Title: Squaretails, Biology and Management of Maine’s Brook Trout

Author: Forrest Bonney

Copyright Date: 2007

Price: $10 at http://www10.informe.org/webshop_ifw/index.php?p=1859&c=12&storeID=2

ISBN-13: 978-0-9794363-0-7

Maine anglers and those who travel to the Pine Tree State in pursuit of trout have long been aware of the value of the brook trout fishery it provides.  Not until recently, however, has the unique worth of Maine’s wild and native brook trout populations been widely exposed.

Forrest Bonney’s new book, Squaretails, Biology and Management of Maine’s Brook Trout, comes at the heels of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, a collaborative project evaluating brook trout populations throughout their native range in the United States.  Preliminary results from the Joint Venture are showing that Maine represents the last stronghold for native brook trout, containing more brookies in their historic range than any other state.  A heightened focus on brook trout in Maine sets a perfect stage for Squaretails, where Bonney attempts to provide a compilation of brook trout history, biology, and current status in the state from the perspective of both angler and fisheries manager.  

The history of fisheries management is rooted in the attempt to reverse declines in popular fisheries and maintain fishing quality over time.  While most people can easily relate to this concept, further understanding of the practice of fish management is often lacking.  Bonney attempts to bridge this gap in understanding between biologists and the public by describing in detail the research and data collection practices undergone in the fisheries field and why biologists do certain things.

In the book, Bonney, who has been a fisheries biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for 34 years, illustrates perhaps the best case yet for responsible stewardship of Maine’s brook trout resources.  He describes the long history and current status of brook trout fishing in Maine, including historical accounts of trophy squaretails caught in the state, and changes in the fishery over time resulting from the decline of brook trout populations in many waters. 

Forrest Bonney not only thoroughly describes the biology of brook trout in Squaretails; he also documents a fairly complete history of research and management practices that relate to brook trout in the state of Maine.  He explains the current threats to brook trout populations, as well as the future research needs to allow for proper stewardship of this valuable resource well into the future. 

Mark McCollough provides captivating cover art and other illustrations, and Ethan Nadeau and others provide excellent photography and illustrations, adding a valuable artistic element to the book.    

Squaretails is the most complete resource on Maine brook trout currently available and is a must read for Maine anglers and brook trout enthusiasts everywhere.  This book, as well as a more technical version of the same content are published by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and can be purchased at http://www10.informe.org/webshop_ifw/index.php?p=1859&c=12&storeID=2 . 

It’s ice fishing time, and for many in the state of Maine, that means hook-and-lining it for smelts in the ice shack.  The rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) is native to many coastal waters in Maine, and has been extensively introduced to inland lakes.  The smelt is a thin, silvery fish that ranges in size between a couple of inches and nearly a foot in some areas.  Smelts are an important forage fish in both inland and coastal waters in the state.  In fact, smelts can often constitute over 90% of the diet of landlocked salmon in Maine lakes. 

Aside from being forage for other game fishes, though, smelts also directly provide an important sport fishery for many Maine anglers.  Fishermen set up fishing cabins, or ‘ice shacks’ on lakes to provide shelter while they jig for smelts, using small hooks tipped with little chunks of bait.  The bite can be fast and furious at times, and smelt fishing typically provides steadier action than targeting other species.  There’s nothing quite like spending a quiet day out at the cabin pulling in smelt after smelt.    

Many of Maine’s coastal rivers experience vast runs of smelts, which ascend into freshwater in preparation for spawning.  When the ice is thick enough, some establishments place dozens of shacks out on the ice for fishermen to rent.  I’ve spent my fair share of time in some of those shacks, and the fishing can be incredible.  It’s not rare to come home with a few hundred smelts, and a ’smelting’ trip with friends or family is always worth the few bucks paid to rent a shack.       

In addition to the direct recreational benefit smelts provide, smelts are a very popular food item, and are absolutely essential to the baitfishing market.  Many anglers will fry up a mess of battered smelts, but others save their catch to use as bait.  The vast majority of Maine ice fishermen use tip-ups rigged with live bait to catch salmon and trout, and smelts are far and away their top choice of bait.  These baitfish can cost upwards of $10/dozen, so it’s no surprise that many anglers take the opportunity to catch their own bait!

Smelts play a vital role in Maine’s fisheries.  They provide a crucial forage base for gamefish and are popular sportfish in their own right.  Smelts are also excellent table fare and are a very important part of Maine’s live bait industry.  If you haven’t been out smelt fishing, you may be missing out on one heck of a time! 

