Moosehead Region Fishing Report: September 20, 2007

Fall fishing is well underway and we have had good reports from most of our major river fisheries in the region. We were able to crack the gate at First Roach a few more inches last Friday, which means the flow has increased from around 160 to 240 cfs. That should translate into some excellent trout and salmon fishing for the next two weeks. The weather forecast is perfect for the rest of the week, so get out and enjoy the best time of the year to fish.

This will be the last weekly fishing report until sometime in December. We have had a great fishing year in the Moosehead Lake Region. The winter got off to a slow start with the poor ice conditions but the fishing was very good for the remainder of the season. We checked some very handsome fish on Chamberlain Lake. We spent quite a bit of time on our brook trout telemetry study on the Chamberlain system last winter and this spring. The Natural Resource Education Center in Greenville will be sponsoring a presentation in Greenville and possibly the Bangor area this winter to discuss the results. The Greenville meeting will be the evening of Dec 7th.

There were numerous reports of big brookies from Moosehead Lake this summer. The salmon fishing was also pretty good by most accounts. The river fisheries, in particular the East Outlet, were very good this summer according to anglers. Lake trout still appear to be abundant but we should thin them down in the near future with the new regulations starting in January. The hatches on the trout ponds were a little sporadic. We did hear the hex hatch was slow to get started, probably from the cool spring, but it did extend late into the summer on some ponds. You shoulda’ been there! September can be hit or miss with trout ponds. There are good midge hatches this time of year and streamers can be effective at catching pre-spawn trout some days, but other days the fish seem to be sulking and can’t be coaxed to the rod. October can offer some great pond fishing as hatchery trout and salmon become aggressive and take streamers and lures quite well. Many of our best hatchery waters are open during the extended season, but few anglers take advantage of the extra month. I suspect most have put away the rod and picked up the shotgun.

Thanks for taking the time to read our reports and please visit our photos from the field to view some of the photos from the Moosehead Lake Region in 2007.