bkill
Quest for the Two Headed Trout
I thought I would start a regular NEFF thread with news that relates to our region and sport...Let me know if you think this is useful and informative and I will continue...This is a work in progress...
Maine to ballyhoo its brookies
By Terry Karkos [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif],[/FONT] Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 <table class="PhotoTable" id="PhotoTable" width="200" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3"> <tbody><tr id="phototitle" class=""> <td valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr class="photonav"> <td class="style14" valign="top" align="center">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="middle" align="center">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="style14" valign="top" align="center">http://www.sunjournal.com/index.php?t=4&storyid=299332&priority=1
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <script language="javascript"> LoadPhoto(); </script> <script language="javascript"> LoadRelated(); </script> FARMINGTON - Got brookies, need anglers.
Getting that message out to the world about Maine's wild brook trout fishing experience is what state fisheries biologist Forrest Bonney and Maine guides are attempting this winter.
"It's really about the fact that we have about 600 wild brook trout waters in the state when nobody else on the East Coast has any to speak of," Bonney said Tuesday at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries
and Wildlife office in Strong.
"There's an opportunity to kind of advertise this resource and maybe bring in more tourists from out of state who might appreciate fishing for wild brook trout, because I don't think a lot of people know what we have here in Maine," he said.
What Maine has for wild brookie fishing opportunities was discovered through the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, the nation's first pilot project under the National Fish Habitat Initiative.
The federally funded program was launched in 2005 to address regional and range-wide threats to brook trout from Maine to Georgia by building private and public partnerships to improve fish habitat and conserve wild brook trout.
Venture data revealed that Maine is the only state with extensive intact populations of wild, self-reproducing brook trout in lakes and ponds, including some lakes more than 5,000 acres big.
In comparison to only six intact subwatersheds among the 16 other states, Maine's lake populations are intact in 185 subwatersheds.
Brookies are in 1,135 lakes and ponds, of which, 627 are supported by natural reproduction in the wild. Additionally, 295 waters have been stocked in the past but not within the past 25 years and 127 lakes and ponds have never been stocked. Therefore, they support pure genetic strains.
Maine also has 22,250 miles of streams that support brookies, virtually all of which are wild, and a brook trout fishery valued annually at $114 million.
Last week, Bonney and fisheries Director John Boland met at the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension office in Farmington to figure out how to promote Maine's wild brook trout fishery as a world-class fishery to attract anglers as a form of tourism-based economic development.
Between Bonney and Boland, guides and Marc Edwards of the cooperative extension, an idea was floated to create a Web site where anglers could find accommodations, restaurants, guiding services and information about brookie fishing locations.
"We're focusing on brook trout at this time. There seems to be a lot of waters in the state, especially the backcountry ponds, that are not fished. Well, they might be fished in the spring, just a local flurry of activity, and then there's really not many fishermen there.
"We're talking about extending the season and getting people in to those ponds for, you know, a remote fishing opportunity where you might see a moose," Bonney said.
Despite the downturn in the economy, he said now is a good time to get things organized and operational.
The state's job is to publicize the availability of ponds and size of brookies anglers can expect to catch, determine regulations and possibly establish some catch-and-release fisheries.
"It may take a while to bring this together on a statewide level and, by then, maybe the economy will be on the rebound. We're just starting with this Franklin County group with the intention of expanding it statewide ... to see if we can make it here on a small level," Bonney said.
<mcc head="">Fight cabin fever with a fly fisher's winter check-up</mcc>
<mcc subhead=""></mcc>
<mcc byline1="">By Rich Culver | </mcc> <mcc byline2="">Capital City Weekly
</mcc>
<mcc story=""> It's early January, a bit early to get excited about fly-fishing, I thought to myself as I glared out my window to the sight of freshly falling snow. Still, I couldn't help but cherish the thought as I paced my office holding a rolled issue of Northwest Fly Fishing firmly in my hand mimicking a fly rod.
It didn't take long before I found myself dreaming - slowly drifting away to the soft cadence of rushing water. Soon I was wading, knee-deep, in a secluded river casting spey flies to trophy-sized steelhead. I could see them in the tail out; their shadows swaying slowly like restless ghosts in the quiet jade colored water.
Suddenly, there was a knock - thump, thump - on my door that awakened me. Startled and still clutching my magazine, I rushed downstairs to answer the door. However, to my surprise there was no one there - only a trail of foot tracks in the snow and a large box on the porch with a label that read, "Scott Fly Rod Company" on it.
