Celia Pond has a small and “intimate” vibe.
Celia Pond covers 8 acres and is located in southern-most Baxter State Park (BSP), Piscataquis County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 50 D4). This remote pond is accessed via a 0.9-mile forest trail that starts at the Kidney Pond parking lot. Keep in mind that the only way to fish this location is from a canoe. The ranger on duty at either Daicey Pond or Kidney Pond (see map 50 D4) provides canoe keys every evening between 8 and 9 pm so anglers can fish their chosen pond(s) the next day. The cost of the rental is $1/hour, which is the best deal in town! Payment is in cash via the honor system, which I love. Bring lots of one dollar bills. Also, make sure to be at the ranger’s office at 8 pm on the dot to get the canoe for your target pond before it goes to someone else, because the rangers radio each other as soon as they give out a key…. Also, do not forget to bring your swimming vest and paddle, or pick them up from the storage bins at Dacey or Kidney Ponds.
It is wind still!
Celia Pond is one of a dozen-and-a-half small brook trout ponds sprinkled across this area of BSP. Most of these ponds are Heritage Fish Waters which support self-sustaining wild brook trout populations. But that is not the case with Celia. Instead, this pond is nicely stocked each fall with about 32 8” brook trout per acre. The shoreline is fully forested, but the views from the water are uninspiring. The following fishing rules apply: a) closed to ice fishing, b) fly fishing only (by definition, that rule excludes trolling), c) a daily bag limit of two trout, d) only one keeper trout may exceed 14 inches, and e) open to fly fishing between October 1 and November 30. The one-trout-over-14-inches rule shows that this fishery is managed to yield larger brookies. Click here for additional angling rules at this location. The pond as a mean and maximum depth of 5 ft. and 17 ft., respectively, and is therefore quite shallow. Click here for a depth map and (dated) fisheries information. The shallow nature of this pond precludes the formation of a thermocline in the summer. I suspect that the brookies survive the hot months by congregating around one or more groundwater springs that emerge from the bottom of the pond.
The brookies are willing to play this morning.
My 15-year-old grandson Antony and I reach the canoe stored along the shoreline of Celia Pond at 10:30 am. Darn, it is one of those noisy aluminum craft… The weather this morning is glorious: partly cloudy, air temp of 75°F, and essentially wind still. The latter is a huge change from the last couple of days when the wind was brutal. We would like to catch trout on the surface using dry flies, and eagerly observe the pond surface from shore for a few minutes. We see no rises nor any flies hatching… That pattern is not promising. A quick check of the surface water temperature from the canoe using my hand-held thermometer shows 74°F. I note here that it is critical to know the exact temperature of the surface water this time of year to determine the best way to catch trout. Basically, that water is just too warm for consistent surface action. We each brought a second fly rod with sinking tip so we can present wet flies at depth. I tie on a leech pattern, and Antony uses a greenish wooly bugger. We quietly paddle out and anchor the canoe over the deepest spot in the middle of the pond in 17 ft. of water (see the depth map, a copy of which sits in my breast pocket). We cast out our lines, count to 30 to let the tips and their wet flies sink 10-15 ft. down, and then slowly bring in the lines so our flies gradually swim up through the water column.
But the trout are small…
We have fun fishing on Celia Pond over the next 2.5 hours. The brookies are active and willing to play: we get more than a dozen hits, hook five trout, and net three of them. None are larger than about 11 inches, but they are eager to bite and entertaining to catch. We observe a few rises at some point, indicating that brookies are coming up from the deep to snatch something from the water surface. Antony has not caught anything so far, and he is bored by the slow retrieval action using his wooly bugger. He decides to dry-fly with his floating line and a mosquito fly. Because he is a beginner caster, he cannot get his fly more than about 20 ft. away from the canoe. To my great surprise, a brookie comes up and snatches his dry fly! Antony has way too much loose line sitting on the water to instantly set the hook, but somehow succeeds in catching that trout. He is delighted, and so am I. Ultimately, our outing is a success only if he catches something, and that mission is accomplished. Unfortunately, he drops the fish in the water as I am trying to take a picture of his catch… The mid-day sun is beating on the water, and the bite has slowed down noticeably. We call it good at 1 pm and head back to shore to enjoy our lunch.
The results: I caught two small brook trout (largest = 11 inches) and Antony caught one brookie in 2.5 hours of fun action.
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.
Tight Lines, y’all.
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