Northwoods Sporting Journal, May 2024

Editor’s note: The Northwoods Sporting Journal in collaboration with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is pleased to get your spring fishing off to a good start with this statewide fishing report. Remember that life jackets are a priority when fishing Maine waters, especially in the spring when water is ice cold. Stay safe and tight lines!

Sebago Lake Region

From Fisheries Resource Supervisor James Pellerin, 3/18/24

Where to fish: Most of the lakes and ponds in southern Maine experienced ice-out by midMarch, so many anglers

Spring Fishing Report

will have already been fishing by the time this report hits the press. For early season lakes and ponds, I would suggest focusing your efforts on lake trout and salmon lakes in the region such as Auburn, Kezar, Sebago, and Thompson Lakes as some of the more popular ones with both species available.

Mousam Lake, Great East, and Colcord could also be good bets as lake trout are relatively abundant and you may even pick up a salmon or two. Stream fishing is generally a bit slow in the early season but will pick up as the water temperatures warm to around 50°F (about the time the alders leaves break bud) and as the hatchery trucks get rolling throughout April/ May. Interestingly, some of the coastal stream brown trout stockings tend to fish relatively well in March and April, so you may want to give the Royal River in

Yarmouth, the Ogunquit River in Ogunquit, or the Mousam River in Kennebunk a go.

Fishing tip: If you’re going to fish for salmon or lake trout in the earlier part of the season, I would recommend trolling live bait, smelt or shiners, and pass on the trolling lures and flies until the water gets a bit warmer. In addition, be sure your bait is trolling correctly, check and clean debris frequently, and go slow (~1mph) until it warms up.

Reminders: Water is still very cold, wear a life jacket. Go slow and be observant, as there tends to be a lot of floating debris (i.e. logs, lumber, etc) at ice out that can be dangerous and/ or damaging to your watercraft. If fishing streams, be careful wading during high flows. A wading staff and a life preserver are not a bad idea.

Belgrade Lakes Region From Fisheries Resource Supervisor Jason Seiders, 3/22/24

Where to fish: Where to fish: Lake St. George (Liberty) – Ice fishing pressure was quite low this winter, so Lake St. George should produce some spectacular fishing this spring. Our fall survey indicated some great salmon growth and condition, with a lot of fish at 20+ inches!

St. George River and Medomak River – These two coastal rivers are heavily stocked with brook trout and brown trout. They provide great, early-season options for those looking to fish flowing water. Trout are stocked at many of the road crossings along each of these rivers, and these road crossings provide great angler access.

The Central Maine and Midcoast areas have several smaller brook

trout ponds that are heavily stocked, mainly for the ice fishing season. Many of these ponds received very light use this winter and are likely to have a bunch of brook trout still swimming around. Below is a list of some ponds that could provide good spring angling before they even receive their spring-stocked fish!

• Ross Pond (Bristol)

• Levenseller Pond (Searsmont)

• Dutton Pond (Knox)

• Tolman Pond (Rockport)

• Pinkham Pond (Alna)

• Bartlett Pond (Livermore)

Fishing tip: Water temperatures are still very cold, and fish are still fairly lethargic. Slow down the presentation of your bait or lure. If you’re fishing (Report cont. pg 5)

On The Cover

Me & Joe Use Pig To Lure In Bear For Uncle Arnold - Pg 16

Spring Fishing Report - Pg 3

Rifle Accuracy Thieves - Pg 33

Vermont’s Trophy Trout - Pg 52

Camps, Cottages and Land for Sale - Pg 68-70

3. Spring Fishing Report

10. A Hiker’s Life - Carey Kish

14. A Warden’s Words - Kale O’Leary

15. Slipstream - Scott Biron

16. The Adventures Of Me & Joe - Bob Cram

18. Outdoor Sporting Library - Jeremiah Wood

20. Aroostook Woods & Water - Mike Maynard

22. Best Bassin’ - Bill Decoteau

23. The Singing Maine Guide - Randy Spencer

24. The Gun Cabinet - John Floyd

25. Maine Tails - Jonah Paris

26. On Point - Paul Fuller

27. Angling, Antlers & Artifacts - Jake Scoville

29. Outdoors In Maine - V. Paul Reynolds

31. Muzzleloading Afield - Al Raychard

32. Basics Of Survival - Joe Frazier

33. Guns & Ammo: A Guide’s Perspective - Tom Kelly

34. The Maine Woods - Matt LaRoche

36. View From The River - Laurie Chandler

37. Marsh Island Chronicles - Matthew Dunlap

38. Maine Outdoor Adventure - Rich Yvon

39. Old Tales From The Maine Woods - Steve Pinkham

40. South Of The Kennebec - Stu Bristol

41. Kineo Currents - Suzanne AuClair

42. The Buck Hunter - Hal Blood

43. Northwoods Voyager - Gil Gilpatrick

45. Tales Of A Maine Woodsman - Joel Tripp

46. New Hampshire Outdoors - Peter St. James

48. Vermont Ramblings - Dennis Jensen

49. Outdoors In Vermont - Gary Moore

50. Maple Country Outdoors - Ben Wilcox

52. Green Mountain Report - Bradley Carleton

53. Against The Current - Bob Romano

55. Northwoods Sketchbook - Mark McCollough

56. Question Of The Month - V. Paul Reynolds

57. Young Blood - Jake Guay

58. From Craig Pond - Bob Mercer

59. Book Review - V. Paul Reynolds

60. Women In The Woods - Erin Merrill

61. The Trail Rider - Dan Wilson

63. On The Prowl - Justin Merrill

64. Just Fishing - Bob Leeman

65. Cookin’ With New England’s WildCheff - Denny Corriveau

66. On The Ridge - Joe Judd

67. The Bird Perch - Karen Holmes

The Sportin’ Journal

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 outdoor community for more than 28 years. Some of our writers are seasoned and specialized outdoors people who will share their know-how and insights; some of our contributors are simply lifelong outdoor people with interesting stories to tell.

Our aim every month is to capture the essence of Northern New England’s remarkable outdoor heritage by stirring memories, portraying outdoor humor, and sharing experiences and outdoor knowledge. We also keep our readers up to date with late-breaking outdoor news and hard-hitting editorials about fish and wildlife issues.

Anyone who loves to hunt and fish, or simply finds the Great Outdoors a treasured place, is more than likely to find some special connections amid the pages of the Northwoods Sporting Journal.

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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

All rights reserved, 2024. 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.

The Northwoods Sporting Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited photos or manuscripts. Photos submitted without a stamped, self-addressed envelope will not be returned.

The Outdoor Paper For “Maine Folks”

Northwoods Voyager - Pg 43 Gil Gilpatrick

Maine Outdoor Adventure - Pg 38

Rich Yvon

The Maine Woods - Pg 34 Matt LaRoche

Kineo Currents - Pg 41 Suzanne AuClair

Turkey Photo by Tim Flannigan

Report

(Cont. from pg 3)

flowing water, allow your bait to sink toward bottom. Stream dwelling trout are more likely to hug the bottom a bit this time of year, at least until the water warms up and aquatic insects start to emerge.

Reminders: Water temperatures are extremely cold right now. Please use a little extra caution when you’re fishing. If you’re in a boat or a canoe, wear a personal flotation device! Good luck and stay safe!

Downeast Region

From Fisheries Resource Supervisor Greg Burr, 3/15/24

Where to fish: Due to earlier than normal warmer weather that took the ice out of all the waters in the Downeast region in March, lakes and ponds are ready to be fished for anglers wanting to ply the cold waters in April.

For early salmon trolling lakes, I recom -

Most of these lakes were fished lightly during the brief period of winter we had and now have many ready taker salmon to be caught.

For anglers wanting to fish the smaller more tranquil waters in the region, I recommend fishing the following tiny trout ponds: Simmons Pond in Hancock, Simpsons Pond in Roque Bluffs, West and East Pike Brook Ponds in Deblois, Spectacle Pond in Deblois, Norse Pond in Cutler, Salmon Pond in T 10 SD, Lakewood Pond in Bar Harbor, Witch Hole Pond in Bar Harbor, and Six Mile Lake in Marshfield. Most all of these ponds were closed to ice fishing and were stocked late last fall. Due to the early ice outs, they will have had time to warm up and the fish will be active, making them ripe for fast action early trout fishing. Also, fly anglers, don’t forget to try the early black salmon fishing at Grand Lake Stream after it opens on April 1st. The first two weeks of April can

mend the following: West Grand Lake in Grand Lake Stream, Big Lake in Greenlaw Chopping Twp., Beech Hill Pond in Otis, Green Lake in Ellsworth, Jordan Pond in Seal Harbor, Long Pong in Mount Desert, Tunk Lake in T 10 SD, and Donnell Pond in Franklin.

small Micky Finn streamer fly.

Reminders: My reminder is to anyone looking to travel on the dirt roads into the timber company lands north or south of Route 9. In mud season from March 15th to May 15th these roads are usually gated and do not allow vehicular traffic until after May 15th. However, walking on these roads is allowed for those anglers looking to hike into their favorite trout pond.

Rangeley Lakes Region

From Fisheries Resource Biologist Dylan Whitaker, 3/22/24

be fast fishing in the dam pool, so watch the flows, get there early to find a spot, and cast a sinking line with your favorite smelt imitation streamer.

Fishing tip: Fly anglers fishing at the small trout ponds will find quick action for trout using a

Where to fish: For a lot of anglers, including myself, April marks the start of open water fishing in the North Zone, which many of our Rangeley Region waters fall under. Normally, I’d highlight some ice fishing and open water fishing opportunities in April but given the unusual winter weather patterns we’ve seen I think I’ll focus on the latter. Ice still covers many of our regional waters as of late March and likely will into early April, and we’ve highlighted several ice fishing opportunities in past blogs. If you’re still ice fishing in early April, just use your best judgement and be safe. If you’re traveling to the Rangeley region to open water fish this April and are curious about ice conditions, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands records yearly ice out dates online which can be a handy tool. For those lakes and areas that hold ice longer than others, there are often still open

(Report cont. pg 6)

(Cont. from pg 5)

water fishing opportunities in areas of flowing water. Rangeley Lake, Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Aziscohos Lake, Richardson Lake, Dodge Pond, Clearwater Pond, Porter Lake, Embden Pond, Hancock Pond, Varnum Pond and Flagstaff Lake are all good options for those looking to target early open water season salmon. Richardson, Clearwater, Porter, Embden, Hancock, and Varnum also support healthy lake trout populations. All of these lakes are home to brook trout as well. Fishing near flowing water is always a good early season bet, and these areas are typically free of ice first. Trout and salmon are often attracted to increasing flows with snow melt and the food these streams and rivers provide.

Speaking of rivers and streams, the south branch of the Dead River is a good spot to try this spring. Access is easy along Route 16.

The Rangeley River is another promising early season fishing spot. Access to the river is a short distance from the Oquossoc center. The river is fly-fishing only but provides opportunity for quality salmon and trout. The Ellis River along Route 5 and the Swift River along Route 17 heading north from Rumford are other easy access options for anglers to try.

Fishing tip: Throw a smelt pattern! Smelt spawn during early spring and fish key into this abundant food source when available.

Reminders: Be mindful of road conditions, and remember April is mud season. The water and weather remain cold this time of year, so bring plenty of warm clothes and wear a PFD if fishing from a boat.

Moosehead

Region

From Fisheries Resource Technician Stephen Seeback, 3/26/24

Where to fish: After a slow start and abrupt end to the ice fishing season due to poor ice conditions

in the Moosehead Lake region, anglers can’t wait to hear the delightful words, “Ice-Out!”. Snow melt and spring run-off will begin changing angling opportunities. Many of the ponds and lakes are still covered in ice, but shortly after the ice is out they will produce some of the fastest fishing of the open water season.

Ice-out fishing is a good time to find lake trout, brook trout, and landlocked salmon cruising the shoreline shallows and the mouths of tributaries in search of smelt, as smelt begin to congregate in preparation of their annual spawning runs. Gray Ghost, Black Ghost, Mickey Fin, and a variety of other smelt imitation streamer patterns can be deadly this time of year. Anglers looking to target lake trout should try their luck on Moosehead Lake, First Roach Pond, and Lower Wilson Pond. Landlocked salmon enthusiasts should find good action on Chesuncook Lake, Brassua Lake, Moosehead Lake, Lower Wilson Pond, and

Maine Moose Lottery Opens April 1st

Applications for the moose permit lottery will be accepted online starting April 1 and ending May 15, 2024 at 11:59 pm (ET).

The new application period will now allow moose hunters to know how many permits are issued and in what zone, as well as shorten the waiting time from when people apply until the day of the lottery on June 15th. The application period is similar in length to the antlerless deer lottery.

The 2024 moose permit lottery drawing will take place Saturday, June 15 in Fort Kent. Those who do not attend the in-person drawing can view lottery results at mefishwildlife.com by 6 pm on June 15

For more information about moose hunting in Maine and the moose permit lottery, please visit: mefishwildlife.com

First Roach Pond. There also are good opportunities to catch landlocked salmon and brook trout on our local river fisheries at the Roach River, Moose River, East and West Outlets of the Kennebec River, and the West Branch of the Penobscot.

Fishing tip: Once we begin to see an increase in water temperature and a decrease in stream and river flows, we will begin our annual spring stocking of legal-size brook trout. These brook trout are stocked in easily accessible waters throughout the region to create “instant fishing” opportunities. Many of these waters are stocked on

Pond (Dunham Brook), Dover-Foxcroft (restricted to anglers under 16); Moose River, Jackman; Parlin Pond, Parlin Pond Township; Piscataquis River, Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford; Power Trout Pond, Little Moose Township; Prong Pond, Beaver Cove Township; Sawyer Pond, Greenville; Shadow Pond, Little Moose Township; Shirley Pond, Shirley; Snow’s Pond, Dover-Foxcroft; Spectacle Ponds, Monson; West Outlet Kennebec River, Sapling; and Whetstone Pond, Blanchard Township.

Reminders: Many of the season’s largest brook trout are caught along the

more than one occasion to distribute the catch among anglers and to ensure fishing success longer into the season.

List of spring stocked brook trout:

Bennett Pond, Parkman; Big Wood Pond, Jackman; Doe Pond, Monson; Drummond Pond, Abbot (family fishing area); Fitzgerald Pond, Big Moose Township; Gravel Pit Pond, Little Moose Township (family fishing area); Hebron Lake, Monson; Kiwanis Park

shore as water temperatures begin to increase. Even the most novice angler can find brook trout that will take an assortment of flies, lures, and bait. Make sure to check the fishing law book to determine which fishing gear is allowed on the bodies of water you plan to fish.

Penobscot Region

From Fisheries Resource Biologist Kevin Gallant, 3/21/24

Where to fish: Rarely

(Report cont. pg 7)

Let us know your opinion. Send letters to the Editor to:

NWSJ P.O. Box 195 W. Enfield, ME 04493 or Email to: info@sportingjournal.com

Moose art by V. Paul Reynolds

Report

(Cont. from pg 6)

do we get an opportunity to open water fish on lakes and ponds in the North Zone on April 1st, but this could be the year! With the mild winter you may find the ice is already out in a lot of waters in the Penobscot Region. If the woods roads dry out in time, ponds like Lost Pond in T6R10 WELS, Hale Pond in T2 R10 WELS and Titcomb Pond in T32 ND will provide some good early Brook trout fishing. B Pond in TB R11 WELS is another excellent choice for early trout and salmon fishing. East Grand Lake and Deering Lake, both in Weston, will produce some quantity and quality fishing for Landlocked salmon.

If you are interested in brook and stream fishing, the high-water last year would have been great for brook trout. Not only did the high water lower the fishing pressure, but it also kept water temperatures down, likely resulting in better survival and growth. If the water stays fishable this spring, it could be a banner year.

Fishing tip: Seek out some put and take waters like Middle Oxhead Pond (T40 ND), Norton Pond (Brownville) and Perch Pond (Old Town). These are likely to have some leftover fall stocked brook trout that are unlikely to survive the warm water temperatures of the summer months ahead. Usually, these waters would see enough fishing pressure in

June 14th and 15th Rangeley, Maine

the winter to remove most, if not all, of the stocked fish. This year that is unlikely with the mild winter that saw late ice ins and early ice outs.

Reminders: Even with the early spring, the water will still be very cold! Wear your life jacket! Accidents happen to even the most seasoned anglers

Fish River Lakes Region

From Fisheries Resource Biologist Jeremiah Wood, 3/21/24

Where to fish: Despite the late March cold and snow reminding us that we’re not yet out of winter, it still looks like Maine is in for an unusually early spring. With such a low snowpack in the woods, the typical high water spring

runoff season we’re all used to is likely to be short and muted. Rivers, brooks, and streams are expected to drop to fishable levels much earlier than normal in the northern part of the state, paving the way for some great fishing opportunities that usually don’t arrive here before May.

The Aroostook River spans a vast and diverse landscape, ranging from wooded uplands in the North Maine Woods to farm country in the heart of the County, and all of it is brook trout water. Fish range far and wide during spring time, taking advantage of an abundance of feeding opportunities before being shut in to cold water tributaries and spring holes for the summer. That can make the trout difficult

• Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame Awards

to find, but when you catch one, it’s not likely to be alone.

Fishing tip: Target deep, slow moving water on cold days, and watch for insect hatches that bring fish to the surface mid-day and evening. Keep track of places where you repeatedly find trout, as they are likely to consistently produce better fishing over time.

Reminders: Brook trout slot limit regulations have changed on many of our waters. The most common change has been a removal of the 10” or 12” minimum length, allowing for a wider length range of trout that can be harvested. Be sure to check for regulation changes in the waters you plan to fish this spring.

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• Browse Vendor Row, See And Purchase New And Antique Gear, Fly Fishing Ties

• Chat With Fly-Fishing Authors

• And So Much More!

Auction proceeds benefitting: www.rangeleymaine.com

Maine’s Hunting Legacy: A Victory

On November 3, 2021 Maine voters approved an historic state constitutional amendment that established a constitutional Right to Food. Not unexpectedly, a debate ensued about the word “harvest,” which is used in the language of the new amendment.

The debate focused on the question: Does that constitutional word “harvest” include recreational hunting? Obviously, those of us in the hunting community, who place great value on our hunting legacy in Maine, and our right to hunt, assumed that, yes, Maine now has within its state constitution a proviso that does safeguard hunting. A number of other states have in the past few years taken action to embed a similar right to hunt in their state constitutions: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, and Kansas. Florida voters will vote on such a provision this year. In Vermont, the right to hunt has been included in its state constitution since 1777.

But all is not gold that glitters. In an effort to thwart a legal effort by a Readfield couple to use the Right to Food amendment to overturn Maine’s ban on Sunday hunting, the state of Maine argued that, in fact, the new amendment did not grant constitutional protection to hunt in our state!

Although the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled against the Readfield couple, and held that the Sunday hunting ban was not contrary to the amendment, the court, to its credit, held that, indeed, the amendment DOES protect legal hunting. In other words, the hunting community was right: for purposes of the constitutional amendment, as voted by Maine citizens in the 2021 referendum, the constitutional word “harvest” does include hunting.

If you are a hunter, or if you simply agree that hunting is a worthy legacy, this decision by the Maine high court is a landmark ruling! Break out the champagne and take the time to thank the Readfield couple, Virginia and Joel Parker, without whose valiant efforts, the unanswered legal question would have lingered.

The Parkers fought hard to defeat the Sunday hunting ban, and Maine remains one of only two states in the country to close down hunting on Sunday. If past is prologue, we have not heard the last of this issue, which crops up almost annually in the legislative halls of Augusta.

No doubt the Parkers are disappointed by the court decision, but, whether they foresaw this silver lining or not, they left a mark and made a difference, even in defeat.

In the context of this court decision, which partly rebukes the state’s position that hunting was not protected by the food amendment, a tangential question remains unaddressed or unanswered. Since the Parker’s suit challenged the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Sunday hunting ban, and since the high court ruled that the Right to Food amendment does not protect illegal hunting, why wasn’t this the more narrow focus of the state’s legal argument? Apparently, the state adopted a sweeping legal offense and sought to uphold the Sunday hunting ban by arguing that the constitutional word “harvest” does not include hunting at all.

Wittingly or unwittingly, the state attorney general and our fisheries and wildlife folks, were party to a legal position that could have opened a Pandora’s box, and left our hunting legacy with no constitutional safeguards whatsoever. Unless we are missing something, the state was so eager to protect the Sunday hunting ban that it was willing to expose the constitutional protection of hunting to a stunning defeat.

- VPR

Focus

on fixing the issues, not failed gun control

Justin Davis is the Maine NRA State Director and Laura Whitcomb is the President of Gun Owners of Maine.

In the wake of the tragedy in Lewiston, Mainers are seeking answers and meaningful solutions. Knee-jerk demands for gun control were the loudest and most persistent calls in the initial moments; however, as time moves on, we’re seeing the root causes of the senseless violence come to light. One thing remains clear in this situation, and others like it, there are chronic

system failures and a lack of resources. Maine needs to prioritize mental health treatment and our law enforcement community, who are both on the frontlines of protecting our communities.

To most Mainers, it is clear these issues need to be addressed. There is a critical need for a holistic approach to public safety. This can be accomplished through common sense solutions such as investing in comprehensive mental health care reform and providing the resources that our law enforcement community desperately needs. These are not new concepts but the same policy solu-

tions the gun-rights advocates have already been advocating for in Maine. These policy solutions address real pitfalls in the state that led us to the tragedy in October. This approach differs greatly from progressive anti-gun groups that are running a slate of cookiecutter gun control legislation that appears to be more focused on serving their national agenda than the people of Maine. Even while the scene in Lewiston was still active, national political figures used Maine’s tragedy without knowing, or caring about, the facts. From blaming

(Letters cont. pg 9)

Letters

(Cont. from pg 8)

Republicans for voting down waiting periods (despite it being an overwhelming bipartisan vote), to calling for universal background checks, these politicians wasted no time to push their agenda.

As more facts have come out, and Maine’s independent commission continues its investigation, gun owners have hoped that these calls for failed out-of-state gun control would subside. However, gun control groups and lawmakers are doubling down on a slate of gun control proposals, including attempts to redefine commonly owned firearms, confiscating firearms without due process, implementing universal background checks, requiring waiting periods on all purchases and transfers of firearms, creating gun registries, banning magazines that hold more than five rounds, and calling on private businesses to stop selling semi-automatic firearms.

Gun owners have every right to question how these proposals fit the fact pattern of the Lewiston shooter and if they are only steppingstones to even larger gun control efforts.

In a press conference late last month, leading gun control lawmakers admitted these bills are not solely focused on what would have prevented the tragedy in Lewiston, but rather focused on passing further restrictive gun policies. In hearings last week, Maine Gun Safety Coalition activists said that this is “only the beginning” of the gun control they want to see implemented and demanded even further action.

Mainers from Kittery to Madawaska have voiced their concerns that the extreme policies being proposed do not address the underlying issues in Maine, would disarm law-abiding citizens, and are out-of-step with our proud gun-owning heritage. Why are we focused on turning otherwise law-abiding Mainers into criminals for the simple act of owning a legally purchased firearm? Universal background checks, which were recently rejected by Maine voters at the ballot box, restrict the ability for law-abiding Mainers to lend a firearm to a family member. Waiting periods would require victims of abuse in need of urgent self-defense to wait days before receiving their lawfully purchased firearm.

But these political figures aren’t just pushing for restrictive policies that, as crime statistics indicate, do not reduce violent crime. They are touting polls, without key details about who they surveyed, or cherry-picking statistics from studies. These tactics are not unique to Maine and have been utilized throughout the country to deliver extreme gun control measures regardless of their effectiveness.

As Michael Bloomberg and other billionaire gun control advocates once again send in their political operatives and pump large streams of money into Maine to tip the scales, it is critical for gun owners to get involved and make their voices heard. Contact your lawmakers. Get involved with your local sportsman’s club. Together we can find a bipartisan solution that addresses

Maine’s problems without infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens.

Un-wilding the Allagash

To the Editor: The meeting of the Allagash Advisory Council began for me in delight - I was reunited with a room full of wardens, fisheries biologists, recreation specialists, lodge owners, naturalists, guides, most of us sporting some grey in our hair. These were my colleagues for over four decades. As an active Master Maine Guide for over forty-five years, my “office” is the great North Woods of Maine. I respect these folks. And on a personal level, I will continue to do so. However, at the conclusion of the four-hour meeting, great disappointment and sadness washed over me. Why? Because the people

with the most power to direct the 1.2 million dollars in federal government windfall to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, made it clear their focus is in adding infrastructure over wilderness enhancement. This money came from the Infrastructure and Recovery Act.

How would the managers of this famous wilderness river, ninety- two miles long with a 500’ protected zone on either side, with the clear statute that any management effort should at all times “preserve, protect, and enhance the wilderness character of the waterway” spend this kind of money? The current answer: By adding six new buildings inside the Restricted Zone and a large landing craft type boat with twin 115hp motors. For starters.

With my experiences (Letters cont. pg 11)

“A Hiker’s Life”

By Carey Kish, Mt. Desert Island, ME

Outside of the 31,000 acres of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island are a handful of other, much smaller conservation lands that are worth some

This hiker wholeheartedly concurs with Eliot’s assessment of the Little Long Pond vista, which looks north along the valley of Jordan Stream to the craggy upper reaches of Penobscot Mountain.

leisurely exploration. One of my favorites is the Land & Garden Preserve, which ranges from Northeast Harbor to Seal Harbor, on the other side of Somes Sound

and just a 15-minute drive from my home.

Nine miles of trails crisscross the idyllic 1,400acre landscape of the Land and Garden Preserve,

Other Island Hikes

allowed off leash and under control, although not in the gardens.

The Land and Garden Preserve increased dramatically in size on June 12, 2015, when David Rockefeller Sr. donated 1,022 acres of meadows, woods and streams around Little

which includes Thuya Garden, Asticou Garden and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden. A dozen miles of carriage roads also are open for foot travel and equestrian use, but bikes are not permitted. Dogs are

Caribou Area

the craggy upper reaches of Penobscot Mountain. The circuit around the 38-acre expanse of pond has become my go-to hike when I want to get outside for a quick bit of exercise and some easily won scenic views.

The roadside parking on Route 3 just opposite Bracy Cove fills up quick, so I often opt for the trailhead parking 0.3 miles west. From there, the Friends Trail leads back to Little Long Pond. Then

hike by continuing north to visit the beautiful Cobblestone Bridge. Built in 1917, the bridge was the first in the carriage road system, and the only that featured cobblestone facing. The carriage roads in the Land and Garden Preserve are an original part of “Mr. Rockefeller’s Roads,” 57 miles of classic brokenstone roads and 17 unique stone bridges constructed between 1913 and 1940. All were financed and supervised by John D. Rock-

Long Pond in celebration of his 100th birthday. The land, purchased by his father, John D. Rockefeller Jr., in 1910, abuts Acadia National Park.

In a letter to John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1916, Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909 and a longtime Northeast Harbor summer resident, described the “view up the (Little Long) Pond toward the hills” as “the most beautiful view on the island.”

This hiker wholeheartedly concurs with Eliot’s assessment of the Little Long Pond vista, which looks north along the valley of Jordan Stream to

it’s up the east side of the pond on the carriage roads, a route that wends through meadows and then woods, passing a lovely old boathouse halfway along. North of the pond, I will take either the Jordan South or Jordan North spur to cross Jordan Stream, which flows south from Jordan Pond, then turn south to down the west side of Little Long Pond.

