A Defense of SAM’s Wild Trout Bill

By Gary Corson, SAM Fishing Initiative Committee Member

In 2005 SAM sponsored legislation intended to protect native (never been stocked) brook trout waters from the introduction of competing species. And believe it or not, our major concern at that time was IF&W stocking native brook trout waters.

            LD-1131 An Act to Recognize and Protect the Native Eastern Brook Trout as Maine’s Heritage Fish was voted out of committee as ought to pass in the spring of 2005. That legislation instructed the Dept. to create and maintain a list of the States native brook trout waters and it established two policies to protect these waters from the introduction of competing species:  The legislation prohibited IF&W from stocking any native brook trout waters with any species without legislative approval, and the legislation prohibited the use and possession of live fish as bait on these waters.

Throughout the testimony presented on LD 1131 there was mention of additional wild brook trout waters that may deserve similar protection being afforded the native waters. As a result the Legislative Committee directed the department to review these wild waters and to report back to the committee as to whether or not those waters were suitable for inclusion on the list of native brook trout waters. 

To briefly describe the report; it indicated that because the wild waters had been stocked, they should not be included on the native list. The report acknowledged that Maine’s native and wild brook trout lakes and ponds were a unique, valuable and irreplaceable ecological and angling resource worthy of special protection.

The report defined wild brook trout waters as principle brook trout fisheries, supported by natural reproduction, and waters that had not been stocked with brook trout in at least 25 years.

A list of 284 wild waters was created and attached to the report that met this criterion.

When SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee discussed our position regarding the ongoing wild brook trout initiative in Oct of this year, the list of 284 waters was our greatest concern.

We realized that in order to implement the policies needed to protect and conserve wild waters, as was done with the native waters, the waters on the list had to be, for lack of better words, “special and / or deserving” of that protection.

In other words, to prohibit stocking and to prohibit the use and possession of live fish as bait on some of the waters on the list of 284 waters, it just didn’t pass the straight face test.  Some waters had ongoing routine stocking programs - including splake, landlocked salmon, and lake trout, and some even had a combination of those species. Some waters on the list were questionable as to whether or not they even qualified as a principle brook trout fishery as defined by the Department.

            Although some of the waters on the list certainly didn’t qualify as needing special protection, others did. For example, 117 waters on the list were stocked prior to 1960. An additional 76 waters were never directly stocked and were removed from the native list because of the possible migration of stocked fish from another source.

It was these concerns that led SAM’s FIC to propose to the SAM Board of Directors the legislation now defined as LD 285, “An Act To Designate Additional Wild Trout Waters for Recognition and Protection.”

Earlier this year, John Boland formed a working group to address some of the concerns surrounding the wild brook trout issue. I represent SAM on that group.  To that group’s credit, within the last month discussions have taken place that could amend the list. The biggest change would be that any water that has been stocked with any species, not just brook trout, in the last 25 years would be removed from the list.  This has been SAM’s position from the very beginning.

In addition, at the group’s request each Region has reviewed and submitted a list of waters that the Regional Biologist has determined doesn’t qualify as a principle fishery, and those waters would also be removed.

If the working group’s recommendations were adopted, the original list of 284 wild brook trout waters would be reduced to 226 waters.

I want to qualify this statement. This is still a work in progress and that number has yet to be confirmed, however, I believe we’re close to an agreement. 

In order to give you an idea as to the number of waters under consideration, if the list of 226 is adopted, 61 currently allow the use and possession of live fish as bait. 44 of the 61 are closed to ice fishing- meaning that the waters on this list that are open to ice fishing and would prohibit the use and possession of live fish as bait totals 17 waters statewide.

            I’d like to make it perfectly clear that this legislation is not about and has never been about reducing or eliminating ice-fishing opportunities. Not a single water currently open to ice fishing today would be closed to ice fishing as a result of this legislations enactment.

This legislation is not about putting bait dealers out of business.  And this legislation certainly does not prohibit the use of all live bait on an additional 300 waters.

Last year an in depth, cooperative study on brook tout, conducted by state fish and game agencies from Maine to Georgia, known as the “Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture” was released. This study concluded that the state of Maine has 97% of all remaining native and wild brook trout populations found in lakes and ponds in the United States. The study also concluded that the greatest threat to existing brook trout populations is the introduction of competing species.

IF&W’s 2001 15-year brook trout management plan acknowledges the use and possession of live fish as bait as a chronic problem in brook trout fisheries management.

That’s what this legislation is all about. LD 285 does nothing more then protect this unique, valuable, historic and economical resource. Those are the words the Dept. used to describe the wild brook trout waters in their report to the legislature.

According to Forrest Bonney, IF&W’s brook trout specialist, at one time, nearly all of the  state's 6000 lakes and ponds were suited for brook trout. In 2005 we identified and protected 305 native brook trout waters that have never been stocked. Today, LD 285 proposes to protect another 226 wild brook trout waters that haven’t been stocked in 25 years or more. 

Who wouldn’t want their children, their grandchildren, and even their grandchildren’s children, to have the opportunity to fish native and wild brook trout waters in this State when they grow up?

Those of you old enough, like me, to remember fishing brook trout waters back in the 50’s and 60’s, think about the changes?

That’s what LD 285 is all about. Nothing more. Nothing less. LD 285 is about protecting some of the last remaining wild brook trout waters in the country from the introduction of competing species.