Tag Archives: ice-fishing

February 2024 New England Fly-Fishing Report

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Hello everyone,

Mid-January finally brought some wintery weather in the form of snow and cold, but it was interspersed with warmer weather and rain. Bottom Line: Very few lakes and ponds froze enough to be safe for ice-fishing or ice-skating, except in the traditionally coldest climes. Strong currents from all of the continuing rain left inlets and outlets and hundreds of yards of water nearby unfrozen.

The Presumpscot River in late January looked in perfect shape to fish with moderate flow and no ice.

Until you got up north to the Rangeley area and northern New Hampshire and Vermont, there was barely enough snow for skiing or snowmobiling unless snowmaking capabilities could cover the slopes. I managed to X-country for a few days.

Such a strange, non-existent winter. Only four sunny days in January, and I feel temps on many days were running ten degrees above normal. In southern Maine, we used to have double-digit numbers of nights below zero. This year? None. It hardly ever gets into the single digits.

I would predict for everyone a very early ice-out and an early start to fishing season, but can you call it ice-out when many stillwaters didn’t totally freeze? Near me, Dundee Pond only partially froze and North Gorham Pond as I write this is totally open water. A few bays of the major lakes are frozen enough to venture out, but that is it.

North Gorham Pond, an impoundment of the Presumpscot River is entirely open water as I write this because of strong currents from all of the rain.

I did get some ice fishing in, but it wasn’t very good, maybe the fish are confused given the strange weather. I know that turkeys were gobbling, songbirds were singing their spring songs, and male woodpeckers were drilling, marking their territories in late January.

Caught this 22-inch pickerel.

A couple of eagles, photographed at a distance, waiting for me to throw a fish on the ice. They left disappointed.

The Presumpscot River and its impoundments give up a few impressive brown trout every year. My son-in-law and myself have landed three brown trout between 3 and 4 plus pounds over the last several years. A gentlemen ice-fishing one of the impoundments at the beginning of February landed a monster. Why can’t I catch a fish like this ice fishing?

Hard to tell how large this fish is, but a monster for sure.

I am a member of the Sebago Chapter of Trout Unlimited, (sebagotu.org) a fine conservation and outreach organization. We host an Ice-fishing event every year on Chaffin Pond in Windham for families who want to learn about ice fishing. This year the weather was good, pond was frozen, and 70 or so hardy souls turned out. We even caught a few brook trout despite the commotion on the ice. Come join us next year,

A nice brookie caught by a few of the young men attendees.

I am always interested in hearing about your interesting fishing experiences. Email me. louzambello@gmail.com

2024 First Blog Post

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(Note: This blog was supposed to post in early January but didn’t for some reason, so I am posting it in early February.)

I started to write about the warm, stormy and rainy November, December, and early January, but then I looked back at my blog post from this time last year, and guess what – they are identical!!! Here is what I wrote last year:

Mid-winter for all of the Northeast felt like autumn. Temperatures for November, December, and early January ran between five and ten degrees above normal depending upon where you live. There has was no snow to speak of. At my house in Windham, we have had green grass for most of winter so far as I write this in mid-January.

Ditto for this year, except the storms this year have been stronger. The December 18th storm did so much damage. In Windham, we lost a 90-foot maple tree that blew over, its upper-most branches scraping the house.

I am so glad that tree wasn’t thirty feet closer to the house.

In Kennebago, the lake water rose over the causeway and up onto our lawn, fortunately not washing away furniture, docks, or boats.

The Kennebago Causeway is usually a road next to a small beach, not a river.
A flood of Nash Stream near Stratton washed out the road to Rangeley.
One of my go-to fishing spots in September, where Bemis Stream empties into Mosoelookmeguntic Lake, had its bridge pushed into the lake, stranding camp owners on the other side. The actual road is out of sight to the left of this photo.

All of us who guide or fish often, and know our favorite Maine waters well, will have to start from scratch next spring because the rivers and streams will look quite different due to the flooding. Pools will be filled in, banks of gravel deposited, wider stream channels with longtime structure washed downstream, and new channels, undercut banks, and holes. We have had so many major floods in the last few years that the rivers have been constantly changing.

I worry that the eggs of fall spawning fish like brook trout, brown trout, and landlocked salmon will have been washed away by the flood waters. Usually, floods occur in spring and summer when the eggs have already hatched.

I could have done more fly fishing in November and December but decided to take a break and do other things (work on my next book). But it stayed so warm I fly-fished via canoe on January 1st, an experience I wouldn’t have thought possible. Next week is supposed to bring cold weather, so perhaps at least the ponds will freeze, and I can take out my ice fishing gear.

I didn’t hook a fish, but it felt like I could have. On January first!

Winter Arrives

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Right after the new year, I traveled to Florida to see my new granddaughter, Mary Louise. My daughter lives on a small lake with some pretty good fishing. The crappie were certainly active and that was fun. We caught them on squirmy wormies and small white soft hackles with a zig hook.

I do not get to fly-fish for crappie all that often and it is a hoot.

In mid-January, winter arrived – four snowstorms totally 30 plus inches in just 10 days, followed in early February by the coldest windchill temperatures ever recorded in Portland, Maine and the surrounding areas – 40 plus below zero.

First real x-country trek of the year!

On the morning of February 4, my thermometer in Windham at 630 AM registered minus 18 degrees, the coldest I have ever seen other than a minus 20 in my old house in Pownal, Maine in the late 90s. The cold was short lived before temperatures returned to normal, but it was enough to finally freeze local ponds and lake coves sufficiently to ice fish safely.

Incredible sunset caused by polar air starting to move in from the west. Ambient temps. would drop 50 degrees in the next 24 hours.
18 below looks like any other cold, still winter morning.

After the wait, I got out on the ice with a vengence. Chaffin Pond yielded just one small brookie, but Dundee Pond produced half a dozen fat brook trout in short order with a few pickerel mixed in. Speaking of pickerel, they were biting like crazy on Panther Pond and we pulled almost a dozen on the ice with a few largemouth mixed in. The real monster five plus pounders we were after didn’t materialize. Oh well, that’s ice fishing.

Pickerel, Brook Trout, and Largemouth Bass; where I fish locally, you never know which species will come up through the ice.

I did hear of a couple five plus pound brown trout taken through the ice in early February on lower Range Pond. That is such an under utilized and unsung fishery.

An update on the book availability of my Flyfishers Guide to New England: It is out of stock almost everywhere as my battle with my printer continues. I have a new 2023/2024 updated version ready to go. I will keep you updated. In the meantime, the kindle version is available and certainly provides you will all of the information you require although the maps don’t work quite as well.

For those of you looking for a printed version, I still have a few I can sell you directly from my website and I will sign them. Rangeley Fly Shop, the Maine Flyrod Shop in Yarmouth, and Selene’s Fly Shop in Gardner have a few although they will go fast. My other two books are still in stock.