April 2009 Almanac
This Month: It’s Spring, But What About All the White Stuff?
When April 1 arrives in the bottom third of the state, it’s really spring, but first, what about all the snow and ice?
Early April can look like more of winter — except on the south and east sides of ridges and in open fields. Then, with a little imagination, places where snow has melted to the shadowed areas look like spring.
Geese lollygag on tidal rivers and woodcock return to abandoned fields, where they perform courting rituals each dusk, making that ever familiar mating call — a buzzing peent. Robins flock on lawns and phoebes show up along open hedges. Dawn sounds from newly arriving birds wake astute observers, and from warm beds, knowledgeable birdwatchers can identify species by the calls.
Folks flock to the few open-water spots around the state, and in places such as the Belgrade Lakes, Songo Locks, Grand Lake Stream and Lake Auburn, ridiculously large crowds of anglers may form. However, ice on ponds and lakes reigns, so it forces folks into limited areas.
Brook fishing can be really excellent in April, beginning sometime in the middle of the month onward. Small waters warm more quickly and spring flooding subsides more rapidly, explaining why fishing is so good in rivulets.
Brook fishing brings out the best in anglers, too. They must sneak to pools and runs as if the hidey hole was a trophy buck, and then, cast and work the lure perfectly. It’s no sport for folks with anything but meticulous personalities.
In Northern Maine, April means more of winter and snowmobiling still rocks for most or all of the month, depending on the year. Fishing doesn’t really start in the top half of the state until May, but folks along streams such as Prestile or Meduxnekeag might debate that point.
In the South Country, April can be such a leisurely month for outdoors types because it’s a perfect time to poke around outdoors. Next month, folks will be ultra-busy, but now, it’s just a perfect month for taking it easy.
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Tips of the Month
Fishing Begins When?
Several natural signs tell anglers when trout and salmon start biting in the bottom third of the state during late April. Two old favorites include black flies and alder leaves. When black flies swarm and alder leaves reach the size of a mouse’s ear in an area, trout and salmon start biting well.
Leaves of red maple also tell us fast fishing action has started. When this maple foliage first unfurls and makes a crinkly red, flower-like growth on all the branches, water temperature in nearby waters has reached 50-degrees Fahrenheit and mayfly start hatching.
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White Perch Start Spawning
According to collective wisdom from the ages, white perch start spawning in shallows two weeks after ice-out. This rule works in two favorite Central Maine perchin’ spots — 1) The Spillway Pool in Belgrade Lakes village and 2) The China Lake breakwater at the north end of the lake in downtown China. Folks check their calendars when ice goes out and project two weeks ahead. When that date arrives, they head out with bait or jigs and big white pails for the annual ritual.
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Ice-Out Trolling Techniques
In Maine, an age-old method of trolling involve a 10-pound, 2-foot leader tied onto a lead-core or fly line with a nail knot, and then, a 30-foot leader goes onto the 2-foot section via a blood knot or two surgeon loops. The fly, sewn bait or metal (or plastic) lure then goes onto the 30-foot strand, which gets the offering far from the heavy line.
Savvy veterans tie the 30-foot, 6- to 8-pound leader to the stouter, 2-foot piece for convenience. That way, if the angler hooks bottom, he or she may lose the 30-foot leader but won’t need to tie the next leader to the lead-core line or fly line, which requires a more time-consuming knot. It just requires spooling off a 30-foot leader and tying a surgeon loop to this strand to affix to the 2-foot piece with a loop-to-loop knot.
When trolling a fly, 4 miles per hour (mph) works well, the speed of a fast walk. A fish has no time to study the offering to see it is bogus. It must hit quickly or lose the opportunity.
When trolling sewn bait, the troller puts the lure into the water within sight of the boat and increases the speed from zero toward 1 mph until getting the optimum movement of the sewn bait — a little over 1 mph often works fine.
When trolling spoons or wobbling lures, the troller puts the lure into the water within sight of the boat and begins at 1 mph. Then, he or she increases the speed until getting the optimum wobble.
That’s it, folks! Trolling ain’t rocket science.
