Editor’s note: The open-water fishing reports are provided weekly by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Region A

Southwestern Maine

Last week, I was on vacation and spent most of my time in the Moosehead area chasing brook trout and salmon with a friend. It was nice to get away and do some fishing in the North Country. Catching fish was actually a bonus. Our fishing season in Region A seems to be about to to three weeks ahead, but thanks to the cool, rainy season, trout and salmon fishing have held up surprisingly well for southern Maine. July is just around the corner, however. Coldwater anglers can expect the fishing to wind down as water temperatures increase.

There is still plenty of trout action available during the summer heat if anglers are willing to work a little harder, try some different techniques and target different water depths or locations. Lake trout fishing typically holds out all summer long with the right tackle, and good bets for Region A include Sebago Lake (Naples), Lake Auburn and Kezar Lake (Lovell). We had a local angler come in the office today to report catching a dozen or so lakers in the 12-to-20 inch range from one of our smaller lake trout waters. He also has been catching smelt in several waters by anchoring over deep water and jigging with small hooks tipped with worms or cut bait.

Although this technique is popular on some northern lakes, we rarely see or hear of anglers taking advantage of our smelt fisheries during the summer months in southern Maine. Small-to-medium-sized brook trout ponds can also be productive at this time if anglers target water depths adjacent to the thermocline, which is generally between 15 and 20 feet. Many of our small streams and beaver flowages maintain cooler temperatures and provide great action for six to nine-inch brookies all summer. Catching these wild brook trout is typically not too difficult, but one needs to be willing to beat the bushes and put up with lots of mosquitoes, which in my opinion are much nicer than black flies.

Another great opportunity for summer trout fishing includes brown trout, which are able to tolerate warmer temperatures than brook trout and generally provide better mid-to-late summer action. Many of our brown trout ponds, including Upper and Middle Range Ponds (Poland), Little Sebago Lake (Windham), Crystal Lake (Gray) and Mousam Lake (Acton), produce nice browns in the middle of summer. Trolling flies, lures or sewed bait around the thermocline can be quite effective. Other anglers prefer drift or still fishing with live fish or even crawlers.

Be patient! This type of brown trout fishing can be very slow, but the opportunity to catch a trophy trout in the three-to-10 pound range or occasionally larger is not uncommon. Stream fishing for browns in the 8-to-12 inch range also holds up later in the season, but anglers should focus on early morning or late evening fishing. Trout will also congregate to areas with cool water influence such as spring seeps or around the mouths of cooler tributaries. Some good bets for Region A include the Little Androscoggin River (West Paris to Auburn), Pleasant River (Windham), Nezinscot River (Buckfield), Little River (Gorham/Berwick), Great Works River (Berwick), Nonesuch River (Scarborough) and the Cold River (Stowe).

On the other hand, if you are tired of trout fishing, then we also have plenty of warmwater or coastal fisheries to try out. That’s what great about Maine. There are always a variety of different fishing opportunities throughout the year and around the state.

One last note: It was nice to come back from vacation and read some good news regarding illegal introductions. Apparently, the department was able to work with the legislature to pass an emergency bill, LD 1635. This bill significantly strengthens IFW’s current regulations, is more enforceable by the Warden Service, and also makes illegal transportation of live fish a criminal act with similar fines.

Jim Pellerin, assistant regional fisheries biologist
Region B Central Maine

One of the many aspects of a fishery biologist’s duties is to work in cooperation with other state agencies to determine what might affect a fishery resource in waters of the state. We review many projects that might affect a watercourse or lake and pond. In this region, we devote much time in reviewing road crossings with the Maine Department of Transportation, and the following is an excerpt of a communication on the work completed last week.

Having just spent some time on a tour to observe fish passage design at various road crossings in New Brunswick, I was reflecting on what the 14 of us observed when an e-mail came in to provide a synopsis of the tour and how we can apply it to our Maine concerns. When I got into the office on Monday, while doing routine work I received a request from Ben Condon of the MDOT to review an invert lining to a box culvert under Route 1 in Camden. I realized that New Brunswick’s design in conjunction with our own guidelines might have some application.

On Tuesday, I surveyed the stream with electrofishing gear and determined the presence of brook trout. I also looked over the site both up stream and down to determine what was best for fish passage. If what we all saw in New Brunswick has any merit, in combination from what I judged at Spring Brook in Camden, and with the help of MDOT Design, then we have an ideal site to apply the best fish passage at a crossing in a Maine salmonid stream.

The box culvert had a one-foot drop at the outlet with June 17 water flows, and the slope of the culvert bottom along with sheet flow prevented reasonable fish passage. I am proposing that we incorporate the design of a baffle and notch weir system with this rehabilitation of the box culvert. If I learned anything on the trip, then this site meets all the criteria needed to use weirs downstream at one or more sites, and some designed within the culvert as well.

Also on Tuesday and again one Wednesday, I reviewed some past designs that we incorporated at other crossings. In Kenduskeag, a slip lining in a much smaller culvert then what we saw in New Brunswick had opposing baffles incorporated into the design to facilitate fish passage. Two years ago in September, when I first visited the stream, it had all the right features to hold trout, but no trout were observed.

