Weekly Fishing Reports by Regional Fishery Biologists 
March 11, 2008
Weekly Fishing Report - From Our Biologists
The Ever-Changing Lawbook
How do you best manage fish populations?
That’s easy. Manage people!
This may seem to be odd logic but since the last Ice Age fish have been taking care of themselves quite nicely. Then humans came along. We fish, modify habitat, and perform a number of other activities that directly and indirectly impact fish populations. As my college fisheries professor Dr. Ringler used to say, “Fisheries management is 98 percent dealing with people and two percent dealing with fish.”
For the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Fisheries Division, the most direct method we have of managing the behavior of anglers is through the rules and regulations in our lawbooks. Like most other things, the easier a regulation is to understand the more useful it is. That is why over the last three years the Fisheries Division slowly has been making changes to the fishing lawbooks. Some of the recent changes include:
- Consolidation of bass regulations from 25 different regulation categories to five categories;
- Consolidation of lake trout regulations from 30 to 7 categories;
- Consolidation of brook trout regulations from 25 to 8 categories;
- Consolidation of landlocked salmon regulations from 16 to 8 categories;
- Combining the two extended fishing season, S-23 (Oct. 1-31) and S-24 (Oct. 1-Nov. 30) into one extended season from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. This allows for expanded fishing opportunities on more than 2,000 waters located throughout the state;
- Modifying the layout to improve readability and highlight new regulation changes.
At this moment some folks probably are throwing their hands in the air yelling, “Maine fishing law books are too complex! They should be more like a ‘fill-in-your-favorite-state’ variety – one book for any state!” Without a doubt Maine’s fishing lawbooks include a lot of special regulations and for good reason. There are more than 6,000 lakes and ponds and 32,000 miles of rivers and streams in the state. The Fisheries Division staff spends the majority of their time in the field studying waters and analyzing data that guides our management decisions. As our understanding of fish populations within individual water bodies grows, so does the need to tailor regulations to meet specific performance goals. These goals can range from providing high catch rates to producing trophy-sized fish.
As many anglers in Maine are focused on an individual species we spend a lot of time studying sportfish species and experimenting with regulations to find that right mix that satisfies all anglers. As you can guess, we will never be able to satisfy all of the desires of Maine’s diverse angler groups on every water, but we try.
Further changes are being considered for the fishing lawbooks in the near future, such as combining the Open Water and Ice Fishing lawbooks into one annual lawbook. Maine is the only “ice fishing state” that produces separate lawbooks for each of the seasons. Additionally, we are looking to adopting a two-year lawbook instead of an annual lawbook. As budgets remain stagnant or are cut, there is a renewed focus in finding ways to save money without sacrificing services. By creating a two-year lawbook we will be able to save on printing costs, remove redundant pages and decrease the amount of staff time devoted to the entire regulation/law book process.
This year’s Open Water Fishing book will be the first to show the new changes. Don’t throw it away! It will be a two-year book, namely in effect through March 31, 2010. Any changes to regulations will be announced on IF&W’s Web site and in press releases.
A further upcoming focus will be to address species’ specific regulations on rivers and streams throughout the state. For example the types of regulations that work for brook trout inhabiting lakes and ponds often are not applicable to brook trout populations in rivers and streams due to differences in available forage, habitat, water quality, and trout movement patterns.
There will always be fishing regulations and the Fisheries Division will always be attempting to balance the management of fish populations with minimizing the complexity of the lawbook. No matter what specific regulations are inside Maine’s fishing lawbook there are a few pieces of information that you will always need to know when using it, be it 2008 or 2018. These items are:
- Where you are – county and town;
- The name of the water you are fishing;
- Date – to know whether open water or ice fishing regulations apply;
- Your fishing gear – spinning gear, fly-fishing, ice trap or jigging pole;
- Type of bait attached to your fishing gear – fly, artificial lure, live bait or dead bait;
- Fish identification.
Regardless of when and where you fish in Maine keep that lawbook handy and, most importantly, enjoy your time on the water!
- Joe Dembeck, Research Fisheries Biologist, Bangor
A Springtime Tradition: Sea-Run Brook Trout
Open water fishing is just around the corner and before we all dash out the door on April 1 with rod in hand, I would like to talk to you about an interesting topic. Almost everyone knows that brook trout live in streams, ponds, rivers, and lakes. Did you know, however, that brook trout also thrive in the coastal estuaries and in the Gulf of Maine? These fish are known as sea-run brook trout or “salters” and recently there has been an increased interest in them.
Brook trout in Maine’s coastal streams have a unique behavioral strategy known as anadromy. Anadromous brook trout are those that leave their freshwater juvenile habitats and enter salt water conditions for a portion of their life, then return to freshwater at some point to spawn. Not all brook trout in coastal streams enter the salt water. There are some trout that live, grow and spawn in freshwater. It is unknown why some individuals prefer to stay in freshwater and some choose to head to sea. Preliminary research has shown little evidence that genetic differences contribute to these behavioral differences. Salter trout do not have the same coloration as their freshwater brethren. Salters adopt a silver to steel blue sheen with a white belly. The red dots with blue halos fade away to leave just yellowish spots. Once the trout return to freshwater, the beautiful coloration of typical freshwater brook trout returns within a couple of weeks.
