The Maine Sportsman November 2020 Digital Edition

Sportsman The Maine

November 2020 • $4.99

THE

WHITETAIL ISSUE

Calling & Rattling for Bucks Page 21

Hal Blood on Tracking Page 30

Deer Rifles & Iron Sights Page 9

Plus LOTS More!

Early-Season Snowmobiling Page 33

Youth Writing Contest Page 73

Maine’s Smoke Jumpers Page 47

2 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman —————————————————————————————————————————————

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4 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman —————————————————————————————————————————————

Editorial

Hunting Camp – More Than the Sum of Its Parts What is it about November deer camp that causes hunters to look forward to the whitetail season all year long? The history and tradition? The mis-matched silverware and coffee mugs? The woodstoves, the gun rack, and the deer heads mounted on the log walls?

It’s all that, and more.

First and foremost, it’s about the people – family, including those who have moved away from Maine but who make it a point to return to hunt; and friends, many of whom we may see only a couple of times a year.

Deer camp offers an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends – to tell and re-tell stories that are familiar to all. A chance to read portions of the logbook documenting past hunts, conquests and dry spells. Where grandfathers teach their grandsons (and granddaughters) to clean and maintain their firearms, help out with all the chores, and absorb the traditions of the camp.

It’s an opportunity to get away from the predictable routines of our lives, focusing on storytelling in the evenings, staying warm at night, and tracking and shooting a wily deer during the day.

For those whose jobs or retirement activities are generally sedentary, it’s an opportunity to push the limits of their physical conditioning, making their way through cedar swamps and up hillsides, and – with any luck – even dragging a deer back to the truck.

It’s a chance for trip planners to demonstrate their skills, coordinating schedules, transporting hunters to their favorite spots and retrieving tired hunters along gravel roads after sunset.

And it’s about food. It’s an opportunity for folks to show off their bartending and culinary expertise, with the group usually dividing itself into specialists in cocktails, appetizers, main courses and desserts. And of course it’s an opportunity to fry up the various game meats you and your friends have harvested during the year – food that’s been in the freezer at the house for a while because it did not receive as enthusiastic a welcome at home as it will when served to hungry hunters.

It’s an opportunity to survey the camp and surroundings, to determine what maintenance, repairs and reconstruction will be required the following summer – roof? stovepipe? screens? And it’s a good time to review and appreciate the work others have done over the years to keep the building upright and intact – in our remote camp south of Greenville, for example, the front sill is made from a huge spruce log that was hewed square with chain saws, then transported down gravel roads lashed to the side of a 1960s station wagon, before being jacked and wrestled into place.

Evening activities depend on what happened during the day. Storytelling and card games are time-honored traditions, but especially if the hunting was tougher than usual, big plans for the evening are frequently abandoned in favor of crawling exhausted into bunk beds and falling fast asleep.

Things are refreshingly simple and direct at camp. If you don’t put wood in the stove at night, the camp gets cold. If you are skilled or lucky in the woods, you get a deer. If someone in your party gets a deer, you help them find it and drag it to the road.

It’s a directness and simplicity that is sometimes difficult to find in our day-to-day lives, and it helps make deer camp more than the sum of its parts.

¶

www.MaineSportsman.com

New England’s Largest Outdoor Publication

Sportsman The Maine

ISSN 0199-036 — Issue No. 578 • www.mainesportsman.com PUBLISHER: Jon Lund MANAGING EDITOR: Will Lund will@mainesportsman.com OFFICE MANAGER: Linda Lapointe linda@mainesportsman.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Kristina Roderick kristina@mainesportsman.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Nancy Carpenter nancy@mainesportsman.com DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR: Carol Lund carol@mainesportsman.com Second class postage paid at Scarborough, ME 04074 and additional entry offices.

All editorial inquiries should be emailed to will@mainesportsman.com Phone: 207-622-4242 Fax: 207-622-4255 Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Maine Sportsman, 183 State Street, Suite 101,­ Augusta, ME 04330 12-Month Subscription: $30 • 24-Month Subscription: $49

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Almanac by Will Lund.................................................... 13 A Ranger on the Allagash by Tim Caverly.................. 44 Aroostook - “The County” by Bill Graves..................... 36 Big Game Hunting by Joe Saltalamachia.................. 26 Big Woods World by Hal Blood..................................... 30 Central Maine by Steve Vose....................................... 63 Downeast by Jim Lemieux............................................ 58 Editorial.............................................................................. 4 Freshwater Fly Fishing by Lou Zambello....................... 53 Jackman Region by William Sheldon.......................... 50 Jottings by Jon Lund........................................................ 9 Katahdin Country by William Sheldon......................... 40 Kate’s Wild Kitchen by Kate Krukowski Gooding....... 32 Letters to the Editor.......................................................... 6 Maine Sportswoman by Christi Holmes....................... 39 Maine Wildlife by Tom Seymour................................... 20 Maine Wildlife Quiz by Steve Vose............................... 43 Midcoast by Tom Seymour........................................... 62 Moosehead Region by Tom Seymour......................... 56 My Maine by George Smith.......................................... 19 New Hampshire by Ethan Emerson.............................. 70 Off-Road Traveler by William Clunie............................ 42 Outdoors & Other Mistakes by Al Diamon.................. 74 Outdoor Chronicle by Ed Pineau................................. 49 Quotable Sportsman by George Smith....................... 25 Rangeley Region by William Clunie............................. 66 Riding Shotgun by Robert Summers............................. 75 Saltwater by Barry Gibson............................................. 60 Sebago to Auburn Region by Tom Roth..................... 64 Self-Propelled Sportsman by Jim Andrews.................. 46 Shooter’s Bench by Col. J.C. Allard............................. 28 Smilin’ Sportsman: Adults & Kids by Will Lund.............. 75 Southern Maine by Val Marquez................................. 65 Sporting Environment by David Van Wie.................... 47 Sportsman’s Journal by King Montgomery................. 11 Trapping The Silent Places by David Miller.................. 45 Trading Post (Classifieds)............................................... 76 Trout Fishing by Tom Seymour....................................... 55 True Tales from the Warden Service by Ret. Lt. Doug Tibbetts.52 Western Maine Mountains by William Clunie.............. 68

GUEST COLUMNS & SPECIAL SECTIONS

Annual Maine Sportsman Reader Poll......................... 18 Calling and Rattling for Deer by Blaine Cardilli.......... 21 Dear Grandson by Randy Randall............................... 59 First Biggest Buck Patch by Michael DeRespino, Sr.... 24 Importance of Scouting by Nate Grove..................... 23 Snowmobiling in Maine by Steve Carpenteri............. 33 On the Cover:

The regular firearms season on whitetail deer starts November 2, and extends through November 28. Residentsonly day is October 31. Youth Deer Day is October 24. We hope readers are inspired and informed by the reader stories and expert tips we’ve included in this issue.

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6 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman —————————————————————————————————————————————

Letters To The Editor

Waiting 40 Years for His Name to be Called in the Moose Lottery

To the Editor: The September issue of The Maine Sportsman had many articles related to moose hunting. This prompted me to write because of my frustration with the state’s moose lottery system. I have been applying since the very first lottery, and in 40 years have never been drawn. I know people who have been drawn more than once. There must be a better system.

Some western states have a preference point system, where you will eventually draw a license if you keep applying. In some cases, you even know how many more years it will be, if you keep applying.

Many lotteries are once-in-a-lifetime.

This also helps consistent applicants.

A few years ago, applicants over 70 years of age and with 15 bonus points automatically were drawn. However, this only applies to residents of Maine.

That hardly seems fair.

At 78 years of age, I guess I will never draw a tag, but I will keep trying.

Arthur Schleich – Port Jervis, NY —

Intra-State Disagreement in NJ To the Editor: I just read the letter from a fellow New Jersey resident complaining about the cost associated with a non-resident

one week fishing license and the Lake and River sticker.

My wife and I have been coming to Maine to fish for some thirty years now, and I come up with my buddy to fish also – usually three trips a year.

I don’t know what the other letter-writer prefers to fish for in Maine, but if it’s bass, he knows how much superior bass fishing, and fishing for all species, is in Maine (see photo below).

Plus, the number of lakes available is staggering compared to New Jersey.

I can’t, because of the engine size, even run my bass boat in most of the lakes in this state. And the fishing stinks because the lakes get pounded so hard.

Anyway, I’ll gladly pay for the nonresident license and that sticker, which is actually for a good cause, as long as I’m able to haul my boat up there and have a great outdoor experience.

George Tutek – Allentown, N.J.

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Wants His Bird-Hunting Wife to Look Her Best in the Woods To the Editor: I enjoy Christi Holmes’ columns in The Maine Sportsman.

My wife took up grouse hunting three years ago, and we are having a great time, so I appreciated the cover photo on the September issue of Ms. Holmes and her Brittany, decked out to pursue ruffed grouse.

I want my wife to look her very best in the woods, which leads to my question: What is the brand of the upland vest and hunting pants Christi is wearing in that cover photo, and where did she get them?

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

Tom Eddy – Orwell, VT Christi Holmes responds: Hi Tom – thank you for the note! I’m glad you enjoy my columns and it’s great you and your wife hunt together!

The vest is from Beretta (see www.

BerettaUSA.com). Orvis makes a similar upland vest; see www.orvis.com.

The pants are from Carhartt. I’m 5’11” and they carry “longs,” so I like shopping there. I just got a pair of L.L. Bean ladies’ upland pants which I love because they’re stretchy (Carhartts are not stretchy). The link is www.llbean. com. They’re called “stretch briar jeans.”

I hope that helps! Also, your wife may be interested in the Facebook group, “Maine Women Hunters.” It’s a great resource and community, and it’s OK that she doesn’t live in Maine.

— (Continued on next page)

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Remembering His Dad

Is Hunting Bear with Hounds the Most Ethical Method?

To the Editor: I am an avid reader and subscriber of The Maine Sportsman magazine. Though I enjoy fishing, it is the stories and photos of deer hunting that I love so much.

Reading through a recent issue got me thinking about my father, and our love of Maine deer hunting.

In 1976, my father (Dan Tower, Jr.) and I kicked off our annual hunting trip in Maine. Our party of four drove our campers north of Moosehead Lake into T6R16, where we camped and hunted off Scott Brook Rd. In the later years, my father and I changed our tactics and booked a reservation to Mount Chase Lodge.

It was 1988, and we found MCL to suit us for all our needs so we could concentrate on the hunting for the years to come.

2008 would be our last hunting trip, as my father said it was time. I carried on with the tradition, eventually teaming up with several other hunters we had made friends with at the dinner table at MCL. Dad passed away in February 2019 at the age of 92. On my first hunt following his passing,

To the Editor: I just read Christi Holmes’ article, “Bear Hunting with Hounds,” and I must say I absolutely enjoyed it. Her article was so well-written that I felt I was along on the hunt.

I, too, was a little hesitant when I first went bear hunting with hounds, but now I feel it’s the best way to hunt these magnificent animals.

As she stated in her article, sows and cubs are off-limits, and that is so true! When folks still-hunt for bear, there is a chance they might shoot a sow with cubs, because they only have a split-second to react.

Hunting over hounds practically eliminates this possibility.

There is nothing like hearing the hounds as they follow the scent of the black bear. The last several years, I’ve hunted with Brandon Salls and Mark Dufresne at Lord Mountain Guide Service. Now it has become an annual event.

Richard LaValley – Webster, NH —

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8 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman —————————————————————————————————————————————

Letters to the Editor

Don’t Dump Van Wie, Part I To the Editor: I’m writing in defense of David Van Wie. I’m assuming you aren’t going to “Dump David” the way a letter-writer suggested in the October Maine Sportsman, but I’m writing anyway.

I am a staunch conservative who votes for people who will support the First and Second Amendments the way they were written and intended.

What I’ve always loved about Maine is the way most of the people there have traditional values, but are very careful to protect the environment that not only provides them food and recreation but also a large part of their economy. I believe we can have a strong economy and preserve our nation without harming our environment.

I agree with David Van Wie that we need to hold our public officials accountable; I just wish he had suggested “Write to your representatives!” rather than “Get out and vote.” I believe that would have caused less of a political controversy while still getting the point across.

Bart Schairer – Hammonton, NJ —

(Continued from page 7)

my friends and I were blessed to have snow during our third week hunt in the Penobscot County.

Dan Tower III

Tuesday morning, November 19, 2019, I would harvest my personal best.

An 8-pt, 192-lb dressed buck.

I can’t help but think my father was with us and had an influence on my success. Rest in peace, Dad. Dan Tower III – Wrentham, MA

Re-name Van Wie’s Column To the Editor: I think you should rename David Van Wie’s column, “Political Sporting

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Environment.” I personally have had enough of politics in his articles.

Reading your magazine should not make me agitated. I get enough of that with the news on television. This publication should not be his platform to impress upon us his political views.

He can go write for the New York Times or Washington Post. That’s his target audience – not the readers of The Maine Sportsman!

Michael Seamans – Wallingford, CT —

Don’t Dump Van Wie, Part II To the Editor: Don’t even think of dropping David Van Wie from your staff. I believe the reader who desires “freedom from politics” (see Letter to the Editor, “Keep politics out of The Maine Sportsman,” October issue) in your magazine is misguided.

Our environment and related ecosystems have been increasingly politicized. The natural environment that we sportsmen depend on has been degraded under the current administration.

Politics – both national and local – determine what, when, and how we humans influence our limited earthly habitat. Sadly, for the past four years scientific experts have been disrespected and marginalized.

To me, an outdoor lifer at age 73, David Van Wie and the other writers of the Maine Sportsman “get it.” Whether your articles are telling the outdoor history of Maine, describing the life of a songbird, or sharing information on the best fishing spots, what comes across is a clear love of the outdoors, a respect for nature and its creatures, and a preference for facts and the truth such that the reader looks forward to every new issue.

Joe N. Weiss, Ph.D. – Clarence, New York

¶

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Nine-year-old William Jellison of Bath shot his first turkey on his first day of hunting (Youth Day 2020). William harvested a 9-lb. hen on his Lola’s (grandmother’s) farm in Dresden. He used a Benelli Nova Youth 20 gauge recently purchased at L.L. Bean. Nice shot, William!

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Iron Sights May Benefit from Modifications A few years back, hunters paid a lot of attention to the iron sights on their rifle.

Telescope sights were an unusual novelty.

Scopes had primitive optics and were not waterproof. They fogged up.

Scope mounts were not sturdy, and often allowed the scope to get out of alignment.

In the years since, scopes have been vastly improved. But iron sights have some significant advantages over scopes. Scopes add weight and bulk to a rifle. They add complexity.

While it is true that on long distance shots, the magnification and crosshairs of a scope are an advantage, most of our shots at deer in Maine are at close range. The average range in Maine is generally accepted to be 75 yards.

A friend of ours, a

Traditional iron sights have advantages over scopes – they are lightweight and uncomplicated, and it’s easy to acquire your target. And with a few modifications, they can be made even more effective. neophyte deer hunter, missed a chance at a good buck last fall because the hunter could not find the deer in the scope quickly enough.

Iron sights might have saved the day.

Traditional “U” and “V” Rear Sights What kind of iron sights are the most helpful for a hunter?

Ones that are easiest to use and that don’t obscure the area surrounding the game.

The difficulty with U- and V-shaped rear sights is judging how much of the front bead should be showing above the rear sight notch or V. Also, the rear sight obscures much of the area below the target.

I recently carried

Some hunters using the “U” or notch rear sight (top) or the “V” rear sight (bottom) find that it’s difficult to know where to place the front bead in the opening of the rear sight, and also that the rear sight obscures anything below the line of vision.

out an experiment with a beginner hunt-

er. The hunter fired a number of .22 rimfire shots at a paper target using the hunter’s venerable Remington, which was fitted with a traditional V notch rear sight.

The hunter then tried a number of shots with my similar vintage Remington .22 equipped with a large aperture peep sight.

The beginner found that the peep sight won out, hands down, and is now looking to fit out the .22 with a peep sight.

The reason, according to the experts, is that the eye naturally seeks to place the front sight in the center of the peep.

Peep sights have been used by target

shooters for many years, and their design may have given peep sights a bad reputation among hunters.

Target sights often featured a tiny opening in the middle of a large black disk – not a good device if you are looking for a deer.

What the hunter needs is a ring that a doesn’t obscure the rest of the forest.

Peep Sight Not Always Perfect But a peep sight is not always the perfect choice, as I found out to my disappointment as a young hunter.

My deer rifle was a Remington model 141 pump chambered in .35 Remington. The sight that came with the rifle was an open notch situated nearly midway down the barrel.

I thought a peep sight would be an im(Continued on next page)

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10 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Jottings (Continued from page 9)

provement, and installed a Marble’s tang sight that extended back over the stock. A pivot detent allowed the sight to tilt forward or backward if hit or pulled.

On the last hour of the last day of the deer season, I was hiking back to Kibby Camps on a wide haul road, carrying my rifle over my right arm. It was cold, and several inch-

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es of recent snow muffled the sound of my footsteps. I had been moving slowly, and speeded a bit to warm up.

I looked up and saw a doe walking directly toward me in middle of the road.

I stopped. The doe stopped. I brought up the rifle, took careful aim and fired.

Mystery Solved Instead of dropping in its tracks, the doe reared up and galloped away down the middle of the haul road, swung off and disappeared into the dense fir growth.

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carefully, looking for signs of blood. No blood could be found in the white snow. A clean miss. How could that happen after such an easy shot?

I looked at the rifle and saw that the tang sight was tipped forward. Pushing against my thick wool hunting jacket had evidently overcome the resistance of the detent spring and tipped the tang sight, lowering my sight line half an inch or more. My bullet had likely gone between the doe’s front legs. So much for a peep sight that is not locked down tight.

A dejected young hunter hiked slowly back to Kibby Camps.

Modifying a Lever-Action Sight My Winchester Model 94 lever action came with an open rear sight featuring an insert that offered several different V notch and U notch options, depending on which side of the insert is up.

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The author fashioned a rear peep sight for his Model 94 Winchester lever action from a hacksaw blade.

I replaced the rear sight insert with a piece of an old hacksaw blade. Taking the saw blade, I enlarged the hole at one end of the blade to create a suitable peep. Then, by grinding and filing carefully, I rounded the top, and shaped the sides and bottom of the blade to match the size and shape of the insert. The result is a peep sight that is solidly mounted in place but still adjustable in elevation.

Front Sights Front sights on many rifles are either a gold or ivory bead.

A front bead sight can cause inaccurate aiming if ambient light reflects off the side of the bead.

The old-timers used to say that if the light comes from the side, a bead front sight will make the shooter shoot away from the light. The explanation is that if the light illuminates one side of the front bead, the shooter will move the rifle so that the perceived bead is centered for the rear sight, moving the shot away from the source of light.

A front flat sight, sloped up and away from the shooter, will ensure straight shots regardless of the direction of ambient light.

The problem is minimized if the front sight is a flat surface, rather than a bead, and the sight surface is sloped rather than at a right angle to the shooter. The flat gold front sight effectively catches and reflects more light than the bead.

Aging Eyes May Appreciate Scope Iron sights can be light, simple and effective.

However, at some point in their lives, shooters may decide the best choice is to improve on nature.

Those hunters may opt to clarify the sight picture with a wellmade modern scope offering tapered cross hairs and a sturdy scope mount.

Good luck to all our readers during the whitetail deer regular firearms season this month.

¶

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Ice Fishing for Crappies I heard the phone pick up. “This is Lefty,” the voice at the other end said. I knew it was, because my old fishing buddy was on my speed-dial, and we often talked, particularly when planning our annual trip from the Mid-Atlantic Region to Maine for some smallmouth bass fishing. “Lefty, it’s King,” I said. “Let’s head up to Maine in January or February, and we’ll do some ice fishing.”

You could hear the roaring silence. I stifled a chuckle.

The last time Sergeant Bernard V. Kreh, United States Army, really was cold was at the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne in Belgium from December 16, 1944 until January 25, 1945. His artillery unit was caught in the bulge in Allied lines caused by the Germans’ last-ditch Ardennes Offensive, that almost worked.

Lefty, like thousands of other American soldiers, nearly froze to death, and contacted a relatively mild case of frostbite in his toes, and when his feet got cold, they ached. Lefty trembled with cold whenever he’d talk about his WWII experience, and up until his death refused to go anywhere where it was too cold, or even too cool.

I, of course, knew that, but liked to pull his chain now and then, and that worked both ways, resulting in a lot of laughs and

back-slapping. We always had a good time.

Later, when I told him Elizabeth and I were moving permanently to Maine, he said he never could live in a place where you could store meat outside six months of the year.

The year of that phone call, rather than going ice fishing, we ended up fly fishing with Scott Davis on the Sebasticook River, Lefty’s favorite smallmouth bass water just about anywhere, and I’d have to wait for some time before going on my first ice fishing trip in Maine, or anywhere for that matter.

North to Unity Pond I’d hunted ducks and fished with Scott Davis on the Sebasticook River with and without Lefty. We even spent a pleasant couple of hours on Unity Pond, not too far from his gorgeous log home in Burnham, casting small jigs to crappie before I headed home from a Sebasticook float trip the day before. You see, I believe crappie is the second-best tasting – a very close second – freshwater fish after walleye, and I’ve been addicted to them all the times I lived in the South, where they are very plentiful. In Maine, they are an invasive species probably introduced by selfish people who should be in jail.

While pulling in tasty crappies, Scott mentioned he ice-fishes for these sunfishes

in the winter, and usually catches a bunch, all of which end up on his dinner table. There is no size, bag or possession limit in Maine, so he loads up the freezer. Davis, a fisheries biologist with the State, consumes fish he’s caught, and game he’s shot. He a pretty darn good cook too, and I can attest to his skills with a cast iron skillet.

Plenty of Crappie for All This ubiquitous sunfish is related to the large and smallmouth black basses, and other sunnies such as our pumpkinseed. They tend to school, and, if you find one or two crappies in a spot, chances are there’s a bunch more down there.

In spring when the fishes move into habitat closer to the shore to spawn, both spin and fly anglers can score heavily. Don’t worry about overfishing, because crappie – both the black and the white species – are very prolific and can take over a body of water quickly if something, natural or otherwise, doesn’t keep them in check.

We have the black crappie in the Pine Tree State in a number of lakes and ponds, including Unity Pond in Waldo County. They could inhabit as many as 300 bodies of water.

The Maine state record for black crappie is 3 pounds, 9.76 ounces caught by Quinn

Scott Davis heads out across Unity Pond to his ice shack, that little dark spot center, near top in photograph. It was a long hike for me, but well worth the effort (and pain). All photos by King Montgomery

Warren on Messalonskee Lake in February 2012. I suspect it was taken while ice fishing.

These invasives are pretty adaptive across a broad range of habitat conditions, and are prolific breeders that can take over a pond or lake if left unchecked. When they overpopulate, their numbers get larger and their size and weight get smaller, until most of the fish are stunted.

Tackle & Techniques Davis already did all the heavy lifting before I joined him for an afternoon/evening of ice fishing, and we took it up again the next morning before I headed home. The ice shack or shanty was in place, the hole in the ice already dug, and the propane heater was ready to go. Two short ice rods with reels and line hung from a hook inside the shack, so it pret(Continued on next page)

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12 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Crappie are attracted to small jigs and spoons during summertime open-water season, and they like the same lures fished under the ice. The presentation in ice fishing is much simpler, with up and down jigging about the only option.

From left, Joe Bellerose, Nicole Bellerose, and Scott Davis pose for the inevitable photo (if I’m around) by Scott’s shack. Joe has a place on Unity Pond, and Scott’s known the family for years.

Sportsman’s Journal (Continued from page 11)

ty much was a turnkey operation for me.

Thank you, Scott.

I believe I much prefer using a small spinning rod with reel spooled with 4-pound test monofilament to having a field of tip-up devices that automatically hook the fish, and signal when one is on. I feel more like I’m actually fishing while holding the rod and reel and imparting manual action to the tube or jig at the end of the line. But I admit I’ve never used the tip-ups, and certainly don’t rule them out.

In open water, crappie hit tube jigs and other soft baits; plastic lures, spoons, and spinners; and, of course, live minnows

suspended below a bobber almost always score. The same is true in ice fishing to a degree, and Scott had an assortment of jigs of one form or another.

Open the spinning reel bail, let the weighted tube jig sink to the bottom, crank a little above the bottom, and occasionally jig the lure up and down. Sometimes the fish take the lure on the drop. Once a bite is detected, just gently lift, and reel the fish up through the ice hole. Don’t set the hook too hard, because the mouth of a crappie is very thin and easily tears if you get too heavy-handed. (One of the crappie’s common names in the South is

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“papermouth.”)

Finding the depth the fish are holding is critical to catching them. A lure fished below a school of crappie probably won’t result in a hook-up, but if the bait is suspended at their level or slightly above, they often bite.

A crappie’s eyes are located toward the top of its head, so looking up a little is not a problem, while looking down is most problematic.

One of the most important pieces of equipment for ice fishing is a good propane stove with a full tank.

The one Scott had in his shack could heat the Cross Arena in Portland in the dead of winter, and we were glad for it.

Being Neighborly On the morning on the second day we ice fished, Scott’s thermometer on the back deck registered minus 20 degrees. Thinking that might be a tad cool, we decided to linger over coffee in the warm cabin a bit longer before heading over to Unity Pond.

By the time we got to the shack, it probably only was a balmy –10 degrees, the wind was not present, and the sun was bright in the cloudless sky. A perfect day to be on the water – I mean ice – for some great fishing and socializing.

Joe, his daughter Nicole, her fiancé, and some friends were making a day of it on the ice, and all arrived on snowmobiles.

This ubiquitous sunfish is related to the large and smallmouth black basses, and other sunnies such as our pumpkinseed. They tend to school, and if you find one or two crappies in a spot, chances are there’s a bunch more down there.

As far as I could see on Unity Pond, there only were two other ice shacks. One about 30 yards away, and the other was just a spot in the distance.

Some ponds and lakes see quite a few shacks, and this allows time for like-minded folks to visit a bit – just to be neighborly, of course – but if you’re not having much luck perhaps others are catching a lot of fish. It’s good to share what’s working and what’s not, and during many ice fishing trips, all of the world’s problems are discussed and solved by ice anglers. It’s a real social event.

The shack nearest us belonged to Joe Bellerose, a retired construction contractor who has a place on the pond, and is an avid snowmobiler. He and his family have taken sled trips well into other states and into Canada when conditions permitted. Near Joe’s shack, a really nice place that could

hold a bunch of folks, it looked like a used sled dealership. Joe, his daughter Nicole, her fiancé, and some friends were making a day of it on the ice, and all arrived on snowmobiles.

Neat rows of tipups sporting orange “strike indicators” radiated from the shack in rows like spokes of a wheel. At any one time, seven or eight people were congregated nearby getting caught up with each other. Now and then, someone would look to see if any fish were biting, and would run to the tip-up if it appeared necessary to do so.

My first ice fishing experience was a certifiable hoot, and it won’t be my last quest for fish under frozen water. It is so nice to have fresh crappie in the middle of Maine’s winter. I really think Lefty would have enjoyed the experience too. Cold feet and all.

¶

Almanac

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Compiled and Edited by — Will Lund —

“Snapshots in Time”

Excerpts from the Annals of Maine’s Sporting Past Submitted by Bill Pierce, of the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc, Maine

Around 1870, John Danforth founded Camp Caribou on Treat’s Island on Parmachenee Lake, as a sporting camp.

In 1890 he sold the whole outfit to a group of his regular guests, who then leased the surrounding 120,000 acres to form the Parmachenee Club, and they hired Danforth as their Superintendent. A great deal all around, for the enterprising Danforth took part of this windfall and had a shallow draft “floating hotel” built at Bath to be floated in the inland waters of St. Lucie County in Florida to welcome his wealthy sporting patrons to in the winter months to hunt bear, panther and turkeys and catch massive tarpon and snook.

Danforth was not only a first-rate guide and woodsman, but obviously one sharp, incredibly hard working and en-

Here’s Guide John Danforth, around 1896. Do you think he got a permit before he took out this beaver dam?

trepreneurial Mainer! If you ever get the chance, read “Chasing Danforth” by Robert W. Cook or “Hunting and Trapping on the Upper Magalloway River

and Parmachenee Lake - First Winter in the Wilderness, by John Danforth and F.C. Barker.

To really appreciate “Hunting & Trapping…”, wait and start reading it by a fire with a favorite sippin’ whiskey when there is a good snowstorm ragin’ outside. Perfect!

Below you will find a rather unique way to preserve “ready-made” meals while camping in the colder months. I guarantee that after reading this, you will never look at a union suit in quite the same way.

Anyway, enjoy this outdoor tip from one of my all-time favorite Maine Guide heroes, and be sure to get out and make some outdoor history of your own!

