Save the Rapid

Rapid River Bass Versus Wild Trout
Rangeley Region Guides' & Sportsmen's Association
Fall 2003 Newsletter

Rapid River is famed for its large wild brook trout with many fish exceeding 4 pounds in size. By many accounts it is one of the top ten wild brook trout fisheries in the U.S. and is the most heavily fished stream in Maine. It is a local, state wide, and national treasure.

The illegal introduction of smallmouth bass into Lake Umbagog took place 15-20 years ago. They quickly established themselves there and by the late 1990’s had expanded their range to other accessible waters in the drainage, including Rapid River and Pond in the River (PIR). Both waters provide ideal habitat for smallmouth bass and as feared, their numbers have increased dramatically during the past year.

The bass are severe competitors and predators on brook trout, feeding on small trout and then competing with them for forage and habitat. Because the bass are so aggressive; if left unchecked they will dominate the Rapid River fishery and likely dramatically reduce the wonderful fishery we enjoy today.

IF&W, together with from FPLE (Florida, Power, Light Energy) have been studying the situation for several years and keeping RRG&SA members informed of the results. In the spring we also heard from Brian Weidel on his efforts in New York to control the population of bass in a lake similar in size to Pond in the River. It seems clear from what we know, it is impossible to eliminate the bass, but perhaps their populations can be controlled with significant, sustained efforts.

With this in min and the interest of many local, state, and even national people and organizations, the RRG&SA held a Conference at the clubhouse in late September. Attendees included three IF&W biologists, biologists from FPLE, Jeff Reardon from Trout Unlimited Maine, Jeff Levesque from Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Nancy Perlson and Shelby Rosseau of Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, and Don Palmer, Mike Warren and Steve Dudley of RRG&SA. The attendance was limited to encourage a full discussion of the issues before going to a larger audience.

On the positive side we were pleased with the level of commitment by sportsmen to developing a plan to address the issue and the considerable efforts by Dave Boucher, Forrest Bonney and Bill Hansen to evaluate the situation and develop recommendations to protect the brook trout. Bill and his people have conducted the telemetry studies that have identified the movements of the trout throughout the year. This led to changes in the fishing regulations for Rapid River. The Conference also supported IF&W’s plan to continue seeking funding for barriers on upstream waters, complete telemetry, genetics and bass food habitat studies, consider establishing a broodline of the Rapid River trout strain, expand juvenile trout habitat surveys and evaluate the efficacy of controlling bass in these critical areas, continue surveys of the scientific literature, reassess the Rapid River flow regime, and monitor the effects of the newly approved fishing regulations.

Unfortunately on the disappointing side, one of the regulation changes RRG&SA supported…allowing ALO in PIR during the June bass spawning season was not approved by the Commissioner. Apparently the feeling in Augusta was that based on current knowledge, “large scale efforts to remove bass from PIR would be ineffective, costly and logistically impractical”. IF&W also believes that it would be counter productive to prevent the movement of fish between Lake Umbagog and Rapid River since some trout migrate to Umbagog.

Despite all the positive efforts in the plan to protect the brook trout and plans to educate people on the risks and penalties of illegal introductions, RRG&SA believes that we must successfully address the control of bass populations and prevent their access to Rapid River. Currently, it is unclear how this can be accomplished. However, we believe it is essential that we evaluate how it can be done, identify the resources required and obtain a commitment from all parties to do so.

Not an easy task, but we have much to lose if we don’t. Not only is the Rapid River wild trout fishery at stake, but the possibility of bass being illegally introduced into other Rangeley waters, threatens the economy of the entire region. It has been said that bass are the fisheries equivalent of milfoil, or worse.

The Conference attendees will reconvene in early December to report on the status of the various projects and discuss how we can deal with the issues of controlling bass populations and keeping them out of the Rapid River. In the meantime we hope to locate someone who has experience in reducing the populations of bass and perhaps can offer some assistance.

Taken from the Rangeley Region Guides' & Sportsmen's Association - Fall 2003 Newsletter