3-day conclave for fly fishermen slated for June Whitewater raft trips get early start

Fly-fishing enthusiasts will get the chance to visit with like-minded anglers and raise money for a good cause in June at the seventh annual Fly Fishing Conclave, which is organized by www.flyfishinginmaine.

The conclave will be held at the Nantantis Point Campground in the Chain of Ponds area from June 16-18.

The conclave is a gathering of the Web site’s virtual community and will include a presentation by Roland “Dan” Martin, the commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.

The group will also hold a series of raffles and silent auctions with the raised funds being given back to the community in the form of grants.

The group has already awarded one grant to the Rangeley Region Guides and Sportsman’s Association for a new fly-fishing program aimed at Maine youth and another grant to the DIF&W for a brook trout tagging study to be conducted in Chamberlain Lake.

“We’re very excited about this year’s conclave as it’s such a community event,” said Tim Soule of FFIM. “We have some great industry sponsors like Temple Fork Outfitters, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, Scientific Anglers, and Teeny Lines just to name a few.”

The group is also raffling off a five-day trip for two to Quebec and a custom-made bamboo fly rod that will be made by Maine rodmaker Kevin Little.

The conclave is open to the public. To learn more about FFIM and the event, go to www.flyfishinginmaine.com.

Rafters getting ready

The unusual amount of rainfall this past autumn and the unseasonably warm winter in Maine are welcome weather phenomena for whitewater rafters.

The warmer water with ice-free riverbanks will enable outfitters to begin trips up to a month earlier than the traditional May 1 start of Maine’s rafting season. Outfitters have trips booked as early as April 15 on the Kennebec River. Staff training trips began April 1.

Due to the abundant rainfall last autumn, river engineers were unable to lower the lakes to their normal winter levels. Lakes are at record high levels for the early spring. Unlike many rivers in the Northeast, Maine’s Kennebec, Dead, and Penobscot rivers are managed by water releases from hydropower dams and do not depend on natural spring runoff.

Lower than average snowfall this winter will not affect the rivers’ water flows.

The Kennebec River releases daily beginning in April at a minimum flow of 4,800 cubic feet per second. Penobscot River trips will begin in May with daily flows of 1,800-3,000 cfs. Dead River high-water releases of 3,500-7000 cfs are scheduled for May 6, 13, and 28, and June 3, 10, and 18.

Rafters must be a minimum age of 10 to raft the upper gorge of the Kennebec River and 15 for the upper sections of the Penobscot and entire length of the Dead River.

Members of Raft Maine, a trade association of 10 professional, licensed whitewater rafting outfitters, provide outdoor adventure trips on Maine’s wilderness rivers from April through early October. The outfitters offer outdoor adventures including lake and whitewater kayaking, inflatable kayaking, canoeing, fishing, hiking, rock climbing, and moose-, wildlife-, and bird-watching tours. Information on the rivers, outfitters, and trip planning is available online at www.raftmaine.com or 1-800-723-8633.

Wildlife area named for Dorso

Jim Dorso, a wildlife technician at the DIF&W for more than 20 years was honored this week when the Ruffingham Meadows Wildlife Management Area in Searsmont was renamed in his honor.

Dorso is considered to the be the grandfather of Maine’s waterfowl nesting box program, which at its height included more than 1,600 waterfowl nesting boxes throughout central Maine that were maintained by Dorso.

As a way to thank Dorso for his efforts, Deputy Commissioner Paul Jacques devised a plan of renaming the Ruffingham Meadows WMA in his honor. Jacques worked with regional staff who worked with the town of Searsmont to facilitate the name change.

These waterfowl nesting boxes are considered one of the primary reasons for the rebound in the wood duck population in Maine. Nearly extinct in the United States by the 1920s, the migratory bird treaty and the duck stamp helped fund land acquisition and management programs that included the duck nesting box program which helped bring back not only the wood duck, but other waterfowl species as well.