Maine’s Androscoggin River report June 5, 2004
Water Temp 58.57F and Flow rate 3359 cfs @ mead Westvaco in Rumford

The fishing is as good as it can get! The biggest issue is being able to wade and fish in the current. But, for the most part, conditions are great. I’ve talked with several people who have consistently taken as many as twenty-five fish. The top end size for the Browns and Rainbows has been in the 20 inch range.

I fished a run below a riffle on the river in New Hampshire and within five casts I caught a 14 inch Rainbow. Two casts later I took a 12 inch Brook Trout, and within a short time picked up two scrappy Small-mouths. I had my tippet part on a very strong strike, and after tying on another fly worked my way back up the riffle. This riffle was only 30 yards wide. A guide and his clients on a cat-a-raft came down through the riffle. I expected them to drop down below me, and to my amazement, the guide beached the boat directly opposite me. His two clients began to nymph the riffle on the other side. I was casting streamers and could have easily fished the whole riffle. If I had been guiding clients, I would have unquestionably dropped well below the lone fisherman out of common courtesy. When floating the river there are far more opportunities available to you in comparison to a wading angler. I certainly don’t begrudge them the opportunity to fish, but I question their sense of propriety. They were fishing three miles of river and I was fishing a 100 yard stretch.

For the past few weeks I’ve been fishing nearly every day and see a dramatic difference in the water quality above Mead-Westvaco’s Rumford Mill and below it. If you stand at the confluence of the Swift and Androscoggin opposite the mill, the water, at that point, is clear, except for the mill’s effluent discharge, which is the color of coffee. Within a few hundred yards, the entire river below the mill is that same color. If you were wading in two feet of water, you would be hard put to see your feet. Because the color has been sustained for two weeks now, I called the Department of Environmental Protection to question why the mill can discharge so much effluence to make the river that turbid. They told me that the regulations allow high amounts of discharge as long as the 90 day average is within certain parameters. I believe that the river is more valuable in health benefits and recreation than the combined economical value of the three paper mills on it. I’m asking you to press your legislators, join your local T.U. chapter, whatever you can do to get involved to rectify this problem. If you see the river and it is colored, speak out! Ask why!

“A man should believe in something…. I believe I’ll go fishing”