June 2010 Almanac
Maine’s As Green As It Ever Gets
This month, Maine’s as green as it ever gets, rivaling Ireland. Hayfields with short, verdant grass ripple in the wind, and foliage looks lush to the extreme, the kind of green that oil painters need lots of yellow to duplicate. Yellow brightens the green considerably where blue changes it to a drabber green. Talk about a viridescent explosion. It occurs early in our sixth month.
By July, though, hay turns from emerald green to golden yellow and leaves begin fading, but in mid-summer, it takes an astute eye to notice the changing foliage – but change does occur. Forget July, though, because June has arrived and it just may be Maine’s best month for sport and idyllic weather – if rains take a holiday.
Stripers and mackerel arrive this month. Those two will be here, almost a certainty, and with luck, bluefish show up this month, too. Saltwater fishing hits a peak now because mackerel swarm and cow and bull stripers offer folks a chance to wrestle with a leviathan. Bluefish just sweeten a pot heavy already.
Brook-trout ponds, streams and brooks boom in Northern Maine as long days create high temperatures that plummet in the evening. Afternoon fishing is the norm in June in high elevations in the North Country.
Black bass move onto spawning beds, and folks take advantage. This month ranks as a top-action time for Maine bass. Other warm-water species such as white perch, black crappies, pike, pickerel, yellow perch and sunfish also feed heavily now.
In the bottom third of Maine, brown trout hang around shallow lake coves at the break of dawn, and folks out of bed and onto the water can have a time of it. Salmon also move into shallows in the cool morning and offer sport.
Black flies and mosquitoes swarm now, awful in the woods, but hardcore deer scouters slather on repellant and go forth to pattern deer movement.
Folks with bow and arrows stump-shoot now, excellent practice for shooting at unknown distances that require precise estimates to score a good shot. Also, stump-shooters can sneak through the woods, polishing still-hunting skills.
Landscape photographers have endless greens and colorful wild flowers now – just an easy time to pop eyes open. Photographers cannot miss when nature cooperates so fully as it does in June.
According to a sales clerk at L.L.Bean, backpacking is increasing in popularity these days, and why not? We’ve never had better backpacking gear – durable and light, very light. And Maine trails number as high as the imagination can go.