For extra credit, sometimes I’ll extend the

(See page 47)

efeller Jr. and are perhaps his most important Acadia legacy.

The Land and Garden Preserve is open yearround from dawn to dusk. Come summer, you’ll want to visit the three gardens as well as Thuya Lodge, the former home of Joseph H. Curtis, an early 20th-century summer denizen. For more info and a trail map, visit gardenpreserve.org.

Carey Kish of Mount Desert Island, ME is the author of Beer Hiking New England, AMC’s Best Day Hikes Along the Maine Coast, and the AMC Maine Mountain Guide. Catch up with him (maybe) at maineoutdoors@aol.com, on Facebook, and on Instagram @careykish

(Cont. from pg 9)

of bringing people from all over the world to the wild waterways of Maine and the interior of Quebec and Labrador, I know one thing. The presence of buildings, the smell and sounds of motors, bridges and roads are anathema to people seeking wilderness. People will spend a lot of money to visit truly wild places, more and more a rarity even in Maine.

In wilderness areas, there is some danger. In Maine, mostly by getting too wet or cold, risking travel on windy lakes, or by being unprepared. The greatest risk in actuality is in the drive to and from our trips. Mostly, there is excitement in the wilderness. You are physically active, engaged in traveling under your own power, cooking, relaxing, exploring, using all your senses to take in the natural beauty. You are learning new skills and forming new friendships - despite your age or experience. You are connecting in a powerful way with a complex and beautiful natural system. You are in fact, living in the present. One of the rarest experiences to be had today

Wilderness areas are not parks nor are managed as parks. Park management focuses upon people. Safety is their priority. Parks, unlike true wilderness areas, generally draw highly inexperienced and unprepared public. The visitors require extra care and as such their experience feels that much tamer, predictable and not as engaged with present time.

The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is not a Park. It is a living, breathing entity. It is a com -

plex, smoothly running, ever- changing system of multiple natural systems. Cold cedar swamps, warm ice-gouged gravel banks, shaded softwood forests, meadows filled with the sounds of geese, bittern, songbirds and frogs, wading moose and deer.

Those of us who love wild places try to make the longest trips possible. Because the more days experienced, the deeper your connection and the better you feel.

Wilderness travelers are not seeking someone to resupply us with food or missing equipment, comfort stations, wifi connections, or permanent shelters from heavy downpour. In contrast to an average park visitor, wilderness travelers come prepared as possible and are ready to accept the consequences of our actions.

Our highest priority?

Peace and quiet. Clean air and water. The sounds and scents of nature. Viewsheds unbroken by human intrusions like buildings, roads and motorboats.

With all due respect,

I ask the Dept. of Parks and Lands, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Board, The AWW Foundation (for whom I am an Advisor), and the current AWW Supervisor Mark DeRoche to reconsider their decision, in the guise of “safety”, to unwild the Allagash. Times have changed. We can do it. It’s time for re-wilding. Please share your concern by writing: Bureau of Parks and Land Director Andy Cutko - 207-2873821: email andy.Cutko@ maine.gov

Alexandra Conover Bennett, Elliotsville Twp.

The Lewiston Shooting

To the Editor: Hello Mr. Reynolds, as a long time subscriber to your fine publication I find it necessary to address the April letter from Lalman Johnson on gun control. He stated that you may have a different opinion if a friend, acquaintance or relative was murdered by an AR type gun. My nephew and his son, Bill and Aaron Young, were both murdered by the coward at the Lewiston bowling alley on October 25 2023. Bill was a strong supporter of the right to bear arms, an AR owner, Air Force veteran, outdoorsman, concealed carry advocate and most importantly a fine human being. Aaron was an avid fisherman, bowler and an innocent son enjoying time with his proud father. Bill and I were very close. I loved him like a son. He visited us at camp and we would visit him at his home in Winthrop. I dearly miss them both.

With all of that said, I am still a strong advocate and agree with you that a ban on “AR” type rifles may not make much of a difference with the number of murders that occur. Nor do I support magazine

limitations. What I do support is stronger laws and policies that address mental health. The massacre in Lewiston was caused by many failures from many different parties. To blame the gun is nothing short of absurd in my opinion. I own more than one AR style gun and have shot them after my nephews were both murdered. Not once did I feel any animosity towards the guns. Disarming or restricting law abiding citizens is not the answer. I urge anyone who is not a SAM member to join ASAP before we get ourselves into a battle with those who want to take away our rights. Time is running out.

Steve Young Supervisor Institute of Comparative Medicine, Columbia University Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute

Windmills Kill Birds

To the Editor: I appreciated the important Golden Eagle column (NWSJ April 2024) by Karen Holmes. I have seen Golden Eagles migrating mid-October thru November along the Bold Coast – West Quoddy Head to

Cutler in recent years. First saw them at Hawk Watches at Hawk Mountain (Penna) years ago. Noteworthy is that eagle watchers will use cameras to capture Golden Eagle observations. Hopefully, some cameras will be located around windmills and capture on film eagles, other birds of prey, and other birds that are killed by windmill strikes. It is terrible that wind mill companies will not be prosecuted for killing birds, but individuals would be. Why doesn’t Dept. Environmental Protection, Dept. Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prosecute these killers? Why don’t private conservation organizations rise up about this? Is the problem that too many public and private conservation organization boards have members who don’t hunt, fish, or trap? What does a ‘dickie-birder’ know about wildlife management? Same issue, good articles about trout fisheries in lakes.

Fred Hartman

Edited by V. Paul Reynolds

May. The sweet of the year.

For the angler who likes to get after salmon early, who loves to feel the bite of the wind on his face as his Grey Ghost Streamer fly trolls smartly through a brisk “salmon chop,” the sweet of the year may be late April or early May. The trout angler, on the other hand, who waits patiently to match the hatch with a #14 Parachute Adams, may not taste the sweet of the year ‘til late May or early June. The challenge for all fishermen, of course, is the timing: being there and having a line in the water when the sweet of the year comes calling.

At press time, spring is looking like it may debut early. But over the years we have seen that, when it comes to spring in Maine, expect anything.

The sweet of the year may catch you by surprise, so get the spring chores done, and be ready to get after those fish!

Maine Fishing Report

Due to warmer than usual temperatures, many lakes and ponds across the state have experience early ice out. These mild winter conditions have also impacted fish activity, which is highlighted in this year’s April Fishing Report.

Ice-out fishing is a good time to find lake trout, brook trout, and landlocked salmon cruising the shoreline shallows and the mouths of tributaries in search of smelt, as smelt begin to congregate in preparation of their an-

Outdoor News - May 2024

nual spawning runs. Water temperatures are still very cold, and fish are still fairly lethargic, so try slowing down the presentation of your bait or lure. Stream fishing is generally a bit slow in the early season, but will pick up as the water temperatures warm to around 50 o F and are stocked around April or May. If you’re looking for stream dwelling trout, allow your bait to sink toward the bottom where they are more likely to be this time of year.

Remember that with early spring comes mud season. Roads are often soft and muddy making it crucial to be mindful of roads, where you park, and respect private landowners. You may have to wait a few weeks before being able to access one of your fishing spots.

In spite of the warmer weather, the water is still extremely cold this time of year. Water levels are often high and fast, so ALWAYS wear a lifejacket! This could help save your life if you end up unexpectedly in the water. Accidents can happen to even the most experienced of anglers, and it’s harder to put a life jacket on once you’re in the water.

IN THIS MONTH”S SPORTING JOURNAL LOOK FOR OUR COMPLETE SPRING FISHING REPORT WHICH INCLUDE THE BEST PLACES TO FISH IN A REGION BY REGION BREAKDOWN PROVIDED BY MAINE”S REGIONAL FISHERIES BIOLOGISTS.

Reminder: Ice fishing season dates

Remember that most

of Maine’s lakes and ponds open to ice fishing, remain open through the month of April. Always use extreme caution on the ice when venturing on Maine’s frozen waterways and check the ice for yourself.

South Zone: Under General Law in the South Zone, lakes and ponds are open to ice fishing and open water fishing yearround (unless otherwise stated in the special fishing laws section).

North Zone: In the North Zone, lakes and ponds with special season code “A” are open to ice fishing and open water fishing year-round; lakes and ponds with season code “B” are open to ice fishing through April 30 Click here to search Maine’s special fishing laws (Search “A (Open” or “B (Open” in the regulation column to find which waters are open to ice fishing) or use the map-based Fishing Laws Online Angling Tool (FLOAT). After April 1, once the ice disappears, you can open water fish on most lakes and ponds in the North Zone.

Ice fishing shacks: A person who owns any shack or temporary structure used for ice fishing must remove the shack or structure (1) In any area of the State in which there is a closed ice fishing season, by ice out or 3 days after the close of the ice fishing season, whichever is earlier; and (2) In any area of the State in which there is no close of the ice fishing season, by ice out or March 31st, whichever is earlier.

Hiker Killed By Lion

One of two brothers hiking in the North -

ern California woods was killed by a mountain lion on Saturday, while the surviving brother was injured. The attack took place near the El Dorado National Forest, which is a little over 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, according to ABC.The attack was the first in the state in 20 years and the first in the region in 30 years.

deputies and the victim. Deputies discharged their firearms in order to scare the mountain lion off so they could render medical aid,” the sheriff’s office said.The animal retreated, but the victim of the attack was dead, deputies said. California Department of Fish and Wildlife game wardens and an El Dorado County trapper hunted for the mountain lion, which was later killed.

New Hampshire Fishing Season

Opens

April 1 marks the official start of the openwater fishing season on New Hampshire’s large lakes, which are managed for landlocked salmon, including Big Squam Lake, Lake Sunapee, and Lake Winnipesaukee. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department also manages other waterbodies for landlocked salmon, including Big Dan Hole Pond, and First and Second Connecticut, Conway, Francis, Merrymeeting, Newfound, Ossipee, and Winnisquam Lakes. Pleasant Lake in New London is also managed for landlocked salmon, but is classified as a designated trout pond with an opening date of the fourth Saturday in April. Despite winter finally showing up in late March, anglers will not suffer for open-water opportunities on nearly all central Lakes Region water bodies, including Winnipesaukee, which observed its earliest ice-out on record with only a day or two when “The Broads” were lightly

On Saturday, an 18-year-old and his 21-year-old brother were searching the woods for shed deer antlers when they were attacked. Police became aware of the incident after a 911 call, during which the younger of the two said they had been attacked and had become separated, according to a statement from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.The first responders reached the scene at about 1:34 p.m. They began treating the younger brother who, according to SFGate, suffered severe traumatic injuries to his face. Deputies searched for the 21-year-old, and found him lying motionless with the mountain lion crouched between (News cont. pg 13)

(Cont. from pg 12)

covered with ice this winter. Lake Winnipesaukee

is completely free of ice, and anglers will have unlimited opportunities via boat, other watercraft, or the shoreline.

Regardless of ice conditions or location within the state, please note the last day for ice fishing lakes managed under the landlocked salmon and lake trout designations is March 31, and no openwater fishing of any kind, for any species, is permitted on these managed lakes until April 1. Landlocked salmon may never be taken through the ice in New Hampshire

To ensure the future of high-quality landlocked salmon and other fisheries, anglers must take extra care when releasing salmon, as the percentage of hook-wounded fish continues to be a problem. Hook-wounded fish are significantly shorter and in poorer physical condition than non-hook-wounded fish of the same age. Using rubber nets, proper release techniques, and other con-

siderations can minimize the negative effects of hook wounding, thereby increasing the number of qualitysized salmon available in the future. For more information, please visit www.wildlife.nh.gov/fishing-new-hampshire/catchinglandlockedsalmon-nh/ prevent-hookwounding New Hampshire fishing licenses can be purchased online at www. nhfishandgame. com or from any NH Fish and Game Department license agent. Reel in lots more information on fishing in New Hampshire, from depth maps to tackle tips, by downloading the current Freshwater Fishing Digest at www.wildlife. nh.gov/fishing-new-hampshire

New Hampshire Moose Lottery

New Hampshire’s 2024 moose hunt lottery is now open. Enter today for your chance at the adventure of a lifetime—hunting moose in the rugged woods of the Granite State. The lottery entrance fee is $15 for Granite State residents and $25 for nonresidents. Visit www.wildlife.nh.gov/hunting-nh/ moose-hunting-new-hampshire where you can enter the New Hampshire moose hunt lottery online or print out a mail-in application. You can also pick up an application at any Fish and Game license agent, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department headquarters, or at Fish and Game re -

gional offices.

Moose hunt lottery applications for 2024 must be postmarked or submitted online by midnight Eastern Standard Time on Friday, May 31. Applications can also be delivered to the Licensing Office at New Hampshire Fish and Game Department headquarters, 11 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH, before 3:45 p.m. that day. Winners will be selected through a computerized random drawing and announced on June 21.

Applicants can enter the moose hunt lottery once per year. A bonuspoint system improves the chances for unsuccessful applicants who apply in each consecutive year. The point is earned for each year, and each point translates to a chance in the drawing. As an example, last year the overall odds of a resident applicant being drawn were 1 in 114, and resident applicants with a total of 20 points had a 1 in 39 chance of being drawn. For nonresidents, the odds were 1 in 477 overall and 1 in 178 for applicants with 20 points.

In 2023, a total of 5,950 people entered the lottery for the chance to win one of 33 permits. More than 1,190 people continued to accrue bonus points because they submitted an application for a point only to hold their

already accrued points. Hunters from six other states won permits in the 2023 lottery.

While people travel from all over the country to take part in the New Hampshire moose hunt, the majority of permits, almost 85%, are awarded to Granite State residents. The number of permits available to nonresidents is capped, based on the prior year’s sales of nonresident hunting licenses. The number of moose hunting permits that will be offered this fall is detailed in the 2024 Moose Hunt-

ing Season and Management document. To learn more about moose hunting in the Granite State visit www.wildlife.nh.gov/ hunting-nh/moose-hunting-new-hampshire Thirtythree either-sex moose permits will be issued through the lottery: WMU A1, 2 permits; A2, 8 permits; B, 7 permits; C1, 3 permits; C2, 5 permits; D1, 3 permits; L, 3 permits; and M, 2 permits. This year’s hunt will run from October 19–27. New Hampshire has had an annual moose hunt since 1988, when 75 permits were issued for a three-day hunt in the North Country. The state’s current moose population is estimated to be about 3,000 animals. The annual harvest of moose provides valuable information on the physical condition and productivity of moose and provides a unique recreational opportunity.

(News cont. pg 68)

Body...Golden yellow floss

Rib...Flat silver tinsel

Wing...2 red saddle hackles flanked by 2 silver doctor blue saddle hackles

Throat...4 peacock herl strands next to hook then white bucktail, both extending to bend of hook

Shoulders...Mallard flank, 1/3 wing length Cheeks...Jungle cock

Stewart and Bob Leeman.

Blue Devil

Tied by H.W. Folkins

Last month I started telling you the story of a moose investigation involving a shot and left bull moose during the cow only hunting week in Zone 5 in October of 2022. During our efforts to collect physical evidence from the crime scene, we had located a tooth that was lying in some tall grass where the bull and cow had

Warden’s Words

by Game Warden Kale O’Leary, Ashland, ME

been shot 52 feet apart. The violators had then dragged the cow several hundred yards down the road, field dressed the animal and loaded it to attempt to avoid detection, or at least make the two scenes look like they were not connected. Having a limited number of words to tell the rest of this tale, I’m going to jump right back into the middle

Moose Tooth Mystery Solved

of that investigation. Just thirty minutes prior to locating the tooth and then the drag marks leading to this spruce tree, our odds of solving his case were not looking great. We

In October of 2023, almost one year after starting this case and after countless setbacks, obstacles and hurdles, Dr. Zegers called and was ecstatic that he had finally found the match to the tooth I had collected from the field!

had little to nothing to go on or follow up with, but just like that, we caught the stroke of luck we needed. I knew that at some point I would be speaking with the people responsible for shooting and leaving this second moose.

Warden Pomerleau, my ride-along on that day, who is now a Game Warden, Rose Mandella, and I, continued looking around at the base of limbed spruce tree when Rose said “look at what I just found” and held up a pair of bright green reading glasses. The glasses had been dropped at this location and were lying in some tall grass in the ditch. They had a very distinctive pattern and coloring to them, enough so that I felt strongly they would be another key piece of evidence. At this time,

we felt confident we had collected everything that we could possibly find for evidence and now it was up to us to start fitting the puzzle pieces together. Rose and I headed

own time and his DNA testing facilities to assist with this case. Lee Kantar, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s head moose biologist also assisted me in collecting

back to Ashland where we began sifting through all the moose permits issued in Zone 5 that week, and focusing in on any and all moose killed during our time frame. We also spent hours and hours combing through Facebook and social media websites, trying to locate a permittee, sub permittee or family friend who wore the green glasses. No luck. I had also started making calls regarding the possibility of solving this case via DNA from the tooth I found at the scene, when Warden Dave Simmons suggested I call Dr. Gerry Zegers at the University of Maine at Machias. Dr. Zegers was extremely excited about the potential of helping us solve this case and volunteered to use his

tooth samples and aging teeth to narrow in on our suspects. There were many hours spent working on this case, not only by me, but many others.

In October of 2023, almost one year after starting this case and after countless setbacks, obstacles and hurdles, Dr. Zegers called and was ecstatic that he had finally found the match to the tooth I had collected from the field! Other pieces of information had also been located throughout the past year and everything came together, pointing at two individuals responsible for this crime, one who resides in Massachusetts and the other in Florida.

Wardens Rose Mandella, Kayle Hamilton and I (Mystery cont. pg 19)

Are We Growing The Game?

Every few months I ask myself this question: Are we doing enough to grow the game of fly fishing? It seems to be an ageold question. Is the sport

bucket. If you look at the industry many of the leaders have attempted to do a lot to make entry into the sport of fly fishing easier. Yes, fly rods can be very

shows like The Fly Fishing Show offer lots of programs for new anglers old and young. State agencies have programs designed to introduce new anglers to the sport. Local angling clubs and groups like Trout Unlimited have fishing days set up yearly for youth

35 fly rods and all those students were introduced to fly casting. We could not fish with the classes but I found ways to help them fish with their parents. I also offered fly tying as a club to take things one step further.

by Scott Biron, New London, NH

not great. Many say they have limited attendance or people who come to one day of a several day introductory experience then never return.

a leaky bucket where we bring a few in only to lose a few each year. I would bet that is the case. This grassroots effort is heavy lifting and discussions with many groups will point you toward their efforts often with limited results.

Having attended many fly-fishing shows over the years and watched the folks who attend these events, the reality is in general it’s an older crowd. Other demonstrators at these shows often discuss the same dilemma.

There is no way that I am an expert on this but it’s worth a few thoughts and just maybe we can take steps to plug the leaky

expensive but many of the manufacturers have entry level rods that are excellent and affordable.

Most of the large

Having attended many fly-fishing shows over the years and watched the folks who attend these events, the reality is in general it’s an older crowd. Other demonstrators at these shows often discuss the same dilemma.

Recently I’ve had discussions with groups to find out how their efforts in growing the sport are working. The reality is

Are we making it too complicated? Is our approach wrong? Are we scaring people away? Do we give people a taste with no follow up? All great

(Game cont. pg 21)

people wanting to try the sport of fly fishing. There are nation programs for example R3 that looks at Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation.

The last 5 years of my teaching career I had 1000 students split between grades 7 and 8. I purchase

The Adventures of Me and Joe

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

“What’re we gonna do with her?” I asked in exasperation.

Joe just shrugged his shoulders helplessly and stared at the little black and white pig that was busily munching on some roadside mushrooms.

“Maybe (gasp) she’ll eat a poison mushroom an’ (gasp) die,” Gasper Gooch offered hopefully. Joe scowled at him but made no comment.

“She…uh…looks somethin’ like my…uh… Aunt Evelyn,” Condon Fishbane commented. Joe brightened a little.

“Yer right, Condon. She does bear a close resemblance to yer Aunt. I think I’ll call ‘er Evelyn.”

Joe had come by the pig through a series of misunderstandings. The organizers of the Mooseleuk County Fair had visualized the shooting match as an affair for adults. Unfortunately for them, nothing in the rules stated an age requirement. It caused some red faces when Joe, a 14-year-old high school kid, walked away with the competition, outshooting

all his elders with a battered old Mossberg botaction .22.”

The prize was a prime roasting pig, and this led to the second misunderstanding. Joe, Condon, Gasper and I had visualized a dressed and scraped pig, ready for the coals. Our mouths were already watering when a Fair official, perhaps pleased to get a little of his own back against the young upstart target shooter, had trotted out a plump little sow, alive and prancing.

None of us had it in our hearts to kill the little pig, but Joe very well couldn’t turn down the prize. Now we sat alongside the road near the fairgrounds and tried to decide what to do with Evelyn.

“Well,” I said reluctantly, “until we decide what to do with her, I suppose we can take her over to Uncle Arnold’s place. He’s got an old pig pen built against the outside wall of his barn.”

An hour later Evelyn was safely fenced in the pigpen and the four of us, together with Uncle Ar-

The Perils of Evelyn

“Heard you was takin’ up pig farmin’. Want to tell yer right now, I won’t stand for it! My place is down wind of yer. All thet stench will come over on my property an’ offend my wife’s tender sensibilities.”

nold, were watching her sniff around, exploring her new surroundings.

“That’s a right pert little pig you got yer there Joseph, right pert,” he said admiringly. “Yessir, got all the makins of a good

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.

salt pork hog. Lookit them hams.” He tilted his head a little to one side and glanced at Condon.

“Uh…yup.” Condon grinned agreeably. “Uh… that’s why Joe…uh… named her Evelyn.”

“Yuh know,” continued Uncle Arnold in a thoughtful tone, “it cost a

lot ter feed an’ raise a pig. You boys thought o’ that?” Joe nodded sadly. “That’s what we been talkin’ about. We jist don’t know what to do with her. I don’t suppose you want her, do you?” he asked hopefully.

“Got my hands full (Me & Joe cont. pg 17)

Me & Joe

(Cont. from pg 16)

managin’ this here thrivin’ agriculchurul interprise, Joseph. Got no time fer pigs.” He rested an elbow on the fence of the pen and propped his chin in a cupped hand. Slowly he eyed each one of us, then looked down at Evelyn.

“Ya know, boys, what this here pig would be good fer?”

I looked at him skeptically. “What?”

“She’d make good bait, thet’s what she’d do.”

“Bait?!” Gasper cried, aghast. “You mean (gasp) cut her up an’ (gasp) use her to catch fish?”

“No, no, boys, you got me wrong!” He looked around at the circles of angry faces. “I mean like an Afriker or Inja, one o’ them furrin places. They stakes them out a pig ta lure in the tiger or leaperd, or some sech. You could use little Evelyn, here, ter lure in thet rogue bear what’s been killin’ stock arount. Then you could kill the bear an’ collect the reward money.”

“What rogue bear?” I asked suspiciously. “I haven’t heard about any rogue bear.”

“You been leadin’ a sheltered life,” Uncle Arnold returned blandly. “Ever’body knows. You’d be doin’ the community a favor an’ it wouldn’t hurt little Evelyn attall.”

I could see that Joe was torn between concern for Evelyn and the thrill of hunting a rogue bear. “You say there’s reward money?”

“Thet’s what I heart. Must be. Anyway, you’d have the makin’s of a bear rug an’ have you a thrillin’ hunt to boot.”

“How would we…

uh…go about huntin’ this…uh…bear?” Condon was warming to the idea as well.

Uncle Arnold herded us toward the farmhouse.

“Ain’ nothin’ to it. You jist tie the pig to a stake, then build yerself a platform in a big tree close to hand. Got jist the tree in mind, over on the south edge o’ my property. Then yer sit up in the tree with a rifle gun an’ a big flashlight. When yer hear the bear arount, ya tern on the light an’ mow ‘im down.”

“But Uncle Arnold,” Joe said uncertainly. “We don’t have anything to shoot a bear with. All we got is .22s and…”

“Don’tcher worry. You kin use my ol’ Model 95 Winchester in. 30-40 Krag. Blow the guts right out’n a dog…I mean bear.”

As we rounded the corner of the barn we noticed a tall, craggy figure standing in the middle of the driveway holding fast to the leash of a monstrous wolfhound. At sight of us, the dog began snapping and snarling, straining against the leash in his desire to get at us.

Uncle Arnold darted behind Joe’s back. He peered over one shoulder, his grizzled face leached of all color. “Counfount it, Ezra! Call off thet wolf!”

“Down, Rock…

down, boy!” Ezra Dewlap smirked as the big dog reluctantly subsided. “Sorry, Arnold. Didn’t realize you was so touchy.”

Uncle Arnold moved slowly out from behind Joe, one wary eye watching the drooling hound. “Whatcher doin’ on my propitty, Ezra. Get another complaint o’ some kind?”

Ezra Dewlap’s property adjoined Uncle Arnold’s on the south side. Ezra was a constant complainer about all manner of ills, real and imagined. He argued about property lines, gunfire, leaves blowing onto his property and a host of other factors he considered infringements on his rights.

“Heard you was takin’ up pig farmin’. Want to tell yer right now, I won’t stand for it! My place is down wind of yer. All thet stench will come over on my property an’ offend my wife’s tender sensibilities.”

“Ain’t pig farmin’. All they is is one little shoat that belongs to the boys, here. An’ she ain’t stayin’ long.”

“Well, see that she don’t!” Ezra turned to leave, dragging the reluctant wolfhound along with him.

Uncle Arnold mustered a little more courage. “An’ keep that mongrel ta home! He come’s over

Portland

here all hours o’ the night. Like ta jump the daylights out’n me! I see ‘im over here agin, I’ll put the lead to ‘im!”

“You do, an’ I’ll sue yer for whatever little you got!” Ezra snarled back over his shoulder. Man and dog disappeared down the road.

Slowly, Uncle Arnold stopped shaking and got control of himself.

“C’mon, boys. I’ll fetch thet Winchester an’ then show yer how ta set up a proper bait. Thet, uh, bear is as good as dead!”

Late evening found the four of us boys ensconced on a rudimentary platform in a large pine tree, about 15 feet off the ground. Below us, Evelyn was tethered to a short length of rope, feeding contentedly on a large pile of scrap vegetables from Uncle Arnold’s garden.

“You sure this (gasp) platform is (gasp) high enough?” Gasper asked, a slight quiver in his voice.

“I ain’t sure about nothin’,” Joe replied, trying the sights on the .30-40 Krag. “This is all new ta me.”

“I still think there’s

something fishy about this whole business,” I whispered quietly. “How come none of us have heard about this bear? And who’s putting up the reward, anyway?”

“I dunno,” Joe replied, “but if we don’t all shut up we ain’t never gonna lure in no bear.”

For an hour or more silence reigned on the platform, broken only by the contented grunting of the little pig on the ground below. The sun sank and finally disappeared. Shadows deepened, and it became hard to see Evelyn’s outline against the darker ground.

“What was…uh… that?” Condon asked suddenly.

“Quiet!” Joe hissed through clenched teeth. The sound of stealthy footsteps could now be plainly heard in the nearby brush. I fingered the five-cell flashlight Uncle Arnold had lent us, not wanting to show the light prematurely.

