Northwoods Sporting Journal, April 2023

Joe Lands A Big Sucker With His New Fly Rod April 2023

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Fly Casting Basics

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72 Pages

-Fred Hurley

* The Redemption Bear * Spring Fishing Plans * Two Warden Tales * Camps, Cottages & Land For Sale www.sportingjournal.com APR

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April 2023 Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part series on fly fishing. In the May issue, our instructor, Fred Hurley, will cover mends, curves and line speed.

By Fred Hurley I have long been a fly fisher, and for many years I was casting on intuition and a limited understanding of how to do it. After retiring and going to work part time for the LL Bean Fishing Department, I decided to delve into the mechanics of fly casting.

A compilation of what I learned, after studying numerous books, videos, and articles by noted fly casting instructors, including Lefty Kreh, Joane Wulff, Mel Krieger, Doug Swisher, Ed Jaworowski, Macauley Lord, Bruce Richards, Jason Borger, and the International Federation of Fly Fishers, is presented below.

A good caster is a de-

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 3

Basic Fly Casting

to produce a cast, and no two casters execute it the s a m e w a y, and there is no one right way to do it.

Like baseball pitchers, some cast side arm, some in an up-wright position, a nd othe r s in various other casting planes. Good casters vary there castExcessive wrist motion is a ing style to common problem for fly casting address difbeginners. (Photo by Diane Reynolds) ferent condilight to watch, effortlessly tions and situations they sending a nearly weightless encounter. fly to a rising fish. It is both The Grip and the wrist an ‘Art” and “Science” are an important part of fly that makes it all happen. casting. Grip the rod firmly The “Art” are the many with your thumb on top, body movements that are but you may want to hold seamlessly linked together the rod with your index

finger on top to limit your wrist movement. Think about keeping a firm wrist and limit its movement as you cast. Excessive wrist action is a common problem casters have to deal with. The fly rod is both a lever and a spring. Casts are made by moving it back and forth, pulling the heavy fly line, and launching the nearly weightless fly to its target. The basic

line to straighten, then a gradually (smoothly) accelerating forward cast that ends in an abrupt “Stop”!

Abrupt stops, called by many names to emphasize their importance, are vital to a good cast, causing the line to unfold its loop as it sends the fly to its target.

Short casts are readily done by moving the forearm back and forth in short strokes, with the elbow

Think about keeping a firm wrist and limit its movement as you cast.

Excessive wrist action is a common problem casters have to deal with. The fly rod is both a lever and a spring. cast begins by laying out 20’ or so of line, bending the forearm down, and lifting the rod a bit to remove any slack, which is called the ‘pickup”. This is followed by a gradually (smoothly) accelerating back cast that ends in an abrupt “Stop”!, followed by a pause to allow the

close to the body. The longer the cast the more arm movement is needed to extend the casting stroke.

Once the forward cast has been completed the rod hand is lowered as the fly is launched to its target, which is called the “presentation”.

(Casting cont. pg 19)

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Page 4

On The Cover

Joe Lands A Big Sucker With His New Fly Rod - Pg 16 Fly Casting Basics - Pg 3 The Redemption Bear - Pg11 Spring Fishing Plans - Pg 54 Two Warden Tales - Pg 32 Camps, Cottages and Land for Sale - Pg 68

Northwoods Sporting Journal The Sportin’ Journal The Outdoor Paper For “Maine Folks”

The Northwoods Sporting Journal is the Northeast’s most comprehensive and readable monthly outdoor publication. Published at the trailhead of Maine’s sprawling North Woods, the Sporting Journal prides itself on being an independent voice for the region’s 3. Basic Fly Casting - Fred Hurley 6. Just Fishing - Bob Leeman outdoor community for more than 28 7. Kineo Currents - Suzanne AuClair years. Some of our writers are seasoned 10. A Hiker’s Life - Carey Kish and specialized outdoors people who 11. The Gun Cabinet - John Floyd will share their know-how and insights; 12. Cookin’ With New England’s WildCheff - Denny Corriveau some of our contributors are simply 15. The Tyer’s Corner - Hugh Kelly lifelong outdoor people with interest16. The Adventures Of Me & Joe - Bob Cram ing stories to tell.

18. Outdoor Sporting Library - Jeremiah Wood Our aim every month is to capture 20. Aroostook Woods & Water - Mike Maynard the essence of Northern New England’s 22. Maine Tails - Jonah Paris remarkable outdoor heritage by stirring 23. New Hampshire Outdoors - Peter St. James 24. Muzzleloading Afield - Al Raychard memories, portraying outdoor humor, 25. South Of The Kennebec - Stu Bristol and sharing experiences and outdoor 26. Running Flesh Shredder Falls - Jeff LaBree knowledge. We also keep our readers 28. Marsh Island Chronicles - Matthew Dunlap up to date with late-breaking outdoor 30. Northwoods Sketchbook - Mark McCollough news and hard-hitting editorials about 32. Warden’s Words - Kale O’Leary fish and wildlife issues.

33. Guns & Ammo: A Guide’s Perspective - Tom Kelly Anyone who loves to hunt and 34. The Maine Woods - Matt LaRoche fish, or simply finds the Great Outdoors 36. View From The River - Laurie Chandler a treasured place, is more than likely 38. Maine Outdoor Adventure - Rich Yvon to find some special connections amid 39. Old Tales From The Maine Woods - Steve Pinkham 40. The American Woodcock - V. Paul Reynolds the pages of the Northwoods Sporting 42. The Buck Hunter - Hal Blood Journal.

Contents

43. Northwoods Voyager - Gil Gilpatrick 44. Best Bassin’ - Bill Decoteau 45. On The Prowl - Justin Merrill 46. The Northwoods Bowhunter - Brian Smith 48. The Back Shelf - Joe Bertolaccini 49. Green Mountain Report - Bradley Carleton 50. Outdoors In Vermont - Gary W. Moore 51. Maple Country Outdoors - Ben Wilcox 53. Vermont Ramblings - Dennis Jensen 54. Outdoors In Maine - V. Paul Reynolds 55. Against The Current - Bob Romano 56. Question Of The Month - Griffin Goins 57. Cracker Barrel - Homer Spit 58. The Gimp - Bob Bandfelder 59. The Singing Maine Guide - Randy Spencer 60. On Point - Paul Fuller 61. Basics Of Survival - Joe Frazier 62. The Trail Rider - Dan Wilson 63. Women In The Woods - Erin Merrill 66. The Bird Perch - Karen Holmes

Other Great Stories & Information

April 2023

www.sportingjournal.com

Main Office Phone: (207) 732-4880 E-mail: info@sportingjournal.com Fax: (207)732-4970

Vol 30 Issue 4 is published monthly by Northwoods Publications, 57 Old County Rd. North, W. Enfield, ME 04493 Periodical Postage Paid at W. Enfield, ME. and additional mailing offices.

The Northwoods Sporting Journal (ISSN#1548-193X) Postmaster: Send address changes to: Northwoods Sporting Journal, PO Box 195, W. Enfield, ME 04493 Northwoods Publishing Group Victor Morin - Susan Morin - Diane Reynolds - V. Paul Reynolds Publishers - Victor Morin Jr. - V. Paul Reynolds Editor - V. Paul Reynolds Director of Marketing - Victor Morin Assistant Editor - Josh Reynolds Associate Editor - Donna Veino Graphic Arts Manager - Gayleen Cummings Subscription/Distribution Manager - Alicia Cram Operations Manager - Annette Boobar Webmaster - V. Paul Reynolds Sales Department; Victor Morin,Thomas Schmidt, Paul Hatin, Traci Grant, Michael Georgia & Mike Brown Regional Advertising Manager - Jim Thorne The Northwoods Sporting Journal invites submissions of photographs and articles about the Maine outdoors.

Manuscripts should be sent with a self-addressed envelope to: NORTHWOODS SPORTING JOURNAL P.O. BOX 195, W. ENFIELD, MAINE 04493 The Northwoods Sporting Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited photos or manuscripts. Photos submitted without a stamped, self-addressed envelope will not be returned.

All rights reserved, 2023. Written permission must be obtained from the Northwoods Sporting Journal to reprint any part of this publication. Any errors or omissions in ads or editorial matter will be corrected in the next issue of NWSJ. The views and opinions expressed by our monthly columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.

Vermont Ramblings - Pg 53 Dennis Jensen

The Maine Woods - Pg 34 Matt LaRoche

8. Editorial/Letters 13. Outdoor News 68. Real Estate

Cover Photo:

By Sandy Macy

Marsh Island Chronicle- Pg 28 Matthew Dunlap

The Northwoods Bowhunter - Pg 46 Brian Smith

Page 6

Northwoods Sporting Journal

“Just Fishing”

by Bob Leeman, Bangor, ME I once drifted the “Thomah” with a fella from Calais, Maine, who I fished with sometimes at Grand Lake Stream. Having no real drift boat, we canoed the stream from Route 6 to Vanceboro, to Grand Falls Flowage, located above Princeton.

Thomah Stream is

waters, attracting clients on a seasonal basis.

On this particular day, my friend and I put our canoe in just below the headwaters, and glided southward with the stream flow edging us along. Not being too familiar with these waters, it was all an adventure to us. We found

Thomah Stream

muddy Codyville Plantation Road, after turning left at the Bingo Road, and launching crafts at the old bridge site, some two miles after the turn.

Some of the very best brook trout fishing may be found in Thomah Stream, will be discovered in these waters above Route 6. And, even swifter action might well be in the later season pocketwater in the far reaches above Thomah Village, in T10 R3.

eventually named by Edward Samuels, an Atlantic Salmon angler.

Tied as a wet fly, this creation had a tail of golden pheasant crest hackles, a “tag” of wound peacock herl, yellow and white floss body wound “hard”, with a “narrow strip” of silver tinsel, and a throat of red and yellow hackles. The wings were narrow barred feathers of the summer wood-

April 2023

Thomah Stream still remains one of Maine’s most fertile trout waters in the United States, and fished not as much as one might think. To the best of my knowledge, the brook trout there are of a native species.

In Hugh Kelly’s “Tier’s Corner” column in the December 2022 Northwoods Sporting Journal, he had as “close” a tie of

According to the veterans, who fish the stream regularly, mid-to-late May is the best time of year to discover rewarding results for brookies. Locals often seek the larger brook trout by turning up the usual muddy Codyville Plantation Road. noted for its big brook trout fishery. With luck, you might hook one in the two or three pound category, that is, if you fish it early enough in spring. The Passamaquoddy Indians, with a reservation not too far distant, knew exactly what time to go for the best angling.

Years ago, there were several guides with drift boats, who frequented the

out later that June fishing can be a bit late for the brook trout migrations. All we hooked that day was fair-sized smallmouth bass and twelve-inch chubs!

According to the veterans, who fish the stream regularly, mid-to-late May is the best time of year to discover rewarding results for brookies. Locals often seek the larger brook trout by turning up the usual

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Down thru the years, a classic among artificial fishing flies has emerged at Thomah Stream. That fly is known as the Tomah Joe. It was first assembled in about 1880 by Sara J. McBride of New York, one of the first, if not the only, female professional fly tiers. This fly was later assembled Indian-style by Tomah Joseph of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Tomah Joseph lived on the Schoodic chain of lakes, and he often visited the Grand Lake Stream area in Washington County. This fly was

(Illustration by Bob Leeman)

duck, and a black head.

Today’s spinoffs of this special fly pattern bear little resemblance to the original, but some seem to work at times to attract both brookies and landlocked salmon!

From Thomah Streams beginnings in the bogs and springs of Codyville Plantation, to an overall eighteen miles to Grand Falls and the mighty St. Croix Rover, there are numerous “put-ins” for small crafts.

Coastal

wiscassetspeedway.com

the fly as I’ve seen to date.

But, the original assembly of this fly was first tied in about 1880 by Sara J. McBride of New York, as mentioned above. It might be interesting to note, the “other” facts about the “original” fishing fly. Otherwise, Mr. Kelly did a great job of matching the historic version and tying assembly.

Bob Leeman is a Master Maine Guide, outdoor writer, naturalist, book author, and a co-host of MAINE OUTDOORS radio program on Sunday evenings from 7-8 p.m. His three books, “Fly Fishing Maine Rivers, Brooks, and Streams”, “Trolling Flies for Trout and Salmon”, and “Salesman Angler”---are all available, in soft cover only, at several bookstores and fly shops, or directly from him. For information, see ad in this publication or call 207-217-2550.

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Retirement Perks

Retirement has its perks. After 38 years of work, 28 of them here at Moosehead, this spring I will be stepping back and beginning, dare I say, my “elder” chapter. This will give me a whole lot more time to get out and enjoy the woods and water and, while I am still able to, some years of personal pursuit. Like many others before me, something significant usually happens that precipitates a big change like deciding to retire. For me, it was a recent health scare, which made me realize how precious it is to do for yourself. This will also give me more time to write about the outdoors of the Moosehead Lake region for North Woods Journal readers. I’m calling 2023 the “Year of the Cat” — and I’m the cat.

Two trips already set this year are into Quebec Cree country in March and down the Allagash River in September. March should still be winter, a favorite

time of year, and we will be snowshoeing in to camp with a Cree couple who still live the traditional ways. For a week, five of us from Maine will be seine fishing, setting and checking traps for beaver and snares for grouse, snow shoe hare, and other fur animals. Bush and survival skills will be learned ac-

it. Hands down, you said, “Do it yourself.” Can’t beat that! In the end, again, feeling time slipping by, I split the difference, and will hire Jerry and assist him to learn this, and finish, then paint it at home myself. Last fall I did manage to strip and finish the interior planks and ribs, but time ran out for re-canvassing. Now, it

“My God man, what’re saving yourself for?!” That about sums it up. cording to Cree ways. We will be also spend some time carving, learning how to prepare a moose hide for human use, and sewing hide. I’ve always thought that it would be good to use the skin, if possible. Now is my chance to know more about that.

Later this spring, I’ll finally take my canoe down to Jerry Stelmok, and assist him in re-canvassing it.

Previously, I wrote about this project, asking you whether or not to re-cover it myself or have an expert do

will be ready to use this summer.

In September, some friends and I will be going down the Allagash with Matt LaRoche. Matt writes for the Journal, too, lives in nearby Shirley, and is retired after 40 years managing the Wilderness Waterway. Our paths have crossed many times, so I know this will be a great trip, very late in the season.

Once I was crossing a river that was running very high.

I had to get to the other side, so put my pack on my

Page 7

Kineo Currents

by Suzanne AuClair, Rockwood, ME head and walked neck deep through it. I was alone, no one else around. On the other side there was a huge boulder. As I approached dripping wet, I saw that it was Matt sitting there, fishing. He’d brought his son up for the day. We were both surprised to see a familiar face, in a remote place. As they say in the old country, “What a world!”

I cannot think of a better way to usher in this new beginning. Last spring, I was on the St. John River with Kevin Slater, co-owner with Polly Mahoney of

Mahoosuc Guide Service.

The punch line to one of Kevin’s stories was, “My God man, what’re saving yourself for?!” That about sums it up.

Suzanne AuClair is an avid outdoorswoman. She has been writing about the Moosehead Lake region for 28 years and produced a state anthology,“The Origin, Formation & History of Maine’s Inland Fisheries Division.” She is an award-winning member of the New England Outdoor Writers Assn.

Mainely Agriculture P.O. Box 632, Brownville, ME 04414-0632

207-991-3224 cell/text wally.sinclair@aol.com WALLACE SINCLAIR, Publisher

Page 8

Northwoods Sporting Journal

April 2023

Commissioner Camuso Connects Judy Camuso, Maine’s Commissioner for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife(DIF&W), is certainly making a name for herself beyond the bridge in Kittery.

US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland recently announced that Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Judy Camuso was appointed to the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, the first person from Maine to ever serve on the international council.

The North American Wetlands Conservation Council protects, restores and enhances wetland habitat for birds and other species.

Since 1989, the council has provided over $2 billion in grants for over 3,000 projects in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The grants have attracted over $4.1 billion in matching funds, protecting or enhancing over $31 million acres

Ethical Choices To the Editor: When I read the October issue of your Journal, I found several articles of great interest and importance. Of special interest were V. Paul Reynolds’ “Hunting: Ethical Choices”, along with your excellent editorial, “The Gun Rights Ruling”, Stu Bristol’s, “Banning Cellular Trail Cameras”, and Gary Moore’s, “It’s All About Perception”.

We, hunters, need to be mindful of the fact that we make up only 5 % of the overall population, consequently placing us at the mercy of the other 95%. The anti’s number approximately 20% and the other 75% are not opposed to hunting, and that group is the one that we need to make and keep comfortable. They can and

of wetlands and connected uplands.

Good for Commissioner Camuso!

Camuso’s appointment to the council comes recently after being named Vice Chair of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. She also serves as chair of AFWA’s North American Bird Conservation Initiative, vice chair of the National Conservation Leadership Institute, and is vice president of the North East Association of Fish and Wildlife agencies.

These national leadership positions can put Camuso on a personal vocational path to bigger things. It also nurtures networking opportunities than can deliver benefits for Maine. For example, the council Camuso serves on over the last five years, has awarded Maine $15,499,725 in funds from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, which was matched by $59,074,347. Since 2018,

will determine the future of our sport, if we do not address controversial hunting/practices.

“Ethics, Fair Chase and Perception” are discussed in the October issue of your Journal.

As for “Ethics”, I believe that the late Jim Posewitz said it well when describing the ethical hunter as, “A person who respects the animal hunted and behaves in a manner that will satisfy the non-hunting public.” According to the Webster’s dictionary, 1) “A sportsman is a person who is interested or takes part in sports, especially in hunting, fishing etc., 2) “A person who can take loss or defeat without complaint or victory without gloating, and who treats his opponent (game animal) with fairness, respect, etc.”

“Fair Chase”, leaves some practices question-

able, however I believe that the wireless cell cams have crossed what should be a red line and are not considered a fair chase. The deer baiting in New Hampshire is also considered a red line issue for many.

Last, but not least, is, “Perception” It is extremely important how the non-hunting public views our actions. Most of the non-hunting public is not opposed to hunting if done in an ethical and respectful manner.

My passion is deer hunting and I could not have more respect for the animal that I pursue. Hunting should be more than just pulling the trigger. The challenge and anticipation is what makes the hunt so exciting for me. If I killed every big buck that I set out after, the fun and excitement would not be there.

Thanks, V. Paul, for

this program has protected 137,123 acres in Maine, including large parcels of land along the Kennebec and Narraguagus Rivers, and significant coastal wetlands in central and Downeast Maine.

The outdoor community has reason to be pleased that our DIF&W leader is deemed worthy by her professional contemporaries at the national level. She is getting national exposure, not only for herself, but for the state she represents.

May she find the wisdom and the good sense to strike a balance between her extracurricular commitments and her important job here at home.

creating a means for discussion about these highly controversial issues. It provides an opportunity for me and other interested individuals to express our thoughts and concerns, in an effort to insure that we and our families may continue to enjoy our sport of hunting.

- VPR

on my stand and a grouse would spend hours around me. I have read that grouse will eat over ripened choke cherries and will get intoxicated and do strange things so I chalked this event up to this.

Speed ahead to spring of 2022. I turkey hunt on my land in the same area. I got set up prior to first light Willard H. Taft and settled in for the days Island Pond, VT event. Within a half hour I had a grouse approach me Gregarious Grouse II and started circling my set up. As with David’s case To the Editor: the grouse was constantly This morning while make a cooing type sound. reading your February When she got close to 2023 issue of the North- me I would lift my boot and woods Sporting Journal, she would rare up and peck I came across an article my boot and slap my boot from David Minton about with her wings. Then she a grouse encounter. would fly up on my boot I have had a similar and just sit and coo. incident happen to me in I tried many times to the last couple of years. It reach out and touch her started on land I own while and she would give me a deer hunting. I was sitting (Letters cont. pg 9)

April 2023

Letters

(Cont. from pg 8) little peck or wing slap.

After a couple of hours I got up to head home and she followed me all the way home.

A couple of days later I returned to that stand and was happy to see her coming again. This morning I decided to get down on her level. I would let her get to within a foot of me, raise my hand quickly and she would flair up and bat me with her wings. I noticed every time I did this she would land in the same place. I took my other hand and rested it on her landing pad and raised my other hand quickly. She promptly landed in my open hand.

To say I was amazed is an understatement. I held and pet this wild creature for quite awhile. It then hit me that no one would believe this story so I got my cell phone out and snapped a few photos.

As I had guessed my family thought I had finally fallen of my rocker. They wanted to know if I had shine stored in the woods.

Even tho I had many pictures they still laughed at me.

The following weekend I returned and so did she. We spent plenty of time together. At one point she let out a loud sound and puffed all up and got real agitated. I could not figure out why until a large hawk came flying overhead in

Northwoods Sporting Journal

pursuit of her. I was sure she was doomed.

I went back the next morning and low and behold she was there. I was very happy and soon I was scolding her about that event.

When I returned home I told my wife about the event and she listened but I could tell she thought I was one step out of an institution. I asked to grab her cell phone and come with me to do a video. As we drove out to the spot on the ATV we did not she her.

We went beyond the spot and turned around and on the way back up the hill my wife shouted there she is.

I got off the atv and down on my hands and knees. The grouse promptly walked right up to me and we started our game. On the first attempt, while Diane was filming the grouse flew directly into my arms.

Almost like we scripted it!!

I have spent tons of my life in the great outdoors and this by far is the neatest encounter of them all.

Randy Barrows Milton,Vermont

Paul’s Pickerel Preparation To the Editor: V. Paul, I’ve been reading the Northwoods Sporting Journal for many years, your writings are very good. The January article on pickerel is a trea-

sure. I hope many readers pass it along.

After following your instructions my wife and I had a great supper of pickerel, bone free! And tasty to boot. Like you I was raised to live off the land. I raised my kids that way also. I’m blessed to have a large family of nimrods and fly fishermen and ladies. I tried eating pickerel for many years, heard about soaking it in vinegar, it helped by not close to your cubing and milk method.

Many thanks to Doug Russell and you for passing this info along. I turned 80 in November, got my deer, and thanks to you this old dog has learned a new trick.

God bless, and keep up the good work.

You made my day,

nal.

I have a similar story to share of some twelve years ago.

It all started when a grouse began following me from its drumming rock as I walked out to my mailbox…a distance of about 150 yards. It became bolder as time passed, thinking he ruled the roost, following me or my wife whenever we ventured outside, even jumping on our laps as we sat on the porch.

His antics were quite

Page 9 domain from intruders and when I mowed the lawn, he would be right behind me, going row to row, back and forth.

While I was building a set of landscaping stairs, it stood at the ready for any help I needed. However, when I attempted to push it out of my way, it did peck my arm.

After about two weeks, he disappeared, leaving us a story like David’s to tell.

I am enclosing a photo

Ben York Cherryfield

Another Grouse Story

amusing. Whenever I drove out the driveway, he would run/fly after my truck. When painters were To the Editor: I enjoyed David Min- working on the house, he ton’s “gregarious grouse” chased them around the story in the Sporting Jour- yard as if protecting his

of “my assistant”. You can keep the picture or send it to David.

Tim O’Donoghue Proctorsville, VT (Letters cont. pg 37)

Page 10

“A Hiker’s Life”

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Beer Hiking: Massachusetts

by Carey Kish, Mt. Desert Island, ME Beer Hiking New England features 50 great hikes and craft breweries from around the region. On this selected adventure, hike a section of the New England Trail for spectacular views from the traprock cliffs on Mount Tom, then enjoy a refreshing a ginger beer at New City Brewery.

row ridgeline of volcanic basalt or traprock, as well as sedimentary rock that has faulted and tilted over the eons.

This loop hike follows six different trails and features dramatic vistas from numerous lookouts atop the 1,000-foot cliffs on the west side of Whiting Peak

meet D.O.C. Trail, which weaves through low, rocky outcrops, then contours around the west side of Whiting Peak to the ridge crest, where it joins the New England Trail. The white-blazed NET, established in 2009, connects the historic Mattabesett, Metacomet and Monadnock trail systems and extends 215 miles from Long Island

April 2023

tinue on to the T. Bagg Trail and wind back down the mountain to Lake Bray.

Opened in 2015, New City Brewery occupies the old boiler room of a long-abandoned and now beautifully redeveloped mill complex in the historic New City neighborhood of

beer is made according to the recipe of owner and brew master Sam Dibble, who loves to put his own spin on traditional brewing styles. Enjoy a refreshing pour, and perhaps a bite of locally sourced deliciousness from New City’s kitchen, in the patio beer

Easthampton. Look for the towering 200-foot brick smokestack of the former home of the National Felt Company (circa 1890s) and you’ll have discovered this unique brewery.

New City features Original Ginger Beer among its creative tap list of ales, IPAs, lagers, a mule and even fresh-squeezed mimosas. This pre-Prohibition, Jamaican-style ginger

garden out front where there’s a fine view across bucolic Lower Mill Park to the rolling ridgeline of Mount Tom.

On Keystone Extension, climb around several rocky knobs to meet D.O.C. Trail, which weaves through low, rocky outcrops, then contours around the west side of Whiting Peak to the ridge crest, where it joins the New England Trail.

The 1,967-acre Mount Tom Reservation, located in the south-central Pioneer Valley just west of the Connecticut River, encompasses the peaks of the Mount Tom Range from Mount Tom, Whiting Peak and Goat Peak to Dry Knoll and Mount Nonotuck. The range, part of the Metacomet Ridge that extends 100 miles from Long Island Sound into southern New Hampshire, is a steep, nar-

and Goat Peak. From Lake Bray, an artificial lake created by the damming of Bray Brook, follow the Accessible Trail to Kay Bee Trail, where the ascent begins in earnest. Switchbacks lead gradually over the western slopes of Whiting Peak, which is cloaked in a mix of large hardwoods and softwoods.

On Keystone Extension, climb around several rocky knobs to

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April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Redemption Bear

There is nothing more disheartening than when a client misses a bear. The time invested in setup, the anticipation and expectations on a bear stand with good bears coming in suddenly crashes in flames with the missed opportunity. It happens.

On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, there isn’t a much more exhilarating moment than when the client makes contact with the ‘bear down’ call.

When both happen to the same client on back to back hunts it is quite a tale. Here is the story of the redemption bear.

Bear Fever During the first week of the 2020 fall bear over bait season, Chad Spiekerman and his girlfriend Tami Jo joined us for our inaugural VIP bear and bass combo hunt. The package consisted of guided fishing in the mornings and bear hunting in the afternoons.

Hosted by Wild Fox Cabins on Junior Lake in Lakeville, each hunter enjoyed their own private lakeside cabin and dedicated virgin bear baits. We offered only two packages that included one hunter and a guest to provide a quality, personal trip. Chad was an experienced bear hunter, taking a Maine black bear with his bow previously with another outfitter and was seeking a more unique experience. He travelled from Michigan to Tucker Ridge to get it.

Chad’s primary site was hot. Nice bears were tending the bait regularly, with a 250 to 300 poundclass bear among them.

After a few days on stand, his .35 Remington lever gun barked. A big bear had

stuck his head in the barrel and presented a perfect broadside shot. Tami and I heard the boom back at camp and as I readied my gear for the retrieval, Chad called and said the bear took off and ran…into the bog behind the bait. My immediate thought was ‘Oh no.’ After a grid search

time, ate well and caught some fish, but I sure was disappointed Chad and Tami left without a bear.

Redemption Autumn of 2022 saw Chad and Tami’s return for our follow up VIP bear hunt. I could tell Chad was much more focused and the emotional aspect that

Page 11

The Gun Cabinet

by John Floyd, Webster Plantation, ME ing .280 Rem would easily handle the range. After hours of rain and nearing last shooting light, Chad saw movement at the bait site. It was too dark however to identify the target and he pulled his rifle down.

It was now Friday morning and the last day of the hunt. Chad, Tami and I were on my fishing pontoon boat north

stumble out of sight behind a big cedar.

I arrived at Chad’s site with my helper Jeremy and had Chad replay the shot to me. He was confident we had a bear but he was also understandably nervous – we couldn’t see the bear up on the ridge in the dark.

I had Chad sit tight with Jeremy and our retrieval equipment as I made my

Chad called and said the bear took off and ran…into the bog behind the bait.

My immediate thought was ‘Oh no.’

After a grid search stretching out to 300 yards with no blood or hair, I called it. It was a miss.

Chad with his ‘Redemption Bear’ stretching out to 300 yards with no blood or hair, I called it. It was a miss.

Later on, after running the experience through his mind several times, Chad admitted that he probably broke ‘cheek weld’, lifting his eyes from the sights in anticipation, ahead of the shot. It is a classic mistake.

He put a lot of pressure on himself, desperately wanting to take a bear with his recently departed father’s rifle and rushed the shot.

While he was upbeat the next few days, noting that ‘you did your job, I didn’t do mine’ he never got another shot. We had a great

undoubtedly had an impact on his last hunt was in check. After two years of replaying the events of his miss through his mind, he was ready for redemption.

After three days on his original stand in hot and humid weather with lackluster bear sightings, we decided to move him to his back up site. This spot was a ground blind perched on a hill overlooking a valley with dense, mature canopy overhead. The bait was 80 yards down ridge in a stand of cedar with the set up being much cooler and conducive to daylight bear activity. Chad’s Brown-

of Bottle Island on Junior Lake throwing lures to smallmouth bass and talking about the final hunt plan. Should Chad head back to his original stand or sit the blind again? If the bears were only coming to the ground blind site at or near dark, Chad wouldn’t get a shot. As we discussed the pros and cons of each site, Tami chimed in – ‘Sit the blind, I have a feeling.’

It was the right call. With less than an hour of daylight left in Chad’s hunt, a big boar popped out of the cedar thicket and approached the bait. With a steady hand and a focused mind, Chad touched off the Browning and saw the bear

way down the steep incline, my Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum nestled in my chest holster. Five minutes later I hollered up ridge – ‘dead bear!’ We hauled the big bear out of the valley and returned to camp where Chad received congratulations all around. Chad finally had his redemption, in the nick of time with only minutes to spare.

John is a Registered Maine Guide, an NRA Certified Instructor and is the owner of Tucker Ridge Outdoors in Webster Plantation, Maine. He can be reached at john@tuckerridge.me or on Facebook @tuckerridgeoutdoors

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Page 12

Cookin’ With New England’s WildCheff

Sporting Journal Northwoods

by Denny Corriveau, Kennebunkport, ME

Spring, no different than any other season, brings about a great opportunity for those of us who enjoy food from the wild.

It’s amazing how many directions you can take when you hunt and gather things that are raised by forage.

For example, spring is an exciting time if you are a fellow turkey hunter. If you haven’t experienced how

are things like fiddleheads, ramps, dandelion greens, and morel mushrooms. All of these bring value to the plate and can be supporting cast members for your seasonal fish or game recipes.

Tips for these are as follows: Morels. The best time to find them is between the end of April and beginning of June. They have a honeycomb-like appearance

April 2023

Springtime Foraging

rience the fresh flavor (parallel to asparagus), simple recipes work best. Boil clean fiddleheads in salted water for 2-5 minutes, and then place them into an ice bath. Pat them dry with paper towels, and then you can saute them with butter or oil, some garlic, and some salt and pepper. Serve fiddleheads as a side dish veggie, or with your fresh caught springtime fish. I also transform it into pesto for pizza and pasta dishes.

Ramps are another amazing item to forage in the spring. They’re also

turkey burger. They are also incredible on game burgers and pizza.

The last foraged item I will mention is Dandelions Greens. Now, who wouldn’t want to see that sea of yellow turned into

your greens on a foraged themed pizza.

The best time to harvest these greens is in the spring, when they are new and tender, as the summer heat will make them too bitter to enjoy. Remember,

Fiddleheads are one of the most sought after foraged items.

Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of the ostrich fern, and they’re only available for a short period in the spring. exhilarating turkey hunting is, you have no idea what you are missing. These birds live by foraging, and that is evidenced by the quality of the meat; it is the cleanest tasting turkey you will ever eat.

Bears surface in the spring. After a long nap, they are ready to forage on nature’s grocery store.

Deer and moose transition, as they move from a winter forage menu to a springtime menu.

Some of the most desirable vegetation that you can forage in the spring

and are found near streams.

They have a wonderful earthy flavor and pair well with game steak, wild turkey and can be sauteed with butter and garlic as a side, or dunked in a batter and deep-fried.

Fiddleheads are one of the most sought after foraged items. Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of the ostrich fern, and they’re only available for a short period in the spring.

Once they start to leaf out, they’re no longer edible, so timing is important.

If you desire to expe-

Somerset

known as spring onions, wild leeks, or wild garlic.

The whole plant is edible, and they have a delicious delicate flavor. The harvest season is approximately a 30-day window, in April or May. Ramps do take a long time to repopulate, so it is best to harvest them sparingly. The method would be to cut a few leaves from each plant with a pair of quality scissors, leaving the bulb to recreate.

To cook ramps, you can use a similar method to cooking onions. You can grill them, make delicious pesto, make them into aioli or a flavored butter for you game steak, or grilled wild

Early spring mushrooms, if you select the right ones, can be delicious table fare.

(Photo by Diane Reynolds)

something useful?!

Nutritionally, dandelion greens are healthier than beets. They are a high source of protein and fiber.

They can be enjoyed as a green salad, sauteed like baby spinach, made into dandelion fritters, or even made into tea. Pesto is also always a tasty option. Serve that pesto over scrambled eggs or enjoy

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I am referring to the green leaves of the plant.

You should always rinse them well under cold water and trim the longer stems as they can tend to be more bitter. Pat them dry with paper towels before you use them for your recipe.

While the slight bitter nature of dandelion greens is why people enjoy them, you can remove some of that natural bitterness by soaking them in cold water that is well salted for 10 minutes, or blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes that has been salted, then cool them in cold water.

If you have interest in a foraging adventure, (Foraging cont. pg 14)

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 13

Outdoor News - April 2023 Edited by V. Paul Reynolds

April is – depending upon whether you are an optimist or a pessimist – the month of the Seasonal Awakening or the month of the Big Mud. Even the pessimist can take heart that at least in April there is light at the end of the tunnel. For our hard-pressed deer population and other wild critters, April can be a make or break month.

An early green up can make the difference for them between survival or death. Most outdoor folks take enjoyment in the slow but inexorable coming of spring – the budding, the smell of damp earth, and the formations of geese winging north.

Fishing can be slow, especially when winter ice still hugs the stream banks and the biting north wind discourages all but the heartiest boat anglers.

There are some good things in Maine in April, though: turkey season is near and camps can be opened without bugs to deal with. So bring on April, and then we can embrace May with all of the real blessings of spring in Maine.

Vermont Moose Permits

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has proposed issuing 180 moose hunting permits in Vermont’s Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) E in the northeastern corner of the state in a continued effort to reduce the impact of winter ticks on moose in that area. No permits are recommended for the rest of the state.

The goal of the department’s 2023 moose harvest

recommendation is to improve the health of moose in WMU-E by reducing the number of moose and thereby reducing the abundance and impact of winter ticks.

“Moose are abundant in WMU E with significantly higher population density than in any other part of the state,” said Nick Fortin, Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s moose project leader. “Winter ticks only thrive on moose, and higher moose densities support high numbers of winter ticks which negatively impact moose health and survival.”

The Fish and Wildlife Department partnered with University of Vermont researchers to conduct a study of moose health and survival in WMU E. The results of this study, in which 126 moose (36 cows, 90 calves) were fitted with GPS tracking collars, showed that chronic high winter tick loads caused the health of moose in that part of the state to be very poor. Survival of adult moose remained relatively good, but birth rates were very low and less than half of the calves survived their first winter.

“Research has shown that lower moose densities support relatively few winter ticks that do not impact moose populations,” said Fortin. “Reducing moose density decreases the number of available hosts which in turn decreases the number of winter ticks on the landscape.”

The department would issue 80 either-sex moose hunting permits and 100 antlerless moose permits in WMU-E for the moose

seasons this October. This is expected to result in a harvest of about 100 moose, or about 10 percent of the moose population in WMU-E. “This permit recommendation represents a continued attempt to address winter tick impacts on moose in WMU-E,” added Fortin. “Given the poor health of the moose population in that area and a clearly identified cause, we need to take action to address this issue. Without intervention to reduce the moose population, high tick loads will continue to impact the health of moose in that region for many years.”

“Department staff, including lead moose biologist Nick Fortin and Research Manager Dr. Katherina Gieder, brought incredible scientific expertise to this recommendation,” said Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife Christopher Herrick. “The proposal our board vetted and approved was informed by years of field research and sophisticated statistical analyses that have been featured in peer reviewed publications alongside results from sister efforts in Maine and New Hampshire.”

The 2023 Maine Moose Permit Lottery Process Open!

Applications for the moose permit lottery will be accepted online only.

To apply online, go to mefishwildlife.com and fill out the online moose permit application. There, you will be able to indicate several preferences, includ-

ing which wildlife management districts (WMD) you are willing to accept a permit in, and if you would accept a permit in another WMD if your name is drawn and all of your top choices are filled. You will also be able to select your preferred hunting season, whether or not you would accept an antlerless permit, and your choice of a subpermittee. You will also be asked if you want to apply for the Adaptive Unit Hunt (WMD 4A).

it: mefishwildlife.com

Rangeley Fly Fishing Festival

It’s never too early to start planning for Father’s Day Weekend. Treat Dad to a weekend full of flyfishing. June 16th-17th is the White Nose Pete Fly Fishing Festival. Bring Dad to learn about fly fishing or improve his skills. Bring the kids and introduce them to Fly Fishing. Free casting clinics, including ones especially for kids, live demos on fly tying. Auction benefitting Reel Recovery and so much more. The event is even planned to Applications must allow time for trips to local be completed by 11:59 fishing holes so Dad can pm (ET) on May 15, 2023. practice what he learned The 2023 moose lot- and maybe hook some tery permit drawing will beautiful brook trout. If take place Saturday, June you have members of your 10 in Augusta. party not into fishing, they For more informa- can check out the Lupine tion about moose hunting Festival or browse local in Maine and the moose shops. There is always permit lottery, please vis(News cont. pg 35)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 14

Foraging

Dandelion Green Pizza

on juice Sea salt, to taste (Cont. from pg 12) 2 game sausages - grilled Ingredients and sliced thin.

WildCheff will be offering 1 pizza dough Edible Forage Destination 1/2 C of whole ricotta 1/2 C of Italian blend cheese packages where you can cheese Finely grated Pecorino Roenjoy a foraging adventure 1/2 Tsp. of lemon zest with WildCheff, gather 1/4 Tsp. of WildCheff mano or Parmesan Directions foraged items and experi- Chef’s Grind Pepper Preheat pizza stone ence a culinary session 3 T of olive oil or pizza baking sheet for with tasting at the end of 3 garlic cloves, minced 30 minutes at 450 degrees. the adventure. If you have 3 scallions, thinly sliced Mix ricotta together interest in this, please reach 2 C of dandelion greens with lemon zest and pepout to WildCheff at wild- 2 oz. of arugula cheff007@gmail.com 1 T of fresh squeezed lem- per, and then set aside.

April 2023

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Cook scallions and garlic for 3-5 minutes until softened.

Now add dandelion greens, arugula, salt and lemon juice, and cook until greens are wilted. Drain any excess fluid in pan.

Split pizza dough in half and roll out over flour surface into a 10-inch round.

Transfer to a pizza

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peel or wood cutting board that has been dusted with semolina.

Spread some of the ricotta mixture on top of the staged dough. Sprinkle some pizza cheese blend over the ricotta.

Top with some of the wilted greens and chunks of cooked game sausage.

Slide pizza onto hot pizza stone and/or pizza pan and put into oven for approximately 16 minutes until browned and crisp.

Remove from oven and sprinkle some finegrated Romano or Parm over the top just prior to serving.

Repeat for second piece of pizza dough.

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April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Gartside Soft Hackle Deceiver

This month’s fly is a Jack Gartside fly. I’ve done very well fishing this fly, and it is one of a dozen patterns that I always check my box to make sure I have one when I fish. You can tie it any color you like, they all seem to work. I’m partial to dyed grizzly. Here’s how to tie one.

Recipe for the Gartside Soft Hackle Deceiver Thread – Gray or black Hook – Size 6-10, 2X or 3x long Tail – 2 saddle hackles or your choice of color, grizzly barred work well also Body –Grizzly marabou

Face – 1-2 winds of small grizzly hen hackle Eyes – optional I use a 2-3x long hook and tie in 2 saddle hackles for the tail. This fly can

produce short strikes so don’t get carried away with a long tail. The body is a grizzly marabou feather wound on progressively to the front of the hook. Use tip of a “blood marabou”

feather where the stem is very thin. Tie the marabou in by the stem, butt first or the fly won’t swim correctly. Wind the marabou forward toward the eye;

on each turn use your free hand to brush back the marabou strands so that you end up with a full body of marabou fibers flowing to the rear of the fly. You can make a great little tool

Page 15

The Tyer’s Corner

by Hugh Kelly, Detroit, ME

to brush marabou by gluing a half inch long piece of Velcro to the end of a Popsicle stick. Use it like a comb on the delicate marabou fibers to comb them back. The marabou should extend no further than the halfway point of the tail.

After you tie off the marabou, you should have enough room for the face of the fly. Use a smallish grizzly hen feather. One or two winds should do it.

Again, tie the mallard stem in by the butt and use your free hand to brush back the feather fibers. Use a few thread winds on the head

to tie back the front hackle so it lies back toward the tail. Try different colors.

If you take the time to tie a few of these to get the technique down, this may become your favorite casting streamer.

Hugh Kelly has fly fished and tied his own flies for over 40 years. He and his family live in Detroit where he ties flies, drinks Moxie and plans fishing trips. He can be reached at hkellymaine@gmail.com and he writes a fly tying blog at puckerbrushflies. com

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 16

The Adventures of Me and Joe

by Bob Cram, (Alias T.J. Coongate) Medway, ME

“Ain’t she a beauty?”

Eben Ramdown pointed at a slim fly rod balanced on a display stand beside the rod rack in the Mooseleuk Mercantile. “It’s a brant new rod from Orvis. They call it the Mooseleuk Model. S’posed ter be the best thing since sliced bread fer freestone streams an’ brook trout!”

Joe eyed the shining rod speculatively. “Pack rod, ain’t it?”

“Yup. Six piece. Nine foot fer a 5-weight line.

Breaks down an’ fits inter this itty bitty carryin’ tube that’s only 20-inches long.

Rod’s made outa some new kinda material that will stand a lot of abuse an’ some heavy tuggin’ by big fish.”

“I dunno about pack rods,” Joe said guardedly. “Don’t seem like they could make one with decent action, all them pieces stuck together.”

“I hear they’ve made some great strides in pack rods in the last few years.”

I noted with approval the deep forest green finish set off by gold and red windings. “And it would sure be easier toting into the back country than a big, long 2-piece.”

For Joe, fly-fishing was no more important than breathing and his battered old Orvis Trident 7-weight had caught trout and salmon over half the state and eastern Canada.

He gingerly picked up the new rod, flicking it up and down, feeling the flex into the butt and noting how quickly the tip stopped its gyrations.

“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “that don’t feel too bad. Fer a pack rod, anyway.”

Eben, sensing weakness, plunged ahead.

“That’s a Battenkill reel on it all loaded with weightforward line. Little bit o’ red yard tied on the tippet.

Whyownt you take her out back an’ giver ‘er a cast?”

I opened the rear door and Joe stepped out into the

HELP US FIND

The elusive Northwoods Sporting Journal’s moose Marty.

He has wandered into the northwoods.

Find Marty somewhere in the Northwoods Sporting Journal (Hint: he will be located in one of our ads) Send us the page number he’s on and you could be a WINNER! Win a FREE Northwoods Sporting Journal Marty Hat. We will draw one winner from all correct entries submitted each month. We will announce the winner in the next issue.

PLEASE MAIL THIS FORM TO: Northwoods Sporting Journal P.O. Box 195, West Enfield, ME 04493

Name

The Mooseleuk Rod

Joe laughed and at the same time lifted the fly rod and set the hook. A larger trout fought free of the water, dancing on the surface. acre of field that comprised the Mercantile back yard.

Patches of snow still lay here and there but for the most part the area was covered with short brown grass packed flat by the retreating snow cover.

Joe stripped line off the reel, then made a couple of false casts. A smooth flex of his forearm sent line shooting across the yard to land, feather soft, at the edge of a small snow patch. I could tell he was impressed with the accuracy and light touch and didn’t want to show it. He

lifted the rod tip, double hauled on both the rear and forward strokes, and so much line rocketed out that I found myself staring, open-mouthed.

For a moment Joe just stood there, left hand at his side, the rod held horizontally in front of him. Then he sighed. “All right, Eben, how much?”

From the back steps the storekeeper rubbed his hands gleefully. “Now Joe, don’t I always use yer right?”

As we walked back along the main street

of Mooseleuk, Grafton Chortle fell in beside us.

“Whatchergot there, Joe?” He eyed the short rod tube with interest.

“New fly rod, Graf,” Joe held it up proudly. “Lot easier to carry into them back country ponds an’ streams. It’ll fit right into a light pack.”

“I dunno,” Graf shook his head doubtfully. “Prob’ly ain’t much stren’th in all them pieces stuck together. Still, if anyone kin make it work, it’d (Me & Joe cont. pg 17)

Shown actual size

Brandon Martin

(Marty was found on pg 56)

Address City

Marty

April 2023

State

Phone I found Marty on page

Zip

Entries must be postmarked by 4/11/23 to be eligible for this issue.

If you just can’t get enough of reading our Me & Joe Adventures, check out the All Outdoor section of our new Northwoods Sporting Journal website:www.sportingjournal.com You’ll find an ample supply of Me & Joe stories to keep you checking for a long time.

April 2023

Me & Joe (Cont. from pg 16)

be you, Joe.” Joe looked at the short rod tube a little uncertainly.

“Maybe yore right, Graf.

Don’t know jist how strong it’ll be, but she sure casts right. Guess I’m gonna find out.”

As we headed for Joe’s camp Graf kept pace.

“Say, you fellers goin’ in to the Eddy this week? I figger to head in tomorrow early. Always some big trouts on the edges o’ that fast water jist after ice out.”

“Yep,” Joe replied.

“We’re headin’ in tomorrow, too. Might as well go together, Graf. She’s a long hike an’ they’s still some snow in the woods.”

The Eddy was located on the upper East Branch of the Little Salt Pork River, far from any road. The river tumbled over a series of jagged rocks before pouring into a large, eddying pool about 75 yards across.

The current took a 90-degree bend before emptying from the pool into another evil set of rapids.

In the high water of spring runoff large brook trout hovered around the edges of current in the Eddy, one of the few resting spots in the East Branch’s wild run downstream. Each spring me and Joe, often joined by Graf Chortle or Chip Buttstock, made at least one trek over the rugged four-mile trail to the Eddy. Usually our efforts were rewarded with several hefty trout, the first fish of the open water angling season.

The next morning the three of us trudged along the faint trail toward the river. Much of the route was over bare ground but occasionally we had to

Northwoods Sporting Journal

fight our way through drifts of deep snow. Graf, thin and wiry, didn’t sink down as much as me and Joe and he laughed good-naturedly at our floundering efforts.

“C’mon, boys,” he grinned. “Don’t make me hafta carry yer. I’ll have enough trouble totin’ out all them trouts I’m gonna catch.”

At the river’s edge we stopped to catch our breaths. I eyed the raging water with some trepidation. Snow had piled deep during the winter and spring had been late in coming. More water than usual roared down through the rapids and filled the pool to overflowing. We would have to pick our fishing spots with care to avoid being swept away.

As Graf and I rigged up heaving spinning outfits I saw Joe pull the Mooseleuk rod from his pack and begin to assemble it.

“Pretty light for this kind of fishing, isn’t it?”

I asked.

“Maybe. But this will sure give it the acid test.

I’ve rigged her up with some heavy-duty leader an’ tippet. If it kin stand up to landin’ big trout in this heavy current, I ‘spect it’ll do fer anything.” He grinned as he fed line through the guides. “Besides, Orvis has ‘bout the best guarantee in the business. If’n it breaks, I’ll jist send it back an’ get another.”

We gingerly picked out fishing spots on spraydrenched rocks near the edge of the eddy. The fishing was slow. It was half an hour before anyone had a nibble, but finally Graf hooked a hefty trout. It took time and careful handling of the rod, but he gradually edged the fish into shallow water and slid a net under

it.

“Lookee here!” he shouted to Joe, holding up the 2-pound trout. “This here’s what they look like!”

Joe laughed and at the same time lifted the fly rod and set the hook.

A larger trout fought free of the water, dancing on the surface. I watched the battle tensely. The light rod was bent around sharply and Joe played the fish skillfully, grudgingly giving out line when necessary and gaining it back as the trout began to weaken.

Finally, the fish came to net, 3-pounds of brightly speckled brookie.

“Not bad at all!” Graf grinned. “Guess that jigsaw rod has the goods after all!”

During the next hour we landed and released a few more fish, keeping one apiece for the first trout feed of the new season.

Then, far out in the middle of the pool, the back of a huge fish rolled clear of the surface before disappearing into the depths. We all stared.

“Boy oh boy, that’s the granddaddy!” Graf said excitedly. “He’s gonna love this here Weepin’ Willow!”

Graf stepped onto a big rock then leaped across rushing water to another, closer to the head of the pool.

“Careful, Graf!” I shouted over the roar of the water. “The spray’s making those rocks slippery.” I’d no more than closed my mouth when Graf drew his rod back and gave a mighty heave forward. Both feet went out from under him and he plunged headlong into the seething current.

Me and Joe stared in horror. Graf’s head appeared out near the center of the pool, his arms flailing weakly as the ice water rapidly sapped his strength.

Page 17

Then a particularly large wave closed over him and he disappeared in the wash of the current.

He’s headed toward the outlet!” I cried. “He’ll never live through those rapids downstream!”

Joe was the first to recover. As Graf’s head appeared once more at the surface, Joe lifted his line off the water, made one false cast, and shot the fly off across the pool. The weighted streamer landed with unerring accuracy on Graf’s collar and the point of the hook snagged firmly in the wool cloth.

Joe reefed back on the rod and the slender pole bent dangerously.

For long moments it looked like Joe’s efforts would be futile. The strong current dragged Graf slowly toward the outlet. But Joe raced along the jumbled rocks of the shore, regaining line, pulling strongly, tipping the rod first to one side, then the other. Finally, I saw Graf ease slightly out of the main current. Joe heaved on the rod even more, maintaining a precarious balance between maximum pull and the breaking strength of the tippet. Scarcely 10 yards from the seething maelstrom of the outlet rapids, Joe dragged the sputtering Graf into shallow water.

I splashed out and pulled

him ashore.

As Graf choked and gagged out half the river, Joe hurriedly built a roaring fire in the lee of a clump of nearby cedars. After about 10 minutes the shivering fisherman had regained his equilibrium and sat on a rock close to the fire, cloaked in a covering of all our coats. Joe had brewed tea and Graf sipped gratefully at a steaming cup of the dark liquid.

“Boy, th-that th-there was a close one!” he chattered.

“Sure was, Graf,” Joe agreed. “Fer a while, there, I didn’t think I was gonna be able to land yer.”

“Good thing you put heavy leader on that new rod, Joe.” I grinned at Graf, whose good humor seemed to be returning. “I don’t think a 5x tippet would have landed this joker.”

Joe threw another stick of wood on the fire.

“We git you dried out, Graf, and we’ll head back to town. ‘Less you wanna stay an’ do a little more fishin’?”

“Nope.” Graf drained the cup of tea. “Gotta git back to the Mercantile and talk to ol’ Eben Ramdown.”

He grinned at Joe from beneath strands of wet, limp hair. “If’n you kin land a big sucker like me with that little bitty rod, I gotta have me one!”

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 18

Outdoor Sporting Library

April 2023

Trap Lines North

and camped on remote shorelines.

by Jeremiah Wood, In fall the moose huntAshland, ME ers would arrive in search When you make your to their home cabin in the of trophy bulls, and the living from the land, you small railroad settlement guides, having kept tabs on don’t eat if you don’t pro- of Nakina, not far from the location of these giants duce. Hard work and self Lake Nipigon. Here they throughout the year, would sufficiency are the name of sold furs, ordered supplies, lead them in their quest for the game. That was the way planted a large vegetable adventure. For their own with the Vanderbeck family garden and prepared for the part, they’d harvest young bulls for winter meat after of Ontario in the 1930s. summer guiding season.

It was critical that they covered a great deal of ground and had traps operating during the winter months when fur was most valuable. So when one year the family patriarch, Big Lindsay, went down with sickness, the family’s future was up in the air.

Life required trapping, guiding, hunting, fishing and gardening in a harmonious cycle that revolved around the seasons.