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Where the Action Is
Grand Lake Stream Attracts Mobs Now
Grand Lake Stream (DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG), Map 35, B-4) attracts mobs in April, particularly on April Fool’s Day, and for good reason. Folks always catch salmon on that first day of the open season.
The rule on this storied stream demands folks use artificial flies only. Best bets for fly patterns include smelt imitations and large dark nymphs, which take opening-day salmon year after year. Folks fishing this place for the first time can follow the crowds to the honey holes.
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Belgrade Honey Holes
The Belgrade Lakes draws legions, and three places get most of the traffic: 1) The Spillway Pool at the inlet of Long Pond where the current breaks ice out into the pond far shore (Map 20, E-4), 2) Castle Island bridge and two culverts in The Narrows between Long Pond’s two basins (Map 20, E-4) and 3) Wings Mills Dam (Map 12, A-4) on Belgrade Stream below Long Pond. Rainbow smelt imitations — flies and lures — work here as does bait.
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Bingham ‘Bows
The short stretch of the Kennebec River between the Route 16 bridge in Bingham and Wyman Dam draws trollers each April, and despite the near certainty of deep snow on the banks, die-hard anglers take the occasional trout or salmon every April 1. Wild rainbows are the draw, too, but this river has a salmonid smorgasbord. Again, mobs gather, and newcomers can watch and see what the crowds are doing. Check Map 30, D-4.
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Small Brook Magic
If the run-off hasn’t started in the bottom third of the state, anglers can expect action on small brooks, which warm more quickly now. High water really hurts these trickles, though. If flows are right, though, concentrate on brooks that flowed into stocked ponds and lakes. For solitude and action, folks can’t go wrong on brooks and small streams through April.
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News and Tidbits
Lamprey Wounds Decreasing … But Still High
Lake Champlain anglers are rejoicing over the improved health of salmon and trout, thanks to a lamprey control program that has — at last — reduced lamprey wounds on game fish. Fish biologists say the number of lamprey wounds per 100 lake trout fell to 31 last summer and fall, the lowest rate since 1998. Salmon wounds fell to 35 per 100 fish.
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Abundant Brookies
Maine has the largest population of brook trout in the continental U.S. with fish in more than 1,135 lakes and ponds and in 22,250 miles of rivers, streams and brooks. Furthermore, the state has the country’s largest number of wild brook trout whose populations do not rely on stocking.
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Domestic Rabbit
An article in The New York Times in late January once again proclaimed that domestic rabbit was making a comeback on the average American’s dinner table, pushing the fact this animal has less fat than most critters raised for eating. The article came complete with a braising recipe in a 325-degree oven, which claimed that temperature kept the liquid from boiling and toughening the meat. Rabbits have never been a common dish in this country since the 19th century so it’s doubtful they’ll make a comeback, but it’s good that such a prestigious newspaper pushes this food item because it somehow takes the edge off folks hunting rabbits or hares.
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‘Summer People…Some Are Not’
We saw a great bumper sticker on Interstate 95 a while back that’ll catch on overnight — summer people…some are not.
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Towns Just End
In more developed regions of the country, downtowns peter out into shopping malls and then suburbs and exurbs, but in Maine, towns end rather abruptly in impenetrable woods hugging a highway or in fields and pastures or even at the ocean’s edge — an endearing quality of this state.
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Maine Coyotes Eat Grain
Last January, Kippy York, a Belgrade resident, witnessed coyotes eating grain intended for deer. In the still night air bathed by moonlight, York could hear these canines crunching the grain.
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Maine Farms Increasing
The federal census shows the number of farms in Maine has increased 13 percent between 2002 and 2007, but the average size went down. Farms increasing often mean good news for wildlife, who utilize farmland for cover and food — often food from waste left by crops.
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ESA Works
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) truly works for some species such as bald eagles in Maine and alligators in Florida. As soon as folks figured out in Maine that DDT, a chemical pesticide, was raising havoc with eagle reproduction, officials banned it, a big step in bringing eagles back. In Florida, poaching was decimating the alligator population and had practically put them out of existence in this southern state, but an ESA listing protected this reptile. Today, the alligator population numbers 1 million in Florida, which now has one alligator for every 17 of its residents. In some areas, alligators have become a danger to humans and pets such as dogs and cats.
