Tag Archives: landlocked Atlantic salmon

Fishing for landlocked salmon on Pierce Pond in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine (May 25, 2026)

Posted on by
Reply

 

 

Pierce Pond is a 1,650-acre body of water located in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine, to the east of Flagstaff Lake (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 30 A2). I access it via Cobbs Camp Road (a rough and narrow – but drivable – gravel road) located off Carrying Place Road (a wide logging road) which splits off from Long Falls Dam Road. Beware that Cobbs Camp Road is gated and only open during daylight hours. Passage is free for guests staying at Cobb’s Pierce Pond Camps; day users pay a small user’s fee to park and launch their boat at the dock in Lindsay Cove. Anglers can access the water for free at the northern tip of the lake via a rough boat launch.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for brook trout and landlocked salmon on Pierce Pond in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine (May 24, 2026)

Posted on by
Reply

 

 

Pierce Pond is a 1,650-acre body of water located in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine, just to the east of Flagstaff Lake (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 30 A2). I access it via Cobbs Camp Road (a rough and narrow – but drivable – gravel road) located off Carrying Place Road (a wide logging road) which splits off from Long Falls Dam Road. Beware that Cobbs Camp Road is gated and only open during daylight hours. Passage is free for guests staying at Cobbs Camp; day users pay a small fee to park and launch their boat at the dock in Lindsay Cove. Anglers can access the water for free at the northern tip of the lake via a rough boat launch.

 

Five of us are staying in this cabin at Cobbs Camps.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon on South Pond in Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine (August 6, 2025)

Posted on by
Reply

 

The official boat launch requires navigating through Round Pond before reaching South Pond.

 

South Pond is a 284-acre body of water located in Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 10 B4). This pond is part of a cluster of lakes bunched together in this area and which I have fished for salmonids in the past (click here, here, here, and here). The public boat ramp, called the Mike Giunta memorial boat launch, is located by Howe Hill Road off Route 26 (Main Street) in Greenwood. I have to look for the place because it is not clearly indicated, either on Route 26 or Howe Hill Road. The hard-topped ramp is narrow, steep, and next to deep water. Plenty of parking is available. I found it challenging to retrieve my boat at the end of today’s trip because I had to place the trailer mostly out of the deep water and on the steep launch. It took a lot of arm juice to manually crank my boat up unto its trailer… Access to South Pond from this location is tricky. With the ramp in your back, navigate to the upper right-hand corner of the (unnamed) water body and pass underneath the railroad tracks. From there, navigate to the left through Round Pond until you enter South Pond through a wide but shallow passage. I was disoriented and got lost while motoring through Round Pond and its multiple islands and shallow weedy areas. I used the GPS on my phone to get me out of the maze… It takes about 15 minutes of no-wake boating to reach my destination from the boat ramp. While trolling, I noticed a small beach at the southwestern end of South Pond next to Greenwood Road. I checked it out at the end of this trip and found a small, dirt boat launch next to the beach. This launch is not shown on The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer. A large sign states that the beach is for use by local residents only. I do not know if this restriction also applies to the launch next to it… Plenty of parking is available across the road from this launch.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon on Parker Pond in Fayette, Kennebec County, Maine (August 3, 2025)

Posted on by
Reply

 

View of the boat launch. This picture does not do justice to the steepness of the short boat ramp!

 

Parker Pond covers1,524 acres and is located in Fayette, Kennebec County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 12 A2). The public access point, which is not shown in the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer, is located in the far northeastern corner of the lake, off Tower Road. This launch is horrible: narrow, short, very steep, and consisting of half asphalt-half flat boulders. It is clear from the numerous scratches in the asphalt that lots of trailers have been scraped going down and coming up the ramp. The water by the launch is also shallow, requiring to back up a little ways into the lake before the boat can float off the trailer. I would be cautious launching at this location without a four-wheel drive vehicle because it may be difficult to pull the boat out of the water and up the steep incline without the extra assist. Fortunately, Tower Road is only lightly traveled, which allows one to maneuver properly to get the boat in and out.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon on Pierce Pond in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine (May 22, 2025)

Posted on by
Reply

 

The morning is cold, breezy, and overcast. But the fish are biting!

