Complements of The Kittery Trading Post

Activity for the 2nd week of June, 2001

View Past Reports

June 11, 2001

      Weather has again been a big factor in the freshwater fishing, with high water and cool water temperatures affecting the fishing in the far north, while coastal fishing has really taken off, aided by much better conditions.

      Maine's big Moosehead Lake Region probably has the most potential for eager fly fishermen to enjoy some "matching the hatch" fishing, according to Dan Legere at Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville. "It'll soon be caddis fly time here. The mayfly hatches have been huge this season--blankets of red quills and blue winged olives. At times there are so many flies on the water, your fly is just a needle in a haystack. I can't remember when I've left feeding fish in search of a pool with fewer bugs on the water so we can have a better chance. Some unbelievable spinner hatches have also been reported in the evenings," Dan noted.

      "The mayfly hatches seem to be winding down. This week has been the transition period before the caddis blitz starts. We heard of the first caddis hatches on the West Branch (Penobscot) today, and I saw a few at the East Outlet (Kennebec River) myself. The time is right for you to dig out your olive colored elk wing caddis flies and get ready. Midday caddis hatches will have the air dense with them," he forecasts.

      "We got some good rain last week, and the East Outlet has got lots of water. We found salmon in all the pools--the high water must have brought them in. This river should fish well for quite a while. It may be a couple of weeks away, but the time is now to plan your trip for the green drake (hex) hatches. We can expect them to start the last week of the month. The biggest fish of the season will be feeding on top during these hatches. Mother Nature's magic continues," Danny finished.

      Carroll Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago and his young grandson Ryan were fishing downstream from Moosehead Lake on Indian Pond, at the East Outlet's inlet into the pond. "There was just too much water there. It was so windy that casting flies was nearly impossible. Ryan did manage on small salmon, and we did notice that the bass hadn't gone onto the beds here yet. We'll both be back there this week. All we're looking for is one afternoon where the wind is quiet and the flow is right and we'll get some good dry fly fishing for both brookies and salmon," Cutting said.

      The word on Maine's Rangeley Lakes area continues to be extremely optimistic. George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin, NH reported that several of his customers had been enjoying some great trolling on Mooselookmeguntic Lake, with one day a catch of 12 fish taken on DB Smelt and Top Gun Lures. "Cupsuptic Lake, which is connected with Mooselook, has also been good," George reports. "My friend Roland Pilchard caught a 3 lb. brookie and a 4 lb. landlocked salmon, also using the DB Smelt. Dean Lozier from Berlin found some great lake trout in Richardson Lake, landing a 13.5 pounder and going back and catching a 10 pounder from the same deep hole the next day," George reports.

      Rusty Harve at River's Edge Sports in Oquossoc (not to be confused with Malloy's store of the same name in Berlin) said that Rangeley Lake was still hot for landlocks. He'd weighed fish of 4.5 and 4.6 pounds. "The biggest thrill of the week came for 80 year old Winni Robichaud of Westbrook. Winni boated a 3 lb., 8 oz. native brook trout while fishing Mooselookmeguntic Lake. She caught this trophy on a Mooselook Wobbler. We also weighed another fine brookie from Mooselook--it weighed 2 lbs., 11 ozs. There's a lot of water flowing at Upper Dam, and it's brought some big salmon. Rapid River has been great, with some very large brookies. The Kennebago River has a lot of water flowing but not much fishing pressure, and over at the Rangeley and Cupsuptic Rivers, there's a lot of action on brook trout but they're running on the smallish side," he ended.

      At Sebago Lake, it's togue (lake trout) time, according to several sources. Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake reported that togue were now concentrated at their regular summer haunts and big catches were common. "We had one boat report a catch of 27 togue on one day and the next day they caught 31 fish! Most of the togue were running from three to ten pounds, but on Sebago, there's always that chance of hooking into a fish over 20 pounds. Most of those fish were caught on either a dodger-sewed bait combo, or on Needlefish lures. Salmon have dropped down a bit--some as far as 50 feet. We've had enough hot days that the surface water temperature has been up to the high sixties. The brook trout fishing on the Crooked River has wound down a bit, but it's still good. Smallmouths were hitting like crazy last week all around here," Dave said.

