Weekly Fishing Reports by Regional Fishery Biologists 
Previous Weekly Reports
June 11, 2007
Even though surface water temperatures are beginning to climb with the onset of summer, trout and salmon fishing in the region remains excellent. Anglers continue to report good catches of lake trout and salmon from Sebago, Auburn, and Thompson Lakes. Of the three, Sebago is certainly the shining star and has made a dramatic turnaround over the last year or two. Anglers are commonly reporting catches of 3-7 pound salmon, and even one or two monstrous 8-pounders have been landed! The lakers are also looking healthy with most fish running between 3-6 pounds, but a number of fish in the low teens have been landed so far this year. Certainly, the lake will yield a few more of these trophies throughout the summer months. On the other hand, as we forecasted from our 2006 data (hydroacoustics and fall trapnetting) Thompson Lake's salmon and togue fisheries are experiencing a downturn, particularly in terms of size quality. The cause...a substantial decline in smelt abundance. MDIFW has reduced the salmon stocking rate by 1/3 for the spring of 2007, and we will continue to adjust as the smelt population responds. Past experience suggests Thompson Lake will probably make a relatively quick recovery. Auburn Lake has had mixed reports from anglers, the biggest complaint being fewer salmon. On the other hand, our seasonal clerk censusing Auburn has seen some excellent catches of lake trout and salmon. This season's clerk data, as well as, our annual fall sampling of the salmon run will allow us to keep tabs on the situation at Auburn Lake and we'll be sure to keep you posted.
Medium and smaller sized lakes in the region have also been fishing well for trout. Anglers have reported some fantastic trips in the past week or so, particularly for rainbows and browns. Roger Lavalliere of Windham recently fished Crystal Lake in Gray one afternoon and landed 8 bows and 4 browns in the 14-18" range. He was particularly excited about a beautiful heavily spotted, and strong colored 17" inch rainbow trout. Like Roger, a York County angler has had some great fishing for browns and bows from 14-20" at Kennebunk Pond in Lyman, and we have had similar reports from Upper and Middle Range Ponds in Poland. Trolling live bait, stick baits, lures, and streamer flies along the shoreline at depths of 8-15' deep have all been effective. Give it a try!
As reported in the past couple write-ups, region A has been sampling several bass waters with our electrofishing boat. Last week we were sampling Thompson Lake, which we hope to finish up this week before moving on the Thomas Pond in Casco. Our bass sampling work on Thompson has been interesting. As expected largemouths are relatively rare, and even though smallmouths were more abundant there presence was spotty. The average size quality of the smallmouths was excellent; however, there was a definite lack of juveniles and smaller sized bass despite an abundance of juvenile bass habitat. Based on our sampling at Thompson, it is clear that the smallmouth bass spawning season is well underway even on our larger lakes. Don't miss out...it is without a doubt one of the best times to fish for bass! This is also a great time to introduce a kid to fishing, you can almost guarantee fast action and land a few hawgs.
-James Pellerin, Regional Fisheries Biologist
Region B - Central Maine
Anglers living in central Maine have some serious decisions to make when it comes to late spring fishing, which water to fish today?
In preparation for my father’s annual spring visit I started thinking of places where to take him fishing. He is an avid angler, happy to fish for most any species, always interested in seeing new waters, and tends to shy away from places that are too crowded. To put it plainly, he just loves to fish.
This year I decided on showing him a variety of opportunities: wild brook trout ponds, wild brook trout streams, stocked brook trout stream, warm water streams, black crappie ponds, and bass lakes. His visit was for nine days and I am happy to report that he had the opportunity to fish each day.
The first day of his trip we traveled north on Rt. 201 to fish some native brook trout ponds. Fishing was good with a number of trout caught including a beautiful 16 inch male. The next day we again headed north on Rt. 201 to another brook trout pond but had no luck in the very cold water. The outing on the pond was not a loss as we enjoyed watching the numerous waterfowl on the pond: Canada geese, mallards, black ducks, hooded mergansers, common mergansers, and ring-neck ducks. With plenty of daylight left, we loaded the canoe on the truck and traveled to a nearby trout stream where we spent the rest of the day enjoying the abundant wildflowers, the sight of hidden pockets of snow, and the constant biting of trout. We arrived home that evening with our limits of trout, which combined with the fresh fiddleheads my girlfriend’s father picked, made for an excellent meal. The next couple days I headed in to work while he fished some on a local stream catching smallmouth bass and fallfish in between periods of cleaning up camp. On the fifth day of his trip he headed over to Carrabassett Stream in Canaan, which is stocked by the department with brook trout. This could be called a “work adventure” for my father, as I was curious to see how many trout were still around the stocking locations almost three weeks after stocking. He spent four hours fishing and caught 3 trout between the two stocking points. (Don’t give up on those stocked trout waters as some of those fish are still around!) Throw in the dozen fallfish, wildflowers, abundant deer sign, and a curious mink; a good day of fishing was had. The next day another new water, a small pond in Palmyra where he spent the day catching smallmouth bass, pickerel, and yellow perch. Over the next two days we spent time at camp together finding time to in the cooler periods of the day to catch smallmouths, fallfish, and trout. The last day of his stay we headed over to Sibley Pond in Pittsfield searching for black crappie and white perch. After a little searching we found both and at times the fishing was very fast. A couple of feisty smallmouth bass added to the outing.
