april 2013 - the outdoor gazette

April 2013 The Outdoor Gazette


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On The CoverNate Laskiewicz of “Lakes Region Fishing”, aVermont produced TV show that airs on Fox 44 onSunday mornings. The show highlights fishing innorthern New York State and Vermont.

Volume 7 Issue 4

Publisher/Editor: Fred AllardGraphic Design: Dan Millet

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Bass, Walleye and Northern PikeCategories..oh ya and a Crappiecategory too. The tournament willalso focus on catch and release forthe Big game species, a green fish-ing tournament if you will. We arestill working on tournament rulesso keep an eye on our FaceBookpage and on the OutdoorGazette’s website for more detailscoming this month.

The pan fishing focus is the per-fect segway to mention the launchof Panfish Palooza. This Paloozathing is a hard and soft-water tour-nament series focusing on, youguessed it, panfish! It will begin

with some hard-water tourneyshere in New Hampshire and east-ern Vermont in early 2014. Thosedetails are coming soon too andI’m sure I don’t have to tell youwhere to find them.J

See you outdoors…

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].

I got to thinking about the lastfew years of the Gazette the otherday. I was looking through someolder issues. Lots of good memo-ries there, and lots of embarrassingmoments too. Oh well as they say“we have come a long way baby”.They also say “We still have milesto go”. Both statements are verytrue…anyway back to the olderissues of the Outdoor Gazette.

Our readership has growntremendously, especially in the last6 months. Many of you new read-ers of the gazette, have missedsome great material from the past.I thought it would be nice toreprint some of that “older” stufffor you to read. Last month wereprinted an article about the Beararchery company that I wrote 3years or so ago. We had such agood response to it that we willreprint the two follow up storiesabout Bear Bows starting with theMay 2013 issue. This month wereprinted a story from Bill Prior ofEnfield, New Hampshire. Bill is alover of traditional archery and his

story is a nice read for sure. So each month we will be

reprinting something in fromolder, pre-online days, in thegazette. We will be calling it “ABlast from the Past”. Hope youenjoy these new/old stories, wesure do/did!

What are we up to this summerseason; besides producing theOutdoor Gazette…I know youwere wondering so I’m going to tellyou. The weekend after Labor Daywill be our first “Fish the Border “fishing tournament. This tourna-ment will be on the ConnecticutRiver. Starting in Lancaster NH tothe North and to the south endingat the Massachusetts border.Categories will not only be for theusual “Big Game “ fish, but amuch higher focus on the greatpan fishing the “border” water hasto offer. Categories will includeYellow Perch, BlueGill/Pumpkinseed/ Sunfish, RockBass and Chain Pickerel. Alsothere will be the standardLargemouth Bass, Smallmouth

The Past and the Future


Trophy SpotlightTrophy Spotlight

Donald Cooke owner and the fellow that found this set of NH shed deer antlers. This isthe largest set of sheds ever found in New Hampshire. The right side of this set scores 1203/8 all by itself !. Donald found the set in the winter/spring of 2010.To our knowledgethe buck has never been taken, if it has, it is one of the best kept deer hunting secrets in theGranite State!


and shelter. I don’t mind carrying alittle extra weight in this categoryknowing I will stay warm and dry atnight. Your food will actually be oneof your heavier items, in bulk, thatyou will carry along with you. Justthink, as each day goes you will loseabout a pound and a half in yourpack! That doesn’t sound like much

but it really adds up if you’re on aseven day hunt. Clothing is a neces-sity but is something you can go lightwith as you will be wearing abouthalf of it each day. Your camo isyour everyday attire along with yourbase layers and a pair of socks. If it’sa 5-7 day hunt I will carry two extrapairs of socks and an extra pair ofmerino base layers. Stay away fromcotton as its very heavy and uselessonce wet. Your first aid kit doesn’thave to be anything fancy, a few pills,band aids, tape, and some moleskinwill usually suffice.

How much does it really weigh? Ifyou spend any time on a westernforum you will see that most peopleinclude the weight of their gear intheir reviews. Some people may lookat that and think it’s strange butwhen you’re making a gear choice itis one of the most important thingsyou should take into account. 24ounces doesn’t sound like much (1day of food) but multiply that by 7days and you’re up 168 ounces ormore commonly known as 10.5pounds. Add in your sleep system,pack, clothing, kill kit, GPS, maps,water, optics, etc. and you are talkingabout a significant amount ofweight. You’re doing pretty good ifyour under 10lbs on a day trip, 35lbs

on a weekend trip, 48lbs on a 3-5day trip, and 70lbs on a 7 day trip.

I would suggest getting all of yourgear together that you plan to use onyour hunt, load your pack up, anddo some walking. If you know whatyour pack will feel like beforehandthan you will allow yourself time toposition things comfortably and youwill be able to handle the load. I doa fair amount of camping in thesummer time, so each weekend Ifind things I didn’t use and eliminatethem from my setup. After a summerworth of shedding pounds from mypack I know I am going in to thehunting season prepared to go outand stay for the duration of myhunt.

This is usually enough food to lastme a weekend on a bivy style hunt. Itdoesn’t look like much but themountain house meals are a doubleserving and freeze dried for packa-bility.

I like to begin the process by layingall my gear out and then choosingwhat I will need for the duration ofmy trip. I also throw in some readingmaterial for long nights in the tent.

Having something and not need-ing it always seems to be better thannot having something and needingit. This is especially true when youfind yourself miles from your truckin the wilderness. There is a lot ofthought that one has to put into theirgear when going on a week-long trip,but more so when you have to carryall that gear around every wakingday of that week long trip. We wentover some of the gear you will needto bring when going on a DIY huntin the “DIY elk hunting for the Eastcoaster” article, but not the methodbehind the madness of selecting it.

How many days is your hunt?Should be one of the first questionsthat runs through your mind in theplanning process. A couple extradays of gear can add up quickly, sohaving a solid plan of attack early inthe game can really help out. Onething that I have found to be invalu-able is keeping a couple extra days’worth of food in your vehicle, or atyour base camp. This situation isideal for bivy hunting as it shedsweight from your pack and you

know that in worst case, you canalways head down to refuel. Nothingdrives a man off the mountain andtoo a McDonalds quicker than hishunger.

What are the essentials? I think ofthe essentials as being your sleep sys-

tem, food, clothing, and first aid kit.Your sleep system consists of threeitems: sleeping bag, sleeping pad,

Worth it’s weight in gold....Weight or “lack” of weight is key when choosing gear fro back-country hunting.

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By Cody CoveyBy Cody Covey

Life at HighAltitudeLife at HighAltitude

Is it worth its weight in gold?

