MAINE - Weekly Fishing Reports

Regional forum for anglers from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
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brendanc
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Joined: Thu May 03, 2001 4:00 pm

MAINE - Weekly Fishing Reports

Post by brendanc »

You can check the latest info for Maine at: http://maine.gov/ifw/fishing/reports/we ... /index.htm

Region D - Western Mountains

A quick count of the field forms indicates that we’ve sampled nearly 20 waters this summer, some of which hadn’t been resurveyed for 20 years or more. The truth is we’ve gotten behind on our regular lake sampling schedule the last few years while we’ve concentrated our efforts on dealing with illegally introduced fish species, primarily smallmouth bass. For the present, we’ve done what we can to mitigate the impact of these introductions, though the fact remains that once invasive species are introduced and become established, there's little we can do to totally eradicate them.

On a more positive note, the waters that are free of invasive species are thriving, thanks in part to lots of water. Dave Howatt and our summer student Liz Studdert have made raingear their fashion statement this summer, and have braved the rain to bring in the data we need to manage our waters. For stocked waters, we want to know if those fish are surviving and thriving; for waters with wild populations, we want to be sure that they're not being overharvested or, for that matter, under harvested, which can lead to stockpiling and stunting.

We've had mixed success with our stream work this summer. Ethan Tracy and Troy Thompson have had good luck sampling brooks as part of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, primarily by working on smaller ones where high flows are not an insurmountable problem. In fact, they frequently report finding brook trout where we never knew they existed; very encouraging indeed. My stream restoration monitoring is suffering though, because flows at South Bog Stream, the Sandy River, and the Cupsuptic are too high for wading, which we need to do to take measurements. Hopefully we will be able to make our observations in September.

BASS FISHING REPORTING SOURCE
Brendan C.
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