Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 1st week of August, 2001

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August 6, 2001

      Hot steamy weather took the starch out of many anglers this week, both on the fresh and saltwater, although on some days, a slight sea breeze made ocean fishing a bit more livable. Fishing success was mixed on both fronts, with some fishermen having the time of their lives, while others were looking for their first fish.

      In northern New Hampshire, Tom Remick at TR's Bait in Pittsburg reported that the weather was not only impacting the fishermen but also had a great deal of influence on the "bite." (Tom guides on the First Connecticut Lake.)  "On Friday morning, the sun was hot, and the wind was calm. We worked hard to pick up two average lake trout. In the afternoon, the same party decided to give it another try. The wind picked up while we were out there, and the fish began to hit like crazy. In just a couple of hours, we had caught 16 lakers, eight of them keepers. Apparently the wind either provided more oxygen or cut down the light penetration, but whatever happened, the fish really turned on," he laughed.

      Tom's regular method of operation is to either drift or anchor while dropping huge sucker minnows, up to eight inches long, down to bottom. He'll occasionally hook a big cusk while doing this, but never has had a salmon caught. "The bait is just too big for salmon. We will catch them when we shift to small minnows, but we also catch too many small lakers to be doing this often," he warned.

      There was a period last week when fishermen were catching quite a few salmon right off the shore in front of The Glen, where apparently the fish had concentrated around a spring hole.

      Tom's report on the rest of the Connecticut Lakes mentions lots of rainbows up to over a foot long coming from the Third Lake. Trolling streamer flies early in the day and bobber fishing with small minnows is working there. On Lake Francis, salmon trollers are finding fish at daybreak, but it really slows down when the sun comes up. The stretch of the Connecticut River below the First Lake Dam has been excellent, as controlled flows have been increased, and hungry fish have come up into the river. Salmon and brown and rainbow trout are most prevalent there.

      George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin, reports the slower areas of the Androscoggin River are now producing mostly smallmouth bass, as trout are seeking refuge in the cooler inlets and springs. "Everyone is bass fishing around the store. The fish are not huge, but there's lots of action.  Jericho Lake in Berlin is also providing some great bass fishing, as is Lake Umbagog in Errol. We took a ride up into the Thirteen Mile Woods and there were plenty of trout fly fishermen there, so apparently that's holding up well," he observed.

      "There was a lot of bass fishing action here on Winnisquam this last week as fishermen were pre-fishing for next weekend's bass tourney here," Bill Martel at Martel's Bait in Laconia said. "Some guys reported they'd caught a lot of fish, while others got skunked or only connected with small fish. I think the majority of the larger bass are out on the rock piles and points in 15-20 feet of water. Trout and salmon have slowed down. One boat that had previously found plenty of fish came in with only one laker, while another had three salmon, with only one a keeper."

      At Nute's Trading Post in Wakefield, Eva Nelson said that it's been too hot most days to fish in the daytime, but in the evening, the local hornpout group has been having a ball. "Right across the street here at Union Meadows is tremendous 'pouting. The fishing at night, if you've got plenty of bug dope, is a lot more pleasant than in the hot sun, and the hornpout have been really hitting. There's also been quite a bit of hornpouting activity at Milton Three Ponds. Every once in a while a school of perch or crappie will liven things up, and there's usually a few bass caught. Nightcrawlers fished right on bottom work best," Eva noted.

      George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury said that local trout ponds--Barbados and Stonehouse, continue to produce.  Bass and panfish continue to hit at Willand's Pond in Dover, but the trout fishing had really slowed down.

      Dan Legere at the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville, Maine observed that the heat of the summer was upon his region, and the major fly hatches had gone by. He suggests getting out early in the morning and again in the evening. "Have a cookout mid-day. On the East Outlet, we've been fishing early with a size 18 black caddis fly rigged as a dropper behind a number 12 caddis. It makes the tiny bug easier to see. The fish usually take the small fly. By 9am, it's over for the small flies. Through the day we use big stone flies such as the stimulator. Occasionally a nice fish will come up from the depths and grab it. The last couple of hours we go back to the small fly rig and hope for a hatch. There's usually a spark of activity around dark," Dan observed.