Hastily, I grabbed the box and ventured back to my office. With each step I took, my enthusiasm grew as I wondered what the contents might be, although I had a fairly good idea from the label alone that the box contained my order of new fly rods. Ripping through the box like a child at a birthday party, tossing packing paper in all directions, I finally found them.
"Yes!" I yelled as I held up a rod tube that read, T2H 1258/4 on it. But this was only the beginning. Before I had finished rambling through the box I had found three more fly rods, one gear bag, two fly reels, extra spools, a bulk spool of backing, five fly lines, several meters of Estaz chenille, some purple and black hackle and five boxes of hooks! It was like the holidays all over again.
It was on this day that I realized something very special and important, and that is that I don't need to painstakingly wait until spring to get equipped and organized to go fly-fishing. I learned that I could now satisfy and fuel my much-needed fly-fishing fix of secreted endorphins in other ways.
For example, during the winter months I could get the same rush (okay, well, almost the same rush) by simply preparing to go fishing: inspecting and casting my fly rods, checking my waders for leaks or tears, greasing my fly reels or filling fly boxes with selectively tied species specific flies.
Now, for the first time I could be ready to fish at any moments notice. Through this experience I developed my "Winter Check-Up" a protocol that not only prepares me for my next fishing trip (whenever that might be), but also quenches my insatiable thirst for my deep rooted passion and obsession I have for fly-fishing.
My Winter Check-Up is a simple inspection of all my gear, followed by a tune-up, which also includes a few basic exercises in casting mechanics. When routinely performed, these steps assure me that not only will my gear be functionally sound when called upon, but also my casting stroke and accuracy will not be a hindrance to me when the fish are in after a long winter hiatus. Good luck and tight lines!
</mcc><mcc story="">
</mcc>Rollins: Ice fishing is great on the Big Lake, NH
<script> document.title = unescape("Rollins%3A%20Ice%20fishing%20is%20great%20on%20the%20Big%20Lake") + " - Fosters"; </script>
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
When I ran into my buddy Bob the other day he'd just come off the lake after a day of fishing with his two sons. I asked the young boys how they did and both of them looked at me with a big smile and started telling me about all the fun they had fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee with their dad.
"I wanted to get the house out in a spot where we could catch some lake trout," Bob said. "But we both know that lake trout fishing is a game of patience and sometimes the boys don't have much... so I looked for a place they could catch perch too. We ended up putting it out on that bay on Meredith Neck that you and I used to fish all the time back in the eighties."
"Sounds like the fishing is still good," I replied as the two boys gave the thumbs up.
"Yeah it's pretty good," he said. "I've caught a few lake trout jigging in the comfort of the heated bobhouse and I showed the boys a spot about a hundred yards away where they could set out tip-ups for both yellow and white perch."
"I'm gonna go out again tomorrow," Bob said. "Why don't you come along?"
"I haven't fished out there in a long time," I confessed. "What time are you going?"
"You know me, I want to be out there at daylight," he said. "Be at the house by six and we'll go see what we can do."
When I returned home I gathered all my gear and made sure I had everything ready for our trip. I dug out two of my best tip-ups, my favorite jigging rod and a handful of my best trout jigs. Then I took a few minutes to make certain that the hooks on my jigs were sharp and replaced the leaders on my tip-ups before loading everything into the truck.
Bob's house was the only one on the street lit up when I pulled in the driveway and after we had a quick cup of coffee, we loaded my gear in his truck and headed out for the lake.
"I haven't put the bobhouse on the lake in nearly a decade," Bob said. "But Cathy and I were talking about finding ways that we could do fun things with the boys that don't cost a ton of money and you know me, I suggested ice fishing. I mean she likes it. The boys love it, and I can't get enough of it. It was a no brainer!"
The place had grown up quite a bit since I'd been there last. However, my friend had acquired permission to gain entry to the ice from a land owner and within a half-hour we'd dragged the sled out to the bobhouse.
"Look at all the houses out here," I said as I looked around the bay. "When we used to fish out here there weren't more than a handful of houses on the entire bay."
"There were only two bobhouses out here when the boys and I put ours out," Bob said. "Now there must be at least fifteen... they're out here because the fishing is good."
Bob opened the shanty, fired up the propane heater and gas lantern before we walked towards the far shore to each set out a tip-up about a hundred yards from the bobhouse.
"This is where the kids have been catching the perch," Bob said. "We're in about thirty feet of water and we've been setting our lines down about three feet off the bottom."
He scraped the snow off the ice in two spots he wanted me to drill holes and I quickly bored through the eight inches of ice and we each grabbed a tip-up.
"Make sure you sound for bottom," he advised. "You've got to be close to the bottom here or you won't get a bite."
I pulled the heavy metal tool from my pocket, clipped it on my line and slowly let it fall to the bottom. Then I marked the line, three feet from the bottom, hooked on a live bait and set it down the hole.
"Now let's go fire up the coffee pot and see if we can jig up a lake trout," he said. "If something hits one of these lines we can see it easily from the window."
My buddy suggested I fish with a white and red buck tail jig and a piece of cut sucker for bait. I normally fish with a Swedish pimple and a piece of cut smelt, however I heeded his advise.
With a coffee mug in one hand and my jigging rod in the other kept an eye on the tip-ups as I slowly kept the jig thumping off the bottom.
I'd turned away from the window as Bob was telling me about a 23-inch long lake trout that he'd caught a few days before. Then as I peered out the window again I spotted one of the flags waving in the breeze.
"We've got one!" I yelled as I grabbed my coat off the wall and darted out the door.
When Bob and I arrived at the trap I could see that quite a bit of line had been taken, but the reel wasn't turning. I eased the trap from the hole and as soon as I grabbed the line I felt weight. I set the hook and fought a feisty 13-inch long white perch to the ice.
"Good way to start!" Bob said as he slapped me on the back.
It proved to be one of three white perch I'd catch this day. Although Bob didn't manage to catch a white, he did land five yellow perch as well as getting the only strike we had jigging in the bobhouse.
It was nearly noon time and we'd shared just about every deer hunting story we had from this past season when I watched as he lifted his rod tip high in the air. It buckled under the weight of the fish and as I looked on, he battled the fish for several minutes before he carefully eased a 19-inch lake trout through the hole.
"That was fun," he said with a grin as he held the fish up for a moment, before he carefully removed the hook and set it back down the hole.
As we were packing up for the day Bob looked at me and said, "I'm glad I put the bobhouse out here again. I've had a ton of fun with my friends and family out here already and the season has just begun."
Pat Rollins writes on the outdoors for the Citizen.
Maine to ballyhoo its brookies
By Terry Karkos [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif],[/FONT] Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 <table class="PhotoTable" id="PhotoTable" width="200" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3"> <tbody><tr id="phototitle" class=""> <td valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr class="photonav"> <td class="style14" valign="top" align="center">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="middle" align="center">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="style14" valign="top" align="center">http://www.sunjournal.com/index.php?t=4&storyid=299332&priority=1
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <script language="javascript"> LoadPhoto(); </script> <script language="javascript"> LoadRelated(); </script> FARMINGTON - Got brookies, need anglers.
Getting that message out to the world about Maine's wild brook trout fishing experience is what state fisheries biologist Forrest Bonney and Maine guides are attempting this winter.
"It's really about the fact that we have about 600 wild brook trout waters in the state when nobody else on the East Coast has any to speak of," Bonney said Tuesday at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries
and Wildlife office in Strong.
"There's an opportunity to kind of advertise this resource and maybe bring in more tourists from out of state who might appreciate fishing for wild brook trout, because I don't think a lot of people know what we have here in Maine," he said.
What Maine has for wild brookie fishing opportunities was discovered through the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, the nation's first pilot project under the National Fish Habitat Initiative.
The federally funded program was launched in 2005 to address regional and range-wide threats to brook trout from Maine to Georgia by building private and public partnerships to improve fish habitat and conserve wild brook trout.
Venture data revealed that Maine is the only state with extensive intact populations of wild, self-reproducing brook trout in lakes and ponds, including some lakes more than 5,000 acres big.
In comparison to only six intact subwatersheds among the 16 other states, Maine's lake populations are intact in 185 subwatersheds.
Brookies are in 1,135 lakes and ponds, of which, 627 are supported by natural reproduction in the wild. Additionally, 295 waters have been stocked in the past but not within the past 25 years and 127 lakes and ponds have never been stocked. Therefore, they support pure genetic strains.
Maine also has 22,250 miles of streams that support brookies, virtually all of which are wild, and a brook trout fishery valued annually at $114 million.
