Songo Pond is a 224-acre body of water located in Albany, Oxford County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 10 B3). The unmarked public access point is found right next to Route 5/35 (Songo Pond Road) a couple of hundred feet north of house number 754. It consists of a rough, bouldery launch for hand-carried craft and a small dirt parking area next to the road that can accommodate a few vehicles.
The unmarked public access point to Songo Pond is found next to the road.
Songo Pond is found a few miles south of Bethel and just to the east of the Maine portion of the White Mountain National Forest. The pond is moderately developed and surrounded by forested wooded hills draped in rapidly-fading fall colors. It is stocked annually with landlocked Atlantic salmon and brook trout to support a year-round salmonid fishery. The latter species is the target of my attention this morning. The law states that this pond is open to fall fishing between October 1 and November 30 using artificial lures only and with the stipulation that all salmonids must be released at once and alive. It is also open to ice fishing during winter. Click here for a depth map and additional fisheries information.
No, I am not wading through freezing water to catch yellow perch!
I arrive at the Songo Pond public access point at 7 am. The weather this morning is perfectly miserable: air temps in the mid-40’s, a cold breeze, foggy, overcast, and rainy. I layer up and don my waders. I also put on a waterproof rain jacket which keeps me completely dry, except for my exposed hands. My weapon of choice when fall wader fishing is an ultra-light spinning rod with a small spinning reel spooled with 6-pound monofilament and a #2 Mepps spinner. I enter the water at the launch and start moving to the left. To my surprise, the very first cast yields a diminutive smallmouth bass…Interesting, but that’s not what I seek. The wading conditions are quite nice: the substrate is firm and largely unobstructed, consisting of gravel and cobbles. The bottom gradually slopes downward away from the shore. The submerged aquatic vegetation has also largely died out but still fouls my lure on multiple occasions.
This little brookie is the only one that made it into my net this rainy morning.
The rain is steady, and the trout are NOT biting… By now, I have waded hundreds of feet to the left of the launch and have yet to get one hit. I slowly fish my way back towards the launch and then move to the right of the put-in. I methodically cast out the spinner, let it sink for several seconds, and then slowly retrieve it, all the while twitching the rod tip to cause the spinner blade to flutter. All of that effort yields a dinky little yellow perch. I am underwhelmed by the results so far, and my wet hands are getting cold. I push on and finally get a serious hookup. This fish is for real and is one of the sought-after brookies. Finally! I net it, retreat back to shore, take a picture, and let it go. I recast in the same general area (always a good idea when targeting brook trout in the fall!) and am rewarded 5 minutes later with a second hit and hook up. Yes! This one is a male brookie in full spawning colors. I guide him towards the waiting net, but it unhooks during the struggle. Darn, I missed him! The rain is steady, and my hands are getting numb. I make another two dozen casts in the hope of enticing another hit but the trout are done and I need to move on. The conditions this morning were tough. Regardless, I was glad to be out and about enjoying the great outdoors 🙂
The results: I caught one brook trout in 2 hour of slow, cold, and rainy fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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