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Date: April 16, 2023 Body of Water: Square Pond - Acton, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Brown Trout Time: 9:15 AM - 3 PM Conditions: Cloudy but clearing; inconsequential wind and 50 - 65 degrees. Water temperature 48 - 50 degrees (+/-). Square Pond is generally recognized as Maine's best water for brown trout, having produced the state record 23-pounder a couple of decades ago. I've also heard of various "teenager" trout from here, and so it's been on my radar since I've moved to Maine. I finally deciphered the public access situation (it's just a few miles beyond the Mousam Lake access), and so it was a no-brainer to go give it a try! The ramp will be iffy during any period of low water, and the culvert to the main lake limits the boating options, but soon enough I was in the lake's main basin. A few boats were trolling the break-line into the 35-foot basin for brown trout, but I chose to head up to the northern extent of the lake. Here, I picked up the break into 15 feet or so as I set my starting spread of a flatlined F11 Rapala and a DB Smelt off two colors of lead core. In the first couple of minutes, the DB Smelt got ripped, but I did not connect. Just a few minutes later, the same presentation got hit again over a rocky point, and I landed my first Square Pond fish, a fat, dark 15-inch smallmouth bass in good shape. The next rocky point yielded a similar-sized largemouth. Clearly, the bass were starting to stage for their spawn, and this lake did not suffer from a lack of similar points and flats. I was off to a good start, but was still searching for a brown trout. After another 15 minutes or so, I headed out to the main lake basin. I gave it a solid hour with a flat-lined Rapala and alternating spoons off two and five colors of lead. Without a touch and not seeing much on the graph, I decided to re-visit the shallows in other parts of the lake. I found a couple of other pods of bass, but had no apparent trout action. Skies had now cleared and I decided to try the main lake basin again, this time trolling more slowly with the new Minn Kota. I presented a Michigan Stinger (Mixed Veggies) spoon off two colors of lead and a dodger/smelt fly off five colors of lead. Trolling at 1.5 mph, the spoon got slammed over 35 feet of water! But I didn't hook up, and I could only wonder what it might have been. That strike kept me going for the next hour, at which point I was simply out of time. The skies had totally cleared and the wind had died. I was seeing some insects coming off the water; and for good measure, a fly-fisher in less than 10 feet of water landed a nice brown as I approached the ramp. I'll be back! What do I have to say about this? This was a good experience on a nice lake. It offers great potential and should be quiet in the "off" seasons. I know a lot of locals slowly troll live bait for trout, that is something I may need to explore. Meanwhile, I have to decide if I should be fishing for bass, instead; the trolling motor will make this possible and more efficient. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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