Archive for September, 2008
Posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
One of this agency’s primary missions is to secure public access to Maine’s lakes, rivers, and streams. As regional biologists, we’re responsible for maintaining a list of access priorities, assuring that the list is continually updated, and assisting with locating and designing appropriate sites. We work closely with the Department’s access coordinator and chief engineer, the Department of Conservation, and a variety of local groups to acquire and develop the sites.
Completing a water access project is often a frustratingly difficult and time-consuming endeavor. Nevertheless, we do have some successes each year. In Region D, for example, a full service boat launch is now available on Riley Impoundment of the Androscoggin River near Jay, and a small carry-on site is nearing completion for the Sandy River Ponds, located just south of Rangeley. We recently purchased parcels on the Sandy River in Farmington Falls and New Sharon; when developed, these launches will give anglers and recreational boaters an opportunity to float and fish a 7-mile section of this attractive stream with good smallmouth bass and brown trout populations.
Despite these successes, there is much more to do. Our most pressing needs are at Oaks Pond in Skowhegan and Hancock Pond in Embden. We recently suspended popular stocking programs for splake and brook trout at Oaks, and for salmon and brook trout at Hancock for lack of legal access during the open water months.
(MDIFW can not stock waters where public access is denied or is deemed inequitable with shorefront property owners). Also, the traditional access site for Gull Pond in Dallas Plantation was recently put on the market — the current landowner permitted public use of a small launch site, so its future availability to anglers is now very much in question.
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Tags: Western Mountains Fishing Report • Categories: Fishing Reports
Posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
As we put the unofficial end of summer behind us, we approach my favorite time of year. September in Downeast Maine gives us cool nights and comfortable days. These conditions cause water temperatures to fall and fish to become more active. This is the time of year that makes me start thinking about all the opportunities fall has to offer. Hiking and canoeing to see the changing leaves, camping with no bugs and comfortable sleeping conditions, and of course fall brook trout fishing.
In the Downeast region the month of September can provide some great stream and brook fishing for trout. In the fall brook trout exhibit beautiful spawning colors that are more striking than anything else in nature. When that beauty is coupled with the changing foliage, you can’t ask for a more memorable experience.
Every time I think about fall fishing, I am immediately reminded of a day trip I took with a college friend a few years back. We were out fishing a small stream around the Route 9 corridor on the last day of the open water season. The day was sunny with a cool breeze and could not be more picturesque. We took turns fishing for about a mile and a half of stream. We didn’t catch any great number of fish, but every fish we landed made the trip worth it. I took two photographs that day which stick out most in my mind. I have included both pictures with this weekly report and they can be viewed by clicking the link for “Photos from the field.” The first was of a beautiful male brook trout that my friend caught in one of the first pools we fished. The picture hardly does justice to the intensity of colors that fish exhibited. The second picture from that day was of my friend casting his fly surrounded by the changing foliage. Both of these images stand out in my mind and they are what drive me to get out in the fall and wet a line.
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Tags: Downeast Fishing Report • Categories: Fishing Reports
Posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
A few years ago I reported on a project that had great potential for fulfilling an important goal of our Department, namely “to provide anglers with the most opportunities for the types of fishing they want while ensuring that these same fish resources are going to be there for those who come after us.” I’d like to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on the status of that project.
A tributary to Pitcher Pond crosses Route 52 in the town of Lincolnville. In the fall of 2003, the Maine Department of Transportation replaced a failing “perched culvert” at that stream crossing. A perched culvert, you may recall, has a drop in elevation at its outlet. If the drop is sufficiently high, fish are unable to pass through the culvert to upstream habitat. The new culvert was installed with an embedded outlet; that is, alleviating the drop. Nevertheless, the elevation difference from the upstream to downstream ends required a slope in the culvert so that streambed movement could be avoided. I was skeptical of the ability of brook trout to negotiate the slope, but told the DOT environmental reviewer the site would be a good place to evaluate fish passage with a stocking of brook trout fry.
Townline Brook, the name I gave the stream at the time in order to satisfy stocking records, is really Rollins Brook, according to Peg Miller, a long time resident that owns land abutting the stream. She indicated that the stream dries up in some years. The brook is designated as an intermittent stream on the area’s topographical map. According to the map, the total length of the stream is about 4000 feet.
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Tags: Central Maine Fishing Report • Categories: Fishing Reports
Posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
As the fall fishing season approaches, anglers are reminded of the new fall fishing regulations in effect this year on Sebago Lake. In the past the open water fishing season on most of the lake closed on Sept. 30. The single exception was a small area near Sebago Station that permitted fishing from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30.
The new regulations allow anglers to fish the entire lake from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 togue (lake trout) may be harvested under the same size and bag limits in place for the rest of the year, but all salmon and trout must be released. These new changes are not printed in the current open water fishing law book because the changes were advanced after the current law book was printed. Also, since the changes represented a liberalization of the existing regulation, providing expanded opportunity, anglers could not be penalized (fined) if they weren’t aware of the change.
The regulation change was proposed by Sebago Lake Anglers Association and as adopted is consistent with the new salmon management plan recently adopted for Sebago. The change also is consistent with the Classic Salmon Initiative, which Sebago is being managed under.
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Tags: Southwestern Maine Fishing Report • Categories: Fishing Reports
Posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 by Maine Sportsman
This Month: ‘Try to Remember’ the Perfect Month
“Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain grew yellow.”
If you’re a true baby boomer born in the mid to late 1940s, you probably remember these Harvey Schmidt lyrics made popular by Tom Jones in 1960. If you lived in Maine, you probably felt certain the State of Maine inspired this lyricist, and he surely had made a pilgrimage here.
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Tags: September 2008 Issue • Categories: Almanac
