In the Words of a Volunteer...

Volunteer Jerry Derosier (right) with protege Lincoln Kelley and Maine NFC Chair Emily Bastian

The following comes from an email we received from NFC all-star volunteer Jerry Derosier. At 26 waters and counting, Jerry has posted more State Heritage Fish waters than almost anyone else associated with the project. I suspect by spring Jerry will be our top poster.

Last summer I spent a memorable and enjoyable day afield with Jerry, a young gentleman and protege from his neighborhood, Lincoln Kelley, and Maine NFC Chair Emily Bastian. We posted three ponds, one accessible by GPS only, and one I hadn’t been into for a couple of decades.

Jerry mentored young Lincoln in regard to using a GPS, Emily backed him up with hers, and both Jerry and and I interjected some tips that kept us to the high ground wherever possible. While there was no discernible trail, I noted a faint path of old brittle surveyor tape, much of which was down in the leaves, indicating that we were not the only ones to take advantage of the high ground.

We can’t thank Jerry, and everyone else who has donated their time to help protect our irreplaceable State Heritage Fish waters, enough, without your help a project of this size and scope would not be possible.

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Posting State Heritage Fish signs on native brook trout ponds in Maine is my new thing. I was contacted by the Native Fish Coalition back in 2018 to post signs at several ponds that I had identified as having populations of native brook trout while working as a volunteer for an ongoing pond survey project run cooperatively by Trout Unlimited, Maine Audubon, & Maine IF&W. That project started back in 2011 shortly after I retired. It gave me an excuse to get away once in awhile and explore some remote areas in the state of Maine, something I was always interested in doing.

I recruited both my brothers and a few friends to join me in my pond survey efforts between 2011 & 2015. Alone and in the company of friends and family I surveyed over 50 ponds around the state. The quality time I got to spend with my brothers when I was involved in that project is priceless. Brother Jim accompanied me on several excursions, brother Mike only one. I think I might have scared brother Mike a bit as he reminded me several times that he carries aspirin with him should he suffer a heart attack. I have to admit that hiking into one pond over a mile carrying fully inflated float tubes in waders with fly rods and flippers in hand on a warm day was a bit physical but who would have thought I might be the one that might need the aspirin. That thought never entered my mind at the time.

In 2018 when I posted my first SHF sign as a volunteer for NFC it was on a small remote pond northwest of The Forks in Somerset County. Brother Jim and I surveyed that pond in the company of cousin Tom Nadeau back in the fall of 2012. Although we didn’t catch any fish on that excursion we identified the pond as having very good water quality and the high probability of a native brook trout population being present. A follow on survey by state IF&W fisheries biologists confirmed the presence.

In addition, I posted two other ponds that day that I had identified as having native brook trout populations on my very first pond survey excursion the week of July 4th back in 2011. I surveyed 3 ponds on that initial trip and they all had populations of native brook trout present. In one of the ponds I caught and released over 50 brook trout. Needless to say I was hooked.

The sign posting trip I took back in August of 2018 was my first foray back to the woods and waters of Maine just two months after undergoing bypass surgery. I recruited a youngster I met at York F&G Club to go with me on this trip and we enjoyed the day immensely. Lincoln was 15 at the time and he saw his first Maine moose feeding in one of the ponds that day.

I put Lincoln in a float tube to fish one of the ponds. He caught his 1st native brook trout on a fly rod that day. Lincoln is a tall kid with a large size shoe and my wading boots wouldn’t fit him so I put him in the float tube without waders. The pond is spring fed and the water stays cold all summer long. That’s one of the reasons why it produces so many trout. Lincoln never complained about the cold water or the leeches that attached themselves to his legs that day. At the end of the day I presented Lincoln with the fly rod and reel that he caught his 1st brook trout on a fly with. I’m sure it won’t be his last.

I have posted SHF signs on over 25 ponds around the state of Maine since Lincoln and I hung our first sign in 2018. I’m happy to be back exploring remote places in Maine. If you follow some of the links to the NFC Facebook page and website you just might find a picture or two of my good friend Lincoln and I along the way.

NFC is a fairly new organization dedicated to preserving and growing native fish populations throughout the country wherever they exist and we’re not just talking brook trout. They’ve done great work since they were founded in 2017. Between the pond survey project and posting SHF signs I have volunteered weeks of my time alone and in the company of others with substantial out of pocket expenses.

If you could find it in your heart to make a donation to NFC or perhaps sponsor a sign I can assure it is for a good cause, growing and preserving native fish populations throughout the country, and will be most appreciated.