Bill Brasier, now in his 80s and living in Cumberland, grew up fishing the waters of Sebago Lake. He fished with relatives and friends, all veteran anglers with vast knowledge of the top quarry in Maine’s second largest lake, the landlocked salmon.
He still keeps a boat tied up at a relative’s place on Kettle Cove but doesn’t get out as much as he would like to.
I met Bill when I joined the Moonlite Sno-Skimmers Snowmobile Club in Cumberland. I admired his work ethic. He was right alongside us “younger” folks, pitching in to work on the trails.
We started talking, and of course, the topic turned to fishing. Bill found out that I guided on Sebago Lake so he told me he’d love to go out sometime. As I readied my boat for the water this spring, I asked Bill if he wanted to join me on my shakedown cruise. He met me at the farm at 5 a.m. and we were off.
We launched at the Sebago Lake State Park boat launch because my dock was not in yet and this would put us right at the mouth of the Songo River where the smelt run was likely still going on.
It didn’t take long. I had just set out two fly rods rigged with sinking line and tipped with Gulp minnows, imitating a smelt, in the water when the portside reel started screaming.
I handed the rod to Bill and he struggled to reel in the fighting fish. It leapt from the water, tail dancing across the surface, proving to us that it was indeed a salmon, and a healthy one at that. Bill soon had the fish to the net and I brought it in the boat. It weighed 3 pounds and was 22 inches long.
After a few pictures, we killed the fish because Bill wanted to surprise his wife with dinner. Sometime while we were catching and releasing several more salmon, Bill said, “This is like what it used to be on Sebago!”
Yes Bill, it certainly is.
Sebago Lake, which is one of only four lakes in Maine with indigenous landlocked salmon, has experienced a resurgence in the wild salmon population. Anglers are catching many fat, healthy fish this year, averaging between three and five pounds each.
The fishing slumped at Sebago when the pesticide DDT entered the lake, killing off the smelts, which provide crucial food for salmon. In 1972, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife stocked lake trout from out of state, hoping to bring back a fishery. What it accomplished was more competition for the smelt, along with predation on young salmon. The state tried stocking smelt and finally management efforts to reduce lake trout but maintain them as a trophy fish.
Then, a few years ago, several things happened and we started seeing more salmon catches. A DIF&W spin net survey showed a 30 percent decline in lake trout numbers. We saw huge runs of spawning smelt up the Songo River and other Sebago tributaries in the spring. And finally we started seeing large schools of alewives, along with the salmon following them.
State fisheries biologist Jim Pellerin spoke at a meeting of the Sebago Lake Angler’s Association about the rebirth of salmon on the lake. While he said he was optimistic, he reminded us that the salmon aren’t out of the woods yet.
He recommended more catching and killing of lake trout, pointing out that fishing derbies targeting them held by clubs like ours aid in those efforts. He also said that while alewives provide some quick food for salmon, they lack essential vitamins that salmon need and aren’t the preferred feed for growth.
So, the good news is that fishing for salmon on Sebago Lake is better than it has been in decades. We are catching big, fat fish and many of those are native and not stocked. We can tell that because biologists clip off certain fins of the stocked salmon each year so they can identify the year they were stocked and the growth rate they exhibit.
While it is not bad news, Pellerin cautions us that the plight of the Sebago Lake salmon is still perilous and we have to keep lake trout numbers down, deal with other invasive species like northern pike that target salmon and ensure that anglers carefully play and release any short salmon or ones they choose to release.
For now, Bill Brasier and I will rejoice that Sebago Lake, known for the world record landlocked salmon, is once again, on the bite.
