It’s Coming…
Don’t shoot! I’m just the messenger…
Thanksgiving weekend, 2008
Every once in a great while, I’m able to look through the “pain in the ass” factor and appreciate winter for its natural beauty. This was one of those times.
As the Thanksgiving weekend closes in, northern Maine still waits patiently for its first REAL snowfall. You know, the kind that blankets the ground with a fresh sheet of white, cloaking the grass in darkness until mid April. The best word I can use to describe this late fall/early winter season is mild. The occasional cold day serves as a reminder that frigid times await, but I can’t help but predict that this winter will remain a warm one. It has made for terrible deer hunting conditions, not that there are a ton of dear in the Allagash to begin with. Still we trudge along, hoping that some day soon we might just get lucky.
All of these mild conditions make me ponder what it might be like to cast a fly on the Fish River during the winter months. While the fishing season closes (in most places) at the start of hunting season in October, I can’t help but think that an open water catch-and-release fly fishing season would be a solid idea. With the government already in financial trouble, why not sell a special license for those who want to throw a line during the late Fall and Winter? Yes, most waters are completely frozen by December, but why not at least give us October and November? I struggle to find the reasons against this idea.
I hate to say it, but just this one time It might be a good idea to follow California’s lead (Someone slap me). What special circumstances are present in the West that allow for extended seasons? Somebody clue me in, I’m clearly delusional.
Tight Lines,
-Ben
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
Yup, the idea is to protect fall spawning brookies and, in the Fish River, landlocked salmon. But I agree, in most places it really wouldn’t make a difference. Most streams and rivers in the region I manage are loaded with fall-spawning brown trout, but we allow a year-round season on all of them. Very few people fish in winter, but on those 30-40 degree days you can actually do well fishing for rainbows and browns.
I can think of a few key spawning areas in the Fish River that would have to be closed, but other than that, a year-round season would probably be fine. (Barbless hooks, FFO, C&R, and extra license fee NOT necessary).
Take it to the legislature. You have my vote
They’re probably trying to give those fall spawning brookies a break. As you know, our last remaining strongholds of native Eastern Brook Trout are in dire shape. Parts of Minnesota and Maine are some of the last untouched areas with viable native populations.
Just my $0.02
Valid Point Mr. Roughfisher. Our brook trout do tend to struggle. I’d still like to see it open though. Barbless hooks, fly fishing only, catch and release. Honestly, the small amount of people who would actually do it would be minimal.