MAINE - Life in the Slow Lane
The story is old news for me as I have followed it in another forum, however I think it is funny that you chose a posting from the popular local paper where I grew up. The Rutland Herald out of Rutland Vermont was always on our table at home.
I grew up on the banks of Lake Champlain in Orwell, VT. Rarely ever heard of despite it's historical significance. Where as many have heard of Ticonderoga, NY where the fort that still stands across the lake is. Sorry.... Ranting.
OMG I had no idea how big this story had gotten! The poor guy is being crucified at this point.
I'm not thinking he should recieve zero punishment, but he might need a rest. Here is a story about him and a response by him. I stumbled across this from googling "fly fishing." That is bad news for this kid. I've seen murders get less press than this!
The illegal catch and misidentification of the tagged Atlantic salmon caught in the White River is not the real story! Where as the young fellow made a mistake in identification; after playing the fish for one hour it is likely to have been landed dead anyway.
Let me tell you a bit of the real story as I see it. I was the secretary for the now defunct White River Salmon Association and a member of its board of directors. I got to see things the general angler has no clue of in the working of non profit organizations, state agencies, USF&W Service and private corporations. The reason the WRSA was disbanded is simple, it was clear to all that the returns were not going to happen. I forget the target year in which we expected, based on the stock out of salmon smolt, the first big return. It was some where about 1984 if I recall but the return never came and serious concerns for the success of the program became evident. Everyone in the know moved on from the Connecticut River salmon restoration program. At one time TU was very competitive with WRSA regarding the Conn River Atlantic salmon Restoration program and had their own specially appointed fellow to spearhead this. You see the competition between non profits to grandstand their roll in the success of a program is intense!
Andy Stout, the President of WRSA transformed the WRSA into the New England Salmon Association and moved it to Mass to be closer to corporate donors. I voted to support this as the focus of the organization needed to change from then failed Conn River program to rivers more likely to succeed such as the Merrimack River the Penobscot River and the Down east Rivers of Maine. Andy retired form the salmon business a few years later and turned the finances over to another organization dedicated to education after a short investment in time and effort with these other river systems.
You may note that TU also moved in this direction!
You may note that those who are attacking this kid in public on the other channel wonder why there are no posters! Well I don’t put them up any longer and apparently TU doesn’t give a care about the program here on the White River either and for good reason!
What people do not understand is that if you were to speak to the people involved in the Connecticut River restoration and ask what is knew you are likely to get a whole lot of fluff but under it all you will see no new efforts have been made! It is the same old raise salmon from eggs of returning fish and those held and reared in the hatchery as broad stock and later the fry and smolt are stocked out. Well to my thinking that isn’t good enough! So many of the biologists I have met in this program have come from Marquette Michigan or places down south and their experience is not with Atlantic salmon! They are Lake Michigan biologists, walleye biologists all nice guys looking to advance their carrier but not one has been hired from an Atlantic salmon producing nation! Not one leading Atlantic salmon scientist from Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland or Canada has been hired to bring new thought into the program! Hence we keep seeing the same results using the same inbreeding program and in a year when all Atlantic salmon Rivers are doing well we get a few additional fish but that is it!
There needs to be a time table placed on performance goals for this program as our national treasure has been spent on WAR! There is no money to squander so that federal biologists can put their feet up on the desk and ask each other; “How long will it last? I hope until retirement!” Let’s get real here!
Back to the kid! So he pays a fine and his name is a joke in the outdoor community for the rest of his life while incompetence and a lack of serious evaluation of the program get a free ride. If I were still writing for news papers or local sporting magazines and did not support the restoration of Atlantic salmon I would be screaming for a serious investigation of this program. It is long over due. We see on the other channel individuals go off on this poor dumb kid and bombard the Locus Creek Outfitters message board with condemnation because they didn’t recognize the dead fish as a salmon! The message board had to be taken down! Little did these guys realize the Locus Creek Outfitters has been very helpful of the White River Partnership. (a feel good, let’s not rock the boat non profit organization which has no end game plan!) These people have a full time paid leadership position. Change doesn’t come from an organization that is committed to its own survival and a pay check gentleman!
In any event the good folks at Locus Creek Outfitters, which is a gun shop and not a fly fishing shop; fishing is only as a side line, have been helpful of the WRP when WRP does their feel good public show of water sampling at Locus Creek and the White River. At least one person who has bent over backwards to cause as much damage to the kid and Locus Creek Outfitters is a member of the WRP! Now that is appreciation for you!
This entire thing is unbelievable and even as dumb as this kid was there is much more to this story! I don’t feel like delving into at this time but believe me there is so much more to it and likely much more than I know!
Tight Lines!
Bobby
You bring up some very good points Kype. I just hope that the effort in Maine becomes a good one.
