Moosehead Region Fishing Report: May 24, 2007
The hatchery trucks are rolling and most of our multi-stocked put and take waters have had their first stocking. This week hatchery crews from Enfield and Embden stocked catchable brook trout in: Heald Stream, Sandy Stream, Parlin Pond, Crocker Pond, Bennett Pond, Pingree Pond, Whetstone Pond, the West Outlet, Kiwanis Park Pond, Drummond Pond, and Gravel Pit Pond.
The Greenville Recreation Committee sponsored a kids fishing day. Fifty-six youngsters from all over the region participated in the annual event. Fishing was a little slow but they did manage to land a few, including a couple “lunker” trout that apparently survived from last year’s stocking.
On Friday, approximately forty 1st graders from the McKusick Elementary School in Parkman assisted Fisheries and Hatcheries personnel at the stocking of Drummond Pond in Abbot. This gravel pit pond is located on Rte 15 just north of downtown Guilford and it is a great spot to take the family fishing. The 1st graders formed a bucket brigade and released 250 brook trout, ranging in length from 8-10 inches, into the new pond. We plan to stock the pond again in a few weeks. For a look at pictures from the event, please click on photos from the field, above.
The rivers in the area are still very high making fishing difficult. We have had a few scattered reports from the big lake that indicate catch rates for salmon and lake trout are pretty good. We have heard of a few big brook trout coming to the creel this spring also. Smelt runs appear to be few and far between, not only on Moosehead Lake, but on many of our other waters as well. This spring we spent some time attempting to locate suitable runs in other waters to net and transfer to Moosehead Lake, but we had very poor success. This week we will continue to look at a few other waters for evidence of good runs in preparation for next spring.
This spring we are using the weekly fishing reports to get the word out about proposed regulation changes. There will be an informational meeting in Greenville in the next few weeks and a formal regulations hearing will be held sometime in the summer. This week we will discuss proposed fishing regulation changes for First Roach Pond.
In 1994, we increased the minimum length limit on salmon from 14 inches to 16 inches and dropped the bag limit from 2 to 1 fish. These changes were designed to take advantage of the outstanding growth rates for salmon and promote the existing quality fishery. Since 1994, we have documented a decline in the growth rates. This decline is likely due to holding the larger salmon in the lake longer and from the increasing lake trout population. Both these factors have taken a toll on smelt abundance in the lake. Therefore, we are proposing to liberalize bag limits on both salmon and lake trout until we see improvements in growth rates. Specifically, we will propose to return to general law regulations for salmon. We have also reduced the stocking rate. For lake trout, we are proposing a 5-fish bag limit; minimum length limit of 14 inches, only 1 lake trout may be greater than 18 inches (all 5 may be between 14-18 inches). Voluntary fishing records and our gillnetting data all confirm that there is an abundance of small lake trout in the lake and this regulation should help thin them down. If these regulations pass, we will encourage anglers to keep their limit of lake trout next summer.