Casting a pall

Portland Press Herald Report

Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

E-mail this story to a friend

In April, anglers break through ice flows and drag their boats through snowbanks for a chance to catch a salmon at Thompson Lake.

In October, when the weather is fine, the salmon are biting and the boating is easy, there's barely a fisherman to be found on the Poland lake or most of the waters open to fall fishing.

So it's somewhat ironic that the small pool of fall fishermen will now have the opportunity to spread out over nearly twice as many waters. Beginning Oct. 1, there will be 374 more lakes and ponds added to the 388 already open to fall fishing.

But no one expects that fall fishing will be any more popular on these new waters than it was on the ones opened since the mid-1990s.

"Fall fishing in lakes and ponds has not really caught on," said John Boland, regional fisheries biologist. "It's not been as well received as we might have expected."

The scarcity of fall fishermen is a clue to a mystery — the mystery of what Maine anglers think, what they want and why they're slipping away.

Between 1994 and 1999, 11 percent of them — 27,500 people — stopped fishing, according to a state survey released last winter. License sales since then have been, at best, flat.

That means fishing license revenues are also flat and that's a concern since they account for about a quarter of the budget for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Talks are already under way about raising license fees in the upcoming legislative session, even though traditionally a fee increase results in a decline in license sales.

Fall fishing was supposed to be part of the solution, a way to attract new customers and help the old ones gain more satisfaction. The Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, a lobbying group with about 14,000 members, has been crusading for fall fishing opportunities for a decade. SAM also has pushed hard for an in-depth analysis of the fisheries division, similar to one already in progress on the state's hatcheries.

"We've got to improve the resource. We've got to improve the experience. We've got to offer all the possible opportunities," said George Smith, SAM's executive director. "People in many other states, including the ones that are famous for their fishing, offer fall fishing opportunities."

Just as in any business, knowing what the customers want is the best way to keep them. Guess right — Viagra comes to mind — and the rewards flow in. Guess wrong — remember "new" Coke? — and it may reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the customers and/or the product.

On fall fishing, everybody guessed wrong, from state biologists to lobbyists to legislators.

When the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife began extending the fishing season past September in southern Maine about eight years ago, the big fear was that fall fishing would be too popular. Many feared hordes of anglers would flock to lakes and ponds, fish too hard and reduce fish populations.

After all, fall fishing offered everything any angler could want. No crowds, no bugs, gorgeous scenery, sunny, cool days and excellent prospects for a good catch.

"It's spectacular fishing — some of the best fishing we have," Smith said.

Some anglers do enjoy the extended season. Rivers like the Pleasant, Little Ossipee, Ogunquit and Mousam do attract crowds on nice fall days. Moosehead's East Outlet is heavily fished in October. The Presumpscot River, which is open year-round, is seldom empty even on the coldest days. The Piscataquis is fished until it freezes.

But most lakes and ponds are lonely places even on the sunniest days in the fall. The more waters that have been opened, the more clear it's become that by October, most anglers have put their rods away.

"I can take you to Thompson Lake, Little Sebago, Moose Pond — all of these other great salmon waters," Boland said, "and we could drive around all day long and if we're lucky we might see two or three bass boats."

So what's keeping anglers away? One theory is that they stop fishing during the summer doldrums and never get started again. Some say fishermen's thoughts simply turn to hunting or football when the temperature drops. Maybe they put their boats away and don't want to drag them back out again. Maybe that's why streams and rivers are more popular in the fall.

"It's easier to fish when you can stop your car, get out and walk and cast for an hour," said Scott Roy, assistant biologist in Greenville. "You don't have to lug your boat or your canoe. Generally, like at the East Outlet, you're fishing for salmon rather than trout, so you're fishing for a bigger fish."

Smith is convinced that fall fishing is an idea that will catch on as people realize that it offers the opportunity to escape the spring crowds, but still enjoy fast fishing action.

"A lot of people aren't interested at this point in fishing in October, but they will be," Smith said. "It will come. It will grow in popularity."

But the lack enthusiasm for fall fishing isn't the only surprise anglers have produced recently. There are other signs that attitudes and ethics are changing in ways that make their needs hard to predict.

No one expected, for example, the way Maine fishermen have embraced catch-and-release fishing. In 1983, Maine anglers kept 64 percent of the fish they caught, according to a state survey. In 1999, they kept 22 percent.

