This might sound like bragging, but the July issue of The Maine Sportsman is so jam-packed with information, you just don’t want to miss it.
This month’s special features are particularly useful. For instance, we’ve got a bonus salt-water article that gives top-notch advice about surf fishing for striped bass. Sure, there are lots of hard-case surf-fishermen who are out there in the dead of night tossing lures and baits from wave-pounded rocks. But there are plenty of family surf outings too where dad, mom ad the kids enjoy a day of sun and sand while waiting for big linesides to show up. The article by Steve Vose is full of tips to help you score from the shore.
We’ve got three excellent how-to articles in this month’s special bear hunting section, one on hunting bruins with a black powder rifle and the other about chasing hounds. The great thing is both of these articles are full of info from those who have been there and done bear hunting successfully. Another article will explain to you how some of Maine most successful big game guides are using trail cameras to put their clients onto trophy-sized bears.
Those of you who have won a moose permit this year, or who hope to win one in the future, are going to really enjoy our Big Game Column this month. Joe Salty has crammed his article full of useful information for those who want to do-it-themselves, based on his own successful hunt last year.
As usual, our regional columns are full of info that will put more fish on the end of your line, with great tips for catching more lake trout, white perch, mackerel and brookies.
There’s more, from Val Marquez telling you why remote camping can make you a better bowhunter to Bill Sheldon promoting geocaching as a fun family outing.
Now that I think about it, that’s not bragging. That’s just how it is. The July issue of The Maine Sportsman is chockablock full of great reading no matter what your favorite outdoor pursuit.
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.
Apparently a number of Maine Sportsman columnists agree with me that June is the best month of the year to fish for brook trout, because that’s just what they wrote about for this issue.
There are multiple reasons why over 90 percent of our readers list brook trout as their favorite fish to catch, everything from their brilliant coloration to their delicate flavor fresh from a fry pan. And when it comes to truly wild brook trout that have never seen the inside of a hatchery, no other state in the USA can match the number of waters Maine has where these beauties are found.
Of course, that’s only one aspect of the many topics covered in this issue. For example, in my Rambling column, I talk about how often new Maine freshwater fish records are falling these days — including a new record for yellow perch — and I provide a list of all the state’s records.
Bill Clunie has written an excellent article on remote ATVing — including how to prepare and what to bring along on an ATV camping trip. More and more miles of excellent ATV trails are established in Maine each year, creating more opportunities for extended rides.
This is our annual Salt Water Fishing Issue and Capt. Barry Gibson has provided a highly informative article about the improving near shore fishing for cod, haddock and pollock that can be reached by boats only 20 feet or so long.
There’s plenty more, including the possibility of a giant togue from Moosehead, small trout ponds in the Rangeleys, smallmouth bass Down East and even brook trout fishing hotspots in the Sebago Region.
Rounding it all out are extra features like Tom Seymour’s popular Maine Wildlife Column and a wildlife quiz where you can test your knowledge about garter snakes.
Check it all out and see if it inspires you to head outdoors for a for some of the best fishing of the year too.
Posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 by Maine Sportsman Categories:General Tags:June 2010 Issue
May days quickly develop a pattern. The sun rises at least 20 out of 30 days and spreads warm light across the land, but by 10 a.m., the resulting heat starts thermal currents rising that in turn cause inevitable winds. Folks can bet on that outcome with a certainty of winning the pot.
Wind screws up fishing, canoeing and flower photography, but it does have a benefit that less observant types miss. Stiff breezes quickly dry the land so it’s no longer squishy, and that helps so many hobbies, particularly gardening, ATVing or playing baseball.
In York and Cumberland counties, May reigns as the rainiest month, shocking many people who think April or November has the worst weather. In the North Country, June, July and December tie for the most inclement weather. May in Southern Maine and June, July and December in Northern Maine being the rainiest (or snowiest) surprise folks all right, but it’s true.
In the South Country, hatches start in early May, making rivers, streams and shallow coves in lakes and ponds veritable hotspots for the fly-rodding crowd after salmonids.
Brooks and small streams rock now as bait dunkers hit these flowing waters just as black flies swarm. Fishing can be fast in flowing waters, and many such brooks may have just one anglers hitting them all season – you! …Talk about solitude.
Black-bass fishing starts slowly in May except for those folks who know how to work a jig over deep structure. By month’s end, though, bass have moved to spawning beds and living can be darned easy for the bassin’ boys.
Early May in the North Country often has a little snow, but by month’s end in northern latitudes, spring surely arrives in a hurry. Whoever first wrote “spring springs” was thinking of northern latitudes where long days of sunlight make the new season arrive in a hurry.
Canoe tripping excites plenty of folks in May. Campgrounds along rivers look so clean – bursting with freshness. Fast currents sail over rocks and offer good passage for folks experienced with white water. May guarantees solitude, too.
Stripers arrive along the Maine coast in May, and at times, it can be a swarming invasion. Not everyone can depend on salty action now, though, but those with hotspots of where stripers show up first can have action aplenty.
Fiddleheaders find these juvenile ferns early in May, and often, they accompany this dish with brook trout sautéed in butter. Fiddleheads kick off the wild-food season for gatherers, and next month, wild strawberries draw crowds of enthusiasts after the sweetest, tastiest berries around.
The contents of this May’s issue of The Maine Sportsman really demonstrates this dilemma as our regional writers have gone all out to tell you where to find the gobblers and the trout.
Of course, it is possible to do both in the same morning as the cover photo of this month’s issue also demonstrates. The picture is of Mike Guarino who shot that handsome trophy gobbler while filming an episode of Harry Vanderweide’s Northeast Journal. Not only did they two manage to locate the gobbler while sitting in a boat, but they followed it up by successfully catching a nice bunch of smallmouth bass, all before 9 a.m.
There are hundreds of waters in Maine — everything from meandering brooks to huge lakes — where it’s possible to float along at daybreak calling turkeys and then later fish for trout, salmon, bass, pike, or whatever species you prefer. Of course, there are no guarantees in either hunting or fishing, but even if you don’t score, you’ll get to spend the morning outdoors in Maine during the month of May … and what is better than that?
The May issue of The Maine Sportsman is jam-packed with all sorts of useful outdoor information, ranging from shooting a moose with a longbow to how dancing naked in the woods can help you avoid catching Lyme disease. Check it out!
Posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 by Maine Sportsman Categories:General Tags:May 2010 Issue
This might sound like bragging, but the July issue of The Maine Sportsman is so jam-packed with information, you just don’t want to miss it.
