The strangest year for alewives

There were no alewives in yesterday morning, and that followed several days with few if any fish in. The culprit was again the weather: cold, rainy weather. We figured the run might just be over. Oops…not so! There were alewives in this morning.
In a typical year, small schools of alewives begin coming up the Damariscotta River to the fish ladder in late April or early May. The run slowly picks up speed and by Mothers Day there is typically a good run underway, which peaks toward the end of May….around Memorial Day weekend. This year, small schools of alewives came in intermittently between periods of cold and heavy rains. A couple of times it looked as if the big push was about to happen….but then those pushes were rained out. What will happen now? Will the fish come in in large numbers and spawn in Damariscotta Lake…..or will they spawn in the river or estuary so that we lose a large percentage of this year’s potential juveniles? Stay tuned….. we’ll report right here.