Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 3rd week of June, 2001

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June 18, 2001

      The big rains and thunderstorms caused a lot of people to abandon their fishing on Sunday, while very hot weather on Friday and Saturday put a crimp in some plans. Early morning fog on those hot days postponed lots of fishing, including a striper day for this writer. In spite of these weather problems, there was plenty of fishing action and some very good reports.

      New Hampshire's northcountry, although doused by an inch or so of rain, was lucky that the several inches dropped south of them was avoided. From the top of the state at Pittsburg, Tom Caron at Tall Timber Lodge on Back Lake reports that evening hatch fishing, even on those hot days, had continued to yield some great dry fly fishing, as the mayfly hatches had continued. "We're really anticipating the hex hatch that should be coming in the next couple of weeks," Tom said. (These are giant mayflies that bring out the largest trout of the season for some great dry fly fishing.) "The outback ponds, Coon Brook Bog, Big Bog, Boundary Pond and Terrill Pond have been producing some very good brook trout. Some of our guests went into Boundary Pond and reported very nice brookies to 14 inches. During the heat of the day, the fish go down, but in the early morning and the evening, they are back on the surface. The Connecticut River had been flowing so heavy that fishing had been difficult. Now the flows have stemmed, and actually, we could use some more water to get the best conditions," Tom ended.

      Shirley Remick at TR's Bait in Pittsburg, said that son Tom had been guiding clients on the First Connecticut Lake with some good results. Tom's method is to anchor of drift with live sucker minnows, and his production verifies this as a great lake trout method. "The last of the week was so hot up here--almost too hot to fish," Shirley complained.

      "It's been really good fishing here," reported George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin. "We had a lot of rain, but the waters are all still fishable. The ponds have really started to produce--Dummer (Town of Dummer), Cedar (Milan) and Success (Town of Success). At Dummer pond it's mostly brookies, with brookies, browns and bass in the other ponds. At Big Diamond Pond (Stewartstown), Berkeley Power bait was the best bet for rainbows up to 16 inches--and they were getting a lot of fish. At Umbagog Lake, the bass have turned on. There's a lot of nice pickerel and occasionally a northern pike. This lake is also noted for its great yellow perch fishing. The Androscoggin River in the Shelburne area has been very good. We saw a brown trout caught there that was 22 inches long and weighed 4.5 pounds. It hit a wooly bugger fly. Mayflies and caddis are still hatching on the river, but no reports of the famous alder fly hatch. It's due anytime now," Malloy forecasted.

      The lakes region's reports were also exciting. Tink Nelson at Nute's Trading Post in Wakefield, reported that crayfish had been the hot bait for local bass. "Over on Winnipesaukee and Wentworth Lake, you can't go wrong on crayfish. Find a rock pile that drops off to deeper water--in the 15-25 foot range. Cast a live crayfish into the rocks and work it down the slope very slowly, using as little weight as you can get away with and a fine wire hook. On both lakes, you'll get an occasional surprise when a rainbow trout intercepts the crayfish before the bass can get to it. At Wentworth, there's also some great white perch. We like to troll slowly with spinner and worm combos. When you find a school of perch, you can either try to stay with them trolling, or stop and spin fish for them. There's also some pickerel in this lake that will scare you--and they're not beyond grabbing your live crayfish," Tink laughed.

      Tink added that trout ponds remained good, but warned that during the heat of the day, best results are to fish deep. "At Duncan Lake (Ossipee), anchor in a deep spot and fish with either crawlers or power bait suspended just off bottom. At Whites Pond (Ossipee), you'll need to go with fast sinking line. Troll small wet flies or cast, let your fly sink to bottom, and strip it back. Varying your speed of retrieve will let you know what the trout are going after. In the evening, there will be a few fish on the surface, if you want to try them on dry flies. We've had reports of lots of evening surface action over at Great East Lake on rainbows," he ended.

      Bill Martel at Martel's Bait in Laconia, said that Motorcycle Week had driven some of the fishermen away, but that the river behind his shop was still full of white perch. "They're not huge, but one fellow just caught 30 fish in about a half hour. There's quite a few bass in the river here, and the big flows have brought salmon up the river--big fish to five pounds. This is about the latest we've ever seen a salmon run into the river. That's because we've had so much current," he noted.

