Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 3rd week of February, 2001

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February 19th, 2001

            Much of the attention and a lot of pre-tournament fishing activity was centered around the first ever Windham (Maine) Rotary Ice Fishing Tournament to be held this coming weekend on Sebago Lake on February 24th & 25th. This event is going to target togue (Maine-speak for lake trout) only and is doing so for a couple of reasons, according to Regional Biologist John Boland.

            "Foremost in our mind, we're going to be tapping an information source  larger than we've ever had the use of. From the expected 2,000 anglers that will be fishing the two day tourney, we should acquire the most and best information regarding the number and health of the lake trout population in Sebago. If, as a side result of the derby, we've reduced this population enough to help us with our smelt restoration effort, then we've have a bonus there," John said.

            "It is also a fact that there is usually some residual effect when fishermen become acquainted with the lake and often will return for several other fishing trips. It is no secret that we are trying to apply more fishing pressure on the lake trout," he advised.

            Boland said that his staff of biologists will be very much involved in moving smelt and smelt eggs into Sebago waters to try to help with smelt restoration efforts, as well as taking a hard look at landlocked salmon stocking figures and regulations. "The ideal fishery in Sebago, and what we're targeting, is to have enough smelt to support some decent landlocked salmon, which the lake's history with salmon warrants, and to keep the lake trout population healthy but in check and in balance with the forage base," Boland ended.

            Of course, the Windham Rotary Club has their own agenda in promoting the tourney. They are happy to find a source of fundraising that will bring people into the area, and they are also contributing a share of the proceeds to help the Division of Fisheries purchase equipment that will help them enhance and monitor the baitfish populations in the area.

            Dave Garcia, bait dealer and pro fisherman at Naples Bait in the Sebago Lake area, is very concerned about the live bait situation currently and hopes that fishermen will be able to find enough for the tournament. "Bait is at a critical stage here right now. There were probably about 600 fishermen out on Sebago Lake this weekend, and this put more pressure on the bait supply," he reports.

            "Maine doesn't allow the importation of live bait, and for some reason, this season it has been very hard for bait dealers and bait trappers to supply enough. So anyone coming from out-of-state to fish this event must be forewarned that they can't bring their live bait with them and  may find live bait very scarce here.  As a back-up, a good choice would be to purchase suckers at home, pack them on ice and bring them with you to use as dead or cut bait. Most of the success in Sebago's togue fishing comes from using jigs tipped with cut bait, and historically, cut sucker is the best.  And if you don't have access to any bait to use on your jigs, don't despair. The popular bucktail jigs are very good lures to apply fish formula-types of scents. I'd recommend garlic, shrimp or Berkley Strike in trout or salmon scent," he advised. (Garcia, as well as the other bait dealers in the area, are working very hard to have adequate live bait available, but of course, can't guarantee it.)

            Dave also said that on nearby Long Lake, the white perch continues to hit quite well and that a four-pound brown trout was caught this weekend. The big brown took a shiner fished just off bottom with a tip-up. He also said that perch fishermen having the best luck were those concentrating on fishing close to bottom. He feels that as the sun gets higher in the sky, the baitfish and gamefish will tend to drop closer to bottom.

            Carroll Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago, will be one of the tournament's checking stations, and was having his parking area expanded as we spoke. "Everyone in the area is abuzz about this tourney. It's the first one of its kind that I can remember. We are putting in as much bait as we can find but things could get tough. This week's fishing has produced some real quality togue," he said. "We've weighed a 14 pounder, a 12 pounder and saw quite a few in the six to eight pound range. My son Greg went looking for some structure over in the Raymond Cape area, cut a hole there and caught two nice togue almost instantly," he said.

