Moosehead Region Fishing Report: March 23, 2007
As the ice fishing season winds down anglers are taking advantage of the final two weeks of the season on their favorite lake and ponds in the Moosehead Lake Region. Soon it will be time to put away the augers and ice traps and take out the spinning and fly fishing gear. Although many of the lakes and ponds in the Moosehead Lake Region are still covered in ice and snow until the end of April the best chance to wet a line on opening day is to visit some of the regions rivers and streams. The East Outlet and West Outlet of the Kennebec, West Branch of the Penobscot River, Piscataquis River, and the Moose River are a few of the rivers to check out.
Annual spring stocking of legal- size brook trout are stocked in easily assessable waters throughout the region to create “instant fishing”. These waters are stocked on more than one occasion to ensure fishing success longer into the season. Some of these waters would have no fishing opportunities without these stocking efforts. These waters will be accessible once they are ice free.
LIST OF SPRING STOCKED BROOK TROUT WATERS
Fitzgerald Pond, Big Moose Twp.
Whetstone Pond, Blanchard Twp.
Hebron Lake, Monson
Shadow Pond, Greenville
Shirley Pond, Shirley
Gravel Pit Pond, Little Moose Twp. (Family Fishing Area)
Power Trout Pond, Little Moose Twp.
Spectacle Ponds, Monson
Doe Pond, Monson
Sawyer Pond, Greenville
Bennett Pond, Parkman
Prong Pond, Greenville
Big Wood, Jackman
Parlin Pond, Parlin Pond Twp.
West Outlet Kennebec River, Sapling
Piscataquis River, Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford
Pingree Pond, Parkman
Please review the 2007 Open Water Fishing Regulation Book to get the regulations on these bodies of water.
During the month of April the fisheries staff in the Moosehead Lake Region will be busy finishing up analyses of data collected last summer and during this winters creel census surveys on Moosehead Lake and Chamberlain Lake. We will be getting our trapnetting gear ready to begin work on evaluating the Departments new experimental brook trout slot limit designed to allow harvest of smaller fish while protecting larger trout. This regulation requires all trout less than 6 inches and longer than 12 inches be released alive at once. We have five ponds in the Moosehead Lake region that have this regulation (Big Berry Pd, Johnson Mountain Twp.; Rum and Secret Pds, Greenville; Yoke and Little Pleasant Pds, TAR11 Wels). Data collected from the population characteristics of these waters will be ongoing for a number of years to see if over time we are indeed increasing the number of larger brook. We are planning to evaluate Rum and Secret with trap nets this spring at ice out.
We also plane to conduct smelt brook surveys on Moosehead Lake as well as other lakes in the region. These sight investigations will help us determine to what degree the smelts are using these brooks to spawn. We will also be mailing out our personal fishing record books to record keepers and begin deploying Voluntary Survey Boxes and temperature data loggers on many of our popular sport fisheries.
