May 2012 - The Outdoor Gazette

Page 2 May 2012 The Outdoor Gazette


Before I continue with the how-tos of trapping there is one importantaspect of this sport that needs to bespoken about. This aspect is safetyon the trap line and is one of themost important of all the rules.Many choose to ignore the rulesand end up severely injured orworse yet they do not show up forbreakfast anymore.

With everything we do in lifethere are risks and as I have foundit is much easier to stay out of trou-ble then to try to get out of trouble.

I feel the most important thing todo with anything dealing with trap-ping; hunting or fishing is to leave anote with someone who can renderaid should you not show up after anouting. Yes, we have cell phones,but one unexpected dip will renderthese little gems useless.

Monitor the weather. We allknow how fickle New Englandweather can be. It can be 70 in themorning when you leave and 20when you return home. Toss in a

little snow, rain and wind and youcould be in serious trouble. AS withall weather you need to dress forthe occasion preferably in layers. Itis easy to take it off if it turns warm

but hard to put on if it is in thetruck or at home. If you are a realoutdoors nut you already knowwhat keeps you warm and whatdoesn’t.

Hypothermia is caused by thebody core temperature dropping tolow. If you are shivering you are onthe way to trouble and need to getout of the elements as soon as pos-sible. If this is not an option youneed to think about building a fire

to warm up. Do not procrastinate,as hypothermia will rob you ofpractical thinking. Carrying fire-starting materials is a must with anyoutdoor activity.

The tools you use on a trap lineare dangerous also. Axes andknives are sharp and cut; so be sureproper guards on these items.Firearms are usually carried on theline and we all know the inherentdangers these can deal out. Thevery traps you are using are verydangerous if used improperly.

Diseases on the line are ever pres-ent also including Rabies, lep-tospirosis, plague, tularemia, andgiardiasis, not to mention insectslike the loveable ticks. Rabies hasbeen around forever and any seri-ous trapper will get the preventativeshots to avoid catching this disease.Leptospirosis is usually deliveredvia a bite but is common in animalurine and can be found in stagnantwater. Rabbits, muskrats, beaverand rodents usually carrytularemia. You can become infect-ed just by handling their carcasses.Giardiasis is a parasite that beavercarry and dump in our waterways.It is very wise not to drink fromponds or streams unless you areprepared to spend some time onthe porcelain horse.

Every animal you trap is a dan-ger to you. Mother nature givesevery critter, teeth and claws, andmost are proficient at using them ifgiven the opportunity. The crittersmay seem cute and cuddly but trustme they will attack you. Safely dis-

patching the animal from a dis-tance is proper protocol and makesure they have expired prior totouching them. If you choose torelease them extreme cautionshould be exercised.

Just hiking in and out can presentproblems. Fall and break a leg andyou will see why it is wise to leave anote at home. A lot of our trappingis done on water, which presentsanother danger. You may be able tonormally swim like a gold medalistbut pull on a pair of chest wadersand fill them with forty gallons of20-degree water and the only placeyou are going is down. Usingextreme caution on ice-coveredbodies of water is critical also.Always carry a spud of some typeto drop in front of you on each stepyou take to assure the ice will holdyou and your gear or catch.

If you use motors, i.e. boats ora.t.vs on your line you still have touse your noodle a little. Yes they arevery useful tools on the line but mis-used they can be more of aheadache than a help.

I could go on and on and writemore details for weeks on end but Ihope you get my message.Trapping is a blast as long as youkeep your wits about you. Leave anote, dress for the weather, be safearound the critters, handle themwith gloves, do not forget to washfrequently and follow all the basisrules and you will enjoy. One slipon the basics will get you sick orworse yet dead.

As I finish this column I steppedoutside of the cabin and it is spit-ting snow. Last week at this time itwas 83 degrees out. Time foranother log on the fire, a visit withthe captain and ask myself why Istay around here. I know whythough, there is no place like NewEngland.

Until next time keep your waderspatched and your lures in the shed.See ya on the trap line.

By Randy BarrowsBy Randy Barrows

The Trap LineThe Trap Line

Trap Line Safety

Randy lives in Milton, Vermont, hastrapped in Vermont for 43 years, is ahunter Ed Instructor and an AdvancedTrapper Instructor for the Vermont Fish& Wildlife Department. Randy andwife, Diane & their family, own andoperate Arrowhead Trapping Supply.Randy is also a Vermont State LicensedFur Dealer. They can be reached [email protected] or 802-355-7496, on facebook or at www.arrow-headtrappingsupply.com.

May 2012 Page 23The Outdoor Gazette


Rancher's Rave Barbecue

A ranch style barbecue recipe, cooked in the crockpot.

1 1/2 lbs. stew venison/bear/moose cubes 1 1/2 lbs. pork cubes 2 cups chopped onions 3 small green bell peppers, seeded and chopped 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1 tsp chili powder 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon dry mustard2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Combine ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cookon high for 6 to 8 hours, or until very tender. Shredmeat with a potato masher or forks; serve over buns,potatoes, rice, or any pasta.

Pop’s KitchenPop’s Kitchen

Bill "Pop" Burke, resides in Claremont, NewHampshire. If you would like to contact Popsend an email to: pop'[email protected]

Bill "Pop" Burke, resides in Claremont, NewHampshire. If you would like to contact Popsend an email to: pop'[email protected]

Baked Salmon Steaks3 salmon steaks (about 1/2 lb each)Lemon juiceRitz crackers, crumbledGarlic and onion powder3 pats butter (1 tablespoon each)Salt and pepper, to taste1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

Spray a shallow sided aluminum baking pan with olive oilspray. Place fish steaks on pan. Sprinkle evenly with garlicand onion powder and a pinch each of salt and pepper. In a microwaveable dish, melt butter; toss crushed crackersin butter. Sprinkle the cracker mixture evenly over the topof the fish. Sprinkle with minced parsley. Broil (on the toprack), without turning, until the edges of the fish arebrowned and the flesh is a whitish pink (no longer clear)and it starts to look flaky when touched with a fork. Thiswill take about 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven (orgrill) and the size of the fish steak. Squeeze lemon juiceover top before serving garnished with a sprig of freshparsley and lemon wedges. A grill may be used instead of abroiler. Heat grill to at least 400°F on a gas grill, or if usingbriquettes, coals should be white hot.

Baked Salmon Steaks3 salmon steaks (about 1/2 lb each)Lemon juiceRitz crackers, crumbledGarlic and onion powder3 pats butter (1 tablespoon each)Salt and pepper, to taste1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

Spray a shallow sided aluminum baking pan with olive oilspray. Place fish steaks on pan. Sprinkle evenly with garlicand onion powder and a pinch each of salt and pepper. In a microwaveable dish, melt butter; toss crushed crackersin butter. Sprinkle the cracker mixture evenly over the topof the fish. Sprinkle with minced parsley. Broil (on the toprack), without turning, until the edges of the fish arebrowned and the flesh is a whitish pink (no longer clear)and it starts to look flaky when touched with a fork. Thiswill take about 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven (orgrill) and the size of the fish steak. Squeeze lemon juiceover top before serving garnished with a sprig of freshparsley and lemon wedges. A grill may be used instead of abroiler. Heat grill to at least 400°F on a gas grill, or if usingbriquettes, coals should be white hot.

By Ken MonteBy Ken Monte

On and Off the TrailOn and Off the Trail

out of any of my bows from my 53-pound bow up to the 60 pound one.I even had good luck with them on a70-pound longbow I used to own. Isay if I can find them because Eastonseems to have made a decision to goto 2018s recently. They spine out thesame but the wall thickness is less so

they aren’t as strong as the 2020s. Forthe wood, only a hardwood shaft willstand up to the repeated pounding astump arrow will receive. I use eithersolid birch shafts or laminated birch.Laminated birch is usually easier tofind and has the added benefit of hav-ing the same spine in all directions sowhen fletching you doaan’t have toworry about putting the cock featheracross the grain. After pick-ing the shaft you need to choose thepoint and the nock to put on it. Withcarbon arrows the stress of hittingsomething solid can put a lot of stressjust behind the point and just in frontof the nock. I beef up the front of theshaft by using a 100-grain brass insertand I also put about 12 inches ofwood inside the shaft. The s’moresticks that you can buy at the super-market fit perfectly in my 250 her-itage shafts. The only problem is thatonce you glue them in place you can’tchange the length of the shaft. At thenock end I use a nock collar that you

can buy from most archery retailers.For the point there are many choices.My favorite is the hard plastic bluntmade by Saunders archery. It comesin several different grain weights andis extremely sturdy. I also use metalblunts made by Ace Archery, KustomKing and Three Rivers Archery. Youcan also use the original stump pointmade by Zwickey called a judo point.This point has prongs coming out ofthe side that help keep it from buryingin the tall grass. Unfortunately theyalso often get stuck in a stump andrequire cutting up the stump to getthem out. Any of these points wouldalso make good small game points aslong as you are careful with your shotplacement.

A few other tools come in handywhen you are out in the field. A goodknife with a strong blade to help digthe point out of stump that was a lit-tle tougher than you thought it wouldbe. Several people I know often justbring a regular screwdriver and usethat to dig out the point. A goodmulti-tool works great too because thepliers part give you something to gripthe point with. Lately another toolI’ve been using is tick spray. Someonerecommended using one made bySawyer and so far it has worked great.You spray your clothes with it and itseems to repel the ticks so they neverget on you. The active ingredient ispermethrin so if you can’t findSawyer there are probably others outthere. Bring a good pack with plentyof water, some snacks and maybelunch. Last but not least bring a cam-era because you never know what youare going to see. If nothing else youcan get a picture of the destruction ofyour buddies arrow when that stumphe shot at turned out to be a rock.

There are many benefits to getting

In order to make your summertraining as productive as possible it’sreally helpful to have a plan of attack.We all go into summer thinking we’llhave tons of time to address certainissues that may have cropped up lastfall that we want to fix. Before youknow it, the lawn needs to mowedevery four days, the kids are out ofschool, and an endless honey-do listhas developed. All that training timeyou’d planned on seems far more lim-ited now. Now Go on and take yourbow for a walk in the woods today. Itdoesn’t matter if it’s a recurve, long-bow or a compound bow. Either goby yourself or gather some goodfriends and go in search of stumpsthat need killing.

There are a few decisions you needto make before heading out.Equipment is the first we will look at.My first and last choice will always beone of my trusty longbows. Usually Iuse the one I plan on hunting withthat year but sometimes I just chooseto shoot one I haven’t taken for a walk

in the woods lately. You can use what-ever bow you feel most comfortablewith. Next comethe arrows. Lately I have been usingCarbon Express Heritage carbonarrows but there are also always a

couple of aluminum and woodarrows in my quiver as well. For thealuminum I like shooting 2020s if Ican find them. The diameter to wallthickness ratio is good enough thatthis size seems to last longer than mostaluminum. It also seems to shoot well

Stump Shooting 101

Continued next page

Left to right; Zwickey Judo, Hammer Head, Ace Blunt, Saunders Blunt andRubber slip-on blunt.


apparent high quality firstingredient. Animal proteins arecloser biologically to what thedog would eat in the wild thanplant proteins.

3. Single source named ani-

mal proteins are best – look forchicken, beef, lamb or chickenmeal as opposed to poultry,meat, animal protein or justplain fat.

4. Whole vegetables, fruitsand grains – fresh, unprocessedfood ingredients are just plainbetter – like they are for us.

5. Organic and locallysourced ingredients – organicingredients can avoid a chemi-cal sensitivity in your pet andother more serious healthissues.

What to look out for in afood:

1. Meat by-products or poul-try by-products. These mayinclude non-muscle parts of theanimal, such as internal organs,which can be OK, but the non-specific nature of the categoryleaves this listing wide open topoorly handled product.Animal digest is a chemicallytreated product unfit forhuman consumption.

2. Artificial colors, flavoringsor preservatives. Dogs do notcare what color their food is –

trust me on that. And if thequality of the ingredient isgood, the food will taste goodwithout added flavors. Andwhile some preservatives arenecessary, look for foods withan expiration date or “best by”date.

3. Sweeteners. Ditto above.Dogs should not need to beenticed to eat the food byadding a sweetener to it.

Many of your most common-ly available foods will contain ahigher content of wheat, cornand grains as filler (and as such,be less expensive). We havealways felt that a grain free dietis best, as dogs are true carni-vores getting their energy pri-marily from fat and protein,and a small amount from somebotanical components, such asberries or seaweed. As we haveincreased in numbers in thepack, there is a necessity tobecome more refined and effi-cient, not only in our budget,but also in our actions. MitchSeavey points out in his book“Lead, Follow or Get Out ofThe Way” in his section onnutrition that most everythingthat goes in, has to come out. Ifyou are feeding a poor, calori-cally inefficient food, and hav-ing to feed upwards of threetimes the quantity to get thesame nutritional value – then,well, that’s a whole lot morescooping you’re going to bedoing in the kennel. And if youhave multiple dogs that can addup to a lot of . . . .oh, nevermind.

A story I tell that really illus-trates the concept of food qual-ity involves a dog we adopted at3 years of age. He was aSiberian pet, and had neverpulled in harness. He wasshowing aggression issues withsome of the other smaller dogsin the home, and he needed tofind a more appropriate home.We agreed to take him on a

We have subscribed to TheWhole Dog Journal (www.the-whole-dog-journal.com) andthey produce an annual evalua-tion of pet foods, as well asinformative articles to educatethe consumer on pet food con-tent. Since the potential infor-mation on pet nutrition could,and does, fill books, what Ioffer here are some basic guide-lines, and these are just that –guidelines. Some will take issuewith some of the concepts; it isonly presented as informationto perhaps inspire some criticalthinking of your particularfeeding behavior. I am notspecifically advocating youchange what you are currentlyfeeding.

What to look for in a (pet)food:

1. There is not one perfectfood – have a working knowl-edge of several quality foods,and switch foods regularly.

Changes should be done gradu-ally so not to upset the digestivesystem.

2.. Animal protein should beat the top of the ingredient list.Ingredients are listed by weight

so be aware of the top 4 or 5ingredients so the 2nd, 3rd or4th ingredients don’t trump an

By Allan Tschorn By Allan Tschorn

Tails from the TrailTails from the Trail

The Armchair Nutritionist- Part 2

Feeding time!

Guns • Ammo • Accessories

Box 3028 • RT 25AOrford, NH 03777

Harry OsmerOwner 603-353-9217

Continued next page


toy referred to as a “Kong” is,right? If not, they are a conicalshaped chew toy, with a hollowcenter that you can fill with bis-cuits, provided of course by themanufacturer. The concept isfor the dog to chew and breakup the bits of cookie and gettangible rewards (besides thesatisfaction of chewing). Weinvert the devise in a disposablecup or kitchen measuring cup(s)and fill them with a plain, highquality yogurt and freeze themin the freezer. Dogs LOVEthem, it is cool and satisfying,and best of all, and yogurt is agreat pro biotic that promotes ahealthy gut in your dog.

Marrow Chew BonesWe have always been of the

opinion that bones are fine foryour dog as long as they remainuncooked. Cooking the bonecan make it brittle, and subjectto splintering and hence a dan-ger to the digestive tract ofyour pet. Remember, it the wildthe bounty a dog is rewarded isnot de-boned or magicallyturned into a nice size uniformkibble. Neither is it cooked.Most meat sections of super-markets will have a nice size (6to 8 inches) of a beef femur

marrowbone. The dogs love tochew, and lick the marrow fromeither end. Once the marrowhas escaped the reach of theirtongues, simply cut in half (Iuse a band saw, but a fine toothbone saw works well, too), andit is like a new bone. Once hol-low, I collect the bones and cutto 2 ? to 3 inches in length. Forstuffing, use a quality groundbeef and kibble in equal partsprocessed in the food processor.Stuff bones and freeze like theKongcicles.

We get teased in our mushingcommunity for spoiling ourdogs. Admittedly, not manysled dog kennels spoil theirdogs with treats like we do. Wefind the treats are a reward andrelationship builder. Financiallytreats can be and are cost pro-hibitive for large kennels. Wefind the above recipes are sur-prisingly easy and afford us theability to continue spoiling ourdogs.

I believe my true success willcome when I develop a human/ canine compatible kibble.Milk poured over for it for abreakfast cereal, water or dryfor the canine companion. BonAppétit.

from previous page

one-week trial basis, and whenit came time for his previousowners to leave, we asked ifthey brought any of his foodwith them so we could transi-tion him to what we were feed-ing. Ooops. They forgot. Anytime you change a food itshould be done gradually –slowly increasing the percent-age of the new food whileincrementally decreasing andphasing out the old. This canbe done over a period of daysor weeks. We asked what theyhad been feeding and howmuch. He was getting nearly 5cups of food a day of, in ourhumble opinion, a horribleoption for dog food. My wifeand I exchanged a glance thatsaid “Not in this kennel”, butverbally assured the departingparents that we would go getsome of his old chow the nextday. The next day, we droppedhis food consumption fromnearly 5 cups to the usualration most of our males weregetting of 2 cups. Amazingly, in6 weeks he had actually gaineda couple of pounds on lessquantity of a higher qualityfood.

I hope you can see that simplycomparing the cost of a bag offood, and the cost per pound offood is probably where youshould end up as a last compar-ison, and evaluation of the con-tent of the food, and how muchyou need to feed maintain ahealthy dog is a much betterstarting point. We strive to feedour dogs food that has humangrade ingredients, single sourceproteins and natural and free-range meats. Research fromsome of the manufacturers weuse contend, as with humanfoods, that natural and freerange proteins are not only bet-ter for you due to the a lack ofuse of steroids and chemicals,

but also make a more efficient-ly available and usable nutri-tional value to the food.

Since the same holds true,nutritionally, and quality wise,for dog treats, we make a lot ofour own dog treats. Here aresome recipes we use for ourdogs:

Home Made Liver Treats1 ? pounds fresh liver1 ? Cups Tapioca FlourPulse liver in your food

processor to as uniform a con-sistency as practical.

Add tapioca flour (we usetapioca flour as it eliminatesthe possibility of a wheat aller-gy or reaction in the dogs, andtapioca is actually a processedroot product.)

Line a large baking sheet withparchment paper and spreadbatter evenly. I sometimes adda couple of tablespoons ofwater in the processing stage toget it to pour more evenly.

Bake at 250 degrees for aboutan hour to an hour and a half.If necessary, remove and flipentire contents over after onehour to get complete and evenbaking (de-hydration).Depending upon your prefer-ence, cooking can be stopped ata “jerky” type stage, or contin-ued to a crispier cookie typestage.

We use a pizza cutter and an18” ruler to cut strips, thensquares. Often we will returnthe portioned pieces the panand the cooling oven for furtherde-hydration. We make largebatches, and if left too moist wefind they will mold before weuse them all. Now I know thereare a lot of hunters out therethat discard this in the field, sowhy not bring it home andshare some of the bounty withyour best friend?

Kong-cyclesWe all know what the chew


after the,”YUUUP”! After whatseemed like another long, uncom-fortable pause, the driver extend-ed his hand through the openwindow and said, “Dave Coker,nice to meet you.” He then got

out of the truck. As I steppedback, I noticed the rack in theback and the big bodied buck itwas attached to! The next foolishthing to come from my lips was,“WHERE DID YOU SHOOTTHAT?” Like he was going to tellme! Not realizing that Lane hadgotten out of the truck, he saidthat Dave was one lucky sob to

get that deer and just as if wewere long lost buddies, Lane spitout the entire story. After all wassaid and done we stayed thereand shot the bull for severalhours! This being the week ofthanksgiving, I was extended anoffer to the family home onSunday for a visit! This chanceencounter was my first meeting ofthe famous Benoit Family!

