Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 2nd week of April, 2001

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 April 9, 2001

             Old Man Winter still has his icy grip on much of the water north of the Massachusetts border, except for a narrow band along the Maine and New Hampshire local coastline. The word from up north is that opportunities are scarce. In the south, high and cloudy cold water is not helping the fishing. In all, the prospects for a good week's fishing coming up are not that bright.

            Maine's coastal sea-run brown trout fisheries are one of the better prospects for some action. Chris Henson at the Kittery Trading Post's Fishing Department, says that he's talked to fishermen coming back from the Mousam River in Ogunquit that were taking two to three decent fish from each tide cycle. "Fishing around the floating ice coming down the river is adding a little more of a challenge than usual," Chris laughed.

            Maine's fisheries biologist that heads up the sea-run project, John Boland, reported that although he's a bit concerned about where the majority of last fall's trout stocking have gone, he noted that the average size of sea-run trout caught has been large, from 18 to 23 inches. "The water is very cold, and we've had some pretty high water conditions.  Those fish stocked last year (brown trout and a few brook trout in the 12 inch size range) may be scattered out. I think that as conditions improve they'll show up and add a lot to this fishing," he said.

            Craig Bergeron at Saco Bay Tackle, had seen a lot of fishermen headed for the sea-run trout waters. "There were 15 anglers fishing in one stretch of the Mousam River. The action has been slow, but there are enough trout being caught and seen to keep the enthusiasm up. All we need is a couple of warm days, and I anticipate that we'll see some great fishing. A few hatches in the upper areas near the fresh water coming in, and the fly fishing can be spectacular."

            Recreational clamdigging is a sport that has really been increasing in popularity. Craig from Saco Bay, said that he's seen people from as far as Massachusetts coming to take advantage of the below normal, full moon low tides and that some good success was had at the Old Orchard Beach and Scarborough Beach areas. Hen clams (Maine-speak for surf clams) and quahog clams were the majority of what were being taken.

            New Hampshire's Hampton/Seabrook Harbor had a lot of diggers out on the flats last Friday and Saturday according to Captain Bill Brindamour, clam shuttle boat operator. "The soft shell clams here are a bit scarcer than last year, but still well over the average, according to our marine biologist's recent surveys. We seldom see many diggers leave here without their ten quart limit," he said. (Ten quarts of soft-shelled clams represents over a fifty-dollar investment when purchased at retail!)

            Along with the clams, there was a limited amount of coastal and deep-sea saltwater action. Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett, Massachusetts reports that the Walsh Party Boats out of Lynn Harbor have had terrific luck on cod and haddock. These boats are fishing on Wednesdays and Sundays and have been fishing Jeffrey's Ledge and other ledges in that area. Santini also noted that at the B Buoy outside of Boston Harbor, cod had been hitting jigs very well. Herring and alewives were being seen in greater numbers around the Charles River Locks, where a few leftover stripers were being caught, mostly on chunk bait. "I'd give it another week or so before we see any of the little fresh run schoolies," Pete forecast.

            Kay Moulton at Surfland Tackle on Plum Island, reports that the herring run had started at the Essex River, but had no reports of herring in the Plum Island or Parker Rivers. "There's still rumors of a few cod being caught just offshore, and usually, when the herring start here the shad will come in with them. So if we get a warm spell, things are apt to break open," Kay hoped. She also mentioned that the Walsh Party Boat had taken a nice catch of haddock on Wednesday.

            Pete Santini's freshwater report was anything but gloomy. "We had a father and son team, Brian Scarlaro and his son Derek, in here with four nice brookies--13 inchers that they'd just caught at Fellsmere Pond in Malden on nightcrawlers. To top it off, they also had a four-pound largemouth that had hit a big live shiner. I was over there last night, and there were quite a few trout rising and saw one caught on a black wooly buggar," Pete said.

            "Horn Pond in Woburn was hot last week for Atlantic salmon. There were five taken, the largest one was nine pounds. The salmon have been hitting spoons and spinners--Little Cleo spoons and Rooster Tail spinners. The brown trout in Horn have been grabbing worms and crawlers fished right on bottom. At Silver Lake in Wilmington, there's a lot of action on freshly stocked brown trout. They're using Power Bait, worms and spoons," Pete ended.

            Southern New Hampshire's rivers are starting to produce a few more trout, according to Chris Henson at the Kittery Trading Post. "The Lamprey River, especially the stretch below the Wiswall Dam in Lee, has seen some pretty good fly fishing activity. There's been a hatch of little black stoneflies. On a warm day, the fishermen are using black caddis-type dry flies in size 16 and 18. On the days when no fish are rising, the same size black fuzzy type or zug bug nymphs are producing. On the Newfound River in the fly-only stretch, the fishing has been slow but an occasional outsized fish has been caught. A student of one of our fly tying classes took a six-pound rainbow on a sculpin pattern that we'd tied. One of the other things that has been working occasionally on the Newfound is a small leech pattern with a peach colored, single egg pattern. Most of the fish caught on this combo have taken the egg fly," Chris noted.