Here’s a great article about smelt fishing Maine’s coastal rivers

Click here for places to rent smelt shacks.  I’ve been to James Eddy’s and Jim Worthing’s smelt shacks.  Both provide good cabins for a decent price.

Here’s an article on smelts in Maine written by fisheries biologist Jim Pellerin, who is considered the smelt expert within the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

A while back, I had the opportunity to see some cool pictures of tiger trout caught in Vermont by Maine resident Sean McAuley.  McAuley did what very few fishermen have the opportunity to do: he caught multiple tiger trout that occurred naturally in the wild.  He also took some great pictures of the fish and gave me the opportunity to post them here.

The tiger trout (Salmo trutta x Salvelinus fontinalis) is a sterile hybrid cross between brown trout and brook trout, and is very rarely seen in the wild.  Instead of looking like a typical hybrid with some coloration characteristics from each of its parents, the tiger trout looks completely unique.  It doesn’t just have the distinguishing spots and parr marks that other trout have.  True to its name, the tiger trout has extensive vermiculations along its sides that somewhat resemble the stripes of a tiger.   

It is believed that the cross between the two trout species results when a male brook trout fertilizes the eggs of a female brown trout.  While they spawn around the same time, brook trout and brown trout usually segregate during spawning, and do not share the same type of microhabitat for laying their eggs.  It is believed that brook trout typically tend to seek groundwater inputs for spawning while brown trout simply target suitable gravel.  Research has shown that brown trout and brook trout spawning redds seldom overlap, but in some cases they do spawn together, and tiger trout are documented in the wild from time to time. 

One of the reasons that the tiger trout is so rare is that the two species forming this hybrid are each in a separete genus, and have different numbers of chromosomes.  In other words, they aren’t as closely related as many other species that hybridize.  Brook trout have 84 chromosomes, while brown trout have 80. 

Tiger trout have become a popular tool for fisheries managers in a number of states, where they are bred and raised in hatcheries and stocked in lakes or reservoirs to provide a unique sportfishing opportunity.  Fish culturists have been successful in breeding tiger trout by heat shocking brown trout eggs, which adds an extra set of chromosomes and greatly increases survival rates.  Survival rates from fertilization in the wild are very low.

Because it is so rare in the wild, hybridization between native brook trout and introduced brown trout has not often been discussed as a threat to brook trout populations, while competition and predation by brown trout are believed to pose a more significant threat to native fish.  The tiger trout is truly a unique fish, only found in rare instances where brown trout and brook trout coexist, and I envy anyone fortunate enough to have the opportunity to land one!  

The taimen (Hucho taimen) is the largest trout in the world, growing to over 6 feet long and up to 200 pounds!  While it has suffered declines from overfishing in parts of Russia and China, northern Mongolia boasts a healthy population of taimen.

Read more about taimen here and here

New research techniques and more attention to detail has allowed for the identification of 57 new freshwater fish species in Europe, according to a recent National Geographic article.  The results come from a 7 year study conducted in collaboration with the World Conservation Union.  

Many of the new species have been found to have extremely slight differences in morphology, and little or no behavioral differences (such as a sculpin with rough skin as opposed to one with smooth skin).  While it’s cool to see that a bunch of new species have been found, I think that the reader should be critical of the findings of ‘new species’ because of the substantial subjectivity involved with the categorical arrangement of species.  

In addition, while 57 new ’species’ have been found, the report states that more than 1/3 of Europe’s 522 documented fish species are at risk of extinction: a statement that is sure to turn heads, but caused my eyebrows to raise a bit, considering that scientists haven’t even been able to document all of Europe’s fish species.  How does sufficient information exist to allow scientists to make statements about the status of every species identified?  While likely precautionary, such statements appear to be subjective at best.

This week I was able to get some pictures of kokanee salmon during their annual spawning run up the tributary to a local lake. 

Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka) are the landlocked form of sockeye salmon, kind of similar to landlocked atlantic salmon found in many northeastern U.S. lakes.  Native forms of kokanee are found in many lakes that currently have, or have had runs of sockeye salmon from the Pacific Ocean.  It is believed that these native stocks arose from sockeye salmon offspring that stayed in inland lakes after hatching, instead of returning to the ocean. 