All these trips were within 45 minutes of Skowhegan, with fishing done either from shore or canoe. This time of year we have found that small jigs tend to be the best choice for all warmwater species and even trout in ponds.
Now to start thinking about what new waters to fish during my father’s summer visit!
-Joe Dembeck, Research Fisheries Biologist
Region C - Downeast - Photos from the field!
If you love bass fishing, the bass are biting well now! Both smallmouth and largemouth bass are highly active, with juveniles feeding heavily and with adults spawning. Males dependably and dutifully remain by the nest to guard eggs and fry from fish-eating predators. When male bass are removed from the nest, even temporarily, as when anglers catch and release them, this interruption in diligent nest defense can result in high levels of predation on the eggs and fry in just a few minutes. Anglers are strongly encouraged to play and release male bass quickly in the immediate vicinity of the nest; it will pay dividends for your future bass fishing!
The fisheries staff of the Downeast Region is currently sampling bass from Graham Lake in the Ellsworth area and Georges Pond in Franklin to monitor size and age composition of the bass populations. The information we have collected during the past 21 years from more than 7,000 bass has been highly valuable in implementing regulations to preserve and protect the quality of eastern Maine’s bass populations, which occur in 613 of Maine’s lakes and ponds.
Try bass fishing! You’ll find it to be the way fishing should be.
Another of Maine’s favorite warmwater fish species, the white perch, is spawning now. Campowners on several eastern Maine lakes have reported seeing schools of perch swimming close to shore recently.
For the second consecutive year, eastern Maine biologists and wardens have clearly noted an improvement in the number of 10-12” trout in eastern Maine rivers and streams, with some individuals up to 16-18” in the more productive trout rivers and streams. Fly fishing with nymphs, dry flies, and small streamers has been highly productive in the last two weeks. Brook trout fishing will slow by the end of June as water temperatures increase closer to 70 F, so if you love to fish flowing waters, now is the time to be out.
Our 2007 summer staff has 2 additional seasonal fisheries workers, Lonna Perry and Jessie Kuester, who are electrofishing Hancock and Washington County streams and rivers to collect information on brook trout populations. We expect that they will visit 150-200 eastern Maine streams this summer, contributing a great deal to our knowledge of brook trout. As proof of the old saying that “big fish eat little fish”, two 10-inch brook trout captured this week had fish in their mouths. One had a small brook trout, and the other had a sizable salt-water smelt!
-Rick Jordan, Regional Fishery Biologist
As we've previously noted in these columns, the illegal introduction of smallmouth bass is expected to impact native brook trout populations in the Kennebec and upper Androscoggin drainages. Our crews are currently working to determine those impacts, and to minimize or negate them where possible. Dave Boucher, Dave Howatt, and Jason Seiders spent part of last week electrofishing bass from C Pond in Oxford County prior to the construction of a fish barrier on the outlet later this summer, all part of an effort to prevent bass from becoming permanently established there. In addition, Boucher, Howatt and Kyle Murphy of Florida Power and Light will be working on the Rapid River this weekend to monitor the impact of bass on that fishery. With permission, they'll be weighing and measuring the trout and salmon that anglers catch, (to be returned to the river alive, of course) and appreciate the cooperation of anglers in helping with this project.
Beginning next month we'll be monitoring our stream restoration projects at South Bog Stream, the Cupsuptic River, and the Sandy River. In addition, we're planning a new project on Bemis Stream, a tributary to Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Like the other streams we've worked on, Bemis was degraded by log driving and timber harvesting within the drainage. We're planning a different type of restoration on this stream - the addition of "large woody debris" to a mile of the stream. Adding wood to the headwaters of the stream will help to form pools, slow down the runoff, and trap nutrients. This project is being done in concert with a study being conducted by Dr. Stephen Coghlan and his grad student Paul Damkot to determine the effect of the introduction of brook trout on fishless streams. We'll report on this project as it progresses.
