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Old Hillwalker
03-03-2008, 16:53
With Maine fishing license in hand I plan on Casting dry flys from Baxter to Andover where I will send my fishing gear home to New Hampshire. Since I am thru hiking as a vacation and not in a rush at my age I don't really care how long it takes me, within reason of course. Any of you fellow south bounders who enjoy Brookies and Rainbows will be welcome to share the bounty at mealtimes. I have carefully studied the northernmost AT and by golly, "A River Runs Through It":sun

orangebug
03-03-2008, 17:17
When are you starting?

dessertrat
03-03-2008, 17:42
There are so many ponds, you'll never get out of Maine!

mudhead
03-03-2008, 18:13
Depending on how rabid the fishing is, he may never get out of Baxter.

Old Hillwalker
03-03-2008, 20:29
When are you starting?


Depending on how rabid the fishing is, he may never get out of Baxter.

June 24th

orangebug
03-03-2008, 20:31
Damn, I was hoping for at least one meal from the charity of strangers.

We leave 6/10

KG4FAM
03-03-2008, 22:15
If I was any good at fishing I would do the same. I can however fly a kite, so I am going to ship one to Gatlinburg for playing on the balds.

Pathfinder
03-04-2008, 08:51
Make sure you fish at Horns Pond in the Bigelow Range. It is a great spot where people rarely go fishing so the supply is always up.

mudhead
03-04-2008, 09:44
Not anymore.

weary
03-04-2008, 10:53
Make sure you fish at Horns Pond in the Bigelow Range. It is a great spot where people rarely go fishing so the supply is always up.
Well the supply gets a boost each spring from a helicopter depositing fish from a nursery. But it is a an 8 or 9 mile round trip walk to the pond, so a few fish remain for hikers.

dessertrat
03-04-2008, 10:56
Does anyone have a list handy of all the ponds and lakes on or close to the AT in Maine?

woodsy
03-04-2008, 11:26
in ponds and lakes where loon populations exist. I caught some trout in a pond along the AT last summer that were heavily spotted. Not to worry....
Here is an explanation: FYI


So they're not lice. They're Black Spots. Readers who are better websearchers than I found apophallus brevis on the Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife site and apophallus brevis is what I found on the trout I caught at Quimby Pond last week. The state's Fish Health Laboratory in Augusta says the black spots on the fish are "usually caused by a small immature larval trematode parasite," the aformentioned a.brevis.
Parasites have developed the most amazing survival strategies, and this one is no exception. The life cycle of a. brevis involves the fish-eating Common Loon, whose mouth plays unwitting host to the adult worm, which lays eggs which pass through the loon into the water where the eggs hatch into an intermediate stage, which finds a mollusc to live in (and sponge off) until it develops into something called a redia, which produces another Latin name, cercariae, and that Latin name goes out and catches a fish. And then it's heigh-ho the derry-oh, the loon takes a fish, and do you begin to detect a circular pattern here?
The fish scientists also tell us that a. brevis does not infect humans, that cooking the fish kills the parasite, and that if enough of the little buggers latch onto a trout they can kill it. As the trout I caught were fairly covered with black spots, and still fought like tigers, I assume they had not been attacked by enough parasites to cause mortal injury. But they were not a pretty sight. You would not take a fish like that to the prom.