Cody grew up in Corinth, Vermont andwent to Vermont Techincal college where hegraduated with a bachelors degree in con-struction management. He was born into afamily of avid hunters and a love for theoutdoors was instilled in him at a youngage. After college he moved to Lakewood,Colorado to pursue a job as a FieldEngineer in commercial construction andhas lived there ever since. The rocky moun-tains are where Cody learned a love for elkhunting and the challenges of a westernmountain hunt. He can be found huntingdeer, elk and various other game in the falland skiing the fresh powder in the winter.You can reach Cody at [email protected]


completely logical; if an animaldecided it wanted three times asmuch food every kill, soon therewouldn’t be much food left becausethey are killing faster than the prey

can reproduce. Not only would foodavailability go down, but predatorpopulation would go up, due to thedirect relationship of food and pop-ulation. That means more hungryeaters but less food for them. This isexactly what’s happening withhumanity, and with every resource,not just food. We are taking fasterthan the Earth can replenish. We aredrying up our resources. We cultivat-ed and we planted, we tried to con-

quer Mother Nature and congratu-lated ourselves for it, and now we areon a path to destruction consisting offamine, toxic waters, pollution, agigantic increase in disease.

We struggle to supply our popula-tion through preserving food withchemicals, preventing our cropsfrom being eaten up with chemicals,making our animals bigger withchemicals, see the pattern? Insteadof changing the way we live ourlives, instead of slowing things down,going organic, and passing somelaws that limit what may be put inour food, we endorse it. Humans aresupposed to the smartest animals onEarth. Until we learn that the “Us vsThem” mindset that we use to sepa-rate ourselves from the rest of thewild is flawed, we are no smarterthan any other animal on this plan-et.

We treat the Earth like its ours, butit is no more ours than it is theworms crawling around in the yardthat you also call yours. We think wecan conquer Mother Nature, and ifwe don’t stop trying, Mother Natureis going to show us just how wrongwe are.

It’s been said that when we, as ahuman race, changed our way of lifefrom hunter-gatherer to civilizationand farming, we made a big mistake.To both myself and many hunters,the reason this was a bad idea isobvious: Agriculture gave rise toindustry and industry gave rise to ahuge boom in population. Slowly thehuman mindset was one of superior-ity. We could take what we wantedfrom the world and not deal with theconsequences. We took and took andwe grew and grew. Before we knewit, there were 7 billion people on thisplanet, a food and water crisis goingon around half the world, and warswere breaking out everywhere.

Hunter-Gatherers had none ofthese problems. Along with being atthe mercy of the wild, they lived insmaller groups. These two thingsalone build a completely differentlife style, and it is my opinion, a bet-ter lifestyle. The problem withhumanity as it is, is that we arebreaking one of the natural rules.That rule is that a member of a liv-ing community may not take more

than they need from the world andcontinue to thrive and flourish (anadaptation of the rule(s) presented in

the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn).In a living community full of ani-mals and plants, at first glance it maylook competitive and hostile with thehunters and the hunted. If we take acloser look we see that this commu-nity as a whole operates in perfectharmony. The predators kill whenthey need to and only kill as much asthey need. Foragers find as manyplants as they need but they don’tlevel out the whole forest. This is

When We Break Nature’s Rules

Nature’s WayNature’s WayBy Tannr AllardBy Tannr Allard

minimum hunter requirement.These things are all key to an enjoy-able trip. Ask the guide if it will beyou and your 2 buddies or a mix of6-8 guys who all act and hunt differ-ent, which I can assure you is true.

I took a trip with a buddy of mineto Maryland to hunt snow geese afew years back. We walked into theoutfitters place after a 12 hour rideand we wanted to get back in the carbecause the ride down fromVermont, which involved drivingthrough a whiteout for the first 3hours, seemed like more fun. Theoutfitter barely stood up to greet usand then showed us what we thoughtwas a "not as advertised bunk house"with temperature around 50degrees. So we stayed that night andgot up at 4 am and filled our ther-mos at a local gas station and hunteduntil noon with little success. We hadthe pleasure of laying next to 6 otherguys with 3 different dogs. Two ofthe dogs were being trained duringour hunt. The guides seasoned dogbusted loose when the 3000 snowgeese were hovering above us aboutto cover us up. That blew the firsmornings hunt in a big way. Weended up scouting for ourselves thatafternoon and found our own spotfor the next day. To say the least webooked a hotel for that second nightand actually self guided ourselvesthe next day just using some of theguides snow decoys because I didn'tbring any of my own. We are nothard to please but just expected abetter hunt for the money. We endedup having a blast because welaughed so much and just reallyenjoyed the road trip and beingaway for a few days.

Make sure when planning a huntyou keep expectation low so that youdon't get disappointed. The key toany hunt isn't just the harvest but thewhole experience. The accommoda-tions are key. Some folks don't mind

roughing it a bit. Some, like myself,like a hot shower, a cold drink, warmbed and a great meal. Check withthe outfitter to see what they haveplanned for a place to stay andwhat's on the menu. Make sure yourbuddies are all on same page.Nothing is worse than having guysthat complain the entire time. To meit's about getting away not just thedaily harvest.

I like to drive to my hunts becauseI like having control of gettingmyself and my gear to where we aregoing. Guns on planes are almost asscary as snakes on planes. You haveto check your guns and cross yourfingers that everything gets there inone piece. When driving you nowhave the ability to bring as much asyou need. Find a hotel that is gunfriendly and be sure to bring all yourstuff into your room so it will still bearound the next day.

If your traveling to another stateor country for this guided hunt youwill need licenses and stamps. Besure to have this worked out. If thehunt is to start early in the nextmorning and you are getting therelate the night before be sure to havea place to get a license the nightbefore or make arrangements for theguide to secure your tags. Most statesallow online purchases so do this inadvance if possible. If your hunttakes you to Canada you will need toregister your guns at the border asyou cross. So be sure to have this fac-tored into your plans.

Another key to remember is tohave plenty of gear. Shells, gun tools,extra chokes and even another gun ifneeded. I bring my own layout blindso that I'm comfortable. Be sure tohave waders and anything you thinkyou would need. Again, this is thereason I drive.

If driving and the trip will be along one be sure to check the travelvehicle over prior to setting out. Noneed for me to write all the possibleissues that could arise with a vehiclenot worthy of a long road trip. Orthe frustrations this would bring tothe trip dealing with these issues.

If you and all your gear make it tothis hunting paradise in one pieceand you pull off a great hunt be sureto document the trip with camerasand journals. These hunts don't hap-pen more than once a year if we arelucky. So having a way to documentit via video and in writing down theharvest and the species helps yourelive it if you so desire.

In the end plan on spending about$250 per day for a local hunt plusfood and other items. You can figurea 3 day hunt with gas licenses an


Continued next page

So if you are like me and read a lotof hunting magazines you have readstory after story about amazinghunting opportunities all over thecountry, heck all over the world.Now you want to be one of thoseguys who can say "man what a greathunting trip". Well here are a fewthings you need to know so you cansay just that.

