Best Ice Fishing of the Year, and Celebrating our 2021 Grand Slam Hunters
March offers the best ice fishing Maine has to offer – longer days, softer snow and warmer temperatures. The cover photo of the March, 2022, 84-page issue of The Maine Sportsman magazine shows Tyler James Parker of Arundel hauling a massive Northern pike through the ice at Lake Cobbosseecontee, west of Augusta. Pike are an invasive species, but in Central Maine, especially in the Belgrade Lakes, they grow to a size that has attracted the attention of dedicated anglers such as Tyler and his wife MacKenzie.
And if you are out on the ice, why not enjoy the milder temperatures by getting yourself invited to a grilled lunchtime spread like the ones put on by the good folks at Moosehead Lake?
And our March issue contains another surprise – our first-ever celebration of recent Grand Slam patch club winners – those hunters who tagged a turkey, a moose, a deer and a bear in the same calendar year. More than 40 resolute individuals earned their patches in 2021, and they are all listed on pages 42 and 43, together with many photos, and with more photos on page 82.
The Maine Sportsman is the official keeper records for wild game and freshwater fish for the state, and we were busy last month, with a new record for a whitetail buck taken with a crossbow (by a eight-year old, aptly-named Hunter Ingersoll!), as well as a lunker white perch, a new state record hauled in on New Year’s Day by Matthew Lund – a new record at 3.51 pounds. Congratulations to the new record-holders!
All that, and much more:
1) Bob Humphrey, on firearms sound suppressors;
2) A guest column by Staci Warren on how to go about obtaining landowner permission to hunt;
3) The joy of snowmobiling, by veteran columnist Steve Carpenteri;
4) Requiem for an old family camp, by Randy Randall; and
5) A delightful “three minutes with a Maine guide” on whitewater canoeing, by newcomer Lisa DeHart.
We’ve got where-to, how-to information from our regional columnists, tales of law enforcement from our former Ranger and our former Warden, a sharp-edged editorial and substantive letters to the editor from you, our devoted readers.
All this, plus Steller’s Sea Eagle, quotes, cartoons, Gene Bahr, milfoil, outboard boat motors, tasty recipes, jokes, cusk, a silver fox. Shed antlers, coyotes, denim and archery.
And don’t forget the State of Maine Sportsman’s Show Friday through Sunday, April 1 – 3 at the Augusta Civic Center. Ladies and gentlemen – The Show Will Go On!
Questions? Contact the editor at Will@MaineSportsman.com or the office staff at Carol@MaineSportsman.com.
Will Lund, Editor
The Maine Sportsman magazine
