Last modified: Sunday, July 29, 2007 11:29 PM EDT Dick Empie shows a brown trout he caught at Whiting's Pond in North Attleboro. (Submitted) One man's quest to save a lowly fish BY JAMES A. MEROLLA SUN CHRONICLE STAFF NORTH ATTLEBORO - Dick Empie can tell fish stories with the best of them. There was the day he caught 76 fish and the day his son, Todd, caught 100. It's nothing for him to catch a fish most days with every cast. But they are not tall tales. They are true. Empie, 63, lives to fish. At this stage of his life, the retired professional photographer and former fiberoptic cable maker also lives for fish. Since January 2006, Empie has battled lung cancer, probably caused by smoking three packs of "small cigars" a day, a nasty habit begun at age 10, about the time he first picked up a rod and reel. In the days he has left to cherish, Empie has started a quest to save his favorite trout, eastern brook trout, by soliciting fellow devoted fisherman and environmentalists to identify and describe all of the tiny streams and rivers that narrowly form the trout's reduced habitat in Massachusetts and beyond. Why? "In my eyes, the are the most beautiful trout God ever created," said Empie, who is working with state and federal agencies to raise money and awareness to mark the waterways that can sustain the fish, in order to restore and preserve them. The more trout thriving, the more Dick and Todd can catch with the several fishing flies he invented, like the colorful, feathery Parakeet and the sand worm-looking Mongoose, and the more they can release back into the water. "I don't believe in killing fish," he said. SUN CHRONICLE: Tell us about your campaign to restore Eastern Brook Trout. DICK EMPIE: I heard about this through the fish hatchery in North Attleboro. Larry Lofton, the hatchery manager, is a good friend of mine. For years, I've always wanted to protect them. Larry told me that the federal government had started work on this venture, working to protect their habitat. I said, 'Well, it's about time.' Through him, I contacted several key people listed in their brochures. I got the name of Maureen Gallagher of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. I told her, 'I don't see anywhere in this information where I, or John Doe, can get a stream name registered or recorded as a natural brook trout stream. There's no paperwork to do that. Do you mind if I design one and submit it?' She said, 'No.' So, I did. Todd Richards of the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife helped me to tweak it. SC: Is this being done only in the Commonwealth? EMPIE: (Showing a map.) No, the area would be from Pennsylvania to the top of Maine. It's a huge area to identify all the streams designated as wild brook trout streams. Without the form I made, you'd have no idea where the streams are. SC: How threatened are brook trout in eastern Massachusetts? EMPIE: (Shows another map.) See our area? See the designation? They are 'unknown' here, or 'no data.' SC: How bad are the waterways here compared to 20 or 25 years ago? Are they too polluted or dried up? EMPIE: Well, even the small brooks can hold them. They don't need much water. They live in small streams, 4 inches to a foot deep. To give you an example of how prolific they are, I have a friend who lives in Spenser. In the back of his house, there's a farm with cows. He draws well water into a trough for the cows. It runs constantly all year. There's a 2-foot drop from the end of the trough into the woods. One year, I was walking by and there was brook trout in the trough. I said, 'How the hell did they get in the trough?' My friend said they swam right up the whole runoff and jumped right up into it. He said, 'If they could get into the pipes, they would.' SC: Why haven't these streams and waterways been marked over, say, the last century? EMPIE: In the past 100 years, you had people who could tell you where every stream and waterway was. The main type of fishing was worm dunking - a rod, a reel and garden worms to catch brook trout. You could feed your family for a meal, two meals. Over the years, those people passed on and their offspring were not interested in learning where the streams were. They became Yuppies and were more interested in Quad 4s than fishing. When developers move into an area, they are totally unfamiliar with what is around them. Nobody knows anything about brook trout streams. There is no way of logging them except for this form I came up with. SC: How will this be funded? EMPIE: Well, the federal government only gives a little. They're a little too busy in Iraq. But I've been contacting companies and corporations like Dick's Sporting Goods (others). I know a slew of fishing authorities and authors. I have their home numbers. I've been calling, sending information and a cover letter. We're getting contributions into a tax exempt account we've set up. SC: What's the perfect stream? EMPIE: There's a stream in Maine, Hinkie Brook, that has wild natural brook trout. It's not a long stream. It's a cold water stream, and there are very few in the states. The water bubbles up out of the ground from an underground aquifer. It never freezes. It runs continually at 35 or 36 degrees, ice cold. These trout aren't very big there, only 5 or 6 inches, but they are already sexually developed and absolutely gorgeous. They don't have scales like most trouts do. They have a protective slime. I enjoy catching and releasing. I don't believe in killing fish. I'll catch them all day. There's a sense of accomplishment in catching big fish. I don't know how many years I have left, but I'd like to leave something - to know that I left something of myself on this earth. To contact Dick Empie or contribute to save the wild brook trout in the state, contact him through the North Attleboro Fish Hatchery, 508-695-5002.