One more quick delayed report....

[No Time To_Fish]

My moosehead trip a few weeks ago was a blast. The first day was bright sunny and a bit slow, but I think the three of us managed somewhere around 9 togue. My buddy's dad caught almost all of them out of the same hole in about 70' of water. They just weren't biting shallow that day at all.

The second day was a blast, for a period of about an hour at the end of a mild action day, I couldn't keep traps in the water. I was set up over a ledge at a bunch of diff depths, and I couldn't even walk away from a trap without the flag going off, that is if I even got to set it. I had more hook ups just lowering the bait! At one point I had three flags up at the same time, trying desperately to get one in with about 90 feet of line out, watching the other two that were set deeper just keep spooling out! I ran out of live bait and just started chucking the dead bait that was lying on the ice in the hole, and they were taking that within seconds! To add to the fun, there was a white out approaching down the lake that engulfed us part way through it. The other guys that I was with has some decent luck that day too. We iced over 20 togue around 14-16 inches, a couple over 18 inches and one that was about 7 inches. The biologist stopped in to talk to us that day and filled us in on the plight of the smelt population and gave us some numbers on the overblown size of the togue population.

The third day we woke up to 45-50 mile per hour winds and snow drifts threatening to engulf the vehicles. We ended up taking the sleds for about a 50 mile ride up toward rockwood on the ITS trails just to get out and do something. True to my luck, I ended up breaking the rear suspension in the sled that I was on, when two bolts backed out and the suspension bound up and broke a shock link arm.... oh well. Turns out you can still get a sled to move with 8 inches of hanging slack in the track.....you just have to do it very carefully and don't try to go up hill! Worst part was that it broke out by Moose Island and we were on the southern part of the lake. We did end up going back out to fish for about 4 hours with me taking the 4.5 mile ride sitting in the jet sled tucked in between the gear.... boy was my butt sore from that trip. I iced 4 that afternoon and the other guys caught a few as well.

All in all not a bad trip and I'm def going back next year!

[Mainehazmt]

The biologist stopped in to talk to us that day and filled us in on the plight of the smelt population and gave us some numbers on the overblown size of the togue population.

Fill us all in on the #s and info please

[No Time To_Fish]

Fill us all in on the #s and info please

Geez you had to put me on the spot.... its been two weeks so I'll see what I can remember correctly. Please feel free to let me know if I'm off if any of you also know.

He basically said about 20 years ago the Togue population was around 250,000 in the lake and right now they are estimating that there are 500-600,000 in there. He gave me some fish per acre numbers that I don't recall.... but I'll take a shot. Moosehead is 74890 acres, at 250K fish that would be around 3 fish per acre, now with 500-600K in there it would be around 6-8 per acre. For some reason those sound lower than what I thought he told us..... anyway.... He said that a typical yearly harvest out of moosehead in the past has been 3,000 - 4,000 togue per year, but that they hope to seriously surpass that number. During the Togue derby there were 2,024 fished checked in during that one weekend alone. He said they hope to exceed 10,000 per year, but added that it would still only be a very small drop in the bucket to say the least. Also given that the togue spawn in late October in 4-5 feet of water and hatch in the spring, they are lowering Moosehead by around 5-10 feet in the hopes that many of the egg hatches will be on dry ground this spring to kill off the eggs. I'm personally curious to know how this might affect other species.  As would be expected he said the smelt population is really suffering right now with so many mouths to feed.

The first day we caught a few over 18 inches that seemed to be fat and healthy and they were released. He more or less scolded us for that move. He said take them out, even over 18 to fill your 2 over legal limit even if you don't eat them. Fertilize your tomatoes was the recommendation.

They really want them out in a big way! Hope that helps and my apologies if I'm way off on some of those numbers.

[Mainehazmt]

thank you for the #s    I personally like to hear stuff like that   prob also explains why even I caught fish at moosehead this year  lol

[Out4Trout]

Good posts kai, lots of times I don't take the time to read long posts, but it was a good story of the weekend on the first post and good info in the 2nd. Sounded like a great time at Moosehead. Going to try to get up in that area during open water this year.

[mainedukblaster]

Going to try to get up in that area during open water this year.

same here and gonna clean em out!!! Multiple runs to the truck/ camp :-) maybe an eagle feast?  WHOA did I say that!! LOL,.,  but if they want them to be cleaned out the eagles can surely help..

