The Rapid River in the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine is a historically famous brook trout river because of the size of the fish. It has been a popular destination for fly fishers for more than a century.
But, the Rapid is not an isolated river, thus it has felt the hand of man and woman. Previous posts have discussed the impacts of acid rain, deforestation, and brown trout on brook trout fisheries, but the Rapid is being impacted by a new variable: smallmouth bass. Smallmouths were introduced to a downstream lake in the 198Os and have quickly moved up into the river.
Smallmouths are extremely aggressive, adaptable predators. They simply eat a lot of other fish. And now that they are established in the river, there is no way to get them out. The state of Maine requests that every smallmouth caught be killed, but this action only takes out a very small percentage of the population. So, increasingly, brook trout are relegated to more marginal areas in the river, displaced by the aggressive smallmouths.
I have killed no fish on this trip, but every smallmouth I caught on the Rapid died.
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