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Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

In Bethel, Maine Scheduled for September 19 & 20

The Upper Andro Two Fly Contest and Northeast Drift Boat Championship are scheduled for the weekend of September 19 and 20, 2009 in conjunction with Bethel’s Annual Harvest Fest. The competitions are the annual fund-raisers for the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance, a non-profit group dedicated to the conservation, protection, restoration and promotion of the natural fishing resource of the Upper Androscoggin River, its tributaries, watershed and environs.

Contestants may use only two flies during the event, which starts at 6:00 am on Saturday. Teams may launch from public launch sites from the New Hampshire border at Shelburne to Rumford Center. The contest concludes at 2:00 pm.

The Two Fly contest will test the skills of anglers to fly fish for the most and the largest of the three trout species, brown, rainbow and brook found in the Upper Androscoggin River from the New Hampshire border to Rumford Center. A fly is defined as made from natural or synthetic materials tied to a single pointed hook. No tandems or treble hooks are allowed. Teams of three including two anglers and a referee/oarsman must fish from an open boat-drift boat or raft. All fish must be released live.

Prizes including rods and fishing gear supplied by Kittery Trading Post, L.L. Bean, Sun Valley Sports and the Orvis Company will be awarded Saturday afternoon immediately following a parade of the drift boats up Main Street and around the Town Common.

The Second Annual Northeast Drift Boat Championship will be held Sunday, September 20 at 10 am. Designed as a spectator event, the competition will test oarsmen’s skills at navigating a course and rowing speed. Each drift boat must carry at least one angler, who must remain standing throughout the timed race. The launch will be from Bethel Outdoor Adventures on Route 2 and the finish line is at Davis Park in Bethel-a distance of a quarter mile.

Last year’s winner of the Two Fly Contest with a 19 1/2” brown trout was Tyler Gammon of Otisfield, Maine. Winner of the Drift Boat competition was Mike Jones of Harpswell, ME rowing a Clackacraft boat. Both outdoorsmen plan to defend their titles.

Official contest rules and a registration form are available on line at www.upperandro.com or by phoning 1-877-851-7533.

Last evening I made a trip from my camp here in Maine down the Androscoggin River for approximately 6 miles to the Moran’s Landing site. I recently provided you a story on efforts by local river supporters, etc. to build a boat launch ramp at the site. I returned last night to get photos of the nearly completed project so I could finish my story and get it published.

While I was there, I met a man from Connecticut who had been fishing portions of the Upper Androscoggin River that day and he had opted to conclude his fishing adventures by returning to Bear River Rips at Newry Corner along the Androscoggin River.

Photo by Tom Remington

An angler from Connecticut, casts his nymph onto the waters of the Upper Androscoggin River in Western Maine. At this site is the confluence of the Bear River and the Androscoggin. The Bear River is fed through several brooks and streams coming down out of Grafton Notch, high up in the Appalachian Mountain region near the Mahoosucs, noted as being some of the toughest terrain along the entire length of the Appalachian Trail.

The cool mountain waters of the Bear River provides a great resource for cold water species of fish such as trout. These much sought after fish lay quietly in water eddies waiting to strike at the opportunity for a meal.

Photo by Tom Remington

I stood at the completed boat ramp and snapped this shot looking upstream. To the right in the picture is where the Bear River enters the Androscoggin just below the bigger rips. The top of the smaller mountain to the right in the photo is Mt. Will, a great and relatively easy hiking trail that provides some spectacular scenery. Far up the river and what you can see over the top of the last visible part of the river, are mountains leading up to the Appalachian chain and the Mahoosucs. That one visible mountain may possibly be Locke Mountain.

Photo by Tom Remington

Standing on the same boat ramp looking downstream the views are just as stunning. The above angler told me a large trout lurked in the little ripples of water visible in the photo near to where I was standing.

Difficult to see and further down the river, is the head of Hemlock Island. I grew up on this river and as you view the photo, I lived on the right side of the river and Hemlock Island was directly behind our house. Hemlock Island is most noted in Indian lore as being the site that Indian Princess Mollyockett buried the treasures she had amassed over the years. As appealing as that might sound, don’t drop everything and head for the island to scavenge for treasure. People have flocked there for years looking. (My brothers and I found the treasure years ago and that’s why I am now independently wealthy!……. NOT!)

