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Home › Waters › Maine › St. Croix River
River · Washington County, the Maine and New Brunswick border water from Vanceboro down through Grand Falls · Maine

St. Croix River Fishing Guides

The Maine and New Brunswick border river below Spednic Lake, one of the best smallmouth bass floats in the Northeast.

A weathered shack on the bank of a New England stream in autumn
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the St. Croix River

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About the St. Croix River

The St. Croix River forms the international border between eastern Maine and New Brunswick, and the gauge at Vanceboro sits at the outlet of Spednic Lake where the river proper begins. Below that outlet the river runs south through a corridor of undeveloped forest toward Grand Falls Flowage and eventually Calais and Passamaquoddy Bay. Very little of the land along it is developed, and the float from Vanceboro down is one of the best-known multi-day canoe trips in the Northeast.

The smallmouth bass fishing is what carries the river’s reputation. The population is dense, the fish are willing, and the water is shallow and broken enough that they can be caught on the surface through much of the summer. It is a river where a beginner can have a genuinely good day and an experienced angler can fish hard and still be surprised. Landlocked salmon are present, chain pickerel are common in the slower flowages, and brook trout hold in the colder feeder streams.

Flow on the St. Croix is managed at the Vanceboro dam, so the gauge reading is a release figure as much as a runoff figure. Paddlers and anglers watch it closely because the character of the river between Vanceboro and Little Falls changes substantially with a few hundred cubic feet per second either way. A low release exposes ledges and slows the trip; a high one makes the rips pushy and the fishing harder to read.

Access is concentrated at a few points because of the border and the forest ownership through the corridor. Vanceboro at the top and the landings around Grand Falls Flowage at the bottom are the practical ends of most trips, with Loon Bay and the campsites along the way serving as intermediate stops for those floating the full run.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to St. Croix River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Vanceboro - the gauge reach and the standard put-in at the Spednic Lake outlet.
Spednic Lake - the large flowage above the dam, with launch access.
Little Falls - a rip below Vanceboro reached from the river.
Loon Bay - an intermediate access point on the middle river.
Grand Falls Flowage - the downstream flowage with several public landings.
Kellyland - lower-river access near the Grand Falls dam.
Calais - the tidal end of the system, below the freshwater river.

Seasons

Spring: high, cold water with the smallmouth fishing arriving late in the month of May.
Summer: the peak season, with surface fishing for smallmouth through the rips and flats.
Fall: cooling water, fewer paddlers, and smallmouth feeding hard before the close.
Winter: the river is locked up and fishing moves to the ice on the flowages.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the St. Croix River?

As of Sep 17, 5:30 am, the USGS gauge St. Croix River at Vanceboro, Maine reads 493 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the St. Croix River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Chain Pickerel, Landlocked Atlantic Salmon, Muskellunge, Smallmouth Bass on the St. Croix River in Maine.

Where can you access the St. Croix River?

Vanceboro - the gauge reach and the standard put-in at the Spednic Lake outlet. Spednic Lake - the large flowage above the dam, with launch access. Little Falls - a rip below Vanceboro reached from the river. Loon Bay - an intermediate access point on the middle river. Grand Falls Flowage - the downstream flowage with several public landings. Kellyland - lower-river access near the Grand Falls dam. Calais - the tidal end of the system, below the freshwater river.

When is the best time to fish the St. Croix River?

Spring: high, cold water with the smallmouth fishing arriving late in the month of May. Summer: the peak season, with surface fishing for smallmouth through the rips and flats. Fall: cooling water, fewer paddlers, and smallmouth feeding hard before the close. Winter: the river is locked up and fishing moves to the ice on the flowages.

Where are the fishing regulations for the St. Croix River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Maine agency site: https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fishing-boating/fishing/laws-rules.html