Ingenious Use of a Union Suit

From the November 3, 1896 eidtion of the RANGELEY LAKES newspaper John Danforth, who used to be president of the Parmachenee Club, bore the reputation of being one of the best storytellers around, and guides would set half the night through listening to his yarns about his experience in the woods, tramping, trapping and hunting. He could tell stories for hours and not tell the same one twice, and many are the nights that he has caused a camp in the woods to ring with the merry laughter of a party who chanced to happen along, and they were always welcomed at his retreat in the dismal forests.

Danforth tells the story about he and John Eastman, the noted moose caller, and the only man that can do it to perfection, who were camping at a place known as the forks, where the Little Magalloway runs into the Big Magalloway. They carried with them two bushels of potatoes, and after they had been there a short time, they shot two caribou.

The weather was so cold that they were afraid the potatoes would freeze,

and still it was not cold enough so but what they were afraid the meat would spoil.

Danforth proceeded to make the two into hash, and the only thing they had was a big iron kettle in which he was making the mixture. Eastman came along and wanted to know what he was going to do with it after he had made it.

“I’ll show you,” replied Danforth.

After he had completed his job, he went and pulled out of his pack a brand-new pair of underdrawers that had never been christened. Tying the top, he filled the garment to its fullest capacity, then tying the bottom, hung it on a tree. It froze up, and Danforth said as fast as they wanted any to eat, they went and cut off a slice, and by spring they resembled a full-fledged bathing suit. But probably this original method did not jar their appetites in the least.

— Editor’s note: From the same issue, some interesting hunting statistics

about moose, deer and caribou taken in some familiar towns in 1896: Over a Thousand Deer Shipped Through Bangor During October (1896) The amount of game killed on the Bangor & Aroostook railroad during the month of October exceeds the record for any year since the road was opened. The total for the month just past is a remarkable one, and if in every month as many deer were killed in Maine along the line of the road that leads to the “New Northeast” as in October, 1896, our big game would rapidly decrease. The following is the record of game shipped only from stations on the Bangor & Aroostook railroad for the month of October: 1,079 Deer, 57 Moose and 29 Caribou.

This record is almost double that of 1895. Greenville headed the list in October 1895, with 185 deer, 16 moose and 9 caribou. This year the figures were 306 deer, 20 moose and 15 caribou. Patten stands well up in (continued on next page)

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Almanac

(Continued from page 13)

the list: Seven moose, seven caribou and 41 deer were shipped from that station in October. The hunters who have been in the woods have had good sport. Mt. Katahdin can be easily reached from Patten, and many caribou are to be found there.

In addition to the deer, moose and caribou shipped in October, 11 bears and one Canadian lynx were billed from different points on the road.

protection of, 2,620 acres surrounding the pond’s shoreline, preventing development of the land in perpetuity.

The property features a hand-carry boat launch at the south end of the pond, and a hikers’ shelter at the north end.

For more information, visit the website www.tpl.org/our-work/bald-mountain-pond.

—

Bethel Has New Mascot – the Masked Moose!

Modern Science Foils Bass Tournament Cheaters

In October 2018, at a largemouth bass tournament at Lake Powell, Utah, two men produced several large bass and claimed second place for a share of the $2,500 prize money.

Some observers said the bass “looked different” from the other bass entered in the contest. The fish were taken to a lab for analysis.

It took two years, but the end result was that the two anglers pleaded guilty to charges of “tampering to influence a contest,” which is a felony.

You see, part of a fish’s ear contains a piece called an otolith. And this otolith absorbs certain isotopes from the surrounding water. Each lake has a different measurable scale of isotopes, so it’s possible to match a certain fish to a

Editor’s note: Just 18 years later, the last Maine caribou was seen on the slopes of Katahdin.

Bald Mountain Pond Shoreline Protected Bald Mountain Pond is located about 10 miles west of Monson, Maine and 15 miles southwest of Greenville, along the Appalachian Trail.

Up until now, access to the pond was through non-binding permission granted by a succession of timber companies.

Late this summer, the Trust for Public Land announced that a consortium of more than a dozen private and public organizations had paid $4 million to Weyerhaeuser to secure access to, and

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THE

LEGACY ROLLS ON

EZ-V® V-Plow www.MaineSportsman.com

In an effort to encourage locals and visitors to wear face coverings, the town of Bethel has introduced a new mascot – the Masked Moose.

Town leaders believe the best chance of businesses remaining open is to keep everyone healthy, so the costumed moose delivers masks and signage to local businesses, organizations, recreational sites and schools.

—

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certain lake.

In this case, the isotope levels did not match Like Powell, but rather reflected the levels in Quail Creek Reservoir, about 180 miles west, where witnesses saw the two men fishing in the days just before the Lake Powell tournament.

The men were fined $3,000; they are required to perform community service; and they lost their fishing and hunting licenses.

—

Sandhill Crane on her nest in a hayfield in the early spring. Photos by Dan Dugan

Sandhill Cranes – Maine’s Next Gamebird?

by Dr. Birney Dibble Special to The Maine Sportsman Sandhill cranes continue to be rare spring and fall migrant visitors to the State of Maine. In 2000, the late ornithologist Scott Melvin confirmed that a pair had successfully nested in the extensive marshes at the southern end of Messalonskee Lake in Belgrade. There have been sandhill cranes there virtually every year since then.

Now, 20 years since the first confirmed nesting, there are probably at least 10 or 12 breeding pairs in the state, ranging from Fryeburg in the west to Corinna and Plymouth in the east.

It is rather amazing how the birds

Meanwhile, other Sandhill Cranes practice their dance moves.

can keep such a low profile during the breeding season. Along with the ones in Belgrade, birds have also been seen at Smithfield and on Torsey Pond in Kents Hill.

A little research suggests that these birds may have recently broken off from a population of 30,000 – 60,000 birds known as the Eastern Flyway Population. An offshoot of this group first showed up in New Jersey, moved into New England and now breed in Maine.

Farmers, landowners and conservationists have worked together to help these birds make a fairly strong come back after being nearly extirpated by the 1930s.

With the number of sandhills increasing in Maine each year and the increasing number of states allowing hunting*, it’s reasonable for us who have considered them non-game all our lives, to ask why anyone would want to hunt them. The answer is simply: for the same reasons you hunt any other animal. Plus – a very big plus – they are, according to a Manitoba rancher friend of mine, by far the tastiest and tenderest bird he has ever eaten! *Editor’s note: Hunting seasons for sandhill cranes are now held annually in portions of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Nebraska is the only Central Flyway state that does not offer a sandhill crane sport hunting season —

Maine Deer Hunters Facebook Group Plans “Biggest Deer” Contest In cooperation with The Maine Sportsman, Maine Deer Hunters is holding a Biggest Deer contest.

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Almanac

(Continued from page 15)

The contest is open to anyone, resident and non-resident, holding a Maine hunting license and who is a member of the Maine Deer Hunters Facebook Group prior to the beginning of whichever season their deer was taken in.

Hunters will post a photo of the deer along with a picture of the weigh station’s official weight slip. Photos must be submitted to the Facebook page administrator no later than 11:59 pm on December 13.

• 1st Place - Two-year subscription, or an extension to an existing subscription, to The Maine Sportsman magazine, and a hand-made wooden plaque from group member Randy Gray • 2nd Place – One-year subscription to Sportsman, and a hand-made wooden plaque from member Randy Gray • 3rd Place – One-year subscription to Sportsman Questions? Contact Maine Deer Hunters page administrator Rusty Daley at Rusty.W.Daley@roadrunner.com —

The Ancient Origins of White-tailed Deer

by Nicholas Lund Outreach Director; Maine Audubon Special to the Maine Sportsman Millions of years ago, before Maine was Maine, deer weren’t deer. Paleontologists and evolutionary biologists studying the origins of life are working

to trace modern White-tails back to their ancestors in the age of the dinosaurs.

70 Million Years Ago The earliest ancestors of modern deer wouldn’t have looked like much mounted on your cabin wall. The earliest mammals rose up alongside the earliest reptiles, and they both have a shared ancestor in the fin-backed lizard-looking Dimetrodon. But once reptiles took over – dinosaurs, that is – the mammals had to run for their lives. Mammals spent millions of years as small, scurrying creatures hiding mostly underground and coming out at night to eat insects.

It wasn’t perhaps the most noble existence, but all the hiding the early mammals were doing ended up being helpful.

Hiding in underground burrows, early mammals were given some protection from the massive asteroid impact and fallout that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Emerging from their burrows in the aftermath, mammals found themselves in a world free of predators and ready for the taking.

50 Million Years Ago With the dinosaurs out of the way, the mammals radiated – that is, rapidly evolved into many new forms to exploit empty ecological niches. The terrestrial mega-predator niche once filled

by Tyrannosaurus was taken over by creodonts like Hyaenadon, and the saber-toothed cats. Bats evolved to hunt aerial insects (joining in the air the few dinosaurs that survived the asteroid: the birds). Herbivores evolved, too, including giant ground sloths, mastodons and

mammoths, and a rabbit-sized creature with long legs called the Diacodexis.

The massive Megaloceros deer. Credit: Mid Louth Independent (Ireland)

As for many herbivores, evolving strategies to avoid predators is needed to survive. For Diacodexis and its relatives, known as the Artiodactyls, the key defense was speed. To get faster, Artiodactyls evolved to stand on their toes instead of flat-footed, and their limbs became long, strong, and flexible. Toenails evolved into hooves, for protection while running on hard surfaces and for defense.

5 Million Years Ago The fast-running Artiodactyls were an evolutionary success, and the group radiated into many different species, including pigs, giraffes, horses, and cattle.

Some of Artiodactyls returned to seas long free from giant predatory reptiles and eventually became whales and dolphins.

Others, eventually, became deer.

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One of the unique evolutionary adaptations found in the Cervidae, the family that includes deer, moose, elk, and others, is antlers. Many Artiodactyls have bony horns of some kind – think of boar tusks, narwhal tusks, or gazelle horns – but only deer and their relatives grow and lose theirs every year. The rapid growth of deer antlers each year makes them the fastest-growing type of bone known to science.

Why go through all the trouble of growing antlers just to lose them? First, the reason male deer grow antlers, as hunters know, is to impress females. Sexual selection drives a lot of weird animal evolution, from bright and showy bird feathers to the booming calls of frogs. Large antlers allow male deer to show females who is the biggest and strongest, and thus most worthy of their attention. But antlers are heavy, and make it hard to walk through the forest, and so once the breeding season is over and the deer no longer need to prove their dominance, antlers can be dropped.

Perhaps the largest set of antlers in history belonged to Megaloceros, also known as the “Irish Elk” (even though it was not exclusively Irish and was a huge deer, not an

November 2020 Sunrise/Sunset Portland, ME

A fin-backed Dimetrodon -- ancestor of both mammals and reptiles.

elk), which sported racks more than 11 feet across weighing more than 100 pounds. Our human ancestors made sure they found a stud in the cave wall before mounting a rack like that.

11,000 Years Ago The last glaciers left Maine about 11,000 years ago, part of the end of the most recent Ice Age. Tundra vegetation crept into the state, and was eventually replaced by boreal forest and hardwood forests as the climate continued to warm.

White-tailed Deer, the living descendants of more than 70 million years of mammal evolution, followed the forests into what is now Maine, and they’ll be there waiting for you this season.

¶

Relaxing by the Campfire Regular photo contributor Jonathan Wheaton (right) and his father Sparky Wheaton kick back after a long day in the north woods at Baker Lake, northwest of Chesuncook. Jonathan used a Canon 5D Mark VI camera with a 16-35 f2.8 lens and a Vanguard tripod, leaving the shutter open for 13 seconds to capture the spark trails and stars.

DATE 1* Sun 2 Mon 3 Tue 4 Wed 5 Thu 6 Fri 7 Sat 8 Sun 9 Mon 10 Tue 11 Wed 12 Thu 13 Fri 14 Sat 15 Sun

RISE 6:16 6:17 6:18 6:20 6:21 6:22 6:23 6:25 6:26 6:27 6:29 6:30 6:31 6:33 6:34

SET 4:32 4:31 4:30 4:29 4:27 4:26 4:25 4:24 4:23 4:22 4:20 4:19 4:18 4:17 4:16

DATE 16 Mon 17 Tue 18 Wed 19 Thu 20 Fri 21 Sat 22 Sun 23 Mon 24 Tue 25 Wed 26 Thu 27 Fri 28 Sat 29 Sun 30 Mon

RISE 6:35 6:36 6:38 6:39 6:40 6:41 6:43 6:44 6:45 6:46 6:47 6:49 6:50 6:51 6:52

SET 4:16 4:15 4:14 4:13 4:12 4:12 4:11 4:10 4:10 4:09 4:09 4:08 4:08 4:07 4:07

November 2020 Tides Portland, ME DATE 1* 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon

HIGH AM PM 12:13 11:19 11:51 — 12:24 12:24 1:00 12:59 1:39 1:38 2:23 2:24 3:12 3:17 4:07 4:15 5:05 5:17 6:03 6:21 7:01 7:23 7:55 8:21 8:46 9:16 9:36 10:10 10:25 11:04 11:16 11:57 — 12:07 12:50 12:59 1:45 1:54 2:44 2:54 3:45 3:56 4:46 5:00 5:46 6:02 6:43 7:02 7:34 7:56 8:20 8:44 9:00 9:28 9:38 10:09 10:14 10:48 10:49 11:25

LOW AM PM 5:07 5:34 5:40 6:09 6:13 6:45 6:49 7:23 7:29 8:06 8:14 8:54 9:04 9:47 10:01 10:43 11:02 11:42 — 12:05 12:41 1:09 1:37 2:08 2:30 3:03 3:21 3:55 4:11 4:48 5:01 5:40 5:52 6:33 6:44 7:26 7:39 8:23 8:37 9:23 9:40 10:24 10:45 11:25 11:50 — 12:23 12:53 1:18 1:49 2:05 2:37 2:47 3:20 3:25 3:59 4:01 4:35 4:36 5:11

*Daylight Savings Ends at 2:00 AM EST November 1, 2020.

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18 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

2020 Maine Sportsman Opinion Poll 1. Have you hunted with non-lead ammo?

YES__________ NO___________ 2. Should Maine establish a spring bear hunt to help reduce the bear population?

YES__________ NO___________ 3. Should the applications filed by landowners for preference in any-deer permit drawings be open to public inspection?

YES__________ NO___________ 4. Have you removed all lead sinkers and lead split shot from your freshwater tackle boxes?

YES__________ NO___________ 5. Did you hunt coyotes within the past year?

YES__________ NO___________ 6. Because of Covid-related restrictions, did you hunt and fish close to home more frequently than usual this year?

YES__________ NO___________ 7. Virtually all of Maine’s navigable rivers and streams have been channelized, bulldozed, dynamited, straightened, or otherwise altered to facilitate driving of logs, which ended in 1976. Should the state initiate a program to restore our rivers to provide better habitat for fish and wildlife?

YES__________ NO___________ 8. Did you hunt with a crossbow within the past 12 months?

YES__________ NO___________ 9. Did you hunt with a muzzleloader within the past 12 months?

YES__________ NO___________ 10. It is unlawful to hunt in Maine with an autoloading rifle with a magazine with the capacity of more than five cartridges. Should it be unlawful to possess an autoloading rifle with a magazine having a capacity of more than five cartridges?

YES__________ NO___________ 11. Do you believe global warming is caused by human activity on Earth?

YES__________ NO___________ 12. Do you believe global warming is a real environmental threat?

YES__________ NO___________

24. When wardens spend time on search and rescue activities unrelated to fish or game activities, should the state’s General Fund pay for their time?

YES__________ NO___________ 25. Do you approve of DIF&W’s current practice of stocking brook trout in marginal, put-and-take waters where these fish cannot survive warm summer water?

YES__________ NO___________ 26. Did you spend time fly-casting in the past 12 months?

YES__________ NO___________ 27. Should mechanized gold mining in Maine rivers and streams be ended, to protect trout and salmon spawning areas?

YES__________ NO___________ 28. Only 3% of all bears killed each year are harvested by trapping. To remove an emotional issue from future bear hunting debates, should the state end the recreational trapping of bears?

YES__________ NO___________ 29. Should municipalities that regulate bow hunting in the expanded season zones be barred from charging fees for permits?

YES__________ NO___________ 30. Should landlocked salmon be managed to promote larger fish?

YES__________ NO___________ 31. Should DIF&W regulate winter-feeding of deer?

YES__________ NO___________ 32. Should nonresidents be permitted to hunt deer on opening day of the firearms season?

YES__________ NO___________ 33. Were you checked by a game warden within the last 12 months?

YES__________ NO___________ 34. Should hunting with crossbows be allowed wherever hunters can use regular bows, as is now the case with hunters 65 and older?

YES__________ NO___________ 35. Do you believe many hunters in Maine tag deer they didn’t shoot?

YES__________ NO___________

13. Should DIF&W establish a program to improve spawning habitat for trout and salmon?

YES__________ NO___________

36. Should the owners of land with conservation easements be required to post online maps showing the land and the location of the public’s right of access?

YES__________ NO___________

14. Should ice fishing be allowed on some salmon and trout waters now closed each winter, if anglers are required to use only artificial lures?

YES__________ NO___________

37. Should Maine’s law permitting children of any age to hunt under supervision, be modified to establish a minimum hunting age?

YES__________ NO___________

15. Did you hunt or fish outside of the state of Maine in the past 12 months?

YES__________ NO___________

38. Should a system of tagging turkeys by telephone or online replace tagging stations?

YES__________ NO___________

16. Has the turkey population expanded to the point that the state should end the seasonal tag limits for the spring season, and allow the taking of one tom turkey each day?

YES__________ NO___________

39. Should the price of a Maine hunting license include the right to hunt all game animals (except moose) without additional fees?

YES__________ NO___________

17. Is the dumping of household goods and tires causing landowners to post their property? YES__________ NO___________

40. Have you (or has anyone you know) seen a cougar in Maine?

If you answered “Yes,” write will@mainesportsman.com and tell us about it.

YES__________ NO___________

18. Should buyers of auto and truck tires pay a returnable deposit, as we do on beverage bottles, which we would get back when we returned the used tires?

YES__________ NO___________

41. Please write in any question you’d like to have us ask in our reader poll next year: __________________________________________

19. Pike are an exotic invasive species that has the potential to wreak havoc with our native trout and salmon. Should anglers be required to kill any pike that are caught?

YES__________ NO___________

_______________________________________________________________

20. Would you support a proposal to expand the instant background check of purchasers of firearms to include sales between private parties?

YES__________ NO___________ 21. Should income from bear bait hunting sites leased by landowners be taxed, with the revenue going to DIF&W?

YES__________ NO___________ 22. Should a system be developed to allow an any-deer permit to be used in more than one Wildlife Management District?

YES__________ NO___________ 23. Do you believe DIF&W wardens are spread too thin to deter poachers?

YES__________ NO___________ www.MaineSportsman.com

_______________________________________________________________

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! Mail your responses to: The Maine Sportsman 183 State Street, Suite 101, Augusta ME 04330 You may also answer the poll questions online at www.mainesportsman.com/resources

We’ll tally up the results and print them in a future issue. If you have an opinion on a topic not covered above, describe it on a separate sheet and include it with your poll results, or email our Editor, will@mainesportsman.com

Name (Optional):______________________________________________ Address (Optional): ____________________________________________ City, State, Zip:_______________________________________________ Email (Optional):_______________________________________________

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 19

Show Respect to Landowners Who Allow Access to Their Properties On Sunday September 13, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Forest Service hosted a “Landowner Appreciation and Clean Up Day.” Landowner Appreciation Day is a time when sportsmen pick up trash dumped on private land, and I hope you participated.

This is an important annual event to let landowners know we appreciate access to and use of their property. And I encourage you to pick up litter year-round, to help private landowners.

Of course, if you enjoy the outdoors, I hope you appreciate landowners every day.

We are Fortunate to Have Access to Land We are very lucky in Maine to be able to access all private land that is not posted. And even though we can do that, I encourage you to find out whose land you are using, and thank them. And don’t assume you can’t access posted land. Ask that landowner for permission, and you might be surprised when you gain access.

We are also lucky to have a lot of land trusts that protect our best lands and make them accessible to us.

Linda and I donated our woodlot to the Kennebec Land Trust, and they’ve done a

The author recommends that hunters and anglers ask permission to access land, even if the property is not posted. He says that by asking permission, he developed great relationships with the owners of areas he liked to hunt and fish.

Each year on Landowner Appreciation Day, piles of trash like this, left on private land ...

... are trucked to the dump in a joint effort by volunteers, Maine’s DIF&W and the Maine Forest Service.

great job building trails there. And our library put up a story time walk for kids on the woodlot, using one of Lynn Plourde’s wonderful children’s books.

Anglers have no legal access to many of the waters we enjoy fishing. I always asked for permission to access my favorite fishing spots, and was never denied.

I think it’s especially important for hunters and anglers to get permission, even if the land is not posted.

By asking permission, I developed great relationships with the owners of my favorite private lands.

spect that land, and don’t damage it or leave trash there. I got so tired of picking up trash left in the woods behind our house by anglers, I posted “Access by Permission Only” signs.

They would even throw trash in my brook. One day, I found my fire pit full of beer cans. This spot is popular with anglers, and I gave permission to everyone who asked, requesting only that they not leave trash.

And I haven’t had any trash there since I did

Abuse of Land Leads to “Access

By Permission Only” Signs And it is very important that you re-

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this.

We also saw two hunters hunting right through our back yard.

That was another reason I posted our land.

Those hunters were out-of-staters who simply stopped and entered our woods with no idea that our house was ahead. Yes, hunters must know the area before entering the woods.

Important to Respect Others’ Lands There are states where you are unable to access any private Fins & Furs Adventures

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land without permission. That would be so disappointing for Mainers. But there have been bills at the Legislature that would have required permission to access private lands.

Thankfully, those bills had little support.

We do have a very bad problem in Maine, with people who throw their trash out their car windows onto private land. I used to pick up that trash, and walking a quarter mile from my house to my woodlot, I’d fill one big bag with garbage and one with beer bottles and cans.

It’s disgusting what people toss out of their cars, sometimes throwing their trash right on our front lawn. Recently, someone threw their used tissue on our lawn.

Disgusting.

So ask permission to hunt and fish whenever possible, and treat the land with respect. It’s the least we can do to show our appreciation to those who let us use their land.

¶

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20 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Maine Wildlife:

Whitetailed Deer

by Tom Seymour

It took me years to realize that my relationship with whitetailed deer differs from the average person’s. I live with deer in every sense of the word.

Deer frequent my yard and garden and even come to within feet of where I sleep, munching on my daylilies and garden phlox. In fact they munch on everything, including peas, squash vines and even green beans.

My only recourse is an electric fence. That does the job, but it makes it difficult to mow the lawn and even to go in and out of the yard. The fence also keeps other nuisance critters away.

One year after my sweet corn had fully ripened, I picked every ear, and since that was the last crop to harvest, I turned off the electric fence.

The next morning, all the cornstalks were flat on the ground. Raccoons that had been waiting to get at my corn wasted no time in destroying my crop. But there was no crop – only bare stalks. I laughed out loud to think that for once, I had outsmarted the masked bandits.

Deer Gone Besides doing my best to thwart flower-and-vegetable-eating deer, I also hunt deer. This calls for a different approach. Instead of devising ways to keep deer away and drive them off, November sees me welcoming deer and hoping they will come as near to my home as they did during the summer.

But somehow that seldom happens.

It’s as if someone has flipped a switch and alerted every deer in the area that the time has come to abandon human habitations and head for the deeper woods. The change is clear, concise and dramatic.

Many hunters, unlike me, don’t live in constant contact with deer. Instead, they must drive to find deer habitat. It also means that unlike me, most hunters don’t go through much of the year disliking deer and seeking to keep them away.

My situation gives me a wholly www.MaineSportsman.com

different perspective on my ungulate neighbors. Familiarity, while not really breeding contempt, makes deer less majestic and less noble in my eyes.

Tough Critters Property damage aside, whitetailed deer have some admirable traits. They can turn on a dime, even while running at full tilt. They can jump higher than we might imagine, and they can recover from injuries and continue on as usual.

Here’s something that always confounded me – How can deer run through thick brush, the way they do, and not get stabbed by snags and sharp twigs? The answer, which I only recently learned, is that they don’t. Deer do get stabbed and even worse, sticks often become embedded under their skin, and yet the animals go on living with foreign objects in their bodies.

Naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton once wrote about deer meat cutters finding large pieces of wood in deers’ bodies. One hunter found a fir branch more than ½-inch thick and over one foot long, embedded in his deer’s body.

This stick had entered between the ribs on the right side, narrowly missed the right lung, pierced the diaphragm near the liver and came to rest on the underside of the backbone.

And yet, the wound healed on the outside and inside, and the stick was coated with a skin-like covering. The animal was fat and healthy, and the meat tasted as good as that from any other deer.

Plain Sight Deer have the ability to hide in plain sight, often near busy roads or

other well-traveled places. This past summer, while I was driving down the dirt road where I live, a deer ran across the road, jumped over some bushes and then disappeared.

The ground behind the bushes was open, so it was unlikely that the deer had gone too far. I stopped my car next to where the deer had vanished from sight. Then the deer, which had been hiding behind the bushes, got up and ran off. This made me wonder if those roadside bushes were one of this deer’s regular hiding places. The answer wasn’t long in coming.

Less than a week later, a deer crossed the road ahead of me and vanished in the same place as before. It was undoubtedly the same deer. This time, instead of stopping, I drove slowly past the hiding place, looking intently for any sign of the deer.

Then I saw a patch of brown. No one would have noticed this unless they had been looking hard. So this was a regular hiding place for this deer. I assume that it will protect that deer this hunting season. What hunter would begin looking for a deer within feet of a road?

Clever Tricks Deer will often lie, hidden, and allow a hunter to pass within feet, without bolting. This has happened to me.

Other times, deer will pass by a hunter only a stone’s throw away, all the while hidden by thick brush. I once pursued a doe and a buck in a fir thicket.

While the animals were close enough to smell, the buck never presented a shot.

I rate deer as the most canny animals in the Maine woods.

Photo: Tom Seymour

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 21

Calling and Rattling for Deer

by Blaine Cardilli I remember first experimenting with calling on a cold November morning 20 years ago. I’d been overlooking a huge blueberry field from my hunting chair and was stationed just inside the wood line.

After three long hours with nothing to show for it but hunger pangs, I was at the point of wondering whether or not I should stick it out or go get breakfast. Not wanting to quit, I decided to reach for the calls.

I started with a snort-wheeze and some grunts before breaking into a light rattling session, which lasted roughly 15 seconds. With my trusty .270 lying across my lap, I made the dumbest rookie mistake ever – I enjoyed a glorious “arms-abovemy-head” full-body stretch, while still sitting down.

Instantly, I caught movement to my left and slowly turned, arms still outstretched over my head. I was shocked to see a buck glaring at me. The sixpoint was motionless, staring me in the face, having emerged from

The author using an adjustable grunt call (left) and a rattle bag (right). The grunt call is used for buck grunts, buck roars, and estrus bleats, which the author follows quickly with the rattle bag, which simulates a mock fight in heavy brush.

the corner of the field not 60 yards from me.

Lessons Learned I won’t bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say it was a grueling 30 seconds

as I slowly brought my arms down, grabbed my rifle and began to raise it, all the while continuing our staring contest, before the buck snorted and

wheeled back into the woods.

The point of this story? Calling and rattling not only worked – it produced results almost instantly, and al-

though not necessarily the norm, it made me realize that as soon as you start calling, you become the hunted!

That was more than two decades ago, and after 20 years of calling here in Maine, I’ve discovered that success depends on key variables. Let’s take a look at several.

Buck-to-Doe Ratios Most hunters believe that if you have more does than bucks, you’ll experience less success with calling, the theory being that with enough does to go around, there’s no (Continued on next page)

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Calling and Rattling (Continued from page 21)

need for bucks to fight over them. Proponents of this concept also believe the opposite – that calling will be very productive if there are more bucks than does, since bucks will fight for those does that come into heat, and so you may get them to respond better to calls.

During a recent Q&A session, Maine deer biologist Nathan Bieber told me that sex ratios are often misused and misunderstood. There are a lot of reasons for this, he said, such the tendency to count fawns as does, the fact that does may be more visible than bucks, folks “counting” does that come to feeders, and does being more social much of the year.

Bottom line? Don’t worry too much about “skewed ratios” – if you’ve got deer in your area, go ahead and call. I’ve experienced a lot of success without even knowing these numbers.

My Most Successful Strategy Most hunters know that mornings and evenings are prime times to rattle and call, and it gets better the closer you get to peak rut. I’ve experienced phenomenal responses from early October right through the end of firearms season in November.

