Its twilight and the road and surrounding woods are cloaked in fog as I'm driving on highway 35 just north of Windham, Maine. I'm still groggy as I probably got four hours of sleep. I have my travel mug filled to the brim with steaming hot coffee. As I drink it starts to perk me up as does my enthusiasm for fishing a new lake. I travel along the entire length of Long Lake and then I pass a couple small ponds as I head northwest and drive through the sleepy villages of East Waterford and Stoneham. Then I finally reach my destination when I see Kezar Lake.
I immediately park and race to the port-a-potty to relieve myself as I drank the entire contents of my mug. When I get out, I see an elderly gentleman sitting a car. He steps out and introduces himself as the Maine courtesy boat inspector. His job is to make sure that invasive water plants don't make their way into Maine's lakes. He's the third person I've seen this summer as I ran into inspectors at Peabody and Hancock ponds. He asks what body of water I fished previously and I told him, I fished Trickey Pond last Sunday. He writes it on his clipboard and wished me good luck. He doesn't bother to give my kayak the look over. Probably because my kayak doesn't have a motor or any place for weeds to stick to. He goes back into his car and starts reading his book. I've always wondered how much these inspectors get paid, because they arrive at the crack of dawn and probably sit in their cars for hours and they might only see a couple of people. I couldn't imagine sitting there all day especially when it's hot and humid out.
I pull the kayak down to the edge of the lake and there isn't a ramp, just a gravel beach. The night before I downloaded a depth chart, but there's isn't any cell phone reception as I see zero bars. That's not surprising as Maine ranks behind Alaska for the worst cell phone coverage in the country. My girlfriend knows I'm out fishing, but she has no idea where I am. Hopefully, I can get some service so I can tell her where I am.
Kezar Lake is about 9 miles long and has a maximum depth of 155 feet and mean depth of 35 feet. It's deeper at the north end and gradually gets shallow as you head south. It supports coldwater and warmwater species such as Atlantic salmon, lake trout, smallmouth and largemouth bass, white perch, yellow perch, and chain pickerel. The lake is noted for a self sustaining population of landlocked Atlantic salmon, as they spawn in 2 streams that run into the lake. But they have to compete with non native lake trout that were stocked in the 70s by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The state agency now acknowledges that stocking lake trout was a mistake as they compete heavily for the salmon's primary food source, rainbow smelt. Lake trout haven't been stocked in Kezar since 2001 and any angler is allowed to keep 6 fish to help keep the trout population in check. Sebago Lake has the same issue with lake trout eating too many smelt and negatively affecting the native salmon population. During the annual ice fishing derby on Sebago, it's common to see lake trout scattered on the ice as some anglers treat them like they're garbage and the bald eagles and ravens are more than happy to clean up the waste.
Today, I'm going to attempt to catch my first lake trout or togues as that's what Mainers call them. The upper section of Kezar has some spots over 100' deep, but for now I'm going to scout the lake and I cast out my trusty silver shad rap and start the journey. The water clarity is pretty good almost as good as Trickey Pond as I can easily see sunken trees and rocks. When I fish a new body of water, I always troll as I can cover a lot of water in a shorter period of time. The other reason is I can make a map of the areas I'm fishing with my fish finder has that GPS capability. That's why I bought the Garmin Fish Striker 4CV as it's perfect for the kayak angler as it's small and has a lot of useful features.
As I'm trolling the north end of the lake and I start picking off small bass and couple of yellow perch. I mark few fish here and there, but I get no takers. On this section of the lake called the Upper Bay is sparsely populated as cottages are scattered along the shoreline. The cloud cover is still low so I can't see the mountains in the distance and I heard Kezar is beautiful in the fall when the trees turn color.