See Yah
Lee
Bobby
You cover the bases and then some my friend. It's all a tragic event but stringing the kid up won't bring the fish back. His response indicates he's a good kid from where I sit. And he brings up some very good points as well.
I heard from the former Commisioner of F&G in NH and he was pretty excited about the number of returning salmon in all the rivers except the CT. For some reason that one is behind. The rest, including Canada is showing exceptional returns.
Sometimes stuff happens. One morning I was sitting in wait along the Merrimack river in Litchfield. A flock of woodies was heading up river and I pulled down on the lead duck. Of a sudden there was dead and dieing ducks everywhere! I paddled out to the ducks only to find a mess of them with brown crested heads. Didn't know what they were or if they were even legal. Rather than let them float down river I policed em up hoping the warden was around as he often was on the river. Not that day. When I got them home I discovered they were Hooded Merganzers.
The second mistake I made was dressing them out figuring to eat them. All bad! Fish ducks. 
I'm curious.... I have been lead to the impression that Atlantic salmon restoration efforts so far have been failing, and that the liklihood of the return of the species is pretty low. Am I incorrect?
I'm not entirely sure where I got the idea in the first place, but it took hold from somewhere, and honstly I know very little about it.
Thanks,
Theron
Quote by: T_Bone22581I'm curious.... I have been lead to the impression that Atlantic salmon restoration efforts so far have been failing, and that the liklihood of the return of the species is pretty low. Am I incorrect?
I'm not entirely sure where I got the idea in the first place, but it took hold from somewhere, and honstly I know very little about it.
Thanks,
Theron
Theron
From what I know, the effort in the Penobscott is working, and it may be working in other rivers in Maine, but I think the effort in the Conn. River is not going so well. If you think about it look were the Conn. enters the ocean, that is pretty far south and that may be the reason it is having a harder time with this effort.
Just my two cents.
See Yah
Lee
Lee is correct!
The Connecticut River is about the most southerly river in the Atlantic salmon’s range. When it had fish was during the Little Ice Age! Regardless of what anyone thinks about human influence over global warming, global warming is taking place and shifting the range of many species. Just think for a moment, here in Central Vermont we didn’t have opossum but now we do! Creatures stray and move into areas suitable to their biologic needs. Likewise the Atlantic salmon is pulling back into its core range to the North. This is partly why we are seeing good returns in the core range area of the Atlantic salmon and poor returns in the southern extreme of the Atlantic salmon’s range.
People like Lee Wulff knew this! There was a time a few of us at the White River Salmon Association asked Andy Stout to bring Lee Wulff to speak at the annual dinner. Andy told me then that he dare not do that even though Andy and Lee were on a familiar basis and Lee would have come to speak. Andy told me Lee was likely to say the temperature was too high in the southern range for Atlantic salmon to ever repopulate the Connecticut River! Andy never did ask Lee to speak.
Within 3 years we closed shop knowing it wasn’t going to happen. That was in the 1980’s but once the Fed Gov starts the wheels a rolling it just keeps rolling especially when no goal markers were ever established! We in the non profit public sector actually knew things were not getting done and I asked Andy why we were not kicking some butt and demanding that serious scientific action take place! Andy told me then if we did that we jeopardized the entire program and we were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t. In the mean time the office in Montpelier, VT failed to produce research as the one biologist willing to push forward was refocused on sea lamprey on Lake Champlain. He was rocking the boat! There after the only research from the Montpelier office came from his sea lamprey research on Lake Champlain. The USF&W Service then changed the focus of the Montpelier, VT office to Lake Champlain sea lamprey research since the only research out of the office was on sea lamprey! The only USF&W biological research station in Vermont was dropped from the Connecticut River salmon program! It was a disgrace and no further research to the very best of my knowledge has been done by the USF&W Service on the White River from the Montpelier office. They dropped the ball and by now the bio in charge there is collecting his retirement and the opportunity to do serious research on Atlantic salmon in the White River was lost forever.
Rehashing this turns my stomach but apparently few people lived the history and perhaps it is time others know an insiders view.
Tight lines!
First Kype you need to get a new mouse, these double posts are killing me. Just joking, they only take second to remove.
You make some very good points and we as novices need to know what has been done and what is going on now. I as you believe the Conn. is done and that the money is now a waste if they keep pounding a dead horse. Bobby do you have any links that would be helpful in this discussion, if so please post them.
See Yah
Lee
I not sure how someone could misidentify the two species . I know the brown can take on a close resemblance but I would think after looking at the fish he could have figured it out. I love the part how they tracked the tag in land to Bethel
www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110816/THISJUSTIN/708169909
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was
cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.
On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words,
and some of the words are theirs.