Index
Northwestern Wilderness Of Maine
Personal Essays
Fishing In The Jackman Region
Fishing in the Jackman Region is always exciting, even if you don't catch anything. There is always the great expectations of a strike, with each new cast.
When I have to make a quick run to the Mall, I always take time to watch what people are doing. Sometimes I feel the loneliness in the faceless Mall crowds. Young boys standing in line, waiting their turn to grasp the controls of an arcade machine, within a dark room. Young girls standing around beauty counters, splashing make-up on their faces. I'm sure its fun to challenge an arcade machine, or splash make-up on your face. I don't think it would be fun every weekend.
I wonder how many of these strangers have ever felt the mountain breezes on their faces, or stood surrounded by the natural beauty of water, trees, and mountains. How many have inhaled the fragrance of evergreen trees or heard the songs of the chickadees hanging upside down in branches next to them.
If you are anything like me, you'd desire to share your thoughts about the wilderness with the world.
Take the craft of fishing, for example. You know fish live in water. The art begins, when you discover where in the water, and how to entice them to your line.
People think one of the greatest achievements of this past century, was putting astronauts on the moon.
I think one the greatest achievements is how people have developed ways to get to where the fish are. Who would we give the credit to? The native americans used the available natural materials to build the canoe.
Whatever means we have available to get to where the fish are, the most important one, is the one we favor the most.
Although, canoes come in many shapes, sizes, and different materials, I have always been in love with a wooden canoe. Skilled craftsman have discovered how to make this craft light enough to carry on your back for great distances in along woodland trails. The beauty of the interior wood grain and contoured ribs and the exterior covered in canvas or fiberglass designed to go forward or backward without making any noise on the water's surface.
I could sit on the shore for hours watching canoes. It is a treat to be submerged up to your eyes in the water, studying the beauty of a canoe traveling toward you.
Learning to propel a canoe doesn't take long to master. I can feel the paddle in my hands, as I write. Sitting in the stern (back) of a canoe, you steer as you shape each stroke of the paddle in the figure of a J, called the J stroke.
The skill of silent paddling, comes from slicing the water with the paddle after each J stroke, to the start of each new stroke, without taking the paddle out of the water.
Learning to glide between each stroke limits the effort of getting from point A to B. Something very easy to master, especially if you have been a couch potato all winter.
Now that you have mastered the art of propelling a canoe, What kind of fish were we looking for and where are they?
If we look at the two lakes closest to Jackman, we would think of Big Wood Pond, Attean Lake, and the Moose River in between them. You are sure to find brook trout (square tail), lake trout (togue), landlocked salmon, and the splake (what is a splake?).
My favorite is the brook trout, called square tail by the Maine natives. Brook trout thrive in waters not above 60-65º F. Fishing with bait or casting a fly, is usually all the skill an inexperience angler needs to master to enjoy a dinner of a baked brook trout, stuffed and wrapped with a narrow strip of bacon.
A lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) known, as a togue by the Maine natives. Togue love the deep cool lake water. Fishing with bait or trolling with a lead line and live bait, is usually all the skill an inexperience angler needs to master to enjoy a dinner of a baked togue, stuffed and wrapped with a narrow strip of bacon.
Landlocked salmon are a thrill to catch. Fishing with bait or trolling with live bait, is usually all the skill an inexperience angler needs to master to enjoy a dinner of a baked togue, stuffed and wrapped with a narrow strip of bacon.
What is the world is a splake? A splake has been around since 1870. The splake is a hybrid resulting from the fertilizing of eggs from the lake trout with sperm from the brook trout. I haven't had the pleasure of catching a splake, although I know they are stocked in Big Wood Pond, Attean Lake, and Moose River. I'm speculating, but fishing with bait or trolling with live bait, perhaps even a lead line, is usually all the skill an inexperience angler needs to master to enjoy a dinner of a baked togue, stuffed and wrapped with a narrow strip of bacon.
There are many ways to cook a game fish, but as you can guess, my favorite is baked stuffed, wrapped with a narrow strip of bacon.
Determining where game fish are comes with experience and your familiarity with the bodies of water you are fishing in.
These particular game fish like cool water, but that doesn't mean they won't venture into warmer waters, searching for food.
About the first of April, within at least a month of ice out, you will find these game fish around the mouth of the Moose River, where it feeds Big Wood Pond and in the Moose River between Big Wood Pond and Attean Lake. Many of the local anglers rush their canoes or boats to the landing near the railroad bridge and troll with live bait. Landlocked salmon hide behind the huge bolders that line the river bottom, waiting for smelt or smaller fish to pass by.
As the spring and summer sun warms the cool lake waters, these game fish go to cooler depths. This time of years many boats anchor around the deepest waters of the two lakes and fish with bait, or troll with lead line and live bait.
I never used a fish finder, lake depth maps were available from the state for ten cents each.
As you become familiar with the bodies of water you fish in, you will learn many interesting things. Did you know the water in a lake turned over?
An experienced or inexperienced angler may still be wondering what kind of bait, what kind of fly, or live bait can entice these game fish to my line?
I hope to see you enjoying one of the bodies of water mentioned above, discovering what works for you.
Keep me bookmarked, you may spot a few tips now and then, hidden in an essay.