The hard-top launch is narrow but plenty of parking area is available. The deeper channel is located along the opposite shoreline.

My focus this afternoon is on a small section of the Kennebec River that flows below the confluence with the Sebasticook River in Waterville, Kennebec County, Maine (see the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 76 D1). Access is via a hard-topped boat launch located on Water Street. To reach this location, drive down Water Street (which is a dead-end road) and look for the municipal baseball diamond. The entrance is right passed this field on the left. The launch is narrow but plenty of parking area is available.

This first catfish peaks my interest.

I fished this segment of the Kennebec River five years ago and I am eager to check it out again. Keep in mind that this section of water between the Route 137 bridge over the river and Lockwood Dam about 1.5 miles further upstream in downtown Waterville is mostly shallow (< 3 ft.) and provides poor holding habitat for smallmouth bass. The one notable exception is a 1,000+ ft-long channel 4 to 8 ft. deep and about 75 ft wide which runs along the opposite shore of the launch and upgradient of the Route 137 bridge. I would not bother fishing elsewhere in this general area of river because it is simply sub-optimal (i.e., too shallow and too swift). The general fishing laws for the South Zone apply in this section, except that it is open to open-water fishing from January 1 to December 31 using one-hook artificial lures only. Please check the regulations pertaining to minimum salmonid size and bag limit, as well as the rules pertaining to striped bass (note: stripers chase bait up the Kennebec River all the way to Lockwood Dam in Waterville!).

I caught four of these guys in the same small stretch of the deeper channel.

I arrive at the launch by 12:30 pm and am pleasantly surprised to be the only angler on the water this afternoon. I observe several people casting a line from the boat launch over the next 3 hours but they quickly leave. The weather is on the lousy side: totally overcast with air temperature in the mid 60’s, a stiff southwestern breeze, and rain forecast to start by mid-afternoon. The water temperature is a relatively cool 69°F and the river flow is normal for this time of year. I head out directly across the Kennebec River to the opposite shoreline, use my depth finder to locate the channel, and motor upstream to where the depth reduces to about 4 ft. I then let myself drift downstream towards the Route 137 bridge, all the while casting out an “in-your-face” white tube bait that has worked well for me on river bronzebacks in the past. I reach the bridge about 40 minutes later and have nothing to show for my efforts… This is not looking promising! I motor back up to my starting point and switch to casting a #2 Mepps spinner (with two of the three hooks on the treble snipped off…) using my ultralight spinning rod. I have not gotten a nibble by the time I reach the bridge. Damn, what is going on!? I motor back up again and switch to a 4-inch pink soft stick bait rigged “wacky style”. I cast out the lure and let it slowly sink into the water column while constantly twitching the rod tip to impart crazy movements. I hook and land two small bronzebacks over the next 30 minutes and miss another two fish. Ahah, I’m finally on to something!

This fish is the largest of the four smallmouth bass caught this afternoon. That is a rather disappointing result…

The wacky worm catches something more substantial on my next pass downstream. The fish fights “funny” and does not come to the surface like a smallmouth bass. I am mighty surprised to see that it is a fat catfish! I’ll be darned. I have had this experience before further downstream on the Kennebec River. This fish must have seen the wacky worm darting in the water column above its head and came up from the bottom to grab it. This unexpected catch peeks my interest and I decide to investigate further. I motor back upstream and catch another catfish on the way down, and then another, and another! I land four of these fat fish in four passes over the next 45 minutes. That pattern is no fluke; these fish are stacked up in the upper portion of the channel. The sky begins to look menacing with rain and I decide to drift down to the bridge over the river one last time. I get rewarded with the largest bass of the afternoon: a scrawny 14 incher… It starts raining and it is time to leave. Clearly, the bass fishing was lousy, but catching those four catfish made for an interesting and unexpected experience. I will end by saying that this short river segment is made for fishing from a kayak or canoe. If only the bass were more plentiful…

The results: I landed 4 smallmouth bass (largest = 14 inches) and 4 catfish in 3 hours of slow fishing.

Was the information in this blog useful? I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions. Also, feel free to discuss your fishing experiences at this location.

Tight Lines, y’all.

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