In late spring the family – Big Lindsay Vanderbeck, his wife and four children, including sons Jim and Lindsay, moved

Sports from all over would arrive at Nakina at intervals throughout the summer to spend days with one of the Vanderbeck men deep in the woods and waters on fishing excursions for large brook trout and northern pike. They travelled the lakes by canoe

their sports returned to town.

Late fall was a busy time, with the need to freight supplies to the remote trapline cabins by canoe and portage before the big freeze-up. When winter arrived, travel switched to snowshoe and dog team,

and trapping season went into full gear.

T h e Va n d e r b e c k s made a considerable amount of their yearly income from selling fur.

It was critical that they

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covered a great deal of ground and had traps operating during the winter months when fur was most valuable. So when one year the family patriarch, Big Lindsay, went down with sickness, the family’s future was up in the air.

Lindsay’s sons Jim and young Lindsay were in their teens, but they had been well trained and disciplined by years of hard work in the wilderness.

This winter they were challenged with doing man’s work, taking over their father’s trapline and producing income they needed to survive.

During this great, challenging winter, Jim Vanderbeck kept a journal of his daily activities, observations, challenges and accomplishments. It was from this journal that the book “Trap Lines North” came to be. Some time after that great winter, Stephen Meader took a guided trip with Jim Vanderbeck out of Nakina, where he developed a friendship with this remarkable young man and learned of his diary.

Jim’s diary was the source material for Meader’s story of the Vanderbecks and their wilderness lifestyle, and that challenging and exciting season in the woods when boys proved their worth and took on the responsibilities of grown men.

(Trap Line cont. pg 21)

Northwoods Sporting Journal

April 2023

Casting

(Cont. from pg 3) False casting is simply continuing the back and forth strokes, without the “presentation”, until the caster wants to finish the cast. This is done to fine tune aim at the target or extend the casting stroke to get more distance. Getting to much line in the air loses line control, causes slack, and inadequate loading of the rod to proper the line.

Fly casting is a “Science” because physics affects how it all happens, and there are several paradigms, labeled “Principles”

by Lefty Kreh, that are applied by good casters no matter what their style.

These are presented below.

Slack in the line must be removed before the cast is begun.

This is done by manually removing potential slack, and completed with the first stage of the cast, the “pickup”.

The back and forward movement (rod loading) ends in an abrupt “Stop” which causes the loop to unfold.

The rod tip should follow a straight line, 180 degrees from where it starts and to its end with the “Stop”. This applies no matter what the casting plane; horizontal, upward, or downward, and creates a tight loop.

The longer the casting stroke the wider the loop, and the shorter the casting stroke the tighter the loop.

The longer the cast the longer the casting stroke.

The fly line goes where ever the rod tip goes! This is a keystone principle. It is the cause of casting problems, and also the one used to target a cast, create advanced casting strokes designed to form different aerial mends, and various curve casts. If the rod tip does not follow a straight path, the line will follow whatever path it takes. When the tip dips below the straight line (concave path) the line crosses itself, creating the infamous trailing loop and wind knot. This is caused by many factors, particularly over powering the start of the forward cast. When the tip takes a path above the straight line (convex path) the line will create a wide loop. The distance above the straight line determines the width of the loop. This can be an

intended path designed to create a wide loop or an unintended casting error that creates a poor cast. A wide loop is often used to cast heavy flies, or when casting with the wind to ones back. A tight loop is the most aerodynamic cast, and is especially useful when casting for distance, or into the wind in a downward plane.

When casting problems arise, or you are not casting well, Relax, think about what you are doing, and concentrate on moving the rod tip along a straight path while gradually accelerating your casting strokes.

Practice makes perfect! Mimicking your casting stroke without the rod in hand is a great way to improve your casting and work on developing muscle memory and creating good casting habits. Keep a rod handy rigged with a short leader and a piece of wool yarn and practice on your lawn, your neighbors will think you are crazy, so keep the practice sessions short but frequent.

Page 19

Several exercises I have found useful include; for Stops”, envision what it feels like to hold a hammer and drive a nail into a wall at eye level, or make a karate chop that is abruptly stopped by your other hand held open at eye level; for casting strokes, mimic you strokes in a mirror, or stand so you can see your shadow as you cast, or have

someone take a video of you casting; for back casts, envision tossing a ball over your shoulder across a wall immediately behind you.

Happy Casting Fred Hurley, Wayne, Maine. Fly Tying Instructor, and FFI Certified Fly Casting Instructor

Jim Miller took this snapshot with his trail camera in Lakeville. The cat, in the right hand corner, seems to have the heft and muscular relief of a mountain lion. Too bad we could not see the tail. (Photo by Jim Miller)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal Aroostook Woods & Water

Page 20

by Mike Maynard, Perham, ME My calendar says it’s spring. Stick your head out any window in Caribou this morning and you’ll come up with a different opinion.

Oh, we’ll thaw out eventually, we always do. April in the County is an enigma.

You can’t ice fish any longer, though most of the lakes still have plenty of ice on them. You can’t troll, … obviously. You’ll still need snowshoes to access those streamside banks that remain buried under several feet of snow. And even if you could access open water, the temperature of it will barely be above freezing and the slush ice will ruin every drift you attempt. The fish aren’t going to play, and you’ll be hypothermic and sad.

But, as John Gierach likes to say, you’ll be standing in a river waving a stick. So there’s that.

By February my brain had turned to mush and I started going through fly boxes, practicing my Latin.

My English isn’t much

better than my Latin and I just wound up confusing myself. I turned to Ernest Schwiebert to straighten myself out. I took one of the seminal tomes in the Pantheon -‘Matching the Hatch’, down off the bookshelf and settled in.

Schwiebert was a dry man, both in terms of where he

Spring: Start Your Engines

and his incredibly readable, ‘Hatch Guide for New England Streams’.

By mixing and matching my Schwiebert and Ames, I was able to refine what I thought I already knew. Ames’s book, in particular, made me see just how much diversity we really have in our Mayflies, Caddis, and Stones.

Surprise! Turns out we got

sustenance. The St. John system has 43 identifiable species of Ephemeroptera (Mayflies). Among those 43 classifications are 10 who are listed as ‘unique’ to the drainage they inhabit.

is a wonderful convergence of both worlds. The Fish River Chain is unique in that it’s a river, connected to eight cold, deep-water lakes by short thoroughfares (Alright, Mud Lake

And even if you could access open water, the temperature of it will barely be above freezing and the slush ice will ruin every drift you attempt. The fish aren’t going to play, and you’ll be hypothermic and sad. liked to fish (up top) and how he liked his prose; arid, desiccated sentences that turn to dust on your tongue if you utter them out loud.

Clive Cussler he wasn’t.

But what Schwiebert will do for you, is make you a more knowledgeable fly fisherman. I didn’t say better, I just said you’ll know more than most entomologists when you finish reading his books. Personally, I much prefer Thomas Ames

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em’ all (UMaine technical bulletin 92). I had always been under the misguided assumption that Maine might have been a sleepy backwater when it came to all those magnificent hatches we’ve always read about. I learned that Maine, God’s country indeed, has the highest concentration of multiple Mayfly species of any state in the country.

In our waters we harbor some 162 different species of mayfly alone. Here in the County we have a ridiculous wealth of bug life.

If you take our largest drainages; the St. John, the Allagash, the Aroostook, and the Fish River Chain, the County is a veritable smorgasbord of aquatic

If your line doesn’t freeze up in the guides, you might hook an early trout.

The Aroostook River drainage manages to give life to 39 families, with 3 ‘unique’ variants. The Allagash can boast that it harbors the highest number of different species of Trichoptera (Caddis) in the state. More than the Penobscot. More than the Kennebec.

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isn’t deep, but it is in the chain). Every manner of substrate and habitat is available to sustain a veritable carnival ride of entomology. The Fish River Chain is like a cross between Mardi Gras and Forrest Gump; you never know what you’re going to get, …but you know you’re going to have fun regardless; wearing beads is optional.

The first mayflies we normally see at this point of the spring are going to be Quill Gordons (Epeorus pleuralis), the Hendrickson’s (Ephemerella subvaria), and the *eastern*

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(Cont. from pg 20) March Browns (Stenonema fuscum). They don’t all hatch at the same time, but the nymphs of all three are present and active on the streambed together. The Quill Gordon nymphs are ‘clingers’, they hang on to rocks in fast, well aerated current. The QG’s are also unique in that they hatch underwater and rise to the surface before flying off.

A small soft hackle on the swing is my favorite way to fish this pattern. Or, better yet, use the Leisenring lift to perfectly imitate a Quill Gordon’s rise from the bottom. The Hendrickson’s and the March Browns are

Northwoods Sporting Journal

‘crawlers’ and prefer the margins of currents; a little slower and gentler. They’ll head to shore when it’s time to hatch, so fish the edges before you wade.

Tandem rigs, set up with an indicator, should cover most scenarios.

Don’t be a Titan of Taxonomy like Uncle Ernie and tie the exact number of tails on your nymphs.

Trout can’t count and they don’t care how many tails your nymph has; they just want lunch. The same patterns will work for all three species. The fish will tell you which pattern they prefer. GRHE’s in dark and light colors, a fat PT for the Hendrickson’s, a skinny PT for the March Browns. You could run two

GRHE’s off your tandem set-up and cover the entire range of mayfly nymphs that are available by simply running a large, light colored GRHE on the point, a smaller, darker GRHE on the dropper.

Fun fact: The upper St. John has a unique Mayfly called Metretopus borealis. If you lived in Wisconsin you’d call this bug, ‘the Cleft Footed Minnow Mayfly’. Spring is here, start your engines…

Page 21

Trap Line

(Cont. from pg 18) “Trap Lines North” is a fact-based account of Jim Vanderbeck’s winter of 1932-33, when he and young Lindsay pulled their weight and made big catches of fur. Meader may have used a bit of creative license in the story telling, but the events and places are real, with pictures to prove it, and that makes it even more captivating to read.

Mike Maynard lives in Perham, Maine. He can be J e re m i a h c a n b e reached at perhamtrout@ reached at jrodwood@ gmail.com gmail.com

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 22

Maine Tails

By Jonah Paris, Scarborough, ME A new open water fishing season is upon us here in Maine. But April can be a tease. The weather is cold, wet, and gray. Rivers and streams are high and stained. Many of the lakes and ponds in the north are still iced over and will

friends and strangers alike, we hate to throw anything out. That is why there are three pairs of leaky waders downstairs, a tackle box with broken hinges, a duck decoy that refuses to float, several broken rods (victims of the tailgate and

Resolutions for a New Season

water and afield. I fish three dry fly patterns almost exclusively throughout the season, four if we count a late summer hopper pattern. Why then do I carry five dry fly boxes containing dozens of patterns in various sizes for a quick weekend trip to the river?

Why do I have nine spools of tippet tearing a hole in my vest pocket? And where did this 8X even come

We leave camp in the dark and drive for a while on the pavement. Then the pavement ends, and the dirt begins.

We arrive at the pond just as the predawn glow is peaking over the pines.

be for another few weeks.

While some might venture out close to home to scratch the itch, many of us will wait just a bit longer to cast a line. As I study the gazetteer, plan adventures, and tie leaders, I establish my resolutions.

Resolution #1: Carry less gear Outdoorsmen like stuff. It’s a fact. We like quality stuff, new stuff, and old stuff. And though we don’t mind trading our stuff with other sportsmen, or giving it away to

other user-errors), multiple Mason jars of assorted rusty hooks, and a box of birdshot packed before I was born. But it doesn’t stop there. The real problem is that we continuously accumulate more stuff.

Who can blame us? Everyone knows a New England sportsman is not one to pass up a deal. We love yard sales, Uncle Henry’s bargains, and discounts at the tackle shop. Buy nine lures and get one free, you say? Then we take things one step further. We carry all that stuff with us on the

from? Are three knives really better than one? I don’t know. It’s a new fishing season and I am packing lighter.

Resolution #2: Pick up more trash We leave camp in the dark and drive for a while on the pavement. Then the pavement ends, and the dirt begins. We arrive at the pond just as the predawn glow is peaking over the pines. As I push off the canoe, a merganser takes flight, and a loon eyes you suspiciously. I paddle us to

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A wild spring brook trout.

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the far shoreline because the fishing is always better just over there. Near a half-submerged pine trunk, you cast a yellow Hornberg against the shoreline. A slow strip, and a spirited take. As you lean over to net the trout, our eyes simultaneously catch a golden glint in the shallow dark bottom. What’s this? The largest gold nugget in the State of Maine?

You can already read the headline of the Bangor Daily. You quickly release the brookie and net the golden nugget. Reaching into the net you pull out a fluorescent yellow Twisted Tea can. 24 fluid ounces of pond-muck litter.

Our curses echo across the pond and the loon replies with his brazen disgust.

Because some people use the outdoors and selfishly dump their trash, people like you and I need to pick up after them. Unfair, but quite necessary; the trout, merganser, and loon rely on us to uphold good guest etiquette. I will be keeping a box of trash and recycling bags under the seat of my truck this season.

bobber is something we can still find joy in - something we will always find joy in.

It is a reminder of simpler times. After all, chunks of hot dog under a float and a lake full of hungry white perch in Western Maine is where it all started for this angler. This season, I will keep an ultralight spinning rod rigged with a bobber, brass snap swivel, split shot, and a snelled Eagle Claw #8 baitholder.

When we feel the urge to stomp around the stream or visit the lake, we can swing by the country store and buy a pack of worms.

Night crawlers, dillies, or trout worms? Your choice.

Another rod will be armed with a Panther Martin spinner - the black one with the yellow spots. Trout love that pattern, especially the browns. And if the fly rods are coming along, just remember that little orange buggers with tungsten heads have always worked magic for us in the early season - but we’ll keep that a secret.

A four-season outdoorsman, Jonah lives Resolution #3: in Gorham, ME with his Remember my roots fiancée, Ashley, and beaAmidst the continu- gle, Aurora. Jonah can be ous development of high- reached at jonaheparis@ tech gear, fishing with a gmail.com.

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

New Hampshire Derby Lunkers

Before I press ahead into a busy April, let me backtrack for a minute into February. The top three winners in the 44 th annual Great Rotary Fishing Derby held February 11-12 were : Charles Buhrman of Enfield, NH taking home $15,000 for his catch, Cody Chellis of Contoocook, NH in second place winning $5,000 and Jonathan Abear of Holderness, NH took third with $3,000.

There are seven categories of eligible fish.

They are: Black Crappie, Cusk, Lake Trout, Pickerel, Rainbow Trout, White Perch and Yellow Perch.

At the end of the two-day event, the largest fish from each of those categories is entered into the prize awarding phase. Each fish is given a number and then the corresponding numbers go into a hat. The first three numbers that are drawn are the cash prize winners. So all seven fish have an equal chance of claiming the top prize. It doesn’t mean that the largest fish is automatically the winner. This year for example, the top prize was for a 2.56 pound White Perch. Second prize went to a 9.3 Lake Trout. And the third cash prize went to a 1.67 pound Yellow Perch.

The other thing peculiar to this Derby is that any fish caught in a legal, freshwater body in the state of New Hampshire is eligible to be entered. The fish don’t have to be taken in Lake Winnipesaukee. So, the top placing Cusk (7.74 pounds) was taken from First Connecticut Lake in Pittsburg. The largest Lake Trout (9.3 pounds) came from Lake Sunapee. But,

the largest Rainbow Trout (4.53 pounds) happened to be taken from Lake Winnipesaukee. So, you may want to factor that in when open water fishing for trout opens in Lake Trout and Salmon waters on April 1.

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s popular outdoor festival, Discover WILD New Hampshire Day is almost here! This free community event is set for Saturday, April 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the grounds of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, 11 Hazen Drive in Concord, rain or shine. Admission is free.

Celebrating 33 years, Discover WILD New Hampshire Day is a fun way for the whole family to explore New Hampshire’s wildlife resources and outdoor traditions. Browse educational exhibits presented by environmental and conservation organizations from throughout the state. See live animals, big fish, and trained falcons.

Try your hand at archery, casting, fly-tying, and on an air-rifle range. Watch retriever dogs in action.

Get creative with handson craft activities. Plus, check out food truck alley—you’ll find something for every taste!

The weekend of April

Page 23

New Hampshire Outdoors

by Peter St. James, Warner, N.H. companied by a properly licensed adult age 18 or older; the adult may not carry a firearm.

You’ve still got time to enter the 2023 NH Moose Lottery. But smart money

Yo u ’ v e h a d f o u r months to get ready for fishing. So….are you ready? Hmmm, thought so.

Peter St. James is a member of the New Eng-

The largest Lake Trout (9.3 pounds) came from Lake Sunapee. But, the largest Rainbow Trout (4.53 pounds) happened to be taken from Lake Winnipesaukee.

29-30 marks New Hampshire’s statewide youth turkey hunt. During the special weekend, youth hunters may take one (1) or two (2) bearded or male turkeys. One turkey may be taken statewide, the other turkey shall only be taken in WMUs H1, H2, J2, K, L, or M. The first spring turkey shall be legally registered before the second spring turkey can be taken.

Youth hunters are required to purchase a turkey license in order to participate, although they do not need to possess a hunting license.

Youths must be age 15 or younger, and must be ac-

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

April 2023

Muzzleloading Afield

by Al Raychard, Lyman, ME

Tandem Trolling Flies

According to the weather men, or weather girls on our local television station girls, meteorological spring arrived on March 1 and astronomical spring March 20. Whichever you happen to believe in, spring doesn’t really arrive for this fishermen until our

the privilege of spending time on Sebago Lake with Art Libby of Standish, who was undoubtedly the best known guide on the lake at the time. I was a novice to the art of trolling flies then and I sucked in every bit of knowhow Mr. Libby was kind enough

single rear hook riding down and parallel with the front hook, rear hook riding up, or with a rear treble hook. Every trolling fly enthusiast I have ever met and conversed with on the subject has their preferred option and a theory why they prefer it. Advocates of the rear hook down often claim

Personally, I like tandems with a rear treble hook and my theory for that is rather simple. Based on my experience they simply hook more fish. trout and salmon lakes are clear of ice and open water is available. Hopefully ice-out will be earlier than usual this year given the relative mild winter, spring weather conditions and depending upon location.

But whenever that might be, hordes of anglers will hit the water like black flies emerging in July. With anxious hands they’ll sew on live bait or attach various lures, spoons, spinners and other hardware to lines and troll the icy waters in hopes of hauling in some big ones. A fair number will also troll with tandem streamer flies.

Trolling flies during the spring period has a long history and rich tradition here in Maine. Back when I first started out back in the mid-70s I had

to bestow. Art was also an innovator of streamer patterns, specifically those for trolling. I don’t recall exactly how many patterns Art came up with over the years, but the Miss Sheron, probably his best known along with the Libby’s Cal, A.W.L., Senator Muskie and Lib’s Smelt, are just a few. I’m sure there are others. One thing I do know is Art liked his flies sparse, probably due to Sebago’s clear water conditions and maybe because they better represented Sebago’s smelt population. I also know when I fished with him that he fished tandems with a rear treble hook.

Tandem trolling flies can be home tied and are commercially available at tackle and fly shops in several rear hook variations,

those flies simply ride better through the water, either because they have a lower center of gravity or the hook riding down acts like a rudder. Those who prefer the rear hooks riding up don’t always disagree, but often insist rear hooks riding up offer better hooking capabilities as well as a more life-like silhouette because the upward hook is partially covered by the wing.

Personally, I like tandems with a rear treble hook and my theory for that is rather simple. Based on my experience they simply hook more fish. Landlocked salmon, which Sebago is famous for and what I fish for most each spring, can be rather sporadic in their biting technique and tenacity. Sometimes they seem to toy with a fly or strike (Flies cont. pg 27)

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

South Of the Kennebec

by Stu Bristol, Lyman, ME

Fisherman’s Platter

Maine’s winter fishing season can only be described as a “disaster.”

Very few lakes and ponds froze over with enough safe ice. Almost all the winter fishing derbies had to be cancelled and most of the coastal smelt camps

later in the summer and fall but for early anglers, the states more than 6,000 bodies of water are just waiting for company.

Until recent years brook and stream fishing for trout has been the starting point. However, early bass, pike and crappie fishing opportuni-

Then, there are the dozens of smaller ponds (and lakes) that can be fished from shore or with canoe or car-topper boat.

My summertime guide service is usually booked solid

by Black Crappie lovers, whereas years ago I would target just trout and salmon.

New England is overrun with crappies and they,

Maine has always been famous for its brook trout and salmon fisheries, but in recent years anglers have taken notice of the many other available game fish species. ties promise more bites per day in the cold Early season angler. w a t e r. A n d never even opened. If ever they also taste good. there was a time for a colI was one of those lected yell, “Thank God it’s early- season trout hunters Spring.” but since I took up wild As the ice melts and turkey hunting, I’m a fan the water warms frustrated of the “cast and blast,” in anglers can’t decide where which ever order you preto begin. Here in southern fer. The brooks are lower Maine there are so many and warmer by early May open water fishing oppor- and the insect life upon tunities I can only describe which trout feed is more them as a “fisherman’s plat- plentiful. Black flies, too, ter” just like in my favorite but that’s a different probseafood restaurant. lem.

Maine has always I’ve written many been famous for its brook times in years past that trout and salmon fisheries, f i n d i n g a b a c k w o o d s but in recent years anglers stream with literally unhave taken notice of the fished pools are ripe for many other available game turkey hunters. I carry a fish species. April 1 has his- small plastic box containtorically been the official ing 20 yards of flyline and start of cold -water species ten yards of mono leader fishing, but modern regu- material as well as hooks, lations allow open water sinkers, flies. I cut a maple fishing almost year-round. sapling to use as a fishing Some exceptions apply rod.

along with white perch and northern pike, are becoming favorite targets.

Of course, there is always the trout and salmon trolling in the deeper and larger lakes. The early season smelt spawning run is still a popular attraction.

Then there are northern pike, which came into Maine as an invasive species but has come to be a popular target species, especially in southern Maine.

Many of the lakes and ponds offer multiple species in numbers. Sabattus Pond, for example, offers huge pike and many of them, white perch and crappies in volumes as well as trophy bass.

As the days get longer and the ocean begins to warm, striped bass move into coastal rivers. It is common today to find small or medium size stripers in the rivers by early May. (Platter cont. pg 27)

Page 25

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 26

Running Flesh Shredder Falls

By Jeff LaBree Streams were filling with freshly melted snow.

For many smaller streams this is the best time to canoe most of them. The year was 1974 and two of my brothers readily agreed to join our step dad and me on a day trip floating down what was described as a pleasant, leisurely Class 2 adventure. By the end of the day, “adventure” was the only word that applied.

Driving to Hastings brook bridge we unloaded the canoes and other gear. I recall remarking on the excellent flow of water rushing under the aforementioned bridge.

With high spirits we chose canoe partners and loaded the canoes. Snow was still pretty deep in the woods but the day was warm and Gif (step dad) told the three of us how much he was looking forward to this trip, having never done it before. As a side note, this trip would be the reason I learned what contour lines on a

map signified. With light hearts and youthful enthusiasm, the two canoeists pushed off from the bank.

Gif and I were in his canoe and Parker and Kevin had chosen to use mine. Almost immediately we paddled

sideways. Coming to the tree I ducked below the branches and immediately bolted up right to keep us headed downstream. Gif did the same and we went over a drop. A huge rock wall caused the two of us

late to straighten the canoe.

They rammed the rock wall flinging Parker forward striking his head on the wall. Gif and I waded into the bone chilling water and grabbed the canoe as they floated by. Dragging the canoe, gear, and brothers to shore.

We stomped down

April 2023

away. Struggling to get to shore we knew we couldn’t make it. Gif jumped out of the canoe and grabbed the aft and dug his feet into the bottom of the stream. I was looking over the falls to the jagged rocks below. Step by back breaking step, he hauled me away from the abyss where I rolled out of

Kevin bent forward and passed safely under the tree but was to late to straighten the canoe. They rammed the rock wall flinging Parker forward striking his head on the wall.

through a series of small drops and ninety degree turns only to plunge over a couple of larger ledge drops.

Coming around a bend , Gif and I still keeping the lead, we saw that a tree had fallen across the stream. There would be enough room to slide under, but care had to be taken to not to hit the rapids

to do some mighty fine maneuvering and not flip over.

The term,”taking green water over the gunnels” meant more to us now. As we pulled to shoreI looked upstream to see Parker fail to duck in time. The tree knocked him off his seat and dumped him into the bottom of the canoe. Kevin bent forward and passed safely under but was to

a spot in the snow and drained the water from the canoes. Parker had dropped his paddle and I saw it wedged in some alders a little downstream. Knowing that somewhere below was a 30 foot waterfall aptly named Flesh Shedder Falls ,we proceeded with a little more caution.

The roaring created by water cascading over a large drop is unmistakable. Ahead of Gif and I the horizon seemed to fall

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the canoe and onto shore.

We had no time to lose.

Running up the bank, we waded again into the rushing stream to stop Kevin and Parker. Successfully portaging around the 20 foot waterfall, we struck out once more to what we now considered certain death. We still had Flesh Shredder falls to hopefully portage. A few more trees across the stream had to be dealt with, requir(Falls cont. pg 27)

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Best Shot!

Page 27

North Maine Woods In the heart of the Allagash and Fish River waterways.......

Fly Fishing and Trolling

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Scott Riddell broiling a freshly caught Landlocked salmon from Donnell’s Pond and reading the Northwoods Sporting Journal.

Falls

Platter

Flies

(Cont. from pg 26)

(Cont. from pg 25)

(Cont. from pg 24)

This opens another great opportunity for those who enjoy a “cast and blast” combining turkey hunting with striper angling.

Maine law allows hunters to take two bearded turkeys in the spring and non-residents should consider buying the combination hunt/fish license. The big game license allows deer hunting and upland in the fall, as well as a liberal bag limit of five turkeys either sex and multiple fishing opportunities.

It doesn’t matter if you are a Maine resident or from away, Maine’s “Fisherman’s Platter” of great tasting game fish are right here for the taking.

short, other times they are aggressive. Although I have no scientific proof, I swear that salmon don’t always attack from the rear, but from the side or some other odd angle. Whatever the case, they seldom seem to escape a treble rear hook.

I’ve also found that small rear trebles don’t sink into the fish as deep as single hooks, even when impaled by multiple barbs, which is often the case, and the small trebles are easier to displace.

To be honest, I don’t know which school of thought is right or wrong or based on fiction or fact. I do know they all work. Like most fishermen I have my preferred tandem design and will stick with it.

ing the four of us to drag the canoes through the dense forest and back into the stream. And there was that unmistakable roaring sound again, only louder.