Then, a large black shape seemed to materialize a dozen feet from the now cowering pig. Evelyn was making loud noises of

(Me & Joe cont. pg 28)

Outdoor Sporting

Library

by Jeremiah Wood, Ashland, ME

Just imagine it. A hunter, trapper and guide, living in the Governor’s mansion and running your state for two terms. Seems a bit unreal, doesn’t it. After all, the term politician

He was exceptionally smart and witty, and knew the needs of the locals more than anyone else qualified for the job. And they trusted him.

could pass as a curse word in most rural circles, and outdoors folk just don’t tend to mix it up in the political world. Why would we, what with so much better to do out in the woods?

Alaska’s Bush Rat Governor

he went to college in Fairbanks, eventually graduating with a Biological Sciences degree. He then took a job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a pilot and government hunter, with much of his focus on the aerial predator control program.

He started off as a trapper, running more than 100 miles of trapline by dog team in the Rainy Pass area of south central Alaska. He and his two partners flew mail, reported the weather and kept the fires going at the main lodge while alternately tending to the line.

A severe back injury brought Jay to town, and

That’s probably something Alaska Governor Jay Hammond asked himself more than once in his career. A New York native and Navy fighter pilot during World War II, Hammond moved to Alaska after the war and began one of the more interesting and unpredictable lives one could imagine.

Jay tired of predator control work over time, and pursued a new career as a guide, taking hunters and anglers into some of Alaska’s most beautiful country. He supplemented this income with commercial fishing near the community of Naknek, a small Bering Sea village,

where he homesteaded and started a second family. Around the time Jay was settled in Naknek,

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Alaska became a state. This meant the creation of a political system to govern the people, and although Hammond repeatedly expressed his disinterest in politics, his friends and neighbors pushed him to run for office. He was exceptionally smart and witty, and knew the needs of the locals more than anyone else qualified for the job. And they trusted him.

Jay Hammond was thus elected to Alaska’s first state legislature, and served in the House, Senate and local government for fifteen years. For someone seemingly so detached from politics, with little desire for any office, he settled in quite nicely, and began to help shape the future of the state that he’d come to love.

(Governor cont. pg 19)

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Governor

(Cont. from pg 18)

Jay was elected Governor of Alaska twice, serving from 1974 to 1982. Always a reluctant politician, he brought humor, common sense, wit, intellect and creativity to Alaska politics. He was the driving force behind several key initiatives, including efforts to preserve some of Alaska’s most treasured natural resources, the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend program, which pays out oil revenue via a check to every Alaskan each year, common sense controls on government spending, and the development of a farming economy in the state.

From suburban New York boy to Navy pilot, trapper, hunter, guide, fisherman, biologist, legislator and governor, it was a long, full and remarkable life that Jay Hammond lived. At the end, he and his wife retired to their Lake Clark homestead cabin, and he put it all on paper.

“Tales of Alaska’s Bush Rat Governor” was first published in 1994. It’s a wide-ranging, fascinating read.

Jeremiah can be reached at jrodwood@ gmail.com

Mystery

(Cont. from pg 14)

travelled to Massachusetts to interview one of the suspects. Meanwhile, we coordinated a simultaneous interview conducted by Florida Fish and Wildlife at the permittee’s residence.

You can imagine it is not easy to coordinate simultaneous interviews only a few thousand miles apart, but we managed to make it work! There was only one small problem….the suspect who lived in Massachusetts was currently in Oxbow, Maine and the suspect in Florida was currently one town over from us in Massachusetts! It is common in our line of work to have to “call an audible” and roll with the punches at any moment’s

notice. My team of Maine Wardens and a Massachusetts Environmental Police Officer travelled over to interview the permittee and I called for a new team of Maine Wardens to interview the subject at his camp in Oxbow.

Shortly after arriving on scene, both men admitted to shooting and leaving the bull moose before moving the cow away to attempt to avoid detection. When I asked the permittee if he expected to see Game Wardens on his door step over a year after the incident he replied with several expletives woven in “not a chance in the world!” The ride home from Saugus, Massachusetts that night was an excited one, as we all had pulled together to solve a very challenging

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case. Both men pleaded guilty in court and paid $3,000 dollars in fines and spent 3 days in jail. At the conclusion of this case, I kept the moose tooth that was used in the DNA process as a souvenir and a reminder of likely one of

the most unique cases I will ever be a part of!

Kale O’Leary is a Maine Game Warden who covers the Oxbow/Masardis district in central Aroostook County. He has been a Game Warden since 2016 and lives in Ashland.

Fiddleheads, skunk cabbage, frosty mornings and perfect afternoons; no black flies, yet. Most of us lived through the sunshine apocalypse. This is the best of times. Hendrickson nymphs, little

by Mike Maynard, Perham, ME

that were wafting down from the northwest. These were brave, brave men, fishermen, truly. My wife had another name for them.

I performed my annual piscatorial Haj down to GLS on opening day. From

I pulled in at 6:30a.m. The guy next to me in the parking lot was sitting on his tailgate, drinking coffee; he said he’d been in the water at 4:30am, trying to jack salmon under a headlamp. He never had so much as a bump.

The water flowing out of the dam looked, to my uneducated guess, to be about right. The older gen-

So yeah, here I sit, it’s May, and I’m scrambling through my accumulated stash of flies from yesteryear for something, anything, to throw. You would think I’d learn. But I don’t. Teachers have a name for kids like that, but I don’t think they were talking about me…

black stoneflies, helping the grandkids dig worms under the woodpile. Trolling the edge of the ice on your favorite lake as the ice goes out. Well, I mean, I hope to do that; as I write this everything here is still locked up. But I did see a couple of hardy souls power off into the slush ice of West Grand on April 1st. No hats, no gloves, nothing but a thin hoodie to protect them from the icy winds

what used to be a muchanticipated event, with a carnival-like atmosphere, the opener has now become a quiet and muted affair. It’s almost as if no one saw it coming. Everybody just went to work instead of blowing off their contractual obligations and going fishing like God intended us to. C’mon, people! The place was eerily quiet.

There was only one fisherman in the dam pool when

with a longer marabou tail than what is usually seen in the standard dressing. While I stood there, waist deep in the icy water, not catching anything, I started thinking about tying up some marabou Thunder Creek streamers. Thunder

past life, I had tied up some Thunder Creek streamers as an ode to a new (to me) style of tying. I doubt I ever fished them, at least I don’t remember doing it. But after talking to a few folks who live and die by the streamer, I think I’ll

tlemen standing next to me on the dam, were habitual, decades-long participants in these festivities. They told me that the flow that morning was perfect, running around 350cfs. I asked them to opine as to the lack of action, and they replied that up until a day or two before, the dam had been operating at 1,500cfs, and it was their considered opinion that all the fish had been blown into the trees.

Golden Retrievers were the fly du’ jour that morning. Slightly modified

Creek streamers, with their reversed tying method, are fun to tie; perhaps a mish-mash of marabou and bucktail would work. Can you tie a golden retriever in marabou? I don’t know, I’ll try; what’s the worst that could happen, right? A well-meaning friend of mine, stashed a copy of Keith Fulsher’s ‘Thunder Creek Flies’ in my truck one day when I wasn’t looking; I think he was looking to instigate a bucktail intervention. In a

try again.

I just came into possession of a veritable crapload of Partridge double salmon hooks of varying sizes; would it be too sacrilegious to tie up a couple of Thunder Creek salmon patterns on such a vaunted piece of iron? It’ll be weird, but I think I’ll do it anyway; I’ve heard God hates a coward.

I run around here all winter telling anybody who will listen, that “Now is the time to fill those fly boxes for spring!” I do it all the time. My friends tell me it’s really annoying. And then I don’t heed my own advice. Oh, sure, I tied this winter, but it wasn’t purpose-driven. I’d get a bee in my bonnet and go tie some funky pattern just because it looked like fun, or because Tim Flagler made it look easy. Most of the time I’d finish the fly, sit back and look at it, and just tear it all back down to the bare shank because I was so embarrassed by the outcome. Then I’d go get a cup of coffee and forget all about those empty

(Intentions cont. pg 21)

Intentions

(Cont. from pg 20)

fly boxes. So yeah, here I sit, it’s May, and I’m scrambling through my accumulated stash of flies from yesteryear for something, anything, to throw. You would think I’d learn. But I don’t. Teachers have a name for kids like that, but I don’t think they were talking about me…

I picked up a new tying tool this winter. A Smhaen dubbing twister! Don’t try to pronounce the name, you can’t. It’s like trying to pronounce John Gierach’s last name; just when you think you’ve got ‘Gierach’ right, you hear yet one more way to say it. The Smhaen dubbing twister is nothing short of revolutionary. Instead of having to hold your dubbing loop open with your finger, the Smhaen operates like C-clip pliers, allowing you to open and close the loop whenever you want, leaving your hands free. Brilliant! How we ever lived this long without such remarkable technology is a mystery. It’s almost as much fun as using a Clark Block for making dubbed bodies. No, seriously; it’s a great tool.

Alright, enough of this; I’m going to sit down at the bench right now and fill those empty boxes, and this time I mean it.

Mike Maynard can be reached at perhamtrout@ gmail.com

Game

(Cont. from pg 15)

questions. Pre COVID, I did a lot of free 4-day fly tying programs with NHFG

Let’s Go Fishing program. I routinely would see people months or years after they took these classes. My first question was how is it going? Some would say I’m tying my own flies, or the tying classes help me be a better angler. However, there were many that said, I tied for a few months then felt I needed more instruction and found none, then stopped tying.

As an instructor I switched gears and offered both beginner classes and a whole bunch of Alumni programs. We saw some success. We partnered and offered classes at fly shops to see if that would grow the sport and be beneficial to the students. These all worked but in limited form.

Maybe I was expecting more. I have a great friend who is introducing his grandson to fly fishing and fly tying. I wonder if this is a better method?

Last fall I offered my yearly fly-tying program for the University of NH fly fishing club. A few patterns that they can use to catch fish, most are new tyers.

Two days after class I get a text from a happy angler that caught a big brown trout on the first fly he ever tied in the class.

I don’t have the answer other than it takes a

major effort to simplify our sport and introduce it to others ultimately growing the sport. This spring I’m volunteering and offering a fly-fishing experience type program as a partnership with Colby Sawyer College’s Adventures in Learning and NHFG. Five days, 2 fly tying, 1 rod rigging and introduction to float tube fishing and 2 days on the water. The class is full, I’ll share back how it goes.

All efforts are welcome and encouraged keep working to simplify and get

people to stick with this sport young and old, male and female.

Scott Biron learned to tie flies and fly fish back in the1960s in the North County of New Hampshire. He has fished many of the streams north of Route 26 in NH and his favorite the Androscoggin River. He is a Master Artist in the NH Traditional Arts Program and instructs fly tying both nationally and internationally.

Best Bassin’

by Bill Decoteau, Hampden, MA

Ask any bass angler world-wide what’s the most coveted tournament trophy within the world of competitive bass tournaments, and the answer is unequivocally the B.A.S.S. Bassmaster Classic Championship Trophy! Then be prepared to understand why the Bassmaster Classic Trophy holds such prestigious entitlement.

Bassmaster Elite Professional Angler Tyler Williams replied, “I believe qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic alone is the dream of every bass

Bassmaster’s 54th Classic

Tyler Williams Bassmaster Classic dream became a reality when he won the Bassmaster Open Elites Qualifier on Watts Bar Reservoir in September 2023. By winning at Watts Bar, he automatically qualified for the 2024 Bassmaster

With a giggle in his voice twenty-two-year-old Bassmaster Elite Professional Angler Tyler Williams replied, “I believe qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic alone is the dream of every bass angler.”

finish at Lake Fork in Texas, just two weeks prior to the 2024 Bassmaster Classic in Tulsa, OK. on Grand Lake of the Cherokee!

Overwhelmed with anticipation Williams’s sic is a weeklong schedule of dedicated events to honoring Bass Fishing Angler Legends, Sponsorship and Media events, Special opportunities for the thousands of B.A.S.S. fans to

With a giggle in his voice twenty-two-year-old

angler.” Pausing for just a moment, “I know my passion for competitive bass fishing even before competing at the B.A.S.S. High School level, had me mesmerizing about one day qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic.”

54thClassic on Grand Lake of the Cherokees in Tulsa, OK. Williams continued his winning performance by placing within the Top10 at his next three Bassmaster Tournaments. Including earning a coveted Bassmaster Century Belt by weighing over 100 lbs. total weight at Watts Bar.

attitude and composure remained the same as always.

“Qualifying for 2024 Classic was a major motivating factor as I started competing within the 2024 Bassmaster Elites season,” states Tyler Williams. Indeed, it was as the Rookie Elite Angler claimed a 19th place finish at Toledo Bend and then a 4th place

P.O.

“I’m just going to enjoy the Classic, go fishing as usual and most of all have fun fishing!” The Belgrade, Maine Rookie Elite Angler did just that. In fact during the practice days, he wondered if most of the bass in Grand Lake were actually two to three pounders?

The Bassmaster Clas-

meet the Classic Qualifiers, take pictures, get autographs, and of course talk and spend time with their favorite Pro-Anglers. Plus, there are three days of the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo. Which is jamb packed with everything Bass Fishing including Professional Bass Anglers, sponsors booths, the newest bass boats, and plenty of family fun activities.

Tyler Williams explained the Classic tournament format, “There are 56 Classic Qualifiers, everyone will compete for two days. On the third and final day the field will be cut to the Top-25, the angler with the most weight at the end of three-days is crowned the 2024 Bassmaster Classic Champion and will receive $300,000 along with the coveted Bassmaster Classic Championship Trophy. Anglers not making the Top 25, will spend the day at the Classic Expo,

(Classic cont. pg 30)

Tyler Williams shows the crowd his Day #2 Bass.

(Photo courtesy of Tyler Williams/Bassmaster)

Early Salmon:Red is the Key

“Red. Red is what you want in early May.” He was one of the old guides I’d already written a song about, he was so legendary in the Grand Lake Stream region. He was talking about streamer fly patterns. He knew that practically every seasoned sport he met came outfitted with the whole

And especially not this year when the ice was out in late March.

When I questioned him about specific patterns, he’d say, “Make one up!”

Over time, I came to realize that the closest known pattern to the ones he was using was a Red Ghost. If you haven’t seen one but

Carrie Stevens catalog of classic patterns, but too few of them had enough red in them to suit him.

This was in April. There was still time to tie some flies for cold water trolling for landlocked salmon in early spring. He said early May, but that’s because in his day the ice often stayed locked in until the first week of May. He once showed me a diary of ice out dates he’d kept since he was a young guide. I saw May 9th , May 11th , and lots of May 3rd and May 4th Back then, the opportunity to ice fish on March 31st and fly fish the stream on April 1st was practically a given. Not these days.

you know what Carrie’s Grey Ghost looks like, you can easily conjure up an image of the Red Ghost in your mind’s eye. Chances are, if you tied one right there and then from this imagined image, you’d get it close enough. The love of cold water trolling is usually instilled in an angler early in life, and usually by a Dad, or a Gramp, or an uncle. It was all three for me. To come at it later in life would be an uphill climb for most, decidedly an acquired taste. Five layers of clothing plus rain gear to go fishing in 39 degrees on a windy, rainy day can be a tough sell. But that’s salmon weather. And at this time of year, they are

right near the surface as the thermocline moves up and schools of smelt are on the move. It’s the same story for our togue (lake trout) and the earlier you can get out there, the better chance you’ve got of hooking into a monster on a fly.

But “red is what you want in early May.” I started to adhere to that mantra about ten years ago. Now, it’s my mantra. The fish-

by Randy Spencer, Grand Lake Stream, ME

But “red is what you want in early May.” I started to adhere to that mantra about ten years ago. Now, it’s my mantra.

ing log will show that early spring salmon rose to something with red in it more often than for any other patterns. Once you reach that level of confidence with a fly, something else happens. You will fish a fly you believe in much more thoroughly than if you have little or no faith.

Next comes the consideration of tandem or single hook. Our lakes now have both rainbow smelts (sometimes known as “pin smelts”) as well as jack smelts. These latter

were stocked into West Grand Lake as an experiment in the 1990’s. They came from another local lake in northern Washington County known for its abundant supply of jacks. By all angling accounts, the experiment worked. The salmon and togue fishery is outstanding by almost any measure. Since we now have jack smelts which are larger, it makes a strong argument for tandem streamer flies, which of course mimic larger smelts. Even so, single hook streamers do a great impersonation of pin smelts and can work just as well. My solution: Try both!

Many of our sports arrive thinking of salmon and togue as deep water fish, and they are of course correct––some of the time. Just not in early May. The

shallows can be just as productive and sometimes more so when the water is cold and the weather is overcast. Trolling parallel to shore so that you can see bottom on one side of the boat but not on the other is just about ideal for this kind of fishing at this time of year. It goes by fast, so if you’ve got the inclination, and the layers, and the rain gear, don’t miss out. You may see some of the finest salmonid specimens of the whole year during this period.

If you were to carry one more tip with you on that first cold water outing, let it be this one: Red is what you want in early May!

Randy Spencer is a working guide and author. All of his award-winning books are available on Amazon. Reach Randy at randy31@earthlink. net or www.randyspencer.com

The Gun Cabinet

by John Floyd, Webster Plantation, ME

The weather during the early fishing season on Maine lakes can be downright brutal at times. Cold, windy mornings with a biting, drizzling rain can test the constitution of the most dedicated angler. A chilly, wet spray that breaks over the gunwales of a Grand

winter hunkered in deeper pockets, large populations of adult bass follow baitfish towards the shoreline, seeking to feed their ever increasing metabolism. While largemouth and smallmouth are both species of bass, they prefer different environments.

Early Season for Big Bass

sunken logs and underwater weed beds are prime spots to catch these big bucket-mouths lurking.

How To Fish Them

Diving crank baits are my go to when fishing early season smallmouth bass. Casting to the edge of a drop off and slowly retrieving is very effective for triggering a strike from below. With these lures, the faster you retrieve the

Diving crank baits are my go to when fishing early season smallmouth bass. Casting to the edge of a drop off and slowly retrieving is very effective for triggering a strike from below. With these lures, the faster you retrieve the deeper it will dive.

Laker canoe while under way in a heavy chop can take your breath away. So why do it you ask? Why suffer the unforgiving elements of the early open water fishing season? If you want to catch some of the biggest bass of the year, this is the time to do it.

Where to find them

As waters start to warm and daylight increases, bass will start to move towards shallower waters. After spending the

Smallmouth bass, recognizable by their tigerstriped markings, thrive in cooler, cleaner water. You’ll find them cruising submerged boulder piles, humps and ledges in 10 –15 feet of water early on; a few weeks later they will be stalking baitfish around rocky edges and shoreline points.

Easily identifiable by the prominent lateral line on their sides, largemouth bass seek warmer spots with lots of vegetative cover like lily pads and grasses. Structure such as

deeper it will dive. As you slow down on the retrieve, the lure will rise. Try different rhythms to imitate wounded fish.

If the action is slow, I’ll switch to painted jig head with either a ‘skirt’ or ‘tail’. Green, blue and silver patterns work well for me.

Similar to the crank bait, throw the jig at the edge of the drop off. Let the jig fall along the ledge. If this doesn’t cause a strike, slowly bounce and retrieve it along the bottom, pausing at irregular intervals to

WANTED: EXPERIENCED FLY FISHING GUIDE

May through October

Meals, lodging provided. Willing to train an experienced and Professional fly fisherman or woman with a Maine Guide License

Resume and references to P.O. Box 27, Ashland, ME 04732

mimic wounded prey. This presentation works well for lazy fish or bass that are still feeling the winter lethargy. If all else fails or the fish just aren’t feeding, it’s time to make some noise.

Smallmouth bass are notoriously aggressive fish and if they won’t eat, I make

cover where big bass are hunting prey. Flipping a top water frog onto a lily pad and twitching it can also cause an explosive reaction.

My second go to top water lure for largemouth are poppers. I use these for areas that are more structure than vegetation; things

The author with a big early season bass! use of their aggression. This is where the lipless rattle bait comes into play. In intermediate to shallow water, retrieve the lure at a steady, medium speed. Don’t be afraid to try faster retrieves as well. The idea here is to annoy a big bass as the lure moves through its strike zone. In the weedy, vegetative environs where largemouth bass hunker down, I stick to weedless types of lures. Texas-rigged soft baits like creatures, crayfish or paddle tails will keep you from snagging on lily pad stems, thick weed beds or hooking stumps and logs. This weedless style rig lets you cast into heavy

like docks, woodpiles and submerged timber. Cast the popper to your target area and let the casting rings on the water subside. Keep slack out of the line and use your wrist to ‘pop’ the lure gently; big bass will race out of their ambush spot to attack the struggling prey.

John is a Registered Maine Guide, an NRA Certified Instructor and is the owner of Tucker Ridge Outdoors in Webster Plantation, Maine. He is also an active member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association. Reach him at john@tuckerridge.me or on Facebook @tuckerridgeoutdoors

Milford

Springtime Stripers

Leaning against the tailgate of my truck, I pulled on a pair of wool socks. Thirty-seven degrees with a stiff northeast wind would make for a chilly night of fishing. It was May 17, 2023 and I was gearing up to chase striped bass with my friend and fellow surfcasting-nut, Kyle. Kyle had already scratched the annual itch

hour of the incoming and the first two hours of the outgoing tide. As the banks flooded, a smorgasbord of small bait - grass shrimp, crabs, mummichogs, and sea worms - would be easy pickings for hungry stripers after a long journey north.

We split off in different directions to cover ground; I went to the left and Kyle headed right.

and, quite impressively, caught and released a very early Maine striper two weeks prior. Even though it was now late on a Wednesday night, and we both had to work the following morning, the opportunity before us was too good to pass up. High tide was at 10:40 p.m. and it was going to be a big one - the highest of the month. We planned to fish a marshy backwater during the last

After an uneventful hour, I had managed to snag a clump of drifting seaweed on nearly every cast. Big tides bring heavy weeds. The tide soon slacked, and by 11:00 p.m. it was just starting to run again. I approached a new spot and slung my plug out parallel to the bank. Crawling the Bomber along the surface in three feet of water, I heard a splash from somewhere off in the darkness.

I immediately felt a sharp jerk and set the hook. Moments later, I released my first striper of the 2023 season, a chunky 25-incher. My next cast along the same bank yielded similar results. Arriving back at my truck at 1:00 a.m. I fueled up on a thermos of coffee and a donut and drove home for a few hours of sleep.

Maine Tails

By Jonah Paris, Ellsworth, ME

My first flurry of fish usually comes between the second and third week of May in the Greater Portland area.

After a dreary winter, I look forward to sharing tides with friends, many of whom I have not seen since the previous fall. Sometimes we hold conversations, catching up on life’s happenings. Other times, we simply experience the same place and time together - and that requires no words, just casts. Many nights I like to fish alone, savoring the primal excitement of a nocturnal outdoor adventure. Though, I am never really alone. A scan with my headlight along the shore reveals creatures going about their mundane activities - raccoons clamming, foxes hunting, and deer grazing. And nights along the striper shore are hardly silent; the bark of a seal, the shriek of a night heron, and the thunderous splash of an airborne sturgeon are all familiar notes in the nighttime chorus.

There is no official “opening day” of striped bass season in Maine. The annual striper migration shifts slightly from year to year. However, conventional wisdom holds that once the water hits 50 degrees and the lilacs bloom in the backyard, stripers begin trickling into the river systems of Southern Maine with each tide. Most years, I have taken a few casts by Mother’s Day. My first flurry of fish usually comes between the second and third week of May in the Greater Portland area. During the early-season, May through midJune, anglers should focus their efforts on estuaries, salt marshes, tidal creeks, and outflows. River mouths with plenty of moving water are key places to intercept spring stripers. Search out dark bottoms, current, and structure. Mud bottoms absorb the sun’s rays and warm quickly, attracting both bait and stripers. Unless fishing a herring run, where large-profile plugs up to 12-inches mimic the forage, most spring striper fishing is done with smaller lures. For the nighttime angler,

slim-profile minnow plugs are a versatile and effective offering. The classics still fool many fish - Bomber Long A 15a and 16a’s, Cotton Cordell Red Fins, and Gag’s Grabbers Mambo Minnows are deadly. Daiwa Salt Pro Minnows and a selection of lures from YoZuri including the Hydro Minnow, Crystal Minnow, and Mag Darter are other top choices.

Typical May stripers in Maine range between 16-24 inches. Although, a surprising number of larger fish in the 28-34 inch range were taken before the end of May last season. A 7-9 foot rod, paired with a 3500 or 4000 spinning reel, and loaded with 20 pound braid will cover nearly all earlyseason striper fishing scenarios. Heavier gear can be used out front on the open beaches and ledges when “cow hunting” later in the summer, but the springtime “schoolie” fishery in the estuaries and backwaters is a light-tackle game.

A four-season outdoorsman, Jonah lives in Ellsworth, ME with his wife, Ashley, and beagle, Aurora. Jonah can be reached at jonaheparis@ gmail.com

Outdoor Sporting Clays (7 stations, wooded) Eight Action Shooting

We’re thinking back about the excellent dog work we had during last fall’s hunting season. Despite all that great bird work, there is preparation required for this coming fall. It’s what we call maintenance work during the summer months. Maintain-

On Point

by Paul Fuller, Durham, N.H.

bird work, we should look at the health of our dog. If the dog was hunted hard for several weeks, it could easily need additional fat and protein to recover. Increase the daily calories per cup your dog normally eats. A food such as Native Performance Dog Food

Gundogs: Maintenance Training

sically remaining at heel until released. And, then hunting in front of you. Always searching for birds. In other words, hunting for you, not for themselves. And, recognizing when you change direction and changing also. Come to you is simply responsive recall. A dog needs to come when called. Recall could

I believe it was the Smith family (Delmar, Rick and Ron) that first discussed the three skills that a well-trained dog must perform. Go with you, come to you and stand still.

ing the excellence is an ongoing project.

This is especially true for younger dogs. Although a younger dog may have entered the hunting season looking like a world beater, the excitement of wild birds and multiple flushes and gun shots may have led to unwanted chasing. All that previous training is forgotten.

Although the maintenance training we’re discussing is primarily about

providers several levels of fat/protein. Also, a week of rest might be in order. Regarding maintenance, as mentioned above, what we’re really addressing is training. I believe it was the Smith family (Delmar, Rick and Ron) that first discussed the three skills that a well-trained dog must perform. Go with you, come to you and stand still. The Smiths describe those three skills as follows. Go with you is ba-

be for several different reasons. One is it’s simply time to stop hunting, or to avoid danger such as a road or barbed wire or to be given water. Standing still is the art of the point. The dog has recognized scent and is standing the bird. The dog must remain standing until the hunter has approached the point and flushed the bird. And remains standing still until released.

Most likely, most

transgressions came from a first-year dog. The excitement was simply overwhelming and training lessons easily forgotten. The beginner did well with the first few hunting season

the rules is common for a first year dog. If a first year dog continues to chase and break the rules, without correction, the correction becomes harder and takes longer.

birds, however, as the excitement increased, so did the desire to chase and forget the training. Breaking

North Maine Woods

Here are corrections for the dog chasing birds. If the dog has been whoa trained, in a low and quiet voice, repeat the command whoa when approaching your dog. It’s okay, I’ve witnessed even the top professional trainers doing it during high stake field trials. It’s simply reminding the dog of what’s expected. If the dog does break, catch the dog, pick it up and bring it back to the spot the dog was pointing and put it down while repeating whoa. Here’s another correction. If the dog has been e-collar trained (on the flank), stimulate when the dog breaks. Only use an e-collar if the dog has been previously trained with an e-collar. Never introduce stimulation with an e-collar in a hunting situation. I’ve seen it done and the ramifications are terrible.

