03/08/2008
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Staff photo by Travis Barrettfrom the Kennebec Journal
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All of today's:
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from the Morning Sentinel
"I don't know about this night fishing thing," says Stevens, an avid ice fisherman.
Truth is, not many people really do know much about "this night fishing thing." For the first time, Maine has lifted the statewide ban on ice fishing from sunset to sunrise for species other than cusk (a freshwater relative of cod which has long been targeted, legally, at night). The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's ice fishing regulation booklet proclaimed that the state's waters were open to ice fishing at night this winter.
Though not everybody is taking advantage of the new regulations, judging from the relatively light turnout at night on the lakes, local fisheries biologist Scott Davis said he's seen plenty of interest.
"At my son's hockey games, there are a group of guys that always come over to me in the stands and ask about (fishing)," Davis said. "A lot of them have been asking me about what things to do at night."
Davis said his regional office in Sidney has also fielded plenty of questions.
"Everybody wants to know the same thing," he said. "They want to know, 'How do we go about it?'
"It can be good fishing. It's just that it hasn't been on the books long enough for people to have done it a lot. It's just a matter of knowing a body of water before you get there and maybe being somewhere where you've had success for the species you're targeting during the day. At night, it should increase (the success rate)."
In the dark
For most of Wednesday, I did a fair amount of staring out my living room window following the progress of the sleet and rain that fell from the sky nearly all day. As soon as it abated, shortly before dinnertime, I made the phone call to local guide Jeff Zimba of Fairfield.
"OK, brother," he answered. "Let's do it."
We spent the next eight hours slogging through several inches of slush in the middle of Great Pond on an all-terrain vehicle, setting and checking traps in the darkness. Our party of three didn't have so much as a single flag, despite trying a number of tricks for fishing at night, most of those gimmicks having to do with lights suspended in or above the water. We fished several different depths with different baits and different targets -- under the ice in shallow water for brown trout, on the bottom of deep water with extra large shiners for northern pike, and a few other distinctions in between.
Bupkus.
We went out at night for no other reason than to see what could be done. Jeff spent the better part of two days designing traps with pressure-sensitive light switches on them, and we talked more than a few times about the evening menu. There was talk of a card game, one that never materialized.
After all, there had to be a reason the state would open the winter to fishing at night -- which you've long been permitted to do during the open water season -- and we thought we'd take advantage. All we really took advantage of was a reason to eat pork and venison grilled up with some garlic and steak seasoning.
A couple of days later, after thawing out and catching up on plenty of lost sleep, I learned we hadn't been as far away from success as I feared -- only that we'd needed to tailor our efforts just a bit.
Light my way
When it comes right down to it, light is the most important tool the night ice fisherman has at his disposal -- and that's got nothing at all to do with carrying a flashlight in his hip pocket.
"The key is getting plankton built up," Davis said. "When you see that plankton there in the hole, it gives you confidence."
Plankton is the lifeblood of the freshwater food chain. To get that plankton to congregate, it's imperative that the night angler suspend a light source over the hole in the ice. Light attracts the micro-organisms, which in turn attract fish to feed.
Two common examples of the practice have been employed locally for years. Smelt camps on the Kennebec River employ lights over their race holes to attract feed; bait fishermen use lamps over large holes on lakes and ponds to entice plankton to gather in the hopes of bringing baitfish to their nets.
Once the light is over the hole, it's important to fish just outside of the reach of the light beam. Most fish, especially at night, won't venture directly into the light, Davis said -- instead they'll simply work the outer reaches of the light, sipping on the food that's gathering. That's where you want to dangle your live bait on the hook or work the lure on your jig pole.
The shallower the water, the better the chances of success at night, too -- in part because it allows a lamp to penetrate nearly to the bottom. Black crappie are one of the popular targets of the night angler, as are yellow perch. Both are warmwater species, and both travel in relatively shallow water.
"I can tell you that I (fished at night) before the regulations came out, you know, when we were trying to see if it was something we wanted to open up," Davis said. "I caught a lot of black crappie and a lot of yellow perch just jigging. I never caught any salmonids at night -- but I've also never fished for them. I know that catching a brook trout at night is really rare."
On the books
Virtually every lake or pond in central Maine is what DIF&W refers to as "put-and-take," meaning the bodies of water are managed for people to catch and kill fish that have been stocked. That philosophy, ultimately, is why ice fishing at night is currently being offered.
"Realistically, the fish are there to be harvested," Davis said. "When it came to fishing at night, 'Who cares?' was kind of our thing. Obviously, there's legal implications (of enforcing regulations), but in respect to the fisheries division, we didn't see it being a big deal."
Davis believes that if you have a popular spot for ice fishing during traditional daylight hours, you may want to try it at night, too. With a light source focusing the feeding efforts in one spot, results could be remarkably better at night.
But local anglers may also be a little leery at first to even try, given the newness of the endeavor.
"Not many," was Davis' answer for how many people have actually taken advantage of being able to fish at night this year. "But it's new, and a lot of people just don't know where to start.
"If you go out west or further south where there's ice and crappie, it's a big way to catch a bunch of them."
Travis Barrett -- 621-5648
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
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