Up North Fishing Report 7/27/09
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July 27
Weather continues to play a big part in the fishing in our area as coastal storms have battered the coastline and dumped up to four and five inches of rain inland that has rivers and even some ponds up over their banks. The amount of freshwater running into the saltwater bays have put a lot of color in the water as well as driven some of the saltwater fish to leave. But it has had some advantages as some big stripers are still being caught up under the head-of-tide dams, feeding on the remnant drop-back alewives and herring – fish to over 40 inches.
Seth Legere at Kittery Trading Post’s Fishing Department gets a lot of questions from all kinds of anglers, but right now much of them revolve around all the rain and high water we are having and its effect on fishing. “Freshwater pond and lake fishermen are not that effected by the high water as the river and stream people, but there is a positive effect for those that do fish lakes and ponds for trout and salmon. The cooler than normal temperatures and the amount of rain have caused quite a delay in the cold water species such as trout and salmon in their dropping down into the colder water layers. In some instances, surface water temperatures being recorded early in the morning are in the mid-sixties, not at all usual for the end of July. So this should be taken into account with a change of tactics.”
“Take advantage of this event as it’s pretty rare. Get out early in the morning and if you are trolling for trout and salmon don’t just drop all your lines down but fish a couple right on the surface. Be alert for surface rises and don’t be afraid to add some small wet flies to your trolling pattern.”
“Keep and eye on where the baitfish are suspending as they like to feed on plankton that hang in certain layers of water temperature. Target those depths as you’ll find that salmon and trout and even lake trout will move up into the water column to feed on young-of-the-year smelt or other small recently hatched fish such as white and yellow perch.”
“As the sun starts to hit the water, you don’t necessarily have to drop your lines down near bottom, although those fish feeding right on the surface will usually drop down to where they are not effected by the sunlight. A lot of fish are very sunlight intolerant, so by knowing this you have to react to the fact. Landlocked salmon are especially sunlight intolerant but some of the best fishermen know that they will often take a fly or lure fished right in the slipstream of the motor as the bubbles and currents diffuse the light and give the fly a tantalizing action that brings on the strikes.”
“Saltwater problems from too much freshwater will often make it hard to find mackerel for striper and bluefish bait. The trick under those conditions is to work steadily offshore until you find them. In our particular area this could very well be around the Isles of Shoals. Or you might just find mackerel in a pool of salty water at the top of the tide when the freshwater has been moved around. Watch for changes in water color as the saltwater is much clearer than the freshwater that has picked up a lot of silt on its journey down to the salt.”
“Striped bass are not intimidated by muddy fresh water, being born in the freshwater. They will go right up into freshwater, if that is where the baitfish they are seeking are. In some instances they will be feeding on late moving herring but they will also target yellow perch, chubs and other freshwater targets of opportunity,” Seth ended.
MAINE:
This just in from Master Maine Guide Stu Bristol: “You not only have to get up before the early bird to catch fish, you need to be on the water before the worm starts to squirm. Once the sun peeks over the water, the fish head deep and, with the rapid change between cold and warm fronts, the fish are as confused as the anglers.”
“That's why I love to take people crappie fishing. These fish could care less about the highs and lows. They're just like a cat I used to feed every morning. Anytime I make a noise that sounds like food being dispensed, the critter comes running. Just slap the water with a big popper or crappie tube and the fish will come from all around. In southern Maine, the crappies sometimes outweigh the bass anglers take. It doesn't take a lot of crappie to make a meal in these waters. Some are tipping the scales at over two pounds.”
“Largemouths are the most predictable to the early morning (pre-dawn to an hour after light) as the largest, most dominant fish are always ready at the most productive hotpots. When a big fish is taken, the next largest bass moves right in without hesitation.”
“Smallmouths, on the other hand, are acting like trout these days, even at or before daybreak. In the rivers, they have begun searching for emerging insects and are staying in the deeper pools. My most successful tactic this week is to use a 3- or 4-inch scented tube impaled by a 2/0 wide gap hook with a football jighead. These jigheads cause the tube to stand straight up in the water column instead of crawling across the bottom. Bass see them better and the tubes have more action. It helps to fill the tubes with a gel-based shrimp scent.”
“Brook trout are just about the least taken species this week with the constant surges of high water caused by unexpected thunderstorms. Instead, the browns are willing and roaming the pools and setting up feeding stations downstream from large boulders in the rivers. In the lakes, the browns are down deep and waters such as Long Lake in Naples, the browns won't move much. You'll need to slow down the troll to just faster than if you were chasing lake trout.”