A rule for a hunter is to never shoot a bird that your pointing dog has wild flushed and chased. If you do, this simply encourages the dog to flush and chase. The dog thinks why point (Training cont. pg 30)

Using a place-board to steady your dog. (Photo by Paul Fuller)

A Wild Turkey Two-Fer

Wild turkey populations didn’t become reestablished Downeast until

a strutting Tom, gobbling in a field. My blood gets pumping just at the thought of distant gobbles as the world awakens on a dewsoaked spring morning.

After years of near

turkey. There was a flock of about 15 birds feeding in the middle of a blueberry field on a gloomy spring day. These foreign creatures were fascinating to watch, but it wouldn’t be another 10 to 15 years before I’d find myself trying to coax longbeards into shotgun range. It’s tough to admit, but I would scoff at the unknown hype of turkey season and question the sanity of those who go up at 3 a.m. to hunt a “dumb bird” … If I could only travel back in time.

I tagged along with my good friend Tyler for the first few years of my turkey-hunting career. We had some fun adventures and learned what not to do in the turkey woods. Initially hesitant, I was promptly hooked after experiencing

a complete turkey hunter in 2020. I spent the better part of April scouting; had daily practice sessions with my diaphragm call; and watched every YouTube video I could find. Before I knew it, opening day was near.

Not surprisingly, the first days of the season did not go as I had dreamed. Discouraged and tired, I debated on whether it would be worth hunting

ing parcel I heard a series of gobbles. I immediately picked out an opening in the timber where a small, mowed field sloped slightly downhill toward the property line. There, a cluster of mature spruces with overhanging limbs hung over an old, abandoned Chevy that had become one

By Jake Scoville, Machiasport, ME

followed by gobbles. I struggled to contain my composure. After the second calling sequence, the gobbles became louder, and it was clear two Toms were headed my way- and fast. I stayed quiet, knowing once the birds reached the property line, they’d have a straight line of sight

A simple series of calls were immediately followed by gobbles. I struggled to contain my composure. After the second calling sequence, the gobbles became louder, and it was clear two Toms were headed my way- and fast.

misses, killing Jakes, and fumbling opportunities at several Toms, I committed myself to becoming

the upcoming ‘pictureperfect’ May evening. Nevertheless, I came up with a plan. I was granted permission to hunt a small property that abutted a chunk of posted land which consistently held birds. I quietly approached the private property and carefully listened for the distinct sound of spring thunder. Sure enough, about 100 yards from the neighbor-

with the ground, an ideal spot to tuck into. Before I made any calls, I crawled about 20 yards toward the gobblers and drove my hen decoy into the soft ground. I slipped my way back to the Chevy, caught my breath, and settled in.

A simple series of calls were immediately

to the hen decoy. Sure enough, two strutting, gobbling, longbeards appeared through the timber. A matter of seconds after emerging into sight, both birds were in range and just feet away from my decoy. I clicked the safety off and buried the bead of my (Two-Fer cont. pg 35)

Me & Joe

acute distress that covered the sound of any movements we might make. I saw the rifle creep to Joe’s shoulder.”

“Now!” he cried.

I switched on the light and the scene below was suddenly bathed in a bright, white glow. Evelyn strained at the extreme end of her tether. Crouched watching her, jaws agape in a hideous snarl, was Ezra Dewlap’s huge wolfhound, Rock.

I was opening my mouth to shout something when the rifle roared out into the night. The muzzle flash nearly blinded me, but I could still see the geyser of dirt and gravel that exploded in the dog’s face.

Rock staggered backward with a startled yelp, to stand uncertainly beside

a big maple. The Winchester bellowed a second time and a hurricane of splinters blasted from the maple into the side of the wolfhound’s head. With a series of howls the big dog wheeled and began to run for home.

I followed his progress with the bright light and the rifle cracked a last time. A big, dangling limb dropped right across the wolfhound’s withers and he began to ky yi shrilly as he disappeared into the woods.

“Teach him ta try an’ kill Evelyn!” Joe growled as he lowered the hammer on the Winchester. “C’mon.

I think Uncle Arnold’s got some explainin’ to do!”

“Uh, now boys,” Uncle Arnold’s voice came hesitantly from behind a giant hemlock at the edge of the circle of light. “Don’t be gittin’ too upset. I’m sure I kin sort this all out.”

We climbed down from the platform and gathered around Evelyn. Condon began to pet and sooth her and soon she was grunting happily as he scratched behind her ears.

Uncle Arnold walked up cautiously, “See, I figured that…”

“You figured we wouldn’t just out and out shoot the dog for you, so you decided to trick us into it!” I said scornfully.

“Well, thet is…you boys don’t know what it’s been like. Feari’n ta go to the barn or the garden. Not safe in yer own yard at night! I had ter do somethin’!”

“Well, I don’t think you got ta worry about ol’ Rock anymore,” Joe said, softening. “It was a dirty trick ta play on us, but I figure all you got ta do after this is fire a gun inter the air an’ thet dog’ll be headed fer York County.”

Central Maine Region

He looked down sadly at the little pig. “But thet still don’t help us with what ta do with Evelyn, here.”

“I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen to that pig!”

Ezra Dewlap stormed out of the trees, a shotgun clutched in one meaty hand. “I’m agonna kill it. Thet hound o’ mine come a’ yelpin’ home with ‘is tail between ‘is legs! Ain’t worth nothin’ no more. Git out’n the way, boy, I’m fixin’ ta’ bag me a porker!”

He raised the shotgun ominously.

“Ezra! Put down that gun! What’s going on here?” An extremely homely woman threaded her way through the trees to where we were standing.

“After I got Rock calmed down, I noticed you’d gone off with that shotgun. What in the world do you think you’re doing?” She strode up to stand in front of her husband, hands on hips,

glaring up into his face.

“They shot at Rock! Tried ta’ kill ‘im!” Ezra exploded.

(Cont. from pg 17) TAKE THE TIME TO GET A KID HOOKED ON

“If’n I’d meant ta kill ‘im, he’d be dead!” Joe grated through clenched teeth.

“He’s ruint! No good fer nothin’ no more. I aim ta get me some revenge by shootin’ this here pig o’ their’n!” He tried to raise the gun, but his wife pushed it down toward the ground.

“The dog isn’t ruined,” she said firmly. “He’s just learned a lesson he’s had coming for a long time. And as for shooting… why, what a cute little pig!” She dropped to her knees and patted her hands together. “Come here little pig!”

Evelyn, recognizing a friend when she saw one, wiggled forward. Mrs. Dewlap cradled the piglet in her arms and cooed happily.

“Looks like you fount herself a kindrid spirit there,” Uncle Arnold spoke up suddenly. “Truth is, these here boys was lookin’ fer a nice home fer the little pig. You two look like you belong together.”

The Schoodic Salmon Snapshot

Not long after Shawna Stevens surprised herself and many others this winter by jigging a 6 lb Atlantic salmon (that’s right, Atlantic salmon) through the ice at Schoodic Lake near Milo, Jason Smith stepped forward with a photo of what could have been the same fish!

So this fish, which ran up through tributaries flowing to the Penobscot River, was trapped in a fish way by fisheries personnel and marked for identification by a half moon “punch” out of its adipose fin.

Jason Smith, the Jacques Cousteau of Milo, with his underwater drone.

Smith, a 36-year old Milo resident and father of two, is a hobbyist who operates a deep-diving, under water drone with a photographic capability. According to Smith, he and his drone have explored the depths of a number of Maine lakes and rivers, including Schoodic Lake, Moosehead Lake, Sebec Lake, Flagstaff Lake, Cold Stream Pond and many others. His footage of the so-called 249 foot deep “bowl” below Mt. Kineo at Moosehead Lake can be seen on his Utube channel called “Maine Freshwater Exploration Going Deep.” Smith also has a Facebook Page under the same name. According to Maine regional fisheries biologist Kevin Dunham, Shawna Steven’s jigged salmon could be positively identified as an Atlantic salmon by virtue of a half moon punch on its adipose fin.

spawning season was very interesting. Watching the fish interacting with each other and seeing Landlocked Salmon and Lake Trout congregating together in the same area at the same time was not some-

Smith’s excellent underwater drone photograph of an Atlantic salmon in Schoodic Lake clearly shows a “punched” adipose fin. Could it be the same Atlantic salmon pulled through the ice by Shawna Stevens? Or is it a different fish? We may never be sure. If it is not, then this begets more questions: How many Atlantic salmon are making their way into other Maine lakes?

Understandably, Smith is fascinated with his drone’s capability and hopes to develop his skills and knowledge and perhaps work with fisheries researchers, or even parlay his undertaking into a cottage industry of some form.

Smith says that his drone is rated for 100 meters, or 328 feet. He plans soon to “fly” his drone to the bottom of Maine’s deepest lake, Sebago, which is 316 feet deep. Moosehead Lake is Maine’s second deepest lake at 249 feet.

Says Smith, “The

For fishermen, watching smelts swim through the water or basically seeing things from a fish point of view might help with your lure/fly selection as well as how you they retrieve it.”

A closeup of the Atlantic salmon photographed at Schoodic Lake. Note the punched out adipose fin.

thing I expected to see. Getting some footage of salmon chasing each other and jousting was really neat to watch. Seeing how fish use and relate to different cover was interesting.

Central Maine Region Outdoors In Maine

by V. Paul Reynolds, Ellsworth, ME

sibilities when it comes to this technology?

Stay tuned. Meanwhile, check out some of these remarkable underwater photos of Big Ole game

Smith’s excellent underwater drone photograph of an Atlantic salmon in Schoodic Lake clearly shows a “punched” adipose fin. Could it be the same Atlantic salmon pulled through the ice by Shawna Stevens?

his underwater drone.

Die hard anglers may be wondering whether the day will come when these underwater drones replace the conventional fish finders, and whether there are other unanticipated pos -

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.

(Photo by Jason Smith)

Another salmon photo taken by Smith and his drone. (Photo by Jason Smith)

fish taken by Jason Smith with

Classic

(Cont. from pg 22)

rotating to sponsor booths. When the Top-25 Anglers return to weigh-in their bass, over 100,000 people will be there to cheer for them. Wow, this really is the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing!”

On Day-1 Tyler Williams weighed in a 5-bass limit weighing 16 lb. 7 oz., sitting in 9th place out of 56 anglers. “It rained most of the day, but I kept rotating between a 3/4 oz. Green-

fish little rubber jig with a Yamamoto Flapping Hog trailer and a Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait in a Sexy French Pearl color.”

Day-2 was Cut Day, “Only the Top-25 will advance to Day-3. The weather again changed, it was 38 degrees, cold and very windy out of the North. The water temperature varied within the low 50 degrees. One rule for the Classic was a 14-inch length limit, this rule factored into just about every angler’s catch-ratio. The water clarity changed

to a greenish color, and the bass bites decreased tremendously. I continued to stay with my Greenfish Jig and Megabass Jerkbait, and they continued to entice many bass. Unfortunately, most of the bass were small males under the 14” length requirement. I did manage to put together a 5-bass limit weighing 12 lbs. 10 oz. When the scales closed, I missed making the Top25 by two ounces! I was thrilled to have competed on the Biggest Stage of Competitive Bass Fishing, collect $10,000, but most

SEA

14 Main Rd South, Hampden, ME • Self Storage • Container Sales • Container Rental 207-862-5010 www.landandseastorage.com

of all I fished the way I like to fish, and I had FUN!!!”

Follow Tyler Williams: Facebook @ Tyler Williams Fishing and www. Bassmaster.com

Training

(Cont. from pg 26)

if it’s more fun to chase and my hunter shoots the bird. Regarding the three skills, in my opinion, standing still is the most difficult to consistently maintain during hunting season

when wild bird flushes create a great deal of excitement. We talked about correcting in the field, however, here are tips for offseason maintenance. First, make standing still a daily occurrence. Make the dog stand still before feeding. Don’t put the pan down until the dog is standing still. If the dog moves toward the pan when lowering it, bring it back up. The dog will quickly learn it won’t get fed until it stands still. Make the dog stand still before it’s allowed out a door. Make the dog stand still before it’s allowed in the truck. Alternate the time allowed before allowing the dog to release from standing still. If it’s always five seconds, it will begin to anticipate and break at five seconds. Also, develop a release command. You’ll use it in many different situations. The most common drill we do during offseason is, for both old and young dogs, putting the dog on a place board and then saying whoa. While making sure the dog remains on the place board, a helper throws live birds (usually pen raised quail) at the dog. The dog must stand still on the place board. It’s a great exercise and something I learned from the late pro-trainer Dave Marshall.

Practice the three skills of go, come and stand still and your dog will be ready to go next fall.

Paul and Susan, his wife, host the Bird Dogs Afield TV show. All past episodes can be found on their YouTube Channel ( www.youtube.com/birddogsafield) and their website ( www.birddogsafield. com)

Turkey Time

Ah, May! Longer days, warmer temperatures and Mother Nature waking after a long winter. You have to love it! And I do. As water levels after the rain and snow melt in April start to normalize I

wide. The season and limits haven’t changed, two bearded birds in WMDs 7 and 9 thru 29 and one bearded bird in WMDs 1 thru 6 and 8.

look forward to visiting my favorite trout streams. I’m probably not alone in this desire but like many readers I will have to split my time between moving water and the woodlands and fields.

Maine’s spring turkey season this year actually opened on April 29 In case you’re not up on the current rules and regulations the season will run through June 1 state-

Don’t forget, successful hunters can now

still apply, registration can be done by phone or by computer or any electronic device with internet connection. There is an informative video hosted by Upland Game and Wild Turkey biologist Kelsey Sullivan about the process on the Maine Fish and

have little trouble finding birds this year. According to the most recent harvest figures hunters bagged 7,050 bearded birds last spring. That’s 7-percent higher than the most recent

Maine’s spring turkey season this year actually opened on April 29. In case you’re not up on the current rules and regulations the season will run through June 1 statewide.

Wildlife website in case you have questions about the procedure. Hunters can still register birds at tagging stations as usual but the new system should make registration easier and much more convenient, especially for hunters in Maine’s more rural areas where tagging stations are far apart and becoming difficult to find.

self-register their birds electronically put in place last year. While all transportation and tagging rules

If the 2023 spring season is any indication, and considering the generally mild winter across much of the state hunters should

by Al Raychard, Lyman, ME

neck of the woods and with an estimated 70,000 birds, some estimates are as high as 75,000 it should be a fun and productive time out there!

Good luck, enjoy yourself and be safe!

5-year average. It is also the highest spring total during the last five years. What the total will be this year is difficult to say. Much will depend on weather conditions and hunter participation but judging by the birds we’ve seen in my

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 year-round trout stream the property would be pure heaven. Al can be reached at alraychard@sacoriver.net

When you start learning about wilderness survival, camping, or bushcraft, there are lots of terms and acronyms you will hear or read. Some of them are obvious and some are not. I have always said my articles are a good place to start learning and to introduce people who don’t have much experience in the outdoors to basic skills.

Hopefully this article will help make your reading and learning a little easier and less confusing.

AO- Area of Operation. Wherever you are doing what you are doing. If you are at camp, camp is your AO at the time.

BANNOCK - Camp bread consisting of Flour, baking powder, salt, water. Usually cooked in a fry pan or mixed thick and wrapped around a stick to cook. Sometimes sugar or dried fruit is added.

BATONING - Splitting wood with a knife by hitting the spine of the blade with a stick or mallet.

Basics Of Survival

by Joe Frazier, Bangor, ME

BIRD NEST - Extremely fine tinder. Usually Shredded birch bark or dry grass on the outside and dandelion fluff or something that fine inside, formed into a loose ball. Charcloth or an ember from another source is placed in

Learning the Lingo

Usually where you keep supplies, food and water. A camp, property, a friend’s house in a different town, etc.

BUSHCRAFT- Practicing skills in and pertaining to the woods. Building shelters, making fires, gathering food, making tools, etc.

CAMPING - A planned outing, usually with a tent or tarp to sleep

Hopefully this article will help make your reading and learning a little easier and less confusing.

the middle and formed into a ball around the ember. Used to start a fire from a very small source.

BUG IN- Shelter in place. Planning to stay in your house to ride out a storm or emergency.

BUG OUT - Leave where you are during an emergency, going to someplace safer.

BUG OUT BAG- A bag or backpack containing basic supplies to help you get to your safe location. Usually if you are on foot or bicycle.

BUG OUT LOCATION- A place you plan to go in case of an emergency,

in. Most times in the woods or a campground. If you go out for a weekend in a simulated survival situation to test your skills, that is camping with self imposed restrictions. In an actual survival situation, game laws are disregarded because your life is on the line. In training, it is not.

CHARCLOTHcloth, usually cotton, burned in a no oxygen environment to produce carbon. Charcloth is used to catch and grow sparks for fire starting.

EDC - Every Day Carry. Items you carry on a daily basis, such as keys,

Send Us Your Favorite Game and Fish Recipes!

Most outdoor folks like to eat what they bring home from the woods or the waters. And you like to cook it yourself, too right? So what is your favorite culinary lashup with fish or fowl? The Northwoods Sporting Journal would like to know. And we invite you to help us share your proud concoction with all of our readers. Our Northwoods Sporting Journal website:www.sportingjournal.com has a new addition: Outdoor Connections, which includes “Sporting Journal’s Top Shelf Game & Fish Recipes.” It has become a popular spot for visitors to find some great outdoor recipes, not from TV cooks, but from folks like you who live it.

Email us your favorite outdoor recipe to editor, V. Paul Reynolds, at vpaulr@tds.net. We won’t send you any money, or give you a new boat and motor, but we will list your recipe with all the others, along with your name.

If your recipe catches on and goes viral, we’ll figure out some kind of reward - say a new fry pan, a crockpot, or maybe a dutch oven?

So get crackin’...

wallet, knife, etc.

EMP - An Electromagnetic Pulse. A burst of energy sent out when a nuclear bomb is detonated. The pulse overloads and frys any electrical circuit not protected.

used to start a fire, especially when tinder is wet or hard to find.

FERO ROD - Also called FERROCERIUM

FAK- First Aid Kit. FARADAY CAGE -

A metal box with insulation inside designed to protect electronics from an EMP. A metal trash can lined with Styrofoam would be a Faraday cage.

FATWOOD - when pine trees die, the resin concentrates in the base of the branches and the base of the tree. Instead of looking dry, the wood will look shiny like it is varnished. It will also smell like turpentine. Fatwood burns extremely well and just a few shavings will get a fire started.

FEATHER STICKSSticks that have curls or slivers shaved down the sides but not cut off at the end. They look like a dish washing brush. They are

ROD. A metal rod that produces extremely hot sparks when scraped with a knife or steel scraper. Used to start fires. Water does not effect its usefulness. A very small fero rod is what is inside lighters that produces the spark to ignite the gas.

550 CORD - Also called PARACORD. Nylon rope a little larger than a shoelace with an outside sheath and 5 or 7 strands inside. Originally used in parachutes. It is very handy for tying down or securing most anything. It is supposed to be rated for 550 pounds, but NEVER trust it for climbing or where your life depends on it.

GHB. GET HOME

BAG - Gear in a bag or backpack to help you get home from work or wherever you are, usually if you don’t have a vehicle.

(Lingo cont. pg 35)

(Photo by V. Paul Reynolds)

Rifle Accuracy Thieves

Col. Townsend Whelan once said, “Only accurate rifles interest me”. Well, accuracy is one of those relative terms. It can mean different things to different people. Sub MOA or minute of angle groups are a requirement for long range competition shooters. Minute of angle translates to a 1” or smaller 3 shot group at 100 yards. Two inch or smaller groups at 200 yards etc. Most hunters, however, are happy with 1 and 1/2 inch to 2 inch groups at 100 yards from their hunting rifles. We consider this practical accuracy. There are also specific things that can happen to negatively affect accuracy.

I recently received a phone call from a very nice gentleman from the Kittery area. He was asking for me to help him diagnose a miss he had experienced on a very nice whitetail buck. He said his 7 mm/08 rifle was extremely accurate. We talked further and he related that he rested the barrel on a log to steady his aim, but it looked like the shot went high over the buck’s back. What caused this mishap is something called “Harmonic Action”. It is a vibration in the barrel

take a dollar bill and slip it between the barrel and forend stock. Slide the dollar forward and back from the point where the barrel is connected to the receiver up to the end of the forend. The bill should slide freely. If it does not, the forend should be relieved by routing out the stock with a curved rasp. There are

that happens as the bullet travels down the barrel. This vibration is incorporated into your sights or scope, so it rarely is even noticed. However, when you rest the barrel on a hard object, like a log, it causes the barrel to bounce slightly. This bounce is unpredictable and can cause the shot to go high, low, right or left, depending on where on the barrel the hard surface is. Most people learn this lesson the hard way by experiencing a miss. It is important to rest your rifle on the forend of the stock. The action is bedded or suspended inside the forend without touching. At least that’s what is supposed to happen. Wooden stocks can sometimes warp if they get wet. If this warpage causes the forend to touch the barrel, the result can be the same. The simple test to see if the wooden forend is touching the barrel is to

by Tom Kelly, Orient, ME

let as it leaves the barrel do so very evenly. A nick or scratch on the crown can disrupt the even dispersion of muzzle gas causing a loss of accuracy. These are a few of the most common accuracy thieves. There are

that kid. See you at the lake or in the woods.

Tom is a Registered Maine Guide. He is the owner/operator of Shamrock Outfitters in Orient Maine with his wife Ellie.

What caused this mishap is something called “Harmonic Action”. It is a vibration in the barrel that happens as the bullet travels down the barrel. This vibration is incorporated into your sights or scope, so it rarely is even noticed.

other simple reasons for inconsistent accuracy. Loose scope mounts are common culprits. Tightening of all screws on your scope mounts should happen well before the hunt. If the screws are found to be loose, they must be tightened. The rifle should then be zeroed again because it will have moved.

There are other things that can have an effect on your rifle’s accuracy. Frequently, I have seen my clients get into my truck or side-by-side and place the muzzle of their rifle on the floor and the butt of the gun sticking up. Look at your floor-boards sometime. There is sand and grit on the floor, no matter how clean your truck is. The crown on your barrel is very smooth and evenly cut. This is necessary so the gases escaping the muzzle behind the bul-

of course, many more. I know we have talked about these in the past, but I have had requests recently to review them again. Thank you for the feedback. Please remember to take a kid or a new hunter with you on your outdoor adventures. I don’t know who said it, but when you take a kid with you on your adventures, it may not change the world, but you may change the world for

He is a retired police officer as well as a retired manager from two major firearms manufacturers. He is an NRA Certified Instructor as well as a Hunter Safety Instructor in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. You can reach Tom at Shamrock Outfitters (207) 694-2473. Please visit our Facebook Page: Shamrock Outfitters and Properties and come visit us on East Grand Lake.

See the mistake in this photo? The rifle’s stock forend, not the barrel, should be resting on the shooting stick. (Photo by V. Paul Reynolds)

The Maine Woods

Matt LaRoche, Shirley, ME

I am a dyed-in-thewool fly fisherman but I do like to troll lures after the ice goes out and the fly hatches have not started yet. My favorite lure is a copper weeping willow. My wife Ruth and I have been trolling for brook trout on the Allagash headwater lakes many evenings

would want to fish a lure or fly that imitates a smelt. However, I have had great luck using my trusty copper weeping willow when the trout are feeding on smelt.

Trolling speed is a variable that you will need to experiment with. I like to troll medium size lures at about two miles per hour.

Trolling speed is a variable that you will need to experiment with. I like to troll medium size lures at about two miles per hour.

and she will be using that old standby copper weeping willow and I will be trying different lures. She will out fish me almost every time. Maybe she is just a better fisherman than I am?

I have found that trolling speed and depth of water are two variables that make a big difference. I like to troll for brook trout along the shoreline in water that is only four or five feet deep. Preferably near a stream that has a smelt run. Generally, if you are fishing in early May during or after the smelt run. You

Make a note of the speed you are getting hits at and try to maintain that speed. I will quite often make a turn with the boat to increase or decrease the speed in an effort to get a fish to hit.

As a general rule, the bigger the lure the faster you should troll. Conversely, the smaller the lure the slower you should go. Another trick is to run a lure or streamer on a short line directly behind the boat in the bubbles of the motor. I don’t know what it is about those bubbles but they seem to attract fish,

Spring Salmon Trolling

especially salmon.

My brother Mark and I were trolling streamers up on the West Branch of the Penobscot a few years ago below Debsconeag Falls. We were trolling on short lines right behind the motor. We caught a salmon on just about every pass up close to the falls. I would go as close as I dared with the canoe to the falls, when I made my turn – wham!

If you are fishing for togue, go as slow as your motor will troll. One and a half miles per hour is the speed I like to go when trolling for togue but sometimes the motor will not idle that slow without stalling. If that is the case, you will need to drag a bucket behind the boat. When I used to togue fish with Brady Scott on Eagle Lake using live bait, he would troll so slow that you could see the individual blades of the prop as it spun around. Some of the new four stroke motors are not designed to run that slow. If your motor will not troll slow enough, you will have to do something to slow it down. When fishing for togue go slowww!

My friend Ted Wolfertz is a better lake fisherman than I am. He is not

afraid to try different lures. He catches fish on some lures that I would never buy. They look nothing like a smelt or any other bait fish but they work. If you hang around a bait shop for a while people will come in asking for certain lures. If you ask a few questions, you will find out what lures are working and where they are fishing.

Spring only happens once a year, so get out there

and enjoy trolling on your favorite lake. Keep those lines tight!

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 207695-2877 or at matt.laroche2877@gmail.com . See www.mainewoodsguide.com

LOOKING FOR NEW CUSTOMERS?

~ Al Elkin,

The author with a nice West Branch salmon.

Two-Fer

(Cont. from pg 27)

Mossberg on the lead Tom.

Just as I was about to fire, the lead Tom slowed, and the trailing Tom quickly caught up. I realized if I held off another second, both redheads would be at the end of my barrel and a double would be possible. Once their heads became one, I fired. Both Toms rolled and started flopping. I ran over to confirm I had fatally hit the birds and as I approached them, not only did I notice big spurs and eight to 10-inch beards, but to my amazement, each Tom was sporting some jewelry.

“This can’t be real” “Is this a setup?” “Did I do something wrong?” were just a few thoughts that raced through my mind as I tried to make sense of the situation. One band -

ed gobbler is one thing, but two? With one shot? That’s difficult to fathom for any turkey hunter. To make things even more unbelievable, the bands were consecutive: T452 and T453. That evening, I reported the bands to the USGS bird banding program and learned both birds were banded as Jakes 16 months prior and seven miles away, as a crow flies. Both had virtually no spurs and tiny beards at the time of capture. These birds either stuck together for that entire time or had a very unfortunate reunion.

It took a while before my achievement set in. I still can’t explain the odds. Many hunters consider getting just one band a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I won’t hold my breath until my next one, but every time I walk by those shiny bands, I’ll

get a good chuckle thinking about how lucky I was. Who knows? Maybe you’re next.