      Dan suggests you go snorkeling in your favorite fishing hole during the mid-day. It's an unproductive fishing time, and you'll learn a lot about where the fish are and where they are not, as well as learning the structure features, such as the main channel.

      In the Rangeley Lakes Region, Rusty Harvey at River's Edge Sports in Oquossoc reports that some of the largest salmon so far were caught last week. "Rangeley and Mooselookmeguntic were both producing well. We weighed a 6 lb., 2 oz. landlock from Rangeley that was 24 inches long. It was the largest so far this season. The fish hit a copper Mooselook Wobbler. We had another salmon from Rangeley that was 22 inches long and weighed 4 lbs., 12 ozs. And 13 year-old Courtney McCloud caught and released a salmon over 21 inches, after getting her photo taken with the fish. Ferris Clark had a great day on Mooselookmeguntic. They were fishing down in the 40-60 foot range and hooked up eight salmon.  From now on we'll be seeing more large fish, as they put on a lot of weight during the summer," Rusty forecasted.

      Assistant Regional Fisheries Specialist Nels Kramer reports that in the Penobscot Region, togue (lake trout) anglers were doing well at Cold Stream Pond, Matagamon Lake and East Grand Lake. At Seboeis Lake, Duck Lake, Millinocket Lake and Cold Stream Pond, salmon fishermen were getting some decent fish while trolling in the 25-35 foot depth range. He also reports good fishing holding up in the Baxter Park back country ponds.

      Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake, reported that he'd fished in a weekend bass tourney on China Lake. "It was a tough bite, but we managed to stay in the top bracket by Carolina rigging plastic worms and fishing in the weeds about twelve feet down. We caught mostly largemouths. Right now, there's no doubt that live crawfish and good imitators are the best bet for smallmouths. Here on Long Lake, the smallies are along the shoreline and out to twenty feet. In the evening, it's no problem to get a big feed of white perch. Small worms or shiners are best," he instructs. "Trickey Pond continues to produce some wonderful smallmouth."

      Dave also mentioned the togue fishing on Sebago, where finding the fish was getting difficult. "The big togue are in the 70-90 ft. range, while the smaller fish have dropped down to  120-130 ft. depths.

      "This darned heat has really slowed things down," Carroll Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago lamented. "There's a few people out there after warm water species, but in the mid-day, there's really no one fishing. Early in the morning, it's surprising how good the salmon fishing can be. Roger Bacon caught eight salmon off of Sanborn's Point early one morning. He was using blue and silver Flash King lures down 30 feet," he noted. (Roger is a catch-and-release fisherman).

      Carroll said that another noted fisherman, Willie Wilkens, had started to concentrate on salmon on Trickey Pond, where the fish were a bit scarcer but quite a bit larger than most of the Sebago salmon.

      Bill Woodward, Assistant Regional Fisheries Biologist in the Central Maine Region, has these suggestions for splake, brown and brook trout:  Alford, Maranacook, Great Moose, Peaquid, Biscay, Damariscotta, Great, Messalonskee, Nequasset, Pleasant, Echo, Togus, Megunticook, Flying and Lake George. "The best conditions are from 25 feet down," he noted.