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Bird Irruptions
Redpolls in Maine typical irrupt (pronounced exactly like “erupt”) every other year, so birdfeeders have flocks one year but often none or just a scattering of them the next year. This past winter in Central Maine, pine siskins irrupted and we saw more of them at the feeder than most of us have seen in our lifetime.
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Bird of the Month
Olive-Sided Flycatchers Like Their Beer
Olive-sided flycatchers (Contopus cooperi) belong to the tyrant flycatchers family, which have an unmistakable behavioral characteristic. They like to sit on a limb or particularly the tip of a dead tree, launch themselves out a few yards to snap up a flying insect and then return to their perch — only to perform this maneuver again and again on this high-protein forage.
As flycatchers go, the olive-side runs rather large, measuring seven to eight inches in length. Birdwatchers do not see a larger flycatcher in Maine, but eastern kingbirds grow as large. (Eastern kingbirds are the songbirds that occasionally harass flying hawks and crows, a common sight on a summer day.)
Besides size, three features help identify olive-sided flycatchers:
• A large bill.
• Dark chest patches on both sides of a narrow white strip, so they look as if they’re wearing an unbuttoned sports coat over a white shirt.
• White puffy feathers poke out on the back between the wings.
The endearing trait of an olive-sided flycatcher is the song — a spirited whistle that ornithologists translate as quick, three beers. You gotta’ love a bird that orders beer.
This bird also calls pip—pip—pip.
When fishing one of those slow moving trout streams that slides through a swale meadow fringed with larch and black spruce, anglers may hear quick, three beers in the spring — a big part of the trouting experience in this state.
This bird’s scientific name has changed at least three times in the last 35 years from Nuttallornius borealis to Contopus borealis to Contopus cooperi, difficult for us aging baby boomers to keep up with, but just maybe it will stay Contopus cooperi.
The breeding season lasts from late May through June, and this species builds a nest five to 70 feet above the ground, beginning with an outer frame of dead twigs, dead grass stems, rootlets and pine needles. Then, it lines the structure with similar but finer materials, including hair.
The female lays three to four eggs, suggesting a higher survival rate than birds that deposit several more eggs per spring, and the cream-colored or pinkish shells are smooth and non-glossy with olive-brown, purplish-brown or pale purple blotches. (Ken Allen)
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Do You Know?
Fishing Laws So Complicated
Whenever county boundary lines divide a body of water that happens to fall in both counties, do you know which county rule applies?
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Book Corner
Ya’ Wanna’ Catch Giant Stripers?
Monster Shallow Water Stripers by Capt. Jim White (Headwater Books, New Cumberland, Pennsylvania) should interest most Maine striper anglers because we fish a whole lot in shallows, and as the title implies, that’s what Capt. White’s book is all about.
Monster Shallow Water Stripers doesn’t just cover fishing flats, though. It touches upon angling points, surf, different tides, rip lines, currents, tidal rivers (where most Mainers fish), weather’s importance to the feed and more.
Capt. White devotes a chapter to each of the following: fly-fishing, conventional tackle, baiting, using soft plastic, fishing big lures for big fish and relying on electronics.
In fact, someone from the Midwest with absolutely no striper experience could move to Maine, read this book before May when striped bass start their annual migration up the coast and be ready to fish. (This text has it all except, of course, except how to fish deep.) What more can you say about a how-to book than that?
Here’s another thing about Monster Shallow-Water Stripers: There are no color photos like all the rest of the recent striper books crossing this reviewer’s desk, but Capt. White’s book contains 200 black-and-white photos, 40 illustrations and excellent knot-tying diagrams that cover myriad tidbits that can help anglers become better at this sport.
One last point: Capt. Jim White writes some pretty decent prose, which makes the book easy to read. If you don’t think this is important, try reading two of the most famous striper books on the market. It’s difficult to figure what either author is saying when they get into technical points. Good luck with ‘em. Capt. White gets his information across in easy-to-understand sentences.
