Fishing Lard Pond in Somerset County, Maine

• Overview

  Set in Somerset County, Maine, this is Lard Pond. The setting is lake country bush. Surface area runs to about 14 acres — small enough to read in one session. On size it sits at the modest end of our Somerset County list. Linière lies 30 miles from the water. Saint-Côme--Linière is 35 miles and Greenville 39 miles. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Lard Pond

  No depth figure appears in our records, so the bank has to tell you. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Somerset County records list Atlantic salmon, brown trout, smallmouth bass, rainbow smelt and rainbow trout among the fish reported. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. Read Lard Pond for ten minutes before the first cast goes out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July near 63°F and January near 8°F on the long-run figures. Winter shuts the surface down for months. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about late April. Average temperatures cross freezing around late April in spring and again near late November in autumn. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. That is the shape of the year on Lard Pond.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Take the rules with you rather than trusting memory. Night access is frequently treated as a separate matter. For a change of water, Elm Pond is 1.6 miles distant. Ask locally about Lard Pond if anything is unclear.