December 2006 Almanac
This Month: No Rest for the Maine Sportsman in December
The dark, festive month once struck Maine sports folks as a time of rest and reflection after a busy fall of fishing and of chasing bears, waterfowl, upland birds and deer.
These days, though, December has turned into the busy man’s month.
For starters, in the 1990s, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife extended the season for grouse, pheasant and gray squirrel through Dec. 31, a month more of hunting beyond the old Nov. 30 closing for those three species.
The muzzleloading season for deer statewide runs from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2, and the second week of the season continues from Dec. 4 to Dec. 9 in Wildlife Management Areas (WMDs) 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 29, roughly the bottom third of Maine.