A large wild native brook trout caught from the Rapid River by the author. KRIS THOMPSON

“The Rapid is perhaps the best river in the United States to catch 3- to 5-pound brook trout, and it is also considered one of the top rivers in Maine to fish for landlocked Atlantic salmon that average from 16 to 18 inches but can be as big as 5 pounds. - FLY FISHERMAN MAGAZINE”

I have written three books and contributed chapters to four others in the last decade. I am in the process of writing a fourth. All are so-called “where-to” fly fishing books. Only one water is covered in six of the eight: The Rapid River in Maine. No other water was, or will be, included in more than four.

In 2013 I was contacted by well-known fly fishing personalities Terry and Wendy Gunn and asked to contribute a chapter to their new book, 50 Best Tailwaters to Fly Fish. Done as a collaborative project with industry experts and covering the entire country, they tapped me to write about Maine’s Rapid River, the only river in Maine so honored.

Roughly a year later I was contacted by Stonefly Press to write a book called 50 Best Places Fly Fishing the Northeast. A regional book, it covered the best fly fishing waters in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Also done as a collaboration, I tapped well-known Rangeley Maine guide Kash Haley to write about the Rapid River.

In 2015, I published a book called 25 Best Towns Fly Fishing for Trout. The book covered such fabled trout towns as West Yellowstone Montana, Jackson Wyoming, Grayling Michigan, and of course, Rangeley Maine. The top-billed water in Rangeley was the Rapid River.

In 2018, well-known Colorado guide, writer, and author Landon Mayer contacted me about contributing a chapter to his new book, The Quest for Giant Trout. Like the Gunn’s, it was the Rapid River he was interested in, and also like the Gunn’s book, it was the only river in Maine to be included.

My third book, Squaretail: The Definitive Guide to Brook Trout and Where to Find Them, came out in July 2019. Like the others, the Rapid River was a featured water. Here is what I had to say about it:

“The Rapid River is the finest self-sustaining trophy native brook trout river in Maine and, in fact, the United States. If catching a trophy wild native fluvial brook trout is your goal, the Rapid River gives you the best chance to do so without going to Canada. In general, the Rapid River is the premier trophy wild native salmonid fishery in Maine, New England, and possibly the East. To call it one of the finest self-sustaining native trout fisheries in the nation would be fair.”

My current project is a book about fly fishing in Maine. Another collaborative effort, this time I tapped Kris Thompson, lifelong Rangeley resident, Registered Maine Guide, and owner of Pond in the River Guide Service, to write about the Rapid River.

The author working a run just above Lower Dam on Maine’s Rapid River. DIANA MALLARD

To call the Rapid River the finest wild native brook trout river in the country would be accurate, to call it one of the best wild native trout rivers in the country, fair. Nowhere in America do you have a better chance of catching a trophy wild native brook trout in a river. Fish over 16 inches are common, fish over 18 inches are not uncommon, and fish over 20 inches are caught.

The Rapid River is a natural resource of local, state, regional, and national importance. It is the water most associated with brook trout in Maine, and while not the state fish, that honor belongs to landlocked salmon, brook trout are undeniably Maine’s signature fish species, and as important to the state as moose, loons, and lobsters.

The now defunct Lower Dam on Maine’s Rapid River, long synonymous with fly fishing in Maine. - DIANA MALLARD

For decades, Lower Dam on the Rapid River was synonymous with fly fishing in Maine. It donned the covers of books and magazines, and appeared in calendars, catalogs, brochures, and other forms of print and digital media. Demolished roughly a decade ago under the guise of public safety, all that remains of the historic structure are some submerged wood planks and rock piles.

Famed author Louise Dickinson Rich wrote several books while living within casting distance of the Rapid River. Her most famous, We Took to the Woods, was written in 1942 while staying at Forest Lodge just downstream of historic Lower Dam. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Now the bad news…

As some of you already know, the Rapid River is now infected with highly invasive nonnative smallmouth bass. According to Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), bass were first confirmed in Pond in the River, a natural impoundment on the Rapid, in 2002. It is fair to assume they entered the river itself earlier than that.

“The abundance of native fish has been reduced because of impacts by introduced nonnative fish, including brook, brown, lake, and rainbow trout. These nonnative species continue to contribute to the decline in the park’s native fish population by competing for food and habitat, and preying on native fish. - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE”

To be clear, no wild native brook trout water in Maine has survived a nonnative smallmouth infestation unscathed. The impact of these alien invaders on wild brook trout runs the gamut from catastrophic to considerable. Consider the upper Kennebec and lower Dead Rivers, two high-quality wild native brook trout rivers that were changed noticeably, and negatively, by the introduction of smallmouth.

