September 2010 Almanac
C&R Reigns This Month
September offers Maine salmonid anglers a flurry of superb fishing action, and the exact time depends on latitude, elevation and certainly cool weather, the latter leading to plummeting water temperatures. This fast fishing often lasts seven to 10 days, but no one would be foolish enough to carve this rule in granite. It might be three days or 30.
In northern Aroostook County, fast fishing can kick off near the end of the month’s first week, and in Central Maine, it often starts around Sept. 20. Before or after the fish put on the feedbag, anglers are often say, “Fall fishing can be feast or famine,” because they’re going through a famine. When it’s feast time, they’re too busy to talk.
An interesting Maine statistic involves The One That Didn’t Get Away Club, which has an inordinate amount of trophies entered that folks caught in the first three to four weeks after ice-out and again in the first two weeks of January. Fish from September are conspicuously absent in this coveted club.
Here’s an easily arguable theory, explaining this discrepancy. Fall anglers lean toward catch and release – serious fly rodders who would rather let a big one go than keep it just before spawning time. Naturally, most of them return big salmonids (and small) anytime of year. In short, serious anglers get out in September while casual ones prepare for the coming hunts.
Bass anglers who work coves at dawn and dusk and deep structure through the day catch slab-sided females now. Serious bassers release them, too.
Folks after a fish-fry and into warm-water species such as pickerel, white perch, sunfish, yellow perch and hornpout go forth now to catch a mess of fish to go with freshly made tartar sauce with finely chopped onion. Garden vegetables make these fish-fries extra special.
Striped-bass excitement hits high gear in September, and bluefish and mackerel might be hanging around the Maine coast, too. Blue-shark fishing peaks this month, but these large animals stay in the ocean where the depths reach at least 400 feet. Often, that requires a 25-mile ride from shore-side docks straight beyond the horizon.
Serious deer hunters scout hard now, and bowhunters living near the expanded archery zone just get out and hunt. A tiny few of these people shoot 10 or more deer a year, but they work at it to achieve this feat.
Shotgun shooting to smooth the mount and swing, rifle practice to perfect the trigger squeeze and bow-and-arrow twanging to polish 1) the exact same anchor point again and again, 2) release and 3) steady hold of the bow arm keep hunters occupied now.
Gardens produce the staples – potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, winter squash, drying beans and more. Wild-foods attract foragers this month as they pick mushrooms, potherbs and roots. The veggies make up a big part of the equation because hunters and anglers are also gardeners.
Scenic shots require good composition and proper light readings because the golden light and mature golden browns of fields and rich green of foliage make taking photos a snap, especially with all the fall wildflowers, including goldenrod, black-eyed Susan, chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, asters and more.
~ TIPS OF THE MONTH ~
Huge, Dark Nymphs Work
In September, days pass when blue-winged olives, cream and light- to medium-gray dry flies and emergers in small sizes work as do colorful streamer patterns such as the Cardinelle, Wood Special and Red Gray Ghost, but for success day in and day out, huge dark nymphs with palmering the length of the shank can keep a bend in the rod this month, particularly in rivers and large streams.
Size 4 and 6 hooks with 6x and even 8x long shanks with roughly dubbed dark-gray, dark-brown or black bodies coupled with soft palmering can drive landlocked salmon and large brookies nuts. Maybe these fish think the nymphs are hellgrammites, large stoneflies or huge mayflies, but these patterns can make days at places like Grand Lake Stream, Roach River, Moose River, West Branch of the Penobscot or thoroughfares on the Fish River Chain become lifetime memories.
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Flower Photos Require Planning
In months with no snow, cloudless days begin with sun, which generates wind by mid-morning because warming air rises. That gets air moving horizontally across the landscape. As a general rule, though, September has less wind than mid-spring and summer months, making it ideal for taking wildflower photos.
One key to shooting flower photos would make Ben Franklin smile. The wind makes it tough to get good, sharp photos, so photographers get out early before the wind makes flowers sway and tremble.
It requires a fast shutter speed to freeze the flowers so the photographer doesn’t get soft lines. Also, fast shutter speeds often call for a wider diaphragm that causes a narrow depth of field and soft lines, too.
Serious photographers buy shelters for shooting flowers, which diffuse light and shield the subject from wind. Just the same, a strong wind will move flowers, even under a shelter, so early to rise makes the wildflower photographer more successful.
Shooting photos of flowers serves one useful purpose, too. Once a photographer captures a wildflower on film, it acts as a visual aid in learning the name. Wildflower photographers become serious amateur botanists in no time.
