Maine boasts unique fishing opportunities and fish that often go underappreciated by locals. Here are six experiences every angler should try at least once.
Catch and cook a landlocked salmon
Catching Maine’s state fish deserves to be first on the list. Maine supports one of the largest landlocked salmon sport fisheries in the world.
They’re my favorite species to target while ice fishing because I think they fight the hardest, so hand-lining one to the hole is wicked exciting.
Historically, native landlocked salmon existed in just four lake systems in the state: Sebago, Sebec, Green and West Grand. Today, landlocked salmon are stocked or naturally reproduce in more than 300 lakes and over 300 miles of rivers and streams across the state. The native Sebago strain is used for stocking.
Salmon love smelt. Trolling with a sewn-on smelt, ice fishing with smelt right below the ice or fly fishing with a Joe’s Smelt are all effective methods for putting some blue cheeks on your dinner plate.
Go smelting
Catching smelt through the ice in the winter is my favorite Maine tradition. There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere — fishing in a tiny village on the ice in the dark, getting even with Maine’s long, cold winters.
Rainbow smelt are anadromous fish. They swim up rivers in January and February to their spawning grounds, where they feed and wait until they spawn at the end of March or early April.
Rent a commercial smelt camp on the Kennebec River for $20 per person for a six-hour tide (they seem to bite better at night). Everything is provided — hooks, bait and heat — though I prefer to bring my own small jigging rod with a Sabiki rig.
Smelt are delicious and not fishy at all. Remove the heads and guts, then bread and fry them whole. The crunch from the bones and fins complements the breading, and they taste like one big French fry. Bring a speaker, cans of Moxie, red hot dogs and whoopie pies, and get that wood stove cranking.
Catch a fish on a fly rod
Are you even a serious angler if you’ve never caught a fish on a fly rod? I’m not suggesting you give up spin fishing, but at least borrow your buddy’s rod and catch one. Bonus points if it’s a native brook trout on a dry fly and you cook it over a campfire.
There’s something rhythmic and therapeutic about casting a fly rod, and I swear every fish feels twice as big.
L.L.Bean offers introductory fly-fishing lessons starting at $35 through its Discovery Programs in Freeport.
Catch an Arctic charr
Besides Alaska, Maine is the only state with an intact native population of Arctic charr, and they only occur naturally in 14 Maine waters. They are listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and are found in remote, deep, cool, well-oxygenated lakes. Despite their rarity, lakes such as Lake Wassataquoik in Baxter State Park have a robust population and allow anglers to keep five fish per day.
Arctic charr are related to both brook trout and lake trout. They look similar to brook trout except they have a more deeply forked tail and lack the blue halos and vermiculations of a brook trout. In the fall they turn bright orange. Despite living nearly twice as long as brook trout, charr average less than 12 inches in length.
Stay at a historic Maine sporting camp
You’ve been upta camp before, but staying at a historic sporting camp should be on every Mainer’s bucket list.
Famous folks such as Teddy Roosevelt, Henry David Thoreau and Dwight D. Eisenhower have been drawn to Maine’s wilderness playground for centuries. Maine’s sporting camps date back to the 1800s. At their peak, there were more than 300 camps. Today, only about 40 remain.
Staying at a sporting camp is a family-friendly adventure. Choose from a range of accommodations — places that include hot water and Wi-Fi, are rustic and off the grid, or somewhere in between. For anglers, sporting camps are nestled deep in the woods, offering exclusive access to pristine fishing waters. Some camps offer floatplane service to remote fishing ponds.
Hire a guide if you want local expert fishing advice and someone to net your fish. After a long day on the water (for charr, perhaps), enjoy a home-cooked meal and trade fish tales around the campfire at your log cabin as you watch the sun set over the lake, just as adventurers have done for generations.
Catch a striped bass
This species is a favorite for anglers, and for good reason. For a saltwater fish, they’re relatively approachable — they’re common enough that you can catch them from shore, no boat necessary. These anadromous fish migrate between Canada and Florida along the coast and spawn in freshwater rivers and bays.
Once overfished, stripers have recovered thanks to strict commercial and recreational regulations. Maine anglers are allowed one fish between 28 and 31 inches, inclusive, per day (special regulations apply on certain waters).
Schoolies (smaller striped bass) arrive in southern Maine in May and are relatively easy to catch. They fight great on a fly rod. Fish the outgoing tide and look for turbulence in the water. By the end of June, striper fishing is really heating up, which works out nicely as inland trout fishing is slowing down.
What’s on your personal angling bucket list?
Catch a musky or a whitefish? See the alewives migrate or canoe the Allagash?
Whatever it is, the best part about an angler’s bucket list is that there’s always another adventure waiting.
