March 8This has been one strange spring! The warm weather following the big northeaster has just about ended the ice fishing in many of the southern locations. Some of the lakes and ponds are already clear of ice while others with a decent ice pack are very hard to get on to ice fish, as the shorelines have broken free. The use of planks as a bridge to the ice was mentioned several times during our conversations with bait and tackle shops today. Also, more and more people are starting to seek out open water that is legally open to fishing to try their luck. Know that a lot of places where lake trout and landlocked salmon are managed do not allow fishing from shore until April 1.
Derek Sturtevant at Kittery Trading Post’s Fishing Department has this report: “With the Maine Wardens reporting that throughout the state ice thicknesses are receding, there are places in the northern part of the state as well as in both northern New Hampshire and Vermont that still have up to two feet of ice and the fishing has been very good. But as with all late-season ice fishing, caution is required.”
“Maine’s Aroostook County is like a different country, in both size and weather. Larger than the two states of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined, there are a lot of waterbodies that are just coming into their hot fishing time. The climate in this county is much colder than the southern areas, being among the most northern points in the whole USA. So their ice fishing season extends well into the month of March, as also happens in both northern New Hampshire and Vermont.”
“The Fish River Chain of Lakes in Aroostook has both quantity of areas and quality of fishing as well as easy access to most of the lakes. Long Lake in the towns of Sinclair, Saint Agatha and Van Buren all have good access and although the lake has some great native brook trout, it’s the landlocked salmon that bring the excitement there. The largest landlocks caught each year seem to consistently come from this lake. Brook trout to three pounds are also not that rare.”
“Eagle Lake, in the Township of Eagle Lake, is famous for its togue (lake trout) and also provides for very easy access. There are also plenty of accommodations for the visiting angler. This lake also has native brook trout and a population of landlocks.”
“Square Lake offers the chance at more action from average-sized salmon and brook trout and an occasional togue, but here the access is by snowmobile and it’s several miles but the trails are usually good.”
“Not one of the Fish River Chain of Lakes, Madawaska Lake in the unorganized Town of Madawaska Lake, has been managed for the last couple of years for a quality brook trout-ice fishery and has become a very popular spot with very easy access. Both North Star Variety Store in New Sweden and Jules St. Peter’s General Store at Cross Lake have a good supply of live bait and also will provide local information.”
“Know that all of these lakes have special regulations that vary from lake to lake so make sure you check first before fishing,” Derek warns.
“In New Hampshire, the northern county of Coos has a lot in common with Maine’s Aroostook County. It’s the state’s largest and most northern county and is full of lakes, most notably the headwater lakes of the Connecticut River and they all bear the same name but are numbered. First, Second, Third Connecticut Lake. Lake Francis also is in this watershed. All of these lakes are all or partly in the Town of Pittsburg, with Lake Francis shared by the Town of Clarksville.”
“First Connecticut Lake is known for its lake trout and cusk. Landlocked salmon are in all of these lakes but are not legal to ice fish for, or possess. Second Lake has rainbow trout and lakers, while Third Lake is a red-hot rainbow trout fishery. Lake Francis has them all: brown, rainbow and brook trout as well as a few lake trout. This lake is the most southern and ice conditions can vary here as the water levels and flows from the dam can change ice thickness.”
“One of the best kept secrets in this area is the all-year-long fishing in the Connecticut River below Murphy Dam in Pittsburg. Huge brown trout are caught each winter with live or sewn-on shiners or Rapala lures. This water is tailrace swift at times so wading or shore fishing can be dangerous. Use extreme caution.”
“We can’t forget northern Vermont when it comes to late-season ice fishing. Willoughby Lake produces huge lake trout, with catches recently in the over twenty pound range! Bomoseen Lake is loaded with warm water fish. Lake Memphremagog has them all. Partly in Canada, this lake has all the warm water fish you could imagine including walleye. Brook, brown and rainbow trout, landlocked salmon abound.”
“Again, we can’t stress enough how important caution is this time of year. When in doubt, just don’t venture out on a lake. A good bet but not always reliable is other anglers out on the ice. Find where they are accessing the ice,” Derek ended.
Fox Keim at Kittery Trading Post offers the fishing seminar schedules for the upcoming Fishingfest & Spring Turkey Event to be held Friday- Sunday, March 19-28: “Friday, March 19, Ron Z gives advice on how to catch big fish on little baits and why 10% of fishermen catch 90% of the fish! Also, Captain Dave Guerard has a presentation on fly-fishing and tackle for striped bass, blues, mackerel and bluefin tuna. On Saturday, March 20, Tom Waltz advises how to pick the right bass rod. Captain Dave Guerard gives his seminar again while Ron Z teaches how to choose the right rod and reel and how to use braided line for big fish. Sunday, March 21 brings the 2010 Shimano Tour and how to fix your own reels. Ron Z again presents his 10% catch the fish while on Friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, Captain Rich Antonio tells it all about fishing for bluefin tuna on Stellwagen Bank. Captain Doug Jowett completes the schedule with his Saturday, March 27 discussion on tying flies and knots.”
