Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
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One of the things we do here at the Times-News is check out rumors.
You would be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t) at how many times there proves to be something accurate about a rumor. Maybe the whole rumor isn’t true, but maybe a part of it is.
Sometimes we even report that a rumor is not true. We did that recently, telling readers that a spokeswoman for the Western Maryland Health System said it is absolutely not true that a merger with another hospital was being considered.
That shows, of course, that sometimes there is nothing at all to a rumor.
I hope the recent rumor that I overheard in a public setting falls into the not-true category.
I heard that Maryland Department of Natural Resources, specifically those who manage fish, is considering further limiting fishermen in the way they go about sticking a hook in the mouth of a trout.
This fellow, who was talking to a couple other people, said the way he understood it was that anglers would be required to choose only one type of terminal tackle, and would be further ordered to register that choice with the agency.
In other words, bait anglers would have to choose between things such as corn, cheese, garden worms, meal worms, salmon eggs or Berkley PowerBait. He wondered aloud whether or not an angler who selected salmon eggs would be further required to pick only one type, such as shrimp-flavored eggs or garlic-flavored eggs.
Fly anglers would have to choose one pattern and size, say a #14 Adams.
Those who flip hardware would have to pick just one spinner or just one spoon.
Anyway, the angler’s choice would be stored electronically and would be available through Twitter and Facebook so that a natural resources police officer who checked the license of Mr. I.M. Angler could easily match Mr. Angler’s name to his registered bait, fly or lure and then write the appropriate ticket if the hickydoo at the end of the line was something else.
The guy I overheard said he was told this was being put into place because too many trout were being caught and eaten and not enough of them were being left to enjoy a peaceful life in whichever stream or lake they resided.
I’m wondering, too, if this could be a ploy to reduce the number of anglers and thus reduce the chance of moving rock snot from one stream to another.
Well, if it comes to that, I am choosing a basic Mepps Aglia in the #1 size with silver blade.
Everything that swims will strike a Mepps spinner and that probably includes otters and killer whales.
Trout, bass, bluegills, chubs, pike, muskellunge, catfish and perch will all strike a Mepps. I can hear you now. Sawyers must be on Mepps’ payroll.
Nope. The only payroll I am on is that of the Times-News. I would pick a Mepps because I know they work.
That spinner has worked for me in Utah’s Logan River, in Wyoming’s Platte, Washington’s Walla Walla, West Virginia’s Smoke Hole, Pennsylvania’s Bald Eagle, Montana’s Lolo, Maryland’s Evitts and too many others to name.
The great thing about the Aglia is that it takes very little water pressure to spin the blade. And, because my favorite way to fish a spinner is to throw it upstream and crank it downstream, that is a very good thing.
But then, I might not have to worry about.
Maybe it is just a rumor.