Last week, Bonney and fisheries Director John Boland met at the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension office in Farmington to figure out how to promote Maine's wild brook trout fishery as a world-class fishery to attract anglers as a form of tourism-based economic development.
Between Bonney and Boland, guides and Marc Edwards of the cooperative extension, an idea was floated to create a Web site where anglers could find accommodations, restaurants, guiding services and information about brookie fishing locations.
"We're focusing on brook trout at this time. There seems to be a lot of waters in the state, especially the backcountry ponds, that are not fished. Well, they might be fished in the spring, just a local flurry of activity, and then there's really not many fishermen there.
"We're talking about extending the season and getting people in to those ponds for, you know, a remote fishing opportunity where you might see a moose," Bonney said.
Despite the downturn in the economy, he said now is a good time to get things organized and operational.
The state's job is to publicize the availability of ponds and size of brookies anglers can expect to catch, determine regulations and possibly establish some catch-and-release fisheries.
"It may take a while to bring this together on a statewide level and, by then, maybe the economy will be on the rebound. We're just starting with this Franklin County group with the intention of expanding it statewide ... to see if we can make it here on a small level," Bonney said.
<mcc head="">Fight cabin fever with a fly fisher's winter check-up</mcc>
<mcc subhead=""></mcc>
<mcc byline1="">By Rich Culver | </mcc> <mcc byline2="">Capital City Weekly
</mcc>
<mcc story=""> It's early January, a bit early to get excited about fly-fishing, I thought to myself as I glared out my window to the sight of freshly falling snow. Still, I couldn't help but cherish the thought as I paced my office holding a rolled issue of Northwest Fly Fishing firmly in my hand mimicking a fly rod.
It didn't take long before I found myself dreaming - slowly drifting away to the soft cadence of rushing water. Soon I was wading, knee-deep, in a secluded river casting spey flies to trophy-sized steelhead. I could see them in the tail out; their shadows swaying slowly like restless ghosts in the quiet jade colored water.
Suddenly, there was a knock - thump, thump - on my door that awakened me. Startled and still clutching my magazine, I rushed downstairs to answer the door. However, to my surprise there was no one there - only a trail of foot tracks in the snow and a large box on the porch with a label that read, "Scott Fly Rod Company" on it.
Hastily, I grabbed the box and ventured back to my office. With each step I took, my enthusiasm grew as I wondered what the contents might be, although I had a fairly good idea from the label alone that the box contained my order of new fly rods. Ripping through the box like a child at a birthday party, tossing packing paper in all directions, I finally found them.
"Yes!" I yelled as I held up a rod tube that read, T2H 1258/4 on it. But this was only the beginning. Before I had finished rambling through the box I had found three more fly rods, one gear bag, two fly reels, extra spools, a bulk spool of backing, five fly lines, several meters of Estaz chenille, some purple and black hackle and five boxes of hooks! It was like the holidays all over again.
It was on this day that I realized something very special and important, and that is that I don't need to painstakingly wait until spring to get equipped and organized to go fly-fishing. I learned that I could now satisfy and fuel my much-needed fly-fishing fix of secreted endorphins in other ways.
For example, during the winter months I could get the same rush (okay, well, almost the same rush) by simply preparing to go fishing: inspecting and casting my fly rods, checking my waders for leaks or tears, greasing my fly reels or filling fly boxes with selectively tied species specific flies.
Now, for the first time I could be ready to fish at any moments notice. Through this experience I developed my "Winter Check-Up" a protocol that not only prepares me for my next fishing trip (whenever that might be), but also quenches my insatiable thirst for my deep rooted passion and obsession I have for fly-fishing.
My Winter Check-Up is a simple inspection of all my gear, followed by a tune-up, which also includes a few basic exercises in casting mechanics. When routinely performed, these steps assure me that not only will my gear be functionally sound when called upon, but also my casting stroke and accuracy will not be a hindrance to me when the fish are in after a long winter hiatus. Good luck and tight lines!
</mcc><mcc story="">
</mcc>Rollins: Ice fishing is great on the Big Lake, NH
<script> document.title = unescape("Rollins%3A%20Ice%20fishing%20is%20great%20on%20the%20Big%20Lake") + " - Fosters"; </script>
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
When I ran into my buddy Bob the other day he'd just come off the lake after a day of fishing with his two sons. I asked the young boys how they did and both of them looked at me with a big smile and started telling me about all the fun they had fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee with their dad.
