The heavily-stocked Little Androscoggin in Welchville paid of a couple of times but its proximity to the road and subsequent crowds leaves you wanting a more secluded venue. Had always heard good things about the Royal River and committed to giving it a shot this year. Pete and I explored several spots May 11 and settled on wading a section in Gray. We had moderate success. Since that was prime trout time, we consider the Royal a fair place to go if you don’t have time to drive to Bethel and fish the "real river" ….aka The Androscoggin. The Androscoggin, which I have mentioned in previous articles and has subsequently been written up in several outdoor papers and magazines, continues to be a great fishing and canoeing experience. This year one of the trips yielded a 20" Brown trout along with several other beauties. The Smith’s almost made the trip with Anna and me last year but we had to scratch it at the last minute due to her back pain (hey… I thought I was her back pain !!). We’ll definitely hit it next year. In addition to several canoe drifts, we also kayaked and rafted. My fishing buddy (JV) bought a 3-man raft this spring. The raft is perfect for moving water and offers great positioning for the fore and aft anglers. A little tough for the rower, particularly in a headwind, but well worth the effort (especially if it’s someone else’s!)

Bass fishing on Tripp was steady until the hot, dry summer finally took it’s toll in late July. Predictably, the shallows warmed too much, and the water level fell too much. This created an imperfect environment for the bass and catch rates fell…but remember, a fair Summer on Tripp is still better than a good season most other places. The Tripp transition from hot water to more favorable conditions happened around Labor Day when I went on a return trip to Yellowstone. We hit some new spots as well as some others where we had luck in 2000. The most obvious difference was the lack of forest fire smoke and better weather this trip. Fishing was good but different, with perhaps a decrease in quantity but an increase in quality. We all caught cutthroats and rainbows bigger than our nets (I knew switching to a smaller net would pay off!). The best day we had was fishing Mission Creek just outside Livingston, Montana. JV and I caught about 15 trout, 15" – 20", mostly on hoppers (grasshopper imitation) before we got blown off by a severe thunderstorm that brought hail and a temperature drop of 20 degrees in 5 minutes! The best fish memory was Anna’s Rainbow from the Gallatin River on our last day. Anna and I were working some quick water from opposite sides of the river until the river split into several braids of varying width with high bushy banks… perfect for hoppers. She stayed on the outer-most braid while I shifted to a rocky cut perpendicular to her braid. A few minutes later I thought I heard a faint voice above the current and wind in the direction Anna was headed. Couldn’t quite tell if it was really a voice but I started off in that direction…after all…the footing is a little tricky…and it’s bear country! As soon as I rounded the corner, I could see Anna about 100 feet away yelling into the wind and energetically waving her non-rod arm. So far so good….she was standing and Yogi wasn’t there. As I neared her perch on a grass hummock adjacent to and 3 feet above some white water, I was close enough to distinguish the words…"I got a big one !!" …as her rod dove sharply toward the water. I took the rod and from my vantage point in the water, easily landed the fish in the small back-eddy by the shore, took several pictures and released the largest trout of her life. Satisfied that that was not to be repeated any time soon, she called it a day. Yea….why fish after you’ve just caught the biggest fish of your life?

Looking forward to ice fishing…..really looking forward to Islamorada….then on to the home waters of Tripp a scant 6 months from now ! Have a safe winter…see you on the water !!