Kevin McKay owns the website maineflyfish.com and is a registered Maine guide who can be reached through mainefishingadventures.com. He enjoys helping people discover the joy of fly fishing.
This story was originally published in May 2016.
Although Maine is a diverse state with many opportunities for fishing and so many fish to fish for, March, April and May are the hardest times of year for angling.
So what can you do? While I won’t tell you how to fish in the spring or where I fish — as much as I love you to get out there, I don’t want it to be in the spot I’ve been dying to fish in — I do have some spring time fishing excursions to share that will hopefully get you excited.
One way to find new fishing spots? Pay attention. People like to talk and often give away locations. This is how I’ve found many fishing spots. You know it’s a good one after hearing about a place over and over from different people.
One year I kept hearing about a spot with very large brook trout, so I did my research and had a plan for opening day. It was cold and the lake above was frozen, but the river was wide open. There wasn’t a fish to be found, but I didn’t know back then that the fish had no reason to be in the river as there were no food sources — no bait yet and no hatches. I met a guy on the river that day, but he didn’t stop or fish anywhere near us. Instead, he headed down river, which only led to the lake. The next week I returned and headed toward the lake. I flipped some rocks to discover an abundance of nymphs. Then I tied on a fly that looked to be the closest in appearance to those nymphs and ultimately landed several nice fish. Why was fishing better there? The water was warmer in the lake, and the river was washing the nymphs into the lake so the fish just hung out and waited. This is how people around the state catch fish on opening day: The fish are all stacked up in the warmest spot where there is a food source.
As the lakes thaw and the sun gets higher in the sky, the water warms. May is when it all starts to happen, and it’s hard to decide where to go. Rainbow trout are spawning, blue wing olives are starting to hatch with Hendricksons not far behind. The smallmouth bass and crappie are moving into shallows to spawn; the first signs of stripers and shad are here. Find a place and a species you want to catch, and learn as much about that fish as you can. May is the time to start.
I have found over the years that large pike on the fly in May is my favorite thing to chase. They’re in post spawn, are in the shallows and are very aggressive. With my passion growing, I’ve started offering May pike trip on the fly. Just like all fish, they are only where the food is and the water is the warmest and had some shelter from predators.
Fish want a few simple thing: food, shelter and clean water, be it warm water in the spring or cold water in the summer. Take your time when exploring new water, look around, flip rocks and see what is the dominant insect under them is or look for bait.
