The Belgrade Lakes are our home water. We are a Registered Maine Guide service based one town over, and a large share of our fishing and paddling days happen on this chain — so we know it in February as well as we know it in July.
This is a guide to the region for people who are coming to visit rather than to fish with us: what the lakes actually are, where to walk, where to eat, where to stay, and what the place is like once the tourists go home.
Seven lakes, one chain
The Belgrade Lakes are a connected chain of seven lakes and ponds spread across the towns of Belgrade, Rome, Smithfield and Oakland. They drain, eventually, into the Kennebec River by way of Messalonskee Stream.
- Great Pond — the big one, at roughly 8,239 acres and about 69 feet deep. Most of what people picture when they say “the Belgrades.”
- Messalonskee Lake (Snow Pond) — second largest at about 3,510 acres and much deeper, around 113 feet. It sits at the Oakland end of the chain.
- Long Pond — narrow, scenic, and the quieter counterpart to Great Pond.
- North Pond, East Pond, McGrath Pond and Salmon Lake — the smaller waters, and often the better ones when the big lakes are busy.
The practical upshot for a visitor: you are never short of water, and if one lake is crowded or blown out by wind, another is ten minutes away.
The fishing
This chain holds an unusually broad mix for one region — landlocked salmon, brook and brown trout, smallmouth and largemouth bass, northern pike, white perch, pickerel, crappie and smelt.
That variety is the whole appeal. It also means the honest answer to “what should I fish for?” is “it depends on the month.” Salmon and trout want cold water. Bass turn on as things warm. Pike are their own pursuit entirely.
Our take: if you have a few days and want to spend them catching fish rather than learning seven lakes from scratch, that is precisely what our guided lake and pond trips are built around.
Winter here is its own season
Plenty of visitors only ever see the Belgrades in August, which means they miss half of it.
Once the chain locks up, the region turns over to ice fishing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. The lakes are quiet, the light is extraordinary, and lodging is a great deal easier to book. For downhill skiing, Sugarloaf and Saddleback are both within driving range.
Hard water season typically runs January into March, though it varies year to year and cove to cove. Never trust anyone else’s word on ice thickness — ours included, in a post written months ahead. Check it yourself, or come out with someone who is on it every week; that is what our guided ice fishing trips are for.
The two hikes to do first
There are seven trail systems in the region, but if you only have a morning, these are the two that earn it:
- French Mountain — short, steep enough to feel like something, and over quickly. The best effort-to-view ratio in the region.
- Blueberry Hill — panoramic views out over Great Pond and Long Pond. This is the photograph people come home with.
The 7 Lakes Alliance, based at the Maine Lakes Resource Center in the village, looks after much of the conservation land here and is the right first stop for current trail information.
The Kennebec Highlands
This is the piece most visitors miss. The Kennebec Highlands is a public reserved land unit of just over 6,500 acres spread across Rome, Mount Vernon, Vienna and New Sharon — the largest block of conserved land in Central Maine. It exists because of a long collaboration between what is now the 7 Lakes Alliance and the Maine Bureau of Parks and Public Lands.
Round Top, at 1,133 feet, is the summit trail, climbing through mixed hardwood and conifer to overlooks across the whole chain. Sanders Hill is the other main route and can be linked with it. There are also five undeveloped ponds inside the unit, which is where you will find people fishing quietly in spring and early summer.
If you want a proper half-day walk rather than the twenty minutes that French Mountain takes, this is where to go.
Belgrade Lakes Village
The village is small, walkable and busy in season — the summer population of the region roughly doubles.
Day’s Store has anchored it since 1958: a genuine general store that also does pizza and sandwiches, with a lakefront picnic area to eat them in. Around it you will find Hello Good Pie bakery, Belgrade Lakes Cotton Company, Happy Girl for vintage and gifts, and Lakeside Scoops for ice cream. There is a Sunday market in season with produce, meat, cheese, baked goods, flowers and crafts.
Where to eat
- The Village Inn and Tavern — best known for a twelve-hour roast duck, which is not a thing you expect to find in a lakeside village of this size.
- Sadie’s — waterfront dining at Great Pond Marina.
- Sunset Grille — straightforward and reliable.
- Tonka’s Deck and Snack Bar — at the golf club, and open to more than golfers.
- The Olde Post Office Cafe and Scapes Cafe & Bakery — both a short drive out in Mount Vernon.
- The Ice Cream Place — over in Smithfield, and it does lobster rolls as well as ice cream.
Golf
Belgrade Lakes Golf Club is an 18-hole course laid out with lake views, and it has been listed among America’s 100 greatest public courses. If someone in your party does not fish, this solves your afternoon.
Boats and access
If you did not bring a boat, you do not need one. Great Pond Marina and Brightside Marina both rent — pontoons, kayaks, canoes, and in some cases antique cruisers. Stand-up paddleboarding is well established here too, and the narrower ponds suit it better than the open water on a windy day.
Where to stay
The Belgrades run on a camp tradition more than a hotel one:
- Bear Spring Camps — a long-running all-inclusive operation on Great Pond.
- Alden Camps and Castle Island Camps — classic Maine sporting camps.
- The Village Inn and Tavern — eight lakeside guestrooms, in the middle of the village.
- Seven Lakes Inn — a smaller boutique bed and breakfast.
- Loon Ridge — lakeside cabins.
- Cottage rentals across the region, many of them pet-friendly, plus conventional hotels in Augusta and Waterville if you would rather.
The region is also home to a cluster of long-established children’s summer camps — Matoaka, Manitou, Modin and Runoia among them — which is worth knowing if you are travelling in late June or mid-August, when changeover weekends fill the roads and the restaurants.
If you are here specifically to fish or hunt with us, start with our lodging page — we can usually match something to the trip and the season.
A literary footnote
For a quiet chain of lakes in Central Maine, the Belgrades have done well in print. Ernest Thompson drew on childhood summers on Great Pond when he wrote On Golden Pond. E.B. White spent childhood summers here too — at Bear Spring Camps — and returned to Great Pond in his 1941 Harper’s essay. If you have read Once More to the Lake, you have already been here.
Hunting: WMD 16
The Belgrade Lakes sits in Wildlife Management District 16. Confirm your zone on the MDIFW district descriptions. Our deer hunting trips and turkey hunts both work this country, and we run nuisance wildlife removal here year-round.
Making a trip of it
Seven connected lakes, two short hikes with outsized views, a village general store that has been going since 1958, a top-100 public golf course, and a winter season most visitors never see. It is a genuinely good week, and an even better long weekend.
We guide this chain year-round. If you want to build a trip around it, look at our fishing trips, recreational trips and hunting trips, or simply get in touch and tell us what you are after. Staying at the Oakland end of the chain? We have a separate guide to Oakland, Maine as well.
Sources and further reading
This guide draws on the sources below. Check them directly for current hours, dates and prices, all of which change:
- Belgrade Lakes Region — maine.com. Lake sizes, the towns of the chain, and seasonal activities.
- Belgrade Lakes — Maine Office of Tourism. Fish species, boat rentals, dining and lodging.
- 48 Hours in Belgrade — Maine Magazine. The village itinerary, shops, trails and restaurants.
- A Day in the Belgrade Lakes Region — Maine Magazine.
- Parks — Town of Belgrade. The official listing for town parks, beaches and boat launches.
We are not affiliated with any of the businesses or organisations named above, and none of these are paid placements. They are simply the places we would send a friend.