Lingo

(Cont. from pg 32)

GRAY MAN- Someone who blends in, does not stand out in a crowd or draw attention to himself.

KINDLING - small firewood from pencil diameter to the size of your thumb. Used once a fire is started well with tinder.

KUKSA- A wooden cup, usually hand carved. Often the size of a coffee cup.

LEAN-TO - A type of shelter that is closed on the back and open to the front and sides. Usually the top is angled at about 45 degrees or a little less.

OFF THE GRIDBeing disconnected from the power grid. Sometimes

this refers to being disconnected from all commercial utilities.

ORIENTEERING -

Usually a sport or race finding your way with a map and compass, no GPS. Can also mean simply finding your way using map and compass rather than electronics.

PETROLEUM JEL-

LY COTTON BALLUsed as a fire starter. It is a regular cotton ball that has been soaked in petroleum jelly. One will burn several minutes.

PRIMITIVE

SKILLS- Practicing skills and making things without using modern tools or materials.

PSK - Personal Survival Kit

RULE OF THREES-

SAK - Swiss Army Knife

SHTF - Something Hitting The Fan

STROP - A leather band used for final sharpening of a knife or razor.

SURVIVAL - Using all your skills and available resources to keep yourself alive. An actual (Usually unexpected) situation where you could possibly not live. Adverse circumstances that could kill you.

TEOTWAWKI- The End Of The World As We Know It. Armageddon.

TINDER - Very fine pieces of bark or wood, no larger than a pencil lead. Used for starting fires. Can be lit by a match sized flame.

Joe is a husband, father, author and Marine. Joefrazier193

A guide to prioritize needs. You can live 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food.

View From The River

by Laurie Chandler Bremen, ME

The Unlikely Treasures of Bayou Bienvenue

It sure didn’t look like much from the highway. There was no sign for the marina, just a battered driveway into the parking lot of a defunct casino. The heyday of the Paradise Casino was obviously long gone, the only clue to its glory days a faded neon sign in fancy script, adorned with white egrets. Dubiously, I crept through a maze of cratered potholes awash with water driven in from the windy bayou.

launching fee and agreed that today was a little too raw. I planned to return early Sunday morning, when the forecast looked promising. In the meantime, I was welcome to wander around.

This was the real thing. Rugged hard-worked boats with names like St. Peter and Mary and Jimmy

I returned as planned on a brilliant morning to a different world. The same shrimping boats looked bright and cheerful now, and the water was flat calm.

Ahead, a row of shrimping boats hinted that there was indeed a boat launch somewhere. The place had been recommended in an article about the best places to kayak near New Orleans. The accompanying picture beckoned with a view of marsh grasses perfectly reflected in the deep blue stillness of Bayou Bienvenue.

One glimpse of the water and I knew that this would be just a scouting trip. Hai, the marina’s owner, showed me where I could put in for a $5 kayak

Boy lay idle now. Shrimping season would begin here, in Zone 2, sometime in May. I counted at least a half dozen sunken vessels—sailboats, power boats, and one shrimping boat—simply abandoned where they lay after the destruction of Hurricane Ida.

I sat cross-legged on the rough concrete pier, watching the waves roll in. A group of birds braced themselves against the wind atop a row of tilted wooden pilings, and the slap of the water came loud above the mournful creaking and groaning of boat rigging.

I returned as planned on a brilliant morning to a different world. The same

shrimping boats looked bright and cheerful now, and the water was flat calm. Following Hai’s clear directions, I wound my way northeast up the bayou toward the Intracoastal Waterway. The main channel was busy with boat traffic, fisherman hurrying out after redfish, but the salt marshes offered many tiny side channels and hidden dead ends to explore.

The American anhinga was a new and fascinating bird for me. Startle them and they take to the water, swimming in surges with just their long sinuous necks and heads visible. A moment later, they vanish underwater. Anhingas seem far more at ease perched high in the trees, where they occasionally stretch their wings in cormorant fashion. The anhinga’s beak is long, thin, and pointed, however, and its tail is much longer than a cormorant’s.

Here, there were more wrecked and abandoned boats, even a washed-up shipping container and a demolished jet ski. I paddled for two miles until a large pair of floodgates came into view. These are part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ response to Hurricane Katrina. The gates usually stand open to allow boat traffic to pass but can be closed to prevent deadly storm surges from reaching St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans.

The crowning glory of

the day had to be my first roseate spoonbill, one of several species of waterbirds I found feeding in a single cove. My eyes quickly skimmed over a great egret and little blue heron, drawn to the exotic pink of this large bird perched on a log along the far shore. With the binoculars, I looked in wonder at its spoon-shaped bill and the pink color that grew more intense across its wings and continued down its long legs. Afterward, I decided this was probably an older juvenile, as adults are an even darker pink and lose the feathers on their heads.

I’ve begun decorating my kayak with stickers from some of the places we’ve explored. In New Orleans a few days later, I found a beautiful roseate spoonbill to put alongside the sticker from Georgia’s

Okefenokee Swamp. So far, I’ve put about forty miles on the new boat, including a return trip to Bayou Bienvenue with two of my new camping friends. It may be slow, but my Oru Lake folding kayak has taken me to places I otherwise would never have seen. For the purposes of this journey, it was a wise purchase.

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. To purchase the books, or read the blog about this trip, visit .www.laurieachandler. com

What’s It Mean?

For the curious, firsttime dabbler in legislative policy making, the true test of the impact of a piece of legislation is how the proposal approaches definitions of terms. Long ago and far away, while I was serving in the legislature, we were considering a series of bills to modernize the legal terminology regarding the regulation

cence of the night hunting charge by asserting that, in fact, they weren’t hunting.

The Maine Supreme Court, however, its decision (State v. Allen) affirming the conviction that yes indeed, you can be in the woods or where game is abundant at night; that’s perfectly okay. Further, there’s no issue with having a light with you, and having a gun with

ammunition is just plain bully, too.

of our favorite outdoor activities. Like, for example, hunting.

If you’re the average, intelligent, and capable outdoorsman, you might look at the wrangling around the legal definition of “hunting”, shake your head, and wonder if people who get elected to public office are either a bit touched in the head or eat something regularly that disagrees with their temperament.

The law, however, is a curious thing, if you think of “curious” in the Alice in Wonderland sense.

It all started in the fall of 1955 with a game warden arresting a pair of night hunters driving through a blueberry barren at two o’clock in the morning after they had shined a treeline with a spotlight. The two pleaded their inno-

sideways at the word “molest” in the modern context, and thought maybe rewording the definition was in order, so we substituted “attempt to…” in rounding out the definition of hunting.

by Matthew Dunlap, Old Town, ME

What gets you in trouble, they said, is the overt act. Shining a treeline, firing a shot—well, now you’re hunting. So the Legislature, in response, defined “to hunt” as “to hunt for, pursue, molest, catch, take, kill wound or destroy wild birds and wild animals.”

Thirty-five years later, we took a long look at Title 12 of the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated. Over decades of legislating, the titles of law get a little tangled and it becomes hard to find things. So we engaged in a multi-year process of recodification, which is now the version of fish and game laws we use today.

When we got to the definitions, we got a little hung up on what it means to hunt. Legislators looked

The late Rep. Royce Perkins, R-Penobscot, a real champion of sportsmen, was always thinking of arguments to counter the attacks of anti-hunters. Somehow, the word “harvest” began to come up

Parker asserted that the 1883 prohibition against hunting on Sundays was unconstitutional in light of the 2021 amendment to the state Constitution, ratified by the voters, asserting that “all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to… harvest…the food of their

the application of a definition can be pretty focused and can vary widely depending on the public policy purpose. For instance, there are literally dozens of legal definitions of what it means to be a ‘resident’. In case you’re wondering, one of the most restrictive residency standards is found in—you guessed it—inland

The Maine Supreme Court, however, its decision (State v. Allen) affirming the conviction that yes indeed, you can be in the woods or where game is abundant at night; that’s perfectly okay.

over and over again. “You know, the more I think about it, the more I like the word ‘harvest’,” he finally asserted. We figured it was a fairly harmless addition, and it made for a unanimous committee vote.

The new language? “To “hunt” means to pursue, catch, take, kill or harvest wild animals or wild birds or to attempt to catch, take, kill or harvest wild animals or wild birds.”

The harmless word “harvest”, though, was the fulcrum of another Supreme Court case—Virginia Parker et al. v. Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The lawsuit filed by Virginia and Joel

own choosing…as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching….” (truncated for clarity).

The Supreme Court did affirm that given the language of the 2021 amendment that we have a limited right to hunt, but that the prohibition against poaching gives the state legal standing to write and enforce game laws. In 1883, the state decided that hunting on Sundays was in fact against the law and thus a form of poaching.

Sometimes, the problem with a legal definition as promulgated by the Legislature is that often times

fisheries and wildlife law.

So, if you begin to dabble in legislative policy making, when you read a new bill, don’t take for granted or skim over any proposed definitions of terms. You might be surprised as to what someone else defines as a ‘fish’.

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.

The creation of our world is unarguably a glimpse of what perfection is. Whatever you believe, the Creator has created a beautiful, natural world. Nature can be brutally honest, abrupt, and seem very unfair to us humans. Whether it is a moose dying of tick infestation, or a baby grouse dying of

Maine Outdoor Adventure

by Rich Yvon, Bradford, ME

its inhabitants. Our greed and arrogance will be our demise. We all need to be held accountable and teach this to our children.

The wolf is a raw example of how nature seems to work. Its very own survival can be compared to our native people in its survival. The very removal of nature in American soci-

The Nature of Things

ensures the best chance of surviving socially, as well as physically. The old, wise, weak wolf leads the wolf family. Next, the strong lend the muscle, and then the female and young are protected by the strong, guarding the rear.

In comparison to our modern-day society in America, which has led our families to divide by removing the natural role of family order. Unlike the wise old wolf who can

The wolf is a raw example of how nature seems to work. Its very own survival can be compared to our native people in its survival. The very removal of nature in American society has led us to confusion, and the destruction of the pack (family).

exposure, life can be cruel to wildlife as well as humans. Going against nature is one of man’s greatest downfalls. We certainly have a love–hate relationship with the earth and

ety has led us to confusion, and the destruction of the pack (family). Our natural resources should always be a priority. The wolf is by nature a survivalist.

The very design of its pack

MEMORIAL DAY

REMEMBER AND HONOR

•Recreation - Moose Safaris, Hiking, Camping & Paddle

•Fishing - Fly and Spin Fishing

•Hunting - Moose, Deer, Turkey, Partridge

•Instruction - Fly Fishing, Survival, Firearms Call to Reserve: 207-907-9151

Web:www.TwinMapleOutdoors.com Email:Info@TwinMapleOutdoors.com

society to flourish and keep sustainable. Awareness and education will help protect and preserve our natural and native environment for future generations. In general, proceeds from sports typically help with the care of our environment. Get-

track, and hunt successfully in the lead, it lends itself to the strong wolves killing prey for the pack. Today, marriages and families are at an all-time high of falling apart. The children are put in the position of leading the family without having the experience, or knowledge, required to maintain a harmonious

Our decline in young children getting into the outdoors is at an all-time low. The outdoors is great for all walks of life, offering great physical and mental health benefits. Learning life skills is key for our

ting our younger people involved will help ensure that our earth keeps what we have left. In turn, they may pass it down to their children and so on. We all need to do our part in keeping traditions alive...

If you would like more information on Maine hunting or ice, fly/spin fishing techniques/strategies for bass, pike, salmon, and trout, please feel to reach out to me. I’m always happy to share my knowledge and experience to

anyone, for a better day of field! On the water lessons and hunting lessons are offered by Rich at https:// twinmapleoutdoors.com/ contact-us/ As always, remember to take a young person hunting or fishing to keep our outdoor heritage alive and well! In addition, please support your local tackle shops and small businesses!

For more information about the Maine outdoors, please contact Rich at: Call: 207-907-9151

Email: info@Twinmapleoutdoors.com

Visit: http://www. TwinMapleOutdoors.com

Rich is a full time Registered Master Maine Master Guide. He owns and operates Twin Maple Outdoors guide service and sporting lodge located in Bradford, Maine. He is a “Certified Yamaha G3 Guide” that runs fly and spin fishing trips with a G3 Jet boat and Stealthcraft drift boat. Rich also guides Maine Partridge, Turkey, Moose, Deer hunting and recreation adventures.

Maine Woods Books to Read

Part One: General Maine & Rangeley

Lots of Maine hunters and fishermen have for many years collected books on the Maine Woods, which they often reread numerous times. Thankfully, they have often shared those collections

Note: For your convenience, Internet archive books can be downloaded to a PDF on your computer, while Hathitrust.org books can be viewed, but only downloaded if you belong to the organization. I have

with me, and some of them have asked me to create a list of the best books on the Maine Woods. While “best” is a subjective idea, I will attempt to create a comprehensive list of Maine Woods books that are the most enjoyable, informative, and readable. The next few months I will publish lists of books from each region of the Maine Woods.

Some of the rare books exist only in private collections and in special collections at libraries, and historical societies, and some of them have been digitized by internetarchive and hathtrust. org and can be viewed on their free websites. The books that are available on those websites are those that have met the current copyright law, which is 75 years after the death of the author. Other books can be obtained through interlibrary loan, at libraries or purchased on ABEbook. com

Doucette, Earle, “Fisherman’s Guide to Maine,” Random House, NY, 1951

Eckstorm, Fanny Hardy “Minstrelry of Maine, Folk-Songs and Ballads of the Woods and the Coast,” 1927

Ford, John “This Cider Still Tastes Funny!” 2013; “Deer Diaries: Tales of a Maine Game Warden,”

Game Wardens Service,” Down East 1985

Books of Lumbering in Maine

Coolidge, Philip T.

“History of the Maine Woods,” Furbush-Roberts, Bangor, 1963

by Steve Pinkham Quincy, MA

also included general guide books, as they are both fascinating to read and full of history and stories. I have marked the books which can be downloaded with an asterisk (*).

General Books on the Maine Woods

Arlen, Alice “In the Maine Woods, An Insiders’ guide to Traditional Maine Sporting Camps,” Countryman Press, 1994 Barry, Phillips, “Maine Woods Songster,” Powell Printing, 1939

Bean, L. L. “H “Hunting-Fishing and Camping,” Self-published, 1942

*Carleton, Leroy T. “Carlton’s Pathfinder and Gazetteer,” Observer Press, 1899

Chambers, Ada and Anna, “Guides for Hire,” Steele Publ. Co. 1988

*Day, Holman, “Up in Maine,” 1900; “Pine Tree Ballads,” 1902; “Kin O’ Ktaadn,”1904; “King Spruce,” 1908; “Rider of the King Log,” 1919

2016; “Living the Dream: Life as a Maine Game Warden,” Islandport Press, 2018.

*Goodwin, Harry L. “Maine Woods & Water Folks and Stories of Hunting & Fishing,” 1896

Gilpatrick, Gil “The Canoe Guide’s Handbook,” Delorme Publ. Co., 1981

Hargreaves, Jack “Panning for Gold, A Maine Memoir,” Soleil Press, 2003

Pinkham, Steve, “Mountains of Maine, “Down East Books,” 2009; “Old Tales of the Maine Woods” 2012; “More Old Tales of the Maine Woods,” Merrimac Media 2014.

Reynolds, V. Paul, “Backtrack,” Islandport Press

Reynolds, V. Paul, “Maine Deer Hunters Logbook,” Maine Outdoor Publications

*Stevens, Charles W. “Fly-fishing in Maine Lakes, or, Camp Life the Wilderness,” Chas. Goodspeed, 1881

Wight, Eric, “Life and Death in the North Woods: The Story of the Maine

Holdbrook, Stewart H. “Holy Old Mackinaw,” Macmillan Company, 1952

Johnson, Charles E., “Coo-Aush-Akee Country,” Oxford Hills Press, 1978

Pike, Robert E. “Spiked Boots, Sketches of the North Country”1959; “Tall Trees, Tough Men” 1967

*Springer, John, “Forest Life & Forest Trees,” Harper, NY, 1851

Wilkins, Austin H. “Ten Million Areas of Timber, TBW Books, Woolwich, 1978

Wood, Richard G. “A

I will attempt to create a comprehensive list of Maine Woods books that are the most enjoyable, informative, and readable. The next few months I will publish lists of books from each region of the Maine Woods.

History of Lumbering in Maine 1820-1861,” Maine Bulletin, UMO, 1961

Rangeley Region

*Allen, Willis Boyd, “Lost on Umbagog,” Lothrop Publ. Co., 1894 (2013 reprint, Isha Books)

*Barker, Fred C., “Lake and Forest as I Have (Read cont. pg 44)

Smith, David C., “A History of Lumbering in Maine 1861-1960,” Maine Studies, UMO, 1972

Steve Pinkham

Maine Woods Historian, Author and Storyteller

617-407-0743

steve@oldtalesofthemainewoods.com

www.oldtalesofthemainewoods.com

South Of the

Kennebec Cast and Blast

by Stu Bristol, Lyman, ME

Actually, this title is backwards when it comes to spring turkey hunting and trout fishing. Head out before daybreak and talk to a longbeard on the roost, and, with any luck your turkey vest will be a lot heavier before most people

In writing circles, this is traditionally called a “cast and blast” day where the hunter/angler takes advantage of two sports in the same day. Kill a deer early? Go fishing in the afternoon. Grouse hunting is

ing outfit is quite simple. When I was growing up my brothers and I cut maple saplings for a fishing rod and shared a spool of braided fishing line and some hooks. We picked up tiny worms along the streamside for bait and usually did as well as the anglers using store-bought rod and reels.

the chamber and sling the shotgun over my back.

and I enjoy an afternoon snooze.

My idea of a perfect turkey hunt in the spring is to come home with a longbeard, a limit of brook trout and either mushrooms or fiddleheads or both.

Some turkey hunters prefer to stick with hunting until mid-day then do some crappie, trout, or bass

Most sporting goods

Far too many hunters and anglers focus on only one sport at a time, either hunting or fishing. I routinely do both, especially in the spring, and I forage for mushrooms and fiddleheads along the way.

wake up for breakfast.

I wised up many years ago when I first found myself deep in the turkey woods, with a bird in hand then crossed a backwoods trout stream wishing I had brought a fishing rod.

Since that day I have carried the makings for a fishing outfit in my turkey vest and even days when turkeys had their mouths shut, I came home with dinner.

best at daybreak especially if you use a bird dog when the scent is strongest. Then, you guessed it, rest the dogs, and go fishing.

Far too many hunters and anglers focus on only one sport at a time, either hunting or fishing. I routinely do both, especially in the spring, and I forage for mushrooms and fiddleheads along the way. My vest pocket fish-

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stores or department stores offer a variety of plastic containers in which to hold your fishing kit. I start filling the kit with about 20 feet of floating flyline, about the same amount of monofilament leader material, extra hooks, a couple flies (nymphs – gold rib hare’s ear and bead-heads) and some extra hooks.

More than once I have given stubborn turkeys a rest and resorted to fishing when a longbeard sneaked up behind me. The first time that happened I learned not to lean my shotgun against a tree while I am fishing. Now I take a round out of

Only a couple of guides I know offer morning hunts and afternoon boat fishing. Admittedly, I am usually too old to offer that kind of outing anymore.

fishing in the afternoon. Maine hunters have the good fortune to be able to hunt turkeys all day. Other nearby states make it easy, requiring turkey hunters to give up at noon, leaving the afternoons open for other activities. Sometimes turkey hunting tires me out

With the unusually mild winter, Maine brooks and streams will be down to perfect fishing levels and temperatures by the middle of May. For nonresidents, I suggest considering a combination hunting and fishing license. The Maine turkey woods offer more than just a turkey dinner.

Stu Bristol is a Master Maine Hunting, Fishing and Tidewater Guide and Outdoor Writer. His features have been published nationwide for more than 60 years. He also is a master game call builder, www. deadlyimpostergamecalls.com

Backwoods fishing kit. (Photo by Stu Bristol)

Hold True to Allagash Wilderness

When I first listened to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands proposal to build six new buildings on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, I didn’t have any kind of opinion about it. I just wanted to hear what it was all about.

at Chamberlain Bridge, Churchill Dam, and Michaud Farm, the last checkin ranger station before the last leg of the river journey. The new development would take place within the 500-foot restricted zone, which buffers each side

The proposed construction would include three large storage facilities to put maintenance equipment under cover. The other three buildings would be new, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant small visitor stations, which would create new, stand alone buildings, a change from the paddler contact stations that are now used and that are connected to the rangers’ three seasonal offices/live-in camps.

The six new buildings would be constructed

of the Allagash River. The proposal also calls for a new, custom designed 23foot boat with sides that drop down at bow, port, and starboard access doors and can be used as an onoff ramps, with a carrying capacity of 2500 pounds, and two 115 hp engines.

The boat would be used for maintenance projects and for deep-water rescues.

Two other excellent reports were made by Fisheries Biologist Noah Frost about AWW water temperatures and suitability for native wild brook trout.

The second was by Noah Pollack, Steward Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, tapped to assess and create a long-term maintenance plan for the Waterway’s campsites. We are fortunate to have such thoughtful, detailed reports about how best to maintain those campsites into

by Suzanne AuClair, Rockwood, ME

therein lies the rub. The federal aid fund would be used to increase the human footprint rather than manage it.

Overall, the Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL) and its Wilderness Waterway Advisory Council were asked at their March

ment and materials around for maintenance projects, helping to keep campsites from becoming eroded over time, and helping an old fleet of three 19-foot Boston whalers.

During the meeting, it was noted that the ADA visitor stations would be

Developing ADA-compliant buildings in remote areas moves the benchmark beyond what was and is and for the keeping of a wilderness area. Often no one is at those stations during the day because rangers are out working, and there really is no call to have them opened 24 hours a day.

the future and about what might make a difference for the continued health of Maine’s brook trout and their habitat.

Over the past year or so, a lot of care has gone into this proposal by Mark DeRoche, Superintendent of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, his staff, and others. Key to it all is a mandate to “Preserve, Protect, and Develop the Maximum Wilderness Character of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.” If there is one principle that every manager and user of the Waterway agrees on, it is that. These words are repeated everywhere. But,

meeting by members of the public to hold true to the wilderness character, rather than build in the restricted zone. Adding new construction, changing the intent of the Wild and Scenic River designation, is opposed by many guides and users of the AWW, including two past superintendents with decades of experience managing it.

By many counts, the storage buildings are needed. They would not be visible from the river.

Right now, equipment goes into an historic barn or under tarps outside for the winter. The boat would be useful for hauling equip-

opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week and would help to develop an interpretive experience. On the other hand, it also said that the development would not encourage increased visitation within the restricted zone. Developing ADA-compliant buildings in remote areas moves the benchmark beyond what was and is and for the keeping of a wilderness area. Often no one is at those stations during the day because rangers are out working, and there really is no call to have them opened 24 hours a day. Paddlers are usually off the (Wilderness cont. pg 47)

The Buck Hunter

by Hal Blood, Moose River, ME

It’s amazing to me how many hunters do not understand the difference between target shooting and shooting game. I’ve guided hundreds of them over my thirty-five-year guiding career. The amount of game that I’ve seen get away, because of a bungled shot is mind boggling. I’ve written before about hunters having a mind body

moved! Target shooting was considered something they did in the military, Olympics and competitions. Most people thought it was a waste of money to just shoot good ammo at a piece of paper. Target shooter shooters learned to shoot with a strict set of fundamentals that were easily taught to the masses. When I was in Marine

What I have found is that people have a hard time separating target shooting from shooting game. That is where problems arise, causing them to miss or worse yet, wound an animal.

separation, (AKA) “buck fever”. I’m talking here about something different than that. I’m talking about the hunters that view game simply as a “target” to shoot at. So, I’ll break it down for you.

Most people learn to shoot at a target nowadays. When I was growing up, we started hunting with our BB-guns and shot birds, chipmunks, squirrels, or about anything else that

Corps boot camp, more than half of the recruits had never shot a gun. There was one week allotted to rifle range and nearly everyone qualified out to 500 yards after one week of training. That was with peep sights as well. How was that possible? We were just taught basic principles of marksmanship and practiced positions and trigger control.

Target practice with these same principles is

Greenville

Woods Shooting Tips

what is widely taught to this day. The first principal drilled into our heads was, sight alignment/ sight picture (aiming). That meant aligning the post in the peep. There were two places to hold sight alignment. Six o’clock and center mast. Both were determined by shooting distance. Most target shooters today use scoped rifles, and this principle doesn’t apply when using a scope. The second principal taught, was breathing and trigger pull (firing). We didn’t use bench rests, just our elbows and knees. We had to “snap in” for our shooting positions. A bench rest makes it easy. The function of pulling the trigger for accuracy taught is to take a deep breath, exhale, and slowly squeeze the trigger when all your air is released. This is when you are the steadiest. What I have found is that people have a hard time separating target shooting from shooting game. That is where problems arise, causing them to miss or worse yet, wound an animal.

The problem with trying to target shoot game in the woods is that there are trees and limbs everywhere and game is either moving or could be at any

moment. This means taking a breath and slowly squeezing is not the best option. The longer you try to hold your gun on target, the more unsteady you will

on the animal that you are aiming for. So, “do not” think about breathing or slowly squeezing the trigger. Just pull your gun up and shoot. That way there

There is a real difference between target shooting and woods shooting.

get, causing your barrel to wave around the target and when the trigger is pulled, there is no telling where the bead or crosshair was. I’ve watched lots of game get away while a hunter is trying to practice target shooting fundamentals in the woods. The answer to woods hunting is to “woods shoot”. Some might call it “snap” shooting, which is not to be confused with just throwing lead!

Woods shooting is simply pulling the trigger, or I call it snapping the trigger the instant your bead or crosshair hits the spot

is no room for error unless you hit a tree or limb that deflects the bullet. If you have always target shot, it will take some practice but it will be well worth the time and effort.

I actually use my woods shooting technique if I’m target shooting. When I was working for Remington, I ran a quality improvement team. One of the guys on my team was a retired Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant, Ken. He had run the Marine Corps shooting team and then the Remington (Tips cont. pg 47)

Sometimes you can carry a memory around for many years before you realize what a profound effect that remembered incident had on someone or yourself. I have written before about how I wondered in the woods near home when I was young. In those days it was common for older children to care for the younger

Voyager Memories

never knew how the experience felt to her. But, jump ahead 70 or 75 years and I finally got a clue from her. Marilyn has lived in Alabama for many years now. She visits once a year if possible. On one of those visits, after she had gone for a walk with me on the nearby woods trails she casually mentioned how

siblings. That was the case with me and my sister, Marilyn. When she was in my care I still wanted to be away in the woods, so I just took Marilyn along with me. She never complained, nor did she say much about the walks, so I

nice it was to get out into the woods. Then it finally hit me! She did really enjoy those forays with me and they provided her with some pleasant memories. I have been surprised at some of my memories from a very early age. The recent

solar eclipse reminded me of another eclipse when I was very young. The strange thing is I can’t remember a thing about the event itself, but I remember what was done to prepare for it. Apparently viewing glasses were not available, but my father prepared by smoking up a piece of glass, probably with a candle, and through it one could view the solar event. I must have looked, but I cannot remember it.

