Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 2nd week of August, 2001

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August 13, 2001

      Last week's dog days could be taken literally by many of the saltwater fishermen, as an influx of spiny dogfish, a type of small inshore shark, ran amuck with people fishing for mackerel, stripers and even tuna. The freshwater fishermen did well in some places, with night time bass fishing excellent in most of our reporting areas.

      The warm weather had a positive effect on the fishing on New Hampshire's upper Connecticut River. Water flows that were probably influenced by the need to generate more power downstream had been increased, and the trout and salmon responded. "There's a ton of fish coming up from the lake into the Trophy Stretch," reports Cindy Caron at Tall Timber Lodges on Back Lake in Pittsburg. "Right now the flow is about 500 cubic feet per second. It's made for some hard fishing but the fish are there--some salmon, lots of rainbow trout and some brookies,in the two-pound range. Below Murphy Dam (which creates Lake Francis), the flow has been in the 800/cfs range and the spin fishermen are doing very well between the dam and the Town of Pittsburg. We fished the river twice last week. The first time we drifted below Colebrook. During the bright part of the afternoon, the fishing was a bit slow, but towards evening there was a nice blue winged olive (b.w.o. mayflies) hatch, and we had a ball using a number 16 parachute Adams dry fly. Most of the fish were rainbows. Later in the week, we fished the confluence of Indian Stream and the Connecticut. It was typical evening fishing, with again, a nice hatch of b.w.o. mayflies coming off. That same fly pattern was working. We caught browns, brookies and rainbows," Cindy related.

      "Our Back Lake fishing is in a typical mid-August mode. If you know where the spring holes are, you'll catch fish. The fish activity is probably the highest after dark," she ended.

      "We still are having some very good lake trout fishing on the First Connecticut Lake," noted Tom Remick at TR's Bait in Pittsburg. "The weather has the most effect on whether we'll have fast action or not. When it's dead calm, the fish come slowly. When the wind picks up, the lakers really come on strong--we're apt to catch a dozen or more in a few hours. Some of the early rising salmon fishermen have this lake figured out. They're trolling live shiners right on top. They get out before daylight and fish until the sun comes up. Then they don't get back on the water until just before dusk. Salmon in the 20-inch range are what they're catching--two or three each time out on the lake," Tom said.

      George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin, had a great story about a local fisher-kid, 11-year old Michael Flood. "I was watching young Michael walking along the river (Androscoggin), just kind of kicking his feet and wishing he had enough money to buy some bait. The sun was just right that I saw him kick up a grasshopper, and he saw it also. After a scramble, Michael caught the bug, hooked it on his fishing rod and almost instantly was fast to a typical river bass. After landing the fish, Mike went looking for more 'hoppers. When he found one, he repeated the same action, hooking a bass almost instantly. This went on for a couple of hours. It would have made a great video for promoting the sport of fishing," Malloy enthused.

      "Even though the fishing had slowed a bit from the heat, Rick Lariviere who runs Talon Guide Service has been having some pretty good fly fishing trips with his clients. They've had steady action on rainbows in the 12-16 inch range and while taking a break for lunch, one of his crew dredged up a two-pound brookie off the bottom of a deep, slow pool. He was using a number two streamer fly on sink-tip line," George reported.

      Lake Winnisquam is continuing its comeback from a few years of being down. Bill Martel's many years at Martel's Bait has seen it come and go and come again. He's pretty proud of the fish that have been being brought in during the last week or so. "We had a 6 1/2 lb. salmon, 26 inches long caught by a fellow that consistently catches nice fish here. He monitors the water temperatures and caught this fish down 35 feet where the water temperature was 52 degrees. Of course, that depth probably has changed with all of the heat last week. And we had a 10 lb. lake trout caught here by New Hampshire Fish and Game Biologist Don Miller. So things are definitely on the upswing," Bill said.

      "Night time is the way to go around here right now for some incredible bass fishing," instructed Tink Nelson at Nute's Trading Post in Wakefield. "Belleau Lake, Lovell Lake, Balch Pond--all of these local lakes have been producing catches of up to 20-30 fish per night! Jitterbug lures and other similar topwater stuff have all been working well. There's also been some terrific white perch and crappie action reported from some of these same places," he added.

      George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury, added to this night time report, noting that Swain's Pond in Barrington had been surprising with the amount of bass taken in the darkness of night.

      Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post's Fishing Department, was also into the night time bass fishing info, passing along some word from the Belgrade Lakes Region. "We're constantly getting reports about Great Pond, and I personally know that most of the other Belgrades are having the same kind of fishing. Lunkers are being taken after dark, with some pretty fast action on bass coming both early in the morning and at dusk," Dave said.

      "And if you want white perch, this is the time of year when the schools will come into the coves and shallows in the evening. You can see them boiling on the surface. A small worm or shiner tossed quietly into their path will result in an instant hit," he noted.

      In the Sebago Lake Region, it has been obvious that the action on the lake’s huge population of togue (lake trout) has slowed, according to reports. "When Guide Chris Burnell say's that they're getting hard to catch, you've gotta believe it," laughed Carroll Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago. "Some of the better fishermen like Chris are still picking up a few fish per day, but those catches of a dozen to three dozen fish per day just aren't there right now. Surprisingly, landlocked salmon are still being caught near the surface during the low light hours. Bass continue to hit along the shore, but during the heat of the day they'll be out in water as deep as over 30 feet," Carroll said.

      "Even during some of the hot parts of the day, we've been seeing some unbelievable topwater bass action," was the word from Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake.  "The coldwater fishing has dropped off, but right now the bass and white perch are doing well here on Long Lake--especially the perch at dusk. Parker Pond in Casco continues to produce the fastest crappie fishing in the area," Dave noted.

