June 21, 2005 Fishing Report

Region A- Southwestern Maine

What wonderful weather to go out and catch a fish! The forecast for Southern Maine is clear skies and great fishing! Reports from Thomas Pond in Raymond and Trickey Pond in Naples indicate that the smallmouth bass are off their nests and are out looking for lures. A recent excursion to Thomas Pond with a fishing novice yielded no less than eight decent sized smallies by trolling a two-piece Rapala close to shore. It is always exciting to see the thrill on a novice angler's face as they land decent numbers of 12 to 18 inch bass. It is more than enough motivation to take a kid fishing!

Our seasonal census clerk and jack-of-all-trades Greg Massey reports excellent fishing can still be found on both Middle Range Pond in Poland and on the Little Androscoggin River. A week of fishing live smelt 14 feet down at Middle Range resulted in 10 rainbow trout in the 15-18 inch range and two decent brown trout. The Little Androscoggin River is producing good numbers of brook trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout. Your best bet is to choose your fishing time based on the water flows in the river. Greg reports that a moderate flow produces the best fishing.

Region A is gearing up to do our last week of night time bass electrofishing to evaluate size quality in area bass waters. While we may alarm some folks with our lit up boat and loud generator, rest assured, aliens are not stealing your bass and the fish always survive their encounter with your local night-owl biologists! We plan on sampling at Crescent Lake in Raymond and Crystal lake in Harrison this week.

-Brian Lewis, Fisheries Biologist Specialist

Region B - Central Maine

We seem to be locked in some sort of crazy weather pattern here in Maine. For a few days, summer seemed to come on with a vengeance, with some mid-summer humidity and some pretty big thunderstorms. Now we're apparently back to the rainy weather pattern we saw during much of May. Hopefully, we will see a return to summer this week, with increasing but moderate temperatures and sun.

Our environment is, in part, a reflection of the climate of an area. In what might be considered a 'normal' year, late spring usually brings on a gradual warming of area waters. With that warming is an increase of biological activity at all levels of organisms. This year, the warming trend has been altered to some degree by the long stretch of rain we saw in May, coupled with numerous overcast days. The volume of the rain that fell created water flows that looked a lot like the snowmelt conditions we usually see in the area in late March and early April. Also, since rain forms into droplets high in the atmosphere, it is colder than the water on the earth's surface. All this leads to a situation where there is more and colder water than we usually see at this time of year.

For many anglers, late May and June represent the 'glory days' of fishing. Along with the warming of waters, many terrestrial and aquatic insect 'hatches', and plant growth, fish also increase their level of activity. Species such as black bass, the sunfishes, the suckers, sculpins, minnows and chubs all reproduce during the late spring and early summer months. Many of the predatory fish species take advantage of this activity to gain an easy meal. Of course, all of these goings on allows anglers to entice a variety of species to all kinds of terminal tackle. Usually, the angler's luck runs pretty good.

Now, back to 'all that rain'. It has, to some degree, affected the fishing in both lakes and streams. In streams, high water levels force fish into expending a large amount of energy holding their position or trying to find refuge in the current. In lakes and ponds, flows from inlet tributaries cause an extended period of well-mixed water that results in a longer 'window' where togue and salmon feed actively at varying depths.

Reports from anglers from around the region reflect the above. In some lakes such as Long Pond, we are getting stories of good salmon catches. Many lakes with stocked this year with brook trout like Flying Pond, Crystal Pond, Jamie's Pond, Swan Lake and Echo Lake are fishing well. Streams, on the other hand, are requiring some varied strategies for success. One experienced fly fisherman said that his usual method of drifting nymphs to the base of riffles got him nothing. But a similar drift to protected structures in pools got numerous hits and produced some good fish. He released everything he caught.

The weather reports for the coming week are encouraging. It appears that summer will make a welcome return. Grab that rod and head out to your favorite or new fishing water. Be sure to include the bug dope in your tackle since we are experiencing a banner year for black flies and mosquitoes.

-Robert Van-Riper, Regional Fisheries Biologist

Region C - Downeast

Brook Trout, Salmon and Bass are still the headliners for the Downeast region.

After early high spring flows that displaced angler and brook trout alike, water levels have subsided, and temperatures have remained cool, allowing for hungry trout to settle back into normal feeding areas. These brooks and streams now have good fishable conditions and feisty squaretails are as we speak tackling the common garden hackle, mayfly and caddis imitations in areas where anglers normally find them. These perfect conditions won't last long as water temperatures will soon rise pushing trout into little known cold-water refugia areas for the summer.

