A pretty view of the section of the Kennebec River I’m fishing today. The boat launch on the opposite bank is just visible at the top of the picture
The Kennebec River flowing through downtown Madison and Anson in Somerset County (see the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 20 B4) is held back by the Anson and Abnaki dams, before it becomes free-flowing again. It is the free-flowing stretch of the river below the most downstream of these two dams (i.e., the Abenaki Dam) which is the focus of my attention this afternoon. I access the Madison side of the river by driving north on Route 201A into Madison. About half a mile before reaching downtown, I turn left unto Father Rasle Road, cross the unused railroad tracks, and park my car on the sandy shoulder. The river is flowing to my right down a steep slope. My goal is to drop down to the river, wade upstream, and fish for about half a mile up to the hydroelectric dam.
This section of the middle Kennebec River is considered a prime “wadable” brown trout fishery in southwestern Maine. The state stocks it annually with between 4,000 and 5,000 (mostly) small browns. Keep in mind that the wadability of this half-mile stretch of water is, with some notable exceptions, mostly limited to no more than 20 or 30 ft away from the shoreline due to the strong current coming out of the dam and the quickly increasing depth of the water towards the middle. This is the mighty Kennebec, after all!! I suspect that these conditions might improve marginally later on in the summer when the water levels drop in response to low rainfall. The fishing rules for this section of the river are as follows: (1) open year-round to fishing, (2) artificial lures only, (3) total daily bag limit on trout and landlocked salmon is 2 fish, and (d) minimum length limit on trout and landlocked salmon is 12”. Click here for more details.
I arrive at the water’s edge by 2:30 pm. It’s a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and a light northwest breeze. The normally ubiquitous mosquitoes and blackflies are mercifully absent this afternoon. It’s just delightful to be outside in this beautiful place. I notice, peeking to my left at the water’s edge, that this good-looking stretch of the Kennebec River continues for quite a ways further downstream. Hence, I could be trout fishing in that direction too. But I stick to my plan and instead head upstream towards the hydropower dam. I’m glad that I came with my ultralight spinning rod and #2 Mepps spinners, instead of my fly fishing rod, because the water is still plenty big and powerful, which would make fly fishing a real challenge…
My first cast of the afternoon results in a hit. Well, that’s encouraging! This stretch of the Kennebec River consists mainly of riffles, powerful runs, and large “back eddies” along some of the shoreline. The substrate is a mishmash of bedrock, boulders, cobbles, and gravel, with some areas of the back eddies covered with rough sand. I’ll note for the record that I found wading this small section of the river to be a real pain due to the uneven substrate. I stumbled a dozen times, and that was not from consuming fermented beverages! I slowly work my way upstream and catch six small (<10”) brown trout over the next 2.5 hours, together with half a dozen tiny (< 8”) smallmouth bass. I’m not surprised to be catching smallmouth bass given the quality of this river habitat, but I am puzzled that I haven’t encountered any of their parents.
I run into an insurmountable obstacle about halfway between where I started and the dam. It’s a shear cliff with the water too deep for safe wading. I could backtrack a ways, find a safe route to the top, follow the unused railroad tracks for a bit, and then come back down towards the river at the other end. Even though that section of river looks like prime trout water, I reluctantly pass up on the opportunity on account of the time and my long drive back home.
I do see what seems like a hard boat launch (although none is shown in the Maine Gazetteer) on the opposite shore perpendicular from where I started fishing earlier this afternoon. A quick “fly-over” in Google Maps when I return home shows that I should actually have fished the Anson (instead of Madison) side of the Kennebec River because one can walk/wade all the way up to the dam from that side of the river. To reach that alternative location, drive into Madison on Main street, cross the Kennebec River into Anson, turn left on Route 48/143 at the end of the bridge, turn left again on the second street (Arnold Lane), and go all the way to the end of this road up to the launch. Actually, you’ll pass another launch along the way from where you could also start fishing, except that you’d be much closer to the dam.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the relatively short section of the Kennebec River I explored this afternoon. The water was nice and the fishing was easy from shore. The one disappointment was the size of the brown trout. They were all small although I have no doubt that this big water must contain larger hold-over trout.
The results: I caught six small (8” to 10”) brown trout in about 3 hours of fishing.
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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Good report! I come to Maine in August, so the river fishing is mostly smallmouth. You mentioned your surprise on the lack of larger smallmouths. I’ve had great luck on the Androscoggin River, downstream from the papermill, in Mexico and Dixfield. For many years, the mills polluted that river within an inch of its life. But they’ve done a great job in cleaning it up. There are still heavy metals, which make the fish pretty much inedible. (Some argue that it’s not risky, but I wouldn’t chance it.) What this means is that very few fish are harvested there and it’s effectively a trophy river. Thanks again for your report. You gave me some good insight, and I hope I gave you some of mine.
This is my local hole. Great spot. Easily wadeable on Madison side between “the pines” and father rasle monument. Fly fishing not very difficult, caddis, nymphs, muddlers. If you go on a clear day and watch the bottom where you wade it’s currently possibly to get 3/4 of the way across if not all the way. Indeed spin casting is great too.
Being a regular to Summa in Maine I have fished this location many a times with a small spin rod and gold/red thomas spinners. About twenty plus years ago I managed to catch several large Salmon in the pool just below the dam and by the Logging mill.
Further more , I ventured down stream on several occasions past the boat launching area and had awesome luck with large browns and smallmouth bass. One brown was upwards of six pounds and took about 15 minutes to land. I waded all over that river and through the middle to find these large fish, they were holding on shelves and riffs and would generally bite when the sun came out and reflected off of the spinners.
This was and is to this day , one of my best fishing experiences ever. I have caught over 10,000 trout in my life time(53 now) , but hardly any , especially in a large river setting, can match this one week of fishing in early July in the late 90’s…..
The River area in Madison is great fishing. Rocky bottom has to be respected as you can find yourself swimming in the blink of an eye. I fly fished there many times and have caught browns up to 4-5 lbs. Its a beautiful river and a fly fisherman’s dream. Put some none lead split shot on and get your nymphs down and you will have a great day.