When I first started my career as a fishing guide, I was admittedly a more modern-equipped angler when I hit the lake with clients. I began with a modified vee, aluminum bass boat with raised casting decks, modern electronics, GPS and a bow mounted trolling motor. It was a bass fishing machine. As I progressed, I added a 20 foot pontoon boat, specifically retrofitted as a fishing vessel. The lounging furniture was removed, rubber non-slip decking tiles added, and a center console covered with a T-top canopy with rod holders reminiscent of off shore rigs completed the layout. It’s great for larger fishing parties and quite comfortable for long days on the water in Junior Lake. At the time, I thought I had all the bases covered – until I started working in Grand Lake Stream where the highest concentration of fishing guides in the state of Maine ply their trade.
The first time I pulled into Weatherby’s Lodge and joined the queue of guides waiting for their sports to finish breakfast and load up for our day’s excursion, I had an epiphany. Big, long, square-stern wooden canoes sat hitched to pickups all the way through the driveway to the pro shop. They were wide beamed, with big rockers and elegantly finished interiors. They were beautiful. And I wanted one.
Over the next two years, I delved into the history of the Maine Grand Laker. I learned how and why they were made; for fishing the big remote waters of northeastern Maine. I learned the names of the craftsman that built them; the Pop Moores, the Bacons, the Tobeys, the Wheatons, the Spragues. Each canoe builder had a signature style that was recognized from East Grand Lake in the north to West Grand Lake in the south. I learned how special that tradition was and is to this very day.
Last year I stumbled into an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. A friend and fellow guide decided to sell me his 1970’s era Lance Wheaton Grand Laker after my insistent badgering following his purchase of a brand new Wheaton Laker, one of the last Lance would build in his long and storied career. The Wheaton Laker is highly prized for its size and stability and I felt like I hit the lottery. Authentic Maine Grand Lakers are becoming hard to come by and to have one of the legends of the canoe building community was humbling. Quite frequently when travelling with my Laker on the hitch and headed to guide a trip, I receive thumbs up hand gestures from folks passing me by. I have people stop by when I’m fueling the truck at the gas station and want to see the canoe and take pictures of it. I certainly understand, the Grand Laker is a part of the living history of Maine. Many tell me stories of a descendant family member who owned one and the experiences they had as children.
When I’m asked by newly minted guides that have grown up in the world of modern fishing and all of the equipment and gear it requires, why I choose to fish from an ‘old canoe’, the answer is quite simple – tradition. It seems the older I get the more I yearn for it. There is nothing more pure and invigorating than paddling into remote coves, with clients fly-casting and being deeply ingrained in a long-standing fishing heritage. In a canoe, you are part of the landscape, a part of the ecosystem. The only noise heard is the whip of the fly, the gentle dip of the paddle, the crash of the fish taking the lure. It is all magic.