Local Maine guides and members of the Mollyockett Chapter of Trout Unlimited will teach the workshops. Instruction will include both spin casting and fly casting for older youth and parents. Maine’s Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Program will supply complimentary rods and reels for use at the festival.

Families can practice newly learned casting skills in the one acre pond and are welcome to take home their catch. The pond will be stocked with trout courtesy of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Each young angler will receive a mini-tackle box complete with bobber, sinkers and hook courtesy of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance.

Kids can learn how to tie flies with materials provided by local outfitters and fly shops. Children will be able to take home their hand-tied flies.

Families participating in the event will be eligible for door prizes from local outfitters and businesses as well as L.L. Bean and Kittery Trading Post. The Bethel Fire Dept. will host a barbecue of hotdogs and hamburgers, chips, and drinks and families are welcome to bring a pack lunch.

The weekend of June 4 and 5 is a free fishing weekend in Maine. Resident and Non-resident freshwater fishing licenses are waived each day.

The Family Fishing Festival is one of many nationwide events that provide families with an opportunity to have fun on the water. The events are promoted by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (www.rbff.org). For those families wishing to stay overnight and fish or canoe the Androscoggin River on Sunday, special family packages are available for the weekend at local lodging establishments.

For information on the Family Fishing Festival, contact the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance at 207-824-3694, fish@upperandro.com or www.upperandro.com.

Local Maine guides and members of the Mollyockett Chapter of Trout Unlimited will teach the workshops. Instruction will include both spin casting and fly casting for older youth and parents. Maine’s Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Program will supply complimentary rods and reels for use at the festival.

Families can practice newly learned casting skills in the one acre pond and are welcome to take home their catch. The pond will be stocked with trout courtesy of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Each young angler will receive a mini-tackle box complete with bobber, sinkers and hook courtesy of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance.

Kids can learn how to tie flies with materials provided by local outfitters and fly shops. Children will be able to take home their hand-tied flies.

Families participating in the event will be eligible for door prizes from local outfitters and businesses as well as L.L. Bean and Kittery Trading Post. The Bethel Fire Dept. will host a barbecue of hotdogs and hamburgers, chips, and drinks and families are welcome to bring a pack lunch.

The weekend of June 5 and 6 is a free fishing weekend in Maine. Resident and Non-resident freshwater fishing licenses are waived each day.

The Family Fishing Festival is one many nationwide events that provide families with an opportunity to have fun on the water. The events are promoted by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (www.rbff.org). For those families wishing to stay overnight and fish or canoe the Androscoggin River on Sunday, special family packages are available for the weekend at local lodging establishments.

For information on the Family Fishing Festival, contact the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance at 207-824-3694, fish@upperandro.com or www.upperandro.com

This is the 3rd full-length feature from Gray Ghost Productions, with last year’s “East by Northeast” exciting angling audiences with amazing footage from all over Maine, New Hampshire and beyond. This year’s film tours the better part of the East from Labrador to the Florida Keys and everything in-between. Hitch a ride in the flying Beaver with Luke Gray in search of huge Eastern Brook Trout and enormous Northerns. Check out the alluring saltwater for Stripers in the north or toothy monsters of the southern latitudes. From Peacock Bass to Landlock Salmon, from urban pools teeming with silver Shad to remote runs with glorious trout and a dash of the occasional Stonefly hatch, this film is proof that the good life is never too far away.

The Frontier is a stunning intimate venue located in the Ft. Andros complex, with excellent food and a unique collection of beverages. FFIM’s Dan Tarkinson adds, “The Frontier has quickly become somewhat of a favorite in the Maine Fly Fishing community. We’ve held several events there now, and the crowd and ambience of the theater have always gelled so well. We’re very pumped to be able to showcase the film-making talents of Carter Davidson and the Gray Ghost Productions crew at such a fine establishment”.

Due to limited capacity, we strongly recommend ordering your tickets in advance, by either purchasing online with a credit card at
http://www.flyfishinginmaine.org/thegoodlife/, or by calling the theater at (207)-725-5222.

The event festivities will also include several door prizes for each screening, as well as the chance at some larger fund-raising raffles, including a 2-person Pontoon Boat to be raffled off at the annual FFIM Conclave in June.

All proceeds from this event and the raffles will go to the FFIM Grassroots Grant fund. FFIM is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Past recipients of FFIM Grassroots Grants have included Trout Unlimited, Casting For Recovery, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and many more. Among the beneficiaries this year is the Sebago Chapter of Trout Unlimited, providing them with a grant for their “5-in-5″ Southern Maine pond reclamation program.

For more information about Fly Fishing in Maine, please visit our website at http://www.flyfishinginmaine.org/

For more information about “The Good Life”, including the trailer and where you can purchase a DVD copy, visit their website at http://www.ggpfilms.com/

Wednesday, December 17, 2009
6:00 – 10:00 P.M.
At the Matterhorn Ski Bar – Sunday River

Suggested donation at the door:
$10.00 individual adult
$5.00 for children under age 12
RSVP by Friday, December 11
Call 207-824-6836 (Leave message with # of people)

Food, beverage, music; Live and Silent auctions.
Organizers are soliciting help with donations of food, beverages and items for the auctions.

Call Roger at 207-824-6836 or email rb@matterhornskibar.com

You can print out the form at this link, and mail it to the address listed on the form.

