|
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
From start to finish, a bounty of fine fishing
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||||||
 |
The Four-Part Series: Saco River: Source to Sea | |||||||||
They come for the trout, the bass, the stripers and the shad. They come in boats, or fish from the shore wearing waders and shorts. Fishermen are everywhere on the Saco River, from the headwaters in New Hampshire to the river's mouth in Camp Ellis. The last five miles before the ocean, in the tidal portion below the Main Street bridge in Biddeford, are perhaps the most heavily fished of the entire 134-mile river. It is a haven for striped bass fishermen, who bring their boats in droves to the public launch sites in Biddeford and Saco. Bill Simes of Kennebunk discovered the bounty of stripers in the river's saltwater tidal section for the first time in early July. "I'm basically a freshwater fisherman," he said. "But I've been catching so many here, I'm not going back to freshwater." Centuries ago, the Saco was home to a self-supportive stock of edible fish such as trout, smallmouth and largemouth bass, perch, shad, river herring, striped bass, sturgeon and even Atlantic salmon. But their populations began to change as sawmills and textile mills were built to harness the river's power. After six hydropower stations changed the river's flow, the migratory fish like shad and Atlantic salmon disappeared from the upper parts of the river, while the bass flourished in the lake-like waters above the dams. That changed in 1993, when a $10 million fish passage project made the waters above Biddeford and Saco accessible through the dams on the river's east and west channels. In the west channel, between Factory Island and the Biddeford side of the river, a fish ladder directs the fish upriver. The process is more complex in the east channel, which hoists the fish to the top of the complex with an elevator. Fueled by the driving instinct to head upstream to spawn, the fish enter the box through the flow of water, which is stronger near the entrance of the elevator than anywhere else at the complex. "It's all about flow for these fish," said Matt LeBlanc, a fisheries biologist with FPL Energy, which owns the dams and the hydropower station. Some of the Atlantic salmon that swim into the fish elevator are trucked in a holding tank to spawn where the Ossipee River and the Saco intersect. Others are allowed to swim their natural course. As of May 1, 2002, the time of the spring spawn, 40 Atlantic salmon, 20,198 river herring (alewives) and 959 shad had made the trip up through the east and west channels. For the fish that don't catch a ride on the truck with FPL, the trip would have ended at the Skelton Dam in Dayton a couple of years ago. But this year they could keep going all the way to Bar Mills if they so desired. The 1999 relicensing of the Dayton/Hollis Skelton Power Station resulted in a $6 million fish lift that opened last year. As of May 1, 13 Atlantic salmon and 11,047 herring have taken the ride, but no shad. Richard Tozier of Dayton, who fishes the waters above the Skelton Dam, said he has never seen a salmon there. Legally, he couldn't catch one anyway. They are federally protected. The shad and herring, on the other hand, are fair game. "There will probably be even more coming up here through the fish ladder," he said. Besides serving as an angler's playground, the lower section of the Saco River also provides a home for the Saco River Salmon Club, which has a small fish hatchery on the Biddeford side of the river below the Cataract Dam. The club raises Atlantic salmon and releases fry into the river by the thousands every year. So far there is not a lot of proof that the fry are growing up in, and returning to, the river. But that doesn't deter the members of the club who keep trying to bring them back to the Saco. "We feel so strongly that their survival is so important and they are so worth trying to protect," said Steven Berry, a club member. "I would love to see my child go down there some day to catch an Atlantic salmon." For now, Berry and other fishermen must be content with fishing for the trout that the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife stocks upriver, the smallmouth and largemouth bass in the midsection that replenish themselves, and the striped bass that nature stocks at the river's mouth. From the looks of things, the fishermen who chase the big catch within the waters of the Saco seem pleased with what the river offers. At Saco Lake, the source of the river in Crawford Notch, H.H., where the water runs cold from the mountains, they fly-fish for trout. Down at Camp Ellis, the mouth of the river where the water becomes salty, people like George Dale of Porter fish for stripers. Dale has been fishing at Camp Ellis for 20 years. He comes even in the winter, because the ocean is his favorite place to be, especially right at the Saco River's end. "There's a lot of fish here," he said. "You can't get no better than this." Staff Writer Giselle Goodman can be contacted at 324-4888 or at: ggoodman@pressherald.com |
||||||||||