This time we made it to shore and positioned ourselves on ledges to pass the canoes below the falls.

The first canoe was safely lowered and tied to a branch. As we attempted to lower the second canoe one of my brothers lost his footing and dropped the canoe. I almost had it but ended up somersaulting to the pool below. Gif was knocked off the tree by the falling canoe and ended up swimmimg to shore with me. Our ordeal was close to being over. Hastings flows into The West branch of Mattawamkeag stream and we would have an easy paddle to the takeout spot.

To those of you familiar with this stretch, you’ll appreciate the fact that we were too tired and beat up to portage Jackson Sluice.

So we ran it.

Stu Bristol is a Master Maine Hunting, Fishing and Tidewater Guide. His books and articles have been published nationwide for more than 60 years. He was inducted into the New England Wild Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame in 2019 and operates the Deadly Imposter Game Call ComJeff LaBree is a fish- pany. www.deadlyimposing guide for Libby Camps. tergamecalls.com

Al Raychard and his wife Diane live on 43+/acres in Lyman, Maine that offers good deer and turkey hunting opportunities which they both enjoy. If the property had a trout stream it would be true paradise. Al can be reached at alraychard@ sacoriver.net

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 28

When It’s Easy

Marsh Island Chronicles

April 2023

old log-drive booms, await some of the finest smallmouth bass fishing in the

by Matthew Dunlap, country. I can put my boat Old Town, ME in at any of a half-dozen Summer fishing, if launches within twenty Spring fishing is not like fishing any other time you just want to fish, is miles and while away a of year. It is not easy. I do easy, at least in my neck of relaxing day catching and not write this as an expert. the woods in south-central If you want expert tips on Maine hard up against the spring fishing, find Bob Penobscot River. Just north Leeman’s column else- of Old Town, above the

To wait for those halcyon weeks is to waste precious fishing time.

A pair of rubber boots and a hardy sense of adventure opens up entire worlds of memories for the sportsman even while there’s still plenty of snow in the woods. where in this magnificent publication. However, experience tells me that we miss a lot by waiting until well after the spring melt and when the hatches begin.

historic dam that at one time powered the looms of the American Woolen Mill and the Jordan Lumber sawmills that helped build modern America, in among the river islands and

The Czech Nymph

(Photo by Matt Dunlap)

releasing one feisty water monster after another.

To wait for those halcyon weeks is to waste precious fishing time. A pair of rubber boots and a hardy

“The water’s too high,” or “too much feed for a fish to be attracted by a lure or a fly,” are common refrains while the sportsman waits for it to get easy.

Across the forests of New England, small brooks sense of adventure opens and streams that are often up entire worlds of memooverlooked offer plenty of ries for the sportsman even fishing treasures. while there’s still plenty of I learned this firsthand snow in the woods. by fishing in Vermont with Forget the excuses.

Willy Dietrich of Catamount Fishing Adventures near Stowe. Willy took me out with a 3-weight fly rod and we fished some tiny streams where the water seldom got as much as knee-deep and no wider across than my dining room table. In fact, the water seldom got much over my ankles. I always learn a lot fishing with Willy, and he got me pondering the possibilities closer to home.

You do a fair amount of walking when you fish like this; looking for little plunge pools, walking upstream, and often making no more than a half-dozen casts before moving on. In habitat like this, the small trout seldom are more than six or seven inches long, and often much smaller, so you have to be alert and measured when you set the

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(Easy cont. pg 29)

April 2023

Easy

(Cont. from pg 28) hook. If you want to learn finesse, fish a small stream with a light rod and size 14 or 16 dry fly or nymph.

I was in northern Hancock County in just the habitat I’m describing a while back and was having just horrendous luck. It was early in the season; the black flies were just coming out, not even enough to be much of a nuisance, so I was fishing a Czech nymph with a strike indicator (for the purists, this is derided as a bobber). I had been at it for a couple of hours and had covered most of a mile and a half, slogging my way uphill, negotiating moss-covered rocks, blown-down trees, and heavy cover. A fly rod in such cover is tough to manage even with gentle roll-casts, and so I had also refreshed my ability to explode in curses about every third attempt at a cast that wound up wrapped, maddeningly just out of reach, up in some evergreen bough.

Finally, I took a deep breath. Snapping off flies and tippets, replacing one after the other, was not something I thought of as fun or as part of a future “how-to” column in this hallowed space. I was frustrated and ready to quit, go home, and wait for bass fishing.

But then, as I retreated upstream, the cover opened up, just enough. I stopped.

“Don’t do it,” I said out loud. “Go home.”

But no. One more try.

I put my gear down, uncased my rod, attached the reel, fed the fly line through the guides, and tied on my last nymph, a Polish woven job that, once

Northwoods Sporting Journal you learn how to tie one, you strut around town like a gunfighter with a nasty reputation.

I saw a tempting bend in the brook, with an overhanging embankment that looked to be about thighdeep with an old birch tree as a sentinel, giving cover.

Deep breath. Somehow, the nymph dropped in perfectly. I took up the slack, and let it ride the current.

Nothing. I dared, dear reader, to tempt fate; I tried again. This time, the nymph ricocheted off the

trunk of the birch—but straight into the water, just inside the current.

I repeated this action three more times. No strike, but I calmed down, and let the rhythm of the current slow me down. One more cast.

Well, I thought as the strike indicator drifted serenely away from the cover, that’s that.

Then, it dropped.

I raised the rod tip, instantly cursing myself for being too strong with it— but I had him. The tip of the

Page 29

three-weight rod trembled, and the line shuddered as I brought him in.

It was a brook trout— well, more like a brook fry, barely between three and four inches long, with the tip of the hook just holding him by the lip. As I moved to get him out of the water, he flipped off, making my work that much easier.

After re-packing all of my gear, I made my way back to my truck with a bit of a bounce in my step.

“Well,” I said out loud.

“That was easy.”

If you are looking to fish in northern Vermont, check out Willy Dietrich at catamountfishing.com.

He’ll get your fly out of a tree and doesn’t even laugh at you.

Matt Dunlap is a sportsman from Old Town and is a periodic co-host on Maine Outdoors, heard statewide every Sunday night at 7:00 pm on WVOM 103.9 FM, WVQM 101.3 FM, and WRKD 95.1 FM in Rockland.

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Page 30

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Northwoods Johnny Appleseed Sketchbook of the wings to a white a year. The

petticoat showing below a young girl’s drab mourning dress. They have beautiful April 8 – It’s mud at least 20 in a mile of dirt maroon-velvet wings with season. The dirt road into road. Mourning cloaks are iridescent blue spots that the Penobscot County Con- one of the few butterflies border their “petticoat.” servation Association lands to hibernate in tree cavi- Mourning cloaks mate is still impassable so I ties overwinter as adults in spring before leaf-out.

by Mark McCollough, Hampden, ME

It’s Earth Day and not at all like the mild spring weather that I remember growing up. A cold wet snow slants in from the northwest. The field where I am planting trees is pooled with standing water. And yet I have to get these trees planted! hiked the last mile to see how the chestnut orchards overwintered. I was greeted by “flocks” of mourning cloak butterflies. I counted

April 2023

and so are the first butterfly seen each spring. They get their name from Scandinavians and Germans who likened the white border

These were likely males that were staking out sunny display sites along the dirt road hoping to attract a female. Like turkeys, they sometimes cluster in “leks” or small, loose groups of displaying males. Sunny wood margins are an ideal choice to wait in ambush for a prospective female.

Once mating occurs, the female lays her eggs on a specific host tree – willow, elm, or birch.

April 18 - What better way to say thank you to the Earth than to plant trees? Today, I started my goal to plant 10,000 trees in retirement at our family farm in Pennsylvania.

My truck was packed to bursting with tree tubes, shovels, grade stakes, tree tags, hundreds of seedlings (chestnut, oak, red maple, red osier dogwood,

sycamore, silver maple, white pine, and birch), and dreams of a future forest.

The local school district asked if our family would host a riparian mitigation project on our McCollough family farm. The school district cut an acre of forest to expand the elementary school. We plant an acre of forest. They pay for the trees. I supply the labor.

Our farm was cleared 225 years ago from a forest of towering oaks, chestnut, tulip trees, and black cherry. Starting in 1797, my ancestor Captain John McCollough and new wife Elizabeth Spanger, began to topple the giants to create a farm. Tax and court records showed that he cleared about 5 to 10 acres

straightest trees were squared by broad axe to build a 15- by 20-foot log cabin with split chestnut-shingled roof and a Grundschier or double barn. There they raised 10 children.

The forest provided many benefits to the young family – deer and turkey (maybe even elk), mayapples and pawpaws for summer eating, and sassafras for tea.

Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman (1774-1845) planted his first nurseries of apple trees on Brokenstraw and French Creeks, just a little north of here.

April 22 - It’s Earth Day and not at all like the mild spring weather that I remember growing up.

A cold wet snow slants in from the northwest. The field where I am planting trees is pooled with standing water. And yet I have to get these trees planted! I take triangular slices of clay soil with my (Appleseed cont. pg 31)

Northwoods Sporting Journal

April 2023

Page 31

Appleseed cottonwood, silver maple, with icy, sweet water, but The Pennsylvania home- shells from DDT sprayed

(Cont. from pg 30) tree spade, place a tree and some compost into the hole, then move to the highest ground I can find to plant the next tree. I planted 65 trees today in the snowstorm until I lost my planting supplies under the accumulating snow.

April 23 - More snow with breaks of afternoon sun. At times the sun is shining brightly somewhere in the heavens above, but below I plant trees in a roiling maelstrom of whirling white snowflakes as large as dandelion heads. Sixty more trees planted in the wettest areas of the field.

My tree-planting project is between the confluence of two streams, and it seems more of a wetland restoration than riparian forest. I imagine that this bottomland was once forested in

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sycamore, and willow. I hope my descendants visit here someday and walk in the cool shade of these trees once again. Big brown trout will find their way up to the cool, shaded waters.

April 24 - Finally, the wintery skies clear, and we have seasonable temperatures to plant trees. My Dad said the locals used to say, “A rabbit would have to pack its lunch to cross the McCollough farm!”

Indeed, my ancestors, like most of the settlers, cleared the virgin forests for pastures and farm fields right to the streambank. The many cold springs that once provided water to the farm and livestock still run

two centuries of eroding soils from the farm fields clog the streams with silt.

It is time to give something back to the land and waters that raised six generations of our family.

My 3rd great-grandfather’s log cabin once stood in the pasture a few yards from where I am planting American chestnuts today. Chances are, he used rot-resistant chestnut for the sill logs of the cabin, and possibly the walls and roof sheathing. The cabin lasted for 150 years before it was burned in the 1930s.

As a child, I remember the remains of the weathered split rail chestnut fences that surrounded the farm.

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steading act required the first settlers to fence their farm boundaries. Some of the chestnut split rails date back to the early 1800s.

The split rail fences and American chestnuts are now gone and are replaced by fencerows of pin cherries and a few white oaks that found a foothold between the farms.

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Page 32

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Two Warden Tales

Warden’s Words

time” rarely happens despite our best efforts. When

by Game Warden I train new Wardens in the Kale O’Leary, Advanced Warden School, Ashland, ME I often tell them to view When it comes to in- happened and ultimately, this problem in terms of a vestigating wildlife crimes who did it. Think about it, triangle. At the top of the and prosecuting those who most Wardens cover large triangle, you as the Warden commit the crimes, it is As we approached a house on the north rare that a Game Warden side of the road, I watched as the brake actually views the violation lights came on the pickup truck and happen directly in front it came to a stop on the paved road. I of them. Often times, we slowed down and waited to see what rely heavily on our investigative abilities or eyewitwas about to unfold. nesses to follow the puzzle geographic areas, teeming need to be out in the right pieces of evidence until with wildlife and to be in area at the right time. The we can determine what the “right place at the right other corners of the triangle

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are the wildlife being there at the right time, along with the sportsman. Below are two stories of when the stars aligned and I was in fact in the right place at the right time.

One afternoon during November, I was driving home after a long days work and came up behind a pickup truck driving slow on the Wrightville Road in Ashland. I slowed down as I came up behind the truck and noticed that there was a man and woman, both dressed in orange, driving at approximately 5 miles per hour as we passed the houses and fields along the Wrightville Road. As we came to a long, straight stretch on the road, the thought of passing the

April 2023

truck so I could just get home crossed my mind, but something told me to be patient. This was obviously

I slowed down and waited to see what was about to unfold. Sure enough, the male driver stepped out of the truck and looked back at me as he pulled a 12 gauge shotgun out from behind the seat. Thinking that he was going to recognize my vehicle as a Game Wa r d e n , I continued watching as he walked over to the mailbox of A grouse that was seized in the house at connection with the above that location mentioned case of shooting too and proceedclose too a dwelling. ed to shoul(Photo by Kale O’Leary) der his shotsomeone hunting from the gun at a grouse standing on truck, which is a common the lawn of the residence. complaint we get on this To my shock, the silence road during November. I of the peaceful November slowed down and backed afternoon was broken as he off a short distance to see fired the 12 gauge, hitting exactly what would happen the grouse. if something crossed the I quickly pulled up road in front of us. behind his truck and just As we approached a as I opened the door, the house on the north side of homeowner, a middle-aged the road, I watched as the woman and mother of 3, brake lights came on the was screaming that she was pickup truck and it came going to call the Wardens to a stop on the paved road.

(Tales cont. pg 37)

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT!

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Northwoods Sporting Journal Guns & Ammo:

April 2023

Lessons from the Students Most of you know one of my passions is teaching young folks, new hunters and shooters. I am blessed to have several ways to indulge my need to teach.

Hopefully, some of the readers of this column occasionally learn something

Why are they different?

The answer surprises some folks. Shotgun pellets, unless fired at extremely close range, will not penetrate the layered feathers on the body of the turkey. The cutting action of a sharp broad head will slice through the

Note, I said gun shop, not the clerk in Walmart who just came from the garden center.

The next question that comes up is a bit more involved. It seems like a simple enough query, but the answer is multifaceted.

Students want to know what is more important in a bullets’ performance, penetration or expansion. The simple answer would seem to be dependent on what you are hunting. However,

Page 33

A Guide’s Perspective

by Tom Kelly, Orient, ME

sec. That means, that your .30/30, .45/70, .350 Legend and countless others create no hydrostatic shock, but the expansion still destroys more blood vessels and organs in the wound channel. So, what is the right answer? Well, we need to choose a caliber with enough power to create a significant wound chan-

the penetration will be dramatic. In the case of a big velocity rifle round like a .270 or .30/06, best performance will be achieved with a soft point bullet that holds together to allow for deep penetration and a devastating wound channel with hydrostatic shock creating a crush cavity. The other variable is the size

Shot placement for a shotgun is the head and neck of the turkey for a quick kill. Shot placement for an archery shot is at the butt of the wing which is directly over the vitals. Why are they different?

With turkey loads, head and neck shots are your best bet when hunting wild turkeys.

(Photo by V. Paul Reynolds)

from my ramblings. I also am a Hunter Education Instructor in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. My background as an NRA Firearms Instructor also helps add to satisfying the need to give back to the sport. It is often said that teaching others makes you more proficient at that which you are instructing.

This is absolutely correct.

Not a class goes by that does not prove this. The questions make you think and some are worth reviewing here.

This time of year dictates questions about turkey hunting. One of the things taught in class is the shot placement for a fatal shot on a turkey, seems counter intuitive. Shot placement for a shotgun is the head and neck of the turkey for a quick kill. Shot placement for an archery shot is at the butt of the wing which is directly over the vitals.

layered feathers to reach the vital organs.

“My dad bought a savage .300 rifle at a gun show to use on an elk hunt, but .300 Win. Mag ammo won’t fit.” Why? There are many examples of this type of question. The short answer is, not all .300’s are created equal. There are multiple .300 caliber rifles, .300 Savage, .300 Win. Mag., .300 Blackout. These and others are all different length cartridges, different powder capacities, vastly different chamber pressures and performance levels.

The 7 mm group of cartridges is another example of this confusion. 7 mm Rem. Mag., 7 mm Mauser, 7 mm/08, 7 mm S&W, etc. The lesson is to match the exact caliber stamped on the barrel with the exact caliber printed on the ammo box. If you are still unsure, your local gun shop can answer your questions.

it’s a bit more detailed than that. The first thing we must look at is what it takes to kill a game animal. The goal is rapid blood pressure loss. An animal must lose about 1/3 of its blood pressure to expire. The reality is, that so called, “knockdown power” is largely temporary, unless blood loss is part of the energy. Internal bleeding lowers blood pressure at a slower rate than external bleeding. External blood loss also creates a much better blood trail to follow.

So, that would lead us to conclude that penetration is most important. Hold on a second. If that were the only consideration, we would all be shooting full metal jacket ammo.

Expansion of bullets is a vital component of many hunting bullets. Bullets that expand significantly increase the wound channel and if the impact of that expanding bullet is traveling at 2500 ft/sec., then there is a permanent crush cavity from the hydrostatic shock.

Yes, that’s right, 2500 ft/

nel and penetrate deeply enough to destroy vital organs and blood vessels. The answer is energy. Examples of this are handgun calibers like .44 Rem. Mag. The bullet diameter is already nearly a ½ inch, so the wound channel will already be large. So, an expanding bullet should be traded for a hard cast flat nose. The expansion will not rob the projectile of energy and

and thickness of the game.

An elk, moose or bear is much thicker with heavier bones than a deer. A wellconstructed bullet is needed for the larger, heavier game, where a more rapid expanding round will work for a 150 lb. deer. Bottom line is, know your game and know your gun. Know your ammo and practice.

If you never get enough of the outdoor tips, tales and tactics in the Sporting Journal each month, or if you missed the best of our past articles, visit our online library. You don’t need a card, a password, or even a driver’s license. Just go to the Northwoods Sporting Journal website and click on Past feature Stories....our collection of oldies but goodies is just a mouse click away!

www.sportingjournal.com

Page 34

Northwoods Sporting Journal

April 2023

The Maine Churchill Dam ensure adequate wa- most exciting and chal- ily. I gave her a traditional Woods toterflows in Chase Rapids lenging section of river on “Allagash Baptism”. She Matt LaRoche, Shirley, ME

Churchill Dam sits in the heart of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW). The waters of the Allagash River spring to life once they leave the spillway on their journey to the St. John River and eventually the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

Originally known as Heron Lake Dam, Churchill

community that had sprung up at the dam to support King LaCroix’s logging operations in the Allagash area. That dam fell into disrepair and eventually breached in 1958.

Great Northern rebuilt the timber crib dam again in 1968. The dam was sold to the State of Maine shortly after construction

for canoeists and enhance fisheries management in the lakes above and river below the dam.

The Allagash is unique in that the large headwater lakes above the dam store water for release during the summer, extending the canoeing season. In years with normal precipitation, the AWW is canoeable all summer /fall.

Allagash Rangers

Chase Rapids is the most exciting and challenging section of river on the entire AWW canoe trip. It is only rated as a Class II rapid but it is a very difficult Class II – many inexperienced canoeists have trouble keeping their canoes upright on this section of river.

Dam was first constructed in 1846 to raise water levels in Eagle and Churchill Lakes so that logs could be floated from the shores of Churchill and Eagle Lakes through the set of locks at Locke Dam. The logs were then boomed-up and towed the length of Chamberlain and Telos Lakes to Telos Dam, where they were sluiced through the dam on their way to the sawmills in Bangor and Old Town.

Churchill Dam was rebuilt in 1925 by Great Northern Paper Company.

That dam generated electricity for the small logging

along with the 500 foot wide Restricted Zone.

The deteriorating 1968 timber crib dam was replaced by a concrete and steel structure in 1997. This dam was constructed without a National Park Service permit which was required because of the river’s designation as a National Wild and Scenic River. This was quite an embarrassment for the AWW and the Bureau of Parks and Lands. Several mitigation measures were required for the State of Maine to receive an “after the fact permit”. The current dam is operated

MAINE WOODS GUIDE SERVICE

the entire AWW canoe trip.

It is only rated as a Class II rapid but it is a very difficult Class II – many inexperienced canoeists have trouble keeping their

later sarcastically thanked me, saying that she never dried out the rest of the trip because it rained every day!

Maine Woods Guide

Churchill Dam circa 150.

open gates in the dam every morning during the canoeing season to provide good waterflow in Chase Rapids.

Under normal conditions, they reduce the flow during the afternoon and evening to conserve water and provide better wading opportunities for anglers.

Chase Rapids was called Chase Carry during the years that the dam was in disrepair. During normal summers, paddlers would need to portage their canoes to Big Eddy about a mile and a half downstream because the water would be too low to run that section of river.

Chase Rapids is the

canoes upright on this section of river.

When I was a young ranger, I thought I would impress my girlfriend with my skills in a canoe by taking her down Chase Rapids.

That was the only time that I have ever unintentionally capsized a canoe in Chase Rapids. BTW – she married me anyway!

It became a tradition for rangers to “baptize” friends and family when they came to the waterway for a visit by upsetting the canoe in a calm section of the Rapids. I took one of my childhood friends down through Chase Rapids when she was paddling the waterway with her fam-

Notes: My summer/fall guiding schedule is filling up fast. If you are interested in a guided canoe trip, contact me soon. I do have a trip scheduled from Churchill to Michaud Farm in July with only two people signed up - if you would like to join this trip, please contact me.

Matt LaRoche is a retired Superintendent of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, owner of Maine Woods Guide Service and an avid outdoorsman. He can be reached at 207-695-2877 or at matt.laroche2877@ gmail.com . See www. mainewoodsguide.com

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• Canoe Trips • Fishing • Hunting • Wildlife Watching Matt LaRoche - Registered Maine Guide 207-695-2877 www.mainewoodsguide.com

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Let us help you. Contact our sales department at 207-732-4880 or check out the advertise page on our website at www.sportingjournal.com ““We have been using the Northwoods Sporting Journal to promote our business for years.

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April 2023

News

(Cont. from pg 13) something to do in the Rangeley area!

Cabin Fever Reliever

Quick note to let you know that Cabin Fever Reliver 2023, which we put in the books this weekend was a success! We’re working on the final numbers, but initial figures are that attendance was up by 50% over last year, and we’ve covered the event costs.

Even more important, several recently joined members stopped by to help, and we have several new members who join over the weekend. Exhibitor and visitor feedback was very positive - from the youngest who were proud of their achievement of hitting the archery target, finding the items in the scavenger hunt (run by one of the exhibi-

Northwoods Sporting Journal

tors) or telling their family about the fly they just tied - to the successful bidders in the silent auction, to the oldest who met up with fishing buddies they hadn’t seen in years and enjoyed lunch (including cupcakes) together. You made this possible and should be proud of the achievement!

- Tim White, Penobscot Fly Fishers

same date.

This project is a pioneering effort to conserve and restore fish and wildlife habitats of national and global importance.

Land conservation projects

An Update on the Acquisition of the Kennebago Headwaters

Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust is entering the final phase of our effort to acquire land within the project area and is under contract to buy the 5,000acre Tract 1 parcel with a closing date of June 30, 2023. We anticipate closing on the easement we will hold on the Logans and North Shore tracts on the

typically include protection against development, which is just a starting point for this project. We intend to bring the lands and waters back to a condi-

tion approximating the preEuropean settlement forest—the forest in which its fish and wildlife evolved.

Though much of the Kennebago seems to be unspoiled wilderness, there is a long history of manipulating the watershed’s natural systems to accommodate industrial forest operations, e.g., the log drives of yesteryear. Unlike the pre-settlement forest, which comprised primarily old-growth stands (150+ years old), today’s industrial forest is young and has undergone repeated harvests on short-cutting rotations. The Kennebago river and its tributaries show signs of boulder removal, channelizing, loss of structure due to previous

Page 35

log driving, and the absence of large wood inputs (from trees naturally falling into the water). Stream crossings are another potential hazard to a healthy aquatic ecosystem. A network of roads intersects the watershed, and culverts pose barriers to native fish species and macroinvertebrates. Moreover, there are clear signs that an entire half-mile-long segment of the river’s mainstem was redirected and relocated to accommodate the construction of a road in days past. RLHT is planning and acting now in response to the impacts of these interventions Land conservation and watershed restoration strategies are synergistic but operate on different time scales. We need both long and short-term strategies to take this into account. For example, ripar(News cont. pg 41)

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Page 36

Northwoods Sporting Journal

View From The River

by Laurie Chandler Bremen, ME My younger brother is not famous for surprise gifts. Thus, it was extra special when he sent me a somewhat battered copy of Sigurd Olson’s book, The Lonely Land. The book came with a note, wishing me well on my first long canoe expedition. It was the first Sigurd Olson book

Jaques, simple and evocative, capture the spirit of this wild land. Quotes at the start of each chapter come from the diaries of 18th and 19th century travelers along this popular fur-trading route. I flipped back often to the old-fashioned handdrawn map that would later provide inspiration

April 2023

The Lonely Land

sponsible for the evening concoctions of rum and fruit juices, usually sipped high on a granite ledge with a stunning view. After one hearty breakfast on a wet, dismal morning, Sigurd shares his philosophy on the importance of food in the backcountry. “A full stomach gives courage and cheer, which are far more important at such times than strength.”

Olson writes as I strive

The air was clean with just enough coolness, and in it the smell of hundreds of square miles of spruce and waterways, muskeg and tundra, caribou moss and wet granite.” They were back, and it was as if they had never been away. I, too, have felt this. The cares of the world slip quickly away as one returns to a simpler, truer life.

I ever owned, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Lonely Land (Alfred A. Knopf, 1961) is the tale of a journey across northern Saskatchewan on the Churchill River, and its interspersed lakes and portages. Olson, an eminent conservationist and writer, tells a rousing story of camaraderie among six modern-day voyageurs.

Traveling in three 16-foot wood-canvas Peterborough Prospector canoes, the group paddles 500 miles on a river in flood that none had seen before.

The pen and ink illustrations by Francis Lee

for Arne Aho’s maps in my newest book, Through Woods & Waters.

The companions all have roles. From historical research and navigation, to fishing or keeping the expedition’s diary, each brings his gifts and spirit.

Olson is the Bourgeois, as the leader of the fur brigades was called, and chief cook. I could read along forever as he bakes bannock with raisins or smokes thick filets of northern pike, basting them carefully with bacon fat.

There is no doubt this company knew how to eat and drink. Omond was re-

to. He paints pictures that stir the senses and bring you into the moment. In this land of white pelicans, the voyageurs discover a little rocky island snow white with birds. “Suddenly the far edge of the mantle began to lift and peeled off slowly to the other end. For a moment sunlight glittered on a milling confusion of snowy wing, and then the great birds took off in sedate formation toward the far shore.”

