“They keep coming back every year to try to spawn,” Grenier said of the shad. “They keep trying to go past that dam, but will never do that.”
Grenier embraced the shad fishery that took hold after the removal of Edwards Dam. Each May, he spends countless days in his 14-foot aluminum boat, treating friends and novice anglers alike to exciting fishing.
On a recent blustery May day, I spent several enlightening and productive hours with Grenier. He knows the river intimately, including the best places to target shad using a fly rod and sinking fly line and lures known as shad “darts.”
His proven techniques produced some beautiful fish, ranging from approximately 12 to 24 inches and weighing 2 1/2 to 5 pounds.
I experienced growing pains figuring out how to get the feisty fish back to the boat without encountering the propeller blade or having a fish shake the hook.
Grenier was patient and encouraging, his demeanor honed through dedicating 35 years of his life to teaching elementary and middle school children.
Fort Halifax park, near the mouth of the Sebasticook River, was abuzz with activity. Two or three waves of high school students arrived and fanned out along the shoreline, enthusiastically casting into the water.
Students from Winslow High School try their hand at fishing from the beach at Fort Halifax Park along the Kennebec River. Credit: Pete Warner / BDN I couldn’t help wondering whether in their lifetimes they might catch a glimpse of Atlantic salmon, headed toward the Sandy River to spawn, without a dam blocking their path.
When he’s not fishing, Grenier is teaching. He previously directed Trout Unlimited’s trout camp on the river and still does numerous school talks about Atlantic salmon and the Kennebec.
“His long career as a teacher, and the presentations on the Clean Water Act and the restoration of the Kennebec River that he continues to give to local schools, and anyone else who might be interested, has helped bring forward several generations of river rats/anglers/conservation advocates,” Reardon said.
Our outing was a success. Grenier caught several shad, including some fat ones. He deftly scooped up the fish with his homemade, long-handled net in one hand and the fly rod in the other.
I managed to boat three or four, but only through his guidance.
Grenier says this is his last year volunteering as a shad fishing guide and conservation proponent on the Kennebec. He hopes instead to spend more time fly fishing for brook trout at places such as the Dead River.
“My wife said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’” Grenier said of his potential “retirement.”
That doesn’t mean he’ll be any less invested in the future health and productivity of the Kennebec.
He has come to grips with the reality he’ll never be able to fish for Atlantic salmon. Even if the remaining dams are eventually removed, the fisheries restoration process could take decades.
Advocating for the Kennebec is one small way to promote the importance of establishing a general commitment to preserving natural resources.
“There’s no Planet B,” Grenier said of the slogan appearing on a T-shirt given to him by a former student who is now a middle school teacher.
A group of trees hangs over the river adjacent to the Waterville boat launch on the Kennebec River. Credit: Pete Warner / BDN “The bottom line is, I want our future generations to survive. As a kid, I didn’t think it was going to happen.”
Grenier is hopeful that the Kennebec eventually will be returned to a more natural state.
“The reason it’s meaningful to me is I want to see it happen,” Grenier said. “I want to be able to see that the Atlantic salmon are going back to their spawning ground.”
Ironically, one inevitable result of such a development is that shad would no longer be held captive below Lockwood Dam, waiting to be caught by opportunistic anglers.
“I’d like to see the day when I can come here and not catch any shad,” Grenier said. “If I can’t catch them, that means they’ve gone to their spawning grounds. It’s better that those fish go where they’re supposed to be.”
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