Wildfire goes fishing – and catches a lot of big ones!

Owen Haseltine age 10One of Maine’s most outspoken advocates for our native brook trout is the guest on our TV talk show Wildfire, airing for the first time tonight. Bob Mallard has been an avid angler all of his life, and a fierce proponent of protecting and enhancing Maine’s native brookies.

Bob once had a busy fly shop in Skowhegan, and notes that a half dozen fly shops in and around that watershed are now closed. We talked about that, and a lot of other issues, including a legislative bill he has proposed to extend the protection of brook trout in more lakes and ponds.

We also talked about my proposal to extend protection of brookies from the small ponds to the tributaries where they spawn. I wrote about that issue not long ago.

Bob is a great promoter of fishing in Maine, through his writing at the regional and national level. He was recently named publisher and Northeast Regional Editor of Fly Fish America Magazine. He’s also a columnist for Southern Trout Online Magazine, and author of two books, 50 Best Places Fly Fishing The Northeast and 25 Best Towns to Fly Fish.

Each edition of Wildlife is aired on Time Warner cable station 9 on Tuesdays at 7 pm, Thursdays at 6:30 pm, and Sundays at 9:30 am. Each edition airs for two weeks. You can also access the show, including previous shows, online at www.vstv.me.

PHOTO: Owen Haseltine, age 10, with a native brook trout.

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.