There are no magical tricks tofinding and booking the perfecthunt. But there are a few things todo that will help you get the most outof your trip and your outfitter. Firstoff pick a species that you want tohunt and set a budget for this trip.Stick to this budget and add 20% tothat for unplanned issues. If you aregoing to pursue waterfowl and don'talready live in waterfowl heaven thistrip will require a long road trip or apotential flight. Most decent guidedhunts for waterfowl are $250 a daybefore lodging and other costs.

The thing with waterfowl is thatyou need access to places that holdducks & geese so it's very importantto find an outfitter with a proven suc-

cess record. To me waterfowl huntsare more fun with more people butnot too many. You don't want to belaying next to a dozen guys sky bust-

ing for geese. So give some thoughtto who might go with you and howmuch fun they are to hunt with, ridewith, eat with, & live with for 3-5days. Find out if the guide has a

Looking to book a Guided Hunt?

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

Rene Leo & Phil on a guided Sea Duck hunt on the coast of Maine.


from previous page

By Bill Prior

And within that, I prefer tradi-tional archery. Self-bow, longbow,or recurve bow, all equally. I ownand shoot, a modern compound,but my enthusiasm lies with thesimplicity of traditional stick andstring, wooden arrows with turkeyfeather fletch. Unlike compoundbows that have specific draw lengththat must be adhered to, tradition-al bows are shot at whatever drawlength is convenient to the shooter.

One size fits all, if you will. Abow with a draw weight of 35 lbs@ 28? draw will for 6? tall dad beat 40 lbs @ his 30? draw, for 5?4?mom, about 27lbs @ 25? draw, andfor a 4? tall child, about 18-20 lbs@ 25? draw. It is not apparent inNew England, but in other parts ofthe country traditional archery israpidly growing in popularity, andis being revitalized by the enjoy-ment of the simplicity of stick andstring. Fast paced fun for everyone! The 1990s saw the time ofpeak interest as well as the begin-ning of the demise of 3-Darchery.

I believe that there are severalreasons for the loss of interest in 3-D archery. In the beginning 3-Dwas designed to replicate huntingsituations: life-sized targets at nor-mal, or slightly extended, unknowndistances. Two significantly differ-ent types of shooters developed.The first consisted of hunters hop-ing to improve their proficiency,along with recreational archers.The second was a much smallergroup that I will define as

Tournament Archers who focusedon long-range accuracy excellence.On the 3-D course, a group of 5hunters or recreational shooterswould shoot one arrow each, scoretheir hits and move to the next tar-get in 7-10 minutes.

Tournament Archers, underI.B.O. rules could use as much as 3minutes per shooter. The total time

used by 5 tournament shoots couldbe as much as 20-25 minutes.Mom and Dad with 2 childrenwould wait 15 minutes, or more.The parents became bored and thechildren got restless. Everyonebecame impatient standing aroundwaiting.

Also, 3-D began as an actionsport that became a precision sport

to some shooters. Twenty tourna-ment shooters could not supportwhat 100 hunter/recreationalshooters supported. There is noth-ing wrong with tournament shoot-ing, but the two styles do not mixwell together. If memory serves mecorrectly, I have read that in the1950s (?) the then modern archeryencountered the same difficulty.The end result was two separateand totally different classes: tour-nament archery and field archery.

I believe it was WinstonChurchill, who said, “Those whodo not learn from history are des-tined (condemned?) to relive it”.When the economy recovers, Iexpect that, slowly, people willonce again begin shooting. Perhapsnot with “state of the art” equip-ment but with more moderatelypriced bows. I expect a renewedinterest in archery for the sake ofarchery, compound or traditional,just for the enjoyment of it!

Another one of my favorite pas-times is known as “roving” or walk-ing through the woods shooting atold rotten stumps and logs, orwhatever catches my eye. It is notpossible to do this with modernhyper-velocity compound bowsbecause the arrows would be lostor destroyed at nearly every shot.However, with my longbow at 150-

170 f.p.s., and cedar arrows tipped,with Zwickey judo or other similarpoints, I hardly every lose or breakan arrow. At this low velocitywooden arrows are surprisinglydurable. If I should happen tobreak a cedar arrow, I close myeyes and the smell of the richaroma of cedar brings back equal-ly rich memories.

Suggested Reading On the histo-ry of “modern” archery: TheWitchery of Archery by MauriceThompson. First published in1878. Local History At or about1950 there was a field archerycourse behind where the EvansMart at Exit 16 now stands. Therewas another behind Currier’s trail-er park at the bottom of DryBridge Hill on Route 4. The back-stop for local archery ranges weremade of excelsior bales purchasedfrom the excelsior factory inLebanon, N.H.

I spoke with life member of theEnfield Outing Club, DaveDunham, and he assured me thathe still owns his 1960 “WhiteWing” recurve bow. I am sure thatDave can provide much more localarchery history. 12/14/09 WilliamPrior © All Rights Reserved OsageOrange wood and Black Cherrywood with white fiberglass high-lights

lodging will run you about $1000. Ifyou add a flight to a far away desti-nation that can reach $2500 ormore. This is a waterfowl hunt.Change this to trophy buck, bear orother big game animal and plan on a$4000 price tag.

All you need to do is spend some-time on the internet and do a littlehomework and you will be fine. Ifyou have a dream of booking thathunt of a lifetime or just another ofyour annual outings feel free to email

me with any questions or advice. Ifyou want to book a hunt with FieldsBay Outfitters I can assure that youwill not be disappointed..

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.

Leo & Phil buying licenses from guide during Maine Sea Duck hunt.

Archery is one of my favorite pastimes

Bill Prior lives in Enfield NH.

the office, then would head out withmy friends to have a cocktail at oneof the little night clubs in the area. Iuse the term ‘night club’ looselybecause we are talking about

Burlington, Vermont in the mid1980’s. Burlington is a college townand there was ample opportunity tomeet a variety of people. I met thisguy, he was pretty nice. We wouldrun into each other frequently at theclubs and he finally asked me out. Ifigured ‘Why not?” Little did I knowthis would be a turning point. At firsthe just asked me to go out to amovie. I figured that is pretty nor-mal, so I went, we enjoyed ourselvesand we continued to see each other.. One day he phoned me and said:“Hi.”

“Hi” I answered all gushy.“Do you want to go four wheeling

up at the Gibou?”I had no idea what a’Gibou ‘was

but I said “Sure.”“Okay, I’ll pick you up around

10:00 a.m. Saturday.”“Sounds good to me.” I answered

For the rest of the week I askedeveryone I knew what ‘four wheelingat a Gibou’ could possibly mean. Igot various definitions. I was leftwith the conclusion that the eventwould be outdoors, in wildernessand there was a distinct possibilitythat I could get muddy. I made aquick trip to the mall for proper out-door attire (i.e. jeans, t-shirt, sweatshirt, decent footwear).

