Peabody Pond, Maine

Peabody Pond was the next fishing adventure on my list. This pond is just east of Hancock Pond and is similair in size roughly about 740 acres and it has a maximum depth is 69' and the mean depth is 32'. Peabody is well suited for both coldwater and warmwater fish. The abundant of rocky shoreline and coves provide excellent habitat for bass, yellow perch and chain pickerel. According to the Maine Environmental Association, Peabody has enough deep water to support a population of landlocked Atlantic salmon, brook trout and lake trout. But, when I researched online, I did find reports of landlocked salmon being caught, but nothing about brook or lake trout.

Peabody is very similair to Hancock in regards to structure and depth. According to depth chart maps, there's  a long deep chasm that runs along the westside of the pond and the average depth is over 50'. On the southern end, there are a couple of rocky outcrops with steep dropoffs. There's also a couple large boulders that can be seen farther out in the pond and there's plenty of rocks around them. The eastside has a lot of shallow water with very little structure and gradually gets deeper when you move offshore.  

I arrive around 5:30am at the public boat launch and the first thing I noticed there was a small shed for anglers to wash their boats as the state of Maine is very serious about limiting the spread of Eurasian milfoil, as it's present in Long Lake and the north end of Sebago Lake. But, since I wash my kayak prior to every outing, I didn't bother hosing it down. It's raining when I get out and last night I read that Maine has had 12 consecutive weekends with rain. Even the hardiest of Mainers are fed-up with this weather. Of course, I forgot my raincoat, but the weather report called for showers and then clearing later in the morning. A few drops of rain isn't going to stop me. 

I launch and pedal out of the small cove towards the expanse of the pond. To my left there was a line of cabins going all the way up the shoreline. On my right, there was only one cabin. Looking at my fish finder I was going over 15' of water and I started marking fish, hopefully that's a good sign of what's to come. 

On this trip, I brought along my new rod and reel. This one was a beefier rod for drop shotting and for bigger fish, like striped bass that I'm planning on fishing for next month. But, for this outing, I was content to use the ultralight. I pull out my tackle box full of crank baits, husky jerks, and countdown minnows. Eventhough I've amassed a collection of them, I don't have a wide variety colors as I don't fancy the over the top colors like Wonderbread, Glow Pink Squirrel, and Headspin to name a few. I go with the basics like silver and gold. Since I'm using the ultralight, I go with the silver Rapala 3/16oz shad rap. It's always been my go to lure for smallmouth ever since I was teenager.

I go around the point and I stop pedaling and get up to survey the water. I see a dock and large rocks and boulders scattered about and my fish finder tells me I'm over 15' of water. The water has a slight tannic tint to it and I can see probably at 6' deep without the aid of glasses. I start casting to my right and methodical start working the water, somewhere there's a bass or two lurking about. But, since Maine doesn't have a close season on smallmouth, all I need is to get near a nest and a male smallmouth will surely hit. I'm about 100' from the shore and I'm casting between the rocks and then the crankbait gets slammed. I rod bends hard and I see the bass bulldogging under the surface and then it launches itself from the water. I sit down and let the fish exhaust itself, before I left it out of the water. It's a chunky fish and I place it next to my paddle that has a tagged measuring tape and the fish is about 16" long. I put it in the water and it quickly disappears. 

As I'm fishing, I hear several crows making a ruckus as I look up at the trees and there's a bald eagle trying to ignore the them. Despite their attempts to harass and getting the eagle to move along, he stands his ground. I wished I brought my camera as this would have been a great opportunity to take a picture of this interaction. Eventually, the eagle has finally had enough and takes off and the crows are in hot pursuit. When I was at Hancock last week, I found a eagle's nest high in a large white pine. So, I wondered if there was an eagle's nest on this pond. 

As I start the process of pedaling and standing up as I move along the shoreline. I noticed a couple of anglers in a boat slowly trolling farther out and they were most likely fishing for salmon. I've yet to try for an Atlantic salmon as they're plentiful in Sebago Lake, but these smaller ponds, they are most likely stocked and probably never get bigger than a few pounds. As of now, I have no real interest in fishing for salmon. I continue along the shoreline and I see on the fish finder that I'm starting to get into some shallow water. I see the large number of rocks just a couple feet under me and start to back pedal. I survey the water and it's a shallow rocky point. It's classic drop shotting water as I'm now over 20' of water. But I suspect the bass are still in shallow water as the surface water temp is 58F. I work the point and I start getting into fish some on the hefty side. I enter the GPS data into my fish finder so I know where the exact location of this spot. 

