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.
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