Because of the pervasive and substantial decline of Atlantic salmon populations in Maine over the past 150 years, and because they are close to extinction, a comprehensive statewide action should be taken now to ensure their survival. The populations of Atlantic salmon have declined drastically, from an estimated half million adult salmon returning to U.S. rivers each year in the early 1800s to perhaps as few as 1,000 in 2001. The report recommends implementing a formalized decision-making approach to establish priorities, evaluate options and coordinate plans for conserving and restoring the salmon.

Every spring, for thousands of years, the rivers that empty into the North Atlantic Ocean turn silver with migrating fish. Among the crowded schools once swam the King of Fish, the Atlantic salmon. From New York to Labrador, from Russia to Portugal, sea-bright salmon defied current, tide, and gravity, driven inland by instinct and memory to the very streams where they themselves emerged from gravel nests years before. The salmon pools and rivers of Maine achieved legendary status among anglers and since 1912, it was tradition that the first salmon caught in the Penobscot River each spring was presented as a token to the President of the United States. The last salmon presented was in 1992, to George W. Bush.That year, the Penobscot counted more than 70 percent of the salmon returns on the entire Eastern seaboard, yet that was only 2 percent of the river's historic populations. Due to commercial over harvesting, damming, and environmental degradation of the fish's home waters, Atlantic salmon populations had been decimated. The salmon is said to be as old as time and to know all the past and future. Twenty-two thousand years ago, someone carved a life-sized image of Atlantic salmon in the floor of a cave in southern France. Salmon were painted on rocks in Norway and Sweden. The salmon’s effortless leaping and ability to survive in both river and sea led the Celts to mythologize the salmon as holder of all mysterious knowledge, gained by consuming the nine hazelnuts of wisdom that fell into the Well of Segais. The President's Salmon presents a rich cultural and biological history of the Atlantic salmon and the salmon fishery, primarily revolving around the Penobscot River, the last bastion for the salmon in America and a key battleground site for the preservation of the species.

Because of the pervasive and substantial decline of Atlantic salmon populations in Maine over the past 150 years, and because they are close to extinction, a comprehensive statewide action should be taken now to ensure their survival. The populations of Atlantic salmon have declined drastically, from an estimated half million adult salmon returning to U.S. rivers each year in the early 1800s to perhaps as few as 1,000 in 2001. The report recommends implementing a formalized decision-making approach to establish priorities, evaluate options and coordinate plans for conserving and restoring the salmon.

A historical look at and current guide to the Cains River in New Brunswick. There is almost a mystical aura surrounding the Cains and its Atlantic salmon and brook trout fishery. Only about a third of it was ever settled and then lightly, and by the middle of the twentieth century settlers had all given up and the river reverted to completely wild, which it still is today. The book also explores the Cains’s relationship with the Miramichi River, in particular the Black Brook, the biggest and most productive pool on the river. In low water, a substantial portion of the Cains’s fall run of fish stacks up there waiting for rain.

A natural history and celebration of the famous bears and salmon of Brooks River. On the Alaska Peninsula, where exceptional landscapes are commonplace, a small river attracts attention far beyond its scale. Each year, from summer to early fall, brown bears and salmon gather at Brooks River to create one of North America’s greatest wildlife spectacles. As the salmon leap from the cascade, dozens of bears are there to catch them (with as many as forty-three bears sighted in a single day), and thousands of people come to watch in person or on the National Park Service’s popular Brooks Falls Bearcam. The Bears of Brooks Falls tells the story of this region and the bears that made it famous in three parts. The first forms an ecological history of the region, from its dormancy 30,000 years ago to the volcanic events that transformed it into the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The central and longest section is a deep dive into the lives of the wildlife along the Brooks River, especially the bears and salmon. Readers will learn about the bears’ winter hibernation, mating season, hunting rituals, migration patterns, and their relationship with Alaska’s changing environment. Finally, the book explores the human impact, both positive and negative, on this special region and its wild population.

This completely new flyfishing guide to New England is the best flyfishing guide ever on this fishery-rich and historic area. Author and flyfishing guide Lou Zambello provides all the information to improve your catch rate in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Masschusetts. Full-color maps accompany the fisheries, complete with GPS coordinates, access points, public land, access roads, boat ramps (including small hand launches), parking areas, named holes and pools and more. Many flyfishers flock to the same well-known waters that are written about again and again and face crowded conditions. Yet there are hundreds of productive waters that are ignored. Zambello, who has spent over 30 years fishing in New England, teamed with former Maine State Fisheries Director John Boland and other experts to cover many of these great uncrowded waters in the Flyfisher's Guide to New England. Lou spent the last several years criss-crossing New England researching this book, a review of many hundreds of both popular and unknown, moving and stillwaters in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Following Wilderness Adventures Press' tradition of creating the best flyfishing guide books, the new full-color Flyfisher's Guide to New England will help you get your own piece of fishing heaven. Also check out Zambello's first book, Flyfishing Northern New England's Seasons.

This brilliant new bible of fly fishing for Salmo salar, the legendary leaper, builds on the time-tested techniques of Wood, Waddington, Falkus, Wulff, et al., while equipping the 21st century angler with the latest tactics and flies to effectively cover water anywhere in the world.

Atlantic salmon in Maine, once abundant but now seriously depleted, were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in November 2000. The listing covers the wild fish in eight Maine rivers as a single "distinct population segment." The controversy in Maine that accompanied the listing led Congress to request the National Research Council's (NRC's) advice on the science relevant to understanding and reversing the declines in Maine's salmon populations. The charge to the NRC's Committee on Atlantic Salmon in Maine included an interim report focusing on the genetic makeup of Maine Atlantic salmon populations. This is the interim report. Understanding the genetic makeup of Maine's salmon is important for recovery efforts, because the degree to which populations in Maine differ from adjacent populations in Canada and the degree to which populations in different Maine rivers and tributaries differ from each other affect the choice of recovery options that are most likely to be effective. This report focuses only on questions of genetic distinctiveness. The committee's final report will address the broader issues, such as the factors that have caused Maine's salmon populations to decline and the options for helping them to recover.

The brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) has captured the fascination of anglers for centuries, and some flyfishers devote lifetimes in pursuit of wild or native trophies. Yet 90 percent never catch a brook trout over 14 inches. Why? Simple: the average angler doesn’t know how to find them and rarely employs the specialized tactics required for hooking a large brook trout. Which is why well-known author of New England flyfishing, Lou Zambello, has written this new book, In Pursuit of Trophy Brook Trout: Techniques, Timing, and Territories. Zambello has fished for and guided anglers after wild trophy brook trout for decades. He has spent years deciphering seasonal migration patterns, aquatic life cycles, and weather events impacting brookie behavior. He’s tested different flies and tactics, both on the surface and down deep. This book explains where big brookies can be found, when they are catchable, how to fool them, and how to land them, all while recounting illuminating trophy trout experiences. The beauty of a male trophy brook trout in spawning colors rivals any of nature’s canvases – broad greenish flanks decorated with blue halos and the deep orange or burgundy of its underside highlighted by white-tipped fins that looked like an underwater baker had dipped them in vanilla frosting. Landing a wild or native brook trout that measure in pounds instead of inches should be at the top of everyone’s bucket list. Read and reread this insightful new book and become one of the lucky few who can boast of landing a trophy wild brook trout.