For a paperback with no color photos, Monster Shallow-Water Stripers struck this reviewer as a little pricey — $24.95. I routinely buy hardcover novels in this price range and a little more, but that’s inflation these days.
If striper fishing interests newbies or veterans alike, though, this book belongs in their bookshelves. (Ken Allen)
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Innocent Bystander
Bulletin Board Mentality Not New
In the mid-1970s, New England had several outdoors tabloid-style monthlies pop up, and at least one of them had freewheeling editorial policies and irresponsible writers — a bad combination.
One weekend at that time, Harry Vanderweide, editor of The Maine Sportsman, and I stayed at a set of Maine sporting camps with a group of outdoor writers from southern New England. As luck would have it, we happened to be housed in the next cabin over from the editor of an offending tabloid.
The late Gene Letourneau also shared our place along with Tom Shoener, then the PR head at Department of Inland Fisheries &Wildlife, but at the moment, it was just Harry and I waiting at our cabin until dinner.
In that offending tabloid, an article, or more than one, had ridiculed a few writers and bureaucrats, so these writers and their friends had gathered on the porch next door and were verbally abusing the editor, who quickly fell back on an ingenuous defense — the first time I had ever heard such silly logic.
“Look,” he said with an embarrassingly whiny voice, “I make very little money with this magazine, and we give to charity from our annual …blah… blah…blah.”
These writers were angry, and at the end, I was surprised no one threw a punch. The incident had a real lynch-mob atmosphere, but this whiny editor continued the refrain about making no money and giving to charity.
Thirty years later, a new medium has sprung up, the Internet bulletin board, which has really generated freewheeling attacks on people. Maine has several offending boards, too. Posters who are hardcore malcontents often launch into irresponsible tirades full of half truths, full-blown lies and outright errors.
I often wonder if some of the folks running these bulletin boards had hidden under the porch at our cabin so many years ago because the first time someone criticizes them for being irresponsible, they throw out that same whiny defense:
1) They allege that they don’t make money, or if they do, it’s a limited amount.
2) They also claim that they give money for do-gooder projects, and then, they meticulously list their works ad nauseam.
Here’s a news bulletin for these people:
• When folks attack others, they must expect retribution because no one wants to be publicly ridiculed. When I aim a caustic wit at someone or a group, I fully expect rebuttals and would want it any other way. I wouldn’t whine, “Golly, I made so little money and give to charity….”
• If someone makes no money or a small amount for their effort, that is a goofy defense. In fact, some folks think it is just plain stupid for anyone to work for nothing. (Many of the monitors on bulletin boards work for zero wages. No kiddin’.) If anyone wants to volunteer, that’s his or her business until they attack someone or want to change something that affects folks negatively, and then, all bets are off.
• Being charitable doesn’t excuse bad behavior. After all, established drug dealers in some communities give plenty to charity, but that doesn’t excuse their behavior.
Every Saturday morning for 12 years, I’ve taught fly-casting, knot-tying for anglers, fly-fishing-equipment choice and fly presentation, and folks can participate for free. No one gets turned away, no one has to pay money to participate and everyone learns to fly-cast. Not once have I ever used my volunteer efforts as a defense that allows me to attack people. (Ken Allen)
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Quotable Sportsman
It’s healthy, it’s a way to get out there and spend a day with your family. It’s part of our culture.
—Senator David Trahan, who has come up with a way to create a registry of saltwater anglers without requiring a fee or license. Matt Wickenheiser story, Portland Press Herald, February 5, 2009.
A lot of guys pay big bucks to go up to Canada to catch these fish and they’re right here in our backyard.
—Jason Voye of Wayne whose 24 pound 40 inch northern pike, caught through the ice of the Androscoggin River by Voye and his 9-year-old son Ethan, was plastered across the front page of the Lewiston Sun Journal with a Terry Karkos story, February 13, 2009.
Alexandra Naylor, 18, had the catch of the day last Friday. Fishing at Sabattus Lake, the North Turner resident caught this 43-inch, 26-pound northern pike… Naylor, who described it as a ‘once in a lifetime thing,” said she released the fish so someone else could enjoy the same experience some day.
