The access point on Bradley pond can only accommodate canoes and kayaks. Motorized crafts are forbidden on this pond.
Bradley Pond is a 34-acre body of water located in Lovell, Oxford County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 10 D2). To access this pond, go down Route 5 (Main Street) in Lovell, turn on Bradley Pond Road, and drive down this high-quality gravel road for 1.0 mile (turn right at the small “launch” sign). The public access point is on the left, at the northern end of the pond. The launch is unimproved, and can only accommodate canoes or kayaks. Also, motorboats are prohibited on the pond. The launch has enough space to park 2-3 vehicles.
The resident loon serenades me with its haunting call. I love it!
Bradley Pond is only lightly developed and has a fully intact wooded shoreline embedded in a forested landscape. Even though this water body is located only a few miles from Waterford and Lovell, it has a distinct “remote” feel to it, which I love and seek. I found this pond using my proven search strategy. Two specific features make it an attractive destination for me: a) the pond is stocked annually with 100 12-inch brown trout, for an average stocking density of around 3 fish per acre per year, which is high for this species (the average stocking density for browns across ME is around 1 fish per acre per year), and b) the lack of a hard-top boat launch – and a prohibition on using motorboats – greatly restricts the open-water angling pressure. Taken together, I suspect that many of the trout stocked in previous years survive and grow to an attractive size. Click here for the full fishing rules. The pond has a mean and maximum depth of 10 ft. and 29 ft., respectively, making it quite shallow for a lake able to sustain a stocked salmonid population year-over-year. Click here for a depth map and (dated) fisheries information. While preparing for this trip, I checked the available water quality data for this pond provided in lakesofmaine.org to determine the depth of the thermocline, its temperature, and dissolved oxygen status. The limited information for late July shows that the thermocline occurs 10 to 16 ft. deep, which is extremely shallow. The water below the thermocline is cold but oxygen deficient, whereas the water above the thermocline is oxygen-rich but too warm. I like these summer conditions because they force the trout to reside in a well-defined, narrow band of water where they can be more easily targeted. I will place my lures midway in the thermocline, i.e., 13-14 ft. below the surface. I print out the depth map for this pond and outline the (approximate) 18-foot depth contour. It shows the presence of a small, oblong bowl of deeper water located in the southern half of the pond towards the outlet. That is where I will focus my fishing efforts.
This brown trout pounced on the straggler lure as I was reeling them in. A first!
I arrive at the access point of Bradley Pond at 5:20 am and paddle away 10 minutes later. The conditions are perfect: it rained and thundered during the night, but now the storm has passed, and it is deeply overcast and wind still. The air temperature is 62°F. The surface water temperature is 72°F, which is surprisingly cool considering that it is mid-summer. I troll using lead core line and three small spoons tied back-to-back. The first spoon imitates a juvenile brown trout (this species is cannibalistic…), the second spoon represents a juvenile yellow perch (this species lives in the pond and is prey to brown trout), and the straggler spoon is a 1.75-inch Mooselook Wobbler that mimics a small rainbow smelt. The latter is absent from this pond but has worked well for me in the past (click here, here, and here for examples). I quickly move towards my target area by the outlet and deploy my lures two and a half colors down (about 13-14 ft. deep) as soon as the portable depth reader shows 18+ ft. of water. The circuit over the target area is quite small and takes no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Its bigger sibling gave me one heck of a fight!
I overshoot the depth during the first go around, and end up in water 13 ft. deep. I bring in my lures to ensure that they did not pick up anything from the bottom. I fantasize about a fish grabbing one of the lures as I quickly reel them in. I get a strong hook-up seconds later. No way!! I fight an angry fish, and am delighted to see a brown trout emerge from the depths. That is the first time ever something like this has happened when reeling in spoons on the lead core. The fish is a healthy 19 incher, which gets measured, photographed, and released. I am pumped! But it takes me another hour or so to get a second hookup, this time by one of the many largemouth bass that live in these waters. That species is not why I am here this morning… But it confirms that I am not trolling too deep in oxygen-deficient water, which is reassuring. I also retain the three lures since they are still doing their thing. I get three more hits over the next hour, and then a massive hookup. Yes! This fish stays low and takes several fantastic runs. That’s what I am talking about! It circles below the canoe but refuses to come to the surface. I play it carefully, fearful to cause the hook to pop out of its mouth. It finally reaches the surface and gets netted. Wow. It is a gorgeous and healthy 21-inch brown trout. It too gets released to grow bigger yet. I have been paddling non-stop for well over two hours and need to call it good. Landing two browns in such a relatively short amount of time is good fishing. I leave Bradley Pond a happy angler.
The straggler lure represents a small smelt, which is not even present in Bradley Pond. But the browns do not seem to mind…
The results: I landed two brown trout (largest = 21 inches) and a largemouth bass and in 2.5 hours of fun fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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