The official boat launch requires navigating through Round Pond before reaching South Pond.
South Pond is a 284-acre body of water located in Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 10 B4). This pond is part of a cluster of lakes bunched together in this area and which I have fished for salmonids in the past (click here, here, here, and here). The public boat ramp, called the Mike Giunta memorial boat launch, is located by Howe Hill Road off Route 26 (Main Street) in Greenwood. I have to look for the place because it is not clearly indicated, either on Route 26 or Howe Hill Road. The hard-topped ramp is narrow, steep, and next to deep water. Plenty of parking is available. I found it challenging to retrieve my boat at the end of today’s trip because I had to place the trailer mostly out of the deep water and on the steep launch. It took a lot of arm juice to manually crank my boat up unto its trailer… Access to South Pond from this location is tricky. With the ramp in your back, navigate to the upper right-hand corner of the (unnamed) water body and pass underneath the railroad tracks. From there, navigate to the left through Round Pond until you enter South Pond through a wide but shallow passage. I was disoriented and got lost while motoring through Round Pond and its multiple islands and shallow weedy areas. I used the GPS on my phone to get me out of the maze… It takes about 15 minutes of no-wake boating to reach my destination from the boat ramp. While trolling, I noticed a small beach at the southwestern end of South Pond next to Greenwood Road. I checked it out at the end of this trip and found a small, dirt boat launch next to the beach. This launch is not shown on The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer. A large sign states that the beach is for use by local residents only. I do not know if this restriction also applies to the launch next to it… Plenty of parking is available across the road from this launch.
The passage under the railroad tracks into Round Pond is narrow and low!
South Pond is moderately developed and framed by multiple forested and steep hills. The whole surrounding mountainous region is gorgeous to behold from the boat. I used my special approach to identify this place as a target for catching landlocked salmon in the summer. A key parameter is to identify the depth of the thermocline and determine its oxygen status. The available temperature and oxygen data published by Lakes of Maine for early August show that the thermocline in this lake occurs about 20 to 26 ft. deep. The temperature of the water down there is in the mid-50’s, which is perfect for salmon. Somewhat surprisingly for a small lake in this area of the state, the water column up to 20 ft. below the thermocline also remains oxygenated in the summer, with the highest oxygen levels measured in the thermocline itself and just below it. I will therefore place my lures 26 to 30 ft. down. The lake is stocked each spring with 100 young salmon, which is a sparse stocking density of about 1 fish for every 3 acres. I am not expecting fireworks from this species… South Pond also gets 200 brookies each fall, but those fish are not my target this morning. Angling in the summer falls under the general fishing laws applicable to the South Zone, except that all whitefish have to be released at once. The lake has a mean and maximum depth of 20 ft. and 71 ft., respectively. Click here for a depth map. I seek water 40+ ft. deep for my trolling requirements. I use the crude depth map to identify my trolling area, which is in the center of the pond.
The view of the surrounding mountain landscape from South Pond is just spectacular!
I stumbled out of bed way too early this morning so as to reach the Mike Giunta boat launch at 5 am (sunrise is at 5:35 am). I like to start fishing during the “Golden Hour”, i.e., the period 30 minutes before sunrise and up to 1 hour after sunrise when the salmon are actively chasing their breakfast and the light levels are low and muted. However, I wasted 20 precious minutes bumbling around in Round Pond trying to find my way into South Pond. I finally reach my destination at 5:50 am. Fortunately, the sky is overcast, keeping the light levels low well past sunrise. The air temperature is in the high 50’s and the temperature of the water at the surface is 74°F. A light breeze blows in from the northwest. I set up shop over 40+ ft. of water and start trolling with lead core line 5 full colors down and fishing with 3 Parsons Tom, one-hook, smelt-imitating streamer flies tied back-to-back, and with a portable downrigger and a spinning rod with three spoons (1 DB Smelt and 2 Mooselook Wobblers) placed 30 ft. down and also tied back-to-back. I have been at it for no more than 10 minutes when my spinning rod starts shaking. Ahah, a customer is calling down there! I swing the rod to unclip the line from the downrigger weight and am fighting an angry fish. It very quickly comes to the surface and jumps out of the water. Wait a second, was that a salmon?? It sure is and this fish leaps another 4 times into the air, which is unusual in warm surface water. The creature gets netted, photographed, measured, and quickly released back to its watery world.
I caught this hard-fighting landlocked salmon within 10 minutes of starting to fish.
Woow, that is a good sign! But then nothing happens for the next 1.5 hours… The sun is quickly rising up in the sky and the low cloud deck has cleared away. Then, my spinning rod with the spoons shakes again. I’ll be damned! I unclip the line and tussle with another fish down below. Unfortunately, it unhooks 15 seconds later and I never get to see it. And that is the extent of the salmon action this morning. I call it good at 9:30 am, wanting to go check out that beach area at the southwestern end of South Pond. The lead core line did nothing for me this morning, which is unusual because the streamer flies – which I constantly rip by holding the fly rod in my hand – tend to attract more attention and therefore catch more fish. It shows the importance of offering different lures to let the fish tell us which ones they like. Remember that yesterday’s winning lure can easily become today’s loosing lure…
I am excited about this diminutive Mooselook Wobbler spoon which caught the salmon this morning. It measures just below 2 inches.
The results: I caught one landlocked salmon (17 inches) in 3.5 hours of slow fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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