Much like sports have done since Grant accepted Lee’s sword at the end of the Civil War, it was brook trout that drew my wife and me to the Rangeley Lakes Region of western Maine.
That was nearly 40 years ago. Back then there were no mile markers or signs to help an angler navigate the many logging roads that weave through the conifer forest like a river-spider’s web. GPS units were only letters in the alphabet, smartphones did not exist and the folks on Twitter had yet to be born.
Running through the heart of the region, the Kennebago River has not changed much since we first fished it.
Originating from a number of ponds south of the Boundary Mountains near Maine’s border with Canada, the river flows for about 25 miles before terminating at Cupsuptic Lake, an arm of Mooselookmeguntic Lake not far from Oquossoc, a tiny hamlet west of Rangeley.
The Kennebago’s headwaters begin as a small tannin-stained brook, where diminutive brook trout (native char) can be found behind the trunks of fallen spruce, around boulders the size of a moose’s shoulder and in those sun-dappled riffles where fish like to spend time.
With limited hatches to bring them to the surface, these fish will rise to any well-placed fly.
I’ve spent many afternoons working upstream with a 7½-foot cane rod and a dry fly tied on a No. 16 hook with a pheasant tail body and parachute wing. When fishing downstream I’ll swing a No. 12 gold-ribbed hare’s ear wet fly.
This is classic small-stream fishing — the reward a flash of scarlet and gold through tea-colored current and, on occasion, the silver-and-black surprise of a landlocked parr.
Six-inch fish are about as large as you’ll find this high up on the Kennebago, but you’ll be alone if you don’t count the eagle spiraling upward on a thermal or the mink slinking through the ferns along the bank.
The current deepens and slows a mile or so above Little Kennebago Lake. It can now be fished from a canoe or kayak paddled up from the lake, which is more like a pond. The trout here are a bit larger, fitting nicely in the palm of your hand, and just as eager to take a fly. Don’t be surprised to find a moose knee-deep in a bend pool.
Only nonmotorized watercraft are permitted on Little Kennebago, where pods of brook trout and landlocked salmon cruise in search of smelt — the principal baitfish — and come to the surface in the evenings to feed on the occasional hatch.
The stream leaves Little Kennebago, flowing under a wooden bridge where you can park a vehicle and put in a canoe. Deeper runs may hold brook trout measuring up to 14 inches. The river follows a serpentine course for about a mile before entering the Logans, a boggy backwater adjacent to Big Kennebago Lake, where similar-size trout are common from late May through early July.
Kennebago Lake, known locally as Big Kennebago, is the largest fly-fishing-only lake in Maine and is said to be the largest east of the Mississippi. Landlocked salmon and brook trout up to 16 inches can be caught early in the season by casting traditional streamers such as a Black Ghost or Gray Ghost at the mouths of the lake’s tributaries.
As the season progresses there are dry fly opportunities over successive hatches of black quills, Hendricksons, blue-winged olives and hexagenia. Caddis are present throughout the summer as well as sporadic swarms of ants.
Although the logging roads around Little Kennebago and the river above it are open to the public, the carry road below the wooden bridge is gated. Most of the river below Big Kennebago also lies behind locked gates. An angler can hike into the river from either end, but the gates limit traffic to cabin owners along the lake’s extensive shoreline and those staying at Grant’s Camps, a traditional Maine sporting lodge dating to the early 1900s.
A short stretch above Route 16, the paved road through Rangeley and Oquossoc, lies outside the gates and includes Steep Bank Pool, known for its late-season salmon and trout fishing.
But it’s the gates that allow the angler to cast to an excellent population of wild salmonid and native brook trout through a number of runs with iconic names such as Pine Stump Pool, Island Pool and Devil’s Elbow. Some of these fish can be measured in pounds rather than inches.
Since the 1970s, John Blunt and his late wife, Carolyn, owned Grant’s Camps, one of the few sporting lodges in the Rangeley Lakes Region that have continued in operation to the present. Today, John and his children continue to maintain the lodge that over the years has provided sports with countless fishing and hunting opportunities as well as fine food and a family-friendly atmosphere.
Staying at Grant’s gives an angler access to the entire Kennebago watershed that includes the two lakes, more than 13 miles of gated river and a few backwoods ponds.
Named after Ed “Ned” Grant, the lodge is steeped in the region’s sporting history. Originally built by Grant’s sons in 1905, it later burned down and was rebuilt. Known for his quick wit and tall tales, the Sage of Beaver Pond Camps, as he was called, once told a young sport who complained that they were lost, “See that mountain over thar? Well, it was jest a hill when I began guidin’.”
The Kennebago is a river where an angler can cast to western Maine’s native brook trout and wild landlocked salmon much the same as Ned Grant once did.
If interested in this world-class fishery, consider making reservations over winter as the lodge fills up quickly before spring. They can be reached at grantscamps@gmail.com.
I’ll be at the Fly Fishing Show on Jan. 16-18 giving programs on fly fishing in the Rangeley Lakes Region of western Maine. If you want to talk fishing or pick up a signed copy of my latest book, “Return to Rangeley,” stop by the bookstore booth.