      George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury, said that the local trout ponds were still producing a surprising amount of fish.  Bow Lake (Strafford) had finally turned on, with some big brown and rainbow trout as well as smallmouth bass, making anglers happy there. "We're also getting a lot of good reports from Lake Winnipesaukee from landlocked salmon fishermen. The lake's salmon fishing is holding out very well for this time of year." (Salmon can  be found mostly in the 15-25 foot range, but will be on top early in the morning and in the evening.)

      Maine's inland fishing was also being impacted by the weather, but Regional Fisheries Biologist Dave Basley in Aroostook County reported that the rivers and streams remained high and floatable from recent rains. "Flows should be diminishing and make for some good fishing as the water temperatures improve," he said.

      "Salmon fishing has been slow on the West Branch of he Penobscot," reports fisheries biologist Mike Smith. "There's been some reported catches of larger salmon and lake trout in East Grand Lake. Stream fishing for brook trout has slowed as trout move into their summer quarters. Our pond fishing becomes more of a challenge. The best fishing is usually early morning or evening, when trout are responding to the hatches," he observed.

      Rusty Harvey at River's Edge Sports in Oquossoc in the Rangeley Lakes area, said that the rivers had been good. "There's been some high water flows, but they're dropping. Rapid River has been good for brookies. Upper Dam has also been good, but now that the flow has dropped, you probably should use a fast sinking line to get down near bottom where the larger fish will be lying. Mayflies are still hatching," Rusty reported.

      "Mooselookmeguntic and Rangeley Lake have still been great. At Mooselook, you're probably going to catch a lot of undersized salmon, but brookies of up to four pounds are still possible. The fish are from the top down to 40 feet, with most being in the 15-25 foot depths. As usual, the lures providing most of the action were Top Guns, Chev Chase Moosealoos, and DB Smelt. This week, a lot of salmon were taken on junior-sized, copper Mooselook Wobblers. We're waiting for the alder fly hatch here. It's a very important hatch that brings some great dry fly fishing, especially at Quimby Pond."      Paul Johnson, Regional Biologist in the Moosehead Lake Region, reports that warming water temperature and higher stream flows are resulting in very favorable fishing conditions there. "Insect hatches have improved prospects. Surface temperatures on Moosehead Lake passed 60 degrees--lake trout, salmon and brook trout are being caught.  In the bass lakes, near shore activity should continue," he forecasted.

      Sebago Lake area anglers continued to have world class togue (lake trout) fishing. Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake, reports that his tourney bass fishing partner, Carl Boise, who also guides full time on Sebago, has had days of 31, 27 and 19 fish! "Most of the togue that Carl's been catching are in the five to nine pound range, but he did take one over 13 pounds last week. He's got the method down pat. Using four downriggers, his favorite system includes dodgers with either sewed-on bait or a size 3 Needlefish behind. He likes bright colored lures, fluorescent orange, chartreuse, and lime green," Dave advised.

      "We've also had some pretty good fishing here on Long Lake recently for brown trout and landlocks. Our salmon are bigger than the average Sebago fish, and the browns are from 14 inches to five or six pounds. The hottest lure right now is the junior-sized, fluorescent orange Mooselook Wobbler, fished about 20 feet down with either leadcore line or downriggers. The warm weather moved the bass--largemouths in under cover and smallmouths into the deeper water. The guys that had this figured out were very happy with their success," Dave reported.

      "I took some of my own advice, fishing Hancock Pond for brown trout," laughed Greg Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago. "Although I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Sebago fisherman, I did manage to catch two decent brownies from Hancock. Sebago Lake's spring rush of fishermen has slowed--now it's the regular togue fleet you see out there, and they're catching 'em. We've also heard of some fine pan-sized brookie action over at Trickey Pond. That pond has it all, good bass, pretty salmon, and some very nice brook trout, as well as a new boat launching area," Greg advised.

      Bill Woodward, Assistant Regional Biologist in the central parts of the state, noted that the Kennebec River in the Waterville area was seeing the results of last year’s salmon stocking. He witnessed the catch of four anglers who boated and kept five pike, between eight and 15 pounds. They fished only 2 1/2 hours!

      Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post's Fishing Department, said that they'd had rainfall close to three inches, but noted that's probably a good thing for local freshwater fishermen. "If you want a mess of panfish, white or yellow perch, crappie or sunfish, try fishing near inlets and culverts. The increased flow will attract these hungry schools of panfish. Worms, fished with or without small spinners, or plastic grubs should do the trick," he advised.

      Saltwater reports were peppered with bluefish news!  Captain Cal Robinson of Saco Bay Tackle said that he'd never seen so many blues, both big and small ones, to concentrate in the Saco Bay and Saco River so early in the season. "There was an incredible sight off the Scarborough River. Bluefish, mackerel and stripers were all working on a big pod of sand eels and were not trying to eat each other. There are two sizes of the blues; one size group is in the 18-20 inch range, while the others are in the ten pound  size. They've been in and out of the harbor; you can't tell when they will be there. Herring of all sizes are still in the river--tiny ones to the mature alewives. Striper sizes seemed to have really picked up this week--a lot of fish in the 40-plus inch class. The tube-n-worm fishermen are taking a lot of the larger sized bass. I call the ledges within ten miles the inshore ledges. They've been really providing some great catches of cod and cusk. There's been a lot of dogfish, so jig fishing has been the best method to avoid catching them. Tuna are being seen all over the outside ledges. There haven't been any reports of hook and line catches here yet, but we've heard of a couple of trolled-caught bluefins from the Gloucester boats," Cal ended.

      "We recently experienced some of the most exciting striper fishing!" enthused Dave Ganter, at the Kittery Trading Post. " We were fishing with noted outdoor video producer Harry Vanderwiede on the lower Kennebec River below Augusta. Sight fishing for cruising stripers that apparently were not feeding, you'd make ten casts for each hit, but when you landed your lure on the right place in front of a fish cruising the surface, you would get a smashing hit. To top of the excitement of the day, there were huge sturgeon surfacing and jumping all around us," Dave said.

      Ganter also said that saltwater anglers wanting haddock should not wait to hook up with one of the local party boats. "As the season goes on, the haddock will slow down. Get out there as soon as you can. You're chances of coming home with cod, haddock and other groundfish are almost 100% right now," he noted.

      "There are lots of mackerel out there, but on some days you just can't get them to bite. I think it's the bluefish that have them worked up like that, because there sure are a lot of blues for this time of year," noted Jim MacKenzie, at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland. "My brother Howard was fishing over schools of mackerel--right in sight. He had a hard time catching any.  The big news here, besides the bluefish, is that as of Saturday, our striper size limit has been reduced from 32 to 28 inches, in line with the fed's recommendations and same as the Massachusetts size limit. Flounder have moved in and are better than several years, according to a few old time flounder fishermen," he noted.

      George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury, said the General Sullivan Bridge (Dover Point/Newington) had been producing lots of big stripers, with one fellow catching several fish from 30-40 inches in one night. Whole mackerel were his bait of choice, replacing sea worms, which had been resulting in too many undersized fish.  George also reported on two other local bridges--the Dover/Eliot Bridge had slowed, while the new Scammell Bridge was starting to heat up with schoolie action.

      "We wish we had a big loudspeaker so we could announce that the fish had come in near the beach," laughed Kay Moulton at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island. "Last night there was one lone fishermen on a stretch of beach here, and the blues and stripers were everywhere. He had an awesome time. This morning, the same thing happened for just a handful of fishermen. The blues are in and out. When they are not in here, there's been mackerel everywhere. When the macs are scarce--blame it on the bluefish. There's been some great night fishing on Joppa flats. Live eels are best there. We've also got a lot of flounder--both fluke and winter flounder," she ended.

      Pete Santini, at Fishing FINatics in Everett, reports bluefish at the Charlestown Navy Yard, where herring chunks and topwater poppers are working. Stripers continue at the Charlestown Locks and the Amelia Earhart dam where live herring are the best baits. Trolling with the Santini Tube-n-Worm combo is doing the job on big striper to over 40 inches near Green, Long, Spectacle and the Brewsters Islands. Flounders have been hitting well at Hospital Shoals, off George's Island and behind Long Island. Fish in the 25-35 foot depths.

                    Past Fishing Reports 2001

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