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 […]
V. Paul Reynolds
Posted inLocal Sports
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 […]
advertisement
Posted inLocal Sports
Outdoors in Maine: Open-water fishing opening up where ice has melted
Early April fishing has never held much appeal for me. Oh, I have done it. Opening day recollections are of casting a fly line against a snow squall, of frozen fingers and ice-covered rod guides. Of fishless days amid razor-edged winds pushing up whitecaps on frigid lakes whose shorelines were still shrouded with naked, gray […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Outdoors in Maine: Dealing with dangerous dogs
Let’s get one thing straight from the start: I love dogs. Sally, probably the last dog I will ever have, needed to be put down a few years back, after she was mauled by my neighbor’s unleashed Saint Bernard. I wrote about it at the time. It was a dreadful experience. An aging English Setter […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web, Uncategorized
Outdoors in Maine: Fishing for mackerel with Capt'n Neat
My tackle box is a neat person’s nightmare. It is a tangle of treble hooks, rusted lures and rat’s nests of used monofilament. My wife says that my tackle box is disgusting. Each year about this time, at least three of our fishing writers for the Northwoods Sporting Journal write an article about how important […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web, Uncategorized
Outdoors in Maine: Hunting? Leave the drones at home, please.
There was a day in the life of a deer hunter when his technological aids were limited to a functional deer rifle, a hunting knife, a good compass, and, perhaps, a topo map. That all changed with the dawning of satellite technology and all of the gizmo spinoffs that have followed. Hunter’s today have choices […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web
Outdoors in Maine: Stay safe on the snowmobile trails
The needless, accidental death of a young, healthy person in the prime of their life is profoundly tragic. Over the years, we have all seen teenage drivers, who thought that they were immortal, die on our highways. Seat belts, mandatory driver education and stiffer age requirements have helped to stem the tide of youthful deaths […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Outdoors in Maine: Maine revising game management plan
For wildlife management purposes, Maine recognizes four species: deer, bear, moose and wild turkeys. In order for state wildlife biologists and Augusta policymakers to make decisions about how best to manage our important big game animals, there must be a plan. This plan directs wildlife managers on how best to do this in a way […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Outdoors in Maine: Caution is the key to staying safe on ice
Each year about this time, the Maine Warden Service urges us to use extreme caution before venturing out onto any ice that may be covering Maine’s waterways. This is timely advice. On Jan. 7, Richard Dumont, 52, of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, died when his snowsled went through the ice on Messalonskee Lake. A few years […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Outdoors in Maine: Coyote hunt not always easy
Maine’s troubled deer population appears to be on the rebound. Two severe winters in 2008 and 2009, along with increasing predation by coyotes and bears, really took a toll. Ironically, two consecutive mild winters recently have lent to reduced deer mortality. Additionally, the deer-recovery equation has been helped along markedly by a relatively new predator: […]