Once polluted and seriously neglected, the legendary Kennebec River in Maine is rapidly returning to its former glory! Quietly, the Kennebec River has become what is unquestionably the finest and most diverse cold-water fishery in all of New England.

With wild "native" brook trout and landlocked salmon in the upper river, wild rainbows, stocked browns and smallmouth in the middle river, and sea-run stripers, shad, alewives, sturgeon and atlantic salmon in the lower river, the Kennebec could be called the "Yellowstone of the East"!

The "Stocked" fish in the Kennebec (especially the Browns!) experience growth rates that are above average with many fish holding over to reach trophy size! Also, I fully expect that there will be other "Wild" populations of Salmonids identified as more is learned about the river.

The Kennebec experiences phenomenal hatches of "Hendrickson's", "March Browns", "Sulphur's", etc., in the spring, various "Caddis", "White Flies", etc., in the summer and fall, and strong hatches of tiny "BWO's" which continue right into the early winter!

Additionally, with rainbow smelt slipping through Wyman Dam and large populations of sculpin, dace (and various other minnows.), leeches and helgramites through the entire length of the river, there is sufficient feed to grow salmonids to trophy sizes!

With the water quality improving and the forage fish and insect life increasing, the only thing stopping the Kennebec from reaching her potential is us (i.e., Anglers)! With increased use and publicity, the Kennebec will someday gain the Source-to-Ocean support and protection that it deserves.

Note that the Kennebec River from Moosehead Lake to the Atlantic Ocean remains open through the end of October. In addition, the river is open year-round from the dam in Madison down providing some of the only reliable winter open water trout fishing in the state.