      Saltwater fishermen were also impacted by both the full moon tides and bright sun. Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post, reported that you didn't have to go very far offshore to be bothered by invading dogfish, a small, but pesky shark. "Even the mackerel fishermen were getting hit by the dogfish. They're nasty things to handle, with a spine at the back of their dorsal fin and one on their tail.  And they know how to use them as weapons, often whipping their tail near any body parts you have near enough.  If you don't know how to handle them, our suggestion is to cut your leader and let them go. Even rigs that you wouldn't think a dogfish would grab, such as the tiny Sabiki bait rigs, are being grabbed. Offshore, the tuna fishermen are being plagued by them, especially the boats that are anchored and chumming. The best thing to do under those conditions is to stop chumming and to bring your baits up into the 25-30 foot range. Using live bait, you may still be bothered, so if that happens, switch to chunk baits which are not quite as attractive to the dogfish," Dave said. "It's also time for the big sharks to start in locally--the blue sharks and makos. So you want to get your shark gear ready."

      "Mackerel and pollock were very hard to catch this last week, as bluefish and apparently the dogfish had them on the run. You could pick up a few pollock at the Isles of Shoals, but macs were very scarce. Even chumming didn't seem to work."

      "There seemed to be more small stripers, and quite a few reports of bigger bluefish than we've heard of. The onshore breezes bring in the top layer of warm water, and the blues always seem to respond to this. We've heard that bluefish are being caught well up into the Piscataqua, and  the best striper fishing, especially for the larger ones, is happening in the wee hours of the morning or at night," Dave said.

      "The Newcastle Bridges have seen some of the best fishing in years," reports George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury. "The flounder have been really surprising. I'm not talking bucketful, but a few nice fish from each trip. There have also been a lot of stripers. At night the baitfish gather under the lights, and the stripers will lurk in the shade and bust into them every so often," he noted.

      "We weighed a bluefish caught off the General Sullivan Bridge that went 15.5 lbs., and we've heard of quite a few others and a lot of cut-offs by striper fishermen. Big stripers seem to be scarce. Flounder continue to be better than the last few years. Newcastle's Little Harbor, Back Channel, and Kittery Point's Pepperell Cove are best bets," noted Jim MacKenzie at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland.

      Captain Cal Robinson at Saco Bay Bait and Tackle, reports that tuna have moved into many of their traditional areas offshore. "It's looking really good. There are quite a few small tuna mixed in with the giants. Sharks are still slow, but they're coming. There have been more and more reports about makos. The groundfishing on Jeffrey's is still good, but has slowed a bit--there's not much bait there. But if you hit some of the closer spots early in the morning, such as Tanner's Ledge, you're apt to have some good luck. We had bluefish in here big time on Friday. Last week's bluefishing was probably as good as it's been in the last ten years. They're running from six to twelve pounds and eating everything in sight! We're also seeing more big stripers, up to thirty pounders. Last week's Royal River striper tourney produced a couple of beauties, well into the mid-40 inch class," he ended.

      "It's been on and off here for the bluefish," Martha Moulton at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island noted. "On the early morning tides, you can have 45 minutes to an hour of really fast action. We've had some really nice stripers coming off the beaches this week, fish to 24 pounds. Whole mackerel and clams are working pretty well. And we've got schools of snapper bluefish in the Plum Island Sound, so it all depends on being in the right place at the right time," she mused.

      In the Boston Harbor area, Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett, MA had lots of good news. "Bass in the 30-inch range and bluefish to 13 lbs. were stretched out across the Boston Harbor entrance--all the way to Castle Island. The bass were under the bluefish, cleaning up after them. Red and White Rapala CD 18 plugs, niner rigs and red or orange Santini Tube-n-Worm rigs were working well. Stripers were continuing to be caught off the beach at Revere, and were also really hot on the outgoing tide in 18 feet of water just off Fawn Bar--big ones to 45 inches. They were hitting the Santini Red Tube fished behind three colors of leadcore line," Pete said.

      "Todd-the-Cod Williams and Dennis DeCarney had some great codfishing from the hump just off the B Buoy, with fish to 18 pounds. They were getting them on ten ounce jigs and cod rigs baited with clams. Flounders continued to hit well at the number 6 Buoy at the North Channel and at Green Island," Pete ended.

                     Past Fishing Reports 2001

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