I think this is my favorite

Northwoods

by Gil Gilpatrick, Brunswick, ME

of those visits is about a chicken called Tiger. Remember, I was under the age of five at the time. I always liked to play outdoors, but whenever I left the house to go out there came Tiger running across the barnyard toward me. Before I could do anything the rooster was astraddle my leg and was digging in his spurs and pecking away

roast chicken. I remember asking: is this Tiger? When Mamie nodded and said “yes”, I grinned and decided that this was my best meal ever!

Gil Gilpatrick is a Master Maine Guide, and is the first living recipient of the Legendary Maine Guide award. He is a life member of the Maine Pro-

I think this is my favorite long-ago memory. In the 1930’s my grandparents had a back-woods farm in Canaan. I could not find it today if my life depended on it, but I remember that it was remote...

long-ago memory. In the 1930’s my grandparents had a back-woods farm in Canaan. I could not find it today if my life depended on it, but I remember that it was remote and that in the spring we walked the last part of the trip along a muddy, undriveable road. I spent some time there with them from time to time and the most vivid memory

Best Shot

This was the last week of January 2024 on Mangel Halto beach in Aruba. My name is Matt Lindley I’m 53 and although I’m from RI I do have a camp in Seboeis Plantation, which we absolutely love.

at me. Of course I cried and went in and told Mamie, which is what I called my grandmother. She gave me a stick and told me to give him a good whack when he attacked. The problem was that I was too uncoordinated at that age to hit him. Like a lot of long-ago memories there are gaps, but the final chapter in this one is when we sat down for a Sunday dinner. It was

fessional 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

Read

(Cont. from pg 39)

Known them,” Northwood Press, 1903

*Barker, Fred C. & Danforth, John, “Hunting & Trapping on the Upper Magalloway River & Parmachenee Lake,” Lothrop, Lee & Shephard, 1929

Cook, Robert W., “Chasing Danforth, A Wilderness Calling,” Wilderness Books, 2005

Farmer, Samuel “Guide to the Rangeley Lakes,” Loring, Short & Harmon, Farmington,1879

*Farrar, Charles, A J., “Farrar’s Illustrated Guide Book to the Androscoggin Lakes,’ Lee & Shepard, 1876

*Farrar, Charles A. J.,

“Camp Life in the Wilderness,” 1879; “From Lake to Lake,” 1879; “Wild Woods Life” 1884; “Through the Wilds.” 1892.

Foster, Elizabeth, “The Islanders,” Houghton Mifflin, 1946

*Heywood, Daniel “Parmachenee Guide at Camp Caribou,” R. W. Musgrove, 1891

Hunter, Julia A. & Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., “Fly Rod Crosby,” Tilbury House, 2000

Maule, Francis, “The Tame Trout and other Backwoods Fairy Tales,” 1941

Nile, Leroy, “Kennebago Summer,” Knowlton & McLeary Co., 1947

Noon, Jack, “Win -

tering with Amasa Ward 18889-1890,” Moose Country Press, 2009

*Pendexter, Hugh, “The Young Timber Cruisers,” Small, Maynard & Co, Boston, 1911

Pinette, Richard E., “Northwoods Echoes,” Leibl Printing Co., 1986

Pinette, Richard E., “Northwoods Heritage,” Leibl Printing Co., 1992

Rich, Louise Dickenson, “We Took to the Woods,” 1946; “My Neck of the Woods,” 1950

*Stephens, Charles A. “The Young Moose-Hunters,” Estes & Laurel, 1882

*Thompson, Daniel P. “Gaut Gurley; or, the Trappers of Umbagog,” John J Jewett Co, Boston, 1857. Stewart, Pat “Mollyockett,”

Twin Lights Publ., 2003

*Whitney, J. Parker “Reminiscences of a Sportsman,” Forest & Stream Publ. Co, NY, 1906

*Woodrow, Arthur D. “Metallak, the Last of the Cooashaukes,” Rumford Publ. Co., 1928

March 24, 2024. Tim Hamel from Roxbury with his 6lb.5 ounce bass.

Adrenaline stimulates the heart, causes buckfever and apparently makes your feet go numb.

It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I had finished drying off the goats so there was no rush to be in the barn for chores. The kids were up and I could hear movement and giggling as I went downstairs to the bathroom. I was sitting down thinking great thoughts when I heard my son upstairs, “hey dad, there’s something in the field”. Instinctively I knew it had to be a deer. Thankfully I was finished with the business I was then about.

Standing up from the toilet, I could see nothing from this vantage point. Wearing only a t-shirt and dickies, barefoot, I took off running for the shop. The blacksmith shop is beside the barn and I had left the .308 on the layout table the night before. I grabbed the gun and a handful of bullets. Running flat out, crouched down, I loaded four in the magazine. There was no deer in sight in the upper half of the field. I sprinted to the middle of the field and peaked over the ledges into the lower half. There he was, a small buck, quar-

Barefoot

tering away. I pulled up, the bead covered most of the deer, one hundred and fifty yards at least. Long shot for a receiver sight off hand. He turned and walked broadside still moving further away. I aimed for the line of his back but I was blowing like an ox and was trying to slow my breathing. I touched off and the bullet

ond story of the house. I got a fire going in the woodstove to thaw my feet and we all got dressed to go get the deer.

This was not your typical deer hunt. I usually hunt in the woods, wearing warm boots and alone. This day I was with the wife and kids in the middle of my hay field rolling the deer into the tractor

story and my wife admitted that watching the events unfold gave her an unexpected rush of adrenaline.

Later in the morning Forrest and I walked down to see if we could find any of the spent casings. The grass here had been

There he was, a small buck, quartering away. I pulled up, the bead covered most of the deer, one hundred and fifty yards at least. Long shot for a receiver sight off hand.

skipped off the ledge in front of me. I ran ahead five paces, held my breath, got a bead and fired. He dropped on the spot. I trotted down to see. Nice fat little four pointer shot through the spine. I dispatched him and turned toward home to get the tractor.

I then realized that in the heat of the moment with adrenaline pumping I had forgotten I was barefoot. I remembered now. Wow! My feet were frozen and bruised from running on the lumpy frozen ground. I gingerly inched my way home.

When I got to the farmhouse everyone was talking at once. They had all watched from the sec-

bucket. Everyone watched as I dressed the deer on the edge of the field. This is so much easier when you have a tractor to lift the deer vertical. We hung the deer in the front of the barn and went inside to clean up.

Every hunt, successful or not, is unique. This one was off the charts. We made sausage popover for breakfast and we talked so long that first breakfast blended into second breakfast. All three of the kids told their version of the

cropped short by our team of oxen and the first casing lay shining in the grass. We walked to where I had taken the second shot and

Tales Of A Maine Woodsman

by Joel F. Tripp Limington, ME

found that shell as well. We then paced from there to where the deer was hit, 198 yards. Never before or since have I shot that far, even at a target. Never before or since have I gone hunting barefoot, nor do I intend to.

Joel F. Tripp is a Maine Woodsman and Master Blacksmith who can be found in the blacksmith shop, everyday, wearing a leather apron and steel toe shoes. For more information go to; trippsend.com

Labyrinthia Guest House

Ripley, Maine

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Private Rooms in a beautiful country setting where breakfast is served. Entire house available for deer camp. Near ATV and winter trails. For reservations use Airbnb or call direct for full-house pricing, discounts and availability. (207) 270-1744 Labyrinthia@yahoo.com

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New Hampshire Outdoors

by Peter St. James, Warner, N.H.

Welcome to May or as I call it “The month of no excuses”. And there really shouldn’t be any excuses for not being ready. I mean, the spring turkey season always opens on May 1st and trout fishing always opens in all lakes and ponds on the 4th Saturday in April. Those dates are not surprises or last minute changes foisted on us by a fickle

Really? I’m guessing that they’d all flunk a time management course.

Maybe I’m being too unkind because outdoor activities have always been a priority for me ever since I was a kid on the farm in Maine. I’ve just never lost that kid-like enthusiasm for the next fishing and hunting trip, whether it was two states away or two

Spring! Be Ready

means they forfeit their opportunity to harvest a fall bird. However, the first spring turkey shall be legally registered before the second spring turkey can be taken. One of the spring turkeys may be taken statewide, but the other spring turkey shall only be taken in WMUs H1, H2, I1, J2, K, L, or M. A hunter may not take two spring birds in WMU’s A-G, I2, or J1. Legal shooting hours are ½ hour before sunrise to

In case you were wondering, the highest concentration of turkeys is in the Connecticut River Valley. But with a population estimated to be over 40,000, you can find them anywhere in the state.

legislature. (And believe me, if I could blame the Legislature for anything, I would in a heart beat!)

But basically, you’ve had over six months since the fishing season closed on October 15th to get ready for this year’s adventures. Same story with turkey. It’s been over six months since the fall shotgun season for turkey closed on October 20th. So it just cooks my carrots when folks tell me that they’re not ready for fishing or hunting because they haven’t had the time.

acres away. Guess I just don’t understand how folks can fill up their lives with things that aren’t nearly as fulfilling and memorable as being outdoors with family and friends.

The spring turkey season opens on May 1st and runs through May 31 st .

Turkey hunters may take one male or bearded turkey during the spring season and a second turkey of either sex during the fall. Or, hunters may take two male or bearded turkeys during the spring season, which

12 noon.

In case you were wondering, the highest concentration of turkeys is in the Connecticut River Valley. But with a population estimated to be over 40,000, you can find them anywhere in the state.

Coming up on Sunday, May 19th , the Pittsburg Anglers Association are having their annual Stocking Day and I understand that volunteers are much appreciated. Formed in 2015, the Pittsburg Anglers Association is a 501(c)(3)

organization devoted to supplemental trout stocking of the “Trophy Stretch” and the enhancement of fishing opportunities on the Connecticut River in Pittsburg, N.H. If you’re not familiar with it, the “Trophy Stretch” is one of New England’s premier trout and salmon fisheries. It’s two and a half miles of pocket water, riffles and pools with primarily a rocky bottom with boulders and some gravel. Bag limits on the Trophy Stretch are an aggregate of two fish; trout must be twelve inches in length and salmon must be 15 inches in length. Obviously to help protect the fishery and the experience, many of us think that catch and release is the way to go. And if you head up, a 4 to 6 weight rod is ideal for fly fishing in Pittsburg. If you’d like to know more about how you could make a donation to the stocking effort, go to : pittsburganglers.com. And, if you’d like to know more about volunteering

on stocking day, call Tall Timbers Lodge at 800-8356343 and ask for Tom.

If bass fishing is your thing, don’t forget that May 15th - June 15 th is catch and release only and only artificial lures and flies can be used.

I started this column by saying that May was the Month Of No Excuses. So that’s they way I’m going to close it. You’ve got until midnight May 31st to get your application in for the moose lottery if you want to be eligible for the June 21st drawing. You can enter on line or download and mail in your application. Either way, get started at huntnh.com.

Now you know. No excuses not to enter!

Peter St. James is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, Outdoor Writers Association of America and is a licensed NH Fishing Guide. You can reach him at : outsideinsides603@ gmail.com

Wilderness

(Cont. from pg 41)

river by supper and making camp. Creating ADA access points creates a new fault line with future ramifications, where it is not needed.

Including local communities with ties to the river’s culture and history is part of the AWW strategic plan. Collaborating with local people who already hold the stories, like the Allagash Historical Museum and the Moosehead Historical Society, points people to infrastructure and expertise that is already in place. These well-established organizations would welcome the added business and opportunity to tell their stories about families, settlement, and the logging era.

For people paddling the river, the river is their interpretive experience. The river tells its own story, to every paddler, fresh every single day. The challenge for our human success is the restraint with which the entire experience can be managed, against the will to expand our own

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footprint.

Creating ADA-compliant stations unnecessarily opens up a whole can of worms to the future. Someone using a wheelchair will likely not be canoeing down the river. If the path to the way stations is rutted, the argument could be made later that, for safety sake, it should be paved, and signs erected to show the way. A wilderness area is not the same as a park. There are dozens of beautiful state parks throughout Maine that are ADA accessible. And interpretive exhibits ready to be visited. The Waterway campsites get impeccable care from the rangers, and, it seems, from the paddlers coming through the river. When we made the trip last fall, the campsites and outhouses were well maintained, a treat really come the end of day. Carry-In Carry-Out seems to be respected by paddlers. The state’s strategic plan is to maintain the Waterway’s wilderness character and ecological integrity, and minimize disruption of the natural wilderness character within the restricted

zone. A guiding principle for the Waterway is to place a priority on solitude and a simple wilderness experience to its primary users, canoeists and fishermen.

Even within Maine, there are now only two, maybe three, places that offer an increasingly rare form of solitude and traditional, remote North Woods experience: Baxter State Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, and maybe, the St. John River.

Funds for the Allagash project, estimated at $1.2 million, come from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which was released to states as part of a post Covid-19 economic aid package. An estimated $4.6 billion was received by the State of Maine for various uses.

The funds must be obligated to a project by Dec. 31, 2024, and must be used by Dec. 31, 2025.

Perhaps those funds can go toward the maintenance of the Waterway campsites, where it would do the greatest stewarding good, rather than to ADAcompliant visitor stations

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and expanded interpretive places. Let the river speak for itself. And the communities who hold the historical keys and infrastructure do the same.

Suzanne AuClair is an avid outdoorswoman. She lives near Rockwood and has been writing about the Moosehead Lake Region for the past 29 years.

She produced Maine’s reference anthology, “The Origin, Formation, and History of Maine’s Inland Fisheries Division.”

Tips

(Cont. from pg 42)

shooting team. He was a distinguished marksman with both rifle and pistol. Needless to say, he could shoot and teach people to shoot. He was not a hunter though. We were testing a lot of rifles at the time, and I tried to go back to the old target shooting principles but could not shoot accurately that way. One day I told Ken about it, and he simply said, “you don’t need to worry about the fundamentals because you

have hunted so long, that you have muscle memory.” I hadn’t realized it, but knew he was right. He said you can’t teach muscle memory; it comes with lots of practice.

The bottom line is this: to get good at anything takes practice. So if you want to be a good woods shooter, start practicing. It doesn’t have to be on big game. You can start by shooting red squirrels chipmunks, rabbits, etc. I shoot red squirrels around my house as they clean out the bird feeders. I can hit them out to fifty yards with an open sighted .22. I shoot offhand and use my woods shooting technique. If you practice enough, you will get the muscle memory you need to consistently hit any game quickly and accurately.

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

by Dennis Jensen, Vermont Vermont

Danger in the Turkey Woods

the strangest thing was, this tom flew down before full daylight. He hit the ground and was gobbling like crazy. I just waited and, finally, through some thick cover, I could see his red head and his full fan.

But now I am thinking, this moron could end up shooting me, if he moved off to my left or right, so I began a furious, repeated loud hooting.

Over the years, I have kept two things in mind when setting out, in the darkness, for a morning of spring turkey hunting: (1) Make every effort to hunt where I have either killed a long beard in the past or have scouted a few places where I have heard sufficient gobbling and (2) doing all that I can to avoid other hunters.

I have been somewhat successful in that first endeavor; in the second case, I prided myself in having avoided other hunters, with two exceptions. Many years ago, hunting just across the street where I live, I roosted a bird just before dark. I was set up, maybe 75 yards from where the tom was roosted and had him going at first light. And

Now only about 50 yards out, I waited in silence. And then, to my utmost disgust, I heard the sound of yelping behind me and knew, at once, that this was no hen because the yelping stayed in one place. With my back against a big pine tree and a blaze orange hat secured, behind me, six feet up, the intruding hunter had to know what was up. But now I am thinking, this moron could end up shooting me, if he moved off to my left or right, so I began a furious, repeated

loud hooting. Moments later, I saw the tom beat feet from out front. I stood, cursing the intruder but he was gone. Thanks, pal.

The second incident was all my fault. Out with my oldest son Dan, we were working our way up a trail cleared by loggers a few years earlier, when

we heard a bird gobbling up above us. Experience has taught me that it is very difficult to call a tom downhill, so we went left and tried to move on the bird. Moving with all the stealth we could manage, when we got to the very top of the ridge, I could hear the sound of a turkey tak-

ing wing. Moments later, I saw the hunter emerge from his sitting position. I had busted the man’s setup. I apologized to the man, repeatedly. But he was very gracious about the incident, telling us it was no big deal.

In more than nearly four decades of spring turkey hunting, that was the only time I had ever, to my knowledge, messed up another hunter’s chances at killing a tom turkey.

My guess is that, on many occasions, the situation that arises isn’t always one hunter, like the clown above, who knew better, I believe that, oftentimes, when you have one hunter working a vocal gobbler, a second hunter hears that tom and, without knowing it, comes to the call of the bird.

But this not simply an unlucky situation we are talking about here; this is also a recipe for a disaster. We all have heard the sad accounts of how one hunter shoots another in the turkey (Woods cont. pg 54)

turkey from the spring woods in Vermont.

(Photo by Dennis Jensen)

Vermont Hunters Enjoy Success

Hunters reported a total of 16,845 deer during the Vermont deer seasons in 2023. The total harvest was 3% less than the previous 3-year average of 17,436, while the buck harvest of 9,848 was 3% more than the previous 3-year average of 9,533 bucks. The total harvest was 4% less than the 17,461 deer harvested in 2022, while the total buck harvest was 2% more than the 2022 buck harvest of 9,619.

Adult bucks comprised 59% of the total harvest, with 34% adult does, 4% male fawns, and 3% female fawns. Rifle season accounted for 45% of the total deer harvest, while 29% were harvested during archery season, 15% during the December muzzleloader season, 5% during the antlerlessonly October muzzleloader season, 6% during youth season, and less than 1% during the novice season.

A total of 115 deer were reported with scaled weights of 200 pounds or more. The heaviest deer weighed 243 pounds and was taken in the town of Wheelock. At least one 200-pound deer was reported from every WMU. ***

Hunters bagged 837 black bears in Vermont during the combined 2023 seasons. The harvest represents a decrease of 3 bears from the 2022 harvest of 840 bears and was 94 bears above the 10-year average harvest of 743 bears. Of those taken, 474 were males, 363 were females, yielding a harvest sex ratio

of 1.31 males per female. A total of 617 bears were harvested during the early bear hunting season and 220 during the late season that overlaps with the regular November deer season.

There were 29 bears over 300 pounds reported.

A 429 pound bear was taken in Lunenburg, a 420 bear in Holland and one weighing 396 in Sutton. ***

Turkey hunters also did well, taking a combined total of 6,972 turkeys during the 2023 turkey hunting seasons. The kill was among the highest ever recorded. The highest was in 2018 when a total of 7,187 turkeys were taken and was 6% higher than the previous 10-year average of 6,556.

The spring season resulted in 5,106 beard turkeys reported. The fall shotgun season accounted for 664 birds and the fall archery season another 144.

Moose Hunt Restricted To Northeast Corner Of State

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department proposed issuing 180 moose hunting permits in Vermont’s Wildlife Management Unit E with no permits recommended for the rest of the state. This is the same number of permits as were issued last year.

The proposal was given initial approval by the Fish and Wildlife Board at its February 21 and hearings to allow public input were held in March. The final vote is scheduled for April 3. As I write this in

late March, it looks like the season will take place as recommended.

The goal of the department’s moose season recommendation is to improve the health of moose

leader. “The higher moose density supports high numbers of winter ticks which negatively impact moose health and survival.”

Ongoing monitoring

There were 29 bears over 300 pounds reported. A 429 pound bear was taken in Lunenburg, a 420 bear in Holland and one weighing 396 in Sutton.

in WMU-E by reducing the number of moose and thereby reducing the abundance and impact of winter ticks.

WMU-E is in Essex County in the northeastern corner of the state. It basically runs from Holland and Canaan in the north to Concord and Lunenburg in the south.

“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

of moose health in WMUE shows the population continues to be negatively impacted by winter ticks. Birth rates are low, and many calves do not survive 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 plans

by Gary W. Moore,

to issue 80 either-sex moose hunting permits and 100 antlerless moose permits for the moose season this October. This is expected to result in taking about 94 moose, or about 10 percent of the moose population in WMU-E.

May Fishing Is Often Very Good.

Although most of this column is about hunting, we should not forget how good the fishing can be this time of year. The trout and (Success cont. pg 51)

I’m officially a former member of the USA Fly Fishing Team now that the 2024 Championship has wrapped up. I knew this would be my last event, but I was not sure how I’d actually feel about finishing up my competitive fly fishing career. Much of the last decade was spent planning my free time around tournaments and practice. I have to say, it feels really good. Having the constant pressure to navigate travel and fishing around my increasingly busy schedule

Maple Country Outdoors

by Ben Wilcox, Essex, VT

was taxing. It kind of feels like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, and it will be great to be able to focus on my kids activities (including fly fishing) without feeling like I should be on the water myself.

As far as the event goes, I didn’t have the top 10 finish I wanted, and I certainly got schooled on the art of winter fly fishing. I’ve never really fished in the winter nor done a competition in the winter and I learned a lot about the drifts the fish want and where the fish hold in the rivers. It was a great learning experience as always and I cannot wait to try some of the tactics I learned here in VT when the water is cold.

As usual practice was

2024 US Fly Fishing Championship

a lot of fun and I fished really well. However during practice it was beautiful weather with sun and highs in the upper 60’s. The fish were a little more active than in the comp. When comp time rolled around the weather got pretty nasty. 30’s and rain almost everyday.

My first session of the

comp was tough. There was a water release and only about 20% of the water was even accessible, and it had been fished by world bronze medalist Devin Olsen a hour before. He beat up the accessible fish pretty good. I landed 6, lost a couple and had some too short to score. It was the only beat that had so little

The author with a large wild North Carolina Brown Trout caught during practice for the US Fly Fishing Championship. It ate a pheasant tail while sitting in the sun in the sandy tailout of a pool.

to slow down my drift as much as possible to get the fish to eat. The best deep water produced a few fish, but when I ran down and fished the worst looking water on the beat, a shal-

The last session I took what I learned and fished well. It was 33 degrees and a downpour. I caught 7 along with three other anglers including the eventual national champion Michael Bradley who lives in the area.

amount of water fishable during high flows. My second session was on a much smaller section of river. I started mid way through the beat and discovered I needed

low flat with small riffles and depressions, I caught most of my fish. Up above the fish were eating really fast and I was missing lots. Down in the flat they were eating more confidently and my hookup ratio went way up. I ended up scoring (Fishing cont. pg 54)

NATIVE VERMONT TROUT

Now Taking Orders For Brook, Brown & Rainbow Trout For Pond Stocking For Pick Up or Delivery

This walleye was taken in Lake Champlain in 2023 by Nausori Osasa of Grand Isle. The fish was just under 12 pounds.

The National Wild Turkey Federation has been dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage since 1973. Hunt safely in the turkey woods this spring and be sure to take someone new, adult or youth, hunting this year and keep our traditions strong. To learn more about the NWTF visit nwtf.org or to get involved with one of our VT chapters, contact Carter Heath at cheath@nwtf.net

Success

(Cont. from pg 49)

salmon are still in the upper levels and the warm water species are hungry.

Many of us pursue the walleye which can be found in waters all over the state. Lake Champlain has large populations of walleye as does the Connecticut River on the op-

posite side of the state. I do most of my walleye fishing on the later as it forms the eastern border of my town. However I enjoy exploring Lake Champlain a few times a year. The photo that accompanies this column is a good example go why that is.

Syndicated columnist

Gary W. Moore is a life long resident of Vermont and a former Commissioner of Fish and Game. His latest book, Four Season in Vermont, is available at many bookstores and sporting goods shop or from him directly. He may be reached by e-mail at gwmoore1946@icloud. com or at Box 454, Bradford, VT 05033.

Green Mountain Report

by Bradley Carleton, Charlotte, VT

What’s not to love about May? The peepers are calling every night. The forsythia buds have begun to pop a brilliant yellow. Walking into the woods in the moonlight, the trilliums glow as the moon shines its rays on to the forest floor. The smell of earth and pines mix with the decaying acorn and hickory nuts. I walk down the old logging road to the ramshackle sugarhouse. Around the bend and up the slight hill to the opening. My body knows the way to the stone wall 100 yards from the roost.

another season of wonderment and connection.”

And may you, my reader, be blessed with the same awareness and presence that we all share in the woods of May.

Spring turkey season opens Wednesday, May 1 and runs through the end of the month every day from

Vermont’s Trophy Trout

son. Please plan ahead and keep these dates in mind when purchasing your first hunting or combination license.

Ladies and gentlemen, considering the opening paragraph, let us all remember how much we cherish our constitutionally protected right to hunt and fish in our state, for there are those who desire to chip away at the right. They are trying to divide

Vermont’s “Trophy Trout” stocking program for 2024 includes nine river sections and 37 lakes and ponds receiving the two-year old trout, some over 18 inches long.

Tonight, the moonlight is so bright, I move ever so slowly trying not to break any twigs under foot. With the woods under this moonlight, it would be easy for a roosting bird to open one wary eye toward the direction of the sound. Without a sound I set out my decoys. I tiptoe back to the wall and slide into the indent in the wall, placing a few errant twigs of shrubbery in front of me. I close my eyes and focus on listening. A barred owl goes off in the distance, immediately followed by a thunderous scream of a tom in front of me. My heart races and I whisper “yes!” to myself. It’s another hour until legal shooting. But each spring for the last 25 years, I am where I belong. I take a deep breath and say to myself “thank you for allowing me to live for

½ hour before sunrise until noon. Licensed hunters who have purchased turkey tags may take two bearded birds (most of these are toms, but bearded hens are legal, so be careful). The state has bragging rights on being the best turkey hunting state in New England.

Novice Turkey Hunting Weekend occurs on the same weekend as Youth Spring Turkey Hunting Weekend – the Saturday and Sunday before the opening day of the spring turkey season on May 1. To participate, you must be 16 years of age or older and have successfully completed a Hunter Education Course. Hunter Education Courses from other states are accepted. You also must purchase your first hunting or combination license within one year of the first day of the Novice Turkey Hunting Weekend. The “one-year” requirement must be met for both days of the Novice Turkey Hunting Season. Depending on the date of purchase, a person may qualify for just one day of the two-day Novice Sea-

us using new terminology to disguise their true intent. Words like “non-consumptive user” sound so much more politically correct to the masses who aren’t anti-hunting, but don’t understand the agenda of groups like Brenna Mellilo-Galdenzi of Stowe. She has positioned herself as the self-proclaimed arbiter of animal rights through her organization “Protect Our Wildlife.” Do not let the name fool you. Her group is seeking to usurp the scientific foundations of sound wildlife management by attempting to gain representation on the VT F&W Board as “nonconsumptive users,” which they claim represents 90% of Vermonters who are not hunters, and thus feels that they should have a seat on the board that sets regulations, seasons, and bag limits, based not on science, but on anthropomorphic projections on wildlife, and on the emotional transference of their own will.

