List of late-fall fishing sites to be last issued from state

PORTLAND – A new list of lakes where Maine’s fishing season will extend into October will be the last, according to the state’s director of fisheries operations.

The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has spent the last 15 years adding to the number of stocked fisheries where it allows late fall fishing, but John Boland says a proposed list of 42 more locations will be the last.

The public will be invited to comment on the proposal this spring. Peter Bourque, state director of fisheries program development, says the department is reluctant to open many more waters because most sustain wild populations that need to be protected from fishing pressure.

“Unless there is a petition for a specific water body, we probably would not be recommending a large number of waters,” Bourque said.

Boland said the general outcry for more fall fishing opportunity has never been great.

But the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine wants all waters open later in the fall, New Sharon fishing guide Gary Corson said.

Corson said that with catch and release, the fish are not harmed, and wild fisheries are not at risk.

But Boland said the department went through every surveyed water body in the state, and will not take a chance on opening up wild fisheries for late-season fishing.

“Essentially, this is going to be it. Then we’ll be able to say we’ve looked at everything,” Boland said.

The state has extended the fishing season on hundreds of water bodies to provide fishing opportunity beyond September, when the general season closes in most of northern and western Maine.

In southern and central Maine, virtually all waters are now open through October, Boland said.

Around 1996, Boland said, the state started allowing fishing on some stocked trout waters in October and November. Two years later, the general season was extended on almost all water bodies in eight central and southern Maine counties.