I was like a kid on ChristmasEve, I couldn’t sleep and barelyate, I was some excited about thetrip to Vermont on Sunday. Idon’t know what I was expectingbut when I saw the five or sixbucks hanging from Larry’s frontporch, I guess I must have gottenstage fright! I drove by the placethree times before I worked upenough courage to stop!

Then I think I stayed in thetruck for a good ten minutesbefore I had nerve enough to getout and knock on the front door!Once in the house, this was a deerhunting shrine! Anywhere in thatfront room you could throw a hatand it would have hooked on arack never hitting the floor! Imust have stood there droolinglike the village fool, and if memo-ry serves me correctly it wasLanny that “broke the preverbalice” if you will. After a big slap onthe back nearly taking me off myfeet, he extended his handtowards me saying, “Hi, I’mLanny.” After nearly putting meon the floor with the back slap, Ifigured that when I took hold ofhis hand, I NEEDED TO TAKEHOLD! I did too! He looked mesquare in the eyes and said thepleasure was all his!

What a pleasant visit it was. I

For the third day in a row, thesnow was coming down andaided by the wind it was difficultto see more than ten yards ahead.The snow was piling up on theunplowed logging road and deepdown, I feared that if this weath-er kept up much longer, wewouldn’t be able to get back intothis remote spot again this year.Even with four inches of lift and34-inch tires, I was still pushingdrifting snow with the frontbumper. There was evidence inplaces that someone had been upthe road in front of me. As Irounded the turn in the road, myworst fears came true. There inthe middle of the road was anabandoned pick up! Well, it was-n’t really abandoned, they haddriven as far as they could and leftit smack in the middle of the roadblocking anyone else that maywant to go through! Knowingthat where I wanted to be wassome six or seven miles further upthe road, I had two choices. Icould wait for the occupants toreturn and move or I could turnaround and hunt someplace else.I chose the latter.

It took several attempts to getturned around because of thecombination of the snow and thenifty parking job by the nice,thoughtful people in the othertruck but we got it done. Whilewe were making our last of theten point turn we were forced tomake, a red Chevy with Vermontplates pulled up and stopped. Hecordially asked if we needed ahand and were we all set. I toldhim what was going on and heoffered option #3! Pull the road

blocking vehicle out of the wayinto the ditch! Admittingly, it didsound appealing but I didn’t haveit in me. During our conversa-

tion, I recognized the gent in thepassenger’s side of the truck butwas unsure if I should say any-thing or not. I finally broke theice and said, “I read where youshot a nice buck in Maine thisyear Lane.” After a seeminglylong pause, he looked at me andsaid, “Yuuup.” I waited for moreconversation but there was none

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Dean Vanier • PO Box 1327 • Lebanon, NH 03766 • 603 523-9206 Continued next page

Advice from Larry

Continued next page

Legendary whitetail deer hunter Lane Benoit with a big northern New Hampshirewhitetail..... photo courtesy of Great Northern Productions.

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A Waterfowler's PerspectiveA Waterfowler's PerspectiveBy Brian BouchardBy Brian Bouchard

There are several factors that willhelp ensure one will have a successfulhunting trip. So many articles havebeen written on this topic so I willrefrain from going into all the require-ments that contribute to one’s success.Every hunter defines his or her successin different ways. Mine have alwaysremained the same. First, to haveeveryone come back in one piece.Second, to leave the outdoors in a bet-ter condition than we found it or atleast not in worse shape. Last, I con-sider the hunt successful if we are sim-ply able to experience all that naturehas to offer. The harvesting of gamehas always been a bonus.

When waterfowl hunting it’s impos-sible to over prepare. The beauty ofpreseason scouting is that you need toget outside and check out what is hap-pening in the woods and waterways. Ilove tossing the kayak into a river orcreak and paddling around looking atpotential hunting grounds to see whatbirds are working the area. I can’t getenough of strolling through freshly

cut cornfields in search of the tell talesign of a recent visitor hoping for itsnext meal. Not realizing that they mayin fact be my next meal. Scouting canbe done in spring as well as the fall.Definitely it needs to be done in thefall when in pursuit of waterfowl.Taking in the sights & sounds will letme know if I’m in a good location.Sights could be the tracks and drop-ping in a cornfield of your potentialgame. Sounds can be the honk ofgeese over head or the quack of a henmallard.

When scouting, it’s best to utilize allthe tools at your disposal. I would lit-erally be lost with out my iPhone,which I carry in a watertight bagwhenever I hunt or scout. My wifesays I am never more than an armslength from it. She might be right.

The ability to geo tab your huntingspots is so important. Whether youuse your smart phone or GPS. Onereason that isn’t so obvious is that itallows you to let others know yourlocation prior to going on the hunt or

during your hunt. It also makes it eas-ier to access these areas in the dark themorning of the hunt. You can trackyour path in and out and record the

time required to get to and from yourmorning set up. Knowing the time ittakes to get in, set up and get out willallow you to plan your hunt. This canhelp prevent you from second guess-ing your decision where to set up. Wehave all done this, first light comes andyou realize you are 200 yards fromwhere you thought you should be andfeel the urge to relocate your set upright at prime time. You become awaterfowl observer, versus waterfowlhunter, when all the birds seem to besettling in out of range. Should thishappen it’s best to move your set upquickly and quietly before you end uptaking more shots with your camerathan your shotgun. Knowing howlong to get out is very important ifweather takes a turn for then worse.

There are lots of neat apps for onessmart phones that allow you to take apicture and geo tag it’s coordinates.This information can be sent to othersto help them log your location shouldyou have an issue that requires theirhelp. It also allows for information tobe added to your hunting journal.Location, date, time, weather condi-tions all can be stored on the smart

phone. Priceless when you need torecall this information at a later date.

Remember, when preseason scout-ing follow all the proper safety precau-tions just as if you were hunting. Thiswill get you into good practice. Be sureto mark any potential hazards thatyou might face when paddling in themorning of the hunt under the coverof darkness. Downed trees, rocks, andother obstacles can be marked on thetrail in. Bring potential hunting bud-dies with you to let them see how youwill be getting in and out of yourhunting area. Take along your retriev-er if you use one so that they can getto know the area as well. It’s goodpractice for the two of you working asa team. If using a canoe or kayak Irecommend you go with your retriev-er to get comfortable with them ridingalong with you. It’s best to have a spillin late summer when the water tem-peratures are higher and you are notcarrying all your expensive gear.

To me Location, Location,Location means this: Find your poten-tial location to hunt. Tell others wherethat location will be. Record this loca-tion and the success or failure forfuture hunts. If you take the time toreally prepare when looking for yournext hunting location, then the expe-rience will be one to remember andshare with others. With hunting thereis no guarantee for success. However,having a prescouted location willincrease the chances that you will allhave a safe and memorable hunt.

I have been hunting deer and predatorsfor over 30 years. Turkey for 15 years.Waterfowl for the past 10 years. Ownerof Fields Bay Outfitters. I Live in StAlbans VT with my wife Michele andour 2 sons Dillon & Kyle and our 2labs Tyson & Remi.

Location, Location, Location!

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8 Years in the Wilderness8 Years in the WildernessBy Tom RideoutBy Tom Rideout

Over the years, it has beeninteresting watching theapproaching spring and howpeople react to it. In many waysit is a sort of sickness. Hencecomes the phrase Spring Fever!

One aspect of spring, which Ithink deserves conversation, isice-out and all its ramifications.

Now I have lived pretty muchall my life dealing with fishing. Ihave been guiding fishing partiesfor over 40 years. I have ownedand operated “fishing camps”just about as many years, andprior to that growing up as a lad,I fished pretty much every daymy parents would let me orweather permitted.

So when I hear anglers tellabout the fabulous fishing avail-able at ice-out, I have to scratchmy head and wonder if they real-ly know what they are talkingabout. I have heard it again andagain, that excellent salmon andtrout fishing is available at ice-

out! My reply is: HOGWASH!In all my years of fishing, not

once can I recall having consis-tent and dependable ice-out fish-ing. In my experience, I find thefishing picks up when the watertemperature rises.

Now, I have to admit I haveplayed the “Great Ice-OutFishing” card over the years, butonly because I wanted to fill upmy cabins with anglers. Duringthose times, I would keep up theenthusiasm and expectationseach day anglers would return tocamp without much success. I

Hogwash! would make excuses like, “You’retoo early” or “It’ll break openany day now!” But over the yearsI found the fishing always pickedup about 10 days to two weeksafter ice-out.

Up here in western Maine,much of the fishing breakingopen depends on smelt spawnand temperatures of the water.The spawning smelts draw gamefish like salmon and trout to thetributary mouths, where smeltactually spawn. These narrowsrestrictions in the path of spawn-ing smelt are perfect location forpredators like salmon and troutto ambush the smelt. I havefound that during the smeltspawn, it is not easy to catch thesalmon and trout, as there is aplentiful supply of food. I haveseen over the years where salmonwill take up positions at thesetributary mouths and kill asmany smelt as it can, way beyondwhat it can actually eat in onemeal. These attacks happen inthe evening and during the nightwhen the smelt make their wayinto the tributaries to lay theireggs. I have gone back to theseareas the following mornings andseen dead smelts lying on thebottom as well as floating thecoves and bays.

The salmon and trout remainhandy and feed on these deadsmelts at their leisure. I have seenthem feeding on these dead smeltfor several days after the annualsmelt spawn has subsided and theeasy prey have moved into thedepths of the lakes.

Now the smelt spawn usuallycoincides with ice-out and theusual spawn lasts around a weekor so. Put all this together, and itonly makes sense that the fishingwould be better when easy foodis harder to find.

Now don’t get me wrong, fishare caught every year at ice-out. Iknow of guys who drag streamerflies along the edge of the melt-ing ice in our lakes and pondswho catch a few fish, but never inthe numbers that will be caught acouple of weeks after ice-out.

Trolling for salmon (or trout) isan art, something many peoplehave little idea about. Over theyears with the invention and pro-motion of artificial lures, eventhe most amateur anglers cancatch fish. But for us who make a

living off fishing, there is a muchbetter way that has been triedand true, and that is using natu-ral bait.

My Grandfather taught mehow to sew on bait using either adead smelt or shiner. He neverused a motorboat; he just rowed.His technique was to wrap theline around his hand while row-ing with oars. He never wentvery fast and maintained a con-sistent slow speed. When I start-ed guiding in the 1970s, I modi-fied this technique by using anoutboard motor. To make myboat go as slow as possible, Idragged a sea anchor, which inmany cases was a 5-gallon pail,behind the boat.

It is a special way to sew on theminnow, which allows it to slowlyspin. I think this action imitates awounded baitfish. Predatory fishlike to expend as little energy aspossible to get their food, and awounded minnow is easier to getthan a healthy one. In my grand-father’s case, he used lead line toget the bait down into the depthswhere salmon and trout usuallyfeed. I modified this by usingdownriggers. In the spring I usu-ally fish just beneath the surface,and as the summer progressesand the water temps warm up, Igo deeper. Using a downriggerallows me to use ultra light spin-ning rods, which offer tremen-dous fighting opportunities.

Over the years I would monitorother anglers as well as guidesthat used lures and artificial baits,and I consistently out fishedthem, usually catching adult fish,not the short and immaturesalmon that so many lure fisher-men catch.

Now that the ice is out of thepond, I have about 10 days totwo weeks to prepare myself for aseason of fishing. I can’t wait!

Tom Rideout is the former editor ofNH Outdoor Gazette and was theowner of Bosebuck Mountain Campson Aszicoos Lake in western Maine for17 years. He has held a Master MaineGuide’s license for more than 35 years(hence the 8 years in the wilderness) Heand his wife Martha operate SturtevantPond Camps in Magalloway, Maineand operates Pakesso Guide Service,which specializes in upland bird wingshooting . You can reach Tom [email protected]

PakessoGuide Service

Salmon, Trout, BassFly fishing, trolling, spinning

www.pakessoguideservice.com

207-486-9308

Master Registered Maine Guide

Master Maine GuideTom Rideout

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or visit our website at


The Captain’s CornerThe Captain’s CornerBy Matthew Trombley

tiful 3yr old Tom! One ofthose rare mornings that thebirds weren’t real vocal at firstlight, but we knew there werebirds on this ridge from ourpre-season scouting so westayed persistent & wererewarded with a beautiful mid-morning bird!

Now the big challenge of themonth of May is that coincideswith the Spring Striped Bassrun! I could spend the wholemonth in the woods, but theHudson River in Eastern NewYork has one of the bestStriper runs on the east coast,there is no way I can miss put-ting those big line siders in theboat & the cooler! Most peopledon’t realize that the HudsonRiver is tidal water all the wayto the Troy Dam just outside ofAlbany. This allows theStripers to make the run fromthe Long Island Sound all theway up to the spawninggrounds. Literally tens ofthousands of stripers from 5 to45 pounds inhabit the waterway for this short window oftime! I have been hooked onthis fishery for over seven yearsnow, every year learning andseeing something new thatkeeps us & our clients comingback for more!

Our boat is docked at theRondout Yacht Basin onRondout Creek, just outside ofthe city of Kingston for thewhole month of May. Noweach year the peak spawnvaries slightly due to waterclarity & temperature, but thenormal peak traditionally fallssomewhere between Mother’s

Day and Memorial Day. Wehave seen days where thefishfinder screen on the boat is“Blacked Out” from top tobottom as you troll through aschool of fish! Downriggertrolling tactics are the predom-inant way of catching thesefish; the schools are so thickthat fish actually bump thedownrigger weight as we trollthrough them! You talk aboutanticipation waiting for thestrike & that rod to pop!! That& witnessing the large femalesbreaking the surface as theycontinue their spring courtshipwith the males is awe inspiring!This all combines to make forsome of our most popular tripswe offer, hence the reason theybook up so fast year after year!

Spring in the Northeast hasso many choices & not enoughtime! Chasing boomingGobblers on our ridges, fillingthe coolers with the HOTBrown trout action the Eastend of Lake Ontario is famedfor, or chasing that trophyStriper of a life time, hopingfor that next 50 pounder to hitthe deck & possibly adorn alucky anglers wall! Phew!! I amnot sure I could handle threemonths of “May” in arow…..but I wait in anticipa-tion for it every year!

What a wild and crazy winterit has been! Or what winter??As most folks here in theNortheast have been com-menting! I can honestly say Inever fired up my snow bloweronce here in Rutland County ,of west central Vermont. Whatthat has meant, is a very easywinter for our wild life, lordknows our Deer & Turkey pop-ulations needed a reprievefrom the winter of 2010/11. Ihave been making the rideover to the Salmon River onthe east end of Lake Ontario,at least once a month sincethanksgiving & only once hasthere been measurable snowon the ground while I was overthere! Now mind you it hasmade for some great Steelheadfishing & a great way to makethe most of the lack of snow!

April find’s us in a transitionperiod, wrapping up a fewwinter projects, getting readyfor the on slot of a busy guid-ing & chartering season ahead.Digging out our 25ft Penn Yancharter vessel, the“Flashpoint” from winter stor-age is part of the spring ritual.Cleaning, wash & wax, chargethe batteries & all the springprep work, along with restring-ing reels, checking tackle, &catching up with all the con-tacts from the winter sportsshows makes for a very hecticmonth! Ohh…& let’s not for-get checking all of our turkeyhunting equipment, blinds,calls and camo clothing! Asthey say. “plenty to do”!

I sit writing this column; I’mtaking a break from all theactivity and contemplatingwhat the next task is that Iwon’t have enough time forprior to the busy month ofMay! Many of my fellow cap-tains from Lake Ontario arereporting a fantastic early sea-son near shore Brown troutbite; the steelhead action hasbeen very steady in the riversbut is sure to slow early thisyear with the lack of any runoff to keep the rivers up. Ihave one more trip over to theSalmon River for my ownbreak, before guiding all of my

clients this season. The lure offighting Great Lakes Steelheadis one that you can’t let goonce you are hooked! Anyonewho has not experienced this

should do so, nothing on theeast coast of the US compares!

The month of May is one ofthe craziest of the year for us!Starting off the last weekendof April, guiding my son forthe Vermont youth turkeyweekend & then my wife &other clients through the firstweek of May keeps me goingnon-stop! I have been guidingturkey hunters for almost tenyears now, truly one the mostrewarding things I have thepleasure of doing. Getting upat the wee hours of 3:30-4:00am can wear on you, but beingin the spring woods as thewildlife awakens & her thatboss Tom cut loose that youroosted the night before issomething to behold! We usu-ally have about a 50-60% suc-cess of getting a Tom to gobblewhen they go to roost in theevening. But if you knowwhere they are, they have ahard time not busting open tothat Barred Owl call first thingin the morning! Last year Ihad one of my most memo-rable opening mornings, as my9 year Old son Logan sat nextto me as we harvested a beau-

Matt's son Logan with a VT gobblerthat that Matt took on the opener of theMay 2011 season"

Fins & Feathers in May!

By Matthew Trombley

Matt Trombley is a career firefighter,residing with his wife & son inFlorence Vermont. He is a U.S.C.Glicensed Master captain, guiding &chartering fishing trips through outVermont & New York. His charterbusiness, 3rd Alarm Charters can beviewed at www.3rdalarmcharters.com


2011 “WINNI DERBY” Winners


Trail Camera Photo Contest

Michael Whitaker - Stockbridge, Vermont

Orange County - Vermont

Robert Drouin - Mass.

Michael Whitaker- Stockbridge, Vermont


Eric Morton - East Corinth Vermont, pic taken in central NH



and heard plop, the direction ofthe plop made me think some-thing hit the water near my bass.As I turned around I could seeSamantha’s jerk bait comingthrough the same place I hadbeen throwing too. This told metwo things, one: she was paying alot more attention than I thought.Two: From now on I wasn’t say-ing a word if one missed my bait!!

I asked her if she really thoughtshe could steal my fish. I knowsooner got done running mymouth and the drag slipped. Sureenough she stole my bass!! Iwatched the bass in the water andthere were 4 or 5 other smallmouth swimming with the onethat was hooked. We landed thebass and she was getting reallyexcited now, she had nevercaught more than 1 fish in a daybefore. By the end of the day shehad boated 5 small mouth withone being the biggest smally ofthe day. That more than madeher day! The big bass of the daywas a 5 pound 8 ounce large-mouth that was sitting in about afoot and a half of water. It alwaysamazes me at how shallow bigbass will get. Our total wasaround 20 with two large mouthover 4 pounds. Her small mouthwas over 3 pounds. Not a bad firstday of bass fishing for her. Wepicked on and teased each otherall day and it was a lot of fun butthere was one thing that standsout the most over all the pickingand bass we caught.

I was using a lip less crankbaitand had about a 2 pounder at theboat. It would not give up, everytime I thought it was done itwould make another run. So Iasked Samantha to grab the net

and just get it before I ended upwith a hook in the hand. Shecame up to the front of the boatand kneeled down to net the bass.The next thing I know thecrankbait is flying at my face. Itook cover, I knew that one wasgoing to jump off I told myself. Iopened my eyes and was amazed,she had netted the bass as it cameoff in mid air! I know grown menthat can’t net a bass to save their

lives and she took one out of theair! I looked at her and she said, “Netting fish is the only reason myuncle would take me”. That is amemory I will never forget, andI’m pretty sure Samantha willnever forget the day. As we gotthe boat loaded she told me shewants to catch a big one like theone I got.