“Weathermen and politicians are the only two professions in which a man can still get paid regardless of how poorly he or she does the job. If you can believe what the weather forecasters are telling us, prepare for some hot, lazy days this week. To me that brings back memories of southern Alabama and long cane poles for crappies.”
Craig Bergeron at Saco Bay Tackle sends us this report on recent action in his locale: “The Saco River looks like Lake Ontario this week. Anglers are creaming the stripers using surgical tubes tipped with a sand or bloodworm. I know we’ve mentioned the preferred method to troll these set-ups but it is key if you consistently want to catch more and larger stripers right now. You need a reel that will hold a hundred-yard spool of 36 to 45 pound-test leadcore line with a 25-foot fluorocarbon leader (25-pound test). Match this with a six to seven foot medium action trolling rod.”
“Troll the tube as slow as the motor will go, with the tide or currents and make sure you tip the tube with a worm.”
“Normally this time of year we are catching most of the stripers along the beaches or in the bay, but the water temperatures are five degrees cooler than normal. Shore anglers are catching fish at Sandy Bottom with a sliding bait rig and sea worms or clams. The Camp Ellis Jetty is also producing slot-sized stripers with a few bluefish mixed in. We are still able to catch mackerel around Wood Island using chum and Sabiki Rigs. Chum is key to hold the fish near your boat.”
“It amazes me how we still see guys trolling the old style Christmas tree-rigs and catch two or three mackerel every so often while we drift and catch all the mackerel we want in a half hour. You need to try this method.”
“Offshore fishing has been good this week. Captain Dave Johnson had a charter on Thursday catching cod from six to twenty pounds and pollock four to fifteen pounds on SE Tantas Ledge. The winning combo was an eight-ounce, flat-sided Shimano Butterfly jig, any color, rigged with a teaser fly about two feet above.”
Captain Barry Gibson of Saltwater Magazine fame reports some good action in the area he guides striper and bluefishermen. “Striper fishing has been consistent in the Boothbay area over the past week, and although catches aren't up to where they were in '07, some boats are doing pretty well. Capt. George Warren of the Charger reported that his anglers caught 16 bass on Wednesday the 22nd, a pretty good score given the cold, off-color water and tough conditions. We took five bass to 34 inches on one trip late in the week, not great, but enough to keep us optimistic that things may improve. Bait-size mackerel are everywhere and easy to catch. The offshore tuna scene remains quiet but could heat up at any time.
In the Sebago Lake Region, Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake reports that the Sebago Lake togue (lake trout) fishing just seems to get better and better. “We had one boat land 29 togue in a short day’s fishing! It’s getting to be that kind of action is expected. The fish are not all big ones, in fact they probably average around three pounds but some togue up to six or seven pounds are most generally in a catch like theirs and you never know when you’ll hook into one of those huge ones. These guys were trolling sewed-on shiners behind dodgers on downriggers and fishing in the 40 to 50 foot depths. Quite shallow for this time of year.”
Dave usually fishes a bass tourney each weekend and this weekend the event was held at Thompson Lake. “We were into all largemouths and the fishing was all in the slop (weeds) and you had to be very patient. I was throwing an eight-inch cinnamon colored plastic worm; dragging it across the pads and letting it drop into any holes. Then I was very patient and never moved the worm on its fall. That’s when most of the hits came and sometimes the fish would just pick it up after it had landed on bottom a minute or so later. You have to just know there is a fish there looking over your bait to be able to be so patient!”
“Anyhow, first place bag was just over 15 pounds and the next few places, mine included, were all around 13 pounds so we came home with fourth place, keeping me in the top five for the season so far. The lunker fish was a five pounder but it didn’t help that much as the guy that caught it didn’t have much more to show for his day.”
“There are some real quality pickerel in Thompson. If you wanted to have a great day over there, I’d cast a Johnson Silver Minnow with some kind of a trailer into the weeds and hold on. I had some smashers while fishing the bass tourney and know that if I’d been using something more to the pickerel’s liking we would have caught a ton of good sized pickerel.”
“It’s kind of obscene,” reported Gregg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in East Sebago. You just can’t believe the amount of togue that are being caught out here, both out over the shoals and off the bar off of the Northwest River. “You can just about catch them at will. My brother Tom has been out each weekend and in only a couple of hours has had non-stop action and it doesn’t seem to matter what you use. But the most productive thing has always been sewed-on bait. The best lure always seems to be a Flatfish or one of the clones that look like it such as the Quickfish. The togue are up into the water column, on structure that is only 30 to 40 feet deep and also on the bottom in much deeper areas.”