[pfd168]

Sounds good Jeremy!! I iced a ton this year. I say ice em all and let the Eagles sort em out.    LOL

[Phoenix]

Seems like a bad precedent to me (wholesale killing of togue/ recommendation to use them as fertilizer or leave on the ice/ messing with the water levels to kill the eggs). Why couldn't they take some of them that were caught during the tourney, put em in a truck, and release them in a water short on togue ( they've done this in the past)?

And what happened years ago when there was little or no fishing pressure there and the togue were spawning at will? I don't think they were all stunted and starving were they? Won't the togue feed on the small ones if the get hungry enough?

[Loves To Fish]

Seems like a bad precedent to me (wholesale killing of togue/ recommendation to use them as fertilizer or leave on the ice/ messing with the water levels to kill the eggs). Why couldn't they take some of them that were caught during the tourney, put em in a truck, and release them in a water short on togue ( they've done this in the past)?

Can you name me one lake that is short on togue? Anyways, it's highly illegal to move one fish from one lake to another. That's the number one reason we have so much trouble with a lot of our lakes now.

Great posts, Jeremy. Moosehead treated us very well also. It was alot of fun. Hope to do it again next year.

[Loves To Fish]

Now you got it.    You're fitting in rather nicely on the Shanty, Jeremy.

[No Time To_Fish]

thank you for the #s    I personally like to hear stuff like that   prob also explains why even I caught fish at moosehead this year  lol

Not a problem.

Good posts kai, lots of times I don't take the time to read long posts, but it was a good story of the weekend on the first post and good info in the 2nd. Sounded like a great time at Moosehead. Going to try to get up in that area during open water this year.

Thank you much. I try to give back as much as I can because what I get from others on this site is so generous!

Seems like a bad precedent to me (wholesale killing of togue/ recommendation to use them as fertilizer or leave on the ice/ messing with the water levels to kill the eggs). Why couldn't they take some of them that were caught during the tourney, put em in a truck, and release them in a water short on togue ( they've done this in the past)?

And what happened years ago when there was little or no fishing pressure there and the togue were spawning at will? I don't think they were all stunted and starving were they? Won't the togue feed on the small ones if the get hungry enough?

Yes the larger ones will feed on the smaller ones. That's why there is no bag limit on smaller fish, but only two over 18 are allowed to be kept. The hope there is that more of the larger ones are released to continue to grow, both to increase the fishery and to allow for that predation to take place.

This is really not all that different from the methodology employed to combat many other population explosions in wildlife. i.e. towns and cities hiring archers to "thin" an overpopulated deer herd, IF&W lowering the number of doe permits this year due to a hard winter on the deer, etc, etc.

Now you got it.    You're fitting in rather nicely on the Shanty, Jeremy.

How's that? Better

[Phoenix]

Can you name me one lake that is short on togue? Anyways, it's highly illegal to move one fish from one lake to another. That's the number one reason we have so much trouble with a lot of our lakes now.

Yup, I know a couple that are closed to the taking of togue. I meant for the State to do the moving, not a private individual.

[WANNABFISHIN]

Can you name me one lake that is short on togue? Anyways, it's highly illegal to move one fish from one lake to another. That's the number one reason we have so much trouble with a lot of our lakes now.
[/quote]
I couldnt find the stocking list but I'm positive there were a few lakes that the state stocked with togue last year.  I dont know how conceivable it would be to try to keep them alive ice fishing in order to transport to a different lake.  I cant imagine wasting them like that though, they're the perfect size for eating.

[pikehater]

Can you name me one lake that is short on togue? Anyways, it's highly illegal to move one fish from one lake to another. That's the number one reason we have so much trouble with a lot of our lakes now.

I couldnt find the stocking list but I'm positive there were a few lakes that the state stocked with togue last year.  I dont know how conceivable it would be to try to keep them alive ice fishing in order to transport to a different lake.  I cant imagine wasting them like that though, they're the perfect size for eating.

I believe one lake in Maine was stocked with togue last year.  Lake Auburn.

[WANNABFISHIN]

I believe one lake in Maine was stocked with togue last year.  Lake Auburn.

I dont know if I missed any but here a few: sebec, nahmakanta, nickerson, auburn, millimagasset, millinocket and clear.  Thats just the lakes the state could afford to stock, there are probably plenty more lakes that could support higher togue #'s

[Jim_C.]

This is a good point.  The lakes with good recruitment from naturally reproducing togue may well have plenty of fish in many places.  The lakes that rely on stocking are getting slower.

I dont know if I missed any but here a few: sebec, nahmakanta, nickerson, auburn, millimagasset, millinocket and clear.  Thats just the lakes the state could afford to stock, there are probably plenty more lakes that could support higher togue #'s