Moosehead Memories

I have lots of great memories of Greenville and Moosehead Lake, where I started fishing when I was a kid. My dad had a friend who owned a camp just north of Greenville and we visited there several times and fished.

My favorite times as a kid were at a camp owned by relatives at the north end of the lake at Seboomook. My family had some great trips there. My favorite story is when I was a teenager, I got into the rowboat and paddled out to catch salmon.

And boy, did I catch a lot of fish! I didn’t even notice that I had drifted way down the lake, but eventually my dad discovered that I was out of sight and he got in the boat and motored down the lake. When he found me, he towed me back to camp. I remember being upset because I was catching fish and I did not want to stop fishing!

As an adult I fished all over the lake. One time a guide from Rockport took me out to a deep hole just off of Mount Kineo and we caught some nice fish. And one of my most memorable fishing days was when the guide Dan Legere took me to the east outlet where the Kennebec River begins.

I also love Greenville. During the seven years that Linda and I wrote weekly travel columns for the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, we wrote quite a few columns about inns and restaurants in Greenville. During one visit I did a book talk at the Greenville library.

We also wrote columns about two of AMC’s sporting camps east of Greenville, Gorman Chairback and Medawisla, where we enjoyed great visits. I also enjoyed two visits to AMC’s Little Lyford camp, where I caught lots of brook trout in remote ponds.

I also enjoyed some deer, moose, and grouse hunting trips at a friend’s camp right on the lake in Northeast Carry.

Linda and I and our kids enjoyed camping at Lilly Bay State Park on Moosehead Lake, and we also stayed one time at Rockwood Cottages which were owned by my cousin Ron Searles and his wife Bonnie for many years.

The only thing I regret is that I never climbed Mount Kineo. Of course, there were no fish up there!

Because of my illness, ALS, I am not able to travel or fish anymore, but I can’t be disappointed, because I’ve had a lifetime of wonderful experiences and memories, including many in Greenville and on Moosehead Lake.

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.