The afternoon turns into a gorgeous and warm experience.
Junior Lake is a 3,866-acre body of water located in Lakeville and Pukakon Township, Penobscot County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 35 A1). This lake does not have a public boat launch. Instead, access is via two launches found on nearby Bottle Lake (see map 35 A1) and Duck Lake (see map 45 E1). The former is connected to Junior Lake via a 1.5-mile-long thoroughfare called Bottle Lake Stream. The latter is connected to Junior Lake via a 0.3-mile-long unnamed thoroughfare. I have used the Bottle Lake launch and not the other but have motored up from Junior Lake into Duck Lake without a problem. The Bottle Lake launch is located at the end of a paved road and is easily accessible even during the worst of mud season in late April and early May when the surrounding gravel roads may be impassable. The shallow and bouldery thoroughfares can easily accommodate motorized craft in early spring when water levels are high. However, beware that passage with an engine gets trickier later in the year when the water levels drop.
The pre-spawn females are checking out the available real estate along sections of shoreline.
Junior Lake is a semi-remote water body which is part of a massive assemblage of interconnected lakes that includes West Grand Lake, Pocumcus Lake, Lower Sysladobsis Lake, and Scraggly Lake in Down East Maine. This lake is lightly developed, quite scenic, and surrounded by low, forested hills. A great way to experience the area is to spend a few days at one of the first-come, first-served camp sites scattered across the lake. See The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer for exact locations. Keep in mind that campers need to contact the Maine Forestry Service office in Old Town at (207)827-1800 to obtain a fire permit before making a camp fire. Junior Lake supports a well-known “two-story fishery” consisting of smallmouth bass (a warm-water species) and landlocked Atlantic salmon (a cold-water species). The latter are not directly stocked in the lake but move in from West Grand Lake. The general fishing laws for the South Zone apply, except that the lake is open to fishing from October 1 to December 31 using artificial lures only and that all salmonids caught during that period must be released alive at once. The pond has an average and maximum depth of 21 ft. and 70 ft., respectively, making it relatively shallow. Click here for a depth map and (dated) fisheries information. Finally, the lake is oriented from northeast to southwest which is in the general direction of the prevailing winds. Hence, it can quickly create waves and white caps under windy conditions which can make boating more challenging, especially for paddlers.
These tanks fight like buffaloes!!
The weather has been awful over the last 36 hours: rainy, cool, and breezy. But the storm has passed, the wind has died down, the sun is out in full force, and it feels like spring! I decide to try my luck fishing for smallmouth bass along the bouldery shoreline of Junior Lake for a couple of hours this afternoon. I focus all my attention along the northeast shore stretching between the outlet of Mill Privilege Lake and the entrance to Scraggly Lake. I troll using lead core line and three double-hook, smelt-imitating streamer flies tied to each other back-to-back. I stay over water less than 10 ft. deep, often quite close to the shoreline. The surface water temperature at 1 PM is 53°F but steadily rises to 57°F by 4 PM under the relentless sun. This temperature range is quite amazing considering that ice-out occurred only 15 days ago! I am hoping that these favorable conditions will spur pre-spawn female bass to rise from the nearby depths and check out the available nesting locations.
It never gets old!
The first 30 minutes of trolling prove fruitless, and I start to question my basic assumptions about pre-spawn bass checking out the shallows. I reach a small embayment and get two double hits, but no hookups, in short order. Ahah, someone is awake down there! I turn around to re-troll that same 500 ft- section of shoreline. And then the magic happens… Over the next hour, and six re-trolls of the same section of shoreline, I hook and land seven bronzebacks, all with bulging bellies. I also get multiple additional hits. And OMG, do these fish fight! They do not give up and rip plenty of line off my reel. What a blast. And then the bite stops: all the back-and-forth navigation and fighting commotion have spooked the fish below in that section of shoreline and I move on. I reach another small embayment a short time later and have the same experience, yielding another four bass after several re-trolls. I have now reached the entrance to Scraggly Lake and decide to call it good.
All 13 bass fell for this streamer fly.
The key to success this afternoon? Focus on specific areas where the pre-spawn bass congregate for reasons only known to them. I caught a few more fish elsewhere along the shoreline but the bulk of the action was at two specific sections. The moral of the story is to re-fish an area where the pre-spawn smallies are biting!
The results: I caught 13 smallmouth bass (largest = 19 inches) in 3 hours of fun fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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