The Sheepscot River is one of eight rivers in Maine that have Atlantic Salmon. These fish need the river’s clean gravel bottom to lay their eggs, and its rapids to aerate the water for their young. Because October is the month that these fish spawn, the Sheepscot and other rivers or streams with wild Brook Trout and Atlantic Salmon are closed to fishing after September. This prevents fisherman from accidentally crushing eggs as they wade through the river.
Smolt are the young, six-inch salmon that swim from these Maine rivers all the way to Northern Greenland, two thousand miles away! Over the course of two to three years these fish will wait in the Northern Atlantic Ocean growing in size up to ten and fifteen pounds. Then they will migrate back to the same river where they were once a small egg and begin the cycle again. If these fish can wait three years to return to the Sheepscot then surely we can wait until April, when fishing season opens and we can wade into the waters once again.
text by Jonathan Ives
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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on any 4x4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.
Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.