View of the sandy boat launch. The picture does not do justice to the wind howling down the length of the pond.
Biscay Pond is a 377-acre body of water located in Bremen, Lincoln County, Maine (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 7 A4). To reach this location, drive on Route 1 into downtown Damariscotta, turn onto Biscay Road (by the McDonald’s restaurant), and drive down that road for about 2.5 miles. The pond will appear on your right. The boat launch is sandy and unimproved, but can accommodate large trailered boats. The biggest challenge with this launch is its shallowness, which requires backing your vehicle quite a way into the water before the boat will float. I’m very glad I brought my Jeep and hip boots! Ample parking is available along Biscay Road.
Sown bait works because it uses the real thing!
Biscay Pond is one of several deep narrow sections of the Pemaquid River. This pond is remarkably long (3.2 miles!) for its relatively small surface area due to its roughly “tadpole” shape. It is also quite deep, with a mean and maximum depth of 39 ft and 61 ft, respectively. Depths of 40+ ft are common within spitting distance from shore. The pond supports both a warm-water fishery (smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, white perch, yellow perch) and a cold-water fishery (brown trout, brook trout, splake). It is stocked each fall with around 800 salmonids which are available to be caught by the hard-water and liquid-water angling crowds. Rainbow smelt and juvenile sea-run alewives are the major food sources for these stocked fish. Click here for a depth map and more fisheries information. The fishing rules for this pond fall under the general fishing laws. It is also open to fishing from October 1 to December 31 using artificial lures only.
This mangled bait fish shows just how vicious the strike is on a sown bait…
I reach the boat launch located at the northern end of Biscay Pond by 9:30 am. The air temperature is in the high 60’s (the water temperature is at 67 F) and the sky is partially overcast, but an absolutely brutal wind is howling down the entire length of the pond from the southwest, creating whitecaps offshore and crashing waves onshore. These conditions always make the trolling experience more challenging. I’ll troll using sown bait with my portable downrigger and metal lures with my lead-core line to target the three salmonid species mentioned earlier. I like using sown bait for a very simple reason: it’s difficult to beat the genuine article! I can’t get a hold of live minnows this morning, so I’m using pickled ones. The latter are not quite as good as fresh bait because they’ve lost their flexibility due to the preservation process. But they look like the real thing, which is what counts. I motor into the wind all the way to the southern end of the pond before I start fishing. It’s just easier to work with the wind than against it…
It’s always a good feeling to catch your target species!
Based on previous experiences trolling for brown trout and splake in late summer – early fall (click here, here, here, and here for examples), I’ll troll 18-22 ft below the surface (i.e., above the thermocline) over 25- to 30-ft deep water. The first 1.5 hours of fishing yields only two smallmouth bass, which is not what I’m looking for. I’m already halfway down the lake at this point and have yet to see an adipose fin. I reach a small embayment along the shoreline and follow the 30 ft depth contour into it (note: the type of fishing I’m describing in this blog absolutely requires a depth finder in order to stay on course!). The rod attached to my downrigger shakes violently and I set the hook on a feisty 16” brown trout. Yes! However, in my excitement, I make the cardinal error of forgetting to bring up my downrigger weight after I hook the fish (I should know better…). The howling wind relentlessly keeps pushing the boat onshore and the inevitable happens before I’m aware of it: the weight wedges itself in between rocks on the bottom and won’t come loose. Sh*t!! The wind makes matters worse because I have no fine control over the boat which is also bobbing up and down due to the incoming waves. Fortunately, the cable snaps before the downrigger gets torn off the boat. Great… I don’t have a replacement weight. The wind is picking up speed and I decide to call it good. I’m pleased with my morning though: I caught my target fish (plus two smallmouth bass) under less than ideal conditions and I’m not going home skunked!
The results: I caught one brown trout (16”) and two smallmouth bass (largest = 14”) in two and a half hours of trolling in horrendous wind.
The problem with catching a non-targeted fish is that I have to resow the bait, which is time consuming…
Was the information in this blog useful? I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions. Also, feel free to discuss your fishing experiences at this location.
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Hi, We live on Biscay seasonally and I fish it whenever their is open water. I’m primarily a fly fisherman, but I do fish a streamer down deep with a mooching reel and lead line. The pond is full of 15” browns, with an ample number of 18-20 inch fish also. In the spring, the browns migrate down into the pemaquid river during the may fly hatches. It’s not unusual to catch an 18 inch brown in the river in late May!
Thanks for sharing this information! Stan (www.amazingfishametric.com)