“The landlocked salmon fishing this season so far has been a bit disappointing. There doesn’t seem to be as many fish as there were a couple of years ago and the fish are not in particularly good shape, a bit skinny for their length. There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of smelts in the lake so we don’t know why the drop in size.”
Ken at River’s Edge Sports in Oquossoc in the Rangeley Lakes Region continues to sing the praises about Rangeley Lake. “This lake has really come into its own this year with more and larger fish than the rest of the Rangeley Lakes with Mooselookmeguntic being much slower fishing than the last few years. Rangeley was always noted for the larger fish while Mooselook was the place to go for action, but not this year.”
“We’ve actually been fishing in water depths shallower than we have earlier in the year finding plenty of fish, both trout and salmon, in the 25 to 35 foot range. Jerry (his boss who Ken fishes with most mornings) had his usual week last week catching a couple of brook trout over four pounds and some nice salmon. Jerry has learned the trick of rigging the Berkeley Gulp Minnows (smelt) and trolling them. They seem to work for him just as well as the real sewed-on baitfish. While I usually like to use a lure or streamer fly or both. I’d have to say that the DB Smelt has been the best for me so far this year as far as lures are concerned with the sneaker pattern trolling streamer a good choice for streamers.”
“We haven’t been getting the amount of rain that downcountry has seen so our rivers are dropping and the water is warming so the fishing has slowed down, except for the Lower Magalloway which fishes very well all summer long because of the cold water releases from the Aziscohos Dam.”
“Earlier we were catching about equal amounts of salmon to brook trout here on Rangeley but right now the brookies rule. Although most of the fish have been caught in the relatively shallow depths, we have taken fish as deep as 64 feet.”
“Our Guide Ray Soriano has been into fish every day he’s been out there and has caught fish in the three to five pound range each week here on Rangeley!” Penny Legere at the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville was quite upset as their web site which husband and Master Maine Guide Danny had put a ton of work into had crashed due to some work by their system management. “We can’t even receive e-mails right now! So anyone wanting to contact us should phone 207-695-3866.”
Penny said that Dan had been having some exceptional luck fishing the East Outlet (Kennebec River where it leaves Moosehead Lake and drops into Indian Pond).
“They drained a lot of water out of Moosehead earlier so the rain we’ve had hasn’t caused the water managers to push a lot of volume down the outlets, making for great conditions and the outlets are full of trout and salmon. Hatches are mostly caddis but both caddis and big stimulator dry fly patterns are working well along with nymph fishing with double rigged flies.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Christopher Perkins, New Hampshire’s Fish and Game Seasonal Fisheries Technician emailed us this informative report: “The relentless rains of June have lifted and it is finally time to load up the family, dust off the light tackle, and head into the Great North Woods of New Hampshire for cool water and fast fishing.
“While heading toward the Kancamagus Highway this weekend, my family decided to break along the East Branch of the Pemigewassett River. While my children played along the bank, I carefully rigged a small plastic power bait jig and tossed it into a nearby shaded hole. To my surprise, it was instantly inhaled by a nice 12-inch rainbow trout! After carefully removing the hook (and giving a quick catch-and-release lesson to my daughter), we decided that it was time to move on to the next spot.”
“The Kancamagus Highway is stunning this time of year. The mountains are blanketed with soft shades of green and brown and all of its rivers and streams are filled with cool, crystal clear water. There are many stops along the way that get overlooked as productive brook trout fisheries. If you can get to these locations during the week when the crowds are at a minimum, you will reap the rewards.”
“The Otter Rocks rest area is located on the Hancock Branch and holds a surprising number of fish. It is 5 feet at it deepest point, and there are always numerous fish holding at the base near the highly oxygenated water flow. I caught and released 7 brook trout out of this pool before moving on after just an hour.”
“As you continue along the highway, the Swift River follows you to your left. The Swift River offers amazing fishing this time of year. You could easily spend all day zipping flies or throwing blue fox spinners (size 1 in gold is my weapon of choice) into all the holes at the lower falls area. I was fortunate to win a light tackle, wrestling match with a 16-inch beauty. Yes, you heard me correctly, a 16-inch brook trout. The Swift is heavily stocked with sizeable brook trout every year, and this year there were many additional surplus fish added as well. Life is good in the North Country.”
“As fantastic summer fishing finally gets underway, it's difficult to imagine that hunting season is already around the corner. As fly fishermen and light tackle enthusiasts match wits with the Eastern brook trout, bow-hunting enthusiasts are changing strings and sighting pins. Well, that's the New Hampshire outdoors for you. So much to do...so little time.”
