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Date Completed:  ___4/1/04_________

Biologist:  ______Brokaw_________________________

Revised 4/13/04, D. McNeish

Name of Water:  _Tunk Lake_________________________________  Fishery Region:  _C_

Town:                ___T10SD, Sullivan______________________________ County:______Hancock___________________     

 Source of LLS Stock (indicate source with an X):     
                                                        Native_Wild       ___

Introduced_Wild                ___

Stocked                                ___

Mix (stocked + wild)                _x__

Smelt [Indicate predator/prey (LLS/SLT) ratio re growth & condition of LLS by placing an X opposite the appropriate category]: 

Excellent:  ___

Sufficient:  __x_

Poor:  ___

Other forage (indicate species & importance):_______________________________________________

Competition (List significant competitors (use 3-letter spp code) in appropriate blank based on importance.  Place an X opposite None if no significant competitors are present:  

High:  _____wild___LKT___________________

Moderate:  ________________________

Low:  _____________________________

None:  ___

Predation : (List significant predators (use 3-letter spp code) in appropriate blank based on importance.  Place an X opposite None if no significant predators are present):  

                                                High:  ___________________________

Moderate:  ________________________

Low:  _______wild LKT______________________

None:  ___

Habitat Considerations:(describe pertinent habitat pluses, deficiencies, etc.)Excellent water quality in lake.  A fair quantity of suitable spawning/nursery habitat exists in the outlet….none in the small inlets.  At low stocking rates of 250-350 SY’s in recent years, the wild fish component of our annual trap-net catch has been : 41% in 2000, 39% in 2001, 45% in 2002, and 41% last fall.  Favorable flows in late October contributed to good spawning activity last fall as a better than average number of redds were observed.

Other Considerations:(historical significant population/fishery, genetically important population, social/traditional, etc.)

Current Regulations (list applicable regulations): All LLS between 16-20 inches must be released alive at once.  Daily bag limit on LLS: 1 fish.  Closed to the taking of smelts.

Proposed Regulations: None…the existing regs are working reasonably well, and are well accepted by most anglers. 

For Maintaining Existing Good LLS Size Quality (list needs): 

For Moderate Improvement in LLS Size Quality (list needs): 

For Significant Improvement in LLS Size Quality (list needs): 

For Best Possible Outcome, re LLS Size Quality (list needs): 

Identify Individuals/Group(s)to Contact for Input and/or Support: 

Action Plan:  Use the next page to:  1.  Identify and prioritize up to 5 management strategies.  2.  Among these strategies identify those you feel most need to be worked on now, etc. and 3.  Identify how SAM_FIC can help in implementation.

ACTION PLAN

1. We recently adopted a liberalized regulation on LKT, allowing anglers to keep 3 per day with a minimum length of 14 inches.  Our winter creel survey showed that few anglers took advantage of the new regulation.  Prior to and during the ice fishing season.  I actively solicited cooperation from anglers to convince them to keep more of the 14-18 inch LKT.  Despite my best efforts, far too many small togue were released, thus slowing the recovery of the lake’s smelt population.  It’s clearly going to be an on-going struggle to convince Tunk Lake anglers, many of whom practice catch and release on an ethical basis, to keep more LKT and thereby contribute to a better balance between predator and prey. 
    

2. DIFW fishery personnel to periodically gill net Tunk in August for small LKT to help remove more LKT from the lake.   We can target these overly abundant small fish by using a certain size mesh. 

SAM/FIC

1.  SAM/FIC can assist in this public relations educational effort by: a) writing articles, in the SAM Newsletter and other forums, using Tunk Lake as a classic example, to illustrate how an overly abundant population of wild LKT can compromise the number of large LLS a lake can grow; b) placing posters at the public boat launch on Route 182 urging anglers to cooperate in the on-going program to remove more LKT, thereby benefiting the large salmon initiative.
    

2. SAM/FIC could urge their Downeast members to fish Tunk more often in both the winter and summer, thereby contributing to increased LKT harvests to the advantage of LLS growth rates.