Posts Tagged ‘Aroostook County Hunting Report’
Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
The third week of deer season is upon us and here in the North Country the hunters start coming into the lodges and camps. It’s not like it use to be, when the first and second week of deer season had all motels, camps, and lodges full. Speaking to camp owners and motels around the Ashland and Portage areas, there seems to be very few hunters booking reservations the first and second week, but bookings are full for the third and forth week. Another good indicator on how much hunter effort is out there is to check the North Maine Woods gate receipts. The North Maine Woods are managed gates for industrial landowner into unorganized territory, and anyone going through these gates must fill out paperwork on where they are going and type of use. This information is quite interesting in indicating hunter effort throughout October and November. The receipts from the first and second week indicated very few hunters were entering the “Big Woods” for deer hunting, and now with Canadian hunters needing a Maine Registered Guide there should be even fewer hunters.
What seems to be the driving force that hunters are looking for up in these parts, is snow. Snow enables the hunter to direct their hunt to a location where there has been recent deer sign, primarily tracks, or deer beds. With pre-hunt populations only around 2-3 deer per square mile, hunters are looking for any advantage they can find in locating the game. By reading tracks in snow, at least the hunter knows they are hunting in a location where there has been deer recently, and their chances of observing a deer, and hopefully bagging a trophy buck, are considerable better then on dry ground. Snow also offers the hunter the ability to track, by moving slowly along recently laid tracks, where the hunter stalks his prey, to perhaps get close enough to view and harvest a trophy white-tailed deer. Out in the western part of the region there is presently 6-8 inches of snow on the high ground, and 3-4 inches at lower elevation while in the eastern part of the region only about 1 inch of snow.
Tags: Aroostook County Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Regional wildlife staff spent most of last week collecting deer samples for Chronic Wasting disease testing. Most deer hunters in northern Maine will cut-up their own deer rather than take the deer to a local meat cutter. Because there are only a few meat lockers in Aroostook County, obtaining information on Chronic Wasting disease requires a lot of time on the phone and extensive travel to pick-up deer heads from local residences. We really appreciate the assistance we get from local deer hunters, taxidermists, deer hunting guides, and many others who have helped us in collecting these deer samples.
Generally during the early part of the deer hunting season we see a lot of yearling bucks while collecting deer biological samples. This deer season has been no exception with many spikehorn and 4 pointers being harvested in the first week of deer season. Most of these early season deer are harvested in some of the large fields in Aroostook County.
At the Dickwood Lake WMA in Eagle Lake we are now working with the local snowmobile club, Eagle Lake Winter Riders, and the Town of Eagle Lake to re-route ITS 85, a major snowsled trail between Portage, Eagle Lake, and Fort Kent. For many years this trail has followed old logging roads on the Dickwood WMA; however, loss of landowner permission outside the wildlife management area has required the local snowmobile club to relocate a large section of trail. Given the many miles of old logging roads in the area this seems like a simple matter, but there are many issues that must be resolved before ground work begins. For example, the first step is to find a trail or old road that will tie-in with existing trails and does not go through special or significant wildlife habitats. Other issues that had to be discussed and resolved include: trail width, trees to be harvested, removal of brush, filling holes, bulldozing, and equipment needs and size. For example, a big bulldozer would certainly do the job, but once the snow leaves in the spring we will have a lot of exposed soil, upturned tree roots, water erosion and an ugly scar on the landscape. The trick is to get the job done in a manner that effectively meets the needs of snowsled riders but doesn’t have major impacts on other natural resources in the area.
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Tags: Aroostook County Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Hard to believe it’s deer season already with moose season just ending and temperatures above normal. One good point to mention is the fact that Daylight Savings Time ends November 4 where once again we set clocks back one hour. This is a week later than normal, enabling weary eyed hunters extra hours of sleep and perhaps an extra hour after work to enjoy hunting for the elusive white-tailed deer.
The first day of deer season was wet and windy for northern Maine, keeping the deer registration numbers lower than normal. For those hunters always trying to outsmart white-tailed deer, the normal rut primarily falls around the third week in November, and that makes the last week of deer season the prime time to hunt this year. The downfall of this year’s early season may be limited snow fall thus decreasing the hunters chance of finding deer sign so scouting and doing your homework will be critical.
Maine wildlife biologists will be busy collecting deer samples over the next 4 weeks to test for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) as well as collecting deer biological data to evaluate condition of deer. CWD is a fatal disease of the nervous system of deer, elk, and moose. The disease belongs to a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
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Tags: Aroostook County Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Saturday, October 20, was youth deer hunting day. It provided a great opportunity for Regional Biologists to interact and talk with hunters as well as collect deer biological information on northern Maine’s deer herd. This special deer hunt for junior hunting license holders (ages 10-15 years) is very popular in Aroostook County and we see a lot of young hunters taking advantage of this hunting opportunity.
Northern Maine had unusually warm temperatures with very heavy rain and wind last Saturday morning . Generally, this is not the best of deer hunting conditions, but many hunters did report seeing deer, and a few youth hunters were successful in tagging one. I checked a couple of nice bucks at Northstar Variety in New Sweden, the largest a 9 pointer weighing 148 pounds field dressed. Regardless of the outcome, everyone seemed to be enjoying this hunting opportunity and the camaraderie of being outdoors together. Certainly, a successful deer hunt shouldn’t be measured solely on whether a deer is harvested, but as a great opportunity to get out with young hunters and educate them on hunting safety, outdoor skills, hunting laws and etiquette. Most importantly, this is a chance to spend some valuable time with a young relative or friend.
Hunters are now reporting fewer bear sightings. We still have a high bear population in northern Maine but because fall bear foods, particularly beechnuts, are not abundant, bears have started to den early. Because of this behavior November deer hunters will have very few opportunities to harvest a bear.
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Tags: Aroostook County Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
With the second week of moose season over, hunter success was much better than the first week with registration numbers slightly lower than last year. The Ashland station registered a total of 319 moose for both weeks, while it recorded 323 last year. In short the second week was excellent in the north making up the deficit from the first week. An issue brought to my attention by the warden service were numerous cases of moose hunters having antlerless permits where they were shooting bulls with antlers less then ear length (which is legal with antlerless permit) but leaving the animal thinking antlerless means “cow only”. This may be a case of not understanding the law or perhaps not reading the “Moose Hunters Guide”
Grouse are numerous this year with success stories from the majority of hunters. When birds are this numerous violations seem to escalate due to selfish and unethical law braking hunters taking over their limits and stealing from the sportsman. In a three-day period last week two warden sections under Sgt. Ward and Sgt. Gray had 10 over-the-limit cases with one party of 4 hunters having in possession 69 birds.
This coming Saturday is Youth Day for deer season and the biologists will be out collecting deer biological data to track the deer herd and collect samples for Chronic Wasting Disease Due to the hunting and fishing laws mandating the number of day’s deer season will run, this year will be one of the earliest.
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Tags: Aroostook County Hunting Report • Categories: General
