January 15, 2001

A week of nice settled weather and temperatures cold enough to continue the thickening of the ice layer made for a great week of ice fishing across our reporting area. Saltwater smelt fishing was especially active, with the Greenland Bay portion of New Hampshire's Great Bay seeing fishing like they haven't experienced for decades.

"It just seemed to materialize with the big, full moon tides," reports Jim MacKenzie, at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland. "We had been seeing scattered catches of a few smelt here and there since first ice, but it was very disappointing. Then, with the start of last week's big tides, catches started to pick up and even when the fishing was slow, a lot of fishermen reported seeing huge schools of smelt swarming across the flats under their fishing holes. By mid-week, the fish started to hit and limit catches were coming off the Bay like we haven't seen in years. Fishermen were piling onto the ice by the carloads, and everyone seemed to be having a great time," Mac said.

Jim said that it was hard to pinpoint exactly where the best fishing was on the huge area that Greenland Bay comprises, but said that you often can't go by where the concentration of smelt fishing shanties are located. "Fishermen are like lemmings and herd together regardless of how the fish are hitting. A lot of the more successful fishermen won't fish in those areas, but head out and fish on the fringe and keep moving until they find where the smelt are feeding."

"The smelt fishing on the Oyster and Lamprey Rivers was very spotty this weekend," noted George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury. "At the Oyster River, some fishermen complained of catches of only a couple of smelt while others had big smiles on their faces and had catches of several dozen. At the Lamprey River and at Sawyer's Landing at the mouth of the Lamprey, the story was about the same, catches of up to a hundred fish and also some fishermen got skunked. The news from the Squamscot River in Exeter and Stratham was about the same, with fishermen in the River Road area seeing a slowdown in their fishing compared to past weeks.

Maine's smelt fishing was excellent in the Dresden area on the Eastern River, but had slowed down considerably in the Bowdoinham area. Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post's fishing department had heard glowing reports about the smelting at James Eddy in Dresden, with plenty of bucket catches. A call to Sharon James there affirmed Ganter's reports. "This week's fishing was the best on the outgoing tides. We've been averaging from 20 to 40 pounds of smelt a tide per shanty, and that is about as good as you could ask for. Some people leave here with a whole five gallon bucket full of smelts!" Sharon enthused

Outdoor writer Stu Bristol reported that a recent trip to the Bowdoinham area for smelt produced very little action, but did note that the elk steaks he had brought along and cooked up for his fishing partners provided a giant relief from the boredom of watching lines just hang there. "There were some pretty good catches made in our area, but in general, things had slowed way down from the past week," Stu said. Stu also reported that last week's below normal low tides provided surf clam gatherers some of the best luck of the year and suggested that those interested should check their tide charts and be aware of the next set of low tides coming in February.

Captain Bill Brindamour of Hampton, NH runs a shuttle boat to get recreational clamdiggers to and from the clamdigging grounds in the Hampton Harbor. "Captain Billy" said reports that clams were very scarce were not accurate. "We just had a survey completed that said that although the clam population is not at its highest, it is far and away above the average. The days of digging a limit (10-liquid quart container) in twenty minutes may be gone, but we constantly are watching diggers get a nice limit of clams in well under an hour. The number of diggers has been surprising, given the temperatures and the rumors. We continue to see hundreds of diggers, even on days when the low tide is at daybreak," he said. Bill reminds that the flats are open to digging only on Fridays and Saturdays, and closures because of pollution can come at any time. A call to 1-800-43CLAMS will reveal these closures.

This year's fishing around the Sebago Lake area should be quite exciting, according to Regional Fisheries Biologist Francis Brautigam at the Gray Office. "The past fall, 220 brown trout and130 brook trout hatchery broodstock were retired to Region A lakes and rivers. Some of the brown trout were unusually large, exceeding 15 pounds! A list of Region A waters stocked with these fish can be found on MDIFW's new web site www.mefishwildlife.com." (A hot link to this site is available from Kittery Trading Post's website at www.kitterytradingpost.com.)

