Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Report 1-17-2013

Pike and Panfish Biting Through the Ice

Cold Blast in the Ice Fishing Forecast

The tale of the tape was a progressive one, with each subsequent fish leapfrogging the prior catch. As Rick released a 26-incher, he began wondering what was next. Minutes later he found out as a beast hit and did what big fish so often do—it got away. Considering the calendar, you’re probably thinking this fish was a pike, broodstock salmon or togue, but it just as easily could have been a striped bass!

Many have been waiting for an upcoming event for what seems like eternity, and if reality lives up to expectations, it will be cause for much celebration around here. (Oh yes, and there’s a football game—hopefully two—on the horizon as well.) What I’m referring to is the predicted four-day-plus freeze that is expected to grace New England next week and should lock things up nicely.

But in the meanwhile, why wait? Rather than look at soggy, sorry skim ice, many eastern Bay State residents are beating a path to Flagg’s Fly and Tackle in Orange where six inches of ice and catches of everything from crappie to salmon are the draw. Rod told me of good action for a mixture of both warm and coldwater species. Clubhouse Pond has plenty of ice and a decent pick of trout, panfish and bass; for salmon Lake Mattawa is the local place to go but ice depth varies here as most anglers don’t stray far from the shoreline, at least for a few more freezing cycles. Lake Mattawa is an unheralded spot for slab yellow perch. Owing to its reputation as a top producer of trout and salmon, it is largely ignored by perch pursuers, but there was a guy last year who strolled into the shop with an eye-popping stringer of 13” to 15” jumbos! The “Specs” continue to be special, especially to the crappie crowd, and there have even been a few out and about on Barton’s Cove, where you could pull in a pike or walleye.

Rick Holbrook is a Ditch Troll who, when in season, is most content jigging drop-offs in the Canal under cover of darkness. But not now—he knows that odds are supremely better to best a wintertime bass if he spends some hours in Harbor haunts come dark. Rick and a friend are determined to succeed in their own striper challenge and catch linesiders for 12 months of the year, and to up the ante he’s not fishing from a boat or kayak, where he can bounce an offering literally on the heads of the fish, but rather he’s catching them from shore! Having scored stripers in December and now January, the only real challenge is February; March is always a given as it is perennially the wake-up call for winter-over stripers in these parts. You’d expect an effective presentation to be worked slowly this time of the year, and you’d be correct. Rick recommends that you drop your retrieve rate down to as low as you would ordinarily go and then reduce it by about half. Tiny black RonZs are working, as are chartreuse shiner 4-inch Storm Shads. A trigger to look for is the dropping pressure before a front; combine that with a dropping tide in local marshes, estuaries and rivers, and you may be achieving your own off-season striper challenge.

Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics heeded the call of the 50-degree temps on Monday and took a few casts at Horn Pond in Woburn. A short while later, he caught and released a 27-inch broodstock salmon on a Mooselook Wobbler. Some may question the wisdom of opting for a trolling spoon while casting, but Pete employs a crank-and-drop method that is ideal for a thin-bodied spoon such as the Mooselook which has a seductive fluttering action on the drop that salmon of all sorts can’t resist. Copper and orange are the killer colors.

Until the big chill descends on the Bay State, the best ice occurs north of the border. Jamie from Dover Marine told me that there’s fine cusk fishing in Lovell Lake in Wakefield, New Hampshire. And Jamie should know, as that’s his hometown. This is a unique northern fishery for a fine-tasting cousin of the cod. The nighttime bite is best, and many anglers will drop a shiner onto the bottom (this place bottoms out at 40-plus feet), employ a fixed-spool reel, and leave it all night until the next morning anticipating a hooked cusk. There’s also ample trout and smallmouth bass in Lovells. While much of Winnipesauke is still open, anglers are at it on Alton Bay. If the nippy weather forecast holds true, it is hoped that most if not all of the lake known by the native Abenaki’s as the “smile of the great spirit” freezes up.

But the best bang for the runny-nose brigade remains Maine. If you’re looking to venture Downeast, it could hardly be better than this weekend according to Dylan from Dag’s in Auburn. On Saturday the annual Fish For A Cure pike ice fishing derby takes place on Lake Sabattus, and there’s expected to be 1000 participants. So if you want to see flags fly and some terrific toothies, you’ll find no better place than there. On an aside, the draw that will be Sabattus will undoubtedly drain anglers from other water bodies, so should you have an aversion to crowds, you may be able to slip away and find premium pike water all to yourself. If you do a little on-line “satellite” searching, be aware that most any water body that at any time shares water with the Androscoggin and Kennebec watersheds has pike and probably some well-fed ones at that! Dylan clued me in to some terrific panfishing that friends from Ice Shanty enjoyed at Herman Pond just north of Bangor. The trick was 2- to 4-pound-test line, tiny jigs tipped with maggots, and subtle, almost imperceptible movements of the lure. Those employing Marcum Showdown ice sonar systems had about a 3 to 1 catch rate over anglers fishing by feel.

Fishing Forecast

Odds are that if the weather forecast holds true, then there will be a world of new ice-fishing opportunities available by the end of next week. In the meantime, the best hardwater exists west and up north. For trout, suspend a shiner just under the ice at Lake Mattawa or Clubhouse Pond. If crappie is your intended quarry, check out North and South Spectacle Ponds. For something with serious teeth, there are pike and walleye in Barton’s Cove and pickerel in Lake Rohunta. Beyond the Bay State border, try your luck at a novel New England fishery such as cusk in Lovell’s Pond or lake trout in Alton Bay in Lake Winnipesauke. For the true hardwater heavyweight in these parts, consider getting together with a few thousand like-minded anglers on Lake Sabattus this Saturday for a good cause and some darn good fishing. And let’s hope a certain team from Baltimore eats crow this Sunday!