Fishing, to many, is a solitary pursuit. Indeed, you can have hours of fun standing thigh-deep in flowing water armed with nothing but a fly rod, a fly box, a bit of fish sense … and a hunch or three.

With that said, most of my fondest fishing memories don’t involve solo fishing excursions. Fishing with friends or family, I have found, provides the perfect opportunity to spend time together, catch up, and enjoy the outdoors.

On Sept. 25, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, along with the Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands, will sponsor a program that will give families the chance to enjoy a day of fishing together … and to make a few memories of their own.

On that date, a special morning of fishing will be held to celebrate and officially open the Gravel Pit Pond family fishing area near Greenville Junction.

While a trip to Gravel Pit Pond won’t qualify as a wilderness retreat, it does offer convenient fishing opportunities for nearly everyone.

Since 1984 the Gravel Pit Pond project has emerged as a local success story in the Greenville area, as the DIF&W, Department of Conservation, and Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District have worked together to develop a family-friendly area for fishing and recreation.

According to the DIF&W, the pond has been enlarged to more than two acres, and deepened to 10 feet in some areas. The pond is stocked with brook trout in the spring and the fall so that youngsters can fish in a safe location and so that parents can teach their children the basics of fishing.

The latest addition to the pond makes it even more attractive to all: Over the summer a wheelchair-accessible trail was constructed all the way around the pond, and several fishing stations were added for those in wheelchairs.

A year ago DIF&W fisheries biologist Paul Johnson showed me around the Gravel Pit Pond facility during a youth fishing derby, and I was impressed.

At that point, hundreds of feet of shoreline provided plenty of fishing opportunities.

Adding the wheelchair stations – as well as smoothing out the path to make the entire pond wheelchair-accessible – was something that Johnson enthusiastically spoke about on that morning.

With help from the Maine Trails Program and the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program, those lofty goals for Gravel Pit Pond have become a reality.

When I was lucky enough to bag my first bear a couple weeks back, a few of the veteran hunters used an expression that I’d never heard before.

“All hair, no bear,” they said, describing all bears, not just my bruin, a healthy-looking specimen that weighed in at 228 pounds.

“All hair, no bear?” I asked. “Looks like quite a bit of bear to me.”

On Thursday, I headed to LaGrange to pick up my cut-and-packaged bear meat, and the phrase made a bit more sense.

Bears, you see, pack quite a bit of fat on their bulky frames. Remove the skin … and the fat … and you’re not left with nearly as much meat as you may have thought.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I’m just trying to figure out a way to tell of my hungry new “friends” that they may not get to sample the bear meat I’d promised them.

Dispatch from Allagash: When I spent the week at Kelly’s Camps in Allagash, I found out that there are a number of ways to tell how big a bear is.

Among the lessons: If the bear walks into your 55-gallon bait barrel, then proceeds to turn around before walking back out, he’s a small bear.

If the bear has to get down on his belly just so he can stick his head into the barrel … he’s pretty big.

And if he takes your bait barrel and carries it into the woods with him … well, in that case, you’re looking at a bruiser of a bruin.

According to Darlene Kelly Dumond, that third kind of bear showed up in Allagash on Wednesday.

The hunter: Dumond’s mother, Leitha Kelly.

Leitha Kelly, the wife of guide Tylor Kelly, has hopes of achieving the “triple crown” of Maine hunting this year. Her son, guide Wade Kelly, had his name drawn in the moose-permit lottery and has told his mom that she’ll do the shooting. If that happens … and if Leitha can bag a bear and a deer … she’ll have completed the triple crown.

On Wednesday, Leitha and Tylor headed into the woods and watched as a bear they estimated at 400 pounds approached the bait.

Leitha Kelly never got a shot at the bear … and the impatient visitor eventually decided to take his meal “to go.”

The last time the Kellys saw the bear, he was hauling the bulky barrel deeper into the forest.

Just another of the things you might see if you’re willing to sit in a tree stand for a few hours.

Reader Donnie Perkins of Blue Hill checked in earlier this week and passed along a few tales he thought I’d be interested in hearing.

Among them: The story of a bad-attitude bear that made life miserable for a few neighborhood sheep several years back … and the fact that the same bruin ended up chewing a few chunks out of the wing of a warden pilot’s plane when the sheep were eventually safely stored in the farmer’s barn.

Since that story was 20 years or so old, I told Perkins I wouldn’t write much about that one … but he did pass along word that a couple of his relatives have had recent encounters with a species many say doesn’t exist in Maine.

Perkins says two family members have seen a mountain lion in North Blue Hill recently … even though the “official” state position on the big cats is that they don’t exist in the state … as far as folks have been able to confirm.

“We don’t buy it,” Perkins said. “We’ve seen ’em.”

Perkins, of course, isn’t alone. It’s not hard to find Mainers who are sure they’ve seen the stealthy cats in the woods, and even biologists will often privately tell you that they’d love to finally have concrete proof to support the conjecture of so many.

Several months ago, in fact, a former Brewer neighbor who has spent plenty of time in the woods told me he was positive that he’d seen a mountain lion outside of his house, less than two miles from the center of town.

By the time he grabbed a camera, the cat had skulked back into the woods (of course).

The mystery continues … and as they say, the plot thickens.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.