Put in at the small boat launch site located on Route 35 about halfway down the eastern shoreline of Bear Pond in Waterford. Look across the road and you will see a jumble of gigantic boulders strewn about under the towering vertical cliffs of Bear Mountain. These majestic cliffs will tower over you throughout your 3-mile circuit of the pond.

Although on many trips Down East we had noticed the signs for the Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge on Petit Manan Point a few miles past Steuben on coastal Route 1 between Sullivan and Milbridge, it was only recently on the way back from a few days’ camping on Campobello that we journeyed down Pigeon Hill Road on Dyer Neck to the refuge for a closer look.

I’ve been looking at a lot of shorebirds recently, now that migration has commenced. Have you ever seen a shorebird bob its head up and down rapidly? That behavior is the way that a bird with monocular vision can measure distance.

In late summer and autumn, skilled fly rodders in Maine often choose two vastly different categories of flies for trout: 1. Large, dark nymphs and baitfish imitations or 2. micro mayflies and caddises to imitate specific bugs.