Dear Reader: Since I am working at a fishing camp in a remote part of Labrador, I am unable to file a regular weekly column. When I return, my regular timely columns will return with me. I might even have a fish story or two to share with you. Meantime, I have dusted off a few columns that might be worth your time. Tight lines.

In May, a column I wrote about Maine’s specially designated “remote trout ponds” spurred quite a bit of reader interest. An offer to e-mail a list of these 176 remote ponds to anyone requesting it brought dozens and dozens of requests. They are still coming in.

Enter Joe Pratt. A capable, meticulous fly fisherman who works as a financial planner in the Bangor area, Joe is one of those successful young professionals who, in my opinion, works too much and fishes too little.

I know because I once walked that trail. When I talked with Joe last week, he said that he hadn’t wetted a fly this season. “Not good, Joe,” I reproached, shaking my head, “Life’s too short.” As we talked, I recalled in my mind the June night a few years back when Joe and my son Scotty were overtaken by darkness at one of these remote ponds. Neither man had a flashlight. Hiking out on a rough trail in the pitch black was out of the question. So they hunkered down til dawn’s early light. Meanwhile, anxious wives notified the Maine Warden Service. When these two “lost souls” walked out of the woods just after daybreak the next day, District Warden Andy Glidden was at the trailhead to greet them and about to start a search. Assorted admonishments followed from loved ones about the Boy Scout motto, etc. Warden Glidden, to his credit, reportedly offered no lectures to the “missing” anglers. What Warden Glidden probably didn’t know is that both fishermen were trained in outdoor survival by the U.S Air Force.

Joe told me that though he hadn’t fished this season, he had been thinking trout. In fact, he read my column, got the list of Maine’s 176 remote trout ponds and was inspired. Not only to go fishing, but to do some further research on these remote ponds, organize his data and run it through some spread sheet software in his computer. What he has done is prepare an alphabetical listing of the ponds, along with the following information: pond acreage, location, county, appropriate page in the Delorme Gazetteer, and pond altitude.

Obviously, this adds immeasurably to the convenience factor for folks who share my goal in life to fish all 176 of these ponds. Of particular interest to me is the listing of pond altitudes. A few of these remote ponds are at altitudes in excess of 2,000 feet above sea level. In fact, one pond in Oxford County is at 3,425 feet. Why is altitude of interest? Well, as Joe notes, altitude effects air temperature, which in turn effects water temperature, insect hatches and fish activity levels.

Bottom line: Die-hard trout anglers discouraged by warming waters and lethargic trout during the Dog Days of August might want to check out some of these higher altitude remote ponds. From Joe’s list, here are 15 of the highest altitude remote ponds in Maine:

Aziscohos Pond, 2,100; Cape Horn Pond, 1,900; Clearwater Pond, 1,960; Clish Pond, 1,820; Eddy Pond, 2,625; Helen Pond, 2050; High Pond, 2080; Ledge Pond, 2,987; Little Swift Pond, 2,450; Midway Pond, 2,725; Moxie Pond, 2,375; Northwest Pond, 2,090; Saddleback Pond, 2,100; Speck Pond, 3,425, and Tumbledown Pond, 2,660.

The highest altitude pond, Speck, is a small, nine-acre pond in Grafton Township in Oxford County. Of the 176 designated remote trout ponds, 89 of them are located in Piscataquis County. Please remember that, as was pointed out in the earlier column, vehicular access of any kind (this includes ATVs) is prohibited into these ponds.

Our thanks to Joe Pratt for sharing the list. May he find more time to wet a fly in the days and years ahead, and always bring his flashlight. A complete version of the Pratt List, as it will come to be known in the future annals of Maine fly fishing, will be published in the September issue of the Northwoods Sporting Journal, which is available at newsstands throughout Maine.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal.He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 6 p.m. on 103.9, and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.