I fish around a couple of docks and noticed a number of the cabins are still vacant despite being almost June. I look to the eastern side of the pond and notice there's hardly any cottages. I enter another cove and it's more shallow with a depth of 8' and less rocks. The first bass I catch is a little one that took on more than it can chew as it about 6" long. I start picking off really small fish and then nothing after that, as I noticed on the fish finder the bottom is flat. Then I see another rocky point and I get into position to start hitting the outer point. By now the wind has picked up and starts gusting. The pond starts to get choppy and that makes it a little difficult for me fish effectively as I can't stand up without the risk of falling in. If the wind wasn't an issue, I was going to head farther out as I noticed a large boulder sticking out of the water. Wanting to seek refuge from the wind I decided to head over to the westside of the pond. 

Since I've already know where the points are, I figure it's a good time to start trolling. As I troll along the outer edge of the rocky points, I start marking a lot of suspended fish. As I'm pedaling, I feel my rod yank and start reeling in. I feels like a small fish and once I get it in, it's a yellow perch. I end up getting another perch of similar size and couple decent size bass as I pass the other rocky point. I cross over a cove and the rod gets slammed. This feels like a bigger fish and once again I think it's a bass when it surfaces it's a chain pickerel, probably about 18" and to my excitement, my very first pickerel. It's a skinny fish as I remember back in Canada we use to call small pike hammer handles. It has a unique color pattern and I wondered if they'll start moving into the shallows when the pond warms up. 

I pedal across the pond and I'm impressed how well it takes on the waves. When I reach the western side, the first thing I notice is there's a lack of rocks. The fish finder also shows a flat featureless bottom. I figure I'll just troll my way up along the shoreline. Just like the other side of the pond, a large number of cabins are not occupied this weekend. I start marking some fish, but I don't get any takers. As I continue I notice the depth is getting more and shallower. I look down and see bottom. No weeds or any structure that would attract any fish. It's almost noon and with the wind getting worse and it's getting very hot, I decide it's a good time to call it a day. 

The funny thing is Peabody Pond is considered a classic smallmouth bass lake with its abundant of rocks and drop-offs, even though bass aren't native to Maine. That's probably why there isn't a closed season on them as I read in some watersheds like the Rapid River, the state encourages anglers to outright kill any smallmouth as they have negatively imapcted the native brook trout population. 

But, what I liked about Peabody Pond was it had minimal development as nearly over half of it was unspoiled. It was refreshing not having to hear the buzzing of jet skis or power boats. All I heard was the songs of birds and the sound of wind blowing through the pines. For the kayak angler this is a perfect place to fish. 

Hancock Pond, Maine

I knew when I moved to Maine, there was going to be changes. Gone was the steelhead fishing and that meant filling in the void during the winter would be ice fishing. For the record, I have no desire to do ice fishing as I find it boring, because I like to be on the move. I'm sure my girlfriend would find it comical watching me drill hole after hole in search of fish. I did a purchase a fly rod for the warmer months and just down the road was the Presumpscot River which is heavily stocked and fished within an inch of its life, because there's maybe less than a half a mile of fishable water before it widens into a huge stretch of frog water because of the dam downstream. It's one of the few rivers in the area that is opened all year as most rivers to the north are closed from October 1st to April 1st. I fished it in late March and anything that could hold fish was few and far between. I realized why some of the locals dubbed the Presumpscot as the "Aquarium" because it was so clear. The trip itself was more of a scouting expedition and I put it on the back burner for the reminder of the winter. But, prime brook trout and Atlantic salmon waters were a 2 to 3 hour drive from where I lived. There were plenty of lakes near by and I knew my best option was to get a watercraft. 

A couple weeks ago I purchased an Old Town fishing kayak with a PDL drive. The closest lake from home is Sebago Lake which happens to be a very large deep lake. It's doable in a kayak, but you have to be careful in regards to weather as waves can get large and then there's the boat traffic as I've been told can be heavy during the weekends. But there were plenty of smaller lakes to the north of me to choose from. I pulled out my Maine Atlas and Gazetteer to see what lakes were close by. I studied all of the lakes and there were Peabody and Trickey Ponds and Long Lake that all had access for watercraft. But, it was shape of Hancock Pond that intrigued me and I decided I would go there first. 

Hancock Pond is located in Oxford County just outside of Sabago. It's about 850 acres big and has minimal development around. The maximum depth is 59' and most of the deepest water is found at the narrows. The average depth of the lake is about 17'. The three primary species found in the lake are samllmouth and largemouth bass and brown trout. Hancock is one of the few lakes in Maine that is stocked with browns, probably because it's not the most ideal habitat for brook and lake trout. 

