Western Mountains Fishing Report: May 31, 2007
Several reports of superb spring fishing came in this morning, indicating this is indeed prime time for trout and salmon anglers. Honey Cronin, fly fishing at B Pond in Upton, caught two salmon around 4 pounds each. Honey reported the fish were gorging on crayfish and wondered if this was unusual. While salmon clearly prefer smelts and need them grow well and become robust, they are opportunistic fish and will eat just about anything available, including crayfish. In fact, insects are usually the most abundant food item we see in the stomachs of salmon taken during the late spring and summer months.
Guide Harry Vernesoni and his sports had great fishing late last week, including a 28-inch togue taken on a fly from Upper Dam Pool. Harry also reported several brookies over 20 inches from the Rapid River, as well as a 24-inch salmon. Harry is also the dam keeper at Middle Dam and conducts our angler counts and surveys on the Rapid and Upper Dam Pool, so he’s a busy man.
Steve Kasprzak called in with a report of a 5 pound brookie from a river in the Rangeley area (see photo). Steve wasn’t willing to give us the name of the water – typical fisherman!
Biologist Dave Howatt checked a brook trout from Mooselookmeguntic Lake weighing in at 5.5 pounds, and another about 3.5 pounds. Mooselookmeguntic seems to produce a few of these large trout every spring, making the big lake a destination for trophy trout hunters. The lake also supports a great salmon fishery, but the fish have been thin and slow growing for several years. Wild salmon are very abundant in Mooselook, so we’re seeking additional harvest to thin them out to improve conditions for smelt survival. There’s a 12-inch length limit and a 3 fish per day bag limit on salmon (only one may be over 18 inches) to encourage anglers to take a few home. This is the second year with this regulation and it seems to be working – we saw solid improvement in size and growth rates of salmon on the Kennebego River spawning run last fall.
Gene Arsenault and his crew continue to roll out the fish from the Embden Rearing Station. For the week of May 29-June 1 the following waters will be stocked:
Tibbetts Pond in Concord: 100 brook trout (kid’s fishing water);
Mill Stream in Embden: 50 brook trout (kid’s fishing water);
Wilson Stream in Wilton: 250 brook trout (kid’s fishing water);
Temple Stream in Temple and Farmington: 500 brook trout;
Dead River below Flagstaff Lake: 100 salmon;
Kennebec River in Madison and Solon: 2,000 brook trout and 1,500 brown trout;
Sandy River from Phillips to New Sharon: 1,500 brook trout;
Carrabassett River from Carrabassett Valley to New Portland: 1,000 brook trout;
Moxie Pond in The Forks: 3,000 brook trout;
Spencer Lake in Hobbstown: 500 salmon;
Spring Lake in T3 R4 WKR BKP: 1,500 brook trout.
