I am determined to fish the Golden Hour this morning!
Upper Range Pond is a 391-acre body of water located in Poland, Androscoggin County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 5 A3). The public boat ramp is located next to Range Hill Road at the northern tip of the pond by the causeway bridge. The cement launch can accommodate large boats. Plenty of parking for vehicles with trailers is available next to the ramp or along the road shoulder.
I love the frog vibe on our Maine lakes in late summer before sunrise. It’s such a serene, peaceful moment.
Upper Range Pond is the most upstream waterbody in a chain of three lakes that also includes Middle Range Pond and Lower Range Pond. It has a well-developed shoreline and is surrounded by several low, wooded hills. This lake has been a tough nut to crack for me. I trolled it on four separate occasions in 2023 and 2024 and got skunked every time… I hope to break that sorry record this morning! My first order of business when trolling for salmonids in the summer is to identify the presence and depth of the thermocline, and its oxygen status. A review of the available water quality data for August provided by Lakes of Maine shows the presence of a thermocline 17 to 23 ft. deep. This narrow layer is also well oxygenated (typically > 7 parts per million), with a possible oxygen deficiency further below, but only in certain years. So, I expect the trout to be residing and foraging in that cool layer this time of year. The pond is stocked each fall with brook trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout but at a low combined density of around 2 salmonids per acre, which is not conducive to quick action. Fishing at this location occurs under the applicable South Zone rules. This water body as a mean and maximum depth of 20 ft. and 38 ft., respectively. Click here for a depth map and (dated) fisheries information. I printed out the depth map before leaving home and circled the 30+ ft. depth contour to delineate my trolling area so that I do not have to waste any time finding it once I’m on the water.
I finally cracked the nut!!
I pull into the boat launch parking area for Upper Range Pond at 5:25 am, determined to fish during the Golden Hour, i.e. from 30 minutes before sunrise until about an hour after sunrise when the light levels are low and the salmonids are actively chasing breakfast down below. It is wind still with an air temperature of 53°F. The sun is scheduled to rise at 6 am in a cloudless sky. I hasten the preparations and put-put away 10 minutes later, aiming for the 30+ ft. depth area I identified earlier. I troll with lead core line and three one-hook streamer flies tied back-to-back, and with a portable downrigger and a spinning rod pulling three small trout spoons also tied back-to-back. I place these six lures 20 to 23 ft. below the surface hoping to entice a customer. I also hold the fly rod with the lead core line in my hands and gently but consistently rip the line to cause the flies to move erratically and attract attention. Note that I always prepare my fishing rigs before I leave home to avoid wasting any precious time once I get on the water. It is a peaceful morning, with fog emerging from the water surface, as is so often the case in late summer when the temperature of the surface water (73°F) greatly exceeds that of the cooler surrounding air (click here, here, and here for other examples).
That is one scrawny-looking largemouth bass… This fish has more head than body!
I have been trolling for no more than 15 minutes when I get a hit and hookup on my lead core line. Great! The fish are chasing bait down below. I carefully reel in my quarry but am dismayed when it jumps out of the water. Aargh, it must be a bass… But wait, the profile does not look like a bass. Is it a pickerel instead? I net the fish and am pleasantly surprised to discover that it is in fact a brown trout. Such jumping behavior is rare for this species, but I have seen it before. It is not much of a trout (15 inches) but it nonetheless counts. That fish took the second fly – instead of the third “straggler” fly – so I make sure to make that middle fly the new” straggler” by moving it to the end. I continue trolling with renewed excitement, but have to wait another full hour to get a second hit and hookup. The fish once again jumps out of the water when it reaches the surface, but this one is definitely a bass. It fights tenaciously but is scrawny and thin… I have often caught bass in the thermocline when trolling in the summer (click here and here for other examples) where they seek cool water and forage. I troll for another two hours, swap out three sets of trout spoons, but am unable to generate another hit. Upper Range Pond did not get the best of me this morning but maintains its reputation as a tough nut to crack!
The winning lure for this morning.
The results: I caught a 15-inch brown trout and a skinny largemouth bass in 3.5 hours of trolling.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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