I told her whenever she wasready we would go again. Wellshe was more ready than Ithought, as I am writing this twonights later we are making plansto go again, Lake Morey here wecome!!!

Today I have a good friend inthe boat with me. We have talkedfor several years about fishing andfinally everything worked out towhere we could go. Samanthatold me she hadn’t fished sinceshe was really young, around 5 orso. She told me she never used

lures or had any idea how to usethem. I told her not to worry,we’re after springtime smallmouth and jerk baits are always agood choice. She turned andasked if these baits were namedafter me? I could already see howthe day was going to go! We wentover tackle, casting and presenta-tion. Her enthusiasm and energywas surprising and most wel-come. As with any beginnerthings were a little shaky at first,after the 5th strait cast almostimpaled me, I decided I wouldwait until she got the hang ofthings and then start fishing. Itdidn’t take long either; she pickedit up very quickly and after a fewminutes she was doing fine andthe lure was hitting water a lotmore often. I started to explainwhy were fishing the way we wereand why we were using the baitsand the look on her face was all toclear. She could care less why wewere using these baits or why thebass are trying to get shallow. Allshe wanted to do is catch somefish, or as she called them fishes.

The water was warming fastand I assured her that it was onlya matter of time before thingswould pick up. The weather fore-

cast for the day was the mid 80’sand we hadn’t seen it that warmin a month. We fished for a whilewithout a bite, just had a few fal-low the jerk baits back to theboat. Samantha was starting toget frustrated, they wouldn’t eather lure and again I told her tocool her jets, “just be patient” Isaid or yelled its all in which endof the boat you were in. Thewater hit 60 degrees on the sur-face and I knew it was time tostart catching them. It’s impor-tant to remember in early springthat the bite gets better as the daygoes on, we got on the water earlyso I could check out the lake.

Around 12:30 a bass was in theboat, nothing big, but a nice 2-pound small mouth. Samanthaglowed like a kid at Christmasand it was obvious she was goingto catch a bass or it was going tobe a very long day. I was amazedonly a few minutes later and shehad one on. She screamed withexcitement and when I turnedaround I started laughing, shelooked like she was fighting ashark. She was pumping the rod,the butt of the rod jammed in hertummy. I ran to the back of theboat with her and started tryingto help her. I told her to stoppumping the rod and surprisingly,she did. I told her to keep pres-sure on the fish, but not to lift it tothe surface. I told her “you can’tgive them slack or they will jumpoff ”, she did everything perfect. Ithink it was the only time she lis-tened to me all day. It wasn’t agiant by any means but anotherbeautiful 2 to 2 1/2 pound smallmouth.

The look on her face was price-less and it didn’t take long andeverything was coming together.Her casts were becoming moreaccurate with only a flier everynow and then. The small mouthwere really starting to get aroundwhat ever shallow cover theycould find. We came up to a laydown and I grabbed my swimbait, over kill for small mouth butyou never know. I made fourstraight casts to this lay downwith an explosion on everyone.The last time I saw the bass and itwas know where near big enoughto eat this mammoth bait. Asquick as I could I knelt down tograb a rod with a more finessepresentation. I grabbed the rod

The author with a 5-lb. plus LakeGroton Largemouth...photo by DannyWebster.

Samantha proudly displays a LakeGroton Smally.

Twin State Bassin’Twin State Bassin’By Danny Webster By Danny Webster



Not long ago I purchased a newfish truck. I figure, at my age, andmy propensity for holding on to mytrucks that this just might be the lasttruck that I buy. With this thought inmind I went all out and got one withfour wheel drive. I have had a cou-ple of SUV’s with four wheel drive,but all of the trucks that I haveowned have had two wheel drive. Iguess that I have always subscribedto the old adage that “four wheeldrive will only get you stuck furtherin the woods.”

The first real fish truck that I everowned was a 1974 Toyota pickup.The Toyotas of that era were a farcry from the trucks they sell today.They were a lot cheaper back thentoo. I was more into canoeing thanfishing at that time so the truck wasprimarily a canoe hauler. This beingour first truck, we quickly learnedthe first time it snowed that withoutsome weight in the back, you wereapt to do some skidding. The addi-tion of a cap added the extra weight

needed to drive in the winter. In the mid-eighties I purchased

my second Toyota pick up. This onewas powered by a diesel engine. At

the time we were right in the middleof a gas crisis. I was commutingquite a ways to work and my hopewas that the diesel would give meadded mileage. It did do this, how-ever, I paid for it in other ways. Thefuel was prone to freezing and Ispent a lot of time waiting for thething to warm up.

One fated morning the engine

blew. There was one hell of a bang,a lot of smoke and the truck quicklylost power. It was the first day ofhunting season and for a moment Ithought that I had been shot. Theengine had over a hundred thou-

sand on it, but I always felt that itshould have got a lot more out of it.A local mechanic replaced theblown motor with a gas poweredengine, and the truck went on todeliver another hundred thousand.

The next fish truck was a IsuzuTrooper. The Trooper was more ofan SUV than a true truck and itproved to be best fishing vehicle Iever owned. It was kind of a boxshaped thing that looked somethinglike a jeep. The unique feature wasthe rear doors. There were twodoors but one was only a third aslarge as the other one. I never fig-ured out why one was smaller, butyou had to admit it did look cool.The Trooper was four wheel driveand it would go most anywhere andit held a lot of fishing and campinggear.

Janet and I almost burnt ourTrooper to the ground. We werefishing the Margaree River in lateOctober. We had the back doorsopen and we were heating up somesoup on a Colman stove. It was oneof the fuel stoves and as they wereprone to do, it caught on fire. Janetgrabbed the soup off the burnerand I quickly threw the stove to theground. The fire extinguished just asquickly as it began. We picked it up,relit it and went back to heating upwhat was left of our soup.

The big problem with the Trooperwas rust. The hinges of the littledoor just about always rusted. I soldit to a young fellow who put a lot ofeffort into fixing it up and when hewas done I was sorry I had sold it tohim. He rolled it over in an attemptto climb Mt. Whittier in Ossipee.For all I know the truck may still behalf way up the side of the moun-tain.

The first four wheel drive vehiclewe owned was an InternationalScout – the grandfather of the SUV.The Scout was possibly the mostrugged truck ever made. It was pow-ered by a huge V8 motor. Not onlywas it four wheel drive, it had apower take off for running machin-ery. You could run your own ropetow if you had a mind to. This truckhad locking hubs; you had to get outof the truck and lock the hubsbefore putting it into four wheeldrive. On several occasions I had towade into mud or knee deep snowto lock the hubs.

Our last two fish trucks were bothFord Rangers. Despite their smallersize they proved to be rugged anddependable. The first one had hitthe one-hundred thousand markbefore I gave it to my son, Andy.The little truck provided him trans-portation during his senior year ofcollege and up until he had his firstjob.

The new truck is a Toyota and ithas a lot more bells and whistlesthan that first one. The new onedoes have a radio and a CD playerto boot. I know that this is a sign ofweakness, but this new truck has air-conditioning and is an automatic.Yeah, I know I am getting old.

I spent the last moments with myold Ranger while cleaning it outbefore turning it in. The ashtray hadabout a dozen flies in it and therewere a few more in the glove com-partment. A pair of binoculars andmy New Hampshire Atlas andGazetteer were behind the passen-ger seat. The cup holder held myheadlamp, sunglass case and a fewmore flies. I took my Scott fuzzy diceoff the rear view mirror. The toolbox had a couple cans of oil and atow strap along with the tie downstraps for my pontoon boat. Before Iwalked away I put my hand on thehood and thanked it for its long serv-ice and many happy fishing trips.

Riverbank TalesRiverbank Talesby Bill Thompsonby Bill Thompson

A New Fish Truck

A 1974 Toyota pick-up, much like the author’s “canoe hauler”.

Originally from Maine, BillThompson, with his wife Janet, lives inFreedom and owns North CountryAngler fly shop in North Conway. Hehas been fly fishing for more than 30years and is a licensed NH FishingGuide. He has fished all over NewEngland, in Canada and out West, butclaims the Saco as his “home river.” Healso writes a column for a local paperas well as articles in national fly fishingmagazines. Bill’s email is [email protected].

2888 White Mountain HighwayNorth Conway, New Hampshirewww.northcountryangler.comPhone: 603-356-6000

The North Country Angler has been in the “Valley”for over thirty years. We are a full service fly shopoffering quality fly fishing gear and guiding.

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fish-producing program. Nosalmon will be stocked inVermont or New Hampshire.

That means I won’t have towatch dozens of volunteers help

carry buckets of fry to theConnecticut River tributaries.

For decades biologist andschoolteachers have convincedthese people that their assistancewill someday mean the return ofthousands of huge silver salmonto the upper reaches of the river.It would be wonderful if thesesame volunteers were used toclean up the trash, empty cansand thousands of plastic wormcontainers that litter the shorelineof the beautiful ConnecticutRiver valley?

Some good news is that the2011 salmon return, at the EssexDam, on the Merrimack Riverrose to 402 fish. The annual aver-age has been 121 adult salmon.Also, adult salmon released intothe Souhegan, Baker and upperPemigewasset rivers showed evi-

dence of successful naturalspawning. Although millions ofsalmon fry will be stocked thisspring but they will be released infewer rivers.

The goal is to eliminate hatch-ery fry from streams and rivers,which might have produced natu-rally, hatched salmon. A high pri-ority will be given to theSouhegan River where a recentdam removal has greatlyincreased spawning habitat forwild adult salmon as the riverflows for 34 miles from its sourcein New Ipswich, N.H. to it outletinto the Merrimack River. In twoyears biologists will be able tolook for juvenile salmon in highpotential spawning areas. Inanother three years they will beknow how successful these “runof the river” salmon will be.

Its a small project but it seemsmuch more practical way to onceand for all decide if the AtlanticSalmon can ever return to theriver again. In the interim Iwould hope that the ConnecticutRiver program is phased out andsome of the funding diverted tomore successful rivers like theMerrimack and Maine’sPenobscot River. It would bewonderful to hear that the biolo-gists are making the decisionsrather than the politicians.

In early January I read an Op-Ed story by David Deen aConnecticut River steward fromVermont and a state representa-tive from Dist. 5. Mr. Deen isconcerned that the annual poorfish return will lead to the end ofthe multi state Atlantic SalmonRestoration Program!!

After decades of monitoring theprogress, or failure, of the 40 yearlong program its sad that thosecaring deeply about theConnecticut River that they havenot failed because the AtlanticSalmon will never return in sig-nificant numbers and the annualfunding and professional time is aterrible waste of our tax dollars.It’s a hard decision to make butthe program has to be eliminatedsoon. Mr. Deen states that manydecades of decreasing salmonreturns should not indicate thatthe program is a failure.

I’m afraid that he is wrong andthat is just what the number show.Each year for nearly four decadesmillions of tiny salmon fry areplaces in the river with the help ofwell-intentioned volunteers. “Putthem in the river and they willreturn”. Well that hasn’t andwon’t happen!! The annualreturn has averaged about 100salmon. That’s only an infinitesi-mal fraction of the 6,000,000 frythat were placed in the Conn andits tributaries.

Ending the Connecticut RiverAtlantic Atlantic_SalmonRestoration Program is a politi-cally sensitive decision. Nobodywants to be the person who seemsresponsible for the Program is afailure! Administrators are salarydependent and politicians willlose the votes of thousands ofidealistic conservationists. But,Mother Nature may have madethe decision for us??

When Hurricane Irene blastedup northward up the ConnecticutRiver Valley in the spring of 2011the dumped inches of rain that

flooded the watershed surround-ing the White River FederalHatchery in Vermont. Thehatchery has always been themajor source of the 6,000,000

salmon fry that are stocked eachspring.

Many of the nursery pools andbrook stock pond were under sev-eral feet of rived water.Remaining structures and brood

stock will have to be sterilized toremove river borne contami-nants.

This will be the time to reevalu-ate the Hatchery goals and elimi-nate it as the fry source of theConnecticut River salmon fryand move on to a more practical

The life cycle of the Atlantic Salmon. This three to four year cycle is whatNHF&G biologists hope to achieve in the Souhegan river as it flows into theMerrimack River and onto the Atlantic Ocean.

Fisheries biologist stocking AtlanticSalmon fry into a Conn. River tribu-tary.

Fish Tales and other DrivelFish Tales and other Drivel By Dick BakerBy Dick Baker

Connecticut River Salmon Restoration???

Dick Baker is a forester working innorthern NH and Vt with an office inLittleton, NH. Writing for several NewEngland sporting magazines is just anexcuse to get his wife, Mary, to let himgo fishing or hunting. At the Bakerhouse the lawn grows tall and the houseneeds painting. Dick can be reached [email protected]

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Robertson Act after its sponsors, thelegislation insures among otherthings that money derived from thesale of hunting licenses will beadministered by state Fish & Wildlifeagencies and may not be diverted tonon-hunting related programs.Additional funding comes for excisetaxes collected on the sale of guns,ammunition, archery equipmentand related retail items.

The first thing you learn is that thecourse has two specific goals: To pre-vent hunting injuries and fatalitiesand to ensure the future of the hunt-ing tradition. It is the emphasis onthe latter that really surprised me.Not only are participants repeatedlyexposed to the operation and safehandling techniques for all majortypes of firearms but a large portionof the curriculum tackles the issue ofhunting’s negative image among sig-nificant segments of the population.The importance of impressing theseyoung minds to be an example ofeverything that is good about oursport cannot be understated. Thewords respect, ethics and responsibil-ity come up often as do examples ofwhat individuals can do to improvehunting’s perception by non-hunters,landowners and others. KeithGallant, our local central Vermontgame warden came in and talked tothe class about how hunting lawsprotect wildlife, protect people, andinsure the principals of fair chase.Keith is a pretty personable guy andhe emphasized that young peopleshould not be afraid of him or any-one involved in law enforcement butrather recognize the valuable jobthey do in protecting and promotingour right to hunt and fish.

Great PR and targeted to the rightaudience.

The two day sessions are offered bi-annually in both the spring and falland are conducted at the Randolph,Vermont Fish & Game Club’s FishHill Road facilities. Last month wehad 22 students taking the courseand nearly a dozen club membersshowed up to help out. Course

instructors, Richard and BunnyHuntley, were flanked by other vol-unteers who discussed everythingfrom tree stand safety and map &compass skills to the relevance ofhabitat restoration and conservationefforts. There are several segmentsgoing on simultaneously includinghandling and shooting firearms withappropriate instruction and supervi-sion. Adult volunteers are paired upone-on-one with students during the“live” fire requirements, while otherswalked the outside course during theshoot or no shoot training. Here stu-dents are taught the importance ofidentifying safe shooting conditionsas well as how to properly maneuverobstacles such as fences. During thisspring’s program, Rich Huntleyasked an adult in the audience tocome to the front of the class toexplain the danger of ammunitionmiss-fires. While the middle-agedwomen told her story she held up herleft hand which was missing a finger.A dramatic way to hammer homethe importance of firearm safety thatno-one in the room would likely for-get.

And then there are the kids them-selves; impressionable, interested,excited. We wrapped up theRandolph program on the Sundayprior to youth turkey weekend and tobe around this group, of whomalmost half were girls, was to beaffected by their anxious enthusiasm.These kids, with what they hadlearned from Hunter Education, areprepared to not only be life-longambassadors of our sport; they arethe insurance that hunting and fish-ing will always have a place inAmerican culture.


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331 Rte. 26, Colebrook, NH 03567603-237-8857

Traveling OutdoorsmanTraveling OutdoorsmanBy Glenn DunningBy Glenn Dunning

Glenn Dunning lives in Brookfield,Vermont and owns TUNDRATOURConsultants, a travel agency specializ-ing in North American hunting andfishing adventures. He is also a memberof the New England Outdoor WritersAssoc. Glenn can be reached by phone at802-276-3317 or via his web site at:www.tundratour.com

While getting ready for a Coloradoelk hunt 4 years ago I realized thatfinding my old hunter safety card toverify that I had completed a huntereducation program was going to be aproblem. In most states this is now arequirement of licensing. Truth is; Itook the course over 40 years agoand nobody kept records of suchthings back then. So I signed up forthe program being offered locallylater that spring. I must admit to feel-ing a bit of anxiety as I took my seat,pencil and course manual in hand,among the other students, most ofwhom were a quarter of my age oryounger. As I look back on it now,what I received for my investment ofa couple of Sunday’s in April was somuch more than what I ever expect-ed. The program so impressed methat I have volunteered to help outwhenever the course has beenoffered ever since.

For starters the curriculum today ismore comprehensive; the manual,produced by the International

Hunter Education Association, is120 pages with 7 separate areas ofstudy, one of which deals specificallywith Firearms and Hunter Safety.The others cover an important rangeof topics from individual responsibil-ities, to wildlife conservation. Did I

mention that the course is free ofcharge? While there are severalsources of funding a bulk of thefinancial resources come from thefederal Wildlife Restoration Act of1937. Also called the Pittman-

Courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife

Hunter Education Programs Safeguarding Hunting’s Future


Official MeasurerBoone & Crockett Club

Pope & Young ClubNH Antler & Skull Trophy Club

Maine Antler & Skull Trophy Club

22 Scribner Road, Raymond, NH [email protected] 603-895-9947

ROSCOE BLAISDELL

runs of down hill to escape andthe shaking and brush can knockthem off, so check out these runsgood. Matched pairs are a realtreasure or sheds from the sameanimal for several years makethem extra special. It's a low

impact way of having fun in thewoods and a relaxing way to exer-cise, but it has a dark side.

Shed hunting is about location.People are secretive and competi-tive about "THEIR" spots! Many

people shed hunt for income andas you can guess, when you putmoney into an equation peoplewill pull out all the stops. Chaseanimals on foot or snowmobile,hoping the antlers will fall off. Tryto shoot the antlers off ! This isharassing wildlife! What hap-pened to ethics? The wire overthe feeder to "Tangle" and "help"the buck shed his horns at theback yard bait pile just doesn'tseem right either. Aren't theweather, the bugs, parasites, pred-ators, road traffic, dogs, touristsand hunter's enough harassment?I guess I like to earn them.

If you do come across a mon-ster shed have it scored andentered in a club. The NewHampshire shed hunters club is agood place to start. Entry fees areminimal and it does give credit toa live animal! Check out theirweb site!

Finally a winter most anybodycould like! The low snow depthsand warm temps, for our area,made for a great winter on thewildlife. The state's winter severi-ty index should only rank in theteens this year! Deer moved freelyand the great fall mast cropsshould have helped the doescome through with a great fawnproduction this spring.

The warm spring temps shouldbe a boost for the spring grassesto hide them, but ticks may beworse. Tuck in those clothes!Hunter education classes are infull swing. Our last class waspacked, so be sure and registerearly! Vermont's home studyclasses requires the completion ofa work book or completed on linestudy course with printed offquizzes are your ticket into thefield day. Vermont's Outdoor andHunter Ed programs are nation-ally recognized and in bigdemand.

I can't wait to get out, fish andshed hunt! With low snow depths,probably the antlers will be morescattered and even up the field forshed hunters. I would guess thatthe low snow depths will makethe ones we find more sunbleached though. Many folkscome in the shop admiring someof our finds wishing they couldfind "just one." Here's my bestadvice.

