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Kalers Pond covers 87 acres and is located in Waldoboro, Lincoln County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 13 E4). Drive east on Route 1 and turn left on Kalers Pond Road by the Dow Furniture store (look for the green store sign next to Route 1) about 1.5 miles before reaching downtown Waldoboro. Keep in mind that Kalers Pond Road is privately owned, although it is not posted. Access to the pond is via permissive trespass over this gravel road. Drive down for about 800-1000 ft. until you see a wooden brown fish nailed to a tree to the left. It indicates the start of the 200 ft. rough wood trail that leads to the pond. Anglers can only launch hand-carried craft from this location. Parking is limited to a single vehicle by the fish sign. If necessary, leave your vehicle at the parking area across from the furniture store by Route 1. It takes less than 10 minutes to walk from there to the pond. I urge everyone to respect the wishes of the local property owners and follow the rules in order to keep access to this pond open and available to the public into the future.
A pretty view of Kalers Pond from the rough launch
Kalers Pond is lightly developed, with only about half a dozen houses sprinkled along its southern end. The rest of the shoreline is undeveloped and fully wooded, providing a genuine “remote” feeling. The state stocked this water on October 3, 2022 with 100 12-inch brown trout and 400 13-inch (about one pound) brook trout in preparation for the upcoming ice-fishing season. The latter are my target for this afternoon. I ice fished here two years ago but have not fished it during open water. That is about to change. To my surprise, given its annual salmonid stocking program, Kalers Pond is not included under the special fishing laws, meaning that it is open to fishing year-round under the general fishing law provisions for the South Zone. This body of water has a maximum and mean depth of 15 ft and 9 ft, respectively, making it shallow for its size. Click here for a depth map and more fisheries information.
This trout tells me that I finally located the school!
I arrive at Kalers Pond around 1 pm. It is sunny and breezy, with the air temperature running in the high 50’s. The water temperature is a cool 59°F. My original intent is to fish in my waders, but a quick view from the launch site points to an obvious problem: lily pads are growing all around and for 200 to 300 ft. away from the shore. Besides, the substrate looks soft and muddy. So, wader fishing is out. I deploy my canoe, which I always bring with me in the fall to deal with unexpected situations such as this one. The other constraint is the obvious shallowness of the pond near the shore by the launch: it is unclear where the school of recently-stocked brook trout might be hiding in this mess. Finally, the lily pads greatly limit where I can toss my #2 Mepps spinner. In effect, I can only cast towards certain open “lanes” and I cannot let the spinner sink too much to avoid it getting stuck in the submerged vegetation. Lots of other areas are simply out of reach. These conditions are less than ideal…
This male brookie gave a hard fight on the ultralight spinning rod.
I paddle 200 ft. or so offshore across from the launch to find water 5 to 7 ft. deep and start casting my spinner using my ultralight spinning rod and small spinning reel looking for brookies in all the available open areas. I fail to elicit a single bite after one hour. I am clearly not in the right location. I slowly paddle and fish the general area in front of the launch before reaching the outer edge of the lily pads in about 8 ft. of water. This spot has fewer plants and more open places. I finally hook a fish and am delighted to discover that it is a brook trout! Full of hope, I continue tossing my spinner in this open area, and hook and land three more brookies over the next 30 minutes or so. Yes! I definitely found the school but suspect that I am only nibbling at its outer periphery. Then the bite suddenly stops… Darn, I must have spooked the school with all the commotion of hooking and fighting fish. I very quietly relocate my canoe to several different spots around the area but I fail to reconnect with the trout. I fear that they have moved deeper into the lily pads where I cannot reach them with my spinner. I call it good 30 minutes later, satisfied that I was able to locate the school and catch a few of the brookies under less than ideal conditions. I leave a happy angler. Besides, I had the pond all to myself and thoroughly enjoyed the changing leaf colors.
I never get tired of those spawning colors
The results: I caught 4 brook trout (largest = 14 inches) in 2 hours of slow fishing.
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