I work my way around both Birch and Sheep islands. On the west side of them, the lake is shallow with an average depth of 10' and plenty of weeds and on the east side is primarily steep dropoffs going as deep as 50' in some spots. I stick the east side because it's deeper, I'm probably about 20' from shore as I'm trolling. This section is better for drop shotting, but it would take up a lot of time as I tend to fish slowly using this method. So far the tally is 10 largemouth, 5 smallmouth, and 3 yellow perch. All of the fish I caught came from 20' of water close to structure. I cut across to Rattlesnake island and follow the shoreline. Here the water is even more deep as I'm in 35 feet of water. I'm not sure how deep my crankbait is running, but I get no hits as I go around the point of the island. As I round the point, I see a lot of rocks near shore, so I stand up and start casting. I pick off a couple of smallmouth and farther down I see a cliff that hangs over the lake. I reel in and head over to investigate. I stand up and I can see a lot of large boulders and this time I grab the other rod as I already have it setup for drop shotting. I throw on oxblood roboworm and lob it out near the rocks. I immediately close the bail and I watch the line as it starts to sink to the bottom. Sometimes I've had bass hit it as it's dropping. I see the line go slack and I slowly retrieve it. I really don't jig, but I walk the sinker over the bottom, letting the worm move to entice a hit. I start the process of working the cliff and then I feel subtle hit and I set the hook. I feel the rod throb and I see a smallmouth leap from the water. I try to corral it in and I grab the fish. I'm relieved that I didn't lose my worm, because half of the time I lose them because jumping fish often fling them off the hook and they don't float. When it comes to plastic worms, I swear that roboworms are the best. The problem is I can't find them anywhere in Maine and I'll have a make another online order in the future. I picked off some more fish and I thought to myself maybe it's time for some lakers.
For drop shotting I was using my 7' Dobyns Sierra series medium fast rod and Shimano Miravel 2500 reel spooled with 10lbs braid with a 8lbs fluorocarbon leader. I tie on a 1ozs tungsten jig as lead jigs are illegal to use in Maine and I put on a 4" white gulp minnow. I start to move to farther out and I quickly get into deep water, even though I'm probably less than a 100 yards from the shore. I stop when I get to a 100' of water, but I don't see any fish on the screen. All I see are long green lines as I'm still on the learning curve trying to decipher what the images are. I don't see the typical arcs that represent fish and I see no bait. The upper section of the lake is big so I might be in a spot that doesn't hold a lot of fish. I adjust the gain manually to 95% so I can better see my jig. The wind starts picking up and I'm concerned that I won't be able to effectively jig. I drop the jig and it quickly descends into the depths. I can see it on the screen and I stop it at 50' as I'm in 70' of water. I slowly start jigging and I can see on the screen the zig zag marks. I look at the a-scope and I see no bright colors as that represents fish. I go on the menu of my fish striker and select the fish symbols. On the screen I see these cartoon images of fish with their respective depth, but I can't see my jig. I have no idea if the fish finder even knows they're fish so I switch it back to the orginal images. As I drift I start getting into more shallow water and I turn around and head a little further out into deeper water and start the process again. Since I'm limited in time, I give myself an hour and with the gusty winds, I abandon my attempt at lakers as I didn't mark a single fish.
I went back to the dropshot rig and put on another worm. I cast towards the shore and I let the rig drop to the bottom. I slowly work the shoreline and I start snagging bottom. I get in closer and I see a large tree in the water. I'm able to retrieve my rig and I try to stay away from the shoreline. I cast out and immediatley close the bail. I watch the line sink and then it goes slack. I slowly pull the rig across the bottom. As I pull up, I feel some resistance and then a slight tug. I set the hook and at first I think I'm snagged. But the snag moves and my first thought is I snagged a branch. Then I feel the rod throb and I know it's a fish. Then it starts to fight hard and the rod doubles over and the drag starts going. It must be a big bass and I stand up and it's big largemouth bass. It's a hefty specimen and I take a quick picture. With the wind coming from the south, I start drifting along the island in about 25' of water. On the fish finder I start seeing some large fish hanging off humps and sure enough I feel a hit and set the hook. I see a large smallmouth leap from the water. I pull it along the kayak and it's probably close to 5 pounds. I start mixing it up as I use flatworms and gulp minnows, but the preferred bait is still the worms.
The wind is gusting from the south and the lake is starting to get choppy. I seek refuge along the north side of the island. By now I see some people in boats fishing along the shoreline. The clouds gradually gave way and I see the mountains. To the north is the Caribou-Speckled Mountain wilderness which is over 11,000 acres in size and is very popular with hikers. To the west are the White mountains as Kezar is close to the New Hampshire border. From a higher elevation, you can easily see Mount Washington. Both me and my girlfriend have recreational kayaks and we've talked about coming out in October to see the fall foliage.
I look at the time and it's almost noon and with the choppy conditions I call it a day. Kezar Lake is the biggest body of water I've fished to date here in Maine. It can be fished in kayak but give yourself plenty of time as the upper section of the lake is large and wide. If you prefer to fish in a more confined area there is another boat ramp at the south end of the lake and that is more suited for warmwater fish. Also cell phone reception is very poor so you might want to let people know before heading out. My entire time out, I only saw two other boats and there was hardly any boat traffic.