First, you have to be in goodmoose or deer country. The best,most crowded areas you can find.The key to moose seems to beareas with balsam fir, dry slightlyelevated, bedding sites, with bullwork. (RUBS) The importance ofthe fir trees can't be over stated,especially in the Pittsburg andRangely areas. Many moose bed-ding type spots deserve a quicklook but if there is not much bullwork somewhere near by thesheds are usually not many either.I look for what I call bull yards.Spots to the sides of main feeding

areas that have a good escaperoute, southeasterly exposure,and a roof of overhead covertrees to bed under. The southeastearly morning sun type spots on

mountains, around the 3 thou-sand foot mark seem to be best.Many old bulls are creatures ofhabit and seem to frequent thesame haunts year after year. Thebest spots are often visited by peo-ple, but don't be scared or dis-couraged. There is so muchcountry to look over! Many of theone's we find have been lyingaround for years! With practiceyou can learn to spot the type oflocation, even on Google, whichcould hold a treasure. When wefind an antler I look around forthe reasons it's at that spot.Bedding sites, mope zones,chutes, between bedding sites, orjust a dump luck location.

Bedding sites with a roof andescape routes near the rear of amain yard are preferred by bullsand of course are where theyspend the most time. MopeZones are spots that moose justseem stand around in and listento the wind blow I guess. Big bullsseem to like the flat shelves uphigh where they are disturbedless. The chutes or trails betweenthe shelves that are steep withdense brush seem to hold shedsothers seem to miss. The bull

By Rodney ElmerBy Rodney Elmer

Taxidermy TrailsTaxidermy Trails

Rodney Elmer and his wife Theresaown and operate Mountain deer taxi-dermy in Northfield,Vermont.

Shed hunting is about location

With over 20 years of experience in taxidermy,we pride ourselves in our ability to preserveyour trophy to look as it did in its natural habi-tat.

We work annually on about 300 mount-ings and presentations of many varietiesof wildlife; deer, bears, moose, coyotes,fox, fisher, turkeys and more. We alsowork on animals from other parts of theglobe including Africa.

In addition to being entertaining, the stories of the hunters who are our cus-tomers provide information allowing us to suggest possibleways to present and mount the trophiesthat they have bagged.

Our high quality work can be seen by ourmany repeat customers that seek out ourservices. The presentation of your trophy

can be head wall mounts or full body depictions.

We are also the State of Vermont Dept.of Fish & Wildlife Big Game ReportingStation. A specially designed outdoorscale system with tall vertical clearanceis also provided for easy weigh-in of allspecies.

MOUNTAIN DEER TAXIDERMY

at 802-485-7184at 802-485-71841308 Loop Road - Northfield, VT 05663

Call Rodney or Theresa Elmer

WWW.MOUNTAINDEERTAXIDERMY.COM


The sports of fishing and hunt-ing were never prosperousendeavors.

Deer hunters would rationalizethat the deer meat in the freezermore than compensated for thecosts of hunting. I don’t think thatthis was ever true for the averagesportsman. By the time youadded up all the costs associatedwith hunting: license fees, gas,(especially now), lost time atwork, etc… it’s a losing businessfor the sportsman. This

has always been especially truefor the fishermen, but its evenworse now with the price of gas,coupled with the distance to fishthe best river in westernMassachusetts, the Deerfield, andthe fact the a fishermen can onlykeep three trout when they fishthis river.

It’s about time that the stateraised the limit from three trouton all the “major rivers”, lakesand ponds, to a more beneficial

limit of five trout.A major river, (as defined by the

state), is one that gets more trout-stocked into it, and a fisherman

can only keep three trout per day.

There are five major rivers inWestern Massachusetts; theDeerfield, the Main Branch ofthe Housatonic, the Swift, theGreen in Great Barrington, andthe Westfield Rivers. All of these,

except for the Green River havelengthy “catch and release” sec-tions and other strict regulations.On the Housatonic River, forexample, an angler is onlyallowed to keep one trout, and itmust be at least twenty inches inlong. By raising the creel limits,there’s still little chance that theserivers will be “fished out”, orover-fished because since 1997fishing license sales have droppedby over 15 %. A trip over to the

Deerfield will support this, asyou see almost no-one fishinganymore. And more people prac-tice “catch and release” fishingtoday than a few years ago, leav-ing more trout in the river to becaught and kept.

Besides that, the Deerfieldreceives a yearly stocking of7000-9000 trout, depending onsize and species stocked.

The North Branch inClarksburg receives around 1000trout annually. Presently, a fisher-man can keep eight trout fromthe non- major rivers like theNorth Branch, or the SouthBranch in Adams. I’ve fishedthese rives many times and I’vecaught some respectable trout outof both of them, just like I havein the Deerfield River. If I cankeep eight 12- inchers from theNorth Branch, then why can’t Ikeep at least five 12- inchers from

the Deerfield?With gas at almost $4 a gallon,

what fisherman can afford totravel to these rivers and catch ameal for his family? Except forthe Housatonic River, none ofthese rivers would be considerednear a population center. I don’tknow anyone who lives close tothe Deerfield River. With today’sgas prices, it can get too expen-sive just to go fishing, and somefishermen are staying home, (andnot buying licenses), because it’snot worth it to them anymore.

Who sets the creel limits? TheFish and Wildlife Board, (F&W),makes these decisions. From sea-son dates, to creel limits, this allfalls on the board. The other lawslike hunting on Sunday are madeby the legislature. A simple letterto the F&W Board may be all thatit takes to get the creel limitchanged, but I doubt it. TheF&W Board will be looking formore support from the public onthese issues. If enough letters aresent to them asking for this kindof change, then they will proba-bly look into changing the creellimits. Usually, the suggestiongoes through the BerkshireCounty League of Sportsmen,who either agree with it or not.But one doesn’t have to gothrough them.

Years ago, Mass Wildlifechanged it’s creel limits from ahigh creel limit, but smaller fish,to a low creel limit but bigger fishphilosophy. And it was a win-winsituation for the sportsmen andthe state, and fishing license saleswere at their peak. And the state-does a fabulous job of stockingbig trout. But it’s become tooexpensive for people to fish, andpretty soon a fishermen can loosetheir taste for trout and stop fish-ing altogether. Which meansanother lost license and lessmoney to support the stockingprogram, which is totally sup-ported by license sales.

It would be hard to believe thatthe state would need to raise thecreel limit on trout to increaselicense sales, but it just might betrue, and it’s a decision whosetime has come.

Low Creel limit cost fishermen

David Willette is a free-lance outdoorwriter who lives in WesternMassachusetts. He can be contactedthrough www.coyotewars.com

Mass MeanderingsMass MeanderingsBy David WilletteBy David Willette


were finding their way to the cen-ter of the target. Then we had amonth to train before her firstarchery tournament ever!

Within a few days she was mak-ing one perfect shot after anoth-

er. I was teaching her how to geta surprise release and she caughton quickly. It looked like some-one was cutting the string as herbow arm went forward and tothe left, and her release arm wentstraight back. It was almost aspeaceful was watching a bird fly-ing.

When the day of the tourna-ment arrived my phone rangabout a half hour before the starttime. It was Carissa. She was sonervous she didn’t want to shoot.We briefly discussed that hermain objective was to shoot asmany good shots as possible andnot worry about the score. If shemade all good shots she wouldget the best possible score shecould get.

I watched her closely from thebeginning to the end. She lookedlike a well oiled machine. Whenshe was shooting her last fivearrows I couldn’t see any differ-ence in her form from when sheshot the first five.

As the tournament directorsadded the scores we patiently

waited for the results. When theawards were handed out Carissashot the highest score of any girland won the first tournament sheever entered. I was veryimpressed and proud of her.

Why did I share this story withyou? I decided to write about itbecause you never know how faryour influence can carry on. Ifeel fortunate to be Carissa’s rolemodel. I also feel it’s my respon-sibility to teach her how tobecome a better archer. If youfind yourself around a child whowants to learn more about theoutdoors, take the kid with youand open new doors for him or

her.Hunting, fishing, archery, and

all the other outdoor sports areabout giving back. As we allremember who showed us theway, let’s do our part and showothers the way so they can showsomeone else when it’s their timeto pass on the tradition.

Most of us who are involved inhunting, fishing, or any of theshooting sports were probablyintroduced to it by someone.Some of us most likely receivedthe introduction from ourfathers. A few of us might havegained interest from an older sib-ling, a grandparent, an aunt oruncle or even a neighbor. Nomatter who introduced us, weremember them because itallowed us to do things in theoutdoors and enjoy nature.

As I’ve grown older I’ve real-ized that it’s my turn to introducekids to archery and help themlearn a few tricks of the trade sotheir time spent shooting a bowwill be more enjoyable.

Just like adults, kids are fasci-nated when they see their arrowsform a group in the bullseye.There’s nothing more rewardingthan seeing four or five arrows all

touching each other in the centerof the target. Unlike adults, kidsare usually satisfied with launch-ing arrows. They tend to take the“free and easy” approach andconsider it a bonus if a few oftheir arrows actually hit the bulls-eye. That’s why it’s usually easierto coach a kid who has the desireto become more proficient.

I’ve helped target archers,women, children and beginningbow hunters. Throughout thecoaching process I’ve learned alot from the students, too. With abusy schedule the last few years Idecided to take a step back toallow myself a little more time todo some other things I enjoy.

Then, one day a good friendasked me to go to the youtharchery night at the local club towatch her 9-year old daughter

shoot. Every winter the club runsa five week introductory archeryleague for children. All kids arewelcome even if they don’t own a

bow. They can use bows at theclub for the class.

When I went to the club latelast winter to watch my friend’sdaughter I was happy to see thatthe men running the class hadher set up with a bow that fit herproperly. Although it wasn’tmuch, it allowed her to shootarrows with the other kids. As Iobserved the children it was veryeasy to see that Carissa (the 9-year old) was a natural. Her formwas pretty close to perfect andthe determination was easy to seein her eyes. She was one of thosekids who wanted to put all of herarrows in the bullseye. I saw a lit-tle bit of myself in her as sheconcentrated very hard on everyshot.

I returned the next few weeksand gave her some things to workon. Her mother and I discussedgetting her a new bow. Since nei-ther of them knew much aboutarchery I gave them the name ofa few reputable shops. I toldthem to wander around theshops, ask questions and get afeel for how they were treated.Unfortunately I’ve seen someshops that don’t treat women andchildren with the same respectthey treat male customers.

After my friend toured a fewshops, she told me which one shewanted to return to because shewas impressed with the customerservice. Since I’m pretty goodfriends with the owner of theshop I tagged along when shedecided to buy her daughter acompound bow.

When everything was set upand tuned she began launchingarrows at the range in the shop.It didn’t take long before they

It’s all smiles for the kids after the tournament.

Ryan Fish concentrates while executinga shot in the tournament for kids.

Carissa Osgood and I enjoy her firstplace finish.

Anchor PointsBy Todd Mead

Pass on the Tradition

By Todd Mead

Anchor Points


KID’S KORNER

Alex Badore of Northfield, Vermont scored big on Vermont’s Youth weekend. HisTom weighed 20lbs., had an 8-5/8 inch beard, 5/8” spurs.Photos courtesy of Mountain Deer Taxidermy.


from previous page

If either of us takes a fish, the othercan switch spools in minutes.

In the spring you can find us, linesextending beyond the stern of theGrumman. As the aluminum craftslashes through the unruly whitecaps,the line tends to belly until a salmonstrikes, surging upward, explodingthrough the surface sixty feet or moreoff the stern where the fish appears todance across the waves. I swear I canhear its jubilant cry just before thehook is thrown, streamer flying in onedirection, salmon in the other, the sil-ver-and-black flash gone, the thrill, likespying the trail of a falling meteor,producing automatic oohs and aahs.

If it’s August, Trish’s father will be incamp, the two of us down at theLedges where the channel of the

Magalloway’s flooded streambed canbe as deep as seventy feet. I’ll be in thestern, holding the arm of the littleJohnson outboard; Charlie seated inthe bow. We may begin the morningtrolling near the bottom with aSummer Smelt, a purple and blackbucktail pattern of my own creation,while in the afternoon switching to aMickey Finn or maybe a Black-nosedDace.

By mid-morning the fog has slippedaway and splashes of sunlight sweepdown upon the lake, its surface nowflecked with silver and gold glitter, theshadows of cumulus clouds passingswiftly over the surrounding hills.Wavelets gently slap the sides of theboat as Charlie and I squint under thebills of our caps. A faint smell of bal-

sam drifts down from the steep shore-line. Under the drone of the out-board, our muscles relax, tensionsfade. Lost in the moment, there is noneed for talk.

I slowly push out with the arm ofthe engine to make a wide turn whilewe wait, knowing that the movementwill provide a bit more action to thestreamers, sometimes just enough toentice a salmon that may be followingthe fly. Come out, come out, wherev-er you are!

Ohwell, if not this turn, perhaps thenext. And so the seconds pass intominutes, the minutes into hours, and ifwe’re lucky, we have each felt the tugof a good fish. Eventually, Charlie willstretch. Nothing is said, but I point thebow in the direction of our cabin andhead back across the lake where ourwives will be waiting with breakfast.

Those interested in reading more

about streamers and trolling shouldread the two books written on thissubject by Joseph D. Bates, who firstlearned his craft at Upper Dam, fish-ing with Wallace Stevens beforeWorld War II. Another book I recom-mend is Trolling Flies for Trout andSalmon by Dick Stewart and BobLeeman. Although out of print formany years, I’m told this little treatisehas been reprinted and is now readilyavailable as is a new book on the sub-ject, Tandem Streamers: TheEssential Guide by Donald A. Wilson.

Bob Romano is an occasional con-tributor to The Outdoor Gazette. Hisbooks about the region, including hislatest, a novel entitled West ofRangeley can be purchased at manyof the stores and shops located in ourarea. You can email Bob [email protected].

extra materials for use in extremenoise. Some muffs also includeelectronic components to helpusers communicate or to blockimpulsive noises.

The protection is there to effec-tively prevent hearing loss. Whenwe shoot on the line, we have theluxury of choosing muffs for goodprotection with extended times ofgunfire. Best choice would beelectronic muffs, so the RangeMaster’s commands are clear, aswell as comments from nearbycompetitors. Sadly, no one makesa product that cancels heckling ornegative remarks! Costs for theelectronic units range from $100to $300.

Plugs, whatever the particularstyle, will work better for primi-tive events. Firing is usually limit-ed to sporadic shots and unfortu-nately, my research has not comeup with any flesh-toned units thatare easily disguised. Makers tellme that most are sold to industryand in order to have compliancewith industrial standards theproducts come in colors ‘notfound in nature’ so it is obvious ifworkers are not complying withregulations.

Plugs again are a matter ofcomfort, but the best choice willbe a foam plug, on a core. Theystay clean longer in our game andare generally very comfortable.Foam plugs will dry up and notseal properly as they age. If youchoose silicone or rubber plugs,they can and should be washedfrequently. They cost around $3-$10 per pair. Generally, they lastjust a few months, if kept proper-ly stored.

So, begin today to preserve yourhearing. Never fire guns withoutthe best protection you canafford. Two companies, Walker’sGame Ear and ElvexCorporation, have been very gen-erous in helping to develop thisarticle. Their technical expertisehas been invaluable. The topquality products they produce areworthy of your consideration.

Charlie Chalk is an outdoor writer andhas a background as a professionalFirefighter and is a member of theAmerican Mountain Men, an organi-zation that emulates the life of the furtrappers of the 1800's and their sur-vival on the land.

Continued from page 33

Continued from page 39states, but this is only for researchpurposes to count the young ofthe year hatch rates.

There’s no mystery why thestriper is part of my logo as wellas many charter captains on theCape. The striper is king plainand simple. It grows very largeand under most conditions is anaggressive feeder and fights likecrazy. What more can you ask

for?

Capt. John Curry grew up in Rehobeth,MA and summered on the Cape mainlyin the Bass River area. He has over 30years of fishing and boating on CapeCod and Rhode Island waters. Currentlyliving in W. Yarmouth and summers inBourne. He runs a sportfishing businesson tha Cape, visit his website www.cape-fishing.net.


As of April 10th, the enjoymentof searching for and picking upantlers and smelting the brookslooks on the dim side. Antlers arehard to come by, as are the sight-ings of moose.

The smelting season brings onthoughts of fiddleheads. Friedsmelt, fiddleheads and Frenchfries go together to make somegreat springtime meals. Writingthis article on April 14th, thesmelt are just starting to trickle inat Bryant Pond, and I see trucksgoing by the house with smeltnets heading to Aziscohos andbeyond. The logging roads are alldried up, to travel to remote areasshould be fine except forwashouts.

Early evening at the mouth ofsmelting brooks has its own beau-ty. Sitting on the banks of themouth of the brooks, one canwatch the trout rise to someinsect, watch the loons comeswimming in and diving for

smelt. And as it gets dark, theloons start their haunting criesand the last of the ducks and

geese settle on the water for thenight. Looking back on othersmelting nights, I have watchedotter chasing smelt in the lightfrom our headlamps. I have had amuskrat crawl up my net and dive

into the brook when he reachedthe top of the net. I have hadbeaver swimming by our legs andhave caught some good-sizedbrook trout while netting smelt.

Not all smelting nights werecalm, beautiful nights. Therehave been nights of rain, nights ofcold that would settle in soaround 10pm that your nets andgloves would be covered in ice.Nights with an east wind, woulddrive in large sheets of ice thatwould fill in the mouth of brooks.And some nights you couldn’t seeyour nets because of snowsqualls. But we go, we will alwaysgo ‘til the last brook is closed,because there is something aboutthe little smelt that draws up tothese remote brooks.

We all look like a bunch of shit-pokes staring down into the dark,cold water waiting for a tiny fishto make up its mind to some thesebrooks to do what they havealways done, to lay their eggs,have them fertilized to carry onthe population. See you at the

brooks.On April 14th, I drove to

Bryant Pond for my first night ofsmelting for the year. I got half alimit. I love those tiny smelt fromBryant Pond. I don’t clean themor cut the heads off; just fry themup. From Bryant Pond to myhome in Wilson’s Mills is 59miles. Ten years ago, I wouldhave seen around two-dozenmoose or more. I came throughGrafton Notch at midnight; onlysaw one moose from NewryCorner to Errol. Waiting forAziscohos smelt to do their thingat the brooks.

Well, I am ready to do somebrook fishing. I don’t eat thatmuch fried foods, so when I deepfry smelt or fry fish, I so it on aColeman stove outside so as notto allow the house to have anodor of fried fish for days. I likedeep frying smelt outside, andwill go sit on a stump and enjoythis treat while we can. I wasbrought up eating brook troutfried with crispy skin in a cast ironfrying pan. My mother fried allher fish, either in lard or baconfat.

I hope the prediction of biggertick and mosquito populationsare wrong. I was talking withsomeone from Wakefield NHwho asked me if our black flypopulation was bad. I remembertwenty years ago when you wouldwipe the black flies off your armby the dozens while working out-side and being chased out of thebrooks by the relentless blood-suckers. But in the last six or eightyears, I feel they have reallycalmed down and are not as

Antlers for Sale!Antlers for Sale!

By David JohnBy David John

Searching for Natures TreasuresSearching for Natures Treasures

You sell what?