      Carroll Cutting at Jordan's Store in East Sebago, advised that guide Chris Burnell had a combined catch of a dozen togue and four salmon taken in just one morning. "You can still catch salmon on top on streamer flies, but you've got to be out there on cloudy days or periods of low light. The salmon we've seen are looking pretty good, and maybe the smelt picture isn't as bad as things have been painted. Friends have noticed huge schools of smelt on the surface on several occasions. We've still got some bass on the beds. At Trickey Pond, some friends were fishing for smallmouths and had a great day. They also caught quite a few small brook trout and watched some big landlocked salmon cruising the shoreline," he reported.

      "We've been experiencing some strange situations," Dave Ganter at Kittery Trading Post's Fishing Department noted. "My son and I fish quite a few small and shallow farm ponds for bass in the York County area. We've found some that apparently had a total winter die-off of all the bass. In places where you could toss in a live bait and have it swarmed by small bass, there weren't any. It looks like the long cold winter with the deep ice and snow depths caused an oxygen depletion that killed the fish," Ganter observed.

      "But we've had lots of good reports of some fast bass action on the larger lakes. Thompson Lake in Casco was hot--floating Rapala lures were accounting for both large and smallmouths. Moose Pond in Bridgeton was producing some nice largemouths on plastic baits," Dave said. (He also had many reports about the fast togue fishing on Sebago Lake.)

      Freshwater fishing in the Granite State was mixed, but some areas were reporting great fishing, especially in some of the better bass lakes. Paul Garland at Hot Spot Outfitters in New Durham, said that most of the bass in his area are in the post-spawn mode, so fishermen are using a lot of spinnerbaits and crank baits." Chartreuse and gold seem to be the best colors. The bass have been outstanding at Winnipesaukee and Merrymeeting Lakes and just about all the lakes here," Paul reported.

      Tink Nelson at Nute's Trading Post in Wakefield said that bass and pickerel were hitting well at the Milton Three Ponds, bass were steady at Great East Lake (Wakefield, NH/Acton/ME) and Wentworth Lake in Wolfeboro. "You'll want to start to move out into the deeper water. Try fishing around the areas where the spar buoys are marking rock piles. Fish the 15 to 25 foot depths with either plastic baits or live crawfish. The smallies are really concentrating there," he noted.

      "You want to get your leadcore line out now if you're after landlocks. Or put your downriggers to work. I like a small size dodger with a golden demon fly about six or eight inches behind while using leadcore line. On downriggers, it's time to break out the spoons--flutter spoons, Mooselook Wobblers, Needlefish--any of the smelt imitators will be working. You can still take salmon on the top with streamer flies, but be out on the water before daybreak," Tink advised. Tink added that the hottest trout pond in his area this weekend had been Duncan Lake in Ossipee, where limit catches of very nice rainbow trout were common. "The surface was just boiling with trout," he laughed.

      Lake Winnipesaukee and Winnisquam were still producing some nice trout and salmon action, according to Bill Martel at Martel's Bait in Laconia. "Some really nice rainbows are coming from the area off Ellcoya State Park at Winnipesaukee--fish to four pounds. The big surprise is the amount of salmon being caught in the Winnipesaukee River above our shop here. There's been a big flow of water and both salmon and rainbow trout are coming up the river from the lake.  The water temperature is cool--62 degrees. This is quite unusual for this late in the season," Bill advised. "There's still a huge school of white perch in the river. You can see them right from the shop. They’re not the big ones of earlier, but they are still respectable," Bill ended.

      Dave Ganter at Kittery Trading Post, added to the Winnipesaukee report, saying that some huge crappie were coming from Back Bay in the Wolfeboro area. Best baits were small tube lures fished near dock pilings and other structure.

      Cindy Caron at Tall Timber Lodge in Pittsburg, said that high water was having its effect on the Connecticut River, but that some stretches of the river were still producing well. "The area below Murphy Dam and down towards town where the river widens has been quite dependable.   The stretch above Second Lake has been okay as it's controlled by dams, but in some of the upriver areas, there's just too much water flow. The high flows have no doubt been pulling a lot of trout and salmon up out of the lakes, so when it starts to drop back, we could see some really fast fishing. Back Lake has been great for evening dry fly fishing. We've had some nice mayfly hatches," Cindy noted.

