We are seeing how warming waters might affect fishing

By Bob Mallard

My recent article on extending the fall fishing season was met with opposition by some members of the Maine fly fishing and conservation community.

The impetus of the article was that fall fishing has been pushing out due to changes in weather patterns. The water temperatures don’t lie. When places like the Roach River and West Branch are in the mid- to high-60s in the last week of September, something is wrong.

Most challenged what they interpreted as absolutes when what I meant to offer was a general recommendation. But it also got personal. One person referred to me as a “self-proclaimed fish advocate.” Another said that anything I say is wrong and not worth hearing. Another  implied that the poor fall fishing I was experiencing was a result of a lack of prowess.

The bio picture of one person who was concerned with the impact of extending the season shows 10 dead wild native brook trout on a stick. Another criticized how I was holding a stocked nonnative landlocked salmon, while ignoring the bio picture of the page owner showing a wild native brook trout out of the water with fingers dangerously close to the mouth and gills. 

What folks missed was that the article was as much about fish as it was fishing. If they knew me, they’d know that when I write about fishing, there’s almost always an underlying wild native fish conservation message. I do this to get people thinking and talking about issues affecting our natural resources.

The primary challenger posted water temperature data for two rivers to make their point that extending the season was a bad idea. One water was north of Baxter State Park, where things get cold earlier than they do elsewhere in the state. The other was a stocked river on the Maine-New Hampshire border, which is fed by mountain run-off.

While the graphs confirmed that late September water temperatures were oddly warm, they showed temps dropping in mid-October. But even then the impact of water temperature changes is not immediate.

Some challenged my assertion that fish are spawning later than they used to. While I do not have the data to prove it, places where I have seen redds in September for years were devoid of such this year. And I saw no spawning behavior, and no fish dropped any eggs when netted.                

No one mentioned the current inconsistencies with regard to fishing for wild native fish beyond September. 

The lower Dead River, an unstocked wild native brook trout fishery, is open through November. The upper Kennebec, another unstocked native brook trout water, is open through October. The Rangeley River, a tributary to Mooselookmeguntic Lake, a State Heritage Fish water, is open through October as well. And the Crooked River, the primary spawning stream for wild native Sebego Lake landlocked salmon, is open to fishing through Oct.15.

Meanwhile, the West Branch Penobscot, primarily a nonnative landlocked salmon fishery, closes at the end of September. Ditto for the Roach and Moose rivers, which while both host runs of wild native brook trout from Moosehead Lake, are also stocked nonnative landlocked salmon fisheries.

If spawning disruption is a concern, why aren’t people challenging the fact that we are stocking fall-spawning nonnative salmon in Moosehead that move into the same rivers used by the wild native brook trout for spawning?       

All I was saying was that it was time to expand what we were already doing in many cases. I wasn’t saying that everything should be open after September, nor was I saying that fishing through the end of October was an absolute.  

The intention of the article was to get people talking about the fact that our weather is changing, and some would say notably. Spring insect hatches are coming earlier and fall hatches are coming later. Ice fishing season is getting shorter as noted in a recent article in this publication. 

And after 35 years or so of relative consistency, fall fishing is no longer what it once was.

No one is suggesting that we do anything that would harm wild native fish. Few are as absolute as I am about wild native fish conservation. I don’t harvest fish. I use barbless, single-point hooks exclusively. I stop fishing when the water warms up. And I dedicate a lot of time to writing about the plight of wild native fish. 

I also manage a 21-state wild native fish conservation non-profit, the Native Fish Coalition.

Expanding fall fishing opportunities for those who would like to fish a bit longer, and for wild native fish, to make up for what has become marginal fall fishing in many places, as well as a longer deeper summer, could be done safely as it is being done elsewhere today.

Some fall closures would be warranted. In other cases, extending the season through Oct. 15 would suffice in regard to increasing opportunity while protecting fish. But doing so would require open and constructive dialogue.

The fishing season on rivers and streams in neighboring New Hampshire runs through Oct.  15.  Vermont runs through October. The Montana season runs through November. And in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Idaho, and Wyoming, you can fish for wild trout year-round.

Is there no room for change in Maine?   

    
Mallard is the former owner of Kennebec River Outfitters and a Registered Maine Fishing Guide. He is writer, author and executive director for Native Fish Coalition. Look for his latest books, Squaretail: The Definitive Guide to Brook Trout and Where to Find Them, Favorite Flies for Maine: 50 Essential Patterns from Local Experts, and Fly Fishing Maine: Local Experts on The State’s Best Waters. Mallard can be reached at BobMallard.com or Info@BobMallard.com.