Down East fishing will be productive Anglers encouraged to keep togue

Editor’s note: The following are weekly fishing reports compiled by Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fisheries biologists. The complete reports are available at www.state.me.us/ifw/

Down East

Downeast anglers can look forward to some good fishing this winter for coldwater sportfish. A number of lakes should provide fast action for brook trout and togue. At other waters, while fishing will be much slower, the patient angler can anticipate hooking up with some 21/2- to 31/2-pound salmon and brown trout. Those planning to venture out on opening day or shortly thereafter need to be very careful as ice conditions, especially on the larger lakes, will be treacherous. Many such lakes had wide expanses of open water in late December.

Brook trout anglers should consider giving Bubble Pond, Echo Lake, Hopkins Pond, Lake Wood, or Tilden Pond a try in Hancock County. In Washington County, Goulding Lake, Indian Lake, Keene’s Lake, Montegail Pond, and Vining Lake should be productive. Also of note, our hatchery system stocked brood brook trout, averaging a little over 2 pounds each, in November. Walker Pond, Jones Pond, Flanders Pond, Craig Pond, Jacob Buck Pond, Indian Lake, and Keene’s Lake received some of these large fish.

We have a problem with an overabundance of wild togue in four or five of our lakes. There are too many togue for the available supply of forage fish, resulting in slow growth and poor condition of togue and, in several waters, stocked salmon. We continue to urge anglers to help out by keeping more, and releasing less, of the togue they catch. By doing this, they will help promote an improvement in the predator/prey ratio, thereby helping the lake return to a healthier condition sooner rather than later.

The problem is most acute at Phillips Lake, Tunk Lake, and Beech Hill Pond. At Phillips and Tunk, the daily limit on togue is three fish with a minimum legal-length limit of 14 inches. It would be especially helpful if anglers would keep their limit of smaller togue, i.e. 14-18 inches. Beech Hill has the same minimum legal-length limit, but a six-fish bag limit on togue, only one of which may exceed 23 inches.

Other waters which would benefit from an increased harvest of wild togue include Jordan Pond, Toddy Pond, West Grand Lake, and West Musquash Lake.

Salmon fishing for 15- to 18-inch fish should be good at Green Lake, Molasses Pond, Eagle Lake, Craig Pond, Donnell Pond, Gardner Lake, Mopang Lake, Pleasant River Lake, and West Grand Lake. For those anglers who prefer to put in their time hoping to land a 19- to 22-inch salmon, Alligator Lake, Tunk Lake, Long Pond, and Cathance Lake appear to be the best bets. Both Alligator and Tunk have mandatory release 16-20 inch slot limits, Long Pond has a one-fish limit, and Cathance is general law.

We sampled eight salmon between 31/4 to 41/2 pounds in October while trapnetting at Cathance, so I expect some lucky anglers will leave the lake this winter with a smile.

The following waters hold some good brown trout in the 21/2- to 4-pound class: Spring River Lake, Molasses Pond, Walker Pond, Rocky Lake in Whiting, Pennamaquan Lake, and Round Lake (Charlotte). Browns are often unpredictable when it comes to favored feeding depths. Sometimes, they feed in very shallow three- to four-foot, sometimes at mid-depths in 20-30 feet of water, and sometimes near bottom in 25-30 feet of water. Accordingly, it’s often best to set some traps at varying depths/locations. Best of luck, and be safe!

Ron Brokaw

Aroostook County

Weather has been cold and snowy in much of the region this December. Snowfall ranges from an inch or two in southern Aroostook County to 24 inches in northern Aroostook. The rain that fell last week settled the snow on the ice and, in some cases, absorbed the snow into a layer of snow ice on top of any blue ice that had formed. Extreme caution should be exercised in venturing on the ice. Walk out and check the ice before roaring out on snowmobiles and tote sleds.

During the upcoming fishing season anglers will want to check out the splake fishing on Squa Pan Lake and Drew’s Lake, each received a stocking of 14- to 17-inch fish in October. Squa Pan also received 174 retired brook trout brood fish at 2-3 pounds each.

A minimum length limit of 12 inches remains on salmon at St. Froid Lake; it has increased to 18 inches on togue. Two hundred 18- to 20-inch retired salmon brood fish were stocked in St. Froid Lake in November.

Spaulding Lake in Oakfield is once again open to the taking of smelts by hook and line. Long, Cross, Square and Eagle Lakes are closed to fishing for salmon, trout and togue until Jan. 15.

At the headwaters of the Aroostook River, splake and salmon fishing should be fast at Millinocket Lake and togue and trout should be in good supply at Millimagassett Lake.

A number of different management programs have recently been adopted as part of the department’s effort to restore lake whitefish populations. For instance, there will be a 16-inch length limit on whitefish in Clear Lake, Ross Lake and St. Froid Lake. Also, the following lakes are now closed to the taking of whitefish: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Musquacook Lakes, Spider Lake, Big Eagle Lake and Churchill Lake.

Finally, 11 lake whitefish at Clear Lake have had a radio transmitter surgically implanted in the abdomen to trace their movement within the lake. Each transmitter is the size of a AAA battery and would not be visible until the fish was cleaned. Anglers who catch and kill any of these whitefish with transmitters are urged to contact biologists at the Ashland office.

Dave Basley