MEXICO – Sandy Nisbet knows hunters and what they want when they come looking on or after opening season days.

On Saturday, the first day of deer season for Maine residents with firearms, Nisbet of Rumford and clerks inside Labonville Inc. off Route 2 were busy helping customers find camouflage clothing and buck lure in the popular sporting goods shop.

“Business picks up quite a bit come the start of turkey hunting season, but it really picks up in deer season and Christmas,” said Nisbet, who has managed the store for the past 10 years.

“It picks up and stays busy right through to March. Snowmobile season, you know. The (hunters) that get ready early, they come in for their orange and their camo clothes and hunting boots, then, later, during the year, chopper pants,” she said point to a rack of snowsuits.

“But with the weather today,” she said of the deluge outside, “they’ll come in for rain suits, because they want to be ready for the next rainy day.

Just after saying that, a man came in looking for rain gear and off she went to help him find something appropriate.

According to the Maine Warden Service, hunting in Maine is big business. More than 200,000 people hunt in the state annually, generating $453.9 million in economic activity, a news report stated on Thursday.

According to a 1998 economic impact study compiled by the Department of Resource Economics and Policy at the University of Maine at Orono, hunting in Maine generates $329.9 million in direct retail sales. Additionally, the total household income generated from hunting is $129.9 million, and hunting supports 6,440 jobs statewide.

The overall economic output of nearly a half billion dollars includes $27.4 million in state sales and income tax revenue, the report stated.