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2002 Spring FFIM Conclave - June
22-23
 Members of the FlyFishingInMaine.com community held the spring 2002 fishing conclave last weekend,
in Solon, ME, on the Kennebec River. The homebase for the group was the Evergreen Campground on Rt. 201A in Solon, where Joe the proprietor provided us with a great site and access to the river.
Several folks arrived on Friday night and fished with success in the wading area right in front of the campground. Dustin (dj1234) picked up over half a dozen trout and landlocks, and Tim (tim_s) hooked up with fish too.
On Saturday morning Don Allard arrived with Driftboat and River Otters in tow, and treated the group who was there at the time, (including tim_s, maineguide, dj1234, and others) to a drift of the Solon stretch of the Kennebec river in the morning. Fishin
g was slow, but fun was had exploring this magnificient stretch of river.
I arrived at noon, stopping in to see Bob Mallard's shop, Kennebec River Outfitters in Madison, on the way. Bob has quite a shop, and the selection of tying materials is very impressive.
 After meeting up with folks at the campground around noon, a group of us headed down to John Kenealy's
shop, Mountain Valley Flies, right in Solon, for a fly-tying demonstration of Classic Atlantic Salmon flies by Ed Muzzeroll, Maine's own nationally acclaimed tier. John was able to provide us with accurate information on the river, and encouraging words
for the afternoon fishing. John also hosted a slide show by Todd Towle later Saturday evening. Thanks to John at Mountain Valley Flies for all his efforts!
 Ed's flies were quite impressive, and the displays he has built for them truly show how worthy his art is to show
off. We stayed for a bit and watched his craft. If you ever get a chance to see Ed or another tier at a fly fishing show, or in shop demonstration, definitely take the time to check it out, it's quite a sight.
We headed up to Bingham in the mid-afternoon, for a drift down from Wyman lake to Solon. It had turned out to be a beautiful day, and the fish were rising as we arrived. Dustin picked up a few fish wading as we were shuttling the boats, and that proved
to be the only fish of the afternoon. We had quite a bit of fun though drifting the river. We were also quite surprised by the 2-3 miles of slackwater that we had to row through to get to the lauch above the Solon Dam.
 A few of us decided it would be fun to portage the Dam and launch the pontoon boats (a 2 man model
by Creek Company, and one man model by River Otter), and drift the other side down to Evergreen, a strech not often drifted because of the inaccessability. As you can see here, it was quite a trip carrying those boats down the spillway! We dare anyone t
o try that with a drift boat! (More photos: Dam Portage 1, Dam Portage 2, Dam Portage 3)
 Dustin proved to have the lucky rod that day, as he pulled in a nice brown to cap off the night as we were pulling in t
o the campground. Nice job Dustin!
 That night, much fun was had at the campfire, met up with MickeyH and his friend Brian and we chewed the fat on fishing sp
ots, enjoyed good food and drink, and Tim was lucky enough to get to take home the OldGuide's flies that he tied as his contribution. We all enjoyed some fun courtesty of the OldGuide...Thanks!
Back to reality it was that next day, as some folks stayed to fish Bingham, some hit Shawmut on the way home, and some hit work! We look forward to the next conclave, which should be much improved with our lessons learned, and hope others will join in th
e fun.
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