Fly Fishing Grand Lake Stream. Jeff McEvoy

      6 . Grand Lake Stream

       Location: Eastern Maine, about a 2-hour ride from Bangor and 4 hours from Portland. Full-service airports are available in both cities.

      Long known for its fabled landlocked salmon fishing, Grand Lake Stream has been a popular destination with fly fishers since the mid-1800s. West Grand Lake—the headwaters of Grand Lake Stream—was home to one of only four native populations of landlocked salmon in the Lower 48, all of which are in Maine. The Grand Lake Stream fish hatchery program began in 1868, making it one of the longest-operating fish hatcheries in the country, where this strain of salmon is still raised today.

      The community of Grand Lake Stream is well known for its guides, sporting camps, and the Grand Lake canoe, which has been used for more than a century to

      guide anglers on the large lakes in the region. Grand Lake Stream was the setting for the fictional characters in The One-Eyed Poacher of Privilege and game warden Tom Corn, charged with trying to outfox him. Edmund Ware Smith, whose short stories were published in The New Yorker magazine, created them in the 1940s.

      Glaciers carved out the region during the last Ice Age, creating deep, crystal-clear lakes with shorelines dotted with large granite boulders, interspersed with fine sand and gravel beaches. Grand Lake Stream is also home to active faults, which intersect the stream in a couple of locations, creating significant waterfalls that make the stream difficult and dangerous to navigate with boats.

      Grand Lake Stream is approximately 3 miles long. It runs between West Grand Lake and Big Lake. The upper stream is defined by deep clear pools interspersed with riffles and gentle rapids. Wading is generally easy here at