Part 2 of a 3-part series

Dick Ruhlin sat on the porch of the Eddington Salmon Club about an hour after sunrise Friday enjoying the revival of a proud Maine tradition.

More than a dozen fishermen stood hip-deep in the Penobscot River or sat in boats anchored nearby, their colorful fly lines and hand-tied flies rolling out over the water. On the clubhouse porch, more fishermen strategized or traded fish tales.

Salmon angling had come back to Maine – temporarily, at least – after an absence of more than six years. And while anglers might have had a slow first day, with just a few fish hooked – but none landed – by evening, Ruhlin noted the importance of the sport’s return.

“This is the only place right now in the whole United States of America where you can fish for Atlantic salmon,” said Ruhlin, president of the Eddington club and one of the primary reasons for the catch-and-release fishing season that opened Friday on the Penobscot.

“You’re reconnecting people to the environment. And the more people use a recreational resource, the more they are going to love it and protect it.”

To Ruhlin and many other avid anglers expected to wet their fly lines during the next month, fishing for Atlantic salmon is more than a leisurely weekend activity.

It is about taking part in rituals dating back centuries and “gentlemanly” traditions practiced by their grandfathers.

It’s about enticing the “king of sport fish” to bite when it’s not hungry, and then battling the powerful beast for up to an hour, sometimes longer.

Salmon fishing is also about continuing a proud sport that made Maine a destination for anglers from around the globe.

But it’s also camaraderie, especially at the salmon clubs where fishermen have congregated for decades or longer. The Penobscot Salmon Club, for instance, dates back to the 1880s.

“What it means to me is getting back on this river, seeing people I haven’t seen in years and getting guys more involved in the clubs again,” Brian Somers of Bar Harbor said early Friday morning as he and a buddy prepared to launch their aluminum boat.

The Atlantic salmon is deeply ingrained in Maine culture and identity, beginning with the American Indian tribes that depended on salmon as a seasonal food source for millennia.

“History books talk about members of the Penobscot Nation spearing salmon right here by the tens of thousands,” John Banks, the Penobscots’ director of natural resources, said one recent afternoon from his office on Indian Island.

While federal law permits subsistence salmon fishing for members of the Penobscot Nation, Banks said he is not aware of any tribal members killing salmon in recent years out of respect for the fish and their precarious situation.

By the 1600s, European settlers were bragging in letters home about the unbelievable abundance of Atlantic salmon in Maine and New England rivers. Commercial fisheries soon followed, making the salmon a key ingredient in both the Maine economy and diet.

It was not until the mid-1800s, however, that fishing for salmon became a personal endeavor – and a recreational pastime.

Maine’s first recorded “sport” catch of a salmon on a rod and reel came in 1832 when an unidentified angler snagged a fish in the Dennys River, according to former state salmon biologist Ed Baum’s 1997 book, “Maine Atlantic Salmon: A National Treasure.”

The first salmon caught on an artificial fly followed about 30 years later. By 1885, at least 40 salmon were caught in the Bangor salmon pool alone, according to Baum.

A new tradition began in 1912 when one of the first Penobscot salmon caught that spring was sent to President William Howard Taft. At least 10 more presidents would receive the first Penobscot salmon over the decades before the practice ended during President Clinton’s administration.

Today’s fly fishermen cast into many of the same pools, only swapping the bamboo or cane rods of their forefathers for graphite rods that can set an angler back $1,000. But visitors to the Penobscot salmon pools during the next month will quickly see that old-time traditions still rule.

In a system established generations ago to accommodate the crowds at prolific fishing holes, fishermen are expected to observe a set of unwritten “gentlemanly” rules intended to give every patient angler fair time on the river.

Anglers place their rods in special racks set up at popular pools and then wait for their turn to fish. Once on the water, fishermen are expected to follow a simple rhythm: Cast once or twice, then step downstream, cast again, step again, and so on until reaching the end of the pool.

Fishermen who linger too long in a particular spot are liable to catch a few dirty looks or comments from the traditionalists waiting behind. Veterans fishing on Friday retold stories of consistently slow-moving anglers or, worse yet, line-cutting spin casters becoming the targets of rocks, precisely aimed fly lines, or even fists.

“You learn to co-exist as gentlemen, and ladies,” Ruhlin said while waiting his turn at a pool just below the Veazie dam.

The heyday of Maine salmon fishing, in sheer numbers, came in the early 1980s when between 700 and 950 fish were pulled from the Penobscot annually. But the fishery soon collapsed, leading to an all-out ban after the 1999 season.

Ruhlin, who began fishing for salmon more than 50 years ago, is chairman of the agency that oversees the state’s attempts to save the last remaining stocks of wild Atlantic salmon in the United States.

Biologists admit that Maine’s salmon population is by no means “healthy.” Roughly 1,100 adults have returned from the ocean to their birth rivers to spawn in recent years, compared to historic runs estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

But after several years of debate, Ruhlin and his colleagues at the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission voted to reopen salmon fishing on a small stretch of the Penobscot for 30 days as an “experimental” season and to re-engage the public.

The commission resisted calls from many fishermen to hold the monthlong fishery in the spring when the number of adult salmon in the Penobscot spikes and the fish are in peak physical condition. The board opted for a limited fall fishery to lessen pressure on the fish.

Many fishermen, such as Hubert Oliver of Carroll Plantation, still disagree with the fall fishery. Oliver said the Penobscot was never much of a fall river when it comes to salmon. Nonetheless, he wasn’t about to miss a chance to hook another one.

“I like catching a big fish on a fly rod, and nothing fights like an Atlantic salmon,” Oliver said.

Biologists will be closely monitoring the fall fishery to ascertain its impact on the salmon population. The commission reserves the right to cancel the season at any time if the fish are deemed to be at risk.

But Ruhlin and other commission officials have said the fall fishery is a potential step toward a spring season, as long as fish populations continue to improve.

Fishermen wouldn’t be the only group to rejoice at the return of a spring salmon season.

Located just down Route 15 from the Penobscot Salmon Club, the Colony Motel in Brewer was one of the countless businesses that once benefited from a thriving salmon fishing economy. Motel co-owner Sharon Hart said about half of her 15 rooms were often filled with fishermen from all over the U.S. and Canada. Some, she said, would stay for a week and bring their families.

Hart said she’s heard from some of those fishermen this week for the first time since 1999, calling to make new reservations for the coming month.

On Friday, Hart was hopeful about the resurgence of the sport.

“It made our spring,” Hart said. “We were busy all of the time.”

Fast facts

What: A catch-and-release fishing season for Atlantic salmon on the Penobscot River.

When: Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

Where: Fishing is only allowed from 150 feet below the Veazie Dam to the site of the old Bangor dam when green flags are flying at the Penobscot, Eddington and Veazie salmon clubs. Red flags indicate the fishery is closed.

Other restrictions: Fly fishing only with single-pointed, barbless hooks. Limit one catch per day. Fish cannot be removed from the water.

How to participate: Anglers must purchase an Atlantic salmon permit for $15, available at licensed agents or online at www.informe.org/moses.