By law, the state is prohibited from stocking fish in lakes and ponds in which fair and reasonable access is denied the general public.

This provision in the state statutes took on added visibility when, a number of years ago, the city of Ellsworth threatened legal action agains the Maine Department of Conservation if it followed through on its plans to build a boat launch ramp on its land at Branch Lake. Once a thriving sport fishery for salmon and brown trout, Branch Lake has had no adequate place for the public to launch a boat for a number of years.

The law is the law: no public access, no state fish stocking of that water. The result, sadly, is that Maine has lost another excellent sport fishery.

The law is a sensible one. It’s intended to prevent lake residents from locking up a lake and creating their own private fishing preserve. The downside, of course, is that when lakeside residents, who may not care about fishing, block public access, a once proud sport fishery fades away, sometimes never to recover. Although the Branch Lake public-access battle is a story unfinished, the future prospects of the fishery grow dimmer with each passing year.

Another public access/fish stocking story is simmering on the back burner. In October, during a sportsman’s forum night at the Bucks Mills Rod & Gun Club, member Barry Robertson put his question to Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Danny Martin: “How can you continue to legally stock fish in Alligator Lake when the only boat launch site has been blocked off with large rocks?”

According to Barry, the commissioner was caught flatfooted. “You could have heard a pin drop,” Barry said.

Barry, not one to back down, followed up. “I want to know why you are still stocking this lake with trout and salmon, or are you going to remove the rocks, allowing equal access to all?” Robertson explained to the commissioner that camp owners on the lake have their own boat ramps in front of their camps.

So there is no equal access.

Robertson told me that Alligator Lake’s regional fisheries biologist, Rick Jordan, did admit to the gathered Bucksport sportsmen that he was afraid that this inconsistency was going to come out in the public sometime.

From what I can gather, there is an internal disagreement within the department over the stocking policy at Alligator Lake. As explained to me by MDIF&W’s fisheries chief, John Boland, there is considerable gray area in the way the issue evolved. For one thing, the old boat-launch site is privately owned. There was an erosion problem at the old site. The present landowner made it clear to the state that he wanted no part of upgrading or improving the launch. And, according to Boland, the lakeside residents who built their own private boat ramps, which created the inequity, are in some trouble with the Land Use Regulation Commission.

Boland said, “We plan to continue stocking Alligator.”

As with any user conflict, you have winners and losers, happy folks and unhappy folks. The Alligator Lake campowners have the best of both worlds, it seems: boat access and good fishing. Conversely, the day-use anglers and boaters, like Barry Roberston, can’t even get their boats in the water.

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].