            Cutting laughed about the fact that togue are not the only game in his area. "A lot of the old timers and people that want some good action and good eating will fish the small ponds in our area for other spiecies. Pearly Pond on the Sandy Pond Road in North Sebago is a place where you can take the family and have pickerel action all day long, as is Coldrain Pond in Naples. Another small pond, Pearly Mills in Denmark, is a place where you can get a mess of huge yellow perch--fish to over 13 inches. White perch fishermen flock to Long Lake and Turtle Cove on Sebago. Southeast Pond in Sebago and Barker Pond in Hiram are ponds where you can bet on some great bass action. And over in the Limerick area, Arrowhead Lake, also known locally as the Flowage, provides some of the best crappie and panfishing you could imagine. Southeast Pond also produces some nice brook trout action, as do Trickey Pond in Naples, Adams Pond in South Bridgeton, and Sand Pond in Baldwin," Carroll ended.

            At the Maine Guide Fly Shop at Moosehead Lake, Penny Legere added to the bait story, saying that husband Dan had headed for Augusta earlier in an attempt to locate some. They had been without live bait for the first time in years. Penny advised that because of the recent tough weather, fishing pressure was down, but that people targeting lake trout and brook trout were happy with the fishing.

            Dave Ganter at the Kittery Trading Post, had some news from Moosehead Lake.  He reported that one of their customers had brought in a five-pound brook trout just returning from the big lake. "There is no doubt that if you are after a wall-hanger brookie, Moosehead probably should be your destination. Fish shallow and along the rocky shorelines and keep moving your gear. Brook trout are very territorial in the winter and you've got to go to them as they won't move far to go to your bait," he advises.

           Ganter also said that another big brook trout resource, a bit more locally, is around Fryeburg. Guide Charles Weismann at Mountain Guide Service (mainelodges.com) puts a surprising number of his clients into brookies of four pounds or larger each winter, so he's got the technique.

            "We've seen some nice mixed catches coming back from the Belgrade Lakes area, especially Messalonskee Lake," reports Cal Robinson at Saco Bay Tackle. "One of our summer helpers returned with a ten pound northern pike, a couple of bass were caught and released that were in the five pound class, and they caught an 18-inch splake. This is an especially easy place to fish and as the season wanes, the pike usually start hitting the best of the season," Cal revealed.

            He also reported that although fishing was kind of slow for the weekend tourney held on Little Ossipee Lake, a salmon of over three pounds and a brookie about a pound and a half were iced. Cal added that the mid-coast smelt fishery was still holding up, as one of his other helpers had caught a hundred fish in two hours fishing the Bowdoinham area.

            This writer, fishing with Warren Barker of Stratham, New Hampshire, spent an active few hours at James Eddy Smelt Camps in Dresden. We weren't expecting the fishing to be as good as we found it because we were fishing the incoming tide. We ended up with just under a hundred smelt, with many of them the largest we'd seen in years.

            The news from the Granite State was mixed, as anglers avoided the windswept big lakes on Saturday and Sunday. Tom Remick at TR's Bait in Pittsburg, said that pressure was light, but those that did venture out had taken some good trout. "We had one laker over four pounds caught by an eight-year-old girl on the First Connecticut Lake and had seen quite a few other lakers in that size range coming from the First Lake.  A beautiful three pound brown trout came in from the Second Lake," he reported.

            Tom said that very tough travelling conditions earlier in the season had discouraged a lot of fishermen from coming back. "The slush and soft snow made it close to impossible on some lakes. But now things are ideal. It's all frozen up, travelling conditions are the best, and we should end up with a great remainder of the ice fishing season," he enthused.

            "Our local ponds have started to turn back on," reported George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin. "At Cedar Pond in Milan, we've got one customer that has a bob house and fishes constantly. He's caught over 70 rainbow trout so far this season. Although Cedar Pond has a smelt population, most of the luck has come from using Arkansas shiners," George said.

            He also reports that South Pond in Stark continues to produce a lot of action on small lake trout. Christine Lake, also in Stark, has days when the brown trout are hitting well. Reports from Vermont's Memphramagog Lake indicate that the smelt fishing has started to pick up.