The famed Grand Lake Stream salmon fishing has experienced the same spring flush that sent anglers running for the high ground. Raging torrents of water at flows of 2,300 to 2,700 CFS had made the stream unfishable for nearly 5 weeks through the month of May and into the beginning of June. Normal fishable flows range from 130 to 400 CFS and the stream is finally down to the top end level, allowing anglers to fish for gorging salmon in their usual holding areas. The hydraulic jump in the fishway of the West Grand Lake dam was made functional on Monday, June 13th, allowing salmon to move from the stream back into the lake as stream temperatures become undesirable and not optimal for salmon growth and condition. The hydraulic jump was put in place in 2004 to block non-indigenous landlocked alewives that had been illegally stocked into the main stem of the St. Croix River and were threatening to move into West Grand Lake and compete for and space and food with the tremendously important main forage fish, the rainbow smelt. This jump will remain operational until mid August to allow for the natural migration of adult salmon. Domtar has also agreed to keep optimal fish and fishing flows of at least 315 CFS to July 25th as long as the lake level holds up. So for the next month fishing should be its best, as salmon rise for caddis and continued to scoop nymphs off the bottom.

Salmon trolling on West Grand Lake continues to be good but as the warm summer sun approaches surface trolling is best done in the early morning hours between 4 and 8 am. The warm bright sun drives salmon down to the deeper depths quickly on clear days, so anglers are advised to use down riggers or lead line for the best mid and later day results.

Smallmouth and largemouth bass are also biting well on area lakes and ponds. Even with colder spring temperatures smallmouths rushed to spawn and nest around June 1st in the warmer shallower waters. Most of the males at the shallower waters are off their nests now but in the colder deeper lakes like West Grand Lake, Branch Lake, Green Lake, Phillips Lake and others, males are still guarding aggressively. Either way, lake surface water tempers are running between 65 and 70 degrees and bass are biting with gusto.

Don't miss this exciting time of year; take your family or child fishing. It will be one of the most memorable.

-Greg Burr, Fisheries Biologist Specialist

Region D - Western Mountains

Last week crews of anglers and biologists from Maine and New Hampshire began the fieldwork of a radio telemetry study on brook trout on the lower Magalloway River and Dead Diamond River. A total of 14 brook trout, ranging from 12 to 19 inches long, were caught and released with a radio tag surgically inserted into the body of the fish. The location of these fish will be monitored for the next year to determine their movements within the drainages. Also caught during the sampling were two smallmouth bass, one salmon, and one splake.

Fishing has generally been good lately, with numerous hatches of aquatic insect life triggered by the periods of hot weather. Some of the most fun, and perhaps the most overlooked, fishing opportunities occur in the many miles of small brooks and streams throughout the state. Small trout, most commonly brook trout, are often plentiful in this type of habitat and will aggressively bite a baited hook or a small wet fly at any time of day. There is no better place to introduce a young angler to trout fishing than a small mountain stream. Most all the brooks in northwestern Maine have at least a few trout present, but brooks around the towns of Andover, Weld, Eustis, and Bingham all have thriving populations.

Anglers interested in warmwater fish are having good luck also. Bass are spawning and instinctively defending their nesting area from everything, including fishing lures. White perch are another species of fish active this time of year. They gather in schools near the water's surface and are usually easy to locate on a calm evening. A few places to look for them are Norcross and Sand Ponds in Chesterville, Wesserunsett Lake in Madison, and Moxie Lake in The Forks Plt. Anglers that harvest white perch are rewarded with high quality fillets for a chowder or fish fry.

I have received an update on Dick Green's annual spring fishing trip to Mooselookmeguntic Lake in Rangeley. On the last day of May, the Topsham resident took a 24 ½ inch, 5 pound, 9 ounce salmon, which his family reported to be delicious.

-David Howatt, Fisheries Biologist Specialist

Region E - Moosehead Region

In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day and what a day we had this year. There where many fathers and grandfathers observed fishing with their kids and grandkids this weekend in the Moosehead Lake Region. The sunny weather was a change from the dismal days we experienced for the last few weeks. With a good forecast predicted for this week into the weekend, anglers should begin to see mayfly and caddis hatches pickup.

Although I was unable to spend the day with my father this year, I had the pleasure of hanging out with him and my brother for the week and a half prior. The fishing was superb. On each outing to some of my favorite brook trout ponds we competed against each other, "mano y mano", in our own "Beat Charlie Moore Challenge". The object of the challenge was to see which one of us could land the most fish and the size of the individuals did not matter. Our best outing was an hour and a half of pure excitement where the three of use landed 22 brook trout from 10"- 15" and lost a dozen or more. It was a fun week and I look forward to doing it again in the future.

This past weekend was the third annually Fly Fishing In Maine (FFIM) Spring Conclave on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Tim Obrey, Research Biologist, and I attended the conclave on Saturday evening to discuss what is going on with the smelts and salmon in the West Branch as well as the proposal to include Chesuncook and Lobster Lakes as part of "Maine's Classic Landlocked Salmon Program". The Classic Salmon Program is a cooperative project between the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, which is focusing on increasing the size of salmon in selected waters. To find out more about "Maine's Classic Landlocked Salmon Program" on the web go to www.classicsalmon.org <http://www.classicsalmon.org>.

Another side note, on June 23rd the Department will be presenting the proposal to consolidate the brook trout regulation to the Advisory Council. If you have not given input into this public process and you wish to, I encourage you to contact your local fisheries office. We have received a lot of good public input and we would like to thank those that took the time. It helps the process run much smoother when anglers get involved.