Brautigam also reported on the fall sampling that focused on popular landlocked salmon waters to assess salmon age, growth and condition. This sampling was conducted primarily with trap nets. Sebago Lake fish were collected during the Jordan River egg-taking operation. The Kezar Lake sample was obtained by electrofishing two of the tributaries. An attempt to get a sampling at Auburn Lake didn't work out, as the spawning run was over.

The largest average weight of salmon sampled came from Little Ossipee Lake, where four pounds was the average and one to 6.9 pounds was measured. The average length of salmon here was also the highest, with 21.5 inches being the norm. Sebago Lake fish measured 17.8 inches long and weighed 1.7 pounds, with the heaviest salmon weighing 3.2 pounds. Kezar Lake was one of the other real quality lakes, in terms of average size with a length of 20.6 inches and average weight of 3.8 pounds. Kezar also had the largest lunker of the survey, a huge seven pounder!

One warning to fishermen was that although Little Ossipee Lake had produced the highest average quality of salmon, abundance was typically low, probably due to heavy angler use.

Dave Garcia of Naples Bait at Long Lake, reported that the landlocked salmon and white perch fishing on the lake had been excellent--"Best in years. People have been catching enough big white perch that they aren't keeping the eight to ten inch perch that normally make up their catches. They are releasing them and settling for fewer but far larger perch in the foot-long range. The salmon are not huge, by any standards. They run from 14 to 20 inches but the action has been steady. It's not unusual to hook more than a dozen salmon a day. The variety of fish in Long Lake can be best described from a catch that came in here yesterday. One old timer that has fished here for years only jigs and doesn't set out tip-ups. He had a 15-inch salmon, a 17-inch salmon, a 4.5-pound cusk, three yellow perch and six white perch over a foot long! I took a young fellow pickerel fishing on one of our small local ponds this week, and we had a ball, with one of the largest pickerel I've ever seen, over five pounds, in our catch. You can't go wrong fishing any of the warm water ponds around here for panfish and pickerel. For a good catch of crappie, right now the pond to fish is Parker Pond in Casco," Dave ended.

Carroll Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago, has watched the ice come and go several times from Big Bay there, and said as of this morning, it had gone again. "It takes a combination of a few days of zero temperatures and calm winds. Some years, the Big Bay never does set up. Even at that, there's been some togue action in some of the coves and bays that have frozen. There were over 70 fishermen at Sebago Station yesterday, but the fishing had slowed way down. We've seen some trophy fish come from some of our other local ponds. The most impressive was a largemouth bass that weighed 7.05 pounds and was over 22 inches long, caught at Hancock Pond in Sebago. Trickey Pond in Naples has been great for brookies up to fifteen inches. Sand Pond in Baldwin has been producing some nice catches of pan-sized brookies and Moose Pond in Bridgeton continues to please the landlocked salmon fishermen there," Cutting reports. He joined Dave Garcia's pickerel enthusiasm, saying that it's hard to pick a local warm water pond where you won't have plenty of action.

Cutting noted that a big fishing derby is in the making for Sebago Lake and is going to concentrate on the lake's huge togue (lake trout) population. The contest is slated for February 24th and 25th and has a lot of cash prizes, from $5,000 for the largest togue all the way down to $200 for the one-hundredth-place togue! A new Chevy truck is also slated to be in the prize package.

Craig Bergeron, at Saco Bay Tackle, reports that the sea run brown trout fishery is kind of at a standstill because of the amount of ice that is choking off most of the good fishing areas. But he did note that some nice brown trout and brookies had been coming through the ice at Kennebunk and Swan Ponds in Lyman.

The Granite State has a lot of open water trout and salmon fishing available, but here again, ice continues to be a problem. One bright spot lately has been the Newfound River in Bristol, reports Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post's Fishing Department. "This is a fly-only, catch-and-release area where you can fish over some trophy-sized rainbow trout and also landlocked salmon. Big weighted nymphs with a tiny nymph dropper fly often will bring success. The nearby Pemmigewasset and Merrimack Rivers are also open to catch-and-release fishing for Atlantic salmon, but you need a special permit for this fishery. Over a thousand Atlantics were stocked in the fall, fish to over five pounds. These fish supported a fine fishery until the cold snap came and will probably be ready to hit, if we get the slightest thaw in the weather," Dave suggests.

