Smallmouth Bass Fishing on Phillips Lake in Maine

I've been by Phillip's Lake many times in my life, but only started fishing it last year. You can start to see it from busy Route 1A as you drive by the Lucerne Inn. Its surrounded by many hills and mountains; Chase Mountain, Fitz Mountain, Oak Hill, and Peaked Mountain just to name a few.

My dad has many memories on this lake from his younger days. He knew many people that lived on the lake, or had camps there. At the public boat launch, a little ways out, there is a small island. On a dare, he swam to the island and back, and claims once he got out there, he started having doubts he could swim all the way back. As you probably guessed, he did, or else I wouldn't be writing this.

Typically when I go fishing, I like to fish quiet places. This is quite the opposite. The shoreline is heavily developed with year round residences and seasonal camps. There's almost always constant boat traffic, especially in summer. Then there's the ongoing noise of traffic coming from Route 1A, and you can often hear tires hitting the rumble strips, even out on the lake. Despite the lack of quiet and solitude, this lake is really growing on me.

The water here is very clear, and I've been able to see bottom in at least 18-20 feet of water. It's a lot different than my home lake, Pleasant Lake in Stetson, which is a fairly shallow warm water lake. On Phillips, you can go out 20 feet from shore and maybe be in 20-30 feet of water.

Besides smallmouth bass, there is also lake trout, salmon, and brook trout. I remember hearing talk of brown trout back in the day, but haven't heard anyone mention that type of fish in quite awhile. I've heard many people say its slow fishing. I haven't had any luck with the coldwater fish that live here (although I've seen them in the form of arches on my fish finder). But, I am starting to learn the habits of the smallmouth bass.

I have had the most luck here, not along the shorelines, but a little further out in 20-30 feet of water...which in some cases, is close to the shoreline, but not always. I went out on one evening last year using a top water popper in these depths, and they were slamming it. I have also had some luck using the Bass Pro Shops suspending minnows in the brown trout color.

This past weekend, I caught my 2 largest smallmouth out of here, one being 3 lbs. 8 oz., and the other being 3 lbs. 4 oz., and both were around the 18" mark.  On that day, I was fishing the same depth as I mentioned before, using a Rapala Dives-To 10 (which runs down to 10 feet) and catching them on that. While my home lake has clear water, its not clear like this. The fun part is that I could look several feet down into the water and see my fish as clear as day. I could even see other smallmouth chasing behind the one that was hooked. These fish jumped like crazy, the bigger one must have took a 4 foot leap out of the water, but I got the best of him on his next jump, and he jumped right into my net. The fight didn't end there though, both continued to thrash around in the boat even after landing them. Both of these big ones were released, and will be bigger the next time I find them.


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On that day, I used my motorboat for the first time there. I was wondering how this particular day would go, since it started off with me forgetting to put the drain plug in the boat when I launched it. Yeah. My previous visits have been with a kayak. It can get quite windy on this lake, and I felt more confident in my boat, especially on that day. There is still much of this lake I haven't explored. I want to try around the islands, and maybe even take a little break on one of them. Maybe further down the channel too. The acreage of the lake is only slightly more than my home lake, but shape of it is much different (amongst other things).

I am hoping to get out again, a little later in the fall once the water cools down, and hopefully try to catch a salmon, trout, or lake trout. I am still learning how to target these type of fish with trolling methods. On the times I have been out there, you usually see a couple of boats trolling around. It's funny, because everyone seems to follow the same route around the lake. Sometimes you will see them make 2 or 3 laps around this same route.

I'm already looking forward to my next visit here. While I am thinking of the smallmouth from last weekend, I am also hoping to catch a trout or salmon. I guess we will see!

At the end of this video I have a couple of nice smallmouth:

These videos are from this past summer, and from last year, feel free to check them out: