Maine fishing guide Andy Skrivanich demonstrates that the physics of a fly rod mean more to a long cast than does the strength of the angler. Image by Tom Adkinson

DAMARISCOTTA, Maine – Andy Skrivanich isn’t an animal trainer, but he can teach an old dog new tricks. Skrivanich is a fishing guide on Maine’s rivers, ponds and coastal waters, and he certainly taught me some new tricks.

I have fished with a fly rod for more than 50 years, and Skrivanich’s first lesson was to help me realize I’m not as good as I thought I was at handling one.

This Damariscotta Lake mussel kept the writer from getting skunked on his outing with guide Andy Skrivanich. Image by Tom Adkinson

I’m lucky he believes that a kind word is more effective than a rolled-up newspaper. He quietly – and relatively successfully – coached me in a type of fly fishing previously alien to me.

My normal venue for fly fishing is a canopied stream in the Great Smoky Mountains or the Blue Ridge Mountains. Through decades of enjoyment, I mastered how to cast short distances with relative accuracy and to read a stream’s currents, eddies and banks, all the while trying to avoid catching that omnipresent species called “tree trout.”

The writer shows off a respectable Maine smallmouth bass, proving at least some prowess with an 8-weight rod. Image by Andy Skrivanich

My comfortable casting range is perhaps the width of a living room in one of the McMansions that are cropping up in my suburban neighborhood. Casting on wide-open Damariscotta Lake with Skrivanich meant casting the width of an entire McMansion, keeping a tight line after it glided to the surface of the water and then transmitting action to the fly at the end of the line.

Damariscotta Lake is a 13-mile-long freshwater lake covering 4,300 acres in Maine’s Mid-Coast region north of Brunswick and southeast of Augusta. Trout and bass hang out there, as do freshwater mussels.

I know there are mussels because I caught one – on a streamer fly. It was not my finest angling moment, but it was the first creature I landed that day, which kept me from getting skunked.

Guide Andy Skrivanich displays a Lake Damariscotta largemouth bass against the backdrop of a lakeside vacation home. Image by Tom Adkinson

Skrivanich started me with a rod longer and heavier than my norm and rigged it with a sinking line. I said I could handle it. I couldn’t. He watched me perform at a C+ level. He smiled when I finally said I thought I felt a strike and landed the mussel that somehow was quick enough to latch onto the streamer I was bouncing on the bottom.

He suggested switching to a floating line and flies that stayed on the surface, my tactic of choice back in the southern Appalachians. My relief was obvious, but challenges remained.

We still were using rods and lines heavier than I’d ever handled (8-weight instead of 5-weight), and the task was making long casts and then working the fly at the edge of grass beds, next to lily pads and along rocky points. I marveled at how easily Skrivanich could make a long and straight cast and immediately be ready to respond to a strike or twitch the fly to entice a fish.

Rods rigged and ready to cast are the hallmark of every fishing guide ready to adjust to conditions and clients’ abilities. Image by Tom Adkinson

Skrivanich, whose business is Maine Outdoor Guides, of course has years of experience on rivers, lakes and ponds and in saltwater, too. He’s a pro, and he’s good at explaining how a skilled flyrodder lets the physics of the rod do most of the work. Long casts are easy when you employ the right technique. At day’s end, you may be tired, but there’s no reason to feel as if you just pitched nine innings for the Red Sox and need to find a chiropractor.

I caught fish that day and reveled in the sight of two bald eagles that lazily flew by. My last cast produced a bodacious strike – perhaps the best of the day, Skrivanich said sincerely when it happened. There was a short fight, but the temporarily fooled lunker bass knew just the right dance step to throw the hook and disappear into the depths.

That split-second excitement was incentive enough to book another day on the water with Skrivanich.

Trip-planning resources: MaineOutdoorGuides.com and VisitMaine.com

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at Amazon.com.