In my angler’s mind, there are three prime periods during the entire fishing season.
The first is sometime in early to mid-June. Whether your fishing addiction is trolling a lake, casting flies on a remote pond somewhere or wading a favorite river, water temperatures just about everywhere are nearly perfect for insect activity around that time. Even if trout and salmon aren’t hungry, they are typically more than willing to cooperate.
The second prime period comes during the open season when we hit a spot at just the right moment and the angling gods smile on us, with fish smacking anything thrown their way. Those days when everything goes right and we can do no wrong don’t happen very often, but when they do, they’re among those sweet moments in an angler’s life not soon forgotten.
The third prime period starts about now in September, or will start within the next several weeks.
Landlocked salmon are one of Maine’s top freshwater fish, typically ranking right behind brook trout in surveys occasionally taken over the years. And they should be. They are one of Maine’s true natives, originally found in only four river basins, including the St. Croix, Union, Penobscot and Presumpscot. Stocking in other Maine waters started as early as 1868.
Today, salmon fisheries, either self-sustaining or supplemented and maintained by stocking, are found in approximately 300 Maine lakes and about as many miles of rivers, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Landlocks are willing takers of various flies, lures and baits, are strong fighters and are known to put on an inspired acrobatic show once hooked. I love our native and wild brook trout and everything they represent, but landlocked salmon are a very, very close second.
Genetically, landlocked salmon are closely linked to Atlantic salmon. I may be wrong, but I have always assumed and believed they are the same fish with one exception. While Atlantic salmon are born in freshwater and go to sea to mature, as their name implies, “landlocks” spend their entire lives from start to finish in freshwater.
But they share another trait as well. At some point, Atlantic salmon return to their natal stream or river to spawn. Landlocked salmon that spend much of the year in our deep, cold, well-oxygenated oligotrophic lakes, such as Sebago, the Rangeley chain and Moosehead, do the same thing.
They leave their home lakes and make their fall migration run into their natal rivers to spawn. Within Maine angling circles, this migration is often referred to as the fall run, and to fans like me, it is one of the most anticipated late-season angling opportunities and a perfect finale to the fishing season.
But there is always one important factor anglers must contend with when it comes to fishing the fall run. When will the run commence?
While it is generally safe to think and hope pre-spawn salmon should start the move sometime in early to mid-September, there is no absolute guarantee. Cooling water temperatures and increased water flow are the primary factors that trigger the physiological changes that get salmon moving.
Persistently warmer-than-usual water temperatures and lower-than-normal water levels can delay the runs, some years until after the close of the fishing season, especially during periods of drought like much of the state has been experiencing.
On the other hand, a sudden flush of water brought on by a release from a dam or a few days of rain that raise water levels and cool temperatures can kick-start the run early or be a good indication that the run will commence or is already in progress. These are the factors I typically look for and hope for before grabbing my fly rod and heading out.
And the timing can vary on specific rivers from a few days to several weeks, depending upon these habitat conditions. In a word, over the next few weeks, water levels on the Crooked River, the major supplier of wild salmon to Sebago Lake, might be completely different than on the Roach River that feeds Moosehead Lake, the Kennebago River in Rangeley or on Washington County’s Grand Lake Stream.
When it comes to the fall salmon run, all we can do is hope, assume and make our best guess that the run is in progress.
Fortunately, the fishing season remains open until Sept. 30 on some of our favorite and best-known salmon streams, and on a number of others, the season extends into October or later. I’m willing to bet my favorite fly rod that salmon will be moving by now, and numbers will only increase and the fishing will get better by the close of the season.