2026 ANGLER LOGS FLY ROD DRAWING

The prize for this season’s Angler Log drawing is a Cabela’s Synch Fly-Rod package! Each submitted Angler Log will count as one entry into the drawing. See below for more details.

PIERCE POND WATERSHED

FISHERIES & WATER QUALITY Research

The Brook Trout Telemetry study on Pierce Pond has begun (May 18, 2026)!

Pierce Pond Watershed Trust and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIFW) are partnering on the project in which fisheries biologists, along with PPWT volunteers, are tagging brook trout with radio tags. Then they will be following the tagged fish's travels with radio receivers all season, right through fall spawning.

To accomplish the tagging, biologists are deploying five boats to catch 50 mature (14" and up) brook trout. The goal is 25 from Upper Pierce Pond and 25 from Middle and Lower Pierce Pond. Each boat will have a live well to hold fish for biologist pickup via radio contact. Biologists will then mildly sedate the fish to facilitate tagging. In addition to a monitor, every fish will receive a "floy" tag with a unique ID number and a link to an MDIFW web page that enables anglers to report information about their trout.

The study will gather critical information about the Pierce Pond brook trout population's summer range, important thermal habitats, behaviors, and survival rates, as well as spawning locations and timing. Similar research conducted in other Maine lakes/ponds has generated invaluable fisheries-management information.

SUBMIT ANGLER LOGS AND WIN A BRAND NEW FLY ROD OUTFIT!
We are enlisting Pierce Pond anglers to complete angler logs in which they record fishing methods, time, species, size, fin clips, and observed hatches. Please pick up logs at Cobb’s Camps, or alternatively DOWNLOAD THE LOG and print copies ahead of time (2 pages, heavy paper or card stock advised). You will need one log per pond/day. Logs can be returned to Cobb’s Camps or mailed to PPWT at PO Box 5660, Augusta, ME 04332. Each submitted log will count as one entry into a drawing for a brand new fly-rod outfit.

PPWT is also involved in ongoing water-quality research efforts:

• Temperature Monitoring: the Trust has established water-temperature monitoring stations in each of the ponds to help monitor the water quality for the ponds.

  Each temperature-monitoring station consists of a white buoy with five temperature monitors attached to a line beneath the surface. There is a station anchored at at the deepest point of each pond. The lines are identified with a buoy on the surface marked with “PPWT Temp Monitoring.”

  If you become entangled with any of the lines, please be careful while attempting to remove your fishing gear.

• PPWT has become part of the statewide lake monitoring program known as the Lake Stewards of Maine (LSM). In 2024, LSM representatives came to Pierce Pond to train PPWT personnel and volunteers how to collect data on water-quality parameters. They were trained to use a Secchi disc for transparency readings, and how to use dissolved-oxygen meters to obtain and interpret dissolved oxygen and thermal profiles. These measurements are being taken throughout the 2025 season to better understand trends that may be affecting insect hatches and fisheries.

In addition, Pierce Pond has been added to the list of lakes that Maine DEP regularly monitors for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, and clarity.