Snowmobiling Snowmobiling

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 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.

Allagash Lakes Region American Plan Lodge • Housekeeping Cabins • Year Round Quality Cabins and Lodge on Haymock, Spider and Cliff Lakes Time to make plans for your SUMMER FISHING TRIP! Big Eagle, Churchill, Spider, Pleasant, and Clear Lakes

A great place for a quality Family Vacation! Ice Fishing • Snowmobiling • X-Country Skiing • Snowshoeing MACANNAMAC CAMPS Haymock Lake (T8 R11) • 207-307-2115 P.O. Box 598, Millinocket, ME 04462 Mailing Address Only www.macannamac.com

The Most Remote Hunting in the North Maine Woods Wilderness

Booking 2020 Deer Hunts. $300 per Person per Week (Lodging Only), Double Occupancy Required Book Your 2021 Black Bear Hunt Now While Your First Choice of Dates is Still Available!

Visit us on the web: W W W. ROSSLAKECAMPS .C O M ON CHEMQUASABAMTICOOK LAKE

Map 55 in Maine Gazetteer

For Fastest Response, E-mail: info@rosslakecamps.com or call to leave a message at 207-227-7766 Year Round Hunting and Fishing Opportunities

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)

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

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.

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.

(Continued from page 36) 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 Blanchette-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 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, 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, too. Pack a Coleman stove, a few pots and pans and some groceries and stop along one of the many brooks for a hot lunch among the colorful leaf canopy. Be sure to pack at (Continued on next page)

THE SWAMP BUCK

Restaurant & Lounge Open 7 Days • Lunch & Dinner On Trail 17 off ITS 85 250 West Main St. Fort Kent, Maine 04743 207-834-3055

Aroostook County

— The Crown of Maine —

Lakeside Cabins Sleep up to 10 People Large Parking Lot • Vehicle Plug-ins Complimentary Wireless Internet • Cable TV Air Conditioning • Private Decks • Efficiencies Hot Tub Suites • 2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments In-room Coffee Makers • Continental Breakfast Private Beach • Coin-op Laundry 3232 Aroostook Road P.O. Box 347 Eagle Lake, ME 04739 207-444-4535 www.overlookmotel.com Jackson's Lakeshore Rentals — Portage Lake, Maine —

Weekend & Weekly Rentals

38 Swift Brook Road Stacyville, ME (207) 794-5934 (207) 944-3551

130 Market Street FORT KENT, ME (207) 834-6186 571 Coldbrook Road HERMON, ME 207-941-9600

154 Pleasant Hill Road SCARBOROUGH, ME (207) 289-6688

Miles &Miles of GROOMED TRAILS! Direct Snowmobile Access toPortage Lake Main Cabin FullyEquipped – Sleeps 9 4 CozyRustic Cabins withBathHouse Snowmobile • Fish• Snowshoe — Ben & Kelly Jackson • Relax ( (207)-521-1452 or (207) 521-1451 www.jacksonsrentals.org

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.

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.

The County

(Continued from page 37) least one spare tire, a they haven’t denned sturdy high lift jack up already. and a plug and repair Perhaps the most kit. The roads are action, however, can rough, and cell phone be enjoyed gunning coverage is spotty at waterfowl, and presbest. sure on flocks of ducks 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. For those outdoorsmen, options include grouse, rabbit, Zone 6 wild turkey for the first week of November, and black bear if 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

Booking for the 2020 Bear Seasons! Hunts Over Bait and/or with Hounds

Specializing in Northern Maine Bear Hunts on Fish River Portage Lake, Maine

David Prevost Registered Maine Guide

ALSO BOOKING 2020 DEER HUNTS! — ZONE 2 MOOSE HUNTS —

In the Heart of the Allagash and Fish River Waterways....

Camp Rentals for Spring and Fall Fishing, Summer Canoeing, Kayaking and Moose Watching Booking Deer and Grouse Hunts Catering to Hunts in Small Groups

At Highlanding Camps, life is quiet and guests quickly unwind from busy lifestyles in one of our log cabins.

603-381-0080 highlandingcamps@gmail.com www.highlandingcamps.com

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 villagEven 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 es before exiting into and open water. 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 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 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 likeLoon Lodge in the Allagash Lake Region ly gunning locations. Map 65 , C-3 will guide “Just the Way You Like It” newcomers.

BOOKING 2021 BEAR HUNTS There may be just days left to bag a goose for Thanksgiving din15 Miles from the Trail Head to the Chamberlain Trains! ner – get out early and www.loonlodgemaine.com loonlodgemaine@gmail.com • SEE US ON FACEBOOK! P.O. Box 254, Bethel, ME 04217 • 207-745-8168 often! ¶