Saturday finally arrived and intomy driveway at 10:00 on the dotdrove, a magnificent, brand new, sil-ver, Mazda 4x4 pick-up truck com-plete with roll bar, halogen lights, acb radio antenna, and a gun rack,driven by a bearded, flannel cladAdonis! At that point I no longercared where or what a Gibou was, Ijust jumped in that truck ready to gowhere ever he was taking me. TheAdonis and I spent a great deal oftime testing the limits of that truck,he drove it through streams, mud upto the rims, up winding, boulderstrewn logging roads. We had a totalblast with that truck. We would havethat thing just caked with mud andcruise Main Street in Burlington likewe owned the place. Other nightsyou could find us on a back roadwith a bunch of friends, a pony keg,a bon fire with the pick-ups circledup around it. Thankfully the law hadother interests back then. I ended upmarrying the bearded Adonis, wecall him Dean now, two children and25 years later I look back fondly onour courtship. I still think that it wasthe gun rack that sealed the deal..


Sometime during my late teens, Ihad a fall from grace. I am sure thistype of thing has happened to manypeople. I tried to deny my countryroots for the appeal of city life. I amashamed to say, that during thattroubled period of my youth, I didnot own one piece of flannel, nordid I have a decent pair of hikingboots. The only bit of denim Iowned was a very short skirt. Idressed in skirts, stockings and heels.The boots I did own would havebeen less than useless in a rural set-ting. I worked in an office, I went tomeetings, and I took clients to lunch.Many times I found myself on asales call, in a potential client’s office,having difficulty keeping to the sub-ject matter. I was frequently distract-ed admiring the king salmon or, per-haps the eight point rack hanging inthe executive’s office. What I reallywanted to discuss was where he (theclient) shot that buck; was it inVermont or away? I kept thinkingabout all the various ways to prepareking salmon and how delicious it is. Idon’t know how I kept my country

roots hidden for so long. Fortunatelythis particular period of my life didnot last long; I was rescued from my

own foolishness by a knight in buffa-lo checked flannel!

I spent my days working hard at

by Tina Corronby Tina CorronEmbrace Your Redneck TendenciesEmbrace Your Redneck Tendencies

Redemption

A South Burlington, Vermont resident, for-merly a “flatlander” and married to aVermonter. She and her “Vermnter” hus-band have 2 sons aged 17 and 22, as wellas a Brittany spaniel who behaves betterthan all of them. Tina was raised countryand it is in her blood. Tina can be reachedvia email at [email protected].


When campfire discussions turn tohunting state or federal property,fears of overcrowding and intenselypressured game, which make hunt-ing impossible, are commonplace. Incertain circles loss of access andhunting rights are other popularadversaries of public land use. Tome, this avoidance of state propertysometimes seems as if those peoplelive in a medieval land where thetaking of the king’s game is out-lawed. You won’t hear that from thishunter. Not in my Kingdom. Overthe last two decades, I’ve almostbeen shot at on private land moretimes than I’ve seen boot tracks onpublic lands in the NortheastKingdom of Vermont. The few andfar between occasions that I havecome across other humans, theyhave been working to preserve orprotect those places. From my expe-riences I have formed a firm beliefthat public lands in the northeast,particularly the NEK are vastlyunder used and underestimated.

I find that private property in myneck of woods is where the majority

of overcrowding occurs. Often all ittakes to gain access to great huntingterritory is finding out who the

landowner is, introducing yourself tothem and being honest about yourintentions. Hunters willing to splitand stack some wood or come backeach sugaring season to help tap areusually granted access for life, espe-cially if they bring by a nice roastafter a harvest. I have found that thisease of accessibility coupled withpessimistic views of public land useallows many of our state lands to be

devoid of hunters, even during thepeak of popular seasons.

In addition, many of our state andfederal owned properties are far offthe beaten path making them the

most wild of places, requiring moreskill and determination to hunt. Weare guaranteed to find ourselves put-ting extra miles on our pick-ups andboots in an attempt to find a publicland trophy. This seriously deterssomeone who can hunt on their ownback forty. Not to mention, the two-thirds of hunters who are said toventure no more than a half milefrom their vehicles. However, these

factors work as an added bonus tothose who take pride in getting asdeep into the wilderness as possible.I am one of those few and I explorethese dense wild areas frequentlyand sharing my experiences withothers has become a passion. Mysincere intention is to encourage theOutdoor Gazette readers to venturefarther and enjoy lands they mayhave previously avoided, PublicAccess to the Kingdom is in yourgrasp.

The Basin and surrounding area inVictory, Vermont was like a fabledland to me as a child. The wildnessof that particular place had a greatallure and the stories of mammothmoose, and ferocious black bearwere very appealing to a youthhunter. Kids at local schools passedon tales of how one wrong step inthe bog could mean sinking out ofsight and how folks went in thosewoods and never returned. I’m notsure if any of these stories ring truebut from hunting the area I can saythey certainly have an effect on landuse. That is partly why I settled myfamily only minutes down U.S Route

Goin’ Public

Public Access to the KingdomPublic Access to the KingdomBy David WilletteBy David Willette

Continued on page 19

Wildflowers Bloom near Damon’s Crossing in Victory, Vermont © Nostalgic Images


“You’re going to have to get infront of these birds. You’re going tohave to sneak up on them,” Jim Dayof Flat Iron Outfitters said. “Thesebirds aren’t quite revved-up enoughto get the toms to respond to call-ing.” This was proven on our firstset-up at 10 am that day.

We could see 40 plus Merriamturkeys below us around a smallpond. There were at least a half-dozen toms-some of them in fullstrut, but they stayed too far out andonly mildly answered our calls. Jimhad set Nate up over the rise fromhim and I so Nate could see most ofthe action, while Jim and I stayedback and called trying to entice onetom to come our way. I could seeNate start to get into position for ashot every once in a while, but Icouldn’t see any birds. I have nevercalled in a turkey in my life, as I’monly a casual turkey hunter. At onepoint Jim ranged the closest tom at53 yards, but it wouldn’t come anycloser. Eventually all the birdswalked away.

This day, Nat and I were special

guests (I have no idea why), at FlatIron Outfitters to do some turkeyhunting, and to check out all thewildlife that’s available in the area.Some of which I’ll be hunting on asix-day elk/deer/bear bow hunt thisSeptember.

