The Fish and Wildlife Department recently released its official deer harvest report. Deer hunters in Maine harvested 22,490 deer last fall. This number is a far cry from the deer harvests in the past. It’s a slight improvement, however, and the Fish and Wildlife Department, understandably, made the best of a bad situation with a […]
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Good or bad, bass’ popularity grows in Maine
Bass vs. brookies. Which do you prefer? Why do anglers tend to gravitate toward one of the other? When I was a youngster, my Dad broke me in on small, alder-choked streams that gave up small trout when the worm passed them by. I loved it. Later, as a teen I spent many June hours […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Deer are big business
For more than 100 years Maine has been the deer hunter’s destination spot for those who want to hunt big deer in the North Woods. Although a decline in deer numbers in Maine, especially in the big woods, has resulted in fewer nonresident deer hunters flocking to the Pine Tree State, deer hunting by residents […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Amendment may not be ‘silver bullet,’ but it would be well worth it
The stark fact that the Humane Society of the United States has announced its intentions to make another run at banning bear hunting in Maine, as early as next year, ought to be triggering alarm bells, not just in rural Maine and urban Maine, but in the legislative halls in Augusta. Earlier this month, two […]
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Outdoors in Maine: The wild turkey outlook
When it comes to Maine sportsman and wild turkeys, there are two distinct groups: those who hunt ’em and those who hate ’em. Count me among the former. Having hunted them with a shotgun and a bow, it’s beyond me why anyone who loves to hunt is not enjoying this spring opportunity. There is a […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Escaping winter with stone crabs
In the Florida Keys, comfortably removed from one of the worst winters New England has known, there are plenty of diversions beyond watching the weather channel and enjoying the plentiful sun-drenched days, ocean breezes and soaring birds. My son-in-law, Jacques, and I have taken up stone crabbing. Stone crabs are a delicacy — an expensive […]
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No patience or respect for Humane Society’s tenacity
The following history is important because it defines our enemy. In 2004, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) tried to use Maine’s citizen referendum process as a mechanism to ban bear hunting. Maine citizens, in a statewide vote, rejected the ban. Then in 2014, in an act of incredible arrogance and breathtaking audacity, […]
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Anchors away for Griffin Clip
The Miami Boat Show — if you will excuse the use of a popular grammatical corruption — is ginormous! It is a showplace for everything that is technologically on the cutting edge, not only for big expensive boats and outboards, but also for nautical devices and related gizmos. For those of us who grew up […]
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There are many factors when calculating moose harvests
Recently, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W) released a summary of last fall’s moose harvest. Of the 3,025 hunting applicants who were issued a moose tag, almost a third — 2,022 — brought home a moose. If you crunch the numbers, 65 percent of last fall’s moose hunters were successful. This is […]
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Outdoors in Maine: The plight of the panther
A common mistake we make when dealing with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is to judge its decision-making by normative standards. That is to say, we should have learned by now not to expect much of what USFWS does to make much sense. This large bureaucratic organization is, after all, part of the […]