I get up around 4:00am to cook breakfast and have a cup of coffee. By the time I finish breakfast and open the garage door, it's first light. I load all my gear into the car and then hardest part is getting my kayak on the roof racks. It's a balancing act sliding a 10'6" kayak up that weights nearly a 100lbs onto the racks. Once I have the kayak set, I strap it down and hit the road. The trip itself is about 35 minutes as I take highway 35 west and then turn onto highway 114 north towards Sebago. I drive along the numerous cottages close to the shores of Sebago Lake. Then I turn on to Long Hill drive and it was another 15 minutes until I got to the boat ramp.

I arrive to the non descript pull off for the boat ramp. I see several signs plastered to trees warning anglers of about milfoil and not to bother the loons. I get out and I'm immediately greeted the swarms of black flies and mosquitoes. I try to get the kayak off as fast as possible and loaded onto the cart. The boat ramp has seen better days as it was heaving and crumbling. I struggled with my cart as the kayak would start sliding off of it when I tried to push it down the ramp. I end up having to pull up my pants over my knees and wade into the water. Even though the water was shallow, it was frigid. 

I get into the kayak and paddled out far enough that the flies weren't going to bother me. I placed the PDL drive into the water and fired up the fish finder. The water was clear enough that I could it was mostly see the bottom which was full of rocks scattered about. I looked at the fish finder screen and I see the surface water temperature was 55F. Most of the bass were probably on their beds caring for the eggs and that meant fishing shallow water. I already downloaded a depth chart of the lake and according to the chart, there was a long rocky point that jutted out into the lake just to the west of me. 

I used my 7' ultralight rod with small minnow lures and crankbaits and started working along the rocks. It was a sunny morning and the lake was very quiet as most of the cabins were still vacant and I figured most of the people were waiting for the Memorial weekend to open up their cabins. Since there wasn't any wind and the water was clear enough, I decided to stand up in the kayak. I could make out the rocks from a distance and the fish finder told me I was over 15' of water. Using a 3/16oz rapala countdown silver minnow, I basically casted out at the edge of the rocks and started to retrieve in an erratic fashion. I felt a hit and then another one and I set the hook. It turned out to be a 14" smallmouth. I started picking off mostly small bass as I continued towards the westside of the pond. 

With the colder water temperatures I was curious to see if any brown trout were lurking in the shallows. I continue to work around the rocks and my lure got tangled in the line. I tried jerking it when all of a sudden a fish struck it at the surface. I was able to hook it and from the shape it wasn't a bass. I reeled it in and it was indeed a brown trout. Nothing large, probably about 15", but it was my first brownie in long time as I've caught a couple in the Rocky past years when I was in Ohio. 

As I drifted along a series of docks, I could see several bass on their beds. Some of them were on the large size. As I drifted along, I noticed on the fish finder that this section dropped off quickly from 8' to 25' and I made a mental note that this would be a great place in the summer months to drop shot. I used the outing as a scouting trip as I continue to pedal along the shoreline. It was a variety of shallow featureless flats to rockpiles and steep drop-offs. I crossed over to the otherside of the narrows and there was the other large rocky point that had buoys placed out to warn boaters of the shallow water. Just like the other rocky point, I started picking off smaller bass around that 12" to 14" range. That was one of the reasons why I used the ultralight rod, because I knew most of the fish would be on the smaller size. 

A couple other anglers were out in their boats and they were trolling the deeper water probably for trout. I'm sure over the years, some of those small browns stocked have grown into a decent size as the lake has a heathly population of smelt and alewives to sustain the fishery. Maybe over time, as I start to trick out my kayak, I might get a downrigger. But for the time being, I just happy to fish for bass.

Hancock Pond reminded me of the small lakes I use to fish in my youth back in Northern Ontario. They were often found off old logging roads and the only way to get in was either putting a small boat in the back of a pickup truck or canoe. The fish in those lakes never got really big, but there were plenty of them as fishing pressure was next to nothing. Here in Maine, especially in the southern part of the state, these lakes get a lot more fishing pressure. 

Overall, it was pleasant outing as I only saw two boats and I soaked up the sun and a pair of loons swim close by me. The final tally was 20 bass and 2 trout, not bad for a first trip. If I was back in Ohio, my steelhead season would be winding down and I would take a hiatus from fishing for the summer. My how things have changed.