MAINE: This report just in from Maine Registered Fishing Guide Bob Hamer: “With some of the best ice around, Moosehead Lake has been seeing a lot of fishermen from all over Maine. Most anglers are catching plenty of small togue but few are finding any above six pounds. Looking forward, remember that every year the middle two weeks of March seem to produce a number of large togue. A few years ago, two 15 pound and one 18 pound togue were checked in at Moosehead Bait & Tackle on the same day. Last year saw Bill Maynard Jr’s record breaking 30-pound togue.”
“Last week we mentioned that brook trout fishing has been very good. And it continues to be very good. A few days ago, Wayne Plummer, owner of Northern Pride Lodge had five guests who in two days caught over 20 brook trout on Moosehead Lake. The brookies all look in great shape with most having full bellies. If you don't feel like fishing the big lake remember that the State stocked a number of local ponds with nice brookies including Prong & Mountain View Ponds.”
“Salmon are showing up mostly in the under 18-inch size and most anglers targeting salmon report good action. The Moosehead Fisheries Coalition is planning on again adding smelt to Moosehead this spring in their on-going efforts to provide baitfish for our salmon. Their efforts have already resulted in the salmon population rebounding and we all believe that IF&W will once again find the condition of our salmon to have improved from last year.”
“Splake have been showing up in good numbers on anglers trap lines in Ragged Lake. With the recent snow, the snowmobile trails are very good from Kokadjo to Ragged so anyone wanting to catch splake has no excuse for not making the quick trip”
“The past several weeks have seen a number of large cusk ending up in chowders. Catches of 5 to 7 pound cusk has been pretty regular and a few cusk approaching 10 pounds have also been reported,” Bob ended and many thanks to him.
Dan Legere at the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville on Moosehead Lake sends this info from Florida where he’s enjoying some of their great fishing: “The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has been working on a new system of regulations that combines Maine's fishing laws into one book that includes both summer and winter regulations. It is intended to save the department a bundle of money, address conflicting laws and establish a new code system needed when special regulations are applied to a given body of water. It is not radically different from past law books but the format has changed so you’ll need to learn how to use it in order to check for special regulations.”
“Try my approach. Every season I always pick-up two new fishing law books. I put one in the vehicle and the other next to my rocking chair so when I'm spending some down time I'll read it from cover to cover and have a check on my favorite spots for changes. The nice thing about the two-year around book is now I will only have to get caught up every other year. That's a good thing.”
“The new fishing law books are now available so check with your local sporting goods shop. The new book contains both summer and winter regulations and is in effect from April 1, 2010- March 31, 2012. You can also view and download your own copy from the Department's web site.”
“Here are some changes for waters in our area: First, all waters open under Group A for ice fishing are now open for the month of April to ice fishing as well as open water fishing. This should provide some great days of ice fishing on waters like Prong Pond, Fitzgerald Pond, and Little Big Wood Pond. Second, we have removed the delayed opening at First Roach Pond. You can now open water fish starting on April 1. Also, we are reverting back to the 5-togue limit on Moosehead Lake starting this summer. All five can be l4-18” and only one may be greater than 18”.”
Master Maine Guide Stu Bristol took time out from writing another one of his fine wild turkey hunting books to share this information: “There’s a lot of frustrated anglers up this way but just as many happy golfers. Most of the big ponds are free of ice along the shorelines and, in Maine, it’s not legal to fish open water until April 1. If anglers can reach solid ice they can drill and fish but they cannot stand on the ice and fish into open water.”
“That leaves anglers searching the higher elevations or the coastal water for places to fish. Some of the backwoods ponds still have ice but anglers are warned and double warned to test the ice as they go and keep a close eye on conditions as the day progresses. Some ponds may have ice at or before sunrise but the temperatures have been soaring into the high 40's and low 50's this past week and by mid-morning the anglers could find themselves in a pickle.”
“Coastal brown trout angling should be picking up although the water is high and cold. We can, however, reach the shorelines of the Ogunquit, Stevens and other southern Maine tidal streams that usually produce good brown trout angling at this time of the season. Also, coastal hen clammers need to keep checking in with DMR at 1-800-232-4733 for the automated shellfish closure line. Because of flooding over the past month, not many have been able to go to the beaches during full or new moons for hen clams.”
