The first trout of the morning is a real beauty!
Silver Lake covers 12 acres and is located next to the ocean in Phippsburg, Sagadahoc County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 6 E5; note that the lake is shown on the map but is not specifically named). To reach this pond, drive on Route 209 from Bath towards Popham Beach State Park. Pass the state park entrance and drive for another 0.5 miles. Turn right on Hunnewell Avenue just before reaching the pond. You can park your vehicle on the left side about 200 ft further down that road. I do not know what the parking situation would be on Hunnewell Avenue after a snow storm when the road has been plowed and the narrow shoulder is filled with snow.
The smile says it all.
I’m drawn to Silver Lake because the state stocked it this fall with 660 8” brookies (or 55 fish per acre), fifty 13” brookies (or 4 fish per acre), and ten 17” brookies (or 0.9 fish per acre). The latter two size classes are of interest to me, but most particularly the ten 17” trout. I caught one of those beauties the last time I ice fished this pond, and I would like to repeat that experience again this morning! Keep in mind that Silver Lake is a classic southern Maine “put-and-take” trout fishery. The pond has a maximum depth of only 7 ft; hence, trout do not survive the summer months because the water gets too hot. The ice fishing rules for this pond fall under the general fishing law for the South Zone.
The Powerbait Power Nymph really works for brook trout! Note the baitfish head to add “flavor” to the water.
My grandson Geovani and I arrive at Silver Lake by 7:45 am. That is a solid hour later than what I would have liked, but I can drag an 11-year old out of bed only so early. The temperature is a balmy 31°F and forecast to rise into the lower 40’s. The wind is calm and the sun is out. These are ideal conditions to make ice fishing enjoyable for a kid. The glare ice is transparent and does not seem very thick. I use my spud to check for ice thickness and measure 3”, which is not much for such a shallow pond in late December… But the ice is solid, so I decide to continue. We also put cleats to our boots as a safety measure to avoid slipping. I drill 8 holes with my auger and string out 8 tip-ups baited with 2” minnows placed half-way down the water column all along the eastern shoreline, in the hope of staying as long as possible in the shadow of the rising sun. The holes are over 2 to 5 ft of water. Before pinning a baitfish, I slide a scented salmon egg on each hook to add some pizzazz to my offerings. We get a flag within 5 minutes of deploying the first trap. Great! The trout are active and feeding. Geovani handles the situation and lands a gorgeous 13” male brookie in full spawning colors. He is in seventh heaven, and so is granpee!
I LOVE it when things work out according to plan!
The bite is slow but steady over the next two hours, resulting in nine additional flags, three more 13” trout and two 7” trout, and much running around! We also find several tip-ups with naked hooks from which the bait was stolen but without triggering the flag. It still baffles me how brookies do this trick! Two holes in particular generate the most flags, which leads me to move four inactive traps in their vicinity. It is now 9:45 am and we only have 45 minutes left before we need to head out. The sun is rapidly rising above the sparse tree cover along the eastern shoreline and I have got to get serious with jigging if I want to catch one of those large trout. The flag action slows down considerably, which gives me the time I need to check out the dozen and a half jigging holes. I hit the jackpot in one of those holes when I see a shadow flash by and grab my Powerbait Power Nymph and jighead combo. It is one of those ten large trout!! The fish, which is long but quite skinny, is photographed and released to be caught again. It is so much fun when the plan actually works out. We both leave Silver Lake fully satisfied with our morning. The best part? We had the place all to ourselves…
The results: We caught seven brook trout (largest = 16.5”) in two and a half hours of fun fishing.
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