IFW Ice Fishing Report

If you haven’t noticed, this is anything but a normal winter throughout the state. Ponds and lakes that are usually frozen and safe throughout are still iffy at best. Before heading out onto the ice on any pond, please check the ice.

“Last weekend, we were out on a small pond that had about five inches of ice,” said IFW fisheries biologist Francis Brautigam. “That’s not a lot of ice for a pond that size in the middle of January.”

The snow earlier this week didn’t help ice conditions either. Ponds and lakes that skimmed over now have an insulating blanket of snow that has slowed ice forming conditions, even with the single digit temperatures that we’ve experienced at night. That’s if there is any ice at all.

“Mousam Lake in York County was pretty much wide open, except for some ice on the very north end,” said Brautigam. “There aren’t too many years when we still have open water this time of year on our moderate-size lakes.”

With ice conditions extremely variable, anglers are targeting smaller ponds in the region, as well as fishing the frozen coves and shorelines of the larger lakes and ponds.

“On Crystal Lake and the Range Ponds, there’s less than a couple of inches of ice in the middle. People were tight to the shore and in coves and catching fish,” said Brautigam.

“On some of our smaller ponds that we manage for catchable brook trout, anglers are having good success at the Otter Ponds, Sand Pond, Barker Pond and Worthley Pond,” said Brautigam, who added the Hinkley Ponds in South Portland are fishing well too. Check your law book for regulations specific to each water you want to fish.

One silver lining for anglers? Ponds with poor ice conditions haven’t received any fishing pressure, and once they freeze up, the fishing should be excellent.

Region A - Sebago Lakes Region
Report of January 15, 2016
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife