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Weekly Fishing Roundup 6/11/07 SOUTHWESTERN MAINE

June 11, 2007 - SOUTHWESTERN MAINE

Even though surface water temperatures are beginning to climb with the onset of summer, trout and salmon fishing in the region remains excellent. Anglers continue to report good catches of lake trout and salmon from Sebago, Auburn, and Thompson Lakes. Of the three, Sebago is certainly the shining star and has made a dramatic turnaround over the last year or two. Anglers are commonly reporting catches of 3-7 pound salmon, and even one or two monstrous 8-pounders have been landed! The lakers are also looking healthy with most fish running between 3-6 pounds, but a number of fish in the low teens have been landed so far this year. Certainly, the lake will yield a few more of these trophies throughout the summer months. On the other hand, as we forecasted from our 2006 data (hydroacoustics and fall trapnetting) Thompson Lake's salmon and togue fisheries are experiencing a downturn, particularly in terms of size quality. The cause...a substantial decline in smelt abundance. MDIFW has reduced the salmon stocking rate by 1/3 for the spring of 2007, and we will continue to adjust as the smelt population responds. Past experience suggests Thompson Lake will probably make a relatively quick recovery. Auburn Lake has had mixed reports from anglers, the biggest complaint being fewer salmon. On the other hand, our seasonal clerk censusing Auburn has seen some excellent catches of lake trout and salmon. This season's clerk data, as well as, our annual fall sampling of the salmon run will allow us to keep tabs on the situation at Auburn Lake and we'll be sure to keep you posted.

Medium and smaller sized lakes in the region have also been fishing well for trout. Anglers have reported some fantastic trips in the past week or so, particularly for rainbows and browns. Roger Lavalliere of Windham recently fished Crystal Lake in Gray one afternoon and landed 8 bows and 4 browns in the 14-18" range. He was particularly excited about a beautiful heavily spotted, and strong colored 17" inch rainbow trout. Like Roger, a York County angler has had some great fishing for browns and bows from 14-20" at Kennebunk Pond in Lyman, and we have had similar reports from Upper and Middle Range Ponds in Poland. Trolling live bait, stick baits, lures, and streamer flies along the shoreline at depths of 8-15' deep have all been effective. Give it a try!

As reported in the past couple write-ups, region A has been sampling several bass waters with our electrofishing boat. Last week we were sampling Thompson Lake, which we hope to finish up this week before moving on the Thomas Pond in Casco. Our bass sampling work on Thompson has been interesting. As expected largemouths are relatively rare, and even though smallmouths were more abundant there presence was spotty. The average size quality of the smallmouths was excellent; however, there was a definite lack of juveniles and smaller sized bass despite an abundance of juvenile bass habitat. Based on our sampling at Thompson, it is clear that the smallmouth bass spawning season is well underway even on our larger lakes. Don't miss out...it is without a doubt one of the best times to fish for bass! This is also a great time to introduce a kid to fishing, you can almost guarantee fast action and land a few hawgs.

-James Pellerin, Regional Fisheries Biologist


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Sanford


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