(Christopher Perkins of Alexandria, NH has been employed with Fish and Game for the past 2 years, assisting with the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture as a seasonal fisheries technician, and is a volunteer for the various anadromous fish restoration projects.)
At Alan Nute’s AJ’s Bait and Tackle in the mid-state lakes region, Alan was busy tying some of his special flies. “There are two patterns that seem to be catching a lot of fish, our white perch fly that mimics a this-years hatch of white perch and another pattern that features a lot of orange marabou. But most of the fish that we’ve heard of or seen when we’ve been fishing haven’t targeted the little perch yet but they are gorging on tiny, this year’s smelt that are only an inch or a little larger. Go figure!”
“Rainbow trout, lake trout and landlocked salmon all are being caught a lot shallower in the water column than usual for this time of year. The 30 to 35 foot range is hot right now and strangely that depth you’ll catch at least as many lakers as you will salmon. But there are also reports of lakers schooling up on some of the rocky underwater structure. Last time out for us we caught eight lakers and five salmon all on flies. We’ve also seen a lot of fish rising on the surface early in the morning and we’ve caught some on top. The water temps are still below 70 degrees (surface), especially early in the morning and those baby smelt have been right near the surface, especially out on the Broads.”
“We’ve had one of our customers tell of catching and releasing the largest rainbow trout of his life but no photos to back it up but I’m sure it’s real. Also, there’s been some lake trout that have been up to 27 inches long caught and released. Most of the charter boat fleet are having big days on both salmon and lakers, with an occasional nice rainbow mixed in.”
George Taylor at Taylor’s Trading Post in Madbury says that the nearby Bellamy Reservoir had been full of kayak-fishermen this past week and that they were having a blast on the sizeable populations of both largemouth bass and crappie their. “There seems to be no limit to the number of fish being caught here. Not all these people are catch-and-release fishing as we have a large group of people that fish here to support their regular diets. These people are not fussy about what kind of fish they subsist on but are fond of crappie with bass, perch and pickerel all going home with them as well.”
“A big majority of the boat and kayak people are catch-and-releasing but they’ll bring you in a photo of a huge largemouth once in a while that has given them a tow around the lake.”
“A shocker to many of us is the fact that striped bass and some big ones continue to be caught way up into the Town of Dover at the Cocheco River. In fact, a couple of fish over 40 inches were taken there this week right at Henry Law Park. We’ve never seen stripers there this late in the year so it’s got to be something about all the fresh water and cooler water temperatures. We’re also hearing better reports from our bridge people. The Dover/Eliot Bridge is still producing some nice stripers and now we’re seeing more and more anglers over at the Scammell Bridge at Dover Point where a few small bluefish have been in the mix with the stripers.”
Jason MacKenzie at Suds-n-Soda Sports in Greenland reported a striper of 44.75 pounds and 48 inches long caught by Russ Burgess had taken over first place in their All Summer Long Striper Tourney. “Russ is no stranger to our leader board and knocked John Twitchell’s 43.5 pounder into second place. Steve Courshesne is holding on to third place with his 41.5 pounder.”
“The word we’re getting is that mackerel have been scarce around the river mouth and around the #2KR Buoy. But out at the Isles of Shoals some people have loaded up with mackerel, especially on the back-side of White Island. There is good news for bait fishermen around Pierce Island and along that shoreline all the way down to the Fort Point Lighthouse. This area was swarming with small pollock this weekend and there were both stripers and bluefish chowing down on them. They were even driving the small pollock right up on shore.”
“There’s been a scattering of bluefish in Great and Little Bays but the stripers seem to have dropped down out of there. It has to be a baitfish thing. They’ll go where the bait is, regardless of water conditions.”
“Less action on flounder this week but Rye Harbor still has the most action as far as we can tell and also there’s been quite a few stripers being caught from the rocks in Rye during the night tides.”
MASSACHUSETTS:
At Surfland on Plum Island, the word from Mike Hosker was that the Joppa Flats has been giving up some great stripers to the tube-n-worm fishermen. “Red seems to be the hot color. You can only fish on Joppa during the high times of the tide, as it is all showing at low tide. The kayak guys seem to have the advantage there as they are stealthy and don’t spook the fish and they can troll those tubes very slowly and quietly. Also, the live eel guys like to fish Joppa at night and try to be as quiet and stealthy as they can be as those big fish are very spooky in water that shallow.”
“I’ve been over to Hampton for stripers at night. There seem to be more fish there but smaller than here. In both places there are only a few bluefish mixed in but there have to be darn few because you can still catch mackerel right at the mouth and they wouldn’t be there if any blues were around. There’s been enough mackerel there that we took in over three hundred last week to sell for bait.”
