Archive for the ‘Almanac’ Category
Posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 by Maine Sportsman
April Sports Start Leisurely, But Action Escalates Toward Month’s End
In the bottom third of Maine, early April can look like more of winter or can show plenty of the first unmistakable signs of the new season, depending on the year.
In the North Country, though, early April usually looks like full-blown winter as snowmobiles race through towns to get to gas pumps. Even with lots of snow, no one can miss the crystalline, grayish snow and much longer days well in excess of 12 hours.
Anglers in the South Country crowd around the few open-water areas and hope for lightening to strike – lightening in the form of early season angling action.
Before spring run-off kicks off, anglers may take brook trout and brown trout from brooks and small streams. These waters swell over the bank quickly in rains and subside equally as fast, great April hotspots, particularly near month’s end.
After April ice-out in the bottom half of the state, anglers do well, trolling ponds and lakes for landlocked salmon, brown trout, rainbow trout and even brook trout. The still-water crowd bundles up like ice anglers and haul up the biggest salmonids of the season – long before leaves unfurl.
Crows and woodchucks do not draw an army of hunters as deer and grouse do, but a handful of these varmint hunters do get out this month and have great fun, often with zero competition. Folks with crow shooting on their minds often resort to calls, decoys and blinds, but ’chuck enthusiasts rely on spotting those distant brown dots in short grass.
Major highways with breakdown lanes see a major increase of bicyclists, who spend big money on the sport. Each year, we see more road bikes and fancy biking pants, shorts and shirts – colorful garb for higher visibility.
White-water canoeists live for spring run-off, and they have dumped money into Kevlar canoes, wetsuits, fancy PFDs and other items to keep the sport safe. For pure dedication, canoeists equal bicyclists in the pursuit of happiness, but alas, in recent years, bikers far outnumber canoeists, duck hunters, archers and bear enthusiasts. Some sports in Maine are lagging.
Gardening goes hand in hand with fishing and particularly hunting, so folks put the cold-season plants in now. Spinach, kale, Brassica plants and peas (to accompany fresh salmon on July 4th) are important to get into the ground in April as soon as spring edges into the state.
Hiking and backpacking start in April, too, at least for serious folks in these two sports. Car camping picks up more next month.
Landscape photographers create those mood shots and prepare for getting baby critter photos. As the late Bill Silliker, one of Maine’s most prominent photographers, once said, “Cute sells!”
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Categories: Almanac, General
Posted on Friday, March 4th, 2011 by Maine Sportsman
Spring Springs in Maine’s Bottom Third, But Winter Still Rages in North
In the South Country during March, bird sounds and a smell often arrive before snow melts in fields and along road edges.
Chickadees make a mating call shortly after daylight as do mourning doves – the former an almost sensuous sound and the latter a monotonous coo, coo, coo that awakes us before sunrise. To inexperienced nature types, it sounds like who, who, who, but the rest of us know the true sound.
Meanwhile in the dark of night, a wandering, amorous skunk leaves an odor strong enough to choke…well…a skunk. Sometimes, the smell is so bad that it wakes us from sleep and we can taste it in the nasty air.
One great attraction in the bottom third of the state is this: Each morning at sunrise, we may hear a new bird sound, one not heard for 10 months. It seems like an old friend from long ago.
At 10 a.m., before wind has sprung up and the strengthening sun feels warm, a walk along a field edge feels so pleasant after winter snow and offers two definite spring smells:
1) The rotten odor of last year’s vegetation debris is decaying in the sun’s warmth. A creative mind could say it resembles dry sherry with a little bit of a stink.
2) A southwest wind often wafts a spring odor into this state, an odor that promises warmth and a viridescent explosion soon.
Lots of folks who seldom walk in the outdoors without a firearm or fishing rod wander afield now without anything beyond a walking stick. It’s a great time of year to feel like a Thoreau.
In the North Country, March offers more of winter with snowmobiling dominating the recreation theme. On weekends, lodging spots fill to capacity as folks whoop it up in a hamlet in a semi-wilderness region.
Whether it is north or south, though, ice-fishing attracts myriad participants from Kittery to Fort Kent. Everyone wants to bait a trap or jig these days and do it before the ice leaves.
