November 2012 Outdoor Gazette

Page 2 November 2012 The Outdoor Gazette

November 2012 Page 3The Outdoor Gazette

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On The CoverTrevor Bunnell last day of VT's 2011 muzzle-loaderseason. Town: Granby VT- 8pts 205lbs- JasonParent of NH Guide Service, 2012 Maine buck-228lbs, 7 pt.- courtesy of Mt. Dustan Country Store.

Volume 6 Issue 11

ABOVE - Headless deer seen in Berlin , New Hampshire on Halloween! photo from DanMillet. RIGHT- Roadside vegetable stand in “Eaton” New Hampshire.

Publisher/Editor: Fred AllardGraphic Design: Dan Millet

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about her experiences trying to gelwith an all male, outdoor family.Tina is from Vermont and her sto-ries have a nice local feel as ell asreaching across to women in otherstates that are trying figure out this

“outdoor” thing the men in theirlives love so much.

My two oldest sons are now heavi-ly involved in the everyday opera-tions here at the Outdoor Gazette.Devin and Joshua are both helpingwith the marketing, events planning

and adding content to our website tokeep it fresh. You may have noticedthe “events” section of website is get-ting quite full. Devin has been busyresearching and then updating ourevents page and calendar. If youhave something going on, drop himan email at HYPERLINK"mailto:[email protected]" [email protected],he will get your event posted for you.

You want to rent a booth at theupcoming Twin State Big Game andOutdoor Show? You can email anyone of us, but Josh is the projectleader in that department…[email protected].

Nice for me to have some legiti-mate help. Having my two sons workwith me on this “Gazette” thing, Iam a happy outdoorsman!

By Fred Allard

Editor’s Back

Porch

Fred Allard lives in Haverhill, NH withhis family. He is a Bowhunter EducationInstructor, a scorer for the Northeast BigBuck Club, the New Hampshire Antler andSkull Trophy Club and the Vermont BigGame Trophy Club. He is the President ofthe Montshire Traditional Bowhunters.Fred can be reached by emailing [email protected].

Well this issue is finallydone….about time right! Ya, sorryabout that. I have learned a valuablelesson, being a computer idiot,always have a back up plan shouldyour computer fail! Computer wentdown in the middle of creatingNovember issue and I paid the pricefor not being prepared. That issue isnow addressed and won’t happenagain. Enjoy this late, Novemberissue of the gazette. Decembers willbe up on Dec 4. Then each newissue after that will be up on the web-site on the first of the month….

Comings and goings- TomRideout and Martha VanderWolkhave decided to give up on writingfor the Gazette. They will still beoperating their cabins and guideservices up on Sturtevant Pond so ifyou have the urge to hunt or fish inthe Maine wilderness give them acall. We will miss both of them hereat the gazette and I appreciate all thesupport they gave me over the lastcouple of years.

Mary Kay the “Outdoor Angel”has joined us as a regular contribu-

tor. Her experiences can be seen onTV or Youtube. Mary travels aroundthe country experiencing new out-door adventures. Her enthusiasm for

the outdoor experience is a joy towatch. Mary is from Illinois butmakes trips all over he US includinga couple to the Green Mountainstate last year.

Tina Corron is also new to us. Shewill be a monthly contributor writing

A family affair!

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A family affair, Josh and Devin Allard together during Vermont's bow season and nowworking with their dad (me,yeeha) at The Outdoor Gazette.


about.” Some hunters also reported-ly cut their hunts short to head homebefore the arrival of developingHurricane Sandy.

Around the state this year, prelimi-nary numbers show moose huntershaving a 73% success rate in theConnecticut Lakes Region; 82% in

the North Region; 64% in the WhiteMountain Region; 51% in theCentral Region; 45% in theSouthwest Region; and 35% in theSoutheast Region.

Check out a growing gallery ofphotos of some of this year’s success-ful New Hampshire moose huntersat huntnh.com/Hunting/Hunt_species/hunt_moose.htm.

Everyone is invited to get into thespirit of the New Hampshire moosehunt with a limited-edition 2012New Hampshire moose hunt com-memorative shirt, available onlythrough November 23 athuntnh.com/mooseshirt.

In all, more than 13,400 peopleentered the moose hunt lottery for achance to win a permit for the NewHampshire moose hunt. About 85percent of the permits went to NewHampshire residents. The odds ofwinning a moose permit in the lot-tery are among the best in thenation, about 1 in 26 for NewHampshire residents and 1 in 85 fornonresidents.

The 2013 moose hunt lotteryopens in late January and runsthrough May 31, 2013. Watchhuntnh.com for details.

CONCORD, N.H. — NewHampshire’s 2012 moose seasonwrapped up on Sunday, October 28,2012. While hunters have until closeof business today to register theirmoose at N.H. Fish and Game head-quarters or regional offices, prelimi-nary figures show that 174 hunterssucceeded in taking their moose dur-ing the 9-day season. With a total of281 permits issued, this represents astatewide success rate of 62%.That’s down from last year, when71% of hunters got their moose.The breakdown for the harvest thisyear was 61% bulls and 39% cows.Final season results will be availableupon completion of registration dataentry and analysis.

Several factors contributed to theincrease in the antlerless moose har-vest and the decrease in overall suc-cess rate, according to Fish andGame moose biologist KristineRines. “There were more Antlerless-Only moose permits issued this yearwhich helped increase the percent-age of cows in the take,” said Rines.“Hunter success overall was alsoaffected by the reduced moose popu-lation and the unusually warmweather. By this time of year, moose

have grown their heavy winter coats,so they really feel the heat. On warmdays, they tend to bed down, makingthem harder for hunters to find.The first day of the season wasdecent, but after that, it was muchtoo warm, except very early in themorning, for moose to be moving

This great N.H. bull, 680 lbs., with a 46-inch antler spread, was taken in zone C-1 byMike and Bonnie Blanchard of Sullivan.

62% of Hunters Successful in 2012 New Hampshire Moose Hunt


Run and Gun deer hunting.Nothing all that new I suppose, butnew to us and it really works.

We headed to Ohio the last weekof October, to hunt public land.This was our second year there. Thefirst year taught us a lot. The biggestlesson, the best night in a

stand/location, was the first, and ifthese high pressured deer were suspi-cious, or worse, alarmed by yourpresence, that spot was toast for a

day or two or three.Our approach this year was to

hunt in established morning spots,easy to get to, then scout like crazyduring mid-day, everyda( the “run”).When we found a good location, wehunted it that night(the “Gun”). Nogiving it time to “cool off ”.

My son Josh and I applied thistechnique to this large piece of pub-lic land on our Ohio adventure.

We arrived and set up camp mid

Run and Gun morning on Saturday. Then we hitthe woods looking for deer sign.

Luther and Randy both encoun-tered deer the first evening. Lutherhad a group of six does at about 30+/- yards and Randy a group of 4.Both of them were on the ground.The wind swirled and spoiledRandy’s chance at a first night score.We busted Luther’s chops all weekfor not trying a broadside shot withhis compound. John, Josh and I sawnothing but squirells.

Day two we slept in a little, recov-ering from our long drive and hit the

woods an hour after daylight. Still-hunting at first, then as the daywarmed the high speed scoutingbegan. Josh found a great spot midday. A 5-acre clump of ridge topoaks, dropping acorns. I went to asign-post rub I had found last year,but the rub had not been touched, Iset up on some nearby trails. Myevening was uneventful, but Josh hadthree does go by just out of range.

They were totally relaxed and madetheir way thru the oaks without sus-pecting anything. Run and Gunpayed off for Josh, the very firstnight. This helped our confidence tostay with this approach.

Monday morning, we all went to asmall corner of public land and saton some trails coming up from somefarm fields. Josh and Randy bothsaw a beauty of an eight point butcould not get a shot.

After the morning hunt we all splitup and we were off scouting onceagain. Josh and I drove around until

we spotted an oak ridge off in thedistance that looked promising. Wegrabbed our bows and headed upthe ridge. As soon as we made it thruall that green briar (what is the pointof this stuff anyway) The oaksopened up and there were buck rubseverywhere. We immediately backedout and headed back to camp. Iwould hunt our new spot this night

Josh, high speed, mid-day scouting...Hunt it that evening.

BFR! Big @#$% Rub, Josh and I found this spot mid day, and Josh practiced somecatch and release deer hunting here that same evening.

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Stick and StringStick and StringBy Fred AllardBy Fred Allard


and Josh would head back to hishoney hole.

We ate lunch, I dropped Josh offand headed for the new spot with myclimber.

It was pretty windy most of theevening but at last light it calmed

and two deer entered the oaks to myright. Both were does. I had 2 doetags in my pocket and was more thanhappy to put some meat in the freez-er, if they gave me a shot.

The larger of the two stayed to myright and made her way to about 5yards from the base of the tree I wasin. I had to turn almost 180 degreesto get a shot, but I did it and thearrow flew true. The second doelagged behind and became curiouswhen the other deer ran off. She

made her way about twenty yards infront of my stand and I had to quick-ly turn back and re-nock before thedeer got out of range. I was able todo this as well, and this shot was atextbook double lunger. The deerwas down in seconds. My heart was

pounding like crazy, what anevening!

The guys helped me track anddrag that evening, I sure appreciatedit.

So Tuesday we were back to sittingin the morning and scouting midday.I really didn’t find anything thatturned me on this day, but Joshfound another spot. He did not seeanything from the oak patch the sec-ond night, so he left it alone. Hemoved a mile to another oak patch

and had his evening ruined by rabbithunters…The joys of public land. Ihunted a spot I found last year, butno deer were seen.

Wednesday We found a great spotfor Josh with one of the biggest rubs

I have ever seen. He set up there andhe told me about a spot he found acouple days ago and said it lookedreally good and I agreed to try it out.Again this would be the first nightwe hunted in both these places. I sawthree deer but no bucks showed. Joshhad 2 does come in and he shot overboth of them! Catch and releasedeer hunting. HAHA.

The big rub was too much to resistand Josh headed back there he nextday. No deer were seen the night

after scaring those two does. I wentback to the same spot as well. Theprevious night I had spooked two ofthe deer when I moved. They pickedup my white fletching on myarrows…game over! We both saw no

deer this evening.Friday night our last night, I decid-

ed to go back to where I shot the 2does 4 days ago and Josh headed forthe oak patch he sat in on Mondayand Tuesday. He had hung a trailcamera there on Tuesday. The cam-era showed a 4 point in the area theprevious night. Josh set up hisground blind. The grond blind wasset up perfectly as he saw the 4pointer enter the patch of oaks…He

One of the many rubs found on another mid day ramble, I arrowed two does here thatevening. Home a way from home for a week.

The group at camp- Back- Randy and Josh. Front- Luther on the left, me, then John.

from previous page

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Continued on page 9

We set out from my house about4:30am like normal. Plan was to put

out a full spread of geese and ducks.Hiding 4 guys in lay out blindswould be easy in the picked corn. Aton of cover to be had when thefarmers pick the corn. We make ourusual stop at the local Maplefield'sMobil station to fill our thermos fullof hot coffee and pick up some

snacks. The field I have is less than10 minutes from my place so it's notlong before we are parked andunloading my Polaris ranger and fill-ing it full of gear.

We head to the previously deter-mined spot in the corn and start set-ting decoys. The method remainsthe same. Two guys on decoys twoon blinds & cover. This takes about

45 minutes and we are careful not tooverheat. Once we are almost done Itake the ranger back to the trailerand walk back into our set up. Weonly have about 15 minutes untillegal shooting time so we get settledin quickly. The geese tend to startflying around 7:30 or so and todaywould be no different. There is littlethat's more exciting than seeingthose lines of geese starting toappear in the distance. They weaveand wobble their way through thesky as they search out a place to set-tle in to feed for the morning.

We hunker down and get our callsready. I'm set up on the outside andhave the flag going as they approachfrom our left. Leo & Rene start inwith some calling then I chime in asthey get close. There are about 25geese in this group with 100's ontheir way well off in the distance. Weknow there will be over a 1000 geesein the field soon so we plan to wasteno time if a shot presents itself. Asluck and hard work would have it 6geese peal off and head our way.The shot is called and out we pop.We take 3 of the 6 but with a ton ofbirds in the sky heading our way wehave to stay covered up. We get agood look at where the birds fell sowe can gather them up when theopportunity allows. No dogs todayjust Rene. He is as loyal and in all the

years I can count on one hand thetimes he has not come back with thebirds. The action doesn't let up.These birds want into the field andwe are more than willing to let themin. Well, at least until they get withinshotgun range, then it's game on.

After about an hour of non stop


Continued next page

Finally the waterfowl season hasbegun. It seems like each year theanticipation is harder to deal withthan the year before. However, thisyear after having spent all summerworking on a new food plot forturkey & deer and building a newelevated 12x6 hut to hunt from withmy dad, this waterfowl season seemsto be on us before we knew it. Beinga veteran of opening days we werewell prepared. The scouting hadbeen done and we had made a tripto Canada in September so we didhave the cobwebs all shook off.

This year's opening day will be tohunt a field I lease that consistentlyholds well over a 1000 geese. So onOctober 13th 2012 with my buddyRene, his son Andrew and LeoLaBonte we are ready to go.Although I have a guiding business Ireserve opening day for me and mybuddies. It allows us to just go afterthem and crank away. We know thatafterwards the days will be filled withmany hunts with lots of differentfolks. Although it is always a blast tohunt with guys & gals and put them

on birds, many for the first time, it'snice to hunt opening day with the

guys you have been doing it with foryears. This opening day proved to bea great time.

Why we get up so early and work so hard

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

Brian & Rene DeLaricheliere on opening day 2012 photo by Andrew DeLaricheliere

Andrew DeLaricheliere on opening day 2012 photo by Brian Bouchard


from previous page

action and watching well over 1000geese fly over we end the morningwith a limit of 3 each, except for Leowho had to pick up early and gocoach his sons football game.Bummer how sports can get in theway of an amazing goose hunt. I willsay Leo is a great dad and takes hisboys hunting every chance he can.I'm sure they would want to be withus if it wasn't for the football game.Leo did manage to knock down afew before he had to head out.

When the hunt ended we pickedup and headed back to clean thegeese and re-live the morning hunt.Rene's son Andrew who is a sopho-more in college, and usually loves hisweekends to sleep in, commented onwhy we get up so early and work so

hard. He knows it's for the opportu-nity to be able to experience a greatwaterfowl hunt with family &friends. He, like his father Rene, andhis Grandfather Phil before him, willbecome a great waterfowl hunterand cherish these days like the rest ofus.

I look forward to many more huntsand many more opening days withmy hunting buddies. I wish you thesame.

I have been hunting deer and predators forover 30 years. Turkey for 15 years.Waterfowl for the past 10 years. Owner ofFields Bay Outfitters. I Live in St AlbansVT with my wife Michele and our 2 sonsDillon & Kyle and our 2 labs Tyson &Remi.

released his arrow and the flightlooked perfect, until a twig steppedin the way and deflected his arrowunder the buck.

So no monster bucks taken but lotsof action on pre rut, public landwhitetails. Next year, “Run andGun” will be our approach onceagain. We are going to try it a littlelater though in hopes we can get oneof the big boys in front of us.

No camping/hunting trip is complete with out a nightly campfire.

Fred Allard lives in Haverhill, NH withhis family. He is a Bowhunter EducationInstructor, a scorer for the Northeast BigBuck Club, the New Hampshire Antlerand Skull Trophy Club and the VermontBig Game Trophy Club. He works as aRegistered Nurse at Dartmouth HitchcockMedical Center in Lebanon, NH. Fredcan be reached by emailing [email protected].

I took many “cool” pics of the woods on our Ohio trip.

Continued from page 7

because my husband liked to go on 3-Dshoots with his friend. He always camehome excited about the whole experi-ence. It was then that I saw a way for usto have a hobby we could enjoy together.While I did grow up in a hunting family,I never shot a gun, but a bow and arrowhmmmm…that sounded like a fine ideaand since my husband was already in onthe archery thing, I could learn to shootand we would be in business.

So here is what really happened. Myparents gifted me with archery lessonsfor Christmas one year. I followedthrough with the instructions and lovedevery minute of it. The instruction wasgiven at a prestigious archery shop,Pelkey’s Archery in St. Albans by a high-ly qualified instructor. Seriously, if hecould teach me, he can teach ANY-ONE. I am not even kidding. I hadnever so much as pulled a bow to fulldraw in my life and suddenly I am shoot-ing like I was born to do it. (Well, it didtake a few lessons before I was actuallyhitting the target with regularity.) I wasusing a recurve bow and totally enjoyingwhat I thought of as the genuine experi-ence.

