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There’s some good news for Atlantic salmon anglers taking a break this winter. In all likelihood, the Penobscot River will be open to catch-and-release fishing in 2006. This will be the first open season since the river was closed after the 1999 season because of low returns and the politics in Maine relating to the listing of the salmon in Downeast rivers on the Federal Endangered Species list. More than 1,000 salmon returned to the Penobscot last year, coming close to the 1,300 from the prior season. These returns, while lower than peak years in the 1980s of some 4,000 fish, are encouraging to state and federal biologists, who see a stabilizing trend in the returns.
While it’s not a given there will be a season, all indications are that the season will open for a limited time. Hearings are being held this winter for anglers and all interested parties to provide feedback to the state Sea Run Salmon Commission, which will make the decision on opening the season. Reliable sources have reported that if a season is open for 2006, it will be in the fall. This will enable the primary spawning run of spring fish to move up the river without angling pressure.
Penobscot salmon are a combination of wild and hatchery fish. Each spring, biologists take some 600 returning fish and use them for brood stock for future releases into the river. Maine salmon fishermen and anglers from the Greater Boston Chapter of TU have in the past caught wild Penobscot fish, which can be distinguished by the lack of a clipped fin.
Meanwhile, news from Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia this past year has been encouraging. The numbers of fish returning to the Gaspe were lower than 2004, which was a banner year. However, all the Canadian rivers suffered from a drought through most of July, August and the beginning of September. Rains came as they did in the United States, as the remnants of hurricanes swept across the Northeast, in September. Most of the fish counting was done by then.
Reports from fishermen on the Gaspe, the Miramichi and Cape Breton indicate large numbers of fish holding in the larger pools throughout the summer, moving quickly up river when the fall rains did come.