You’ll love this fishing song!

Upper Magalloway BrookiePeter Prince is a singer/songwriter who loves to fish in Maine. So it’s no surprise that he’s written a great fishing song. No, not a song you’ll sing while you are fishing. A song you will enjoy listening to before you go or after you have been out fishing. Actually, given that the song is about an encounter with a Maine game warden, perhaps you’d better listen to it before you go fishing!

Peter told me, “It all began in 1970 when, after reading an article about Smallmouth Bass fishing in Field and Stream, I decided a trip to the north country was in order. The names of the lakes were mesmerizing to me: Pocomoonshine, Scraggly, Meddybemps, Cobbosseecontee, Messalonskee, and the rivers, the Androscoggin, Kennebec, Sebasticook, and Penobscot.”

“Being a New York/New Jersey boy (I was raised in Washington Heights, Upper Manhatten, not far from the George Washington Bridge and Hudson River, and am now residing in Bergen County, Northern New Jersey), I was exposed by my father to fishing at the early age of 5 or 6 when he would take me to the Hudson, where we would sit on the shoreline rocks and toss our lines out to catch – what, I cannot say.

“I can say that as I got a bit older, I would accompany him to the local reservoirs and lakes where I was introduced to bass fishing, bait and spin casting using lures/plugs and for him, flyrodding with various poppers and flies. It was an exciting experience for me and lasted until my early teens, when my father’s love of fishing waned, which was a big disappointment, since it was one of the few ways we would bond.

“Even with his reluctance to participate, I continued bassing with a childhood friend until the 1960s when college, music, dealing with the specter of the draft and Viet Nam War forced me to disengage from what was once a joy.

“However, by 1970 I was starting a new relationship with the woman who would become my wife of over 40 years and exploring new adventures (after reading that ‘Field and Stream’ article), and that led us to our first fishing trip to Maine. The idea that I could catch Smallmouth Bass, which I knew pound for pound were even more formidable than their big brother Largemouth, with their strength and aerial tactics, was thrilling and the fact that they would hit lures on the surface, my favorite way of fishing, even more so.

“It’s now 46 years later and close to 40 of them were spent fishing in what I consider my second home. We even lived in Dexter and Winslow, Maine in the late 70s, establishing friendships to this day. Over 20 of the 40 years have been spent in the Belgrades as Sadulsky’s Camps on East Pond, where the encounter with those ‘boys of fish’n game’ took place, leading to the song Joe Pickering sent you. I also have written other fishing tunes as well as songs that express my love of the wilderness environment… Music is an amazing thing, isn’t it?”

Yes, Peter, music – like fishing – is an amazing thing!

So, the song is titled The Fish N’ Game Talkin Blues and you can access it here.

Many thanks to Joe Pickering, Jr. of King of the Road Music, who I met when I spoke to the Bangor Rotary, for alerting me to Peter Prince and his music. Check out Joe’s website, which you can access here. He offers great songs about sports and other topics.

Joe told me that, “ Peter has placed several great songs with my music publishing company and is a noted singer…. Peter is from New Jersey and is not a Red Sox fan but he is a very talented songwriter and singer and wild – yes wild – about fishing in Maine!”

Well, Joe, we shall forgive the Red Sox slight. Nobody is perfect.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.