Call David John 603-381-000 or 207-486-9352

Call David John 603-381-000 or 207-486-9352

257 Wilson’s Mills Rd.Errol NH 03579

257 Wilson’s Mills Rd.Errol NH 03579

Fiddleheads, Smelt and fries

www.mountaintopoutfitters.cawww.mountaintopoutfitters.ca

Mountain TopO u t f i t t e r sMountain TopO u t f i t t e r s5-Day Newfoundland Moose Hunt - $3500.00 U.S.

add a bear $300.00 more, if successful $500.00 extra96% success rate. Bow Hunting startstwo weeks before Rifle Hunting. Priceincludes licenses, taxes, guides, food andaccommodations. Home cooked meals,hot shower, generator, electricity andsatellite T.V. All meat processing andpackaging are available at local butchers for extra cost.

Owner/Guide: Art Ryan

Tel: (709) 955-2804/2500Cell: (709) 695-8917E-mail: [email protected]

Box 162 RR#1Doyles, NLA0N 1J0

David John cleaning up his catch.

Continued next page

many, maybe not in all areas, butwhere I lived. I can take justabout any of the insects, but notthe no-see-ums. These are the all-time spoilers of the early morn-ing and the evening.

Well let’s enjoy May. Time forbrook fishing, fiddleheading,kayaking. Lunches in the truck,and kayak. May will give us thecoltsfoot, trillium, mayflower,

trout lily, and a lot of young ani-mals to photo. The full moon ofMay is called the Flower Moon.And here come the songbirdsalong with the bumblebee andapple blossoms.


David John roams the hills year-round,bringing home the moose antler andother nature’s treasures. You can emailhim at DavidJohn1943@gmail .com.

from previous page

sion and a full bar for relaxing atnight and telling deer stories. Thelodge also caters to fisher-peopleand snowmobilers. In the mainlodge is a small store that carriesmany of the essentials and couldsave you a trip in to Kenora. Inthe main lodge too, is evidence ofthis area’s potential. On the wallsare mounts of some truly world-class whitetails taken by the own-ers and their son who owns andoperates River’s Edge GuideService. So if you’re a do-it-your-self guy or want a little help,Silver Birch offers the best ofboth worlds.

We arrived on a Saturdaymorning. We picked the last weekof the season to hunt in hopes ofhaving some snow. For once aplan worked. We had perfect

snow the entire time we werethere. The next two years therewas no snow at all. Besides myselfwas my brother Scott, my sonJosh, and good buddies BruceSmith of Lyme, NH, Ken Monteof Arlington, VT, Ed Earle ofBridgewater, VT, and BenHudson also of Lyme.

That first Saturday we headedto the woods or as they say“bush”, blindly. We drove till wesaw a promising area that “felt”good, and started hunting. Thisplace sucked, pardon my French.It was thick and nasty and void ofany deer sign. We met back at thetruck after our first half-day in theOntario wilderness… The Allardtrio was not impressed!

Sunday we stayed optimistic, we

This hunt took place in 2008.We have since been back in 2009and 2010. We missed 2011 (didn’thave enough vacation time to doeverything) and I can’t wait to goback again.

On the recommendation ofsome friends we decided to stay atthe Silver Birch Camps inRedditt, Ontario. Redditt is asmall town north of Kenora inthe famed “Big Buck” zone ofWestern Ontario. Redditt is sosmall it does not have a store. Itdoes however, have a curlingarena. These folks have their pri-orities in order! The entireKenora area is surrounded by“crown land,” public land in USlingo, and it is much like huntingthe Big Woods of the Northeast,

but it actually has deer livinghere!

Don’t get me wrong, it is not aslam-dunk hunt. In the threeyears I have gone to this area, Ihave seen a total of maybe 35deer in 21 days of hunting.Hardly midwest numbers, thoseguys can see that in one sitting.Anyway don’t expect a deerbehind every tree. We have beentold by many locals, and folksfrom here in the northeast thathave been going there for years,

that we missed the peak. Tentears ago this area was phenome-nal.

It is still pretty darn good. WhatI like about the area is it is wide-open country (not posted I mean).Many places you can go for milesand not worry about posted signs.If you like do-it-yourself bigwoods deer hunting, this hunt isfor you. If you like sitting in astand and watching deer pourinto food plots… not so much.

Silver Birch Camp sits on theshores of walleye-filled CornLake. It is in the middle of CrownLand. You can drive for miles togo hunting or walk out the backdoor. One of my buddies Brucedowned a nice 8-point huntingout the back door.

Silver Birch is a series of smalllog cabins each equipped with ahalf bath and full kitchen. Theysleep anywhere from three to fivehunters. They are rustic but morethan adequate and you can’t beatthe price. There is one largecamp that sleeps 6 or more andhas its own shower. There is ashower/laundry/sauna building,close to the cabins as well. If youlike a little more luxury, you canstay in the brand new main lodge.It is large, spacious, with televi-

This was a good night! We were 7 for 8 on our trip to Silver Birch with 2 deerover 200 lbs.

Outfitter Review

Continued on page 45

Silver Birch Camp, Redditt, Ontario - (807) 225-2441


see you are excited about Elusioncamo. I also hear there is anunexpected benefit to wearingElusion patterns. Can youexplain that?”

Lee- “An added, unexpectedbonus for sure! We have discov-ered the unexpected benefit ofinsect repelling power. The camoBDU units in the Polyester fabricwe are using have been noted tostrongly repel ticks, black flies andmosquitoes. In all of the field test-ing we have observed that NONEof the people in Elusion pickedup any ticks or had been harassedby black flies or mosquitoes whilein the full 3 pc unit. Theobservers noticed that the otherparticipants NOT wearingElusion were not only bombard-ed by the biting insects they alsonoticed a high level of ticks cling-ing to their NON ElusionClothing. We have determined onour part that Elusions Fabric andDye combination not only workto absorb and reflect light andallow our patterns to mimicnature exactly, but that they pos-sess some sort of anti insect prop-erties as well.”

TOG- If that is true Lee,Elusion will be a hunter’s house-hold name in no time. Are youdoing anything to have this addedBONUS documented?

Lee- “Oh Ya, we have sentsome of our Camo to UnitedLaboratories, UL, to have it test-ed. But we don’t need them to tellus it works; we’ve seen it for our-selves. The UL documentation isfor all those doubters out there.”

TOG- “ That’s a great idea,getting it UL certified. So the bestcamo on earth, and bug resistanttoo. Sounds like a winner to me.Can you tell me some about how“your” process differs from yourcompetitors?”

Lee- “Absflection.”TOG- “Abs what?”Lee- “Absflection! This is the

key behind Elusion Camo.Absflection is our unique patentpending process to absorb andreflect light exactly as natural ele-ments do. Elusion camo patternswill actually react to varyinghabitat changes, for example,when you enter a very green set-ting in Elusion Camo, the pat-terns actually take on and reflectall of the green in them naturallyto blend into the habitat. Thesame is true for grays and browns.Elusion Camo is changing therules of the game. It works so wellthat is almost Unfair. IfChameleons had opposablethumbs and pay-pal I am surethey would order some !!”…%@#$ eating grin!

TOG- “ Ya, they probablywould. So what else besidesAbsflection do you want to tell usabout Elusion Camo?”

Lee- “Well,” pause“Perception.”

TOG- “ Perception? Ok I’mcurious.”

Lee- “Game animals and birdsrely mainly upon their hereditari-ly learned evolutionary instinctu-al abilities to detect danger byseeing things that are out ofplace,

TOG- “Say that three timesfast.”

Lee- with a big smile – “WithElusion Camo we belong in anynatural setting in any of our pat-terns as we have achieved theability to be perceived as a natu-ral element by all game animalsand birds. Nature is random., butwith all of the random elements itis how game and birds react tothose elements that WE wantedto achieve. And we HAVE doneexactly that. They are unable topick us out as they have learnedto do with conventional, oldschool camo pattern technologiesthat use the spot color printedrepeat system. I have been drivento design and complete a systemwith no repeats and true digitalHD quality on fabric and in filmsetc. We have succeeded where somany have failed. To beat ,andremove the games evolutionaryability to detect you as a non-nat-ural element. That is the power ofElusion Camo. Undetectabledanger in any setting.”

TOG- Thanks Lee, you defi-nitely have outdone yourself. Ican’t wait to hit the field in MYelusion camo.

by Fred Allard

I recently spent some time withLee Dufresne, owner, innovatorand CEO of Elusion Camo fromBennington, Vermont. I had tosee this stuff for myself and aftermy visit; Elusion is now the offi-cial camo of The OutdoorGazette. If this stuff doesn’t helpyou bag more game, nothing will.I asked Lee to tell us what setsElusion apart from the othercamo companies out there. Hereis response. I’m telling you, youhave to see this stuff to believe it.“Ya, I have heard that before”, Ican hear you now, but you havenot heard that from me veryoften. This camo is unbeliev-able…

Here’s what Lee has to sayabout his innovation in camo.

TOG- “ Ok Lee how’d you doit, how did you make a camo thisrealistic? So realistic you wereable to grab a wild grouse withyour own hands?

Lee- “First, true Hi-DefinitionImagery and a non repeating,non fade image. We use strictlyHi Def images for our patterntechnology. This gives us unsur-passed and unrivaled perform-ance ability within our patterntechnology.

The imagery is so true to lifethat game animals and birds,even humans and house pets,have lost the ability to detect thepatterns in natural settings, asthey have no OUT of place ele-ments in them. Using TrueNatural Dye color systems in thepattern process, as the patternsare added to fabric removes anyhuman element of interferenceand thus leaving a natural andnon-detectable image in the fab-ric.

TOG- “Do you have patternsfor all seasons?”

Lee- “Our patterns work allyear round as well. You can usethe “fall” named patterns inspring, winter, and summer; It’sjust a name. With Elusion we arereplicating nature so no matterwhen or where, you belong there.There are No UV s in any of thepatterns, only natural dyes thatwill not fade.”

TOG- “ can you tell us how youhave been able to attain this HI-Definition camo and others havenot?”

Lee- “Hi tech space age tech-nology. The latest in sublimationand digital Printing techniquesare the key behind our

Copyrighted, Trademarked andPatent Pending process for build-ing the Elusion Camo patternsyou see on our site. We workclosely with our visual communi-cation expert Stephanie ACalabro to align, size and correctour pattern images using onlytrue HD imagery and colors and

backed by our exclusive 5-yearwarranty against fading. JeannineMason and her team are also abig part of the puzzle and are thekey to the fabric transfers. Thesefolks are awesome and help memake Elusion “reality.” ElusionCamo works because we havereplicated natural elements to a

tee! The replication process is soexact that animals see only a nat-ural element when they examineor encounter Elusion Camo. Theimages are actually developedinto the fabric much like a photois on paper. Our patterns are notprinted and will not fade or washout. Our camo pattern fabrics area durable proven 100% PolyesterOuter that resists rot, staining,fading.”

TOG- “Wow Lee, take abreath” laughter…. “ It’s easy to

The Next Camo King, Lee Dufresne

Lee with a nice buck he took wearing Elusion Camo.

Lee Dufresne - CEO of Elusion Camowith the now famous “grouse grab”.See the video on facebook or on Elusion’swebsite.


Continued from page 43

40 yards his head came clear ofthe bush and I made out a largeG-2. He was on the move and I

quickly looked for an opening infront of him. When he entered it,I shot. The deer ran, but did notact like he was hit and when Iwalked over, there was no blood.“I just missed the deer of a life-time” I was thinking, then I heardthe deer’s last thrash, next to ablow-down not thirty yards away.There was no blood trail, exceptwhen I got about 3 feet from thedeer.

He was not a monster by NorthAmerican Whitetail standardsbut he will probably always be mybest buck. This is why, remembermy brother, you know the onethat set up in that spot that Ithought he would never see adeer in, well he shot a buck, as wefigured out later, about 5 minutesbefore I shot mine. We both shotthe biggest bucks of our lives onthe same day, in places that wefound ourselves and set up onourselves and we were able toshare this with each other, ourbest friends and my son…doesn’tget any better than that.

My drag was horrendous butjoyful (for me anyway). I remem-ber after calming myself afterhad I found my deer, saying outloud as I looked around, “thoseguys are going to kill me” fol-lowed by a chuckle. The dragtook the five of us five hours. Ihad never broken the 200lbmark.

As we dragged we all kept say-ing he was going to be over 200.That would be the icing on thecake! So back at the lodge wehung him on the scales. Mybuddy Ed was next to the scalesand hollered 197! He paused“just kidding 215!”

all put on some miles. We werefeeling better after day 2 as we allfound pockets of deer and we sawa few to boot! We hunt together,but we don’t. Basically we sharethe same camp at night, helpeach other drag if needed andshare a truck. Other than that wehunt by ourselves.

So on Monday, Scott foundwhat he thought was a nice buckworking a small area close to aroad, in a place where I wouldhave never set up. He was sure hehad him figured out and when Ihelped him hang his treestandmidmorning on Tuesday, I neverexpected he would see anythingfrom this set up. I was headed toa spot I had located Sundaymorning. The wind had beenwrong for 2 days and was finallysupposed to change midday onthis Tuesday. I was excited and assoon as I was sure Scott didn’tneed me any longer I was head-ed. I dropped my son Josh off. Hehad located a nice area on theedge of a pond, in a clear cut andhad been sitting there for twodays already, with many sightingsof both bucks and does but noshots yet.

It was now about 11ish and Iwas headed back to “my” spot.The wind was in my face and

snow was on the ground… I wasin the zone! I made my way in the1.25 miles in about three hours.No deer were seen on the way in,but fresh deer sign was every-where, rubs and scrapes… “holycow” is all I could say. My spotwas at the tip of one of those

famous swale bogs. The deerwere traveling along the backsideof the bog. The trees there were

torn up. The deer were forced bya ledge to the very edge of thebog for a short distance. At thispinch point there were manycrossings to where I was set up.Just behind me was a large flatcovered with scrapes. Soundsgood doesn’t it? It was good! Itwas the best deer sign I have everseen. I really didn’t have a gameplan when I started the day, I justknew I had to be in this spot themoment the wind changed. As Iworked my way in that morning Ithought I might continue on andstill-hunt the backside of the bog.When I arrived, the deer sign wasso incredible; there was no way Iwas going to leave it, so I stayedput.

It was quiet and had become alittle crunchy as the sun set andthe air cooled.

I had been there for two hoursand hadn’t seen or heard a deer.Then came the telltale cadence ofa deer on the move. The soundwas echoing in the bog bottom,and at first I couldn’t tell fromwhich direction it was comingfrom. As it got closer I realized itwas coming from the middle ofthe bog, which was choked withalders. The buck was cruising thebog checking all the trails cross-ing it for the scent of a hot doe.

At first all I could see was abody part now and then, and ashe came closer, I strained to makeout antlers on the deer’s head. At

Bruce Smith of Lyme NH, with his200 lb 8 pt

Scott and I with our best bucks ever, taken on the same night. 13 pts 215 lbs andan 8 pt 185 lbs.

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roads, dirt roads, along the backsof gravel pits, down power linesand cleared woodlot edges as thesun rises or sets each day!Quietly listen for hens to putt,

cluck and purr and gobblers tostart responding to their calling,listen for their activity withoutdisturbing their natural move-ment all the while taking mentalnotes of just what the languageaccomplishes for the turkeybetween the hens and the boys!

Turkeys left undisturbed at thistime of year will remain in thatsame area doing what turkeys donaturally each spring! Returnjust a few days before openingday to find out where they roost,fly down, strut and eat! Duringthe months of March and Aprilturkeys tend to stay inside thewoods and only frequent theedges of fields, old roads, powerlines, becoming more visual tothe paved road by entering farmfields in late April and May.

Pre- scouting without usinghen calls will give you an advan-tage and the un-schooled toms abad day when you open up onhim with your persuasive hencalling on opening morning.

Over schooled older toms tendto hang up more times then notand what shows up first are theyoung jakes hoping for a luckyday with the new hen on theblock! Of course all of this goesout the window during week twoof the season after hunting pres-sure hits the home front, butknowing where your flock eatsand courts in the wooded areasduring late mornings willincrease your odds after fly downfor the entire season!

The best advice this old MaineHunter can give a fellow hunteris to learn what turkeys do natu-rally, listen to what they doJanuary to December, under-stand their language and whattriggers the immediate responseof hens, jakes and toms at thetime of year you are allowed tohunt them. Watching, listeningand not being seen when turkeysare doing what they do in naturecan be the best learning tools aturkey hunter has in his bag oftricks!

If you want to know how tohunt turkey, listen to one! Andno, I am not referring to myself !

It’s May and the woods havebeen bursting since earlyJanuary with the sounds ofyoung jakes and old gobblersstretching their vocal chords inanticipation of being the one topgobbler that the old boss henselects as her mate! With springarriving here early this year Ihave heard plenty of discussionon the climate changes affectingearly breeding! The fact is thatvery little changes in the turkeyworld due to an early spring, thebreeding season starts when thehen is ready and not a momentbefore!

Actual breeding commonlybegins in mid March here inMaine, many times with snow onthe ground still. With the excite-ment of an early spring, comeswith it early pre-season scouting.It happens every year and thisyear it too came early. Anxiousturkey hunters start calling birdsusing mouth, slate, and box calls

to locate turkeys in early April.Turkey schooling only makesyour job harder come opening

day! If you must use calls whenpre-scouting, use a crow, owl,rooster, woodpecker, or coyotecall to shock gobble and locatebirds, leave your hen turkey callshome!

In my experience it is far betterto get up early and get outdoorsat sunrise to take walks on tar

Turkey Hunting 101

By Steve BeckwithBy Steve BeckwithThe Maine HunterThe Maine Hunter

Steve Beckwith is a Registered MaineGuide, ThermaCELL Pro Staff, andowns these owns these websites:• MaineGuideCourse.com,• MaineHunters.com,• CoyoteCrosshairs.com,• MoosePermit.com,• MaineGuidedHunts.com.He is a life member, editor and web-master of the North Berwick Rod andGun Club. A videographer, websitedesigner and internet entrepreneur withhis online portfolio located atMultitaskWebsites.com, Steve can bereached through any of his websites.


By Captian John CurryBy Captain John Curry

The Coastal ZoneThe Coastal Zone

No other fish is more soughtafter by recreational anglers inthe Northeast than the StripedBass. I have thought a lot aboutthis statistic and I have a few the-ories as to why this species is sopopular. First of all you can catchstripers using a wide variety oftechniques and conditions.

I have caught stripers in twofeet of water on the fly and I havecaught stripers in ninety feet ofwater while jigging for cod. I havecaught them with the sound ofjets landing to the backdrop ofBoston’s skyline to the quite back-waters of the Roanoke River inNorth Carolina, where the onlysound was the call of a coyote.For the northern areas of itsrange the emergence of thestriper signals the start of the fish-ing season, maybe this fact alonemakes it a very popular target. Ithink the real reason why thestriper is so popular is the historyof its population decline andreturn to prominence.

We all love a good underdogsuccess story and the striper isking of the comeback in thisregard. From the 1950’s to thelate 1970’s the striper was a pro-lific species that was unregulatedin many aspects. The thought ofcatch and release had not yetcaught on and the commercialtake for “striped sea bass” had nolimitations.

The main impact of the striperswas the practice of using a pickuptruck on the beach and a boat inthe surf. The boat would run outfrom the beach with a seine netthat were in some cases a quartermile long. The boat would encir-cle a school of stripers and thetruck would drive the oppositeend down the beach to haul inthe massive school. I rememberwatching this in awe as a young-ster thinking there was no end insight for the amount of stripersthat swam in our waters. Well asyou can imagine that practice

along with industrial pollutionand dams on their spawningrivers made for a swift and unex-

pected population decline. Theearly 1980’s produced the worstyears for striper population esti-mates. The National MarineFisheries (NMF) listed them asthreatened and the use of netswas banned about this time. Thatsingle act may have the saved thestriper from extinction. I recallthat if a striper was caught itmade the front page of the CapeCod Times during the early1980’s. That’s how impactful andmissed they were from our coastalwaters.