 

Pierce Pond covers 1,650 acres and is located in Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 30 A2). The main (paying) access to the pond is via the boat launch located on Lindsey Cove at the end of Cobb Camps Road off the Carrying Place Road. This sandy launch is unimproved but can accommodate large, trailered craft. Plenty of parking is available by the launch. Follow the discrete green “Cobbs Camps” signs which begin appearing at the point where Carrying Place Road splits off from Long Falls Dam Road. The dirt road between Long Falls Dam Road and Lindsey Cove is reasonably well maintained and can be used by regular two-wheel drive vehicles. Note that Cobb Camps Road is gated and that the gate attendant works between 7 am and 8 pm. An unofficial launch with two rough camp sites is also found at the northern tip of Upper Pierce Pond. I have not used this launch before nor do I know how to access it.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon on Bryant Pond in Woodstock, Oxford County, Maine (August 16, 2024)

Posted on by
Reply

 

The boat launch by the outlet is hard-topped and provides plenty of parking.

 

Bryant Pond (a.k.a. Christopher Pond) is a 278-acre body of water located in Woodstock and Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 10 B5). To access this pond, drive on Route 26 and turn off on Old County Road. Drive for about 1 mile before turning left on Rowe Hill Road. The public access point will be immediately to your right and is clearly marked with a blue sign. It is located in a small municipal park next to the pond’s outlet. The boat launch is hard-topped and provides plenty of parking area.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon and brook trout in Pierce Pond, Pierce Pond Township, Somerset County, Maine (May 27 and 28, 2024)

Posted on by
Reply

 

Six of us are on our annual extended Memorial Day weekend fishing pilgrimage to Pierce Pond, located at the end of a long dirt road off the grid in Somerset County, just east of Flagstaff Lake (see the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 30 A2). We are staying for four days in one of the cozy cabins at Cobb’s Camps located across from Lindsey Cove. I love staying at Cobb’s because of the camaraderie among the guests who have been gathering at this place for decades, the honest home-cooked food, the super-friendly staff, and the authentic “sports camp” atmosphere from a bygone era. Also, the lack of electronic connection to the outside world forces everyone to unplug, slow down, and focus entirely on the business at hand, which is to catch salmonids.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon on Panther Pond in Raymond, Cumberland County, Maine (May 19, 2024)

Posted on by
Reply

 

The boat launch by the dam at Mill Street is unimproved and parking by the road is limited

 

Panther Pond is a 1,439-acre body of water located in Raymond, Cumberland County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 5 B2). This lake can be reached by boat via two public access points: one is located at the dam by the outlet on Mill Street; the second is represented by the public launch on Crescent Lake but requires navigating for about 15-20 minutes through the shallow and meandering Tenney River. I choose the former this morning. Keep in mind that the Mill Street access point will be closed between June 1 and September 2024 due to dam renovation work. Also, that boat launch is unimproved and offers only limited parking space for vehicle with trailers along the shoulder of Mill Street.

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for landlocked Atlantic salmon on Pocumcus Lake in Sakom Township, Washington County, Maine (April 28, 2024)

Posted on by
Reply

Click here for the previous day’s fishing story.

 

 

Wakey-wakey! It is time to go fish hunting!

 

Salvy and I crawl out of our cozy sleeping bags at 4:45 am, dress up warmly, and get ready to troll the Golden Hour to try to emulate the angling success from yesterday morning. Over the next three hours, we fish the Narrows (i.e., the deep channel that connects West Grand Lake to Junior Bay), the deeper eastern half of Junior Bay, and Pocumcus Lake. We come up woefully short, with only one hit to show for all our early-morning efforts…

 

Continue reading →

Fishing for lake trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon on Pocumcus Lake in Sakom Township, Washington County, Maine (April 26 and 27, 2024)

Posted on by
Reply

 

Sitting by the boat launch on Bottle Lake and studying the map to find our way to the camp site on Junior Bay

 

Pocumcus Lake is a 2,201-acre body of water located in Sakom Township, Washington County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 35 B2). It is part of the enormous hydraulically interconnected system that includes West Grand Lake, Scraggly Lake, Junior Lake, Junior Bay, and Sysladobsis Lake. We access this waterway via the public boat launch on Bottle Lake in Lakeville (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 35 A1), which links to Junior Lake via Bottle Lake Stream. For the record, Bottle Lake Road, which connects Route 6 in Springfield with the boat launch, is paved all the way and is therefore readily accessible even during mud season in late April. My son Joel, nephew Salvy, and I reach Bottle Lake in mid-morning. We overload our boats with all our camping and fishing gear and slowly navigate for one hour and 45 minutes to an unmarked camp site located at the tip of the peninsula that separates Junior Bay from Junior Stream. That will be our base camp for the next four day. We are here to experience the tremendous landlocked salmon and lake trout fishery that is awakening from its long winter slumber following ice out. One nice perk of camping in late April is the total lack of the dreaded hordes of mosquitos and blackflies. On the other hand, early spring can still be quite chilly in these parts of Maine.

 

Continue reading →