BANGOR – Police are investigating something fishy at the Bangor Museum.

An antique, wooden fishing rod was stolen from the State Street museum on Sept. 29 just after the doors opened for the day, according to museum Executive Director Linda Jaffe.

“For somebody to do this is just really distasteful,” Jaffe said Wednesday.

The rod hung about 6 feet off the ground on metal hooks near the front entrance and was removed at about 10 a.m. while museum employee Sandra Bryant stepped out back to deliver some mail, Jaffe said.

The rod was in place the previous night when the museum was locked up and secured with an alarm.

“I looked and it was gone,” Bryant said.

The motive for the theft is unclear, as the rod is worth $500 to $1,000 and other pieces in the museum could be sold for far more, Jaffe said.

The 8-foot Leonard fly fishing rod, made in Maine in the early 1900s, has been in the Bangor Historical Society’s collection since the 1970s. Rod maker Hiram Leonard built his first rods in 1869 at his shop in Bangor, garnering attention from the Boston sporting goods company Bradford and Anthony, which would later commission and popularize his work, according to the H.L. Leonard Rod Co. Web site.

It is the first time the society has been robbed, Jaffe said.

“Within anybody’s memory, this is the first time something like this has happened,” she said. “It just compromises the story we’re trying to tell here.”

The only possible suspect is a man who came into the museum that morning to ask for directions, Jaffe said. He was a clean-cut white man in his 30s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall with dark hair, and he did not appear suspicious, she said.

“Maybe if he had looked more sinister we would have paid attention,” Jaffe said.

Both the man and the rod were gone when Bryant and Jaffe returned to the exhibit area.

The rod was insured, and the museum’s board of directors will decide how to proceed if it is not recovered, Jaffe said.

New security measures are in place as a result of the theft, including a door buzzer and a policy that the museum will be locked even when employees leave for short periods, she said.

The police, local museums, pawn shops and several fishing groups have been notified of the theft, but Jaffe is now looking to the public for help.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Jaffe at 942-1900 or the Bangor Police Department at 947-7384.