When I say wildlife, I mean abun-dant wildlife. For the day we saw atleast 200 elk, 150 whitetails, 150

turkeys, 50 big horn sheep and twopheasants. Also hanging around inabundance, but we didn’t see areplenty of black bears (40%color-phase) and mule deer. In Montanayou get one deer tag, of which youcan shoot either a mule or whitetaildeer. And of course there’s also,public enemy number one, coyotes

lurking in the darkJim met us at 8am and we drove

around and glassed animals, set-upon some turkeys and checked out theliving arrangement for the upcominghunt. Later in the day, we pull intothe previously mentioned turkeyhunting area only to find that thebirds were ahead of schedule. Jimadvised us to drop down into thecreek bottom (pronounced crick inMontana), and sneak along to get infront of the flock. Nate and I didn’thave a clue as to what were doing,but we did what we were told and itworked like a charm.

We got into position of the slowlymoving flock of 120 birds. Therewere at least 15 toms among them.We settled in to a pine bushhedgerow about seven yards fromthe pasture fence with a slightly usedservice road between the fence andus. Here we waited for the flock toget closer. At this point, Nate got alittle antsy and decided to belly-crawl across the road to the fencewhere there was a foot high berm ofsorts to hide him. Or so he thought.By the time that Nate got there, thebirds had moved closer, and whenNate finally got there he realizedthat he couldn’t see over the top ofthe berm and it was too late to come

back to the hedgerow with me. Hewas pinned down.

The first wave of turkeys, aboutten or so, were all hens, and they allwalked, clucked and yelped withinfive yards of Nate’s head, but theywouldn’t go by. They knew thatsomething wasn’t right. The nextwave started piling up in front ofNate about five minutes later, andone of them was a jake, which likethe hens walked within five yards ofNate’s head. I was waiting for Nateto shoot, he had to see that thisturkey had a beard, but he didn’tshoot. I figured that either Nate did-n’t want to shoot it, or that he could-n’t shoot it. Within a few minutes thebirds really started to get nervousand some started to drift away. I wasalways a fan of a bird in the hand isworth two in the bush so I reluctant-ly flattened that jake. I really wantedNate to get his first turkey. He toldme after that the angle that he hadwas so bad that he could barely seethe turkey’s heads.

After the photos we dropped offthe turkey to Ross Fratzke, the ownerof Flat Iron Outfitters, where hisorder from Jim were to de-bone themeat and prep the tail for a fan-tailmount. Jim, Nate and I went off tofind more turkeys, but none cooper-ated.

We called it a day around 5:30 andJim brought us back to our carwhere I almost insulted him when Ioffered him $50 for his time, gas andexpertise. He absolutely refused. Hesaid that we were guests of the FlatIron Outfitters. I felt like a thief- athief that was caught red-handedbut let off the hook by the kindnessof strangers. We’re given the red car-pet treatment, I had just shot aturkey right out from under my sonsnose and I can’t even pay for theguys gas. Jim even refused the friedchicken that I brought for lunch.

My hunt with Flat Iron Outfittersis scheduled for late September. Bythen Nate, whose coming along tosee how the Old Man does it, will bea dad, I’ll be a grandfather andhopefully the only thing that I’ll beguilty of then is tagging a bull elk.

Flat Iron Outfitters

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

Nice Tom taken with Flat iron Outfitters

Official MeasurerBoone & Crockett Club

Pope & Young ClubNH Antler & Skull Trophy Club

Maine Antler & Skull Trophy Club

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

ROSCOE BLAISDELL


The interesting thing about fish-ing is all of the fascinating avenuesthat it can lead you to. Fishing is farmore complicated than just catch-ing fish. One avenue is the collect-ing of old or antique fishing gear. Inthe last decade the hobby has grownin leaps and bounds. Not that longago it was possible to purchase anold rod or reel at a yard sale for afew pennies, but today even themost naive weekend entrepreneur issavvy enough to realize that oldfishing gear may be worth bigbucks.

As a fly fisherman naturally I havealways had a weakness for old bam-boo fly rods. For years I managed toavoid catching the infection, howev-er recently I have added a few bam-boo rods to my collection. I have aweakness for old fly reels as well andhave managed to piece together asmall collection of less expensiveones. My major weakness hasalways been old fly fishing books; inthis area of collecting I have, onoccasion, managed to break thebank once or twice.

Conventional fishermen are not

immune from the collecting addic-tion and in fact can be just as fanat-ical as any fly fisherman. The col-

lecting of old fishing plugs is anarea that has always interested me.When it comes to inventivenessthere is no lack of inspiration on thepart of fishermen when it comes tothinking up new ways to fool fishwith an artificial lure. Casual visi-tors to our shop often ask how manydifferent fly patterns there are. I

always answer with one word,“countless” and the same holds truefor the number of different luresthat spin fishermen have come upwith over the years.

Lures come in several differentverities, including spinners, spoonsand plugs. Plugs are the ones thatcapture my interest, especially theolder wooden ones. Judging by theprice that some of these bring Iwould guess that I am not alone onthis. Wooden lures in good condi-tion can bring upwards to a thou-sand dollars or more.

Now before you rush off to raidDad’s tackle box it is important tonote that there are several variablesthat determine the worth of an oldlure. Like a lot of collectibles thebrand name makes a big difference.Any antique dealer will tell you thatthere is a big difference between aTiffany Lamp and say another lampof the same vintage purchased atthe Five and Dime store. Names tolook for are Heddon, South Bend,Creek Chub, Paw Paw,Shakespeare, and Pflueger. Thereare others, but these are a few ofthe most popular. Most of thesecompanies are still in business todayand needless to say today’s lureshave not yet reached collectable sta-tus. What most collectors are look-ing for are the old wooden ones.Long before plastic your grandfa-ther pitched lures made from balsaand bass wood. The first of theselures were hand made by individu-als for their own enjoyment latergiving rise to the manufacturedones. The founder of the HeddonCompany, James Heddon, was one

of those tinkerers that found a mar-ket for his homemade plugs. Onecategory of lure collecting is seekingout these home built lures and theyare often referred to as “Folk Art”.There is some interest in early plas-tic lures so don’t be too hasty to passthem by.

Like all antiques value is greatlyenhanced by condition. It is possi-ble to find a lure of great value, butbecause it was fished hard andshows the wear may be only worth asmall portion of the same lure newand in the box. A good original boxcan add a great deal to the value.

If you do find a few old lures insome forgotten tackle box in theattic it is probably a good idea tohave someone with some knowledgeon the subject take a look at them.The internet is a good starting pointas there are several sites dedicatedto collecting antique fishing tackle.A few of these sites will actually giveyou an appraisal. You simply post apicture and a description on theweb site and they will do the rest.Antique dealers, unless they special-ize in tackle, are not the best way togo. If by chance you think you havesomething really good you mightwant to consider Lang’s SportingCollectibles of Waterville NewYork. Lang’s is without doubt thebest auction house to deal with. Inthe past years they have set severalrecords for the highest prices paidin several categories of antiquetackle. Some may remember thefamous Haskel Baby Minnow whichbrought over $18,000 at auction; asit received national media attention.

