For More Information, Please Contact:

Mark Latti
Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
mark.latti@maine.gov
207-287-6008
pager 818-9617
fax 207-287-6395
284 State Street
41 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333


Trip Tracks and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Three years ago, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife 
began
a partnership with TripTracks, Inc., the result of which is an 
interactive
web-based log book. The logbook is a unique use of web technology which
provides the department's fisheries biologists with real time data that 
they
can use to help manage the states fishing resources. 

How TripTracks Fishing Logbook Benefits Anglers

While many anglers keep a written logbook of their fishing trips, the
TripTracks Fishing Logbook offers a free online fishing logbook. Using 
a
simple calendar based format, anglers can easily record data about 
their
fishing trips and enter details and photos of each of the fish they 
have
caught. TripTracks users can enter and recall fishing trips from any
computer with an Internet connection and web browser. The information 
that
anglers enter in their logbook is private and password protected, so 
that
other TripTracks members will not have access to it and will only be 
able to
review summary information from trips logged around the state.

"With a limited staff, IFW's Fishery Division relies on voluntary 
angling
information to help make management decisions. In its first year, 
TripTracks
proved to be an effective means to provide biologists with the 
additional
information necessary to monitor and manage Maine's fisheries. In 
addition
to catch rates and fish sizes, TripTracks provides IFW some insight 
into
angler desires and trends. TripTracks undoubtedly will be a very useful 
tool
for Maine's fishery biologists," said John Boland, Director of 
Operations,
Fisheries, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.


How TripTracks Fishing Logbook Benefits Maine's Fisheries

In partnership with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and 
Wildlife,
TripTracks Fishing Logbook offers the State's biologists the ability to 
use
the information anglers provide to better manage the states fisheries.
Through real-time reporting, IF&W is able to track angler activity, 
success
rates, angler use patterns, fishing pressure at specific locations, and 
even
an early warning for illegal species introductions. Since there is no 
manual
data entry, the TripTracks Fishing Logbook considerably reduces the
information gathering effort and helps keep costs down.

How You Can Contribute

All anglers that fish Maine's renowned waters can start using 
TripTracks
Fishing Logbook at any time by registering at www.triptracks.com. There 
is
no fee for the service and your trip information will be available for 
years
to come. You can review it to see fishing and catching patterns, 
weather
conditions and other data so you can see what it may have been that 
made the
day so successful. Who knows, it may even help you become a better 
angler. 

TripTracks Usage Results 2004

TripTracks completed its second year of service to Maine's anglers in 
2005.
As of December 31, 2005, over 1,250 individuals were signed up as users 
of
the TripTracks Fishing Logbook, representing nearly an 80% increase of
registered users over 2004. This also is a huge increase over the 
number of
anglers who used to keep a voluntary logbook and turn it into the 
department
at the end of the fishing season. The Department now has more anglers
recording their catch, and the data is entered in an easier to use 
format
for biologists. With the handwritten logbook or survey cards, data has 
to be
transferred to a computer database by someone at the department. With
TripTracks, anglers enter the data for biologists to use.

User Demographics

The majority of TripTracks users are Maine residents, although a little 
more
than 12% are from out-of-state, slightly up from 2004. Many anglers who 
use
Maine's waterways each summer are vacationers from away and it seems 
like
word is continuing to spread beyond our borders as well, and these 
folks are
showing interest in the service too. TripTracks continues to attain 
users
with a very wide age range. While there are a good number of users in 
their
teens and twenties who use TripTracks regularly, the results again show 
that
the average age of the typical TripTracks user is 35-55 years old. 
These are
folks who grew up without the Internet as a mainstay of society. We 
even
have a user who is over 80 years old! TripTracks users have proven that 
the
Information Age is changing the lives of all around us, young and old, 
in
ways that many could never have  imagined.

Geographic Distribution of Trips Logged

It was interesting to note the difference in where anglers fished in 
2005
when compared to the previous year. In 2004, the majority of trips, 
nearly
46%, were logged in Somerset and Oxford Counties. 2005 saw a much wider
distribution. Cumberland County had the highest concentration of trips
logged, with 17%, followed by Piscataquis and York Counties at 11% and 
10%
respectively. The remaining counties were fairly evenly distributed, 
except
for Sagadahoc County, which only saw 0.5% of the trips logged.

