Hello again, fellow fishermen!

With ice fishing winding down, it’s high time to start planning for what we are going to do for fishing this spring and summer. For many of us who have camps or live close to spots we like to fish, much of that is pretty much a foregone conclusion. For those us who are new to fishing or the area, it’s a more difficult proposition.

I can remember when I was first up in Maine as a young Navy flier over 40 years ago hearing Maine Guide Doug Jowett give a presentation at L.L. Bean about the classic Maine fishing venues. These included the Greenville area, Grand Lake Stream, the West Branch of the Penobscot and the Rangeley area. I chuckle when I remember myself thinking: “The West Branch is four hours from here – why in the hell would I want to drive all the way up there?” It took me longer than I’d care to admit, but I eventually figured it out. With so many spots from the power plant down to Nesoudahunk Falls, if I had to pick one stretch to fly fish, the West Branch would be it. The landlocked salmon there are all wild fish – and it shows!

I eventually discovered that all of the first three of those areas are pretty straightforward. The Greenville area offers the East and West Outlets to Moosehead Lake and the Moose River below Brassua Dam in Rockwood, but the access is easy and I learned mostly by watching other folks. I stay in Rockwood at Maynard’s in Maine – a local legend and still Maine’s best sporting camp value. Grand Lake Stream is a relatively short run of water; most folks start up by the dam and most of the camps – and eventually fish a bit further down. It took me the longest to figure anything out about the Rangeley area with the exception of the Rapid River at Middle Dam that Peter Smith of SS Flies in Denmark showed me many years ago. It tends to be harder to figure Rangeley out without help, and folks are less inclined to share information about that area because most of the spots do not tend to hold many fishermen at one time – folks don’t want to screw up their own fishing at the Mailbox Pool, Steep Banked Pool, and Upper Dam to name some of the best known locations. If you want to catch a really nice brook trout, the Rangeley area is where you want to go.

Other good brook trout options? There are some that don’t always occur to us up in northern Maine. Bradford Camps, Fish River Camps, and Red River Camps all provide the classic Maine sporting camp experience with easy access to nearby ponds with some very nice fish. Red River Camps is in Deboullie Township: minutes from 14 ponds – and it offers the occasional char for added interest. I think that many of us get so locked in to what we usually do that we cheat ourselves of unique fishing opportunities like these – well worth the drive.

Just beyond our borders – fishing for Atlantic salmon on the Miramichi in New Brunswick should be on everyone’s bucket list. The new road is through now past Fredericton, so making the trip in about six hours should be easy now even for the most law abiding of us. Country Haven Lodge at Gray Rapids and Upper Oxbow Camps on the Little Southwest Miramichi each offer an excellent salmon camp experience. Falmouth resident (and Stripers Forever founder) Brad Burns has a new book out on Atlantic salmon fishing that you may want to enjoy before heading up: “Closing the Season, Salmon Fishing in New Brunswick on the Miramichi and Cains Rivers.”

I’ve always felt that if you fished different water every time you went out for your entire life, you’d still never see all that Maine offers. Maine IF&W fisheries biologists Jim Pellerin and Scott Davis have put together a presentation: “Fifty Cool Places to Fish in Maine That You Never Heard Of” that they will be giving at Sebago Trout Unlimited’s Conservation Event on April 11 at The Woodford’s Club in Portland. Visit www.sebagotu.org for details.

Beyond that, if you are really looking for some good fishing spots, know of any fine old Maine families that you can marry into?

Steve Heinz is an avid fisherman who lives in Cumberland and is Conservation Chair for Sebago Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Comments and questions are welcome at heinz@maine.rr.com.

So much water – where to fish?