April 2007 Almanac

This Month: Has the Ice Gone Out? Get Ready for a Whopper.

April Fool’s Day kicks off the 2007 general, open-water, fishing season, and on April 1, fishing feels like an April Fool’s errand because of all the ice and snow.

As April nears May, black flies will be swarming and alder leaves will have grown to the size of a mouse’s ear, two sure signs that brook trout are biting in brooks.

In the first four weeks after ice-out, anglers enter about one-third of all the fish that get into The One That Didn’t Get Away Club, showing that folks catch trophies in the icy waters of the early season.

During ice-out mania, trolling rules as folks chug across lakes and ponds in hopes of tangling with a wall-hanger.

An occasional April hatch, often caddises or stoneflies, kicks off the dry-fly fishing in this state, but major hatches do not begin until May.

Folks fishing for salmonids often land a huge black bass now.

After dark this month, sea-run rainbow smelts run coastal streams, and smelters take advantage.

Inland versions of rainbow smelts run now, and folks hit them after dark, hoping for a feed of this sweet, delectable baitfish or for bait to fish ice-out mania for salmonids.

Occasional inland and coastal streams have daylight runs of smelts, and folks in the know find these honey holes.

Sea-run brookies, called “salters,” ascend coastal brooks, streams and rivers now. Just about every water flowing into the ocean that has native brookies has a salter run in early April, and the higher the water, the more certainty of running brookies.

Turkey hunters scout in earnest now before the season kicks off April 30 and ends June 2. This is a complicated season structure based on age of the participants, so check the regulations booklet, www.mefishwildlife.com or call 1(207)287-8000 for details.

In Southern Maine, red-winged blackbirds arrive in the first week of April, and with them comes the sharp but paradoxically melodious o-ka-leee call in marshes — a certain sign of spring.

Speaking of spring signs…. Woodcock mate now, and the melodic chirping of wings can be heard in spring twilights around nearly every abandoned field, springing up with poplar and alder. Between flights, the male calls — an occasional squawking peent sound that resembles a cicada cry.

Wood frogs begin calling in vernal pools, a short, raspy quack like a duck, not an amphibian. No frog is more distinctive and well known except for maybe bullfrogs, which folks have anthropomorphized the call to a deep, resonant jug-of-rum. Peeper choruses begin in earnest this month as warm days give way to chilled nights. In the darkness, hundreds of these tiny, 1-inch amphibians make a slurred preep that blends into a canorous symphony, one of the earliest signs of spring.

On warm, rainy nights, salamanders and frogs migrate across roads.

Sandy beaches now have a plaintive, distinct cry from piping plovers as these migratory birds return to Maine. In the southern part of the state, this plover comes back about the second week of April.

During the second and third weeks, ice-out occurs in the bottom third of Maine and shortly afterwards, common loons return to inland ponds and lakes. They begin their courtship ritual by dipping their bills into the water and swimming in circles around each other.

Woodchucks show in early April, and sharp-eyed drivers see dozens of them along the grassy edges of Interstates as well as in fields, those distant, brown dots. Some gunners with flat-shooting calibers do some serious target practice with them.

Speaking of “gunner”…. In Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) 7 through 29, the first half of the split crow season ended 31, but in WMDs 1 through 6 (northern one-third of Maine), this season continues until April 15. Across the state, the second half of the split season runs from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30.

By the end of April in the bottom third of the state, grackles, cowbirds, robins, song sparrows, white-throated sparrows and certainly more have returned.

Hiking is wicked popular this month before black flies and mosquitoes swarm and temperatures remain moderately cool, perfect for long walks.

Photographers after somber colors and textures shoot wonderful mood images now.

As snow leaves, critters begin moving and wildlife photographers take advantage. Also, migratory waterfowl and songbirds return, exciting folks targeting wildlife.

Camping season begins but people are not out in droves yet.

White-water canoeists run swollen rivers this month, a great sport. A few adventuresome folks canoe-trip in this month before bugs predominate.

Wild sarsaparilla pops from the ground, a shiny, maroon plant, sometimes with three leaves on a branch before the other two unfurl. Old timers called it “poison mercury,” a misnomer for sure. Sarsaparilla root is a key ingredient in root beer. Mature wild sarsaparilla turns green, a common, five-leaved plant in a woodland understory.

Before spring foliage begins, yellow, dandelion-like blossoms grow along gravel banks and road edges — coltsfoot. This medicinal plant adds color to a very drab landscape.

Next Month: Get Your Fishing Rod Out – Nope. Better Get a Gun

May begins as a rather brown, drab month with green tinges but ends in a viridescent explosion that rivals the Emerald Isle.

In the top half of Maine, the higher elevations and more northern latitudes insure ice-out comes in the fifth month, so in the north country, ice-out mania reigns.

In the bottom half of Maine, expect heavy hatches of mayflies such as Hendricksons, red quills, blue-winged olives (big ones in the size-14 range), gray foxes, sulfur duns and varied caddises — a fly-fisher’s dream world.

Brook and small stream fishing for brookies rocks now.

Northern ponds have fast fishing around tributaries and outlets now, and as the month rushes toward June, hatches may pick up in the fourth week of May.

Lake trout begin moving toward deep holes now, and by June 30, will be hugging bottom in deep holes.

On Southern Maine lakes and ponds, browns hang around shallow coves in the first hour or so after dawn.

Before the month ends, black bass move toward spawning beds.

Northern pike still roam near the surface.

Striped bass show up in southern coastal Maine as well as in the Kennebec in downtown Augusta and Waterville-Winslow.

Pickerel, perches and sunfish attract mostly kids now, and action picks up as water warms near June. What child can resist the savage strike of a pickerel?

A small, dedicated group of hunters, about 20,000 of them, live and breathe turkey hunting now, but hard-core anglers just blow out air in exasperation and think, “May is a fishing month is a fishing month is a fishing month.”

Woodchuck hunters get out now, glassing fields for these large rodents.

A handful of people hunt coyotes now.

Auto camping, canoe tripping, backpacking and simple hiking pick up now in intensity, but don’t forget the fly dope.

Wildlife photographers have baby critters now, and as photographers like to say, “Cute sells.”

Scenic photographers have intense, lush greens and colorful wild flowers by month’s end. How can anyone with a camera go wrong with such help for landscapes?

Canoeists continue running rapids until waters subside.

Shooters, be it rifle, shotgun, bow or air-rifle enthusiasts, hit ranges now and have a blast.

Bicycling really picks up in intensity, a great sport to get folks into condition so they can have more fun hunting and fishing.