Water carries East Outlet anglers to new-look Salmon Stream

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One of my favorite fly fishing spots (shh … don’t tell anybody) is the East Outlet of the Kennebec River, and I’ve spent many enjoyable hours wading the river and trying to entice landlocked salmon and brook trout.

On Saturday, during a moose-watching safari, East Outlet looked nothing like the river that fishermen have come to love.

As previously reported by guide Dan Legere in these pages, the river has been running a bit high lately. The heavy flow is part of a seasonal water ballet performed by dam keepers up and down the Kennebec, as various impoundments are lowered to desired levels.

Over the weekend the flow on the East Outlet was up around 10,000 cubic feet per second, and the rocky shoreline upstream of the Route 6 and 15 bridge – usually an easy access point during fishing season – was completely under water.

In fact, the East Outlet was flowing through the trees in that area, and (no surprise) no anglers were present.

More adventurous fishermen sometimes wade the river during pretty high water conditions, but I’ve found that my comfort level exists at about 2,400 to 2,800 cfs. Anything higher than that makes fishing more of a chore than I prefer.

And at 10,000 cfs East Outlet is downright frightening.

The good news: Legere and others assure us that the heavy flows from Moosehead Lake into Indian Pond will fill the river with fish … and when the water finally drops, the fishing that East Outlet is famous for will begin in earnest.

In contrast to that raging waterway, the Piscataquis River in Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford looked very inviting, and a few anglers were trying their luck at popular spots including Lows Bridge.

Anglers who choose to visit this heavily stocked section of water will be happy to learn that the road construction on Route 15 is finally over, and the once-bumpy byway is in top-notch shape.

And they’ll also notice that one of the hottest spots on the river, at the outlet of Salmon Stream, has its own parking area to accommodate anglers.

In past years, cars pulled off onto the gravel shoulder of the road and clambered down over the banks.

Several years ago, now-retired fisheries biologist Paul Johnson told me that the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife was teaming up with the Department of Transportation to alleviate roadside parking problems at that popular location by widening the road and providing parking.

Their efforts were successful, and anglers can now park safely while enjoying a few hours on the water.

Odd critter swimming?

Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to see more than a few bald eagles in the wilds of Maine … and several more urbanized eagles as well.

An e-mail I received last week asked for a bit of information about typical eagle behavior, and I’m confident that one of our readers can help.

The e-mailer lives in Lamoine, on Frenchman Bay. Here’s some of what he had to say:

“Last week my spouse and I saw something that we have never seen before in all the years we have lived on the shore,” he wrote. “About 50 yards off shore we saw what we thought were seals playing but after viewing through the binoculars, it turned out to be a mature eagle swimming toward shore.

“He made it to shore in front of our home and promptly flew away,” the reader wrote.

“Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

No. Not even close.

I’ve seen an eagle floating just feet above a frozen pond, waiting to see if the ice anglers below pulled a tasty snack out of a hole.

I’ve seen eagles sitting in trees, floating on ice cakes on the Penobscot River, and soaring high in the sky. I even saw five or six of them leave a deer carcass, one-by-one, during a peaceful troll on the Aroostook River.

But swimming eagles are new to me.

Here’s hoping there are a few eagle experts out there that have seen the same thing, and might be able to shed a little light on the behavior for the rest of us.

School visit worthwhile

I had the opportunity to join the Penobscot Fly Fishers for a Community of Caring event at State Street School in Brewer on Wednesday.

Our job was simple: Teach fourth- and fifth-graders how to tie flies and fly cast.

Don Corey took the lead in the casting instruction, and Marcus Hale was the leader of the tying group, of which I was a part.

Over two hours we walked 36 students through the basics of tying, and each walked away with their own hand-created version of Alvin Theriault’s classic maple syrup fly.

At the start of each session, students were tentative, but by the end of each 30-minute block, most were uttering a variation on the same theme: “I thought this was going to be much harder.”

One girl left us smiling after telling us that she was going to surprise her dad with the fly for Father’s Day.

Another proudly examined her creation and shared her plans in the way only a fourth- or fifth-grader can.

“I am soooo going fishing this summer,” she said.

Here’s hoping she gets that chance … and that she catches a fish on her own maple syrup.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.