Along coastal rivers, commercial smelting shacks do a brisk business as people get out before high water and warming temperatures clear the rivers. This is the first ice to go, so folks crowd to tidal water to catch anadromous rainbow smelts heading upriver to spawn.
Varying hare, coyotes and crows attract hunters, but those shooters after long-eared bunnies far outnumber the other hunting participants.
A handful of folks run white-water in canoes or kayaks as soon as snow melts and rain raises flow levels that offer an exciting ride.
One March sport will increase in popularity, a sport that relies on the exact opposite condition that canoeists and kayakers crave. Before the run-off starts, fishing in rivers and streams can be decent. And, the longer the high water holds off, the warmer the water gets. Widespread, open-water fishing in Maine now will result in folks learning how to fish well when snow may still line the banks.
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Categories: Almanac, General
Posted on Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 by Maine Sportsman
February Weather Changes Rapidly
When February 1 arrives, the month looks like more of January, with noticeably short days and cold temperatures. By the 28th, days have lengthened enough so even casual observers recognize – and in the southern third of Maine, folks notice two touches of spring.
• Critters such as songbirds, skunks and raccoons have mating in mind, so birds start singing those familiar spring songs, skunks smell up the dark nights, often strong enough so we can almost taste the smell while lying in bed, and a raccoon or two leaves tracks in the snow.
• Sweeter spring smells often waft into the state on southwest winds, and astute observers notice. Even in the last week of February, a mid-morning walk along a field with southern exposure offers those rotten-vegetation smells of the new season as sunlight heats the ground.
In Maine these days, the big news in winter is snowmobiling, snowmobiling and snowmobiling, and the farther north folks travel, the more important this sport becomes to the economy. It has saved many northern businesses from certain financial ruin that would send folks moving to more southern climates, looking desperately for jobs.
But make no mistake about one point. Snowmobiling in the bottom third of the state spurs the economy, too, evidenced in the town this writer lives in – Belgrade Lakes village. At least one restaurant and a convenience store rely on sledders flocking to their establishments in winter, and one year when the economy was frightening people away from traveling north, these folks had their best year.
Snowmobiling and ATVing became important to Maine’s rural economies after the northern and eastern deer herds collapsed and catches decreased for stripers and in some area salmonid fisheries.
Rabbit hunters with merry hounds love this month when snow settles and a light dusting creates good scenting conditions. Hounds can glide along on top of deep snow and snowshoes work so well it’s not tiring to walk all morning.
Coyote and fox shooters set up on the edge of large openings such as fields, frozen water, clear-cuts or power lines and call these wild canines. The trick begins by setting up on the edge of the woods when wind blows toward the wide-open spaces. That gives hunters a chance to shoot as the quarry circles downwind to approach the sound with its nose. Smart coyote hunters sweeten the appeal with bait.
Ice-fishing continues now as a handful of blue-ribbon salmonid waters open, giving folks a chance to hit places that haven’t been fished for months.
Commercial smelt shacks on tidal rivers do a brisk business this month as folks after a tasty meal and good time flock to the coast for a night in a rented, wood-heated shelter.
Fly tiers work feverishly to fill half-empty fly boxes, an unofficial season that just might attract more participants than waterfowling, bear hunting, bow hunting or upland-bird hunting with dogs and surely draws more interest than squirrels or woodcock. We better keep it quiet, though, or DIF&W will set dates for a fly-tying season and make us buy a license.
Long February nights create an ideal time frame for making leisurely meals with spoils from forests, waters and gardens. Many gourmet types make the meal a celebration and use China, linen napkins and crystal wine glasses for good French wines (or California vintages for the more patriotic-minded).
Outdoors types find plenty to do this month: everything from exercising – such as bicycling during February thaws – to scenic and wildlife photography, to cross-country skiing. Snowshoeing has attracted a growing number of participants, too, thanks to newer snowshoe options that make it easier.
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Categories: Almanac, General
Posted on Monday, December 27th, 2010 by Maine Sportsman
Short Days, Dropping Thermometer — Boy, It’s Cold Out!