The lining went in last summer, incorporating a push bar on the outlet to ease entrance into the culvert. On June 2, 2003, we stocked some brook trout fry below the culvert to test the efficacy of the design. On Tuesday, I captured trout from the stocking below the culvert, just above the culvert, and above the box culvert at old Route 15, showing that the culvert was impeding passage. Evidently we did something right at that crossing, but we still need to go to the drawing board, because other sites may need some modifications.

Wednesday I went to Route 193 in Litchfield to determine whether there was fish passage through a new plastic pipe installation. I observed brookies and brownies above and below at this stream on August 24, 2000. The old alignment was also skewed, so I went along with the new plastic pipe and proper alignment. Looking it over last summer after the six-foot culvert was installed, I was sure it worked. The jury is still out, because I did not catch brown trout on either side of the culvert, although brookies were found.

The brown trout at this site I am sure are migrants from Sand Pond, several miles downstream, and their presence is dependant on free passage in those several miles of stream which may be blocked by other road passage problems or beaver dams. That aside, when I did the work Wednesday, the pipe did have sheet flow from the head of the culvert to about three quarters of the way down. Someone had conveniently placed a rubble rock dam about a foot up from the outlet that backed water up behind it. This created a situation we observed in N.B. similar to the baffles, without easy accessibility to the upstream pool. At the flow on the 18th, I observed that any fish would be hard pressed to negotiate the culvert. This site could be a place to test a retrofit of some sort of baffle system similar to the N.B. design or taken out of our design guide, because of the size and new style pipe used.

In addition to the Litchfield site, I also went to a Mount Vernon site on the 18th that does not appear to be passing fish. Bobby VanRiper of DOT incorporated a couple of push bars in the outlet area,that in themselves create a barrier to fish passage. The pool below the culvert appears adequate to facilitate culvert passage, but some modification may be needed to get fish over the push bar impediment. This is another small culvert that could be tested with brook trout fry, so we put some in last Friday and will go back after some time to see if they negotiated the barrier and the culvert.

William L. Woodward, assistant regional fishery biologist
Region D

Western Mountains

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting Brian Weidel, a researcher from Cornell University in New York, on a tour of the Rapid River drainage. Brian recently completed his portion of an important three-year study that measured the response of native fish communities to large-scale removal of invasive smallmouth bass from a small, coldwater lake in Adirondack Park (as in Maine, rampant illegal bass introductions are occurring in many areas of this country and Canada). We invited Brian to Maine as part of the Department’s continuing endeavor to seek ways to mitigate the negative effects illegally introduced smallmouth bass will have on native brook trout in the Rapid River.

Brian’s work clearly demonstrated that intensive boat electrofishing was effective at removing large numbers of adult and juvenile smallmouth bass. This required several nights of work during both the spring and fall seasons. The study provided evidence that most native fishes responded favorably to large-scale bass removal, but that intensive bass removal efforts must be continued indefinitely because bass continued to persist even after three years of intense removal.

Brian concurred with our previous assessments that bass should thrive in Pond in the River and that bass in 7,850-acre Umbagog Lake, located just downstream, greatly reduces the chance for sustainable control of bass in the Rapid.

We’ll continue to assess a variety of options to keep the Rapid’s brook trout population viable. With assistance from Florida Power and Light biologists Bill Hanson, Kyle Murphy, and Bob Richter, we’re conducting intensive studies to determine seasonal habitat use by young-of-the-year and yearling trout. These life stages are most vulnerable to bass predation, so learning where and when the two species overlap may help us target any bass removal project more efficiently. We’re also using radio telemetry techniques to study seasonal movements of landlocked salmon and smallmouth bass.

In the meantime, we believe that additional regulatory protection to the Rapid’s trout population is warranted and that competition from landlocked salmon should be reduced. Salmon are not native to this drainage; they were introduced late in the 19th century.

Furthermore, we are proposing to expand opportunities to harvest bass from Pond in the River. Specifically, we’re proposing the following regulation changes for the 2004 fishing season:

• Close Pond in the River to all fishing during July and August. Telemetry data indicate that large numbers of adult trout congregate here when river temperatures are at their peak. This rule seeks to eliminate all mortalities associated with hooking while these fish are concentrated and in a stressed condition.

• Close a section of the Rapid River between Lower Dam and Long Pool (about mile) to all fishing after September 15. Telemetry data indicate that large numbers of spawning-age trout congregate here by mid September. This rule also seeks to eliminate all mortalities associated with hooking while these fish are concentrated and in a stressed condition.

• Reduce the minimum length on salmon from 14 inches to 12 inches, increase the daily bag limit on salmon from one fish to two fish, and permit salmon harvest throughout the entire fishing season (currently catch-and-release after August 15). This rule seeks to reduce the abundance of salmon in the Rapid River and improve conditions for trout by minimizing competition.

• Permit the use of artificial lures in Pond in the River during the period June 1 to June 30 (currently fly fishing only). This rules seeks to increase the harvest of smallmouth bass in Pond in the River during the nesting season for bass.

The Department is seeking public comment on these proposals. Please call or write to us with your viewpoint. We can be reached at the following addresse: Forrest Bonney or David Boucher, 689 Farmington Road Strong, ME 04983. Phone is (207) 778-3322 , or e-mail to Forrest.Bonney@maine.gov or Dave.Boucher@maine.gov.

Dave Boucher, assistant regional fisheries biologist

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