Again and again, I felt a connection to these men and their expedition, made before I was even born. On their first afternoon, Sigurd rejoices. “Muscles were free again and so were our lungs. The air was clean with just enough coolness, and in it the smell of hundreds of square miles of spruce and waterways, muskeg and tundra, caribou moss and wet granite.”

They were back, and it was as if they had never been away. I, too, have felt this.

The cares of the world slip quickly away as one returns

to a simpler, truer life.

As the days pass by, tumultuous rapids are navigated and camps made as evening begins to fall.

I, too, am running the Churchill. Discovering purple pigmented pictographs on rugged cliffs or meeting a Cree woman who can chew birchbark into amazing likenesses of people or landscapes.

When Olson’s writing takes a philosophical turn, he ponders factors that even then were encroaching on the wilderness—the building of roads to open up the country, drilling and mining, and the gradual waning of traditional native rhythms of travel and sustenance. Listening to a nearby waterfall one evening, he contemplates its music that hadn’t changed in thousands of years. Such thoughts, I’m sure, have come to all of us who travel in lonely lands.

Near river’s end, the voyageurs fall quiet, sipping their rum but saying

little. What needed saying had long before been said. They would return to their homes, but would never forget what they had learned. Snapshots from the journey would be forever with them.

Readers, too, will remember the moments that struck them deepest. For me, it is these words of Sigurd’s, “Here before me on Black Bear Island Lake was all life, here the great thought, here the order of the universe and the divine mystery. I need look no further.”

Laurie Apgar Chandler is the author of Through Woods & Waters, which provides an adventurous look at Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and Upwards, the story of her 2015 solo self-propelled thru-paddle of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.

For more information or to purchase the books, visit www.laurieachandler.com

Northwoods Sporting Journal

April 2023

Tales

(Cont. from pg 32) as her kids had just been outside playing before this man made the very poor decision I had just witnessed.

As I walked up the driveway, the homeowner’s fury diminished some to see that a Game Warden had just witnessed everything, saving her the phone call. The shooter was embarrassed to say the least as the homeowner continued to lambast him for shooting within 28 feet from her house and in the direction of a swingset her kids had just been using. The shooter lost his

shotgun, the grouse that he so desperately needed to shoot, and his hunting privileges the following year for this particular incident.

Two years later, almost to the day, I found myself with an afternoon off to enjoy some deer hunting of my own. I had just settled into my spot for the afternoon, only a short walk from my house when the unmistakable sound of a high-powered rifle jumped me up from my seat. I ran back towards my house, when my wife pointed from the living room window towards the main road and

the end of our driveway.

I looked up to see a blue Ford pickup pulled over near my mailbox with it’s four-way flashers on. I remember thinking to myself this must be how that woman felt when someone shot near her mailbox a few years before.

I soon found myself speaking with the driver of the blue Ford who explained that his son and daughter-in-law had “just taken a crack” at a doe under the apple tree at the edge of my driveway. The shooter soon arrived back on scene and stated that they must have missed the

Letters

Mallard On Fish Stocking

Another Grouse Story

To the Editor Stocking (fish) is complicated. I just read the stocking article in the March 2023 issue by Bob Mallard. One point not addressed: Where I live in Massachusetts many of the water bodies are impacted by our industrial past. There are fish consumption advisories that are particularly concerning for women. Stocked trout are one of the few fish that are considered safe to eat for everyone. I am grateful the efforts of the Native Fish Coalition and I hope one day our water quality improves to where all fish are safe to eat, but until then I appreciate the stocking for a chance to catch a meal I can share with my wife and daughters.

To the Editor: In response to David Minton’s article (“The Gregarious Grouse”) in your February issue, I am writing to show support for his attachment to the bird. I, too, had a similar experience. My partridge friend sat in my lap, walked up and down my gun barrel when I was in my tree stand, and followed me around when I was collecting sap. I was honored to have my story and pictures included in the late Bill Silliker’s book Wild Maine.

One Thanksgiving day when I offered my friend his usual cracked corn, I saw his beak was broken.

He couldn’t eat. He turned and walked away, and I never saw him again. A sad day.

I hunt partridge, but they are off limits here!

Enjoy your fine magazine.

(Cont. from pg 9)

Hastie’s Hut To the Editor: V. Paul Reynolds piece on Hastie’s Hut was one of his best, in my semibiased and less than professional opinion. It ranks right up there with the Thanksgiving piece he did years ago. Today we have a number of writers that report on the “out of doors” .I went here, saw this, did that. There are few writers in the vein of Bill Geagan, Gene Letourneau, Tom Hennessey, to name a few, that can make the reader feel part of the story.

Reynolds did this with this story. We were at the place and felt the feelings of the Skulkers of Seboeis.

Well done.

Bob Mercer Bucksport

Aaron Townsley Hopkinton, MA

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Joe Suga Vassalboro

Page 37

deer and would be leaving now. In the heat of the moment, I had forgotten that I was not in uniform and instead in my regular hunting clothes. Their faces turned an off color of white when I told them they would not be leaving as I was a Game Warden and they had just shot too close to at least three different houses.

It should go without saying that it is important to not get “tunnel vision”

and loose sight of the surroundings and public safety aspect of hunting. No deer or bird is worth the penalty, fines and potential of injuring or killing others in pursuit of wild game.

Kale O’Leary is a Maine Game Warden and has covered the Oxbow/ Masardis District in central Aroostook County since 2016.

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Page 38

Maine Outdoor Adventure

Northwoods Sporting Journal

by Rich Yvon, Bradford, ME

April in Maine is the sweet spot for getting out of winter hibernation. The transition from winter to spring is evident from Portland to Katahdin. Most folks are putting up the snow sleds and ice fishing gear, for mud boots and open water fishing gear.

The day light has now made its way to over twelve hours with the sun setting at 7:00 pm. This is a favorite time of mine, to feel energized, alive, and hopeful for another season’s promise in the ground.

As the sun climbs high, it awakens the state’s maple trees, spawning smelt, and births a Maine delicacy, the fiddlehead. April is a bug free month, which everyone embraces before the coming of the black fly season. Most folks are now growing plants mostly in greenhouses and windowsills, to get a jump on the areas short growing season!

As mid-April hits, smelt take their annual run

from the lake upriver to where they were born. Following along traditionally, are the land lock salmon, lake trout, brook trout and white fish. A Maine springtime tradition is the dipping of smelts. In the cover of darkness, these smelt run and spawn on the banks of the river where they were born. Using nets with long poles, fishermen dip the banks and collect their legal limit of smelt, measured in quarts. In the past, as much as a gallon was allowed. Today, most places are restricted to half of a quart per fisherman.

At the end of April, rivers start to recede from being swollen from winters melting snow. As snow melts, the bare ground along the riverbanks and rivers islands, now gives way to a small fern, the fiddlehead. The fiddlehead is of the ostrich family of ferns. Its stem is smooth with no hair. When picking, it is recommended to take only one third the

Springtime Traditions

tops per plant/cluster for a sustainable harvest. In preparing for cooking, the fern’s brown wrapper is washed away. The fern is now ready to be cooked al dente, smothered with butter, salt and pepper for a wonderful compliment to meat or fish.

Springtime is also the kickoff for bean-hole-bean cooking! Many New Eng-

maple sugar production and 4% of the U.S. total production. Evidence of historically early sugaring has been found in a remote area of Reed Plantation in Aroostook County. Somerset County is ranked third in the country for maple syrup production.

April is indeed a great time of year for all. As the robins get reacquainted

land foods have originated from the Native Americans. The bean was an integral part of the Native American diet. Often called the “poor man’s meat”, beans are rich in protein. In Lincoln, Maine, the annual river drivers bean-holesupper is alive and well every year in July.

Maine is well known for maple sugaring.

The Big Six Township, in northern Somerset County, is said to account for roughly 23% of Maine’s

with the bare patches of grass, the migration north of wild, birds will find their home for another generation of life. The wild woodcock commences to mate with the call of the male.

From the oceans shore and back to the woodlands, these birds take to another annual mating ritual. Folks seek out overgrown woodland openings to watch the male woodcock acrobatic flights as he tries to intrigue a female. Canadian geese seek out mating grounds

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with their lifelong mate.

No matter where you look in April, rebirth of life is very profound all around the woods and waters of Maine. Maine’s springtime traditions, are embraced and enjoyed by all forms of life.

Rich is a full time Registered Master Maine

A Maine spring-time tradition is the dipping of smelts.

In the cover of darkness, these smelt run and spawn on the banks of the river where they were born. Using nets with long poles, fishermen dip the banks and collect their legal limit of smelt, measured in quarts.

(See page 49)

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Rich also guides Maine Partridge, Turkey, Moose, Deer hunting and recreation adventures. When Rich is not on adventures, he serves as a board member for the Native Fish Coalition, Maine chapter. He is also an outdoor writer, tree farmer, fly-fishing instructor and certified NRA firearms instructor.

Have A Safe & Happy Easter

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Naming the Carrabassett River

Back in 2016 I was asked how the Carrabasset River got its name.

Having seen a few sources that said it meant “little moose place,” I was quite sure this was not correct, for there are no Wabenaki root names for moose in it.

I also knew that Carrabasset was an early Wabenaki chief from Norridgewock.

Also, having known that the lower region near its mouth, where it flows into the Kennebec, had been earlier known as Seven Mile Brook Settlement, in the 1790 Census of Maine. After much research, hunting down old maps and reaching out to a Penobscot linguist, I finally had the answer. This is a condensed version of the article I originally published in Discover Maine Magazine.

“The name Carrabassett goes back to the early seventeenth century, being the name of a Norridge-

wock chief who died in 1724 along with Mogg and Father Rasle, when their village at Old Point (Madison) was attacked and burned by a band of men from York. We know little about him, though in 1830 Nathaniel Deering of Portland published a fictional play called “Carabasset,” about the life of the Nor-

ridgewog warrior. Carol Dana, language specialist of the Penobscot Nation at Old Town, mentioned that the Wabenaki language does not have the letter R, and the letter B is sounded as P. As near as she could tell, the warrior Carrabassett’s name is derived from the Wabenaki Kʷələpihaso, meaning “he who turns around quickly,” most likely referring to the warrior’s quick agility in fighting or hunting. The “et” added to the end of Carabasset means “one who…,” so the full name means “one who turns around quickly.”

In mid-July of 1761 Col. John Montressor, a British engineer came down from Quebec to Fort Halifax and back up across the Great Carry Place. In his journal he left us no name or description for the Carrabasset River. That same year on September 12th, Capt. John Small of

Page 39

Old Tales from the Maine Woods

by Steve Pinkham Quincy, MA ten reference to Seven Mile lem. When the township Stream, named for its outlet loosely organized as a planat Anson being seven miles tation, it dropped the first north of Old Point. All the word and became known maps for another century as Jerusalem Plantation. In list it as Seven Mile River 1971 this unincorporated and Seven Mile Brook. In township became the town 1870 Alvin Johnson’s Map of Carrabasset Valley, and of Maine listed it as the later its western neighbor,

“The name Carrabassett goes back to the early seventeenth century, being the name of a Norridgewock chief who died in 1724 along with Mogg and Father Rasle, when their village at Old Point (Madison) was attacked and burned by a band of men from York.

Cape Elizabeth, who was commissioned to measure the Kennebec River from Fort Halifax to Dead River, wrote in his journal “N 18 E. ¾ m(iles) to a large… where comes in a large river from the westward.”

Someone later wrote “Carrabassett River” in the margin. The river was first known as Seven Mile Brook and when Benedict Arnold was coming up the river in 1775, one of his officers, Simeon Thayer wrote in his journal, “Oct. 4. Came to the mouth of the 7-mile stream, and encamp’d on a point of land.” He probably learned this name from the several families that were residing at Norridgewock at that time. This is the first writ-

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Carrabasset River for the first time. Ernest G. Walker, who wrote Embden, Town of Yore, noted that the name was changed about this time, but he did not know who changed it, why it was changed, or who suggested Carrabasset.

Jerusalem Township, which lies north of Kingfield, was originally called Treadwell, but it soon went by the name New Jerusa-

Crockertown Township was added to the new town.

Crockertown was originally named for Thomas Crocker of Paris, Maine, a land and lumber speculator who had purchased the township.

Steve is an avid hiker, paddler and historian, having collected over 30,000 Maine Woods articles to date.

Old Tales of the Maine Woods Steve Pinkham Maine Woods Historian, Author and Storyteller

617-407-0743

steve@oldtalesofthemainewoods.com www.oldtalesofthemainewoods.com

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 40

By V. Paul Reynolds

The American Woodcock, whether you hunt them over a gun dog or simply observe their spiraling spring mating rituals, are a fascinating and unique migratory game bird.

A study of the woodcock’s migration habits and

April 2023

The American Woodcock

tracking devices. Incredible technological advances, however, in ultra-light satellite transmitters (4-7 grams) have really been a game changer for tracking the woodcock’s migratory patterns.

R e c e n t l y, U M O ’s woodcock study has re-

ter: the American Snowbird. The study reveals that some woodcock take a longer circuitous route around Scranton, PA and then on down through Harrisburg and points south, while others stick closer to I-95 and make rest and refueling stops in the New

Over the years, the diminutive size of these delicate birds have made it difficult to attach telemetry tracking devices.

Incredible technological advances, however, in ultra-light satellite transmitters (4-7 grams) have really been a game changer for tracking the woodcock’s migratory patterns. patterns by the University of Maine in collaboration with some other research organizations, is turning up some useful and interesting data. According to the study’s website: “Many species of North American birds (37%) are declining and migratory birds are declining at faster rates than many non-migratory bird species. The American Woodcock is a migratory forest bird that has experienced population wide long-term declines of 0.8% per year, over the past 50 years. Woodcock are distributed throughout the eastern United States.”

Over the years, the diminutive size of these delicate birds have made it difficult to attach telemetry

sulted in the tagging of 568 woodcock with tracking transmitters, that have sent back 32,000 locations of these migrating birds.

These are the central questions that this study hopes to answer: 1) When do woodcock start their migration? 2) How long does the migration take? 3) What is the survival rate during migration? 4) Where are the stopover sites?

There is some truly revealing behaviorial data that is available for popular consumption on the study’s website: www.woodcockmigration.org/.

In their travels southward to warmer climates, woodcock exhibit migratory habits not unlike another much larger migratory crit-

Jersey Pine Barrens. A number of the study subjects decided to only winter over in the Carolinas, while woodcock from Quebec shot the works and winged their way all the way to the Florida Panhandle and even farther south.

Tw o Q u e b e c o i s woodcock, both Kentucky bound, chose different routes to get across the Great Lakes. One bold bird flew right over Lake Huron, while its wing man demurred and stayed over land between Lake Huron and Lake Erie.

It is hoped that the data collected from this research project will help wildlife biologists and other professionals perform their work more effectively

A number of the study subjects decided to only winter over in the Carolinas, while woodcock from Quebec shot the works and winged their way all the way to the Florida Panhandle and even farther south. in efforts to understand the woodcock’s migratory behavior and habit preferences.

This study’s principal investigators are Dr. Erik Blomberg (erik.blomberg@maine.edu) and Dr. Amber Roth (amber.roth@ maine.edu), both from the Wildlife Ecology Department at the University of Maine.

For more information on the Eastern Woodcock Migratory Research Cooperative, or research occurring in your state, you should contact the project Principal Investigators or

the research lead for your state/province. Each state’s respective research leader is listed on the website.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books.Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.

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News (Cont. from pg 35) ian buffers (forests along the water) will eventually produce large wood inputs.

Still, as we wait decades for that to occur, manual “chop-and-drop” wood additions can accelerate recovery and bolster climate resilience. Replacing road crossings is often the only solution to recover fish passage on any meaningful time scale. To put this project on a scientifically sound foundation, we have commissioned John Field of Field Geology to conduct a full geomorphological assessment of the watershed this year (2023).

For brook trout and other native fish and wildlife species, stream connectivity is critical. This is especially so for brook trout in complex systems like the upper Kennebago.

Recent research, such as the brook trout study conducted by Dianne Timmons (NH Fisheries Biologist), shows that brook trout use stream and lake habitats in different life histories and travel farther than previously known. Road crossings that involve undersized, perched, and culverts in poor condition fragment critical brook trout habitat.

Extreme weather events such as the July 3, 2018, micro-burst that produced six inches or more of rain on the upper Kennebago watershed are occurring with increased frequency and compound fish passage problems related to stream crossings. In the face of this climate-driven trend, most existing road crossings are barriers to fish passage.

We are conducting instream channel restoration projects where feasible. As noted above, restoration of

Northwoods Sporting Journal natural stream channels in a watershed the size of the upper Kennebago primarily involves cutting and dropping large wood into smaller streams (generally of 20’ bank-to-bank or less). In limited situations, re-engineering of larger stream channels may be feasible. We only began instream work last summer (2022) but are getting early results. You should have seen the spawning trout that congregated last fall in the sections of Otter Brook where we had placed large wood!

Potentially relocating a segment of the mainstem river to its natural channel and restoring ecological function is a major commitment, but one we are exploring. We are working with John Field of Field Geology to address the need for in-channel restoration work on the mainstem of the upper Kennebago, including the ½ mile stream segment that has been moved and other stream segments that show signs of straightening and boulder removal.

Most of our restoration effort is focused on the 10,300-acre Kennebago Headwaters project area up to the Stetsontown/Seven Ponds township line. Of the river/stream segments outside the project area, those north (and upstream) of the township line are important to the river system’s connectivity and, properly designed, can potentially deliver significant benefits for the downstream fishery within the Kennebago Headwaters project area.

Stream crossing work upstream of the township line could comprise as many as four crossings (of an overall project total of 16 crossings).

We have four sched-

uled stream-crossing replacement projects for the 2023 season. We anticipate another eight stream-crossing projects in 2024 and another four in 2025. 2024 and 2025 projects may include as many as four road crossing replacement projects on the upstream lands.

Working with Trout Unlimited, we have identified several wood-addition projects in key tributaries within the project area.

Those include an additional 1+ mile of Otter Brook, 1+ mile of Wiggle Brook, and 1+ mile of Bear Brook, with a wood loading rate of about 200 pieces every stream mile. We will collaborate with TU to identify, assess, and seek applicable permits for additional rounds of wood-addition projects to be completed in 2024 and 2025.

Wells Woman Passes Away In Somerset County Snowmobile Crash

In late February, Tanya Hanson, age 50 of Wells, was following her husband on ITS 87 in Johnson Mountain Township when she failed to negotiate a left hand turn in the trail and went crashing into the trees on the right side of the trail at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, sustaining injuries to her head and chest.

On oncoming snowmobiler witnessed the crash and contacted 911.

The Maine Warden Service responded along with Jackman Fire and Ambulance and Redington-Fairview Ambulance. Emergency medical personnel performed CPR but Hanson passed away near the scene.

Hanson was driving alone on a 2018 Ski Doo Renegade Enduro and was wearing a helmet. Hanson was taken to Giberson Funeral Home in Bingham.

The crash remains under investigation. Any new information will be released when it becomes available.

Flu Detected in Waterfowl

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was notified today that six hooded merganser ducks that were found dead at Mill Stream in Winthrop tested positive for HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza).

The National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa confirmed the strain to be H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4, the currently circulating strain of HPAI in Maine.

Avian Influenza (AI) is a type A influenza respiratory virus naturally found in certain waterfowl, gulls, and shorebird species. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which includes strains such as H5N1 and H5, is a highly contagious strain of avian influenza that can spread and mutate between wild and domestic flocks of birds, and can be fatal to

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Page 41 birds. Avian influenza rarely infects humans. There has been one confirmed human case in the United States where a commercial poultry worker tested positive for this strain of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4, and experienced mild flu-like symptoms and recovered.

This current strain of H5N1 has already been confirmed in wild birds in Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.

In order to limit the spread of HPAI, please take these precautions: Try not to walk in fields or other areas where you would get bird waste on your clothing or boots.

If there is a chance you walked in bird waste, thoroughly clean and sanitize your gear before going to other areas.

Anyone feeding birds should do so with care.

While many birdfeeder species may not be prime carriers, supplemental feed that could attract wild ducks, geese and turkeys could carry HPAI, which can be particularly concerning for homeowners (News cont. pg 64)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 42

The Buck Hunter

The Buck Hunter

by Hal Blood, Moose River, ME The days are getting longer as winter begins to lose its icy grip. Even on the cold days, the sun softens the ice and water will drip from the roofs and off the snow laden trees. Since last month the snow has built up a little more, but

April 2023

but we are getting in a few days here and there and thinning them out some.

We know that we will be unable to kill them all, but by keeping their numbers down, we can save a lot of deer when they are most vulnerable. As usual the

see no difference between the two.

Last month, I left off with the story of my first day on tracking snow. I’ll pick up where I left off to recap my season. I got home that night and could barely eat anything, so I crawled into bed. I was so run down that I decided to stay home the next day. Something that I

My opinion is that, since the coyote is an invasive species, it should be treated as such. If an invasive fish gets into a body of water, the biologists do all they can to eradicate them. I see no difference between the two. it is still far below normal.

In late February, this area as did most of the state had a snowstorm that turned to rain at the end and formed a crust. That crust will hold the deer up to walk around and feed anywhere. The problem is that it won’t hold them up when they run. That’s a problem when a coyote gets after them, as the coyotes can run on top of it. There is nearly a foot of soft snow on top of the crust, but it is not enough to slow the coyotes down much.

The conditions for running coyotes with hounds has not been great,

anti-hunters have submitted numerous bills in the legislature to put a stop to our sport. One of them is a proposal to stop hunting coyotes from April to July and I think part of it is night hunting as well. The ploy is that we shouldn’t hunt them during their denning season. Well we’ve been doing it since coyotes moved into Maine and we still have too many. My opinion is that, since the coyote is an invasive species, it should be treated as such. If an invasive fish gets into a body of water, the biologists do all they can to eradicate them. I

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only remember doing one other time in all my hunting years. It was tough as I told my grandson Rylan that I would take him tracking that day. That next day I headed out with Rylan in another snowstorm in hopes that we could find a track to follow. It was one of my most memorable days in the woods. By the end of the day we had seen four bucks, none of which he could get a shot at. That was memorable enough, but it was the day that I realized that Rylan was ready and willing to chase bucks wherever they took us. It was also the day that gave me a new purpose in life and that that is to pass on to my grandson my

“I snorted and then bleated a couple of times.

I waited a few minutes before moving ahead to see if he had been bedded.”

(Photo by V. Paul Reynolds)

knowledge of hunting and the outdoors. He actually reminds me of me, when I was his age.

My cameraman came up for three days after that.

I took Rylan out again the beginning of Thanksgiving week. We had another great day after picking up a good buck track right at daylight. We tracked that buck through every bog and thicket he could find as he searched for does.

After coming out of one thicket, I spotted a deer bounding across in front of us. Rylan had a doe permit so we were after any deer. I snorted and the deer stopped at about fifty yards. There was a narrow opening through the trees to its neck. Rylan tried to snake a bullet through it to no avail. After that, we got a quick look at the buck (Hunter cont. pg 67)

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Our Last Big Trip

My father worked hard supporting our family through the tough times of the late 1930s and the forties. All three of us kids got a good education that he and Mom worked hard

It was early summer and he took me to an area near Danforth, the town where he was born and grew up. I didn’t know anything about the area, but he found, or knew about, an old cabin

crowded with bushes so we simply waded the stream and fished as we went.

Sometimes we would go ashore at one of the rare clearings and cook up our lunch.

After relaxing on shore for a while we would wade back in and make our way back downstream eventually reaching the old cabin. There we would build up our fire and cook the afternoon’s catch along with some potatoes and

Northwoods Voyager

Page 43

by Gil Gilpatrick, Brunswick, ME well and didn’t wake until after dawn. Dad had already left the cabin for something. As I laid there I heard a scratching sound coming from very close by. I raised my head to see what was causing it only to come face to face with a porcupine who was making his way long the

I spent some time together at our wilderness camp, but none of those trips were as memorable as that Danforth trip.

Gil Gilpatrick is a Master Maine Guide, and is the first living recipient of the Legendary Maine

As I laid there I heard a scratching sound coming from very close by. I raised my head to see what was causing it only to come face to face with a porcupine who was making his way long the old wooden beam that was very close to my face.

Dad at the old cabin where we ousted a porcupine that was the previous occupant. to provide. He did this and we moved in for a few with little education, eighth days of fishing together.

I don’t remember the grade or less, but we never wanted for anything and name of the stream we he did his best to get me fished, but Dad must have outdoors to fish and hunt known about it because it produced plenty of nice when he could.

When I graduated brook trout. Our method from high school, and was of fishing was simple. The scheduled for the Univer- banks of the stream was sity of Maine in the fall, he decided to take me on one last outing before I left home for my new life.

Pineo’s

other extras that Dad had brought along. Great memories!

The cabin we were to spend the night in was long ago abandoned and so the inside required some extensive cleaning before we could move in. We did clean up some, but thinking back, I doubt that our cleaning would have satisfied Mom. Anyway, the old cabin had double bunk beds where we were to sleep.

My bed was the top bunk.

It was comfortable enough once I was in it, but my face was less than a foot from one of the old wooden logs that held up the roof.

That first night I slept

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old wooden beam that was very close to my face. I scooted down to the foot of the bunk and to the floor to be sure to avoid the spines that were coming closer and closer to my face.

I found Dad outside and together we managed to get the varmint outside and we were not bothered by it again, though I imagine he was not too happy at being put out of his former home.

In later years Dad and

Guide award. He is a life member of the Maine Professional Guides Association, a founding member of the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, and served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Licensing of Guides from 1996 to 2010. He is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is the author of seven outdoorrelated books. Contact him at Gil@GilGilpatrick.com

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 44

Nichols Family Bass Trail

Best Bassin’

by Bill Decoteau, Hampden, MA “It all started about 6 years ago in 2018. At the time I was competing in open events as a boater in the Man vs Bass Trail in Maine as well as Thayers Marine Pro Trail. Additionally, I competed in the FLW Toyota Northern Series as a non-Boater,” revealed Jonathan Nichols.

Pausing for just a moment, Jonathan replied, “Yes, the most important people in my life… my Family! Sure there were times my wife and our girls were able to visit with me during a few tournaments. And, although these few times thrilled my soul, it just wasn’t enough

the eyes I questioned him, “Has it been an easy ride encouraging anglers to fish your trail, and what obstacles had you faced?”

