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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Enjoy the Kennebec RiverBy Mike Guarino
The mighty Kennebec River is powerful, beautiful, often intimidating, but best of all, full of fish. Anyone who has ever been on this jewel of a river will attest to that, yet surprisingly, certain sections of the Kennebec receive very little pressure. The river begins its journey in Moosehead Lake and runs all the way to the ocean. In the process it is joined by the Androscoggin River to form Merrymeeting Bay, which is a 16 mile long, tide affected section of water that is teeming with striped bass and the occasional blue fish. The river ends near Popham Beach south of the town a Bath. In the process of flowing from Moosehead Lake to the ocean, the Kennebec provides outdoor enthusiasts with awesome fly and spin fishing, some of the best white water rafting and kayaking east of the Mississippi River, bird watching, duck hunting, and just about anything else you can imagine. For many anglers the Kennebec River is a sanctuary like nothing else found in the State of Maine. Of the 150 miles of water that is the Kennebec River, two sections in particular (and close to the Belgrade Lakes Region) have anglers drooling. The Shawmut Dam section of the river runs from the Dam down to Fairfield/Waterville. This section of river is famous for its fly fishing for trout, specifically browns and rainbows. Good friend Mike Holt owns Fly Fishing Only located right on the river. They offer guide services along with canoe shuttles and his website is an excellent source of information too. One tip: if you want to fly fish here in the summer then plan on hitting the evening hatches and fish into the darkness if possible — that's when the bigger browns are most active. The second section of river is perhaps the most beautiful of them all, and it's right here in our back yard. The Waterville to Sidney piece offers amazing fishing for smallmouth bass, trout and during spring and fall, striped bass too. Dick Bradbury, who guides on the southern part of the river for stripers, told me he was catching shad in Waterville last week on a 5-weight fly rod. Shad are now able to visit this part of the river since the removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta. In the summer months the smallmouth bass stay aggressive in the well-oxygenated water. The bass in the river do not run as large as they do in the lakes, but what they lack in size, they make up for in numbers and fighting ability. These fish live in currents, so they are physically fit and aggressive. Top water lures like the mini torpedo are definitely a must when on this section, but it's really hard to beat a light fly rod and some bucktail streamers! Boaters need to be aware that it's extremely challenging if you plan on running a boat all the way from Waterville to Sidney. There are sections where a jet motor is necessary, so it's often best to plan a canoe ride down stream. You can expect to see bald eagles on this trip too, along with the occasional leaping sturgeon. Good Luck! Mike Guarino can be contacted at | ||