"I wanted to get the house out in a spot where we could catch some lake trout," Bob said. "But we both know that lake trout fishing is a game of patience and sometimes the boys don't have much... so I looked for a place they could catch perch too. We ended up putting it out on that bay on Meredith Neck that you and I used to fish all the time back in the eighties."
"Sounds like the fishing is still good," I replied as the two boys gave the thumbs up.
"Yeah it's pretty good," he said. "I've caught a few lake trout jigging in the comfort of the heated bobhouse and I showed the boys a spot about a hundred yards away where they could set out tip-ups for both yellow and white perch."
"I'm gonna go out again tomorrow," Bob said. "Why don't you come along?"
"I haven't fished out there in a long time," I confessed. "What time are you going?"
"You know me, I want to be out there at daylight," he said. "Be at the house by six and we'll go see what we can do."
When I returned home I gathered all my gear and made sure I had everything ready for our trip. I dug out two of my best tip-ups, my favorite jigging rod and a handful of my best trout jigs. Then I took a few minutes to make certain that the hooks on my jigs were sharp and replaced the leaders on my tip-ups before loading everything into the truck.
Bob's house was the only one on the street lit up when I pulled in the driveway and after we had a quick cup of coffee, we loaded my gear in his truck and headed out for the lake.
"I haven't put the bobhouse on the lake in nearly a decade," Bob said. "But Cathy and I were talking about finding ways that we could do fun things with the boys that don't cost a ton of money and you know me, I suggested ice fishing. I mean she likes it. The boys love it, and I can't get enough of it. It was a no brainer!"
The place had grown up quite a bit since I'd been there last. However, my friend had acquired permission to gain entry to the ice from a land owner and within a half-hour we'd dragged the sled out to the bobhouse.
"Look at all the houses out here," I said as I looked around the bay. "When we used to fish out here there weren't more than a handful of houses on the entire bay."
"There were only two bobhouses out here when the boys and I put ours out," Bob said. "Now there must be at least fifteen... they're out here because the fishing is good."
Bob opened the shanty, fired up the propane heater and gas lantern before we walked towards the far shore to each set out a tip-up about a hundred yards from the bobhouse.
"This is where the kids have been catching the perch," Bob said. "We're in about thirty feet of water and we've been setting our lines down about three feet off the bottom."
He scraped the snow off the ice in two spots he wanted me to drill holes and I quickly bored through the eight inches of ice and we each grabbed a tip-up.
"Make sure you sound for bottom," he advised. "You've got to be close to the bottom here or you won't get a bite."
I pulled the heavy metal tool from my pocket, clipped it on my line and slowly let it fall to the bottom. Then I marked the line, three feet from the bottom, hooked on a live bait and set it down the hole.
"Now let's go fire up the coffee pot and see if we can jig up a lake trout," he said. "If something hits one of these lines we can see it easily from the window."
My buddy suggested I fish with a white and red buck tail jig and a piece of cut sucker for bait. I normally fish with a Swedish pimple and a piece of cut smelt, however I heeded his advise.
With a coffee mug in one hand and my jigging rod in the other kept an eye on the tip-ups as I slowly kept the jig thumping off the bottom.
I'd turned away from the window as Bob was telling me about a 23-inch long lake trout that he'd caught a few days before. Then as I peered out the window again I spotted one of the flags waving in the breeze.
"We've got one!" I yelled as I grabbed my coat off the wall and darted out the door.
When Bob and I arrived at the trap I could see that quite a bit of line had been taken, but the reel wasn't turning. I eased the trap from the hole and as soon as I grabbed the line I felt weight. I set the hook and fought a feisty 13-inch long white perch to the ice.
"Good way to start!" Bob said as he slapped me on the back.
It proved to be one of three white perch I'd catch this day. Although Bob didn't manage to catch a white, he did land five yellow perch as well as getting the only strike we had jigging in the bobhouse.
It was nearly noon time and we'd shared just about every deer hunting story we had from this past season when I watched as he lifted his rod tip high in the air. It buckled under the weight of the fish and as I looked on, he battled the fish for several minutes before he carefully eased a 19-inch lake trout through the hole.
"That was fun," he said with a grin as he held the fish up for a moment, before he carefully removed the hook and set it back down the hole.
As we were packing up for the day Bob looked at me and said, "I'm glad I put the bobhouse out here again. I've had a ton of fun with my friends and family out here already and the season has just begun."
Pat Rollins writes on the outdoors for the Citizen.
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