I had the opportunity to get out on Sebago Thursday with my friend Dan Hillier, also a Registered Maine Guide. We were out on his boat for the day as the Big Bay of the lake was open. This event brings many anglers to the water as one of the first large bodies of water to open up in the area. For anyone that has fished in this area before knows there will be many boats in the bay and especially when the smelts begin running. The temperature of the water was 35 degrees and there was very little wind to speak of in the morning. With a fish finder, we observed huge schools of smelt outside of the channel markers at around a depth of 100 feet. These smelt are staging for their run up the Songo and Crooked rivers when the temperature of the water hits 40 degrees. There were many fish marked amongst the schools of bait, most likely Lake Trout (Togue), but were at depths much deeper than 100 feet. We hooked up early with a nice Togue at a depth of 65 feet that measured at 24”. We kept two rods out with streamer flies on the surface and picked up two nice Salmon shortly afterwards. This was a surprise as we were trolling at slower than normal speed for Salmon.
Sebago Togue
Sebago Salmon
Dan with Sebago Salmon
Of course I had a Grey Ghost with a red floss body that I had tied and Dan had a tandem Grey Ghost Special with an orange bucktail belly from Maine Guide Fly Shop. All of these fish were released to be caught again. Remember the regulation on this lake is intended to create a trophy Togue fishery and improve overall Salmon size. Biologists want anglers to keep all Togue under 23” and you may only keep one over 33” and all others between those measurements need to be released. By eliminating the large numbers of smaller Togue that leaves more smelt for the remaining Togue and Salmon. You will also find a similar management strategy on Moosehead Lake. This program has shown much success as the size and health of the Togue and Salmon has increased on both lakes.
Later in the afternoon we proceeded up the Songo River to the Locks. I am always struck by the abundant wildlife along this stretch. Geese, ducks, osprey and deer to name a few are always around enough to get some photo opportunities. Always have your camera ready as you never know what is around the corner.
Geese Along the Songo
There was a lot of debris in the water and some ice moving through as the lower Crooked is running brown (which means that there is low visibility in the water due to silt and other material in the water), but the pool below the locks remained mostly clear. Again we picked up a nice Salmon along the bottom of the pool with the same Grey Ghost as before. After that the yellow perch kept me busy until we had to leave.
Salmon at the Locks
Even though the Big Bay was open on Thursday, the next day ice blew in from the Standish side into the area where we had been trolling before. You can still get a boat into the landing at the state park, but be careful of the floating ice bergs. The launch at Jordan Bay is still not open.
Finally, a quick note regarding boat safety, headway speed and water safety zones. While we were trolling around the end of the beach at the state park upstream a boater overtook us at full speed and passed between us and the buoy with little room to spare. That same boater proceeded at full speed in a headway speed zone until he got to the launch. If he had caused an accident or hit a sandbar and entered the water, hypothermia would come quickly. This boater did not indicate there was an emergency and acted very carelessly. Needless to say we got his license plate number and will be reporting this individual to the authorities, as anyone should. Please watch out for others and report any dangerous behavior to the Warden Service while on the water.