Penobscot Valley Fishing Report: September 4, 2008
As we move into the early fall, the surface temperature of our lakes and ponds has begun to drop, and salmon and brook trout angling will pick-up substantially. Late season tactics of a shallow line and a quick retrieve will begin to produce again, as brook trout and salmon start their transformation from feeding to reproductive activity. Fall fishing can be the most rewarding of all seasons. Salmon and trout are in the best shape of any time of the year. Salmon are fat and bright, and nothing is as stunning as a brook trout all dressed up in its fall spawning colors! The scenery is hard to beat as the hardwood foliage starts to change from green to red, yellow and orange.
Next week we start our annual fall fin clipping operation here at Cobb Fish Hatchery. In years past we have marked up to 150,000 fish here at the Enfield, most of which are brook trout. This year we have made a concerted effort to reduce those numbers of fish to be marked to approximately 50,000. Demands on staff time and hatchery space as well as increasing fuel costs have forced us to reconsider marking as many fish as we have in years past.
The marking program has been a very helpful management tool evaluating our hatchery product. All salmonids, except lake trout, have a four-year rotation of fin clips. Lake trout have an 11-year fin clip rotation based upon their longevity. The presence of marked fish allows the fishery biologist to determine the age of any of our stocked salmonids as they encounter them in the field, without taking scales and reading them in the office at a later date. It also allows knowledgeable anglers the same ability to determine the age of any clipped hatchery fish that they catch.
Access to all of those stocked hatchery fish has always been a high priority for the Fisheries Division. We still have a number of lakes and ponds that do not have guaranteed public access. As more shore frontage of our lakes and ponds is sold and subdivided, access becomes ever more important.
Regionally we have eight projects that are in various stages of development. The other six Regions have similar numbers of access projects planned. Four of those eight sites in Region F have been purchased and are in development, and an additional four sites are awaiting transfer of ownership. Of those eight projects, four are located on streams and rivers and four on regional lakes and ponds. Of the four projects currently slated for lakes and ponds, all have active stocking programs; although two of those lakes have had hatchery programs interrupted or halted until access issues were resolved.