I've had lots of reports of good stream fishing "if you can stand the bugs" so lather up in fly dope and head for the sound of running water; this is prime fishing time.
-Forrest Bonney, Regional Fisheries Biologist
Water temperatures are still cool in the area. Bass are just starting to build nests in waters on the southern fringes of the region and the first caddis hatches were observed last week on trout ponds in the area. Anglers are reporting some good salmon and lake trout fishing in the Rockwood area on Moosehead Lake. Flows in the East Outlet bumped up to nearly 5,000 cfs last week, which washed out most of the fishing. The good news is the flow is back down to around 2,400 cfs early this week and those high flows typically bring more fish into the river. The river fishing should be very good over the next few weeks as the insect activity increases.
Last week we finished up the scheduled stocking for the Moosehead Lake Region with some additional brook trout for the East and West Outlets and Fitzgerald Pond. We have had reports of great fishing on most of the stocked trout ponds in the Region this spring.
We have scheduled a public informational meeting in Rockwood on the 14th at 6:30 pm. The purpose of this meeting is to provide an exchange of information between the Fisheries staff and the anglers. We anticipate questions regarding some of the proposed regulation changes and we will be prepared to discuss them. A formal regulation hearing has been scheduled for July 10th at the Greenville High School at 6:30 pm.
This spring we have used our weekly fishing reports to keep you informed of our proposed regulation changes. We will wrap it up this week with a proposal for Wilson Pond in Greenville and a few minor changes on several other waters.
Wilson Pond has an abundant lake trout population. The problems at Wilson Pond are very similar to those next door at Moosehead Lake. There are so many lake trout that the fish are below average, in terms of growth and fatness. In fact, according to our data from summer anglers, catch rates for lake trout less than 18 inches are on par with catch rates on Moosehead Lake. This pond is one of several in this region where lake trout have become very abundant. In 1998, we adopted a 3 fish/14”; 1 over 18” limit in an effort to reduce the population. This effort is hampered by the fact that the lake is only open in the summer. Essentially, we cannot get enough wild lake trout out of the system with the current regulations. We do not feel that summer fishing pressure/harvest is sufficient to improve the situation. Therefore, we would like to advance a proposal to the public that would open the lake to ice fishing for all species except salmon. The final regulation proposal for the winter would be Open under Group B, S-4, S-17, All salmon must be released alive at once. Daily bag limit on lake trout 3 fish; only 1 may be greater than 18"; all 3 may be between 14-18".
The following is a list of the remaining proposals and a brief explanation:
Allagash Lake: We recommend changing the summer length limit on whitefish to 16 inches. This was overlooked when the length limit change was adopted in the winter. This will standardize the regulations.
Big Indian Pond: Increase bag limit on lake trout from 1 fish to 2 fish. There appears to be an increase in the wild lake trout population and the fish look lean recently.
Brann’s Mill Pond: We have consolidated the number of statewide special regulations on our bass waters this year. Therefore, we needed to make a few changes in this Region. Currently, all bass over 18 inches must be released alive at once. This regulation will no longer be available. Therefore, based on available regulation options and data from Brann’s Mill Pond, we are proposing to adopt a daily bag limit of 1 bass and all bass between 16 and 20 inches must be released alive at once.
Harlow/Manhancock Ponds: This pond currently has the same regulation as Brann’s Mill Pond. Therefore, for the same reasons outlined above, we are proposing catch and release on all bass on this trophy bass water in the Moosehead Lake Region.
Drummond Pond: This is a new gravel pit pond in Abbot. The pond has been stocked and we hope to promote family fishing at this location. Therefore, we have proposed a 2 trout limit to distribute the catch of newly stocked brook trout in the open water season. We are also proposing to open the pond to winter fishing for kids under the age of 16. There will be a 2-trap limit and a 2-trout limit.
Hussey Pond: This pond was surveyed for the first time last summer. It was found to have a principal fishery for native brook trout. In accordance with our policy, we have proposed ALO for Hussey Pond and S-17 based on the trout data we collected during the survey.
Jackson Pond (T3 R11): This pond is currently open under FFO with a 5 fish limit. Current data show that this roadside pond has heavy angler use and the quality of the fishery is slipping. Therefore, we have proposed adding S-17.