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Bicycle Mirror Crucial for Safety
Safety-conscious road bicyclists have a mirror or two on their handlebars to check vehicles, coming up from behind them. In fact, they spend almost as much time glancing at the mirror as they do looking ahead. They follow this regimen to see if an approaching vehicle is coming down the road too far to the right, which might hit them.
Once, mirrors for road bikes with down handlebars required a special, awkward setup, but these days, mirrors that go into the opening at the end of the bar(s) are common in bike shops. In fact, this writer has a mirror in both openings to check traffic on city streets with multiple lanes, which has vehicles approaching from both sides.
For safety, a mirror or two are almost as important as a helmet for safety. No one should leave home without a helmet or mirrors to help make the day safer.
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~ WHERE THE ACTION IS ~
Lower Kennebec Stripers, Rangeley Brookies, Salmon
When ocean tides, cooler air temperatures and fall rains start cooling tidal rivers in mid-September, striped bass enter the Kennebec River after having left it in mid-summer for the open ocean.
In the stretch from Bath to the Atlantic, folks do well at dawn, in late evening or certainly at night. Morning anglers can’t beat that golden time between the dark dawn and 8 a.m. and again from just before sunset to black night.
In mid day when the sun shines bright, anglers could swear the river had no stripers except for a few flurries, which keeps folks coming in full daylight.
Check DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG), Map 6, C-5 and D-5 to find boat launches on this section of the Kennebec.
The Kennebago River (MAG, Map 28, D-3) and Rapid River below Middle Dam (Map 18, B-1) draw legions to the Rangeley Region each September, and why not?
Fishing can be exceptional for salmon and particularly brookies in these fly-fishing-only rivers in a region with a sterling reputation for its fly-fishing tradition that predates the Civil War.
Two less popular waters draw far fewer fly rodders, though, and at times, they offer up good-sized brook trout – the Cupsuptic River (Map 28, D-3) or South Bog Stream (Map 28, E-4). On the Cupsuptic, the stretch below Big Falls offers good fishing, particularly when larger brookies move up from Cupsuptic and Mooselookmeguntic lakes. On South Bog later in September, the closer anglers get to Rangeley Lake…the better the fishing as slab-sided brookies move into the gravel glides.
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~ NEWS & TIDBITS ~
Wood-Duck Rebirth
At the turn of the 20th century, habitat destruction of old-growth oaks along waterways had nearly extirpated wood duck. Woodcutters cut so many oaks that no hollow oak trunks remained to offer nesting, and of course, this clear-cutting of oak destroyed mast crops. Wood duck rely on acorns.
Enter the box-building project for wood ducks in all the states where this duck once flourished, Maine included, and this species made a dramatic comeback.
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Belgrade Lakes’ 7-Year Rule
Six large, interconnected ponds and one lake make up the Belgrade Lakes – North, East, Salmon, McGrath, Great and Long ponds and Messalonskee Lake. The water in the most northern one, North Pond, eventually flows into and out the most southern water, Messalonskee Lake.
This exchange of water takes seven long years, enough time to collect pollutants from shore-side development to cause water quality to decline, proven by a simple test to measure water clarity.
Trained volunteers lower a small disk attached to a chain into the water until it disappears from sight. In the 1970s, testers could see the disk down to seven to nine meters, but this year, they can only see down five to six meters.
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Kiting Spiders
In spring and again in fall, baby spiders crawl onto plants such as milkweed and begin releasing strands of silk that drift into the air until it provides enough buoyancy to lift the tiny 8-legged critters into the air, nature’s way of dispersing each spider species. The term for this phenomenon is “kiting.”
Folks who troll on lakes and ponds often see strands of silk with a tiny spider at the end, attached onto a trolling rod poking into the air. In a nutshell, the spider drifted through the air until snagging on the rod (or vehicle antennas).
Documented instances of these kiting insects have been made at sea 1,000 miles from land as well as several thousand feet in the air.
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Maine Ranks 11th as Exercise State
The Alliance for Biking and Walking, based in Washington, D.C., compiles a wide variety of statistics related to biking and walking in its Benchmarking Report. According to the 2010 report, 4.1 percent of all Maine commuters walk to work and 0.4 percent bike to work. That puts Maine 11th from the top in the country in numbers of bicycle and pedestrian commuters. Of course, commuters represent only one segment of the people who bike on a regular basis. You can find the Benchmarking Report here: http://peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/memberservices/alliance_2010_benchmarking_report_information_findings
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Red Oaks Grow Mighty Tall
Red oak, a common hardwood in Maine, routinely grow to 90 feet in height, but they can reach 165 feet. Even when split, this wood takes all of two and three years to dry completely, resulting in a fuel that burns with a blistering hot heat, putting it near the top of U.S. tree species for the amount of BTUs it generates. Of the more common woods, hickory burns the hottest.