-Stephen Seeback, Fisheries Biologist Specialist

Region F, Penobscot Region

Last week in spite of rain and high water, regional fisheries and wildlife personnel from the Enfield Regional Office, with the assistance of regional fisheries from the Ashland Office, sampled approximately 45 miles of the Mattawamkeag River. Biologists were looking for smalllmouth bass habitat in various sections of the river, from T3R3 WELS (just north of Haynesville) to Kingman. Smallmouth bass were captured with rod and reel, we then measured, weighed, removed some scales and clipped their tail fins to identify them as having been handled. The scales will be prepared at a later date and then read under a microscope for age determination of each bass.

There is a great variety of habitat types in all sections of the river that we sampled. It was no surprise that where there was some type of structure, there were bass. Some long stretches of the Mattawamkeag River are deep, slow moving, while other sections have an abundance of boulders, grassy shoals and over hanging vegetation. We were quite surprised to find water depths to over 40 feet just up river from Kingman. All sections were very beautiful and unique. We all saw an abundance of different wildlife, including moose, ducks, eagle, deer, otter, beaver and bear.

I would suggest that anyone looking for an interesting river trip for smallies to consider the Mattawamkeag River. Suggested day trips would include floats from Selden to Bancroft, Bancroft to Wytopitlock and Wytopitlock to Kingman. With access points at approximately every 5 miles of river, there is ample opportunity for convenient launching and landing. All sections hold some productive smallmouth habitat and offer some excellent opportunity for quality fish up to 16 or 17 inches. Depending on the time of the year, be prepared for mosquitoes and blackflies. The section from Wytopitlock to Kingman is a rather deep, slow moving section that is the most scenic and remote part of the entire river. This section is truly rich with wildlife of all kinds, holding the only eagles nest that I have ever seen in a large oak tree.

The Penobscot River is starting to produce some bass fishing in spite of the continuing high-water. Anglers are reporting some decent fishing in all the usual places along the river from Old Town to Medway. Angling action on the river should pick up as the water levels continue to drop and temperatures start to climb again. Smallmouth bass spawning activities have been interrupted more than once this year with all of the rain and cold.

An illegal introduction of smallmouth bass in Upper Cold Stream Pond has really shown we biologists, local anglers and campowners how quickly bass can take over a lake in a relatively short period of time (since the late 1990's when we first discovered the bass). Newly hatched smallmouth bass are being reported around the entire margin of the lake this spring, and knowledgeable anglers have noticed the lack of any minnows in the shallows. This lake also drains in to Cold Stream Pond in Enfield and Lincoln which has had bass up to 4 pounds reportedly caught this spring. Another one bites the dust! Until someone starts talking we will certainly see more of this in the future. How many more lakes and ponds will be ruined by this illegal bucket stocking.

The illegal introduction of any fish into any Maine water is a Class E crime, punishable by fines up to $10,000! The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is offering a minimum reward of $2,000 for information leading to the apprehension of persons responsible for the illegal introduction of fish. Call Operation Game Thief at 1-800-253-7887. -Nels Kramer, Assistant Regional Fisheries Biologist

Region G - Aroostook County

The weather finally broke on Father's Day and fairly nice weather appears to be in the offing for the upcoming week. A kid's fishing derby held at Chapman Pit Pond sponsored by the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge was well attended on Saturday with 100+ kids participating. Reports suggest that the trout stocked for this derby cooperated with most kids leaving the pond with trout. Fishing Derbies are often viewed as fund raisers for various groups and many have a long tradition of being held such as the one sponsored this weekend by Sportsmen Incorporated, a fish and game club in Stockholm. This derby has traditionally been held on Father's Day weekend for many years and includes all waters in the Fish River Chain of Lakes. Derbies that include a number of waters are much preferable to those that target a single body of water, particularly any that are managed for coldwater fisheries. The reason being that derbies can artificially cause increased fishing pressure on a lake or pond. This year, including the Sportsmen Inc. derby, permits were issued for 3 derbies on Long Lake to be held within 2 weeks. Long Lake, 6000 surface acres, is well known for its large salmon and draws anglers statewide to fish in the hopes of catching a 9 lb+ salmon.

Though well intentioned, fishing derbies on a specific water can throw a wrench into fisheries management by artificially increasing pressure. We are presently stocking Long Lake with 4000 spring yearling salmon and have received criticism on the poor success rate to the angler, Long Lake notoriously known as "Long Wait". However, this is one of the highest salmon stocking rates in the state of Maine. The lake is similar to an agricultural field in that a farmer knows what he can plant per acre to get a quality return on his crop. Stocking salmon is no different, adding more salmon per acre will stress the system and may increase the number of fish caught but diminish the quality of the product. Wtih all of the natural variables fisheries managers deal with to provide acceptable sport fisheries, adding derbies to mix increases the complexity of the task. Such is the nature of fishery management.

-David J. Basley, Regional Fisheries Biologist

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