Not surprisingly, it took some time for Maine’s fish and wildlife regulatory apparatus to loosen up when it came to accepting the crossbow as a legitimate and acceptable hunting device. Compared with other states, we have been a long time coming around. In an excellent column in the September issue of the Northwoods Sporting Journal, …
“Past fifty, my eyesight is bad, can’t find my glasses, then I get mad. Where can they be, has anyone seen, not a trace, now I’m steamed. Up on my head, is where they sit, grandkids laughing, how silly can one get….” In the days of my youth, when my vision and hearing were reasonably …
Whether you are a hunter or just an outdoor person with a fascination for wildlife in its natural surroundings, a trail camera is a useful device that allows you to not only get some great photos of wildlife, but figure out which animals are moving and at what time of the day. Bud Utecht, who …
There are big game hunters, and then there are hunters of dangerous big game. Waterville native Kenneth T. Winters, who has hunted 223 big game species throughout the world, spent the better part of his adult life hunting dangerous big game in his beloved Africa. In his new book, “Chasing High Adventure,” Winters relives those …
Recently Maine’s new fish and wildlife commissioner, Judy Camuso, was a studio guest on “Maine Calling,” an interactive radio program on the National Public Radio station in Portland. She performed well as she outlined the goals and challenges of the department in the months ahead. The control of coyote populations in the North Woods by …
A Hex, or if your Latin is good, a Hexagenia limbata, is a bomber-size Mayfly that shows up on Maine trout ponds in mid-summer, usually early July. For a trout, they are a turkey dinner with all the fixings — a chance to get the most amount of food for the least amount of effort. …
Look, most of us who love to fish Maine in early June expect to be swatting a few bugs, right? When I was a lad fishing with Dad he always lathered me up with that black, foul-smelling Old Woodsman fly dope. I’d complain about the stinky stuff and whine about the buzzing hordes and he …
This is the time of year when Maine’s state regional wildlife biologists examine their deer data in each of their wildlife management districts (WMDs) and make recommendations for the issuance of any-deer or doe permits in their respective districts. Last year a record 84,745 any-deer permits were issued. That was 20 percent higher than any …
Not so long ago, deer numbers in northern Maine were at a crisis point. It was said, not jokingly, that in some Aroostook County townships the lynx, a federally listed endangered species, was more prevalent than deer! The deer situation has improved some in the County, but tough winters and continued predation holds back …
It was mid-November in the Big Deer Woods. A northeast wind was rocking the hemlock tops and pushing a cold, pelting rain that seemed to penetrate the slicker beneath my wool hunting shirt. The damp, raw day was in my pores. Noon or not, it was time to call it a day. Heading back to …
Those of us who winter over in the South get spoiled in a lot of ways. For one thing, we tend to take the sun for granted. Day after day that big bright orb comes up in the eastern sky in the morning and then drops below the western horizon late in the day. When …
