Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 1st week of May, 2001

View Past Reports

May 7, 2001

            There was nothing but good news this morning, as reports of lakes free of the long winter's ice and some very good fishing were more or less universal. For both fresh and saltwater, prospects were bright for the fishing to even get better.

            Maine and New Hampshire's more northern lakes finally gave up their ice cover. Gary Adams, President of the Kittery Trading Post, returned from his camp on Moosehead Lake, where the ice had gone the end of last week. Although Gary's luck at trolling a few hours wasn't too good, he did say that conditions were becoming ideal, and Moosehead Lake could have one of its best fishing seasons in years.

            Dan Legere at the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville, added to Adam's information. "There's been very little fishing pressure, as most anglers didn't expect the ice to go out this early. But there has been some pretty good success, mostly confined to the areas around the river inlets. The rivers are exceptionally low for this time of year. Lake levels were dropped well below normal as big floods from the snow pack were expected. Well, it didn't happen," Dan said.

            "My guiding service hadn't booked any trips until May 18th in the anticipation of too-high water. But now it's actually too low to float my drift boat in a lot of areas. These rivers should be very good for fishing right now. The East Outlet of the Kennebec is running at minimum flows, around 550 c.f.s., which makes it good for wading. The fishing around the lake inlets where the smelt are gathering should be especially good. For lake fishing, streamer flies and sinking fly lines are the meat and potatoes of springtime fishing. With the smelt running, a lot of gamefish show up around the mouths of the rivers for the feast. Streamer patterns such as the Magog smelt, Joe's smelt, gray ghost, and nine three have always been reliable," Dan suggested.

            Some other local ponds had been productive, with Wilson Pond giving up salmon to 18 inches and brookies to 16 inches.

            Dan likes to drum up some new patterns each year. Right now he's working on smelt imitations that feature an EZ Body Braid material. He colors the back black and the sides purple with a permanent marker and uses stick-on eyes to finish the job.

            The Rangeley Lakes Region also had reports of ice going out. Carol Harvey at the River's Edge Sport Shop in Oquossoc, said that Rangeley Lake and Mooselookmeguntic Lake were clear, except for some isolated coves. "We haven't received any word about the Richardson Lakes or Aziscohos, but they should be open now or at the latest, by this weekend. Quimby Pond had cleared on Tuesday, and some brookies to 18 inches were taken. Dodge Pond is also clear, and there's been some fishing pressure there," she noted.

            Carol added that the lakes were very low, with Mooselookmeguntic being about four and a half feet below normal. Efforts were being made to raise the levels, with Mooselook coming up about six inches a day. Last year Rangeley Lake provided the largest fish of the Rangeley area, with some of the other lakes seeing lots of action on smaller trout and salmon.

            The salmon and togue (lake trout) fishermen in the Sebago Region were pleasantly surprised at the number and quality of both species, according to John Boland, regional fisheries biologist there. "One fisherman we interviewed caught and released 14 salmon on one day and 18 salmon the next. The salmon were a pretty good weight for their length, with only a couple being described as skinny. He caught the fish on trolled live bait," Boland said.

            "There's also been some fishermen targeting lake trout, and they are doing very well, although we haven't seen a lot of big ones. Other local trout and salmon ponds are dong well, especially Moose Pond in Bridgeton for salmon, Lake Auburn for salmon that are quite fat and run to 21 inches along with some very fine togue, and Crystal Lake in Gray had some really nice brown trout being caught. York River brook fishermen were having some exceptional brookie and brown trout fishing, with the Merriland River in Wells being one of the best. The upper Androscoggin River in the Bethel area is also producing some fine rainbow and brown trout," John concluded.

            Greg Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago, reported that he had seen some huge togue caught. "We weighed a 15 pounder, and we've also heard of some that size being caught and released.  Most of the salmon we've seen are in the 18 to 20 inch range and running from two to three pounds," Greg noted.

            "They've started to really whack the fish at the Songo Locks," laughed Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake. (The Songo Locks are located on the Songo River, a major smelt and salmon spawning area for Sebago Lake). Some of the fishermen are reporting best results on silver colored tube baits. There's also a lot of bass coming into the outlets and some reports of crappie. I'm looking for the white perch run to be into the Songo Locks come the end of the week. And the people out on the lake itself trolling for landlocks are catching quite a few lake trout, right on the surface along with the salmon," he revealed.

            Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post, said that York and Cumberland County lakes were starting to provide some exceptional largemouth bass fishing. "I saw one very unusual sight on one of these lakes. In a small shallow cove, where the sun was really beating down on the water, there was a school of big largemouths just circling around, apparently not doing anything special. The water was so shallow that some of their dorsal fins were actually out of water. There was no sign of any feeding activity or any baitfish. When I returned a couple hours later, the sun was off the water and the bass were gone. Our only explanation to this unusual behavior was that the fish were just kind of enjoying a hot-tub experience," he joked.

            Captain Cal Robinson at Saco Bay Tackle, confirmed rumors that Ganter had heard about schoolie stripers being caught at the Mousam River. "Yup, it's true, and there are also some fish up into the Scarborough Marsh. And those fishermen that were out on Jeffrey's Ledges during the warm spell last week had some great cod fishing," Cal said.

            New Hampshire's inland lakes were seeing considerable fishing pressure and some very good fishing. In the northcountry, some of the Connecticut Lakes had finally cleared out, according to Tom Caron at Tall Timber Lodges in Pittsburg. "Lake Francis went out last week as did our Back Lake. Here we haven't seen much fishing pressure but they'll show up this coming weekend. We expect to see some trout stocking on the lakes this week, now that they've cleared," he noted.

