Rapid River article

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...
wayno writes:

i'm sorry, but anyone who has ever caught a smallie the same length as
a trout or landlocked salmon will tell you that he *loves* to catch
smallmouth bass. what's the big deal?

I can't believe you don't know. Bass are a warm water fish and will eat a
fishery to death of all its trout/salman. The Rapid *was* a cold water
fishery
without bass. They were illegally introduced to Umbagog in the mid 80s.
Maine
has a problem with Bubbuhs who think that bass and pike are more important
than
the native fish. Nothing wrong with fishing for bass using any rig you
want,
but there is a problem when you try to protect one of the greatest Brook
Trout
streams in the country and some asshole introduces bass. You have your
unspoiled Hazel. I have my Rapid which is quickly becoming spoiled.
Imagine
bass and pike in Hazel eating all those rainbows and browns. Would you
stand
for it? Fish for the bass instead?
Dave

Why wouldn't coldwater fish in a coldwater environment outcompete warmwater
species? I thought bass simply wouldn't spawn below certain temperatures. (A
friend told me about a tailwater converted to trout habitat by year-round
coldwater release. There, the bass simply disappeared over the course of ten
years or so.

If the water's warm enough for smallmouths to spawn successfully year after
year, the place will have to be dosed with rotenone. There's scads of little
bass wating to grow up per catchable size fish.

Wayne Harrison wrote:

"tim_s" wrote

. 35+ fisherman harvested 85 bass under

very windy conditions. All bass were taken by IF&W biologists to do
scale sampling, aging, egg sampling, etc to further understand the
Rapid bass issue. Other issues with the Rapid aside, this was a
monumental occasion. While 85 bass may be a drop in the bucket, for
once diverse sporting groups in Maine came together with a common
goal, working for the common good, rather than fighting for their own
interests. A problem exists, and many folks are finally stepping up to
do something about it, rather than watching it slide by the wayside.


\ i'm sorry, but anyone who has ever caught a smallie the same length as
a trout or landlocked salmon will tell you that he *loves* to catch
smallmouth bass. what's the big deal?



Our environment isn't managed only for sport fishermen or more
specifically only for the fish you may prefer.

Willi

Tim S. writes:

just a quick note on the bass event on PIR: it was NOT a TU event;

I know it wasn't. Hope I didn't give anyone that idea. I *am* disgusted,
however, with TU's support of FPL's water flow on the Rapid. We never had
troubles with the bass before because the Rapid was cold water for all of the
summer. Last year the water temp at PIR was approaching 70 during the 3rd week
in June, making it a *warm water* fishery.

I am glad they got so many bass. That surprises me. I hope they did not catch
very many brookies or landlocks.

I have a serendipity trip there next week. A friend was supposed to go last
week but his sister-in-law died. He had to cancel. He won't go alone, so I
"volunteered" to go for a few days. The flow is still 390, but the weather has
been cool. The river will heat up very quickly at that flow rate.
Dave

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

(tim_s) wrote in
m:

just a quick note on the bass event on PIR: it was NOT a TU event; the
main sponsor and organizer was www.flyfishinginmaine.com, essentially
a board very similar to this, with just as diverse a group of members.
FFIM pulled together TU, FFIM, SAM (sportsman's alliance of
maine....essentially the hook & cook, bullet & spin crowd), Maine
IF&W, the Rangeley Region Guides and Sportsman's Association and
Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust.

A good post, and some good news. I wasn't trying to put down the event but
it is remniscent of ****ing into the wind, if the biologists can make some
sense of it that's better news.

TU has lost it, lost it years ago IMHO. YMMV

Flyfish