Targeted Species

Maine fishermen continue to love their brookies. Brook trout were the 
most
sought after species, being targeted in nearly 30% of the trips 
reported for
the second year in a row. Landlocked salmon came in at second place 
this
year, at nearly 18%, followed by brown trout at almost 14%, a slight 
drop
from last year. Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass were next at 10% and 
8%
respectively, while lake trout edged out splake and rainbow trout to 
round
out the top six. It was also quite interesting that while TripTracks is
currently geared towards inland fisheries, many folks fishing coastal 
rivers
target and catch striped bass, so much so that they even broke into the 
top
10 in fish targeted in TripTracks this year. We hope to expand 
TripTracks'
capabilities to capture data for this and other saltwater species in 
the
near future.


Trip Statistics

In 2005, over 2,100 fishing trips were logged into TripTracks. This
accounted for over 10,500 fish brought to net! The catch and release 
rate
for the year was 79.4%, down almost 10% from 2004. The difference can 
likely
be attributed to a greater number of ice-fishing trips being logged in 
2005,
where the mortality rates of the fish caught are typically higher since
anglers generally keeping more of their catch. The trips were spread 
across
over 600 distinct water bodies, a number which highlights one of the 
real
benefits of a system like TripTracks. Because of the its online nature,
TripTracks is able to record data for many more waters than would have 
been
possible with the same amount of effort using more traditional angling
census methods.

Catch Data

Brook trout again made up the largest percentage of the fish caught in 
Maine
by TripTracks users, making up over 22% of the reported fish. Second 
and
third most caught species were also repeats as smallmouth and 
largemouth
bass, with 18% and 12% respectively. Landlocked salmon were at 10%, 
with
white perch and striped bass rounding out the top six. When compared to 
the
target species, it is clear that although they are targeted more often,
brown trout seem to prove much more difficult to catch than many 
others,
including smallmouth and largemouth bass, as well as perch (yellow and
white), and pickerel.


Some species are clear favorites when it comes to keeping a few for the 
fry
pan. Relatively speaking, a greater number of Black Crappie were kept 
vs.
thrown back than any other species at a 70% kept rate, with Yellow 
Perch
being second at 49%. White Perch fall in third at 47%, followed by Lake
Trout at 42% and Splake at 36% those caught being kept vs. released.
Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass anglers continued to lead the Catch and
Release crowd where less than 3% of the legal were kept. 

As far as "trophy" fish go, Maine waters still seems to be giving up 
their
share. TripTracks users logged some very fine individual fish in 2005.
Coldwater anglers caught fish larger than 20" for each species of trout 
that
inhabit Maine's waters, (brook, brown and rainbow), as well as a 
whopping
28" landlocked salmon. Warmwater anglers scored as well, with 22" 
smallmouth
and largemouth bass being reported. Topping them all was a 48" Striped 
Bass
that was released to be caught again another day. 



Sebago Lake - A Case Study
Sebago Lake is the second largest lake in Maine, third in New England.
Additionally, it is the deepest lake in the state at 316 feet. With a
shoreline of 105 miles stretching through seven towns, Sebago Lake has 
28
different species of fish swimming its waters, though it is most famous 
in
history as one of the original four watersheds where Landlocked Salmon
occurred naturally. The results reported by TripTracks users who fished
Sebago in 2005 can help us understand what the anglers who fish the 
lake are
experiencing. 

Trip data for 103 anglers in 46 parties on Sebago Lake was logged last 
year.
Each party spent an average of 5 and 1/2 hours fishing per trip. More 
than
half the trips began at 8:00 AM or earlier, giving credence to the age 
old
term, the early bird gets the worm. 

Only 61 fish were reported caught, providing for a catch rate of .24 
fish
per hour. Fish that were reported caught came from 8 different species. 
Of
those fish, 41 were Lake Trout, 5 were Pickerel, 4 Yellow Perch, 4 
Bullhead,
3 Cusk, 2 Smallmouth Bass, and 2 Landlocked Salmon. Lake Trout averaged 
22.7
inches, with the largest being 33 inches. 

