Salmon group has worries about pike

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Moments after the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission voted to allow salmon fishing on the Penobscot River this fall, Pat Keliher was ready to get back to work.

Keliher, the ASC’s executive director, had helped formulate the regulation that will allow catch-and-release fishing for a one-month period in September and October.

But on Thursday, Keliher was clearly in damage-control mode.

The reason: Northern pike.

“A group of us is leaving right now to go look at the fishways on the Enfield and Howland dams, to see what our options are, and it’s my hope that within the next two weeks to 30 days, we’re going to have a short-term plan on how to deal with the pike that are already in the system,” Keliher said.

The immediacy of Keliher’s concern on a day worth celebrating – the Penobscot has been closed to fishing for salmon since 1999 – was telling.

The ASC is concerned. Very concerned. And as ASC biologist Richard Dill pointed out, they’ve got several good reasons.

Pike, as you may recall, were illegally introduced into Pushaw Lake, and were discovered there in 2003.

Since then, they’ve reproduced and spread, as fisheries personnel originally predicted.

Eleven pike were caught and reported by ice anglers on Pushaw last winter. In April, he and DIF&W biologists headed back to the lake to track radio-tagged pike during the spawning season and find out where they headed. Then they set up nets and waited.

“The result of those nettings over the month was that we caught 14 pike, unfortunately,” Dill said. “The largest one was almost 12 pounds. And 13 of those 14 pike were females.”

Dill said radio-tagging the pike – which some salmon anglers have criticized, since it meant re-introducing the fish back into a lake where they weren’t wanted – proved effective.

“The radio tags allowed us to track those fish about two miles up into the inlet,” Dill said. “We would have captured some fish [without the tags] but we wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful.”

If that many pike existing in Pushaw doesn’t raise your ire, this next item will: The pike are apparently on the move … just like biologists said they would.

“[In May the DIF&W] got a report of a pike being caught on the Stillwater River, which is the west channel of the Penobscot that runs around the west side of Marsh Island [in Orono],” Dill said.

And that’s what has Keliher and others scrambling. If pike are already in the main stem of the Penobscot – the fish in question wasn’t kept, and the report is anecdotal – they may gain access to the upper reaches of the river.

Pike are top-of-the-food chain predators, and would likely find thousands of stocked salmon smolts a tasty hors d’oeuvre.

Keliher said his group has teamed with others to set up a sizeable cash reward pool, seeking information about illegal stocking. And they’re already talking about what they can do to stop the spread of the pike that do exist.

Dill said a committee has met to discuss the matter, and all options were discussed. A report from the committee will be submitted to Keliher.

In the meantime, Keliher and other interested groups are looking at dams, making short-term plans, and trying to avoid a disaster.

Peter Bourque, the state’s director of fishery program management, cautioned that taking drastic steps to eliminate one predator produced a risk to other species that can’t be ignored.

Shutting down the fishway in Enfield and Howland, for instance, would make sure pike didn’t head upstream. It would also eliminate access for native species trying to move upriver.

“We’re in an effort to try to restore native species, but at the same time we need to be considerate of the native species that we have in the rest of the ecosystem and not make some mistake to destroy what fisheries we have there,” Bourque said.

The answers ahead won’t be easy, and the problems presented by the illegal introduction of pike will likely continue to be felt.

For Keliher, the apparent discovery of pike in the Stillwater has provided more ammunition for an assertion he originally was criticized for making.

“We’re talking about anything from a $100 fix to a $5 million fix,” Keliher said. “I mean, if we have to put fish lifts in at existing facilities that already have state-of-the-art fishways, to stop pike, we’re talking about $5 million.

“People have laughed at me because I call [the illegal pike introduction] the fisheries crime of the century,” Keliher said. “But you start talking about spending $5 million to address illegal stocking, it is the fisheries crime of the century.”

More about salmon season

So, we get to go Atlantic salmon fishing for a month this fall. What does it mean to you, and what do you have to be aware of before you go?

Here are a few points to remember:

. During Thursday’s ASC meeting, commissioners proposed and passed an amended fishing regulation. The key change from the rule’s original form: Anglers will only be allowed to catch and release one salmon per day.

The original rule called for a two-fish, catch-and-release limit, but some anglers at the May public hearing expressed the view that one fish was enough.

The ASC agreed, and the amendment was supported.

. Your regular Maine fishing license does you no good. You will need to buy a special Atlantic salmon license to take part in the season.

. If you used to fish in the pools at the Penobscot Salmon Club in Brewer, you won’t be able to this year. The open area runs from two markers 150 feet below the Veazie Dam fishway down river to the former site of the Bangor Dam, which also will be marked with two markers.

. No fish shall be removed from the water at any time, for any reason.

. In order to fish, you’ve got to have the green light … or, in this case, green flag. If the water gets too warm, or other conditions dictate, the season can be shut down at any time by ASC officials. If there’s a green flag flying at the Veazie Dam, Eddington Salmon Club and Penobscot Salmon Club, fishing’s allowed. If a red flag is displayed, it’s not.

Any-deer application available

Summer’s officially a couple days old, and here we are, preparing for fall. In this case, however, that’s not due to wishful thinking, or any dissatisfaction with the weather.

It’s just the way it has to be.

If you’re one of those folks that looks forward to tromping through the woods on your yearly November deer hunting trips, there’s a deadline you ought to be aware of.

And if you wait until fall … it’ll be too late.

Hunters who want to be able to shoot a doe this fall must receive an any-deer permit from the state. As you know, those permits are allotted by lottery.

And the deadline for entering the any-deer lottery via the Internet is Aug. 4 at 11:59 p.m. If you’re going to mail in or hand-deliver your application, the state needs more time to process that information, and the deadline is 5 p.m. on July 17.

This year, hunters may apply for any three Wildlife Management Districts. Successful applicants will receive an any-deer permit they can use during the regular firearms and muzzle-loading seasons.

A total of 67,725 any-deer permits will be issued this year. Any-deer permits will be available in all but five of the state’s 29 Wildlife Management Districts.

The drawing will be held in September and permits will be mailed to all successful applicants by late September.

For more information or to apply on-line, go to the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife’s Web site at www.mefishwildlife.com.

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