From time to time someone willbring a treasure into our shop for anappraisal. This is something that Ipersonally enjoy very much. Ialways explain up front that I am inno way a professional appraiser andI never charge for the service. I dohave a fair working knowledge andkeep a small library of auction cat-alogs and other books on the sub-ject as a reference. For the most partI see a lot of tackle with far moresentimental value than monetary.However, on occasion someone willbring in something that does havevalue and in these cases I generallyrecommend a licensed appraiser orLang’s.

Not long ago a fellow brought in a

Riverbank TalesRiverbank Talesby Bill Thompsonby Bill Thompson

An Old Tackle Box

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

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

Bill andJanet’s10 Year

Anniversaryas owners

Bill andJanet’s10 Year

Anniversaryas owners


bamboo rod for me to look at. Hehad brought it on E-bay with theidea he might fish it. Unfortunatelythe rod was of little value and need-ed work. He said that he had some-thing else that he had purchasedalong with the rod that might be ofsome interest. He went back out tohis truck and returned with an oldwooden tackle box.

The second he walked backthrough the door with the box Iknew he had a treasure even if thebox was empty. The box is just oversixteen inches long, ten inches wideand eight inches deep. There is adoor pull type handle on the topand the hasp serves to keep the boxclosed. A piece of heavy wire servedas the lock. It was painted black andwas obviously hand made by acraftsman. My guess is that some-one, without a whole lot of money,saw a manufactured tackle box andknew he could do better and for lessmoney. And to my way of thinkinghe did.

When you first open up an old rodtube or an old tackle box the firstthing that hits you is the smell. OK,some would just say that it is arather obnoxious musty odder, but Iprefer to think of it as the first hintof some uncovered treasure of thepast. In this case it was. The boxhad several layers of trays designedto hold lures and other tackle andeach tray held a separate treasure.

In the bottom were several old

reels. There were three bait-castingreels and three old fly reels. Ofcourse the first thing I picked upwas the fly reels, one of which was anice old Hardy Uniqua.

This reel alone, more than madeup for the original purchase price ofthe box; a mere thirty-six bucks.The other reels were of lesser value,but none the less they were still verycollectable. It was the plugs, howev-er, that turned out to be the mostinteresting.

Several of the plugs were just thewooden blanks and like the boxwere hand made. A few of the oth-ers were from commercial manufac-turers. The nicest was a large pikelure from the Creek ChubCompany. Another nice bass plugwas from the Paw Paw Company.

There were also a dozen or so veryearly plastic lures and a few largewooden bobbers. Whoever ownedthis box was not opposed to usingdifferent methods to catch fish. If

all the items in the box came fromthe same original owner then hewas truly a renascence man. Notonly was he a fine craftsman, but hewas also willing to experiment withdifferent types of tackle.

The man who had purchased thebox was also a very interesting manas well. As Janet and I pawedthrough the box and thumbedthrough pages of books on old tack-le to find prices on the items in thebox his enthusiasm for the stuff wasas great as ours. He explained thathe was a machinist by trade and justloved old wooden tool boxes; which

was why he had purchased the boxto begin with. He said that he had ahouse full of them. I replied that mygrandfather had been a machinistalso and that I had some of his oldtool boxes. The man was leaving forhome and started to head out thedoor. Janet and I started to franti-cally pack up the box. He said to us,“why don’t you guys just keep thebox” as he started for the truck. Weboth told him that we thought thebox and its contents were much toovaluable to just give away, but heinsisted. I know that Janet and Istood there with open mouths for afew minutes still not grasping whathad just happened.

The problem with things like thisis that you always see the dollarsigns, but in the end you never havethe heart to break it up or part withit. The box is now on permanentdisplay at the North CountryAngler Museum of Fishing Tackle.

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].

people don’t really understand whatit means. Would it be such a badthing if everyone who buys a gunhas to go through a criminal back-ground check? No, sounds like agood idea. It is a good idea … until

you try to figure out a way to enforceit. There is no national gun registra-tion in this country, and such regis-tration has been prohibited by lawsince 1986. Gun registration of allthe guns in this country would likelyprove to be a daunting, if not impos-sible, task. We’re talking about morethan 100 million gun owners whoown over 370 million guns! Whatdoes gun registration have to do witha universal background check? It haseverything to do with it.

How could the governmentenforce universal background checkswithout knowing who owns the gunsor what they own? They couldn’t.Without registration all they coulddo would be to suggest that individ-uals go through dealers to transferprivate sales, but there would be noway of insuring that would be done.Is there a problem with a nationalregistration system? Yes, there is. Itwould mean that every legallyowned gun and its owner would bein a national, computerized data-base. Hackers could publish the

names of all gun owners and theirguns. In fact, your informationmight even be publicly availableunder the Freedom of InformationAct.

That’s not the only problem. Ourcurrent state of anonymity also pro-vides a huge obstacle to any confis-catory legislation. No governmentagency can take guns if they don’tknow where they are. Under ourcurrent system, dealer records canbe accessed during criminal investi-gations and for compliance audits.For the most part, these are paperrecords and must be searched manu-ally. When a dealer calls in a back-ground check for a gun sale, noinformation about the gun is given.If you are under the delusion thatour government would never confis-cate legally owned guns, you’d bettertake a closer look at the Feinstein billthat just made it to the Senate floor.Its grandfather provision for what itjokingly describes as “assaultweapons” only applies if the ownerregisters his guns as “destructivedevices” with the ATF and gives uphis right to ever sell or transfer thoseguns. If the owner doesn’t want topay his $200 transfer tax on eachfirearm or magazine, then he has theoption of turning in those items withno compensation. If the owner doesregister his “arsenal,” the guns won’tbe confiscated until his death. Theycan not be willed to anyone … theymust be turned in for destruction.

These are frightening proposals; sofrightening that they have almostsingle handedly been responsible forthe nationwide buying panic that hasnow been going on for four months.First, people were afraid they would-n’t be able to buy AR-15 style riflesand magazines, so they cleaned outall that inventory. The instant short-ages created only more of a buyingfrenzy, creating more shortages.Then came the ammo for those guns


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

Continued next page

As gun owners, we are all under atremendous amount of politicalpressure right now. Most of us arewell aware of the slew of anti-gunmeasures that have been proposedand discussed. Few, if any, of thesebrilliant ideas show even the slightestunderstanding of the guns they aretrying to ban, or of the thousands ofexisting and often unenforceable gunlaws that are currently on the books.

