Lower Springy Pond and Floods Pond, Otis, Maine: Deep, Clear and Cold Water Fisheries

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Lower Springy Pond and Floods Pond, Otis, Maine: Deep, Clear and Cold Water Fisheries

Lower Springy Pond and Floods Pond, Otis, Maine: Deep, Clear and Cold Water Fisheries

Pisgah Brook Bluff overlooking Floods Pond in Otis, Maine

Lower Springy Pond in Clifton and Otis, Maine, and Flood’s Pond in Otis are crystal clear bodies of water created by retreating glaciers. Lakefront property owners love having the best of both worlds–lakeside living with the Atlantic Ocean only a few miles away.



The prominent Boston merchant, Joseph Otis, and his wife, Fanny, moved to Ellsworth, Maine, in 1828 and then to Plantation 8, which later became Otis and Dedham.
In the 1890s, sportsmen came to fish the ponds of Otis, including Lower Springy and Floods. Lower Springy Pond encompasses 114 acres. It has a mean depth of nineteen feet, with a maximum depth of 44 feet. The water quality is above average and there are no known aquatic invasives.
Cold and warmwater species are supported in Lower Springy Pond, including splake, white perch and chain pickerel.
Flood’s Pond covers 635 acres. It has a mean depth of 41 feet, with a maximum depth of 147 feet. Again, the water quality is above average and there are no known aquatic invasives.
The deep, clear and cold water of Flood’s Pond supports Maine’s largest and oldest population of Artic Char–aka Silver Char or Sunapee Trout. This is the only known lake worldwide where a native population  of this fish still thrives. In an April 2002 article in the Bangor Daily News, Misty Edgecomb reported that “Silver Char were native to Flood’s Pond, two lakes in New Hampshire and one in Vermont. All but the Maine population of Silver Char had died out by the 1980s.”
During years of low water levels, state biologists created artificial spawn beds to encourage reproduction. The University of Maine conducts  ongoing research at Floods Pond. Today, only about a dozen lakes and ponds in Maine support this strain of a rare species of trout, but Flood’s is one of the world’s pure strains.
Unfortunately for sports anglers, because Floods Pond became  the water supply for the Bangor Water District in the late 1950s, about 98% of the land around the pond is protected from development and there is no public access. If there is any fishing, it is limited because of the water intake. Originally, Bangor’s water supply was from the Penobscot River. Now, the water is piped from the pond and under the river to reach Bangor and surrounding towns.
The area surrounding these two great ponds is rocky, rugged and forested land–great for hiking, hunting and sighting wildlife.
Otis is a delightful rural town in the Downeast Lakes Region, located 4.5 hours from Boston and 2.5 hours from Portland. It’s a short drive to Ellsworth, where you’ll find all the necessary amenities, and a wee bit further to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.
To learn more about lakefront properties for sale in the Downeast Lakes Region of Maine, click on the green box above.
To learn more about other great fishing lakes, check out the blog links below.
Beech Hill Pond, Otis, Maine: Lakefront Property Owners Enjoy a Premier Fishing Lake
Aziscohos Lake, Rangeley Lakes Region of Maine: Heed the Call of the Wild
Anglers Enjoy Trophy Fishing on Maranacook and Annabessacook in the Belgrade Lakes Region

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