Protecting your favorite trophy lake

[lunkahville]

I'm for the most part a c&r guy. But I'm also looking for trophy class fish. That's what we all strive for isn't it? Or are you out there to be "closer to nature". Either way I'm not gonna judge. But if more lakes were managed for trophy class brook trout, salmon, togue the list goes on.. That were originally brook trout, salmon, togue fisheries keep them that way. Supliment the forage for said trophy fish with repopulating the depleting smelts in those lakes. Have a slot to manage undersized or over populated. And for the smallmouth/crappie/pike guys I'm not singling you out either. Manage places that are or have the potential to be excellent fisheries. Maine has a strong heritage in the outdoors and with today's hoodads and whatcha macallits it seems to be getting away from that. Bigger healthier fish is what we are known for.... so let's find a system of stocking and limiting (bag limits/fishing methods/trap limits) to achieve this goal. As for the trophy part, if and when I catch my worthy fish, quick measurements and alot of pictures and back down the hole. I'd rather pay double for a reproduction mount over a skin mount. When the return of that fish being able to continue to reproduce. Worth every penny in my mind but that's just my .02

[MGK]

What a lot of people don't realize is a lot of the lakes have too many game fish. You can't have 30 fish days and expect s bunch of big fish. Square has been brought up a couple times. The problem with that lake is too many salmon and no way to control it. The natural reproduction there is through the roof hence the smelts are suffering. In all fairness to IF&W I'm not sure how they can regulate that other than longer seasons and generous bag limits.

[MEhunter]

First off every good  fisherman knows its very easy to catch Salmon & Brook trout through the ice
Both these species of fish are extremely aggressive and use only specific portions of the water column .
That's why I mentioned ice fishing over open water fishing

And it's harder to catch them trolling when you're constantly covering ground with your lures/bait set at the exact depth you're marking fish/bait at in the water column? I've had some good salmon days through the ice, but they don't compare to the best trolling days I've had.

Out west they actually close a lot of waters down in the summer to open water fishing because fish can't handle the stress of being fought in such warm temperatures. I see a lot of guys continuing to fish for salmon in the summer when they probably shouldn't.

I don't think it's a simple blanket solution. No two lakes are the same, they all have their own "issues." I also think these issues can change from year to year. The way things are now all everyone does is complain that there are too many fishing laws as it is and the law books are to "difficult" to decipher. I can't imagine the complaints the state would get if they started enforcing more specific laws by water body than by region and changing them around year in and year out.

Open water fishing on Sebago obviously does way more to affect the salmon quality than ice fishing does. Looks at Mooselookmeguntic, ice fishing has absolutely nothing to do with the quality, or lack there of, the salmon in there.

I wish it was a simple solution, but I don't just see it as such. Some lakes need more fishing pressure, some need less. Some need more regulation, some need less. Some people want to catch big fish, some want to catch a lot of fish. Some people want to ice fish, some people want to open water fish.  It's impossible to make everyone happy. Bottom line is there are still big fish out there for the guys that want to put the time in to chase them.

[GRGS]

They have the same problem up to Mooselookmeguntic, IFW even allowed an all you could keep weekend ( for a certain lengths) on Salmon. Still have the same problem today and Kennebago lake too.

We do have Trophy waters in this state called flyfishing only ponds!!

[jacksmelt71]

People say how much splake reduced the yellow perch population, then say to stock togue. If splake worked so well in the past why stock togue instead of splake. Togue can reproduce and overpopulate a lake. Splake do not reproduce and become a problem.

we don't have a overpopulation problem like s. maine. we actually need more predators to eat these y. perch. even s. maine waters that have a good population of bass a lot lesst less y. perch in them. the same would happen w/ togue. plus there were togue originally in all the fish river chain of lakes before man changed things. they want to protect the native brookies they should have regulated stocking of togue to bring them back into play. my 2 cents!

[Seamonkey84]

Many of our waters would benefit from more selective harvesting of game fish. I don't know many people that keep bass, but those are another prime gamefish that tend to get stunted because everyone release them. Then there's the problem of people illegally introducing them to more and more bodies to water. A friend of mine that primarily fishes for bass was shocked when I told them they aren't even native in Maine, and that the state stocked them originally, then they just spread through waterways and buckets.

[Slammin_Brookies!!]

I personally wouldn't mind all waters in Maine to fall under some regulation to all trout and salmon must be atleast 21" And Brook Trout 16" But i also release 99% of fish. So it would make for some killah fish but the state would lose $$ so I dont see it happening. The only other problem would be overpopulation and stunted growth on lakes with good natural reproduction and a low food sources..... the state would save some $$ on their stocking program  though.