The basis for all these proposals isthe assumption that more restric-tions on gun ownership will some-how translate into a significantreduction in the use of guns incrime. Historically, this has neverhappened and is impossible to sup-port with statistical evidence. Thelast “Assault Weapons Ban” ended in2004 and has been the subject ofseveral studies. Many of these stud-ies were government sponsored andall reached the same conclusion.The 1994 to 2004 ban had absolute-ly no effect on the crime rate or theuse of “assault weapons” in crime.In spite of this, a new bill whichwould ban most semi-automaticfirearms that use magazines, and

also magazines that hold more than10 rounds, has passed committeeand will be debated on the floor ofthe Senate. It is very unlikely thatthis bill will make it through theSenate since it is opposed by most

Republicans and some Democrats. Ifit somehow did sneak through, anapproval before the House wouldseem even more unlikely.

Another big push is the call for“Universal Background Checks.”This appears to have broad basedsupport from the public, but most

Thoughts About Gun Laws and Shortages

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minutes. Right now, no amount ofany sought after item can satisfy thedemand. This can not last. Verysoon, I hope, it should becomeapparent that no banning of anytype of gun or magazine will getthrough Congress. Universal back-ground checks will prove to be tooimpractical to become law. That willleave the discussions about thereporting of mental health recordsand school security as the last debat-able items.

No one is coming for our guns, noone will impose magazine capacitylimits, and no one will force us regis-ter our guns. Those are my predic-

tions, and I certainly hope I amright. When, and if, I am provenright, this mad buying craze shouldend. I expect to see a lot of usedAR’s showing up on dealer shelvesby the summer.


from previous page

… gone in a matter of days. Nomore rifles? How about handguns?Almost any kind of semi-automaticpistol, and small revolvers, soonbecame the target of hoarders andthe panic stricken. With rifles, hand-guns, and ammo in short supply, itonly a matter of time before reload-ing became the only viable optionfor keeping ammo for shooting. So,now there’s also a shortage of bul-lets, powder, primers, and evenreloading dies. Well, if things arethat bad why not just shoot a .22LRgun until things calm down a bit?You can’t. Why? Because everyoneelse also thought of that and nowthere’s a shortage of .22 ammo aswell.

All these shortages have led tosome interesting things. First of all,there has been an outrageousamount of price gouging. Both deal-ers and individuals have raised priceson many hard to get items by asmuch a two to three times their orig-inal prices. I have seen $25 bricks of.22’s selling for $70, $800 AR stylerifles going for thousands, and $20magazines selling for as much as$120. Understand that wholesaleprices have risen only by about 5-10% during this supply crunch …not 100%. I can only encouragepeople to stay calm and not feed intothis unethical behavior.

Next, I keep hearing all the con-spiracy theories about the shortages.

The government has limited the pro-duction of guns and ammunitionsome claim, which is why we can’tfind ammo and guns on the shelves.Or, the government is buying all theammunition for themselves. Yes,government agencies and the mili-tary buy tons of ammunition. Theyalways have and they always will, butthis has little effect on the commer-cial production of either guns orammunition. Ammunition and guncompanies are running double andtriple shifts, often seven days a week,in an effort to keep up with theunprecedented demand for theirproducts. This is a consumer drivenshortage, nothing more. People arebuying whatever they can, whereverthey can. Some are simply hoarding,others just trying to find stuff theyneed. Still others are profiteeringfrom all this … buying what they canfind and then trying to sell it for dou-ble or triple what they paid for it.

Is there an end in sight? Yes thereis. Let me point out that shipmentsof guns and ammo are coming in ona fairly regular basis. The other weekI got in 6 cases of .22LR ammuni-tion and 20 cases of .223. Even lim-iting purchase to one box per cus-tomer, my entire shipment was gonein a matter of hours. AR style riflescome in every week. Sometimes I getonly one at a time, sometimes I getin several. Regardless of the quanti-ty, the guns are gun in a matter of

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].

Do you have a recreational campor property? An outboard motor,ATV or snowmobile? Why don’tyou try placing an ad in the NH

Outdoor Gazette? You’d be surprized by the results.

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headed up the hillside. There were afew little buck rubs from the yearbefore that I pointed out to him. Thenumber of deer tracks and drop-

pings increased as we approachedthe site I had picked for the treehouse/stand. It’s not far from thehouse, and I planned to make a com-fortable little platform the kids couldplay in and I could sneak into easilywith them to sit and watch for deerand other critters. As we brain-stormed about it, the kids said theywanted to make little beds, so Ithought I could add a roof, and win-dows, and actually the wirelessreception could be fairly good thereso maybe a solar panel could chargemy phone, or power a smallfridge…….then I realized I was get-ting carried away.

A deer trail passed just in front ofwhere I wanted to build this fortressof solitude. It was littered with oldand new tracks and various piles ofdeer droppings. Some were shinyand fresh and others were brownand frozen into the crust. I pointedout this difference to Ben and senthim on the task of following the trail.He eagerly marched along with hishead down looking at the tracks, andnot paying too much attention towhere he was going as he kept walk-ing into bushes and branches. Soon,we arrived at a little pile of bones.They lay in a little sunny spot, freefrom snow and ice, and in a little bedof matted black feathers. A little pileof coyote poop next to it revealedthat this was the remains of a coy-ote’s meal, probably a crow by thelook of the feathers. Ben wasenthralled and immediately startedunzipping his pockets to take themhome. It wasn’t antlers, but we hadfound something, at least, to takehome.

We made a nice loop along the

hemlock ridge, where there was littlesnow and a lot of deer sign, but noantlers. Ben was impressed with thesmooth, crystal clear ice formationson the boulders and broke off a fewicicles to admire. We hiked backdown the hill and back across ouryard, passing some balsams we hadplanted several years ago and somewere now almost as tall as Ben.When we got back in the house, mywife said my neighbor called to saysome coyotes had killed a deer intheir yard, and wanted to set up agame camera over the carcass. Benshowed Mom the bones he hadfound, and then wanted to headdown and find the dead deer withme.

The deer had been killed recently,only the night before. The back halfof the deer was pretty much gone.Ben walked up and checked it out,pretty much unfazed, but exclaiming“Gross, you can see its ribs!” The tailwas in good shape though, and con-veniently disconnected and lying ontop of the snow several feet away, asif set aside for me, the fly tier. Ipicked a tree for the camera at theedge of the yard and pulled the deera little closer, dragging it easily bythe ear over the frozen snow.

I could just barely see the carcassfrom the road as I drove back andforth to work the following week.Then it snowed, and everything wascovered up. In the middle of theweek we had to go to a doctor’sappointment, and in the afternoonwe were heading home. As wepassed my neighbors house I slowedthe car, peeked out into the field, andspotted the shape of a bird perchedon top of the now mangled pile ofbrown and red.