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in East Sebago thinks that ice-out on the big lake could be as early as the end of this week. “I haven’t been down to the south end of the lake recently but you can’t see any ice from our shoreline here. But you can’t fish until the April 1 opener except from the ice. Some of the smaller ponds are still okay to ice fish but conditions are quickly deteriorating. While the cusk fishing over at Peabody Pond had been good, the last time a group from here fished it they only caught one fish all night. Trickey Pond (Naples) still has good ice at this moment but getting on and off can be a problem. The shady side is okay as we speak. Things are changing come April 1 when the new regulations will come into effect opening Sebago Lake to year ‘round fishing as well as several other Maine Lakes.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Corey at Suds-n-Soda Sports in Greenland reported that just about all their ice fishermen had called it quits locally but there have been a few people that have tried some of the open water rivers and some ice fishing farther north. “We’ve had a few people head up to Great East Lake in Sanbornville and a few that were going to Bow Lake in Strafford but we don’t know how they made out. Some have been questioning us about the open water trout fishing at the Lamprey River in the Wiswall Dam area and also about the Cocheco River in Dover. We hear that both areas have been stocked with trout and some pretty good fly-fishing has been had. As the water recedes these two rivers should be good producers.”
At Taylor’s Trading Post in Madbury, George Taylor reports that he’d not recommend ice fishing on any of the local bodies of water because things are just too scary and ice is either gone from the shorelines or very thin. “Things should start to pop on some of the trout streams early this season, especially if we don’t get a lot of rain and the water levels will allow early stocking. Right now you can fish a lot of places but the streams are still pretty high.”
Both Jamie Sargent and Mike Ferry at Dover Marine’s Sport Shop say that getting on the ice on their local ponds is not recommended. “But there are quite a few still headed up north where there is good ice but some bad spots around the shorelines.”
Jamie had experienced a good day fishing over shallow gravel bars for lake trout and rainbow trout in two to five feet of water on the Alton end of Lake Winnipesaukee where he said there was about eight inches of solid ice but melting fast. He likes salmon eggs for the rainbows and number 3 gold Swedish Pimples baited with cut shiner for the laker trout. “You’ve got to be wicked patient. A lot of fish will come up and refuse your lure but then you’ll get lucky and have one swoop into your hole and grab your bait.”
He fishes in a dark, portable bob house where he can see what’s going on in his fishing holes.
“This can be a terrific time to fish from shore around the culverts and open water areas in some of our ponds such as Wakewan and Winowna for trout,” reports Alan Nute at AJ’s Bait and Tackle in Meredith on Lake Winnipesaukee. “It’s not legal to fish from shore at Winni or any of the salmon lakes until April 1 but there’s plenty of places that you can and those ponds will have rainbow trout cruising the openings where there are streams coming in. Also, some of the tributaries of Winnipesaukee are legal to fish and a few rainbows have probably moved into these places.”
“Right now it’s legal to fish both the Pemi and the Merrimack Rivers for Atlantic salmon but you are required to have a special permit. As the water recedes this could provide some good fishing. Also, the stretch of the Newfound River below Bristol is open to catch-and-release, fly only fishing and you are apt to catch both salmon (landlocked) and some big trout there.”
“Just as soon as the ice goes out enough for me to get a boat into one of our local trout ponds we’re going to do it, just to prove that there are fish to be caught and you don’t have to wait until April 1 to do it,” Alan ended.
Bob McLean at Storey’s Sport Shop at Winnisquam Lake (formerly Martel’s) had some good news. “We’ve got ice on the lake that is fishable but things are changing fast and in some places it’s hard to get on. The best news is that the white perch started to really turn-on up in the northern end of our lake. One person was in here that had caught his limit of 25 white perch that went from two to three and a half pounds! He was fishing near Collins Brook.”
MASSACHUSETTS: Although Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett won’t be back until April 3 from the Galapagos Islands where he runs a charter fishing business, at his shop John gave us a quick run-down on what was going on there. “We’ll be seeing some great early trout fishing around here soon. The ice is out of most of our ponds and our fisheries division is very good at getting these places stocked early and often. Pete’s favorite place is Horn Pond in Woburn where the outlet provides a good current for both fly-fishing and bait. Whites and Waldon Ponds in Concord are also great early trout fishing ponds.”
“If this weather continues, our saltwater fishing will respond. Already there’s been some holdover stripers coming from the Charles River Locks and from the Amelia Earhardt Dam areas and we’re also looking for flounder to start up soon.”
Because of the inherent time restrictions of gathering fresh, up-to-date information, editing and producing this report in a timely manner, occasional errors or marginal information may slip by us. We try our hardest to provide accurate information. We urge readers to use this report as a tool to increase their fishing pleasure and not to rely on as their sole resource. First or second hand information is offered by fishing guides, commercial fishing charters or party boats, bait and tackle dealers, well known successful anglers and state and federal fisheries and natural resource law enforcement officials. We also welcome and use reports forwarded to us by fishermen that use this report. (Thank you, Dick Pinney Kittery Trading Post Fishing Report Editor.)
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