October.

For many of us who hunt and fish or just enjoy the woods, this is the month we live for – warm days, cool nights and brilliant foliage.

The “cast and blast option” is growing in popularity, too. With so many good trout ponds still open to catch-and-release angling, a nimrod can enjoy the best of both worlds, fishing in the morning and hunting upland game birds in the late afternoon, when the sun is warm and the delicious aroma of ripe apples fill the air.

This time of year, trout are in their spawning mode. The action may not be quite what is was back in early June, but, as most experienced fly fisherman know, a grasshopper on the water sometimes brings the big ones to the surface. And there is nothing more eye-catching than a mature October male brookie in its full spawning colors.

It wasn’t too many Septembers ago that Aroostook guide Mike Brophy hooked up to one of these fall lunkers not far from his Red River Camps. As I recall, Brophy’s trophy hit a small Mickey Finn.

You can see this fish in the main lodge of his fabled fishing camp. In fact, the state record brookie (8 pounds, 9 ounces) was taken not far from Brophy’s camps at Hase Pond in 1979 by James Foster of Howland.

Speaking of big brookies, the largest Maine brook trout ever to be put on a board was taken by a hunter. It weighed a tad over 12 pounds. No, it was not shot. According to Dennis Breton of Rumford, his grandfather, Eddie Roderick, found this behemoth brookie dying along the shore of Garland Pond (Little Ellis) in Byron during a hunting trip. It was 1923. The fish was 28.5 inches long and 8 inches deep. Breton says that the fish mount was examined by fisheries biologist Dick Arsenault, who concurs with the probable weight and species data.

Breton’s grandfather was the postmaster in Rumford from 1933 until 1946, and the fish was displayed in his office during that time. The fish mount became Breton’s, and he had taxidermist Dave Footer restore the trout in 1980.

There is more to the story. Here are Breton’s words in a letter to me:

“The point of the matter is that that pond was known for really large brookies and grandfather Roderick and his two brothers tried to convince the legislature to protect the rare resource since this had to have been a long lived strain of trout from thousands of years ago. All to no avail since their plea fell on deaf ears. These fish were plundered until there were no more. During my lifetime the pond has gone from having four camps on its shores to 80 plus. There are now roads along both sides and the water has become a motorboat speedway. Needless to say, the trout are long gone.”

If we had learned our lesson from all this, then there might have been at least some value to the destruction of this once great fishery.

But no. We persist in “developing” the few remaining decent trout ponds. All of this in the name of greed, which seems rampant in our country at this point. Will we ever learn.

The good news is that Maine’s precious trout fishery is coming back. Those who should know, predict that Maine’s biggest brookie record will be eclipsed any day now. So get out there and soak up the finest month the Maine north woods has to offer. That next record brookie may be fanning just beneath the surface, just waiting for a terrestrial to come floating its way.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].