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2 . Maine Brook Trout Ponds

Location: Western, Central, and Northern Maine, about a 2- to 3-hour ride from Bangor, a 3- to 4-hour ride from Portland; and a 4- to 5-hour ride from Boston, Massachusetts or Manchester, New Hampshire. Full-service airports are available in all four cities. Float plane pickup from lakes within an hour of Bangor can be arranged.

Maine boasts one of the largest (if not the largest) inventories of pond-dwelling, self-sustaining native trout populations in the continental United States—in this case Eastern brook trout. There are more than 600 such waters scattered across the state. Roughly 325 have never been stocked. The rest have not been stocked in at least 25 years. This represents approximately 95 percent of the remaining self-sustaining native brook trout lakes and ponds in the country.

There are another 500 or so ponds in Maine that are stocked with brook trout. Many of these support strong populations of holdover fish. This brings the total number of brook trout ponds in Maine to roughly 1,100—far more than are found anywhere else in the country.

Approximately 175 of the brook trout ponds in Maine are classified as Remote by the Land Use Planning Commission. This means that there is no development—including permanent roads—within a half mile of the shoreline. In most cases, even unimproved roads have been blocked. These represent some of the most pristine brook trout ponds in the Northeast.

It would be impossible—and I believe a real disservice—to try to name just one of these ponds for the purposes of this book. In aggregate, they represent a fly-fishing resource unlike anything else found in the Northeast. In fact, they probably bring more anglers to Maine than all the rivers and streams put together. As a result, I have opted to cover them as a group.