But the kokanee that most people are probably familiar with are those that have been stocked in inland lakes by fish and game departments to provide additional fishing opportunities.  This is the case with the fish I was observing this past week. 

One of the coolest things about these fish is that they take on an amazing red color in preparation for spawning, as opposed to the silvery color they possess prior to spawning.  Their color is such that one can walk along the shoreline of a kokanee spawning river and easily see each spawning fish. 

Unlike Atlantic salmon, species of Pacific salmon are semelparous, which means that they spawn once and die.  We observed thousands of kokanee spawning in the stream, as well as a number of dead carcasses of fish that had expended all of their energy spawning, and died.  There were tons of raccoon tracks and bird tracks on the shoreline, and at one point, there was a place along the shore where a mink had apparently pulled a number of kokanee from the river and eaten their heads, which contain the highest energy content in the fish’s body.

Kokanee are a popular sportfish and play a significant role in cycling nutrients in the ecosystems they inhabit.  They consume zooplankton and fish in the lake environment, spawn in the streams and die, where animals and insects consume them, excrete nutrients, many of which return to the aquatic ecosystem, feeding phytoplankton, which feed zooplankton…..and the cycle continues.  And aside from that, they’re fun to fish for and pretty cool to check out during the spawning run!

 Frank Stack, of Lakewood, Colorado caught this 18.8 pound cutbow trout out of Antero Reservoir on opening day.  The fish is the first ever state record cutbow.  Being fairly new to Colorado, the cutbow is a hybrid between a cutthroat trout and a rainbow trout. 

See the story here

Ever hear of a sicklefin redhorse?  Neither have I, until now!  It appears that this fish, recently discovered by scientists, was once a staple food item for Cherokee Indians in the southeastern U.S.  Officials report that the redhorse, which can grow up to 3 feet long and to weights exceeding 7 pounds, is found in only two river basins.  Current research is being conducted by scientists at North Carolina State University studying the movement patterns and reproductive biology of the redhorse, and a Virginia professor is reportedly still in the process of formally describing the fish.  

With help from the federal government, the Cherokee tribe is in the process of introducing the fish into new waters in hopes that they will successfully reproduce.  No word yet on political issues involved with the redhorse, but stay tuned.  This one’s under the radar for now, but the rare fish will likely be another target of political conflict sometime in the future.  It has been proposed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

See the full story here

 Other articles:

Scientists Study Sicklefin

Meet the Sicklefin

For over 5 years now, a heated debate has dragged on between environmentalists and state and federal agencies over the status of Yellowstone cutthroat trout.  Environmentalist groups petitioned for the listing of the Yellowstone cutthroat under the Endangered Species Act in 2001, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, after an extensive review, declared the listing unwarranted.  The decision was challenged in court in 2005, and resulted in a similar outcome. 

Despite the scare tactics and legal challenges brought on by a number of camps, the biological data still show that this subspecies of cutthroat continues to persist, and is in no immediate danger of extinction by any means.  In fact, the most recent study led by the USFWS, in cooperation with three state agencies, shows that Yellowstone cutthroat populations continue to persist, with no evidence supporting the claims of challenging groups that the subspecies is experiencing drastic declines.

Instead of trying to better understand these populations and how we can help them recover to historic levels, many groups simply rely on false information, with a ’sky is falling’ type of attitude.  And why wouldn’t they?  It’s the most effective way to raise money, increase funding, and support their cause, which oftentimes conflicts with traditional uses of fish and wildlife, primarily hunting and fishing. 

What makes things worse, is that all the money the USFWS spends (our tax dollars, mind you) conducting reviews and fighting off court challenges, is money that could be used to fund species conservation.  While Yellowstone cutthroat trout are not endangered by any means, conservation efforts are probably necessary for their long term persistence.  Despite this, one might argue that many environmental groups are doing more harm than good for the species they intend to save, by channeling the focus toward legal battles instead of real, on the ground conservation activities. 

We should applaud state agencies that work to protect and enhance native sport fish populations despite lack of funding and countless legal challenges.  In the end, they, along with concerned citizens and sportspersons are, in my opinion, the real key to species conservation.  

A surprised fisherman recently landed a piranha in North Carolina’s Catawba River.  This South American tropical fish, which was likely released from a local owner’s aquarium, may make you think twice about where you swim!

 see the story here

This event also highlights a recent trend of people releasing pet fish in local waters, which has the potential to cause ecosystem-wide problems.