While a worthy gamefish, bass where they do not belong put native fish at risk. KING MONTGOMERY

How it happened:

The source of the nonnative bass now imperiling the Rapid River was Umbagog Lake on the Maine/New Hampshire border. The Rapid River runs unimpeded from its source at Middle Dam to the lake, making it highly likely that whatever is found in the lake will eventually find its way into the river. Per MDIFW, nonnative smallmouth were first confirmed in Umbagog in 1996, the result of an illegal stocking.

While the data may not be 100% accurate, it appears that nonnative smallmouth were established in Umbagog Lake five or so years before they found their way into the Rapid River. This was our first, best, and arguably only, chance to prevent what is now a significant threat to the nations finest wild native brook trout river, and an important part of Maine’s outdoor heritage.

While the current trend is to remove dams, this may have been an instance where building a small dam to prevent the passage of bass would have been the lesser of two evils. While discussed, it never happened and the bass are now here to stay. Worse is that there are other potential threats that could be even worse than the invasive smallmouth.

Looming threats…

Per MDIFW, there are as many as 24 species of fish in Umbagog Lake, many of which are nonnative and invasive to brook trout. Fourteen of the fish present in Umbagog were first documented in 1958, the first time the lake was formally surveyed. Another four species were confirmed in 1963, and may, or may not, have been missed in the 1958 survey. From 1970 to 1996, six additional species were confirmed.

While less likely to occupy high-gradient fast-flowing water than smallmouth bass, nonnative largemouth bass are still a threat to wild native salmonids.

Largemouth bass were first confirmed in Umbagog Lake by MDIFW in 1996, apparently the result of an illegal stocking, and are now classified as “present,” a step below smallmouth which are classified as “principal.” Will they find their way into the Rapid? And if they do, what would the impact be on the brook trout? Only time will tell…

Northern pike are a large, aggressive, and highly carnivorous gamefish that can negatively impact brook trout where the two species did not co-evolve.

By far, the biggest threat to the Rapid River brook trout, and a potential game-changer, is northern pike. While classified as “unconfirmed” by MDIFW in their species database, it says that pike were reported in Umbagog Lake in 1990.

However, another MDIFW document I found, Northern Pike Assessment, refers to the presence of northern pike in Umbagog Lake as “confirmed” in a reference table that lists other known pike waters. And an MDIFW lake map of Umbagog I found online, last updated in 1998, states the following:

“Recent illegal introductions of bass and pike have become established and are now providing fisheries. - MDIFW”

And I found this on a New Hampshire fly fishing forum:

“I was told two days ago by an old Berlin, NH fellow that the Androscoggin River and Lake Umbagog are loaded with big PIKE!... He told me another young lad found an 18 lb pike floating dead in Umbagog. I was told that the young fellow took it to a NH [game] warden who told him that it would have been a NH state record by 3 lbs had he caught it instead of picking it out of the lake. - FLY FISHING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE”

And this from the website of a local newspaper:

“One of the most pristine wilderness lakes in new Hampshire, Umbagog is known for its smallmouth bass, chained pickerel, horned pout and northern pike... - BERLIN SUN ”

Based on the information available, it appears that Umbagog Lake is now home to highly invasive nonnative pike. The threat they pose to the wild native brook trout of the Rapid River can not be overstated. And as goes the Rapid, so goes the Magalloway and Dead Diamond Rivers, two of the four finest wild native brook trout rivers in the national along with the Rapid and Kennebago.

What if anything can be done…

To be fair and clear, the smallmouth bass in the Rapid River are here to stay. They can now be found from Middle Dam, throughout Pond in the River, and all the way down to Umbagog Lake. By mid summer they are arguably the most numerous gamefish in the river.

As for the pike, thankfully they have not been reported in the Rapid River to date as far as I can determine. But with what may be an established population in Umbagog Lake, and nothing to prevent them from entering the Rapid, this could unfortunately change.

Targeted population control:

At this point, the best we can hope for is try to control the smallmouth population. And by that I mean preventing it from increasing, and ideally, reduce it. While not everyone agrees that this would help, there are those who clearly believe that reducing nonnative fish populations benefits wild native fish, and I’m one of them.

