August 2006 Almanac

This Month: Here Are Ken’s Top Tips For Catching August Trout

August can give outdoors folks a case of the blahs with the heat haze on the horizon, muggy afternoons and sweltering weather, but life can be darned good for many.

Northern brook-trout ponds can have evening hatches, and bottom dredgers can do well in the day, bottom-banging 20 to 30 feet below the surface.

Brooks and small streams statewide have brookies and maybe browns hanging in deep spots or spring holes, concentrated targets for folks in the know.

Speaking of concentrated targets…. Trollers can find lake trout, landlocked salmon and brown trout now in deep portions of large ponds and lakes.

An unseasonable cold spell and rain can activate northern brookie and salmon rivers. Hey, it happens.

Black bass hang over structure 10 to 20 feet down and folks good with jigs do well now because speaking of concentrated, anglers can find bass now.

Panfish and perch interest youngsters at camp, and so do pickerel.

Northern pike hold deep these days and trollers after salmon might take one.

Stripers, blues and mackerel roam the coast and draw normally freshwater anglers to the salt for all the fishing action.

These big three often leave warm tidal rivers now in favor of the open ocean and people follow them into sheltered bays like Casco and Penoby bays.

Blue-shark fishing picks up now and folks after them catch an occasional porbeagle or mako.

Party boats do a brisk business while chasing cod and haddock, and these days, folks do better on haddock than on cod. No one complains about that outcome, either.

Black crappie are wicked popular in Central Maine, and yes, we know, we know. These illegally introduced species should not be promoted, but hey, the people have spoken.

Like crappie, white perch also travel in schools. They’re both excellent eating, too.

Archers practice on target butts on the lawn and stump shoot in the forest, shotgunners bang away at clay targets and riflemen practice squeeze. Some rifle shooters try their hand at moving targets, too.

Cool August mornings prove ideal for deer scouting.

Bear baiters began baiting 30 days prior to Aug. 28.

The second half of the split crow season starts Aug. 1, a 61-day hunt that closes Sept. 30. Few folks bother with crows, though.

Kids go back to school in late August, so car camping picks up in the final days of the official tourism summer. Folks also backpack and canoe trip now, not a bad time to be out. Mornings are cool and nights perfect for sleeping.

Gardens are producing this month — maybe early winter squash, certainly corn, leaf veggies, summer squash, radishes, maybe early potatoes and more. Life rocks in a Maine summer.

Wild-food gatherers take advantage of berries now — blueberries and raspberries. If August brings rain, and it may, mushrooms spring up everywhere.

Next Month: Bears On Stage, But Angling’s Great Next Month

If you live in the North Country, you might think the big news in September begins with bear, continues with bear and ends with bear.

Folks in the south country use September for preparation or last fling for fishing.

The bear season began the last Monday of August, the 28th to be exact, and bear baiting finishes four weeks on September 23.

Bear hunting with dogs kicks off Sept. 11 and runs until Oct. 27, a long, seven-week season.

Bear hunting with the so-called fair-chase methods of still-hunting or taking a stand over trails or orchards, oat fields, etc. runs for three months from that last Monday of August until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which happens to be Nov. 25 this year.

The first half of the split season on moose goes from Sept. 25 to Sept. 30.

A long deer season that attracts serious but in the scheme of things few followers is the expanded archery season. It kicks off Sept. 9 and continues through Dec. 9.

Speaking of archery, the state wide archery season begins Sept. 28 and closes Oct. 27.

Snipe and rail hunting usually starts Sept. 1 but the season is seldom set until after that day, and no, we’re not making this claim up.

The second half of the split crow season attracts darned few people, but for the record, folks can hunt the black bandit from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30.

Folks in the bottom third of the state look at September as a month of preparation or the final, full-bore fling of fishing for black bass, stripers and salmonids.

Sure, anglers continue into October but the general season for bass and salmonids ends Sept. 30. Many people hang up the rods that evening and begin bird hunting for grouse the following day.

Stripers hang around through much of October, but the last hurrah for many is in September’s sweet light.

Folks shoot bows, shotguns or rifles now in preparation for the major hunting seasons.

Canoe tripping, backpacking and car camping continues now, a sweet, sweet time of year with few bugs, golden light and perfect temperatures.