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July 27
Weather continues to play a big part in the fishing in our area as coastal storms have battered the coastline and dumped up to four and five inches of rain inland that has rivers and even some ponds up over their banks. The amount of freshwater running into the saltwater bays have put a lot of color in the water as well as driven some of the saltwater fish to leave. But it has had some advantages as some big stripers are still being caught up under the head-of-tide dams, feeding on the remnant drop-back alewives and herring – fish to over 40 inches.
Seth Legere at Kittery Trading Post’s Fishing Department gets a lot of questions from all kinds of anglers, but right now much of them revolve around all the rain and high water we are having and its effect on fishing. “Freshwater pond and lake fishermen are not that effected by the high water as the river and stream people, but there is a positive effect for those that do fish lakes and ponds for trout and salmon. The cooler than normal temperatures and the amount of rain have caused quite a delay in the cold water species such as trout and salmon in their dropping down into the colder water layers. In some instances, surface water temperatures being recorded early in the morning are in the mid-sixties, not at all usual for the end of July. So this should be taken into account with a change of tactics.”
“Take advantage of this event as it’s pretty rare. Get out early in the morning and if you are trolling for trout and salmon don’t just drop all your lines down but fish a couple right on the surface. Be alert for surface rises and don’t be afraid to add some small wet flies to your trolling pattern.”
“Keep and eye on where the baitfish are suspending as they like to feed on plankton that hang in certain layers of water temperature. Target those depths as you’ll find that salmon and trout and even lake trout will move up into the water column to feed on young-of-the-year smelt or other small recently hatched fish such as white and yellow perch.”
“As the sun starts to hit the water, you don’t necessarily have to drop your lines down near bottom, although those fish feeding right on the surface will usually drop down to where they are not effected by the sunlight. A lot of fish are very sunlight intolerant, so by knowing this you have to react to the fact. Landlocked salmon are especially sunlight intolerant but some of the best fishermen know that they will often take a fly or lure fished right in the slipstream of the motor as the bubbles and currents diffuse the light and give the fly a tantalizing action that brings on the strikes.”
“Saltwater problems from too much freshwater will often make it hard to find mackerel for striper and bluefish bait. The trick under those conditions is to work steadily offshore until you find them. In our particular area this could very well be around the Isles of Shoals. Or you might just find mackerel in a pool of salty water at the top of the tide when the freshwater has been moved around. Watch for changes in water color as the saltwater is much clearer than the freshwater that has picked up a lot of silt on its journey down to the salt.”
“Striped bass are not intimidated by muddy fresh water, being born in the freshwater. They will go right up into freshwater, if that is where the baitfish they are seeking are. In some instances they will be feeding on late moving herring but they will also target yellow perch, chubs and other freshwater targets of opportunity,” Seth ended.
MAINE:
This just in from Master Maine Guide Stu Bristol: “You not only have to get up before the early bird to catch fish, you need to be on the water before the worm starts to squirm. Once the sun peeks over the water, the fish head deep and, with the rapid change between cold and warm fronts, the fish are as confused as the anglers.”
“That's why I love to take people crappie fishing. These fish could care less about the highs and lows. They're just like a cat I used to feed every morning. Anytime I make a noise that sounds like food being dispensed, the critter comes running. Just slap the water with a big popper or crappie tube and the fish will come from all around. In southern Maine, the crappies sometimes outweigh the bass anglers take. It doesn't take a lot of crappie to make a meal in these waters. Some are tipping the scales at over two pounds.”
“Largemouths are the most predictable to the early morning (pre-dawn to an hour after light) as the largest, most dominant fish are always ready at the most productive hotpots. When a big fish is taken, the next largest bass moves right in without hesitation.”
“Smallmouths, on the other hand, are acting like trout these days, even at or before daybreak. In the rivers, they have begun searching for emerging insects and are staying in the deeper pools. My most successful tactic this week is to use a 3- or 4-inch scented tube impaled by a 2/0 wide gap hook with a football jighead. These jigheads cause the tube to stand straight up in the water column instead of crawling across the bottom. Bass see them better and the tubes have more action. It helps to fill the tubes with a gel-based shrimp scent.”
“Brook trout are just about the least taken species this week with the constant surges of high water caused by unexpected thunderstorms. Instead, the browns are willing and roaming the pools and setting up feeding stations downstream from large boulders in the rivers. In the lakes, the browns are down deep and waters such as Long Lake in Naples, the browns won't move much. You'll need to slow down the troll to just faster than if you were chasing lake trout.”
“Weathermen and politicians are the only two professions in which a man can still get paid regardless of how poorly he or she does the job. If you can believe what the weather forecasters are telling us, prepare for some hot, lazy days this week. To me that brings back memories of southern Alabama and long cane poles for crappies.”
Craig Bergeron at Saco Bay Tackle sends us this report on recent action in his locale: “The Saco River looks like Lake Ontario this week. Anglers are creaming the stripers using surgical tubes tipped with a sand or bloodworm. I know we’ve mentioned the preferred method to troll these set-ups but it is key if you consistently want to catch more and larger stripers right now. You need a reel that will hold a hundred-yard spool of 36 to 45 pound-test leadcore line with a 25-foot fluorocarbon leader (25-pound test). Match this with a six to seven foot medium action trolling rod.”
“Troll the tube as slow as the motor will go, with the tide or currents and make sure you tip the tube with a worm.”
“Normally this time of year we are catching most of the stripers along the beaches or in the bay, but the water temperatures are five degrees cooler than normal. Shore anglers are catching fish at Sandy Bottom with a sliding bait rig and sea worms or clams. The Camp Ellis Jetty is also producing slot-sized stripers with a few bluefish mixed in. We are still able to catch mackerel around Wood Island using chum and Sabiki Rigs. Chum is key to hold the fish near your boat.”
“It amazes me how we still see guys trolling the old style Christmas tree-rigs and catch two or three mackerel every so often while we drift and catch all the mackerel we want in a half hour. You need to try this method.”
“Offshore fishing has been good this week. Captain Dave Johnson had a charter on Thursday catching cod from six to twenty pounds and pollock four to fifteen pounds on SE Tantas Ledge. The winning combo was an eight-ounce, flat-sided Shimano Butterfly jig, any color, rigged with a teaser fly about two feet above.”
Captain Barry Gibson of Saltwater Magazine fame reports some good action in the area he guides striper and bluefishermen. “Striper fishing has been consistent in the Boothbay area over the past week, and although catches aren't up to where they were in '07, some boats are doing pretty well. Capt. George Warren of the Charger reported that his anglers caught 16 bass on Wednesday the 22nd, a pretty good score given the cold, off-color water and tough conditions. We took five bass to 34 inches on one trip late in the week, not great, but enough to keep us optimistic that things may improve. Bait-size mackerel are everywhere and easy to catch. The offshore tuna scene remains quiet but could heat up at any time.
In the Sebago Lake Region, Dave Garcia at Naples Bait on Long Lake reports that the Sebago Lake togue (lake trout) fishing just seems to get better and better. “We had one boat land 29 togue in a short day’s fishing! It’s getting to be that kind of action is expected. The fish are not all big ones, in fact they probably average around three pounds but some togue up to six or seven pounds are most generally in a catch like theirs and you never know when you’ll hook into one of those huge ones. These guys were trolling sewed-on shiners behind dodgers on downriggers and fishing in the 40 to 50 foot depths. Quite shallow for this time of year.”
Dave usually fishes a bass tourney each weekend and this weekend the event was held at Thompson Lake. “We were into all largemouths and the fishing was all in the slop (weeds) and you had to be very patient. I was throwing an eight-inch cinnamon colored plastic worm; dragging it across the pads and letting it drop into any holes. Then I was very patient and never moved the worm on its fall. That’s when most of the hits came and sometimes the fish would just pick it up after it had landed on bottom a minute or so later. You have to just know there is a fish there looking over your bait to be able to be so patient!”
“Anyhow, first place bag was just over 15 pounds and the next few places, mine included, were all around 13 pounds so we came home with fourth place, keeping me in the top five for the season so far. The lunker fish was a five pounder but it didn’t help that much as the guy that caught it didn’t have much more to show for his day.”
“There are some real quality pickerel in Thompson. If you wanted to have a great day over there, I’d cast a Johnson Silver Minnow with some kind of a trailer into the weeds and hold on. I had some smashers while fishing the bass tourney and know that if I’d been using something more to the pickerel’s liking we would have caught a ton of good sized pickerel.”
“It’s kind of obscene,” reported Gregg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in East Sebago. You just can’t believe the amount of togue that are being caught out here, both out over the shoals and off the bar off of the Northwest River. “You can just about catch them at will. My brother Tom has been out each weekend and in only a couple of hours has had non-stop action and it doesn’t seem to matter what you use. But the most productive thing has always been sewed-on bait. The best lure always seems to be a Flatfish or one of the clones that look like it such as the Quickfish. The togue are up into the water column, on structure that is only 30 to 40 feet deep and also on the bottom in much deeper areas.”
