Proposal to Stock Haymock Lake in Maine (Status Update)
Lake trout.
In early January 2024, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife released a proposal to stock Haymock Lake in the Allagash Region with lake trout. As stocking proposals go. this was one of the more questionable ones we have seen.
Lake trout are native to Haymock Lake. It is also a wild native brook trout fishery. MDIFW introduced lake whitefish to Haymock as part of a project to try to offset the loss of native whitefish populations elsewhere in the state. And someone introduced nonnative smelt.
The impetus of the proposal was to bolster the wild native lake trout population through stocking to help reduce the nonnative smelt population. This was being done to take pressure off the nonnative whitefish population.
Haymock Lake has not been stocked in 20 years. It is just 5 years away from being eligible for State Heritage Fish Water designation. This should be the top priority, not stocking on top of wild lake trout to protect nonnative whitefish.
Based on the facts presented and our own research, NFC formally opposed the proposal to stock Haymock Lake. The negatives far outpaced the positives, especially since the outcome was not certain and the plan is as likely to fail as it is to succeed.
Regardless of concerns from the outside, and NFC was not the only ones who spoke up against the proposal, MDIFW has decided to move forward anyway. Referred to as an “experimental effort,” MDIFW has concerns in regard to whether the increased lake trout will prey on the lake whitefish they are trying to protect:
“There is recognized uncertainty regarding the vulnerability of smaller dwarf lake whitefish to be preyed upon by Lake Trout, since they do not grow to a size that would preclude predation. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife”
When you read NFC’s letter opposing the proposal to stock Haymock Lake, along with MDIFW’s final decision paper, it’s hard to understand how they came to the decision they did. The formal approval notification (see below) asks more questions than it answers.
The outcome of the proposal is uncertain and will take at least six years to play out. What is certain is that MDIFW just turned the clock back twenty-five years in regard to protecting a high-value wild native brook trout water from further stocking as part of an experiment…