While no anglers using TripTracks logged the catch of any Northern 
Pike, the
IFW has recently confirmed their presence, which means an illegal
introduction of the species must have taken place. TripTracks 
encourages all
anglers to log all species of fish they may catch on an outing, as this 
kind
of data may be helpful to those trying to identify possible early 
warnings
of a case an illegal introduction of an exotic species. The restoration 
of
Sebago's once history Landlocked Salmon fishery has been put in 
jeopardy by
this callous act, and we can only hope to prevent more of the same from
occurring in other nearby water bodies.


New Features

In 2005, the website received some important updates. More detailed 
data can
now be captured for each trip, such as the water temperature. Also, a
community photo album has been incorporated into the site so that users 
can
choose to share some of their photos if they like. This has been a 
popular
new feature, as anglers of all types seem to enjoy a little bragging!

"TripTracks has been a real asset to the MDIF&W by providing data that 
is
immediate, specific and most valuable in helping to determine what 
anglers
are experiencing first hand on our inland waters and also providing 
data
that our biologists can translate into meaningful management 
practices,"
said Marc Michaud, Director, Information and Education for the 
Department of
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. 
New Features
For more information about TripTracks, Inc. and TripTracks Fishing 
Logbook,
or to contact us, please visit our website at www.triptracks.com 
<http://www.triptracks.com>, or visit the Maine Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife at www.mefishwildlife.com
<http://www.mefishwildlife.com>. 

 -- Dan Tarkinson, TripTracks; and Mark Latti, Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife


New Laws Affect Those Who Dip For Smelts...

In 2005, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spent
considerable time reviewing, discussing, and revising existing 
recreational
and commercial smelting laws.  As you can imagine, this was no easy 
task
given all the different user groups and the importance of this resource 
to
Maine's anglers.  Our primary intention was to build more conservation 
into
our existing smelt management program, as well as, to address a few key
conflict areas among the user groups.  While many of the new law 
changes
went into effect last winter, others didn't hit the books until this 
spring.

Well, spring has finally arrived and the rather short, but popular
smelt-dipping season is just around the corner.  If you enjoy dipping 
smelt
in Maine's inland waters or do so commercially, you need to be aware of 
the
new law changes enacted by the legislature that go into effect for the 
first
time this season.  Following is a reminder of those changes:

*	Recreational and commercial anglers are restricted to a 24" diameter
dip-net when dipping in or within 100 feet of the mouth of a tributary.
Larger diameter nets can still be used in the lake.

*	Recreational and commercial anglers are not allowed to dip smelts
after 2:00 AM.

*	Recreational anglers are only allowed to keep five-dozen smelt alive
for personal bait needs, and the remainder of their daily bag limit 
must be
killed.  Commercial dealers can keep their whole 2 quart limit alive 
for
resale.

*	Commercial smelt dealers are only allowed to dip 2 quarts of smelt
during the spring dipping season, 8 quarts harvests are no longer 
allowed
during this time frame.

*	Commercial dealers are only allowed to use artificial light to
attract smelt, the use of food particles can no longer be used.

*	Commercial smelt dealers must use a commercially manufactured grader
with the following specifications: (1) #14 (14/64") minimum grader 
spacing,
and (2) grader must allow smelts to pass through at least 2 sides and 
the
bottom of the grader.  Previously this law only applied to 
drop-netting, but
now includes commercial harvests by dip-nets and hook-and-line.

*	Commercial smelt dealers must report their fishing and catch
information to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Gray 
Regional
Office 358 Shaker Rd Gray, Maine 04039 by May 31st each year.

Lastly, there have recently been quite a few questions on when an 
angler can
legally dip smelt (ice out or April 1st).  It appears these questions 
have
stemmed from a minor wording change in the 2006 law book, which will be
corrected next season.  There has been no change from past years, 
anglers
can dip smelt in waters that are open to this activity as long as the 
water
is naturally free of ice.  If anglers have any additional questions or
concerns then can feel free to contact the Department.
-Jim Pellerin, Assistant Regional Fisheries Biologist