Split Rock Pond earned its name for the reason pointed out by Antony.
Split Rock Pond covers 6 acres and is found in Bowtown Township in Somerset County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 30 A2). Five of us are spending four fabulous days during the long Memorial Day weekend fishing Pierce Pond for landlocked Atlantic salmon and brook trout, as well as some of the smaller water bodies in the surrounding watershed for brook trout. We are comfortably “glamping” in one of the cozy cabins at Cobb’s Pierce Pond Camp located on the shore of the lower basin of Pierce Pond. A critical benefit of staying at Cobb’s is that guests get access to the camp’s locked canoes that are stored by various local ponds, plus detailed directions on the trailheads that connect Pierce Pond to those water bodies. Our target pond for this morning is publicly accessible from land, although I do not know how to reach it via the old logging roads shown on map 30 A2.
This little white bead-head woolly bugger is the winning fly this morning.
Split Rock Pond is undeveloped and nestled deep in the woods on the lower flank of Otter Pond Mountain. This shallow water body has an average depth of 5 ft. and a maximum depth of 15 ft. The bottom is made up of soft organic muck and the water is slightly tea colored. Several springs maintain adequate summer water temperature and oxygen levels to allow for year-over-year brook trout survival and growth. Up to 2013, the state stocked this pond each fall with 500 7-inch brook trout, which yielded fast action from many little brookies that showed poor growth. I do not recall catching trout over 10 inches from this pond back then. Starting in 2019, the state began stocking 150 3-inch brookies each fall. Releasing fewer and smaller trout decreases the competition for the limited food resources (e.g., dragonfly nymphs, caddisflies, mayflies, leeches, minnows, etc.), allows these younger fish to better adapt to the local conditions, and promotes the growth of bigger fish. My visit to this pond last year produced a healthy 14-inch brookie. I am hoping that today’s efforts will result in even larger fish… Click here for a depth map and more fisheries information. General fishing law applies, except that (a) the pond is closed to ice fishing, (b) only artificial lures can be used, (c) the daily bag limit on brook trout is two fish, and (d) the pond is open to fishing between October 1 and November 30 using artificial lures only and with the stipulation that all trout must be released alive at once.
The brook trout stocked in this pretty little pond as 3-inch juveniles are growing nicely!
My 12-year old grandson Antony and I navigate to the trailhead located in the second embayment to the right of the thoroughfare at the upper end of Middle Pierce Pond. We tie the boat, grab out gear, and hike for 20 minutes to Split Rock Pond. The hike is easy and the trail weaves through a nice forest. We reach the pond by 10:30 am, pursued by swarming black flies… The morning is sunny with a light northwest breeze and air temperatures in the upper 70’s. We take a moment to observe the pond but do not see any rises, which is disappointing. Based on past experiences, we are fishing the one deep hole located to the left of the huge split rock. We unlock Cobb’s canoe, quietly paddle out, and gently lower our anchor upwind of the hole. My goal this morning is to put Antony on trout. He just started fly fishing last year and has yet to catch a fish on a dry fly all by himself. He is still struggling to get his line out on the water away from the boat without making spaghettis and/or knots. The first 30 minutes are frustrating because we do not see any hatching or fish feeding on the surface; the insistent breeze also makes it difficult for Antony to properly cast out his fly. The lack of hatching or rises convinces me to change my approach. I swap out my Hendrickson dry fly for a white bead-head woolly bugger. I cast out the fly, let it sink for 10 to 15 seconds, and then slowly retrieve the floating line through my fingers to allow the bugger to gently move through and upwards in the water column. I get a hit by the fifth cast. I immediately set the hook and tussle with an energetic 14-inch brookie. Yes, switching flies bore fruit! I let Antony net the fish, which he does with skill. We marvel at the beautiful creature, take pictures, and let it go.
Catching a 15 incher means that yet larger brookies are swimming around in this small pond…
We are now fully re-energized. Antony succeeds in placing his dry fly about 15 ft. from the canoe, with an extra 10 ft of lose line floating on the water. Suddenly, a brookie grabs his mosquito fly and disappears with it into the deep! Antony notices the hit but it takes him five long seconds to clumsily remove all the slack in his line and connect with the fish. Fortunately, the glutton below hung on to the fly and gets hooked! I am ecstatic and so is Antony. He fights the fish, lets go of line as needed, and slowly brings the creature next to the canoe. The brookie continues to struggle as I try to net it, and then it suddenly … unhooks. NOOO!! Antony is totally dejected because he just missed his first salmonid on a dry fly. To keep him motivated, I tell him that he actually caught that 13-inch brookie because it touched the net. That takes the sting out of the loss and gives him rights to brag about his fish back at camp later today. That, unfortunately, is Antony’s one and only bite of the morning, whereas I catch two more brookies on the wooly bugger, one of which is a well-fed 15 incher which spits out a 3-inch minnow. Based on that evidence, I am now convinced that 16 or even 17 inchers swim around in Split Rock Pond. I would gladly stay longer to find out but it is time to leave because Antony is getting bored and fidgety, and we need to keep it fun. I promise myself to come back next year to try again and catch a bigger square tail!
The results: I landed three brook trout (largest = 15 inches) and Antony hooked but missed a brook trout in 2.5 hours of fun fishing.
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