Bethel, Me…..Tyler Cote of Monmouth was the first place winner in the Third Annual Upper Andro Two Fly Contest held Saturday, September 19th on the Upper Androscoggin River between New Hampshire and Rumford, Maine. Tyler tied for first place in the biggest fish category with Brad Jerome of Newry. Both anglers caught a 14” rainbow trout. There was a tie for second place between Kevin McKay of Brewer, Maine and Charlie Lowe of Twin Mountain, NH, with 13 ½” rainbows. Chad Hughes of Camden, Scott Overbey of Brunswick and Mitch Cummings of Bethel each caught a 13” rainbow for third place honors.

The largest catch was also won by Cote with 12 fish, ten rainbows, a brown and brook trout. Second place went to Overbey with a catch of 9 rainbows and third place to Lowe with 4 rainbows, a brook and brown trout.

The Rocky Freda Turtle Water Team Trophy was presented to the Patagonia/Wild River Angler team who caught 21 fish.

Thirteen teams entered the competition. Each team made up of two anglers and a drift boat oarsman, fished with the use of only two flies from 6 am to 2 pm. All fish were caught, recorded and released. Along with the trophies, merchandise prizes from Orvis, L.L. Bean, Kittery Trading Post and Patagonia were presented to the winners. Three anglers who were unable to catch any fish received a new set of flies from Selene Dumaine of Merrymeeting Fly Shop in Brunswick.

The annual event is a fundraiser for the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance. The non-profit group, based in Bethel, Maine, is dedicated to conserving, protecting, restoring and promoting the natural resources relating to the Upper Androscoggin River, its tributaries, watershed and environs.

Twelve teams will be competing in The Upper Andro Two Fly Contest and Northeast Drift Boat Championship scheduled for the weekend of September 19 and 20 in conjunction with Bethel’s Annual Harvest Fest. The competitions are the annual fund-raisers for the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance, a non-profit group dedicated to the conservation, protection, restoration and promotion of the natural fishing resource of the Upper Androscoggin River, its tributaries, watershed and environs.

The Two Fly contest will test the skills of anglers to fly fish, using only two flies, for the most and the largest of the three trout species, brown, rainbow and brook found in the Upper Androscoggin River from the New Hampshire border to Rumford Center. Teams of three including two anglers and a referee/oarsman must fish from an open drift boat or raft beginning at 6 am and concluding at 2 pm.

Prizes including rods and fishing gear supplied by Kittery Trading Post, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, and the Orvis Company will be awarded Saturday afternoon immediately following a parade of the drift boats up Main Street and around the Bethel Town Common. A perpetual trophy named after Rocky Freda, founder of Sun Valley Sports and the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance, will be presented to the team with the largest catch.

A tally of fishing catches will be updated throughout the day at the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance’s booth on the Bethel Town Common. The Alliance will offer fly tying and fly casting instruction and Robert Romano, author of “North of Easie”, a novel about fly fishing in the Rangeley region will be signing his new book.

The Second Annual Northeast Drift Boat Championship will be held Sunday, September 20 at 10:30 am. Designed as a spectator event, the competition will test oarsmen’s skills at navigating a course and rowing speed. Each drift boat must carry at least one angler, who must remain standing throughout the timed race. The launch will be from Bethel Outdoor Adventures on Route 2 and the finish line is at Davis Park in Bethel-a distance of a quarter mile.

Sponsors for teams registered to compete include The Bethel Inn Resort, Casco Bay Anglers Club, Eldredge Bros. Fly Shop, Fly Rod & Reel Magazine, Gray Ghost Productions, Maine Tourism Association, Moat Mountain Brewery, No Drip Painting and 3rd Generation Flooring, Patagonia and Wild River Angler, Schiavi Home Builders, Skinny Moose Media, Striking Gold Jewelers and Williams Broadcasting.

Information on the events is available on line at www.upperandro.com or by phoning 207-824-3694.

The Upper Andro Two Fly Contest and Northeast Drift Boat Championship are scheduled for the weekend of September 19 and 20, 2009 in conjunction with Bethel’s Annual Harvest Fest. The competitions are the annual fund-raisers for the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance, a non-profit group dedicated to the conservation, protection, restoration and promotion of the natural fishing resource of the Upper Androscoggin River, its tributaries, watershed and environs.

Contestants may use only two flies during the event, which starts at 6:00 am on Saturday. Teams may launch from public launch sites from the New Hampshire border at Shelburne to Rumford Center. The contest concludes at 2:00 pm.

The Two Fly contest will test the skills of anglers to fly fish for the most and the largest of the three trout species, brown, rainbow and brook found in the Upper Androscoggin River from the New Hampshire border to Rumford Center. A fly is defined as made from natural or synthetic materials tied to a single pointed hook. No tandems or treble hooks are allowed. Teams of three including two anglers and a referee/oarsman must fish from an open boat-drift boat or raft. All fish must be released live.

Prizes including rods and fishing gear supplied by Kittery Trading Post, L.L. Bean, Sun Valley Sports and the Orvis Company will be awarded Saturday afternoon immediately following a parade of the drift boats up Main Street and around the Town Common.

The Second Annual Northeast Drift Boat Championship will be held Sunday, September 20 at 10 am. Designed as a spectator event, the competition will test oarsmen’s skills at navigating a course and rowing speed. Each drift boat must carry at least one angler, who must remain standing throughout the timed race. The launch will be from Bethel Outdoor Adventures on Route 2 and the finish line is at Davis Park in Bethel-a distance of a quarter mile.

Last year’s winner of the Two Fly Contest with a 19 1/2” brown trout was Tyler Gammon of Otisfield, Maine. Winner of the Drift Boat competition was Mike Jones of Harpswell, ME rowing a Clackacraft boat. Both outdoorsmen plan to defend their titles.

Official contest rules and a registration form are available on line at www.upperandro.com or by phoning 1-877-851-7533.