When I moved to Maine, I wanted to start pursuing lake trout. Even though I grew up in Northern Ontario, lake trout were a fish I never took any interest in. I didn't have a boat, they were considered difficult to catch without the right equipment, and lakes that contained them were few and far between. Sebago Lake is right in my backyard and it's considered one of the top lakes in New England for lake trout, However, it's a pretty big at 30,500 acres in size and the mean depth is over 100 feet deep. If I had a boat, I would probably spend every weekend on it. But, a kayak can only get you so far as I didn't want to spend hours trying to covering a lot of water. I wanted to start off small and work my way up. After doing some research, I read that Thompson Lake has a great lake trout fishery and it was the perfect size.
Thompson Lake is located about 35 minutes north of Windham. It's about 12 miles long and averages about 2 miles wide. It has a maximum depth of 120 feet. It's shallow at the north and south ends and deepest in the middle. The lake is also considered one of the cleanest in the state as it's fed by the Poland spring aquifer. Thompson Lake supports a wide variety of game fish such as largemouth and smallmouth bass and lake trout and Atlantic salmon. The current state record smallmouth bass was caught in this lake back in 1970. Thompson is only 45 minutes from Portland and 30 minutes from Lewiston-Auburn, two of Maine's most populated cites. Because of its close proximity to large urban areas, the shoreline is fairly developed on both sides. There's three boat launches on the lake and two are marinas and the other is a public one located right off of highway 112. I choose the public launch as it's located at the middle of the lake. It's very close to the road and there's no ramp, just a sandy beach.
I'm out on the water very early this morning. The sun has risen over the trees and it's a blazing ball of red. That's the result of Canadian wildfire smoke and we've been dealing with it through out the summer where smoke has made the air quality terrible. As I head out, the surface of the lake is like glass and it's so quiet I could hear some people talking from their cabins. With any new body of water, I usually like to go for a cruise and watch the fish finder for any structure. But, today I was going to focus on lake trout. In Maine, lake trout are referred to as togue. The name is thought to be derived from a native American word. Game fish often have local names depending where you live in the U.S or Canada. Where I grew up in Northern Ontario we always referred to walleye as pickerel and brook trout as speckled trout. But if you went to Northwestern Ontario, pike were called jackfish and if you ventured into Quebec, walleye were called dore. But, I thought the name togue was amusing as it sounds like some grotesque creature that lives on the bottom hidden in the mud.
I was able to get cell phone reception and I pulled up the depth chart map. I looked to the south and there's a very small island. Accoording to the map, the lake gets really deep just east of the island. As I'm pedaling, I see a boat in the distance chugging along out in the middle and from their speed, they were most likely fishing for lake trout or salmon.
I finally make it out the middle and I'm directly over 80' of water. I make some adjustments on the fish finder like turning on the bottom lock, utilizing the split frequency feature and cranking the gain to 90%. Using the bottom lock is very useful as lake trout are generally found on the bottom and I set it at 15' off the bottom. The split frequency is also useful as you can utilize both 77 and 200 kHz. Since I'm fishing deep water the 77 kHz casts a wider cone around 45 degrees, but the diameter can be large to the point that a fish will show up on the screen, but it could be 100' from my kayak. The 200 kHz has more narrower cone around 15 degrees and fish will be close enough, that they'll see your presentations.
I could have used my ultralight rod as lake trout in Thompson rarely get over a couple of pounds. But, I was using a 1/2 ozs jig and a 4' white gulp minnow and a beefier rod was needed. I let the jig drop all the way to the bottom and I had it barely off the bottom. For about 20 minutes, I see nothing on the A-scopes. Because there wasn't any wind, I barely moved. It turned out to be a waiting game and after 20 minutes, I move farther down and I drop the jig and repeated the process about five times picking different depths.