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Some Poplar Can Get Up There, Too
Bigtooth aspen routinely reaches 50 feet, but one bigtooth on the North American continent stands an astounding 132 feet tall. Balsam poplar easily stands 60 feet, but one tree managed to live long enough to get to 138 feet. As impressive as these heights may sound, white pine, Maine’s state tree, can hit 220 feet, but 100 feet is more average for this pine.
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Central Maine Grouse and Evolution
True baby boomers born shortly after World War II grew up in an era when Central Maine grouse hunters could drive down dirt roads, particularly in late afternoon and evening, and shoot grouse “rocking” in the gravel. Within a decade or two, road hunting completely died in this part of Maine because grouse that hung around gravel roads became the main course of a meal while the sneaky ones that slipped off produced more grouse with genes like their own. Today, shooting grouse by road hunting is basically a waste of time in Central Maine, certain proof that astute folks can see evolution occur before their eyes. In Northern Maine with its much larger network of dirt roads, road hunting still works, but someday, over-hunting will end that sport in the North Country, too.
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An Apostrophe or Not
Does Owl’s Head on the coast near Rockland have an apostrophe or not?
That question has caused debate in this coastal town, which reminds us of The Maine Sportsman. We use DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer as a reference, which uses few if any apostrophes for geographic names, including none for Owls Head.
DeLorme’s not using an apostrophe for say – Tenants Harbor, road names and the rest – causes occasional comments from our older columnists, who grew up in an area where locals always used apostrophes.
The lines are drawn, making gentle souls wonder if humans will ever get along.
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Maine’s Bait-fishing Problem
Down through the years, anglers have used crayfish for bait, particularly for bass fishing, which introduces new crayfish species to waters. Aggressive, invasive crayfish push out some of the more gentle natives, and state regulations allow this transgression to happen and continue.
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Bill Silliker, Jr. Tribute
At the Steve Powell Wildlife Management Area on 1,755-acre Swan Island in the Kennebec River adjacent to Richmond and just north of Merrymeeting Bay, a forest tower for wildlife watching and photography stands at a strategic spot in a high field where observers may see deer, turkeys, Canada geese, songbirds and more, including foxes.
The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife moved this tower from the Frye Mountain Wildlife Management Area to Swan Island in 2003, and as a tribute to the late Bill Silliker, Jr., a well-known, world-class wildlife photographer, DIF&W named the tower after him. Lately in Maine magazines, this tower has received lots of recognition after seven years of service.
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Seymour’s Prediction Dead On
Early this spring, well before the open-water fishing season kicked off, Tom Seymour, one of The Maine Sportsman’s intrepid columnists, predicted that summer 2010 would offer us exceptionally hot weather – and it did.
Seymour based his forecast on sun flare-ups and sunspot activities that astronomers had predicted for summer 2010, which cause abnormally high temperatures. Seymour, a serious, amateur astronomer, keeps track of such phenomena.
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Relationship between Poplar, Grouse
Wildlife biologists can easily show a symbiotic relationship between ruffed grouse and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata) by documenting an easily observable truth. The range of ruffed grouse matches that of these two aspens, which Mainers often call poplar.
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~ BIRD OF THE MONTH ~
Wilson’s Snipe Once An Ultra-Popular Game Bird
It’s difficult to believe, but after the Civil War and into the very early 20th century, Wilson’s snipe (and sora rail) had captured the fancy of American smoothbore enthusiasts, who loved to shoot and eat these two species. Some shooters in Maine lived for these sports.
In fact, sportsmen and women along the Eastern Seaboard owned special boats for poling around marshes and even collected finely crafted decoys to attract rails and snipes, a fast shooting sport that attracted legions.
These days, snipe and rail seasons begin before the federal government comes out with the opening day of hunting, often Sept. 1, and most of us can count on one finger how many people chase these two species.
In my youth, folks called this bird a “common snipe,” but modern guidebooks stick exclusively with “Wilson’s snipe.”