[Loves To Fish]

First off every good  fisherman knows its very easy to catch Salmon & Brook trout through the ice
Both these species of fish are extremely agressive and use only specific portions of the water colum .
That's why I mentioned ice fishing over open water fishing
As for protecting fisheries on open water look at Moosehead it protects large areas of prime spawning areas and smelt run areas that allow no fishing period !
I like many of the folks that fish Long remember when it was protected & produced 7-10 lb Salmon regularly . Look at some of the best Salmon & Brook Trout fisheries in this State they are highly protected and Ice fishing is not allowed on the majority of these trophy waters !

It's good that we all can discus these issues to maybe change the future of some fisheries or get others perspective of what should change or not .

Thanks for your insight

Hey Brian,
                 Great thread. I just wanted to add a couple more points to why ice fishing waters currently get closed more often than many open waters in the state. It's because fish tend to swallow the bait deeper and more frequently during ice fishing than trolling during the open water season. Plus the fact that removing fish into freezing temperatures also makes it hard for them to survive the encounter with fishermen.
Yes , I do realize we have some people cutting the leaders and not removing fish from the water as a way to reduce ice fishing mortalities, but there are still too many people trying to save a buck by removing hooks that are way to deep down the fish's throat. And we have way too many people removing fish in freezing temps just to take a pic.

                 Here's a couple of things that may help the nagging yellow perch problem we seem to be having all over the state. Shortly after the smelt spawning runs every spring, yellow perch take to the same streams to spawn. It wouldn't be that hard to set nets or traps to catch and remove thousands of spawning yellow perch every year. I know this wouldn't eliminate all yellow perch, but it would certainly slow their numbers down considerably. Also, promoting yellow perch derbies ( kid's derbies ) to help the other fish species in the lake thrive is a great way to reduce their numbers.

[jacksmelt71]

both great ideas dennis! i know the trapping part is under consideration by i.f.w and I've been trying to get interest in a perch derby in march for the kids but I'm not getting much inerest as they're such a hated fish in the 1st. place. i have some interest but not enough to make a real difference. on a positive note, there are more prizes added for perch w/ the long lake derby but we need a lot more anglers to get involved to really put a hurting on them. ill keep trying!

[Loves To Fish]

both great ideas dennis! i know the trapping part is under consideration by i.f.w and I've been trying to get interest in a perch derby in march for the kids but I'm not getting much inerest as they're such a hated fish in the 1st. place. i have some interest but not enough to make a real difference. on a positive note, there are more prizes added for perch w/ the long lake derby but we need a lot more anglers to get involved to really put a hurting on them. ill keep trying!

Just another thought Steve. Don't know the legalities here, but what if all the yellows that get turned in from a kids derby get sold to a NY market and all proceeds go to some charity, ( maybe kid's prizes ), of the derby 's choice. I think that might help increase participation. Just a thought.

[Seamonkey84]

Just another thought Steve. Don't know the legalities here, but what if all the yellows that get turned in from a kids derby get sold to a NY market and all proceeds go to some charity, ( maybe kid's prizes ), of the derby 's choice. I think that might help increase participation. Just a thought.

Seriously!  when I saw the price of yellow perch and sunfish fillets per pound I was shocked. To think, we're sitting on a gold mine lol. I'm going to have to show those prices to my friend that hates perch. he leaves them all on the ice, and isn't too gentle when he takes the hook out when ever he catches one.

[Loves To Fish]

Seriously!  when I saw the price of yellow perch and sunfish fillets per pound I was shocked. To think, we're sitting on a gold mine lol. I'm going to have to show those prices to my friend that hates perch. he leaves them all on the ice, and isn't too gentle when he takes the hook out when ever he catches one.

Yeah, I was thinking that maybe a derby could request a permit from MIF@W for the purpose of selling the yellows to NY for charity reasons.

[Seamonkey84]

I do remember seeing a commercial perch harvesting permit, so there's probably already procedure for the export. Of course the buyers will be wanting to get them at wholesale price. But honestly I feel that would a wonderful use of our "junk" fish and help with the population on some waters. Honestly I love catching perch and panfish, and would would love to participate in such charity events. I don't eat much fish so I usually send them back down the hole, especially the bigger ones. If they were to be put to use, I'll keep them all and hand them over lol. Keep them from getting stunted, but at the same time I wouldn't want to over do it on any water... Unless they are truely invasive and not wanted.

[IceMan100]

Yellow Perch are very good eating if you want to take the time to clean them,  very sweet tasting, almost like lobster!    the way I do it is gut them and boil them,   than let cool and take the white meat.