Park at the turn-off on Meadowview Road to catch the trail to Forest Pond.
Forest Pond is a 45-acre body of water located in Canton, Oxford County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 11 A4). To access this pond, drive north on Jewett Hill Road in Canton, and turn left on Meadowview Road. This road is paved but quickly turns into a well-maintained and drivable gravelly trail. Stay on it for 1.6 miles (passed the small cemetery) until you reach a turnoff on the right side where a few cars can be parked. The pond is a 10-minute walk up the trail from the parking area. Beware that this trail is NOT drivable, even with a 4X4. The surrounding area is also full of mosquitoes and other stinging and biting critters due to the presence of swamps around the parking area. The access point to the pond is unimproved, and can only accommodate muscle-powered craft.
Only hand-carried craft can be launched from this location.
Forest Pond is quite a find! It is a remote-feeling water body with no development anywhere along its shoreline. That is quite amazing considering that it sits within spitting distance of the towns of Canton, Chisholm, Livermore Falls, and Livermore. The lack of road access explains its isolation, which reminds me of lakes I have fished further north in Franklin and Somerset counties. I found this pond using my proven search strategy. The following features make it attractive: a) the pond is stocked annually with 200 rainbow trout, for an average stocking density of around 4 to 5 bows per acre per year, which is reasonable, b) the pond is open to ice fishing but can only be reached by snowmobile because most of Meadowview Road remains unplowed, which reduces the winter take, and c) the walk-in access and lack of a hard-top boat launch greatly restricts the open-water angling pressure. Taken together, I suspect that many of the fish released in previous years are able to survive and grow. Click here for the full fishing rules. The pond has a mean and maximum depth of 10 ft. and 23 ft., respectively, making it relatively shallow for a lake able to sustain a stocked salmonid population year-over-year. Click here for a depth map and (dated) fisheries information. While preparing for this trip, I check the water quality data provided in lakesofmaine.org to determine the depth of the thermocline, its temperature, and dissolved oxygen status. Unfortunately, no data are available. I’m assuming that the surface water temperature is in the low to mid 70’s at this point in early summer, and that the rainbows are swimming 15+ft. below the surface. I print out the depth map before leaving home and circle the (roughly) 18 ft. depth contour, which shows the presence of a small bowl of deeper water centered at the northern end of the pond. That way, I waste no time finding my target area after I arrive.
This first rainbow trout couldn’t wait to grab the lure!
I reach Forest Pond by 7 am. I placed the canoe and fishing equipment on my canoe wheels and pulled everything up the trail. I’m running 30 minutes behind schedule because my GPS originally brought me close to the pond but on a gravel road with a closed gate… So, make sure to follow the directions outlined above to reach your destination. It is a beautiful morning: no wind, a hazy sky, and an air temperature of 58°F, forecast to rise into the hot and muggy upper 80’s later today. I launch the canoe, check the surface water temperature, and read 74°F. Good; that’s right where I expected it to be. I am trolling using lead core line and three small (1.75-inch long), smelt-imitating Mooselook Wobbler spoons tied one to the other. I am using smelt imitators, even though smelt are not present in this pond… But those little spoons have worked so well for me (click here, here and here for examples) that I want to give them a try. I will swap them out if they do not produce within one hour. I position myself above the deepest area of the pond and put out two and a half colors, which places the lures 13 to 15 ft. deep. I don’t want to go any deeper to avoid getting stuck on aquatic vegetation. I place the rod between my legs and use my two arms to paddle. The lures have been deployed for no more than 15 seconds when I get a vicious strike and a hookup. No way, I already caught something?? I fight a tenacious fish which takes several long runs, and only reluctantly comes to the surface. OMG, it’s a nice rainbow trout! I never caught a fish this fast when trolling… It’s a healthy 17-incher, which gets photographed and quickly released. I will gladly take a couple more fish from where this one came from!
Two is always better than one!
I continue circling over the bowl while keeping a close eye on my portable depth finder to ensure that I stay over 18+ ft. of water. The extent of the deep part is restricted, and it takes no more than 10 minutes to get around. So, I crisscross the area in all directions, and get a second hook-up 30 minutes later. The hit is so hard that it pulls the rod from between my legs! Again, the fish struggles tenaciously but is a surprisingly small 15-inch rainbow. My goodness, these fish have some real power! The action slows down a bit over the next hour and a quarter, with two hits and one additional hookup. Unfortunately, the latter bow unhooks next to the canoe, never to be seen again. The heat is starting to build up, and it is time for me to call it good. I truly enjoyed my visit to Forest Pond: the isolation, the quietness, and the eager biters. Definitely a keeper!
This small Mooselook Wobbler smelt imitator works great even though Forest Pond does not have smelt…
The results: I landed two rainbow trout (largest = 17 inches) in 2.5 hours of fun fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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