Shortly after my archery education,my husband and I were invited to joinour friends for a 3-D shoot. We werehappy to go and since we were havingbrunch first I could not see a down sideto this little adventure. After all, I couldshow off my new skills. Little did I knowthat, while I thought I was enjoying suc-cess with my recurve, everyone else hada compound bow. Off we went on ourhunt and at every target we came upon,it went something like this:

“Tina, you go up closer to the targetand we will all shoot from back here.”Humiliated, I would walk about 5 yardscloser to the target and shoot. I usuallyhit my target, but it is hard to shoot whenyou are kind of embarrassed because allthe other kids have better toys than youdo. After a few 3-D shoots, that was it, Idecided I needed a compound bow. Inow shoot a lovely Browning Adrenalizeand I have custom arrows. I feel like thatleveled the playing field for me and Icould shoot with the big kids.

My husband and I signed up for a win-ter indoor archery league. I figured itwould be fun, until I got there. Everyonehad competition bows and I had a hunt-ing bow. Once again, I felt inadequate tothe job, and worried that I was going tohold back the team. Seriously, thosebows had balance bars the length of myarm and who knew what kind of sightswere involved. All I could think was thatif those folks didn’t hit a bull’s-eye everytime there must be something wrongwith them. Then I thought “Good Godwe are being rated and I am going to befound wanting.” That whole season wasa test of nerves for me as I didn’t have a

balance bar at all. I do now, but it turnsout I did not need one that bounces offthe ceiling if you turn your bow thewrong way. So dear reader, size is noteverything, unless, of course you are dis-cussing the rack (don’t be filthy) I meantthe rack on the buck you mean to shootwith your bow, but I digress. My hus-band and I did walk away from that sea-son of indoor archery with trophies for‘most improved’ I am sure my husbandwould never have gotten that trophy if itwere not for me, as quite frankly, he is agreat shot.

That is how I ended up taking uparchery, and I love it. I try to shoot everyweek so that when the indoor leaguestarts, I will not be the one holding backour team. The bonus is that when Ishoot, I am at peace. It is quiet; there isno room in my brain for anything exceptthe bow, the arrow and the target. WhenI pull the trigger on the release, I feel theZen of the arrow flying through the airand embedding itself deep into the tar-get. I thought archery would be anactivity to participate in with my outdoorloving family, it didn’t turn out that way,but it gives me something to talk aboutwith my boys that they can relate to.Plus, I think they are a little bit proud oftheir mom—I mean I did get a trophyfor a sport, my first one ever.

*The Corron Boys’ Rating System (asfar as I can figure it out).

1) “O-k” I think this means that whileyou are shooting you are not a directdanger to yourself or others, you maynot necessarily be hitting a target butperhaps the surrounding area, and thereis little fear that you will actually shootyour own foot or put your eye out.

2) “Not bad” This rating occurs after asignificant amount of your arrows hityour target with regularity. You do notactually have to hit a bull’s eye or eventhe printed part of your target as long asyou have consistent arrow groupings youare considered ‘not bad’. You can havethis rating for quite some time but withpractice you can get to ‘pretty good’.

3) “Pretty Good” Occurs after a greatdeal of practice. Arrow groupings aretight and consistently in or very near thebull’s eye.

I am not sure what rating comes after‘Pretty good’, I will probably never knowand will have to be satisfied with beingpretty good. I have made my peace withit.


“How is it going up here?” asked oneof the archery experts at Pelkey’sArchery, my favorite indoor range, locat-ed in St. Albans, Vermont.

I was at full draw, released my arrowinto the target, turned and said with asmile:

“Well I am leaving ‘not bad’ and start-ing to gain on ‘pretty good’.”

“What does that mean?” He asked.“My sons devised a rating system so as

not to hurt my feelings” I explained.“It starts out at ‘ok’ then progresses to

‘not bad’; you can be at ‘not bad’ forquite a while until you get to ‘prettygood’.”

He laughed and went back to work. Ijust kept knocking my arrows and shoot-ing my target. I thought about the ratingsystem as I shot, and I smiled to myselfas I ruminated about the thoughtfulnessof my sons. I am still not sure what con-stitutes ‘pretty good’ but I got my firstRobin Hood a couple of weeks ago so Ithink it is fair to say that I am definitelygaining on ‘pretty good’. *

I took up archery several years ago asa way to spend time with my husbandand boys. I had romantic notions of

learning the art of archery and shootingon the range with my family. Therewould probably be a picnic lunch andhot cocoa involved, such as you mightsee in a magazine that caters to the out-door-minded woman, with a full archery

themed menu that Martha Stewartwould have been proud of,(oh wait arethere any of those?) I probably just imag-ined that as well as the ‘family time’ I hadenvisioned.

This whole archery business started

The Zen of Archery- My attempt at fitting in with my family of men.

The author at full draw...trying to fit in!

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WWee aarree aallssoo tthhee SSttaattee ooff VVeerrmmoonntt DDeepptt..ooff FFiisshh && WWiillddlliiffee BBiigg GGaammee RReeppoorrttiinnggSSttaattiioonn.. AA ssppeecciiaallllyy ddeessiiggnneedd oouuttddoooorrssccaallee ssyysstteemm wwiitthh ttaallll vveerrttiiccaall cclleeaarr--aannccee iiss aallssoo pprroovviiddeedd ffoorr eeaassyy wweeiigghh--iinnooff aallll ssppeecciieess..

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by Tina Coranby Tina CoranEmbrace Your Redneck TendenciesEmbrace Your Redneck Tendencies



People are superstitious. We allhave our favorite jacket, or our luckyfishing hat. Professional athletes areincredibly superstitious. Many ofthem follow the same daily routineor ritual on game day. Some nevertouch the baselines when running offthe field after an inning.

Outdoorsmen aren’t any different.Many of us have our lucky arrow,gloves, or socks. Some guys followthe same routine during deer season,and I don’t want to get into favoritestands and lucky guns.

When my father died, I inheritedall of his hunting stuff. All of hisguns, bullets, equipment, andclothes, everything. My other broth-ers didn’t hunt, so I got it all. Most ofhis stuff I already had a few of, likeknives, and guns, and most of hisclothes are either way outdated orthey don’t fit. My father was a fewinches taller than I am. One item Idid get though, was a Woolrichhunting shirt. It’s a size large, redand black buffalo plaid wool shirt.My mother gave this shirt to myfather in the 1940’s, as a Christmas

gift. This shirt is older than I am.My father hunted religiously with

this shirt. Back then rabbit huntingwas popular, and every weekend hewould wear this shirt, listening to ourbeagle, “Pax”, drive cottontails, (we

called them “greybobs”). He’d keephis Newport cigarettes in the left sidepocket.

Then deer season would open onthe second Saturday of Novemberand his shirt was pressed into biggame hunting. He would have hissolid red hunting jacket and pants,

(that I’m bringing out of mothballsthis Thanksgiving), his felt boots, theworst thermal underwear in theworld, and his hunting shirt.

I have a few recollections of thisshirt. The first is the aforementionedrabbit hunting and that we would goto church, (sometimes), the 6:30mass at St. Francis. In the back-rowwith us were other rabbit hunters, alldressed in their hunting clothes. Allof us snuck out early.

My fondest and most vivid memo-ry of this shirt though occurred dur-ing deer season, when I was in thesixth grade. I was walking homefrom a basketball game at the StFrancis Parish hall. All the kidsplayed there in the St. Francis YouthLeague.

As I got to the edge of my yard, Isaw my father’s arm come across thekitchen window, and I saw this redand black shirt. This only meant onething; my father had gotten a deer.He never came home before darkwhen he deer hunted, I know,because I used to wait for him on theporch every Saturday and Sundayduring deer season.

I immediately started running forthe back door when the door openedand he stuck out his head and yelledin his gravelly voice, “David, go seewhat’s in the drive-way”.

There in the back of the redDodge Coronet station wagon, sur-rounded by David and RayBissailion, was a huge eight pointer,with its tongue hanging out. I thinkthat I was more excited than he was.It was a monster. I still use the hornsto attempt, (unsuccessfully so far), torattle-in bucks during breeding sea-son. But it was that red and blackshirt that I remember the most vivid-ly.

Today, during deer season, whenI’m in the woods, that shirt neverleaves my back. When I’m huntingdeer, I won’t hunt without it, I can’thunt without it. Two years ago I wasmule deer hunting in Idaho withnine other hunters. Everyone incamp had shot a nice Mule deer andthe weather was starting to heat up.Every morning I got up looking forsomething to change my luck, and afew times I thought about changingmy shirt to a lighter more comfort-able one. Every morning I said no,and I kept wearing my dad’s shirt.

My luck turned on the last day ofthe hunt when I nailed a nice 5 x 5mulie, while a group of hunterswatched, at 293 yards, the best shot Iever made.

Even during bow season, I wearthis shirt. I’d rather hunt barefoot,than to not wear this shirt. Everyyear I travel to some other state outwest to hunt elk or deer. Every year Itake my dad’s shirt, I don’t leavehome without it.

In the years to come, hunting willprobably become less popular than itis now and my sons may or may nothunt. When the time comes, I willpass this shirt down to them, andhopefully they’ll get to hunt with it. Ireally can’t call this shirt mine untilthat day comes and I join my fatherin the Happy Hunting Grounds, andone of my sons starts to wear it.Until then it will always be my Dad’sshirt.

My Dad’s Shirt

David Willette is a free-lance outdoorwriter who lives in Western Massachusetts.He can be contacted through www.coyote-wars.com

Mass MeanderingsMass MeanderingsBy David WilletteBy David Willette


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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.

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 mustard 2 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.


Fly fishing, when you get rightdown to it, is pretty simple. Thebasic equipment required for fly fish-ing hasn’t changed much since the1800’s. What has changed is technol-ogy that has gone into modernequipment. The use of graphite infly rods, aircraft grade aluminum flyreels and plastic coated fly lines havecertainly made fly fishing a lot easier.However, if you handed a fly rigmade in 1890 to a modern day flyfisher, he would have no problemrecognizing all of the parts and feelright at home fishing with it.

I guess it is human nature to com-plicate things and fly fishermen areno exception to the rule. Most of ushead to the stream with far too muchstuff. The fly vest is a great thing, butit does lead us into temptation. Withall of those pockets we feel dutybound to fill them up. There hasbeen some movement, in recentyears, to simplify. There are thosewho try to minimize their gear andtravel light.

In the last few years a new style offly fishing, called Tenkara, has takenthe “go light” community by storm.

Tenkara is a traditional method ofJapanese fly fishing. The outfit con-sists of a rod, a line and a leader.The line is attached to the tip of therod so there is no need of a reel; it

doesn’t get much simpler than that.Traditionally the rods were made

of bamboo today; however, the rodsare made of graphite and are tele-scopic. A graphite Tenkara rod willcollapse into a twenty inch tube and

will extend up to 14 foot. The linesare attached at the tip of the rod andare around ten feet in length. Aleader is added to the line. Becauseof the length and fine tips on these

rods a light tippet must be used; nomore than 5X or 6X is recommend-ed. As a result fishing for big trout isout of the question. There are tradi-

tional Tenkara flies, but good oldAmerican ones will work just as well.

Not long ago I spent a day withgood friends Pat and Rick Gerberlearning the art of Tenkara fishing.The Thompson’s and the Gerber’shave fished together for years andRick is the drift boat guide for theNorth Country Angler. Rick is anaccomplished artist and perhapsbecause of this was attracted toTenkara.

Tenkara fishing is very well suitedfor fishing in mountain streams ofwhich there are an abundance of inour White Mountains as well as inJapan. For our outing we choose alocal stream that we knew wouldhave an abundance of smaller troutand would have the kind of room

needed for the long rod. Casting a Tenkara rod is just about

the same as casting a conventionalfly rod. Any fly angler will have notrouble adapting to the long rod. Ishould point out that this is not dap-pling, you do cast the line. We spentthe day fishing dry flies and softhackles.

Had we wanted to, I see no reasonwhy, we could not have fishednymphs. To answer the all importantquestion: did we catch fish? Yes wedid. In kind of an unscientific com-parison test Pat fished a six foot twoweight conventional fly rod andcaught just about the same amountof fish as with the Tenkara outfit.

It is important to note that NHFish& Game does not recognizeTenkara as fly fishing, so be advisedif you are fishing in “Fly FishingOnly” water you are illegal. I thinkthat this is rather odd on there partas about the only real difference indefinition is that no reel is used. Iwould guess that would mean that ifyou tied the fly line on the handle ofyour fly rod and fished without thereel you would not meet the require-

ments of the law as it is interruptedby Fish and Game.

I am not sure I am going to sell allmy fly rods and take up Tenkara, butI will say this: it is a lot of fun. Ifyour motto is “Simplify” than it justmight be the way to go.

Riverbank TalesRiverbank Talesby Bill Thompsonby Bill Thompson

Tenkara, traditional Japanese fly fishing

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Originally from Maine, Bill Thompson,with his wife Janet, lives in Freedom andowns North Country Angler fly shop inNorth Conway. He has been fly fishing formore than 30 years and is a licensed NHFishing Guide. 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 paper aswell as articles in national fly fishing mag-azines. Bill’s email is [email protected].


rials. The cat, still groggy from theday’s ordeal, slowly regained theuse of her legs and made some ini-tial tentative steps. A few momentslater, the cat had some distance

between her and a few observers,and then slowly dissolved into thewoods.

“Not all wildlife found in similarsituations are candidates for reha-bilitation and young animals leftvulnerable to predation, the ele-ments, and starvation don’t often

make it, which is a hard fact ofnature,” Wenner said. “Returningthis apex predator to the wild was aunique and successful operationmade possible by efforts of thePocono Wildlife RehabilitationCenter, the Game Commission, anda host of wildlife volunteers.”

The handling of sick or injuredwildlife is unlawful and poses seri-ous health and safety concerns. Ifsomeone encounters sick or injuredwildlife, he or she should contactthe appropriate Game CommissionRegion Office.

Bobcats are Pennsylvania’s onlyfeline predator and inhabit wooded

areas where they feed on a varietyof small animals including mice,chipmunks, squirrels, birds, andrabbits. They are highly secretive innature and mostly nocturnal.

“Bobcats are fascinating animalsand they are an important compo-nent of Pennsylvania’s diversewildlife community,” Wenner said.“They keep prey species popula-tions in balance and also providesportsmen with valuable huntingand trapping opportunities.”

Bobcats in Pennsylvania havegray-brown fur with dark spots andbars, which are especially notice-able on the legs. A ruff of furextends out and downward fromthe ears.

Bobcats are efficient predators,and equipped with sharp senses ofsight, smell and hearing. They havefour large canine teeth to piercedeeply into prey; behind thecanines are sharp cutting teeth. Fiveretractable, hooked claws on eachfront foot and four on the rear, addto the cat’s arsenal.

Although a bobcat is a fiercefighter, it isn’t a large animal. Amature bobcat averages 36 inchesin length, which includes a stubbytail. This “bobbed” tail gives the catits name. Adult bobcats weighbetween 15 and 20 pounds; withlarge individuals weighing as muchas 35 pounds. Some may live up to15 years of age in the wild, andmuch longer in captivity. Because oftheir secretive nature, bobcatsrarely interact with domestic pets orlivestock.

Bobcat kittens are born in earlyspring, with litter sizes ranging fromone to four. Adult female bobcatsguard their young carefully as anadult male bobcat may try to killand eat the young. This behaviormakes the discovery of the kittenfrom Luzerne County highlyunusual.

In 2000, the Game Commissioncreated a limited bobcat season.The 2012-13 bobcat trapping sea-son runs from Dec. 15-Jan. 6, and isopen in Wildlife Management Units2A, 2C, 2E, 2F, 2G, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D,4A, 4C, 4D and 4E. The bobcathunting season, which is open in thesame WMUs, runs from Jan. 15 toFeb. 5. Hunters and trappers mustpossess a furtaker license and a bob-cat permit, and the season limit isone bobcat.

For more information about bob-cats, visit the Game Commission’swebsite (www.pgc.state.pa.us), putyour cursor on “HUNT/TRAP,”then click on “Trapping &Furbearers” in the drop-downmenu listing and then click on“Bobcat.”

DALLAS, Luzerne County – Acat may not have nine lives, but ayoung bobcat in the Poconosreceived a second one recently,according to Pennsylvania GameCommission officials.

A female bobcat kitten was dis-covered in a wooded area ofLuzerne County this past spring bya couple hiking in the woods. Theseven-week old cat was found weakand unable to walk, and withoutany adult female seen in the vicini-ty.

