Is Spring Around the Corner?

Tom Welch
Registered Maine Guide

Magalloway Guide Services offers guided fishing trips in northwestern Maine and southern Maine. Founder Tom Welch, a Registered Maine Guide, focuses on fly fishing excursions on rivers and streams in the Rangeley, Maine, Region, and in the Cumberland and York County Regions of Maine. Clients can enjoy a range of fishing experiences, from the challenging waters of the Magalloway River to the more gentle but nonetheless productive waters of the Upper Kennebago River in the Rangeley area. In Southern Maine, clients can enjoy productive trout and bass fishing in the Presumpscot River, the Saco River and the Royal River, among others. 

We've just had our second major blizzard in almost as many weeks, and I'm compelled to bring up the prospect of another fishing season. Yes, I'm talking about the "S" word -- spring, the time of year when green is supposed to show in places; when the frozen tundra that is Maine begins to wake up, and when the fish do more than wag their tails.

It doesn't feel like spring, and it certainly doesn't look like it. But my most reliable authorities insist that it's coming, and so I have no choice but to believe them. I say I have no choice; I could not believe them, using the argument that "seeing is believing." But if I strictly adhered to that principle, I would have no reason to go down to my favorite stream and dunk my favorite nymph fly in the water. Or fish at all, for that matter. Besides, what would that get me? Depressed, is all.

So it is neither foolhardy nor foolish to say that spring is around the corner. It just happens to be a very big corner right now.

And so it is, as February's days dwindle and March is the next page on the calendar. And we who fish, wait, knowing full well that many of Mainer's fishing waters are not even open to fishing  (especially in western and northern areas) until April 1, and even then -- depending on where you live in this perennially frozen state -- you haven't even seen open water yet.

There are some streams in Southern Maine that are open to fishing year-round, but I think most would agree that the air should be tad warmer than it's been for much of this winter in order to have a worthwhile fishing experience. By worthwhile I mean an experience without frostbite or hypothermia.

Don't get me wrong. I will be in the water somewhere in southern Maine in the near future. I'm not just waiting for the formality of spring. Spring is much more important to me when it comes to the waters in northwestern Maine, where April 1 is still the beginning of fishing season (for the most part), and warmer days get the bugs -- and thus the fish -- moving around a little more.

For now, I'll wait, and complain, and tie more flies, and re-organize my fly boxes, and change leaders, and complain some more. All of this never has actually gotten me anywhere, but it passes the time. And this year, at least, my arsenal of flies is as large as a giant swarm of locusts -- Lying in wait, but only to emerge from their boxes a couple at a time.

Magalloway Guide Services can be reached at magallowayguide@gmail.com or our facebook page at Magalloway Guide Services ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/Magalloway-Guide-Services/713288905423592. ) Don't wait; the calendars are filling up.