Published: April 07, 2008 08:58 am         

Fisheries managers propose changes to angling regulations

FROSTBURG - Maryland's fisheries managers are proposing a number of changes to the 2009 angling regulations, including alterations to the popular delayed-harvest trout fisheries in Allegany and Garrett counties.

The various regulation ideas were discussed in a public meeting this past week at the Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg.

Portions of streams managed with delayed-harvest rules require during months of cooler water temperatures that anglers use only artificial lures and flies and that they immediately return trout to the stream. When waters are warm and trout survival becomes less likely, anglers may fish with any bait and keep two trout per day.

Currently, anglers must return trout to the water from October 1 through June 15 and may keep them from June 16 through Sept. 30.

A portion of Town Creek in Allegany County and portions of the Casselman River, North Branch Potomac River and the Youghiogheny River in Garrett County are delayed-harvest areas.

"We have had at least one fish kill in Town Creek in June, so we are offering some alternatives and asking the fishing public what they think," said Don Cosden, acting director of the Maryland Inland Fisheries Service, an arm of the Department of Natural Resources.

One option is to increase the length of the harvest season, the time when anglers may keep fish, by having it begin on June 1 instead of June 16. The agency is considering doing this for all delayed-harvest waters, including the Middle Patuxent River in Howard County or applying it to only the Garrett County waters, where higher elevations often keep water cooler during early June.

"We are also proposing that the number of fish an angler may keep each day during the harvest portion of the year increase from two to five," Cosden said. "We want to encourage harvest of those trout in June."

Regional Fisheries Biologist Alan Klotz is proposing that the delayed-harvest area on the Youghiogheny River at Friendsville be shortened by a quarter mile.

He said that the Youghiogheny Reservoir waters sometimes back up into that portion of the stream and people fishing for walleye or other warmwater fish are currently required to obey the delayed-harvest regulations.

A final change to delayed-harvest trout fishing would be the additions of Catoctin and Little Catoctin creeks in Frederick County to the system.

Several who attended the meeting continued to oppose special brook trout fishing rules on the Savage River drainage that have been in place for more than a year.

"I will be in front of you every year about this," said Jeff Conner, president of the Citizens Rights and Heritage Group. "We formed to keep our rights or to get those rights back that were taken from us. By not allowing us to fish with bait or to keep brook trout you have taken one of our rights away from us," he said.

Maude LeMaster, who lives alongside the banks of the Savage River, asked once again that the regulations be abolished and that the use of bait be legal. LeMaster has led two petition drives opposing the regulations.

Cosden said he recognizes that there are numerous threats to native brook trout, but that the only control his agency could exert is to restrict anglers. He called that situation "unfortunate."

Among other proposals offered by the agency was the prohibition against using crayfish for bait in the Monocacy and Susquehanna watersheds.

"There is a highly invasive species of crayfish there called the rusty crayfish that can be detrimental to aquatic habitats," Cosden said. "We don't want people potentially gathering crayfish for bait there and transporting them to other watersheds."

Cosden said it is possible that crayfish could be prohibited as bait statewide.

"Don't even go there," said an angler at the meeting. "Fishing with crayfish and hellgrammites is a part of going to the river. That's a tradition."

The agency will finalize regulation proposals this summer, according to Cosden.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.