The situation remainedunchanged the following day, andarrangements were made to deliverthe bobcat the Pocono WildlifeRehabilitation Center nearSaylorsburg, Monroe County formedical care and rehabilitation.The Pocono Wildlife RehabilitationCenter is licensed for wildlife carethrough permitting by the GameCommission, U.S. Fish and WildlifeService and U.S. Department ofAgriculture.

Game Commission NortheastRegion Biologist Kevin Wennerspeculates that the female parentmay have met an untimely demise.

“Bobcats are sometimes hit on theroadway, or die from disease or avariety of other causes,” Wennerexplained. “It would be rare to havea female cat abandon her young.”

When the bobcat arrived at therehabilitation center it weighedabout 1.5 pounds and was in poorphysical condition, according toKathy Uhler, Pocono WildlifeRehabilitation Center director.

“It was provided an initial diet ofspecialized formula, and thenweaned to a diet of small mammalsand birds including rabbits,pigeons, rats and mice,” Uhler said.“Animals were fed to the cat alivewhen possible. While this maysound distasteful to some, it is nec-essary in order to stimulate naturalhunting behavior.

“The cat was housed in a secureenclosure with double doors to pre-vent escape and human contact waskept to an absolute minimum in aneffort to discourage imprinting.”

When it was time for the release,Wenner approached the enclosurequietly and cautiously, as a group ofstudents from East StroudsburgUniversity and reporters from thelocal media looked on.

“The cat seemed to sense some-thing was amiss and it let out a low,guttural growl,” Wenner said. “Thecat was positioned high on a rafteras Eric Uhler, who is largely respon-sible for the daily care of the ani-mal, and I entered the innermostdoor. We were greeted with menac-ing bared teeth and hissing, as the

young cat swiped at the air fromabove.

“The tranquilizer dart, containinga mixture of animal immobilizationdrug, found its mark in the cat’s

shoulder, and soon made handlingthe animal possible. The bobcatwas taken outside and a scaleshowed its weight at a healthy 14pounds.”

East Stroudsburg University stu-dents obtained hair samples todetermine its genetic profile, as part

of an ongoing study, and then thebobcat was transported in a pet car-rier to a remote section of StateGame Land 186 in Monroe County.

“The habitat there makes it anideal release site,” said Wenner. “Itprovides plenty of food and cover tomeet the animal’s needs. The hunt-ing and other survival behaviors ofbobcats are largely instinctive, andthis cat has a good chance to makeit.”

The pet carrier door was openedcarefully and the young cat got afirst glimpse of her new surround-ings. It was an environment free ofhuman sounds and manmade mate-

Female bobcat in enclosure prior to being immobilized for release on State Game Land 186in Monroe County.

From left to right, Eric Uhler, of Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and KevinWenner, Game Commission Northeast Region biologist, prepare to weigh bobcat before itsrelease into the wild.

Pennsylvania Game Commission Releasing bobcat back in to the wild

gun laws, but I’ve been known to bewrong on occasion. Two SupremeCourt appointments will likely bemade during the next four years.The Obama nominees are likely tobe very anti-gun and could conceiv-ably compromise the two key gun

rulings the Court has already made,both which strongly affirmed oursecond amendment rights.

If Mr. Romney becomes our nextpresident, it would be very unlikelythat any new gun legislation wouldbe proposed or passed. Although, asgovernor of Massachusetts, hepresided over one of the most anti-gun states in the nation, he claims tohave no anti-gun agenda himself.

I think it is very unfortunate thatgun rights have become a liberal ver-sus conservative issue. Not all con-servatives support gun rights, andnot all liberals are opposed to them.We have many pro-gun Democratscurrently in Congress, as well assome Republicans who are vehe-mently anti-gun. Support of ourconstitutional rights should havenothing to do with one’s politicalaffiliation.

AMMUNITION.

Over the past few years, our indus-try has experienced unprecedenteddemand for both handgun and rifleammunition. This has resulted insome severe supply issues. Thatdemand .., plus the increase in costof metals such as brass, copper, andlead … has produced some frighten-ing spikes in ammunition prices.Some ammo has come close to dou-bling in price in only the past threeor four years.

Currently, most of the shortageswe’ve been plagued with are over. Iam still experiencing some delays ingetting .22LR ammunition as well as.223/5.56, but most numbers arecoming in with no or few delays. Ithink the worst of it is over. Pricesare also stable for the time being,

and I am not seeing the endlessincreases that we have all endured.

Contrary to popular belief, theshortages and price increases are notdue to some sort of governmentintervention. This is a simple supplyand demand situation.

GUNS.

Well, new models fuel demand, somost manufacturers try to come upwith something new to bring in newbuyers.

Savage has come up with a win-ning formula with their Axis series ofrifles. Developed from the moder-ately successful Model 200 and Edgeseries of rifles, the new Axis has astreamlined stock, detachable maga-zine, and is available in a variety ofcalibers and finishes. They shootwell and are totally reliable. Evenwith Bushnell 3 to 9 power scopes,these guns sell for under $400, mak-ing them an incredible bargain.

Ruger, not to be outdone, hasintroduced its American series ofbolt action rifles. Although not yetsold with factory scope packages, theAmerican is a well made rifle thatalso sells for less than $400.

Savage has also recently re-intro-duced its line of combinationrifle/shotguns. The old Model 24 isnow back as the Model 42. It is notthe same gun, being smaller andlighter than the original. It is cur-rently being offered in either the.22LR or .22 Magnum over a .410shotgun barrel. They are easy tooperate and I’m sure will be popularwith shooters who have missed theold Model 24 since it was discontin-ued several years ago.

The trend in many guns now is touse plastics where practical. Triggerguards, triggers, butt plates andother hardware are sometimes nolonger made of metal. Gun stocks,often a thing of beauty made withfancy, well figured walnut, are nowmore often than not made of plastic.Laminated wood, also called ply-wood, is now commonly used onrifles and shotguns.

I recently got in a new shipment ofMarlin 30/30 lever action rifles.The wood stocks, that were useduntil quite recently, have beenreplaced with a laminate. The frontbarrel band, traditionally steel, isnow plastic. The nice polishedmetal, with a bright blue finish, hasbeen replaced with a bead blastedflat finish. Less work, cheaper mate-rials, lower cost … higher profit.

Another trend is to have gunsmade overseas. This is nothing new,but the practice is expanding andcan be quite deceptive. Remember


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

Continued next page

So, what’s new in the world ofguns? An interesting question, espe-cially given the politically chargednature of gun ownership in thiscountry. In no particular order,here’s what I think we’ll be lookingat in the near future.

POLITICS.

Ah yes, the wonderful world ofpolitics and politicians. By the timethis article is published we will haveto deal with the incumbent, anddecidedly anti-gun, administrationof President Obama; or the new andsupposedly pro-gun administrationof President elect Romney. My gutfeeling is that we’ll be looking atanother four years of PresidentObama. Regardless, I do think thepro-gun bias of Congress will likelyremain intact. That should providesome opposition to any sweepingnew gun control measures.

President Obama is officially onrecord as favoring a new “assaultweapons” ban, even though the lastone was universally deemed a total

failure. Although violent crime hasdropped by 41% over the last tenyears, calls for tougher gun laws willnever go away. In his second term inoffice, I expect the Obama adminis-

tration to push for that gun ban aswell as additional measures to limitmagazine capacities to ten rounds orless. It is my expectation thatCongress would not pass any new

What’s Next?

Northern New Hampshire’s Guns-Only Gun Shop

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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.

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from previous page

will help find new heron coloniesthat may have recently poppedup. The great blue heron was des-ignated as a Species of SpecialConcern in Maine in 2007 due toa decline in breeding pairs alongthe coast. Little was known aboutthe inland breeding populationbefore 2009 when theDepartment ramped up its moni-toring efforts by creatingHERON.

Through HERON, volunteersacross the state collect informa-tion on great blue heron coloniesduring the breeding season tohelp state biologists understandthe species’ population trend andprioritize future conservationefforts.

The Burly Bird HERON stickeris now available just in time forthe holidays. They can be pur-chased from the Burly Bird web-site (www.burlybird.com) orthrough the Department’s onlinestore (www.mefishwildlife.com).They sell for $4 each, with $3going directly to fund the aerialsurvey. Sticker sales will also helpleverage federal funding throughMaine’s State Wildlife GrantProgram.

For more information about theHeron Observation Network ofMaine, visit www.maineheron.wordpress.com, or contactDanielle D’Auria at [email protected] or (207) 941-4478.

The Heron ObservationNetwork of Maine (HERON) ispartnering with Burly Bird, aMaine-based conservation stickercompany, to help raise funds foran important statewide aerial sur-vey for nesting great blue herons.

Members of the public can sup-port HERON in its efforts by pur-chasing the UV-coated vinyl stick-er of a great blue heron that canbe placed on car bumpers andwindows, water bottles, coffeemugs, laptops, bikes and any-where else.

HERON is a volunteer adopt-a-colony program started by theMaine Department of InlandFisheries and Wildlife in 2009 inorder to gain a better understand-

ing of the great blue heron’s sta-tus within Maine.

Proceeds from the sticker will gotowards funding the next aerialsurvey scheduled for 2015, which

The change in the public perceptionof guns and gun ownership is whatwill, ultimately, protect our rightsfrom those who would try to curtailthem. More Americans support gunrights now than ever before. Do youwant to help protect our gun rights?The take a friend out shooting, intro-duce new people to the shootingsports, and support your local gunclub.

“Guns don’t kill people, people killpeople,” is an old cliché. It is, how-ever, very true. Whenever some psy-chotic takes a gun and commits aheinous crime, the media jumps allover it and focuses on the gun orguns used in the crime. The kneejerk reaction from anti-gun politi-cians is always to go after the guns,

not the sick individuals who actuallydid the deed. We can never stopcriminal actions, but we can do ourpart to insure that people do not seegun ownership by law abiding citi-zens as the problem. Hopefully, we’llall have many more years where weand future generations can enjoy theshooting sports as well as the right ofself defense.

the trusty old Winchester Model1300 pump shotguns? They werearound forever, but were discontin-ued went Winchester went bankrupt.Winchester was bought out byBrowning and the 1300 is back inproduction. Looks and feels almostthe same, but it now has a “Made inTurkey” stamp on it. The 94Winchester is also back … with a“Made in Japan” stamp on it. Howabout a Springfield Armory Model1911 pistol? Could there be a moreAmerican gun? Except this one usesframes from Brazil. CZ, an old timeCzechoslovakian company, andFranchi of Italy, now both have theirover and under shotguns made inTurkey. Mossberg over and undershotguns, as well as the H&R pumpshotguns, are also Turkish imports.Michaels of Oregon, also know asUncle Mikes, moved all their pro-duction to Vietnam a few years ago.This all can get just a bit discourag-ing.

THE FUTURE

I’m hoping there are no majorchanges coming in gun legislation.

With a Romney administration I’mnot too worried; with an Obamaadministration I’d be very worriedand just have to hope Congresswouldn’t go along with furtherrestrictions.

If we have four more years of anObama administration, I expectdemand for guns and ammunitionwill continue to be high as peoplefear for their gun rights. This maylead to some future shortages andprice increase as demand outstripsproduction capacity.

Women shooters will make up asignificant portion of the gun own-ing public. Currently, more andmore women recognize guns as aviable means of self protection.These women are buying guns andammo, they are enrolling in shootingclasses, and are a welcome additionto the responsible gun owners of ourcountry.

As more and more people embracegun ownership … either for selfdefense, hunting, target shooting orcollecting … support for gun controlmeasures should become less tenableas a platform for politicos seekingtheir coveted re-elections to office.

Stan Holz lives in Whitefield, NH and,with his wife Sandy, has owned and oper-ated Village Gun Store there since 1974.He invites everyone to stop and visit. Asidefrom his interest in firearms and shooting,Stan is also involved in amateur astronomy,photo-graphy, ham radio and scuba diving.He can be contacted by emailing him [email protected].

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Sale of new HERON sticker will fuel 2015 aerial survey

eerie, actually, and maybe that’s whythe kids and dog ran through so fast.

Soon, we heard the water-falls up ahead. As we traversed along

the main trail, several little spur trailsled back down the hill toward thefalls. We decided to check it out onthe way back and keep gaining ele-vation while everyone was fresh. Weparalleled the stream for a few hun-dred yards, admiring the deep clearpools in the small rocky gorge, andsoon came to a picnic area with alarge wooden bridge spanning thestream. The kids got handfuls ofleaves and threw them off the bridgeon one side, then ran across to seethem bounce through the rapids,floating on the whitewater for a fewseconds before getting drowned.

As we moved along, I saw aguy fishing one of the pools. I spiedon him a little through the trees, try-ing to see if he had any action.

“Let’s Go, Daddy!” yelledMegan from up ahead. There I was,dawdling again. I trudged on andcaught up, thinking that next time Iwould bring a rod.

We soon came to a clearingand another junction. The sign said1.5 miles, and the trail started rightaway to climb up a much steeperpitch. Soon, the shorter hikers in ourgroup pleaded for a break. The run-ning and chasing was over, but aftera quick drink we were able to moveon.

The going was much slowernow. There was some whining goingon and we had to encourage everystep. We held hands for encourage-ment, literally pulling them up thehill. That worked for a little while,until they said they couldn’t movetheir feet anymore.

“I can’t take another step!”protested Ben, Mr. “sprint as fast as Ican” when we started a mere 30minutes ago.

“Come on Ben” we encouraged,just a little ways more and we’ll takea break. We’re looking for a goodspot. He just stood there in the trail,arms folded, not moving.

Just then, I spotted a weirdblotch of orange color in the trailabout 30 yards ahead.

“Hey, look at that! There’ssomething up there!” I announcedwith great enthusiasm. Miraculously,they were cured and instantly brokeinto a dead run, straight uphill,again leaving me in the dust.

We approached the object, anddiscovered it was a soggy stump thathad a large, orange fungal growthcoming put if it. It had many layers,creating a funny looking mushroom“flower” that was a little bigger thana basketball. It must have been amagical mushroom, because afterthat the attitudes changed for thebetter. Soon after the orange mush-room, we took another break andhad a drink and half of our sand-wiches. We had a discussion on whatit means to pace yourself, and werethen able to push on confidently tothe top. We spotted a woodpecker,and noticed many diseased beechtrees, something we had been read-ing about on another local walk. Weslowly gained elevation until weactually started going down theother side of the ridge to the openrock cliffs where the views were.

It was windy at the top of the cliff,and very dangerous, too. We imme-diately set the limits of how far wecould all go towards the edge. Wedid not want to turn this into aninadvertent BASE jumping trip.There was a great view of theAdirondack Mountains in the dis-tance, and the shimmering waters ofLake Dunmore at our feet. A singlesailboat punctuated the blue expansenear the center, and the kids noticedtwo kayaks, just tiny red specs fromthis distance, along the near shore-line straight below us.

We ate the rest of our lunch andhad some water while trying to keepall our wrappers from blowing away.As we squinted into the chillingwind, we observed how the darkpatch of clouds that we saw in thedistance upon arrival had movedcloser, and we could now easily seethe slanted grey streaks of rainfalling onto the landscape below. Itwas sunny all around, but this show-er was blowing steadily straight at us.It was time to get off this cliff.

There was a shorter trail on theway back that took us in a loop to the


I suspected we may have a prob-lem brewing as we scrambled upthrough the boulders in the trail andstarted our ascent from the parkinglot. Ben took off at high speed,jumping off rocks, and ran aheadwhere he came quickly to the firsttrail junction. He turned the wrongway and sprinted almost out of sight.We came to the section of trailwhich was a wide gravel road, andyelled to Ben. He spun around, real-ized his mistake, and chargedstraight back at us, rushing by with awhoosh of spraying gravel.

We continued on, the dogleading the way, and Meg and Benrunning behind with equal energyback and forth across the wide, flattrail, weaving around trees andjumping off of little hills and rocks.“Be Careful” we preached patheti-cally. I felt there was no way theywould be able to finish the wholehike running like this, but there wasno slowing them down. The trailswitch backed up the hill side, lead-ing through a stand of mature hem-lock and pine. It was dark beneaththe canopy despite the bright, sunny

day. Here and there in the darkwoods were large boulders, glacialerratic's that were covered with mossand in the dark woods looked like

sleeping giants cuddled up undersoft, green blankets. It was kind of

Family TracksBy Brian Lang

Continued next page

This magical orange mushroom unlocked miraculous energy reserves.

Setting the Pace

By Brian Lang

Family Tracks


from previous page

such as apples and nuts this year toattract deer. A final archery totalwill be available after all reports arereceived by Fish & Wildlife.