It’s fun for persnickety, cranky types to make fun of well-known ornithologists who wrote guidebooks coming up with different translations of bird calls, and snipe can really get this reviewer going:
Peterson claimed a Wilson’s snipe makes a “rasping scaip” sound, and after hearing the call for a half-century, I agree that this translation strikes me as accurate.
I suspect many ornithologists don’t want to be accused of copying others so come up with their own version, but Sibley’s scresh version leaves me a tad puzzled. The Audubon guide agrees with Peterson’s rasping scaip.
A Wilson’s snipe measures 10 1/2 inches tall, sports an 18-inch wingspan and weighs shy of four ounces (105g). At first, folks might wonder why hunters would shoot a bird that weighs under four ounces.
…Which brings up what I consider the obvious. A McDonald’s 1/4-pounder really doesn’t weigh a 1/4-pound after cooking, but people still feel stuffed after eating one, even without french fries and a beverage. In short, a brace of snipe or woodcock (the latter 6- to 8-ounces each) can offer a big meal to the hungriest diner – at least 10 to 12 ounces of rich, dense meat.
One point about snipe concerns the wingspread – one-and-a-half feet. That’s an enormous span for such a small-bodied bird! When a hunter spreads these wings out by pulling on the tips, it really creates an impressive photo and illustrates how woodcock and snipe can maneuver so well in dense foliage. They have a lot of lift under these wings to corkscrew through alders.
Wilson’s snipe have a brown body with buff stripes on the back, a striped head, a short, rusty-orange tail and long bill. Like a woodcock, photos and even paintings don’t do this species justice because the bird looks rather vibrant in the hand or in a powerful spotting scope.
I hunted snipe a little in my youth but in later years, just enjoy watching them. This interesting bird lives in marshes and bog edges – neat places to be in cool times of year when midges and mosquitoes are less troublesome. (Ken Allen)
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~ DO YOU KNOW ~
C&R with Flies Produces High Survival Rates
R.L. Hunt, a Midwestern fisheries biologist, conducted respected salmonid studies in the 1960s, when he proved fish caught and released on artificial flies had a high survival rate. Do you know what Hunt’s figures showed?
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~ BOOK CORNER ~
The Poacher’s Son Impressed George!
This month, well-known writer and Maine political activist, George Smith, wrote a guest book review for this feature: Paul Doiron is lucky.
Yes, it took him four years to write his first novel, The Poacher’s Son. And he’s wearing himself out traveling the state, promoting the book before small gatherings at libraries and other venues. And he still has to go to his regular job as editor of Down East magazine.
But right out of the starter’s gate, this novelist snared a great agent, a 3-book contract with Minotaur, and an initial printing of 30,000 books.
Robyn Jackson, a newspaper features editor with 20 years experience who now writes about writing on her website www.robynjackson.com, claims that 80 percent of Americans want to write a book.
“Anyone who has ever tried to find an agent or get a manuscript accepted by a publisher knows what a tough business writing is. Even if you do get your book published, there’s no guarantee anyone will buy it,” Jackson says.
She points to statistics about book publishing and reading on self-publishing guru Dan Poynter’s website, www.parapub.com.
Seventy percent of the 120,000 books published each year do not earn back their advance and 70 percent do not make a profit. Even successful fiction books sell only 5,000 copies.
I’m rooting for Maine native Doiron to do a whole lot better. He should. The Poacher’s Son, an exceptional read, includes great characters and a terrific plot. It’s a page turner for sure.
My favorite books are mystery and crime novels, so I know what I’m telling you. Most of my favorite writers are anchored in the past, including John McDonald and Ed McBain. I do enjoy some of today’s novelists, particularly Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, and C.J. Box. The latter two praise Doiron’s book on the back cover, substantial endorsements from guys who have made it big time in the tough world of fiction.
There’s been a transition in the mystery fiction world from the day when plot was king, to today when characterization is the most important ingredient in a successful mystery novel.
Doiron has one foot in each camp. His primary character, a Maine game warden, is carefully and accurately drawn. As an observer of the Maine Warden Service for the past 18 years in my capacity as executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, I find Doiron’s presentation of his game warden, Mike Bowditch, spot on, from Bowditch’s frightening encounter with a wounded bear to the complaint against him from a disgruntled boater who received a citation for not having a life jacket on his kid.
I purchased the book because the main character was a game warden. I read it quickly, over a 48-hour period, because the plot grabbed me from the opening chapter.
Here’s how its touted on the book jacket: “Game warden, Mike Bowditch, returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: it belongs to his father, Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: They are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before – and his father is their prime suspect.”
Wow!
