Sitting by the boat launch on Bottle Lake and studying the map to find our way to the camp site on Junior Bay
Pocumcus Lake is a 2,201-acre body of water located in Sakom Township, Washington County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 35 B2). It is part of the enormous hydraulically interconnected system that includes West Grand Lake, Scraggly Lake, Junior Lake, Junior Bay, and Sysladobsis Lake. We access this waterway via the public boat launch on Bottle Lake in Lakeville (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 35 A1), which links to Junior Lake via Bottle Lake Stream. For the record, Bottle Lake Road, which connects Route 6 in Springfield with the boat launch, is paved all the way and is therefore readily accessible even during mud season in late April. My son Joel, nephew Salvy, and I reach Bottle Lake in mid-morning. We overload our boats with all our camping and fishing gear and slowly navigate for one hour and 45 minutes to an unmarked camp site located at the tip of the peninsula that separates Junior Bay from Junior Stream. That will be our base camp for the next four day. We are here to experience the tremendous landlocked salmon and lake trout fishery that is awakening from its long winter slumber following ice out. One nice perk of camping in late April is the total lack of the dreaded hordes of mosquitos and blackflies. On the other hand, early spring can still be quite chilly in these parts of Maine.
This 21-inch lake trout was the one and only action for this evening.
Pocumcus Lake is a gorgeous and essentially undeveloped large body of water surrounded by deep woods and adjoining land belonging to the Passamaquoddy Indian Nation. The lake trout population maintains itself by natural reproduction along the miles of rocky shoreline whereas the salmon population is enhanced by a modest stocking of 7-inch juveniles. Open-water fishing in the spring occurs under the general fishing laws applicable to the South Zone, except that a) the daily bag limit on bass is one fish and all bass between 12 and 20 inches must be released at once, b) no minimum length on lake trout, c) the daily bag limit on lake trout is two fish, only one of which may exceed 23 inches, and d) all lake trout between 23 and 33 inches must be released at once. Pocumcus Lake is relatively shallow given its great size, with a mean and maximum depth of only 25 ft. and 44 ft., respectively. Such a restricted depth profile means that this body of water supports salmon and lake trout in the fall, winter, and spring; however, those fish migrate out into cooler and deeper West Grand Lake during the warmer summer months. Click here for a depth map and additional fisheries information.
I get up at the crack ‘o dawn to fish the Golden Hour!
I arrive at Pocumcus Lake at 4:30 pm by myself to fish the last couple of daylight hours. The weather is glorious: full sunshine, light wind, and air temperature in the high 40’s. One cannot ask for better conditions this time of year. The surface water temperature is a cool 45°F. Trolling is the only way to efficiently tackle a lake this size this early in the season. I deploy my portable downrigger teamed up with a spinning rod and three spoons tied back-to-back, as well as my lead core line teamed up with my 8-weight fly fishing rod and three two-hook streamer flies also tied back-to-back. I bring the spoons down 25 ft. and the flies down 20 ft. I aim to catch lake trout and look for them at depth. Coming in from Junior Bay, I stay in right-hand side of the lake where the water depth more consistently remains in the 35-40 ft. range. The action is slooow. I swap out all my spoons and flies twice over the next two hours for other models and colors and finally get a hit and hookup on one of the spoons on the downrigger at 6:45 pm. I fight a tenacious 21-inch laker which gets photographed and released. That, unfortunately, is the extent of the action this evening. I am nonetheless glad not to have been skunked. I call it good at 7:30 pm so as to reach camp, food, friendship, and fortified beverages before it gets pitch black.
Agreed, it’s not much of a salmon but it nonetheless provided for nice aerial acrobatics!
But I am not done with Pocumcus Lake yet! I crawl out of bed at 4:45 am the next morning to get ready to troll the Golden Hour (i.e., 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after sunrise). I layer up like I’m going ice fishing because it is darn cold (27°F!). In fact, I have to scratch away the frost that settled on my depth finder screen overnight. I buzz off and reach my fishing grounds 20 minutes later. I target the same area of the lake and use the same setup as yesterday afternoon. The action begins 25 minutes later when I hook and tussle with a scrappy 14-inch landlocked salmon that jumps four times out of the water. It’s not much of a fish but it is a fun fight. My spinning rod attached to the downrigger shakes violently 20 minutes later. I immediately set aside the lead core line, grab the other rod, and unclip the line from the downrigger weight. Oh yes sirree, this fish here is definitely much bigger than the previous one! I can feel its head shaking from side to side as I carefully cajole the creature to the surface. It turns out to be a fat 24-inch, 4.5-pound lake trout. This one definitely makes my morning, although 10+ pounders are known to swim around… The sun has now peaked over the surrounding hills and is flooding the lake with its cold, harsh light. I troll for another hour and a half but get no more costumers. I call it good at 8:30 am and head back to camp to enjoy a hardy breakfast and brag about my catch to my teammates.
This big laker made my morning! Fishing the Golden Hour takes effort but can by very rewarding.
The results: I landed one 14-inch landlocked salmon and two lake trout (largest = 4.5 pounds) in 5.5 hours of trolling.
Click here for the rest of the story.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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