Everything is fogged in this morning but the trout are biting!
Hall Pond is a 51-acre body of water located next to Halls Pond Road (off Route 119, a.k.a. Hebron Road) in Paris, Oxford County (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 11 D2). Access to the water is directly from quiet Halls Pond Road. Vehicles can be parked along the road shoulder. This small pond serves as the sole public water supply for the Hebron Water Company which provides drinking water to the surrounding community. As a result, the town has promulgated a restrictive ordnance to protect the quality of the surface water, including no bodily contact, no ice shacks, and no use of internal combustion engines (including ice augers). I am checking out this pond this morning as part of my efforts to identify, and blog about, locations where one can catch trout in the fall while wader fishing from shore without the need of a boat or other specialized equipment.
Small but colorful.
Hall Pond is a pretty little lake located in the shadow of Singlepole Mountain. Because of its use as a source of drinking water, the water quality is excellent. The pond is specifically managed as a brook and brown trout fishery via an aggressive annual stocking program. A hard-top boat launch is available along Halls Pond Road but is closed with a locked gate, presumably to prevent boats with outboard engines from entering the pond. A floating dock is located nearby to launch canoes and kayaks. The pond is open to fishing in the fall between October 1 and November 30 using artificial lures only and with the stipulation that all trout must be released alive at once. Click here for more details. It is also open to ice fishing. The pond has a maximum and mean depth of 26 ft. and 9 ft., respectively, making it relatively shallow. Click here for a depth map and more fisheries information.
Catching this little brown trout was a pleasant surprise.
I arrive at Hall Pond by 7 am. The air temperature is a pleasant 52°F and it is foggy and drizzly, just the way I like it. I will be fishing along the shallow shoreline next to Halls Pond Road using my waders and my trusted ultra-light spinning rod, small spinning reel spooled with 6-pound monofilament, and a #2 Mepps spinner. I removed one of the three hooks from the treble and flattened the barb on one of the two remaining hooks to minimize harm to the fish. I notice immediately upon entering the water that much of the substrate is quite soft, causing my feet to sink half a foot into the mud in some spots, which is a real pain. This bottom supports aquatic vegetation during the summer months which causes my spinner to easily foul with plants. I also see consistent rises, which is strange given the season, the time of the day, and the lack of bugs on the surface. But those fish are rising to something and therefore feeding… I cast my spinner out and, whenever possible, towards the rises, and begin to catch little brookies! They have no size to them (8″ to 10″) but are quite aggressive. I suspect that they are the ones that were stocked earlier this fall. I have caught over a dozen of those fish by the time I wade all the way to the gated boat launch.
I also caught larger brook trout by casting my spinner further off shore.
At this point, I make a concerted effort to ignore the rises (well, at least to some degree…), move a bit farther offshore, and start to consistently cast towards the deeper water in the hope of hooking into larger fish. This new approach works well because I catch several 12″ to 14″ brook trout, and one brown trout of that size. I am excited with the results but then my reel suddenly becomes “sticky”. Crap, the gear system has run out of grease and is starting to seize up. I try to ignore the problem but have to give up 10 minutes later. That is just too bad because the trout are still aggressively biting and I have more time to fish, but the equipment failure decides otherwise. Regardless, I leave a happy angler because I had a grand time this morning on Hall Pond. Plus, I had the place all to myself.
It just never gets old…
The results: I caught 19 brook trout (largest = 14″) and one brown trout (13″) in two hours of fast and furious fishing.
Was the information in this blog useful? I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions. Also, feel free to discuss your fishing experiences at this location.
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