Vermont’s traditionally popular16-day November rifle season beginsNovember 10 and ends Sunday,November 25. One legal buck withat least one antler having two ormore points may be taken anywherein the state.

The antler regulation for a “legalbuck” was designed to recruit morebucks and older bucks into the pop-ulation. Hunters may take one buckwith at least one antler having two ormore points one inch or longer.Spike-antlered deer are protectedexcept during the youth deer week-end. A point must be one inch orlonger from base to tip. The mainbeam counts as a point, regardless oflength. “Vermont’s pre-hunt deerpopulation is estimated at approxi-mately 125,000 animals this yearwith the greatest numbers of deerfound in the southwest, east-central,and northwestern regions of thestate,” said Deer Project LeaderAdam Murkowski. “Deer popula-tions have benefited from excellent

survival during the mildest winterrecorded over the last four decadesand good fawning conditions duringthe spring and summer.”

Planning Your Hunt

The 2011 Vermont Deer HarvestReport, available from the Fish &Wildlife Department’s web site(www.vtfishandwildlife.com) has awealth of information to help plan ahunt, including the number of deertaken in each town. Click on“Hunting and Trapping” and “BigGame” to download a copy of thereport.

Vermont’s regular hunting licens-es, including a November rifle sea-son buck tag and a bear tag, still costonly $22 for residents and $100 fornonresidents. Hunters under 18years of age get a break at $8 for res-idents and $25 for nonresidents.Licenses are available on Fish andWildlife’s web site and from licenseagents statewide.

Contact the Vermont Fish andWildlife Department for more infor-mation. Telephone 802-241-3700or Email [email protected].

Vermont’s preliminary archerydeer hunting season results are upcompared to the previous three-yearaverage, and that could be goodnews for hunters during theNovember rifle deer season.

As of November 7, the number ofdeer taken during the October por-

tion of archery season was 2,420,according to reports received byVermont Fish & Wildlife from agentsthroughout the state. This repre-sents nearly a 20 percent increaseover the average for the past threeyears at this time even though thereare few concentrated food supplies

car. It was steeper though, andwould have been a tough walk up.On the back side of the ridge again,we were sheltered from the wind,although we got pelted with somerain showers sprinkling through thevast canopy of the monster hard-wood forest we were descendingthrough.

Of all things, Meg and Ben nowyelled “We wanna run! We wannarun!” Megan said “My legs feel likethey have to run.” So now, ironically,we had gone from “I can’t takeanother step!” to “I wanna run!” Itwas too steep and rocky to say it wasOK to run, so we had to literallyhold them back until we returned tothe gravel road.

As we past the roar of the fallsagain, we took a short trip down one

of the spur trails and got a glimpseof the foaming cascade of watertumbling down through the rocks,with a faint rainbow in the mist. Wedecided to save any further exploringdown below the falls for the nexttrip, and instead let the kids run, fulltilt, back down the trail and straightto the car.

Erik Werner of Brandon, VT shot this 10-point buck in Vermont’s October archery deerseason. Archery results are up, which bodes well for Vermont’s Nov. 10-25 rifle season.Photo Courtesy of VT Big Game Trophy Club.

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Brian Lang lives with his wife, Michelleand two children Megan and Ben inReading, VT. Brian grew up in VT andstarted enjoying his outdoor pursuits at avery young age. He is an avid hunter, fish-erman, camper, and hiker and hopes to givehis kids the same wholesome upbringing heenjoyed in the New England outdoors.When he's not outside, he works as anMRI Technologist. He can be reached [email protected].

Vermont’s archery deer results may be good news for rifle hunters


Before the season I always visualizesome scenarios that I think I mightencounter while hunting. This usual-ly helps because I have a picture inmy head before the animal showshimself. When he appears it makes iteasier to place him into the visualiza-tion that I’ve practiced throughoutthe year.

Now, instead of being a chaoticfrenzy in front of me, things haveslowed down. I can take in my sur-roundings and enjoy the moment asI watch it unfold.

After getting past the initial excite-ment you will still have to follow allof the steps necessary to make agood shot. If you have practicedenough this routine should be auto-matic. If the nerves are still gettingin the way it might be time torehearse the steps in your mind andfollow them one by one.

I always tell myself to pick a spotbehind the shoulder and squeeze theshot off. A fair number of people willpunch their trigger due to the excite-ment and launch an arrow throughthe woods. If you tell yourself tosqueeze the trigger it will be an easi-er guide to follow until the arrow ison its way.

There are very few people whodon’t get nervous when a goodopportunity presents itself. Turningthe nervousness into positive energyis something that must be done to besuccessful.

Tournament archery often bringsthe same type of feeling that I’ve

described above. The closer anarcher gets to the finish the largerthe prize becomes. Many shooterswill skip ahead a few arrows ratherthan shoot them one at a time. Thesame thing happens as in huntingand the tournament suddenly speedsup. It was probably going at a steadypace and for some reason when win-

ning became part of the equationthe shooter put more pressure onhimself. It’s always easier if youshoot one arrow at a time and con-tinue the process until you are com-pletely done. If you let your mind getinvolved the whole thing can blowup in your face. You’ll be left to won-der about what could have beenrather than holding the coveted tro-phy in your hands.

No matter what you’re huntingyou need to have a plan ahead oftime. It’s just like mapping out direc-tions for a drive to a town in anotherstate. If you don’t write the direc-tions down with a few side notesyou’ll have a much more difficulttime arriving at your destination.

Don’t forget that it’s perfectly nor-mal and ok to be nervous. Heck, if Ididn’t get that rush of adrenalinwhile hunting and shooting tourna-ments I think I would have to find afew new hobbies.

Over the years I’ve been luckyenough to harvest some really niceanimals with a bow. I’ve also shotstate, regional and national archeryevents that have given me a taste ofwhat it’s like to make shots underpressure when championships areriding on the execution of a goodshot.

Many people think that archerswho are successful in tournamentarchery, as well as bowhunters whoconsistently take trophy animals,don’t get nervous when the momentpresents itself. This isn’t the case.These archers have trained them-selves to execute under pressure asthey do in practice.

When a big buck presents himselfhe can appear in an instant or take awhile wandering around in front ofour stands before he makes his wayto us. This is when an acceleratedheart rate begins to make itselfknown. Your breath becomes shal-low and sometimes it feels like yourheart is going to burst through yourskin. The legs sometimes begin toshake and it feels like they’ve turned

to jello.With all of these things going on at

once it isn’t hard for everything infront of you to speed up. This iswhere unprepared people get lost.They will lose focus and the momentthey’ve been waiting for can turn

into a disaster.When I encounter a situation that

makes me nervous I try to slowthings down. As the animalapproaches I tell myself to remaincalm and focused. I take a deepbreath and exhale very slowly. Aftera few deep breaths I can feel some ofthe excitement turn into concentra-tion.

Anchor PointsBy Todd Mead

Nervousness

By Todd Mead

Anchor Points

Heart rate at the moment of “Truth”..Staying calm ( as calm as possible) is the key to making a good shot on the range or in the woods.

Todd is the author of Backcountry Bucksand A Lifetime of Big Woods HuntingMemories. You can catch up with him onhis website: www.toddmead.comHe resides in Queensbury, NY.


The Gazette’s Hunting and Fishing Solunar Tables

Send us yourpictures

so all our readers

can enjoythem

Email jpg’s tofred@the

outdoorgazette.comDon’t forget to write

down your names andages, where you werefishing, hunting etc...

and where you live.Thank You.. Fred


drag-free drifts. It’ l l be a frus-trating day, for both of you, ifyou can’t do this consistently.He might know a di f ferent

location that doesn’t require asmuch skill.

Would you prefer to have theguide do everything fromchanging your f lies to givingcasting instructions? Let himknow. Some clients I’ve hadsimply wanted me to take themto new places and then turnthem loose. That didn’t mean Icould leave them to their owndevices. If the fishing was dif-ficult, I made sure to offer sug-gestions to improve their expe-rience.

Are there any physical limita-tions the guide needs to knowabout? Almost any conditioncan be accommodated if theguide knows ahead of t ime.Some areas are easier to getinto than others. He’ll be ableto make the best location selec-tion if he knows about yourneeds before you show up inyour waders and vest.

Other, smal ler detai l s wi l lmake the day more enjoyable:Will I need a wading staff, bugrepellant or insulated waders?Is lunch included? How about

beverages? How many hoursare included for a hal f -daytrip? For a whole day? What’sthe cost? Are there any addi-

tional expenses to be anticipat-ed such as paying for f lies orleaders the guide may provide?

While we’re ta lking aboutmoney, what about t ips?Guiding is a service for hireand the usual customs apply. Ifyou feel the guide has givenyou his or her best efforts, thenthe usual 20% would be added(and much appreciated).

On those occasions when thef ishing is di f f icul t and theguide has tried every trick heknows, maybe 25% is moreappropriate. Guides make aliving from repeat customers sothey should give you such agood experience you’ll want tobook with them again.

Hey, it’s your money and youshould get value for what youpay. Doing a little homework isyour best insurance of a trip tobe remembered for all the rightreasons.

I have a few thoughts to helpyou get your money’s worth thenext time you hire a guide. I’veseen this from both sides of theguide-cl ient relat ionship andmade my share of mistakes. Ifthis is your first time workingwith a “pro,” here are a fewconsiderations that might pre-vent the need for threats ofviolence at the end of the day.

The secret i s to do yourhomework ahead of signing onthe dotted l ine. These guys(and a few girls) are trying tomake a living. They need to besuccessful but there’s no waythey can guarantee fish. Onthe other hand, they shouldpull out all the stops, whennecessary, to give you a goodexperience.

Spend t ime on the phonewith the guide before you booka tr ip. A guide who won’tanswer your questions on thephone won’t do any better onthe river.

Let your expectat ions be

known so he can tell you ifthey are reasonable. This pre-vents going in with expecta-tions that can’t be met. Do youwant: lots of fish; trophy fish;dry f ly only; a wilderness expe-rience; etc, or are you willingto let the guide decide what’sbest? Let him or her know. Forexample, 20 or more f i shreleased on the Beaverki l laround the end of May shouldbe no problem (barring weath-er problems). A wilderness trip,here in northern Ver mont,means some walking. Sightfishing to steelhead means a lotof standing around. You wantto know what to expect aheadof time.

What’s your f ly casting skilllevel? Be honest. If you’re abeginner, let the guide know.He’ll see you in action soonenough. But, he might makedifferent plans depending onthe difficulty level required bycertain locat ions. Some f i shrequire precise cast ing and

A Guide to Hiring a Guide

Guided by the Light or is That a Train Coming?Guided by the Light or is That a Train Coming? By Tony LolliBy Tony Lolli

Tony Lolli is from Cabot, VT. His book,Go-To Flies: 101 Pattern the Pros UseWhen All Else Fails is available onlinefrom Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

Official MeasurerBoone & Crockett Club

Pope & Young ClubNH Antler & Skull Trophy Club

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Above - Tucker Sweet, 212 lbs, 5PtsBelow - Tim Eastman 157.50 lbs, 8ptsAll photos Courtesy of the East Corinth GeneralStore- East Corinth, Vermont. See more successfulhunters on their facebook page.

Above - Troy Maxham, 164 lbs, 7ptsBelow - Patrick Burnett 153 8pts andJarrettBurnett 109 3pts

-


Is there any finer time of theyear to be in the outdoors?? Youwon’t get an argument here. Thebiggest challenge is trying todecide which species to pursue &how much time to dedicate toeach!! Fins, feathers or fur, thereare just about as many options asthere are days in the month. Inthe last week we have literallychased Bass & Trout, Dabblerducks & small game, a couple ofdays all of these in a 10 hourstretch!

Two weeks ago I had a fellowfirefighter accompany me withgood Friend Capt. Andy Bliss ofOswego NY for Spawning KingSalmon action on the OswegoRiver! Needless to say Andy &his drift boat put us on the fish,& my buddies first ever King!

Both the Oswego & the famedSalmon River are enjoying oneof the best runs in possibly 20years! So many fish in placesthat you swear you could walkacross them! The Salmon run istrickling to an end now, butbehind them come the colorful

Browns & Chrome Steelhead!There is truly no better time ofyear to pursue these species asthe crowds from the Salmon run

have left & the Trout are feedingvoraciously on all the Salmoneggs in the river! Eight to Tenpound Browns, Rainbows, &Steelhead are possible with sometopping the fifteen pound mark!

Just as the Salmon season hasproduced, we are seeing some

stellar Steelies with some beauti-ful hooked jawed Browns in themix! Many ask how you can tellthe difference betweenRainbows & Steelhead? Well

Rainbows spawn in the fall alongwith the Browns. The maleRainbows get some wonderfulred & pink coloration in them,the Steelhead spawn in the latewinter/early spring with thesame brilliant colors! One thingis for sure; right now is a fantas-tic time to get in somegreat….uncrowded action!

November has brought us in tothat time of the year where thedays are increasingly shorter &cooler with an occasional snowsquall that hints of things tocome. Leaves are off, the Ducks& Geese that summered andraised their young are beginningthe trek south & their Canadiancounter parts are increasingtheir numbers every day that thecooler temps & North winds setin.

Waterfowl numbers in someareas of Vermont have beendown a bit but reports from theChamplain Valley have seensome great early season gunning.Snow Goose numbers in theAddison County area have beensteadily on the decrease over therecent years as the grain crops innorthern NY have attractedmore of the numbers in the

Atlantic Flyway birds.Early Season Canadian Goose

hunting has been great but themigratory numbers in the later

Continued next page

Bucks, Ducks & Bright Chrome!

The Captain’s CornerThe Captain’s CornerBy Matthew TrombleyBy Matthew Trombley

My son Logan with his 2011 VT buck

Todd from VT with a Salmon River Steelhead

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from previous page

fall are on the increase as well.Once the cold sets in (which wehope comes in soon as it wasvery late to arrive last year) usu-ally announces the arrival of themigratory Mallards & species ofDivers such as Whistlers( GoldenEye) Blue Bills, & on LakeOntario Red Heads, Old Squaw& Scoters. The die-hard of thewater fowling world anxiouslyawait the flights of these birds,as with the Salmon run, the earlyseason crowds & hunting pres-sure have subsided & gunningcan be fast & furious! Not for thefaint of heart, this can meanhunting in sub-freezing temps;blinding snow & howlingwinds….but also can be some ofthe fastest shooting of the year!

To me…saving the best for lastis what November is all about!Coming from a long line of Deerhunters….November meansnothing more than that time ofyear when we get the long await-ed chance to pursue the mostfavorite quarry in NorthAmerica. Some mild winters inthe last few years has meant wellbalanced deer herds & over sixyears of antler restrictions inVermont is showing its proofthat we all hoped for! Many two& three year old bucks around(My son & I have both beenlucky enough to harvest two year

old plus bucks in the last twoseasons!) have been noted in thelate summer & we have seensome fantastic bucks taken in our

area during the archery season!An eight pointer & two phenom-enal ten pointers that all wereover the 125 inch mark havebeen harvested, these by local

standards are true trophies thatget local scuttlebutt going!

One can only hope that there isa few left for the upcoming

Firearm seasons, but none I havebecome more fond of then tak-ing my son out on the first week-end of November, set aside forthe youth only hunt! My son was

lucky enough in the opening halfhour of the 2011 youth hunt, toharvest a great nine point buckthat field dressed at 180 pounds!A fine buck by any NewEnglanders standard, but a tro-phy for a life time for a young-ster to tag for his first deer! Tosit and witness him calmly takethe shot as the buck came inchasing a doe ( one couldn’t havescripted it better!) has becomeand will probably always be themost memorable day afield inmy life! Tears of joy & elationalong with much high fiving &hugs are what that day has leftetched in my mind…… No finerexperience that we hope toduplicate & wish others the sameluck for seasons to come!

Memories at deer camp withthose that have left us during thelast year, along with stories thatwe all cherish, will surely be dis-cussions enjoyed in the crispNovember air. With any luck,sagging game poles & newlymade memories will accompanythose for years to come!

Logan & I on a sea duck hunt in Plymouth Ma Matt Trombley is a career firefighter, resid-ing with his wife & son in FlorenceVermont. He is a U.S.C.G licensed Mastercaptain, guiding & chartering fishing tripsthrough out Vermont & New York. Hischarter business, 3rd Alarm Charters canbe viewed at www.3rdalarmcharters.com


All of the previous sets men-tioned work well when waterlevels are stable but toss inheavy rain and you will spend alot of time adjusting sets.

