Winter Trout: Nix the Fancy Equipment

Photo by Dave Small.

​    It was a warm Saturday in Midcoast Maine and my fishing buddy Allen Gallant decided that we two ought to go trout fishing in some of the year-round waters in our area. 

    Instead of lures or flies, we brought a pail of live bait, golden shiners. Trout won’t travel too far now that the water has become super-chilled and in order to entice them to bite, we need to put the most attractive offering possible right in front of their noses. 
    This requires fishing on or near bottom, something not always possible with flies or lures. 
    We fished our first spot, with no results. So then we decided to give another popular river a shot. And as expected on a nice, warm day, even one in January, fly-fishers were out in droves. The pools we wished to fish were jam-packed with fly casters, some wading (this is a small river and it is possible to cast all the way across it, no real need to wade) out in the middle of the pool. 
    Disgusted, I didn’t even take my rod out of the car. But Allen, undaunted, chose the only remaining spot on the river that wasn’t occupied by people with fly rods. Hooking on a live shiner, Allen dropped his offering down and almost immediately, got a bite. The fish got his bait without getting hooked, so he re-baited and this time he hooked the fish. 
   The fly-fisher, wading in the pool just upstream of the bridge, watched in obvious disgust, as Allen derricked his 12 ½- inch brook trout up to the pavement. ​

​  Another fly fisherman, practically drooling, asked if we were done fishing from the bridge because he wanted to fish there and we let him have it. 
    Everything about this did my heart good. It was a joy to watch someone catch a nice trout this time of year. And it was even more of a joy to see Allen, with his somewhat beat-up, spincasting outfit and live shiners, take a fish when the guys with all their ultra-sophisticated and expensive gear come up with nothing. 

Allen Gallant holds aloft his catch.

​  It all just goes to show that waders, fancy equipment, hundreds of fly patterns and everything else that goes along with it, don’t necessarily translate to a productive day on the water. Just ask my buddy Allen. 

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​Tom Seymour, Maine writer and naturalist, has written over a dozen titles including: Getting Your Big Fish: Trolling Maine Waters, Wild Plants of Maine: A Useful Guide, Forager’s Notebook, Wild Critters of Maine: Everyday Encounters, and Hidden World Revealed: Musings of a Maine Naturalist from Just Write Books LLC, Topsham, Maine. Seymour has also written a multitude of monthly features including his popular “Maine Wildlife” for The Maine Sportsman Magazine.

Dave Small, photographer, has taken pictures for Bangor Daily News, U.S. Fish and Wildlife brochures, and signs in wildlife management areas, to name a few. His photos are for "conservation and education and are free for those uses". Visit his website, photosbychance.zenfolio.com, for more.