My calls of choice include a rattle bag, snort-wheeze, and an adjustable grunt call.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a can-call for estrus bleats. I just prefer doing all my doe bleats on the adjustable call. That way, I can vary the calls back and forth and add the right amount of inflection.

I always start with a few tending grunts, inter-mixed with estrus bleats, then I wait a few moments, just to test the area.

Sometimes, if a buck is bedded nearby, it may stand and give itself away by taking a few steps. Case in point:

the encounter with the six-point at the start of this article!

If nothing happens, I’ll make a few more estrus bleats followed quickly by a few buck “roars.” These are grunts made by blowing more air through the call, and I can get the classic sounds of a buck that is extremely aroused and agitated – on the edge of being enraged. Once I roar a few times, I get right into rattling.

Rattle Bag vs. Antlers Having experimented over the years with both, I prefer a rattle bag, and here’s why. Antlers produce a crisp, clear tinkling of “tine-on-tine,” but a rattle bag produces additional sound above and beyond the tines.

From a distance, a rattle bag sounds more like a shoving match and seems to utilize the sound of brush breaking as well as antlers coming together. The areas I hunt are quite brushy, and simply put, it sounds more realistic. Plus, it

The author harvested this nice 5-pointer after calling it in to 50 yards. The previous day he had used a bonus doe tag, rattling in a mature doe to 28 yards.

has produced far more responses for me.

Use of Scents The chances for success are improved with the use of scents.

Taking a scent-free shower before heading out, washing and drying my hunting clothes in “Fresh Earth,” and trying to dress at the truck, all help keep my human scent down.

Once at my set-up, I put scent rags out all around me. The scent depends on the phase of the rut. I once did a typical calling session and had a small buck walk right in and put his nose against the rag. I shot him 30 steps from the stand.

Calling works just as well in Maine as it does in any other

state. Don’t be afraid to give it a try.

Blaine Cardilli can be reached at indianwd@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter, @RedneckPreachr.

Editor’s note: Blaine Cardilli has filmed a video especially for Maine Sportsman readers to illustrate the various deer calls and rattles described in this article. Find the video on our Facebook page, or on our website, www.

MaineSportsman. com, by clicking on the “Blog” button at the top of our home page.

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������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 23

John Taught Me the Importance of Scouting

by Nate Grove

I lost an old friend this year, and that makes my excitement and anticipation about deer season a little different. My friend John was a true Mainer for all of his 81 years.

An avid deer hunter and outdoorsman, he was full of knowledge and happily passed it along to anyone who would listen.

On one of those occasions, he changed my hunting life. I had returned to camp after dark, not having seen or heard any trace of a deer, and was feeling a bit pessimistic. John said, “Look – it’s not that complicated. Find their tracks, find their poop [he didn’t say poop], set up a stand and get a deer!”

It was classic John – straight to the point, with a dash of salty language for flavor. *** I mostly hunt smaller wood lots in southern NH, near where I live. No matter the season, I walk the woods, fields and streams with a deer hunter’s eye, on the

watch for tracks that reveal heavily traveled lanes, deer nuggets that can show me feed areas, and likely spots to set my stand.

What John was really driving at was the importance of preparation, and I prepare every time I’m out.

I spend time in March and April before green-up, noting specific areas and spots on the map app on my phone. It is important to note, however, that a hunter who needs to begin their preparation in the fall can still have success.

Woods, and deer habits change all the time, and even last-minute scouting can help successful hunters adapt while hanging on to basic methods that work.

For instance, until recently I had a honey hole, but a timber operation required that I move. It was great fun finding the next promising spots where I can connect my timing with the movements of a nice fat deer for the freezer. So my advice is to get out as soon

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as you can, find their tracks, find their poop, and consider setting up at heavily traveled intersections.

Bow hunting extends my deer season, and I spend time out back honing my craft.

I shoot all the time, and what makes this necessary activity even more fun is having friends who also love the sport. *** John also reminded me about the im-

portance of focusing on the job at hand. Up at deer camp, my father and I spent part of one trying out a .45 Colt service sidearm. I had never shot one, and my dad hadn’t since his army days, so we were pretty excited.

We took an old board and nailed it between two beech saplings, paced off 20 yards and had at it.

We each emptied a clip, noting that the board seemed to be

weathering our lead storm pretty well.

When we walked up to check it, the board was clean, but both saplings were torn to pieces.

John came over from the camp, looked at those saplings and then at us, and walked away grumbling, “I thought this was supposed to me a deer camp, not a logging camp.” (“Scouting” continued on page 25)

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24 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

“Chunk” Earned Me My First Biggest Bucks Patch

by Michael J. DeRespino, Sr. – Charleston, ME I grew up in Northern Maine. My parents operated a sporting camp. My dad was always busy during deer season, so I was not able to hunt very much. Every year, some of the hunters would bring me along for a few days, but I never had the opportunity to shoot a deer.

After high school, I served in the Army for 4 years. I returned to Maine, went to college, got married, and started a family and a career. I didn’t start hunting again until I

was in my early 30s.

Now, I am 53 and I’ve had 3 successful years of deer hunting.

On the last day of the rifle season in 2003, I shot a 7-pointer that weighed 182 lbs. The last day of muzzleloader season in 2014, I got a 9-pointer that weighted 168. In 2019, I got “Chunk.”

Dry Spell In the last 5 years, I spent a lot of time pre-season trying to find the best spot to hunt. In 2018, I planted a food plot, tried to

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pattern the deer, and put out trail cameras. I got pictures of several does, but only one picture of a small spike horn buck. Each year, I would see the same rub line coming in and out of a swamp.

Many times, I would hear or jump a deer in that area, but never actually saw whether it was a buck or not. I ended each season discouraged – much effort with no results.

In 2019, I decided to keep it simple.

A week before opening day, I put my tree

stand in my truck, drove out to the edge of a field, and put up my stand 10 yards from my truck. I was able to see the edge of a beaver flow 50 yards from the swamp where I had seen the rubs.

On opening day, I got in the stand (a 150-yard walk from my house) an hour before legal shooting time. A doe came out behind me at first light, saw me up in the stand, turned around, and trotted off. I spent about 2 hours in the stand, and then went

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home for the rest of the day.

Overcast and Drizzly The following Tuesday, I hurried home from work and was back in the stand by 3:30. It was drizzling lightly and overcast, with mild temperatures. At 4:30, I decided to get down and check the field before legal shooting ended at 4:49. In the past, I’ve made the mistake of standing up and getting out of my tree stand without looking around first.

On more than one occasion, I have seen deer running away as I came down the ladder.

As I stood up, I looked all around me.

The area in front of me was dark, but I saw a slight movement. I (Continued on next page)

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brought my binoculars up, but did not see anything. Three seconds later, a deer was standing beside me at 10 yards.

In that moment, I saw antlers, took my Remington 7600 .308 off safe, put the crosshairs behind its shoulder, and fired. The buck turned and ran in front of my tree stand toward the direction it had come. I fired again, and the big deer fell 20 yards in front of me. It was dead within minutes. I found out

later that the 1st shot was through its heart.

It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to be nervous. I could see the white of its belly in front of me, but had no idea how big it might be.

I have heard and read stories about deer who have been given nicknames. Maybe due to a picture on a trail cam, an encounter, or a physical attribute, such as Scar Face, Droopy, Whitey or Dozer. I had never seen this deer before, nor had I gotten a pic-

Scouting

(Continued from page 23)

Refocusing I took my cue and got “refocused.”

I spent the rest of the day looking at a particular area for tracks and poop.

Finding a promising spot, I set up a stand 30 feet up a tree.

John told me he thought it was a bit high. “If you fall,” he said, “we won’t be calling a helicopter – we’ll be calling a hearse.” I was undeterred.

The next morning I was up at 3:30, out the door at 4:00 and in my stand at 5:00. My preparations included knowing how I would tip-toe to the spot without crossing a deer trail or making much noise, while also avoiding being upwind of likely deer territory.

It was frigid – not quite 10 degrees above zero – and by 6:00 I was cold. By 6:30 I was shivering and by 6:45 I was cursing the weather, John and deer hunting in general.

Quotable

Sportsman

by George Smith

“Depending on the dealer, ATV sales are running between 350 to 400 percent of normal. Sales this spring were up nearly 150% for the first six months of this year compared to last year.”

Maine Sunday Telegram, July 26, 2020 — “Authorities in Maine are distributing oral rabies vaccines in bait form in the northeastern part of the state early this month. Forty animals have tested positive for rabies in 14 of Maine’s 16

ture of the buck on a trail camera.

Big Deer As I slowly walked up to the downed buck, I looked down at its square-shaped body and thought, “Chunk!”

It was getting dark, so I dragged the heavy animal the short distance to the field. It was only 15 yards, but it just about did me in. I headed home and called my family to give them the news.

We all came back with my truck and I realized we were going to need some help.

“Chunk” -- 243 pounds

I called my neighbor, retired Game Warden Mike Morrison. He came, and we loaded Chunk onto Mike’s Jeep and brought the animal to Worster’s Custom Meat Cutting.

They weighed the deer before gutting, and it

By 7:00 I was convinced there wasn’t a deer within a mile of my location, and that’s when it happened – the crack of a twig alerted me to the presence of a beautiful brown forkhorn.

He stuck his nose into the air, scentchecked the scene, then swiveled his head left and right looking things over.

His vitals were covered by a tree, and as I waited, I can honestly say I wasn’t cold anymore. He stepped out, I pulled the trigger and he piled up at 30 yards.

Preparation had done it!

I later learned that John and my dad were having coffee at that moment, and that John had predicted, “He’s going to get a deer today.” I guess he noticed what I had done and knew my chances of success were good.

When I returned with the deer, I think he was even more pleased and excited than my father. He kept admiring it, and he must have said 50 times, “Geez, Nathan, that’s a nice deer!” but with some salty language added.

If we’re lucky, we have people like counties this year.”

Bangor Daily News, August 3, 2020 — “A lot of people go [to the moose lottery] every year because they just love the atmosphere …. Some people wait 20 or more years to get a permit, so there’s a lot of excitement when their name finally gets drawn. The whole room stops.

People start crying. People applaud.”

DIFW Commissioner Judy Camuso, Down East magazine, September, 2020 — “After a somewhat contentious process, DIF&W approved a measure to allow the use of crossbows during the regular archery season. Regardless of which side of the debate you were on, it will almost certainly encourage greater

weighed 277 pounds – 243 after field dressing. What a season – short and sweet.

Thank you to Mike Morrison, Worster’s, and landowner Chris Almy. Deer of a lifetime!

¶

Preparation earned Nate Grove this nice forkhorn.

John in our lives. They teach us a lot and provide great friendship along the way. I certainly can never again look at a beech sapling without smiling to myself. I will always remember him as I walk through the woods, scouting.

It’s time to get moving – there are good memories to be made.

¶

participation.”

Bob Humphrey, Maine Sunday Telegram, August 23, 2020 — “We know that non-lead alternatives are not just safer; they’re just as effective as lead (or more so) at a very similar price. While lead bullets can lose up to 40% of their mass into tiny fragments, potentially straying up to 18 inches from the wound channel, copper bullets retain between 95-100% of their mass.

This produces a smaller wound cavity, minimal fragmentation, greater weight retention and more kinetic energy to drive the bullet, allowing for a greater impact and quicker, more ethical kill.”

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife; September 2020 www.MaineSportsman.com

26 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Shooting Deer in Thick Cover As the saying goes, “If I had a nickel for every time that … [fill in the blank].” Well, I might not get rich, but I’d have several nickels saved up for all the deer I’ve passed shots on.

Most shots were passed because deer were in very thick cover, I couldn’t see antlers well enough, or just couldn’t get a clear shot at the vitals.

I’ve also taken shots too quickly. Unfortunately, the results were less than desired when I did.

There are situations where one hunter would pass a shot, and another would glad-

use when describing a harvested deer that doesn’t meet expectations. I’m always happy when I make a great shot on a deer and render it to my freezer. However, thickracked, long-tined, wide-antlered old bucks make me much happier than walking up on a gorgeous two or three year old buck with a 100”-130” rack that will never reach its potential because I pulled the trigger too soon.

My most recent “disappointment” came last year on November 18th. On November 13th, I tore a muscle in my back.

I was literally bedridden for four days during my favorite time of year. I was going crazy and needed to get into the woods.

The weather was perfect for an all-day sit, in a spot I’d wanted to hunt since 2017 but

Every hunter knows the maxim, “Always know your target.” According to the author, that includes making sure the buck you’re aiming at is the “right” buck. ly take the shot. Take trackers in the big woods, for instance.

Many of us have seen the awesome videos of the Benoit family, the Berniers, or Hal Blood, jumping a big buck they’d tracked all day. The buck jumps out of its bed, and these stealthy hunters let the lead fly! Sometimes the shots are at the back of a deer or the side of a deer.

There’s often a lot of brush or branches in the way, but these guys try to get a bullet

or two into the animal before losing sight of it.

Watching a skilled shooter pump the action of a Remington 7600 at a buck hastily leaving its bed, running through blowdowns and fir branches, has always fascinated me. How did they know the deer was a “shooter”? Well, the obvious answer is, they were on the track, because the size indicated it was an animal worth following.

Many trackers I

know don’t care as much about the inches of antler on a buck’s head, as they do about the size of the body or the maturity of the animal. I’ve no doubt there have been deer shot by trackers that did not live up to the size of the track, once they’d been dispatched.

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never had the chance.

To say I was excited to get back in the woods would be an understatement.

An hour before sunrise, I hobbled slowly through the woods to a spot does were using to get to thick bedding cover. Where there are does in late November, the bucks will follow.

By 9 a.m., I’d already had eight does and fawns walk by me.

I knew it was just a matter of time before a buck would follow.

My excitement was really building after the 15th antlerless deer of the morning walked by at 10:00 am.

At 10:45 am, I caught movement to my east, the exact place all the does had come from. I immediately saw the rack and recognized the buck.

This buck was 100% a shooter. He was old and big-bodied, and had a massive, dark rack. I’d seen this buck a few times over the last few years, but never during hunting season. I was shocked to see him walking toward me, and the adrenaline began pulsing through my veins. The buck walked toward me, but was more than 100 yards away. I was only seeing bits and pieces of him through the binoculars because the cover was so thick.

Lost Sight of the Buck When the heavy bodied buck disappeared behind some blowdowns, I lowered the binoculars to see if he was walking toward an opening. I needed a window. Unfortunately, I completely lost track of the deer at that point. He’d been

traveling toward me, from right to left. For two or three minutes, I couldn’t see him. I figured he’d moved into the heavy cover, perhaps to bed for the day.

As I brought the binoculars back to my eyes, I caught movement to my left. A deer was moving right to left, on the same line as the old buck. I lowered the binoculars and slowly raised my rifle. The deer was 70 yards away, walking on the edge of the thick cover. As he moved from behind the tree, I saw the dark rack, assumed it was the same buck, found his sweet spot and pulled the trigger. I never saw him fall or heard him run.

Waiting 25 minutes, I began sneaking toward the last spot I’d seen the old deer. As I approached, the big buck jumped up, about 40 yards to my right, well away from where I’d shot. I brought the gun to my shoulder, found him in the scope and never got the shot off ... good thing!

As I walked over to where I’d shot, there

If you’re fortunate enough to be in an area that holds a lot of deer and also features thick brush, it’s a challenge to recognize one buck from another.

Credit: Michael Furtman/North American Whitetail

was a buck laying on the ground. In my excitement, I confused a younger 2-3-year-old buck with the older buck, simply because I quit paying attention and assumed. Over the last 23 years, every time I’ve shot a younger buck, it was simply hunter error and a failure to pay close attention.

Want to avoid mistakes like this one?

Pay attention, and be willing to miss out on chances when identi-

From the Hills of West Virginia

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We all hunt in part because of the adrenaline. Don’t let it get the

best of you. It’s not all about the kill … right?

¶

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28 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

November Brings Out the Deer Rifle The fall of the year encompasses all sorts of hunting, but just as October is most identified with upland bird hunting, the month of November captures visions of deer hunting. No matter what else is going on across the Pine Tree State (including elections on the first Tuesday), hunters and non-hunters think of November and associate it with deer hunting.

Thoughts of deer hunting often blend into thoughts about the firearms that are so integral to the season. To many, the term “deer rifle” is synonymous with any rifle more powerful than a .22 rimfire “plinker” and a rifle somewhat less powerful than an elephant gun. Reality is just a bit more complicated, as any hunter knows well.

In Maine and throughout much of eastern North America, deer hunters most often choose a rifle designed for .30-caliber cartridges, or very close to .30-caliber.

Will any of the newer calibers challenge the supremacy of the .30-30, .30-’06, or .308? There’s a lot of buzz about up-and-coming, slightly smaller but powerful variations, including the .260 Remington, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, and the extremely popular 7mm-08 Remington built on a necked down .308 case.

A deer rifle may wait all year for a shot in the November woods. Whether an heirloom or a fancy new sporter, they are made for taking deer. Photo: J.C. Allard

Since the advent of smokeless propellants in the 1890s, shooters far and away preferred that particular bore size, no matter the rifle’s other design features.

Beginning 125 years ago with the .30-30 Winchester, the popularity of that caliber has never waned.

Progressing first to the .30-40 Krag, then adding the .30-’06 Springfield, the .300 Savage, and in 1952 the .308

Winchester.

Newer cartridges such as the .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 Winchester Short Magnum, .300 ACC Blackout, .30 Thompson/Center, and .300 Ruger Compact Magnum, among others, continue to flirt with the .30-inch bore diameter. Despite their age, the .30-30, .30-’06, and the .308 remain the most popular deer hunting cartridges in this area.

Deviations larger and smaller than the seemingly-magic .30 inches produce some fine deer rifle options

that nip at the heels of the “big three” popular choices. Some of these may prove the eventual replacements for the aging .30-30. .30’06, and .308.

Stepping Up Launched in 1902, the .32 Winchester Special enjoyed many years of success for lever-action shooters who wanted something a bit larger than .30-caliber.

Fading fast, it remains one of the few successful 8mm cartridges in America. A generation or two ago, a lot of Maine deer became

venison thanks to the .32 Special.

Perhaps the most efficient cartridge ever designed is the venerable .35 Whelen. Accurate and powerful, the .35 Whelen enjoyed some local popularity both before and after World War II. However, most consider it better suited to moose and heavy bear hunting rather than deer hunting.

Likewise, cartridges such as the .338 Winchester and the .340 Weatherby Magnum garner great success among large game hunters, but these cartridges are unnecessarily potent for white-tail deer.

The near obsolete .348 Winchester, .358 Winchester, and .350 Remington Magnum fall into this same category.

The 19th century .45-70 Government cartridge has taken deer in Maine and enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in the Marlin Model 1895 and “Guide Gun.” But it, too, offers more than is needed by most deer hunters, and it is only available in a few platforms.

Perhaps the most successful deer cartridge larger than .30-caliber is the 1906-vintage .35 Remington. Of moderate recoil, it is far more powerful than the .30-30 and has been improved in recent years with Hornady’s “LEVERevolution” (Continued on next page)

www.MaineSportsman.com

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 29 (Continued from page 28)

ammunition developments, using copper alloy slugs that have pointed tips that are soft and flexible, permitting a flatter trajectory than flat-nose slugs while still allowing safe loading into tubular magazines.

Stepping Down Charles Newton designed the first successful smaller-than-.30-caliber deer cartridge in the .250-3000 Savage. In 1925 Winchester came out with the .270 Winchester and hit the big time. The .270 is still a top seller, and at any given moment could challenge the .30-30, .30-’06, or .308 for the #2 spot in the Maine popularity polls. Slightly under .30-caliber, it makes a dynamic all-around hunting cartridge.

So, too, does the .280 Remington, in-

troduced in 1957 to compete with the .270.

Other great deer cartridges in this class include the .243 Winchester, .257 Roberts, .257 Weatherby Magnum, and .25-06 Remington. All offer lighter recoil effects while retaining enough knockdown power for medium-size game such as deer. A more potent option would be the 7mm Remington Magnum.

Coming on strong are some smaller cartridges that now seem trendsetting.

These include the .260 Remington, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, and the extremely popular 7mm-08 Remington built on a necked down .308 case.

Around since 1980, the 7mm-08 captured market share and ran with it. Ballistically similar to the 1963 .284 Winchester, the 7mm-08 earns more

converts every hunting season.

Looking ahead a generation, any of these roughly .25-caliber cartridges could displace the current most popular choices. The .308 stands as the youngest of the top four sellers at just

shy of 70 years old.

How long will younger shooters keep investing in their grandparent’s cartridges?

In any case – old, new, or somewhere in between – suitable calibers for deer hunting bring a lot of joy to households

across Maine. Whether it comes as a handy lever-action, a precision-crafted boltaction, slide-action, semiautomatic or single-shot, a deer rifle means just one thing in the month of November.

¶

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30 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Tracking Tips

by Hal Blood Assessing Snow Conditions There are many things to consider when assessing snow conditions. Snow takes on many forms. It can be anything from a damp quiet snow to a hard-crusted snow, and everything in between. The type of snow will determine how I hunt the track.

For example, if the snow is damp and quiet, I am more likely to stay right in the track, as I feel confident I can get close to the buck without being heard and kill him in his bed or as he jumps up to leave it.

The master tracker leads readers through the tactics of pursuing a big buck from start to finish, including determining the size of the deer from its tracks, estimating the age of the track, deciding whether to track quickly or slowly, and what to do if you jump the deer from its bed.

On the other hand, if the snow is noisy, I try to sound like a deer walking and try to call him out to me when I feel I am close to him.

The condition of the snow can also change during the day, requiring that I change tactics accordingly.

Judging a Mature Buck Track A mature buck’s

track looks different than other deer tracks.

First and most obvious is the size. Most mature bucks in the northern boreal forests will have a toe print that is 2-1/2 to 3 inches wide, by 3 inches long. A print that’s 4 inches long was made by a real monster.

There are some huge does in the Big Woods as well, with toe prints almost as big.

The way to determine if you are looking at a buck track is by the dewclaws. A mature

buck will have dewclaws about an inch in width, and they will be wider than the toe prints and set back behind them 2-3 inches (see photo, next page).

The older a buck gets, the farther the dewclaws will be set back. When you see a track with dewclaws set way back, it’s guaranteed you’re on the track of a good mature whitetail buck.

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You have to consider the temperature and snowfall for the previous 24 hours. Obviously if it is snowing or recently stopped snowing, it will be easy to determine the age of a track. If the snow has been on the ground for a while, temperature plays the biggest role in determining the age of the track.

Basically, as soon as a track is made, it starts to change. It will either melt if it’s warm or freeze if it’s cold. Either way, the crisp edge of the track will start to round over within an hour.

Feeling the snow on the inside edge of a track is the best way to determine if the track is newly made. If the snow is still loose and not set up, the track is less than an hour old.

The best way to get good at aging track is to practice at home by making your own tracks in the snow and then checking them every hour to see how they change. If you do this enough in different temperatures, you will get good at aging tracks.

Catching Up to a Buck More often than not, you will find a buck’s track in the morning. Unless you have determined the track to be less than an hour old, move along on the track at a fast walk. When a buck is traveling at his normal pace, he is traveling faster than a per(Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 31 (Continued from page 30)

son walks. The buck might be miles from where you picked up his track. If you don’t cover some ground, you will never catch up to the buck unless he beds down or gets hung up with a doe.

I have found that most hunters follow a track too slowly as though the buck is just ahead of them, and they never come close to catching up to the buck. Move fast until you catch up to your buck, and you’ll have the rest of the day to hunt him.

Interpreting What a Buck is Doing It is important to know what a buck is doing. This will determine how to hunt the track. A buck that is moving in a fairly straight line with a long stride is on a mission and checking his area. I will be moving along fast so I can catch up to him.

On the other hand, when a buck starts to zig-zag, he is either searching for a doe he knows is in the area, or he’s starting to feed.

This is the time to slow down and try to figure out what he is doing.

If the buck gets with a doe and I see running tracks that zigzag around, he is chasing her. That doe is coming into estrus and has got his attention. This is the time to slow down and start looking everywhere, as they may be close.

If you know what your buck is doing, you will increase your chances of getting a shot at him.

When Will He Bed Down?

Knowing when a buck is bedded gives you the best opportunity to kill him. A buck most often will

give you indications he is ready to lay down.

The best indication is when he starts to feed.

Sometimes it’s only a twig nipped here or there, while other times they will really pack it in. When I see where a buck is feeding a lot, I start looking for a place he might be bedded.

Other things bucks have a habit of doing just before they bed is rubbing their antlers or making a scrape, or doing both. When I see a combination of a buck feeding and then rubbing, I am almost sure he’s bedded nearby.

Where Will He Be Bedded?

Bucks typically seek out secure areas to bed where they feel safe from any predators. They might bed in a thick swamp or on high ridge. Bucks will often cross an opening, and then lay down on the other side.

Another thing they will do quite often is to make an abrupt turn and head uphill or into a thicket.

One thing is almost certain though – a buck will be watching his backtrack, and as soon as he spots anything coming on his trail, he will slip out his escape route.

Closing In on a Bedded Buck Closing in on a bedded buck takes patience as well as skill.

If a buck is in an area that is thick or the snow conditions are quiet, I stay on his track and move slowly, scouring the woods for the slightest piece of the buck. I move in slow motion, placing each step down without making the slightest noise. I lean forward and look around every tree and bush

A track that’s 4 inches long, with wide dewclaw prints far behind the toe print, was made by a monster deer. Hal Blood photo

before taking the next step.

I might spot only an antler tip or speck of brown. My goal is to shoot the buck in his bed or at the least get a running shot if he jumps.

I believe killing a buck this way is the greatest achievement a hunter can accomplish.

Catching Him Looking Catching him looking is a technique I use to catch a buck in his bed when he has the advantage of seeing a long way on his backtrack in open woods.

Once I think I have a buck’s bedding spot figured out, I make a downwind circle of the area. If the buck’s track does not leave the circle, I have narrowed his bedding spot down.

I now go to the back of the circle and slowly still-hunt in a zig-zag fashion, scouring every inch of cover looking for the bedded buck. By doing this, I am trying to sneak up behind the bedded buck and shoot him as he watches his backtrack or get close enough for a running shot if he jumps.

Being Prepared to Shoot When tracking a buck, you have to be prepared to shoot instantly and at any time. To do this you have to be familiar with your gun, so it has become an extension of your arms. You must be able to shoot accurately in a split second, as that may be all the time you have.

To do this, you must learn to carry your gun in a way that allows you to shoulder it in a split second. You also must know every vital shot on a buck at every angle.

A tracking gun must be fast and light, with a safety that is easy to remove. You must also be proficient at hitting moving targets. Many times that is the only shot you may get at that oncein-a-lifetime buck. The only way to prepare for this kind of shooting is to practice, practice, practice.

If You Jump a Buck When I’m tracking a buck and jump him without getting a shot, I do not go after him immediately. Generally, a spooked buck does not know what it was that he heard or saw.

A buck will typically run off a ways until he feels he is no longer in danger, and then stop and wait to see if he is being followed. If you go after him immediately, the buck will see you and run off again – and this time, it may be for a long distance.

When I spook a buck, I sit down and wait a half-hour. The buck will stand there and wait for awhile, and when nothing comes on his track he will relax and go about his business. Some-

times this means he will lie back down, and other times he will stay up and start making his rounds again.

In either case he is not expecting danger, and it will be easier to get another chance at him.

Proper Clothing for Tracking When tracking a buck, you have to be properly dressed to be successful. A buck is going to take you to places you would never go otherwise, from the top of a mountain to the thickest bogs.

You will most likely be wet from sweat or snow or both.

For this reason, I firmly believe wool is the only material to wear. It keeps you warm and quiet, even when it’s wet. Select wool clothing without any lining, as a lining holds in your body heat and makes you sweat.

In most any weather, all I wear is long underwear with wool pants a shirt and jacket. I wear light wool gloves, and carry a spare pair. On my feet I wear a sock liner and one heavy pair of wool socks, and 18” uninsulated rubber boots.

Rubber boots are quiet, and they keep your feet dry, no matter how much water you walk through.

The End Game Tracking bucks in the Big Woods is and extreme sport by any measure. You have to take yourself beyond what most hunters think is tough hunting. You will be tired, wet, and cold, and you must repeat the process every day. If you persist through all of it, you will find success and the reward that comes with it.

¶

www.MaineSportsman.com

32 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Marinated, Grilled Venison Heart This venison recipe features Mexican Oregano from The Spice House. It’s earthier than the domestic version, and more pungent in flavor and scent. Does it really make a difference? Yes! Want to try it for yourself? I will send the first 19 people FREE Mexican

Oregano when you email me at blackflystew@gmail.com, and you’ll be able to taste the difference. All I ask is that you let me know when you make this recipe and what you think.