To combat erratic water levelsyou need to improvise. Myfavorite for this condition isfloat sets. This past fall float setswere a must with the abnormalrainfall we experienced. Floatsets are simply traps attached toanything that will float. I usual-ly use what I find along astream. Dry logs will float as arule. Simply notch out the top ofthe log, set the trap in and staplethe chain to the log. Push the logout into the stream, anchor itand the set is complete.Depending on the length of thelog you can set four or five trapson a log and will produce inhigh and low water conditions.

The other high producer is byusing the conibear trap.Conibear or also known as bodygrips are easy to set and wickedefficient. Body grips in the 110

size placed on the edge of astream will quickly hold and dis-patch your catch.

Winter weather is a trapper’snightmare. Once ice occurs the

weather will weed out the ama-teur trappers. Ice up will test

you on every level from frozentraps to frost bit fingers.Checking traps is fun choppingthrough three inches of ice tojust check them will really testyour sanity. I always watch theweather closely and when the

big freeze is predicted I bite thebullet and yank the steel.

Not totally though as I use aset that produces all winter iswhat I call a crate set. Chop asix inch hole in the ice and pusha stick down in the mud , take atwo foot square wooden cratewith a carrot nailed high on thewall with the trap stapled to thecrate turned upside down overthe hole and you are set. Any ratin the area will investigate thehole, climb up the stick and seethe carrot and the rest is histo-ry. Leaning pole sets with bodygrips on foot traps will producealso.

So there you have it, all ofthese sets will work and withpractice you will know what willwork and what will not work foryou. Do not trap an area out

and leave some seed for nextyear and remember no traps onor in a rat pushup or directly infront of a bank den.

And now that you have caughtthem prep the fur and eat themeat. Yup you heard me rats are

excellent table fare. Par boil fortwenty minutes, drain, break themeat of the bones, dunk in melt-ed butter, roll in flour and deepfry in oil in a cast iron fry pan.If ya do not like it, ship it to meand I will eat it.

Keep your waders patched andyour lures in the shed and moreimportantly take a kid outdoorswith you.

By Randy BarrowsBy Randy Barrows

The Trap LineThe Trap Line

Muskrats - Part Three

Randy lives in Milton, Vermont, hastrapped in Vermont for 43 years, is a hunterEd Instructor and an Advanced TrapperInstructor for the Vermont Fish & WildlifeDepartment. Randy and wife, Diane &their family, own and operate ArrowheadTrapping Supply. Randy is also a VermontState Licensed Fur Dealer. They can bereached at [email protected] or 802-355-7496, on facebook or at www.arrow-headtrappingsupply.com.


The Coolest Gift IdeaYour Picture on The Outdoor Gazette! No, not the real cover but an 8x10full color mock-up of our cover. You can put your favorite hunting, fish-ing, snowmobiling or anything you can think of, right on The NewHampshire and Vermont Outdoor Gazette cover and it will look like thereal thing. It’s the perfect gift for any outdoor enthusiast. Cover will befull color on heavy stock photo paper and will fit an 8x10 picture frame.

What do we need from you? A digital photo with at least200dpi resolution at 8x10 size or original photo mailed to

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The Coolest Gift IdeaThe Coolest Gift Idea

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Continued on page ??

Continued next page


By Charlie ChalkBy Charlie Chalk

Behind the SightsBehind the Sights

As summer melts into fall, ourthoughts turn to plans for out-door activities. For the blackpow-der shooter, our calendars beginto fill with dates of hunts andwoodland rambles.

Guns are often the focus of myarticles; but this time, I want tolook at knives. The knife is anindispensable item in any out-doors man gear. I carry two peri-od style knives. The first is asmall three inch Damascus madeby Dan Winkler of NorthCarolina. This was a gift from adear friend. All of Winklerknives are primitive in their style,yet truly functional. He has pro-duced knives for the movie indus-try that have been used in filmslike "Last of the Mohicans".While still available at moderateprices, many would like a forgedknife for less.

My other belt knife is a semi-custom made from a file.Weighing in at about 10 oz., thethick blade serves well for split-ting wood or other camp chores.

A knife of this strength serves as aknife and ax and has become aconstant companion in thewoods. Made in North Carolina,

by an unknown maker, it is a copyof an original found in the moun-tains and estimated to be made inthe early part of the 19thCentury.

In choosing a good knife Iwould suggest a forged blade.True forged blades are amazingin both strength and sharpness.Forged blades come from forgesof a blacksmith. This style of

knife almost faded into history inthe early 1970's when only adozen blacksmiths existed. Theformation of the AmericanBlacksmith Society helped to pre-serve this art and teaches theskills in educational seminarsacross the United States.Members start a journeymen fortwo years and then submit theirknives for a journeyman test.The test consists of using theblade to (1) cut a free hanging 1"manila rope with one swipe and(2) chop 2x4's and still shave withthe edge and finally putting theblade in a vice and bending itninety degree without breaking it.

A you might expect, such bladesare costly compared to factoryblades, but there is at least oneknife maker I can recommendthat makes quality knives for afair price. Dennis Miles of“Double Edge Forge” ( dou-bleedgeforge.com ). Dennis is a

member of the American Mt.Men and is well known to thosewho rendezvous here on the eastcoast. His work was seen in“Gangs of New York” movie asevery major character carriedonly his knives. His knives areguaranteed for life as he says,“Yours or mine”.

No matter what kind of knifeyou have, a little care will alwaysbe necessary. A good knife is nota pry bar or screwdriver. Thefirst blade you chip or break willconvince you never to do thatagain; a lesson we have alllearned. Secondly, keep it sharp.There are dozens of differenttools to help get the perfect edge.Their job is to get the right angleon the edge. Learn what type ofangle works for what kind ofwork the knife will be used forand you will sharpen less often.Wipe off the three most danger-ous enemies; moisture, blood andfood before you sheath the knife.I always store my knives out ofthe sheath when I get home; justto be safe.

A final word on handle materialseems in order. Antler and woodlook good on primitive and mod-ern knives but they do requirecare. The common problem iscracking, which is caused byexposure to high temperatures.Never let your knife become toohot to touch.

Next month, we will work on aproject article on how to build acouple of knife sheaths. There isnothing like a custom sheath toshow off a fine knife.

Charlie Chalk is an outdoor writer and hasa background as a professional Firefighterand is a member of the AmericanMountain Men, an organization that emu-lates the life of the fur trappers of the1800's and their survival on the land.

Best Knives

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The New Hampshire Vermont Outdoor Gazette

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

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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

Damascus Knife by Dan Winkler

how he drove and whipped thecar to the shoulder after spottingsomething FAR off in the dis-tance. I didn’t see anything, butthen again I didn’t really knowwhat I was looking for and his

eyes are younger than mine!Sure enough, more turkeys. Iwas glued to the window hopingto show off by spotting some-thing 1st, but the men would out-shine this angel’s wings – fornow!

The plan was made for the fol-lowing morning, but this time itwould involve me, and a gun andhopes of killing my 1st predator!Back at the ranch (not really aranch) after an exciting morning,I changed into my fashion camoand headed downtown. This wassomething I was good at. I knowhow to SPOT a bargain, not aturkey. Anyway, people were

stopping me on the street tocomment on my outfit (sequincamo and high heels, naturally)and remark how I wasn’t from“around here”. What gave meaway? As I would learn later ithad to be the lipstick.Apparently the nativeBennington women do not wearlipstick. The two items I had tohave in the pockets of myElusion Camo were my sunglass-es in their case and LIPSTICK.What hunter goes into the fieldwithout it?!

The downtown area wascharming as were its shop keep-ers. I particularly enjoyed theCrazy Russian Girls Bakery(check them out on face book!). Icould have sampled everything intheir case, but I had my custommade Elusion Camo suit to fitinto! As it was I did go awaywith a few of the tempting treatsand true to form, kept them formyself. I was not inclined toshare and didn’t even feel guilty.I sat in the back of the trucksneaking samples and no one wasthe wiser. My only give awaywas when we got out for animpromptu AR 15 shooting les-son and I had sticky fingers!

There I was sitting in a remotewooded area, which was goodbecause I’ve never shot an auto-matic anything before. I waswearing a sequin camo top. Ihad high heeled camo boots on.I was wearing jewelry. What’sthe big deal? I was showing youcan be fashionable while doingany outdoor activity. I felt goodwith the weapon in my hands. Itdid not intimidate me and I hadsome sympathy for the coyotesI’d be stalking in the morning.Well, that would remain to beseen.

To be continued…

From fishing to the field, it wastime to head to Vermont. As wecrossed through Indiana, Ohio,Pennsylvania and New York myanticipation grew. I’ve neverbeen to Vermont and didn’tknow what to expect.Bennington, Vermont was thedestination and meeting with LeeDufresne, the owner/creator ofElusion Camo, was the mission.After getting settled into thehome of our hostess, StephanieCalabro (Lee’s business partner),I was itching (not because ofticks either) to get going.

I’d been fishing in Indiana for 3days and then immediatelyjumped in the car to drive 14.5hours to Vermont. Needless tosay I was a little sleep deprived.This would be easily rectifiedwith a long nap, which I attempt-ed, but didn’t really accomplish.I was eager to get started on theadventures Lee Dufresne hadplanned. The afternoon consist-ed of learning all about ElusionCamo (revolutionary) and itsoperation. Dinner that nightwould feature Lake Trout caughtby me! I’d impress my hosts witha fish boil. We ate, we laughedand we got acquainted. I felt likeI’d known these people a lotlonger than the 3 hours it hadbeen!

As our impromptu party brokefor the evening I was told to beready at 4:30 for turkey hunting.Ok, this wouldn’t be so bad.Wrong – 4:30 AM! Well, this iswhat I was here for, so I’ll haveto do it. I went to bed with eageranticipation of what the morningwould bring. Now I am not oneto wake up, get dressed and go. Ihave a beauty regimen andturkey hunting would not alterthat! Actually if I didn’t putmakeup on I probably wouldhave scared the turkeys away!I’m sure my male hunting part-ners rolled out of bed at 4:27,got dressed and were in thetruck. Maybe they even slept intheir Elusion Camo!

It was dark as we made our wayto the favored field. I was toldwhere to go (and didn’t even takeoffense!) and got set. I can’tremember the last time I willing-ly got up at 4 in the morning tosit still in the woods. Probablybecause it has NEVER hap-pened! But after being out there,listening to the wildlife and expe-riencing the new day dawning, Iwill take every opportunity

afforded me. As the sun startedits ascent I remained suitablystill. Lee Dufresne was sittingnext to me and started calling

the birds. He whispered that Ishould not move – a bird wasmaking its way toward us. I hadto remove my glasses so the lightwouldn’t catch and I squinted tosee. But I would find that squint-ing wasn’t even necessarybecause the bird was basically inmy lap! That’s how amazing theElusion Camo is. I literally melt-ed in to my surroundings unde-tected by the natural inhabitants!

When another black spotappeared on the horizon myexcitement level would soar. Itwasn’t a large turkey, but a coy-ote. Here too the coyote was soclose I could have reached outand put a collar on to take homeas a pet. Of course this didn’thappen because I didn’t have acollar along and I wasn’t allowedto accessorize (no necklace) myElusion Camo! At least I couldpet my new friend. Before thathappened though, he spotted adecoy we had set out and tookoff. He needed breakfast anddidn’t want any part of myshenanigans. The morning sit-infinished off with geese flyingoverhead and a hike back to thetruck. I thought we were nowdone for the day, but what did Iknow?

Lee fired up the engine and wewere on a tour of the beautifulBennington vistas. I was amazed


By Mary KayBy Mary Kay

The Outdoor AngelThe Outdoor Angel

Reflections of The Outdoor Angel

to Berlin for repair. I was ableto get a ride to Berlin the fol-lowing day and get a rental car.A few days later we went toBrownfield Maine to winterize

the camp and then to Berlin forthe Jeep and to Errol to pick upthe boat. It turns out it was afaulty thermostat; the replace-ment one was bad.Unfortunately between exces-sive labor charges, towing, anextra night at the motel and therental it turned out to be in anexpensive trip.

I was fortunate not to haveany serious injuries during theseason except for Memorial Dayweekend. Launching the boatand the winch handle hit theknuckles on my left hand andmy fingers ballooned up. I could

still row and by the end of theday the swelling was down to amanageable level. I was gettingmy gear together for bird hunt-ing and banged my left legabove the ankle. It was swollenand I hobbled around. Afterfour days I was able to do awade trip for brood stockAtlantic salmon. I was on thewater all day moving betweentwo anglers and able to get inposition to net two salmon.

It was the first time fly fishingfor one of the anglers and theother described himself as anovice; he did a great job play-ing the fish. The guys wereprobably at least half my age oryounger; half a foot taller andin great shape. At the end of theday they were getting tired andthe next morning my ankle wasswollen again. On May 23 2009I had sprained the same ankleand banged up my knee on theAndroscoggin.

It was easy to remember thedate because it was my wife’sbirthday and I asked her todrive me to the emergency roomat midnight. That was a longrecovery process and it lookslike anytime the ankle gets hitit’s going be a repeat.Unfortunately I had signed upfor a trip to Maynard's inRockwood Maine to fish theEast Outlet of the Kennebecthe following day SundayOctober 14th. Most rivers inMaine close the end ofSeptember but the Kennebec isopen to the end of October withCatch & Release only.

I had planned on taking oursetter Duchess bird hunting forhalf a day and fish the otherhalf. With the ankle swollenhunting was out; it looks like it


Continued next page

Overall things were goinggood until October rolledaround. I had a drift trip on theAndroscoggin the first week ofOctober. After going throughFranconia Notch the Jeep warn-ing signal started beeping; thetemperature gauge was high. Istopped at a garage in TwinMountains and had the thermo-stat replaced. Just beforeLancaster the Jeep overheatedagain. By that time it was afterfive and there were no garagesopen.

From there to Errol it was twohours of stopping to let theengine cool down and going 1 to5 miles before it overheatedagain. I was stopped on 110A byCedar Pond around 7pm whenChris Clark came by headinghome. Chris had a half day tripthe next morning and fourhours on the road to get back toErrol. I explained the problemto Chris and offered to let himstay with me if he would shuttlemy boat. Chris turned aroundand headed back to Errol.

I made it about an hour later.Chris shuttled my boat at 6:30in the morning and then picked

me up later in the afternoon. Iwas staying at the Errol moteland Richie the owner was good

enough to have my Jeep towed

Kennebec Runs

By Jim Norton By Jim Norton

From the back of a canoe

From the back of a canoe

Here I am with a landlocked salmon on the East Outlet of the Kennebec - Photo by GerryCrow


from previous page

could be a lost season. The tripwas with the Bull Salmon club.The club was originally com-prised of employees ofHoneywell Bull InformationSystems. Our first trip was toMaynard's in 1989. That was 23years ago. We used to take twotrips a year, spring and fall.Over the years most of themembers faded away; some for-ever and were replaced withfriends. My partner Gerry and Iare the only two original mem-bers who still go on trips. Withguiding our participation hasbecome less frequent.

Sunday morning October 14we were headed to Maine. Wehit rain on the way up andstopped in Solon to check on ashuttle for Monday. AroundBingham we hit snow with 2 to3 inches on route 8. We encoun-tered one serious accident; anSUV rolled over. In the after-noon the other five members onthe trip headed out to fish theriver.

With my ankle swollen I stayedat the cabin and watched thefootball game. We had thelargest cabin which had fourbedrooms, TV, and a woodstove. It was blustery with show-ers all afternoon and the troopsreturned discouraged with onlya few strikes. The Pat’s loss toSeattle closed out a gloomy day.The forecast for Monday wasnot great but it turned out to bea phenomenal day weather andfish wise. It was overcast andmild; no wind and almost like asummer day. There were only afew other boats on the waterand not many anglers wading.

Gerry and I each had a nymphand streamer rod with droppers.Nymphing was not productive;everything we got was onstreamers. In the first pool I hadfour brookies and severalsalmon. Gerry got off to a slowstart but made up for it as theday when on. Overall it was thebest day we've had on the riverfor large fish. Two members

who drifted with a guide alsohad a good day. The two whowaded got skunked.

There's a difference looking ata river from the perspective ofdrifting versus fishing it. I start-ed drifting the East Outlet inthe early 90s thanks to MikeJones a guide who showed methe runs on the river.

Mike was a great guide; unfor-tunately he’s no longer guiding.I’ve heard he’s taken a full timejob; probably with health care,retirement and other benefitslike vacation, holidays and sicktime. As often as I had fishedthe river I never looked at it theway Mike did. The East outlet isa challenging river; comprisedmostly of class II and III water.The characteristics of riverschange with different flow lev-els. The East outlet was flowingat 1200 cubic feet per secondwhen we arrived and was at1000 the day we drifted. Itwould be good to say I remem-bered all the runs but the lastrun was ten years ago.