      "We saw some really big lake trout this weekend," reports Tom Remick at TR's Bait in Pittsburg. "One was 11 lbs., 32 in. long and came from Second Lake. A seven and six-pounder came from First Lake. There's still quite a bit of salmon action, as the water temperatures are still cool here. On Third Lake, rainbow trout action was fast this weekend, with fish to 16 inches. Round Pond and Moose Pond were both doing well on brookies averaging about a pound. And in spite of the high water, a few nice salmon and some giant brookies were coming from the fly-only Magalloway stretch of the Connecticut River," Tom said.

      George Malloy at River's Edge General Store in Berlin, said that hatches were heavy on the Androscoggin River there, but no sign of the famous alder fly hatch yet: "There's a lot of mayflies and caddis. A friend and I were out on the river last night. We had a lot of action on rainbows. I was using an orange and copper Top Gun lure, and he was using a small orange bladed Panther Martin spinner. Dummer Pond (Town of Dummer) still has been great for brook trout. Cedar Pond in Milan had some wonderful rainbow trout fishing as well as giving up some big bass," George added.

      George Taylor at Taylor's Trading Post in Madbury, said the bass ponds in the area doing the best were Swain's (Barrington), Bow Lake (Strafford) and the Bellamy Reservoir (Madbury).

      Saltwater action was fast and furious in some places. The largest striper reported to us so far is leading the Suds-n-Soda All Summer Long Striper Derby--a 34 lb., 48 in. fish caught by Nick Cyr of Rye. Rumor has it that the fish took a live mackerel somewhere off the Rye coastline. "There's a lot of fish in the 30-32 inch range--both up into Little and Great Bay and the Piscataqua. Along the shoreline and even out into the open ocean, there were a lot of stripers. Mackerel became scarce a few times last week. Some of our regulars had to go all the way to the Isles of Shoals to catch enough mackerel to use for striper bait. Flounders started to hit very well in the Newcastle back channel, Little Harbor and Pepperell Cove at Kittery Point,"  Jim MacKenzie advised.

      He asked us to add a warning about New Hampshire's new striper length limit. The old limit of 32 inches is still in effect. The new limit of 28 inches has not been officially announced yet, but is said to be slated for later this month.

      "We had one fellow take five stripers that were from 32 to 35 inches long from the General Sullivan Bridge on Friday afternoon. He was fishing sea worms, bouncing them along the bottom," acknowledged George Taylor. "Although there's still been some pretty good action in the Salmon Falls River, the Dover/Eliot Bridge has slowed down with most of the stripers being caught below the South Berwick Dam."

      Dave Ganter at Kittery Trading Post said that they'd heard nothing but good striper news. "It's the best--very consistent. We've had reports from way up into the rivers to the head-of-tide dams and well out several miles into the ocean. Our Bill Coit, who guides striper fishermen when not working here, has done very well in the York River and along the shoreline there. He does both fly and bait and has been catching schoolies and some of the larger fish on most occasions," Dave noted.

      "It's been red hot for stripers," enthused Craig Bergeron at Saco Bay Tackle. "We've got fish to 35 inches. They're all over in the river and out around the islands. We've been having good luck with the tube-n-worm combo and several of our people have been using live mackerel. Husky Jerk Rapala lures, four to six inch Kalin Shad and Gag's Poppers have been working well. Outside, there's been a few giant bluefins taken by the stick-boats and the cod and haddock fishing continues to amaze us," he ended.

      Captain Bill Brindamour of Hampton reports cod and haddock catches coming into Hampton Harbor from the Gauron Party Boats remain steady, with some trips seeing haddock dominating the catch. Most of the groundfishing action is from the Jeffrey's Ledge area.

      "We've seen our first bluefish in our area," reports Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics Bait and Tackle in Everett, Massachusetts. "They weren't huge--mostly in the 20-25 inch range. They were concentrated off Hull at Minot Light. Stripers have been awesome!  We had a 32 pounder that was 44 inches caught in 77 feet of water off Egg Rock in Nahant. This fish took a Santini red Tube-n-Worm. The Charles and Mystic Rivers have been loaded with fish to 36 inches as well as at the Amelia Earhart Dam.  Deer, Long, George's and Lovell's Islands and at Faun Bar have all been hot spots. Flounders are wild! North and South Channels, Green and George's Island are  great places. The Chincoteaugue Rig is working well on the flounder," Pete reported.

                    Past Fishing Reports 2001

Return to Top