Sea-run trout move downstream into the ocean anywhere from April through June and return to freshwater sometime from May to early August. It is likely that sea going individuals continuously move in and out of the estuaries to forage or to seek better temperature conditions. There is a lot yet to learn about why some coastal brookes head to sea and some do not!
Historically sea-run brook trout ranged from New York’s Long Island to Labrador, Canada. Today their range is reduced from its original size, but populations in the U.S. persist in Massachusetts and Maine, and perhaps Rhode Island. Sea-run trout have never been intensively surveyed in Maine and their current distribution, population status and potential threats in Maine are uncertain.
In response to this lack of information, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife started an effort to gather needed data on these unique populations. Our approach involves enlisting the assistance of volunteer anglers to collect data over a wide area of the state and report their angling effort, success, and fishing location to IF&W fisheries biologists. The volunteer angler surveys began in 2006 and will continue through 2008. At the end of the 2008 fishing season the data will be analyzed and used to help determine the future needs of IF&W and sea-run brook trout.
The data collected by anglers to date has been excellent, however IF&W is interested in increasing public participation in 2008. If you would like to participate in the volunteer angler surveys please contact IF&W Fisheries Research Section: Merry Gallagher at (207) 941-4381 or merry.gallagher@maine.gov
A collaborative research effort is under way on Mount Desert Island where a single population of sea-run brook trout in Stanley Brook is being closely studied and monitored. The partners in this effort include IF&W, the National Park Service, the University of Maine, and the Conte Anadromous Fish Research Laboratory in Turner Falls, MA. Stanley Brook, which is located in Acadia National Park, is approximately 1.2 miles long and drains directly into the Gulf of Maine. This brook contains sea-run and year-round resident brook trout. Biologists are looking at the movement of brook trout in and out of Stanley Brook. Brook trout are caught and tagged with electronic transmitters. A data-logging receiver has been installed a short distance upstream of the estuary. This receiver is capable of determining which individuals are passing and whether they are going up into the stream or down to the ocean. Very interesting to say the least!
A similar project is getting under way in Cove Brook in Winterport. This stream drains into the lower Penobscot River approximately 11.5 miles above the Waldo-Hancock Bridge. This stream is unlike Stanley Brook in that it has different fish species, different land uses, and drains into the Penobscot River instead of the Gulf of Maine. A University of Maine graduate student will be leading this project.
IF&W fisheries biologists began an expanded stream survey effort last year. This effort focuses on brook trout in streams that have never been surveyed. After surveying hundreds of stream sites we have a better idea of brook trout status in several areas of the state. We are a long way, however, from seeing the complete picture. Many sites were in coastal streams and allowed us to identify new sea-run trout streams and update existing data concerning trout in coastal habitats. I have sampled several of these fish and they are a sight to see. One indication that you have found a salter stream is when you spook a 12-inch trout out from its hiding place as you step across a small coastal brook.
There are sea-run trout streams and rivers scattered up and down the Maine coast. With a little leg work, you may find a small stream with a small pool and a big trout. And remember: take a youngster fishing with you and let the kid have the first cast at a truly great fish.
- By Zachary Glidden, Fisheries Technician, Fisheries Research Section, Bangor
The freshwater mussels of Maine
In Maine we have thousands of lakes and ponds, as well as tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams. These serve as essential habitat elements for all of Maine’s wildlife, but there’s a class of animals that live under these waters that usually escapes notice. Freshwater mussels in Maine are often the dominant animals in terms of biomass (total weight of all animals in an area) in waters throughout the state. Their shy, inconspicuous lifestyle keeps them from commanding much attention, but they have a highly unusual lifestyle when it comes to reproducing.
For the vast majority of their long lives, freshwater mussels simply sit partially buried and filtering water to feed on algae. When they reproduce, however, almost all freshwater mussels require a period of parasitism on fish “hosts.” As parasites go, mussel larvae (called “glochidia”) are fairly innocuous to the fish. The mussels are simply hitching a ride on their host by clamping on to either gills or fins and dropping off after a certain period of transformation. This habit allows them to colonize widely separated areas, as well as traveling upstream.
A female yellow lampmussel from Pushaw lake displays its mantle lure.
To further complicate matters, generally each mussel species (there are 10 in Maine) requires specific fish species to successfully transform into juveniles. To attract a desirable species, female mussels of some species have evolved a “mantle lure.” This is an outgrowth of the soft part of the body that resembles some food item of the targeted fish. When a fish attacks the “minnow” or other lure, the female releases a cloud of glochidia into its mouth to parasitize the gills. One species of mussel in Maine is known to use a lure resembling a minnow, but species in other states have lures that look like crayfish or leeches. Other mussels package the glochidia in a structure that looks like food and release it into the water. These often appear to be worms or insect larvae, and once attacked by a fish they disintegrate, allowing the glochidia to latch onto the gills.
Given their unusual way of overcoming mobility difficulties and the fact that mussels are a long lived and extremely important organism in aquatic habitats, I recommend learning more about these interesting organisms.
The Freshwater Mussels of Maine is a book that was released by IF&W several years ago, and it does an excellent job teaching identification and life histories of Maine species. Another resource on the Web is the Unio Gallery on Missouri State University’s Web site,
http://unionid.missouristate.edu/. There are some amazing pictures of mantle lures on this site.
- By Philip Wick, Fishery Biology Specialist, Fisheries Research Section, Bangor
