The morning is cold, breezy, and overcast. But the fish are biting!
Pierce Pond covers 1,650 acres and is located in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 30 A2). The main (paying) access to the pond is via the boat launch located on Lindsey Cove at the end of Cobb Camps Road off the Carrying Place Road. This sandy launch is unimproved but can accommodate large, trailered craft. Plenty of parking is available by the launch. Follow the discrete green “Cobbs Camps” signs which begin appearing at the point where Carrying Place Road splits off from Long Falls Dam Road. The dirt road between Long Falls Dam Road and Lindsey Cove is reasonably well maintained and can be used by regular two-wheel drive vehicles. Note that Cobb Camps Road is gated and that the gate attendant works between 7 am and 8 pm. An unofficial launch with two rough camp sites is also found at the northern tip of Upper Pierce Pond. I have not used this launch before nor do I know how to access it.
It took three hits and two unhooks to finally land this first salmon.
Pierce Pond is a uniquely beautiful lake framed by forested hills and embedded within a fully undeveloped watershed. Pierce Pond Mountain towers majestically over the whole scenery. The lake is divided into three parts (i.e., Lower Pond, Middle Pond, and Upper Pond) connected by short but shallow thoroughfares. Numerous islands, shallow rock piles, sunken reefs, coves, and inlets create a multitude of micro habitats exploited by the local salmonids. The pond and its surrounding land are under the careful stewardship and protection of the Pierce Pond Watershed Trust. Except for a few grandfathered cabins, including Cobb’s Camps, the entire 19+ miles of bouldery shoreline does not contain a single house, cabin, or dock. Hence, the riparian vegetation along the shore is 100% intact. It is truly a sight to behold. The pond sustains a healthy native brook trout population and a robust number of landlocked Atlantic salmon partially maintained by annual stocking but also supported by natural reproduction in several local tributary streams. The pond falls under the North Zone general fishing laws, except that it opens for fishing starting on May 1, anglers can only use artificial lures, and the daily bag limit on brook trout is two fish with a minimum length limit of 10 inches and only one fish can exceed 12 inches. Click here for additional rules. The maximum and mean depth equal 120 ft. and 39 ft., respectively. Click here for a depth map and fisheries information.
This beauty is the only fish caught trolling close to the shallow shoreline.
Five of us have trekked to western Maine on our annual pilgrimage to Pierce Pond and are staying in one of the cabins at Cobb’s Camps. Our goal is to fly fish the mayfly hatches that occur around the long Memorial Day weekend at the end of May. Except that the weather has been awful over the last couple of days: overnight temps in the high 30’s, daytime temps in the mid to high 40’s, overcast, drizzly, and windy. It is hard to believe that we are less than one month away from summer solstice! The may fly hatches have been sporadic, and then only in Upper Pond where the water is a bit warmer. Thus, we have focused all our angling attention on trolling. I crawl out of bed at 4:30 am and find no one else interested in joining me this morning… I dress up like I am going ice fishing because the air temp is 38°F. I put-put away from camp in my boat 10 minutes later. The water temperature is 48°F which is cold for this time of year. It is totally overcast and breezy. I am fishing with both lead core line and a downrigger. I use three Parsons Tom streamer flies tied back-to-back on the lead core line and three DB Smelt spoons tied back-to-back on the down rigger. I place the spoons 15 ft. down and the flies 12 ft. down. I start trolling over water 30 to 50 ft. deep.
The Parsons Tom streamer fly and DB Smelt are working this morning.
I get two hits and one hookup (but no fish in the boat) in the first 5 minutes. Holy smokes, the salmonids are active this morning! I get another three hits, two hookups, and an 18-inch salmon in the boat over the next 1.5 hours. It is frustrating that the fish are unhooking but I am nonetheless pleased with the level of activity. And then the action stops… I troll for another 30 minutes but to no avail. It is time to up my game plan. I eliminate the downrigger, quickly navigate to a shallow and bouldery shoreline in Lower Pond where I had luck before, and start trolling with the lead core line and Parsons Toms placed one color down (5-6 ft. below the surface) in water 10-12 ft. deep. I hope to entice a brook trout to bite. To my surprise, I get a brutal hit within 10 minutes on the flies and see a powerful salmon take to the air. Wow, what a fight! The fish tires and finally gets netted. It measures a healthy 20 inches. But that is the one and only hit I get for trolling up and down that shoreline three times over the next hour or so. Regardless, I am pleased with my early-morning efforts which yielded two landlocks. I call it good and speed back to our cabin for a well-deserved cup of hot tea.
The results: I caught two landlocked salmon (largest = 20 inches) in 3 hours of cold, early-morning fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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