      John Boland, Regional Biologist for the Sebago area, suggests that this can be a great time of year to concentrate on brown trout in his area lakes and ponds. "The surface temperatures in most of these lakes become too warm for the trout. The fish tend to suspend at depths where there's a band of cool, well oxygenated water. This varies from lake to lake, but on the average it's about 15-20 feet down. Some good prospects for this fishing are Little Sebago Lake in Windham, The Range Ponds in Poland, Highland Lake in Bridgeton and Square Pond in Action. Artificials such as streamer flies or Rapala lures or live bait are most effective. Try two to three colors of leadcore line or dropping down with your downrigger," he instructs.

      "You can always count on the Upper Cupsuptic River to provide a nice mess of wild, pan-sized brookies," reported Rusty Harvey at River's Edge Sports in Oquossoc. "The fish are not big ones, but just right for some fun stream fishing and a good feed. Early in the morning here we've got some fishermen that are trolling sewed-on bait and catching fish as shallow as five feet down, but during the day, most of the fish are being caught by using seven to nine colors of leadcore line. There's also been some very good fishing for salmon at Upper Dam, not the huge ones but lots of fun on a light fly rod," he noted.

      Saltwater anglers had to put up with the heat and the fish changing their habits. Captain Sam Cassida at Little River Charters and Lodge in Belfast, found striper fishing in the Kennebec had almost shut down, with only some of the pros having any good action. "Mackerel are still hitting along the shore but the warm water is making them change some of their habits. We've seen some bluefish appearances now and again. Our best striper fishing has been to concentrate on our late season spots and use live eels or frozen alewives for bait. With cooler weather, the fishing will perk back up," Sam forecasted.

      "We can't understand the slow appearance of any amount of blue sharks offshore," Captain Cal Robinson at Saco Bay Tackle lamented." The water temperatures are just right but the fish just aren't here. Most of the boats that have caught dozens of sharks a day in the past are having a hard time scraping up a couple. The good news is that there seems to be quite a few makos present. The Fish Hunter brought one in here that weighed 288 pounds and the In Pursuit fought a big one that jumped three times before spitting the hook. Although there's no real concentrated tuna bite, quite a few fish were taken last week in our area and out on Jeffrey's Ledge. It's been pretty steady fishing. Cod and haddock fishing on Jeffrey's has been very good and a lot of cod are still being caught off Tanner's Ledge. There have also been quite a few reports of large pollock starting to show up in the groundfish catches.  We've got bluefishing at its best in ten years. Boats fishing in the 40 to 80 foot depths have encountered the largest concentrations, but fishing from shore and beach have been quite slow. We've also started to see some really big stripers--up to 34 pounds and measuring up to 47 inches. Mackerel are gone but there's still plenty of pollock. Get in around the rocks to catch them," Robinson suggests.

      "We've been getting tons of reports about the bluefish--they seem to be just about everywhere along the coast," Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post said.

      "We tell people to watch out for the seagull and cormorant action. The bluefish create a lot of crippled and cut up baitfish when they are in their feeding binges, and the birds are a tell-tale sign that you'd better get over to where it's happening. One secret that is little  known is that some of the largest stripers of the year will feed directly under a bluefish school, catching and eating the remains of the bluefish's feeding. Use a chunk of bait and enough weight to get it down past the surface feeding bluefish. That's when you'll find out if any stripers are there," Dave suggested.

      "Our funny fishing story of the week was too cute. A youngster had his crab trap baited with chunks of hot dogs while fishing for crabs off a dock at the York River. A nearby striper fisherman had noticed a large striper feeding on the hot dog chunks falling from the trap when the young fellow lifted it off the bottom. So he talked the boy out of a hunk of hot dog and proceeded to hook and land a 37 inch striper--the biggest one of his lifetime of striper fishing," Dave laughed.

      Bluefish were also the word at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland. "They're just about everywhere--up into Great and Little Bays and some of the rivers. Mackerel are just about non-existent, and pollock are getting very hard to catch. Striper fishing is still okay, with the average fish being caught just about the same size as the bluefish, between 8-10 pounds," Mac said.

      George Taylor added that bluefish were being caught at night off the Scammell Bridge over the Bellamy River at Little Bay.

      Exeter fisherman Joe Kenick reported that blues were deep around the Isles of Shoals. "Off to the southeast of the 'Shoals, the fish are down about 30 feet. Put on some weight and set your balloon way up the line," Joe advised. (Use a "fish finder" rig to attach your bobber to. Use a rubberband tied to your leader as a bobber stop.)

      "It's either feast or famine here," complained Kay Moulton at Surfland at Plum Island. "We've sent some people to specific locations on the beach and had them come back telling of some wonderful fast fishing, while others come back in here wondering if we had sent them on a wild goose chase. We did hear about a nice fluke--a 21 incher that came from the Parker River. So we may have our annual fluke fishing still to come here on the Merrimack. The dogfish have been tearing up everyone's gear that has been trying to fish with bait offshore. We've had a number of striper commercial fishermen just give it up for a while. My suggestion is to try fishing with live eels on the flats after dark," Kay offered.

      Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett, Massachusetts reports bass to 45 inches from Deer Island to Faun Bar and all the way to Marblehead. "The fish are hitting the Santini Tube-n-Worm rig like crazy. Fish close to the rocks--slow and close. Two or three colors of leadcore line are just about right. There's been a bunch of small bluefish that came into the harbor--they're hanging around the discharges of the Mystic and South Boston Power Plants. The baby herring are dropping down from the rivers so there's been a lot of surface action from both stripers and bluefish. Cod continue to hit well around the B Buoy and flounders are still good at the #6 Buoy in the North Channel and at Green Island," Pete ended.

                     Past Fishing Reports 2001

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