“Well, we have certainly been tested to say the least! Our first year we had 9 boats for the trail, and many questions from anglers to answer. However, these actually brought our family together as our numbers increased each year to 13 boats, then 17 boats and last year with an Open Tournament format we witnessed 23-27 boats at several events.”

Dawn Nichols, (Jonathan’s wife) firmly stated, “Working together we have developed a strong family core! Our anglers know they are very important and we listen to their suggestions. Even during the two-year Covid situation with strict regulations and the cancelation of meetings we all worked together with positive attitudes. Our 2023 Fishers of Men Maine trail will host all 6 Saturday tournament locations within the Kennebec County of Maine, to accommodate shorter traveling time for our teams.”

When it comes to Regional and National qualifications, Maine Fishers of

travel to every tournament in the south, the expenses will be astronomical, etc., etc!

Then in a gentle tone his friend replied, “You need to start a Fishers of Men trail in Maine!” Jonathan recalled, “As I reviewed the entire format The Fishers of Men Bass Trail was composed of, I realized my friend was 100% correct! The membership

Jonathan and Dawn Nichols have put their heart and souls into developing an angler family-friendly atmosphere under the umbrella of the Fishers of Men tournament format.

Jonathan Nichols was surely blessed during his time on the FLW Northern Trail. His 9th Place ranking in the FLW Toyota Northern Series earned the Strike King Co-Angler a qualifying ticket to the 2018 FLW National Championship on Alabama’s famed Lake Guntersville.

One would surmise Nichol’s bass tournament events were providing him with some wonderful accolades including traveling and competing on some of America’s best bass producing lakes. “So, was there something I’m missing in this traveling Bass Tournament Scenario?”, I questioned Jonathan.

April 2023

for me, I needed to work out a solution where we could be together and still be involved in competitive tournament bass fishing.”

Traveling home from the 2018 FLW National Championship Jonathan had preplanned to stop in Maryland to visit and stay with a good friend. It was during this time Jonathan told his friend of the hardship that was troubling him. “As we continued in conversation, my friend suggested a viable solution….The Fishers of Men National Bass Trail”. While Jonathan’s replies threw up red-flags such as; there is no F.O.M. trails in New England, my family can’t

revolves around an individual’s family if a Family Membership is chosen, family members can also fish as partners or fill-in as substitutes. Membership as well as tournament entry fees were extremely reasonable, tournament briefings, boat number assignments, are held on Friday evening before each Saturday Tournament with a Free dinner for all attending. And, while there are strict rules for filing tournament entry fees in a timely manner member still have several choices to do so without attending the Friday pre-tournament briefing!”

Looking Jonathan in

Men teams must compete in three of the six seasonal tournaments to qualify for the Northeast Regionals.

Jonathan Nichols added, “We now have two F.O.M. trails in New York so our 2023 Regional event will be held in New York on Lake Ontario. The top 20% of the Regional Field will then qualify for the F.O.M National event, which will be on Lake Hartwell in SC.” Jonathan and Dawn Nichols have put their heart and souls into developing an angler family-friendly atmosphere under the umbrella of the Fishers of Men tournament format. The yearly increase of boaters percentages competing within the Maine F.O.M. Trail alone reflects brightly for the continue future of one man’s dream of what’s most important.

Additional information for the Maine Fishers of Men Bass Trail may be located by logging unto the Fishers of Men National Tournament Trail, Facebook Fishers of Men - Maine Division, as well as calling Jonathan Nichols @ (6020 568-4609.

God Bless and Best Bassin

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 45

On The Prowl

April Coyote Hunts

by Justin Merrill, Cherryfield, ME

April is a great month to hunt coyotes. They are hungry and vulnerable. (Photo by Bud Utecht) April comes soon with “old-man-winter” hanging on to the last couple inches of snow and ice making us believe winter won’t ever go away. To a fur bearing predator a lagging winter could mean lengthened hardships. More food becomes available with a quickened spring. With winter hovering a little longer, coyote hunters suck up every bit of prime hunting time they can get while it’s still cold with coyotes being the hungriest. April just so happens to be a great month to pull the trigger on them pesky coyotes while the lakes and ponds are still thawing. Before the ponds and lakes are thawed enough for open water fishing you can get out for some last minute coyote hunts. April usually provides perfect coyote hunting opportunities with favorable weather conditions and starving coyotes that will come running to your calls.

It must be the fact that coyotes are frantically in search of any morsel they can get their chompers on to survive the last few weeks of snowy frigid

weather before new rodents, snowshoe hare and rabbits are born that I have the most hunting success around the month of April.

It may have been the last two years where most of my coyote hunting action took place from January through February. However, all the years prior I’ve been rewarded with success late March or early April. I’m not the only one either. I recall that Jason Jack of “Maineiac Outdoors” has great coyote hunting success in April, too. If I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure Josh Johnson, a buddy of mine from college and a member of “Maineiac Outdoors”, also slays coyotes April through May. I’ve either seen evidence on social networks or watched the successful hunts on YouTube. What is it about April that makes coyote hunting a wee bit easier?

December through the beginning of February most rodents, snowshoe hares and rabbits are still plentiful. By late February, when the snow usually is the deepest, these mammal populations dwindle. It

also makes it more difficult for coyotes to find a meal.

Coyotes are covering more ground in search of any amount of sustenance to regain strength and energy.

This most certainly makes

April coyote hunts look for the temperatures to be below thirty with wind speeds low as coyotes seem to be actively hunting and less cautious. It doesn’t mean that you will never call in a daytime coyote in high winds and during warmer temps. I have called in coyotes on extremely windy days using a very loud call.

The one extremely windy day coyote that haunts me to this day is the one that came running into my set out in a wide open field and stood there while every bullet skipped off the ground between its legs.

Elements that lead to

During your daytime April coyote hunts look for the temperatures to be below thirty with wind speeds low as coyotes seem to be actively hunting and less cautious. them a little bit more vulnerable. An eager coyote hunter can take advantage of this in April, like Jason, Josh and I have done many times through the years.

A provocative decoy of sorts, staked out thirty yards or more away from a hidden hunter with an electronic caller playing sounds that mimic that fake injured decoy would entice any coyote whether they’re hungry or not. It’s imperative that a coyote-callingset-up hides the hunter extremely well. You need to make darn sure you can get a shot off downwind at all times. Ninety percent of the time the coyote or coyotes will be looking your way from downwind.

During your daytime

success in April and May could boil down to the call of choice or perhaps the calling technique – the way in which the hunter uses the call. Coyote hunting tactics or tricks are virtually endless. One just has to be extremely creative. Like on this hunt...

A little more than two months had passed before I got a coyote to commit to my calling in the

daytime. Like mentioned earlier, April coyote hunts are worth your time. My chosen location happened to be my “fox hole”, since I’ve called in and shot two foxes there in the past. I always had a gut feeling that it was only a matter of time before I called in a coyote on this stand. Sure enough, it happened one very cold, early April day. The direction of the wind couldn’t have been more perfect and my enticing hare and rodent distress calls worked like a charm. It was as if I pulled this coyote in on a string.

The sun had been shining at my back and right into the coyote’s eyes, blinding it, which allowed it to trot in real close. I settled in the cross hairs right on that coyote’s front leg and blasted him at a mere sixty two yards. April coyote hunts do work.

Justin has permission to hunt coyotes on over 30,000 acres and is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association (NEOWA), the author of “Wild Maine Outdoors” and “The Sit Spot”. He is the owner of the YouTube channel, “SPIKES and GILLS”.

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 46

The Northwoods Bowhunter

by Brian Smith, Machiasport, ME In 1986 I began turkey hunting right after I got married. I didn’t hear or see a tom in Maine that year.

My friend and turkey hunting legend, Niles Oesterle invited me to hunt New York State the following May. He called in my first

key at a tagging station, but are not required to weigh it or take measurements.

For ten years, I was the National Wild Turkey Federation State Chair and then Regional Director for all of New England and Atlantic Canada raising

April 2023

Electronic Turkey Registration!

ers can harvest a gobbler, register it with their smart phone and continue hunting for the 2nd legal bird or with other hunters and still make it to work on time. Note: In WMDs 1-6 and 8 there is a one-turkey limit in the spring. During warmer days, hunters

Electronic registration will be a great convenience for hunters who shoot their bird hours before any tagging station opens. Hunters can harvest a gobbler, register it with their smart phone and continue hunting for the 2nd legal bird or with other hunters and still make it to work on time. gobbler on state land and I was instantly hooked on pursuing our greatest game bird. I phoned in that turkey registration with a 5 minute phone call. Since then, I have hunted 12 states and harvested 100 wild turkeys. I have registered my wild turkey harvests in five states by either phone or laptop. Finally, Maine IF&W has implemented electronic turkey registration for this spring. You still may register your tur-

money for wild turkey research, habitat improvement and trap and transfer.

Working with Maine turkey biologists and many NWTF volunteers, we trapped and moved turkeys all over Maine, made habitat improvements and helped educate dairy and blueberry farmers on management. We also worked with IF&W improving turkey hunting laws, ethics and safety.

Electronic registration will be a great convenience for hunters who shoot their bird hours before any tagging station opens. Hunt-

can process their gobbler quickly to prevent spoilage and not have to wait hours to register their bird. Tagging stations only receive a $2 fee which hardly covers the time an employee has to take to enter your information in a laptop then examine the bird and affix a seal. The new system will allow the hunter to attach a tag bearing the seal number issued by the electronic registration system, and remain with the bird until processed and packaged for consumption. Turkey hunters must purchase a $20 Spring/Fall Turkey

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The author’s wife, Joyce, with a brace of spring Toms. (Photo by Brian Smith) Permit and use a shotgun, crossbow or bow and arrow. No rifles, pistols or muzzloading rifles!

Turkeys are large tough birds with thick layers of feathers so head/neck shots insure quick kills.

Patterning your shotgun with specialized loads and extra full chokes is recommended. Copper plated, lead turkey loads cost $1-2 each and will cleanly kill out to 40 yards. Most of my turkeys have fallen to a 12 gauge with lead turkey loads in #5 and #6 shot but in the last 10 years, I have been using heavier than lead extended range shot with great success.

Several times I have been able to drop two toms with one shot inside of 30 yards.

My wife has harvested all of her gobblers with a 20 gauge Benelli with #5 magnum turkey loads from 20-40 yds. The reduced re-

coil of .410 and 20 gauges with the new TSS shot are great for youth and smaller hunters. My friend David Wells has taken many toms with a 20 gauge using TSS shot out to 40 yds. Though I refuse to pay $8-10 per shell for TSS loads, my Uncle gifted me a box that I will pattern then try on gobblers this May. Maine turkey hunting legends Jim Wescott and Robb Cotiaux have perfected calling toms in close and taking them with 1880s Parker Damascus barrel shotguns and reloaded paper shells with lead shot. They have introduced other friends to this challenge.

In March 2018, I called in four big toms on my friend Neely’s farm in Georgia. He loaned me his Remington 870 patterned with a new blended heavier (Turkey cont. pg 54)

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THE BACK SHELF

Northwoods Sporting Journal

From the files of the Northwoods Sporting Journal The best hunting and fishing columns going back 25 years!

By their very nature backshelf articles, resurrected from our archives, may contain information or facts that have been altered or changed by the passage of time.

By Joe Bertolaccini When fishing slow moving streams and ponds, I have frequently seen a black caddis like fly hatching from the shorelines. I was not aware that there

stream or lakeside vegetation and when hatched, the larvae fall to the water surface where they live predominantly in the bottom debris of sluggish streams and pond. Subsequently

Alderflies and caddis flies both have the same tent-shaped wings, short bodies and long antennae, the major difference being that caddis flies have hairy wings as opposed to the rather smooth wings of the alderfly. was any such thing as a black caddis but what I found in reality was that I was looking at adult alderflies. In their life cycle, the adult is perhaps the most important stage to the angler. They deposit their eggs in overhanging

they crawl on land to burrow in silt and rotten logs where they pupate and hatch in late spring. Once hatched, the adults are very awkward fliers and land on water only by chance where they struggle and begin to sink.

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April 2023

Awesome Alder Flies

This is the time when they are most susceptible to fish. Alderflies and caddis flies both have the same tent-shaped wings, short bodies and long antennae, the major difference being that caddis flies have hairy wings as opposed to the

black Z-lon, Antron yarn or black CDC feather. Body materials can be dubbed black fur, peacock herl, or clipped black hackle.

Adult Alderfly (dry) Hook – Standard dry fly, size 10 to 14.

Thread – Black 6/0.

Body – Black ostrich herl wound in tight wraps around the hook shank.

Wing – Black elk hair, tied as in the elk hair caddis.

Head – Black thread.

Dave goes on to say that “the alderfly characteristic of sinking almost immediately on contact with the water makes the wet fly a more effective dressing than the dry. In lakes the fly should be fished on a long leader and floating line. After sinking a few inches, it should be retrieved back with short twitches of the rod tip. The retrieve should be slow, with frequent pauses to let the fly settle.”

Following is the dressing for a wet fly imitation created by Dave Hughes, a nationally known angler and fly tyer, and described in his excellent book, “Handbook of Hatches”

Joe Bertolaccini has enjoyed fly fishing for over 65 years. His first book, Fundamentals of Fly Fishing, is now available. He can be reached at: brewerberts@aol.com

Alder Dry Fly Joe Bertolaccini rather smooth wings of the alderfly. The latter varies in length but can best be imitated on sizes 10 to14 standard dry fly hooks. Coloration is dark gray to black.

It is not necessary to apply dry fly flotant to this pattern because of the tendency for the natural to sink. The following dry fly version that I’ve had success with has only a black ostrich herl body and a wing of dyed black elk or deer hair. Other wing materials can include

published in 1987.

Adult Alder Fly (wet) Hook – Standard wet fly, size 10 to 14.

Thread – Black 6/0.

Rib – Gold wire.

Body – Peacock herl.

Collar – Sparse black hen hackle.

Wing – Dark turkey quill.

Head – Black thread.

Hop right up and give the Easter gift that keeps on giving all year long!

(See page 49)

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Ice Fishing Happy Ending

As I write this column, NOAA is forecasting a significant snowstorm, which is not really unusual for this time of year, however, this winter has been anything

not safe this year. The media grabbed a hold of the press release and played the piece on every radio and television station. But some people were likely

Page 49

Green Mountain Report

Grand Isle, fell through the ice and died on Thursday Feb 9. Then just two days later, on Feb 11, on Keelers Bay, John Fleury, 71, of Williamstown, was pulled from the water and died in the hospital. His brother,

by Bradley Carleton, Charlotte, VT had begun to put away our gear and pulled it back out for what might be one last effort. My friend, Trevor Coles, of Manchester, NH, met me early one morning to make the hour-long

Jamie’s closing quote as we were bidding him farewell was “I love ice fishing and I love ice fishermen!” We all need more families like this!

but normal. In February we had a few days that would have been the defining weekend, featuring ice fishing events state-wide, but the ice was just not safe enough. VT F&W posted warnings that the ice was

caught up in the enthusiasm of the derbies. Those few days will go down as one of the deadliest weekends in recent ice fishing history.

We lost three fishermen in three days. 62 year old Wayne Alexander, from

Wayne Fleury, 88, of East Montpelier, was located inside a side by side UTV in about 20 feet of water by a friend of mine who is a rescue and recovery diver. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Most derbies were cancelled immediately upon hearing the news. It was grim.

The news spread quickly throughout the state and outfitters were aghast.

Then, what looked like an early end to the season, the temperature dropped dramatically. The forums lit up with threads that said that Lake Carmi, in Franklin, had a good 10-12’ of solid ice. We

trip. We were quite wary of getting on the ice, but after we saw a half dozen four wheelers, we decided we’d take our time and be extra cautious. We drilled a few holes and measured 7” of black ice with 4” of solid white on top. We set up, feeling grateful that we could even get on the ice again. Trevor landed a few large yellows that swallowed minnows on traps in about 15 feet of water.

He was also able to land his first walleye, which he released since it was just under the slot length of 19”.

As we were struggling to pull the pop-up shanty back to the access, a gentleman

in a custom side by side pulled up and offered us a ride and pulled the heavy shanty back to the access.

He drove us all the way to our truck at the top of the parking lot. I had to find out who this ice ambassador was, so I introduced myself. He introduced himself as Jamie Lapan of Sheldon and before I could thank him he grabbed a walleye from the back of the UTV and proudly asked his eight year old granddaughter, Adeline Reed, of Enosburgh to show us her trophy. The beautiful walleye was 23 ½” long and weighed approximately 4.5-5 lbs. Jamie’s closing quote as we were bidding him farewell was “I love ice fishing and I love ice fishermen!” We all need more families like this!

Since 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has annually issued a “Conservation Order” to allow the reduction of the population of migrating greater (Ending cont. pg 65)

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Page 50

Outdoors In Vermont

by Gary W. Moore, Bradford, VT If I can, anyone can.

I am talking learning to ice climb and the place to do that is North Conway, NH. I have wanted to learn to ice climb for a long time, but the opportunity and time never aligned. Finally, I arranged for a lesson with the International Mountain Climbing School in North

Mid-February I found myself climbing the ice below Cathedral Ledge in North Conway. My guide and instructor was Jeni Calzaretta, a woman who would rather climb ice than do almost anything else. Her enthusiasm is definitely contagious.

Once I was outfitted

Now recovered from the cancer and a triple bypass performed in April, I contacted the International Mountain Climbing School and its new owner Paul McCoy to arrange a lesson.

Conway last February.

Before the date arrived, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and February 7 had surgery and began chemo.

Disappointed, I cancelled my lesson. If I was not to lift more than 20 pounds, I certainly could not be pulling myself up an ice cliff.

Now recovered from the cancer and a triple bypass performed in April, I contacted the International Mountain Climbing School and its new owner Paul McCoy to arrange a lesson.

with the necessary gear, we headed for the climbing site where I donned my harness, helmet and crampons with Jeni’s assistance.

A short hike in which I learned to walk sideways up the snow back using the “French Step” took us to the ice where my instruction began. A tree was used as an anchor and the rope attached to it with a Connecticut Tree Hitch then run through a belay device attached to my harness by a carabiner.

April 2023

Learning to Ice Climb – Never Too Old

Jeni, whose harness was laden with ice screws, carabiners and a belay device, then attached the rope to her harness and began to climb, driving her ice axes and the toes of her crampons into the ice as she slowly moved upward.

Soon she put in protection, an ice screw, and a Quick Draw then ran the rope through it. This would be repeated every few feet of ascent. My job was to feed the rope and act as the belay preventing her from falling beyond her last protection.

Once on top, she anchored the rope to a tree and repelled back down to my level where she rehitched me to the rope and, as I began to climb, served as my belay.

She constantly gave me advice on foot and ax placement and offered encouragement. I found the climbing easier than I had expected and definitely enjoyable. Once on top, I repelled down and soon began another climb.

I have not completely

Vermont

ice axes.

J e n i grew up outside Worcester, MA and headed north to New Hampshire to climb whenever she could.

After years of climbing, gaining experience and certifications, she left a career Guide Jeni Calzaretta with ice in accounting climbing devices hanging and HR to from her harness. gotten my lung capacity become a full-time guide. back since my open-heart She joined IMCS two surgery and I was suffer- years ago. In addition to ice ing from a cold so I was climbing she also guides not feeling up to par. Had Mt. Washington ascents; I felt better, I would have winter camping trips and continued to climb under conducts workshops and Jeni’s tutelage in the after- day trips empowering noon, but that will have to women. wait for another day.

She is on the board of I learned that the boots the Harvard Cabin at the are key. Get good boots and base of Mt. Washington’s the right size. Don’t skimp. Huntington Ravine and an Next, I would say cram- AMGA trained climbing pons are critical as are the (Climb cont. pg 52)

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April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

April Fly Fishing

riffles and pocket water yet, skip that water until May or June.

Once you have found likely winter/ early spring holding water, the next challenge becomes the high flows of spring, specifically getting your flies to the fish. Peak runoff usually takes place sometime in April and can make fishing tough. The good news is rivers are dynamic and ever The author with a wild Brown Trout caught on changing so there usually a sunny April day. aren’t many days that are For the vast major- getting back outside, and totally unfishable, but you ity of fly fishermen in the supporting conservation. will need to deal with high Northeast, April is a pretty All proceeds from the tour- water. Inactive and letharspecial month. Most trout nament benefit various lo- gic fish will be found on or streams and rivers become cal conservations organizafishable for the first time in tions. All ability levels are months, and depending on welcome. the state regulations, openFishing conditions in ing day is somewhat of a April are usually not very holiday. Until a few years good, and catching a trout ago, VT trout season began can be a real challenge and on the second Saturday the ultimate reward. The in April. It now signifies good news is that it’s often

The OCC as we refer to it is based out of the Middlebury Mountaineer fly shop.

The tournament weekend is less about catching fish and more about seeing like minded anglers and friends again, getting back outside, and supporting conservation.

the day anglers are able to keep a trout. For a catch and release fly fisherman and guides it does not have the same significance it once did, but that date still “feels” like opening day.

Many anglers from VT and beyond celebrate opening day by participating in the annual Otter Creek Classic catch and release fly fishing tournament.

The OCC as we refer to it is based out of the Middlebury Mountaineer fly shop. The tournament weekend is less about catching fish and more about seeing like minded anglers and friends again,

a quality over quantity scenario and many of the largest trout of the year are caught early in the season.

River anglers must deal with high water levels from spring run off and very cold water. Since fish are cold blooded, their metabolism is directly connected to the water temperature. The colder the water, the less active the trout, and less food they need to consume to stay alive. To fool a trout in April the angler must first find the trout by finding water types that match the fishes metabolic rate.

Think deep and slow. Trout will not be found in the fast

near the bottom.

Getting a fly down to the fish is priority number one. Be prepared with heavily weighted nymphs and streamers and split shot. It is vitally important to adjust the weight of your flies to match the current speed and depth in order to get them in front of a fish. Remember, you will not catch anything if you are not able to put a fly in the strike zone and in April

Page 51

Maple Country Outdoors

by Ben Wilcox, Essex, VT

the strike zone is small, at times only a few inches off the bottom. Too heavy a rig and you will be hanging up on the bottom constantly, too light and the flies will drift over the fishes heads.

To make matters worse the angler must deal with varying current speeds. The water at the surface will move much faster than on the (April cont. pg 52)

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Page 52

April

(Cont. from pg 51) bottom where friction from the river bottom slows the current substantially. This is why the fish are sitting on the bottom most of the time. You must watch for visual cues on your line/ leader/or indicator that your flies have slowed down and are in the strike zone. A task that requires

Northwoods Sporting Journal

lots of time and focus to perfect.

The least important aspect of catching a lethargic trout in April is fly selection. Hatches in the Northeast during April consist of mainly midges and small brown and black stoneflies. Unless you see these bugs in dense numbers or you happen to get a day with lower water and warmer than usual

temps, they will mostly be inconsequential. Instead, think larger or brighter attracter nymphs, worms, mops, stoneflies eggs, and streamers. I find that targeting rivers that hold Browns or Brook Trout to be the most consistent in April, as rainbows are spawning and don’t eat as well until later on in the spring.

Lastly, remember to be safe when fishing any

open water in the early part of the season. Cold, fast moving water and waders can make for a dangerous situation when wading a river. Always wear a wading belt and consider wearing an inflatable life vest, especially if fishing alone.

April 2023

ber of the USA Fly Fishing Team. He is a registered Maine Guide and graduate of the University of Maine.

He also owns a large Maple Sugaring Business, Amber Ridge Maple. He can be reached at maplecountryanglers@gmail.com

Climb

Ben Wilcox is owner of Maple Country Anglers, (Cont. from pg 50) located in Northwest Verinstructor and Wilderness mont. He is a current memFirst Responder.

I mentioned her enthusiasm as she talked about climbing and climbs here and in the west. In response to my question about favorite climbs outside the Whites, she said, “Mt. Moran and Grand Teton.”

Have I sparked an interest? Check out the International Mountain Climbing School at https:// www.ime-usa.com/imcs/ or call 603-356-7064.

The International Mountain Climbing School was co-owned by Rick Wilcox and Brad White since the 70s and became the go to place for those who climb or want to. Last fall long time climber and guide Paul McCoy and his wife Lisa McCoy purchased IMCS from Wilcox and White, who still serve as advisors to the business.

Paul continues to offer that personal and highly professional experience his predecessors were known for. I found him easy to work with when trying to schedule and in no rush when answering all my questions.

Syndicated columnist Gary W. Moore is a life long resident of Vermont and a former Commissioner of Fish and Game.

He may be reached by email at gwmoore1946@ icloud.com or at Box 454, Bradford, VT 05033.

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

A Suitable Suitor

It was a cold midNovember morning, more like December, when a 3½year old doe was about to come into heat. She was on

breed with this youngster, and continued her search for a suitable suitor.

The little 4-pointer pressed his case, follow-

could see the bigger one, his neck thick, his head lowered and his off-white antlers looking ever larger, and that was enough. There would be no challenge for this doe; it was out of the question. The little buck ran off and the doe stood, turned her head as if to

Vermont Ramblings

by Dennis Jensen, Vermont She made her way across the clear-cut and ascended a steep ridge, following a well-used run, up to where another large-bodied,

The fight was over in less than a minute. Just as the loser turned, the victor turned to his prize and the buck and the doe headed into a small stand of hemlocks and pines. There, he bred the doe for the first time.

the move and the first buck to pick up her scent was a younger one, in his first year as a breeding buck, and he was on her trail at once. She was moving along, not really wanting to

ing the doe, his eyes fixed on that place at her far end. About a half-hour passed when an older buck suddenly emerged. In a hardwood stand, now, the young buck turned and

study her new suitor and then moved on, her large tail still swiveled to the right.

In time, the doe crossed a broad opening, a clear cut from five years earlier. She paused and nipped the ends, the buds, of a five-foot sugar maple. She crossed, slowly, her long tail swung sharply to the left and held there, her hot aroma drifting along her back-trail.

Page 53

heavy-antlered buck was bedded. He picked up her scent, from more than 400 yards off, and was up and off, just like that.

As the doe turned to see the new suitor, the first big guy on the scene, believing this was to be his doe, turned to face a 10-pointer with long brow tines. They looked toward each other and then, almost simultaneously, charged the other.

He battle was short.

The younger buck, the 9-pointer, could not match the amount of bone carried by the 10-pointer, but it mattered not. In the shoving match that followed the 9-pointer shoved the five-year veteran of the forest all over. The fight was over in less than a minute.

