Finding coldwater fish is a challenge this time of year. Coldwater fish move out of the warmer surface waters to deeper sections of lakes, or to springs, or to cooler brooks. For warmwater fish, of course, it's a different story, and I've recently spotted a number of anchored bass boats, lures flying in all directions, in the southern part of our region. When an out-of-state visitor called last week looking for bass fishing areas to try, I steered him to the middle Androscoggin - between Dixfield and Jay - where there are now several new launch sites (shown in the DeLorme Atlas) and lots of large smallmouths.

Back to the coldwater fish, which dominate the northern part of our region: smaller, well-shaded brooks and streams, fed by groundwater, tend to stay cool even in August, and that's where the brook trout are. Our electrofishing crew, Ethan Tracey and Troy Thompson, have been finding brook trout in most of the brooks they've been sampling, though Ethan mentioned yesterday that some of the smaller brooks have low flows. The flow situation can change daily, though, when thunder storms come through and dump a load of water.

As we move further into August, we can expect more rains, which induce salmon and trout to move into streams in preparation for spawning, which is in fact several months away - the Kennebago River is a good example of the "prespawning run" phenomenon. A number of rivers benefit from coldwater releases from dams - the lower Magalloway from the Aziscohos dam, and the Kennebec from Harris and Wyman dams; these tailraces are great places to fish even during the dog days of summer.