Southwestern Maine Fishing Report: January 26, 2007
The long awaited winter weather finally arrived in southern Maine last week, reversing the trend of deteriorating ice conditions. Smaller ponds in York and Cumberland Counties refroze and some moderately sized waters finally set up. In fact, this past weekend was the first serious effort to survey winter anglers and ice conditions allowed on-foot surveys of over a dozen small ponds in York, Cumberland and Oxford Counties. Foot travel on the ice was a must, as the ice is unsafe for ATVs and snowmobiles, particularly in the lower portion of the region. We found 2 to 5 inches of ice on smaller ponds in York and Cumberland Counties. Since many smaller waters in southern Oxford had retained some ice prior to last week’s freeze, the ice conditions were more favorable, providing 4 to 8 inches of ice on many smaller waters. With the cold conditions forecasted for this week, the ice conditions should continue to show improvement in southern Maine and hopefully some of the larger, deeper lakes will finally set up.
The southern end of Sebago Lake (“the station”) is one of the first areas of Maine’s second largest lake to freeze, but the persistent winds that have accompanied the recent cold temperatures, have prevented formation of any ice in the lower lake. Although, there was some slush ice was observed in one small area, which suggests that we may be getting close.
Our angler survey detail over the weekend focused on those waters stocked with “catchable” fall yearling brook trout (12 – 14 inch brook trout). This past fall, we significantly increased our stocking of these larger size trout in southern Maine to enhance winter brook trout angling opportunities. Efforts to providing good fishing for brook trout in southern Maine has been a real challenge due to the extent of illegal introductions of competing warmwater fish, in particular bass. The use of larger sized fall yearling brook trout which are less vulnerable to predation is one strategy being used to enhance winter fishing for brook trout.
Good catches of fall stocked brook trout were observed on Knight’s Pond (Berwick), Littlefield Pond (Sanford), Symmes Pond (Newfield), Keoka Lake (Waterford), Horne Pond (Limington), and Otter Pond #2 (Standish). Many waters stocked with fall yearling brook trout were also stocked with smaller numbers of 2 to 3 pound retired hatchery brood brook trout. These “brood” are very easily caught and are usually fished out very early in the season, but the lack of ice this winter has allowed for some extended fishing for these large fish, which showed up on several ponds surveyed over the weekend. A complete list of waters stocked with brood fish is available on the Department’s web site (www.mefishwildlife.com).
New this year, Round Pond (Lyman) was opened exclusively to kids under the age of 16 (ice fishing only) under a two trap limit. Early reports indicate great catches of brook trout up to 14 inches long over the weekend. Once the word gets out, this fishing opportunity will most certainly be well received by youth anglers. This fishery was developed in partnership between the MDIFW and York County Fish and Game in an effort to support and encourage youth fishing.
Although some good fishing was observed on waters surveyed, angler use on most surveyed waters was generally light, and many anglers reported ice fishing for the first time this year. Angler use is expected to increase next weekend as angler confidence builds with improving ice conditions.