Early May Fishing Update 2024
I’ve been on several of our local ponds and the Kennebec River in the last week or so. Water temps have finally started to go up after a long slow start. This morning, I was on Megunticook Lake in Camden where the water temperature was between 55 and 58 degrees depending on where you were on the lake. With almost no wind as you can plainly see. As an aside large and smallmouth bass came to the boat along with one rainbow trout and two pickerel. Pretty nice variety in 3 hour trip if you ask me. The water has warmed enough that the painted turtles have come out of their winter sleeping places to bask in the sun. I did not see any bass on beds but it won’t be long I am sure.
I was on the Kennebec river in Gardiner last week where the water was a chilly 52 in a wind driven drizzle. No shad or stripers took my flies but there were a few double crested cormorants hanging around and a bunch of eagles. A good sign that bait will be in the river very soon. The Saint George ponds here in Union were also cold last week and only produced a few pickerel along with a couple of largemouth. That will change as things warm this week.
The next big event will be the arrival of the alewives along this part of the coast with stripers not too far behind.
Needless to say things happen quickly (like they always do) and before you know it we will be in the summer patterns. Like fishing, my calendar is starting to fill in quickly and looks like another busy season ahead.