“The landlocked salmon fishing this season so far has been a bit disappointing. There doesn’t seem to be as many fish as there were a couple of years ago and the fish are not in particularly good shape, a bit skinny for their length. There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of smelts in the lake so we don’t know why the drop in size.”
Ken at River’s Edge Sports in Oquossoc in the Rangeley Lakes Region continues to sing the praises about Rangeley Lake. “This lake has really come into its own this year with more and larger fish than the rest of the Rangeley Lakes with Mooselookmeguntic being much slower fishing than the last few years. Rangeley was always noted for the larger fish while Mooselook was the place to go for action, but not this year.”
“We’ve actually been fishing in water depths shallower than we have earlier in the year finding plenty of fish, both trout and salmon, in the 25 to 35 foot range. Jerry (his boss who Ken fishes with most mornings) had his usual week last week catching a couple of brook trout over four pounds and some nice salmon. Jerry has learned the trick of rigging the Berkeley Gulp Minnows (smelt) and trolling them. They seem to work for him just as well as the real sewed-on baitfish. While I usually like to use a lure or streamer fly or both. I’d have to say that the DB Smelt has been the best for me so far this year as far as lures are concerned with the sneaker pattern trolling streamer a good choice for streamers.”
“We haven’t been getting the amount of rain that downcountry has seen so our rivers are dropping and the water is warming so the fishing has slowed down, except for the Lower Magalloway which fishes very well all summer long because of the cold water releases from the Aziscohos Dam.”
“Earlier we were catching about equal amounts of salmon to brook trout here on Rangeley but right now the brookies rule. Although most of the fish have been caught in the relatively shallow depths, we have taken fish as deep as 64 feet.”
“Our Guide Ray Soriano has been into fish every day he’s been out there and has caught fish in the three to five pound range each week here on Rangeley!” Penny Legere at the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville was quite upset as their web site which husband and Master Maine Guide Danny had put a ton of work into had crashed due to some work by their system management. “We can’t even receive e-mails right now! So anyone wanting to contact us should phone 207-695-3866.”
Penny said that Dan had been having some exceptional luck fishing the East Outlet (Kennebec River where it leaves Moosehead Lake and drops into Indian Pond).
“They drained a lot of water out of Moosehead earlier so the rain we’ve had hasn’t caused the water managers to push a lot of volume down the outlets, making for great conditions and the outlets are full of trout and salmon. Hatches are mostly caddis but both caddis and big stimulator dry fly patterns are working well along with nymph fishing with double rigged flies.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Christopher Perkins, New Hampshire’s Fish and Game Seasonal Fisheries Technician emailed us this informative report: “The relentless rains of June have lifted and it is finally time to load up the family, dust off the light tackle, and head into the Great North Woods of New Hampshire for cool water and fast fishing.
“While heading toward the Kancamagus Highway this weekend, my family decided to break along the East Branch of the Pemigewassett River. While my children played along the bank, I carefully rigged a small plastic power bait jig and tossed it into a nearby shaded hole. To my surprise, it was instantly inhaled by a nice 12-inch rainbow trout! After carefully removing the hook (and giving a quick catch-and-release lesson to my daughter), we decided that it was time to move on to the next spot.”
“The Kancamagus Highway is stunning this time of year. The mountains are blanketed with soft shades of green and brown and all of its rivers and streams are filled with cool, crystal clear water. There are many stops along the way that get overlooked as productive brook trout fisheries. If you can get to these locations during the week when the crowds are at a minimum, you will reap the rewards.”
“The Otter Rocks rest area is located on the Hancock Branch and holds a surprising number of fish. It is 5 feet at it deepest point, and there are always numerous fish holding at the base near the highly oxygenated water flow. I caught and released 7 brook trout out of this pool before moving on after just an hour.”
“As you continue along the highway, the Swift River follows you to your left. The Swift River offers amazing fishing this time of year. You could easily spend all day zipping flies or throwing blue fox spinners (size 1 in gold is my weapon of choice) into all the holes at the lower falls area. I was fortunate to win a light tackle, wrestling match with a 16-inch beauty. Yes, you heard me correctly, a 16-inch brook trout. The Swift is heavily stocked with sizeable brook trout every year, and this year there were many additional surplus fish added as well. Life is good in the North Country.”
“As fantastic summer fishing finally gets underway, it's difficult to imagine that hunting season is already around the corner. As fly fishermen and light tackle enthusiasts match wits with the Eastern brook trout, bow-hunting enthusiasts are changing strings and sighting pins. Well, that's the New Hampshire outdoors for you. So much to do...so little time.”