            "My sister Cindy and a friend have been fishing the Trophy Stretch of the Connecticut River, just above Lake Francis. They caught and released some very big broodstock brook trout and hooked and lost a landlocked salmon at the Lake Francis inlet," Tom said.

            "All of the small ponds in our area have iced out, and several parties have gone in to fish them, but we haven't heard of much luck yet," reports George Malloy at the River's Edge Country Store in Berlin.

            "The water is still pretty cold, but even here on the Androscoggin River, the levels are good for fishing. We did weigh one really nice rainbow trout. It weighed 3.66 pounds and was caught by Tony Greska of Berlin," he said.

            "We're seeing some of the best fishing in years here on Lake Winnisquam," enthused Bill Martel at Martel's Bait in Laconia. "We had one boat come in that caught eight salmon and lost a really big one and another (boat) that caught two salmon, one over three pounds and one over four pounds. They also had two nice lakers. They caught the fish anchored off the bar at the rivermouth here, stillfishing with live smelt. There's also been reports of the white perch run starting on Winnipesaukee, with good catches around the Weirs and a backwater near Meredith Bay," he ended.

            Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post's Fishing Department, was full of good news: "Our Chad Woodward caught some great rainbow trout from a river inlet at Winnipesaukee--one was tagged and measured 28 inches. They caught several others in the 18-inch range. Yellow tube baits were the method, casting and retrieving into very shallow water. There were also some outsized white perch in the same area that they hooked," Dave mentioned.

            Ganter said that the Lamprey (Newmarket/Lee area) and the Isenglass (Rochester/Strafford area) Rivers were producing a lot of rainbow, brook and brown trout action and had apparently been stocked heavily quite recently. And to end his report, Dave mentioned that staff member R.J. Mere had returned from some great Atlantic Salmon fishing on the Restigouche River in Canada, where he'd landed fish to 40 inches long!

            Speaking of Atlantic salmon, Sue Marceau at K&M Sports in Franklin, said that the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers had been stocked with broodstock salmon averaging eight pounds, with some a lot larger. Sue had fished yesterday without success, but noted that conditions were good and that as water temperatures rose, the fish would start to hit. She also noted that Webster and Highland Lakes had iced out, but success had been spotty.

            We talked face-to-face with Paul Garland at Hot Spots Sports Shop in New Durham yesterday, picking up some smelt to fish with on Lake Winnipesaukee. Paul noted that the Alton Bay end of the lake had seen some exciting action on some days and was very quiet on others. We managed three salmon while fishing off of Glendale, all on the exciting new lure, the DB Smelt. We  had one strike-and-miss, trolling the live smelt.

            Bass tournament fisherman John Lear reported that the weekend's State Line Bass Angler's tourney went well on Suncook Lake in Barnstead. The top team had over 17 pounds for the two fish per angler limit, while one six pounder and two over five pounds had been caught for top fish awards.

            Jim MacKenzie at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland said that the cod and haddock fishing offshore had been fantastic last week.  He also noted that local streams, especially the Winnicut River, had been stocked with real big rainbow trout, and fishermen were doing well. Power bait and worms were best.  A few white perch had shown up on the Squamscot River.

            "There really wasn't much pressure, but the diggers that showed up all managed a nice limit of clams," reports Captain Bill Brindamour, in reference to the recreational clamdigging allowed in Hampton Harbor on Fridays and Saturdays only. "It's not as easy as it used to be, but there's no way that you can't get a nice bucket of clams in an hour or two. Some of the real pros do it in less than a half hour," Bill said.

            "We've finally got our stripers here," laughed Kay Moulton at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island, Massachusetts. "Catches of up to eight fish have been reported. The shad fishing at Rocks Village (Merrimack River) was great last week. Boat fishermen were reporting catch and release of up to 18 fish a day. Fly fishing with fast sinking line was the most popular. The shore fishermen were having a lot less luck. Apparently a lot of the fish were just out of their casting limits," Kay thought.

            Avid striper fisherman Scott Haight watched in awe as a school of large cow stripers had a bunch of herring balled up just outside the mouth of the Merrimack River in Salisbury. "Schoolies are hitting well on clams and chunk bait free drifted. One fisherman had caught five stripers in the 20 to 25 inch range and one over 32 inches," Scot noted. (Those big stripers early in the season zero-in on the herring and alewife runs. They are usually not taken in the lower river, but have been providing some spectacular sport upriver, just below the Lawrence Dam.)

            "We've had our first keeper-stripers caught this week. Keith Thomas of Somerville had one that went 29 inches and John Brown, also of Somerville, had one over 32 inches," reported Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett. "Keith caught his fish on a live herring, while John was using a live, freshwater shiner--pike size.  The Charlestown Dam and Charles River Locks have been best. Codfish are hitting all over Boston Harbor for the boat fishermen, and quite a few are being taken from shore--the Shirley Gut at Deer Island has been good. Best bet there is to use clams and to fish at night. The flounder season has started, and there have been some good catches. A few fluke have been caught at Pines River in Saugus. And the news we've been waiting for, some big bluefish chasing squid, is happening at North Falmouth in Megansett Harbor. The bluefish are up to 15 pounds!" he said.

          Past Fishing Reports 2001

Return to Top