Stripers range from Maine toNorth Carolina. There are a fewruns that happen as far south asSavanna GA and Florida. 132Stripers were sent by rail toCalifornia from New Jersey in1879 forming what is now aspawning population in the SanFrancisco Bay watershed. It isbelieved that 70% of the striper’spopulation on the East Coastspawns in the Chesapeake Baywatershed with the Hudson andDelaware rivers making up themajority of the main spawningruns.

Stripers have a seasonal migra-tion route taking them north fromNorth Carolina in December asthey follow warming water cur-rents and preferred bait towards

Species Spotlight: Striped Bass their main spawning areas. Oncethe spawn is over most of thesefish continue northward lookingfor cooling water instead ofwarming waters. The striper’s

optimum temperature range is55-65 degrees and many of itsprey species spawning coincidewith these temps as well. Stripersfeed on a wide variety of foragebase.

In New England waters, grassshrimp are the first to attract fish

followed by river herring andmenhaden as primary preyspecies. Stripers will feed on smalllobsters and many crab species aswell as cinder worms during theirannual spring “worm hatch”.One of the best methods for scor-ing on big stripers is to live-linean eel.

The current IGFA all tacklerecord was caught last August bya Connecticut angler weighing inat 81.88 pounds. This was landedat night on a live eel. TheMassachusetts record of 73pounds has been held by 3 differ-ent anglers starting from 1913 to1981. You are currently able tokeep two stripers with a mini-mum length of 28” inMassachusetts coastal waters.That may not seem like much,but trust me you could be lookingat 20-30 lbs of fillets for those twofish if you decide to keep them.

Fast forward to today and thingsare much better for ole line-sides.Stripers are still netted in some



can save what is left. Hearing protection among

shooters, while many consider itimportant, is based on threethings; Comfort, Communicationand Convenience. Finding allthree in one device, while not

impossible, will be costly.What is Out There for Me?Expandable foam plugs are

made of a material that can becompressed and it will expandand conform to the shape of eachperson's ear canal. Roll theexpandable plugs into a thin,crease-free cylinder. What youneed is a smooth tube thinenough so that about half thelength will fit easily into your earcanal. Some individuals, especial-ly women with small ear canals,have difficulty rolling typicalplugs small enough to make themfit. A few manufacturers nowoffer a small size expandableplug.

Pre-molded, reusable plugs aremade from silicone, plastic, orrubber and are manufactured aseither “one-size-fits-most” or areavailable in several sizes. Manypre-molded plugs are available insizes for small, medium or largeear canals. They usually look likelittle plates on a stem.

A critical tip about pre-moldedplugs is that a person may need adifferent size plug for each ear. Fit

is important as they can cause dis-tracting discomfort. This takestrial and error of the varioussizes. Directions for fitting eachmodel of pre-molded plug maydiffer slightly depending on howmany plates they have and howthe tip is shaped. Insert this typeof plug by reaching over yourhead with one hand to pull up onyour ear. Then use your otherhand to insert the plug with agentle rocking motion until youhave sealed the ear canal.

Advantages of pre-moldedplugs are that they are relativelyinexpensive, reusable, washable,convenient to carry, and come ina variety of sizes. Nearly every-one can find a plug that will becomfortable and effective. Indirty or dusty environments, youdon't need to handle or roll thetips.

Canal caps often resembleearplugs on a flexible plastic ormetal band. The earplug tips of acanal cap may be a formable orpre-molded material. Some haveheadbands that can be worn overthe head, behind the neck orunder the chin. Newer modelshave jointed bands that increasethe ability to properly seal theearplug.

The main advantage canal capsoffer is convenience. When it'squiet, you can leave the bandhanging around the neck. Then,quickly insert the plug tips whenhazardous noise starts again.Some people find the pressurefrom the bands uncomfortable.Not all canal caps have tips thatadequately block all types ofnoise. Generally, the canal capstips that resemble stand-aloneearplugs seem to block the mostnoise.

Earmuffs come in many modelsdesigned to fit most people. Theywork to block out noise by com-pletely covering the outer ear.Muffs can be "low profile" withsmall ear cups or large to hold

By Charlie ChalkBy Charlie Chalk

Behind the SightsBehind the Sights

The hearing test was now com-plete. The technician looked upfrom the report and said, “Doyou do a lot of shooting?’ Well,how do you answer that? While Ifumbled with the correct answer,she said that what I had was amild loss in a certain tone rangeassociated with shooting. For me,that answered the question ofwhy I hear a high-pitch ringingwhen I am in any quiet surround-ings.

So, I have begun a quest to findout what types of products areavailable for hearing protection.Vast arrays of products reside atthe local sporting goods store andif you were to consider price asthe determining factor, you wouldbe shocked at the wide rangeavailable.

To sort out the facts, ourreviews will be the most commontypes available at stores dealingwith shooting and with industrialsupply houses (since jack ham-

mers and saws make a lot ofnoise). Many products are similar,so choice of makers will be a per-sonal decision. Age factors arealso a consideration, if you are

protecting young ears from per-manent damage, they must fitproperly. Also, the myth “too latefor me” will be debunked, as you

Deaf as a stone

Continued next page

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from previous pagelearned two things that day, the

first, even though they werefamous in the whitetail world,they put their pants on the sameas you and I; they were trulydown to earth people. The sec-ond wasn’t until the followingyear. I learned to believe in myselfand my ability. In parting thatday, I asked Larry what was theone piece of advice could he offerto someone who wanted to shootbig bucks. He told me that I need-ed to get onto a buck track andstay with it until I caught up withthe deer. Whether it be one dayor three, didn’t matter. In the endwhen I did catch up with him,point my finger and go BOOM!Then simply let the deer walkaway.

That following fall, I lucked out.We had snow during the secondweek of deer season in the NorthCountry. As Larry had instructed,I took a track and confirmed thatit was in fact a buck and I stayedwith the track. It was getting wellinto the afternoon and I crested aslight rise. There, not much morethan forty yards if that stood thebuck that I had been tracking. Myfirst instinct was to pull up and

drill him in the mid section, butthat wasn’t what Larry had toldme to do. I pointed my finger andwent bang! The reaction wasn’tquite what I had expectedthough, the deer snapped hishead up and glared at me withsome awful evil eyes! He pawed atthe ground, snorted twice andwalked away looking back at meevery once in awhile.

As the season progressed, Ibegan to second-guess my deci-sion to let the buck walk. I stillhad a tag in my wallet and timewas running down rapidly. I wasfinding deer sign and taking sometracks but wasn’t seeing the deerthat had made them. I think thatI had encountered several doesand I did see one spike that mostlikely had I been another hunter,would have met his demise thatsunny afternoon. He was in hisbed laying there looking aroundnot even knowing that I wasabove him. I put the bead on himseveral times but let him live inhopes he would grow. With thedays winding down fast, I choseto spend time in the high countryhoping to hit pay dirt. I hadn’tplanned on waiting quite this

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long but that’s the way it goessometimes.

I pulled into the campThursday evening, the last week-end of the deer season. I wasunder the gun, allowing myself tobe pressured by my peers of thehunting society. Long story short,the next morning, I found the potof gold at the end of the rainbow.After taking a set of tracks out inthe Swift Diamond area, an hourinto the hunt I was standing overa nice eight-pointer. My annualquest was over and I had learnedthe second of the two lessonstaken away with me from theBenoit home that eventfulSunday. Never underestimatemyself and my abilities. I alsolearned to hell with my peers!

Well, now I’ve done it. I wentout and bought the missus a flyrod! It’s a beauty too, eight feetsix inches and a five weight float-ing line. Now it looks like I will betying some flies to compliment it.My favorite is a Hornburg. I amfavorable to size ten or even atwelve with grey wings. I tie sev-eral colors in the belly, with redbeing the most productive. I havebeen known to use yellow and

orange as well with the latterbeing used on those overcast,dark water days. I like the smallersize twelve because they can befished wet or dry. Hopefully myeyes and hands work well enoughto tie them that small again! If Ihad to choose just one fly forNew Hampshire waters thiswould be the one without adoubt. I have enjoyed great suc-cess in the smaller ponds and thesouthern tier rivers with this fly. Ihave also fished it and found it todo quite well for some farm pondlargemouths.

The stock trucks should berolling out real soon here. If youdon’t get your annual stocking ofblack flies, give me a shout andI’ll see if I still have any politicalinfluence at the state house andget you something in the works.Maybe I can send some of mineyour way!

Alex Cote resides in Deerfield NewHampshire. He is on the Pro Staff forNorthwood's Common Scents! He isalso a scorer for the NHASTC. Alexand his son spend as much time out-doors as possible and he only workswhen he has to.

Postponed


One of the curses of fishingwhich probably applies to a lot ofother sports is the never -endingbarrage of new equipment avail-able. Fly rods have evolved frombamboo with craftsmanshipbeing the differentiator in qualityto synthetic materials with engi-neering technology defining thedifference. Rods, reels, lines, lead-ers, tippet material, boots andwaders are all affected by tech-nology.

Of course nothing wouldchange without demand; that’swhere marketing to anglerscomes into play. Most of theadvertising for products is still bycatalogs, magazines, outdoorshows, and fishing shows on TV.The price of a high-end technol-ogy fly rod is less than a qualitybamboo rod but the difference inprice between an entry level flyrod and high-end graphite rod isseveral hundred dollars. The per-formance doesn’t equate to theprice difference; technology andmanufacturing have closed thegap significantly; except for ego.

As a fly tier, one of the maga-zine sections I look for is tyingcolumns. I’ve got several fly tyingbooks with more patterns thananyone would ever need butthere’s always the thought thatthis might be the perfect fly for agiven hatch. Over the years Idon’t know how many patternsI’ve tied that didn’t work any bet-ter than what I already had. Onthe other hand I have found a fewgo-to flies. It’s kind of like lookingfor the needle in the haystack – itcan be found but it’s a question if

we’ll have enough time. A fewyears ago a friend showed me ablue butt fly. It was tied on a #18or 20 dry hook and had a teenybluish egg sack. The hatch comesout on two local rivers in

November. I tied up six and neverdid see the hatch. Now I can’tfind the flies or the material. It’s asure bet I’ll hit the hatch if I don’tfind the flies.

A few days ago I received a pat-tern for the Two Feather Fly froma tying group. I thought it mightbe perfect for the Quill Gordonhatch that’s out in April on a local

river. One of my friends calledthat evening and said there was alarge mayfly hatch on the riverwith a lot of trout rising. Bingo! Itied up six to match the color andthe next day we were on the river.Cloudy, windy, and a heavy pass-ing shower at 1pm probably all

contributed to the hatch not com-ing off. One of the curses of fish-ing, or just another day to curse.My friend is partially color blindwith vision problems so it mayhave been humming birds, notmayflies. Checking the web Ifound the following. The originalpattern was tied in the 30’s byHarry Darbee; here’s his quote,

“I had been experimenting withan ultra light dressing to imitateour larger mayfly hatches, the bigdrakes, the Isonychia, the MarchBrown. One night while doublinga hackle for a salmon fly, itoccurred to me that perhaps aprepared hackle held the key towhat I was looking for...” – HarryDarbee. Here’s a link to a videoclip of the fly being tied:http://vimeo.com/15467458 .There are several nice patternsand variations of the TwoFeather Fly on the web. I didn’ttie the fly exactly like the patternbut it’s very lightweight, durable,and has a nice profile on thewater.

Last year I did not get my driftboat on the water until June; usu-ally it’s May, occasionally April.This year it was March. Lowflows have made the flows greatfor wading with below summerflows for drifting. That’s the goodnews; the bad is there’s notenough flow to get the landlocksalmon into the rivers.Fortunately with the low flows,Fish & Game was able to get thebroodstock Atlantic salmon inmuch earlier then previous years.When the program started in theearly 90’s there were a lot morefish available; close to 2,000 as Iremember with another 1,000 inthe fall. I had canoed portions ofthe Pemi and Merrimack butnever really started to fish theMerrimack River until the brood-stock program. I remember whenthe Merrimack was one of themost polluted rivers in the coun-try; not hard to imagine since itwas one of the first to be devel-

By Jim Norton By Jim Norton

From the back of a canoe

From the back of a canoe

Can’t Seem to find us?Can’t Seem to find us?

Not a problem, we’re on Facebook!Search for us under

The New Hampshire Vermont Outdoor Gazette

Continued next page

put in at Franklin with low flow conditions.

Curses and pleasures of fishing


The Pemi and Merrimack haveclass 1 to 3 rapids between Bristoland Concord. Before kayaking orcanoeing the river, check theAppalachian Mountain Club

River Guide for New Hampshireand Vermont. River flows areonline at

www.waterdata.usgs.gov/nh/nwis/current/?type=flow. I likethe flow in Plymouth under 2,000Cubic Feet per Second and under3,000 at Franklin Junction.

Friday, April 13th we put theboat in at Franklin; the junctionflow was 1380. That’s a difficultflow to work a drift boat throughscratchy rapids on the river. Oneof the pleasures of fishing wasnetting a nice broodstock for myfriend.

oped for industrial use. The Pemiand Merrimack are good rivers tofish, canoe, and kayak with milesof undeveloped river. There aretrout and bass in the river alongwith broodstock. Some yearswe’ve fished for broodstock intolate November. Atlantic salmonare strong fish. I’ve handled wildAtlantic salmon and the brood-stock although stocked are strong;especially in a river with current.

New Hampshire is the onlystate with a broodstock Atlanticsalmon river fishery.

This spring a little fewer than700 fish were stocked rangingfrom 3-10 pounds. Fishing forbroodstock requires an $11 per-mit and only tagged fish may bekept. The limit is 1 fish per day or5 per season. Bristol, Franklin,Concord, and Hooksett are good

areas to fish for broodstocksalmon. Fish & Game has anexcellent access map availableonline at www.fishnh.com/Fishing/atlantic_salmon.htm.

from previous page

Jim a native of New Hampshire enjoysfly-fishing & tying, bird hunting and avariety of other outdoor activities and isa registered NH fishing Guidewww.nhriversguide.com and author ofthe book Granite Lines.

branches nailed above the screens onthe inside porch wall of our cabin.Each reel houses seventy-five feet or soof floating line, long past their usefullife expectancy for casting a dry fly, butquite adequate for trolling a streamer.Thirty-five feet of monofilament actsas a leader.

Before the gasoline engine becamepopular, fishermen trolled while row-ing boats or paddling canoes. This isstill not a bad idea, and many timescan provide more realistic action tothe streamer. Like most anglers, I havebecome spoiled, relying upon my out-board to do the work for me. Thistime of year the little four-horse-power engine is set at the lowest speedas I cruise up one end of our cove andback down the other in my sixteen-foot aluminum Grumman.

It is important to vary the speed ofthe engine as well as the direction ofthe boat. Some anglers will troll paral-lel to shore while weaving to the left,then to the right, bringing life to theirstreamers. Others will head out fromshore then back again, turning theboat sharply as they approach theshoreline. Either method can work.The trick is to use the speed and direc-tion of the boat to impart action to thefly while covering as much water aspossible. This includes varying thedepth of the streamer. Many times asalmon will strike as the boat turns.This may be because the streamer hassunk deeper as the line bellows out-ward or because it has slipped over aledge or stump not previously cov-ered. Either way, the movement of theboat has an effect on the streamerbelow the surface.

Pumping the rod every so often is a

way to make the streamer appearinjured or crippled, triggering thesalmon’s instinct to strike. Trish swearsby this method, and for this reason wedo not use rod holders on our littleboat.

As May slips into June, the waternear the surface of the lake begins towarm. The smelt soon disperse and sodo the salmon. By August, both preyand predator are near the bottom ofthe lake, where the water is now cool-er and more to their liking. During thistime of year, many anglers, especiallythose with larger boats, use downrig-gers and large spoons or sewn bait.Those with smaller craft may use a flyline with a lead core to get down to thefish. These lead lines have a differentcolor every so many feet so that theangler can determine how much lineis necessary to get to a desired depth.The color of the kind of line most fre-quently used on our lake varies everyten feet. As two boats pass, it is notunusual for the occupant of one to callout, “How many colors?” with theoccupant of the other responding,“Three!”

Unfortunately, the lead interior sig-nificantly deadens the action once afish is on the line. For this reason, I pre-fer to use a sinking line manufacturedby Cortland specifically for trolling,which is much lighter than the lightestlead line. Although it sinks a bit slowerand requires more length to get the flyto the requisite depth, it is better ableto transmit the action of the fish.

I string my lines on four spools – twosinking and two floating. If unsure ofthe salmon’s depth, I use a floating linewhile Trish trolls with the sinking line.

Most years, ice-out on AziscohosLake, the most western of the waterscomprising the Rangeley LakesRegion of western Maine, beginssometime in late April, early May. Mywife and I open our camp soon afterthe word has spread that the lake isonce more clear. The weather canvary drastically during this time ofyear. There have been times whenTrish and I have arrived to find sun-shine and the temperature in the highseventies. More often, however, we aregreeted with overcast skies and nastyrain squalls, the type of harsh condi-tions favored by the landlockedsalmon and brook trout that call thelake home. Ravenous after a long win-ter of inactivity, these majestic fishcome to the surface to chase schools ofsmelt throughout the lake.

Shivering under layers of clothing,we troll traditional streamers like theGray Ghost first tied by CarrieStevens in the early nineteen hun-dreds while her husband, Wallace,guided sports on MooselookmegunticLake located just down the road onRoute 16.

These days, Selene Dumaine, a fish-ing guide and renowned fly-tyer fromReadfield, Maine has gained a well-earned reputation as a result of hermeticulous reproductions of CarrieStevens’ streamers as well as her owninnovative creations. Brett Damm,who guides out of the RangeleyRegion Fly Shop and Bill Thompson,who with his wife, Janet, guides out ofthe North Country Angler Fly Shopin North Conway, New Hampshire,are also masters at tying streamerssure to take fish.

I favor traditional patterns, but

sometimes switch to modern stream-ers such as the Sneeka and Clos-Nuf,both tied by Fern Bosse who has acamp at the lower end of our lake.Fern created these patterns on thebanks of Aziscohos Lake and theyseem never to fail.

Whether using old standards, newconcoctions or variations on thesethemes, trolling a streamer is one ofthe best ways to play tag with asalmon.

The fish of our lake are not as largeas those found in the deeper waters tothe east – the Richardsons,Mooselookmeguntic and Rangeleylakes. We still measure our fish in inch-es rather than pounds, a good-sizesalmon measuring sixteen inches witha big fish rarely topping twenty inches.

Just after ice-out the salmon risenear the surface. Any floating fly linecan be used when trolling for them. Ihave rigged two older eight-footgraphite fly rods with inexpensiveMedalist reels. When not in use, therods hang across the notches of spruce

Friday the 13th Atlantic Salmon.

A NEW ENGLAND TRADITIONTROLLING FOR LANDLOCKED SALMON WITH STREAMERS



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On The CoverDonald A Dufresne, with a Green MTN Longbeard. Father of founder andCEO at Elusion Camo, Lee Dufresne. Lee has dedicated Elusion Camo'sinvention to the memory of Exaid A Dufresne and George Jackson HendeeAKA "RED".