            "We had one real big lake trout caught here last week, an 11-pounder caught off Black Brook," boasted Bill Martel at Martel's Bait in Laconia. "Lakers are hitting pretty well over at Winnipesaukee as well as here on Winnisquam. There are also a few rainbow trout being taken. We've seen an unusual amount of fishing activity on Paugus Bay, so it looks like their perch fishing has continued. Lake Opechee perch fishermen had some pretty good luck earlier, with a few nice rainbows also caught, but we haven't heard much from there lately," Bill said.

            "We've got an amazing variety of ice fishing within a few minutes drive of here," stated Tink Nelson at Nute's Trading Post in Wakefield. "These ponds that share their border with Maine are underutilized, probably because of the two-line limit. But those that fish them love them. Great East Lake (Sanbornville) has had a fine year on lake trout, and there are also super smallmouths, crappie, rainbow and brown trout. Just across the street, another border pond, Horn Pond,  has some of the biggest rainbows in the area, as well as browns, brookies and smallmouths. Wilson Pond, just across into Maine, is a wonderful brown trout place. Milton Three Ponds in Milton is blessed with a big population of landlocked alewives. The bass, pickerel and an occasional brown trout caught there can be huge, and there's a growing crappie population that is just starting to be utilized. Balch Pond (Wakefield) is a Maine border pond that has some bass that are scary, up to ten pounds, crappie by the bucketful and good perch and pickerel. And Lovell Lake, also in Sanbornville, is one of the few ponds in the state where it's possible to catch walleye. We've seen them in the eight to ten pound range come out of Lovell. This lake has an amazing population of cusk, white perch, bass and pickerel, and some of the nicest rainbow trout you've ever seen," Tink enthused.

            George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury, reported that nearby saltwater smelting has really slowed down, with catches from the Oyster River in Durham being pretty scattered. "Some people are picking up a couple dozen fish, and others are getting skunked. But ice conditions have improved on the Oyster, and we're looking for some of the best smelting of the season yet to come. The ice conditions on the Lamprey, behind the mills in Newmarket, have been chancy, but it has also improved there in the last couple of days. We've heard reports of a lot of seals around the General Sullivan Bridge, so we're wondering if they are not impacting the smelt fishing," he mused.

            Taylor said that local ponds, especially the Bellamy Reservoir and Swain's Pond in Barrington, were producing some good bass, pickerel and panfish, while Ayers Marsh in Barrington continued to give up some outstanding catches of crappie.

            "People fishing Lake Winnipesaukee lately have told us that the landlocked salmon are so aggressive that you have to be careful not to fish anywhere near the surface," he warned. (Landlocked salmon are not a legal target for ice fishermen in NH.) "If the salmon hit like this when the ice goes out, there's going to be some great fishing. It’s so easy to damage a salmon by bringing them up on the ice. Please, leave any salmon you hook by mistake in the hole. Cutting your leader and leaving the hook in them is probably the best way to avoid undue injury," he instructed.

            Taylor finished with contiuned good reports of lake trout and cusk fishing from Winnipesaukee and lake trout from both Great East and Merrymeeting (New Durham) lakes.

            "Our ice conditions have improved markedly, but we're seeing hardly any fishing pressure on our end of Great Bay," noted Jim MacKenzie at Suds-n-Soda in Greenland. "Most of the smelt catches we've seen have come from the Squamscot River in Stratham, Newfields and Exeter. Although limit catches have been rare lately, it's not unusual for those fishermen to catch from 30-100 fish on a tide. Our most popular fresh water destination lately has been Pawtuckaway Lake in Nottingham. They're catching both large and smallmouth bass, pickerel, a few perch and some really big crappie there," Mac said.

            Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett, Massachusetts reported that the codfishing party boat out of Walsh's Deep Sea Fishing in Lynn had started to run on weekends to the Stellwagon Banks area. "They had a great day there on Sunday, with two fish over 25 pounds and quite a few other big ones."

Past Fishing Reports 2001

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