May Provides Top-Notch Trout and Salmon Fishing

People interested in brook trout and salmon fishing should plan more trips in May.   Sure, June is an excellent month to catch trout and salmon in Maine, and so is September.  But much of my best fishing takes place in May.

The smelts run in May, the suckers spawn in May, the Hendrickson’s hatch in May.  These are all significant events that hungry fish who have just endured a long Maine winter are very tuned into.  So I struggle to understand why so many people insist on waiting until June to do their serious Maine fishing trips. 

Maybe it’s because everyone thinks things are still frozen solid here in May.  Trust me, they’re not.  Large main stem rivers are usually swollen with runoff in May, so I wouldn’t recommend a drift boat trip at this time of year.  And the weather in far northern Maine usually runs 2 or 3 weeks behind the rest of the state, so I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to travel to Aroostook County.  But the lakes, ponds and small trout and salmon streams are usually in prime condition throughout much of the rest of the state.

One of the other perks of fishing in May is that the fish tend to be most active during the warmest (middle) part of the day.  So unlike the summer months, you don’t have to get up at dawn, or fish at dusk, to be successful. 

I fish a lot of small streams in the vast and sparsely populated Down East region of Maine in May.  Typically, we drive logging roads and park the vehicle within fairly close proximity to the spot on a given stream where we will fish.  So we frequently have the opportunity to fish 3 or 4 different streams in a given day; and often fish for both trout and salmon (in different streams) on the same day.

Top water trolling is also very good in May, and informed boat anglers from Rangeley to East Grand have some of their most productive days before many people even know that the ice has gone out.  The same is true on many back-country trout ponds. 

It looks like we’re going to have an early ice-out in 2010, so start to make your fishing plans now.  Please feel free to call or email me to discuss the diversity of fishing options that are available in May.

Kevin Tracewski, (Tracewski Fishing Adventures), info@fishguideme.com, (207) 827-3110

Posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010
Filed under Fishing.

One Response to “May Provides Top-Notch Trout and Salmon Fishing”

1. mainehost says:

   March 8, 2010 at 3:01 pm

   Kevin,
   Great article! May can't come soon enough!

   Dan