Northwoods Sporting Journal > Articles > Featured Articles > Spring Trolling: Best Waters

Spring Trolling: Best Waters

By Bud Leavitt

Editor’s note: Maine’s late, well-known outdoor writer Bud Leavitt left us his legacy between the pages of his only book, Twelve Months in Maine. In this monthly feature, we reprint selected excerpts from his book courtesy of Bangor Publishing Company.

One day at West Grand Lake, Elliot and I were fishing the cove opposite the late Carter White’s camp in The Narrows at Grand Lake Stream. Elliot picked up his fly rod and made one cast, exactly one cast. A landlock skittered across the water’s surface like a pickerel after a surface plug and for the next two hours that Sunday morning, we had the damndest fly fishing imaginable.

Another time, Elliot and I ran into a similar situation at Ambejejus, north of Millinocket. This time, as I recall, I made the first cast strictly an exploratory effort. Bang! I dare not admit how many salmon we hooked and landed on that occasion.

The Old Days

Don’t be lulled into believing that the “old days” lake fishing has gone the way of the trolley cars between Old Town and Bangor. It has not. There is a whole lot of fishing out there, but I am the first to admit you need to work a bit harder to find where it’s at these days.

I would not attempt a list of the “best” lakes and ponds for landlocked salmon and trout, but I submit the following as still being excellent providers of angling excitement once the calendar displays April 1 and Official Spring:

Hotspots

Red River, Fish River, Square Lake, Long and Eagle, Kennebago, Rangeley, Cobbosseecontee, Magalloway, Schoodic, Sebec, Moosehead, Moose River, Duck Lake, West Lake, Nicatous Lake, East rand Lake, Sebago, West Grand Lake, Dead River, Belgrade Lakes, Middle Range Pond, Clearwater Pond, Wilson Pond, Cold Stream Pond, Allagash, First and Third Debsconeag, Chesunkcook, Chamberlain, First and Second Buttermilk, Lobster Lake, Beech Hill, Branch Pond, Tunk Lake, Gardners’ and a thousand or more trout and salmon waters.

Summer fishing for landlocks and trout demands patience and more than the usual amount of expertise and skill.

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