The release of legal-size fish has become so routine that it's revitalized some waters, but it causes problems in others. Sometimes there are simply more fish than food to feed them.

In lakes like Sebago and Moosehead, anglers are urged to take home their limit of togue and the limits keep rising. In other waters, such as Mooselookmeguntic, Chesuncook, Aroostook's Eagle Lake, it's salmon that are numerous that growth is nearly at a standstill. Even brook trout get "stockpiled" in small ponds, when anglers throw back too many.

Another unexpected change is the way many anglers view regulations. When Ray "Bucky" Owner, former fish and wildlife commissioner, proposed his "quality fishing initiative" in the mid-1990s, he got a rocky reception from anglers at public hearings across the state.

The tough new regulations, which went into effect in 1996, were intended to reverse a decline in Maine fishing. The idea was to protect older, larger brook trout so they could spawn more often and also to allow more trout, salmon and bass to grow to trophy size. But that meant anglers could take home fewer fish and sometimes had to alter their fishing methods. Many did not welcome the restrictions.

Yet in just five years, Smith said, "we've gone from the time when Bucky Owen was just hammered over a proposal to protect wild fish to a time when people are clamoring for even more protection. And that's been quite a turnaround."

Smith credits the strong conservation ethic among Maine anglers for at least part of the resistance to fall fishing. The Sportsman's Alliance initially wanted to open all state waters — including wild fisheries — to catch-and-release fall fishing.

SAM member Gary Corson, who led the decade-long campaign for fall fishing, thoroughly researched the issue, Smith said, and found that "virtually everything indicated that fishing — even over spawning fish — was not injurious. All the research shows it."

But many people disagree with Smith about the consequences, at least to wild fisheries. The state's fisheries biologists and many anglers were worried that even catch-and-release fishing could harm wild trout and salmon when they're spawning in the fall.

"The real concern was that additional pressure on wild fisheries was unacceptable," said Lee Perry, fish and wildlife commissioner.

The opposition was so strong, that SAM had to compromise. Fall fishing is still prohibited on waters with wild fish populations, but anglers can fish until Oct. 31 on waters where trout and salmon are stocked from the state hatcheries. All fish must be released alive and only artificial lures can be used, to reduce hooking mortality.

Perry says the compromise serves the department's dual goals: to protect the state's fish and wildlife resources and to provide opportunities for people to enjoy the outdoors.

Even with nearly twice as many fall fishing waters, even if anglers did turn out in droves, they could not harm fish populations on stocked waters, fisheries biologists say.

"Those fish are put out to be caught," said Scott Roy, assistant biologist in Greenville. "The reason why they're stocked is to produce fishing. The hatchery truck will come again."

But the Sportsman's Alliance will continue to lobby for more fishing opportunities on rivers and streams, Smith said. Despite the low turnout so far, fall fishing is still considered "a very important element" in stopping the decline in Maine anglers.

Smith has long argued that Maine's fishermen are not satisfied with the "product" the state is producing. SAM membership polls show only 41 percent of the organization's roughly 14,000 members rate fishing as good or great.

He also points to research commissioned by the fish and wildlife department last spring in which 500 Maine adults completed a telephone interview about various fish and wildlife issues.

About 31 percent said fishing was the same or better; 30 percent said it had declined and 43 percent said they didn't know.

Respondents also were asked to identify their primary use of the outdoors and about 28 percent chose freshwater fishing. The avid anglers were much less satisfied. About 45 percent said fishing had declined; 31 said it improved or stayed the same, and 24 percent didn't know.

If roughly half your customers think your product is getting worse, Smith said, you need to improve your product.

Fisheries managers, however, don't agree that their customers are dissatisfied. A more extensive survey of nearly 3,500 anglers released last winter showed that while anglers in 1994 rated Maine's fishing only fair overall, those surveyed five years later considered it good.

Because the earlier survey reached so many more anglers, said Dennis McNeish, fisheries planner, it's "better suited to determine the state of mind of Maine anglers with regard to the condition of and trends in the quality of Maine's sport fisheries."

There are many more questions than answers about what Maine anglers want and what they can, or even should, have.

What is clear, Smith said, that "the way we think about fishing in Maine has changed dramatically."

If the customer changes, he said, the product must change, too.

"We have a mindset that we can't have as good a fishing as other states have," Smith said. "And I reject that. I believe we can."

Staff writer Roberta Scruggs can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:

rscruggs@pressherald.com

To top of page