The sixth time by sheer luck, a lake trout must of have been close by and taken the jig when I closed the bail. Because, I immediately felt a solid hit and the rod bent over. The fish fought pretty hard as I brought up to the surface. I finally caught glimpse of it when I got it to side of the kayak. I grabbed the jig head and hauled it out the water. I was looking at my very first lake trout. It was probably about 24" and the first thing I noticed was the size of the fish's eyes as they were disproportionately larger for the size of its head to the point of being cartoon like. This adaptation is most likely the result of foraging in deeper water where light levels are low. Its body was long and sleek and very dark in color. I take a quick picture before releasing it.
I resume fishing and I see the A-scopes flashing red at about 85' and the fish hits the jig hard and I immediately set the hook. This fish felt a little bigger and a few times I had to loosen the drag. I see it come to the surface and it's a little bigger then the one I previously caught. I quickly pop the jig out and I wanted to take a picture but my arm can only go out so far. Instead I place it back in the water and watch it slowly head back into the depths. Lake trout don't generally school, but they will congregate where there's baitfish. During my time out, I only saw one line of bait and nothing was following it. The three previous fish I caught all came in water about 90' deep and they were about 5' off the bottom. I moved farther down the lake and I caught a couple more in that 80 to 90 feet of water. Both of these fish were similair in size in that 23" to 25" range. From what I gathered this morning is that lake trout don't nibble. They crushed the jig really hard. But, there were a couple of times that I felt a hit and the nothing. Because lake trout tend to wander in search of food is probably why most anglers in Maine prefer to troll. I could troll, employing a downrigger with a 4 pound ball wouldn't be ideal considering I have a pedal drive. Maybe in the future if I decide to trick out my kayak with an electric motor, it might be a possibility. I've also heard some anglers employ leadcore line, but the reels used for them are pretty large and personally I think it's a little overkill. But in the mean time, I'll just have to jig and quite honestly I prefer it as I have to work for them.
The week before, I read an article about the Maine inlands fishery department doing a fish survey on Thompson back in 2018 and according to their sampling, there were 5 lake trout per acre and they estimated there was roughly about 16,000 trout in the entire lake. That number raised my eyebrows as they inhabit lakes that are poor nutrients, therefore that limits their numbers and size. Other interesting information they found was that the trout were more likely to mature earlier, tended to be more pelagic, their diet was less reliant on forage fish such as smelt, and the largest density of fish were found in the shallowest strata immediately below the thremoclime. This why I often research before fishing a new body of water as it gives me a better idea on how and where to fish.
By now the wind started to pick up and the lake is getting choppy. The boat traffic also starts getting heavy and that's my cue to head closer to shore. I tied on a drop shot rig and headed over to a point. I was a 10 minute ride over and I could see a lot of rocks in the water. Since there was a decent push from the wind, I knew this would be a great place to drift fish. I cast and watch the line go slack. I lifted the rod tip high and let the wind move me along. I would start feeling taps and when I tried to set the hook there was nothing. This continued and I started to get annoyed as I knew the culprit was probably young bass. Eventually I managed to set the hook and I felt something small pull the line. It turned out be a sunfish, which as surprising as I'm using a fairly large hook and a 4" worm. It turned out to be a war of attrition as I hooked into one sunfish after another. In all the years I fishing, I don't think I ever caught a sunfish drop shotting. I did manage to catch some smallmouth bass, but nothing big. But, it was getting close to noon and that's usually when I call it a day.
On the way back to the boat launch, I could see in the distance a person seating in a beach chair reading a book and he was wearing a yellow vest. I chuckled and thought to myself, there's three certainties in Maine - death, taxes, and running into a courtesy boat inspector. This would be the fifth time I've ran into an inspector. He was a younger guy and he didn't get up from his chair. He just glanced over and asked how the fishing was. I figured since I had a kayak there would be no reason to check it out. I went over to get my car and I quickly got the kayak and strapped it down. The inspector was just content reading and working on his tan.
I thought my first outing on Thompson Lake was a success as I caught six lake trout. They weren't big, but it was another feather in the cap as earlier in the season, I caught my first chain pickerel. Thompson is a great lake for the angler targeting lake trout. It's an easy lake to get around as it took me about 20 minutes to get from the boat launch to deeper water. You'll definitely need to exercise patience and work hard for them.
