The Rangeley Lakes....Maine.

Over the course of 30 years I have enjoyed the annual trips to western mountains of Maine. The one area known as the Rangeley Lakes region. This vast region encompasses so many square miles of pristine waters, both streams, rivers and huge lakes. The area also is a wilderness with some of the most majestic animals in the northeast United States. We have stayed at a rustic cabin on the shores of Rangeley lake as well as Mooeslookmeguntic lake. In the evenings one can hear loons calling, their sound is both lonely as well as the comforting sound of the wilderness. Moose in the fall bellow, looking for a mate. The coyote seems always present, and the black bear just keeps wandering never stepping on the same piece of earth in its lifetime.

Waters that team with salmon and brook trout. Maine has the most wild brook trout water in the east, it's natural range. To cast a fly in these waters is to join many others before you, and perhaps you might be the first.

Waters where fly fishing is king. Places where the Gray Ghost was created. Names like Herb Welch, Bill Edson and Bert Quimby....the Black Ghost, the Edson Tiger and the Green Ghost, just to name a few.

Familiar names here...Magalloway, Oquossoc, Steep Bank, Little Kennebago, Upper Dam, Pond in the River, South Bog, Richardson, a little stream that flows off Potato Nubble, Dead River and so many more.

I have fished many of these waters, but I have a favorite. I have cast caddis and ghosts in this stream with equal success. I have fished it from it's source to it's meeting with the big lake. I have loved it in the early morning as the light filtered through the trees, and as the days last specks of light said goodnight.

I love you Rangeley...see you in September.