Regarding the venison heart – during

a “Wild Game Happy Hour” at our house, it was preferred, earning 5 votes out of 6, over other wild dishes that included Moose Tongue Pate, Beaver and Boar Summer Sausage, and Chocolate Espresso Braised Bear.

Enjoy, and Bon Appetit!

Ingredients: • 1 medium deer heart (or elk, moose or beef heart) • 2 tablespoons olive oil • 1 tablespoon White Balsamic Vinegar (ore red/white wine vinegar) • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce • 1 tablespoon dried Mexican Oregano* (or oregano) • ½ teaspoon Smoked Sea Salt • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper • 1 tablespoon ghee** *TheSpiceHouse.com **Ghee (or grapeseed oil) tolerates high heat without burning.

Directions: Trim heart, and cut into chunks.

In large glass bowl with tight cover, combine all ingredients except ghee.

Lightly massage marinade into meat, and marinate for 24 hours.

Preheat grill to medium-high. I use my cast-iron insert. When pan is hot, drop in ghee. Add heart and stir; close cover and cook 2-5 minutes, stirring periodically to get a slight crisp on.

ENJOY!

And for dessert...

No Bake Beastie Razzberry Chipotle Mini-Cheesecakes Step into your kitchen and make an easy, delicious, smooth, sweet and spicy dessert! I offered to create a recipe for Dana’s big Pig Roast – he owns Maine Beast Feast. He handed me a bottle of Razzberry Chipotle Sauce, and here’s the result!

Ingredients: • 2 cups graham crackers, ground • 1 tablespoon sugar • 9 tablespoons butter, melted • 16 ounces cream cheese, softened (or goat cheese) • ½ cup vanilla sugar • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract • 1 cup heavy cream www.MaineSportsman.com

• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste • 1 bottle Maine Beast Feast Razzberry Chipotle Sauce Directions: In small bowl, combine graham crackers, sugar and melted butter until it resembles wet sand.

Line a mini muffin pan with muffin liners. Place 1 ½ tablespoons into the bottom of each liner and press down to form a crust.

Whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form. In a stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in vanilla extract and fold in whipped cream until fully combined.

Top muffin crusts with 3 tablespoons of filling. Refrigerate for 4 hours to set.

Top with 1 tablespoon of Maine Beast Feast Razzberry Chipotle Sauce.

¶

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 33

Wardens Urge Early–Season Snowmobilers: “Be Careful Out There”

by Steve Carpenteri With November’s arrival, Maine’s snowmobilers are anxiously watching daily weather report in hopes that a big snowfall is in the forecast, preferably one that will “stick” to the ground all winter.

We may get lucky this year and we may not, but sooner or later the prayers of riders statewide will be answered, and it will be time to hit the trails once again.

There is no logical reason for anyone to have a serious acci-

dent while snowmobiling this winter, yet it seems to happen every year. I’m sure Maine’s game wardens, sheriffs, marine patrol, EMTs and other rescue personnel join me in hoping that this will be a safe year for Maine snowmobilers.

There are two critical components to safe riding: 1) avoiding danger in the first place; and 2) having the presence of mind – and the necessary gear and clothing – to deal with serious situations

that arise unexpectedly.

Be Prepared According to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, accidents and injuries can result from improper or imprudent use of snowmobiles, but with preparation and practice, riders can safely develop and improve their operating skills.

For starters, carefully read and follow the instructions and warnings contained in the snowmobile’s own-

For a safer ride, consider traveling with a group of equally-experienced operators on known trails.

Photo courtesy Ski Doo

er’s manual. Snowmobiles handle differently from other vehicles, and the manufacturer

knows the machine better than anyone else.

(Continued on next page)

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Snowmobiling in Maine (Continued from page 33)

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Always wear an approved helmet and eye protection. Observe all state and local laws. Respect the rights of others. Ride within your capabilities.

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Keep an Eye on Young Riders It’s especially important to supervise and mentor young riders, teaching them skills and technique, but also setting a good example by using good judgment and making proper decisions.

Maine law anticipates that some very young kids will be operating machines – a rider younger than 10 can’t operate a snowmobile on public land unless under the visual and voice supervision of someone 21 or older, and a rider must be at least 14 years old to cross a public road.

However, in this writer’s opinion, any rider 16 or younger should be under adult guidance, given the speed and power of many of today’s machines.

Before You Head Out Always conduct a pre-ride safety checklist. This includes not only inspecting the mechanical condition of the machine, but also conducting an inventory of gear you are bringing along, such as spare parts, survival gear and personal items needed for safety and comfort.

Riders should also leave a trip plan with a responsible adult, listing the destination, travel time, contact information and anything else that could assist in finding a rider who does not show up at their destination within a reasonable time after they were scheduled to do so.

Crossing on Ice Poses Special Concerns When it comes to snowmobiling on lakes and rivers, the safest rule is to not to cross on ice at all, since doing so puts you at risk of breaking through.

Many of Maine’s lakes and ponds only have a thin ice cover, and ice conditions vary greatly throughout the state. This is especially true early in the season – while ice conditions may be safe in some spots, they can be dangerously thin in others.

Wardens caution snowmobilers to never guess the thickness of the ice – stop and check the ice in several different places, using an auger to make test holes. Make several test holes, beginning near shore, and continuing as you go out.

Check the ice with a partner, so if something does happen, someone will be there to help you. If you are going it alone, wear a lifejacket.

If ice at the shoreline is cracked or squishy, stay off.

Watch out for thin or honeycombed ice.

Dark snow and dark ice are also signs of weak spots.

Avoid areas with currents, around bridges and pressure ridges. Wind and currents can break ice even in the middle of a lake or pond.

If You Break Through the Ice Inevitably, some folks will break through the ice, and for them, purchasing (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 35 (Continued from page 34)

a buoyant snowmobile suit could be a life-saving decision. A helmet and snowmobile suit, even if they are non-buoyant, may keep a rider afloat for several minutes.

Don’t panic and don’t try to climb out immediately, because you will probably break the ice around you again. Lay both arms on the unbroken ice, and kick hard.

This will help lift your body onto the ice.

Some snowmobilers (as well as ice-fishermen) wear two “ice claws” connected by a cord looped loosely over their shoulders under their jacket.

These can be storebought or handmade, retractable or fixed.

These picks allow the user to get a firm grip on the slippery surface of the ice. The person in the water takes one of these small ice picks in each hand, reaches out onto the ice, sticks the sharp metal pointed ends into the ice surface, and pulls himself or herself to safety.

Once on the ice, roll on your side – don’t attempt to stand up and

walk to safety, until you know you’re on solid ice.

Assisting Others To help someone who has fallen through the ice, lie down flat on the ice and reach with a branch, plank or rope.

If you’ve got a number of rescuers, form a human chain – lying down. Don’t stand up, because this concentrates all of your weight in a small area, and, as the person in the water has already discovered, the ice is too thin.

After securing the victim, wiggle backward to solid ice.

Folks snowmobiling on the ice should ensure they can call for assistance, by carrying their cell phones in sealed plastic bags.

Add the appropriate emergency numbers (game warden, sheriff or local fire department) to the phone’s call list, so you don’t waste valuable time dialing critical numbers.

So have fun snowmobiling this winter, but please – be careful out there!

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Always wear an approved helmet and eye protection. Observe all state and local laws. Respect the rights of others. Ride within your capabilities. Allow extra time and plenty of distance for maneuvering. Do not perform stunts. ©2014 Yamaha Motor Corp, U.S.A. All rights reserved.© 2016 Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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36 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

It’s Whitetail Time in the North Woods Aroostook’s November hunting options are like a box of assorted donuts – most are good, a couple don’t have a lot of takers, and there’s usually one that‘s pretty much everyone’s favorite.

As most readers will have guessed, that favorite flavor in this metaphor is deer hunting. Many Maine outdoorsmen and women spend their entire year anticipating whitetail season, planning vacation time for that special week at deer camp. Throughout The County, November’s most repeated phrase is likely to be, “Gotcha buck yet?”

Family Favorite The North Maine Woods draws a lot of hunters to the myriad logging roads and vast timberland in search of a big buck. I visit certain areas myself each fall. There tends

Our County columnist tells you exactly where to find your Aroostook buck – whether you’re in the north woods or heater-hunting – and after you tag out, he’ll put you onto some geese and ducks for your Thanksgiving feast. to be a lot of pressure, however, and for a change of scenery and lighter competition, I head south to Knowles Corner on Route 11, then west toward Bear Mountain on the Aroostook/Penobscot County border.

My Uncle Lefty had a camp in this area, where family and friends spent Thanksgiving week every year for over 40 deer seasons. The game pole always held two or three bragging-size bucks taken by those dawn-to-dusk stalkers and woods-walkers.

There are numerous beechnut ridges along Mountain Road where whitetails wander and feed, but for

Allagash Lakes Region

hunters who prefer still-hunting, dark growth and cedar swales, travel Retreat Road toward Crystal Lake. Well over a dozen two-tracks with old skidder trails reaching out in all directions will lead to some great lowland covers. These are track-and-trail woodlands, not a great area for hunters who like to sit and watch trails in sparser timber. Check DeLorme’s Atlas Map 52, grid A-2 for an overview of these whitetail woods.

Lane Brook Another nearby area I originally explored as a partridge hunting hotspot and where I enjoyed consistent success is near

Lane Brook. I frequently sighted deer, and also observed plenty of tracks, trails, and rubs during October bird hunts, so I decided I will visit it again this month with my favorite deer rifle.

Just north of Knowles Corner on Route 11 is the turnoff onto Lane Brook Road, a long, winding gravel byway with many side trails to walk or drive.

Bugbee Road, a major offshoot that leads north toward Umcolcus Lake and then bends back to Route 11, has many top-rate side roads and old lumbering cuts and log hauling paths to explore for birds and bucks.

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As hunters travel west on Lane Brook Road, there’s an area designated as Lane Brook Meadows. Between this spot and Weeks Brook, my family has enjoyed productive whitetail gunning.

The Wadleigh Bog offers some excellent dark growth, sneakand-peek hunting for sportsmen who prefer short barrels and open sights. These are not heavily hunted sections, and can be checked out on DeLorme’s Atlas, Map 58, E-1 & E-2.

Heater Huntin’ I’ll bet it would amaze you how many deer are tagged in Northern Aroostook by drive-and-spot hunters. A lot of us aren’t 30 years old anymore, or even 60! There are injuries, medical conditions and usually plenty of November snow that curtail the brush-busting of our youth. My dear old Dad was still hunting at age 80, but not using the same techniques as he employed in his younger years.

I now fully understand and appreciate his explanation, “The mind is willing but the body’s weak.”

Up in the North Maine Woods there’s a loop for deer and partridge via 4-wheel drive that will make a nice day-long outing.

Motor along Route 11 to Portage, and then turn onto Mill Road to the Fish River Checkpoint. Take Rocky (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 37

Tom Tardiff and Bob Lento of Blaine pose with their 8-point bucks taken a day apart.

Each whitetail was taken during a pre-work drive-and-spot outing within five miles of their homes. All photos by Bill Graves (Continued from page 36)

ette-Marbec Road paralleling 1st and 2nd Musquacook.

Take the Realty Road east and Musquacook crossroads, and you’ll eventually reach Six-Mile Checkpoint and out to

AMP BU W S E

CK

TH

Brook Road, and keep driving. This long, winding loop will take hunters past Fish River Lake and along a tall arc that finally dives down to Musquacook Lakes and the Blanch-

Mike Wallace of Freeport admires a trio of bucks on a camp gamepole near Bear Mountain. The author’s family has a nearby camp, and hunters enjoy top-rate whitetail hunting in the region.

Ashland.

DeLorme’s Map 63 and 62 provide an overview of what I call the “Rocky Brook Loop.”

It’s a full day’s outing from dawn to dusk, and you’ll see plenty of partridge and rabbit,

Bill Graves had to settle for a photograph of this big doe, since he didn’t have an any-deer permit. It was one of three does spotted on a day-long drive-and-spot hunt in the North Maine Woods.

several moose and an occasional lynx and very possibly a deer or two. For hunters who can still walk a bit, there are at least a hundred side roads to explore – most of these can be driven,

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38 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

When snow holds off, there can be some excellent late-season duck gunning on Aroostook waterways. Big black ducks and mallards are the primary quarry, since most other species have moved south.

Tom Tardiff of Blaine enjoyed a surprise bonus while jumpshooting a bogan on the Prestile. While walking back to his truck after bagging a duck, he was able to shoot a partridge.

The County (Continued from page 37)

least one spare tire, a sturdy high lift jack and a plug and repair kit. The roads are rough, and cell phone coverage is spotty at best.

they haven’t denned up already.

Perhaps the most action, however, can be enjoyed gunning waterfowl, and pressure on flocks of ducks and geese is generally fairly light this month.

November snow cover, frost depth and frozen waterways are the major controlling factors of how many waterfowl stick around The Crown of Maine. Canada geese need to be able to scratch up food, or at least feed on cut grain stalks above snow levels, when this becomes

Waterfowl Provide Alternative Action Some hunters may be looking for game other than deer, either because they are not avid deer hunters or because they’ve already tagged out.

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a problem they wing south to milder climes.

I’ve seen miserably cold, snowy Novembers when geese were gone this first week, while other years I’ve hunted until season’s end in December.

The Aroostook River is the liquid lifeline that keeps ducks and geese around when ponds and lakes ice up. The birds roost and rest on any larger moving waterway, but especially the long, meandering Aroostook that visits over a dozen towns and villages before exiting into Canada.

There are dozens of eddies, bogans and backwaters between Presque Isle and Crouseville that abound with mallards and black ducks and a few honkers. Most can be reached with hip boots or chest waders less than a hundred yards from either Route 164 or the Parsons Road

There’s still partridge to be hunted once you fill your deer tag and even into December, as long as conditions allow hiking in the woods.

Even when frigid weather forms ice on regional Aroostook ponds, it’s possible to break up the thinner sections and set out decoys. Ducks will hurry to join feathered friends when they think there’s food and open water.

on the opposite shoreline.

Usually several large flocks of geese roost at various calm stretches of the Aroostook near Washburn.

With a bit of scouting, hunters can usually pinpoint a few heavily-visited grain or potato fields on the rural outskirts of Washburn

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and set up a decoy spread. DeLorme’s Atlas Map 64, C-5 will get you in the game.

Between Fort Fairfield and Stevenville, flocks of honkers take nightly residence and feed in the nearby farm fields during the day. Route 161 and North Caribou Road offer access to the waterway and many likely gunning locations.

Map 65 , C-3 will guide newcomers.

There may be just days left to bag a goose for Thanksgiving dinner – get out early and often!

¶

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 39

My First Deer – Part 1 A buck! The author raised her gun up and steadied the deer’s image in the scope. She breathed in, and breathed out. She clicked the safety off. “About 80 yards,” her inner voice coached. “If the buck turns, shoot.” The buck turned.

I sat 20 feet up a spruce tree, overlooking a thick hardwood forest in Pownal. I was used to it – sitting for hours and seeing nothing. I started deer hunting six years ago, and hadn’t gotten a deer yet. In fact, I rarely even saw a deer.

Growing up in a family that didn’t hunt left me with a lot to learn. I started hunting a few years after graduating from college. I was disappointed by the conditions of livestock and America’s factory farming practices. I felt guilty being part of that system. It was too easy to not take responsibility when buying dyed red meat that barely resembled the animal it once was.

Hunting appealed to me because it forced me to face head-on the serious impact of eating meat – of taking a life. Wild game is organic, free range, fresh, local, and involves minimal suffering; there isn’t a more ethical way to eat meat.

second week of November, and the previous week’s snow blanketed the ground. It was hard and crunchy – I would hear anything walking nearby.

Morning turned to afternoon. I checked my watch: 2:30 p.m.

Two hours until legal hunting time ended.

I told myself I could have a snack at four o’clock. It gave me something to look forward to, and something to do when the time came.

The squirrel scurried by again.

Deer hunting tests your ability to withstand boredom. Today, we are seldom bored.

In line at the grocery store? Text a friend, or watch a funny video on your phone. We are not comfortable being bored, with being alone with our thoughts, with listening to our inner monologue.

When hunting deer, you must fight boredom for long hours and remain totally present and in the moment.

Two Hours of Legal Hunting Remaining A squirrel scurried back and forth, up and over a log, readying his stash for winter.

I wondered whether he carried acorns or mushrooms. It was the

Noise Over Left Shoulder I took the Primos can call out of my vest pocket and turned it over, counted to ten, and turned it over again. It let out a soft bleat each time I

turned it, imitating a doe in heat.

My Remington .308 bolt action rifle lay across my lap. I watched the squirrel make another trip over the log.

At 4 o’clock exactly, I cautiously unzipped my camo waist pack and removed a package of six small peanut butter crackers. I put one in my mouth and chewed. The chewing was loud inside my head.

Just then, I heard something – probably another squirrel – behind me over my left shoulder. It didn’t sound close. I took the can out again and turned it over, just in case it was a deer. I craned my neck and peered into the forest behind me. Nothing.

I put another cracker in my mouth. Then movement caught my eye. It probably was not a deer, and if it was, it was probably a doe, and I didn’t have a doe tag for this zone.

Then I saw brown.

It was a deer!! But was it a buck? The brown sauntered toward me as the unchewed cracker sat in my mouth. Antlers!

A buck! I didn’t count the points or study the rack; just seeing antlers was enough for me. I raised my gun up

Tracking the author’s wounded deer.

and steadied the deer in my scope. I took in a breath, and let it out.

I clicked the safety off.

“About 80 yards,” my inner voice coached.

“If he turns, shoot.”

He turned.

The Shot At the sound of my rifle, the squirrel was gone and so was my cracker, though I did not remember eating it.

Did I hit him? My hands were shaking.

Through my scope I spied blood in the snow where the deer

had been standing.

Tracking Until Dark I took out my phone and texted my friend Randy, who was working nearby. It was his tree stand I was in.

When Randy arrived, we walked over to the spot where the deer had been standing. Blood stained the snow.

Randy crouched down and studied the snow. “There’s a lot of blood,” he observed, “but drops of blood are (“Maine Sportswoman” continued on page 41)

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40 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

It’s Okay to Mix Old Gear with New Technology There’s something about “old” stuff that captures my attention.

I’m not really sure why. As far back as I can remember I “made do” with cast-offs and hand-me-downs.

Yup, a little fixin’ here and some paint there and I was in business. I guess it all came down to the fact that my parents chose not to spoil me. “If the kid wants something, let him figure it out” seemed to be their child-raising philosophy.

As I complete my sixth decade and look around at my possessions, I realize just about everything I have either started out old or got old. This past month, I did a tune-up kayak trip with my daughter Hannah.

The author has had much of his outdoor gear for 30 years or more – and it was used when he bought it! The trick to successful hunting, he says, is to combine older but reliable equipment with modern aerial photography and navigational devices, so you fully understand the landscape as you head into the deep woods.

Everything’s OLD! It had been 12 years since we last wetted a paddle in Maine waters together. On that epic adventure we navigated the iconic Moose River Bow Trip.

Our fall plans this year called for a circumnavigation of Lake Matagamon (near Patten), mixed in with a little cool-weather camping.

Between some Covid-19 restrictions and Hannah’s work schedule, we decided

to delay the trip until spring. However, that didn’t stop us from preparing for the much-anticipated expedition.

Getting back to the point … somehow my folding kayak turned 30 years old. Yup, I’ve had it for three decades and, as usual, I bought it used. It’s a little unusual and rare in that it’s a Nautiraid, made in France.

Folding kayaks are not for everyone. This one has a wood frame and inflatable spon-

toons along the sides.

Long, stable and a packhorse for capacity, it makes the perfect expedition kayak.

At this juncture, however, it takes a love of wood and “old” things to fully appreciate it.

It’s a little bit of a testament to purchasing quality goods.

Built and designed for the French military, this expedition kayak assembles and operates just like the day I bought her 30-plus years ago.

Choke Tubes?

This time of year, my hunting gear also looks, well, dated. I do a fair amount of upland game hunting and have developed a respectable collection of firearms to hunt with.

I’m fond of saying that when it comes to scatterguns, I don’t own anything new enough to need choke tubes. Careful observation of other hunters has shown me one consistent advantage to having replaceable choke tubes.

Yup, every time the King of Gamebirds flies away unscathed, I hear a skunked hunter grumble something about having the WRONG choke tube in. Us fixed-choke (Continued on next page)

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types know if we miss it’s because that little gold bead at the end of the barrel wasn’t in the right place – no built-in excuse.

Vintage Deer Rifle Naturally, with deer season upon the North Country, I’ll put my fixed choke scatterguns away and select a deer rifle. Of course, it’s hard to look at my 1950 Model 94 and leave it sitting there for some of my newer rifles.

In 1974 I bought a Model 700 Remington. It was, of course, used. Those doing the math might note that I was 14 at the time. My dad was with me and I have the original slip, made out in my name.

My, how times have changed!

I took me a summer’s worth of mowing lawns to come up with the $165 it took to call this 6MM Remington mine. The point here – if you hang onto something long enough, it gets old.

I can now say, “I don’t just buy old stuff

– I age it”.

Hunters coming north to Katahdin Country have their sights set on something old, too – old bucks with large antlers. The firearms season opens October 31 for residents, and Nov. 2 for everybody else.

I’d expect to see some vintage guns in the field. I’m convinced hunters in the field always give the obligatory “gotch ya buck yet?” greeting while taking stock of the firearms under each other’s arm.

I mean, a firearm selection tells a lot about a person. Can a bolt action guy and a semi-auto hunter get along? Do lever action guys ride a horse? I’ll guarantee that hunters carrying vintage firearms get a tip of the cap or a nod of approval more often than the plastic-stock crowd.

I know plastic is great. It’s not susceptible to all the negative things, especially moisture, that wood doesn’t like. My son, Matt, bought an ex-

Maine Sportswoman (Continued from page 39)

magnified in snow, so it looks like more blood than there actually is.”

We started following the blood trail, marking the trail with orange flagging tape every few feet.

I was positive we would find the deer crumpled up just around the corner – that’s how deer hunting works, right?

We followed the blood trail for 15 minutes or so until it was dark.

The deer was still going. He had bedded down once, and we studied the pool of blood. It was red, with no green or brown material, which would indicate a gut shot. but it must not have been heart or lungs since the deer was still alive. We didn’t see any drag marks in the snow indicating a leg shot.

pensive Berretta. It has that adjustable plastic comb on the stock. For Christmas he’s getting “Armor All” plastic protectant instead of gun oil.

What should he expect from a guy with a bunch of old stuff made out of wood?

Millinocket Hub Hunters headed north with reliable old deer rifles have untold real estate to roam.

Millinocket serves as a hub for branching out into prime deer country. The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer belongs in every hunter’s gear bag. And, near the top at that.

The bustling town of Millinocket (Atlas MAP 43, B-3) serves as a great starting point.

Hunters from away can study up here before heading to parts unknown.

The Route 11 corridor goes north from Millinocket to Fort Kent. Study the DeLorme Maps 51 and 52 for a macro look at the area.

The next step, forget the old stuff,

Calling In the Tracking Dog We decided to back out and wait a couple of hours, hoping the deer would succumb to his injuries. My stomach was in knots, but I remained confident we would find him – there was just too much blood not to.

I called Scot Clontz, one of the State’s certified tracking dog handlers, and he told me he could meet me in the morning.

“Promise me you won’t go back after that deer tonight – you’ll just spread its blood around, increasing the chances of a coyote crossing its path, and you could make my job harder in the morning,” Scot warned.

“I promise,” I lied.

Next month: The author’s intense and emotional learning experience continues to its conclusion.

¶

Here, the author completes a shake-down cruise in his 30-plus year old folding kayak. A planned fall tour of Lake Matagamon has been postponed until spring. The delay will, however, leave more time for hunting this month with one of his “vintage” firearms. Hannah Sheldon photo

pull out a cell phone or computer and do a Google Earth study of any areas that look interesting.

Google Earth has updated imagery. Things like

newer clear-cuts versus older logging areas show up quite nicely.

An old gun and a new computer might just fill the freezer.

¶

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42 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Camping in the Bed of Your Pick-Up? Organize and Protect Your Gear and Yourself Hunting season is finally here, but I’m totally unprepared for the season. Well, not totally, I guess ... I do have most all of the gear I’ll need for the demands of traveling deep in the woods.

The one major problem this year is my lack of a cap for the back of my 2010 Toyota Tacoma. The access cab shortens the bed length to six feet, and this makes finding a used cap a little difficult. I might have to break down and get a brand new one.

I still can get by

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I am considering building a roll-out organizer for my truck bed. That’s because every time I want to retrieve something from the back, I find it’s buried under sleeping bags, coolers, rifle cases, clothing, cooking gear and tote boxes. with the screened tarp I have from Slumberjack (slumberjack. com). It’s called the “Roadhouse Tarp,” and it completely covers the truck and bed, enclosing everything in a bug-proof screen.

Actually, part of my excuse for not having a cap already installed is that I have decided to forego the hardshell truck cap and see if I

can get away with just the tarp for what I do during this hunting season. I often load kayaks or larger items in the truck bed, and a cap would be in the way.

I won’t be staying overnight in the truck that often, and I think I can get by with just the tarp without too much difficulty. I have a large, lockable tool-

box for the bed that carries the tarp and other bulky items for overnight camping.

I keep it loaded with gear at all times, just in case I get stuck out in the wild and need shelter.

I have a small Coleman propane cookstove, tools and other items that I don’t want to carry behind my seat in the truck cab.

The box is locked securely to the truck bed and strapped down tightly to avoid bouncing around while I’m traveling bumpy back roads.

Roll-Out Organizer Something I have been seriously considering is getting or building a roll-out organizer for the bed of the truck. I have seen several on the market that provide sliding drawers for storing all of the gear that you would normally have strewn about in the bed of the truck.

(Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 43 (Continued from page 42)

One of my biggest complaints while truck camping is this – every time I need to get something, it is always buried in a pile of sleeping bags, coolers, rifle cases, clothing, cooking gear and tote boxes, all piled into the bed of the truck.

These sliding drawers hold most of that gear conveniently stashed below the sleeping surface on the truck bed.

The drawers do take away a bit of headroom if you have a cap installed, but that won’t bother me if I use the tarp – I can raise the tarp up as high as I need. The best way to view these organizing drawers is to go to YouTube. com and enter “sliding truck bed drawers.”

Most of the sliding drawer units I looked

at weren’t waterproof; rather, they claimed to be “water repellent,” and suggested drilling drain holes if needed.

So, if I go this route, I’ll probably install the truck cap. I don’t want to have to worry about water getting into the storage areas.

Do-It-Yourself Depending on how handy a person is with tools and building materials, a truck owner could easily build themselves storage areas and small shelves over the wheel hubs in the bed of the truck. Another search on YouTube.com gives you a huge selection of video instructions for doing just this.

One thing I do know is that sleeping in the bed of the truck with a cap installed really builds up some moisture from respiration. I’ll be doing a

“do-it-myself” job of installing a carpet on the roof and walls of the whole thing to avoid that problem.

Another huge problem for me with other trucks with caps I have used for camping was the high dust level after driving many miles on dry logging roads. I’ll be installing a tailgate seal to avoid this problem. That fine dust gets everywhere if you don’t take measure to seal the capped bed. Several different companies produce similar sealing kits, or you can have the company that installs the cap include seals with the installation.

Accessing the truck bed has always been a gymnastic-type of feat for me in the past. Recently I have gone to placing a big cooler on the ground and using it as a launch pad to

The author’s 2010 Toyota Tacoma with a cooler that gets used as a step-up for accessing the bed of the truck. William Clunie photo

climb in the back.

Another avenue to avoid this problem can be found at your local big-box store and doesn’t cost too much.

I found a screw-on step kit that folds up

and rides right on the tailgate. It’s similar to a little ladder, and it works perfectly for accessing the truck bed.

If the cooler gives out, I might get one.

¶

MAINE WILDLIFE QUIZ: Whitetailed Deer by Steve Vose

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) belongs to the family cervidae. The cervidae or “deer family” contains 47 species of antlered, ruminant (cud chewing) mammals, and includes caribou, elk and moose.

The white-tailed deer has a wide distribution, stretching from southern Canada to parts of South America and with introduced populations existing in Europe and New Zealand. In the Americas, it is the most widely distributed wild ungulate (“hoofed mammal”).

An herbivore, white-tailed deer eat only plants. Their varied diet includes leaves, apples, acorns, beechnuts, clover, lichens and even certain types of mushrooms.

Being primarily nocturnal creatures, white-tailed deer feed mainly at night or during the early morning and

Questions 1. How many species exist in the deer family “cervidae”?

