By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

MOUNT VERNON – Today should mark the final day of ice fishing on Parker Pond.

Instead, fisherman Steve Davis of Farmington says he’s getting ready “to hunker down.”

Already this season, Davis has winched a 4-pound brook trout from Parker’s depths. He has a photo to prove it. And, he says, he’s had other seasons where in the month of January alone he’s landed more salmon than there are days in the month, many in the 20-inch range.

In past years, Parker, a pond known for giving up some trophy-size salmon along with more than a few hefty brook trout, was limited to ice fishing in January only.

And, so that the pond’s salmon population wouldn’t be hammered too hard, ice fishers were limited to two traps. They could keep only a single silver beauty, too, and it had to be at least 16 inches in length or longer.

That was then. This is 2005. And someone – it doesn’t really matter who at this point – screwed up.

Maine’s ice fishing rule book, the law of the land when it comes to angling on the state’s frozen waters, is missing a special Kennebec County rule that applies to Parker Pond. Moreover, errors resulted in adding two special state regulations – one no longer in use – to the pond.

The missing county rule, KC-5, allowed ice fishing on the pond during January only, and limited fishers to two traps, according to Jim Lucas, the assistant regional fisheries biologist charged with monitoring Parker Pond.

The rule is designed to prevent overfishing. It’s needed in part, Lucas explained, because the smelt population in the pond isn’t that large or healthy. As a result, salmon, which primarily feed on smelt, are being limited in growth.

Sometime around 1998, the smelt population at Parker Pond crashed, Lucas said. Four or five streams where the bait fish would spawn were degraded to the point where they wouldn’t produce fry. Smelt are making a comeback of sorts now, he said, but not to the point where huge numbers of salmon can be sustained.

He says the rule book mistake, allowing anglers two more months of fishing and the use of five traps, might actually help smelt since more salmon should be removed from the pond.

But another state regulation foul-up opened Parker to night fishing for smelt. “We don’t know how many people are taking advantage of that,” Lucas said, in part because he hasn’t yet a chance to visit the pond this season.

Other fishermen think people are smelting, however. State Rep. Rodney Jennings, D-Leeds, was fishing Sunday with Jeff Richards of Livermore and Rich Dalessandro of Jay. The trio figures a friend of theirs has been taking his share of smelt from Parker this season, in part because he won’t fess up to where he’s been getting the fish.

Davis and some others in his fishing party said they intend to take advantage of the rule book bloopers. In past seasons, noted Rick Davis of New Sharon, they’ve fished for the month of January, then had to move their ice shack elsewhere.

“This year, we’re here for the season,” he said.

Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of people enjoying the use of five traps instead of two.

Richard Vashon of Oakland said he came down to Parker on Sunday in part because he and his son had heard of the mistake in the ice fishing rule book. They figured the pond was known for big fish, and if they could use five traps instead of two, it would make it worth their while to visit.

Vashon was keeping busy Sunday cleaning yellow perch from his hooks, and complaining that he was starting to run low on bait.

Lewis Prescott of New Sharon faired only a bit better. Besides landing his share of perch, he had iced a pickerel and a 2-pound smallmouth bass.

Bill Dunham of Chesterville has another take on the pond’s surging popularity among fishermen and women.

Dunham, a member of the Parker Pond Association, confesses to being “a hard-core fisherman.” He also confesses to not fishing his nearby pond hard.

Living so near the pond, Dunham says he’s seen a sharp increase in the numbers of people fishing there, along with equally sharp increases in the number of people racing around the pond on snowmobiles and four-wheelers, and in pickup trucks.

“There are more ice shacks out than than I’ve ever seen” as well, something Davis said he also noticed.

Dunham says he finds the noise of all of those motors and gas-fired augers to be annoying personally.

But he quickly adds that he’ll defer to the state’s biologists when it comes to the well-being of the fishery.

“I believe biology should always take precedent over politics,” said Dunham.

Biologist Lucas, meanwhile, says the pond should be able to handle the added pressure this season, providing it doesn’t become a regular thing.

“I’m hoping a lot of people go fishing there and have a good time and catch some nice salmon and trout,” he said, “and then that next year we go back to the way it was.”