Hello

[mnflyer]

My name is Art and I have been fly fishing for about 55 years, since I was about 7 with a big ol 9 1/2 foot bamboo club and had one rod that had a permanent bend in it from trolling streamers in the spring...
My father and mother were both Maine guides for hunting and fishing until I was about 17 and our primary haunts were in the Belgrade Lakes region in central Maine where we lived on Messelonski lake.. We also fished the Allagash area a lot.
The Belgrade Lakes region produced up to about 12 pound Landlocked salmon and up to 20 pound Lake trout back in the 50's and the spring fishing was incredible back then. We mainly deep trolled or fished deep holes in the summer.
We fished the Allagash primarily for Brook trout but caught salmon also.5 to 7 pound Brookies were quite common and 2-3 pounders were standard.
After high school I moved to coastal Maine and did a lot of salt water fly fishing for Stripers, Blue fish and Atlantic salmon.
I never had any fancy equipment but I still managed to land some big fish.
Now I am in Minnesota and my interest is big Pike and Muskies

[Fly2Fish]

Welcome to the Forum, Art. Seven pound Brookies - Wow, those were the days! Used to catch some big pike when I was at the U of Iowa. In fact, I had a local record from the Iowa River when I was in Iowa City in the late '60s-early '70s (but I'm sure you routinely beat that size up in Minnesota). Caught my first trout in northern Iowa with a law school classmate who introduced me to them, and have never looked back.

[BigCliff]

Welcome to the group! There's good fish down south too if you ever get tired of the cold.

[fysh]

Welcome Art, make yourself at home.