2. Where have white-tailed deer been introduced?

3. What does “ungulate” mean?

evening hours. Unfortunately for motorists, salted highways also attract white-tailed deer, and the Maine Department of Transportation reports that about 3,000 of these animals are hit every year, occasionally with fatal results for both deer and motorist. Deer collisions are most common from October to December, with 70% occurring when it’s dark.

White-tailed deer possess incredible speed and agility. They are capable of 4. How many white-tailed deer are reported by MDOT as being hit every year?

5. When do the largest majority of white-tailed deer collisions occur?

6. How fast can a white-tailed deer

running up to 30 miles per hour, leaping as high as 10 feet, and swimming great distances to escape being preyed upon by humans, bobcats, and coyotes.

In November, mating season occurs. It’s also called the “rut.” During this time, fighting between male deer (bucks) is common, as they use their sharply-pointed antlers in battles for supremacy over territory and females (does).

Only the bucks annually grow antlers, and they fall off in the winter after breeding season ends.

Females give birth to one to three young, usually in May or June. Young deer (fawns) display a white-spotted brown coat that helps them blend in with their environment and hides them from predators.

run?

7. What are male deer called?

8. When do female (does) white-tailed deer give birth?

9. What are baby white-tailed deer called?

Answers on Page 76

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44 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Poaching Investigation Interrupted

by Search for Lost Hunter – Part 1 According to the Banfell. A 33-degree arctic gor Daily News, in 2019 The treehouse had been built illegally, but it was chill filled the air. By the hunters harvested 28,000 made for comfort. It featured shag carpeting and time I was nine miles deer in Maine. With so from camp, and thick many individuals afield, a propane heater. Apples were hung on a low pine clouds had obscured the it is not unusual to hear branch nearby, and empty 30-’06 shells and beer moon. about sportsmen who cans littered the ground. I left my business card The headlights of have become lost. my 4x4 cut through the with a note instructing the owner to give me a call. pitch-black night. Sud I remember just such an incident. It was the denly my two-way radio third Tuesday of November and the midcrackled: “Umsaskis to 1700.” Susan dle of Maine’s deer hunting season. was calling. I immediately keyed my microphone and replied, “10-3 [go ahead], Aerial View Umsaskis.”

That Monday, a Forestry float plane

“I hear gunshots. I think a hunter had picked me at the AWW (Allagash might be lost or in trouble.”

Wilderness Waterway) Umsaskis head “10-4 [I copied], Susan. Can you tell quarters for a flight to check cutting optheir direction?” erations.

“The volleys sound like they’re com While over Whittaker Brook in ing from around the Priestly Mountain T13R13, I spotted a blue building withfire tower.” in the Waterway’s one-mile zone. Since

“My ETA is 30 minutes and we’ll see I had not been informed of any new con Climbing a makeshift ladder, I what’s going on.” struction, I decided to drive to the site pushed up a floor hatch and stepped into

“10-4.” the next day. a room with sliding windows. Built for Twenty-five minutes later, I arrived comfort, the perch was complete with home only to find the residence comshag carpeting and a propane heater. pletely dark. I thought it odd that Su I searched in vain for any owner san didn’t have any lights on. But when identification, and I exited the structure.

I shut off my truck, she opened the door On the ground I located several expendwith flashlight in hand. ed 30-06 shells and empty beer cans.

“How come the power isn’t on?” I in Downhill, near the edge of the clearquired, worried that the equipment had ing, someone had tied six apples to the malfunctioned. limbs of a small pine.

Susan replied, “That’s when I heard the gunfire–when I snapped on the Over the Allagash River. All photos by house lights. To me, the firing sounded Tim Caverly. like it came from the ridge to the South West.”

Finding the nearest road on page 61

“Go ahead and start the generator of my Maine Atlas, and with a hint of and turn on the outside lights,” I resnow in the air, I struck out at 9 a.m. quested.

“I’ll walk to the shore to see But the trip was delayed when my truck what I can hear.” had a flat tire west of Clayton Lake.

By the time I got to the waterline, After changing the tire, I continued Susan had the power plant humming up the McNally Road. However, as I and the porch’s 100-watt bulbs lit up the neared my destination, my 4x4 received night. another flat. I found that a piece of sharp Back at the ladder, I removed a Immediately, a volley of rifle fire ledge had sliced a three-inch-wide gash business card from my shirt pocket and came from the east side of the lake. The in my tire’s tread, so I used my second tacked a note instructing the owner to gunshots Susan heard were echoes from (and last) spare tire. call me. across the water.

Hunting Perch Unusual Shots I hurried inside and hollered, “I’m Too close to my goal to turn around, As I was driving home, the sky began going to grab my deer rifle and shoot I continued on. to darken. By 5:30 p.m. I was tired and into the air to let whoever it is know At the end of a logging road I parked, hungry, halfway to the cabin, and anxwe’ve heard ’em. Shut off the generator.” took a compass bearing, and hiked to the iously thinking about a hot supper.

From the gun rack, I grabbed my site. After 30 minutes, I found a robin’s All day the thermometer had hovered 30-30 Winchester Model 94. I ran onto egg blue treehouse about 15 feet off the at 40 degrees, but with the darkness, a (“Ranger on the Allagash” ground, overlooking a clearcut. full moon appeared and temperatures continued on page 48)

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������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 45

Teaching Young Trappers It is most important that we draw our youth into the outof-doors. Our biggest concerns are for trapping, hunting and fishing. Other activities, such as hiking, camping, snowmobiling and ATV riding, are also important, but they do not require the mentoring that trapping, hunting and fishing require.

Most young anglers enjoy fishing, as long as they catch fish, so it is important to take them out for panfish to ensure they catch fish.

Developing an interest in fishing for trout and salmon can come after their love of fishing is established.

To mentor the activities of trapping and hunting takes more effort on our part. Hunting can be encouraged by pursuing small game such as squirrel and rabbit hunting where there is more action and excitement.

Kids love to hear and see their dogs running rabbits, and placing them where they can get in some shooting is important. It is also a treat to have a nice hot rabbit stew or pie served up after a day outside.

Squirrel hunting is best in southern Maine where the gray are more prevalent.

The squirrels are at their best served up with gravy on biscuits or rice.

To mentor trapping it is best to get youngsters into trapping by having them learn to

A great way to teach youngsters about trapping is to help them trap muskrat. Muskrat are widespread, you can use smaller traps that are safer for kids to handle. Young trappers can also learn fur-handling techniques, since muskrat are easy to skin, flesh and board.

A 110 Conibear trap supported on two sticks and stabilized with one stick between upper jaws.

A 110 Conibear trap stabilized with a stick between the upper jaws and down through the spring.

A 110 Conibear trap stabilized by two sticks between the top jaws.

A 110 Conibear trap stabilized by the use of a JL body mount.

trap muskrat. It is the furbearer most all trappers first learned to trap. Muskrat are widespread and the easiest and safest for the young trapper to take.

In addition, the chance that a mink being caught in a muskrat set can add excitement to their early trapping adventures.

Youth Using the 110 Conibear Conibears used for muskrat and mink are normally the size 110.

Most trappers use the 110 because it is powerful enough to humanely take both animals.

It is also one of the

simplest of trap designs to use. Both the 110 and 120 size trap have a jaw spread of approximately 4 ½ inches. The size 120 utilizes two springs, making it a more powerful and a more difficult trap for a young trapper to use.

The size 150 and 155 have a 5-inch jaw spread, which allows their use by Maine law for the same applications as the 110 and 120 traps. This is because the law allows traps with an inside jaws spread of 5 inches or less to be utilized.

In Maine, the double spring 120 and 155 are most commonly used for marten. The

size 155 is really too powerful of a trap for muskrat. It is basically a 120 with the more powerful size 160 springs. This makes it a great marten trap, and it may be used to take larger sized furbearers such as skunk and opossum.

Stabilizing Conibears The most efficient

and fastest way to stabilize a conibear trap is also the simplest method. As Muskrat and mink are trapped in aquatic environments such as streams, rivers, ditches, swamps, bogs, ponds and lakes where the stabilizing methods are normally easily made. Some of our rock-filled streams test this, though. The simplest way is by the use of old beaver sticks (green or fresh wood should not be used, because beaver will eat them). The simplest way is by using one or two sticks, as seen in the photographs.

Frequently, two small sticks are placed under the trap to ensure it is not deflected or jammed by objects or stuck in mud. For whatever reason, the use of these sticks enhances the trap’s ability to fire, ensuring a humane take of the animal.

Another method of stabilizing these smaller sized Conibear is by the use of a simple assembly designated as the “JL#110-#220 Body Mount,” which is sold commercially by many (“Trapping” continued on page 48)

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46 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Maine Weather Challenges Hunters and Forges Memories Standing on the granite ledge offered a wide-open view of the oak and beech grove that covered the shoulder of the mountain below it. The highest point was ten feet above the forest floor.

And the rock slab itself had hardwood trees sprouting from its top. Along the flat mountain bench, just below the ledge, an obvious deer trail curved to the east around the top of the mountain.

Cold November wind swept across the mountainside and rattled the few remaining beech leaves on the otherwise bare branches. It was the kind of breeze you barely noticed when first arriving at the stand, still warm from the climb up the mountain. But that had been hours ago – and now each puff of wind was an agony.

Leaning against a birch, I shook hard

It’s not the easy hunts that get seared into our memories. Rather, it’s the days when we walk up on a six-pointer in a cold, driving rainstorm, relying on adrenalin to bring sudden flexibility to our stiff, semi-frozen hands and feet. enough that I could hear the sleeve of my wool jacket vibrating against the bark.

“Fifteen more minutes,” I promised myself, glancing at my watch.

I had been repeating the same promise for more than an hour.

I knew I was too cold to shoot accurately, even at the close range offered by the deer trail.

But I also knew about the adrenaline that would course through my body if my ambush worked. The sight of a buck would give me the physical ability to kill the buck.

My watch reported three minutes had crawled by.

I flexed my feet inside my rubber boots

Natural deer stand, and maker of memories. www.MaineSportsman.com

until they hurt enough to briefly confirm their continued existence at the ends of my quaking legs. The cold was a physical thing that seeped up from the bare granite – solidifying my body – slowly turning it to brittle stone. I stared hard at the deer trail – teeth chattering -- willing a buck to come along.

Two more minutes passed.

And then … the unmistakable sound of hooved feet in loose leaves, a flash of white and brown ….

Testing Ourselves It takes fortitude to hunt whitetail deer at the northern limit of their habitat. Patience is a virtue wherever deer are hunted,

A long wait on a cold morning.

but it takes more than that here. There are fewer deer along this northern range. The winters are longer and more severe. More importantly, that colder weather comes soon enough for us to hunt in it.

It’s what we look forward to all year long. In our feverish summer deer-hunting daydreams, we long for those cold mornings, for snow on the ground and the promise of more in the air.

Our July imagination is all about cold weather. It’s linked with deer hunting in our minds.

And the hunt is as much a challenge of ourselves against the weather as it is us against the deer. How

else can we explain the expense and effort we go to for the “right” pair of boots? Or the number of different hats we might need?

My wife remarked once that my annual budget for hunting gloves could finance an entire new work outfit.

Not Always a Grudge Match We’ve all had our day in the sun. The short hunt on a cloudless, warm fall afternoon that brought quick results. Or the cold morning where the buck arrives at our stand ten minutes after we do. Sometimes we even stay inside a blind or a permanent deer stand – sheltered as we wait.

But those hunts are not the kind that get seared into our memories. Instead, it’s the six-pointer that we walk up on in a driving rainstorm, with (“Self-Propelled” continued on page 48)

What we wait for all summer long.

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 47

Is Maine at Risk for a Catastrophic Wildfire?

Maine has a history of huge fires, such as in 1977 (Baxter Park area – 3,500 acres), 1992 (Allagash – 1,200 acres) and 1947 (statewide, 200,000 acres and 2,000 homes). Recent summers have been hot and dry. The author describes the resources that have been marshalled to detect and fight the next inevitable big fire.

Wildfires in California and Oregon have dominated the news this summer and fall. Over a dozen fires burned more than 100,000 acres each, with the largest – the August Complex Fire north of San Francisco – burning over 750,000 acres. That’s a larger area than the entire White Mountain National Forest!

The smoke from the west coast fires traveled all the way to New England, creating a haze that dimmed the midday sunshine and produced vivid orange sunsets.

Are We Next?

With over 17 million acres of forest land – almost 90 percent of the state – one might think that Maine would see larger fires more frequently. At times, our forests seem like a tinderbox.

2020 has been a particularly bad year for wildfires in the Pine Tree State.

As of mid-September, we had over 940 fires that have burned almost 1,000 acres. According to Kent Nelson of the Maine Forest Service (MFS), the average number of fires statewide is usually around 500 per year,

with about 500 acres burned.

“We’ve not had this many fires since 2001 when we had 980 fires that burned 2,220 acres,” he said.

Keeping fires to an acre or so seems like a surprisingly good track record. But we aren’t always so lucky.

Big Fires in Maine’s Past In 1977, a fire in Baxter State Park burned almost 3,500 acres in and around the park. In 1992, the Allagash fire burned 1,200 acres.

The worst fire year on record was 1947, when dozens of major fires around the state followed months of hot, dry weather. Over 200,000 acres and 2,000 homes burned statewide in October alone, killing 16 people.

The largest single fire was in York County near Shapleigh, burning over 100,000 acres.

At the same time, 17,000 acres burned in and around Acadia National Park, destroying 67 mansions on “Millionaire’s Row” in Bar Harbor. Flames forced hundreds of residents to evacuate in boats. Fires burned

stubbornly for almost a month.

Helitack firefighters -- Maine’s “smoke jumpers.”

All photos courtesy Maine Forest Service

Changing Climate With a warming climate, we must wonder if the risk of a major fire is increasing.

There are no clear answers, of course, but trends are not working in our favor.

California experienced the hottest August on record this year, a major cause of the unprecedented fire season.

Likewise, southern Maine experienced the warmest summer since 1940, while much of the state has suffered moderate to severe drought. In mid-September, Frenchville was 11 inches below normal for precipitation for the previous 90 days; Jackman was 5 inches below normal.

the western fires this year were caused by dry lightning, and the resulting flames were driven by high winds.”

Only about four percent of total fires are caused by lightning in Maine. The most common causes of wildfire here are all preventable – backyard burning of brush, equipment-caused fires and campfires not properly extinguished.

To reduce the number of brush fires, Maine went to an online system for burn permits in 2005. For years, most brush fires started in the afternoon, when relative humidity is lowest.

Now, open burning is not allowed before 5 pm. The result is fewer fires getting out of control.

Different Here Even with tinder-dry conditions and autumn leaf drop, Maine’s climate, vegetation and topography are different from California’s.

Nelson pointed out that the dry chapparal and conifer vegetation in the Golden State are “high in resins and more prone to explosive fires compared to Maine’s mixed hardwood forests. Many of

Well-Equipped When fires break out in Maine’s organized towns, local fire departments are the first to respond.

Maine’s extensive road network, including logging roads, helps with fighting fires.

Maine is also blessed with abundant water resources, making it easier for crews to fight fires. Ponds,

lakes, streams or wetlands are usually nearby.

In the unorganized territories, MFS crews are the first responders. MFS crews will support fire fighters in organized towns when needed. They have ample equipment to support fire crews around the state.

The MFS Air Division includes several UH-1 “Huey” helicopters that can drop 240 gallons of water on a fire, plus two smaller helicopters and two fixed-wing planes that are used for reconnaissance and smoke detection flights after lightning storms in remote areas.

In 2010, MFS developed a Helitack crew of rangers who deploy from a Bell 407 helicopter, similar to smoke jumpers in western states. The team flies to remote areas to attack wildfires until more resources arrive.

MFS also has a fleet of UTVs with 30-gallon tanks, and dozens of boats set up with portable pumps to fight fires on remote islands. They also (Continued on next page) www.MaineSportsman.com

48 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Indian Township fire -- 2013.

Sporting Environment (Continued from page 47)

have Type 6 wildland fire trucks that carry 150 gallons of water and Type 4 engines that carry 750 gallons.

Military surplus, 8-wheel-drive trucks can carry 2,500 gallons.

If a fire grows

Ranger on the Allagash (Continued from page 44)

the front porch and discharged three rounds into the cold night air. My shots

Trapping (Continued from page 45)

trap supply dealers across the country. It was invented by Jerry Labeau of North Anson, Maine. This device makes it easier and faster to set traps.

A similar but larger stabilizer that’s available is the KB Stabilizer, but I feel it’s better suited for larger 160, 220, 280 and 300 conibears. These size traps are used to trap larger furbearers such otter, coon, bobcat, beaver, and fisher.

In addition, trappers are good at inventing their own devices to stabilize traps, and there are many of them.

Some are practical, while others, well, not so much.

The smaller stabilized conibears that are utilized for muskrat and mink are most commonly placed as a bottom edge set or up tight against a bank, rock or log as a blind set. Other sets for muskrat may be baited utilizing a slice

Self-Propelled (Continued from page 46)

cold water trickling down our back as we raise the rifle. I have fond memories of a spike-horn I killed one bitter opening day of firearms season. He walked www.MaineSportsman.com

Hollis, Maine wildfire -- 2006

Rowe Lake fire -- 2010

beyond our state’s available resources, Maine is part of the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Compact, which can bring water bombers from Quebec and crews from other

states.

A Matter of Time Even with all these resources, it’s only a matter of time before we see a severe fire of several thousand acres or more. When

the National Weather Service issues a Red Flag Warning, Mainers need to understand and heed the high fire risk.

¶

were immediately answered by three distant reports.

I knew there wasn’t a road in that area, so I said, “I’ll have to get the 20foot Grumman canoe and Mercury outboard out of storage. Looks like I’ve gotta cross the lake – someone must be

in trouble. I hope they aren’t hurt.”

(To be continued.)

of apple, a piece of carrot or parsnip placed on the trigger wires.

Muskrat trapping can be easy and fun for the young trapper. They are also about the easiest furbearer to teach fur handling with. The muskrat is easy to skin, flesh and board.

Be sure to teach the young trapper how to trap properly, and ensure they understand the laws pertaining to the furbearer they are trapping. Our Maine laws are varied and complicated. Make sure they understand that if they ever have any questions regarding the law, they should contact their local warden.

Trapping requires the best of our efforts to ensure we are always ethical in our activities. Young and old trappers alike should take the following to heart.

state, “Regulated trapping in North America is consistent with internationally accepted principles of natural resource conservation, stipulating the maintenance of essential ecological processes, preservation of genetic diversity, and the continued existence of species and ecosystems.”

When it’s conducted consistent with the Best Management Practices (BMPs), says TWS, the activity meets strict performance and animal welfare criteria.

TWS encourages wildlife professionals to inform and educate the public on the advancements in trapping furbearers and incorporating the latest research findings on Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTSs) and BMPs for trapping in regulations, practice, and enforcement.

The Wildlife Society The Wildlife Society (TWS) recently published its support of trapping. They

out on the trail between camp and my truck as I left the woods early – frustrated by howling winds and sub-freezing temperatures. I remember being thankful for the fading warmth of his body – as cold fingers fumbled with my knife.

These are the stories we tell our

Tim Caverly has authored ten books about Maine’s northern forest. For more information, visit www.allagashtails.com

¶

¶

kids about. And it’s why we leave them for hours on a deer stand in the coldest weather, with orders not to move a muscle until we get back. It’s a test for them.

It’s also a memory factory.

¶

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 49

Credibility Issues What if you are a practical joker by nature, but there comes a time when you really need help? Like the boy who cried wolf, you may find that the wary villagers aren’t willing to leave their cottages to provide assistance.

A different time. A different season. Nothing “normal” except the days are short and the nights are long.

Planning for our November deer camp this year was limited to me and Island Boy. We are in the bubble.

The other guys have picked different weeks, with the folks in their bubble. Who would have thought this last year?

Now that I think about it, why do I care if the deer camp guys aren’t around this year? I am still unhappy with them.

Let me explain.

Surprise Deer A couple Novembers ago, Mike and I headed to camp at North East Carry (at the northeastern tip of Moosehead) for ten days of deer hunting.

We were to meet up with brother Norm and son #2, Jim, who were already at camp.

Mike and I had packed for weeks, with enough equipment and supplies to last us for years. Of course, we had our backpacks loaded with ropes, GPS, knives, ammo, rain gear, warm weather hats and gloves, extra socks – there might even have been a kitchen sink in

there somewhere.

On arriving at camp, being Saturday afternoon, we hauled our mountain of assorted gear into camp.

After grabbing a late lunch, sandwich and coffee, we decided to take a ride around the loop on the logging roads to see if we could score a couple grouse for supper.

Grabbing our scatterguns, and a rifle or two, off we went. We never leave the camp without our gear in the truck – except that day.

All we had were our compasses around our necks, our lighters in our jeans pockets and thin gloves on our hands.

Leaving the camp at 2:30 gave us about 90 minutes of cruising for birds.

As sunset approached, Island Boy spotted a large-bodied deer silhouetted against the snow. The critter was up on a ridge on an old skidder trail.

The deer was on my side of the truck, so I stepped from the vehicle and loaded up.

Once the crosshairs of my scope were on the deer, I could see antlers.

I fired, and the

deer disappeared.

The shot felt good, but the critter was gone from sight. Mike started up the skidder trail ahead of me. (I always let him go first as it makes him feel important.)

As he approached where the deer was standing when I shot, with me still 20 yards behind, he said simply, “Now look what you have gone and done!”

The buck had dropped right where it had stood.

I’m Certain Help Will Arrive Any Minute It now being 4 p.m. in Northern Maine, darkness was quickly approaching. I began to dress the deer out as Mike went back to get Norm and Jim to help drag it out. We were only about a mile from camp.

I finished my task, then waited for the guys. And waited. And waited.

What was taking them so long? I wondered. It was only a couple minutes ride to camp from where I was.

Finally, after total darkness and a chilling wind had settled in, I spotted the truck headlights coming along.

The author learned the downside having a reputation as a practical joker when he was left to fend for himself in the North Woods.

The Excuse I asked Mike (Island Boy) what on earth had taken them so long? He said the boys simply didn’t believe him. He tried to convince them. They wouldn’t move. Norm stayed in his jammies and Jim continued to munch on cheese and crackers. Mike tried his best to sound convincing, with no luck.

It was not until he loaded all the dragging gear and grabbed a lantern that the boys finally took notice.

Norm then threatened both Mike and me with serious bodily injury if

we were setting them up.

Mike again stated we had a deer down and needed help. Jim and Norm eventually geared up and followed along.

On returning home, and bemoaning to my wife the lack of trust exhibited by brother Norm and son Jim when Mike had asked for assistance, she simply said, “That’s no surprise – when you and Mike are together, you two do have a credibility issue!”

¶

www.MaineSportsman.com

50 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

It Takes a Good Ground Game for Eye-Level Bucks Early in my deer hunting life my feet never left the ground.

I hunted most of New England one step at a time. Then, oddly enough, about the same time I purchased my first compound

bow, tree stands caught my fancy.

Those initial forays often involved a lot of wandering followed by some persistent sitting. As I developed the skill to locate active deer runs and

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the patience to sit and wait for deer to come to me, my success ratio pointed north.

I’m a big believer in settling in and letting the deer make the first move in this outdoor chess match.

During my bow hunting years, I elevated my game using tree stands.

Eye in the Sky Tree stands offer lots of advantages. Having a bird’seye view of the forest below gives patient hunters a decided advantage. I also think swirling winds can at times be more forgiv-

ing. It presents close shots, too!

Readers know I like to analyze everything. My closest shot from a tree stand – a mere three yards. My longest shot from a tree stand – 21 yards.

My lifetime average from a tree stand using gun and bow – seven yards.

However, as I got older, I just plain decided I didn’t want to climb trees anymore.

A good friend of mine, Dick Freeman, got seriously hurt helping his neighbor take down a ladder stand.

To hear that my old bird-hunting buddy

was using a walker after back surgery grounded my future tree stand escapades.

Bishop’s Scale The big woods that make Jackman a legendary deer hunting destination lend themselves to grinding out a big buck at eye-level. Pros like Hal Blood conduct seminars for those looking to learn the finer points of tracking the wideracked bucks that can survive a Maine winter up here in the mountains.

Most local guides will admit that the (Continued on next page)

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������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 51 (Continued from page 50)

Jackman Region deer lack the eye-popping numbers that deer in the southern part of the state attain. But they stubbornly point to the scale at Bishop’s Store as the real barometer of big-bodied bucks and trophy caliber deer hunting.

The most famous scale in Jackman sees a parade of deer weighing over 200 pounds

field-dressed each year. Hunters beam with pride and immediately start the process of getting one of those “Biggest Bucks in Maine” patches issued by the Maine Sportsman magazine.

These patches have a loyal, almost cult-like following. Every year at the State of Maine Sportsman’s Show, I spend time in the booth chatting with readers and

show-goers. The most common question involves how to replace a worn or lost patch!

Many of the guides who advertise here on the pages of the Sportsman can help sportsmen attain their very own patch. Deer guides in the region rely on local intel, years of experience and an uncanny knack for putting a client in the right place at the right time.

“Pa Pa” Bud’s Advice Hunters looking to sharpen their ground game can take the individual tutoring that guides offer, and apply it to a lifetime of hunting trips. I remember the first bit of advice I received in deer camp over 40 years ago.

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some other natural object” to break up what he called the “man” outline. I used that advice to get my first and only patch. In fact, whenever I look for a spot to set up a blind, I still see the smoke rolling out his pipe.

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52 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

The Beaver and the Boundary Now it was an all-out sprint for the Canada border, about 150 yards through the alders, across a brook and over hummocks.

Clearly, this was going to be the real deal.

Due to the severity of the preceding winter in northern Maine, the last week of deer season in 1971 was curtailed by Commissioner Maynard Marsh. This allowed me the time to focus on other matters, and one piqued my curiosity. The folks at a “hippie commune” at the very end of the snow settlement road in Bridgewater had sent word that they wanted to see me concerning someone trapping on their property.

Game Wardens always seemed to have a fairly good relationship with these earthy settlers, as they didn’t kill things but rather grew them, including a little marijuana, but we didn’t pay much attention to that. The biggest problem we had was they sometimes let their dogs run loose, which ended up with the dogs chasing deer.

Early on a clear cold morning, I arrived at their homestead, which was located a stone’s throw from the Maine/New Brunswick border. I was led a couple of hundred yards down into the woods to a beaver flowage area.

There was no snow on the ground, but the beaver pond had frozen over enough to walk on. www.MaineSportsman.com

The poacher took off running across the ice. The Canada border – and his freedom – was only 150 yards away. I caught him and tackled him, but then I realized he was bigger than I was.

Traps Set Before the Season was Open My attention was directed to a couple of areas on the pond where it appeared there was some trapping activity. Beaver trapping season would not begin for another week, but the landowner wasn’t concerned with that – only that he didn’t want anyone to catch the beaver.

I examined a spot just on the upstream side of the dam where a small opening had been made and a #4 foothold trap was set in about six inches of water on the side of the dam. Subsequently, I located a pole protruding down through the ice about ten feet from the beaver house, which surely had another trap attached to it. Besides, it being closed season, both traps were set illegally and had no names attached to them.

I decided to stay there the rest of the day, so I retrieved my sleeping bag and other items from my truck and found a suitable location with some evergreen cover and good view of the area.

I stayed all day with no sign of anyone coming to check their traps, and had little entertainment except for a red squirrel that seemed very annoyed with my presence and

kept chattering at me.

After getting home and having some supper, I met up with Warden Roland Pelletier to work on illegal hunting activity in the Town of Dyer Brook, and didn’t get home until the wee hours of the morning. My plan for the next day was to get up early and get back to the beaver flowage in Bridgewater.

When I awoke in the morning, it was already after 7:00 a.m., and I was mad at myself for not being up earlier. I hurried out of the house and sped up the road from Littleton to Bridgewater.

Poacher with a Pole Axe Getting back to the flowage, I was quite relieved to find things unchanged, and I quickly took up my same observation spot.

The morning passed by uneventfully except that since I had not taken any time for breakfast, my stomach was growling, and the little snackpack of cheese crackers that I had wasn’t doing much for me.

Then, suddenly, at about 11:30 a.m., a tall man carrying a pole axe came up over the dam, momentarily looked around, and headed to the area of the trap near the beaver house. He chopped

the ice out and pulled up a # 4 trap that was set on a platform, and disconnected the trap from the pole.

I decided it was time to make my appearance and walked out onto the ice. The trapper looked a little stunned as I spoke to him and walked in his direction. As I got almost to him, I asked if he might put his axe down on the ice, which he did. I asked if he was having any luck and he replied, not today. I then inquired about his trapping license, and he produced a New Brunswick trapping license.

I informed him that he was in Maine, and furthermore beaver season was not yet open. He asked what was going to happen to him, and I told him I would have to arrest him as he was not an American citizen.

