One rogue boat pilot mars family lake outing

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Mainers were treated to a fabulous July 4 weekend, with sunny weather perfect for spending time at the beach, at camp, or enjoying a family barbecue.

On Sunday, I took advantage of the weather and headed to the lake. Boating was on the agenda, and three eager youngsters were looking forward to spending some time on the tube.

I’d drive the boat, haul the tube, and take special care to avoid others who were also on the water, enjoying the day. That was the plan.

Easier said than done.

It didn’t take long before another boater zoomed by me, barely 20 feet away from me and the diminutive tuber I was towing.

The lake wasn’t crowded – a few other boats were visible – and all of us took care to stay clear of one another.

All, save one.

With hundreds of yards of open water to my port side, this boater thought it perfectly acceptable to pass at such a close distance.

One mistake, I figured. He wasn’t paying close enough attention. He won’t do it again.

Wrong.

Twice more, over the next half-hour, the same boater sped past, never as close as he had been on the first pass, but far too close for my comfort each time.

Last week the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife issued a press release announcing the increased presence of wardens on the state’s waters during the holiday weekend.

The gesture was necessary, and I’m confident the increased patrols paid safety dividends.

A simple fact remains, however: We’ve got far more water than we have wardens.

Because of that, us boaters are often on our own … for better or worse.

Some say a mandated boating safety class would help rid us of rogue drivers. I don’t agree.

This particular Sunday driver should have known what he was doing was annoying, and bordering on reckless.

He didn’t … or he simply didn’t care.

I don’t think any boating safety course will change that kind of mindset.

A summons from a warden, however, might do the trick.

Here’s hoping the Maine Warden Service continues to make boating safety a priority this summer.

Salmon returns finally slow

For most of the spring, many anglers have kept a close eye on the number of Atlantic salmon that had returned to the Veazie Dam on the Penobscot River.

According to Oliver Cox, a fishery biologist for the Bureau of Sea-Run Fisheries and Habitat of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the steady return of fish has finally slowed.

A couple weeks ago I caught up with Cox and his colleague, Norm Dube, and they said predicting the end of the annual salmon run was a difficult task, as several factors had to be considered.

Among those: Fish have to be waiting at the river’s mouth, ready to head upstream. The river’s flow must also be at a level that the fish find hospitable, and its temperature must fall within a range the fish can accept.

In his regular weekly e-mail update, Cox said 1,904 salmon had been trapped at the Veazie Dam as of Wednesday. In the recent past, total annual returns have averaged about 1,000 fish.

“The number of salmon per day has declined from 44 last Wednesday [July 2] to zero today [Wednesday),” Cox wrote in his report. “At the same time water temperatures have increased from 21 to 25? C (70 to 77? F).

“The last time we had zero salmon in the trap was May 19, six days after opening the trap,” he wrote.

If the recent string of hot, muggy days continues, the Penobscot will continue to warm, and will likely remain unattractive to fish.

That’s to be expected, and typically the salmon run peters out in mid-July and August.

A couple of rainstorms or cooling weather pattern could combine to push the river’s total over the 2,000-fish mark sometime later this year.

That would be far short of the 4,137 fish that were trapped at Veazie in 1986 – the highest total recorded since the trap was activated in 1978 – but would still mark a substantial increase over the most recent 10-year average.

Got stripers?

Everywhere I’ve gone lately, someone has asked me about striped bass in the Penobscot.

In particular, they want to know if the typical run of small “schoolie” stripers have arrived in the river yet.

The folks I know who have been fishing have had very little luck thus far, and at least one has logged hundreds of miles in his boat in search of some good fishing.

At this time in a typical year, shore anglers have already had plenty of action in Brewer and Bangor, fishing a tried-and-true method.

Most head to the river within a couple hours on each side of high tide, thread a blood worm onto a hook, toss a heavy sliding sinker rig into the river, and wait for the inevitable strike.

This year, I’m not hearing those kinds of reports.

Anecdotal reports from southern Maine echo what folks around here have been telling me.

So, here’s my question: How’s your striper fishing been going?

If you’ve had a bit of luck and want to share some stories with readers, I’m sure they’d be eager to listen.

jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

990-8214