Although Doiron agrees he’s lucky to get his first novel published, you’ll be the lucky one if you buy it and read it. (George Smith)
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~ INNOCENT BYSTANDER ~
DeLorme Map Mistakes Need Correction
DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG) contains mistakes, as any angler or hunter knows who uses this book of maps. It’s still an excellent tool for outdoors folks, but it needs multiple corrections.
Here’s one case in point that strikes close to this writer’s boyhood home:
I grew up within sound of Bull Brook on the east side of Windsor, where this rivulet flows across Route 105. MAG, Map 13, C-3 shows a blue ribbon that is really Bull Brook, but it has no name.
A brook close to this location runs into Choate Brook at the mouth of Savade Pond, and DeLorme’s calls this “Bull Brook.”
How can I be so sure that the brook by my childhood home is Bull Brook?
The naming of this brook has a story dating back to the 19th century. Upstream north of Route 105, Bull Brook runs through a tiny pond of about one-quarter acre, which locals named “Bull Pooch.”
One winter, a bull fell though the ice there and drowned; consequently, the brook became “Bull Brook” – just one of those developments. It probably started out as “the brook the bull drowned in” and just kept getting shortened to its final name. (Ken Allen)
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~ NEXT MONTH ~
Falling Leaves and Flying Grouse
October in Maine can almost make a grown man cry when foliage turns to reds, yellows, pinks, orange and purple, the sky looks electric blue and morning sunlight turns golden, perfect for oil painting and photography.
Hunters and anglers have this incredible backdrop for sports that attract legions, particularly ruffed grouse, the second-most popular hunting quarry in Maine behind whitetails. What hunter doesn’t have an image in mind of a grouse rocketing away as leaves drift to the ground in its wake.
October also provides other targets, including waterfowl, woodcock, pheasant, gray squirrels, black bear, deer (for bowhunters statewide), moose, turkeys, woodcock, varying hares, raccoon, snipe, rail, coyote and more, including skunk and opossum. Trapping season also starts now, and early in the month before spawning shuts down feeding, salmonid fishing can be blistering as water temperatures drop into the mid and high 50-degree Fahrenheit range.
It’s all happening now as the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife tries to schedule all the species into the month. Thirty-one days just aren’t enough for folks to fit it all in.
One point about Maine’s outdoors sports intrigues folks in the know. With the exception of deer and grouse, no single species – ducks, bear, deer for bowhunters and the rest attract as many participants as bicycling and jogging do now in Maine.
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You don’t believe that….
Many urban areas in Maine now have more bicycle shops than sports shops – often by far. And equipment and clothes laden the bike shops where some sports shops make folks wonder if they are fronts for bookie joints.
Photographers love this month because scenic shots cannot go wrong. In recent years, though, the style for brightly colored foliage images leans toward subdued – rainy-day photos or ones with lots of conifers with splashes of foliage amongst the blue-green.
October’s average temperature drops 10 degrees from September, and the cooling weather gets critters moving, ideal for wildlife photographers.
One tip helps folks know when to photograph, too.
A few years ago, a deer study in the South showed that unseasonably cool temperatures get animals moving, and “cool” is relative to the core.
In short, if the average temp in the South was 82 degrees for that time period, researchers would see deer moving when the thermometer dropped to 72 – an October temperature that seems balmy in Maine. For example, the thermometer might read 52 in Maine, and that may be 8 degrees cooler than average. Wildlife photographers can expect critters to be moving.
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~ ANSWERS TO “DO YOU KNOW?” ~
That’s a Lotta’ Catch and Release!
Although catch-and-release figures vary, the R.L. Hunt studies – often quoted by Trout Unlimited in the 1970s – showed that 96 percent to 98 percent of salmonids caught on flies survived when released. That’s a 2 percent to 4 percent mortality rate, and the anglers catching the fish were average people who didn’t necessarily know the best techniques for releasing their catch.
To put this in perspective, for every 500 salmonids caught and released, 10 to 20 die. How many Maine anglers catch 500 salmonids per season?
One common criticism of catch and release involves 70-degree-plus water temperatures, which allegedly increases mortality. However, once the thermometer creeps above 68 degrees, salmonids become lethargic and less apt to feed.
In fact, DIF&W fisheries biologists find brook-trout brooks with thermometers by measuring water temperatures during droughts. If the thermometer doesn’t rise over 68 degrees, they know that far more often than not, the brook has trout.
Naysayers often condemn the Hunt studies because they are a half-century old now, but this fisheries-biologist’s science was solid then – and it is now.