(Christopher Perkins of Alexandria, NH has been employed with Fish and Game for the past 2 years, assisting with the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture as a seasonal fisheries technician, and is a volunteer for the various anadromous fish restoration projects.)
At Alan Nute’s AJ’s Bait and Tackle in the mid-state lakes region, Alan was busy tying some of his special flies. “There are two patterns that seem to be catching a lot of fish, our white perch fly that mimics a this-years hatch of white perch and another pattern that features a lot of orange marabou. But most of the fish that we’ve heard of or seen when we’ve been fishing haven’t targeted the little perch yet but they are gorging on tiny, this year’s smelt that are only an inch or a little larger. Go figure!”
“Rainbow trout, lake trout and landlocked salmon all are being caught a lot shallower in the water column than usual for this time of year. The 30 to 35 foot range is hot right now and strangely that depth you’ll catch at least as many lakers as you will salmon. But there are also reports of lakers schooling up on some of the rocky underwater structure. Last time out for us we caught eight lakers and five salmon all on flies. We’ve also seen a lot of fish rising on the surface early in the morning and we’ve caught some on top. The water temps are still below 70 degrees (surface), especially early in the morning and those baby smelt have been right near the surface, especially out on the Broads.”
“We’ve had one of our customers tell of catching and releasing the largest rainbow trout of his life but no photos to back it up but I’m sure it’s real. Also, there’s been some lake trout that have been up to 27 inches long caught and released. Most of the charter boat fleet are having big days on both salmon and lakers, with an occasional nice rainbow mixed in.”
George Taylor at Taylor’s Trading Post in Madbury says that the nearby Bellamy Reservoir had been full of kayak-fishermen this past week and that they were having a blast on the sizeable populations of both largemouth bass and crappie their. “There seems to be no limit to the number of fish being caught here. Not all these people are catch-and-release fishing as we have a large group of people that fish here to support their regular diets. These people are not fussy about what kind of fish they subsist on but are fond of crappie with bass, perch and pickerel all going home with them as well.”
“A big majority of the boat and kayak people are catch-and-releasing but they’ll bring you in a photo of a huge largemouth once in a while that has given them a tow around the lake.”
“A shocker to many of us is the fact that striped bass and some big ones continue to be caught way up into the Town of Dover at the Cocheco River. In fact, a couple of fish over 40 inches were taken there this week right at Henry Law Park. We’ve never seen stripers there this late in the year so it’s got to be something about all the fresh water and cooler water temperatures. We’re also hearing better reports from our bridge people. The Dover/Eliot Bridge is still producing some nice stripers and now we’re seeing more and more anglers over at the Scammell Bridge at Dover Point where a few small bluefish have been in the mix with the stripers.”
Jason MacKenzie at Suds-n-Soda Sports in Greenland reported a striper of 44.75 pounds and 48 inches long caught by Russ Burgess had taken over first place in their All Summer Long Striper Tourney. “Russ is no stranger to our leader board and knocked John Twitchell’s 43.5 pounder into second place. Steve Courshesne is holding on to third place with his 41.5 pounder.”
“The word we’re getting is that mackerel have been scarce around the river mouth and around the #2KR Buoy. But out at the Isles of Shoals some people have loaded up with mackerel, especially on the back-side of White Island. There is good news for bait fishermen around Pierce Island and along that shoreline all the way down to the Fort Point Lighthouse. This area was swarming with small pollock this weekend and there were both stripers and bluefish chowing down on them. They were even driving the small pollock right up on shore.”
“There’s been a scattering of bluefish in Great and Little Bays but the stripers seem to have dropped down out of there. It has to be a baitfish thing. They’ll go where the bait is, regardless of water conditions.”
“Less action on flounder this week but Rye Harbor still has the most action as far as we can tell and also there’s been quite a few stripers being caught from the rocks in Rye during the night tides.”
MASSACHUSETTS:
At Surfland on Plum Island, the word from Mike Hosker was that the Joppa Flats has been giving up some great stripers to the tube-n-worm fishermen. “Red seems to be the hot color. You can only fish on Joppa during the high times of the tide, as it is all showing at low tide. The kayak guys seem to have the advantage there as they are stealthy and don’t spook the fish and they can troll those tubes very slowly and quietly. Also, the live eel guys like to fish Joppa at night and try to be as quiet and stealthy as they can be as those big fish are very spooky in water that shallow.”
“I’ve been over to Hampton for stripers at night. There seem to be more fish there but smaller than here. In both places there are only a few bluefish mixed in but there have to be darn few because you can still catch mackerel right at the mouth and they wouldn’t be there if any blues were around. There’s been enough mackerel there that we took in over three hundred last week to sell for bait.”