View of the short and deep thoroughfare connecting Scraggly Lake to Junior Lake seen in the background.
Scraggly Lake is a 2,758-acre body of water located in Pukakon Township, Penobscot County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 35 A2). The Gazetteer shows an unimproved public boat launch on Hasty Cove off the Amazon Road along the eastern shore of the lake. I do not know the quality of this launch nor how drivable the Amazon Road is during mud season. Feel free to let us know via the comment section below. Instead, I gain access using the public launch on Bottle Lake (see map 35 A1) which connects to Junior Lake via a 1.5-mile-long shallow thoroughfare called Bottle Lake Stream. I then cross Junior Lake and enter Scraggly Lake via a short but deep and wide thoroughfare. The Bottle Lake launch is found at the end of a paved road and remains fully accessible even during the worst of mud season in April and early May when the surrounding gravel roads may be impassable. Duck Lake (see map 45 E1) also has a boat launch which connects to Junior Lake via a 0.3-mile-long unnamed thoroughfare. I have not used this launch before but have motored up from Junior Lake into Duck Lake in early May without a problem. The shallow and bouldery thoroughfares from Bottle Lake and Duck Lake can easily accommodate motorized craft in early spring when water levels are high. However, beware that passage gets trickier later in the year when the water levels drop.
Some pre-spawn smallies are checking the real estate along the shoreline even though the conditions are not optimal this afternoon.
Scraggly Lake is a remote water body which is part of a massive assemblage of interconnected lakes that includes West Grand Lake, Pocumcus Lake, Lower Sysladobsis Lake, and Junior Lake. This lake is only 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 three first-come, first-served camp sites spread across the lake. See The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer for exact locations. Keep in mind that campers need to contact the regional Forestry Service office in Old Town at (207)827-1800 to obtain a fire permit before making fires. Scraggly Lake supports a “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 migrate in from West Grand Lake during fall, winter, and spring when the surface water is cold. I do not know if landlocked salmon remain in this water body during summer. 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 lake has an average and maximum depth of 22 ft. and 42 ft., respectively, making it relatively shallow given its large size. Click here for a depth map and (dated) fisheries information.
Look at the belly of this pre-spawn female!
The weather deteriorated over the last 24 hours with rain, cool temperatures, and breezy conditions. The storm has blown over, and the wind has died down, but a low cloud deck remains which hides the warm spring sun. The air temperature is in the low 60’s. I decide to fish for smallmouth bass along the shoreline of Scraggly Lake for a couple of hours this afternoon. I hope to repeat the success I obtained on Junior Lake two days earlier. My intent is to motor to the upper end of the lake and follow the convoluted shoreline back to the thoroughfare. But I get disoriented after entering the lake and unknowingly turn to the right into Mud Cove. I find the extremely irregular shoreline to be confusing because of the numerous bays, coves, islands, and points. I make sure to always know where I am in relation to the thoroughfare after I become aware of my directional mistake… I troll using lead core line and the same three double-hook streamer flies tied to each other back-to-back which I deployed two days earlier. I stay over water less than 10 ft. deep close to the shoreline and place the lures 5 ft. down. The surface water temperature this afternoon is 54°F. I am hoping that pre-spawn female bass will emerge from the nearby depths to check out the available nesting locations even though the conditions are not optimal (i.e., low cloud deck, cool water temperature).
I do not care to catch these toothy critters because they destroy streamer flies…
I hook a 15-inch smallmouth bass within five minutes after starting to fish and dare to dream that it is the beginning of a busy afternoon. But it turns out otherwise. The action is slow, and the bite sporadic. I troll about three miles of Scraggly Lake shoreline over three hours but only land six smallies, most of which are pre-spawn females with extended bellies. I miss a few more fish which unhook during the fight, and also land two pickerels. I notice that all the bass in my net are smaller than the ones I caught in Junior Lake even though they fight just as tenaciously. I also re-trolled several sections of shoreline but did not trigger additional bites. I conclude that the cold weather has not fully enticed the fish to check out the shallows and that it will take a warm and sunny day to really activate the bass. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time and did not see another soul all afternoon, which is exactly the way I like to fish!
All the fish I caught this this afternoon fell for this streamer fly.
The results: I caught 6 smallmouth bass (largest = 16 inches) in 3 hours of slow fishing.
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Tight Lines, y’all.
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