anybody check out maidstone?

[Mobile steez]

im wondering if maidstone has any ice yet

[fishingidjit]

MS, No trout fishing there until Jan 21st.

[Mobile steez]

oh I know not trout season for a while but curious about the ice..i still have a good two weeks before my auger is back up and running sadly.  I just know deep water takes forever to lock in..

[Lavman]

Good luck to you out there on Maidstone. I fished there for 9 days last summer doing everything from trolling the early morn and evening to drifting and jigging over lots of marked fish and they are lock jawed.

Year before my son foul hooked one while jigging, it was a little hammer handle laker.

I think the loons have trained the fish to stay deep and avoid their predation but that's just my opinion.

I do love Maidstone Lake, been going there since I was a hatchling 

Tight lines! 

[Spoondangler]

Good luck to you out there on Maidstone. I fished there for 9 days last summer doing everything from trolling the early morn and evening to drifting and jigging over lots of marked fish and they are lock jawed.

Year before my son foul hooked one while jigging, it was a little hammer handle laker.

I think the loons have trained the fish to stay deep and avoid their predation but that's just my opinion.

I do love Maidstone Lake, been going there since I was a hatchling 

Tight lines! 

yeah but there are some monsters in there.  Just from what I've seen in pictures, but it does have a rep of being slow at times.  planing on trying it out this year myself as well.

[Lavman]

yeah but there are some monsters in there.  Just from what I've seen in pictures, but it does have a rep of being slow at times.  planing on trying it out this year myself as well.

For sure, I saw a F&W video that was about fish being checked or inventoried in Maidstone and they brought up some real nice ones. I'd love to ice fish Maidstone someday, never done that only fished it in summer. 

[shirefisher]

One day I will fish Maidstone on ice. For now I have camped there and caught a few trout trolling with my kayak... Here is a pic of a rare fish I caught last Summer,

[thefishingweatherman]

Fished Maidstone a few times through the ice. Have had luck with crawlers on tip-ups close to shore near dark, but nothing huge. Last January we set out with the finder, and came up with a few tiny wild lakers, while jigging. Didn't mark many fish though, despite moving all around, but we did see a couple very large marks that didn't play ball... There are some monsters in there, but it seems they are tough to pin down. Not worth the drive to me when Willoughby isn't too far away. On the plus side, you might catch a unique strain of laker, that has no spots, like shirefisher did! See more about them here: http://www.vpt.org/clip?736

[Lavman]

That's the video I was thinking of, thanks for posting that 

[Spoondangler]

wow that spotless laker is very cool!  here is a thread from a few years ago that shows what maidstone can do, but then again, so can champlain.  seems like a unique spot to try sometime though.
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=146903.0

[fishingidjit]

wow that spotless laker is very cool!  here is a thread from a few years ago that shows what maidstone can do, but then again, so can champlain.  seems like a unique spot to try sometime though.
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=146903.0

That derby was never held again after the pounding  the fish took that weekend.

[shirefisher]

I have not broken the 20 inch mark there for lakers. But for late Summer fishing with a kayak trolling those guys put up a good fight. The state does still supply the lake with some fresh Loon food by way of rainbow trout stockies in the Spring,  I have caught a few of these scrappy fish but the lakers I get  are 10 for 1 to the rainbow. It's a real gem of a lake. Too bad it's being "camped" to death as every piece of private real estate is being developed . A lot of expensive camps on that lake and a lot still being built. Hopefully the state parks will be there for eternity as I think I may camp there every year given the chance. It's like going to Maine but I only have to travel 2 hours!

[thefishingweatherman]

I have not broken the 20 inch mark there for lakers. But for late Summer fishing with a kayak trolling those guys put up a good fight. The state does still supply the lake with some fresh Loon food by way of rainbow trout stockies in the Spring,  I have caught a few of these scrappy fish but the lakers I get  are 10 for 1 to the rainbow. It's a real gem of a lake. Too bad it's being "camped" to death as every piece of private real estate is being developed . A lot of expensive camps on that lake and a lot still being built. Hopefully the state parks will be there for eternity as I think I may camp there every year given the chance. It's like going to Maine but I only have to travel 2 hours!

I talked to a state biologist on the fish populations there. Apparently there are a few rainbows in there, holdovers from the stocking process. No wild fish. The issue there is there are no major streams emptying into the lake, so there are no good spawning areas for rainbows. Still, I would think there has to be a few hog rainbows in there. The outlet drains to Paul Stream, which would be ideal rainbow spawning water, but the drainage dam is impassable to fish coming upstream.

[shirefisher]

Yea the rainbows I have seen or caught are 2nd or 3rd year fish from the stockies that survive the Loons. Last year I was fishing watching 11 loons do their business or occasionally they will all stop and have a float party together.

[spot]

Yea the rainbows I have seen or caught are 2nd or 3rd year fish from the stockies that survive the Loons. Last year I was fishing watching 11 loons do their business or occasionally they will all stop and have a float party together.

Better Loons than cormorants- cormorants will send a thousand birds and sweep the lake clean like a trawling net.