Another problem with guidingis you’re usually on the waterguiding not fishing and theyears roll buy quicker then wewould like. I remembered themajor pools and the difficultdrops. I don’t think I’ll ever for-get the runs on theAndroscoggin unless senilitysets in. Years of being on thewater for weeks on end at differ-ent flow levels etch every riffand rock into memory. That’snot to say that occasionally Idon’t clip one trying to put theboat into a nook or cranny.

Fortunately even with the lowflow conditions I was able tonavigate the river. The guideshad client’s walk 400 yardsaround a particularly difficultstretch. I was able to go throughthe run with Gerry in the boat;I think he’s put on a few poundsin 23 years. If I did it again atthe same flow he’d walk. 1000CFS is a very difficult flow torun the river. I would not put

the boat in if the f low waslower. A raft would be ideal forlow flow levels but it would be along row across Indian Pond tothe take out if the wind was up.Most of the guides on the riveruse motors on the pond; rowingcan be challenging if the wind isup.

Maynard's provides lodgingand meals from Mother's Day tomid-October and just cabins inthe winter. We were the lastgroup to have dinner and break-fast. When we told Gail that wefirst visited Maynard’s 23 yearsago she said they had clientsthat have been coming for twicethat number of years and more.As usual the food was great,

Tuesday morning the forecastwas not good; rain and highwind. We headed to Solon tofish the river to North Anson.We put in at the EvergreensCampground which also pro-vides shuttle service at a reason-able fee. We lucked out again asit was relatively mild with nowind until almost 1 o'clock. It'sa section of river I had neverbeen on.

Friends and guides I talked tosaid it was a good area. Theflow was around 2000 CFS. TheKennebec in this section hasnumerous islands; similar to the

Androscoggin below Shelburne.After a long day on the riverSunday we planned on gettingoff by midafternoon; it wasanother four hours to get home.I spent most of the day on theoars while Gerry fished. SundayGerry spent quite a bit of timefishing dries to no avail.

Monday was a different storyand skating caddis turned out tobe productive with several nicesalmon and browns. Overall itwas a very enjoyable day. This isan easy section of the river todrift and great water for a canoeor kayak.

There are a few rocks andledges and a good current flow-ing several hundred yardsaround a few of the islandswhich looked like great nymph-ing runs. There were areas thatare very shallow even at 2000CFS. There are a few otherssections of the river in theSolon area I would like to try;hopefully I’ l l make it beforeanother ten years go by.

Jim a native of New Hampshire enjoysfly-fishing & tying, bird hunting and avariety of other outdoor activities and is aregistered NH fishing Guidewww.nhriversguide.com and author of thebook Granite Lines.


Paying reporting agents a higherfee might help a little. However,hunters will almost certainly footthe bill for any fee increase whichin Vermont’s case would have tobe first approved by legislature.

A little appreciation, patienceand courtesy from hunters waitingto have their animals reported mayalso help a little. I have had storeowners complain to me about rudebehavior by hunters that have feltthat they were not waited on asquickly as they would haveliked…all for a $Buck.

The following links provide loca-tions for the 2012 big game report-ing stations:

Vermont: www.vtfishandwildlife.com/library/vendors_and_sources/big_game_reportingstations.pdf

New Hampshire:www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Hunting/check_stations.html

Hunter surveys provide anothertool by which biologists obtainimportant data used in big gamemanagement. Frequently, surveys

are mailed to random samples ofhunting license holders to gatherinformation concerning the hoursand dates hunted, animal sightingsand other information that is usedin statistical processes for estimat-ing deer and moose populationsizes. Given enough accuratedata, the statistical techniques nowavailable to game biologists arecapable of providing very accurateestimates of animal populations.

Unfortunately, every year manyhunters simply don’t bother to fillout and send in hunter surveyforms. Some don’t think that itmatters. Some just don’t getaround to it. Some don’t respondbecause they are disgruntled aboutsome element of big game man-agement.

It has been said that one has lit-tle grounds for complaining aboutthe government when one does notbother to get out and vote duringstate, federal and local elections. Iwould argue that the same can besaid about hunter surveys. If wedon’t do our part by accuratelyresponding to hunter surveys, howcan we justify complaining aboutbig game management when itdoes not suit our fancy? If you winthe lottery and receive a huntersurvey this fall, fill it out and sendit in. Your vote does matter.

New technologies are beginningto provide new data that may go along way towards “fine tuning” biggame management at the regionallevel in the future. Aerial, forwardlooking infrared and other cameratechnologies along with globalpositioning satellites and newmapping technologies togetherprovide exciting and undreamed ofways to collect tremendousamounts of data on big game pop-ulations.

The future of big game manage-ment is exciting. Let’s hope we cankeep enough people excited aboutbig game hunting to keep it a nec-essary endeavor.

Don’t forget to be considerateand appreciate the biologists andbig game reporting station opera-tors this fall. Please take the timeto send in the surveys.

It’s fall. It is time for huntingand harvesting, and it’s time forbiologists to begin gathering thedata that will help set permit num-bers and regulations needed nextyear as wildlife agencies seek tosustain and manage for healthy,abundant big game populations.

Whether data is gathered bystate biologists at biological checkstations, by big game reporting sta-tions or through hunter surveys,accurate information plays a vitalrole in the process of science basedbig game management.

All of us can play a part this fallby making sure that we do our partto ensure the accuracy and com-pleteness of the data that we pro-vide for the game that we harvestand encourage others to do thesame. This is, of course, requiredby law. Still, there are those thatby intent or by laziness don’talways do their part.

Deer and moose reporting sta-tions have historically been vibrantand exciting places to hang aroundduring the first weekend of season.In my home state of Vermont,local country stores have histori-cally played a key role as deerreporting stations. Paid $1.00 foreach animal reported, Vermontcountry stores have over the yearsserved as check stations more tohelp draw customers interested inseeing the deer than for the pur-pose of making money by report-ing deer.

In the past decade, large compa-nies have bought up many countrystores that were historically ownedand operated by “mom and pop.”Now run entirely by “hired help”,the managers of company runstores are not so anxious to serveas deer check stations. A dollarper deer doesn’t go very far thesedays towards paying the help, and

corporate philosophy frequentlycares little about local traditionsand may even take exception to alittle blood spilled in the parkinglot.

These issues pose challenges for

state wildlife agencies as they workto sustain adequate big gamereporting into the future andensure that necessary, high qualitydata is available on which to basemanagement decisions.

Biological check stations provide vital data necessary to sound, science based big game man-agement.

By Wayne A. LarocheBy Wayne A. Laroche

Fish & Wildlife ManagementFish & Wildlife Management

Managing Big Game: Getting the Data

Wayne Laroche directed Vermont’sDepartment of Fish and Wildlife from2003 until 2011 serving as theCommissioner. He holds degrees in bothfisheries and wildlife management from theUniv. of Maine and California StateUniv. Wayne is a native Vermonter andcurrently resides in Franklin, VT. Heenjoys tracking whitetails in the big woodsof Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.Wayne can be reached by emailing [email protected].


to get better. By morning some ofthe pain subsided so we jumped onsome horses and worked our way tothe hunting area. During the ride Iasked Erdogan why he had post-poned my trip from September tomid October. I had figured someonewith more money or influence had

taken my prime spot. “I didn’t wantto tell you, but 14 people were shotin August by the soldiers near thearea we are to hunt in”. “I canceledmy first 6 hunters so you are the firstto hunt after the killings”. I guess Iknew what I was getting into. Myhunting buddies, Stewart fromMinnesota and EB from NorthCarolina had attempted a similarhunt here a few years back.

When the locals found out therewere some Americans in the area,the village held a protest and mybuddies had to leave before getting achance to hunt. Also my buddies toldme not to joke around with theMuslims. They remembered metelling of my “mooning” some ofthe Muslims while on a hunt for turin Azerbaijan a few years back. Nosense of humor! I later found out thepenalty of this sort of thing was hav-ing my head in their game room. Iwas fortunate on this trip that myarmy camo clad guide would carrymy gun while we rode the horses. Hewould be the first to be shot by a

It all started at the Grand SlamClub Ovis convention in Reno lastspring. GSCO is an internationalorganization for sheep and goathunters. I was the high bidder for anibex hunt in the Republic ofKazakhstan near the China border.(There are 7 “Stan” countries. I betyou can’t name them all).Unfortunately someone else wantedthe hunt as much as me so I paidalmost full price. The outfitter forthe hunt was Erdogan Avci, a guideI had on a hunt in Asia a few yearsago.

During the summer my son and Iclimbed over a dozen 3500’+ moun-tains in NH to get in shape for thetough hunt I was anticipating. As itcame closer to the hunt date inSeptember, Erdogan e-mailed me,saying that there were problems sothe hunt was put on hold. Finally thehunt was rescheduled for October.He had me fill several forms printedin Russian that I had no idea whatthe content was. Hopefully I didn’tgive him my house or the rest of myestate by signing these documents.

Two weeks before my trip I had anaccident while land surveying, hav-ing a rock in a stone wall crush mymiddle finger, exposing the tendonsand requiring 10 stitches. The morn-ing of my flight, I took out my laststitch and a nasty liquid came outfrom deep inside my finger. Notgood! I called the local clinic(Lamprey Healthcare, Raymond,NH) and was told since I had notseen the doctor there since 2005 theymight not want to see me. Excuseme for being healthy! They said theywould call me back. After severalphone calls back and forth over a fewhours they said their morning sched-ule was full. I pleaded with them tosee me for a few minutes as I desper-ately needed a prescription of antibi-otics as I was about to leave for aflight a third world country and be 2days travel to the nearest hospital.“Sorry”.

After around 24 hours of flight Iarrived in Kazakhstan. As I wentthrough customs I was asked to showmy visa. I told them I didn’t haveone. I had specifically askedErdogan if a visa was needed. Hereplied that Americans don’t needone as long as the stay is less than 2months. Note to self: Don’t trustyour outfitter’s advice that couldland you in prison. I was next shuf-fled from official to official over thenext 2 hours, then a lady came up tome and said “YOU BE DEPORT-ED!” I thought she was kidding. Shewasn’t! While all of this was happen-

ing I got a call on my cell phonefrom a survey client back in NH ask-ing lots of questions about his survey.I told him I was in the process ofbeing deported from Kazakhstan soI couldn’t talk to him right now. Idon’t think he believed me and Ihave not heard from him since. I wasready to be put in a holding cell orwhatever they do with illegal immi-grants with firearms waiting depor-tation.

The next step was probably the fun“Cavity Check” with rubber gloves. Itold them that my outfitter was wait-ing for me outside the door with allof my other documents includingmy gun permit. Finally Erdoganpoked his face through the customsdoor. “You are in a lot of trouble.Why didn’t you get a visa?” Over thenext few hours, going from official toofficial I was finally given a visa.They had made a compromise thatwould allow me to have a 3 day huntinstead of a 7 day hunt. I don’t knowif any money exchanged hands but Ifinally made it through customs.

We drove all day and as we gotnearer to the China border we weremet by a military checkpoint. Wehad to show our papers and firearmsto the armed soldiers. I took a fewphotos but Erdogan said to stop as itwas a tense situation and he didn’twant me to piss off the soldiers.After the long drive we finallyarrived at the base camp. I wasgreeted by a support crew of a dozenpeople and I was the only hunter. Nowonder this is so expensive! I went tobed but didn’t get any sleep. Thepainful infection from my finger wasnow working its way up my arm. Itlooked like I would have to cancelthe hunt and get to a hospital ASAP.All night I had nightmares of havingto cut off my hand so I just willed it

Roscoe Blaisdell, president of the New Hampshire Antler and Skull Trophy Club, accom-panied by his two guides and of the object of his quest, a Trophy Ibex from Kazakhstan.

Trophy Spotlight

Continued on page 35

My Kazakhstan Ibex Hunt: Bad, Worse, Life is good, Bad!

by Roscoe Blaisdell


them from human hands touchingthe cameras!

Location of your camera on thetree is very important for capturinganimal activity, it needs to be about2-3 feet off the ground in most cases,(Read your owners manual) and youneed to remember that your camerawill be taking pictures of anything in

the close proximity of the cameraout to the recommended distance inyour cameras manual for day andnight photos, as well as the anglesfrom the lens that will be captured inthe photo! This takes practice andtrial and error will determine howyour camera settings react! I like toset up new cameras near my birdfeeders so that activity is capturedeasily and then I can see just howwell my camera functions. Typicalsetups should always have brush,leaves and grasses that are close tothe camera removed, or the camerarelocated. These items near a cam-era will rob the flash or infrared pro-jected as well as cause more windrelated false alarms and cause a lotof dark or black photos. The sensorreacts to the movement of an ani-mal, but these obstructions grab the

light in the front of your photo andnothing reaches the back! Some trailcameras are just terrible at anythingfurther then 15 feet away from them,while others will take decent photosat night at further distances. Soplacement for night travel, to a gametrail, must be closer and at an angleto the trail so you can catch move-ment before it walks past your cam-era when the camera finally reactsand snaps the picture, this is calledtrigger speed. Don’t place slow trig-ger speed cameras at ninety degreeangles to a trail, place them at a fortyfive or thirty degree angle to thetrail, you may catch only the rearend of a animal as it travels a trail,or the head on shot but at least youwill know what walked by your cam-era at night!

If you are only concerned withmovement during the daylight placethe camera further back from thetrail and place your camera more ona seventy-five degree angle to thetrail. Most all cameras react tomovement during daylight furtheraway from the sensor then themotion/heat sensors at night!Placing more then one camera in thesame immediate area can help youout in several ways, primarily theycan help to detect animals using anearby run that day rather then theprimary traveled run. It also canhelp to determine morning andafternoon travel directions of theanimal. Most cameras only give youa rather small window of view ofgame movement in the woods, usingmore then one camera even on thesame tree can often give a betterview of what a hunter might see if inthe tree above! As you use trail cam-eras for scouting more and more,you will develop skills in placementthat trial and error will explain thisthe best!

There is down sides to using cam-eras directly in a natural food source

I highly recommend buying lockboxes, ratchet straps, cable locks andpadlocks keyed alike so you alwayshave your key with you!

I’ve been a deer tracker longbefore trail cameras became afford-able to use as extra eyes in thewoods! I have relied on followingdeer sign on the forest floor since Istarted hunting on my own at 16years old and actually before thatwhen my Father and Grandfatherwould point out the tell tale signs ofdeer movements to me at age eightto fifteen! There is nothing like theexperience of your elders to get ayoung hunter on the right track; par-don the pun! Learning the tell talesigns on the forest floor takes years ofobservations and experience, havingan old timer by your side for manyyears can really jump start thatknowledge, and now we have newtools to apply that knowledge too!

Trail cameras have come a longway and now come in many shapes,sizes, trigger speeds, distance, flash,infrared, battery life, and satelliteimages now delivered right to yourcell phone as they happen.Choosing a trail camera is prefer-ence and typically what your walletcan withstand! This is not to implythat if you spend a lot of money ona trail camera that you will get thebest one! Although this may ringtrue with some cameras, otherswell… not so much! With any cam-era you purchase I highly recom-mend buying lock boxes, ratchetstraps, cable locks and padlockskeyed alike so you always have yourkey with you! The reasons for thisare ease of mounting, animal proof-ing, and most importantly thiefproofing your cameras. While mostpeople will respect that a cameraattached to a tree with a bungee cordbelongs to a fellow sportsmen, butsome so called sportsmen will steal

that camera in a heartbeat especiallyif it is an easy grab! Boxes, cablesand locks are something a “would bethief ” will have to do a lot ofadvanced planning to steal! Franklythe people that will steal your cam-era typically do not have enough

ambition to return to where a lockedcamera is located with bolt cuttersand risk being caught in the act bythe owner or risk being caught byanother camera they didn’t see alongtheir route too and from the area! Iknow my setups are not always easi-ly detected and are backed by sever-al other cameras in the area.

Priority one in pacing a camera issimilar to setting a trap to catch ananimal! Keeping your gear humanscent free and food scent free arecrucial for capturing good wildlifeactivity! Human scent free for ani-mals like deer, fox, and coyotes,where food scent free is critical forthe well being of your camerasaround bear baiting stations! Many atrail camera has been destroyed in orout of a metal protective case, whichhas food or attractant scents left on

Using Trail Cameras For Scouting

By Steve BeckwithThe Maine Hunter

Continued next page

The Maine HunterBy Steve Beckwith


Ibex - Continued from page 33“MacGyver” fashioned some toolsand used pieces of a rag to putbetween the nuts and bolts where thethreads were stripped and got it run-ning again after an hour. I was veryconcerned because we didn’t havemuch time to spare as I had to getout of the country before my visaexpired that evening.

