The Pleasant River in Windham normally rocks this month and next. Artificial-lures-only and strictly catch-and-release regulations as well as nearly weekly brown-trout and brook-trout stockings often guarantee action. Because of that, it's a great place to take a kid fishing.

This past Monday, though, the Pleasant disappointed me. The water ran a tad high and slightly discolored, but it wasn't roaring over the banks and muddy. However, for one reason or another, fishing stunk big time.

A quick stream-thermometer reading puzzled me even more -- 58 degrees Fahrenheit. I expected the water to be much colder, but that temperature proves darned near perfect for browns and brookies.

Any reading between 55 to 65 degrees should promote aquatic-insect hatches and encourage salmonids to put on the feedbag. However, neither the other anglers within sight of us nor I caught fish last Monday.

Lack of action and no bugs struck me as odd, but at my age, nothing in this sport surprises me anymore. When you think fishing should be bad, it's hopping, and vice-versa.

Last Monday, I pounded the Pleasant's bottom with weighted flies in different sizes -- patterns such as the Copper John, Prince, Zug Bug, Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail and Wooly Buggers -- and saw nothing move.

That dismal scene should change this coming week. Unless predicted rain gets the river raging, it should produce bent rods galore, a great bet for folks making the one-hour drive from central Maine.

The best way to reach this river from the Augusta-Waterville area begins by heading south on the turnpike in Augusta, take Exit 63 in Gray and then follow Route 202, 4 and 115 to the Windham Center or Pope roads in Windham. The latter two roads cross the Pleasant River.

The Pleasant flows through a micro, steep-sided valley of stately deciduous trees and hemlocks complete with a plethora of songbirds. Besides the usual suspects (tufted titmice, chickadees, robins and eastern phoebes), white-breasted nuthatches, a black-throated green warbler, golden-crowned kinglet and veery all caught my eye or ear -- a great spot for birdwatching.

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I'll probably live to regret blabbing about the next river -- the Sandy between New Sharon and the Kennebec River. Now that the dam near the mouth of the Sandy has been removed, though, I have a feeling that this stretch will hold browns and rainbows running upstream from the Kennebec. Stretches of the Sandy just below spring brooks should be particularly productive, but any springy section will hold browns, 'bows and occasional wild brookies.

The Sandy between New Sharon and the Kennebec attracted me a lot from 1984 to 1988, and the last brown I caught there in that decade measured over 20 inches -- a heavy-shouldered male with finger-nailed-sized red spots. It was hanging near the bank of the river in the cold current spilling from a brook about a mile below downtown New Sharon.

I moved from Belgrade Lakes shortly after landing that beauty and got out of fishing the Sandy for 20 years. I'm back in Belgrade Lakes again and ready to resume my love affair with the crystal-clear Sandy. It has everything to recommend it, including few anglers in comparison to places such as the Kennebago, Roach, Grand Lake Stream and similar storied spots.

The Sandy has another attraction, too. It flows from high elevations where rain often falls when the Kennebec River valley stays dry. This cooler rain water should draw salmonids from the Madison stretch.

This stretch of the Sandy has access on both shores, and DeLorme's The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer, Map 20, C-2 to B-4 shows details.

Routes 134 and 43 and side roads off them lead to the north and west shores (the river runs east to northeast to north here), and Elm Street and Sandy River Road parallel the other side. When anglers hit this stretch of river, they'll feel as if they have wandered into an Ernest Schwiebert story.

My advice here is simple, too. Fish the pools below the brooks where big browns and occasional brookies sometimes stack up to feed in the spring-fed currents.

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Folks interested in wrestling with pond brookies might try one or all of three ponds spread from the coast to the Kennebec Highlands. Little Pond in Damariscotta, Bowler Pond in Palermo and Kimball Pond in Vienna and New Sharon have strict regs, which promotes a population of holdover, hatchery trout.

Little Pond routinely has 3- to 5-year-old brookies up to 18 inches, and when trout live in a water that long, those ragged fins often associated with hatchery pets have long since repaired themselves -- beautiful specimens. Kimball has hatchery brookies up to 3-years-old and up to 16 inches long, and Bowler offers more of the same.

When I look at Maine's fishing bulletin boards on the Internet, I often see people criticize the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for relying on stocking trout instead of doing restoration -- really an ignorant claim. The vast majority of waters that DIF&W stocks has little to no spawning habitat. Period. É End of story.

Without hatchery trout, there would be no salmonid fishery -- even if you tore down every bank dwelling and re-grew all shoreline trees and shrubs.

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So far, spring 2008 has been the year of the sparrow. Last Tuesday, the usual trio of chipping, American tree and song sparrows were hanging around my backyard, but also, savannah, white-throated and surprise of surprises for me, white-crowned sparrows added to the mix.

White-crowned sparrows are passing through, and the Maine Audubon Bird Alert has reports of this species.

I've never seen a savannah sparrow at my place before and had trouble identifying this bird at first because these little critters stay in constant motion -- bobbing and hopping.

Ken Allen, of Belgrade Lakes, is a writer, editor and photographer.