Hot Pursuit Immediately, the man bolted towards the dam, and in my attempt to grab him I slipped on the ice and fell hard on one knee.

As I was regaining my footing, he went over the dam, stating something to the effect of “You can kill me; I don’t care!” As I chased after him, I was aware that the boundary, a wide cut in the woods, was only about 150 yards away,

at the most.

What instantly came to mind was my first day on the job when my supervisor, Virgil Grant, sent me into the gas station in Monticello to get him a pack of Lucky cigarettes. I had on a new uniform, right out of the box, and while I was buying them, I was very aware of a couple of guys chewing on toothpicks and staring at me.

When I got back in the car and gave Virgil the smokes, he kind of grinned and asked me if those guys in the garage were looking me over. I replied yes, it seemed that way to me. Virgil said, they were looking you over and wondering if you were man enough to catch up with them and if so, would you be man enough to hang on. Then he chuckled a little, but I got the message – no doubt about that.

I found the secret to catching this guy was staying upright, as we both kept tripping. Once I almost had him when he fell, but I also fell and was a foot short of getting ahold of him as he was getting up. In all, I fell twice but he fell three times, and the last time I had gained enough to tackle him before he could regain his feet.

I could now see the boundary cut and also realized what a big strong guy this was.

I was 6’ 2”, about 200 (“True Tales” continued on page 54)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 53

2020 was a Fishing Season Like No Other When the icy weather arrives, and my fingers numb before I hook a fish, I hang up my fly rod for the year. Usually, this is mid-November in Maine. Then, as writers do, I take some time to reflect on the past fishing season, compare it to previous years, and jot down a few notes.

This habit has become entrenched as I grow older, and the number of seasons ahead of me become far fewer than the sum of seasons past.

Despite my best plans and intentions, every year deviates from my expectations in unanticipated ways.

2020 was a champion in this regard.

Covid-19, in combination with the severe summer-long drought, decimated my plans like a family of foxes getting into a chicken coop. And the birth of my first grandchild pleasantly disrupted what little semblance of a schedule remained. We cancelled travel plans, and I was forced to fish trout water unaffected by heat and drought, or pursue species that remained active, despite the conditions.

Avoiding Crowds I also avoided crowded boat ramps and popular waters.

I just didn’t want to deal with people whose presence would ruin the mojo of a relaxing fishing trip – too many not taking Covid seriously. I try not to

judge folks who risk their health more than I do – cigarette smokers, helmetless motorcyclists, life-jacketless anglers trolling at ice out, or the fearless free climbers and bungee jumpers. What they do is their business and it doesn’t affect me or my family. But when their decisions can shatter my health, it’s best to stay away.

For me, fishing familiar spots is as comforting as slipping on an old pair of slippers, but trying new or overlooked spots is more like trying on new clothes for the first time – often not a fit. Nevertheless, with favorite spots unavailable, necessity is the mother of invention, and I discovered new

ways to scratch my fishing itch.

Small Streams I did more smallstream fishing in alder and bramble-lined creeks or out-of-theway mountain stream headwaters than I had since I was a boy drifting worms with a Zebco. Although the summer was hot and dry, these spring-fed waters ran cold at more typical flows, and fish were active all day.

Wearing shorts and an old pair of hip boots, I rediscovered the simple joy of wandering up a small stream and eyeing what was around the next bend. A 3-weight rod, a spool of 5x tippet, and a cup with a few Royal Wulffs com-

pleted my ensemble.

Small-stream trout fishing is similar to river fishing, except everything is in miniature. A chute between two rocks might channel the flow into a run that is only a few feet long, a foot wide, and a foot deep – but if the surrounding creek water is only a few inches deep, a brookie (and just one) will stake out that territory. Often, that trout will hammer any fly as it drifts by. The trout are 4 to 8 inches long, with the occasional 10-inch monster, but they fight gallantly on a light rod and look like the earliest moments of a sunrise.

I enjoyed many of these outings with family. Some after-

noons, we caught only one or two trout, while other days they came right after another – but the numbers didn’t really matter. Each meander brought sanity, and the opportunity to see other aspects of the natural world – an orange Canadian lily, the flash of a scarlet tanager, or at dusk one evening, a baby black bear. (No, I didn’t see mama bear.)

Warmwater Quarry I also spent more time pursuing warmwater fish, and found them (in their own way) as compelling as my usual quarry of trout and salmon or bigger game fish such as stripers, steelhead, or bonefish.

(Continued on next page)

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54 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Freshwater Fly Fishing (Continued from page 53)

I watched bruiser smallmouth rising to a Hex hatch at dusk, but couldn’t hook any until I figured out they were taking the emerging nymphs instead of the duns. When I switched from a dry fly to a Maple Syrup nymph retrieved just under the surface, I hooked up with several overstuffed bass coughing up nymphs as they came to hand.

One late summer afternoon, a flying-ant hatch carpeted the surface of a pond – tiny black specks with gossamer wings. Saucer-sized sunfish with glowing yellow bellies rose like a pod of trout on the Madison River, took my ant imitations

with a sip, and fought me to a standstill for a bit when they turned their chunky bodies sideways to me.

I also explored a hydrilla-infested Florida pond where my daughter and new grandson live. I wedged myself into a kid’s kayak, casting a misplaced Black Ghost pattern I found in the car, and hooking what I thought at first, impossibly, was a small alligator. It turned out to be a bowfin, my first on a fly.

Home Waters In the last few years, my wife and I have traveled widely, and my end-of-season fishing memories have included stalking wary

Jackman Region (Continued from page 51)

boulders to back my butt against. The rougher the terrain behind me, the better. I like keeping the field of play in front.

Do-it-yourself hunters also have plenty of reason for optimism. The Jackman Region has plenty of room to roam. By mid-November it’s a good bet that at least a dusting of tracking snow will give away the whereabouts of even the cagiest whitetail.

Route 201 Corridor The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer belongs in every camp. Pages 39 and 40 offer a plethora of opportunities. Both sides of Route 201 from The Forks to

True Tales

(Continued from page 52)

pounds and 23 years old, but this guy was a little bigger and I could tell he worked for a living. We struggled there on the ground, as it was clear that he was not giving up. I had a good hold on him from behind and was trying to talk to him but got no response.

Resolution We were both out of breath, and several time he would relax, but when I would let up on my grip he would bewww.MaineSportsman.com

New Zealand browns, fighting Chilean pig rainbows, and floating a remote Idaho river for native cutthroats.

Closer to home, I noted a day in 2019 after a windy rainstorm, when a school of big brookies entered a high-traffic pool in Rangeley, and I was able to fish to them undisturbed because of downed trees blocking the access road.

This year, travel concerns dictated exploring waters closer to my new Sebago area home. And yet I experienced plenty of heart-thumping moments: My first lake trout landed casting a streamer while river wading. A four-pound brown towing my kayak around. A huge landlocked salmon that I tailed like a Mi-

Small streams produce fish that will put a big bend in a 3-weight rod.

ramichi Atlantic Salmon. And finally, fooling a local hold-over trout as picky as a Montana spring-creek brown.

Fly-fishing magazines and gear catalogs can corrupt your thinking until you believe that only by taking expensive trips for exotic species can you still get the pulse rac-

ing or learn anything new. This is tempting if you have fished and guided in Maine for over 35 years.

It took 2020 to remind me of the simple pleasures and to appreciate what I have closer to home. And I am not just talking about the fishing.

¶

the Canadian Border offer a smorgasbord of logging roads, mountains and water.

Topographical maps yield untold benefits, especially for the hunter who didn’t have the luxury of time afield doing some pre-scouting. Studying the contour lines can help locate real estate that funnels deer between bedding and feeding areas.

I still like using paper maps, especially for the “macro” view, and I don’t leave home without one. Same goes for my electronic GPS – I don’t go anywhere without it. I happen to use Garmin Earthmate loaded on my smart phone. Great for detail work and tracking.

Any good hunter knows to play the wind. Deer have that super-sensitive

nose, so if the wind shifts, it’s usually game over. Many hunters use scent blocking technology found in certain soaps and detergents, and by using ozone generators.

A long time ago, when I was backed up to a head-tall pine sapling, I decided to peel off a patch of bark and rub a little pine pitch here and there. A nice buck never winded the source of that 12-gauge slug.

Ever since, I’ve leaned towards natural scents. One acreage I hunt has a few old apple trees on the property. I always make sure to step on an apple or two before heading out.

A good ground game can put astute hunters eye-level with the buck of a lifetime.

gin to struggle again. Running through my mind was “How is this going to end up?” – maybe I should pull out my revolver and smack him in the head with it but I didn’t want to let loose of him long enough to do that. Besides, I didn’t really want to do that. But, on the other hand I couldn’t let him get the best of me, as survival could hang in the balance, so that was not going to be an option.

Finally, I told him if I could get my handcuffs on him, I could get him to Houlton in time for lunch at the jail.

That seemed to have some effect on

him, and I managed to get the cuffs on.

Getting to my feet, I gave myself a once-over for damage and saw that I had torn my trousers in three places, skinned the side of my face, and the back side of my right hand was bleeding a little, but overall I was very relieved.

As I glanced at the boundary cut, the guy was now telling me how sorry he was and that he was such a fool.

Then he asked if I could do him a favor and tie up his boot lace. I declined.

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������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 55

The Lure Du Jour I used to wonder why fishing tackle manufactures were constantly coming out with new styles, shapes, patterns and colors. After all, the established lures always took fish, so why fix them if they weren’t broken?

The comparison to auto manufacturers came to mind. Each year, manufacturers compete with each other to introduce new, more exciting models, not because there was anything wrong with previous models, but in order to sell more vehicles.

It’s kind of the same for fishing lures.

Tried-and-true lures such as copper Mooselook Wobblers, redand-white Dardevles, Trout Magnets, Al’s Goldfish, DB Smelts, Super-Dupers and Kastmasters continue to work their magic.

But sometimes, a new twist on an old theme causes trout to respond in a big way.

Often, having that red-hot lure-of-themoment can spell the difference between success and failure.

In the case of trolling lures, color and pattern change can greatly increase a lure’s efficacy.

Green Killer Here’s an example of how having the “lure du jour” can make all the difference in the world. During a recent trip to Moosehead Lake, my fishing buddy used a copper Mooselook Wobbler

Colored smelt, from Hermon Brook Farm Baits.

with a green panel attached to the front.

Togue went mad for it.

In fact, it was the only thing they would take that day.

I didn’t have any lures with green on them, because of a foolish notion that green would make a lure look like it had algae on it and thus, put fish off. Boy, was I wrong.

A few years ago, Mooselooks in their “Wonderbread” pattern sold so fast that dealers had difficulty keeping their shelves stocked. This pattern has a white body with red, blue and yellow polka-dots, just like its namesake. Salmon, especially, preferred this lure above all others.

It remains an excellent choice, but during the first two years, it was the best fish-catcher on the water.

Another color scheme that took off like a rocket, fluorescent yellow and orange, half-and-half, going the length of the lure, beat all rivals. This, too, was king for a season. Orange-and-yel-

New, colorful lures seem to have one fleeting season of success and fame before being replaced by the next generation of hot lures.

low still takes plenty of fish, but it, too, was eclipsed by other color schemes.

Fifteen Minutes My pal Bob Lawrence, sporting lodge owner in Rockwood, has a saying that I have mentioned here before. “Try a new lure for 15 minutes, and if fish don’t hit it, change lures.” That has saved me countless hours of trolling with the same lure without success.

The point here is that while persistence pays in many endeavors, persevering with the same lure all day can leave the angler at a decided disadvantage. If you believe fish are present but they just won’t bite, keep changing offerings until you find something they will bite.

It’s a simple thing, but sometimes we just don’t feel like reeling in and changing lures.

Even so, do it anyway.

This idea of fish responding to different colors or patterns also works with lures meant for casting. One of my favorite trout lures, Trout Mag-

net, exemplifies this concept wonderfully. These two-parted lures, a jighead and a plastic body, come in different colors. The heads are either silver or gold, and the bodies are offered in dozens of choices, including bright Day-Glo. Often, fish in a stream stop biting on my first choice of silver head and black body. The simple act of changing either head or body color has the effect of making the thing a whole new lure, at least in a trout’s mind. It amazes me how the simple expedient of exchanging a black body for one of red, glowing green or pink, can inspire savage hits.

Baitfish, Too This idea of changing colors even applies to baitfish. Specifically, Harmon Brook Farm Baits has introduced some new colors to its line of preserved smelt. Just when you thought a smelt was a smelt was a smelt, John Whelan has come up with an exotic-looking smelt that works

wonders.

John’s smelt come in a resealable pouch that holds his product in some of his own brand of preservative.

Recently, he began offering smelt in blue and pink. This season has seen interest, on the part of salmon, in pink. Years ago, anglers would have disparaged the thought of using colored smelt, but now, with preconceived notions falling like leaves in autumn, we eagerly embrace new and exciting offerings.

One of the things I like about these preserved smelt is that they can be re-used.

Just place the smelt back in the plastic pouch with the special solution, pop it back in the freezer and it is good to go for another outing.

Who would have thought that while we always knew changing lures could up our chances of a strike, the same might also apply to baitfish?

Worm Dunking The concept of changing style or color even applies to worms.

When trout refuse to accept nightcrawlers, they may well fall for a single garden worm, hooked only once and fished in a natural manner, without weight. Or try growing worms in red brick dust -- they’ll take on the red color.

Above all, keep trying, and keep changing.

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56 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

New Regulations On Tap for Moosehead Togue, Brook Trout The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIF&W) has proposed some major changes to fishing rules in Moosehead Lake.

These would also apply to Moose River and East Outlet.

Two topics highlight the proposed new fishing regulations.

These center around Moosehead Lake’s massive brook trout and the lake’s abundant togue.

First, let’s consider togue. The department has concerns that the togue population has rebounded too successfully after the drastic measures that were imposed a few years back to limit togue numbers and free up the forage base for other salmonids.

Control methods included 1) lowering the lake level just after togue spawning season, a move designed to kill fertilized eggs and do away with

an entire year-class of togue; 2) instituting a more liberal bag limit; and 3) starting an annual wintertime togue derby, where participants are encouraged to catch and kill their fish.

These combined tools worked. Some anglers were skeptical, since togue fishing was so red-hot that an angler could easily catch a dozen togue in only a few hours.

My experience in the pre-togue-reduction days showed that lots of 14- to 18-inch fish were present in abundance. Larger fish, too, showed up as well. It was fast and fun fishing. I secretly feared that the drastic, reduction methods would severely harm the togue fishery. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the fishery benefitted.

Short-Lived It appears the effects of the togue reduction were short-lived.

Creel census reports

and angler records indicate an abundance of immature togue in the big lake. While that on its face seems like a reasonable course of events, DIF&W believes that keeping the current 14-inch minimum length limit on togue in place could be “problematic.” Read that to mean that more togue in Moosehead Lake could result in increased competition for smelt, something that would affect growth and condition of both togue and salmon.

So the proposed regulations would allow for increased harvest of juvenile togue – those individuals under 14 inches. That should help maintain the togue/smelt/salmon balance.

At present, togue fishing in Moosehead Lake ranks as quite good. I recently lost a huge togue when the hook just pulled out.

After that, I landed a 4-pound togue. And before that, my friend Andy Collar caught a 14-pound togue in the big lake. If culling small togue from the lake would make such fishing even better, we could probably experi-

Santa Claus and his monster Moosehead brookie.

While Santa is holding the fish out in front of him, it’s still clear this is a 5-pound-plus brookie. Photo: Eric Holbrook.

ence fantastic fishing.

Brook trout, though, rank as the real headliners. Over the last few years, anglers, both open-water and ice-fishing, have regularly taken 4-pound-plus brook trout. This is a new fishery, and the reason for it has yet to be conclusively established.

DIF&W surmises that the increase in minimum length on brook trout from 12 to 14 inches, initiated in 2006, may be responsible. However, natural

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occurrences, yet unrecognized, might also explain this unprecedented growth.

Brook trout fishing in Moosehead Lake, as I have mentioned for some time in these pages, ranks right up there with some of the Canadian lakes. It certainly is the absolute best in New England.

Fish of this size were often seen up through the early years of the 20th century, but after that, trophy fish became fewer and further between. In order to perpetuate this amazing brook trout fishery, DIF&W has proposed a number of new regulations.

Proposed Regulations Open water. All brook trout between 18 and 22 inches must be re(Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 57 (Continued from page 56)

leased alive at once.

No minimum length limit on togue. Only 1 togue may be greater than 18 inches. Daily bag limit on togue: 5 fish.

Ice fishing. All brook trout between 18 and 22 inches must be released alive at once.

No minimum length limit on togue. Daily bag limit on togue: 5 fish. Closed to the tak-

ing of landlocked salmon until February 15: S-22; minimum length on landlocked salmon: 18 inches. From January 1-February 14 and from April 1 – April 30, all landlocked salmon must be released alive without removal from the water. From April 1 – April 30: All brook trout caught while ice fishing must be released alive without removal from the wa-

ter.

Closing Lily Bay Narrows to Ice Fishing DIF&W has concerns that ice-fishing pressure on late-spawning brook trout in the narrows is taking too many trophy fish out of the lake.

Angler pressure in winter has increased many-fold during the last several years. The closure would go from

the northern boundary, a line just south of Porcupine Point to Laker Point, to the southern boundary, a line from Sugar Island just west of Dollar Island, to the Lily Bay State Park boundary.

Note that the Lily Bay closure is just for the winter. The 18- 22inch protective slot is for both seasons, and also covers Moose River and East Outlet.

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In Summary Fisheries biologists believe the extra level of protection afforded brook trout in Moosehead Lake will protect 3- to 5-pound fish, and might result in more trout over 5 pounds over the next few years, thereby sustaining the fishery.

Let’s all hope these regulations will have the desired effect.

¶

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58 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Hunt Coastal Lands for Deer, Bear and Turkeys This year, thousands of hunters applied for the 109,890 any-deer permits that were issued statewide.

According to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIF&W) biologists, this number reflects a hefty increase in the availability of anydeer permits in most of Maine’s Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs).

An examination of Delorme’s Maine Atlas, Maps 15, 23, and 25, should help hunters select prime deer-hunting habitat.

A high deer-density exists in the Downeast forest and farmlands between Routes 1 and the Atlantic Ocean.

Deer are plentiful near the less-traveled roads that branch off this major highway.

In WMD 26, where I live, 725 any-deer permits were issued, and another 145 bonus permits were issued in sub-unit 26a.

In the towns of Bucksport and Castine, deer are so numerous that both towns have an expanded archery season. Where I’ve seen two or three deer in past years, I am seeing four, five and even

Kasey Findlay’s black bear sow weighted 330 pounds, field dressed.

Flanking the trophy are Kasey (left) and his uncle, Eric Mitchell.

six deer per field.

Fortunately for me, my wife Donna recently obtained an oceanside property in Penobscot. Several of my newly-acquired friends in the area have given me permission to hunt on their woodlots. I will definitely be spending many waking hours looking for bucks on these properties.

WMD Statistics, 2019 Annual figures published by DIF&W list the 2019 deer harvest, and show that numerous towns in WMDs 26 and 26a tagged close to, or more than, 100 deer last year. These towns

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Two birds with one shot -- Mike Weaver (left) and 13-year-old Brody Weaver (right) with Brody’s two turkeys, each weighing more than 20 lbs.

include Bucksport (160), Orrington (136), Orland (101) and Penobscot (97).

The coastal habitat of WMD 27 contains hundreds of acres of hayfields, blueberry fields and cultivated farmlands, with an ample amount of prime cover to sustain an ever-increasing deer herd.

The towns in WMD 27 also showed an increase in last year’s deer harvest. Some of the top deer kills occurred in the towns of Addison (79), Milbridge (65) and Harrington (76). Areas where prime deer habitat exist are found along the Georgetown Woods Road, Map 25, D-4. Other areas

that contain pockets of deer are located in the coastal area along East Shore Road in Addison, Map 25, E-5.

November Bear Hunters may also take bear during the regular deer hunting seasons without the use of hounds or bait.

Fall bear hunters may hunt until November 28, 2020. Master Maine Guide Joe Rego of Prospect suggests that a good bet for hunters looking for bear this time of year would be in the North Orland area. Bear may still be out devouring their fill of acorns. The hilly, oak-covered terrain near Bald Mountain and Big Hill (Map 23, D-4) are also excellent locations to hunt

bear.

Speaking of bear hunting, Thirteenyear-old Kasey Scott Findlay of East Orland shot his very first bear while sitting over a bait with his uncle, Eric Mitchell. They got into their stand at 4:30 pm on Tuesday September 1st. The two hunters got settled into a two-seat, 16’ tree stand roughly 15 yards from the bait site. They could hear movement throughout the evening just out of view, but nothing showed up!

At about 7:20 a 400 lb. sow came in for a sweet snack of trail mix and cake frosting.

At 7:25 Kasey pulled the trigger of his rifle, hitting the bear in the neck. It dropped; however, the bear righted herself and bolted for the woods. Kasey jacked another shell into the chamber of his Savage 270 and let another 150 grain, corelock bullet fly, knocking the big bear down for good.

The bear was tagged at Snowman’s Grocery store in Orland, and weigh in at 330 lbs. dressed – an absolute trophy bear for any grown-up, much less a first kill for Kasey. Congratulations, Kasey.

Coastal Turkey Hunting The dates for the 2020 fall-turkey season were expanded.

This fall’s season began September 14, and ends November 7, 2020 for shotgun (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 59

— Guest Column —

Dear Grandson

by Randy Randall In 1961, Corey Ford’s “Letter to a Grandson” appeared for the first time in Field & Stream. In it, Judge Parker writes to his newborn grandson and tells him about the joys of hunting and fishing, and the fraternity of hunters and fishermen the Judge hopes the boy will come to know.

I think of Mr. Ford’s piece now, because I’ve had a similar experience. In my case, the grandson is a bit older, and it was my pleasure to buy him his first fishing pole. I wrote a letter to go with it.

Dear Morgen, Here it is your birthday, and I’m pleased to give you your first fishing pole.

Every child needs a fishing rod of their own. This one is a Zebco just about your size.

I think every kid starts fishing with his or her trusty Zebco.

You may remember I grew up on a farm, and when we kids went fishing in the pasture brook, we used an alder branch for a pole and a bit of mother’s sewing thread for the

line.

Eventually I graduated to a telescoping steel rod with a bait-casting reel. When the bushes alongside the stream were especially thick, I collapsed the steel rod while I sneaked through the underbrush, and when it was time to fish I pushed the pieces of the rod way out so my hook could reach the water.

I had great time fishing when I was a boy, and I hope you will too. All you need is a few garden worms and a red and white bobber, and you’ll be in business. This is just the rig for catching sunfish off the dock at the camp. With it, you can cast a red and white devil and catch scrappy pickerel. At the beaver bog, you can stand on the dam and throw out a worm under a bobber and catch brookies. Back on the lake, you can troll a copper colored Mooselook Wobbler and catch white perch or crappie. You might even latch into a humongous smallmouth bass.

That’s the fun of fishing and being out

Downeast Report (Continued from page 58)

or bow hunters. In WMD 28, two wild turkeys of either sex may be harvested, with a three wild turkeys bag limit in WMD 26 and a one turkey bag limit in WMD 27. So if you get your deer the first couple of days of the season, you can turkey hunt for the rest of the week.

November turkey hunting adds one more outstanding activity to my fall schedule. WMD 26 offers prime turkey habitat from the coastal waters of Blue

The fishing careers of many Maine anglers began with a Zebco rod and spincast reel.

The author hopes his grandson’s new rod, accompanied by this inspirational letter, will propel the boy to a lifetime of appreciation for the outdoors.

on the water – you never know what might happen. When the mackerel are running in the bay, you can throw a shiny Kastmaster and catch loads. Those mackerel put up a good fight on light tackle.

The wonderful thing about going after all these fish is that they live in the nicest places, and they come out at some of the best times of the day – that is to say, in the early morning and the early evening.

You won’t think much about it now, but this little fishing rod is like a key, a magic key that I hope will unlock a beautiful

natural world, where you will see and experience everything that nature has to show us.

I’m well aware young people today are far different from when I was child.

They have so many diversions and entertainments and ways to communicate, it’s a wonder they ever see a sunrise.

It seems to me kids today spend an awful lot of time indoors; whereas we spent all our spare time roaming the fields and the woods and the streams on the farm. Nowadays, people seem to fear the woods and the wilds. They become anxious and agitated when there’s no cell phone signal and no traffic or pavement.

It seems like they’d rather watch someone fishing on TV then go fishing themselves.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The woods and mountains and fields and swamps and ocean are still there, and you can still find fish to catch.

This fishing pole is just the start. As you grow older maybe you’ll want to get out on the pond alone

Hill and Stonington to East Eddington and Orrington. Refer to DeLorme’s pages 15, 23 and 25, and see a detailed map of the districts in Maine’s official hunting regulation book. Some other top-notch hunting areas to pursue turkeys lie within the boundaries of WMD 27.

Thinking of turkey hunting reminds me of a turkey-hunting accomplishment I learned about last spring.

Thirteen-year-old Brody Weaver hunted with his dad, Mike Weaver, on Youth Day, 2020. They were guided by Maine Master Guide Joe Rego of Prospect. Brody practiced all week shooting

and fish by yourself so you’ll learn how to paddle a canoe or row a boat. Maybe you’ll take your rod and go fishing with friends.

Those are some of the best times, when the fish are biting and buddies catch fish together. The more you go fishing, the more you will see and learn, and you’ll meet interesting people who also enjoy the sport.

Eventually, you will outgrow this little Zebco and move on to fly rods and surf rods and open face reels, but I hope you never lose the joy and excitement of having a live fish on the line.

It seems like I’m asking a whole lot from a rather small fishing rod, but this is how you get started on an adventure that lasts a lifetime.

I hope to be there to share some of these adventures with you, and maybe pass along a few tips or even spin a story or two.

Every grandfather, I think, wishes the same things for his grandson or granddaughter. Let’s go fishin’!

¶

his double barrel 20-gauge.

On the day of their hunt, Joe put them in position near the woods and began calling with his crystal (friction call) and his mouth call.

About twenty minutes later, responsive gobbling started up. Two gigantic toms came strutting over the hill. Brody fired one shot and got both of the turkeys. The larger one weighed 24.2 lbs. and the smaller one was 20.4 lbs.

This, I’d say, was a pretty successful first-time turkey hunt for a 13-yearold.

¶

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60 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Are Huge Electric and Diesel Outboards the Future of Powerboating?

Outboard motors continue to evolve on an almost daily basis, and believe it or not, the “new” 4-stroke gas outboards that we all love may become obsolete over the next decade.

There are a few small electric outboards already on the market, the most notable of which are produced by a company called Torqeedo, which offers models from 1 hp to 80 hp. However, larger motors have posed design and battery systems challenges, but that’s about to change.

Evoy, a Norwegian company specializing in electric marine propulsion systems, plans to introduce a 150-hp outboard in the first quarter of 2021.

The firm is working with two other companies, Hurtigruten and

Evoy, a Norwegian company, expects to introduce a 150-hp electric outboard motor in the next 18 months. The company is also working on 300-hp and 450-hp models.

Frydenbo Marine, to develop and market the battery-powered motor.

The new outboard will be 100% emission-free, and will initially be designed to produce 115 hp to power Zodiac’s Milpro MARK 5 inflatable, the standard for the exploration cruise industry that works in the Arctic regions. The motor will, therefore,

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have to meet critical requirements for cold weather operation.

The higher-power consumer model, says Evoy, will be equivalent to a 150-hp gasoline outboard.

Hurtigruten, which operates 15 cruise ships that visit the polar regions, is enthusiastic. “Our goal is to operate 100% emissions-free,” said Karin Strand, a Vice-Presi-

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dent at Hurtigruten.

“We will lead the way towards a more sustainable tourist industry, and nothing will be more natural than to use electric propulsion, which will include our smaller boats. We look forward to getting started and to see how this works with our usage patterns, the arctic temperatures, and, of course, our custom-

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ers.”

Frydenbo Marine is a family-owned company based in Bergen, Norway, with 550 employees that distributes Evinrude, Sting and Zodiac products to a network of dealers in Norway.

There’s no word yet on the projected cost of the outboard, the battery system that will be required, or the expected run times for the motor. Regardless, Evoy is accepting pre-orders for the 150hp engine now, and is also working on developing 300-hp and 450-hp outboard models, with pre-ordering available in 2022 and 2024 respectively.

More information is available on their website, evoy.no/outboard.

Get your checkbook out!

Diesels Installed on Sportfisher The introduction of production diesel outboards into the U.S. consumer market has been eagerly anticipated for years, and it’s finally happened. Cox Powertrain, a British firm, first developed a 300-hp model a year or more back, and has now installed two of its CX0300 production engines on a 34-foot Intrepid 345 center console.

