The striped bass fishery below the Saco River dam has become one of the most heavily policed stretches of water in Maine this spring. State Marine Patrol officers handed out more than 50 summonses and 20 warnings in three weeks — and the man in charge says the offenders know exactly what they are doing.
Maine regulations close the water within 150 feet of the fishway on the Saco side and shut the Biddeford side above the Main Street bridge entirely. Striped bass funnel into the area to feed on herring and alewives backed up by the fish ladder, creating what one officer called "fish in a barrel." The Biddeford closure was added in 2023 after too many released bass died against the river's steep concrete walls.
Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Carl Wilson aired his frustration in an open letter on June 8.
"Unfortunately, many of those summonsed in recent weeks on the Saco River are repeat offenders who have acknowledged understanding of the regulations yet continue to demonstrate a blatant disregard for the resource by engaging in ongoing illegal activity," Wilson wrote. "This disregard for our striped bass resource in the Saco River cannot continue."
He framed it as a betrayal of the work going into rebuilding the stock, now governed by a single-fish bag limit and a tight 28-to-31-inch slot. "We've been working hard to rebuild the striped bass stock in the midst of low recruitment, and that has resulted in a narrow slot limit and low bag limit," Wilson wrote, adding that the violations "do not align with the conservation ethos I often hear when speaking to recreational anglers."
Sgt. Matthew Sinclair, who described the dead-fish problem that prompted the closure — "Just a line of dead striped bass floating down the river" — told the Portland Press Herald the enforcement load has exploded. "It has become a much bigger enforcement challenge for us," he said. "The amount of violations has blown up exponentially." Summonses now go to the district attorney and can carry fines from $100 to $1,000; some anglers have had rods seized.
Bigger fish are part of the lure, with some bass topping 40 inches this season. But Zach Whitener of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute warned that is a red flag, not a triumph. "Now people are catching fewer, bigger fish," he said. "It's fun to catch a big fish, but if you're not catching little fish to go with them, you can see yourself there's a population problem."
Maine anglers caught roughly 840,000 stripers last year and released all but about 7 percent. The pressure is coast-wide — The Fisherman reported New York officers ticketing anglers in a Hempstead Harbor striper bust on Long Island in late May — and Wilson left no doubt the patrols will keep coming. "Our collective actions need to change," he wrote.