Open-water season begins Monday

AUGUSTA – Maine’s ice fishing season closes Sunday, but anglers will be able to start casting their lines on open water the following day for land-locked salmon and brook trout.

Paul Fournier, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Friday that ice fishermen should remember that they’ll only have three days to get their shanties off the ice after Sunday.

The state’s open-water fishing season begins Monday on rivers, streams, lakes and ponds that are free of ice.

Fournier says most of the lakes and ponds south of Augusta, including Sebago Lake, are free of ice now and will be open for fishing on Monday. But he says most bodies of water are still iced up north of Augusta.

Anglers in central and northern Maine, however, will be able to hit such popular opening day spots as the Kennebec River, the dead water on the Penobscot River north of Millinocket and Grand Lake Stream.

Fournier says landlocked salmon and brook trout are the types of fish most likely to be biting at this time of the year.