cast it out, let it sink a few inches or even deeper and then, retrieve the fly with a fast roll over the fingers to duplicate a rather fast swimming insect. This often works gangbusters because energetic splashes -- common in June -- mean trout are chasing caddis emergers.

The Rangeley area (DeLorme's The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer, Map 28, C-3), Misery and Chase Stream townships north of The Forks (Map 40, C-3) and southeast of Moosehead Lake (Map 41, D-4) have enough ponds to keep an angler going for a lifetime. Check out the waters with strict regulations in these areas and target them.

Ken Allen, of Belgrade Lakes, is a writer, editor and photographer. E-mail: kallyn800@aol.com