At various times during the first two weeks of May, ice broke up and disintegrated on regional streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds.
Within three to five days after ice out trout, salmon and togue, although still lethargic in the very cold water, began to show some interest in striking live bait, lures, and even streamer flies and nymphs. The trick to steady action rests on placing just the right bait near a feeding fish, and therein lies the age-old Aroostook tradition of spring trolling.
On some days everyone can catch fish, even youngsters on their first outing or neophyte adults, while on other days it requires time, tricks and a variety of tactics to put fish in the boat. Just last week a friend and I fished Cross Lake with excellent success one afternoon, two days later we trolled the exact spot with the same flies and lures for two hours with nary a strike. Implementing a few changes finally got us into fish, and that is the crux of regular early season success, – don’t be afraid to mix things up.
Once a trolling area is selected, cover it well using various styles and colors of lures, plugs and flies. Vary boat speed at intervals and troll a lazy S pattern, not in a straight line. Altering speed, making wide turns, and changing course causes the baits to change depths and speed as well, which puts them in front of more fish and creates the illusion a bait fish is injured and vulnerable.
In general, spending more than 45 minutes to an hour dragging baits through one area on a lake or river is enough. Move on to new territory! Change baits after half an hour with no strikes and mix up colors, styles and sizes when trolling tandem streamer flies; present one that imitates a bait fish and another that is a colorful attractor pattern but resembles no living creature. It’s possible to do this using one rod and line by tying on a three-way swivel with a long and a short leader or by using a dropper line from your regular leader.
Proven smelt and bait fish imitation streamers include a gray ghost, black nose dace, Counterfeiter, Magog smelt, and rainbow ghost. Brightly-hued attractor streamers that catch all species on local lakes are the red and white bucktail, Ouananiche sunset, pink lady, Mickey Finn, Barnes special and little brook trout. I’ve found that offering both a feather-wing and a hair-wing pattern when trolling dual line rigs presents more variety and usually faster action. If one style, color, or size fly repeatedly yields strikes, then it’s time to tie on two of them,
Plugs are wood or plastic baits while lures are comprised of shaped metal, and both come in a myriad of shapes, sizes and colors just like flies. For spring trolling stick to plugs or lures that troll at depths between two and six feet. Yo-Zuri pin smelt in holographic green or purple hues, Mirror Minnows, size 7 floating Rapalas and DB smelt have all worked well this past week. Red and white Dardevles, Al’s goldfish, phoebes, and long, narrow Sutton spoons in all silver or silver/copper combos are sure fire lures.
Drew’s Lake in Houlton and East Grand Lake near Danforth provide top rate trolling for the rest of the month. Pleasant Lake in Island Falls has been spotty, but some bragging-size salmon are showing up. All the Fish River chain of lakes are fishing well, but there are slow days. Had I only one morning or evening, Square Lake or Long Lake would garner my attention.
For Memorial Day weekend, a trip to the North Maine Woods with stop-offs at Second Musquacook, Clear Lake and either Gardner, Black, or Deboullie Pond should yield great trout and togue angling.
Recent rains have kept local waterways fairly high and cool, which helps prolong angling opportunities. For example, the Aroostook River is just coming into prime time trolling level, and after catching a couple of trout, 15-minutes along the bank will provide a mess of fiddleheads for a fish and ferns feast. It’s trolling time in The County right now, float a boat soon for fish and fun.
