Down East: James’ Eddy Smelt Camps in Dresden, Maine did just the trick.

WITH THE SMELT fishing on Great Bay looking more and more doubtful because of lack of fishable ice, a family group consisting of wife Jane and her two sisters Gail and Put, along with Put’s husband Roy and me, headed “down” Maine. Our destination was going to be James’ Eddy Smelt Camps in Dresden Mills.

This trip used to be an annual event even when we did have good ice here, as there were a lot of entertaining things there. The heated shanty that you could just walk into and walk away from when the fishing was over also had a great draw for us.

Although on some trips we had a big catch of smelt, doing any more than providing a meal or two was fine and that is what we usually ended up with.

After stopping at the Railroad Café in Richmond for lunch, we promptly became lost on the back roads of that area, since we hadn’t been there for about four years.

Well not really lost. We knew where we were because we had one of DeLorme’s Atlas and Gazetteers to tell us where we were. It just was that it didn’t tell us how to get to James’s Eddy Smelt Camps.

After about a half hour of touring, we stopped to ask a woman walking along the road for directions. With her arms and hands flailing around while she explained about going around corners and up and down hills, we left her with a very vague idea of maybe how to get there.

But after another 20 minutes of touring the back roads, we did come to the little town of Dresden Mills and asked directions there from the local filling station. Although the worker there had a very thick foreign accent, Leap deciphered his directions and before you knew it we were headed down into James’ happy valley, on the Eastern River.

Just the trip down their long driveway is a treat for the non-Mainer. It’s kind of a steep descent and gets one to wonder if you would slip into the Eastern River if your brakes failed. The road was well sanded, however, and not slippery.

Two relatively new (since we’d last been there) portable rest rooms were out behind the office and the group at the office was as usual, very friendly and efficient in getting us into a big smelt camp that offered more than enough room for the five of us.

The kerosene heater was throwing off a nice glow and heat so the fact that you could see out through the roof in places didn’t bother us at all.

After all, we were down Maine and real Mainers don’t worry about small details like that. And it wasn’t raining.

It was the graffiti and artwork on the silver insulating board walls that were both quite graphic that dominated the conversation and entertainment when the fish were not hitting that well.

The smelt camp next to ours also held some people from New Hampshire who were customers of Jane’s sister Gail’s Suds-n-Soda Sports Shop in Greenland where Gail’s son Jason takes care of that part of the business. These guys were a lot of fun and the side-by-side smelt camps often were rocking with laughter.

Jane won the one-dollar bet for the first smelt, but as usual, she hasn’t been paid by any of us.

That’s traditional. You gotta make them beg for it unless it’s you who wins the bet. As it turned out that was one of the only three smelt she caught, with Gail only catching two and sister Put, an accomplished smelt catcher, probably bringing in about 10. Whatever, after fishing from 3:30 to 9 p.m., we voted to abandon ship with about three dozen smelt in the bucket.

On the way home, my Jeep lit up with laughter about the night’s happenings and the interesting artwork and graffiti. It may have been that tongues had been loosened up a bit from the passing of some ginger brandy around while we fished.

The next night at home, Put and Leap put on a memorable smelt feed for the five team members, and again the laughter rolled. And we all decided that we’d better return as soon as possible to James Eddy before anyone has a chance to paint over any of the walls of the smelt camps there. That is one fun place to fish, laugh and love.

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CLARIFICATION: In last week’s column we had some mistakes about the ice fishing regulations in the Connecticut Lakes. Fish and Game’s Scott Decker kindly pointed out this fact and provided us with this more accurate information: “From January 1 to March 31 the water body shall be open to the taking of all species, except salmon and smelt, subject to the following restrictions: 1. Fish shall only be taken by ice fishing; 2. The combined daily bag limit for all trout species, including lake trout, shall be two fish; 3. Only one hook with bait, as described in Fis 405.07(a), or an artificial lure or flies may be used to take fish through the ice; 4. No more than two ice fishing devices shall be used, except that in addition a person may use six cusk fishing devices to take cusk as specified in Fis 405.04; and 5. Lake trout shall not be taken by trolling.”

Many thanks to Scott!

Drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com and get out there and get you some.

Dick Pinney’s Guide Lines column appears weekly in the New Hampshire Sunday News. Readers may e-mail him at DoDuckInn@aol.com.