I finally flew out of the countryand had a little hiccup in Frankfurtas they wanted to detain me over myfirearm. I got through that as the air-plane was ready to leave but was notso fortunate at the customs inNewark, NJ. One number of the 10digit serial number for my gun didn’tmatch the paperwork. It is fine printand I thought an 8 was a 6 as it wasa little marred. The customs officertold me it is very important to havethese number correct so he seizedmy firearm.

I can see the New Jersey headlinenow - “International gun smugglerRoscoe Blaisdell caught by customsofficer Barney Fife”. I eventuallyarrived home without my gun. Afterseveral weeks of phone calls to localand NJ customs agents, and ten callsto United Airlines (out sourced toIndia where there is a language bar-rier), I still have no gun. Today I wastold that it would soon be transport-ed to Maryland to be destroyed. Ihave not given up but it does notlook good.

If you want your own fun adven-

ture in Kazakhstan call Erdogan at90 312 418 9573. And say hello tomy friends at all of the customsagencies.

My wife Kathy says this will be mylast “Adventure Hunt”. Ya, sure. Iget an adrenalin rush when I travelto these unpredictable countries, notknowing what incident will be next.Hum, maybe another “Stan” coun-try. Or Turkey where 5 years ago 10angry customs agents surroundedme, took my passport and had lots ofquestions about my gun.

My interpreter had left with all ofmy papers an hour earlier. I almostbecame someone’s boyfriend in anIstanbul prison. That wouldn’t begood as I’m already married. OrAzerbaijan where my buddy Peterand I tried to smuggle carpets overthe border.

The government has this scam thatif you buy a carpet you have to takeit to a museum and pay $100 toprove it is not an antique. We saidbull to this as my brand new shiny$100 carpet was definitely not anantique. We were caught at the cus-toms and all hell broke loose. Am Icreating my own problems? No, it’severyone else’s fault.

sniper and I could hide in the rocksif I made it in time. I had a moneybelt and pouch containing $7000cash, a GPS, smart phone with lan-guage translation, and Canadian hatand shirt if I needed to get out ofthere and work my way home. Iunderstand Muslims do not likeAmericans lately due to the recentproblems over the anti Mohamedmovie. Great timing!

We saw several groups of ibex dur-ing the first day then finally anabsolute monster was spotted in thecliffs below us. We made a stalk butas we approached within 200 yards aband of females spotted us and alert-ed the big one who made one jumpover the cliff out of our sight. Wespent the rest of the evening tryingto locate him with eventual luck buthe was out in the open 800 yardsaway. There was no way to get clos-er to him so we rode off and madespike camp. We were up the nextmorning before light to see if the bigone would show up in an area thatwould present a stalk. I woke up in asickly state, either from altitude sick-ness or my body trying to fight offthe infection spreading through my

body. At this altitude, the oxygen waslow and any effort to climb hills wasa chore. In half an hour we arrivedat the cliffs and after a few hours ourprize was spotted down low in thevalley with a group of females. Weworked our way down to him and aswe approached 330 yards the groupspotted us and began to flee. I quick-ly bent down over a rock and let myfirst bullet fly. Let’s just say the firstshot a little far back didn’t damageany edible meat, but the second shottook him through the neck and puthim down for good.

As we approached the fallen ibexwe could see what a truly nice ani-mal he was. His teeth were worn tothe gums, and the 49” long hornsshowed him to be at least 11 yearsold. He was near the end of his lifeand instead of being food for thewolves and snow leopards, wouldfeed the local villagers and decoratemy wall back home. My guidesquickly butchered the goat after thecelebration and photo session.

The next day we started our 12hour trip back to the airport. After 1hour of travel the truck made a hor-rible noise and broke down.

area that you are planning to hunt!Deer often times get spooked by trailcameras when they go off. Mostcameras make a clicking sound asthe shutter engages and infraredcameras, in my opinion, are a non-natural light source coupled with aclick coming from the camera loca-tion, infrared it is a glowing light anddeer do see it. The flash of the bulbcamera most wild animals naturallyassociate it with lightning in thewoods something they see all thetime and can be less problematic todeer, but more expensive to youbecause flash cameras tend to drainbatteries ten times faster theninfrared cameras. Some deer getused to either of these style camerasat night, but deer coming to a feed-ing area just at dusk are already onedge, all their senses are on alert andjust when they get to the food source,cameras start clicking and deerbecome jumpy and leave withoutreturning to that food source! Everclick your stand with a deer belowyou…they look up or jump mosttimes! So I prefer to catch glimpseson trails coming to and from a foodsource of the deer I am hunting! Ifyou can read sign at all, you can readsign where deer are foraging, so formy scouting I already know deer arefeeding there and I just want to seethe deer’s headgear and when they

are traveling too and from that feed-ing area! If my camera jumps themon a trail they don’t associate it withwhere I will be hunting them overthe natural food source, if they takea different trail the next night toavoid my camera, they often timesstill end up in the natural food areabelow my stand.

Trail cameras are a lot of fun tosee the photos or video clips you cap-ture no matter what you use themfor and what you want to capturewith one! There are many uses andthey can show people just whatappears at night by their back porchor bird feeders! By day or by nighttrail cameras have opened up a newway of seeing movements of all ani-mals never seen by humans, and forthe most part only imagined!

from previous page

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Steve Beckwith is a Registered MaineGuide, ThermaCELL Pro Staff, andowns these owns these websites:• MaineGuideCourse.com• MaineHunters.com• CoyoteCrosshairs.com• MoosePermit.com• MaineGuidedHunts.comHe is a life member, editor and webmasterof the North Berwick Rod and Gun Club.A videographer, website designer and inter-net entrepreneur with his online portfoliolocated at MultitaskWebsites.com, Stevecan be reached through any of his websites.

Roscoe Blaisdell is president of the NewHampshire Antler and Skull Trophy Club.Roscoe can bereached at; 22 ScribnerRoad, Raymond, NH 03077, 895-9947- [email protected]


during the first couple of week-ends of deer season! Some ofyou other do it yourselfers mustbe able to relate to that, projectsmysteriously pop up that need tobe done, the kitchen wall wasfine for 49 weeks this past year,now it is a crisis to be fixed! Butmaybe from a less that support-ive “significant other” thingswould be much different!

Looking at “R”, it could be“Really!” I would suspect itwould go something like, Well,I’m going hunting with the boysthis weekend. The reply wouldbe something like Oh Really, mymother is coming for the week-end! All the more reason to gohunting! Or, what do you haveplanned for the weekend? Well,

I was hunting with the guys!Really, going to be a nice week-end, we should rake the lawn!How about this one, what areyou doing tonight? I was plan-ning on going to the gun shopfor a few last minute things forthe weekend. Oh really, where inthe hell is that money comingfrom?

“U” is for understand. Yes, Iunderstand that you hadplanned on going hunting but Imade the plans for US to go tomy brother’s for the weekendweeks ago! How about I under-stand that you wanted to gohunting this weekend, but youwent last year didn’t you? Whycan’t we do something together?

Well, it is that time of yearagain now isn’t it? Some of usgo through that annual transfor-mation from nice guy to “Mr.Grumpy Pants”! My wife’sphrase among others that can’tbe printed in Fred’s magazine!The longer I am out of work inquest of the “Right Deer”, thebetter the names get! All wewant to do is eat, sleep andHUNT! My god, you’d thinkthat we were the ones in RUT!

Let’s think about it for aminute, RUT, what does thatreally mean. Well, “R” could beRelax. Depending on the job youhave and how much time youcan get away from it, it shouldbe a time to relax, get up, get outand get the hell away from theoffice for awhile. Or, it could befor Rewind as we get older. Youcan magically rewind your lifeand go back to past hunts andother related memories from theyears gone by.

The letter “U”, could say, be“Unwind”. Time out in theclean fresh air enjoying the sim-ple surroundings, not knowingwhat lies over the next ridge andpushing yourself that extra tofind out.

It could also be “Understand”,some people just don’t under-stand how hunting consumesone’s entire being for that sever-al week stretch of the year! Forsome, it could be “Undone”!When that magical buck of alifetime steps out, they mentallycome “Undone” and can’t get itdone!

“T”, is for timing, it seems asthough that there are alwaysthings that “come up” thatNEED to be done around thehouse during hunting season!Or, there just happen to be fam-ily events planned. Funny howthere are 52 weeks in a year andthe only time things are on aNeed to be done schedule are

Eat, Sleep, Hunt...

Southern Side UpBy Alex Cote

Southern Side UpBy Alex Cote

Continued next page

Alex II came through on the last day of the fall shotgun season and dropped this 20 poundgobbler. He shot it with his grandfathers 12 gague pump! The shotgun was purchased byalex sr as a christmas gift for his fathr in 1974. Ernest Cote passed this life on May 18,1975. This shotgun was the only new gun that Ernie ever owned. He would be proudof his grandson today if he were here to enjoy it! He is watching from beyond, I'm sure,Love you Dad!


from previous page

It’s going to rain, don’t you thinkthat you should stay home?

“T” is not as tough it’s simply,THAT‘S TO DAMN BAD NOWISN’T IT?

Well, the projected deer har-vest according to the expertslooks to be “Good” largely dueto the mild winter. We don’thave record number of deerstatewide but the numbers arereported to be stable. In myneck of the woods, we were see-ing deer until the acorns startedto drop! Once we located thefavored oaks, we were back toseeing deer. In talking with sev-eral other area hunters we real-ized that we were encounteringthe same problem. None of uswere seeing many does! At onestretch, I had one camera thattook over 200 pictures in about a10 day span. Realizing that therewere a bunch of photos on thecard, I couldn’t wait to get homeand look at the pictures on thePC.

To say that I was amazed wasan understatement. Out of the200 plus pictures, there were lessthan ten of a doe and fawn.Those were the only pictures ofdoes that I had! The rest wereall bucks! There were at leastten different bucks using a smallfood plot that we had planted inthe spring. If I were a littlemore computer/game camerasavvy, I would be happy the sendthem along! My wife andyoungest son were putting theirnames on the bucks that theyplanned on tagging this month!We all know how that worksthough!

Based on the findings, I hung anew stand on a trail about 150yards before the food plot thatshowed plenty or deer traffic. Iplaced a second camera on thetrail at the stand. The picturesstill came, not as many as thecamera on the food plot, butthere were several bucks that I

wouldn’t be ashamed to tag! Asthe opening of archery seasonapproached, I was maybe check-ing the camera at the stand everyother day.

I had a pretty good idea of thedeer’s comings and goings. Or, atleast I thought I did. Then, theowner of the property threw mea long sweeping curve ball! Thefield where I had put a smallfood plot and was getting all ofthe pictures and where the newstand was set up, was going toget fertilized. I told the ownerthat shouldn’t be too big a deal,I had fertilized the food plot andthat didn’t bother the deer any.It was pointed out that the fertil-ized was going to be poop, infact, human poop mixed withwood ash! A reasonably newprocess that had been developeda number of years back withexcellent results! Well, theresults have been awesome! Ihaven’t had a deer in the foodplot since! Must be some type ofnew Greenpeace tactic I guess!So, we needed to do some seri-ous rearranging in a hurry. Weare now getting some pictures ona regular schedule. That sched-ule just so happens to be aftermidnight and before 2:00 am,but at least it is daily!

So, with the promised standscrewed up from the poop, I hada back up stand that had beengood to me during the last sever-al seasons, and thought that Ishould sit it. After a week ofseeing nothing, I put out a cam-era and that too, showed menothing. I hung a new stand andimmediately was getting a fewdeer traveling in and out of theoak fringed hemlocks.

Now, mind you due to the cir-cumstances mentioned earlier, Ihadn’t seen an animal sincearchery started. I had a workschedule of back to back 24 hourdays coming and would miss afew days in the woods. As it just

so happened, the deer activitywas picking up so I was hopingto at least see one!

Part of my job happens to bevery political. That isn’t alwaysone of the most enjoyable partsand this being an election year,makes things less than desirableat times. Well, I was slated tomeet with Congressman FrankGuinta. There were some issuesthat he and I were planning tochat about and both state andnational levels. Well, I will admitthat meetings like this are usual-ly cool because of the cast ofattendees. It isn’t all that bad.Well, the meeting was scheduledfor 2:30 in the afternoon andexpected to last an hour.

That would give me time to getinto the woods for the eveningsit! 2:30 came and went and Ireceived a call from a staffer say-ing that the meeting was delayeduntil 3:30! A little dishearten forme but still doable, I could getinto the woods. 3:30 and noCongressman! 4:00, noCongressman , no phone call!This is how I have learned toadapt to the world of politicians!4:15, the phone rings, the stafferapologizes 10 times and tells methat the congressman got tied upand we will have to reschedule.

I grab my gear and hurry out.As I am approaching the stand, Ispot a white flag waving in theair going away from me. I knowdamn well that the deer isn’t sur-rendering! So, I climb up in thestand anyway. All that shows is aresident flock of turkeys. Upongetting down, I putt the SD cardfrom the camera. I get home tellthe misses, she chuckles, hey itsall part of the game right I con-vince myself, no biggie. I put thecard in the PC. From 4:35 to5:15 in 5 minute increments, Ihave some really nice pictures ofa TEN POINT BUCK havinghis way under the oak trees!Isn’t that the limit!

Well, at this writhing, I am des-perately trying to put my 12 yearold onto a fall shotgun turkey.This will be a special bird or us ifit happens, hope that it will. Myfather wasn’t much on deerhunting but loved to coon andrabbit hunt. He never had a newgun in his life.

In 1974, just prior toChristmas, I had worked a pileof overtime. IN a card, I gaveMom, 5 crisp 100.00 dollar billsfor what ever she wanted to dowith them, fill the oil tank in thehouse, whatever. I couldn’t thinkof a better gift for Dad, I went toa local gun shop and bought the“Old Man” a shinny new pumpshotgun. On Christmas day, thatwas the first time in my life Iever saw my father cry! He firedthe shotgun once that winterfelling a fine snowshoe hare onwarm, Sunday afternoon. Thatfollowing May, at 56 Dad died ofa massive heart attack. I had theshotgun back.

Over the years, I had used the12 gauge, taken a number ofdeer and my fair share of grousewith it. Several weeks back, Icleaned out one of my gun safesand gave everything a goodcleaning..

My 12 year old assisted me inthis event for the first time. Hehad a million questions abouteach gun, what I had taken withit and so on. When we came toDad’s shotgun, I had him hold itand had him clean it. I told himthe story behind the gun. At myson’s asking, he is trying to takehis fall turkey with his grandfa-ther’s shotgun. Should he suc-ceed, what a fitting bird it will befor the both of us!

Alex Cote resides in Deerfield NewHampshire. He is on the Pro Staff forNorthwood's Common Scents! He is also ascorer for the NHASTC. Alex and his sonspend as much time outdoors as possibleand he only works when he has to.

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By Captian John CurryBy Captain John Curry

The Coastal ZoneThe Coastal Zone

time that the tide stops running ineither direction.

Imagine the hydraulic force of seawater that is created at this momentand you can better understand howthe tide can run up to 20 knots atcertain times. This mixture of the

nutrient rich warmer waters ofBuzzards Bay and the cooler NorthAtlantic waters of Cape Cod Baycreate a perfect ecosystem for certaintypes of bait fish. Atlantic mackerel,squid and sand eels all stay in thecanal much longer than mostinshore areas of Cape Cod Bay.Juvenile flounder, silversides and bayanchovies stay in the canal longerthan when they are in Buzzards Bay.It truly is an hour-glass shaped phe-nomenon that has a unique way ofholding bait and game fish all yearlong. The canal also has a seasonalspring herring run that provides ajump start to the season around thefirst of May each year.

As these oceanic migrants travelhundreds of miles from the Gulf ofMaine the stripers are right onschedule from their spring migra-tions north out of the ChesapeakeBay and Hudson River spawningruns. This first run of fish fatten upafter a long migration on the muchneeded river herring. I’m always

impressed with how nature has itsown clock and just how the stripersknow the herring are here is a natu-ral wonder in my opinion. The CapeCod Canal has two paved recre-ational paths running the entirelength on both the mainland andCape Cod sides.

Access is easily gained throughmany paved and unpaved parkingareas and on certain times it can behard to find a spot where the fish arebusting bait on top in the earlymorning. Because of the pavedrecreational trail on either side manycanal diehard’s or “canal rats” as welocals call them, use bicycles tocruise up and down the canal look-ing for signs of an upcoming blitz.It’s impressive to see some of theseset ups. Rod holders, built in coolersand an assortment of lure boxes cus-tom made on two and three wheelbikes tells you these guys are serious.