Ring Power, a large Florida-based marine propulsion company, will initially be handling the new motors in the U.S. “The (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 61 (Continued from page 60)

production CXO300 engines are everything we expected and more,” said Royal Hendrix, Sales and Marketing Specialist for Ring Power. “We cannot believe how refined they are. The engines are smoother, quieter, faster, and more responsive that the predecessor. Along with the performance enhancements, the cowlings look great. We continue to be amazed after every trip on the water.”

Ring Power has plans to offer a demonstration road show of the CXO300 in Florida within the next few months. Additional information is found on their website, equipment.ringpower.com/ cox-marine.

Evinrude Ceases Production As Maine Sportsman readers first learned from Jon Lund’s recent “Jottings” column (see “Outboard Motors I Have Known,” August 2020), Evinrude stopped manufacturing outboard motors in mid-summer. Citing reduced demand due to Covid-19, the Bombardier Recreational Products-owned brand halted production of all outboard models, but the parent compa-

ny has promised it will honor all warranties for their duration, and will continue to produce parts for another 10 years.

Evinrude is America’s iconic outboard motor brand, dating back to 1909 when Ole Evinrude introduced the first 1.5 hp rowboat model designed to replace a pair of oars.

The company was a leader for decades, but difficulties with emerging 2-stroke technologies, and the introduction of competing 4-stroke motors in the 1990s, caused a dramatic drop in market share. Evinrude never joined the 4-stroke crowd, but instead developed its 2-stroke E-TEC technology that has gone toe-to-toe with the 4-strokes in every respect.

Bombardier says that they have entered into an agreement with Mercury outboards to “support boat packages and supply outboards to (Mercury’s) boat brands,” although details have yet to be announced. Personally, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Evinrude’s fine E-TEC engines.

Will Evinrude rise again, perhaps painted shiny black? Stay tuned.

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62 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

November Features Deer, Mackerel and River Trout Here’s a way to tell if an area has a good, huntable whitetailed deer population – drive around and look at people’s garden spots. If the gardens are surrounded by tall fencing or electric fencing, then it’s likely that the gardener has a deer problem.

Such problems represent bad news for gardeners, but good news for hunters. To that end, Midcoast gardens, with the exception of in-town gardens, usually have fencing around them.

Also, while it’s near-impossible to tell when going at highway speeds, try slowing down when there is no traffic and look for crossings. These are often very obvious. And if you wish to scope out a new area, walk along the road shoulder and look for tracks. Here in Midcoast Maine, it’s difficult to walk very far without seeing deer tracks.

I’d venture to say that any of these techniques, when employed in the Midcoast region, will demonstrate a healthy deer population. Of course having lots of deer around doesn’t guarantee getting a shot, but it certainly helps to know that game is present.

Thanksgiving Mackerel One of my favorite November traditions used to be fishing for www.MaineSportsman.com

All signs point to a healthy deer population in the Midcoast Region this season, and the author tells readers how to find them. harbor pollock from docks and floats in Penobscot Bay. But last year marked the third year in a row that not one single pollock responded.

Surprisingly, mackerel have supplanted pollock, at least in the places I frequent.

Consider last November. Fishing in Lincolnville with my pal Dave Small, Dave got a bite on his first cast. It was a decent fish and fought well, so we were sure it was a large pollock. Imagine our surprise when Dave flipped a 14inch mackerel up on the float. As it turned out, a huge school of mackerel had taken up residence near the float, and while we never caught a pollock, we had fantastic action on mackerel. I always bring as large a cooler as I can easily carry, and since Dave was out for pollock and therefore he didn’t care to take any mackerel home, my cooler filled up pretty fast.

No one has offered any explanation as to why harbor pollock have changed their habits, or why mackerel linger far longer than they did in past years. Oh, some mackerel, especially the largest ones, would traditionally stay around floats and

The Author and a November-caught trout.

docks until well into November, but not in the numbers Dave and I saw last fall. It remains a mystery.

Of course this situation might be specific to the upper regions of Penobscot Bay. To my knowledge, pollock continue to flock to in-shore regions in fall in other parts of the coast. My thought on the matter is that the shallower upper bay now sees warmer water in fall, and that causes mackerel to linger. But as for pollock, these fish are present in summer, so why should warmer fall water temperatures cause them to leave prematurely? I’ll hit the water again this month and see if the trend continues.

Trout Fishing My love of fishing

often outweighs my desire to hunt, especially on those often-balmy November days when the still air prompts me to dig out my fishing gear. Fall fishing has become an established outdoor activity in the Midcoast region, and nothing could please me more.

This new “extra” season comes compliments of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIF&W), which works steadily at supplying new fishing opportunities for Maine anglers.

Our DIF&W routinely stocks fall-yearling (12- to 14-inch) trout in streams that have little or no naturally occurring trout populations.

Also note that some of these fall-stocked trout, both brook and brown trout, often exceed the average size for fall yearlings, and 16-inch fish and larger often come to the net.

The cool water of autumn energizes these trout, and they always put up a terrific battle.

Three Midcoast rivers, Megunticook River, Medomak River and St. George River, remain open yearround. My favorites are Megunticook River and Medomak River. Megunticook River sees the least amount of fishing pressure,

which accounts for my fondness of it.

DIF&W stocks Megunticook River with both rainbow and brook trout, while Medomak and St. George Rivers see stockings of brown and brook trout. One more Midcoast river will become a year-round river very soon, and we’ll read more about that in the next column.

Meanwhile, don’t put that fishing gear away just yet.

Drought Effects A lingering drought has lowered groundwater levels this summer – not good news for native trout in our small streams. However, trout are more durable than we might imagine, and while an extended drought can affect populations, there always seem to be enough left to re-populate the stream. Also, spring holes, even relatively shallow ones, can hold great numbers of trout during times of low water, so even if we see fewer fish next season, a fishable population will remain.

The drought has a more indirect effect on streams and rivers that depend upon fish stocking. If water levels remain too low for stocked fish to survive, DIF&W postpones stocking until water levels rise to acceptable levels.

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������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 63

Game Cameras For the sportsman who regularly uses game cameras to track the movements of deer and other game animals, there is no arguing that they are extremely effective tools.

Here in Central Maine, proper positioning and use of these devices have over the years put me in front of deer time and time again.

As deer tend to be creatures of habit, frequently their movements can be predicted. It certainly isn’t an exact science; however, these devices can take the guesswork out of when to hunt and when not to hunt a particular location.

A few years ago, I noted that a large doe was walking through a section of my property in the afternoon between 5 and 6 p.m. every two to three days.

The camera showed no sign of the deer moving through at any time other than this narrow window. Positioning my climbing stand in a tree about 20 yards from this thoroughfare, I was not entirely surprised when the doe walked right past my stand at 5:45 pm on the second day of my sit.

When planning hunts with youth hunters, many of whom lack the ability to sit for more than a few hours, game cameras are invaluable.

Why sit in a stand in the morning, if the deer are only being seen on camera in the evening? If deer are

Game cameras that must be visited in-person to retrieve images have gained widespread acceptance.

But what about the latest technology – cameras that transmit photos to your cellphone while you sit comfortably in your camp or home? At least one state believes these remote-monitored cameras tip the scales too much in the hunter’s favor, and have banned them during the season. And the skullscoring organizations, Boone & Crockett, and Pope & Young, have also weighed in. only coming through at 9 a.m. why get up at the crack of dawn and sit for hours in the cold? Using modern game cameras to precisely pinpoint deer movements allows hunters to put deer in the crosshairs much more effectively than any previous scouting technology.

Remotely Monitored Game Cameras One of the biggest advances in game cameras has occurred over the last few years with the invention of remotely monitored game cameras. These devices allow sportsmen to receive instant notification to their cell phone when the camera is triggered.

Hunters no longer have to disrupt an area with scent or sound to alert deer or other game animals to their presence. Instead, camera settings can be changed, battery life monitored and photographs received in real-time from the comfort of camp or home.

While this “real time” data can provide a distinct advantage for sportsmen, some

The latest generation of trail cameras takes photos of deer and then transmits them over a cellular network directly to the hunter’s smartphone.

Lawmakers in Montana have banned the use of these “remote scouting cameras” during the hunting season.

states have made the use of these devices illegal for hunting.

Laws, Other States Some state lawmakers believe game cameras give hunters an unfair advantage.

The state of Montana, for example, has made “remote scouting camera” use illegal during the hunting season.

A Montana wildlife law enforcement official confirmed the driving force behind the law was “for fair chase reasons, not game management

reasons.”

That state’s regulation reads as follows: “It is illegal for a person to possess or use in the field any electronic or camera device whose purpose is to scout the location of game animals or relay the information on a game animal’s location or movement during any Commission-adopted hunting season.”

Fair Chase and Ethics Probably no one spends more time on deciding what is fair chase and what is not than the Boone and Crockett Club and the Pope and Young Club.

According to the presidents of both B&C and P&Y, on the issue of fair chase, neither has any issue with the use of traditional trail cameras that require hunters to visit the camera site to retrieve data cards or film.

However, both organizations oppose the use of cameras that transmit images directly to a location where they may be viewed by a hunter.

In fact, animals taken with the use of a direct transmit camera are not eligible for in-

clusion in their record books.

B&C provided this statement: “Trophies taken with the use of trail cameras, including scouting, are eligible for entry in B&C, but only if the hunter has to manually remove film and/ or a card from the trail camera itself to retrieve the images.

Trophies taken with the use of trail cameras, including scouting, that transmit images to a computer/base station for viewing, are not eligible for entry in B&C.” High Tech Remotely Monitored Game Cameras There’s no question that properly used game cameras put many deer on the ground. Sportsmen’s chances of success increase even more dramatically when they employ the remotely monitored game camera technology.

The CreativeXP 3G Cellular Trail Camera ($299.27 on Amazon) is among the highest-rated remote game cameras on the market. The camera operates on the AT&T data network and provides a data plan allowing 1,500 photos for only $8.

Fair, or unfair?

Unless the Maine legislature acts to limit the use of remotely monitored game cameras, the decision is left up to each individual hunter.

¶

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64 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Tom and Rene Team Up for Whitetail Deer Success I caught movement to my right, and a beautiful eight-pointer skirted the slope looking back in Rene’s direction. He kept trotting slowly, always watching his backtrack. It was educational for me to watch a deer trying to outwit a hunter.

Opening day of deer season in 2019 saw my usual hunting partner Rene Lavoie and joining me in our favorite deer spot. We have hunted this area for over 30 years, so we know the escape routes, hiding spots and general habits of the deer. Or so we thought! That Saturday opener was a bust, but we would be back.

The following Saturday, armed with a Superpack any-deer permit, I told Rene I wanted to harvest a small doe for the good eating it would bring.

Rene said he was holding out for a large buck.

We started our hunt, a series of leapfrog moves meant to get the deer moving.

First, I would go to my ambush spot, then he would work his way toward me. This technique has worked for us many times in the past, but this day we were still striking out.

On the third spot we pushed, Rene never saw the deer, but he pushed a plump button-buck – that I assumed was a doe – right at me. One shot brought it down, and I had meat for the freezer.

The following Saturday, we were back to our old tricks. I still www.MaineSportsman.com

had the ability to tag a buck, so I was glad to be able to hunt with Rene. He was still holding out for a buck, a big buck, he said.

It had snowed the night before, so we had fresh snow – always a plus. We worked our usual first spot and were encouraged by all the tracks we saw.

It seemed a herd of deer was working the ground eating acorns.

The snow was patchy under the tree canopy, so it was hard to track them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t determine a direction, but we decided to work that patch of woods in our usual way.

I made a wide circle and got into position above where an old dirt roadbed existed decades ago. Rene pushed toward me.

Generally, the deer funnel toward the roadbed and afford shot.

My radio crackled, and Rene softly told me to be alert, as he saw more tracks headed my way. Although I know I should remain still, I always find myself shifting about, moving leaves and twigs to soften my standing spot. I just can’t help myself!

I expected to see deer galloping through the woods any moment.

Instead, after a several long minutes. Rene radioed that he was at “his rock” and I should move toward him, the last leg of the push.

I had two options – work toward him through a relatively sparce stand of birch, or push through a horrendously thick patch of Japanese knotweed, raspberry whips and snarls of all sorts. I knew the deer get into that thick stuff and hold tight until you almost step on them, so I opted for the hard push. I radioed this to Rene, and he answered back, “Have fun.”

Going through the knotweed was easy, I just bulled my way through it, making as much noise as I could, hoping the deer would squirt out where Rene was waiting. Nothing.

Now I had to go through the thick stuff. In the past I’ve managed to drop a GoPro camera, my belt knife and my seat cushion because of the whips and branches that tugged at me as I forged through it.

On all those occasions, I had to retrace my steps to find my missing items.

I started to circle toward Rene when I heard a buck snort and saw a huge deer angle away from where I

Rene Lavoie of Lewiston shows off his 2019 eight-pointer taken while hunting with the author. Photo by Tom Roth

knew Rene was. Then all hell broke loose. An uncountable number of deer erupted from my left and bounced in all directions. I waited for Rene to shoot, but no shots were taken. I made my way to him, and we compared notes.

He never saw the buck, but heard it crash away. He saw at least three deer hightail it in the opposite direction at warp speed.

I wanted one of us to get a crack at that buck, so we hatched a plan. We knew roughly where it went, so Rene started at one spot with me capping the other side of the woods. I told him by radio when I was in position.

He started his push, and immediately told me to get ready, as he’d cut the buck’s

track.

After what seemed like an eternity, I caught movement to my right, and a beautiful eight-pointer skirted the slope looking back in Rene’s direction. I wanted Rene to get a shot at him, so I watched him with my scope. He kept trotting slowly, always watching his backtrack. I thought how educational it was to watch a deer trying to outwit a hunter.

After a few moments of watching this deer elude Rene, I decided to shoot him. I wasn’t certain Rene would be able to get in range, as this boy was on high alert.

As I raised my rifle, he saw my movement and turned to bolt away. I squeezed off one round, aiming for his back as he (“Sebago to Auburn” continued on page 67)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 65

Out-of-State Hunters Should Check Maine Public Lands This Season The author recommends scouting and hunting public lands, where you will find plenty of deer, but you won’t find “No Hunting” signs.

This year I lost one of my favorite hunting locations in Wakefield, New Hampshire – the landowner decided to post her land. I’d bowhunted that forest for over 20 years and had deer patterns figured out. The area was perfect – it was a short drive from my home in Shapleigh, parking and access were available from many different directions so I could enter with the wind in my face, and it had swamps and hardwoods with year-round water sources.

I have good relationships with landowners here in Shapleigh, my hometown, and at my home in Freedom N.H., and as a result have many private properties to hunt, including some where I have exclusive hunting rights. Hunters new to the area or DIY hunters from other states don’t have those benefits.

Fortunately for hunters looking for a place to hunt here in this region, there are many public lands open to hunting. On public lands, you don’t need to knock on doors asking permission to hunt.

Locating these areas is easy with the aid of Google, the internet and e-mail, but it can take a few seasons to learn deer patterns

there. Most public lands have networks of hiking trails and are used by folks seeking outdoor recreation.

Avoid these trails, and locate access points away from the beaten paths.

Town Forests Most towns in southern Maine have town forests that are open to hunting. Some have restrictions, so you must check local town offices for locations and hunting restrictions.

E-mail makes this easy. For example, some areas are restricted to bowhunting-only or shotguns-only. Town forests are often overlooked by DIY hunters and even locals.

I have found many by downloading maps on town websites.

Shapleigh, as an example, has a large town forest that offers great access and parking along the surrounding roads. Coastal town forests are generally smaller and are bowhunting-only. They have parking areas, and most have hiking trails that are popular with dog walking folks. Again, these spots should be avoided.

Wildlife Management Areas Perhaps the best hunting opportunities for DIY hunters is WMAs located around

the area – every one of them has a healthy deer population. They offer a variety of hunting lands, from sand plain to remote mountain terrain. You can decide where to hunt based on the type of terrain you enjoy.

For example, I like mature forest, hardwoods laced with swamps, with vehicle access into the more remote areas. During my younger days, I preferred hiking to remote areas with no vehicle access. But today I have learned that “old bones and a young mind” is a dangerous condition, and it’s wise to hunt where I can get to and remove game easily.

Timber Investment Lands In the northern sections of this region, large parcels of forest lands are managed by Timberland Investment Management Organization (TIMO) and are open to the public. These lands offer a great opportunity for hunters looking for a remote hunting experience.

One I enjoy hunting is “The Plantation,” which is located in Parsonsfield, and a few others in Action and Shapleigh. You need to contact the proper TIMO headquarters to learn any requirements to fol-

Where you find acorns, especially if there’s water and dense cover nearby, you’ll find whitetail deer.

Val Marquez photo.

low while hunting these lands. Generally, any logging roads that TIMO built will be closed to vehicle access; town roads are open to public use.

Some are maintained, while others aren’t; the unmaintained ones usually require 4-wheel-drive vehicles.

Follow the Food Chain Once you locate an area to hunt, then welcome to the real world – deer hunting in Maine is nothing like you see on TV or read about in magazines. You’re not going on a synthetic hunt on a managed deer property with food plots and exclusive hunting rights. To paraphrase Dorothy, “This isn’t Kansas, Toto.”

In November, Maine deer are all about food and mating – does are looking for food to prepare them for the long, cold winter, while bucks are searching for does in estrus. Hunters should forget about

buck scrapes and rub lines, and instead look for feeding areas.

As an example, during this fall’s extended archery season I bowhunted on the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge in Wells (a permit is required).

The area I hunted had acorns dropping where I parked. The spot was near a dirt road and showed deer tracks in the dry leaves with partially chewed acorns. I don’t like to hunt near roads, so I hiked deep into the woods.

As I returned to my truck at dusk, I jumped a deer within eyesight of my truck.

It had been feeding on acorns.

Note to self: Hunt the hot food source this month, Dummy!

Despite the dry conditions over the summer, acorns did well and are widespread across southern Maine. Hunting oak ridges that drop off to swamps will be (“Southern Maine” continued on page 67)

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66 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Outfitted for Big Bucks in the Rangeley Region As I cut the deer hair off a patch of bucktail for tying a fly this past weekend, I noticed how the hairs had a hollow center for insulating the deer from the cold, harsh winters here in Maine.

It got me thinking about how deer hunters take measures to stay warm while hunting these amazing creatures.

Rangeley’s weather during November can be very cold and snowy – perfect conditions for dropping a big buck. I don’t know how many times I have started driving in the rain from my home in Dixfield, heading for a deer hunting location in Rangeley, and had it turn to snow before I got there.

Dixfield is only about an hour south of Rangeley, but the increased elevation heading north to the Rangeley Region creates an earlier start to the snow season most years ... perfect for anxious deer hunters like me.

www.MaineSportsman.com

Pursuing big bucks in the cold north woods is not a game – whether you are tracking or taking a stand, you need to dress the part with functional clothing and footwear that will keep you warm; bring food to sustain you; and employ quality navigational tools to get you safely out of the woods.

This huge buck track dwarfs even a massive .45/70 cartridge. Chasing big bucks requires the right mindset and the right gear. William Clunie photo

I enjoy hunting whitetails in the snow and can’t wait for it to come during November. I can see deer better with a snowy background, and tracking becomes a viable option. Hunters should prepare for a day in the cold snow by following some simple rules and also getting

the proper gear.

Staying out all day during the winter requires a different mindset, too. At best, being unprepared in the remote woods can ruin a hunt; at worst, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Get Psyched The best way to get in shape, both mentally and physically, for hunting during cold weather is to get out there well before the season starts and do some scouting. The actual practice of walking in the woods works wonders for creating a body and mind fit for harsh winter conditions.

Start the day with a quality meal to keep you going in the cold conditions. Pack a nutrient-filled lunch,

also ... it sure makes the rest of the day go better if you have a healthy lunchtime meal.

Hunters need to keep their head in the game while hunting whitetails in the winter woods. Staying connected with those back home helps. I carry my cell phone with me so I can call in case of an emergency. I’m also using a new cell phone app this year, onX Hunt (onxhunt. com), for GPS purposes. This way I only have to carry one unit rather than both a cell phone and a GPS unit.

When I’m hunting, I always carry my cell phone with it in the OFF position. If I need to, I turn the phone on, check my messages or check the map-

ping app, then shut the thing off and stick it back in my pack. It also is in the vibrate position at all times, so I don’t hear a jolting ring sound just as a big buck is showing up.

Gear Up Listen to what most every cold weather, big game hunter prescribes for clothing options ... wool, wool and wool. Maine’s own deer hunting guru, Hal Blood, demands premium wool clothing for his grueling deer tracking efforts.

Check out his excellent hunting clothing at his company’s website, bigwoodsbucks. com. I have his “Tracker” coat and pants, and spend as much time as I want enjoying the coldest weather Maine has to offer.

I’ll also be trying out Scentlok’s (scentlok.com) new “Reactor Plus” heated vest ... insulated with 150 grams of Thinsulate as well as a battery-powered heating unit throughout the vest.

I’ll stuff it in the small pack I always carry and deploy it if I decide to sit down at a stand during a hunt in cold weather. I also like to use the chemical heat packs anytime I get cold during a hunt.

I almost always have a thermos of hot tea in the truck when I go hunting. A hot beverage after a long day in the field sure lifts the spirits, and if (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 67 (Continued from page 66)

I return to the truck at lunch, I have the added benefit of a cup of hot tea with my sandwich to take the chill off.

So let’s describe

the entire outfit ... a wool jacket, wool pants, wool long-johns, sock liners with wool socks, wool gloves, wool hat, and the best pair of boots you can find. If I going to be

Sebago to Auburn (Continued from page 64)

made a series of hops.

After I fired, he humped up and ran off.

I filled Rene in and told him I thought I got a round into him but that it wasn’t fatal. Rene worked his way toward me, and radioed that he saw no tracks or blood. I stayed put and waited.

All of a sudden a shot rang out, and

Southern Maine (Continued from page 65)

productive.

These areas are a perfect storm for deer, offering them food, cover and water all within a few yards. Don’t do as I did this fall and walk past an area that deer were feeding to greener pastures – focus on food and does, and then wait

BACK-UP POWER FOR EVERY ADDRESS

moving all day, I can get away with wearing a lightly-insulated pair of rubber boots.

If I know I’ll be sitting for an extended time in the cold, I’ll put on my Lacrosse (lacrosse-

footwear.com) “Alphaburly Pro” 1600-gram insulated rubber boots that never fail me in the most freezing temperatures.

Deer really move when it gets cold.

Dress for it and be there when they come strolling by. See you out there – I’ll be the guy with the ruddy cheeks and the broad smile.

¶

I knew Rene had caught up with the deer. Knowing the marksman he is, I was certain he had connected.

I started his way and upon cresting a small knoll, saw him standing over his prize – the big eight-pointer. Close inspection revealed my round got him in the back of the thigh, but he was very much alive when Rene anchored him with a neck shot. We rejoiced in our plan’s success and began the task of cleaning him.

This month, I am again armed with a bonus any-deer permit. Rene has his doe permit, too. With more than 52,000 permits awarded, many of you are holding that extra ace in your license pocket.

Good luck, and happy hunting! Perhaps you can make a memory like we did last season.

for a buck to show. It’s really that simple – don’t over-think-it.

open oak trees – deer bed in the thick green growth, and feed in the oaks.

Studying Google maps can aid in locating this type of cover. Transition cover is always a good place to hunt.

So do your research and find your spots. Hunt public lands, where you will find deer and won’t find “No Hunting” signs.

Firearms Setup If you hunt with a rifle and a scope, then try to locate areas where you can shoot down into a swamp. Find an oak ridge with acorns – deer will be nearby.

Another good stand site is any location that has thick green growth bordering

¶

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68 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Just Getting Close to Whitetails Should Count I’ve shot plenty of big whitetails, two of them over 200 pounds, and several others that got really close to that magic number.

Each one holds a special place in my hunter’s heart, even the little fork-horn – my first deer.

The desire to shoot a bigger deer hasn’t faded, but it isn’t the

I lifted my head above the tall grass to identify the source of the noise. In a field, I saw nine does standing around a buck with a huge set of antlers.

All 10 deer were looking directly at me. dream it used to be years ago. The last buck I shot, I remember thinking, “I don’t care how big this buck is – I want to drop him so I can get back to

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bird hunting.”

Bird hunting has taken over my dreams ever since getting my Hungarian pointer (Vizsla), Ginger. I grew up hunting with bird dogs, and hunting with her takes me right back to my childhood adventures of chasing woodcock and grouse – sometimes I feel like a kid again when I’m out there.

I still enjoy walking through the woods with my deer rifle close at hand. The simple pleasure of tromping through the autumn forest enthralls me to my very roots. The thought of never really knowing what amazing thing I might see in the woods each day keeps me coming back for more.

Pleasantly Shocked Sitting and waiting for a big buck to come by your stand can go from complete boredom to sheer exhilaration within a matter of nanoseconds. One moment a hunter sits there thinking of ways to keep awake, and then in a heartbeat the level of excitement goes out of this world.

Sometimes I’m really good at remaining cool and collected, but there have been times

when I totally fell apart – few and far between, but it does happen, even to the best of hunters.

I clearly remember one deer hunt as a young teenager that found me standing in a swamp, surrounded by dried cattails up to my shoulders. My father told me to stay put and watch for deer coming my way while he took a position about a 100 yards behind me. As soon as he left, I heard several shots out in front of me, and then what sounded like deer running through the reeds and coming my way.

As the running deer approached, I stood fast and got ready to take a shot if I saw horns. Before the deer ever got to my position, my knees suddenly began to wobble and my breathing became extremely short ... in other words, I had an overwhelming case of “buck fever.”

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t make it go away or decrease the shaking at all. The deer never came close enough for me to see, but even if it had I know I’d never have hit anything with my rifle ... I could barely stand on my own two

feet.

To this day, I still feel that level of excitement when I hear a deer moving my way.

I haven’t gotten that physically shook-up while hunting since, but still do find my heart racing.

Shaky Shooting I missed the first deer I ever took a shot at because I was so shaky. Again, my father placed me just inside the woods on the edge of a field with the instruction, “Keep an eye on the deer trails along the edge of the woods.”

About an hour after he left, I heard some rustling in the tall grass out in the field, so I got up and crept up to the edge of the woods. When I raised up to look over the tall grass in the field, there were nine does standing around a huge buck that sported one of the largest racks I’ve ever seen in the wild.

Every single one of the deer had their ears up and were looking directly at me as I raised the shotgun. I distinctly remember taking three shots before the Remington 870, loaded with the latest rifled slugs, ever touched my cheek – a complete rookie mistake. I shot way over the back of the gorgeous buck and watched as he pranced to the other end of the (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 69 (Continued from page 68)

long field with nine does in tow.

I knew my mistake as soon as the shooting was over, but I still went out to where the buck was standing to check for hair or blood.

I didn’t find a thing, and had my head hanging pretty low when my dad came over to see what was going on.

He smiled when I told him my story.

He said that happens sometimes, and that I’d get another chance at some point. As usual, my father was so right – I have had many opportunities to shoot deer since then.

Tree Stand Trick My “tree-standtrick” doesn’t involve climbing up a tree, but does include a tree. I often make a ground blind with a big tree between my position and the area where I think a buck might travel. I position the seat close enough to the tree so that the trunk can block the slightest movements I might have to make during the day.

One stand where I used this tree trick really worked out great for me. Without the big tree in front of me, I never would have been able to shoot the deer – a nice eight-pointer that almost made the

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Before daylight that day, I walked the edge of a field out in front of my stand with “doe-in-heat” scent dripping from my boots, and then took my stand across the field exactly 170 yards away.

The big buck followed my plan exactly, sniffing at my steps as he walked the distant edge of the grassy field.

The problem, though, was that he traced my steps so slowly that by the time he entered my shooting zone, I was breathing heavily and couldn’t hold my crosshairs still enough to take an ethical shot at the beautiful buck.

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70 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Tough Shot?

Just Don’t Think About It! I touched off a shot. As I lowered the gun and clumsily cycled the bolt, I glanced in the direction of where the buck had been standing. It was still there!

I’m a pump guy.

There is no finer deep woods deer rifle than the Remington 760/7600. But when I grabbed my trustworthy Woodsmaster Carbine .30-06 that morning, something deep in my gut told me to put it back and do something I hadn’t done in about ten years: Take that little bolt-action, instead.

And I’m sure glad I did.

Action!

It was Sunday December 1, 2019. I had just returned home the afternoon prior from our deer camp on Parmachenee Lake, Maine – where I was blessed with a beautiful little 9-point basket rack on Thanksgiving morning. That deer fell to a trusty 7600 (35 Whelen), as had every buck deer I’ve shot since my first one.

