The water in the raceway flowing out of the power station on the left is quite powerful. Note that no water overflows the dam present in the background.
I have a couple of hours this afternoon to put my nephew Christian on smallmouth bass. He’s visiting from “away” and hasn’t touched a fishing rod for over two years. I decide to hit the Androscoggin River in front of the Otis hydropower station in Livermore, Androscoggin County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 11 A5). I’ve had luck at this location in the past. Click here and here for earlier blogs on this spot and for directions on how to reach it. Keep in mind that you’ll need a canoe or kayak because a hard-top public boat launch is not available on this section of the river.
River bronzebacks are hard-fighting creatures!
We arrive at our destination at 4:30 pm and quickly put the canoe and ourselves on the river. The weather is gorgeous: mostly sunny and warm, with a light but refreshing breeze. The surface water temperature is in the mid-70’s. We paddle upstream for about 1000 ft or so towards the dam, with both of us trolling a 2” deep-diving Rapala jointed shad rap brown crawdad. It’s eratic swimming behavior, plus its ability to dive down to 10 ft deep and remain suspended at depth makes this a deadly lure when fishing for river bass in deeper waters (or any bass anywhere in deeper water, really). During the ten minutes it takes us to paddle upstream to our destination, I land a 15” bronzeback and Christian hooks but misses an even bigger fish! That’s a good sign.
Christian is pleased with his catch.
As in past summer forays at this location, no water is spilling over the dam. Hence, the entire river is flowing through the turbines inside the hydropower station. Regardless, the general area downstream of the power station represents great smallmouth bass habitat: a hard bouldery substrate, moving water up to 8-10 ft deep, and multiple current seams. We anchor the canoe about 200 ft below the outfall of the power station and fan-cast our shad rap crawdad all around us in the moving water. The bite is actually rather slow in this general area this evening. We catch several medium-sized bass but have to work hard and consistently to entice them to grab our lures.
This big boy was caught in the raceway of the power station and fought like an angry buffalo!
Next, we position the canoe right along the rocky shoreline in front of the power station within the raceway. The amount of water flowing out of the turbines is pretty impressive, but the area right alongside the bouldery shoreline represents great smallmouth bass holding habitat because the water is deep and the current is much less intense than in the middle of the raceway. This set-up allows the bass to hide down among the boulders and dart out to catch disoriented food morsels that have passed through the turbines. Our efforts pay off, particularly for me because I hook into a hog which immediately darts into the strong current, ripping line off my reel. It takes all of my skills to turn this fish around, bring it to the surface, and direct it towards the shoreline where the current is calmer, all of that without breaking my fishing line or ripping the lure out of its mouth!
We need to head back home in about 15 minutes, so we decide to troll back and forth a couple times between the power station and the put-in. That tactic works well and yields another two bronzebacks and several more misses. Overall, I’m satisfied with the results of our two hours of fishing this afternoon. What we didn’t make up in quantity, we more than got back in quality. This short stretch of the Androscoggin River grows some serious smallmouth bass because of the high quality of the aquatic habitat. I recommend spending time in the summer at this location to discover its full potential.
The results: I caught 6 smallmouth bass (size range: 13” to 19”) and Christian caught 4 smallmouth bass in 2 hours of hard but rewarding 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.
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I’m looking forward to hitting the Andro in about a week, and picked up some jointed shad raps, base on your rec from a previous blog entry. I’ve had the best luck fishing salt tubes off the bottom. Have you tried these, and is their a reason you don’t recommend many soft plastics?
Keep up the great writing. I especially enjoyed your description of latching on the hog in strong current.
I moved away from tubes years ago because the open hook constantly caused the lure to get snagged on the bottom which frustrated me to no end. I love fishing for smallmouth bass using soft stickbaits, preferably rigged “wacky style”. However, under the right conditions (mainly depth plus lack of vegetation) the jointed shad raps are deadly, and also a great search lure.
Thanks, Stan. I’m looking forward to fishing the jointed Shad Rap, as I haven’t done a lot of Rapala fishing under the surface. I’m also planning to hit Tumbledown Pond.
Are smallmouth bass good eating? I’ve heard conflicting stories. Obviously, I haven’t experienced much myself. I’m more of a panfish, catfish guy. Looking to the expert for advice! Hope all is well. Regards
Hi Carl, smallmouth bass taste perfectly fine, although I wouldn’t really know because I’ve never eaten one… Bronzebacks caught in the Androscoggin River should not be consumed anyway due to on-going pollution associated with paper mill effluents and historical pollution from when the river served as an industrial sewer up to the early 1970’s. The fish are known to accumulate some of these pollutants to high levels in their flesh. Fortunately, thanks to Senator Ed Muskie of Maine and his sponsorship of the 1972 Clean Water Act, the water quality of the river has greatly improved over the last several decades thereby allowing for robust growth in the smallmouth bass population. That, combined with the fact that most people practice catch and release for health and/or ethical reasons, has effectively turned the Androscoggin River into a trophy bass fishery!
hi stan- been out on the andro in the lewiston area a few times. found fishing to be somewhat slow. the water has been high and cold from spring runoff and the many storms. havent seen much weed growth and the smallies are not packed where they ussually are. however i have been slamming many and big largemouths in cobbeseconttee stream. hopefully andro picks up. had unreal smallie fishing in this area last year.