The boat launch for Square Pond is spacious. Note the large culvert under West Shore Road at the right edge of this photo.
Square Pond is a 910-acre body of water located in the towns of Acton and Shapleigh, York County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 2 B2). The public access point is located along the western shore of the pond, off West Shore Road. The entrance to the public launch is clearly marked by a blue sign by the road. However, beware that the launch does not face the pond, but is located by its outlet across the road. Boaters need to navigate through a large and wide culvert underneath West Shore Road to reach the pond itself. The boat launch is spacious, has a huge parking area, and provides a convenient porter potty during the warm season.
I love the early morning “fog vibe” in late summer!
Square Pond is a well-developed and busy lake located in a rural setting in northwestern York County. Its one claim to fame is to have produced the largest brown trout ever caught in Maine, namely a 23+ pound hog dredged up in 1996! It shows that this lake provides the habitat and forage needed to grow monster browns. My goal today is much more modest: I just hope to land a brown trout… I like targeting this species (as well as rainbow trout and splake) in summer because these salmonids are forced to “concentrate” at or right above the thermocline, where two crucial conditions occur to ensure their survival during the summer: the water down there is cool, and it contains enough dissolved oxygen. Many of the deeper lakes in southern and central Maine receive too much nutrient inflow from their surrounding watersheds which spurs excessive algal growth. These algae die off, sink to the bottom, and are digested by bacteria. That metabolic process removes all the available dissolved oxygen from the cold bottom water which prevents salmonids from dispersing down there during the summer. I use the water quality data for Square Pond published by Lakes of Maine to confirm that the cold bottom layer becomes oxygen depleted in the summer and to determine that the thermocline occurs 27 to 30 ft below the surface. That is my target trolling depth: fish higher and the water is too warm; fish lower and the water is oxygen deficient. The pond receives a light stocking of 500 yearling brown trout every fall. Summer fishing occurs under the general fishing laws. The pond has a mean and maximum depth of 20 ft and 44 ft, respectively. Click here for a depth map and more fisheries information. Note that when I do this type of targeted fishing, I print out the depth map, and use a pen to outline the contour of my target depth, which in this case is 35+ ft. That way, I know exactly what area(s) of a lake to target without wasting any time looking for it after I arrive. It is a simple but highly efficient approach. Of course, this type of fishing requires a depth finder to help me stay over the correct depth.
I am being pestered by white perch which are foraging right by the thermocline.
I reach the Square Pond boat launch at 6 am. It is chilly (49°F) with lots of fog (click here, here, and here for other examples of this condition in late summer). The air temperature is expected to rise into the mid-60’s later in the morning. The surface water is a cool 70°F. I motor off at 6:15 am, pass through the culvert under the road, and immediately head towards the large island across the water where the deepest part of the lake is found. I fish with two rods: my eight-weight fly fishing rod teamed up with lead core line fished almost five colors down, and a medium spinning rod teamed up with a portable downrigger. I use three single-hook streamer flies on the lead core and two Mooselook Thinfish spoons on the downrigger. I get immediate action on both rods, but not of the kind I was hoping for: I am being pestered by white perch… They are aggressively foraging deep in the water column, and I hook six of them over the next 30 minutes. Even though I don’t care to catch these fish, the signal is loud and clear: my lures are not placed too deep, which is always a fear when doing this type of targeted fishing. The sun quickly rises, burns off the fog, and lights up the sky. The white perch bite stops and I am not generating any more action. I have been trolling for over an hour and decide to swap out my lures. I replace the two Mooselook Thinfish with two smaller Mooselook Wobbler spoons that provide a slimmer profile but replace the smaller streamer flies with three bulkier double hook streamer flies. Gotta shake things up! My downrigger rod moves violently 15 minutes later. I immediately set the hook and tussle with something bigger than a white perch. I am excited to see a 17” brown trout reach the surface. Yes! All my earlier triangulations bore fruit, which is always exciting. The fish gets measured, photographed, and quickly released to hopefully grow much bigger.
This fish clearly does not break any state records but I am nonetheless glad to have caught my target species…
I continue trolling with renewed hope around the 35+ ft deep bowl in front of the island but am bothered by the wake of a large boat pulling a water skier too close to my boat. I get the message… I move further north into the central portion of Square Pond where the water depth decreases to between 30 and 35 ft. I place my lures about 25 ft below the surface to avoid the bottom. Unfortunately, I do not see another brown trout over the next two hours but hook two smallmouth bass, one of which is a fat and hard-fighting 17-incher, and another half a dozen white perch. I call it good at 11:15 am, satisfied with my morning. Landing that one brown trout took a lot of work but past experience tells me that trolling for this species in the summer is always a slow affair 😊.
A nice by-catch. This fish fooled me into thinking I had hooked another brown trout until it breached the surface!
The results: I caught one 17” brown trout, two smallmouth bass (largest = 17”), and a dozen white perch in 4 hours of trolling.
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