As a charter captain I am alwayskeeping an eye on what is happeningin the big ditch. As I mentioned ear-lier, although you are restricted fromfishing the land cut portion of thecanal and both ends you can accessmany prime spots just outside of thechannel markers on each end. TheCape Cod Bay side or “east end” is agreat ambush point for stripers asthey feed their way through thecanal on their spring migration topoints north. The Buzzards Bay sideor “west end” has a continuationthat reaches 10 miles past the landcut that is technically off limits toboat fishing even though it reachesfar into the expansive Buzzards Bayfishery.

By keeping an eye on the catchesand bait present in the canal at cer-tain times of the year I can plan myfishing strategy. In the spring andsummer stripers like to corral themackerel in the east end of the canalso tossing Yozuri Crystal Minnows inthe mackerel pattern will produce onsome mornings for a wide areaaround the east entrance. When theMay herring run is in full swingtrolling or casting large Sebile StickShads in the blue /silver pattern canbe deadly on the west end of thecanal. One pattern that always pro-duces fish, is to dunk a live eelwhether you are on foot in the canalor by boat at either entrance.

On a recent charter the wind washowling out of the north at 30 knotsso we had limited areas to fish. Ichose the west end of the canalbecause the upper reaches ofBuzzards Bay offer many small baysand creeks to dodge the wind insome cases. After catching mainlysmall stripers on top water baits wehit the west end right by the

The Cape Cod Canal is a very spe-cial place when it comes to catchingstriped bass. This man made water-way has a long history of storiedcatches of large stripers and is themain attraction for shore boundanglers in New England. Why am Iwriting about a body of water thatcan’t be fished from a boat?

Well let’s look at why the “bigditch” as it’s affectionately called, isan important piece of the Cape Codfishing puzzle. I will come back towhy this is important for us anglersfishing mainly from a boat. First ofall the canal offers two primary fea-tures that big stripers love, currentand bait.

The distance that is the main landcut is roughly 8 miles long. Thecanal does have a high and low tide,but is more important to understandits tidal direction when it comes toknowing when the fish may turn onthe feed. Many local fishermen pre-fer an east going tide as its water lev-els rise.

This may be true on most days, butlike fishing anywhere other factorscan influence feeding behaviors.

Let’s consider the geography of theregion first. The canal acts like afunnel between Cape Cod Bay andBuzzards Bay. Considering thatthese two large areas of ocean hold

massive amounts of sea water andyou will understand why the currentin the canal is so active. When onebay has a dropping tide and theother has an incoming or high tide,the canal receives a large volume ofwater from both bays until a certain

Dan from Quebec. Caught at the west end of canal by boat.

John W. Durkee of Tunbridge, VT.Fishing from shore in the canal using topwater poppers in July.

The Striper Funnel

Continued next page

Massachusetts Maritime Academytraining ship and dropped a few eelsdown in the fast current. It didn’ttake long for a 48” striper weighingroughly 37 lbs to inhale our slimyoffering. Many boat fisherman hateto hear that the canal is producingwhen other locations aren’t. Not meI like to know what’s happening inthe big ditch as it can certainly helpyou put fish in the box if you knowhow to use it in your favor.

If you go: Remember the canal is acommercial waterway used for alltypes of ocean transits. It is notunusual for you to see massive cargoships and military vessels transit thecanal. If you go on foot be careful asthese ships can produce huge wavesand the rocks can be very slippery in

spots. Be extra careful if fishing inwaders as the current is strong andthe drop off are steep. Many localtackle shops offer good advice onwhere the fish are hitting and canprovide the canal tide and currenttables.

Of course if you want to experi-ence the canal one day and the boatthe next day, give me a call.


“Papa, can you take me huntingtonight?” were the first words Iheard when I answered my phone. Iwas gathering my gear, bone tiredfrom spending three days volunteer-ing with the QDMA Military YouthHunt, where we gave kids from mili-tary families the chance to go deerhunt during the Kentucky YouthSeason. I was looking forward togetting home, unloading my truckand relaxing some before anotherwork-week. During that time I hadthought about my grandson Brody alot, and the fact that while I was vol-unteering my time taking someoneelse’s child into the woods, I wasmissing out being with him. Hisdad, uncle and other grandfatherhad taken him out though, and evi-dently come home empty handed.Here was a chance for me to makeup for it and I couldn’t turn himdown and told him I would pick himup on my way home.

Brody had just turned 7 the weekbefore. He was probably three whenhe first accompanied me into a deerstand, 5 when he first saw a deer har-vested while sitting beside me, and 6when he shot his first deer. He shothis first deer while I was at last year’sQDMA hunt, with a single shot .223youth rifle that I had gotten together.His dad had taken him out and hadto help him aim and steady the rifleand he was thrilled with the doe hegot. I had done a lot of shooting BBguns and .22 rifles with him and hadtold him that when he was with me,he would have to aim and shoot allby himself and he had surprised methe week before by shooting someimpressive groups at about 65 yardswith the little .223.

This year, my trail cams hadshown several small bucks runningaround my property, located in cen-tral Kentucky where I live. Therewere some 1? year olds: a spike, a 5

point, and a dandy little 4 point.There was also a 2? year old six with4 points on one side and 2 slightlymisshapen points on the other. I hadseen him while bow hunting theweek before and taken a picture.

Brody saw the picture and decidedhe WANTED that buck. I wantedthe buck out of the gene pool and hewas being an annoyance by rubbinghis antlers on the plastic tubes pro-tecting some trees I had planted inthe spring so I was all for it.

We headed back to the stand about4:30 with the sun still high in the skyand clouds blowing from some seri-ous winds that were predicted toturn into a storm later. I have asmall brassica, clover, and alfalfafield beside a pond. A buddy standis at one end, uphill and downwindof the prevailing winds. We had justclimbed into the stand and I hadn’teven sat down when Brody whis-pered “There’s a deer, Papa, can Ishoot it?” He likes to try and fool meall the time and I didn’t take himserious but when I looked over myshoulder there really was one!Suddenly there were two, one wasthe little spike buck. Brody wasabout to explode with excitement as

Capt. John Curry grew up in Rehobeth, MAand summered on the Cape mainly in theBass River area. He has over 30 years offishing and boating on Cape Cod and RhodeIsland waters. Currently living in W.Yarmouth and summers in Bourne. He runsa sportfishing business on tha Cape, visit hiswebsite www.capefishing.net.

from previous page

by Daniel Bellby Daniel BellI fumbled to get a shell into the rifle.Before I could get it loaded though,they pranced right by the stand nomore than 15 yards away and disap-peared into the woods.

The disappointment was evident

and he sat dejectedly with his facedown, the bill of his hat covering hiseyes. This was the last few hours ofthe youth weekend and he knew thathis best opportunity had probably

come and gone. Like most kids hisage, he occasionally likes to whineand cry when things don’t go hisway. This time though, he sat silent-ly and I noticed his chest was heav-ing and finally a tear ran down hischeek. The little guy was crushedbut he was trying to be a big boy andhide it from me. I put an arm ofcomfort around him and assuredhim that we might see more, even asI was also trying to convince myself.I pointed out that if he shot thespike, he would never get a chance ifanything bigger walked out of thewoods. He was adamant that hereally wanted that little two pointerbut finally began cheering up.

We waited as the sun started downand the wind really picked up, rock-ing the stand back and forth. Withthe wind came a drop in the temper-ature and Brody started telling mehe was ready to go home and I had

to convince him we really needed tostay out there a while longer. Hebegan fidgeting and talking, gettingimpatient, having decided that hisonly opportunity to get a deer hadpassed. The shadows were gettinglong and I was about ready to give inand head to the house when weheard a shot from several farms over.Brody perked up and I told him thatprobably some little boy who decid-ed to stay out there and be quiet hadprobably just got a deer. I don’tknow if he was mad at me or reallytook me serious but he suddenlywent silent, peering back and forthacross the field. I was just aboutready to give in and head for thehouse myself when I noticed move-ment at the far end of the field. Iraised the binoculars and there was asmall buck stepping through thetrees at the edge of the field about100 yards away. I told Brody to getready to shoot and he was on it. Thebuck stopped in back of two treeswith just his shoulder and rib cagevisible. I told Brody to take the shotand waited for the sound as I peered

through the binoculars. Finally hesaid “Papa, I can’t make my heartstop beating so hard!” and he wastrembling with excitement as therifle barrel wavered back and forth.Suddenly the buck turned and disap-peared into the woods. Brodylooked up at me and told me hisheart was beating so hard he could-n’t get the gun steady and he wasafraid of making a bad shot. I haveheard many stories of grown mentaking shots at sounds, movement inthe brush, and anything theythought might be a deer and this lit-tle 7 year old had just put them all toshame by not taking the shot. I wasbursting with pride and told him so.

He was obviously disappointed butthis time there were no tears. Insteadthere was a look of excitement athow close he had come and it wasobvious that he had realized the

Grandpa took this picture of Brody’s buck a few days before Kentucky’s youth weekend.

Brody and his trophy, taken while hunting with his Grandpa, Daniel Bell.

A Buck for BrodyA Buck for Brody

Continued on page 43


Trail Camera Photo Contest

Eric Wagaman- Couple of big boys from pennsylvania

Love is in the Air!- Danny Pellerin- Shediac, New Brunswick

Clint Shwarz- New hampshire Moose

Eric Wagaman- maam bear and cub from Pennsylvania

Holy Crap! Picture taken near Radway Alberta. Everyone gets big game pics,

I get this. - Rick B. - Alberta , Canada

Danny Pellerin- Shediac, New Brunswick

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Two (2) Winners will be drawn randomly andannounced in the January 2013 issue. PlusOne (1) Winner/Owner of “The Trail CameraPicture of the Year”, will be chosen by theOutdoor Gazette staff and folks on ourFacebook page. The “Pic of the Year” will beon the cover of the Jan. 2013 issue!

Send photos to: [email protected] with the subject line “TC Photo Contest 2012”

Send in your trail camera pics, and for every picturethat is published in The Outdoor Gazette you will get

one chance to win one of three Trail Cameras.

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and Mary Emery from Enfield, NHIt’s a Granite State Sweep!

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Trail Camera Photo Contest

Ben Hochshwender- Newfields, New Hampshire

Ben Hochshwender- Newfields, New HampshireBen Hochshwender- Newfields, New Hampshire

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Sponsored by Chadwick’s Trail-Cams


principal types of coyote hunting:calling, blind hunting over bait, andhounds. In all three instances,Willette seeks advice from experts ineach particular style of hunting.These experienced coyote huntersflesh out the text with interesting andthought-provoking quotes.

Willette also calls freely upon thewisdom of serving and retired biolo-gists versed in ways of canis latransand its impacts since its westernancestors began moving eastward inthe 1930s. The biologists not onlyprovide the basis of the behavioralchapters, but also paint a state-by-state picture of the current situationwith regard to coyote populationsand activities.

No neophyte himself, Willettewrites and hunts from his home inwestern Massachusetts. His workregularly appears in the OutdoorGazette, among several otherregional and national publications.Though he has hunted coyotesdeliberately for only about three orfour years, he has amassed enoughexperience to credibly address thebroad range of the subject.

I wanted to dislike this book. Atfirst glance its graphic images andwarning label are off-putting. Thereare significantly more raw and vio-lent images than necessary to make apoint. However, dismissing the bookbecause of its disturbing photo-graphs would be a huge mistake.

Taken together with the well-researched text, the whole becomesan important work for our times.Coyote Wars is bold, expressive,absolutely controversial and perhapsthe most significant hunting book sofar this century. Without any varnishit opens a conversation that allhunters, naturalists, scientists,landowners, state and federal officialneed to have and to share with lay-men everywhere in the northeast,including in our most urbanized ter-rain.

When we removed the other greatpredators from the eastern UnitedStates, we created the niche whichthe coyote now fills. What that willmean for the rest of the ecosystem isin some ways still up to us. DaveWillette, the deer hunter, refuses tobe a watcher. His zeal and his bookwill hopefully stimulate a lot ofaction.

Too bad no one wrote a book likeCoyote Wars when the woodlandcaribou was eradicated from thenorthern reaches of New England alittle more than 100 years ago, andthe whitetail deer became an inva-sive species.

Coyote WarsBy David WilletteMaine Outdoor Publications 2011141 pages, $19.95ISBN: 978-1-60458-774-6

The first descriptor that comes tomind about David Willette’s bookCoyote Wars is “not for the faint ofheart.” Like actual coyote hunting,Coyote Wars is blunt, direct andsometimes brutal. Subtitled “A DeerHunter’s Guide to HuntingCoyotes,” Willette’s book is a full-spectrum examination into the tech-niques and methodologies for hunt-ing the eastern coyote (canis latrans),including the critter’s biology andnatural history.

It is also a passionate deer hunter’splea for the faithful to embrace coy-ote hunting as a way of reducingpredation on the deer herds in thenortheast. In recent years, gamemanagers, biologists and huntershave slowly acknowledged the coy-ote’s impact on the whitetail deerpopulation – especially on deertrapped in the winter yards. Even

though others claim that huntingcoyotes is futile because increasedhunting pressure results in increasedcoyote birth rates. Until now, fewoffered any suggestions for our inter-vention into the deer-coyote strug-gle. With Coyote Wars, Willettemakes his position abundantly clear.Deer hunters need to become active,aggressive and equally passionatecoyote hunters.

Certain to spark controversy andenflame debate, Coyote Wars servesas a beginner’s guide to the three

The Gazette’s Book ReviewBy Colonel J.C. Allard

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

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Continued from page 39thrill without having even pulled thetrigger. Right there I saw my littlebuddy mature as a hunter. I askedhim if he was ready to go back in buthe was insistent that we stay untildark in case the buck came back.Shooting light was almost gone and Iknew that the day was almost at anend but if he was willing, I was goingto stay.

Suddenly there was movement atthe far end of the field where the lastbuck had appeared from. One lookin my binoculars and the crookedantler assured me this was the buckwe had come after. He slowlygrazed out several feet into the fieldand finally presented a broadsideshot. I was hesitant to give him theok to shoot. The light was fading,the wind was blowing the stand backand forth and the range was about

85-90 yards, much further thanBrody had ever shot. I knew he wasa good shot though, and couldn’tmake myself hold him back. I whis-pered to him to take the shot. Aftera few moments the rifle cracked andthe buck stood there browsing, nevereven flinching at the sound! I quick-ly reloaded the gun and told Brodyto settle down, take his time, andtake a breath before he shot. Thistime when the little rifle cracked, thebuck dropped in his tracks andBrody was jumping up and down,giving me hugs and hi-fives. Thebuck wasn’t done yet though, andmanaged to get to his feet and stag-ger to the edge of the woods. It wasalmost dark now and even though Ithought the deer was hit hard, I hadhorrible thoughts of tracking awounded deer all night. The buck

disappeared into the darkness and Iinsisted we go back to the house andeat supper, giving the deer time to liedown and expire.

I tried to pace myself eating but Ishoveled it in as my wife huggedBrody assuring him how proud ofhim she was. Brody’s dad, Cory, andI prepared to head out in search ofthe buck. Right before we left thehouse the rain let loose hard and Ihad a sick feeling in my stomach.We hopped on my ATV and headedinto the darkness with the rain sting-ing my face. We got to the placewhere the buck had first fallen andcouldn’t find a drop of blood. Thewet leaves were glistening in ourflashlights and the autumn colorswere full of blood red leaves. Westarted edging into the woods andCory shouted out, “There he is!”

He hadn’t gone more than 20 feetinto the woods before falling dead.We field dressed the deer and took itback to the house for pictures.Brody was beside himself, literallypacing in circles talking about all thepeople he had to call and tell thenews to. Even as he was on thephone, he couldn’t stand still. As wewere talking a skull mount, he wastalking a full shoulder mount and wehad to calm him down and assurehim that there were much biggerdeer ahead for him.

It was late by the time we got thedeer skinned and quartered and Ifinally got a hot shower. As I lay inbed, I knew that if I got a buck thisyear, no matter how big it was, I was-n’t going to feel any more satisfiedthan I was seeing my grandson takehis little six point.

Pictures Gone WildPictures Gone WildOur reader submitted photosOur reader submitted photos

This pick of a “harvested” 10- point was sent to me - Anyone have any idea where thispicture was taken?

Alex Cote II of Raymond, New Hampshire- Granite State youth weekend Ken Monte of Arlington, Vermont - Opening day success!

Documents

November 2012 Outdoor Gazette