The Androscoggin River

This is a story of one river in Maine with its come back, many other rivers in the state of Maine have also had the same thing happen.

The Androscoggin River is a interesting river to me. I remember when I was kid growing up in the Brunswick area "1960's" how bad the river used to smell and people would turn there noses up at how bad it smelled.

The Androscoggin River runs quite aways through the state of Maine, it starts out in Errol New Hampshire at Umbagog Lake and runs to Berlin, Gorham N.H. over to Bethal Me. over to Rumford, Dixfield, Jay, Livermore Fall, Lewiston and Auburn, Lisbon Falls, Topsham, Brunswick and then in Merrymeeting Bay.

Along this journey in past years the water past many mills where they produce paper and power to run these mills. During the years alot of these operations had no regulations on dumping into the river of all the toxins that were produced during paper making.

During these operations it killed off quite a fishery. In the 1800's Atlantic Salmon ran up to Rumford falls and many of the tributaries long the way. But as time went on these fisheries died off due to the construction of dams along the river in Brunswick, Pejepscot, Lisbon Falls and Lewiston.
These dams were built to produce power for the mills and to have the water for the production of paper and fabics in these mills. The Mighty Androscoggin River took quite a hit with the by-products that were dumped into the river during the production of these products.

In the 1960's when the pollution was at its highest points along the river so city officals started to look at the river to find out ways to clean it up. Between Federal and Local laws that were passed to help prevent the continuing pollution of many rivers and streams in this country, all of these mills and factories had to clean up there act and put in anti-pollution measures to prevent any more pollution and in later years to reduce the amount of pollution. As time went on these laws got more strict and forced alot of these mills to comply with the new laws. But some of these mills were not able to afford the anti-pollution measures and were forced to close.

With the closure of these mills and factorys along the Androscoggin River it has brought to us the present day.

But now in present day, the river has made quite a come back. Now the river is becoming a interesting fishery. The State of Maine is stocking the river with with brook trout, and also brown trout. With Maines restocking program it has opened up some of the fishery to some good fishing along its banks. All kinds of fish, brown trout, brook trout, large and small bass, sun fish, perch along with the fall fish.

Another factor to the present day fisheries has been the rebuilding of alot of the dams on the lower part of the river that I know of. With the reconstruction of these dams the builders were required to install some means for migrating fish to continue up river. In Brunswick there is a fishway "also open to public for viewing at certain times" in Pejepscot there is a fish elevator, in Lisbon Falls there is another elevator. Above this point I don't know.

To help the fisherman the state has installed or help to install access to the river in a few different places.
I am only sure of a few of these places, but more and more are going in every year to give access for this fishery.
There is a town boat landing below the dam in Brunswick off from Water street for those that want to try to catch some of the schoolie stripped base along with a few other types of migrating fish. They have added a canoe portage area in Brunswick off from Mill St., a fishing park off the River Road too. There is a boat launch in Durham, Lisbon Fall off route 196, a fishing park just below the dam in Lisbon Falls and there is another boat launch above that dam locate in Lisbon Center, and one other in Lewiston.
These are the ones that I know of at present.
There is most likely more above that, but don't know of these locations due being in the Brunswick area.

I use a couple of these areas alot in the evening to go small mouth bass fishing, because they are close to home and easy access.
The only bad thing about areas of this river is the high water during the spring and when there has been alot of rain fall. The other thing is the daily water releases, when you hear the warnings that the dam is opening there is a big change in the tail waters of the dams and does effect the fishing some, but there is still alot of fun to be had on this mighty river.

I have not caught some of the fish that are in the Androscoggin, but I will someday. I like to just go there for the fun of the fishing, I only do fly-fishing, and have a good time with some of the small mouth with a "6wt" setup. Fishing in the dam areas can be a bit noisey due to the dams and the equipment that is running but after a bit of time there you can just kind of tune the everyday sounds out and enjoy the surroundings about you.
These areas might not give you a killer catch all of the time, but in the long run it is a good time at thse locations just to be out on the water catching something.

So for a quick some of this all. for a few hours of fun try it out and have some fun. But thinking back 25 - 30 years as to what it was like, it has made quite a come back.