Penobscot Valley Fishing Report: May 31, 2007

Weather and water conditions are nearly normal for springtime in east central Maine. All major river systems in the region are reporting near normal flows and temperatures. Despite daily fluctuations in temperature, from 17 degrees above normal to 15 degrees below normal daily temperatures, the overall average temperature has been close to normal for the season and rainfall has been about normal for the month.

Spring fishing for trout, salmon, ands togue has been very good in Region F and bass and perch are getting ready for spring spawning which produces the best fishing for these species. Cold Stream Pond, Duck Lake and Pleasant Pond have had some good salmon fishing while Schoodic Lake and Cold Stream have produced good lake trout fishing. Local area brook trout ponds have been doing well and with the mayfly hatch just beginning, they should be getting even better. The ponds further north including those in Baxter State Park should peak a few weeks later. Some of the more active bass waters have been the Penobscot River, Lincoln area lakes, South Branch Pond, West Lake and Nicatous Lake. As is the case with brook trout, bass fishing will improve in northern areas as spring progresses. A stream survey crew electrofishing streams in northern Washington and southern Aroostook Counties for the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture Project have reported that they have found some very good trout populations in streams sampled so far and that there has been considerable fishing activity on most streams. Spring stocking in Region F is nearly completed and over 50,000 fish over 6 inches long have been stocked. These consisted of 25,000 brook trout, 14,500 landlocked salmon, 6,000 splake, 3,000brown trout, and 2500 lake trout.