Fly-fishing for native brook trout on Mount Desert Island
Readers of my blog know that I love fly-fishing for brook trout. While my favorite local waters are in the Shenandoah National Park (SNP), my brook trout fishing adventures have extended beyond the Mid-Atlantic to Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as Pennsylvania and New York. During a recent driving holiday with my wife, I was hoping to expand that further to Maine and New Hampshire.
Acadia National Park fishing prospects
Our plan was to spend some time in and around Mount Desert Island in Maine, home to Acadia National Park, as well as in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. And I hoped a hall pass of a few hours in each destination would lead me to my first fish in both those states. I began to research opportunities for brook trout fishing on small streams along hiking trails, so that my wife could accompany me.
The challenge associated with Mount Desert Island / Acadia National Park area is that most of the information on trout fishing is focused on lake fishing for stocked fish, as opposed to fishing native brookies on small streams. The Maine Fishing Guide produced by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is very extensive, with dozens of recommended trout waters in the area around Acadia, but none of those were small streams. I also reached out to Don Corey at Annika Rod and Fly near Bangor and he generously provided a few suggestions, also of stocked lakes in the area of Acadia.
I have absolutely nothing against fly fishing still waters for trout. In fact, my introduction to fly-fishing for trout was almost exclusively on lakes within the Lake District of England. The difficulty I saw with the options recommended near Acadia was that I would likely need a boat and/or guide to have any success on these waters. This was not what I was looking for, so I went back to the drawing board, sleuthing anything I could find via my search engine that represented a prospect for hiking and fishing for brook trout on Mount Desert Island streams.
Brook trout fishing on Hunters Brook
Armed with a few, ‘vague’ suggestions from various blogs, I became hopeful that a few options could be counted on to facilitate a few hours of hiking on accessible trails that paralleled brook trout streams. One of these mentioned by several bloggers is Hunters Brook following the Hunters Brook Trail, the trailhead for which is next to a lay-by on the south end of the Park Loop Road as it passes under Route 3.
This option turned out to be excellent for my wife and I to amble along a peaceful trail and allow me a shot at hooking up my first brook trout in Maine, which happened on one of the first casts using my favorite neversink caddis fly. A further option on Hunters Brook is to access its outlet to the ocean at Hunters Beach Cove. The Hunters Beach Trailhead and parking is just off Cooksey Drive near to Route 3. The trail meets Hunters Brook about halfway to the Cove, so I continued along to where it ends at the rocky beach and fished my way back upstream. The catching was not as robust on this stretch of Hunters Brook, but there were brookies to be had!
Brook trout fishing on Stanley Brook
A final option that proved to be more of an adventure was Stanley Brook at Seal Harbor. The parking is on a reasonably sized municipal lot fronting the beach at Seal Harbor. One needs to then follow Stanley Brook Road and find opportunities to bushwack through dense foliage to reach the stream. There are also various spots where the creek passes under the road making access to some nice pools and riffles a bit easier. But expect this option to be a bit more of an adventure than along Hunters Brook.
The timing of this visit was not ideal as water levels were at their very lowest for the year, as indicated by the USGS gauge at Otter Creek near Bar Harbor. Indeed the water was very thin in places, and some of the streams on my list were just not viable. Expect the brook trout to be on the smaller size (2-4”) but colorful and feisty. My gear consisted of a 7ft, 3wt rod equipped with a 6ft mountain stream leader. The most productive flies were a couple of caddis patterns, mainly my favorite yellow, neversink foam-bodied caddis.
Tight lines!
Note: I am not being compensated by my mention of Annika Rod & Fly. I am just grateful for the guidance received from Don. I should also mention that the information that facilitated my finding these fishing sites is available online, which is why I have not hesitated to share.