About fishing — and protecting a great resource in Maryland

I launched a petition I would like you to consider signing. Allow me to explain. This will only take a couple of minutes.

Trout born in the wild are beautiful and rare in the Mid-Atlantic. They need to be protected.

Those of us who fish for them practice catch-and-release fishing.

If lucky, we fool and hook a stream-bred trout with small artificial lures or flies made from feathers and fur. We return the wild trout to the waters where they live.

We do not fish with worms or other bait, and I’ll tell you why: Trout mortality increases significantly when you do that. If we wanted to kill and eat trout, we would go to one of the many rivers where the state stocks trout born in hatcheries. That’s called put-and-take fishing.

Our petition asks the state of Maryland to ban the use of bait — worms, or whatever — in the long stretch of the North Branch of the Potomac River where anglers are required to practice catch-and-release fishing.

It makes no sense to allow bait fishing in such a fragile ecosystem.

The North Branch is a beautiful river still in recovery from decades of coal mine pollution. Fisheries biologists worked long and hard to clean it up and make it fit for trout.

Trout thrive in the North Branch. They must be protected from poachers and bait fishing.

So that’s why the petition, an appeal to the same Maryland Department of Natural Resources that deserves full credit for saving the North Branch.

That river is a treasure, and I hope state and local officials in Allegany County recognize its potential as a great destination for Marylanders who, with their tax dollars, supported the North Branch’s resurrection. I hope you get to see it some day, from Westernport all the way to Cumberland — cold, clear water where trout can thrive.

Please consider the petition. It’s about fishing, for sure. But it’s also an appeal for the conservation and smart management of a great resource. Thank you.