As of this writing, on March 28, Bill S.258 has been passed by the Senate as amended and has been

referred to the Committee on Environment and Energy. The sponsors of this bill are Sen. Christopher Bray, Sen. Ruth Hardy, Sen. Richard McCormack, and Sen. Rebecca White. If you have not already written or called your representatives, please, for the love of all we cherish, do so. Now. Brenna and her team are betting that there are not enough of us willing to speak up. Read the bill and form your own opinion. Vermont’s “Trophy Trout” stocking program for 2024 includes nine river sections and 37 lakes and ponds receiving the two-year old trout, some over 18 inches long. “The Trophy Trout program provides exciting fishing opportunities for anglers of all ages and skill levels,” said Vermont’s Director of Fisheries Eric Palmer. “Trophy rainbow and brown trout will be stocked in the Black, Winooski, Lamoille, Missisquoi, Walloomsac, and Passumpsic Rivers as well as East and Otter Creeks while trophy

brook trout will be stocked into the Deerfield River. Large two-year old brookies and rainbows will also be stocked in many lakes and ponds.” Trout harvest season opened this year on Saturday, April 13 and will continue through October 31. There is no length limit, and the daily creel limit is two trout for the Trophy Trout stream sections listed below. Lake and pond stocking will begin in April while river stocking will begin in May and continue through the month. Anglers can check Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s website ( www.vtfishandwildlife. com) to see the stocking that has occurred and see the lakes and ponds that are being stocked with trophy trout. Click on “Fish” and then “Fish Stocking Schedule.”

Bradley Carleton is the founder and Director of Sacred Hunter.org which teaches the public respect and empathy through hunting, fishing and foraging.

Caleb Wright of Charlotte, an accomplished turkey hunter.

May Madness

May is an exciting time for those who fish the rivers and streams in the northwest region of the Pine Tree State. The sound of ice breaking apart on the big lakes means the smelts will begin their spawning run. Not long after,

times standing shoulder to shoulder, or so it seems.

Although the action can be outstanding, it does not last long—perhaps two, maybe three weeks from ice-out until the streams returns to their normal flows. By June, the crowds have

suckers will also spawn. Big fish, hungry after a long winter, take advantage on these plentiful food sources, brook trout and landlocked salmon chasing the smelts up the rivers and streams and gorging on sucker eggs, providing the angler the chance to play tag with a trout or salmon of his or her dreams.

Those living in southern New England enjoy temperatures in the sixties and seventies while casting dry flies to rising trout throughout this merry month, but you can leave your dry flies at home if traveling to western Maine. The rivers will be achingly cold from snow melt and the air temperature that will remain in the forties while the current runs high from spring spates. Wear your long johns, layers, a wool cap. Fingerless gloves may not be a bad idea.

This is a time of year when folks “from away” join locals along the banks of those rivers and streams located above a lake, at

a Boston Red Sox baseball cap, drifted an egg pattern. In a run downstream, an angler wearing camocolored waders casts a weighted streamer while the graphite of his buddy’s fly rod trembled with life. The crazy thing was by the end of the day nearly all of them would catch fish!

Now I’ll admit until recently this type of communal fishing was not my cup of tea. I’m a bit of a loner, certainly not a joiner. I was never much for team sports. I find solace among

father teach his son how to cast, control my laughter while a wife patiently listens to her husband’s instructions as a seventeeninch salmon does a pirouette above the current. On occasion, I’ll reel in my line to help a guy net a fish, finding his wide smile as satisfying as if I had hooked the fish. Perhaps, I’ll step aside to allow a

Against The Current

by Bob Romano, Rangeley, ME

quarter of the hook, a mallard feather wound behind the eye. Handing it over, I told him, “Been working well the last few days.”

What’s it called?” he asked.

“Jack Gartside’s Softhackled Streamer.”

“I like Herb Welch’s White Ghost,” the other guy chimed in.

“I think it’s the white

This is a time of year when folks “from away” join locals along the banks of those rivers and streams located above a lake, at times standing shoulder to shoulder, or so it seems...

moved on while the big fish have returned to the lakes.

A well-known river flows around a sharp bend where it enters a lake a mile or so from where my camp is located. By the second week of May, vehicles are parked on either side of the logging road above a bridge crossing the river. Most years, hardcore anglers are joined by newbies. Husbands accompanied by their wives. Fathers often bring their children.

Last spring, I tramped up the dirt-and-gravel road while freezing rain periodically spit down out of gray skies. Upstream from the bridge, a twenty-something in spanking-new Simms waders was Euro-nymphing. A few yards above him, an old-timer in patched hippers swung a wet fly. On the opposite bank, a teen was having trouble untangling his woolly-bugger from the naked branches of an aspen. A few steps away, her auburn ponytail pulled through the back of

the balsam and spruce while casting my flies to wild trout in places far from the madding crowds. It may be the reason why, when not tramping down a forest trail or wading a backwoods stream, you’ll find me seated with the door closed, in front of this laptop, stringing one word after another, in the hope that you dear reader, will find them interesting.

So, it may come as a surprise to learn, I’ve grown to truly enjoy fishing this time of year. At first, I groused about the crowds, the circus-like atmosphere, all the hubbub, having to vie for room to cast my favorite pattern, in my favorite pool, but like the fish, the anglers have spent a long winter waiting for these few weeks, and their excitement is infectious. Besides, there’s the remainder of the season to hike into places that have rarely seen the footprint of another angler.

Meanwhile, for these few weeks, I’ll watch a

newcomer to fish my spot while chuckling at the look of astonishment on his face.

By noon, the smell of sausage drifted up from a grill in back of a battered pickup. After reeling in my line, I hobbled up the bank and across the spruce planks of the bridge. In front of a turn out where a number of vehicles were parked, I nodded at four or five men seated around a campfire sipping coffee from tin cups. Farther up the road, I passed two anglers pulling up their chest waders. When one of them asked if I’d any luck, I pulled out a streamer, one tied with a single white marabou feather palmered tightly around the first

wing that gets their attention, especially this time of year.”

When the guy handed the pattern back to me, I told him to keep it.

Turning back up the road, I called, “Good Luck.”

Bob has maintained a cabin in the Rangeley Lakes Region of western Maine for nearly forty years. During that time, he’s written a number of novels, a book of essays, and a book of short stories set in the region. He can be reached at: magalloway@ mac.com Visit his website at forgottentrout.com for more information about his books.

RIVER FLOWERS - by Robert J. Romano, Jr. "Lyrical, poignant, and sometimes fantastical angling tales from the Maine woods and beyond, written in the great storytelling tradition of Sparse Gray Hackle and Robert Traver..."Stephen Sautner, author of A Cast in the Woods and Fish On. Fish Off. FOR A LIMITED TIME: readers of Northwoods Sporting Journal can obtain an

Fishing

11 with many missed, and some shorts.

The Third session was a lake in the afternoon. I knew where the fish generally were. We didn’t land on them right off, but soon I had three in the boat. Thats when a massive front rolled through and dropped over an inch of rain and strong north winds kicked up. Temps dropped to 40 and it was miserable. The fish turned off and during the second part of the session my boat mate had control of the boat. He left decided to leave and search for other fish. I didn’t work, and I caught no more. The boats who stayed caught a few more after the fish adjusted to the weather change.

Session 4 is where I really learned a lot. I fished my beat early with temps below freezing and a terrible glare. I caught 5 fish in a flat piece of water that looked awful, and got sucked into fishing a deep beautiful run for way too long with not a lot to show for it. I ended up with 8 and mismanaged my time. I got to watch another very good angler afterwards and he fished the flat, and then ate back to it at the end. He really slowed down his drift using two flies and fishing across and below. That made the difference. It was great to watch and learn.

The last session I took

what I learned and fished well. It was 33 degrees and a downpour. I caught 7 along with three other anglers including the eventual national champion Michael Bradley who lives in the area. It felt good knowing that what I had learned the previous day worked well enough to get me from a few fish behind to equal footing with those guys who were dialed in winter fly fishing on their home waters. Of course I lost the tie breaker to all three of them! The thing was I did not mind. I felt like I let my ego go and just enjoyed the time. It was the funnest tournament I have had in a while because of that. It was also great to watch the new members make the team. They sacrifice so much, they deserved it, more so than I. Years ago I would never have been able to say that!

Woods

(Cont. from pg 50) woods.

Ben Wilcox is owner of Maple Country Anglers, located in Northwest Vermont. He is a former member 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. These occupations allow him to be in the woods or water nearly every day of the year. He can be reached at maplecountryanglers@gmail. com, or on instagram @ benwilcox_maplecountryanglers

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You know all about that big long beard that’s been displaying out in some farmer’s field since mid-April? The one you are convinced you can kill? Forget about him. A dozen or more other hunters are thinking the same thing. What you want to do is to find the toms that other hunters have overlooked. It’s not as hard as it sounds but it does take some boot leather. If you have a promising location selected and you motor up to that place early one morning and find another truck there, it’s time to move on.

And one other thing: When moving through turkey woods, be it spring or fall, we always wear a blaze orange cap. When we set up to call in a bird, we always hang that cap high up on a branch behind us. Even with these precautions, I still keep my eyes wide open and my ears focused. You can never be too careful in the turkey woods.

Dennis Jensen is a freelance writer who resides in Vermont.

(Cont. from pg 48) Happy Mother's Day!

Farewell Chickadee

I have a secret identity. For the last quarter century, most Mainer’s owned my artwork and never knew it. Now that Maine’s chickadee license plate will forever fly off automobiles to barn walls and antique shops, I now admit responsibility, my dear readers, for the art

Crotchety Mainers had not dabbled in such audacious enterprises; our general issue red lobster plate (some called it a crayfish) was just fine sandwiched like a lobster roll between the numbers of our license plate. Miraculously, in 1997 MDIFW and MDOC received legislative

on Maine’s chickadee and loon automobile license plates.

Both license plates have stories to tell. The loon (1997) came to life before the chickadee (1999). I was working as an endangered species biologist for Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The State entertained a new idea of a special automobile license plate to raise much-needed funds for nongame wildlife programs and state parks. As a graduate student at UMaine, I did a sketch of a chickadee for Maine’s income tax checkoff to benefit endangered and nongame wildlife. It’s still there (if you look carefully) quietly adding muchneeded funds to MDIFW’s wildlife programs. But more money for conservation programs was needed.

“Mark, you can draw! Develop us a prototype over the weekend,” ordered my MDIFW supervisors. I sharpened my colored pencils and came up with a loon prototype by the following Monday. Off it went to 3M Company for evaluation. Months passed and I forgot the sketch figuring that Robert Bateman or Roger Tory Peterson would be commissioned great sums of money to do the final version. Much to my dismay, a stack of metal

in the country. MDIFW and State Parks had new funding to launch projects galore. Grumbling continued about Maine’s lobster plate. Mainers wanted a fresh, new design – hey, maybe something like that new loon plate! License plate bills are among the most contentious in Maine’s state legislature. Matt

by Mark McCollough, Hampden, ME

pointed school children, the chickadee won legislative approval.

I was promptly summoned to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Augusta. “Mark, everyone loves the new loon plate. Can you design a chickadee plate?” I mulled numerous ideas for cramming a chickadee into the narrow gap on the left side of the

The chickadee plate had a good run of 25 years; the longest running general issue plate in Maine. But it was not without its critics. The “chickadee” became the state bird of Maine in 1927 when the League of Women Voters petitioned that each state should have a state bird.

approval to explore the concept of a new special issue conservation plate. Students at UMaine took mockup sketches of loon, moose, chickadee, and eagle plates to the malls in Bangor and Portland. Exit polls showed the loon won hands down. MDIFW biologists brainstormed in their conference room one afternoon and emerged with a new slogan “A Natural Treasure” to adorn the yet-to-be-designed loon plate.

plates with my loon sketch landed in our office straight off the printing press. “No need to pay any fancy wildlife artist. Mark your art was just fine.” “But, but, but…” I pleaded; “I could do a much better rendering of a loon.” “Nope, printing has already started at the Maine State Prison in Warren.” If you look closely, you can still see my colored pencil scribbles.

The loon plate flew off the shelves of town offices throughout Maine. Within a few years, over 15% of Mainer’s had traded in their lobster-crawdad plates for a loon – the highest participation for a conservation plate anywhere

Dunlap, then a state house member and later Secretary of State, recently filled me in on the behind-thescenes sausage making in Augusta. The Legislature formed a committee and commissioned reports on several ideas. Three reports emerged with ideas to replace the lobster – a plain black and white plate with no art, a lighthouse (backed again by a passel of school children taking on the legislative process as a class project), and a chickadee (our state bird) and white pine tassel (state tree and flower). After great debate, and a few disap -

license plate. That weekend, our family camped at a cabin on Duck Lake in eastern Maine. We canoed to a remote beach. I sketched chickadees tumbling through the branches of white pines while the kids splashed in the lake. Finally, a design idea emerged – a chickadee perched above a white pine cone. I learned my lesson from the loon plate and did a nice, tidy painting.

But there was one nagging worry. If Mainer’s have an attractive general issue plate (free), would they continue to pay $15 (Farewell cont. pg 62)

The Waterway Controversy: Too Much Federal Money?

This is not the first time that controversy has surrounded one of Maine’s most pristine and popular wilderness areas, The Allagash Wilderness Waterway. Back in the 1960s, the state beat back an attempt by the Federal government to take over the waterway. In 1966, the Maine State Legislature created a stateadministered wilderness area. Today, the 92 mile waterway is the only stateadministered component of the National Wild and Scenic River System.

tions on the edge of the Waterway.

An opposition group, Citizens for Keeping the Wild in Allagash, argue that all of this planned construction does not comply with the spirit of the mandate to keep the Waterway wild. The opposition group, led by former waterway superintendent Tim Caverly, is

This is a difficult issue, one rooted in the age old conflict between progress and the natural environment.

Money, especially large amounts of it, has a way of imposing change.

The Maine Bureau of Public Lands, which has a bundle of “free” money from the Feds, is planning to construct some new storage buildings, purchase a large boat with muscle outboards, and some new ADA-compliant ( American Disabilities Act) sta-

made up of another former superintendent, as well as a number of Maine Guides and other friends of the waterway. The group is urging that the new storage units be built outside of the restricted zone, farther from the waterway.

Suzanne AuClair, a columnist for the Northwoods Sporting Journal and a lifelong resident and outdoorswoman from the Moosehead Lake area, also opposes the construction of new ADA- compliant stations on the edge of the waterway. She writes:

“Creating ADA-compliant stations unnecessarily opens up a whole can of worms to the future. Someone using a wheelchair will likely not be canoeing down the river. If the path to the way stations is rutted, the argument could be made later that, for safety sake, it should be paved, and signs erected to show the way. A wilderness area is not the same as a park. There are dozens of beautiful state parks throughout Maine that are ADA accessible. And interpretive exhibits ready to be visited. Even within Maine, there are now only two, maybe three, places that offer an increasingly rare form of solitude and traditional, remote North Woods experience: Baxter State Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, and maybe, the St. John River.”

This is a difficult issue, one rooted in the age old conflict between progress and the natural environment. And the most difficult and delicate of all, accessibility for the disabled. Where do we draw the line when ADA mandates clash with protecting a beloved wilderness area?

Although unspoken, the impetus of this whole dust up is, once again,

“free money” from the Washington politicians. The funding for the waterway construction project, estimated at $1.2 million, comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which was released to states as part of a post Covid-19 economic aid package. An estimated $4.6 billion was received by the State of Maine for various uses. The funds must be obligated to a project by Dec. 31, 2024, and must be used by Dec. 31, 2025.

In other words, it’s the old use-it-or-lose-it game.

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

Northwoods editor and his wife casting a fly. (Photo courtesy of V. Paul Reynolds)

An otherworldly scream minced the misty spring air. I took a step, my foot landing on a floor of spongy, auburn-toned pine needles from towering trees overhead. I stood at the top of a bank, scanning for my prey. There! A fast shadow was bouncing down the length of a distant rockwall like a housecat

Beast

Another scream, this time right next to me. I had my left hand on the forearm of my Gamo and my right hand wrapped like a vice around the grip. The stock was nestled in my armpit, ready for action. I watched as the beast bounded into view. I swung my gun, took aim, and fired. A miss. I nearly leapt to my feet. A

chasing a mouse; long tail, four legs, and snakelike motions. I snuck down the bank, adjusting my grip on my gun. As I came level with the rockwall, big ferns concealed it. I knelt and mimicked a small rodent, hoping to attract the beast. It worked.

To the left, a scratching sound was growing in intensity. Feet. Claws.

tree, lithe and powerful. I had to reload again, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off it. Gaseous lubricant issued from the muzzle and a whizzing could be heard as the pellet left my barrel. I heard a muffled thwap in reply. A hit. It wasn’t dead, nor would it be unless I finished the job. Now I had to see to the beast’s death. One of the rear legs was immobilized, but not bleeding. I might have clipped the foot, or

from my jacket, and gave chase from below. I followed as fast as I could, half the time looking where my foot would land next, and the other half of the time squinting into the trees overhead, trying to glimpse the beast in flight. I managed to get two more shots off at the creature before

Young Blood

by Jake Guay, Phillips, ME

last, a good hit. The beast launched itself up in the air, grasping at everything and nothing at once. It was above the branch it had previously been in, held aloft by rapidly draining kinetic energy. It was now moving downward, letting gravity take control It passed the branch it had

I reloaded and fired again. It clambered up the tree, lithe and powerful. I had to reload again, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off it. Gaseous lubricant issued from the muzzle and a whizzing could be heard as the pellet left my barrel.

damaged a bone. Another reload preceded my fourth shot. I watched.

brown blur was skating among dead leaves away from me. I gave chase. Between dead thorns, decomposing stumps, and newborn ferns I briskly stalked, refusing to let my prey escape. A brown flash jumped up from the ground and stuck itself to a tree. Ah-ha.

I reloaded and fired again. It clambered up the

The beast moved as quickly as its damaged leg would allow, struggling to move up the pine tree. I adjusted my grip on the gun and prepared to reload yet again. Fumbling in my pocket for another pellet, I watched the beast as it climbed the tree and nearly flew from limb to limb away from me. I stopped groping with my fingernails, wrenched my arm

it fled to the ground. The beast leapt off a tree and onto a rock wall. Not what I was hoping for. Unwilling to be outrun, I pursued. Through a spruce thicket and over a stream I chased it, waiting for a shot.

At last, amidst tall dead pines, I saw it sitting on a branch. Watching me. I didn’t give it a chance to flee this time. Leaving me with a light recoil and a loud pwak, the pellet once more set out to hit its mark at 800 feet per second. At

been in quickly. Now it was doomed to land on the turf for the last time. I changed my grip and prepared to shoot just as the beast hit the ground. Now the beast was dying, its body twitching and kicking the final tidbits of soul away as it shut down and expired. I approached it. I reached down and gingerly lifted the beautiful red squirrel from the ground.

Coated with a rusty chocolate brown on top, (Beast cont. pg 62)

From Craig Pond

by Bob Mercer, Bucksport, ME

What makes brook trout so captivating? Other fish are better on the table, like white perch. Some are more exciting to catch, bass and salmon. Is it that brook

brook trout. Is it the beauty or is there more?

My connection to trout is because they are what I learned to fish for first and could fish for by

Trout: What’s the Magic

fly- fished remote ponds, and rivers but trout fishing, to me, is still dunking a worm and spinner in a small brook.

Brook fishing is a delicate thing. Folks struggle because they did not have a Grandmother to teach them. The first thing is

Brook fishing is a delicate thing. Folks struggle because they did not have a Grandmother to teach them. The first thing is stealth. Charging up and down the brook or the banks will prove a liability as it will spook the fish.

trout are more beautiful? From the vermiculations on their back, to the red spots with blue halos, the red and white lined pectoral fins and orange bellies; the good Lord did his best work when he decorated

myself. Under my Grandmother’s tutelage trout fishing was brook fishing. That concept holds true after all these years.

My brother-in-law and I have chased trout up and down Maine. We have

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trout to run and hide”. Thoughts of brook fishing bring back old memories. We were “Down East” on opening day, April first, and decided to try a

stealth. Charging up and down the brook or the banks will prove a liability as it will spook the fish. You would think walking the bank would be stealthy, but if not very careful, the vibrations of one’s footfalls are as disastrous as dragging your feet and rolling rocks and gravel in the brook itself. She also said it is best to sit quietly by a nice pool and let it “rest” before you fish. This allows the trout to be calm and you have time to enjoy the environment, to feel the solitude and see things often missed. Like that mink peeking at you around an old stump. “Always try to fish with the sun on your face or, at least be careful of shadows on the water, as shadows, to trout, mean predators and cause the

favorite brook. My brotherin-law said I needed to wear hip boots because the water would be cold and I may have to carry him across the brook on my back; I bought it. We went over a mile into the woods to arrive at a brook completely frozen over. My remark was, “I guess you can get across OK”. I then remembered one of Gram’s adages, “You don’t fish until the leaves on the alders are as big as a mouse’s ear”. My most memorable tale involves fly fishing a remote pond. In 1971 we heard about a pond way up north ruled for fly fishing

only, called Clish Pond. At the time, due to gates on roads, we had to go by canoe the length of two ponds connected by a flowage and then hike up hill two miles to get to the pond. When we got there the pond happened to be just ripe for novice fly fishers, trout were raising everywhere. We tied on what looked like a dry fly and waded in. The rest are things memories are made of. One could hardly cast to a rise circle without catching a fish. The action of a fly rod was new and exciting, thrilling to be exact. Our eyes were opened to new opportunities. That plus the effect of the absolute solitude had a magic transformative effect on both of us. Clish is now a heritage pond and as such is kept very remote and for me no longer doable. That sense of wonder that those fish evoked is with us to this day. They were dark and beautiful, difficult to describe; combined with solitude of the deep woods made a memory we both will carry to our last cast. The most striking thing was the stars at night they were much brighter, there were more of them and they were bright all the way down to the horizon. It was like having a bowl full of stars overhead.

I think Chief Justice William O. Douglas summed it up best when he was asked why he enjoyed trout fishing so much, he replied, “I like where trout live”. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

By V. Paul Reynolds

Tributaries Book Review

Another excellent book, in a long parade of Maine-based books, has been published by Islandport Press in Yarmouth. “Tributaries” by Ryan Brod, filmmaker, writer and fishing guide, is a collection of fishing essays that, as the dust cover proclaims, “explores the lines between passion and obsession.”

To be honest, I had not heard of Ryan Brod, a Smithfield Maine native, who teaches creative writing at the University of New England and has been published in a number of

national magazines. I liked his book a lot! If you are an angler you will connect with Brod’s story telling before you ever get to the second chapter. Brod, as you might expect, is a craftsman with the written word and, as a relatively young man, he has flung many a fly line from the muskie holes on the Allagash River to the tarpon channels in the Florida Keys. Brod’s angling recollections have an energy and authenticity, as well as a presence, that put you there - in the bow of the canoe, or on the fishing platform of the Keys skiff.

He writes “...my line comes tight. I strip set and bury the rod butt into my right hip. The loose line resting on my feet jumps and I clear it of all obstructions. The tarpon somersaults,

crashes, runs – my fingers burn with the friction of fleeing fly line. I’m already into the backing. A football field away, the tarpon jumps again.”

Perhaps because I have fished some of Brod’s favorite angling haunts, in Maine and in Florida, his book has special meaning for me. But I count him as a kindred spirit for another reason, one that makes his essays stand out. Brod, a young man, is blessed with a maturity and introspective insight of a man well beyond his years.

his father quickly, from a heart attack, while cutting firewood or on a deer hunt. “Instead, I have witnessed his slow progression toward old age, the gradients of which...have been painful to witness.” The father “is losing his mind’s archives as his illness pro-

entertaining and uplifting than it is somber in its serious digressions. As one of Brod’s reviewers put it, he has an “old-school heart,” and it is what makes this book far more than a collection of essays about catching fish.

Brod’s angling recollections have an energy and authenticity, as well as a presence, that put you there - in the bow of the canoe, or on the fishing platform of the Keys skiff.

gressed – a lifetime of fish, tides, names, faces – gone.”

One of the deeper themes in this book is father/son relationships. In his chapter,”Before Dark,” he laments the aging and imminent passing of his favorite fishing buddy, his father. Like many a younger son, he had always figured that he would lose

As a younger outdoorsman, who knew no better, I banked on my vast repository of fishing and hunting memories, and wonderful friendships forged, to fill the rocking chair days. Now I know better, know that in life there are no guarantees, that, as Brod puts it, “his mind’s archives” will sustain him in his twilight years.

Don’t be put off.

“Tributaries” is far more

“Tributaries,” by Ryan Brod, published by Islandport Press in Yarmouth, Maine, $18.95.

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

I remember planning the initial meeting at Cabela’s and inviting every hunter I knew in the greater Portland area. I wanted to prove that there were plenty of people who were

Women In The Woods

by Erin Merrill, Portland, ME

ended, a guy named Steve offered to teach me how to bear hunt. I eagerly took him up on the offer.

All summer, I unwrapped sweets, loaded them into barrels and

A Decade of Bears

a close encounter, I never shot a bear over bait.

Downeast Magazine dedicated their whole fall 2014 issue to ‘Why We Hunt.’ Given their audience, it was a gutsy move. Thanks in large part to the incredible George Smith, I wrote an article for the issue and some fellow out-

The next time we have to fight for our hunting rights, I hope that the same people who enjoyed my wild game meals will think about which box they check when they are filling out their ballots. I hope they realize how beneficial – and tasty –hunting is and they will support us.

passionate about bear hunting in Southern Maine. If I remember correctly, the room was close to packed when James Cote started talking about the bear referendum and what the plan was to win at the ballot box. I look back now and cannot believe it was 10 years ago! I had never hunted a bear. I knew enough to talk about the various methods but I had not experienced a hunt. When that meeting

lugged 5 gallon buckets into the sites. We changed our clothes to minimize our scent. We wore rubber gloves. I got my first experience (and smell) of rotting beaver and old lobster bodies, as they hung out in the July sun. I saw how much time and money went into managing the bait sites to ensure bears were coming in on a regular basis. I did this for two years with Steve and although I had

door women and I were the ‘centerfolds’ decked out in our camo under the Casco Bay Bridge. Again, proving that hunters live all over this state.

As we got closer to that November vote, I attended a live televised debate and heard the most insane things being said about hunters, bear hunting and conservation in general. Things were tense and nerve racking.

In early October, I saw a Facebook post by Tim Cote advertising a one day bear hunt with

hounds. I knew if I wanted to write about bear hunting, I should try as many methods as possible so I contacted him and told him I would love to go. I will never forget the sound of the hounds when they caught that bear’s scent or Tim’s words as we looked at the dogs on the GPS, “They got you a bear.”

I would have never guessed the role that bear hunting would play in my

life. I have shot three bears since then. A couple of those bears have gone with me into classrooms to give first graders the chance to feel a bear rug and see what their skulls looks like. I show them what a bear trap looks like and share photos of going with biologists to trap and collar bears in the spring and cuddle cubs in the winter. I give that teachers huge kudos for adding hunting to her curriculum as she teaches about bears each winter.

Almost every civic group that I am a part of has, at one time or another, eaten bear chili or queso dip. They get excited about it. At a recent event, a former fellow Rotarians mentioned remembering me bringing bear chili to one of our meetings. It is my way of helping people who do not hunt get a better understanding of why I do. The next time we have to fight for our hunting rights, I hope that the same people who enjoyed (Bears cont. pg 62)

Moms on the Move

Spring is in mid-step, inching towards summer, growing warmer each day. April showers have led to May flowers as we make way for new life and growth. The second Sunday in May kicks off the month by celebrating Mother’s Day in the United States. Mark your calendars, Sunday, May 12th is Mother’s Day in 2024.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson formally made Mother’s Day a holiday. Prior to this, there had been a few iterations of a mother’s day, one of them even with Maine ties. “Around 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” dedicated to the celebration of peace and the eradication of war…” ― Heidi Stonehill https://www.almanac.com/content/history-mothers-day

Julia Ward Howe was a writer and poet, known for writing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She would often visit a family home called “The Yellow House” in Gardiner, Maine. I remember my grandmother pointing out the house as we drove by, telling me about Julia Ward Howe. The house was also the longtime residence of Laura E. Richards, Howe’s daughter, who is also a treasured American writer.

