irate (Dave LaCourse) wrote in
:

Flyfish writes:

Well my latest Orvis newsletter came in yesterday with a "nice" little
article pimping for restoration money that claims "the best brook
trout fishery" is the rapid.

That will go a long way to lowering the pressure. Idiots.

This week-end is the great bass tournament at Pond in the River. The
fish and game folks told me there would be 40 people fishing the Pond
in hopes of getting rid of some of the bass. They will be lucky if
they catch 40 bass total. The best way to rid the river of bass is to
turn it into a cold water fishery instead of the warm water one it now
is. FPL's total mismanagement of the water flow is part of the
problem. The bass have been in Umbagog since 1984 and have only
recently become a problem. The Richardsons were overflowing with
water in early winter, but instead of bleeding it off normally, they
opened uf the dam and lowered the lake by 7 feet. It is about 5 feet
low right now and the 390 cfs remains. If you call TU and speak to
the Maine bigwigs, you will think you are talking to FPL's CEO.

TU in Maine has lost their statewide focus. They are totally focused on
Shawmut and their "world class" brown trout tailwater. Hardly surprising
since the Kennebec Valley TU took credit for the Edwards dam removal
(despite opposing it originally) that the Maine TU is dominated by
Kennebec Valley after this "stunning" success. TU is kissing FPL's ass
because they want fish ladders on all of FPL's dams on the Kennebec
(which is all the dams I believe). FPL has played the political game well
on the ladders and are likely to get the law changed so they don't
"have" to remove the dam on the Sebasticook in Winslow. FPL said they
were going to breach that dam rather than put a ladder in because it's
too expensive. This caused local outrage and there is now an effort to
"exempt" certain dams from the need for ladders. I expect that FPL will
get key exemptions on the Kennebec which negate the need for ladders
upstream. It worked with the Edwards dam for over 1/2 a century. This
will take at least a decade to play out, and TU will have been their
unwitting partner in not installing the ladders, all because they think
they're going to have atlantic salmon runs of a million fish in 30 years.
What they're really going to have is a great northern pike and smallmouth
fishery.

The bass tourney is just more of their fantasy. You will not clean the
smallmouth out by killing a few. In fact, I do not believe you can clean
the smallmouth out, they do quite well in coldwater elsewhere in the
State.

Also, if the flow is 390 cfs (like it has been since May 14), the
river is easy to fish and the locals flock in. Put the flow at 900
and the fishing pressure is lowered because the "catching" is harder.
Harry (the dam keeper and local poll taker for fish and game) counted
51 people on the river on Memorial Day, from Cedar Stump all the way
to Upper Dam. Sounds like alot of pressure, but it was easy to find a
place to fish.

Haven't been this year. My guide buddy tells me it's a zoo on weekends.

I've heard from a number of people that the Lower Dam structure will
be removed this August. The state fears that if it collapses into the
river below the dam, it will be a negative impact on the brookie
spawning beds. So, if you do not have some pictures of it, best to
take a few now before it becomes history.
Too bad, really. They will leave the wooden shoots and rock
structures.

Sad to hear that. I did get some nice shots last fall.

Also, the condo prolem is dead - or so I've heard. They can't find a
way to get the people in except by boat. However, two cabins *will*
be built on Rifle Point between the cove and the dam. Even more
pressure, but not as bad as it would have been with twelve condos.
Dave

Hadn't heard the condos were dead, but they'll be back in a year or two
bigger and better wait and see. Someone decided that the camps were more
important to build first. Someone at FPL probably.

Flyfish