
Proposal Seeks to Allow Ice Fishing with Up To Five Lines on Swan Lake
There's many new fishing laws being proposed to take effect in 2023. One proposal will expand angler opportunity on Swan Lake.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is proposing changing 131 fishing laws. The department is currently accepting public comment on the proposed changes. Within the newly released rule making packet are all of the individual proposals, which are broken down into themes.
One particular change that's being proposed would revert Swan Lake, in Swanville, to the General Law line limit. Currently, ice fishing rules on Swan Lake state a two-line limit. Maine's General Law line limit is up to five lines per-angler. The department hopes the law change will encourage more angler use, and improve catch rates on the 1,370 acre lake.
Swan Lake is annually stocked with landlocked salmon. Landlocked salmon and Togue (lake trout) are abundant within the body of water, however the catch rates for salmon are very low during the ice fishing season. According to department data, it took anglers 9.5 hours to catch a legal lake trout on Swan Lake last winter. It took anglers an average of 342 hours to catch a legal salmon, despite the high salmon density in the lake. IFW believes that line limitations are a contributing factor to the low catch rates. Traditionally anglers will set a line for salmon, and jig for touge under the current lake regulations.
IFW says, "Members of the public are encouraged to review the proposals and provide input by submitting written comments via mail to or email to the contact person for this filing or by participating in the public hearing." Public comment is open until September 1. The public hearing will be held August 22, at IFW headquarters in Augusta.

The proposals, if adopted, will go into effect January 1, 2023.
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