Androscoggin River report May 21, 2005
Water temp 50F

Both the Trout and Bass fishing are very good now. I have fished personally and guided clients and have taken some NICE fish. Yesterday one client took a very fat 16-inch Rainbow that “SAVAGED” the fly on the take, came straight out of the water four times and ran all over the pool before coming to net. It is always a pleasure to watch someone play a good fish on a pretty stretch of river, especially on a beautiful spring day.

In the next run just down stream my client hooked a nice hefty 15-inch Brown that fought just as hard without the jumping. I caught a hard fighting 12-inch smallie out of the same run after my client had moved to another section. This is something that a big river offers the angler; in a short distance you have several riffles, pools, and runs that can all hold fish.
There was a heck of a Hendrickson hatch going on during the last few days. On
Thursday, below Rumford, there were literally thousands of duns coming off on a two-mile stretch of river. The funny thing was that we didn’t see much interest from the fish. I think if we could have waited for longer into the evening we may have seen some action, but my client was a frail sixty five year old with a bad back and needed to get off the water too soon to take advantage of the hatch.
The River did not owe us anything. We had caught 25 to thirty Bass on flies in the 1.5 to 2.5 pound range along with two or three that would go to three pounds. My client wanted his adult son, who is a novice fly caster, to get some experience playing some good-sized fish, and the bass, coming off a hard winter looking for anything to eat, were the best choice to do just that.
“A man should believe in something…. I believe I’ll go fishing”