—Lewiston Sun Journal, February 19, 2009
We get nothing out of this. Besides that, we lose the alfalfa on this land that they are running over. We are making a contribution and we’re delighted to, but it’s got to come from somewhere. Really, all of us need the support.
—Turner dairy farmer Ralph Caldwell, pleading for milk price supports, noting his support for a vintage snowmobile race that raised $16,000 for charity. Some farmers suggested they might have to start charging recreational users of their property. Lewiston Sun Journal, February 19, 2009.
Hunting is a longtime Maine tradition. It is a sport. But this kind of hunting on a preserve, well, I don’t see that as hunting or as sport. I have major problems with that, and I think a lot of people who hunt do to.
—Representative Alan Casavant, sponsor of legislation to close Maine’s six commercial large game shooting areas and ban the practice. Travis Barrett story, Central Maine Newspapers, March 2, 2009.
We’re stewards of the land. This is hard work. This is about a lot of love for the land, a lot of love for the animals and a love to keep a piece of Maine in an agricultural fashion for as long as we can — because we all see where it’s going.
—Mark Luce, owner of a 100-acre commercial large game shooting area. Same Travis Barrett story, March 2, 2009.
It’s not an effort to exterminate mountain lions. It’s an effort to better manage lions with the prey base. Some hunters think the solution to the deer problem is to kill a lot of lions and the deer will come back.
Ken Mayer, Director of Nevada’s Wildlife Department, announcing a plan to kill more mountain lions to help increase the state’s deer population. Associated Press story in the Kennebec Journal, February 16, 2009.
Maine is home to one of the rarest fish in the country. Maine’s arctic char, a member of the salmonid family… is now facing it darkest hour… This rare fish faces threats from introduced baitfish, state-sponsored stocking and politics.
—Madison fly shop owner Bob Mallard. Kennebec Journal, February 15, 2009.
From start to finish, from the time they are born until time they are mature, everything eats them… Their job in life is to be eaten and it runs the gamut all the way from game fish to aquatic insects. It never ends of them.
—Nate Gray, a scientist with Maine’s Marine Resources Department, trumpeting the value of alewives that will now be able to move into Webber Pond east of Augusta thanks to a new fishway. Travis Barrett story, Central Maine Newspapers, February 28, 2009.
It’s not a moose hunt. It’s more like a moose shoot.
—DIF&W’s Director of Fish and Wildlife Ken Elowe, describing Maine’s current moose hunt while reporting on his department’s effort to promote new methods and opportunities for moose hunting. SAM’s Sportsman’s Congress, January 5, 2009.
Next Month: Spring Springs…Finally
When water temperatures in rivers and streams turn 50 to 53 degrees, hatches begin and life looks perfect, a time often heralded in by red trilliums blooming on the banks and red-maple leaves unfurling to tiny, flower-like, red blossoms.
The landscape looks brown and drab on May 1, but quickly, green transforms the countryside — first a mint green but then lush verdcy by month’s end. Photographs taken in early May really tell the story. Winter-weary eyes detect more green in early May than the camera does, showing how humans always see the best possible scenario.
How often have new photographers shot scenery photos in early May, thinking the scene was green, but the photo comes back from the developers and shows nothing but drabness?
May truly emphasizes the two Maines, too. In the bottom third of the state, fly rodders are fishing over predictable hatches while trollers are using a little weight now to get down 10 to 20 feet. They’re also dousing themselves with fly dope. In the North Country, it’s ice-out fishing and heavy clothing to ward off the winter-like chill.
People who fish little shoot a lot in May — smoothbores, rifles and bows and arrows. Clay-sport ranges attract plenty of business, rifle shooters perfect their squeezes and archers work at a constant anchor point, a crisp release and steady bow arm. Hunting is on folks mind.
And speaking of hunting…. Turkey season has hunters so excited in Maine. People who grew up with no heritage in gobbler hunting now live for the sport. They go to bed early every night before it’s dark under the table, arise early to hunt and then rush off to work — only to do the same thing the next day and the next and the next.
May really keeps folks hopping from Kittery to Fort Kent, and they do it against a season when spring rushes forward under a cerulean sky dotted with cottony cumulus clouds.