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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Lots of Rain Means Great Fishing
by Mike Guarino Here's a newsflash — it rained a lot in June! Surprise, surprise, surprise! According to the National Weather Service, June was one of the rainiest months in history. With 8.36 inches of rain recorded by June 28, we have the fifth wettest month ever recorded in Maine and we are one thunderstorm away from taking top honors. Personally, I can live with fifth-place, but according to the weather forecast, it looks we're going down in history as #1. So the obvious question is, what does all this rain do to the fishing? The high water levels have created a couple of interesting fishing options in late June and early July this year. First of all, it's kept the overall water temperature on the cool side, keeping fish like northern pike and smallmouth bass in the shallows longer than usual. It's also created a lot of runoff into the lakes, making baits like plastic worms, grubs and salamanders prime choices for bass fishermen fishing in weedy shallows. There's a lot of forage for these fish being pushed into the water off the shorelines. In addition to runoff, the small streams and creeks that flow into our lakes are really rocking! This infusion of flowing water gives anglers great targets to cast lures like Mepps spinners and small minnow imitating lures like the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow. There is a wide variety of fish feeding at the mouths of these streams and they are drawing in brown trout and brook trout too, especially in the late evening. Fly fishermen can cast either small bucktail streamers like the Mickey Finn or Gray Ghosts into the flowage and have a chance at a nice trout. Another bonus for fly fishermen this time of year is that we are still experiencing a pretty decent mayfly hatch that draws trout and white perch to the surface. These flies don't do very well in driving rain like we've experienced the last few weeks, but if we can get a sunny day and calm waters, these bugs will be out in droves! Another interesting phenomenon that the rain has certainly helped with is that trout are holding on shallow rock piles that abound on all the lakes in the region. Last week while trolling Great Pond near the sunken island east of Hoyts Island we caught two brownies in about 10 feet of water in the middle of the day. That's the exception not the rule, but those fish were there! Catching trout in our region at this time of year in shallow water is a special treat. These fish many not be there all the time, but they are definitely using rocky reefs to feed. It's also interesting to note that on that specific day we did not graph a lot of bait balls in deep water either. Usually, when you troll Great Pond over 30 – 40 feet of water you mark large schools of bait, but on this specific day the bait was really scattered around. Lure of the Week
The Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow is very versatile and works wonders some days on our lakes, especially the lakes that have alewives as the primary bait fish. Great Pond, Messalonskee Lake and Long Pond are all loaded with alewives and this lure imitates an alewife quite well. The blue tiger and WS — Purple color is perfect because the bait in our lakes have a blueish/purple hue to them. There are two different versions of this lure that offer anglers options on how to fish it. Controlled depth fishing with downriggers and lead core line is perfect for the floating version of the Crystal Minnow. Personally, I think the lure works best when fished on lead core line loaded on a 9-weight fly rod. The pulsing motion of the fly rod gives the lure excellent motion. The second option is for people who do not have downriggers or lead core. The Crystal Minnow Deep Diver is a heavily lipped diving bait that will help get you down to 15 feet or more. Long-lining this lure behind the boat on regular monofilament line will get you into the strike zone this time of year. If you are trolling Great Pond for example and you run the deep diver near drop offs in 20-feet of water, don't be surprised if you hook into one of those monster northern pike too. They are keyed on alewives and love to slam the Crystal Minnow! Mike Guarino can be reached at | ||
