One fish. Two fish.

Brian Gilbert of Minot wasn’t the only angler to catch a keeper togue at Lake Auburn Tuesday, opening day of Maine’s open-water fishing season. Minutes after Gilbert landed his fish, Chris Gould, 25, of Auburn caught one using a PVC pipe fed under the ice from his vantage point on Route 4.

Gould, who was fishing with his best friend, Don Munroe of Greene, hauled in a 19-inch togue that he estimates weighed about 2 pounds.

Plenty enough for a fine meal.

– Judith Meyer
Fast facts for prison

The person on the outside can’t get the entire skinny on life behind bars just by watching “Prison Break.” Here are some odds and ends that might be good to know if you find yourself with hard time on your hands, courtesy of Maine State Prison Warden Jeffrey Merrill.

• Soft balls still get spot-checked for contraband. At the old prison, located in-town on Route 1 in Thomaston, Merrill said people used to mosey up at night and hock soft balls full of drugs over the wall and into the prison yard.

The balls would roll and gather in one place, Merrill said. Guards would have to collect them in the morning.

• The edges of personal electronics like TVs and Gameboys get sealed by prison officials with something akin to evidence tape. Tape’s broken, item’s taken away. That’s to discourage stealing the motors inside for tattoo guns, he said. (Illegal tattoos are a problem.)

• “Tobacco is the contraband of choice” at the moment, Merrill said.

Used butts nicknamed “ABS’s” or already-been smoked’s, sell for $5 among inmates. As for lighting the illegal smokes, inmates stick two pieces of metal in a light socket, lay pencil lead across the metal and light the cigarette from the lead when it heats up.

Merrill said they’ve installed sensitive sockets to alert staff when someone’s trying that.

– Kathryn Skelton
Buckling bigger belts

Size doesn’t matter. Really.

Maine’s new seat belt law applies to you, no matter how large you may be, even if the standard seat belt won’t reach around your middle. Police can and will ticket anyone who isn’t wearing a seat belt, starting with a first-time fine of $50 on up to $250 in fines for repeat offenses.

The law, according to Lt. Mike McGonagle of the Lewiston Police Department, “applies to everyone.”

Drivers and passengers of some girth can purchase seat-belt extensions, which McGonagle said satisfy requirements of Maine’s seat belt law.

Extensions, available through car dealers, buckle on to existing seat belts to “extend” the reach. Extenders are specific to the make of each vehicle, though, according to Shane Estabrook, parts counterperson at Lee Auto Mall. Chrysler extenders run about $25, on average, and Nissan sells extenders for about $40. Most dealers keep them in stock, but if not available, they can be ordered and available very quickly.

“You have to buy it for your specific vehicle,” Estabrook said, and if “one isn’t enough you can add two. If two aren’t enough, you can add three.”

Lewiston police keep a couple of extenders around for their officers, whose middles are widened by equipment belts, so they can safely buckle into their GM cruisers.

“We have a lot of stuff on our gun belts,” McGonagle said, which creates an unnaturally large waist for some officers.

– Judith Meyer