Lodge has link to past, but eye on its future

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As we polished off a sumptuous meal of rib-eye steaks, fiddleheads and potatoes, the sun dipped low and the sky glowed pink in that peculiar way you only seem to really notice when you’re deep in the woods, overlooking a pristine lake, with a day of fine fishing behind you.

In a state full of beautiful spots, Charles Driza’s home waters are tough to beat. Especially when the weather’s nice … the bite is on … and he has enough time to sit in his kitchen, look across West Grand Lake toward the setting sun and savor the moment.

“In this very busy, hectic, modern world, this is a place where time has stood still,” Charles Driza says later, completing a tour of the business he bought six years before. “And it’s a place to recharge your battery and slow down for a little bit.”

That, Driza says, is what Leen’s Lodge is all about. The cabins sprawl across a 23-acre compound on a peninsula that juts out into West Grand Lake. At full capacity, he may have 50 guests in camp, all enjoying the three-meals-a-day American plan he offers.

The showplace of Leen’s is the monstrous “Leen-To,” an eight-bedroom, three-bath cabin designed by architect Eaton Tarbell and built for Stanley Leen’s wife, Barbara.

The fishing – here, and in nearby Grand Lake Stream, and on any number of local lakes – can be superb. But Driza knows superb fishing is something a lodge owner can’t guarantee. An extraordinary experience, however?

Driza figures that’s well within reach … just as it always has been at Leen’s.

“We’re serious about the cooking,” Driza says, his eyes dancing as he talks about one of his passions. “I can’t guarantee the fishing, but I’ve got to be able to guarantee a good meal at the end of the day. So all winter long I’m studying Gourmet magazine and going to some different cooking classes and trying to give my client as good a product as I possibly can.”

That, Driza quickly realized, was what would be demanded at Leen’s.

Driza bought the sporting camp six years ago, after looking to buy just such a business for several years. He had been working as a mechanical engineer, and had looked first in Grand Lake Stream, then in Minnesota, before learning that Leen’s was up for sale.

And after doing his research, Driza, a lifelong fisherman, learned that Leen’s was a special place with a special reputation.

With one stroke of his powerful pen, national outdoor writer A.J. McClane assured the lodge’s permanent status in the outdoor community a generation ago.

The book: “Greatest Fishing and Hunting Lodges in North America.”

And the subtitle describing Leen’s: “Waldorf of the Wilderness.”

High praise … with high responsibility falling on all who would choose to buy it in the future.

Driza says visitors remember that line, and he takes care to pay close attention to the reputation the lodge earned after it was bought by Bangor businessman Stanley Leen back in the late 1950s.

“It is a legacy, and I saw it as a legacy,” says Driza, who bought the business from the owner who eventually took over after Leen’s death in 1989. “As a result, I didn’t change the name. It’s Leen’s Lodge. In my mind it will always be Leen’s Lodge. I’ve said it before: I’m the caretaker to a legacy, and I came here to give back, in part, to what I have enjoyed so much in my life, to what has been such a huge part of my life.”

That, of course, is the outdoors.

Fishing. Hunting. Watching. Learning. And sharing the experience with others.

On Tuesday, Driza admitted that he was a bit confused by the reticence of anglers to head to Grand Lake Stream for early season fishing opportunities.

Many Mainers know West Grand Lake and some of the other nearby lakes because of the abundant landlocked salmon that prowl the waters.

Driza, who said two fishermen boated 21 salmon in just an hour of fishing last week, pointed out that the traveling anglers who come to Leen’s seem to have something else on their mind.

“It’s a great bite right now on a lake that’s got a lot of healthy fish, a great smelt population, and there’s nobody here,” Driza says. “Very few people are taking advantage of this wonderful fishery.”

In a few weeks, however, anglers will start to show up. Not for the reasons many Mainers would think.

“Quite honestly, it’s the smallmouth bass that’s become the money fish up here,” Driza says. “My business around the smallmouth fishery is a thriving business. My business around the salmon fishery is scant.”

McClane, who also wrote a widely read fishing encyclopedia, called the Down East region the heartland of U.S. smallmouth fishing, Driza says.

And he may be right.

At some of the nearby lakes, guides can put their sports onto huge numbers of bass. Driza says 60-, 80-, and 100-fish days aren’t unheard of.

And that’s what traveling anglers are increasingly interested in.

Years ago, when Leen owned the lodge, stars of the sports and entertainment world showed up often. Ted Williams. Curt Gowdy. John Havlicek. All sat in the dark-paneled Tannery Room, looked out over West Grand, and enjoyed their quiet days in the Maine woods (and perhaps a cocktail or two with Stanley Leen after a long day on the water).

“Some of the clients who still come here recall some of the great parties that took place here,” Driza says.

Today, things are a bit different, Driza said. The Internet has made the world more accessible to all, and there’s a lot of competition for the tourism dollar.

To keep up, he is making changes. Small changes. But changes his clientele asks for.

No longer is a trip to Grand Lake Stream just a chance to unplug and recharge batteries.

Now, everyone seems to want to be accessible … even when they’re roughing it.

“One of the things the customers are asking for is high-speed Internet access, Driza says.

On Saturday, they’ll get it.

“You do still have to satisfy the customer,” he says.

Not all of the region’s changes, however, are geared toward modernization.

The Downeast Lakes Land Trust, for example, has bought thousands of acres of land that will remain forever wild, with guaranteed access for traditional activities.

For Driza, who escapes from the kitchen and other camp chores to guide during bird season each year, that’s a welcome development.

Driza, who spends as much time as possible hunting woodcock with his son, Charles, said autumn is a special time for him.

“There’s no more beautiful place in the country than Maine in October,” he says. “It’s spectacular.”

Driza said the bird-hunting business has been a major focus, and is happy with the experience he’s providing clients.

“The October bird-hunting business has been an important aspect of what we’re doing here, both from the fact that I’m able to enjoy my passion with them, and we have some really dedicated clients and guests come back year after year to enjoy that with us,” Driza says.

And though he’d surely like to be a bit busier during the initial salmon flurry, and he continues to work on building the business, Driza says he’s happy with the biggest single decision he has made to date: He came to Maine and bought a legendary lodge.

“Here’s the beauty. Here’s where I come from: After six years of being here, and knowing the state better, knowing the business better, knowing everything about this entity, I feel so strongly that I did exactly the right thing,” he says. “If I had it to do all over again, I’d do exactly the same thing. This is the place where I was supposed to be.”

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