Long Pond (Elliotsville and West Bowdoin College Grant): We have consolidated the number of statewide special regulations on our salmon waters this year. Therefore, we needed to make a few changes in this Region. The regulation at Long Pond is currently 2 salmon with a 12-inch minimum length limit. This option is no longer available; therefore, we are proposing to adopt general law regulations for salmon at Long Pond.
Nahmakanta Lake: We are proposing to eliminate the aggregate bag limit on gamefish. The only change will affect salmon. We are proposing to adopt general law limits.
Upper Paradise Pond: We are proposing to manage this stocked trout pond with trophy regulations. It is currently S-5 and S-16. We recommend S-5 with a minimum length limit on trout of 18 inches.
Round Pond (Appleton Twp): This pond was surveyed for the first time last summer. It was found to have a native brook trout population. In accordance with our policy, we have proposed S-4.
-Tim Obrey, Regional Fisheries Biologist
Last week I had the opportunity to assist personnel from the Ashland Region with some work in one of the more remote parts of their region. The Big Black River, a tributary to the St. John River in the far northwest section of the State of Maine, was running 200+ cubic feet per second, a bit low for easy traveling. We put in from the Depot Road in T14 R16 WELS, and after two days of paddling, motoring, pushing and pulling downstream, we arrived at the confluence with the St. John River in T15 R13 WELS. Our charge was to evaluate both fish populations and habitat structure.
Unfortunately the fish populations have changed in the last twenty years, and not for the better. Brook trout are still present, but
muskellunge are also now widespread throughout the drainage and are proving as destructive to the native brook trout populations as predicted 25 years ago when Maine biologist's discovered their presence in Maine. Some opportunities exist but need to be addressed quickly to limit the expansion of muskellunge in other adjacent drainages.
It was both a revealing and fascinating trip through a section of Maine that most people never get a chance to experience. For me, it was an opportunity to assess first hand some of the challenges we will be facing over the next few years as we try to limit the expansion of Northern pike in the Penobscot Drainage. My thanks to Ashland Fisheries Staff and Game Wardens Gary Sibley and Chad Abbott for all their assistance.
Reports continue to come in from throughout the Penobscot Region documenting some excellent fishing for brook trout and splake. Trout between 4 and 6 pounds are being boated in the back country as anglers follow up on some promising rumors. Sometimes it takes a couple of trips to hit it "just right", but nothing beats that sensation of bringing a large trout to the boat!
Next Sunday, June 17th, is Fathers Day, and I can think of nothing that would make Dad happier than a day fishing with the family. I would suggest a trip to the Penobscot River to fish for smallmouth bass. The river between Bangor and Medway is full of hungry smallies waiting to take a hook! When you go, please WEAR your PFD, bring plenty of sunscreen and take a camera!
-Nels Kramer, Assistant Regional Fisheries Biologist
Fisheries personnel spent 3 days last week on the Big Black River in western Aroostook County. Flow for the trip was dropping from 200 cfs as measured at the USGS station on the Big Black River near Depot Mountain. Water temperature was 60F. Based on our observations, flow less than 200 cfs would not be desireable for canoeing this river. Launching off the Depot Road, brook trout were observed in the upper quickwater section of river prior to hitting extensive deadwater above the Maibec Road bridge. Muskellunge were present in this deadwater. It is speculated that the trout caught in the upper section were dropdowns from cold tributary brooks. Another quickwater section of river prior to the confluence of the Shields Branch offered no brook trout.
Access to the Big Black down the Shields Branch from the Robinson Road is all deadwater that can be motored with no difficulty. Ninemile Deadwater stretches upstream and downstream from this confluence and was measured at 53 feet where the Shields Branch enters the Big Black but was typically 10-15 feet deep. This deadwater can be motored downstream to the site of the old dam where quickwater begins again. Another section of deadwater is present near Two Mile Brook and then it is once again quickwater to the take out at the crossing on the Estcourt Road. Muskellunge are the dominant sport fish now in this section of the Big Black.
No authorized campsites were observed from the start of the canoe trip to the confluence with the St. John River, except for those located at the end of the trip off the Estcourt Road and at the confluence with the St. John River. The trip between the Depot Road and Shields Branch and from the Shields Branch to the Estcourt Road can each easily be done in a day trip with a canoe and motor while enjoying some fishing. This is a very easy and enjoyable trip for anyone looking to get off the beaten path.
-David Basley, Regional Fisheries Biologist