Just as the loser turned, the victor turned to his prize and the buck and the doe headed into a small stand of hemlocks and pines.

There, he bred the doe for (Suitor cont. pg 65)

Greg and the crew of Vermont Field Sports remind you that the start of the 2023 Trout & Landlock Salmon opens on Saturday, April 14.

The Walleye season opens on Saturday, May 1, marking the return of some of the best walleye fishing in New England courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.

Greg reminds you that the Vermont Turkey Season is May 1st. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife says.

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Page 54

Outdoors In Maine

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Spring Fishing Plans

by V. Paul Reynolds, Ellsworth, ME Although the Florida Keys has become my winter retreat until April, my daydreams beneath the swaying palm fronds and soaring pelicans had already begun in February to be occupied by visions of Maine brook trout rising to a delicate dry fly.

If fishing for wild native brook trout in scenic wilderness is your thing,

tected from stocking and the use of live fish as bait.

In fact, less than 6 percent of Baxter’s trout waters have been stocked.

Within Baxter Park there are also 400 miles of lake- and spring-fed brooks and streams that provide ideal habitat for brook trout. Nesowadnehunk, Wassataquoik, and Webster Streams; and Trout Brook

My all time most memorable trout fishing experience in the park was at Center Pond. No lunkers, but incredibly fast action on respectable brookies.

there are more reasons than ever to include Baxter State Park in your fishing plans. The Baxter State Park boundaries encompass 155 lakes and ponds.

At last count, there were 41 Maine State Heritage Fish waters within the park.

These are specially designated waters that are home to Eastern brook trout that are naturally reproducing and have not been stocked in more than 25 years, if ever. They are legally pro-

are the best known. Wassataquoik Lake, in the north central end of the park, is one of only 12 bodies of water in Maine that is home to rare native Arctic charr, formerly known as blueback trout (or charr) and Sunapee trout.

The following ponds have proven to me to be well worth the hike and a day of fishing, not in any particular order: Jackson Pond, Celia Pond, Lower Fowler Pond, Big and Little

Greenville

April 2023

Rocky Pond, Kidney Pond, Daicey Pond, Slaughter Pond, Foss and Knowlton Pond and Center Pond.

My all time most memorable trout fishing experience in the park was at Center Pond. No lunkers, but incredibly fast action on respectable brookies.

Be forewarned that it is a five mile slog to get there through bug-infested lowlands, but, if fast action on surface flies is your thing, well worth the physical sacrifice.

After Center Pond, my best trout-fishing experiences took place at boundary waters, Jackson Pond and Slaughter Pond. These are so named because the Park’s West

Turkey (Cont. from pg 46) than lead 12 gauge load.

At 30-40 yards I dropped three gobblers each weighing 23 lbs. I limited out in 30 seconds with my heaviest gobblers! The next day, we called in an entire flock and he dropped three big gobblers with the same shotgun and loads.

As you prepare for the 2023 spring turkey season, remember the following

boundary intersects both waters, leaving the West end of the ponds outside of Park jurisdiction. This makes it possible for an angler to hike in to either of these ponds and camp overnight without violating park regulations. (Make sure your campsite is outside the boundary).

Maine outdoor writer, the late George Smith, an avid trout man, counted Big Rocky Pond and Little Rocky Pond among his favorite trout haunts. Celia Pond is considered a trophy water, and a good bet if you are bent on putting your fly over a large trout. My late friend, Millinocket guide Wiggie Robinson, who grew up hiking and fish-

ing Baxter and knew the Park fishery like no other, once caught a 4 ½-pound brookie on his favorite fly, a Maple Syrup, at Celia Pond. That fish was the second largest square tail caught in Maine in 1992.

Whether you like a few brookies for the pan or simply enjoy catching and releasing native wild trout whose progeny dates back to the last glacial period, Baxter State Park remains an angler’s paradise.

Start making some plans. It is never too early to ponder the dream before you actually live it.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books.Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.

prohibitions in Maine:

without a beard.

No Person May: 1. Use Bait.

2. Use dogs during the spring season.

3. Engage in and organized drive of any manner.

4. Shoot a wild turkey in a tree.

5. Hunt in a WMD closed to hunting of wild turkeys.

6. Harvest a turkey after having killed and registered two in the spring.

7. Shoot a turkey

Brian Smith is a Retired Maine State Police Detective and NRA Field Representative. In 2012 he was awarded the NWTF Maine Wild Turkey Conservation Award. He was chosen Maine Bowhunters Association “Bowhunter of the Year” twice and serves as 1st Director at Large. He also serves on the SAM-ILA Board of Directors. He can be reached at bowhunter@ mgemaine.com

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April 2023

In a recent column for The Northwoods Sporting Journal, I reviewed We Took To the Woods, Louise Dickinson Rich’s book about her time living with her husband, Ralph Rich along the Rapid River.

Some might say they had a pretty good marriage.

I’m no expert. Don’t pretend to be. But Trish and I have been married for forty-one years and that has to count for something.

Hell, we beat the odds or so I’m told. We met while I clerked for a Superior Court Judge. She was juror number six. I later learned she had a thing for guys with beards, and as it turned out, I had grown one while studying for the bar exam. After the case concluded, I asked her out for lunch and we haven’t been apart since.

Well, that’s not exactly true. From the first, Trish was her own gal, a woman who prefers jeans to dresses and a sturdy pair of hiking boots to high heels.

Before our daughter was born, we both worked—she in advertising and me as an associate in a small law office. On weekends, we went our separate ways— she to her garden, me to my stream, coming together only at the end of the day to recount our adventures.

I guess you could say we gave each other space.

Over the years, my wife has acquired this marvelous collection of skulls, which she displays in a glass case in our living room. When our daughter was in high school I took great pleasure in pointing out these trophies to any boy she dared bring home, suggesting the most interesting skulls were kept out

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Marriage of sight in a special case.

Soon after Father Cull declared us husband and wife, we had our house built on a twelve-acre parcel of land located in the foothills of the Kittatinny Mountains. I remember the first time my father, a man who never escaped his early upbringing in the Bronx, ambled through the woodlot where I still harvest

there, I fished a small stream, the girls exploring a thirteenth-century monastery. Later in the evening, we sat around a table in the local pub, peat blazing in the nearby fireplace while we ate lamb stew flavored with Guinness.

My wife spent her childhood summers on Conway Lake, located in northeast New Hamp-

Page 55

Against The Current

by Bob Romano, Rangeley, ME had become expert at rowing a boat. Like her father, I was more than happy to endure the snide smiles of men passing our squarestern Grumman while she rowed and I cast my flies.

These days, Emily lives in Texas while we remain on our twelve acres with two black Labs, Win-

the tubes containing my fly rods. My chest waders are draped over a chair. Spread across the table where we take our meals is a novel set in France, a book of cowboy poetry, and Tom Ames’ Hatch Guide for New England Streams. Between the books are my binoculars, Trish’s camera, and the

On weekends, we went our separate ways—she to her garden, me to my stream, coming together only at the end of the day to recount our adventures.

I guess you could say we gave each other space.

billets for the woodstove, and how he turned to me and asked, “How ya gonna rake all these leaves?”

On her Facebook page, our daughter referred to her early years as living with two hobbits in the Shire.

Emily is an accomplished artist, contributing a number of watercolors to my book of short stories. She’s spent time in France and Germany, England, Ireland, and Holland.

When she was younger, we flew to Ireland to “fetch” her home. She’d spent the winter semester at the Burren College of Art located not far from the little seaside town of Ballyvaughan.

During our two-week tour of the Emerald Isle’s western coastline, we stopped in the village of Cong where many of the scenes of the 1953 movie, The Quiet Man, were filmed. While

shire. Her father, an accomplished angler, would row a wooden peapod out onto the lake, accompanied by his daughter. Now, I’ve always had the feeling my father-in-law was a devotee of Samuel Clemens’ Tom Sawyer, since it wasn’t long before his daughter was doing the rowing, working those ash oars while he cast his Hula Poppers, Jitter bugs, and Rapala lures to the largemouth bass and pickerel that inhabit the warm water lake.

The year Emily was born, we purchased our camp in western Maine.

Soon afterward, our little traveling circus was commuting between “the shire” and our cabin where we spent our free time exploring the rivers and streams, logans and bogs that comprise the northwest corner of the state. By then, Trish

slow Homer and Finnegan.

Trish still tends the gardens, taking time to skulk through field and forest while I continue to split wood with a six-pound maul, now and again carrying my bamboo rod down to a little stream where wild trout dimple the surface. Each May, we make the nine-hour drive to our camp.

Seated here in our cabin, the patter of soft rain on the roof, I look around the room. Our two Labs are curled up by my feet.

The smell of their wet fur mingles with that of the burning wood in the nearby stove. By the door, a longhandled net leans against

canvas pack she straps over her shoulders when on one of her adventures.

Scattered among these are a number of plastic boxes containing my favorite fly patterns.

To borrow a line from Ms. Rich’s book, I suppose you could say our marriage is one “…that you can let yourself go in, a marriage in which you can put up your feet and relax.”

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(See page 49)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 56

April Question Of The Month

April 2023

Wilderness: Who Are the Best Stewards of the Land?

By Griffin Goins Prior to moving to Aroostook County, Maine, I lived paycheck-to-paycheck in southern California while raising a family with two kids. We strived each summer to venture into nature at least once.

We didn’t have the forethought to reserve a campsite months in advance, so we’d often arrive at state or national parks with the car packed to the gills and gear strapped to the roof, hoping to find an open campsite.

I reflect back on those trips with gloom. Rather than rich memories of towering redwoods or the dramatic stone peaks of Yosemite, I vividly recall the stress of begging a forest ranger to return our belongings after our gear was confiscated from a site we hadn’t properly reserved.

I remember being awoken by another family at sunrise, upset that we occupied the site they’d reserved for their soon-to-arrive friends.

I love nature, but I hated being a family on

a tight budget trying to navigate California’s park systems. I experience a similar frustration when I try to reserve a parking

Wildlife refuge. The occupying ranchers, led by private property zealot Ammon Bundy, wanted to wrest control of the

Maine Woods, the expansive woodlands stretching across the northwestern area of the state. The North Maine Woods is also a non-profit organization co-managing the 3.5 million acres of commercial woodlands which helps

and vulnerable land and ecosystems.

Many residents in Aroostook County take pride that this region supports a unique model of resource management. Ongoing oversight is required to keep private companies

As a community member in Aroostook County, I recognize this reckoning in our own North Maine Woods, the expansive woodlands stretching across the northwestern area of the state.

Lumber companies can incorporate excellent forest-management practices and still need regulation and accountability. spot to climb Katahdin.

I may live an hour away from Baxter State Park, but when I try to book a camping trip, there are no available spots. I’ve lived in Maine for five years and never visited the park.

Having grown up in Oregon, I eagerly followed the armed standoff in 2016 at the Malheur National

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public land back from the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. The refuge held little economic or political value, but the conflict showcased one of our nation’s evergreen zeitgeists: Who are the best stewards of land, and what does it mean for land to be public?

As a community member in Aroostook County, I recognize this reckoning in our own North

maintain consistency and manages recreation access.

Wi t h i n t h e n o r t h woods exists an ecosystem of commercial landowners and logging contractors, camp owners on leased land, recreation easements, public land tracts including Debouillie, multiple-use land such as Ki-Jo Mary Forest, and the famed Allagash Waterway – arguably a national treasure that connects Moosehead lake in the south to the St. John River bordering Quebec.

There’s an ongoing effort by one public interest group to convert a portion of this land into a national park to protect the unique

accountable, but in turn, residents receive a dynamic economy and broader access to wilderness than the residents of other states that turned their wildest nature over to state or federal agencies.

It would be easy to conflate the future of the north woods with my own soured outlook on national parks. However, Maine is not California. The Allagash Waterway is not Yosemite. California has almost 40 million residents, while Maine has only 1.3 million. The excessive demand on the nation’s most popular national parks – Yellowstone, Yosemite, The Redwoods, and The Grand Canyon – is largely due to their undeniable majesty, not just the shortcomings of the park systems.

Not all national parks are blockbusters, and not all rely on a dramatic geographic centerpiece. Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota protects grazing land for bison (Question cont. pg 57)

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Black Flies

Look, most of us who love to fish Maine in early June expect to be swatting a few bugs, right? When I was a lad fishing with Dad he always lathered me up with that black, foul-smelling Old Woodsman fly dope. I’d complain about the stinky stuff and whine about the buzzing hordes and he would say, “It’s part of the deal, son, bugs and

a been a couple of times, though. Once in a canoe on Little Houston Pond, the black flies were so thick that my wife’s head net was festered with a black cloud.

Though they weren’t biting her they were doing a job on her pysche – she admitted it. She toughed it out, however. She overcame and we boated some slabsided brookies.

down. “Wouldn’t matter,” he smirked, “The bugs would drive you mad long before anyone located you or you found your way out, eh?”

As far as June black flies go, last year may go down in history as one of the worst in recent memory. Man, they were bad on the West Branch of the Penobscot. These

Flying over a remote stretch there in a Beaver floatplane I asked the pilot how you would ever find your way out if the engine quit and he had to put her down. “Wouldn’t matter,” he smirked, “The bugs would drive you mad long before anyone located you or you found your way out, eh?”

trout. You can’t have one without the other.”

Over the years, a halo of cigar smoke or a puffing pipeful always made the bugs bearable, at least for me, if not the other person in the bow of the canoe. Generally, the bug situation has never been at the forefront of my fishing memories. There have

Question (Cont. from pg 56) between the prairies and the Badlands. Voyageurs National Park protects woods and waterways in northern Minnesota. While Yellowstone attracts nearly 5 million visitors each year, Voyageurs attracts only 232,000. Designating land as a national park does not guarantee massive popularity.

In order for land to be designated a national park, it must possess unique natural, cultural, or recreational resources. The proposed Maine Woods National Park would surround Baxter State Park and extend west, capturing the headwaters of the Alla-

Labrador was a challenge, bug-wise. Worse than the black flies were the big horse flies that the local call “stouts.” Now they are serious flesh eaters. Ouch! Flying over a remote stretch there in a Beaver I asked the pilot how you would ever find your way out if the engine quit and he had to put her

“mindless, merciless eating machines,” as Dean MacAdam described them in Downeast Magazine, got the best of my wife and me during a recent fishing outing. We came home looking like victims of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

My defense arsenal – cigars, pipe, headnet, Off and Repel, and that head wear

gash, but not the full waterway. While Maine’s woods are abundantly unique in myriad ways, perhaps the most unique feature of these woods is our complicated relationship with them.

Northern Maine is home to the largest unprotected piece of land east of the Rockies. I don’t enter the gate unless I’m prepared with a spare tire, survival supplies, a firearm, and a reliable map. After all, I’m not trying to author Lost in the Maine Woods 2: A Californian’s Adventure.

Lumber companies can incorporate excellent forest-management practices and still need regulation and accountability.

Public agencies can protect

old-growth forests within a greater zone managed by private companies. Organizations like The Nature Conservancy can buy tracts of land and publicize their success. All of these activities take place on land which, not long ago, provided Abenaki families and tribes sustenance and shelter long before Europeans arrived.

Regardless of who claims future ownership, I hope that families on a budget can continue to embark into the woods, their gas tank half-full, and find a quiet lake where the only sign of life past sunset is the call of a lonely loon.

Griffin Goins lives in Presque Isle.

Page 57

Cracker Barrel

by Homer Spit that makes you look like a terrorist – did not fend off the black horde. They were insidious and relentless last June.

According to MacAdam, it’s only the females who bite you. And when they latch on, they scissor into your flesh while simultaneously bathing the wound in their saliva, which keeps the blood flowing and anesthetizes the bite so you have no clue they are there until it’s too late.

Although the black fly season in Maine generally winds up by Father’s Day, MacAdam writes that there is, in the Lincoln and Winn area, a multiple generation of black fly species that buzz and bite all summer long.

Interestingly enough, a plentitude of black flies is an indicator of clean water.

Back in the 1950s, when many of our rivers were polluted with industrial and municipal waste, there were few black flies.

If this is the yardstick, the upper reaches of the West Branch of the Penobscot River is about as pristine as it gets. That’s a good thing – bugs be damned – and may also explain why the fighting, silver warriors that we endure the bugs for are the strongest, scrappiest landlocked salmon in Maine.

Hand me that bug spray, please.

Homer Spit lives in a lake in Maine. He likes to keep a low profile.

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Page 58

By Bob Banfelder My first fly-tying kit came with a sixty-fourpage booklet titled Practical Flies and Their Construction, written by Lacey E. Gee and Erwin D. Sias, illustrated by John Goettsch (Revised Edition), copyright 1966. Shy away from purchasing bargain-priced fly-tying kits. The vise that

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Gimp Connetquot River and Carmans River, nailing brook, rainbow and brown trout.

I played around with the Gimp in ponds and lakes for bluegills and perch. Later in life, I plied the waters of upstate New York and Canada, too. The Gimp is one of my freshwater favorites, rarely hav-

lating many insects.

Recipe for the Gimp Freshwater Application Materials: Hook: Mustad-Viking 94838 #8 (turned-down eye) Thread: Danville’s FlatWaxed Nylon - black Body: single strand of

The Gimp is one of my freshwater favorites, rarely having failed me. The fly was Gee’s creation. The pattern was initially published in an Outdoor Life magazine article titled They Go for the Gimp. generally comes with such a kit is usually no bargain; this was true of my original purchase made nearly fifty years ago. In retrospect, however, that little booklet alone was worth the price of the kit. One particular fly recipe instructed readers on how to tie The Gimp, a deadly freshwater fly for trout. I had used that fly successfully for many years on Long Island, fishing the Nissequogue River,

ing failed me. The fly was Gee’s creation. The pattern was initially published in an Outdoor Life magazine article titled They Go for the Gimp. Interestingly, a good many fly-fishing folks never heard of the fly, while others remember it vaguely. The Gimp is a lethal freshwater fly—a fly that comes along once in a great while.

The magic of the fly is its perfect dun color, simu-

April 2023

blue-gray or brown-gray (dun-colored) wool Tail: several dun-colored hen hackle fibers (toothpick thin) Wings: two (2) dun-colored Lady Amherst pheasant ‘gimp’ feathers [found behind, parallel to, just at the base of the larger white, black-rimmed tippet feather].

Collar: one (1) dun-colored hen hackle Head Cement: Flex-Seal Procedure: 1. Atop the bend of

the hook, tie in several hen hackle fibers to form the tail.

2. Tie in the single strand of dun-colored wool and form a cigar-shaped body, leaving ⅛ inch behind the eye of the hook.

3. For the wings, place and tie in the two gimp feathers, one atop the other, at the head of the tapered body. a) Elevate the wings and wrap the thread twice or thrice directly behind the feathers to lock them in a partially raised position.

4. Tie in the dun-colored hen hackle collar, winding it twice around the shank, directly in front of the gimp feather.

5. Trim and whip-fin-

Get Hooked on the Sporting Journal!

ish to the eye of the hook to form the head.

6. Brushing back the collar with the tips of your fingers and holding the fibers out of harm’s way, apply the head cement. Allow the thread to absorb the chemical.

Robert Banfelder is an award-winning crimethriller novelist and outdoors writer. He has penned eleven (11) novels and six (6) handbooks, among them fishing fresh and salt water, bowhunting and gunning. He also has over 300 hundred articles featured in national, regional, and local magazines. Visit his website at www.robertbanfelder.com

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 59

Opening Day

Opening day was a term that in my childhood, spelled a new season. The calendar date of opening day didn’t coincide with the start of spring, nor with the solstice, nor even with Daylight Savings. Where I lived, it fell on the third

the morning and shiver as we waited for daylight. After only a couple of casts, the guides on our fly rods would be choked with ice and we’d have to stop and pinch them free.

Then, on some days, you could see them com-

he’d run one over or merely encountered a road kill, Jim St. John discovered that the quill, or base, or calamus of the main wing and tail feathers presented a great opportunity for a smelt imitation. This is the part of the feather that ink pens were once made from.

St. John saw that some of these quills already had the perfect markings for

The Singing Maine Guide

by Randy Spencer, Grand Lake Stream, ME marks not just a season, but for many, a reason for living. This was where I ran into a guy who’d driven his van from the West Coast for three days and nights to be at the Dam Pool on Grand Lake Stream for opening day. He suited up beside

on March 31st before the start of open water fishing.

It was a new kind of Grand Slam.

As outdoorsmen, we need these markers throughout the year, separating our various outdoor passions. We let them loom

This feverish action sent several of us into a fly-tying bender that burned the candle at both ends, threatened marriages, and brought us to the brink of sanity with sleep deprivation.

Opening Day at Grand Lake Stream is always a special day, weather notwithstanding.

(Photo by V. Paul Reynolds)

Saturday in April and it only meant one thing–– trout. Of course, the trout fishing wouldn’t be at its best for another six weeks or more, but opening day meant you could go fishing, and that, for me, was a season unto itself.

Later on, after I got out of school, opening day took on a new meaning.

One of my friends from the Sebago region had discovered the landlocked salmon fishing in the Songo River right next to Sebago State Park. Further upstream from where we fished there was (and is) a lock connecting the Songo to Crooked River. Later in the spring we would also fish the Crooked.

The smelt runs coming up from Sebago into the Songo in April in the 1980’s were the stuff of dreams. My brothers and I and our friends would show up in early April at 3:30 in

ing––landlocked salmon were marauding the smelts darting ahead of them in schools, headed upriver.

Our eyes buggered out.

Up to that point, there was nothing in my fishing experience to compare that to. If you could get a smelt imitation across the stream and strip hard and fast through one of these schools, you’d hook up every time. This feverish action sent several of us into a fly-tying bender that burned the candle at both ends, threatened marriages, and brought us to the brink of sanity with sleep deprivation. The most important thing in the world after opening day in April in the 1980’s, was being there to meet those marauding salmon headed up toward the Songo Locks.

One of the most successful patterns that came from those experiences was the St. John Quill. Whether

mimicking a smelt–a combination of light and dark, silver and purple representing the belly and back of a rainbow smelt. Sometimes color was added for enhancement, and beyond that, very little hackle.

By stripping fly line, you could make it swim in an erratic fashion, bobbing and weaving, and this was more than those hungry landlocked salmon could put up with.

Then, my fishing trajectory landed me in Grand Lake Stream on opening days, beginning in the early 90’s. Here, opening day

the Microbus, still hot and hissing from the marathon, then trekked through the snow to the stream. Lots of other anglers knew about this guy. The legend was that he hooked and netted 60 landlocked salmon on one of those opening days in the 1990’s Since those days, I’ve certainly seen 30 salmon intercept a Black Ghost, or a Joe Smelt, or a Governor Aiken on opening day on Grand Lake Stream. A friend of mine who did this once in recent years had just ice fished West Grand Lake the day before

out there in front of us, getting ever nearer as we ramp up our fly tying, our wader patching, our choices for new gear, and the excuses we might need to deploy for going fishing. Except on that one day–opening day–which is, after all, its own excuse.

Randy Spencer is a working Master Maine guide and author. All three of his award-winning books are available on Amazon.

Reach Randy at randy31@ earthlink.net or via www. randyspencer.com

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 60

On Point

by Paul Fuller, Durham, N.H. Spring often means a new puppy is coming to your home. In this column let’s address a few basic exercises we can use to create building blocks for the future. Building blocks that well help prevent future problems.We do this while keeping in mind

does something good, immediately say a word such as great, good, yes or any other word that is easy to quickly say. Then, deliver the reward…a food treat. Verbal rewards are much easier than carrying a clicker in your pocket. Remember, the reward is as-

Puppy Building Blocks puppy, the introduction to the gun becomes much easier. Actual introduction to the gun has been covered previously in this column, however, a reminder to shoot only when the pup is chasing a bird.

Building Block: Wa-

independent of any human encouragement. Having early exposure to water helps dramatically the later process of water retriever training.

Building Block: Cover. Exposure to cover is very important. Hunting dogs

Frequently, a grouse or woodcock will be shot over water. That means a water retrieve will be necessary. Hopefully, the breeder puts a large pan of water in the weaning pen the sixth or seventh week of puppy time. that during the first twelve weeks of a puppy’s life, he absorbs every little detail that’s happening around him. It’s the puppy owner’s responsibility to allow a puppy to fully develop their potential.

First, your author is a proponent of marker training. It’s often referred to as clicker training; however, I replace the clicker with a word. I use oral marker training. When your puppy

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sociated with the word and the word is associated with the behavior. Also, never reward unless the puppy has earned the reward. Free rewards are a no-no.

Building Block: Noise. It’s a great building block for successful introduction to the gun shot. In our house, we begin with slight banging of pans. We start with slight banging and then progress with the loudness. A friend uses two six inch pieces of 2 x 4 boards. He claps them together. He starts with light taps and then progresses to louder taps.

The pans and boards can be used around the house.

Once you’ve introduced noise into the life of the

April 2023

Paul and Susan holding puppy class. ter. Frequently, a grouse or woodcock will be shot over water. That means a water retrieve will be necessary.

Hopefully, the breeder puts a large pan of water in the weaning pen the sixth or seventh week of puppy time. The puppies splash around in the pan and begin to understand water. When Susan and I were breeding shorthairs, we put a child’s swimming pool in the back yard. Every time the pups went into the back yard, they were put into the pool.

Once they could crawl over the edge of the pool, they would get into the pool

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will have sticks and weeds rubbing their stomachs throughout their hunting careers. Start your pup running in grass long enough to at least rub their belly.

Progress until the grass is well over their head. The next step is heavier cover.

Woods with a little undergrowth is good. Consider putting a child’s t-shirt on the pup if the cover is thick and thorny.

Avoid running the pup in paths. You want a dog that searches and hunts… not run down paths. With good genetics, the pup will naturally run in front of you. When walking in a field, walk in the pattern of a shoe lace, quartering back and forth. That helps develop a 10 to 2 search pattern.

Building Block: Chasing. A puppy should be allowed to chase butterflies and birds. The predator instinct is there; it simply

needs to be developed. We do not want them to catch a bird. That sets back the training process. Once the pup stops and gives you a flash point, then you’re ready for advanced steadiness training.

Building Block: Recall. Making sure your pup comes when you call the pup is very important. You want and need an obedient dog. Here and come are the two most common recall commands. At our house, we start recall very early. Since our most recent dogs are from our own litters, we would begin recall before the breakup of the litter at eight weeks old. As with most training, recall is taught with a reward. It takes two people and a handful of treats.