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Outdoor GazetteNew Hampshire & VermontThe

Above - Ford owner wishes he had a Chevy? The grass is always greener, right?Right - Pete one of our hunting camp elders (HaHa), fixed a chair for his wife.What’s wrong with this picture?

ARTICLESEight Years in the WildernessCaptain’s CornerTraveling OutdoorsmanTaxidermy TrailsMass Meanderings Riverbank Tales FishTales and other DrivelLock, Stock & Smoking BarrelFamily TracksAnchor PointsKid’s CornerBone Collections Lessons form the OutdoorsA Hunter’s Best FriendThe Trap Line On and Off the Trail Forest ForwardFish and Wildlife ManagementTails from the TrailSouthern Side UpFrom the Back of the CanoeA Waterfowler’s PerspectiveTwin State Bassin’The Maine HunterCoastal ZoneBehind the SightsSearching for Nature’s TreasuresOutfitter ReviewThe Next Camo KingGazette’s Book Review

Page67891012131416171819202122242627283032343738394042434446

Table of Contents

Volume 6 Issue 5

ing star in the world of fly-fishing and fisheries conserva-tion. Brook Trout Forest isScott’s finely crafted fourthbook – a book that transcendsfly-fishing as a mere sport.For Scott, fly-fishing providesthe framework of a well-ledand contributory life. Bothher books and her dedicatedwork with organizations suchas Trout Unlimited haveearned her acclaim. BrookTrout Forest adds to thatacclaim.

A gifted observer of bothhuman nature and the naturalworld, Scott constructs amulti-layered story based onher almost daily journalentries. More than a memoirand nothing like an angling“how-to” manual, BrookTrout Forest tells the story ofScott’s life built around bothpersonal and professionalaspects of fly-fishing.

Brook Trout Forest coversroughly a year of that life asScott and her husband, DavidVan Burgel, design and buildfirst-class split bamboo flyrods, plan a Labrador adven-ture in pursuit of large nativebrook trout, and the couple’sefforts to aide in Atlanticsalmon restoration along theKennebec watershed.

At the same time, Scottserves her community as aschool librarian and advises,instructs, and chaperones thehigh school and middle schoolfly-fishing clubs, which shehelped to create. Added to themix are Scott’s own local fish-ing trips, long walks with hertwo dogs, and interaction

within a wide circle of familyand friends.

As Scott writes, “there’s alink between most anglers andtheir history. What else couldhave happened in a person’slife that makes f ly fishingseem so natural, makes itseem like fun?”

Black-and-white sketches byKim Mellema, also the wife ofa f ly rod maker, connectScott’s journal entries andgive the book a light feeling.Scott and Mellema make agood team. The pages ofBrook Trout Forest flow deepand quick, like a northernstream.

Some readers may find thetransitions among the journalentries a challenge. There areso many levels to the story – alot of side channels, akin to acomplex river system. Buttherein lies the strength ofScott’s writing and the beautyof life as she has constructedit, like the fitting together ofdelicately shaped Tonkin caneinto a high-quality trout rod.

Anyone who has ever caughtan Eastern brook trout ortramped the countryside atthe top of New England willenjoy this book. Anyone whounderstands the art and sci-ence of a handcrafted bam-boo fly rod needs to know thisbook. Either way, prepare tobe drawn in.


AttentionNew HampshireHunters

•••••••••••••••••• ORDER FORM ••••••••••••••••••Big Game Record Book1st Edition, up to 89 - $25.00

Under 40 books in stock

Name:Address:City: State: Zip:Telephone Number:

2nd Edition, 89 to 92 - $15.00

Edition Qty.

3rd Edition, 92 to 94 - $15.004th Edition, 94 to 96 - $15.005th Edition, 96 to 98 - $15.956th Edition, 98 to 04 - $19.957th Edition, 04 to 09 - $19.95Please add $3.50 per book for S&H

Enclosed please find my check for $

Please allow 2 - 4 weeks for delivery.Mail or photocopy this form and send to:

NHASTC Record BookRoscoe Blaisdell, President

22 Schribner RoadRaymond, NH 03077

The NewHampshire Antler &Skull Trophy Club

7th Edition NH Big GameRecord Book

is now available!• New State Records • Boone & Crockett Trophies

• Hunting Stories • NHASTC Hall of Fame• Incredible Antler Racks! and much more.

Don’t wait till they’re gone, order yours today!

AttentionNew HampshireHunters

The Gazette’s Book ReviewThe Gazette’s Book ReviewBROOK TROUT FORESTBy Kathy ScottAlder Creek Publishing,2011205 pages, $24.95ISBN: 978-0-9657663-5-7

By Colonel J.C. Allard

Recently, the well-knownNew Hampshire f ly-fishinginstructor and guide AngusBoezman told a group ofenthusiasts of varying skilland experience, “There ismore literature devoted to fly-fishing than any other sport.”Whether precisely true or not,certainly the sport of fly-fish-ing abounds in literature.

From Shakespeare and IsaakWalton in the Old World, toHemingway, Zane Grey, andNorman McLean in the New,writers have poured heart andsoul into the poetry that is fly-fishing. Contemporary writerssuch as John Gierach, the“Trout Bum,” magazine

writer James R. Babb, andmany others continue churn-ing out fly-fishing literature tofeed an audience of hungry,eager readers.

New England has no short-age of talented and knowl-edgeable outdoor writers,among them Kathy Scottfrom the Upper KennebecValley in Maine. She is a ris-

Col. J.C. Allard lives in Pittsfield, NHabout 20 miles north by east ofConcord. “We're in the shadow of theBelknap mountains here, but we can seeMt. Washington on a clear day”.


Pictures Gone WildPictures Gone WildOur reader submitted photosOur reader submitted photos

Donna Tyler of Grantham, New Hampshire snapped these pics of a “snapper”from her kayak.

Dave Parent of ther Mount Dustan Country Store with (above) Jim Calyer fromMagalloway Maine and (below) Luther Kluchnick from Berlin NH. The triohad a successful trip to the Rangeley Lakes!

Jared Galster of Rutland, VT took this 8 pointer in the Adirondacks of NewYork.


He returned to the U.S. and, in1906 and 1907, once again triedto sell his new design to our mili-

tary. Having recently dealt withthe Philippine American War,and the inadequacy of the .38Long Colt cartridge, our govern-ment was not too keen on adopt-ing another small bore caliber formilitary use.

Mr. Luger then again pitchedhis new improved design to theGerman government, who wereconsiderably more impressedwith the gun than the Americans.In 1908, the German govern-ment accepted the newest Lugerdesign and started production ofthe legendary Model 1908, orP08, Luger. Most commonlyfound in the 9mm Luger cham-bering, this pistol stayed in pro-duction through 1943; serving inboth world wars. It was eventual-ly replaced by the Walther P38, in1938.

Meanwhile, back in the States,we were still searching for areplacement for our Colt.38 serv-ice revolvers. John Browning, anAmerican inventor and prolificgun designer, came up with sever-al large bore prototypes untilfinally settling on a 7 shot .45-cal-iber semi-automatic pistol. TheBrowning design beat out all thecompetition and was eventuallyadopted as the U.S. Model of1911. This fine pistol also served

through both world wars andeven continued in use until 1985,when it was replaced by theBeretta M9 … ironically cham-bered for the 9mm Luger car-tridge.

Both guns have many strongpoints and a few weak points, butboth are considered to be amongthe finest military handguns everproduced.

The Luger is a natural pointinggun, and almost anyone whopicks one up can hold it comfort-ably. It is a sleek and classicallybeautiful firearm, known for fineaccuracy and reliability in eventhe most adverse conditions. Thesame thing can be said for theM.1911; it is also a fine handlingand dependable gun. The Lugeris not an easy gun to disassembleand reassemble; the 1911 is mucheasier to service. Both guns havecrude sights that can be difficultto see in poor lighting conditions.

The big question surroundingthese two pistols has been aboutwhich cartridge is really better.The 9mm Luger has been calleda “pop gun” by those who scoff atit, while the .45 has always beenthe “knock down” cartridge. Thetruth is that both of these car-tridges have been around for overa hundred years now, and bothare still going strong. The Lugerdepends on a lighter, highervelocity bullet to do its damage,while the 1911 uses a heavy, slowmoving bullet.

After World War II, theAmerican military did extensivestudies comparing battlefield sta-tistics between the two cartridges.What they found, to their sur-prise, was that there was no sig-nificant difference in the numberof wounded or killed combatantsbetween Allied or Axis troops.The 9mm was as effective as the.45 in either killing or woundingthose who were hit by it.

The results of this study werequoted when it was time to final-ly phase out the venerable old


Lock, Stock and Smoking BarrelLock, Stock and Smoking BarrelBy Stan HolzBy Stan Holz

Northern New Hampshire’s Guns-Only Gun Shop

Northern New Hampshire’sGuns-Only Gun Shop

4 King's Square, Whitefield, NH 03598

Phone 603-837-2345Visit our webiste www.villagegun.com

The Village Gun Store is an "old fashioned" gun shopproviding personalized serv-ice, great prices, and a wealthof gun expertise. We arelocated on the common" inthe Northern New HampshireVillage of Whitefield.

Hours of operation: Tuesday to Saturday - 10am to 5pmFriday - 10am to 6:30pmStan & Sandy

Continued next page

Today, shooters have a trulyincredible variety of handguns tochoose from. Semi-automaticsand revolvers are available fromdozens of manufacturers in hun-dreds of different models. Thereare little guns, medium guns, andlarge guns; small plinking calibersand loads powerful enough toactually down dangerous game.Still, if I have to name two gunsthat represent the finest and mosthistorically significant hand gunsin modern history, it would haveto be the German P08 Luger andthe U.S. Model 1911. Sure, thereare many other firearms that rep-resent gigantic technologicalleaps, like the first Colt blackpowder revolvers or the first car-tridge guns. But few guns pro-duce as much admiration anddesirability as the Luger and the1911.

The Luger was actually the firston the scene, having been firstdeveloped by Georg Luger in the

late 1890’s. He actively shoppedhis new pistol, even trying to sellit to the U.S. military in 1894.

The gun had its weak points, andGeorg went back to the drawingboard to come up with animproved version. His improvedversion, was accepted by theGermans, and an early version ofthe gun went into production in1900.

The Two Best Handguns in the World

U.S Model 1911


Vermont www.birdsofvermont.orgBird Day www.birdday.org GreenMountain Audubon:vt.audubon.org.

May 19 – NRA Youth HunterEducation Challenge – Castleton,VT

The event takes place from 8:00am- 6:00pm at the Edward KehoeConservation Center. www.vtfis-h a n d w i l d l i f e . c o m / c a l e n -daritems/2012_NRA_Hunter_Education_Youth_Challenge.JPG

May 25 – Opening Day forAppalachian Trail Adventures

Visit www.appalachiantrailadven-tures.com for information.

June 1-3 – Becoming an OutdoorFamily Weekend

The event is located at StillwaterState Park, Groton State Forest,Groton VT. A variety of classes areoffered including wildlife, forestry,orienteering skills, hiking, wildlifephotography, fitness, camping,kayaking, canoeing, firearm safety,fishing, and more. Cost is $175.00.Registration is required. For infor-mation, visit: www.uvm.edu /exten-sion/family/?Page=outdoorfamily.html.

June 2 – NH Free Fishing Daywww.wildlife.state.nh.us/Events/free_fishing_day.html

June 3 – Danby/ Mt Tabor RodGun Club 3D Archery Shoot

Located in Danby, VT, the course

features 30 Rinehart targets in woodssettings with aasy walking and casualrules. All are welcome. Cost is $8 formembers, $10 non., and $5 for kids.

June 9 – Vermont Days - FreeFishing Daywww.vtfishandwildlife.com

June 19-24 – Winooski RiverSojourn

See breathtaking views of theGreen Mountains and the Vermontcountryside. A ‘floating naturalist’helps paddlers interpret and appreci-ate the world around them. For moreinformation visit www.winooskiriv-er.org.

June 22 - National Trails DayJune 22-24 –Mountain Bike

Festival at Kingdom Trails at BurkeMountain Ski Resort

A fun-filled weekend of riding,camping, demo’ing the latest moun-tain bikes, and checking out the lastgear, music, food and more. Forinformation visit: www.mtbadven-tureseries.org/mtbadventure/NEMBAfest2012.htm.

June 24-28 – TU MadDogChapter Fly-Fishing Camp

At Quimby Country – Averill.Vermont teens ages 13 to 16 interest-ed in either learning the art of fly-fishing or improving their basic skilllevel alongside some of Vermont’smost accomplished fly anglers, areinvited to apply. For information, visitwww.maddogtu.org

May 5 - Vermont Paddlers ClubCreeking Clinic Level 1

Calling all class III boaters! TheVPC is hosting its first creek boatingclinic on Saturday, May 5th on theWells River in Wells River, VT.vtpaddlers.net/paddle/ instruc-tion/clinics/creeking1.php.

MAY 6th from 2 TO 5 pm -TROUTWEAR Fashion Premier atthe WEATHERSFIELD INN

www.troutwear.com.May 6th – 13th annual Herrick’s

Cove Wildlife FestivalTaking place on the Connecticut

River in Rockingham on Sunday,May 6, the festival brings togethermore than 25 outdoor, wildlife, envi-ronmental, and conservation groups.presenters include Vermont Institutefor Natural Science, Squam LakesNatural Science Center, TheInternational Wolf Center, theSouthern Vermont Natural HistoryMuseum, story teller Brian Ellis and

more. Activities are scheduled from10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The suggest-ed donation is $2.00 for an individ-ual and $5.00 for a family. For moreinformation, call AscutneyMountain Audubon: 802-722-3355.Herricks Cove is located just off ofRoute 5 less than three miles north ofBellows Falls.

May 18-20 – 30th Annual WinniDerby www.winniderby .com.

For a complete list of NH fishingtournaments, visit:www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Fishing/fish_tournament_table.htm

May 19 – Huntington, VT - BirdDay Festival

The event is from 9:00am - 4pm,Admission is $2 (Museum andAudubon Members are free withmember card). This event is Co-sponsored by the Birds of VermontMuseum and Green MountainAudubon Center, 900 ShermanHollow Road, Huntington,

1911. The 9mm was easier toshoot because it had less recoilthan the .45, so the chance of hitswas actually higher with the9mm. The heavier .45 bullet hada more dramatic effect when it hitsomething, but the end resultswere the same.

The Model 1911 is still in pro-duction today. While no militaryuses it as an issue sidearm anymore, it is one of the most popu-lar civilian guns on the market.Almost every major gun manu-facturer produces some version ofthe classic 1911; some even iden-tical to the original U.S.

Military issue gun.The Luger, unfortunately, is

long gone. In spite of a few lim-ited attempts to resurrect the oldP08, the only guns on the markettoday are the old military guns.Some of these remain in remark-ably good condition, while othersare pretty well beat up or havebeen refinished. As supplies dryup, prices of original Lugers havesteadily increased. It would behard to find any original Luger, inany condition, for much under$1,000. Excellent examples, orscarce variants, can commandthousands. The 1911 isn’t farbehind, with prices going up as

interest in World War II historybecomes more widespread.

I have a Luger and 1911 in myown collection, and have shotboth guns extensively. I can’t sayI like one better than the other,because I think they’re both greatguns. One thing I can tell youthough … regardless of whichgun it is, I would never want to beon the receiving end of either the9mm or the .45. Both guns havea history of being proven militaryweapons and, in spite of all thecartridge arguments over theyears, both guns are very lethal.

Two incredibly fine handguns,two amazingly good cartridges. Istill wonder what would havehappened if our country haddecided to go with the Lugerinstead of the 1911 back in 1906.That would have been reallyinteresting …

Stan Holz lives in Whitefield, NHand, with his wife Sandy, has ownedand operated Village Gun Store theresince 1974. He invites everyone to stopand visit. Aside from his interest infirearms and shooting, Stan is alsoinvolved in amateur astronomy, photo-graphy, ham radio and scuba diving. Hecan be contacted by emailing him [email protected].

from previous page

What’s Going On!


My son Ben shot off out in frontlike a madman, flying on his bikewith his training wheels havingbeen just recently removed. Hisonly challenge now is starting andstopping gracefully. He

approached the steel barrier andstarted to aim for the opening topass through, but didn’t quitemake it. He drove square into thebig, orange steel post, his bikeflopping onto its side with Benmaking a skidding, rolling hop-ping type of dismount, and noteven 30 seconds into our ride.What a start! We asked him whathappened and he blamed it on arock, a small one just about flushwith the dirt right up against theorange post. Unfazed, he hoppedback on and away we went.

We rode single file mostly, Benstill in the lead. We passed thewhole range of public users –walkers, runners, bikers, dogs,and people pushing strollers. Thetrail provides a good view of theMascoma river, and I couldn’thelp but scan the runs and poolsfor future fishing spots. I alsospotted a hen turkey runningacross a small meadow. There arebridges across the river in manyplaces and we stopped near onefor a quick snack and drink,admiring the sparkling clearwater. At this time of year it canbe a muddy mess, but not today.

We passed over a few roads,careful to make the kids stop andwalk their bike across the cross-walk. We made it roughly 3 miles,and we started to hear thewhines, “My legs are tired, I’mthirsty, I want a break.” It’salways the same thing and cannot

be reasoned with, so we found anice gravel bar along a bend inthe river and used it as our beach.The supply of rocks to throw wasendless. The kids found some“sea glass” and I tried to reasonthat at this location it was proba-bly more accurately character-ized as garbage, but reason didnot prevail. We did our part andbrought some home, helping toclean up the stream. It was oldenough to be worn and dull onthe edges and not dangerous.

The ride back seemed to passquicker. There was a little morepep in the pedals, and we evenrode alongside each other someof the time and chatted. One ofthe main topics seemed to be whyit looked like Ben purposely rodeas close as he could to the pedes-trians when he passed. It’s a setup for disaster, I know. We didour best to explain to him howdangerous this was, yet, like oneof the other topics, he didn’tseem to listen. Maybe pedestriansshould start to wear hockeyequipment when walking on atrail frequented by kids. Meganand I had a little race and shehandles her bike pretty well. Wegot way ahead and stopped atone of the road crossings where avery considerate motorist stoppedfor us. I waved them on, sincewere waiting for Mom and Ben.They still wouldn’t drive on and Ifound myself trying to use one-handed sign language to say whyI was waiting and didn’t want tocross yet. Somewhat annoyed,they continued on hesitantly.

In no time we were back at ourvehicle, and already formulatingplans on where to park for ournext trip to a different section andanother adventure. Wear yourhelmets! And if you ever see a lit-tle boy on a Buzz Light Year bikeweaving his way toward you, Iapologize in advance.

We had to don our sunglasses tosee against the bright sunlight ofan absolutely stunning springmorning. Tucking the ear piecesof my shades back up underneaththe straps of my bike helmet, Ifollowed my family, walking ourbikes, across the main road to thestart of the Rail Trail.

The Northern Rail Trail is 23miles long, starting fromLebanon, NH and provides awonderful route for bikers, run-ners, and walkers to enjoy theoutdoors sheltered from the road-ways. At our end, the trail travelsalongside the scenic MascomaRiver and further on MascomaLake. The trail is an old railroadtrack converted to a recreationaltrail, which makes it straight andflat and a great route to bringchildren or just enjoy a leisurelyride. For more informationincluding maps with access pointsvisit www.northernrailtrail.org.

