Most sportsmen in Maine are relieved to have the bear referendum behind them. Although sportsmen who shouldered the battle have reason to look back with pride and appreciation for a job well done, it was expensive and time-consuming.

The political struggle to save our hunting prerogatives and wildlife management rights diverted a lot of financial and manpower resources that could have been used toward more constructive ends. But it is over for now, and it’s good to be back on track.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM), which helped spearhead the bear battle, is also back on track. SAM has lashed together an ambitious agenda for this winter’s state legislative session. Among its list of legislative priorities is a plan to streamline and simplify our trout fishing regulations.

In SAM’s own words:

“The fishing rule book is far too complicated. This session, we will focus on simplifying the rules for brook trout anglers – recognizing that brook trout are Maine’s most popular species. If we can simplify the brook trout rules, perhaps that precedent can carry over to rules governing other species in the future. Our legislation will repeal all of the complex rules currently governing brook trout and enact into law a simple list of four rules that will govern bag and length limits as well as fishing tackle. The rules go from the most restrictive to the most liberal bag limits (no fish to five fish). The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife would be given one year to place each brook trout water in one of the four categories of rules established by the law. At the end of that year, all current rules governing brook trout would be repealed and the new law and rules would take effect. Our legislation will also repeal all special exceptions to brook trout fishing rules. Research by SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee discovered 162 unique exceptions to the general rules – and 137 of the exceptions are imposed only one to three times. We don’t need this kind of complexity to manage Maine brook trout.”

These new streamlined trout regulations would work something like this. Picture a pyramid with four basic fishing regulations. At the top would be Category I Catch & Release Waters. This would cover 10 percent of trout waters. Category II would be a one-fish limit for fish between 12-14 inches. This would cover about 20 percent of the trout waters. Next would be Category III, which would be a two-fish limit for fish between 10-12 inches. This would cover about 30 percent of state trout waters (you would be allowed one fish over 12 inches) The last reg, which would be at the base of the pyramid, would be Category IV. This would allow five fish with a 6-inch minimum. This would apply to the majority of trout waters, or about 40 percent.

Big picture

Looking at the big picture, these simplified regulations allow some trout harvest on 90 percent of all state trout waters with a trophy harvest permitted on 70 percent of these waters.

How is this proposal going over in the front office? As you might guess, reaction is mixed. As the issue is debated this winter some fisheries biologists will no doubt argue that all trout waters are unique habitats and careful trout management dictates unique “customized” fishing regulations. However, most regional fisheries biologists will concede that there is always room for improvement when it comes to consolidating or streamlining trout regulations. In apparent anticipation of the SAM legislative agenda regional fisheries biologists have been called by the boss to a January meeting to review existing trout regulations.

Greenville’s regional fisheries biologist Paul Johnson, who has plenty of trout waters in his jurisdiction, is full of questions. “How come nobody from the SAM fishing committee contacted me?” He adds, “Is there a biological base for SAM’s new trout regulations? If there isn’t there should be.”

Management by pros

Johnson sees some irony in SAM’s plan to “overrule” trout fisheries management by legislative decree. Johnson says, “It was just this fall during the bear referendum campaign that SAM faulted the bear referendum proponents for trying to take away wildlife management from the professionals.” Johnson also wonders how SAM’s plan fits into the big picture: the 16-year Brook Trout Plan that was hammered out by a Public Working Group and adopted by the Department in 2000.

Madison outfitter and shop owner Bob Mallard, who is a member of SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee, is enthusiastic about the new trout regs.

“It will help categorize our waters into a management plan that can be understood by the masses,” said Mallard. “It will also force the Department to either embrace progressive management practices such as catch and release and true slots or expose the fact that they do not.”

Mallard is convinced that the new trout regs are part of an overall vision that “completely reforms the way we do things in regard to managing our fisheries.”

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].