Start about twelve feet apart. Be excited, clap your hands and use the puppy’s name and then the recall word. The puppy will run to you and you deliver the reward…a treat. Now the second person calls for the puppy to return. For the first outing, do this four times. The next day, do it five or six times. Eventually, we stop the treats and use praise as a reward.

These are basic building blocks that will help make future training more successful. And, don’t forget to love and understand your dog. They like to please you.

Paul and Susan, his wife, host and produce the Bird Dogs Afield TV show. All past episodes are available on his website: www.birddogsafield.com Contact: paul@birddogsafield.com

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Readying Gear for Summer

Whenever you put your camping/survival gear away it should be clean, dry, and ready to go for the next time. Life often has other plans and your supplies don’t always get the care it deserves. Once a year you should go over all your gear in detail and

to wash the entire tent, do it by hand in the bathtub. Use 5 quarts hot water, 1 quart white vinegar, and a couple drops of dish soap. Rinse well after and let dry in the sun. Never use bleach or detergent soap on tents.

While you have your tent set up you can use a

containers on all your flashlights and electronics.

Throw out any batteries in critical gear. There should be no corrosion in the battery boxes. If there is, clean it out with a dry, soft toothbrush and replace all your batteries.

Scrub and clean all your knives and dry them completely.

For folding

Page 61

Basics Of Survival

by Joe Frazier, Bangor, ME stone, pull through knife sharpeners work fine. They have ceramic rods in a “V” shape and Sharpen both sides of the blade at the same time.

Axes and hatchets should be cleaned and inspected as well. There should be no rust, edges

be painted with bright yellow or orange paint to protect them and make them easier to find when you drop them.

Check any space blankets you have, they can degrade in just a year or two. If the metal coating is flaking or peeling off

While you have your tent set up you can use a hose to test and see if it is still waterproof. Use a spray waterproofer or seam sealer to fix any leaks before you take it camping. knives, use clean and sharp, and hanCompressed dles solid with no cracks or canned air or splinters. to blow clean Check your knife and the hinge and axe sheaths. The stitching It pays to check the waterproofing of your tent, locking parts. should be solid and the mabefore the summer rains catch you unprepared.

Check and be terial have no rips or tears.

(Photo by V. Paul Reynolds) sure the locks Condition leather sheaths make sure it is ready when hose to test and see if it engage solidly and unlock with paste wax or mink oil. is still waterproof. Use a easily. Use butcher block you need it.

Inspect your fire gear, If blankets, sleep- spray waterproofer or seam oil on your knives to lubri- too. Check lighters and ing bags, or clothes smell sealer to fix any leaks be- cate them so if you need make sure they have fluid. to prepare food you don’t Light them a couple times musty or moldy it is from fore you take it camping.

Life jackets should be contaminate it. Butcher to be sure the flint has not mold spores. Check the labels on how to wash inspected first. Look for block oil is edible. corroded. Check matches Knives should also be and be sure they have not them and wash with cheap any severe fading, obviwhite vinegar. Two cups ous rips or tears, anyplace kept very sharp. A sharp deteriorated. Light a couple in a washing machine load the webbing is stressing knife is much safer because and be sure they will still should work. You can also or pulling away from the you are not using force to light. Make sure Ferroceruse baking soda to help cloth, check all buckles and cut. If you are not comfort- ium rods have not oxidized clean. Let them dry for a zippers. To clean it, start by able using a sharpening and crumbled. They should day in the sun. If the mold hosing it off with cold wais bad you may have to re- ter. Mix a few drops of mild PB GUIDE SERVICE peat the process. Use a little dish soap and cold water in ----Hunting Lodge & Outfitter---bit of bar soap on zippers a bucket. Use a soft brush Located in Zone 4 in the Adaptive Unit North Section and only 13 miles from the South Section. Offering fully guided or bed and meals. to lubricate them after the or toothbrush to scrub the material. Rinse it again clothes are dry.

If your tent has mold with cold water and hang CALL TO PLAN YOUR on it, set it up in the sun. it IN THE SHADE to dry.

HUNT TODAY Mix ½ cup white vinegar Direct sunlight can degrade and 2 cups hot water. Put life jackets. If you are ever We offer guided bear, moose, it in a spray bottle and use not sure about the condition semi guided deer hunts, grouse that to clean the tent. If of your lifejacket, get a new and meals & lodging pkgs. there is stubborn dirt, use one. This is one piece of 207-474-2644 a soft bristle brush. Leave gear you are betting your it in the sun for a day and it life on. info@PBGuideService.com www.PBGuideService.com Check the battery should be fine. If you need

the plastic, buy new ones and use the old ones for training.

Wash all your cooking and eating gear, you can use bleach to sterilize it as well. Use 1 teaspoon bleach to 1 gallon of water.

Let the dishes soak for 1 minute and let them air dry. Do not use bleach on aluminum cookware.

By going over every detail of your gear, you know it will be ready when you need it.

Joe is a husband, father, author, and Marine.

Joefrazier193@gmail.com

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 62

“The Trail Rider”

by Dan Wilson, Bowdoinham, ME Some of my favorite snowmobile rides are nighttime rides. This past February school vacation week I enjoyed a few nighttime rides with my Dad and nephews. The weather was in the teens, we barely had enough snow to get around, but the time out, taking in the beauty of the world around us, was great.

Nighttime Rides

nephews were good sports and were eager to get home to warm up after a while touring around. My oldest nephew wanted to keep going, so I went back out with him to explore the trails at night.

There were a few spots where we were the first making the trail, so I had to keep a keen eye for

The moon was a crescent, accompanied by Venus, Jupiter, and Mars shining brightly, almost a vertical line in the sky. The cold wind would blow strongly coming from the woods into open fields.

The moon was a crescent, accompanied by Venus, Jupiter, and Mars shining brightly, almost a vertical line in the sky.

The cold wind would blow strongly coming from the woods into open fields.

Even though it was so cold, the brook was still open and you’d find wet spots here and there throughout the trails. My

April 2023

the marked trail (glad most of the marker stakes have reflectors). Fortunately, I’m familiar with the trails around, so I know where to go, but you never know what might have changed, new landowners, crops, or redirections. I think my nephew is hooked on the magic of nighttime rides because he wanted to go out the next night too. We

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only had one hiccup along the way, on a trail in a field that had standing water.

The water hadn’t frozen over enough and I broke through. It wasn’t deep, but that sensation and sound of breaking ice is startling.

We made it through just fine (and dry) and enjoyed the rest of the ride, observing the clear, star -filled sky through the winding trails and clearings.

From snowmobile rides around the local trails, to a visit to the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, I think vacation week was a success. On our way to Rockland, it was a nice ride itself. My nephews would look for snowmobile trail signs along the way, and I pointed out places like

Warren, where my Dad bought his trailer.

As vacation week came to a close, my nephews went home refreshed, with warm memories of the adventures we’d taken together. My Dad and I decided to take an afternoon ride, staying on local trails, exploring a bit, and going over to camp. This time of year it is important to try to take advantage of the waning days of snow.

Starting a fire up to camp is a nice treat, warming up from a cold ride. It can be amusing too, reading the newspapers we had left there as a fire starter.

The one we used this time was from 2003. As the fire crackled, we discussed whether to use Hemlock or

Ash to re-plank the bridge to our property when the weather gets warmer. As we’re riding around our property, we’ll have to keep an eye out for prime trees to harvest to make the planks.

Update: My experiment with troubleshooting how to prevent my sled from overheating has gone OK. Sticking with T (touring) and E (entry) performance modes on slow trails and trying to open up a bit in fields or straight stretches of trail, has helped. For the most part, my sled has been running well.

Daniel Wilson works in healthcare and enjoys time outside in nature with his family.

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SPACE CALL 207-732-4880 OR EMAIL: info@sportingjournal.com

April 2023

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Shot That Haunts

In December 2021, my grandfather passed away. Weeks before, I jumped him when I came bursting into his house to tell him and my Grammie that I had shot a buck and had completed my Grand Slam. He laughed at my

start of the season and my morning kicked off pretty well by taking a nice doe in the first hour.

I had meat in the freezer and could focus on that 8-pointer that I knew Grampa would make happen. I watched the weather

few stands away, I watched a buck walk along the treeline. I couldn’t see how big he was and I couldn’t get him to come closer. I made a few doe bleats and watched him disappear.

Our neighborhood owl showed up and hung out with me for a few minutes.

By late morning, the rain had turned to sleet and I switched on the heater.

After 12, I heard a

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Women In The Woods

by Erin Merrill, Portland, ME

that seemed to be just as wide. It took me a second to realize what I was seeing. Then, I saw the “M” of his antlers. His head was down but it was a big buck. I twisted my body into position and slide the barrel of my gun out the window. I watched him lift

his front chest/shoulder and took it. It was the same shot I had taken on my doe when I dropped her. The voice in my head questioned his reaction because it was not a normal death kick that I was used to seeing.

The rain was freezing on contact and Dad and I

His head was down but it was a big buck. I twisted my body into position and slide the barrel of my gun out the window.

I watched him lift his head and saw the right side of his antlers through my scope. He was larger than an 8-point.

This buck outwitted the author, but she will be on his track next year. zealousness, but hugged me and told me how proud he was of me. We made a deal hours before he passed away that he was going to deliver me an 8-point buck since I have yet to shoot one. I held on to that belief all through the year.

Dad and I obsessed over trail cam photos throughout the summer and fall. We had three really nice bucks showing up. They all seemed to be nocturnal, but they were around. Fast forward to the

and changed work meetings around so I could hunt when it was snowing. I sat for hours and only saw more does.

The weather at the end of the season was gross.

The day after Thanksgiving was going to rain and turn to sleet. Perfect. Dad and I packed up and headed into the stands. We were going to hunt from daylight until dark.

Dad had had the run in with the trespasser that I wrote about earlier. A

deer blow. I assumed they could smell the propane so I turned the heater off.

The ground was crunchy enough by now that I could hear the deer walking, but I could not see it. The deer was not in a hurry and the smell didn’t seem to stop them from walking closer.

I watched the two closest shooting lanes for movement.

I scanned from right to left. When I reached my 9 o’clock, I stopped. This massive brown body was eating. His front shoulders were larger than anything I had seen but even more impressive was his stomach

his head and saw the right side of his antlers through my scope. He was larger than an 8-point.

Click.

Dumbfounded, I couldn’t believe my gun didn’t fire. I kept an eye on the buck as I slide the bullet out of the gun, saw that the pin had hit it and it hadn’t fired, put it on top of my backpack and reloaded.

I had a clear shot at

skated our way through the woods looking for blood.

There was not a lot and what there was became diluted with every rain drop.

We searched all afternoon. At one point, we jumped him but he was not acting like a ‘close to death’ deer and the blood where he had bedded/stood was dismal.

This is when all of the (Shot cont. pg 64)

Page 64

News

(Cont. from pg 41) that have domestic poultry.

Contain and separate domestic birds from wild birds to prevent possible spread. For example, if you have a pond that your domestic poultry uses, try to prevent wild birds from using the same area with netting or fencing.

For anyone with pets (dogs/cats) that may come into contact with possibly infected bird species, contact your veterinarian if your pet becomes symptomatic. Precautions should be taken to limit exposure to birds with abnormal behavior.

You should Contact an MDIFW Regional Biologist at 207-287-8000 if: You see birds that are showing signs of illness or die soon after you saw them You find dead birds near domestic poultry You find dead waterfowl, birds of prey, shorebirds, gulls, or other seabirds MDIFW recommends avoiding contact with sick and dead wild birds. However, if a dead bird is found on one’s property, it can be removed at the property owner’s discretion after contacting a regional wildlife biologist. If removing a dead bird, we recommend

the following precautions: Wear a disposable mask We a r d i s p o s a b l e gloves Double-bag the bird; place the bird within the inner bag and knot or tape the bag closed Remove gloves and mask; place inside the outer bag and knot or tape the outer bag closed Place the doublebagged bird in the trash Wash hands with soap and water (or use sanitizer if unable to wash hands)

Aroostook Snowsled Fatality

The Maine Warden Service is investigating a fatal snowmobile crash that occurred on Saturday afternoon, March 4th, and involved three snowmobiles.

The crash occurred at approximately 2:20 p.m. on Saturday afternoon on snowmobile trail ITS 85 in Oxbow. Darryl Sittler, age 57 of Chelmsford, Mass., was killed in the crash.

The initial investigation by the Maine Warden Service indicates that Sittler was traveling north Saturday afternoon on ITS 85 on a 2023 Ski Doo Renegade 900 ACE, and was followed by his wife who was driving on her own snowmobile. A

Northwoods Sporting Journal

group of three other snowmobilers were traveling south towards Sittler.

Sittler, and snowmobiles driven by Scout Sylvester, age 20 of Greene, Maine, and Jack Sylvester (Scout’s brother), age 23 of Greene, were involved in a collision near the crest of a rise in the trail, and the crash heavily damaged all three snowmobiles. Both Scout and Jack Sylvester were individually driving 2022 Polaris XC 650s.

Sittler passed away at the scene. Scout Sylvester was transported to Northern Lights Hospital in Presque Isle where he was treated for an injury to his hand and released. The Maine Warden Service shut down the snowmobile trail for three hours to investigate the crash. The Maine Warden Service was assisted at the scene by Ashland Ambulance, Masardis Fire Department, Maine State Police and the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office.

Further information will be released as it becomes available.

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April 2023

Vermont Wardens Promoted

Colonel Justin Stedman.

“Game wardens may find themselves providing first response services in multiple languages with field translation tools, mitigating a bear incident in a residential neighborhood, or enforcing wildlife laws during Vermont’s hunting, fishing, and trapping seasons.”

Rotations allow game warden trainees to develop the necessary experience and skills for this range of duties. After rotations, game wardens are required to live in one of the towns within their service district.

Warden Daversa has been assigned to the Fair Haven District, Warden Kline has been assigned to the Randolph District, and Warden Truong has been assigned to the Barre District.

Shot

the thought that it was the same buck. Would he have come back?

We concluded that I gave him a haircut and a battle wound. It was not a fatal shot. I am grateful that the buck is still out there and the pit in my stomach is still there too. But, I will be better prepared this season. I won’t make the same mistakes that I made.

I have learned from them and I will be a better hunter because of this experience.

Even if it will be the shot that will haunt me for a long time.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is pleased to announce that game warden trainees Louis Daversa, Noelle Kline, and John Truong were promoted to full game warden on Monday, February 13, 2023.

The promotion came after wardens Daversa, Kline, and Truong completed a seven-month series of rotations through Vermont communities in each region of the state. All game warden trainees also complete the four months of police academy required of sworn law enforcement officers in Vermont.

“Being a game warden requires first-hand experience with the diversity of Vermont communities,” said Game Warden

(Cont. from pg 63) “I should have’s start…”

I spent the rest of the night reliving the shot. Reliving what I should have done. I should have waited a little longer for the buck to turn broadside to me. I should have aimed higher because he was angled uphill from me vs the doe that was downhill. He was in no hurry. I should have waited. I should have made a better shot. Grampa had held up his part of the bargain and put a big buck in front of me.

Saturday was sunny but windy. We went back to the stand with our guns ready and started our search again. As Dad and I were talking, a deer jumped from the tall grass.

All I saw was the right side of his antlers. I remember yelling ‘big buck!” as my brain tried to rationalize

Erin is a member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association and the New England Outdoor Writers Association. She is a senior writer for Drury Outdoors’ DeerCast. You can read about Erin’s adventures and contact her at www.andastrongcupofcoffee.com

April 2023

Ending (Cont. from pg 49) and lesser snow geese as well as Ross’ geese. The numbers of these geese have grown so high that they are destroying habitat for themselves and other species. The Vermont 2023 Spring Snow Goose Conservation Order will occur statewide. The daily bag limit is 15 snow geese, and there is no possession limit. Waterfowl hunting regulations in effect last fall will apply during the 2023 Spring Snow Goose Conservation Order with the exception that unplugged shotguns and electronic calls may be used and shooting hours will be extended until one half hour after sunset. “The breeding population of greater snow geese has grown from approximately 50,000 birds in the mid-1960s to 714,000 birds today,” said Andrew Bouton, Vermont’s

Northwoods Sporting Journal waterfowl project leader.

During spring migration, snow geese typically move through the Champlain Valley in late March and early April. Now, I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble here, and I apologize to Mr. Bouton and to my friend, Commissioner Herrick, but it is the opinion of most waterfowl hunters that this season is a waste of effort. Honestly, these birds shifted their migration pattern more than a decade ago when Champlain Valley farmers were advised to use early tilling practices right after the harvest, leaving virtually no feed for the birds on their return migration. Anyone who is serious about hunting these gregarious white birds should focus on midstate New York in the Finger Lakes region or call Matt Martin at Frontier Guide Service for a true spectacle in upstate New York. Sorry, VT F&W, but any honest waterfowler

will back me on this. Yes, we still get a few at Dead Creek in Addison. But the days of the White Tornado in the Champlain Valley are a distant memory.

Well, there’s always Opening Day of Trout Season on the second Saturday in April and then next month, we can look forward to a very good turkey season!

Bradley Carleton is the founder and Director of Sacred Hunter.org which teaches the public respect and empathy through hunting, fishing and foraging.

Suitor (Cont. from pg 53) the first time.

The buck remained with the doe for three days, breeding her when the opportunity arose. Then, just like that, her scent was gone and he went off, in search of another doe in estrous.

Yet another conflict was

Page 65

coming for the woods knew all there was to know of conflict: Many of the wild creatures hereabouts argued, threatened and yes, battled for the right to pass on their set of genes.

One of the myths of the north woods is that the oldest, biggest buck always wins a match. But I would argue that, if you have ever killed a big buck in rut or, in a very unlikely scenario, happened to witness a battle between two bruins, you would find, oftentimes, that the buck with the thick neck, the one that looks as if he spent an extraordinary amount of time in the gym, will often emerge the winner since it is often a matter of a heavy-duty shoving match between two dominant bucks, their antlers brought together so that it is a matter of each buck judging the strength of the other without going about the most-often and dangerous aspect of simply trying to drive one of those

sharp antlers into the body of an opponent.

And there are times when two large bucks clash and inadvertently lock their antlers together in a clash that will end in the deaths of both deer. Imagine the scene: The two thrashing on the forest floor until their strength is all but gone. A smart coyote or two will avoid the two bucks, their kicking leg able to inflict great injury, until they become so weak that they cannot fight back.

Dinner is served.

Hunters sometimes find the two bucks, long dead, after the passage of time. Often, they are big, breeders, locked until death. Such is the way of life in the northern woods where, in truth, the strongest bucks are the ones that pass on their genes.

Dennis Jensen is a freelance writer in Vermont. Contact him at d. jensen62@yahoo.com

Northwoods Sporting Journal Offers A FREE DIGITAL COPY to All Active Duty Military Personnel Worldwide!

E CTIV A O Y ET FRE ILITAR M

In these troubled and divisive times for our country, we at the Northwoods Sporting Journal remain proud to be Americans. We still stand for the National Anthem and thank our lucky stars that we live in the land of the free.

And we still salute our military men and women, who have served and continue to serve their country, here at home and in faraway lands. To them we owe our gratitude and appreciation for what they do, and for safeguarding our American way of life, which we value deeply.

As a way of saying thank you, we make the digital versions of the Northwoods Sporting Journal past and current - available online to service people around the world. If you have a loved one or friend now serving on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, or anywhere else, please let them know that they have free access to our digital magazines at: www.sportingjournal.com

Page 66

The Bird Perch

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Carolina Wren

by Karen Holmes, Cooper, ME In a February newspaper I received was a photo of a Carolina wren, coming to a feeder in nearby Charlotte, Maine. The photographer was happy it had survived a really bad cold snap a week before. This gave me hope that someday

favorites. I had so many fun experiences with them when I lived in Middleboro, MA. They are highly curious and adept at finding tiny entrances into garages and outbuildings. They will seek natural cavities for nesting. But they really ap-

an old hat and the pocket of a jacket, both hanging on nails in the garage. My husband Ken and I had to stop using a tool box and a clothespin bag for a while and we even delayed using a canoe and a tractor because wrens had built nests in their seats.

Despite these inconveniences, I still hope they arrive here in 2023.

But the Winter wrens have shorter, stubbier tails.

Carolina wrens are much prettier with rufous backs and buffy tan underneath with conspicuous white stripes over their eyes. All wren species sing loud., melodious and beautiful songs. The Carolinas also

April 2023

species that will visit bird feeders. A pair of Carolina wrens will stay together all year long and often have two broods. The female will lay four to six eggs and both incubate them.

The youngsters fledge in approximately two weeks.

If the female begins laying

All wren species sing loud., melodious and beautiful songs.

The Carolinas also have loud whistles, chirps, and rattles and their alarm notes are buzzings that sound like a thumb being rubbed against the teeth of a comb. here in Cooper I would see a Carolina wren. I am hoping this might happen in 2023.

Since I moved here in 2010 I have looked, but have not seen one. I have listened and have not heard the loud and rich call of “teakettle- teakettle- teakettle”. Their call seems too loud to come from such a small bird. Carolina wrens are one of my

preciate any human made crannies and nooks.

Their nests are bulky and domed shaped and they use leaves, twigs, bark and line them with grass, animal hair, and feathers. They loved using my hanging flower pots on my porch, which made it difficult to water the plants within them. Over the years I also found them nesting in our mailbox and within

It has been documented that Carolina wrens are extending their year-round range steadily northward and westward. They are the state bird of South Carolina. In Cooper I have every year seen House and Winter wrens. Both of these species are chunky brown birds with slim, downturned bills. They carry their tails at upturned angles.

Carolina Wren have loud whistles, chirps, and rattles and their alarm notes are buzzings that sound like a thumb being rubbed against the teeth of a comb.

I will continue to have sunflower seeds, peanuts, suet and peanut butter available at my feeding station.

They are one of the wren

and incubating a second egg clutch shortly thereafter, the male will continue to look after the first brood.

Carolinas eat many insects, millipedes, sowbugs, snails and spiders. I hope in 2023 I will see them foraging at my home in Cooper. Maybe I will hear a pair singing together a loud, rollicking duet of “teakettle-teakettleteakettle.”

K a re n H o l m e s i s a naturalist and retired teacher. She enjoys having more time to write for various publications. In 2023 she will continue as the Maine’s Washington County Annual Loon Count coordinator and do her route for the Breeding Bird Survey. She also hopes to see more Monarchs this summer and tag them for the Monarch Watch Project. She has established a hawk watch site in Cooper and will be watching for migrating hawks in the spring and fall months.

April 2023

Hunter

(Cont. from pg 42) we were tracking but no chance for a shot. Just another memorable day in the deer woods. I had a couple of close buck encounters on my own and before I knew it, the last day of rifle season was here. I headed out that day once again hoping to find an old toe dragger to follow. I decided to go back to a spot I had tracked a good one with my cameraman. My plan was to circle the area for a few miles in hopes of cutting a track coming in or out.

Finally at eleven o’clock I found the track I was looking for and, as luck would have it, it wasn’t more than an hour old.

I picked up the pace all the time hoping that I would catch up to him before he bedded down. He was headed straight line but going through some nice

Northwoods Sporting Journal

open country. Of course I was thinking, why couldn’t I have been here earlier, but I hurried along hoping he might find a doe to distract him. After an hour or so, he left the nice going and headed into some thicker country. It was a thirtyyear old clear cut with mostly pole maples and patches of thick spruce. As I eased along I heard spruce limbs cracking and I knew it was the buck rattling out of a spruce thicket up ahead. I snorted and then bleated a couple of times.

I waited a few minutes before moving ahead to see if he had been bedded. I eased ahead about ten steps, and to my surprise the buck gave a deep snort. I knew then that he didn’t know what I was and shouldn’t be too spooked as he didn’t run off at first. I bleated again and sat down to eat my sandwich. As I ate, I bleated occasionally. After

my half hour break, I eased over to pick up his track.

Even after he snorted and took off, he still did not run.

He just trotted a few times and fast walked. I eased along slowly watching up ahead as far as I could see. I had a feeling that he didn’t go very far. He was making a circle back the way we had come. I could see maybe fifty yards in places through the four inch pole maples. I hadn’t gone much more than a hundred yards and could see his track disappearing straight out in front of me.

Just then, off to my right I spotted the buck standing under a spruce tree looking at me. He was boxy and square like a sheet of plywood. I had a narrow opening to his face and neck and as I was easing my rifle to my shoulder, I noticed that his right antler was missing. I wasn’t going to shoot this buck just

to shoot him and brought my gun back down. I was reaching for my binoculars to see if I could figure out if the antler was broken off, which I assumed it was or just grew that way. He decided he had hung around long enough and bounded off. I’m at the point in my life where I enjoy the hunt more than anything. If I’m going to kill a buck, I want to put him on the wall to reminisce about.

When I sit in my easy chair.

Sometimes, I think maybe I’ve gotten soft in my old age and there is probably some truth to that. Who knows I just may have a chance to track him again next season.

I was also thinking that I still had a week to muzzle loader hunt and the tracking snow was good. Muzzle loader season started off with the temperature rising and the snow melting. I chased a

Page 67

big one around in a rabbit thicket all day as he shagged a doe around. I got a couple of glimpses of them but not a shot. The temperature dropped that night and everything froze up into a crust that lasted the whole week. I crunched around all week but didn’t make the two points connect. I got thinking after that I did not shoot a buck the previous year either. It was the second time in my life that I went two years without a buck and the first time was when I was 14 and 15 years old. I still made more memories than most seasons and am looking forward to the next season.

Until next month, “Good luck on the trail” Hal is a Master Maine Guide and Author. He lives in Moose River Maine with his wife Deb. Hal can be contacted at hal@bigwoodsbucks.com

At long last, revived from the archives of the once-authoritative books on New England streamer flies and how to use them: Trolling Flies for Trout & Salmon, by Dick Stewart and Bob Leeman.

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 68

April 2023

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Page 70

Northwoods Sporting Journal P.O. Box 628 Main Street Machias, ME 04654

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April 2023

ST. JOHN VALLEY REALTY CO. 8 East Main Street Fort Kent, ME 04743

834-6725

www.stvrealty@hotmail.com www.sportingjournal.com

SELLERS LANE BUYERS ROAD

REAL ESTATE SELLERS LANE BUYERS ROAD

Judd Goodwin Well Co

"We Do It Right The First Time"

Complete Well & Pump

Installation, Service and Repair Residential • Commercial Camps • Cottages

P.O. Box 17 Greenville, ME 04441 Office: 207-695-3645 Cell: 207-280-0923 goodwinjudd@yahoo.com www.juddgoodwinwell.com Member Maine Groundwater Association