If you’re fishing Maine rivers right now, nymph rigs are the most effective way to catch fish.
Here are three setups I keep going back to every spring. The fishing grounds where I deploy these rigs are in western Maine, principally the Rapid and Lower Magalloway rivers, though I expect they would work on other Maine waters as well.
Rapid River heavy rig
My first-resort rig when I head to the Rapid River in the spring starts with a size 6 to 10 stonefly. I’m not sure the precise make and model matters that much. My favorite is a “Get It Down Pat’s” — a takeoff on the justifiably famous Pat’s Rubberlegs — which I usually tie on a size 8 jig hook with an extended body of coffee-brown variegated chenille. I generally add a matte black 5/32-inch slotted bead.
Using brown-black or yellow-brown chenille bodies with rubber or “sexi-floss” legs should give you a fighting chance. Apply wraps of .20 or .25 lead-free wire to taste. If you are using a conventional 3XL or 4XL nymph or streamer hook, that could warrant 10 to 20 wraps. I generally add a tungsten bead, but that is not mandatory.
Though the stonefly catches fish, the key is a caddis larva added as a dropper in size 14 or 16, usually the latter.
I am agnostic about whether the caddis larva should be tied on a dropper tag above the stonefly or tied to the bend of the stonefly. I usually do it as a dropper. The regs on both the Rapid and the Lower Mag require barbless hooks.
Despite no evidence, I worry that a dropper tied to the bend of a barbless hook could slip off.
The caddis larva is a simple tie. Start with a size 16 scud hook, create the body by wrapping vinyl rib, then add a black dubbing head. I often add a black bead.
If I feel like getting fancy, I will lash on three micro black rubber legs or wind a small starling hackle. It probably works just as well without them. In May to early June, I use chartreuse vinyl. The rest of June, I go with an olive body.
If the caddis larva is not working, I will use a Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear in size 12 or 14 as the dropper.
When I’m fishing riffles rather than deep pools or runs, I use John Barr’s Tung Teaser in size 10 or 12, or a size 12 or 14 Frenchie on a jig hook with a somewhat oversized slotted tungsten bead for the point fly.
Sulphur rig
Though I am pushing the limits of the term “spring,” I have had success during the last week of June on the Rapid with this rig: a size 8 to 12 Frenchie tied pretty heavy, including lead-free wire wraps, as the point fly, with a size 16 Barr Emerger sporting a yellow thorax as a dropper. The salmon seem to like it.
Lower Magalloway rig
The key to this rig is a Zug Bug dropper, usually in size 16. Stoneflies or Frenchies, generally a tad smaller than the ones I use on the Rapid, sit at the point. Of course, pheasant tails in sizes 16 to 20 can sub in for the Zug Bug if circumstances warrant, and they sometimes do.
A few things I’ve learned
I don’t claim to be a top-notch fly fisher. If I did, that claim could be easily debunked by my fishing buddies. But I have learned a few useful things by associating with genuine experts.
Over the past couple of decades, I have been guided by Kris Thomson of Pond in the River Guide Service, John Pollock of Magalloway River Farm and Brett Damm of Rangeley Region Sport Shop.
Kris has given me invaluable pointers on indicator fishing and helped me through my first attempts at Euro nymphing, though back then it was probably called straight-line nymphing or freestyle nymphing.
On the Lower Magalloway, one of my first “Euro casts” seemed to get snagged on the bottom, leading me to flail my rod tip up and down to free the hook from a rock. Until Kris observed my leader cutting a path across the river and advised me that rocks don’t swim.
Turns out I had hooked a pretty decent salmon, which I managed to land despite not deserving that outcome.
John Pollock has made recent attempts to convert me into a Euro nymphing believer, providing convincing empirical evidence that it is an effective method.
One of the more valuable lessons he passed on was the importance of keeping your dropper tag very short. He does maybe 3 inches, which makes a big difference.
Various sources advised me that a 4- to 6-inch dropper tag made sense, and I followed that advice. I would get annoyed when it wrapped around the main leader, requiring an unwinding ritual every few casts.
Despite John’s proselytizing, my default setting remains slinging a two-nymph indicator rig.
My fishing partner Robert enjoys mocking me for my “bobber fishing.” I do have to admit that he has a point. The term “strike indicator” is an affectation. It is called a Thingamabobber for a reason.
But sometimes the bobber guy carries the day.
One day in early June on the Rapid, Robert was not catching anything on streamers while I had a few hookups on a nymph rig — a size 8 golden stonefly with a size 14 flashback hare’s ear.
I finally persuaded him to try it. Two nice brookies and a salmon later, he was still not convinced.
“Thanks, that was fun, but it is still bobber fishing.”
I can take the slings and arrows.