“However, ongoing management of the problem [nonnative lake trout] can significantly reduce lake trout population growth and maintain the cutthroat trout population. - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,”

For example, the National Park Service has implemented an extensive and ongoing program to reduce the number of nonnative and highly invasive lake trout in Yellowstone Lake:

“In 1995, after confirming lake trout were successfully reproducing in Yellowstone Lake, the National Park Service (NPS) convened a panel of expert scientists to determine the likely extent of the problem, recommend actions, and identify research needs. The panel recommended that the park suppress lake trout in order to protect and restore native cutthroat trout. The panel also indicated that direct removal efforts such as gillnetting or trap netting would be most effective but would require a long-term, possibly perpetual, commitment. - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE”

While they are getting better at it, the nonnative lake trout catch is going down indicating that it is working. Native cutthroat numbers are said to be up on the lake and its tributaries, an indication that the native cutthroat are responding positively to the reduction in lake trout:

“Fewer lake trout is causing a rebound in cutthroat trout numbers in the system. Diana Miller, a Jackson region Wyoming Game and Fish Department fisheries biologist, and her father Dave Sweet, a Trout Unlimited volunteer, had heard rumors that the cutthroat were returning. In the early summer of 2018, they ventured into the remote Thorofare River region below the southeast corner of the park during spawning season. The area is a major tributary of Yellowstone Lake and once was a thriving spawning region before the cutthroat population crash. They reported catching more than 100 fish. - THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW”

Could we do the same thing on the Rapid River with regard to smallmouth bass? Pond in the River? Both? Smallmouth bass are prolific breeders. According to one report I read, they can lay between 3,000 and 12,000 eggs. Another report quoted 2,000 to 14,000. It’s fair to assume that an effective and ongoing program could at least make a dent in the bass population, maybe more, and possibly, much more.

Incidental population control:

As far as fish and game agencies go, no one is more native-focused than the National Park Service. And no fish and game agency is subject to more public scrutiny. This is especially true with regard to Yellowstone National Park, the most visible public land in America.

“In order to promote the preservation of native fish in Yellowstone, the park has designated the Native Trout Conservation Area for special management. Within that area, fishing regulations are structured so that recreational anglers help selectively remove nonnative species from the area without damaging the native fishery. In some areas, anglers’ harvests will help to save the native fish and the natural ecosystems they support. - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE”

The National Park Service apparently feels strong enough about the impact of nonnative fish on native fish, and the positive impact of lessening the numbers of the former, they have instituted mandatory kill regulations on nonnative fish on several waters in Yellowstone National Park:

All rainbow trout, brook trout, and identifiable cutthroat/rainbow hybrids caught in the Lamar River drainage, including portions of Slough and Soda Butte creeks, must be killed—it is illegal to release them alive.
All lake trout caught from Yellowstone Lake must be killed— it is illegal to release them alive.

The National Park Service has a similar problem with nonnative fish in Shenandoah National Park. Only in this case it involves nonnative brown trout and native native brook trout:

“In the Park’s continuing effort to control wild non-native brown trout populations to limit impacts on wild native brook trout populations, special brown trout specific regulations have been established. - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE”

In this case, the National Park Service has imposed a mandatory kill regulation on brown trout:

The release of any captured brown trout back into any Park stream is prohibited.

They also go as far as allowing for the deliberate waste of nonnative brown trout:

Undersized brown trout, those less than the 7 inch minimum, must be disposed of away from the stream and away from Park roads or trails.

The current regulations on the Rapid River allow for the unlimited harvest of nonnative smallmouth bass, no length or bag limit. The problem is that not everyone takes advantage of this, and it is likely that some anglers are not even aware of it, or understand why they should do it.

Is voluntary kill enough? Might a mandatory kill regulation incent more anglers to remove nonnative bass from the Rapid River when they encounter one? Would it make a difference? Apparently the National Park Service believes so or they would not risk the potential blow-back from conservationists, the “naturalized native” crowd, or anglers who like nonnative trout.

From a recreational standpoint the Rapid River is to Maine what the Madison River is to Montana and the Batten Kill is to Vermont: The most important fishery in the state. From an environment standpoint, it is to Maine what the Snake River is to Wyoming: The finest wild native trout fishery in the state.

Losing the Rapid River brook trout would be a tragedy of epic proportion. As a natural resource, it would be like losing the Yellowstone River cutthroat - the most significant population of native cutthroat in the country. From a recreational standpoint, it would be like losing Pebble Beach golf course - the best in teh sport. From an economic and quality of place standpoint, it would be huge.

Maine's Rapid River: Are We Doing Enough?