Open Water Fishing Preview

Region D: Western Mountains

Ice fishing season is winding down and it's time to plan for spring fishing trips. My prediction is for early ice-outs. Although there is still plenty of ice, the quality is poor. The cold weather in late December created a good layer of hard ice, but the heavy snowstorms of January and February added a relatively soft upper portion of white/slush ice. I expect this upper layer to go fast with the arrival of warm, sunny spring days.

One of the premier spring fisheries in the state is Rangeley Lake, with ice-out usually in late April or early May. This year anglers can again expect great action, but the size quality may be diminished. The lake is currently experiencing a forage base problem; the smelt population is down and the wild salmon numbers are up. Our sampling last fall resulted in 181 individual salmon handled, ranging in age from one to seven years. They averaged 16 inches in length and 1.4 pounds, with the largest being 23¼-inch long and weighing 3.9 pounds. The average condition was the poorest we've seen since 1988. The bottom line is that there are too many mouths and not enough food. A large number of wild four year-old salmon are moving through the system now and things should begin to improve as these fish are harvested. We are encouraging anglers to keep their one salmon daily bag limit this year. An increased salmon harvest on nearby Mooselookmeguntic Lake has resulted in improved growth.

River fishing is another good spring angling activity. A few moving waters successfully fished in April are the Androscoggin, Kennebec, Sandy, Carrabassett, Dead, Rapid, and Magalloway Rivers. Our records show that large fish caught in April include a 22-inch brook trout, a 25½-inch brown trout, a 22-inch salmon, and a 21-inch rainbow trout. The bad news is that the fish are generally very sluggish this time of year. Voluntary angler data from the list of rivers above shows 215 legal salmonids caught in 1,106 hours of April fishing. That's over five hours of angling per legal fish, so be patient and the early spring season can reward your efforts.

After the spring floods and ice-outs the Hatchery Division's stocking trucks will begin to transport fish. Fifty-eight waters in western Maine are scheduled to receive almost 90,000 spring yearling trout and salmon. The breakdown is 48,400 brook trout, 27,600 brown trout, 7,850 salmon, and 4,850 rainbow trout.

Here's a short list of few specific waters that will be receiving some of these fish: Chain of Pond, Chain of Ponds Twp., 3,500 brook trout; Clearwater Pond, Industry, 3,000 brook trout; Porter Lake, New Vineyard/Strong, 1,000 brook trout; Wilson Pond, Wilton, 1,500 brook trout; Embden Pond, Embden, 3,000 brook trout; Moxie Lake, The Forks Plt., 3,000 brook trout; Sandy River, Franklin County, 3,000 brook trout and 5,000 brown trout; Androscoggin River, Gilead to Rumford,13,600 brown trout; and Kennebec River, Solon to Skowhegan,10,000 brown trout.

These fish are usually between 6 and 12 inches in length. A complete list of last year's stocking can be found on the Department's website, www.maine.gov/ifw.

- Dave Howatt, Fishery Specialist, Rangeley Region