Hundreds of Trout Left on Sebago – Wasteful or Conservation?

After a successful ice fishing derby this past weekend, one man found hundreds of fish and became outraged. He's not alone.

The Bangor Daily News reported about what Kurt Christensen, who grew up on Sebago Lake and has fished it his whole life, found. Kurt is the one who posted on Facebook what he found that made him so mad.

Wasted lake trout. He has fished all of his life and has either released or eaten every single fish he's ever caught. But after the annual Sebago Lake ice fishing derby, he just saw such waste. He's upset because with waste like this, there will be no fish left for his grandkids to catch! Maine has no law about wasting fish caught.

Kurt figures that all these wasted fish were fisherman looking for the big one and not wasting their time with the little ones. But he's quick to defend the Sebago Lake Rotary Club who has run the derby for 21 years, saying they did a great job.

In fact, the Rotary Club, says they take all the fish that are unwanted and bring them to Nova Seafood in Portland where they fillet and flash freeze them and then donate them to local food pantries. This year they brought in about 2400 fish!

That is what really got Kurt upset, is that the fish could have helped so many! But when he went to Facebook, he did get some that thought this was all part of Maine's plan. Many were outraged like Kurt, but a lot also pointed out that the Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department encourages this. To clear the lake of an overabundance of lake trout. They aren't native and were introduced to Sebago Lake back in the 70's. They can take over the food supply for salmon.

No matter, it's still upsetting. There's got to be a better way.