Greater Portland & Casco Bay
Waters we guide:
Trout Where You'd Never Expect Them
Greater Portland and Casco Bay sit at the crossroads of Maine’s salt and freshwater fly-fishing worlds. The region’s geography of more than 200 islands, tidal estuaries, rocky shorelines, and nearby freshwater systems offers an unusually diverse range of water for anglers. Within minutes, you can go from casting to striped bass in the surf to drifting dry flies for trout in shaded river runs.
Casco Bay itself is a seasonal playground for saltwater fly anglers. From late May through September, migrating striped bass and mackerel feed along the rocky ledges and tidal flats that run from Cape Elizabeth to Harpswell. Wading anglers and kayak fishers find excellent opportunities in the early morning or late evening tides, when surface activity can be explosive. The city skyline often sits just behind you, but the fishing feels a world away.
A short drive inland, the Presumpscot River connects Sebago Lake to Casco Bay and tells a story of restoration. Once heavily dammed and polluted, the river has been revived by decades of cleanup and conservation work by groups like Friends of the Presumpscot River. Today it supports healthy runs of stocked and holdover trout, and even the occasional landlocked salmon from Sebago. Farther upstream, the Crooked River serves as critical spawning water for Sebago’s salmon population—one of Maine’s oldest and most genetically distinct.
While Portland’s restaurants, breweries, and island ferries make for an easy post-fishing diversion, the real draw here is access. Few places in New England offer such quick transitions from salt to fresh, or from urban convenience to wild solitude. For anglers looking to experience both Maine’s coastal and inland fisheries in one trip, Greater Portland and Casco Bay provide the perfect launch point.
