In the years that my father and I have been writing “Worth the Trip” columns for the Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, we’ve largely focused on a handful of outdoor activities. John and I are both avid hikers and bikers — and he an accomplished kayaker — and we’ve written about these sports in most of our pieces.

Thomas McGuane, an acclaimed American novelist, wrote a superb collection of fishing essays collected into a book entitled The Longest Silence, published in 1999 and reprinted since. In the beginning essay, a line reminded me — emphatically I might add — of my home river.

Most Maine children growing up within an hour’s driving distance of saltwater have caught Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), a ubiquitous and extremely cooperative species that swims along our coast and tidal rivers from late spring through early fall.