Moosehead region fishing report

Thoughts of an early spring have disappeared in the Moosehead region.

“There was a lot of anticipation in March about getting some extra open water fishing due to the warm winter, but those thoughts have been put on ice in the Moosehead Lake area,” said IFW fisheries biologist Tim Obrey. “Right now, many of the lakes and ponds south of Dexter are ice free, but we still have winter-like conditions to the north and west.”

The general rule of thumb in this region is that Sebec Lake will be ice free about seven to 10 days after the Piscataquis River opens up, and then another seven to 10 days for Moosehead to be ice free.

“Based on this theory the ice would be out of Maine’s largest lake around the 11th of April,” said Obrey, “Unfortunately the theory doesn’t account for having the river re-freeze like some of it did earlier this week.”

Obrey said it won’t be much longer, especially with the recent heavy rain, as it will start to eat away at the remaining ice on our lakes. He also said that Brookfield plans very high flows on the East Outlet and Moose River in the near future which will make them unfishable for a while, but will also open large areas near the mouths of the rivers.

“The recent rains will also fill lakes and ponds which will pull the ice away from shore and create some good areas for anglers to drop a line,” said Obrey. “This is a great time to hit some of the smaller ponds and lakes.

“The water is still very cold and the trout, salmon, and togue will be cruising the shoreline. Any place where a brook or stream enters a lake should have some open water after this weekend. The brooks and streams themselves will be very high, but they are usually very cold this time of year and not as productive as lakes and ponds. We’ll have to wait until water temperatures rise and flows settle before the stream fishing improves.”