I’m very proud of the effort I led to protect our native brook trout in their lakes and ponds. And I was very pleased last year when DIFW expanded that protection to the tributaries to those lakes and ponds.
A recent press release from the department provided the following information:
Use or possession of live fish as bait is now prohibited under the general fishing law in the North zone. All waters in the North zone where the use of live bait is permitted now have the special law code S-11 in the 2020 open water and ice fishing laws, which you can access here:
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/19-MDIFW-23-Fishing-Lawbook-2020.pdf
This change reinforces the importance of the region’s native and wild brook trout populations, and stresses the potential damage to those fisheries when bait fish are introduced where they don’t belong.