Smaller crowds, cooler temps: It must be fall fishing

By Dick Pinney

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   Going forward during the fishing season, you're apt to see very little in the way of fishing pressure on both the freshwater and saltwater scenes. Back to school kids and the start of several hunting seasons always thin out the ranks of anglers. But people that stick with it know the joys that autumn fishing can bring.

    Chris Henson at Kittery Trading Post's fishing department is one angler that does stick with hit, even though he's also an avid hunter. "The tranquility of the surroundings doesn't often match the aggressiveness of the fish, especially trout, salmon and bass. These fish all go into the colder times of the year with a couple things in mind. For trout and salmon, it is to put on plenty of weight and fat for their spawning efforts and survival afterwards. For bass, which spawn in the spring, it's a matter of piling on the body weight with survival the goal."

    "Fish are cold blooded animals, which means that their body temperatures reflect the temperatures of the surrounding water. When the water heats up to their preferred range, they feed with abandon. When it gets too high or too low, they go into a state of laziness and don't eat very much. In cold water, this means that they are using up their body fat to stay alive, even though their metabolism has slowed, but they don't ingest enough food to prevent weight loss."

    "In the fall, water temperatures somewhere in the water column are going to be ideal for most predator fish like trout, salmon and bass, so they will be on a feeding binge. Couple this with the sunny days and fall foliage, and you have a fisherman's heaven on earth!"

    "A nice thing to know for a person who wants to enjoy a Ścast-and-blast' day that includes both hunting and fishing is that it's often best hunting early in the morning. But in a lot of ponds, lakes and streams, the ideal fishing temperatures often happen mid-day as the water warms to that ideal temperature after a cool night. If you love to hunt and haven't had your share of fishing during the summer months, take it from me, pack a rod and gear and take a few hours off during the mid-day hunting doldrums and enjoy some of the best fishing the year has to offer," Chris said.

    MAINE: "As you have probably summed up by now, sustained 80-degree temperatures during the day since the first of August has had its toll on the cold water fish in our rivers," reported Dan Legere at Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville. "Any fish that didn't move into the lakes have been on the bottom of the river panting. We have been catching fish but not a lot. The occasional good fish is fooled on a big dry or nymphs bounced along the bottom. It's been a good time to take care of those MFOs (mandatory family outings). Swimming, barbecues and reunions have been great. Throw in a perch fishing trip or two to get the youngsters interested and complete the summer."

    "A good rain helps out the fall fishing prospects. Good fall fishing depends on good water flows to draw fish to the rivers for the spawning run. Increased water flow and decreased water temperature is the ticket to good fall fishing. I have nothing but good news for you fall fishing enthusiasts. Recent conversations with the folks who have the say in these matters reveled that there is water to give. Starting after Labor Day Weekend, the East Outlet should see flows around 1700-1800 cfs. A nice increase over the 900-1200 cfs now flowing. The Roach River will also see a substantial increase from the present 60 cfs to 150-180 cfs. , then another increase to +-250cfs mid-month. Seboomook Dam will go from around 500 cfs to over 1000 cfs."

    "What does this all mean? The fall run of landlock salmon and brookies will start. These rivers should have fish in them within a few days after the releases start. Any rain this week added to what will be released has September looking good. Polish-up those fall streamer patterns and lay plans to visit your favorite fishing hole," Dan said.

    At Dave Garcia's Naples Bait on Long Lake in the Sebago Region, Lil Robbins was holding down the fort while Dave was away fishing. Lil said that the salmon fishing over at Sebago Lake had been holding up better than most had expected and actually was improving as water temperatures had been cooling. "Some of the boats are catching two or three nice, fat salmon on each morning trip and that's good news. Also, bass fishing has been very steady, especially here on Long Lake. It should be a great fall here."

    "We had four inches of rain which got the fish started up into the rivers," reported Ray at River's Edge Sports in Oquossoc in the Rangeley area. "The rivers turned real muddy and there was a big flow but even though some trout and salmon responded, the fishing wasn't that fast. In fact now that the rivers have cleared there really aren't a lot of fish being observed. At the most famous pool on the Kennebago River, Steep Bank Pool, few if any fish are showing. Here on the Rangeley River at the Bath Tub Pool, a couple of beautiful brookies were taken last weekend so there are fish in the rivers."

    "Lake fishermen have found that the fish are gradually moving up from the bottom. Early morning you're apt to catch a few fish right on the surface but during the mid-day we'd fish in the 55 to 60 foot range. Check your depthfinder and run your lures or bait bracketing where you are marking the most fish."

    Saltwater anglers are zeroing in on those offshore fish, according to Garon at Saco Bay Tackle. "We've been having a blast on the sharks. Last week's trip offshore we hooked a smallish mako but it snapped the line with its tail after we'd played it for over an hour. We never got a jump out of the mako which is unusual but we know it was a mako and not a blue as it swam right by our boat where we could see it well."

    "The blue shark fishing was incredible. We caught and released two that would go about ten feet long; a couple of eight footers and several in the four to five foot long range. They were so active that we had a couple of the smaller ones trying to ingest a big frozen chum ball and a larger blue shark just came along and ate it!"     "We've got a lot of stripers and bluefish along the beaches and out around the Saco River mouth. Also, the schoolie bluefin tuna are apt to show up anywhere outside of Wood Island to Tantas Ledge offshore."

    "The bite on the giant bluefins seems to be a bit more steady as last week the fishermen on Tantas that were targeting giants were taking a couple of fish a day (not each, but the combined catch). One fish brought in yesterday weighed 476 pounds. These guys are reporting that there's still a lot of dogfish interfering with their tuna fishing."