Fishing, then and now

I was surprised to read that Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Lee Perry said 600 lakes or ponds in our eight northern counties would be considered for fishing an extra month in the fall. Apparently he and a majority of the board caved in to pressure from the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. Unlike southern Maine, we have wild populations of brook trout, etc., which are spawning in the fall. The biologists are right: Fall fishing is bound to hurt spawning and the season in these counties should not be extended.

Nearly 25 years ago, I went with a group on the Allagash. We loved the area, but didn’t have much luck fishing. I talked to a ranger at Lock Dam who said that fishermen on snowmobiles were putting pressure on the fish during the winter, and we were experiencing the effects of this winter fishing. Two years ago my friends and I fished Allagash Lake for two days and nobody got a bite.

I remember the great fishing experienced in the 1940s in northern Maine. After World War II, people started building roads with bulldozers and instead of walking five to 10 miles to get to the good fishing areas, we drove. The fishing stayed good for a number of years and then started falling off, as the resource couldn’t replenish itself as before. The last thing the fishermen need in Maine is longer seasons.

Robert D. Tweedie

Westfield