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State biologist uses ATV to stock brook trout in area ponds

May 05, 2007 - Most of the time, you won't even see them coming and going. What you'll hear is the scream of an all-terrain vehicle engine as its echo rattles through the trees, bounces off a rock ledges and races across open water. The only sign of life will be a pickup truck parked along a nearby road with an empty cargo trailer in tow. That truck likely won't even have a Maine Department of inland fisheries and wildlife logo on it anywhere.

In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary will be the tremendous luck you had fishing for the state's angling calling card-the brook trout-on a picturesque pond that leaves you wondering how on earth so many quality little fish could end up in one hard to reach location.

That's where Scott Davis comes in. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fisheries biologist dons orange raingear, straps a couple of coolers loaded with fish to its state-owned ATV and drives over obstacles and through foot deep mud to deliver spring yearling brook trout to the water.

In central Maine, they are only a few water stocked with the use of ATVs. Savade Pond in Windsor, Peters Pond in Waldoboro and Tyler Pond in Manchester are the only three, while the rest are stocked through more traditional means-by boat, by truck or by airplane.

ATVs come under heavy fire from landowners when used as recreational vehicles. For Davis, however, the ATV is a work tool that turns what was once a day long project into less than an hour's worth of work.

"The ease of using the ATV is amazing," Davis said after stocking Peters Pond in Waldoboro with 200 brookies on Wednesday afternoon. "It used to be that we have to come here and carry bucket after bucket of fish to be able to stock them. Now, it's one or two trips, and it's over just like that."

Maine's nine hatchery locations coordinate their spring schedules with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologists who oversee the fish stocking program. In this case, it was fish culturist Jamie Bray of the rearing station in Palermo who met Matt Davis early in the morning to complete brook trout stocking at Savade Pond and Peters Pond.

Bray's one ton truck carrying tanks equipped with aerators in the back was loaded with 300 spring yearling brook trout -- 200 for Peters and 100 for Savade. Bray and Davis drove first to Savade, where Davis unloaded his four-wheel work vehicle off the trailer on his truck and suited up in raingear from head to toe.

Two coolers were strapped to the ATV -- one in front and one in back -- and Bray and Davis took little time to count out the needed number of fish and move them with nets from Bray's tanks to Davis's coolers.

Davis fastened the covers of the coolers, hopped on and fired the engine.

"I'd offer you a ride down on the back of this," Davis said, "but I don't think you'd want to go without raingear."

It soon became obvious why.

What would barely pass for a dirt path in the middle of an August drought looked more like a muddy river last week. Savade sits more than a quarter of a mile from Greeley Road in Windsor, and no four-wheel drive pickup would succeed in making the trip through valleys filled with mud, and especially not when weighed down further by large tanks holding water and fish.

An ATV was the only choice, and it was the same way at Peters Pond. A twisting loop through woods and over small hills formed a vaguely defined path littered with fallen trees and deep mud. Even with the ATV, Davis had to pull up more than 15 yards from the pond's edge and run netfulls of the squirming 10 inch fish to the water by hand.

Still, it was better than having to have 2 to 3 man crews carry buckets in succession nearly a half mile to complete the task.

"Even with the mud, there's a lot less stress on the fish doing it this way," Davis said. "They're not bouncing around as much in the buckets, and then not spending as much time in them. What are they in there for - a couple minutes now?"

That stands in stark contrast to what would take 30 minutes or more doing it in a more conventional fashion.

"Ideally, you want to do it with a boat when you can spread out certain species a little better," David says. "But, obviously, that's not always possible. When you can do it that way, it's nice just to get the fish out there however you can."


This article appeared in its original form in the Morning Sentinel May 5, 2007


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