All’s quiet this morning and the trout are biting!
Maces Pond is a 32-acre body of water located alongside Route 17 (Rockland Street) in Rockport, Knox County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 14 D3). A spacious pull-out next to the road at the southern tip of the pond can easily accommodate up to half-a-dozen vehicles. The access to the pond is down a short trail next to this pull-out area. A boat launch is not available, but hand-carried craft can be put in the water at that location.
Those gorgeous spawning colors make it all worthwhile.
Maces Pond has been on my radar screen for a while and it is high time to go check it out. The pond is actually quite pretty and, to my surprise, totally undeveloped and surrounded by dense woods. The one big and loud negative is the non-stop obnoxious traffic flying by on Route 17 which runs along the entire eastern shoreline of the pond. The constant vehicle noise greatly takes away from the charm of the place. What attracts me to the pond this morning is that it was stocked two weeks ago with 300 8″ brookies and 300 13″ brookies, which translates to a respectable 19 trout per acre. My target this morning are the 13″ one-pounders. The surface water of the pond is slightly tea colored, presumably on account of the extensive wetlands that occur along its northern and southern shorelines. The pond has a mean and maximum depth of 8 ft and 10 ft, respectively, making it rather shallow. Click here for a depth map and additional fisheries information. A review of the Maine fishing rules applicable to the South Zone shows that Maces Pond is not found in the special fishing laws section, meaning that it falls under the general fishing laws, i.e., not only it is open to fishing year-round, but all legal lures and bait can be used, and each angler can keep up to two trout a day. That is a real bonus in the fall when most ponds and lakes available to open-water fishing in southern Maine do not allow anglers to harvest their catch.
Your blog author with a nice brookie caught in Maces Pond
I arrive at the Route 17 pull-out with my 12-year old grandson Geovani at 8:30 am. It is a nice fall day, with full sunshine, no wind, and air temperatures in the mid 40’s. As we don our waders, someone pulls up behind us, and I start chatting with the guy. He will be fishing from his kayak this morning. He tells me that in the past, he has only caught brook trout this time of the year in the northeastern corner of Maces Pond, i.e., a little ways up Route 17. I take his advice to heart, get back into my truck, drive north for about 1,000 ft and leave my vehicle on the road shoulder over there. Geovani and I then quickly bushwack our way to the water’s edge. Keep in mind that using waders on this pond essentially limits fishing along the eastern shoreline, only a few short feet away from noisy Route 17. The weapons of choice this morning are our ultra-light spinner rods teamed up with a small spinning reel spooled with six pound strength monofilament, and a #2 Mepps spinner. I tell Geovani that I have the feeling that I am going to catch a fish on my first cast. He looks at me with a funny grin (yeah, sure you will!) but his jaw drops when I hook and land a beautiful 13″ male brookie in full spawning colors on that very first cast. Bluster sometimes works!
Geovani is such a good sport, but he still has not caught a trout yet…
We methodically fish our way along the eastern shoreline of Maces Pond. That entire shoreline lends itself to wader fishing: the bottom is mostly sandy and bouldery, the water depth is relatively shallow, and the riparian vegetation along the shoreline is not overwhelming. We cast our spinners out towards the center of the pond, let them sink for a few seconds, and then slowly retrieve them to shore. Within 30 minutes, I have caught a tiny pickerel, a largemouth bass, and two of the one-pound trout. I also hooked but lost two other brook trout of similar size. Geovani is a good sport but he cannot hide his frustration. He has not gotten a nibble yet… He is convinced that something is wrong with his equipment, so we swap. I now use his ultralight spinning rod, and he uses mine. I catch another two 13″ brookies over the next 20 minutes and, to my immense relief, so does he, except that his one and only trout of the morning measures 14″ and is the largest of them all! I make great hay about the fact that he beat me, and he beams from ear to ear. My goodness, I derive so much joy in putting that kid on fish and making him excited about the whole outdoors experience. I want to finish the morning on this high note, so we call it good. Giovani can’t stop glowing that he bested his grandpa. I am just loving the whole experience!
Success at last! Geovani caught the biggest trout of the morning. The smile says it all.
The results: I caught five brook trout (all about 13″) and Giovanni caught one 14″ brook trout in 1.5 hours of fun fishing.
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I caught a 14 inch trout at Maces but it looks nothing like the pics I’ve seen of brook trout there is there any other kind of trout stocked or native there ?
Hi Seth, the state only stocks brookies in Maces Pond. The pond has no other stocked or native trout species. The surface water gets too warm in the summer to allow any trout at all to survive year over year. So, any trout in there are the result of the annual stocking program. Tight lines. Stan.