“Its closed!” they yelled, spot-

ting the steel orange barrier ahundred yards down the flatgravel trail, which is placed thereto keep the cars out.

“No, it’s just a gate” we reas-sured them, and we all clamoredon our bicycles and pedaled off.

Family TracksFamily TracksBy Brian LangBy Brian Lang

All Aboard! Cruising by bicycle along the Mascoma river.

Rollin’ Along the River

Brian Lang lives with his wife,Michelle and two children Megan andBen in Reading, VT. Brian grew up inVT and started enjoying his outdoorpursuits at a very young age. He is anavid hunter, fisherman, camper, andhiker and hopes to give his kids the samewholesome upbringing he enjoyed in theNew England outdoors. When he's notoutside, he works as an MRITechnologist. He can be reached [email protected].


So I finally get a chance to share some of my bone collection with all of you. Though not as extensive as some we have seen, it's mine! The picturewith the 3 deer heads in it, note the one on the far right. That is the deer in the "Outfitter Review" story this month. The loose antlers are some of thesheds I have found and they are placed on top of a partial wall that surrounds my office. Once again thanks to all the firefighters that saved my bonecollection from being lost. There are a lot of good memories in this collection and I would have hated to lose them.


The false summer we had inMarch may have fooled the restof New England, but notMagalloway. Ice-out did comeabout three weeks earlier thanusual, but it wasn’t the earliestice-out ever; that was two yearsago, on April 10th. When it didcome, though, on April 12th, itseemed like everything hap-pened at once.

I had never been able, before,to actually watch the ice go out.I was afraid to leave the housefor fear I would miss it. All dayon the 10th, I watched the lake.As I was taking off my snowtires, an April 10th ritual everyyear, I kept stopping to check onthe ice. It wasn’t budging.

It wasn’t as sudden as I expect-ed or had been led to believe itwould happen. At 3pm on the11th, a huge crack appeared allthe way across the lake. For thenext few hours, we could almostwatch the downstream ice floe

melt to about half its size. Theupstream piece, though, stayedin place overnight. First thing in

the morning, that piece began todrift towards the outlet; at thesame time, I heard my first loon

call of the season.All day on the 12th, the ice

continued to drift downstreamand break up. By afternoon,Tom and I were arguing about

whether or not the ice was offi-cially “out.” We can’t seearound the point to the inlet endof the lake from our house, sowe took a drive around the pondto see what was happening upthere. Sure enough (Tom isalways right), that end was stillcovered with a pretty completelayer of ice—but it, too, now,had a large crack right acrossthe middle. Floating lazily in theopen water near shore were apair of loons, the first we hadseen this year.

By the time we got back to thehouse, after excursions upAziscohos Mountain andSturtevant Mountain, more rot-ten ice was piled up along ourshoreline. Large pieces contin-ued to drift by overnight andinto the next day, presumablypieces from the inlet endbreakup that we had witnessedthe beginning of on our drive.

On the morning of the 13th,not only were the loons callingregularly to each other and theturkeys gobbling crazily in thewoods, but a pair of wood duckswere playing romantically in atree on the shore. I have seenwood ducks in the woods before,but never actually in a tree. (Ofcourse, it was Tom who spottedthem, not me.)

While ice-out took longer thanI expected it to, upon reflectionit seems to have happened very

fast. Not so much the ice goingout itself, though it went fromalmost full ice cover to full openwater in less than two days.What seemed even faster,though, was the way that the icegoing out seemed to spark thefull arrival of spring. Before ice-out, we were hearing songbirdsand the rat-tat-tat of pileatedwoodpeckers, but those are thesounds of early spring, sugaringand late ice-fishing, the warmbut still snow- and ice-coveredspring. Almost immediatelyupon the ice going out, full latespring appeared out ofnowhere: loons, ducks, turkeys,greening grass and spring flow-ers.

The smelters are out, and thefiddlehead collectors are not farbehind. (Among our friends,they are one and the same, gath-ering during the day and smelt-ing at night.) I’m letting the firedie during the day as the sun iskeeping the house warm now.We can work outside withoutcoats or gloves; the frost isalmost out of the ground. Nomore sitting around in themorning waiting for things towarm up enough to go out towork.

On the morning of the 13th,as we watched the wood ducksin the tree and the rotten icefloes drift by, we talked aboutthe transitions in our lives.Neither of us ever expected tobe in such a place at this point inour lives—though it was wherewe both had always wished wewould be able to be. It just hadnever seemed possible. We havebeen extremely lucky. It took usa long time to get here, but,upon reflection, it all happenedincredibly fast, and once it did,everything in our liveschanged—all for the better.

It may be the autumn of ourlives, but as we revel in the com-ing of yet another spring, it feelslike the beginning of the bestpart.

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Ice-Out

Ice-out on Sturtevant Pond, April 12, 2012. Photo by Martha VanderWolk.

Martha VanderWolk owns and oper-ates Sturtevant Pond Camps inMagalloway, Maine with her husband,Tom Rideout. A lifelong educator, shecurrently teaches in the SustainableBusiness and Communities Program atGoddard College. She can be reached [email protected].


A Hunter’s Best FriendA Hunter’s Best FriendBy Alec SparksBy Alec Sparks

advancing manner. Doing soensures you the best chance ofsuccess.

There seems to also be a com-mon tendency to think an issuehas been “fixed” after the dogpreforms that skill correctly a fewtimes. It can be the case but I tellpeople to expect to take it twice aslong to fix something as it took tocreate something.

Don’t expect to cure a breakingretriever or pointing dog in a cou-ple sessions without using levels ofpressure that may create otherproblems for you. That leads meto another problematic trainingapproach, trying to address anissue that has been caused withpressure by using more pressure.

The hard part in training is toget them to do what we wantwithout causing them to do thingswe don’t want. We want ourpointers to be staunch and notcreep in. But if we approach thatimproperly, issues such as layingdown on point or blinking mayresult. Before you try to fix some-

thing, the best thing you can do isto access why, where, and howthat problem developed. Onlythen can you have a better idea ofwhat the best approach might be.

I believe people are much less

likely to get frustrated if theyhave a plan and know wherethey’re going. A logical step bystep approach that creates a skillset that advances, and reinforcesand builds confidence in both dogand trainer is clearly a provenpath to success.

Yeah, it might take a bit of timeand thought on your part but theresulting success will be wellworth your effort.

In order to make your summertraining as productive as possibleit’s really helpful to have a plan ofattack. We all go into summerthinking we’ll have tons of timeto address certain issues that mayhave cropped up last fall that wewant to fix.

Before you know it, the lawn

needs to mowed every four days,the kids are out of school, and anendless honey-do list has devel-oped. All that training time you’dplanned on seems far more limit-ed now. Now I’m about the lastperson to actually write down aplan for anything, but it will bevery helpful if you can start listingyour training priorities. Whetherretriever, pointing dog, or flusher,look back and identify the skillsyou’d like to see improved, thencome up with a logical summerplan for doing so.

About the best advice I can giveyou is to not try to fix or cure anyissue in a couple sessions. Asmuch as it would be easier for us,

dogs just don’t reason the way wedo. All too often I hear a frustrat-ed trainer blaming the dog forwhatever it’s not doing right. It’slike they feel they’ve “explained”it to the dog and he should justplain get it as a person would ifwe’d explained something tothem. Forget that approach, it’ll

lead you down a very frustratingpath. Instead, focus on teachingyour dog what you want him todo, show him how what you’vetaught will be enforced and thenonly enforce those taught skills ina fair manner relevant to the situ-ation and the dogs’ proficiencylevel.

In other words, don’t ask orexpect more of your dog thenyou’ve trained for. If your retriev-er is casting well at 70 yards don’texpect him to do so at 200 unlessyou’ve built up to it. Pointing andflushing dogs thrive best on thesame logic, don’t expect morethan you’ve trained for and buildincreased skills in a gradually

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out stump shooting. You get greatpractice at shooting at differentunknown yardages so it will definitelyhelp you when hunting season comesback around. You can check out newhunting spots and start your scoutingfor next year. Look for sheds or turkeysign. Get some much-needed exercisewhile having a lot of fun. Just writingthis has got me thinking about a spotI saw last deer season. I think I’ll grabmy bow, call some good friends tocome with me and go kill somestumps this weekend. I hope to seeyou out there too.

I’m about the last person to actual-ly write down a plan for anything, butit will be very helpful if you can startlisting your training priorities.Whether retriever, pointing dog, orflusher, look back and identify theskills you’d like to see improved, thencome up with a logical summer planfor doing so.

About the best advice I can give youis to not try to fix or cure any issue ina couple sessions. As much as it wouldbe easier for us, dogs just don’t reasonthe way we do. All too often I hear afrustrated trainer blaming the dog forwhatever it’s not doing right. It’s likethey feel they’ve “explained” it to thedog and he should just plain get it as aperson would if we’d explained some-thing to them. Forget that approach,

it’ll lead you down a very frustratingpath. Instead, focus on teaching yourdog what you want him to do, showhim how what you’ve taught will beenforced and then only enforce thosetaught skills in a fair manner relevantto the situation and the dogs’ profi-ciency level. In other words, don’t askor expect more of your dog thenyou’ve trained for. If your retriever iscasting well at 70 yards don’t expecthim to do so at 200 unless you’ve builtup to it. Pointing and flushing dogsthrive best on the same logic, don’texpect more than you’ve trained forand build increased skills in a gradual-ly advancing manner. Doing soensures you the best chance of suc-cess.

There seems to also be a commontendency to think an issue has been“fixed” after the dog preforms thatskill correctly a few times. It can be thecase but I tell people to expect to takeit twice as long to fix something as ittook to create something. Don’texpect to cure a breaking retriever orpointing dog in a couple sessions with-out using levels of pressure that maycreate other problems for you. Thatleads me to another problematictraining approach, trying to addressan issue that has been caused withpressure by using more pressure. Thehard part in training is to get them to

do what we want without causingthem to do things we don’t want. Wewant our pointers to be staunch andnot creep in. But if we approach thatimproperly, issues such as laying downon point or blinking may result.Before you try to fix something, thebest thing you can do is to access why,where, and how that problem devel-oped. Only then can you have a bet-ter idea of what the best approachmight be.

I believe people are much less likelyto get frustrated if they have a planand know where they’re going. A log-ical step by step approach that createsa skill set that advances, and reinforces

and builds confidence in both dogand trainer is clearly a proven path tosuccess. Yeah, it might take a bit oftime and thought on your part but theresulting success will be well worthyour effort.

Ken Monte lives in Arlington, VT. Heworks with his whole family at theVillage Chocolate Shoppe inBennington, VT and TheChocolatorium in East Arlington, VT.Any time not spent at work is spentsomewhere in the woods, usually withhis longbow and a quiver full of arrowsclose at hand. Ken can be reached [email protected].

from previous page

adorable creatures, they are alsotop-order carnivores that feed onfish, frogs, crayfish, mollusks,invertebrates, and small mam-mals.

Otters are an excellent indica-tor species for the health ofecosystems and water quality, asthey are quite vulnerable to dis-turbances in their environments.Humans cause most otter mortal-ity. The leading contributing fac-tors are habitat loss, and environ-mental pollution. Otter popula-tions were once threatenedaround the country, but havemade a comeback due to conser-vation efforts and strictly regulat-ed hunting and trapping.

Fisherman’s Friend - Someanglers mistakenly accuse riverotters of having a negativeimpact on the health of fishinggrounds. While otters do feed pri-marily on fish, they actually have

a positive impact on game fishpopulations. This is because theycull out the slow and weak fishreducing the spread of diseaseand strengthening the overall

aquatic environment. Otters will enjoy the occasional

bass but more often feed on suck-ers, sunfish, dace and carp. Sinceotters are conservative with theirenergy output, healthy trout,pike, walleye, and salmon aregenerally too fast to bother with.


While the unusually mild wintermade for lackluster ski conditionsit created opportunities for otheroutdoor activities. My kayakingseason lasted until the middle ofDecember, and began again atthe end of March.

The early ice-out has meantnew photo opportunities, includ-

ing a recent weekend of ottersightings. I enjoyed a very closeencounter with one in particularwhile kayaking in Errol, NH afew weeks back. “This beautifuladult river otter has come a longway from its blind and toothlessnewborn state.

It displays ears & nostrils thatclose while submerged underwater, specialized teeth for deliv-ering a lethal bite, and whiskersthat enhance sensory percep-

tion.” I literally went out on alimb to get these close-up otterphotos.

While perched in a tree extend-ing about twenty feet from theriverbank and hanging just fivefeet over the water, I happilysnapped shots of passing hoodedmergansers, Canada geese, and ajuvenile bald eagle. After a couplehours I spotted a playful otter inthe distance. He was swimmingin my direction scouting theshoreline, appearing to enjoybreaking up the thin layer of icethat remained in patches alongthe banks.

Eventually he spotted me, andrather than swim off to safety hecame over to investigate. Heswam right under me—withinarm’s reach— huffing and puff-ing as he posed for the camera.This otter encounter occurred atthe height of their mating season,and also not long before the new-borns would arrive.

This apparent contradiction isexplained by a phenomenoncalled “delayed implantation”which keeps the fertilized otteregg dormant for a nine to tenmonth period. This year’s batchof furry, blind and toothless babyotters was actually conceived lastyear around the same time.

Semi-Aquatic Carnivores - Theriver otter is the strongest swim-mer in the weasel family, navigat-ing waterways just as gracefully asthey do land. While they are

Paddlin’ Otter Spotter

By Chris MazzarellaBy Chris Mazzarella

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road. In small states where“everybody” knows “everybody,”a political mistake may never beforgiven or forgotten. It is impor-tant that biologists and huntersalike understand these things.We all rely upon each other tosustain and revitalize the huntingtradition.

So, why given the dangers andtrouble involved in changing deermanagement practices shouldanyone expect biologists to rushout and advocate for deer majordeer management changes even ifthey believe that it is the rightthing to do? Some might answer:“because it is their job.”

Hunters are good at raising aclamber when they feel the needfor more deer, bigger deer, fewercoyotes or better winter deerhabitat. This is good as it keepsthe ball moving. However, we allneed to also keep in mind that inorder to get things done the biol-ogists and Fish and WildlifeDepartments need our support.

Maine and New Hampshire areboth “toying” with the idea of

changing their “antler-restric-tion.” It will be interesting.

To learn more about howVermont’s antler restriction hasworked, check out Vermont’s

2011 White-tailed Deer HarvestReport.

www.vtfishandwildlife.com/library/Reports_and_Documents/Hunting_and_Trapping/Harvest_R e p o r t s / 2 0 1 1 _ W h i t e -tailed_Deer_Harvest_Report.pdf

There are few topics involvingwhite-tailed deer on whichhunters will ever unanimouslyagree. The topic of antler restric-tions is certainly one of them. Atthis point, I think that it is safe to

say that Vermont’s antler restric-tion has proven successful. Theage structure of the buck popula-tion has improved without anyrelated decrease in the number oflegal bucks harvested. Sureenough, you can find naysayerswho will argue that it didn’t workeven within the Vermont crowd.Still, the message heard by statebiologists at Vermont’s deermeetings this spring was: don’tmess with the antler restriction.Having witnessed and been partof Vermont’s past “deer wars”, Ifeel sorry for anyone whoattempted to reverse the Vermontlaw.

Just because some deer man-agement practice meets with suc-cess in one state does not meanthat it will be embraced by eitherthe biologists, or the hunters ofanother state. There alwaysseems to be somebody that willargue that what worked in onestate could never work in theirstate because their state is some-how “different.” Even within astate, such as Vermont, where adeer management practice doesprove successful, there will

remain those who will “go to theirgrave” claiming that they don’tbelieve that it ever did work.Forget about facts and figures,logic and reason. Change of anykind simply triggers emotionsthat make some people uncom-fortable, nostalgic or even angry.This is just human nature: theway it is.

Deer management is not justabout the science; there is also an“art” to it. Much of this “art”involves the “politics” of dealingwith people, which is a topic, farmore complex than any dealingwith the deer.

Deer hunting is an excitingendeavor that brings out the pas-sion in people. That is why welove it so much. It creates sharedexperiences and bonds with hunt-ing buddies and family membersthat evoke strong emotions, mem-ories and social bonds that growfrom season to season as they arerepeated. Through the years,these experiences work to form atradition that makes deer huntingabout far more than the simpleact of killing a deer.

Deer managers who seek“change” and don’t understandand embrace these things will for-ever face troubled careers as longas they last. Unfortunately, train-ing in the “art” of deer manage-ment is woefully deficient amongnew college grads aspiring to bedeer biologists. Little if anythingabout politics and the politicalsystem, to say nothing of socialtraditions, is provided in tradi-tional college curriculums. Thesethings biologists have had to learnabout through the school of“hard knocks” if they learn at all.Indeed, on the job training in thepolitical arena can be a tough

Vermont fish and wildlife biologistgathers information at one of the states"biological" check stations.

By Wayne A. LarocheBy Wayne A. Laroche

Fish & Wildlife ManagementFish & Wildlife Management

Antler Restrictions: Art & Science


afloat. His input was always gra-cious and appreciated. My lovefor doing this, in his words,“ yourpassion compensates for yourinability”. In my infancy as the

editor/publisher Alan said this tome one day with a big smile. Iwas picking his brain about whatI could do better. He also said,”that passion is why I stay withyou, because I know you’re goingto make it.” Those words are partof my gazette fuel, fuel to make

Alan and all the writers proud tobe a part of this magazine.

As tears fill my eyes I/we saygood-bye to fellow writer, photog-rapher, inspiration and friend. Iam working on a tribute to Alan.In his honor, I want it to be asperfect as everything he con-tributed to our project, TheOutdoor Gazette. I hope to haveit ready for the Gazette’s pages inthe June issue but I will not rushit, so it may be in the July issue.

Our new website will have aspecial page highlighting all ofAlan’s work, a small tribute, to agreat outdoorsman.

By Fred Allard

Editor’s Back

Porch

Fred Allard lives in Haverhill, NHwith his family. He is a BowhunterEducation Instructor, a scorer for theNortheast Big Buck Club, the NewHampshire Antler and Skull TrophyClub and the Vermont Big GameTrophy Club. He is the President of theMontshire Traditional Bowhunters.Fred can be reached by [email protected].

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F.A.Q.sF.A.Q.s

Good news and bad news, goodnews never comes with out a“but” it seems. Well the May issueof The Outdoor Gazette is noexception to that rule. First I’llgive the good news, although itseems minute in comparison.

The Outdoor Gazette has anew website in the works and itwill be ready for launch comeJune 1, 2012. I can’t go in to a lotof detail about it now as I don’thave the space this month to tellyou all about it…it is awesomethough and I think you will allenjoy it.

As you may have noticed wehave many new writers in the lastfew months from all differing out-door activities and regions. To sayI’m pretty excited about thatwould be an understatement.

So I mentioned all of our newwriters, well it is now time for thebad news. One of the Gazette’sveterans, Alan Briere has passedaway. You may have noticed that

both of his columns were missinglast month and it saddens me thathis material will no longer grace

our pages. Although we were notclose friends, we were friends.Friends with the common bond oflove of the outdoors and love ofthis project we call The OutdoorGazette. Alan taught me manythings and helped me “learn onthe job” to keep this magazine

Alan Briere

One of Alan's Briere's wildlife "works of art". His talent as a photographer andwriter were an inspiration to me and helped keep our project afloat. Photo by AlanBriere.