            "New Hampshire has dozens of lakes managed for rainbow trout. In the early spring, some of these trout will attempt a spawning run into some of the lake's tributaries, even the smaller brooks. If you walk these brooks you can actually spot pairs of rainbow trout. Using polarized sunglasses and being very stealthy can put you in a position to drop a fly close enough to get these fish to hit. With few exceptions, rainbow trout eggs can't hatch here, as the water is far too acidic, so you are not interfering with any natural propagation. We release all we catch anyway," Chris said.

            Jim MacKenzie  at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland, NH reports that the nearby Winnicut River lost its ice cover last week and that a few anglers had been trying their luck there. "We've heard that local stocking will begin as soon as the end of this week. There's darn few holdover fish in our local waters, so until the stocking, the chances of landing a trout here is pretty slim," he warned.

            "We're still pretty much ice-bound here, in fact, there's still quite a bit of ice fishing going on for perch and crappie," laughed Tink Nelson at Tink's Trading Post in Wakefield. Tink wanted to alert fishermen to the fact that all ice fishing on designated lake trout waters stops March 31st, regardless of the species you are targeting. "It's still okay to fish all the other ponds for panfish, and the perch are hitting very well in spots. Another exception is the border ponds we share with Maine. The ice fishing season is closed on all of them," he said.

            Tink's picks for open water trout fishing both entail a bit of prospecting and the use  of live bait, or as he says, a big gob of crawlers. He suggests the lower Branch River where some brown trout usually are found that originate from stockings of the Milton Three Ponds and the Salmon Falls River, below the Milton Dam. "There's an occasional whopper caught from these two rivers," he enthused. Open water at Lake Winnipesaukee's Alton and Wolfeboro Bays remains limited to tiny openings at the river mouths.

            George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury, was a bit frustrated by the slowness of the spring. H did note that he'd had some glowing reports from anglers that have been traveling to the Merrimack River in Bow to fish the warm-water discharge canal below the big power plant there. "These guys are catching a lot of smallmouths, largemouths, and even an occasional Atlantic salmon. Live bait has been best for the bass, but salmon must be released, unless you have a special permit and caught the fish on artificial lures," he noted. He also said the few locals worming the brooks nearby had found very little brook trout action.

            Jim Ordeshook from Hooksett, reported that the Merrimack River was high, but fishable, but hadn't heard of much luck there.

            "There's a little more room out here at the mouth of the river. In fact, there's one boat out there trolling now, but the fishing has been slow," reports Bill Martel at Martel's Bait in Laconia. "We've had a few lakers caught here, but no salmon and only one good rainbow trout. There has been some pretty good action at the Long Island Bridge and the Governor's Island Bridge (Lake Winnipesaukee), but this weekend it was shoulder-to-shoulder fishing. They're getting a few salmon and some pretty nice rainbows. There's enough open water at the Weirs Bridge, but few fish are being caught there. Opechee Lake is still hanging onto its ice cover, but there is enough water to fish at the inlet and outlet. We haven't heard a word of any smelt runs of yet," he ended.

            George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin, reported that fishing action on the open water areas of the Androscoggin River had been really picking up, but the fishing was not fast. He weighed in one brown trout of over two pounds caught on cut bait that had a good story. "These two guys were fishing with a shiner that they'd cut in half. The fellow with the tail end had a hit and pulled in this nice brownie. When it was on shore, the trout spit out the head of a shiner. His friend pulled his line in and found the hook bare. Apparently, this trout was hungry and had grabbed both baits, getting hooked on the second one," he laughed.

            Malloy said that quite a few anglers were still out on the ice and that Cedar Pond in Milan and Crystal Lake in Stark had been producing some good action. There is still about six feet of snow in the woods there!

            "Sebago Lake anglers are having a hard time just finding a place to drop a line," lamented fisheries biologist John Boland. "There's some open water, I've heard out to the buoys, at the mouth of the Songo River, but you can't get near the boat ramp at the State Park. There's been a few fish taken at the Songo Locks and at Panther Run in Raymond. Over at Auburn Lake, where there's usually plenty of open water around Shoreline Drive, we've seen people having to fish in little patches of open water not much larger than a bathtub! I just can't remember when we've had such tough, early season conditions. Many of our lakes still have a big snow cover along with several feet of ice. It's unbelievable," he sadly admitted.

            Greg Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago, said that two of his customers had dragged a canoe across the ice to fish the mouth of the Songo River, but to his knowledge, had nothing to show for their efforts.

            The time-honored sport of fishing for spawned-out Atlantic salmon in the Maritime Provinces of Canada has also taken a hit from the delayed spring. Gayland Hachey at Hachey's Rod and Fly Shop in Veazie, Maine reported that the New Brunswick Rivers are still ice-bound and not fishable. "Will the salmon hold until the ice is out before they return to sea?" we asked. Hachey's answer should give hope to the hundreds who travel to these areas each spring. "They'll always stay until the ice goes and the rivers run high," was his answer.

          Past Fishing Reports 2001

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