Region A Southwestern Maine

Area salmon waters continue to provide some great action. We finally heard from some Auburn Lake fishermen who caught some of those five-to-six-pound salmon we netted last fall. Although Thompson Lake has attracted attention this spring and we continue to hear of three-to-four-pounders being caught, some of the less popular salmon lakes have produced great spring fishing for 16-to-18-inch salmon.

The fishing is picking up on our rainbow trout/brown trout study waters at Middle & Upper Range in Poland and Crystal Lake in Gray.

We haven’t heard of any exceptional, trophy-size fish, but two-to-four-trout days are common for those who know the lakes. Smaller, two-inch long baits (pin minnows, mooselooks, super dupers, small streamers etc.) continue to be productive for 12-to-18 inch rainbows as well as browns.

Beginning this year, Standish plans to charge nonresidents of the town $20 to launch at the Standish Town Ramp at the “Station” on Sebago Lake. This launch facility was developed in partnership with the town and the Department of Conservation. Concerned anglers should contact the DOC at 287-3823.

The imposition of such a high launch fee effectively will encourage higher use and increase congestion at the remaining few public access sites around the lake.

The salmon fishing on Sebago Lake has been slow, as expected, partially as a result of reduced salmon stocking. However, some 16-to-18-inch salmon are being boated by dedicated and persistent Sebago Lake anglers. The togue catch has been good, but some anglers have indicated they’re catching fewer togue this spring but seeing more smelts in the togue stomachs. Warden Luce indicated the smelt run on Sebago was one of the best in the last few years, although most of the spawning occurred in the lake and two small tributary streams.

Although this recent information is encouraging, lake trout stomach samples collected last winter paint a different picture, with more empty stomachs than any year since 1994 and fewer smelts than any year in the last eight years, except for 1996.

We’re certainly not out of the woods. In fact, we still can’t see the tree line. The challenge before us is to encourage the harvest of lake trout in the presence of declining angler use and fish size quality. One additional measure that will help our objective to increase smelt abundance is increasing the number of lines anglers can fish with in the winter from two to five, as we have proposed. This new proposal was discussed in last week’s fishing report , and again we request the public to contact us regarding this proposal (657-2345, extension 112) and indicate support or opposition. We have heard rumors there may be opposition to this proposal. Let us know how you feel.

Francis Brautigam, Assistant Regional Fisheries Biologist
Region B Central Maine

Regional staff are in the thick of spring and early summer activities. Stocking, fish marking and information inquiries are some of the many needs that are required to carry out fish management work. Fishing in the area waters is just as busy, because the fish at this time of year are either looking for food or on spawning runs.

White perch in many waters of the region are showing up at the usual hotspots: China causeway, Five Island Bridge on Cobbossee, Belgrade Village or Castle Island on Long Pond, and any of the numerous waters in the region where a road comes close to the water so that fishing may be attempted.

Look in the Maine Gazetteer and you will get some ideas as to where to fish. White perch waters are numerous, and you probably won’t go wrong in trying a convenient spot.

Fiddleheads are showing along with the black flies, so brook trout fishing should be hot at any of the brooks. Try the brooks east of Waterville to the coast and you may find a water that has native fish that will fill your bag limit. We have recently worked in many waters in that area that have revealed some fair populations of six-to-nine-inch trout. As to stocked trout, the hatcheries are stocking several area waters with eight-to-10 inch yearlings that should provide some excellent fishing.

In the past and again this year, the trout are being stocked at sites where their use is most popular. If you know the region, those waters have popular fishing sites and the trout are readily available.

Surface trolling for salmonids is still hot. Deeper trolling should be tried, because fish are following the cooler water as the surface waters begin to warm up. Brown trout fishing is popular right now at Damariscotta Lake and in the Pemaquid area.

Try the Winthrop area for browns also. Most likely, the sizes of the fish you catch will be the recently stocked fish of 14-to-16 inches or the older age classes represented by fish in the 20-inch size. Happy angling!!

William L. Woodward, Assistant Regional Fishery Biologist
Region D Western Mountains

The calls started coming in a week ago, the first reports of great fishing in Rangeley Lake. One angler fished the lake before the ice was entirely out, and his party caught and released 25 salmon and several brook trout, the largest salmon weighing five pounds.

Other reports confirmed fast fishing for fat salmon and trout.

So why did I cut the salmon stocking rate from 3,000 to 2,000 fish this year? The short answer is that we wanted to assure continued good growth. The long answer is a bit more complicated.

In the 1970’s, we stocked 10,000 spring yearling salmon annually at Rangeley Lake, and fishing was great for lots of small salmon.

Over the years, as the hatchery product improved and larger, healthier salmon became available, we cut back on the number of salmon stocked to 3,000 per year, and these fish survived at higher rates and grew to a larger size. So despite the fact that fewer fish were stocked, the fishery actually improved.

After the imposition of the one-salmon bag limit in the early 1990’s, more salmon survived to spawning size, and we saw an increase in the number of wild fish.

Today we sample twice as many wild salmon at Rangeley Lake as we did even 10 years ago. So there are more wild salmon in Rangeley Lake, hatchery fish are surviving at higher rates, and anglers now voluntarily release a higher percentage of their catch than they used to.

The end result is a higher population of salmon vying for a limited number of smelts. To ensure that anglers will continue to catch large salmon, even trophy-size salmon, we will continue to monitor growth rates, smelt abundance and harvest rates, and we will continue to adjust the stocking rate to provide the best fishing possible.

We were able to get up into the high country last week to view our stream restoration on the Cupsuptic River. We installed two grade control structures on the river last summer to reduce sediment transport (prevent sand and gravel from moving downstream and filling in trout pools).

I’m pleased to say that these structures came through spring runoff in great shape, and as the disturbed areas become revegetated there will be a decreased chance of washouts.

Assisted by students from the Rangeley Lakes Regional School, we plan to monitor the project for three years to determine whether it is successful in meeting its goal of improving brook trout habitat in the river.

Forrest Bonney, Regional Fisheries Biologist