Rapid River article

The Summer 2004 issue of Fish & Fly magazine has an interesting
article on Big Brookies of the Rangley area of Maine, including the
Rapid River.

vince

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 22:30:36 -0400, vincent p. norris wrote:

The Summer 2004 issue of Fish & Fly magazine has an interesting
article on Big Brookies of the Rangley area of Maine, including the
Rapid River.

Well, it's no surprise there are big brookies in Maine, but the magazine is
still run by self-serving effwits...

/daytripper (pphbbbbbtttt!)

daytripper wrote in
news
On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 22:30:36 -0400, vincent p. norris
wrote:

The Summer 2004 issue of Fish & Fly magazine has an interesting
article on Big Brookies of the Rangley area of Maine, including the
Rapid River.

Well, it's no surprise there are big brookies in Maine, but the
magazine is still run by self-serving effwits...

/daytripper (pphbbbbbtttt!)


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.

Flyfish

Flyfish wrote:




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.

Flyfish

i bet you can hear the sound of one-hand clapping by aldo, though...

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.

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.

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.

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

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

Forgot to add:

Last Saturday, the 5th, a fly fisherman tried to run the river from Middle Dam
down to the Pond. He made it just past Harbeck Pool before he capsized. He
tried to wade ashore and got his foot stuck between some rocks. Fortunately
there was a big rock to hold on to. When his waders filled, he did the
smartest thing and cut them off. The water temp was 53 degrees and he stayed
clinging to the rock for more than an hour before someone heard him. A friend
(Murry) waded out and tried to free the man's foot, but couldn't. So Harry
lowered the dam to less than 100 cfs and they managed to free him. A
helicopter and ambulance made it in from Rangeley, but the guy refused their
services. Most of his stuff (back pack, vest, etc) was found, but not his 4
pice Sage rod. So..............

Harry
Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

On 13 Jun 2004 16:12:48 GMT, irate (Dave LaCourse) wrote:


Forgot to add:

Last Saturday, the 5th, a fly fisherman tried to run the river from Middle Dam
down to the Pond. He made it just past Harbeck Pool before he capsized. He
tried to wade ashore and got his foot stuck between some rocks. Fortunately
there was a big rock to hold on to. When his waders filled, he did the
smartest thing and cut them off. The water temp was 53 degrees and he stayed
clinging to the rock for more than an hour before someone heard him. A friend
(Murry) waded out and tried to free the man's foot, but couldn't. So Harry
lowered the dam to less than 100 cfs and they managed to free him. A
helicopter and ambulance made it in from Rangeley, but the guy refused their
services. Most of his stuff (back pack, vest, etc) was found, but not his 4
pice Sage rod. So..............

****in' A Tweetee Birds! Someone practicing Random Acts of Stupidity.

Why the hell would a *fishing* person be running the river? It ain't like
you're gonna have any chance to actually cast a fly!

What was he trying to float down in? A 'yak?

/daytripper (I didn't even know Frank was up there last weekend! ;-)

In article , Dave
LaCourse wrote:

Forgot to add:

Last Saturday, the 5th, a fly fisherman tried to run the river from Middle Dam
down to the Pond. He made it just past Harbeck Pool before he capsized. He
tried to wade ashore and got his foot stuck between some rocks. Fortunately
there was a big rock to hold on to. When his waders filled, he did the
smartest thing and cut them off. The water temp was 53 degrees and he stayed
clinging to the rock for more than an hour before someone heard him. A friend
(Murry) waded out and tried to free the man's foot, but couldn't. So Harry
lowered the dam to less than 100 cfs and they managed to free him. A
helicopter and ambulance made it in from Rangeley, but the guy refused their
services. Most of his stuff (back pack, vest, etc) was found, but not his 4
pice Sage rod. So..............

Harry
Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

Holly crap whatta moron! Where's Darwin when you need em? why go to the
effort to get a boat above Middledam then try and run that river? Maybe
for a thrill in a wetsuit but in waders????!!
Allen

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

Flyfish writes:

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.

Three Islands won't allow the traffic on their access road, nor access from
the south via Black Cat Road. Only way in is by boat. There isn't enough
parking at the Oxford public parking at South Arm, so I don't see the condos
coming in for awhile, anyway. They will eventually find a way, and TU will
help them. *******s!
Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html