MAINE - Life in the Slow Lane
About the muskies; I fish them in the beginning of the SJRB On Baker and Fith St John and they are an excellent fish and fishery. I shutter to think that there was once a large populatin of brookies there but ther in nothing we can do about that now. The sonner people relize what kind of fishery we will have there the better off we will be. I like going to a remote lake to battle monsters, it gives an added sence of adventure and acomplishment. 
Jake
I'm sure Muskies would be fun to catch, however, I'm proud of were I came from. A place were Atltantic Salmon and Trout were plentiful. If I had the power, I would fix what we have destroyed and give back our Name. I find it hard to swallow that the younger generation would rather see our rivers over populated with bass and muskie. When I watch fishing shows, I am so glad that they film about our Atlantic salmon and not bass or muskie fishing. To me, that's a sence of acomplishment...
If we could turn back the clock ofcourse any one of us would get rid of all the non indigenous fish, however unless we're going to drain all the lakes and rivers it isn't possible at least not on the budget that we're on. I'm a realist, what we have, is what we have, period. No one is advocating spreading any non indigenous fish to new waterways, however when they are in there we may as well make the best of it and take full advantage of the situation. I wonder how many years it took for the smallmouth to become recognized as a sportfish. My Dad once told me the name of the person who put smallmouth bass into Maguagadavic lake here in NB back in the 1920's, back then new introductions moved with the railroad. Anyway I feel that it's time the province gets with the times and accepts the fact that muskies are in the SJR watershed and eventually will populate all the habitat that will support them. It has been 20 years since the first Muskie was trapped at the Mataquac dam, and just recently has the mid SJR fishery been noticed by anglers, so in time they will become better established in the lower portions of the SJR where there are still sea runs of gaspereaux and other bait fish. Imagine how fast a muskie could bulk up on them. Anyway this new fishery ought to be at least recognized by the province and reasonable rules put in place. Sure I'd like to have things as they were in our watersheds a hundred years ago but it's not going to happen, however we have to appreciate what we do have, figure out how to protect and use the sportfish resource in a sustainable manner and chart a course to the furture.
BG
Yes its sad what man kind as done to our waters either through greed, stupdity or just plain ignorance. Moosehead lake Maine know for its beautiful Landlocks and its trout populations have been threatened by the introdution of white perch because a couple of guy's didn't want to travel so far to catch them. The same with Pike in the Belgrade lake area. Our Fathers and Grandfathers didnt know any better when it came to the harvest of fish. I to have seen photos of large fish on stringers or 50 fish or more. How many differnt spieces have been intoduced by ice fisherman and the minnows they used as bait. Now look at Northern Maine where still today companies come in and wipe out the forest. Thank God some people and groups have come to reilize the problems that man has created. They continue to fight for changes in the way we do things. TU took a big part in the removal of the Edwards dam in the Augusta area on the Kennebec River. Now people in Waterville Maine are catching Sea run Browns and Stripers No we will never be able to fix places like Moosehead or the Belgrade chain back to their haydays but what we can do is stop it from continuing to happen to other lakes and streams. On the bright side you have to remember there have been good fish spieces added to the lakes and streams at least we consider them good fish. Like the Rainbow Trout , The German Brown were not native speices to the USA until not to long ago. Not to many people complain about them. Look at Yellowstone they continue to battle a fish most of would love to catch . That would be the lake Trout. The regulations on that fish is kill it no matter what. The fish was introduced during a flood and the breaching of a dam. They are playing havoic on the natural populations of Cuttthroat Trout. They are taking every measure to remove them but with little sucess. Dang I could go on all day but I have to go to work.
Dave v
Dave, Your more than welcome up here in NB any time at all. When I used to fish at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario there were more flyfishermen from the US than from Canada. They were always more than friendly and often were quite knowledgeable about local fishing, as I was from about 7 hours away in Petawawa. Lots of time you'd exchange flys or they'd just give you something. Once when my buddy broke his rod in half one gentleman who was fishing with his son offered for Rob to borrow his back up rod it was only a St Croix. We thanked him but were ready to depart for the campground. My Dad used to tell stroies about going fishing with his buddies and staying over night in an old cabin. they ate as many trout as they could and still brought a hundred home each. So it's not hard to figure out why the trout fishery has declined so rapidly as brook trout tend to be a very sensitive fish to any stream degradation and are over fished easily. If you cut the trees beside a brook trout stream then the waterway will be alot less productive and the water will warm up and silt will accumulate. The woods are pretty well chopped here and although the are now laws that protect stream buffer zones every year there is this report and that report (Jacko-Povry) that say to increase the wood supply we should cut such and such percent of the stream buffers. The forrestry industry is like the cod fishery a thing of the past, the hey days are over and we have to move on, rather than destroy what little we have left. NB is very close to being the poorest province and as a result the first thing that they cut is enforcement and stocking. Looking at the Maine stocking list there are places they stocked more LLS in one place than we stocked LLS and trout combined in our whole program. The fact is as far as NB is concerned if it's not a sea run atlantic salmon, which I'm definately in favor of doing everything to save then very little effort or money goes into it. Hell we now have muskies in the SJR, a fish which is held in the highest of reverence in every other place that they inhabit and the NB Gov is killing everyone that they catch at the Dam in Mataquac, all in the name of saving the sea run atlantic salmon. We have to wake up and realize that the NB sport fishery will never be what it was a hundred years ago. So anyway if there are any 8 pound brook trout then they'd probably be sea run and you'd have to time it just right. I'm sure that there are a few remote lakes that may hold the odd lunker, but most f the rout that I catch are in the 8-12 inch range and a 12 incher is a good one. Sorry to burst your bubble. We should plan a "clave" the next time that your up here on vacation, could be in NB or Maine, we don't have alot of people on here so it would be easy to arrange. Rant over.
Bill G.