Fly Rod & Reel Magazine – 2000

.1000 On Grand Lake Stream

By CLIFF HAUPTMAN – I have no aversion to bats, unless they are hooked at the end of my fly line. I have seen pelicans on Deerfield pier in Florida grab squid baits and get the hooks stuck in their throats, flying off on 7 foot wingspans and getting jerked back and hauled in crazy eyed and flopping hard enough to knock a small child cold. In each case, the fisherman had to wrestle the struggling bird to the deck and somehow manage to fold it in under his arm, wings tucked up safely enough, but the 2 foot beak still swinging like a billy club. Usually it takes two guys, but since everybody there is an expert, a whole pinochle game’s worth of people hold the pelican still long enough for someone to cut the line short so it will not trail behind in tangle before the hook works itself out.

I cannot imagine too many fellow anglers rushing over to help me subdue a flying rat with razor teeth and the quickness of a cobra. From the moment I figured out how to catch landlocked salmon on Grand Lake Stream, the bat threat was a constant worry. Grand Lake Stream, a fly fishing only, blue ribbon landlocked fishery in the heart of Down East Maine….

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