Christmas Eve of 2022, the historic home burned down, signaling an end of an era and a reminder of life’s cycle. I think of how much change I’ve seen in the woods on our property and wonder what the landscape may have looked like nearly 154 years ago. Each new season in the woods and on the trails is always an exciting ride. In spring the forest is coming alive again, with all sorts of sweet smells, beautiful blooms, and lush greens, bursting with life and energy. Once mud season cleared up a bit, my family and I’d often go for a ride on the 4-wheeler or side-by-side. We’d take old woodlot trails throughout our property, taking us over all sorts of terrain, often pausing to explore an area a bit on foot or take a quick break and enjoy a snack. From tadpoles to apple blossoms, there was much to see.

My mom always added a bit of fun to the adventure, inspiring a bit of wonder, and encouraging observation of the beauty all around us. I’ve been honored to pass that same wonder on to my three nephews. My mom still makes it out with us on some of our adventures, often with a ballcap, walking

stick, and digital camera at the ready. We share old stories and tales of our adventures in the past, all while embarking on new adventures and making new memories. From a macro

by Dan Wilson, Bowdoinham, ME

close-up of a mushroom to an action shot of one of her grandchildren hopping down from climbing a big pine tree, she captures such special moments, and we’re so fortunate for the time together..

and motherly figures out there, and especially to my mom, thank you and happy Mother’s Day.

Daniel Wilson works in healthcare and enjoys time outside in nature with his family.

“Come with me into the woods where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.” ― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems. To all the mothers

The author’s mother enjoying a day on the trail.

Farewell

(Cont. from pg 55)

extra each year for a loon/ conservation plate? Matt and other legislators were worried as well. Indeed, loon plate sales skidded slightly (which provided my paycheck), but still sold at a pace to make meaningful contributions to conservation as they do today.

Loon license plate sales also declined from its own success. Legislation to make the loon plate Maine’s only special issue plate failed, and soon interest groups were piling on the bandwagon. We now have a gaggle of fundraising plates including prisoner of war, support our troops, disabled veteran, purple heart, breast cancer, Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, adopt a pet, support local agriculture, and on and on. Today, specialty plates make up about a quarter of those issued.

The chickadee plate had a good run of 25 years;

the longest running general issue plate in Maine. But it was not without its critics.

The “chickadee” became the state bird of Maine in 1927 when the League of Women Voters petitioned that each state should have a state bird. But which chickadee species did the Legislature intend – the black-capped or boreal chickadee? Maine has both.

Maine Audubon birders cried that other states have black-capped state birds, so why not be unique and depict the boreal chickadee on our license plate? All I needed to do was color the cap brown instead of black. Government bean counters and State Police complained that the aging chickadee plates were hard to for the cameras to read at the toll booths on the interstate – lost revenue for the interstate! Finally, others believed it was time to change to the pine tree and star design that was our 1901 state flag. They won, and the chickadee is now an endangered species.

It was an honor to do the artwork for the loon and chickadee plates that have graced our bumpers for nigh a quarter century. You have been staring at them on the car in front of you in traffic jams for a long time. What do you think? If you don’t like the new pine tree and star, may I suggest that you buy a loon plate. You will be supporting conservation in Maine.

Mark McCollough is a retired biologist and sometimes artist from Hampden, Maine. He can be reached at markmccollough25@ gmail.com separated from the white underside by a firm, smooth black line that ended near the knee. The tail that all squirrels boast of in trilling song and chattering speech was bright as fire and lighter than a feather, but no less detailed than either. I’m aware that the

Beast

(Cont. from pg 57)

Bears

(Cont. from pg 60)

my wild game meals will think about which box they check when they are filling out their ballots. I hope they realize how beneficial – and tasty – hunting is and they will support us. I like to think that with every dish I serve, I am helping us gain a few more votes. It has been 10 years of talking to people about bear hunting and the importance of it. Ten years of feeding people bear meat to prove that it’s not a wasteful hunt.

life I’m about to have is destined to go all kinds of crazy directions. I’m going to be hunting bigger swaths of land with bigger guns for bigger game and doing it with more friends. In spite of that, I’d like to spotlight the years I spent living on 20 acres of land, killing squirrels, and having fun being a kid. Squirrels were my

And ten years of supporting guides and outfitters and they do the hard work to help hunters be as successful as possible. I am grateful for all of it.

Erin is a member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association, Outdoor Writers Association of America 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

trophies. Each one was far more than a dead animal for me, and I’ve learned so much from hunting them.

Jacob Guay is a homeschooled teen who loves creation as much as he loves to write. Curious readers can learn more by emailing him at jaguay26@gmail.com

To Military Personnel Worldwide!

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.

Coyotes are Needed

Should we continue this year round bounty or should we put a more stringent hunting regulation on hunting and trapping coyotes? It’s got to be one of the most controversial wildlife conservation issues going right now, besides that of the black bear hunt. This all stems from the mere fact that the majority of the general public are not educated about the life history of coyotes. It’s all the same reasons why people want to stop the black bear hunt

On an ecological standpoint coyotes and black bears are very much needed to help keep a healthy balanced ecosystem. Large populations of coyotes also leave an ecological footprint like that of every other living and consuming organism. Us humans leave the worst ecological footprint. This is where the role of predatory hunters come into play to help maintain a proper carrying capacity. Humans are at the top of the food chain and therefore those of us who hunt and trap must do our part to ensure the coyote populations don’t exceed the proper carrying capacity. We don’t need an overpopulation of coyotes, but we need just enough to prevent our ecosystem from going into shock.

For a lot of people living in the suburbs, and even within city limits, the sightings of coyotes are tolerated. Then there are those people who are afraid of coyotes, but would rather not have them hunted and trapped. They might be against hunting but at the same time they are deathly

afraid that a coyote will attack them or their children. Make up my mind for me, will you! What do you want, people! If this back and forth debate is not enough to drive us hunters insane then there is the one about black bear hunting and trapping too. Both these North American icons are capable of attacking a human but it’s very unlike-

white living room”?

It’s no different for the wild mammals making their living in the forests nearby. They would defend themselves just as we would. Yet, these coyotes are scary to a lot of uneducated people who say they wish these dangerous animals didn’t exist. These same people also are antihunters that don’t want us ethical hunters controlling

around us if coyotes and other key-note predators, like that of black bears, didn’t exist. These coyotes are important scavengers and opportunistic eaters.

I don’t have the time nor space enough in this column to even scrape the surface on what would happen. You must know

Believe it or not coyotes are actually needed on an ecological level as mentioned earlier. Coyotes are one of nature’s caretakers. They work to help keep a healthy balance in today’s ecosystem.

ly as they act extremely shy of human presence 99.99% of the time. Yes, you will find plenty of research to back this up.

As Bill Winke would say, “wouldn’t you go into instant defense mode if you got up one morning to find strange muddy footprints all through your perfectly

these, so called, dangerous animals.

Believe it or not coyotes are actually needed on an ecological level as mentioned earlier. Coyotes are one of nature’s caretakers. They work to help keep a healthy balance in today’s ecosystem. Imagine what would happen to the world

it would not be good. If coyotes went extinct tomorrow our ecosystem we live in would go in shock. Without coyotes many small mammals, like that of the rodentia family, would overpopulate the ecosystem causing a whole different problem. Do you want rodents of all kinds

On The Prowl

by Justin Merrill, Cherryfield, ME

and snowshoe hares or cottontail rabbits overtaking your home? I didn’t think so! We need coyotes! But then again like that of every other nuisance animal on the planet their numbers must be controlled to an extent. We obviously don’t want coyotes taking over either. Just like the coyotes being a major player in bringing balance to our ecosystem, us hunters too are very important key players.

Justin obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology from Unity College. He is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association (NEOWA). He has over 30,000 acres of land to hunt on. He is the owner of the YouTube channel, SPIKES and GILLS.

“WHEN THE SUN IS AT ITS MERIDIAN, AND FOR ONE HOUR BEFORE---AND AT LEAST TWO HOURS AFTER, WET NOT YOUR LINE.”

Charles Woodbury Stevens, of Boston, Massachusetts, author of “Fly Fishing in Maine’s Lakes” and “Camp Life in the Wilderness” 1880. The statement refers to about high noon to 2:00 p.m., or thereabout, or “cast not your line when the sun casts no shadow”, and/or the sun is “straight up”. Many anglers have found this to be true. Others have their doubts. This winter, for example, has found some pretty good fishing during mid-day hours, especially so when others have left for lunch and a nap.

PIKE Northern Pike in Glenburn’s Pushaw Lake? You bet, and some great

“Just Fishing”

by Bob Leeman, Bangor, ME

fishing for this species can be had, especially so in Pushaw Stream!

BROOKIES

Why do some brook trout have white flesh,

Short Takes

tinsel body, tip of red duck quill tail, matching grizzly wings, and light brown sparse hackle. This pattern bares a close resemblance to an Adams dry fly.

OLD VERSUS NEW

The addition of new, available fly-tying mate -

If there was a fly-tying material so popular and so much in demand for assembling a fish attraction imitation pattern, it’s got to be tantalizing marabou.

while others are pink? The answer lies in the fact that the environment of the fish makes MOST of the difference, but maybe not all. Food source could enter into the picture, somewhat, as well as other factors, including size.

SLIM JIM

What is a Slim Jim dryfly? This dryfly pattern may have originated in Aroostook County, Maine some years ago. It’s a great early season fly for brookies, consisting of a silver

rials on today’s fly tying market is amazing, to say the least. A real attractor difference can be made when trolling for salmon with a dressed-up classic. For instance, add a bit of flash with a strip of new colorized version of tinsel by putting one on each side. There are so many new items to try these days, dressing up old fly patterns is easy. Even new streamer hackle wing materials now come in a modicum of dyed colors. Check with your nearest fly shop for these.

You’ll be amazed.

“HULA” DANCING MARABOU

If there was a fly-tying material so popular and so much in demand for assembling a fish attraction imitation pattern, it’s got to be tantalizing marabou. Today, marabou comes in all colors, including white, which is perhaps the most popular. And, without any doubt, the “White Marabou Muddler”, along with the “Black Ghost”, being the most eminent, for sure. But dyed colors of Marabou now appear in a myriad of other “legendary” streamers for improvement, but certainly not to take away their initial fame.

"HOW MANY FLIES”

How many fishing imitation flies are you legally allowed on one line? Good question, eh? The answer, I believe, is three. Or is it two? Some nymph fishermen I know often use up to three imitation nymph on their fishing line. The bait that catches the most

“bites” are the one most often switched to. And how about weighted flies, and weighted lines? It used to be that weighted hooks and lines were illegal on many waters. Is it still true today, or is it being ignored?

This writer can recall when game wardens patrolled the shores of Grand Lake Stream on opening day of fishing and occasionally a summons was written out for wrong doers. That was maybe fifty or more years ago.

Today, with the use of beads being quite prevalent, is it really legal? We are aware that the use of lead is very much illegal these days, due to the ingesting that occurs by water birds.

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. on 103.9 FM. His three books have sold out and his plans do not call for ordering and selling more.

$24.95

Send a check for $29.95 ($24.95 plus $5.00 for postage) along with this ad, to Maine Outdoor Publications, 51 Branchview N., Ellsworth, ME 04605

The author with a northern pike.

Wild Turkey Table

I have been approached many times over the years by turkey hunters who desire more creative recipe ideas that can take them beyond the stereotypical fried turkey nuggets that are promoted throughout the outdoor industry.

Let me affirm that, yes, you can break the

of motivation on your part, you can take those legs and thighs and make some pretty tasty dishes that will show you the value of using the whole bird.

Carrying that thought forward, think of each part of the bird as a vehicle that can take you to a food promise land. Whatever

mold, and take your wild turkey to incredibly delicious places. In fact, when you get creative with your turkey, it only makes you want more wild turkey hunting adventures!

The first thing I want to address is the moisture issue. Wild Turkey is very lean, so infusing moisture is the key to a positive wild turkey cooking experience. This can be solved in various ways depending on the direction you take with your recipe. Brining, braising, or utilizing some type of fat (duck fat, olive oil, bacon) can contribute to turkey cooking success.

If you are limiting yourself to just the breast meat and discarding the rest, like many bird hunters, you should rethink that. I don’t expect everyone to think that they have to be a gourmet game chef to cook and enjoy their game, but I do believe, through education and a bit

the internal temperature of the drumsticks reaches 170 F.

You can enjoy them like Fred Flintstone, or with your favorite bbq sauce and some yummy sides. Alternatively, let them cool and then pull and shred the meat for tasty stuffed peppers, burritos, or other recipes.

Thighs are often overlooked unless you are ZZ Top. Let me say that there is much more than just throwing them in a crock-

Cookin’ With New England’s WildCheff

by Denny Corriveau, Kennebunkport, ME

Another option for your wild turkey thighs is to make them into wild turkey osso buco. You can do this with bone-in or deboned thighs. In this recipe, you would coat the thighs in olive oil and season them, and then sear them. Braise them in chicken bone broth, white wine and fresh

animal and the natural resource that provides wild food to your table.

WildCheff’s Wild Turkey Mole

Ingredients

2 wild turkey thighs, deboned.

2 T of sunflower oil pure sea salt and pepper

The first thing I want to address is the moisture issue. Wild turkey is very lean, so infusing moisture is the key to a positive wild turkey cooking experience. This can be solved in various ways depending on the direction you take with your recipe.

you develop your meat into will lend itself to a result – i.e. a finished recipe that hopefully has you jumping out of your seat for joy when you eat it.

Let’s start with turkey legs. If you own a smoker, brine them (add a nice ale to the brining liquid) and then smoke them. The brine addresses the moisture issue, and if you smoke them low and slow it will give the connective tissue and collagen time to liquify, yielding tender turkey. Your brining time should be no less than 12 hours, and up to 24 hours. Use a good quality rub that includes brown sugar to produce a nice exterior. Check out WildCheff.com and you’ll find options for brine and preservative-free rubs that will work nicely. Smoke the legs for 3-4 hours at 225-250 degrees, until the meat browns and becomes very tender. You know they are done when

pot with some chicken broth and veggies; it is an option, but you can get much more creative.

A couple of recipe paths you can include making a wild turkey thigh mole that can be enjoyed on a taco. By using a grilled tortilla as your base, add the tender shredded wild turkey meat into a mole sauce, spoon some onto your grilled tortilla and add pickled onions and some crumbled queso fresco cheese and fresh chopped cilantro. Simple and delicious!

minced garlic for approximately 90-120 minutes until they become ultra tender and succulent. This is great served over some type of mash (Maine potatoes, sweet potato mash, celery root mash) and topped with a dollop of chimichurri (minced fresh herbs and garlic with olive oil). Nothing is beyond your ability in the wild kitchen when you exercise a little bit of creativity. Always strive to utilize the most that you can with your wild game. In doing so you respect the

1 – 16 oz. can of enchilada sauce

1 T of ground cumin

1 Tsp. of cinnamon

1/4 C of unsweetened

cocoa powder

1/8 C of almond butter

2 T of local honey

1 T of chili powder corn tortillas

Spices can be found at www.wildcheff.com (sea salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon)

Directions Season the turkey (Table cont. pg 69)

On The Ridge The Turkey Call Man

by Joe Judd Shelburne, MA

A few days before the opening of the 2024 turkey hunting season, I found myself wandering into my den looking over my collection of turkey calls, while reaching for certain ones that have meant something to me over the years. Now this, sometimes daily, routine always reminds me that

about the true pioneers in the ever-evolving history of wild turkey hunting in New England, the name Niles Oesterle is certainly right there at the beginning. During that period, the only places we could hunt turkeys were in Vermont or New York, and Niles was someone that had a jumpstart on the rest of us.

As a carpenter by trade, Niles knew he had the skills to develop a better box call. And his turkey hunting expertise gave him the confidence in his ability to find the sound he was looking for. it would be impossible to use everyone of those calls during a single turkey hunting season, but there are certain ones that I turned to every year, and which I simply, “never leave home without it”! But there are others that are retired now, or close to retirement, that still bring back memories of great turkey hunts from the past, while others are simply cherished gift’s I’ve received along the way. But on this evening, there was one call, a box call, that I always reach for and stands alone as one of my most prized possessions, and which I’ve successfully used in eight different states during these many decades of chasing the “Big Bird”! But before I expound on this wonderful instrument, I should share a little background about its creator, and how our long-standing friendship eventually led us both into a moment that neither of us will ever forget.

When you speak

circles, a friendship began to form. And it was clear that during this period, Nile’s love for the sport was about to take him to another level! He began to think about the turkey calls that we were using back

some of the best turkey hunters and call makers in the country.

The first one Niles built for me was from his Signature 1 Series, and I never thought I would hear its equal. But some

in January of 2022, where I was given the honor to escort Niles Oesterle into the New England Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame. Our friendship, that began 45 years ago, had now come full circle, where a simple

He lived in Bennington, Vt., and by the late 1970s he was already turkey hunting while assisting in the states restocking program through his affiliation with the National Wild Turkey Federation. Soon, a Vermont NWTF Chapter formed, and Niles became the state’s first chapter president, which led to his assisting dozens of new turkey hunters just itching to learn anything we could during those incredibly early years. And I can vividly recall going to listen to Niles speak in Bennington, Rutland, and wherever else I could find him during this period, while trying to absorb every ounce of knowledge he gave us! Because in those days, Niles was one of the few mentors and teachers we had, and I admit it, he was one of the very few people I looked up to back then, and still do! As time went on, and we found ourselves often walking in the same turkey hunting

then, telling me, more than once, that he thought he could make a turkey call, a box call to be specific, that would be more perfect than anything else available to us. And it was his drive to do this that pushed him into a decision he has never once regretted!

As a carpenter by trade, Niles knew he had the skills to develop a better box call. And his turkey hunting expertise gave him the confidence in his ability to find the sound he was looking for. Through trial and error, he eventually perfected a box call that was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and today has generated respect from

years later I played one of his first Signature 2 Series box calls, and the quality of sound that I heard coming out of this call was so unique, that it was hard for me to believe what I was hearing! A one-piece box call, with no glue in the chamber, no separate parts added, and built with a labor of love by the master himself…I mean it was simply perfect. And that box call, as fortune would have it, was the exact same one I reached for when I wandered into my den that evening, and it was also the exact same box call that brought Niles and I together, at an unforgettable evening in Concord, N.H.,

man who could see a vison in a block of Vermont butternut & cherry wood, unfinished and rough, while turning it into an instrument, was being given the ultimate, and long overdue, honor for the labor of love he gave to every masterpiece he created.

Joe Judd is a lifelong hunter and sportsman, He is an outdoor writer, seminar speaker. Member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, and a 2019 inductee into the N.E. Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame. Joe is also on the Quaker Boy Game Calls and Bass Pro/Cabela’s Pro-Staff.

Peregrine Falcon

A while ago I was delighted to see an adult Peregrine Falcon near Machias. It flew so low overhead I easily could see the black cap and broad black stripe below its eyes. It was a stocky bird, more than 20 inches long, slate-gray

mid 1960s, no Peregrines were breeding east of the Mississippi River and were in severe decline throughout much of the western states.

Scientists determined they were being victimized by DDT. This highly toxic

above and whitish buff below with barring in black. Its wingspan was more than three feet and it had the typical pointed falcon wings.

I have learned to “bird” all the time because you never know when you might see something. This was a nice surprise. Peregrines have the nickname of “bullet hawk” because they can swoop down from a great height upon prey like a feathered bullet. This is a behavior called “swooping” and it can reach an excess of 200 miles an hour. Almost like a thunderbolt from the sky, they can catch flying birds.

Sometimes they catch larger birds like ducks on the water or smaller shorebirds on a beach or in a marsh. Another nickname because of this feeding behavior is the “duck hawk”. Peregrines feed mostly on birds, but will sometimes take small mammals and even large insects. By the

develop at all.

Since 1976, captivebreeding programs have introduced 6,000 Peregrines in 37 U.S. states and in every Canadian province. This has allowed the Peregrine population to slowly recover. One of the most successful “hacking” sites in Maine was at the Borestone Mountain Preserve in Elliotsville

The Bird Perch

by Karen Holmes, Cooper, ME

fledglings were released. Borestone hacked birds there from 1988 until 1997. In 1990, a Borestone raised and banded female Peregrine flew down to Boston, Massachusetts. It displaced an adult female and took over its nesting site on a

western Greenland seven weeks earlier. Arctic Circle banded birds have been found in South America. So who knows where future nesting pairs in birds in Maine will come from. The Maine Peregrine Falcon Program promotes that a

Since 1976, captive-breeding programs have introduced 6,000 Peregrines in 37 U.S. states and in every Canadian province. This has allowed the Peregrine population to slowly recover.

and persistent pesticide was widely used on crops and mosquito-infested areas during the 1940s and 1960s. The EPA banned its usage in 1972. Scientists had discovered that DDT was being carried up the food chain to many animals, especially birds of prey like eagles and falcons. Their eggs would become too thinly shelled and were crushed under the weight of incubating birds.

Some eggs even failed to

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TWP, Maine. A “hack box” was placed high up on a pole. This height would be comparable to the one used for a wild nest on a cliff or ledge. Young nestlings would be brought from successful wild nests where they had more than one sibling. They were put in the hack box and fed so they could grow and be healthy. But they were not able to see their human caretakers. This ensured they stayed wild and would not imprint on humans.

After about two months, these “hacked”

Custom’s Building ledge. Peregrines have a favorite food of feral pigeons in cities. They will nest in cities on high buildings and in their bridges. Maine in 2022 documented 40 nesting pairs. They still remain on Maine’s Endangered Species list because their numbers are considered low. But the future looks bright. Peregrines will fly great distances. In 1989 a dead banded female was found beside the Piscataquis River in Dover- Foxcroft. It had been banded in

self-sustaining population is of utmost importance. They will conduct surveys and collect data and promote public outreach programs to ensure the successful future of this species.

Karen Holmes is a naturalist in Cooper, Maine. She writes for various publications and promotes the importance of people getting involved in wildlife preservation in Maine and elsewhere.

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT!

Where do you read your copy of the Sporting Journal? At camp, in the boat, at the ice shack? We’d love to see a photo of you with your copy of the Journal at an unusual place. If we like it, we will publish it in the Journal. If we select your best shot for publication, we’ll send you an exclusive Sporting Journal hat created just for the occasion. Send your Jpeg photo and a short blurb to vpaulr@tds.net.

Please include your contact information, too. www.sportingjournal.com

(Cont. from pg 13)

Trophy Trout

Stocking: Vermont

Vermont’s “Trophy Trout” stocking program for 2024 includes nine river sections and 37 lakes and ponds receiving the two-year old trout, some over 18 inches long.

“The Trophy Trout program provides exciting fishing opportunities for anglers of all ages and skill levels,” said Vermont’s Director of Fisheries Eric Palmer. “Trophy rainbow and brown trout will be stocked in the Black, Winooski, Lamoille, Missis -

5 Lake Street, P.O. Box 66, Lincoln, ME 207-794-2460

quoi, Walloomsac, and Passumpsic Rivers as well as East and Otter creeks while trophy brook trout will be stocked into the Deerfield River. Large two-year old brookies and rainbows will also be stocked in many lakes and ponds.”

Trout harvest season

opened this year on Saturday, April 13 and will continue through October 31. There is no length limit and the daily creel limit is two trout for the Trophy Trout stream sections listed below.

Lake and pond stocking will begin in April as ice clears while river stocking will begin in May and continue through

the month. Anglers can check Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s website (www. vtfishandwildlife.com) to see the stocking that has occurred and see the lakes and ponds that are being stocked with trophy trout. Click on “Fish” and then “Fish Stocking Schedule.”

Black River : along Rt. 131 in Weathersfield and Cavendish, from Downers covered bridge upstream, approximately four miles, to the next bridge across the river, the Howard Hill Bridge.

Deerfield River : in Searsburg - from the downstream edge of the East Branch Trailhead Bridge upstream 4 miles to the

Email: cwa@cwalakestreet.com

downstream edge of the bridge on Somerset Road near junction with Forest Road 71

East Creek: in Rutland City – from the confluence with Otter Creek upstream, approximately 2.7 miles, to the top of the Patch Dam in Rutland City.

Lamoille River: from the downstream edge of the bridge on Route 104 in the Village of Fairfax upstream, approximately 1.6 miles, to the top of the Fairfax Falls Dam in Fairfax.

Otter Creek: in Danby and Mt. Tabor - From the Vermont Railway Bridge north of the fishing access upstream, approximately 2 miles, to the Danby-Mt. Tabor Forest Rd. Bridge (Forest Road # 10).

Missisquoi River: in Enosburg and Sheldon, from the downstream edge of Kane Road (TH-3) bridge upstream, approximately 5.7 miles, to the top of the Enosburg Falls Dam in Enosburg Falls.

Passumpsic River: in St. Johnsbury, from the top of the Gage Dam upstream to the top of the Arnold Falls Dam. This

section includes the Moose River from its confluence with the Passumpsic River upstream to the Concord Avenue bridge.

Walloomsac River: From the Vermont/New York border in Bennington upstream to the top of the former Vermont Tissue Plant Dam (downstream of Murphy Road) in Bennington.

Winooski River : in Duxbury and Waterbury, from the top of Bolton Dam upstream to the Route 2 Bridge east of Waterbury Village. This section includes the Little River: from its confluence with the Winooski River upstream to the Route 2 bridge.

For fishing regulation details, see the “Vermont 2024 Fishing Guide & Regulations,” available where licenses are sold, or use the online fishing regulations tool at: https:// vtfishandwildlife.com/ node/486

Vermont fishing licenses are available on Fish and Wildlife’s website and statewide from license agents.

Table

(Cont. from pg 65)

thighs with a small amount of sunflower oil, followed by salt and pepper.

Heat up a cast iron pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.

Add the sunflower oil to the pan, and then add the seasoned turkey thighs and brown on both sides;

about 4 minutes per side.

The darker the brown, the better.

While the meat is browning, add the remaining ingredients to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. The sauce will be darker and thicker now.

Turn the pan with the turkey thighs to low. Add the sauce to the pan with the turkey thighs.

Cover the pan with lid and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until fork tender (for a Jake that might be an hour for an old Tom maybe 2 hours).

Add water or chicken bone broth – 1/4 cup at a time as needed with older birds if the sauce starts to reduce and wants to attempt to stick to the bottom of the pan.

When tender, shred

the meat with a fork in the pan.

At this point you can serve the turkey mole on grilled corn tortillas topped with any number of items such as: pickled red onions, cabbage, rice, crumbled queso fresco or cotija, minced cilantro.

Option: For added mole flavor you can grill onions, poblano peppers, puree them, and then add

them to your mole.

WildCheff - Denny Corriveau is AwardWinning National Native American Game Chef, and the Founder of the FreeRange Culinary Institute.. You can learn more about him @ www.wildcheff.com , www.thenativefire.com or follow him on Instagram @ thewildcheff

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