By the end of January, days have lengthened noticeably, but on New Year’s Day morning, the sun rises at 6:43 a.m. and sets at 4:35, giving us nine hours and 18 minutes of viewing the sun. Of course, we have another hour of light – 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset. Then, we’re socked into the house for about 13-plus-hours before the sun begins lighting Maine again.
Because of long nights and short days, people prepare long, leisurely meals in January, using fruit from the woods and forests – choices such as venison, hare, salmonids and white-meat, flaky fish. Dinners often reach celebration status, so out comes China, crystal wine glasses, linen napkins and expensive silverware.
Snow-sledding booms now, and in the North Country, snowmobilers from the southern third of the state and across New England – and indeed the Northeast – save rural hamlets from certain economic collapse. Folks reserve rooms for weekends and even at midweek. It can be difficult getting weekend lodging, even when calling weeks ahead.
Cross-country skiers and snowmobilers also live for winter, but the truth is the truth. According to tourism experts, snowmobilers spend big bucks. Rural hamlets appreciate it, too.
Ice-fishing takes off now, particularly in the first two weeks of January when the hard-water crowd does well. For some reason, salmonids bite like crazy now, and many trophy fish in The One That Didn’t Get Away Club came in the first 10 to 14 days of January.
Hare hunters head to tunneled fir and spruce thickets hugging swamps, where the sound of yodeling beagles captures the very essence of a Maine winter. Braised hare make excellent victuals.
The outdoors offers plenty of diversions, but winter in the Northeast means sportsman’s shows, a great way to spend a weekend in mid-winter. Another fine choice involves longer distance travel – say to the Keys or Costa Rica to cast for tarpon and bonefish. Some folks even head to Mid-Atlantic states to bicycle.
Folks with limited budgets might stay home all winter and tie flies while dreaming of blue water and verdant forests. That’s all right, too.
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Categories: Almanac, General
Posted on Friday, November 19th, 2010 by Maine Sportsman
Dark, Festive Month Just Hopping
Fifty years ago in the 12th month, Maine sports-folks might rabbit-hunt a little as soon as snow flew and ice anglers got out as soon as pickerel and perch ponds froze, but the month offered leisure and plenty of it for most of us. Waterfowlers, the serious ones anyway, also got out.
These days, most small-game critters and raccoons stay open to hunting until Dec. 31 and even longer for predators such as fox, coyote and bobcat. Upland bird hunters with dogs take advantage of the longer season and get out as often as possible until snow deepens enough to make running tough for dogs. Open-water fishing offers sport to folks in December, and in unseasonably warm periods, folks do catch fish. Photos on Internet pages show that fact in spades.
Folks are hopping in December, trying to hunt rabbit, grouse, pheasant, gray squirrel, raccoon, fox, coyote, bobcat and more, and no one can forget coastal smelts, salmonids or warm-water species fishing – both through the ice and in open water. On top of that, we’re shopping for Christmas, going to basketball and hockey games and just plain running to keep up.
Many old timers long for the leisure years a few decades ago when drinking in the barn or shed and telling deer-hunting stories proved more popular than any sport going that month. For better or worse, these more enlightened days keep us playing more and drinking less.
One unofficial sport now gets more popular – walking in shallow snow and following tracks that tell the story of last night’s events in the forests and fields of Maine. Many of those trackers carry a camera and shoot images of landscapes and wildlife.
December can offer unseasonably warm weather, too, and landscape and wildlife photographers get out to shoot award-winning photos. You can bet most winter photography in Maine occurs in the 12th month before snow has piled so deeply that snowshoes become a must.
This month, folks with venison cook fancy, leisurely meals that often include wine or beer, depending on the dish. Choices such as venison Diane, venison Oscar, venison chunks in red-wine sauce over linguine and similar concoctions cry for a dry red wine, a Bordeaux Graves or any real French Burgundy, or for the more patriotic minded, a vintage Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel. Texas chili or sausage dishes demand a micro-brewery beer such as Gritty McDuffs or Samuel Adams.
Birdwatching booms now as winter feeders stay stocked to help get songbirds through winter. This group lives for the appearance of a rare bird. Bird-feeding just may be the country’s biggest participant sport – that and gardening.
Fly-tying and rod-building starts in earnest now, too, as do other crafts related to hunting and fishing – like refinishing a wood stock for a firearm.
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Categories: Almanac, General
