Soon after I dip the seine, a good rise appears down current. By good, I mean real heavy, slurping, boiling rise. I tie on a No. 18 bead head Caddis emerger and let the fly swing toward the rise. As the line straightens, I strip the fly a few times.....

I'm hooked up! Immediately the fish runs down current and I am into my backing that fast. I apply side pressure, gain back almost half my line, and in one surging run, lose it all again! More side pressure and I gain some ground on this wild Rainbow. As she tires, I move the fish to the shallow gravel bar where both of us rest. I snap a few pictures and soon she's gone.

Four-thirty AM the alarm rattles and I slap it down. But I'm awake and ready for some fly fishing. I pack a lunch of a plum and a chicken thigh, soda and an apple, and in 10 minutes I'm crossing the Kennebec at Hinckley Bridge. Thirty five minutes later I am walking in a cooler section of the river near Bingham and the day looks like low clouds and rain.

It's calm though, not wind and as I near my first spot, I see a few fish rising. Tempted to cast, I resist and instead, I take out my little net seine and search for bugs. Small tan caddis are stuck in their shucks.

Never easy fish to catch, these Wild Kennebec Rainbow Trout are perhaps the most beautiful and strongest in the East.