For Maine deer hunters who plan ahead, the is the time of year to submit your applications for the annual drawing of any-deer (doe) permits. Statewide this year, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will issue about 66,000 any-deer permits. This is 20,000 more doe permits than were issued in 2016 — a 45 percent increase. […]
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Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web
Outdoors in Maine: Legendary Guide Award not receiving the attention it deserves
In 2009, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Maine Professional Guide’s Association (MPGA), did a wonderful thing. They created the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Guide Award. As was fitting, Robinson was the first recipient (posthumously) of his namesake award. The idea was to select annually a deserving Registered Maine Guide for […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Fishing during Hex hatches is a special experience
This article first appeared in “The Maine Angler’s Logbook” by the author. A Hex, or if your Latin is good, a Hexagenia limbata, is a bomber-size Mayfly that shows up on Maine trout ponds in mid-summer, usually early July. For a trout, they are a turkey dinner with all the fixin’s — a chance to […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Only so many does to go around
This is the time of year when Maine’s whitetail deer population begins to recover from a long hard winter. After surviving on reserve fats, twigs and lichen, and whatever else they can find in their wintering areas, the spring “greenup” is the deer’s salvation. Not far from where we live on the lake, the rain-soaked […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Hodgepodge Hornberg produces heavenly results
In case you didn’t know, a Hornberg is a commonplace artificial fly used by some trout addicts to seduce their prey. Once a “go-to” fly in any fly box, it is less used today by upscale fly fishers — especially the elite sophisticates of the fly fishing community. Some that I have shared a stream […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Food for thought this graduation season
This is the month that eager, full-of- hope young adults graduate from institutions of learning. Whether high school or college, these graduates are always subjected to one final round of advice from a commencement speaker before they toss their hats in the air and bolt for the door. To tell you the truth, I have […]
Posted inLocal Sports, SJVarsity
Outdoors in Maine: Celebrating those who patrol the outdoors
For years now, the Bucks Mills Rod & Gun Club near Bucksport has put on a sumptuous prime rib dinner for Maine Game Wardens, active or retired. It’s quite a hoedown. The wardens get to eat for free. It is the club’s way of showing its appreciation for the hard work and personal sacrifice that […]
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Outdoors in Maine: As the grey retreats, time to again explore the outdoors
Those of us who winter over in the South get spoiled in a lot of ways. For one thing, we tend to take the sun for granted. Day after day, that big bright orb comes up in the eastern sky in the morning and then drops below the western horizon late in the day. When […]
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Outdoors in Maine: Controlling coyotes saves deer
Jim Schmidt has been working with coyotes for more than 50 years. As a wildlife specialist for the USDA, he has been involved in coyote damage control throughout the country. He has hunted them, trapped them, snared them, chased them with hounds and chased them on horseback. He has also lived remotely with them for […]
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Outdoors in Maine: When it comes to fiddleheads, timing is everything
Soon it will be time to go fiddleheadin’. For the true gatherer, the first fiddlehead green that pokes through the sandy silt in the lowlands near brooks and streams stirs an inner joy. I count myself among the true gatherers — finding wild things to eat that were not processed by man is a source […]