Trout bag limit bill survives veto

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

 AUGUSTA — A seemingly non-controversial bill to establish a bag limit for brook trout in Webster Stream in Piscataquis County was caught in Gov. Paul LePage’s veto spree last week.

 However, the Maine House overrode the veto of LD 1442 by a vote of 135-12, well over the two-thirds majority needed. Both Piscataquis County House members — Rep. Norman Higgins (R-Dover-Foxcroft) and Rep. Paul Stearns (R-Guilford) — voted in favor of the override.

 In LePage’s message, he underscored his promise to veto all bills submitted by Democratic lawmakers. “As promised, I am vetoing all bills sponsored by Democrats because they have stifled the voice of Maine citizens by preventing them from voting on the elimination of the income tax,” LePage wrote. “These legislators were elected to serve the people of Maine, but they choose to operate behind closed doors to advance their own partisan agendas.”

 The bill was introduced by Rep. Michael Shaw (D-Standish), the House chair of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee.

 The bill establishes a daily bag limit of one brook trout from the Telos Lake dam downstream to Webster Lake between Aug. 16 and Sept. 30 annually. The reason for the legislation, according to Shaw, is for “proper fishery management of brook trout” in this portion of the waterway.

 Telos and Webster lakes are in northeastern Piscataquis County.