The sun was setting and the mosquitoes and black flies were feasting on my flesh, so I gathered myself and headed for camp, leaving the Connecticut angler in his quest to out-maneuver that pesky trout.

Author’s Note: If you would like to learn more about the history of this river and the transformation that has happened over the past few decades of taking this river from one of the ten most polluted rivers in America to a clean water, destination fishing location, you can read a story I wrote several years ago called, “From Blight to Beauty“.

Tom Remington

Gary Inman Photo

Gary Inman Photo

While many people simply complain about lack of access to the Upper Androscoggin River in Maine, at least one organization has been busy for nearly two years pulling all the right strings and coordinating an effort to get a drift boat/boat access at Moran’s Landing at Newry Corner – the confluence of the Androscoggin and Bear Rivers.

Wende Gray, of Gray Marketing and a spokesperson for the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance (UAAA) calls it “the ultimate in collaboration”.

Mostly organizations just talk about collaboration, have meetings and feel good about “working together” to produce nothing but Thursday the rubber will actually hit the road or gravel the shore.

According to Gray, the Mahoosuc Land Trust owns the landing and handled acquiring the necessary permits. The Androscoggin Watershed Council (AVCOG) has been helping to coordinate the effort and line up a construction company. Chadbourne Tree Farms donated the gravel and Cross Construction provided trucking to get the gravel to the site, while Steve Swazey donated a loader. Members of the UAAA have been providing volunteer work.

Gray said that with the new boat launch, the river will become “a truly multiple-use river” and it didn’t require a “multi-thousand dollar grant” to get it done.

Photo by Tom Remington

Once the location was determined for the ramp from the parking area to the river, Rocky Freda of Sun Valley Sports and a member of the UAAA, cleared the trees and brush. Excavation equipment then began roughing out the ramp and spreading gravel.

Photo by Tom Remington

After a few hours, the road to the ramp took shape.

Photo by Tom Remington

Concrete slabs were placed at the river’s edge to provide the actual ramp itself.

Tom Remington

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

While we were in Fort Kent for the Maine Moose Lottery Drawing, we met this gentleman who finally got lucky and was a winner of a moose permit. It only took 29 years of applying to get his.

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

A 44-year-old Baileyville woman was seriously hurt at approximately 8 p.m. Thursday when an ATV she was riding – and which was being driven by an 8-year-old girl – apparently went into reverse and went down an embankment at an Alexander gravel pit.

The incident is under investigation.

Pam Landry, 44, of Baileyville, was the passenger in a 2008 Polaris RZR (Razor) near the top of an embankment when, according to the juvenile driver, the ATV “unexpectedly” went into reverse, according to Maine Warden Service Game Warden Joe Gardner. The change in gear caused the vehicle to lurch into reverse and travel at a fast rate of speed a distance of 100 feet as it went down a 30-foot drop.

The gravel pit is located at the end of Wapsaconhagon Road, which is off Route 9, in Alexander.

The ATV rolled over the top of an 8- to 10-foot high boulder and came to rest upside down on Mrs. Landry, who was ejected from the vehicle. She was transported to Calais Regional Hospital by Baileyville/Downeast EMS, and then transported by LifeFlight to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she was listed in serious condition.

The juvenile was wearing a helmet and was seat-buckled into the vehicle, Gardner said. “Those actions likely saved her life,” Gardner said. Landry was not wearing a helmet or a seatbelt.

Mrs. Landry’s husband, Ernest, was driving a separate ATV and witnessed the incident. He called 9-1-1.

Maine State Police Officer Jason Fowler and Washington County Sheriff’s Officer Shawn Donohue assisted at the scene.

In Fort Kent, Maine along the shores of both the St. John and the Fish River are some walking trails such as is shown in the picture below. While we were there in mid-June, many of the trails were lined on both sides with forget-me-not flowers. Very attractive!

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman