This book tells you every place to catch beautiful wild brook trout

If you like brook trout, you’ll want a copy of the book Squaretail by Bob Mallard. And if you are not a brook trout angler, I guarantee you will be after you read this book.

Bob lives in Skowhegan, writes for national publications, and has fished in more than 100 fabulous places all over North America and into Canada. I envy Bob, who fishes in these fabulous waters more than 100 days every year. Yes, he knows these waters! And now he is sharing this knowledge with you.

Subtitled The Definitive Guide to Brook Trout and Where to Find Them, the book certainly does that, but there is a lot more in this book, from an explanation of the flies you’ll need to strong advocacy for protecting our native book trout, something Bob and I have worked on together for many years.

The many photos of gorgeous brook trout, will, for sure, send you fishing in some of the waters Bob tells you about.

His detailed chapters on waters throughout Maine, north America, and Labrador, where you can catch brook trout, are very informative. And I’ve forgiven him for telling you about most of my favorite brook trout waters.

In fact, as I read chapters on those waters it brought back lots of memories of my amazing experiences, and I was inspired to write my own stories about my experiences there. Sometime soon I will begin posting those stories in this outdoor news blog.

Some of the places Bob writes about where I have fished include the Allagash River, Moosehead Lake, many waters in the Rangeley area, Baxter Park, and the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument which includes more than 30 lakes and ponds along with the east branch of the Penobscot River.

Bob also tells us about the sad decline of our native brook trout, which until recently we failed to protect. His chapter on the status, threats, and conservation efforts for native brook trout is a very important message. And he makes a plea for all of us to stand up and become advocates for our remaining brook trout. I think that is very important, especially here in Maine where we have all of the remaining native brook trout left in lakes and ponds in our country.

One of Bob’s chapters is about the little Minipi River and Labrador, where he stayed at the same sporting camp where I took my 16-year-old son Joshua one year to fish. And like us he didn’t catch a lot of fish every day but the fish he caught were between five and eight pounds.

Bob even tells you about Nesowadnehunk Lake, where I have a camp, and the 23 miles of stream that runs from the lake all the way to the West branch of the Penobscot River. I have fished all of that stream and there are pools where you can catch dozens of beautiful brook trout.

And I agree with Bob that the Rapid River is the best place in the country to catch native brook trout. Louise Dickinson Rich, one of my favorite writers, lived there for 12 years. I stayed one time in what used to be her camp, and took my photo at her typewriter which she left when she moved to the Maine coast. I actually have six copies of her book, We Took to the Woods, about her years on the Rapid River.

Bob includes a couple of photos of the historic Lower Dam on the Rapid River, where I caught lots of beautiful brook trout. Sadly, some years ago, they tore the dam down.

Bob also tells you about other fisheries and even includes one water in Argentina. Yes, this book will become your travel guide to the best places to enjoy fishing for our beautiful native brook trout.

You can purchase Bob’s book at www.BobMallard.com/shop.

 

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.