Dave also warns about tricky ice conditions, especially on Sebago Lake, where frozen coves and bays are fishable but as you approach open water, the ice thickness won't support a fisherman!

Shirley Remick at TR's Bait in Pittsburg, NH reports that there's been some nice lakers being caught in her area, especially at First Connecticut Lake. "There's also been a lot of trout action on Lake Francis and Third Lake. We had a young fellow, only seven years old, bring a four-pound laker in here caught from First Lake. He was beaming from ear to ear. We've got very good ice conditions and great snowmobiling with groomed trails," Shirley ended.

George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin, said that trout fishing, mostly browns and rainbows, was very good last week at Christine in Stark. South Pond in West Milan had produced some of the fastest lake trout fishing that George could ever remember. "The fish aren't huge, but instead of the usual days of getting a couple of flags, South Pond fishermen are seeing up to 30 flags a day--pretty incredible fishing! Pontook Reservoir in Dummer continues to have some great pickerel and bass catches, as well as an occasional really big brook trout. There's northern pike in this pond also. Big Greenough Pond in Errol had some pretty good trout fishing over the weekend. We suggest the small river shiners (he calls them pins) for people targeting trout," George said.

From Winnisquam Lake in Laconia, Bill Martel reported that his lake had been doing well on lake trout in the 18 to 20 inch class, with an occasional rainbow trout. "The biggest fish we've heard of this week was a 15-pound laker that was caught at Newfound Lake in Bristol. There's some pretty nice pan-sized white perch still hitting at Opechee Lake in Lakeport, along with occasional rainbow trout. Lake Winnipesaukee continues to improve as ice thickens, but it's still not too safe in places. The ice varies from six to less than three inches in a lot of the more open areas, so you want to be very careful. All of Winnipesaukee's bays and coves have good ice, with Paugus Bay seeing a lot of snowmobiling action and good panfish catches. Manning Lake in Gilmanton is the place to go for a good mess of yellow perch, and there's lots of pickerel there and in just about any of our surrounding warm water ponds," he advised.

Tink Nelson at Nute's Trading Post in Wakefield, reports that nearby Great East Lake (shared with Maine) has been producing some fine lake trout fishing. "Fish the humps with big weighted bucktail jigs and cut bait. Belleau Pond is still producing slab-sized crappie and plenty of panfish action. At Lovell Lake in Sanbornville, rainbow trout and cusk continue to keep the fishermen busy there. The 'bows are to 18 inches, but the cusk are apt to be pan-sized. The Nineteen Mile Bay area at Lake Winnipesaukee has been good for white perch, and Milton Three Ponds has been giving up some real nice bass and pickerel," he ended.

Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett, Massachusetts reports that the freshwater ice fishing was very good last week in his area. "There's been a lot of rainbows and brookies, fish to 13 inches being caught at Fellsmere Pond in Malden. We fished there almost every afternoon after work last week. My good friend, outdoor writer Harry Kennerson from Lynn, also did very well on the panfish there. Fellsmere also produces some fine largemouth bass along with the panfish and crappie," Pete noted. Small shiners and little jigs tipped with mousie grubs were the best baits.

Pete also mentioned an 11-pound Atlantic salmon had come from Horn Pond in Woburn, caught on a shiner by Dick Macomber of Woburn. Spy Pond in Arlington was producing some largemouths to five pounds and pickerel to 22 inches, as was Wright's Pond in Medford. The Charles River in Waltham was a good bet for pike and largemouths, with the Twin Cove area seeing the best fishing. Waldon Pond in Concord had some brown trout to four pounds caught, and Sluice Pond in Lynn had been hot for Atlantic salmon, pickerel and bass.