Archive for November, 2009
Posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 by Maine Sportsman
We’re happy to announce that The Maine Sportsman’s forum is now online! If you want to talk with other sportsmen about Maine’s outdoors traditions and activities, come join the forum. All you need is an e-mail address and an opinion or two!
Click the Forum link in the menu at right and you’ll be taken directly to the forum. You’ll need to register first in order to post. (Verifiable e-mail address required to register.) Once you’ve joined the forum, you’re free to start posting; reply to a topic, or create a discussion of your own!
Categories: General
Posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by Maine Sportsman
**THIS MONTH**
–December Offers Rest, Or Intense Activity, The Choice Is Yours–
True baby boomers born in 1946 remember when December passed as the lazy man’s month for outdoors activities. During December, from World War II to the early 1970s, the hunting, fishing and outdoors life in general passed slowly for folks who found this month a grand time to eat leisurely meals with fruits from the forests and water or, better yet, for many of them to sit in kitchens with friends while telling stories of past hunts and fishing successes and failures. It was indeed an unhurried time before the holidays when women did the lion’s share of Christmas shopping and other domestic chores.
Here’s a quick snapshot of outdoor pursuits in those years:
• Ice-fishing for trout and salmon didn’t start until Feb. 1.
• Coyotes didn’t arrive in full force until the 1970s, so no one hunted this wild canine until at least then, and many didn’t get the idea of sitting and calling on field edges until the 1980s.
• The fallen price of fox fur pretty much had ended hunting this canine then, often done with a trusty fox hound in those days.
• Coastal winter smelting attracted a handful of folks, but it didn’t hit full swing until the mid or late 1970s when entrepreneurs started smelting businesses in places such as Bowdoinham and Dresden.
• Muzzle-loading for December deer started in the early 1980s.
• Rabbit hunting was indeed as popular as it is now, maybe a little more, but serious hare enthusiasts needed to invest in a hound or two. Many folks lacked this commitment – then and now.
• Snowmobilers got out as soon as snow flew around their homes, but traveling north for sledding would develop in the 1980s.
• Serious photography started in the 1970s with the advent of big box stores selling discount SLR 35mm cameras and all the lenses and filters. Shooting color transparencies really took off then because box stores sold a 36-exposure roll of slides for a tad more than $1 and charged about $2 to develop them. Folks could burn lots of film – and did – at that price. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: December 2009 Issue • Categories: General
Posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by Maine Sportsman
December … the leaves have fallen; with luck, you’ve got your deer; the snow is likely to stay.
Time to turn your attentions to ice fishing! The Maine Sportsman focuses its attentions to angling in winter with “how-to”, “where-to” information on catching togue, pickerel, perch and bass.
Muzzleloading enthusiasts will want to check out our section on black powder bucks — tips and techniques that will help you bag a trophy buck!
Winter in Maine means snowmobiling, too. We help you get ready for another great season of sledding with a number of articles, including one focused on women in snowmobiling!
Winter is a great time to get outdoors. So pick up your copy of The Maine Sportsman at your local newsstand or subscribe today.
Tags: December 2009 Issue • Categories: General
Posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 by Maine Sportsman
This month: November Is Deer Month … But
November in Maine begins with colorful foliage, but soon, leaves fall and woods turn bare and brown before snow flies. In such a drab backdrop, outsiders to the state might think folks would hate the month, but one crowd that numbers around 170,000 lives for November – deer hunters.
It’s a way of life in Maine, and it intrigues non-residents and transplants to hear a salutation in business spots such as restaurants, gas stations and the like when folks run into one another and pop the question, “Didja’ git ya’ deer yet?”
To a Maine native, such a question seems as normal as saying “hi” in summer or “Merry Christmas” in December.
As big as deer hunting may be in Maine this month, lots of folks in the bottom of the state – about 10,000 – live for the second half of the split waterfowl season. Novice duck hunters from the first season don’t get out much in November’s cold, so solitude and shooters who don’t sky-bust become more of the norm.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: November 2009 Issue • Categories: Almanac
Posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 by Maine Sportsman
November means deer hunting in Maine! This month’s issue of The Maine Sportsman has three watchwords — deer, deer and deer! Check out the tips, techniques and of course, the “how-to, where-to” information thousands of sportsmen across the globe rely upon, month after month, year after year!
Big bucks aren’t the only thing on sportsmen’s minds in November. It’s not too late to enjoy angling, and we examine some late fall fishing spots that promise action.
Pick up a copy of The Maine Sportsman, available on newsstands across Maine and portions of New Hampshire, or subscribe today and ensure you won’t miss out on the information you need for a successful outdoors adventure!
This month’s special features:
Deer Hunting
Snowmobiling
Tags: November 2009 Issue • Categories: General
