"Ice Out" - Moosehead Lake

For all of you eagerly awaiting Moosehead’s ice out news; on April 15th at 10:33 we had the second earliest ice out since we started recording them in 1848. The earliest recorded was April 14, 1945. The interesting thing this year was that the weekend of April 10-11 high winds were predicted which would have opened the lake up very quickly. But the high winds never materialized and instead we just had snow. Yes snow. Well early ice out means that everything is a few weeks ahead of normal. Moose have started coming out to the roads, loons and other water birds are showing up in large numbers, and fishing is already very good. This past winter we received very little snow so by the middle of April most of our snow had disappeared. Now at the end of April most of our dirt logging roads are dry and drivable. Mud season has just about ended which means that May is going to be a great month to get out and drive the back roads looking for our many boreal bird species and visiting our hundred plus waterfalls. We have had numerous visitors in already raving about the amount of water at Moxie Falls. This is also a great time of the year to hike with most of the trails seeing few hikers or bugs until June. The deciduous trees and shrubs are just staring to bud so visibility is excellent in the woods and on the trails. This is also a great time for photography with some crystal clear days for landscape and other long range photos. Come warmer weather haze will be present on occasion. I try to get up in one of our local float planes for aerial photos as early in May and June as possible to get crisp clean photographs.

Moose Mainea starts in a few weeks and runs through our Crafts Fair on June 12th. This is the best time of the year to see moose along the paved roads. All the road salt we used this past winter ended up in the ditches and the moose come out to get the salt and fresh shoots along the roads. Early morning and evening are the best times of the day but the lure of salt is so strong to moose who have spent the past five months in the woods that they can be seen throughout the day during May. The other great thing about moose in May is that the cows start having their young towards the end of the month. Moose mothers do not hide their young so as soon as the baby moose can walk he is expected to trail behind mom where ever she goes. Over the years we have seen week old moose walking through the parking lot of the Visitor’s Center! Every year a fair number of twins are born and believe it or not once in a while triplets. This is also a great time to walk the woods looking for moose antlers. Male moose lose their antlers every winter and start regrowing them in the spring. Rodents and people spend the spring combing the woods for these cast off antlers; the rodents for the salt and minerals in the antler. Many stores locally sell these cast offs; with large racks selling for hundreds of dollars. I have collected many antlers over the years but in all that time I have only found one set, usually you find one side but not both.

Fishing is very good as I mentioned and is about to become excellent. May is our traditional trolling month with action starting around two weeks after ice out and continuing until the lake warms up. May trolling requires no special equipment just a canoe or kayak and your fishing gear. This is not deep down rigger trolling but near shore trolling a few inches to a few feet below the surface. Wild brook trout, land locked salmon and lake trout all can be taken in shallow water at this time of the year. Most experts recommend a trolling speed around five miles per hour or just above walking speed. This type of trolling was so much a part of early spring fishing in Maine that a special ‘tandem fly” was developed in numerous patterns to help the angler with short striking fish. I know a lot of people who are not comfortable fly fishing so they will tie a Gray Ghost or other tandem fly on their spinning line to catch fish. Fly fisherman will be watching for our first important insect hatches which should start soon. Once the hatches start we will have about six weeks of concentrated hatches in cool trout friendly waters before the rivers warm up and the fish look for cool holes. I know I will be floating a few dry flies every evening I can for awhile. See you on the river.

Bob Hamer
Executive Director for the Moosehead Lake Chamber of Commerce