GUILFORD – It appears that a balance was struck Wednesday between a group of Sebec Lake camp owners struggling to maintain a public road to their camps and anglers who use the road to reach Big Bennett Pond.

The pacification came at a public meeting Wednesday when Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Paul Johnson agreed not to stock Big Bennett Pond with brook trout until May 15. The ice is not normally outuntil then so this wouldallow time for the road to harden up enough for frequent travel.

Since the pond was not stocked with brook trout last year and there is little or no carry-over in the second year after stocking, there is little enticement for anglers to go to the pond before May 15,according to Johnson. However, the pond is legally open to fishing April 1 if there is open water.

“Big Bennett Pond is a public resource that all should have access to,” Johnson said.

The road in question is considered a “private way, town way” from Gray Valley to the Willimantic town line, Guilford Town Manager Tom Goulette said Wednesday. Residents in 1975 accepted the road as a town way with an amendment to include private way. With this designation, the town has no obligation to maintain the road but could if residents so desired, he said.

“It seems like camp owners are fixing the road up for fishermen,” Joe Guyotte a member of Tim’s Cove Property Owners Association said Wednesday. Each year, the roads are a mess and camp owners have to ditch and grade the road to fill in the ruts, he said.

The association spent about $14,000 last year in the fall and spring to make road improvements, according to Hoyt Fairbrother, an association member. The association received a $3,000 stipend from Willimantic to help with road maintenance.

One participant noted Wednesday that while anglers are blamed, he suggested that some of the damage is done by other people who enjoy “mudding” with all-terrain vehicles. Another suggested that some out-of-state camp owners have been known to travel over the road in early spring to check their camps and that hunters use the road.

Johnson said the pond opening for anglers used to be June 1, but because of fishing pressure, it was later changed to April 1. He said the 60-acre pond, which is 40 feet deep, has good oxygen levels and a cool temperature, making it ideal for trout pond management. The pond was reclaimed twice, once in 1958 and again in 1963, when all species of fish were destroyed and since has been managed mostly as a trout pond, although splake were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It does have the potential for trout fishing in an area that doesn’t have a lot of trout ponds,” Johnson said.