In recent years, I’ve carried a couple semi-autos here and there (a Benelli R1 and a Remington Model 81), but I’d entirely neglected my bolt-actions as being too imbalanced, awkward, and slow to cycle follow-up shots.

And with this specific Winchester Model 70 Compact, I hate the God-blessed three-position safety with a www.MaineSportsman.com

passion.

But back to December 1st….

Weak Convictions After walking about an hour, I realized three things: 1) It was way too loud to walk around on the crusty snow; 2) It was way too cold to sit; 3) I hadn’t seen a single fresh deer track.

So I decided it was about time to attend to my duties as a husband of a November widow – and I headed for the truck.

I came down off some knobs, just trucking along, holding the bolt-action in one hand at my side, only half aware of my surroundings.

The frozen air was dead still, and I was making more noise than a mariachi band in a Cinco de Mayo parade.

Then I was stopped mid-step by a horizontal shape way, way down through the select hardwoods that looked just a bit out of place.

Holy smokes!

The instant I confirmed it was a deer in the binoculars, I knew it was locked onto me.

The binoculars fell, and I cranked on the adjustable scope as the gun came to my shoulder. I pushed that stupid safety forward, and it snapped louder

than the trees popping in the cold temps. I thought for sure the deer would bolt, but when the 7x optic settled on the spot, it was still there staring back at me – and it was a buck!

I was 95% sure I could identify big brow tines sticking up between the ears. But that 5% made me hesitate. I lowered the gun and put the 8x Khales binoculars back up, thinking I’d have a better view with them, but I couldn’t even see the brow tines I’d seen before in the scope.

For what seemed like an hour, but was probably only about 45 seconds, I went back and forth: scope, binos, scope, binos. I just needed to see a beam or another tine or something to indicate to me that it was a racked buck. Surprisingly, I could see better with the lesser-powered scope.

Finally, I decided that if it had big brow tines like I was seeing, then it had to have at least a have decent rack to go with it. And the deer, which hadn’t moved a muscle, wasn’t going to wait around all day, so I best better get to shooting.

Mind Games I’d never had this

The writer hadn’t deer hunted with a bolt action in 10 years, but after carrying a Compact Model 70 for about an hour he killed this 10-point buck at 140 yards off-hand.

long to shoot at game before. Usually, it is only a second or two between when I see the deer and when the gun goes off. That’s the nature of tracking and still-hunting in the big woods.

This was no longer instinctive shooting.

This was deliberative.

And intimidating.

The distance (which I figured was about 90 yards, but later paced off at an astonishing 140 yards) and all the obstacles between us, were playing games with my confidence – not to mention that the light forend of the compact bolt-action made it hard to hold steady.

I started to squeeze the trigger, but I could

feel and see myself drifting off target. I started over again, resettling on the small brown frame. I could feel myself flinching in anticipation, and brought the gun half down. There was a big tree about ten feet in front of me that I could use for a rest, but I didn’t dare take a step in this crunchy snow with the buck tensed up like he was.

So I was relegated to just letting one fly.

I settled the crosshairs on the brown and slowly touched the gun off, all the while thinking, Are you positive those are browtines, and not just two sticks in the snow behind it?

My mind got the (Continued on next page)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 71 (Continued from page 70)

better of me. As I dropped the gun and clumsily cycled the bolt, I glanced in the direction of where the deer stood. It was still there!

A Second Chance (or Rather, a Gift from Heaven) I instinctively threw the gun back up and shot the instant the crosshairs hit the center of the body.

This time, as I cycled the bolt, I saw a flag bobbing across down through the trees.

Some investigating of the area revealed that the buck had been standing in his

bed (why in the wide open?) when I shot.

The first shot streaked across the snow just above the bed, below his body. There was no immediate indication of the second shot. So I took up the track.

Within 20 yards, there was an enormous amount of bubbly blood spray. At 50 yards there was evidence of a stumble and crash. And at 70 yards, he lay piled up against a tree. I was taken aback at seeing for the first time his beautiful 10-point rack.

A Unique Experience He was a kind of

funny-looking deer. He had awful short legs, especially so in the front, which made me think that he had to have stood on a downward angle. He had shaggy, unruly hair all about him. And his beautiful rack had beams that stopped abruptly after his G-4 tines. The beams only measured 15” on a rack that scored 121”!

Unlike most of the areas I hunt, this one was only a short drive from my house and only a 20-minute walk from the truck. So, knowing that my wife had wanted to spend some time with me

that day, I called her (cell phone coverage is also an oddity in the areas I hunt) and told her where to find me.

Within an hour, I was showing and telling her how everything transpired, then I had her follow the bloodtrail to the deer, as I had. It was quite the experience to share all this with her, as I always hunt alone and she’s never experienced the field-dressing and dragging process.

Plus, it was really nice to have someone take the pictures, rather than having to balance the camera on

a stump and play with the self-timer.

The whole experience got even better when through the woods appeared my Dad to help with the dragging across the stream and up a steep hill. My wife had apparently let him know where we were. What a nice surprise to share the glorious morning with two people who I love dearly.

I’m really glad I didn’t take my .30-06 pump that morning.

The 4x Leupold on it would have never been able to show me those browtines!

¶

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72 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

— Trophy Photos —

Alyson Marschall, age 14, of Rome, Maine has been hunting for four years. This is her first buck -- a 130-lb. 3-pointer taken October 8, 2019. She also hunts turkeys, and is an enthusiastic angler.

Nick LeBlanc of Calais, Maine had a great day hunting recently at Three Rivers Wing Shooting in Maxfield. Nick brought along Piper, describing her as his “2-1/2 year old German Shorthaired Pointing machine.”

Nick has trained Piper and tested her with NAVHDA. “Piper’s desire to work on any upland or wetland bird Maine has to offer keeps her going all the time,” Nick reported.

Rita Picard of Stockholm, Maine is dwarfed by the massive 355lb. (live weight) sow she shot in Cyr Plantation with her Savage Creedmoor 6.5. Picard, 62, has been hunting bear for 20 years.

She is a veteran of the Iraq War. Her niece Claudia Garland reports that a friend mailed Rita copies of The Maine Sportsman magazine during her tour in Iraq last year, and that helped her stay connected with her home state. Rita’s huge bear was within a few pounds of being a Maine record, and is the third-largest sow listed in the Sportsman’s files. www.MaineSportsman.com

Marisa Murray of Waldoboro bagged this nice 127-lb. doe on November 6, 2019 as part of her 2019 Grand Slam. She also harvested a 684-lb. bull moose, a 200-lb. black bear, and a tom turkey during the fall season.

Brienne Susi, age 3, admires her first-ever catch, a redbreast sunfish pulled from the waters of Highland Lake in Bridgton on September 4, 2020. Photo: Mark Susi

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 73

2020-2021 Maine Sportsman YOUTH WRITING CONTEST

Jonathan Brooks of Sanford used a 12-ga. shotgun on August 31, 2020 to drop this 132-lb. black bear sow in Bradley, Maine. Photo: Robert Lyle

Effectively camouflaged with face-paint, Harris Abbott of Whitefield (right) harvested this 180-lb. black bear with a 7mm 08 in Pierce Pond Township on August 29, 2020. Harris is 11 years old. Photo submitted by proud mother Marcie Abbott

New England Outdoor Writers Association recently voted to postpone its 2020-2021 youth writing contest, so The Maine Sportsman will offer the event this year.

The contest opens October 15, 2020, and closes March 15, 2021.

The contest is open to boys and girls in New England, in grades 6 through 12.

Written entries should be no longer than 500 words, and must relate to one of the following outdoor topics: fishing; hunting (including sporting dogs); sporting firearms; snowmobiling; ATVing; trapping; boating or canoeing; taxidermy; conservation; archery; or crossbows.

Submissions must consist of non-fiction narratives or essays – there is no poetry division in this contest, and no fiction division.

Submissions must be previously unpublished original works, and must have been written within the past 12 months. If possible, contestants should submit entries in an editable format rather than as a PDF. Photographs taken by the author or the author’s family members can accompany the written entry.

Submissions from students in grades 6 - 8 will be entered in the Junior Division; grades 9 - 12 will be entered in the Senior Division.

Winners will receive the following cash awards: • Junior Maine winner: $100 • Senior Maine winner: $100 • Junior New England winner: $100 • Senior New England winner: $100

Additional prizes or recognitions may be awarded.

Winners will be announced in the pages of The Maine Sportsman magazine.

Submissions may also be published in the magazine.

Submit entries in an email or as an attachment to an email. Send entries to Will Lund, editor, The Maine Sportsman, at Will@MaineSportsman.com, and include the words “Youth Writing Contest” and the writer’s last name in the email caption.

Include your contact information, your age and your grade in school, the name of your parent or guardian, and the name of your English or writing teacher. Submissions can also be made through your schools.

You will receive an acknowledgment that your submission has been received.

Questions? Contact the editor at Will@MaineSportsman.com.

Good luck to all contestants!

A Subscription to The Maine Sportsman Makes the Perfect Gift!

Save up to 58% off the cover price for gift subscriptions!

I want to purchase: r(1) 1-Year Gift Subscription $28 • r(2) 1-Year Gift Subscriptions $54 • r(3) 1-Year Gift Subscriptions $74 BILLING INFORMATION: Include Your Check, Money Order or VISA/MasterCard info and mail to: Name__________________________________________________________________ The Maine Sportsman Address________________________________________________________________ 183 State Street, Suite 101 City____________________________________State____________ Zip_____________ Augusta, ME 04330 Email___________________________________Phone__________________________ Or call to order at VISA/MC_______________________________Exp.____________ CVV___________ (207) 622-4242 GIFT SUBSCRIPTION #1: Name_________________________________ Address_______________________________ City__________________________________ State_____________________ Zip__________ Gift Card to Read_______________________ _____________________________________

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74 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

Trapped in the Cavern of Undrinkable Liquors The author offers advice on what to do with unmentionables found in the liquor cabinet, treasures such as peach schnapps. crème de menthe, ExxonMobil gin, vodka by Lestoil and Pepto-Bismol tequila.

I’m not the type of person to turn down a challenge. I’m more the type of person to avoid a challenge at all costs.

Hunting sharks in a kayak? Alligator wrestling? Eating tofu? I’ve managed to live a full life without ever engaging in those sorts of dangerous activities. When lunatics suggest them, I walk away in a resolute manner that strongly

www.MaineSportsman.com

suggests I will shortly be reporting these unpleasant interactions to the appropriate authorities.

But now I was facing a challenge I couldn’t avoid. As readers of last month’s column will recall, the editor of this esteemed publication had dared (ordered) me to try my luck in a contest similar to that faced by participants in the TV show “Naked

and Afraid.” I’d been abandoned au naturel in a place that bore some resemblance to my bedroom, and so far, had found water (in the bathroom) and clothing (in the closet).

Now, I needed food.

I called upon my questionable survivalist skills to guide me down the treacherous path to ground level (fortunately, there were stairs), through an open space (living room) strewn with a horrifying assortment of bones (either dog chew toys or the remains of a forgotten race of people made of hard plastic), and into that oasis the natives referred to as a “kitchen.” I had some experience in this sort of environment and

headed directly to what is known as the “refrigerator,” where I discovered that which all foragers in the wild seek, but few find: Cold pizza.

Concealed Cavern Sated at last on leftover pepperoni and mozzarella, I set out to explore this strange new world. In the area off the kitchen, which I’ve since learned is called the “pantry,” I came upon a concealed cavern. I could see nothing in its depths, so I lit a torch, which immediately set off the smoke alarm. Not to mention my wife.

Even though my spouse doused my torch in the sink, it had provided enough illumination to show me I had discovered the legendary Cavern of Undrinkable Liquors. Once the smoke cleared, I could detect the slight glint of light reflected off sinister-looking bottles partially filled with

From the dreaded cavern of undrinkable liquors – Bowler’s Tonic?

murky liquids of questionable provenance and tarnished reputation. Peach schnapps.

Crème de menthe. Allen’s Coffee Brandy.

ExxonMobil gin. Vod(“Outdoors & Other Mistakes” continued on page 76)

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 75

Smilin’

Sportsman

Youth Edition

Question: What do you get when you cross poison ivy with a four-leaf clover?

Answer: A rash of good luck.

••••••••••••••••••• An Englishman was salmon fishing in Canada when he accidentally slipped and fell into the river.

He hollered, “Help, help, I can’t swim!”

A man on the opposite shore yelled, “Can you speak French?”

The guy in the water replied, “Yes, I took French for three years. Aidez-moi!

Aidez-moi!”

The man on shore yelled back, “Don’t you think it would have been more pro-

Adults Only

While on vacation following a bitter divorce, a woman was walking along the shore of Moosehead Lake when she saw an old bottle with a cork in it. She removed the cork, and a genie appeared.

“I’ve been trapped in that bottle for 300 years,” explained the genie. “For letting me out, I’ll grant you three wishes.”

“First,” said the woman, “I wish for a world without lawyers!”

“Done!” said the genie. “Well, I must be off now – Goodbye!”

“But you promised me three wishes!” cried the woman.

“So sue me!” responded the genie.

••••••••••••••••••• Question: What’s the difference between in-laws and outlaws?

Answer: Outlaws are wanted.

•••••••••••••••••••

Send your best hunting & fishing stories, and your favorite jokes, to the editor at will@mainesportsman.com

ductive if you’d spent that time learning how to swim?”

•••••••••••••••••••

“My friend’s in a government program and now he doesn’t have to exercise.”

“Nonsense – there’s no such program.”

“You mean you’ve never heard of the Fitness Protection Program?”

••••••••••••••••••• Eb: “My wife told me I had to stop acting like a flamingo.”

Flo: “So what did you do?”

Eb: Well, I really had to put my foot down.”

Eb: “My wife divorced me recently because I’m a compulsive gambler.”

Flo: “And?” Eb: “And now all I can think about is how to win her back!”

••••••••••••••••••• The older priest was advising the young priest on how to take confession.

“Listen carefully to the congregant for a few minutes, then nod your head thoughtfully,” he suggested. “Now you try it.”

The young priest looked serious and nodded.

“Very good!” said his mentor. “Try rubbing your chin, and say things like ‘I see” and ‘I understand’ and ‘Yes – go on.’”

The young priest practiced these gestures and expressions.

“Well done!” concluded the older

priest. “Now don’t you think that will work better than your effort this morning, when you said, ‘No kidding! Really?

No way! And what happened next?’”

www.MaineSportsman.com

76 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

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207-474-0778 THREE STORY COMMERCIAL BUILDING IN WESTERN MAINE US Rt 2. Restaurant with some equipment, (Continued on next page)

Wildlife Quiz Answers: Whitetail Deer 1. 47 species exist in the deer family “Cervidae.”

2. White-tailed deer were introduced into Europe and New Zealand.

3. “Ungulate” means “hoofed animal.”

4. MDOT reports that about 3,000 deer

Outdoors & Other Mistakes (Continued from page 74)

ka by Lestoil. Pepto-Bismol tequila.

Before I explored further, I paused to reflect on how such a collection of fetid fluids had come to occupy so much space in what should have been a respectable liquor cabinet. I could only conclude it was some sort of demonic plot that caused fifths of Dubonnet or Fernet Branca to suddenly appear on shelves better employed holding bourbon, Scotch or Irish whiskey.

How Does it Happen?

I took some consolation in the knowledge that nearly every liquor cabinet I’ve ever encountered has been infected with a similar curse. When the owners are asked why they harbor bottles of Lillet Blanc, limoncello or crème de cassis, they mumble stuff like, “Somebody must have left it here after a party” or “I think it was a gift from some relative,” which implies they have friends or relations who are Satan worshippers.

I recognize that all these substances www.MaineSportsman.com

(Quiz on Page 43)

collide with motorists every year.

The largest numbers of white-tailed deer collisions occur in October and November, when it is dark.

A white-tailed deer can run up to 30 miles per hour.

7. Male white-tailed deer are called bucks.

8. Female (doe) white-tailed deer give birth in May or June.

9. Baby white-tailed deer are called fawns.

could be employed in cocktails that no self-respecting human being would be caught dead drinking, such as Grasshoppers, Sex on the Beach or Fuzzy Navels. But even those sorts of extreme mixtures don’t explain the presence in this cavern of the most bizarre alcoholic beverage I have ever encountered: Bowler’s Tonic.

crypt, where they might fall into the hands of terrorists or college students.

If I failed to find a way to safely dispose of them, I’d have flunked my survival test.

Here’s what I did. I ventured into the Amazon. By bartering with the indigenous tribes (I gave them a credit card number), I obtained silicone icecubes trays. Into each section, I poured small amounts of cheap brandy, weird vermouth, fruit-flavored aperitifs or other assorted mutations of the alcoholic beverage industry. According to wilderness lore, you should use about one part booze to three parts water.

Freeze the results on either an ice-covered lake or in the compartment known as a “freezer.” Use the resulting cubes in your favorite cocktail.

Except the ones with Bowler’s Tonic in them. Those should be thrown at vermin.

5.

6.

Tonic for Bowlers?

The label, which appears to have been printed sometime shortly before I was born, claims this beverage is “Guaranteed to pick up spares, splits and railroads.” It also says “300-point cheer – Improve your score with it.”

The liquid smelled like old bowling shoes. The taste contained notes of alley wax, runoff from the ball washer and gutter scum. Small amounts of it left in the basement killed rats. In the event I decided to pour this substance down the drain, a special permit from the Environmental Protection Agency is required. Suddenly, the prospect of drinking Fernet Branca didn’t seem so appalling.

What to Do? In good conscience, I couldn’t simply leave these dusty bottles in this hidden

Al Diamon writes the weekly column Politics & Other Mistakes for the Daily Bulldog and the Portland Phoenix. He can be emailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.

¶

������������������������������������������� The Maine Sportsman • November 2020 • 77 (Continued from page 76)

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Caryn Dreyfuss, Broker • (207) 233-8275 caryndreyfuss@morton-furbish.com www.realestateinrangeley.com

10 Ames Road, Kenduskeag, ME

1-800-624-2797 • (207) 884-7000

www.northeasternlog.com

RANGELEY – SUPER SWEET on QUIMBY POND! Seasonal 1 bedroom cottage offers comfortable living all on one level. Fabulous views of the pond and Ephraim Ridge from the open living/kitchen area. Spacious deck great for entertaining and relaxing. Gradual slope to 100’ frontage with dock. Quiet setting - listen to the loons, gaze at the stars. Fully updated - move right in and enjoy! MLS #1470535 – $245,000 OQUOSSOC - Tucked away off the beaten path and yet handy to everything! Looking for a quiet and private spot to put down roots, then check out this generously sized 7 acre wood lot. Surveyed, soils tested (expired septic plan can be updated), power at road. Build here and be minutes to public boat ramps, Oquossoc Village amenities. Don’t miss out on this one, inquire today! MLS #1468666 – $62,000 RANGELEY PLT - HALEY CIRCLE generous 1.99 acre building parcel tucked away in quiet area. Potential mountain/Rangeley Lake views.

Surveyed, soils tested, power at street. Protective covenants in place to ensure your investment, plus low plantation taxes. Snowmobile friendly location with easy access to trails. Minutes from town, Saddleback, 4-season recreation! Don’t miss out on this one, inquire today! MLS #1470532 – $53,500

The Great Maine Moose Hunt Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Moose Hunting

The perfect Christmas gift for that Sportsman on your list!

James and I have endeavored through these tales and pictures to give a true representation of the “phenomenon” on the woods and waters of Maine that is the “Great Maine Moose Hunt”.

We are not lost on the coincidence that not only is this the 40th anniversary of the “modern” moose hunt but also the Bicentennial of our beloved state of Maine.

From all the contributing authors we hope you enjoy and find happy nostalgia in these stories and continue to promote and pass on one of Maine’s most iconic heritage sports.

– Roger Lambert

28.50

$

includes tax and shipping

Order online at

www.greatmainemoosehunt.com

UNDER CONTRACT Avon – Mountain views and 6000’ on Mt. Blue stream. Views of Saddleback, Mt. Abraham and Mt. Blue are great. Good access and public road frontage. 445 acres for $249,000.

Milo - Recreational opportunities abound on this well-wooded 20 acre lot. Immediate access to ITS 82 and locally maintained ATV trail. Good views. $24,900

Rangeley – Approx 3,000’ on Round Pond, improved internal access roads and spectacular views make this 325 acre kingdom lot one of a kind. $799,900

Linneus – 167 acre lot with seasonal access. Major portion of the lot is considered significant wildlife & inland waterfowl habitat. $83,500

Palmyra – Palmyra 18 hole Golf Course and RV Campground are situated on 433 acres. This is a turn-key business with buildings and infrastructure pristine. $1,500,000

Hancock County - Over 800 acres with 5,400 sq. ft log cabin completely surrounding Fox Pond.

Miles of maintained trails. Adjacent to 20,000 acres of conservation lands. www.foxpondestate. com. $4,300,000

New Sharon - 678 +/- acres with abundant wildlife including deer and upland game birds. Diverse land with Bragdon Brook and SOLD Salt Marsh Creek running through the lot. Over 900’ of frontage on Weeks Mills Road. $299,000 or only $441 per acre.

Woolwich - 148 +/- acres. Remarkable lot with small camp.

Hunt, hike, bike, sightsee, harvest some of the large oak and pine. Great westerly distant views from Bigelow Knoll. $150,000.

King & Bartlett TWP - 770 +/acres surrounding the majority of the 538 acre 159’ deep King and OLDsupports wild Bartlett lake S that brook trout, salmon and togue.

Remote unique parcel.

Beauty runs deep.

So does our land sales experience.

John Colannino Broker & Forester AFM Real Estate 40 Champion Lane | Milford, Maine | 04461 O: 207.817.9079 | C: 207.266.7355 John.Colannino@afmforest.com For more information on available properties please visit:

www.AmericanForestManagement.com www.MaineSportsman.com

78 • November 2020 • The Maine Sportsman ————————————————————————————————————————————

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Noyes Real Estate Agency 2388 Main Street • Rangeley, ME 207-864-9000 • info@noyesrealty.com www.noyesrealty.com

HUNTING LOCATIONS! #310 - MLS #1455174 - Fishermen take note. Well maintained property at Kennebago and your key to the area! On leased land with access to the Kennebago River and Kennebago Lake. Property is gated. $119,000 NEW PRICE #500 – MLS #1450299 – Classic farmhouse on two acres. Full foundation, close to Oquossoc village, and Rangeley Lake boat launch. $119,900

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Immediate Job Openings at The Maine Sportsman:

NOW HIRING AD SALES REPS

Demonstrated sales experience, integrity, and passion for working with businesses to promote their merchandise, service and/or events, strongly preferred.

Must be self-motivated to reach sales goals, friendly in phone and email communications, highly professional with history of stellar customer service.

Computer experience preferred; email proficiency and familiar with data entry for sales insertion orders, or willing to be trained.

Equipment needed for the position: computer, internet, phone, valid driver’s license, and vehicle if travel is necessary.

Commission paid monthly and potential for bonuses, based on sales and contribution to our premier outdoor publication. Approved mileage reimbursed as appropriate.

Email letter of interest and experience you bring to the sales team, two recent work references and phone number to: ads@mainesportsman. com for an initial phone interview.

#324 – MLS #1438951 – Cozy cabin on 15 acres with views, off Red Moose Lane. Perfect for hunting, sledding or privacy. Off grid and seasonal road access. Deeded access for kayaking and swimming. $50,000

ROCKWOOD – Location and quality all in the same spot. Own the quintessential log home on Moose River.

Boat right into Moosehead Lake, and enjoy everything Maine has to offer. Don’t miss this one. MLS #1470461 – $299,900 CORNVILLE – Sportsman’s Retreat! Are you looking for a camp in the heart of Maine deer country? Or maybe that perfect Snowmobile camp? Well look no further. This is a nice three room camp with a loft area. Much of this fully insulated cabin is still unfinished, but just bring your tools and your ideas and make this blank slate your dream escape or convert it into your year round home. Property abuts the CMP power line where a you can ride a short connector trail less than 1 mile to ITS 84. The property also boasts an RV site and a drilled well, so don’t hesitate to bring your friends. This are is also known for it’s population of whitetail deer. Enjoy over 400 feet of private road frontage. MLS #1467618 – $65,000 CARRYING PLACE TWP – Nice camp that is well insulated and has gas lights, stove, refrigerator, generator hook up and a wood stove. Being sold with all the furnishings. There is a storage shed and an outhouse all on 41 acres. The moose and deer have a well traveled path right behind the camp. Hunter’s Paradise! The Appalachian trail is a short walk away as well.

MLS #1467015 – $95,900 ABBOT – Fantastic opportunity to own some classic Maine woodlands. For the sportsman, this lot has it all. Enjoy easy access off Route 6 with a nice driveway already in place. Long frontage on the main, paved road. This would be the ideal location to build your own hunting retreat. There are multiple year classes of timber on this lot with the potential to get some immediate income. There is a bog and an unnamed brook that provides great habitat for game. Whether you are looking for moose, deer, bear or if you are an upland bird enthusiast, this lot offers it all. Only minutes from town and other amenities, and only a short 30 minute drive to Moosehead Lake. This is your sportsman’s paradise! MLS #1467277 – $72,500 SOLON – Approximately 19 acres of wooded, open and flat land with about 1056 feet frontage on Rowell Pond. Awesome spot for camp! Great hunting with easy ATV and snowmobile access. Have a look! MLS #1282488 – $39,000 BINGHAM – Approximately 123 acre parcel with long road frontage. Awesome hunting area... build a camp and roam the land. Currently in ‘Tree Growth’ for tax purposes. (Hb323) MLS #983202 – $79,000 SOLON – Nice parcel of approximately 118 acres on U.S. Route 201. Great place for a house or camp. Enjoy the area with the Kennebec River close at hand. Hunt, fish, snowmobile from this location. Entrance drive already existing. Currently in tree growth for tax purposes. (Hb355) MLS #1097927 – $95,000 CORNVILLE – Major road access to this 65.83 acre parcel. Mostly wooded, power at the road and approximately 450 feet of road frontage on Route 150 (Beckwith Road). Snowmobile from this site to ITS trails. A little piece of peace and quiet paradise just waiting for you!

Currently in tree growth for tax purposes. (23025Hb394) MLS #1331961 – $49,900 11/20

www.MaineSportsman.com

Grand Lake Stream - Exceptional frontage on West Grand Lake, one of Maine’s premier cold water fisheries. Manicured and gorgeous rustic house, well built with cathedral ceiling. AND has it’s own private boat launch. $419,000

Grand Falls - This cabin was landed on this lot two years ago and ready to finish off and use.

This 41 acre lot sits high on a hill with great views on Lord Brook Road. ATV and snowsled from this location. Take a look. $79,000

Lakeville - 52 acre lot with rustic cabin sits at the top of the hill offering breathtaking 180 degree views of area lakes and hills.

ATVing and snowmobiling are at your door step on Vista View. Set it up for solar and live here year round. $99,000

Springfield - Come take a look at this property set up for year around, off grid living on Clearcut Lodge Road. Well, Septic, Solar, Generator, propane and wood heat, garden areas, a chicken coop all make this ready for life off the grid. $77,000

Cooper - This lot has electricity available at the road and great access. Wonderful frontage. New driveway in. Forest on Cathance Lake is Deep Cove Forest and will be maintained as forever wild. A must see lot! $79,000

Lakeville - Gorgeous waterfront lot with a nice wide driveway.

Clearing has been done to open up breath taking views of Duck Lake. Electricity is nearby. Nice frontage. LOW TAXES. Wonderful spot to build your dream home. $89,000

Lincoln - Nice lakefront lot that has electricity being installed on the road. There is a new driveway with a large gravel pad on Caribou Pond. Enjoy all that this lakefront property has to offer. $69,000 Lincoln - Easy access to this Lakefront lot on Caribou Pond.

Electricity is being installed to subdivision. This lot is a must see. $69,000 Lakeville - Outstanding lot on Lower Sysladobsis Lake. Lots of recreational opportunities on this property. Fishing, boating, snowmobiling and ATVing. Brook Trout and Salmon are just a few. $82,500 Molunkus TWP - Lot located 22 miles from Lincoln is a must see.

With 230 feet of water frontage and 1.2 acres this lot offers lots of opportunities. Mattaseunk Lake is 576+- acres. Enjoy all this lot has to offer. $49,000

R E A L

E S T A T E

5 LAKE STREET, P.O. BOX 66, LINCOLN 207-794-2460 www.cwalakestreet.com E-mail: cwa@cwalakestreet.com

1-800-675-2460 Call any of our brokers to work for you!

“Tate” Aylward ............. 794-2460 Peter Phinney............... 794-5466 Kirk Ritchie................... 290-1554

FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION ON OUR PROPERTIES VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT CWALAKESTREET.COM

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