Biologist: Catch-and-keep rather than release at Phillips Lake

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Much of the time, many of the state’s fisheries managers would rather have us anglers keep less of our catch.

The catch-and-release ethic has increasingly caught hold over the years, and many anglers spend hundreds of hours on the water each year … catch hundreds of fish … and take none home.

To those conservationists who enjoy catching much more than eating, the mere term “bag limit” is a foreign concept.

Most of the time, those fishermen are applauded by fisheries biologists.

But not always.

Late last week I received an e-mail from Ron Brokaw, a Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fisheries biologist Down East in which the veteran expert asked for help.

Here are parts of his e-mail:

“We have a big problem at Phillips Lake with the fisheries. Too many predators (wild togue and stocked salmon) and not enough prey (smelt). The lake needs help from anglers (keeping more fish) this spring and summer,” Brokaw wrote.

Brokaw said the increasing wild togue population, along with too many stocked salmon, have caused the smelt population in Phillips Lake (“Lucerne” to many locals) to crash. The result: A marked reduction in salmon and togue growth rate. In fact, the salmon that were trap-netted last fall were the smallest and thinnest biologists have seen since 1993.

“Adding to the problem is the substantial amount of catch-and-release, especially on togue, practiced by Phillips Lake anglers,” Brokaw wrote.

In an effort to turn the situation around, Brokaw and DIFW staffers will be initiating a three-point plan:

. The salmon stocking rate will be reduced to 150 fish next month to decrease predation on smelt.

. Many smelt eggs will be transferred into the lake in order to help that population rebound.

. New regulations will be proposed in order to allow anglers to keep more fish.

Among those proposals: A summer daily bag limit on togue of three fish, with a minimum length limit of 14 inches; Also, a daily bag limit on salmon of two fish, only one of which can exceed 18 inches.

“These proposals will allow fishermen to thin out the togue and salmon, thereby leading to improved growth conditions,” Brokaw wrote. “A public hearing will be held in the summer, probably in August, at which time anglers will have the chance to offer their opinions to the commissioner.

“That’s what we will do on our end. But the lake needs a lot of help NOW from fishermen. From now until Sept. 30, it’s essential that a good proportion of anglers switch the ol’ mantra around by killing their limit, rather than limiting their kill.

“While catch and release is a wonderful thing most of the time, now is clearly NOT one of those times at Phillips Lake.”

Ice updates: In case you missed it, Saturday’s column conversation with Kurt Cressey was full of information from the owner of the popular Pine Tree Store in Grand Lake Stream.

Unfortunately, by the time you read some of that information, it was outdated.

That’s what I found out on Monday, when I checked my phone messages and found that Cressey had called with an update late Friday afternoon … after I’d already left the office for the weekend.

As you may recall, Cressey had predicted ice-out on West Grand Lake to occur about a week after Big Lake went out … in this case, today (or thereabouts).

For lake trollers, that’s important: They want to hit West Grand as soon as possible after ice out.

News flash: Hook up your boat and head Down East. West Grand is open.

It seems that windy weather late last week broke up the icy coat sooner than expected.

“Basically the ice is all out of West Grand right now,” Cressey said on the message he left on Friday. “There’s a few coves that have ice packed into them, but we’re gonna call ice out tomorrow, Saturday.”

In other ice-out news, Bob Cram of Medway e-mailed with an update of his own … and a bridge construction report you may find encouraging.

“I was up by the Pemadumcook chain of lakes [Friday] and the ice is out on all of them. Just thought I’d drop you a line and let you know in case nobody else has done so. North and South Twin and Ambajejus are all ice-free, as is Millinocket Lake itself,” Cram wrote.

In addition, Cram said that those worried about the reconstruction of Abol Bridge – a gateway to many popular fishing haunts on the West Branch of the Penobscot – should know that plenty of progress is being made on the bridge.

“The rebuild of Abol Bridge on the Penobscot seems to be right on schedule. It’s still scheduled to open for light vehicle traffic on May 20.”

Thanks again to all who’ve called and e-mailed with information that will help their fellow outdoors enthusiasts.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.