I thought it was a crow, but itlooked really big. I pulled out thebinoculars I keep in the glove boxand checked it out. It was a baldeagle, its large white head blendingin with the snow at a distance, andpowerful yellow beak tearing at thedeer’s flesh. The kids could easily seeits shape with the naked eye, appre-ciating it was a large bird. They eachtook a turn looking through thebinoculars, but I’m not sure theyfound it. We admired the eagle eat-ing its lunch until a car came upbehind us and we moved on.

I looked forward to checking thepictures on the camera the followingweekend, and was rewarded withpictures of the eagle, several coyotepictures, a fox, and even a few deerpictures. A doe had nosed right up tothe camera full of curiosity. Therewas no sign of the dead deer any-more other than some hair spreadamongst the animal tracks in the


The stretch of warm weather thathad led to the giant, billowing cloudsof steam erupting from the roofvents of the nearby sugar houses hadalso melted most of the snow on thesouth facing ridge just behind ourhouse, and it gave me the urge to getout and see if I could spot anydropped antlers. There is a nice littleprotected shelf of pine and hemlock,almost within sight of the house,where the deer spend a lot of time inthe winter.

After a little persuading, I con-vinced Ben we could have a littleadventure in the woods and I gothim to get dressed and head out withme. The promise of showing himwhere we could build the treehouse/tree stand we had been plan-ning had psyched him up for thetrek.

We each took a ski pole as a walk-ing stick and we could easily walk ontop of the remaining crust of snowas we criss-crossed through the areasit had melted completely.

Moments after leaving the frontsteps we crossed the backyard, and

as we passed the swing set Bencouldn’t resist hopping on the frozen

plastic seat and taking a few swings,his little booted feet banging un- ele-gantly in the snow with each pass.He quickly got off though, and we

Family TracksBy Brian Lang

Continued next page

Caught on camera- an eagle takes advantage of a free lunch

The Bone Collector

By Brian Lang

Family Tracks

Still nothing, until the Ol’ Man pad-dled us up into a tiny tributary. Justas I was feeling that speech abouthow “It aint like the olden days”coming on when the Ol’ manwhipped a native brookie out of thewater and landed it at my feet. Iremoved the trout from the line, butcouldn’t even get it in a creel beforemy father was flipping another atme, and another. I finally hookedone to his four, but only after hepulled up, as he so graciouslyreferred to it, “A horned-pout inbroad daylight” just to show off. Itwas the first of that species I hadseen and part of what made the tripso unforgettable. That and dumpingthe Ol’ Man out of the canoe whilepulling it ashore. Regardless, hefailed to learn his lesson and still outfishes me on rare occasions.

So far, I’ve visited morethan hand-full of the eighty plusVermont Wildlife ManagementAreas. In doing so I have had theopportunity to; call in a pack of fivecoyotes, track whitetails, film thepursuit of black bear with hounds,call in a bear by imitating a wound-ed moose calf and of course, foundthat “honey hole” of native brooktrout with The Ol’ Man. I’ve alsoenjoyed a great many camping andhiking adventures in the VT Stateparks with family and friends. Wehave a vast amount of hunting landavailable to any sportsman or

woman who takes the time to accessit. I can only hope that the future ofthis column will encourage you to doso.


from previous page

snow.Once the weather warms up some

more, the snow will be gone for goodand we can start construction of ourtree stand/house.

Maybe I could build a corner forthe porta potty, and bring the campstove up there. A little extra workand planning, and one could stay outthere for an extended period of time.On second thought, maybe I won’tbring my phone.

The Bone collector.

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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].

Continued from page 11

2. I explore the Victory Basin WMAas often as possible. Sure, I’ve sunk inthe bog more times than I can count,but I always have made it home,even if it is with one less boot. Thevast majority of days I’m out thereI’m the only one for miles. Once ona hike with my wife Dawn and ourdaughters, I came across a gentle-

man with the state doing a study ofGray Jays and he is literally the onlyhuman I can recollect encounteringwhen I’ve ventured there.

A guest journal, in a cabin out inthe middle of the Victory BasinWMA has entries from severalmoose hunters, a local who chasesbobcats with hounds, and a few biol-ogists but the entries are sparse andthe dates sporadic. The place is ahidden gem that I have had thepleasure of prospecting many times;one in particular comes to mind.August, a decade or so ago, the Ol’

Man wanted to take his Old Town,Coca-Cola edition canoe he’d wonfrom the local supermarket up theMoose River. My Grandfather and aclose family friend who I affection-ately refer to as Grandpa Easter hadtold him long ago of their successfuloutings for brook trout. The oldtimers had both passed on and I

assume Dad wanted to reminisceabout them a bit. I had no clue thatwe would be embarking on one ofthe most memorable fishing excur-sions of my lifetime.

After launching in off RiverRoad we paddled up the Moosetoward a part of the WMA knownlocally as Damon’s Crossing. It was anice day on the water, but a quietday for fish, one nibble all the wayupstream. Coming back down-stream and nearing the truck wedecided to stop awhile in the spotwhere I felt that small tug on my line.

Dylan R. Ainsworth is a native Vermonter.He is a member of the Mossy OakProstaff, a seminar speaker, and outdoorvideographer as well as a guide. He and hiswife Dawn own and operate NostalgicImages with a mission to bring the outdoorsinto focus and express their passion for thenatural world through photos and video.Dylan is also a home brewer and self pro-claimed connoisseur of Vermont craft beers.

The Moose River as it flows through Victory Basin © Nostalgic Images


without addressing them they quick-ly and silently disappeared.

At that time I could also see howthe mediation was helping me withmy shooting. Before I started classesmy mind was active through theentire shot process. Now, my mindwas much quieter and more cen-tered. Instead of giving extra atten-tion to the distracting thoughts, Ifocused on the steps of my shot rou-tine and my breathing. The steady

breathing relaxed my nerves andallowed me to be calm.

It was easy to see that I had foundthe secret passage to the next level.When I knew I was missing some-thing, I thought it was more alongthe lines of shooting form or knowl-edge about equipment. While someof that was probably true, once Ilearned how to quiet my mind every-thing seemed to fall into place.

With the new system in place itwas time to head to a national event.I had never meditated during a bigevent, so I didn’t know what toexpect. However, I knew it hadworked well in the state and regionaltournaments I had competed in.

When I arrived in Battle Creek,Michigan to shoot the National ASAPro-am, I felt anxious, but not over-whelmed. I knew I had been shoot-ing well, but approached the tourna-ment without any expectations.Expectations sometimes lead tounnecessary anxiety. My goal was toshoot one arrow at a time, while con-centrating on my breathing.

After the first day I was sittingcomfortably in sixth place. I knew Iwould have a chance at winning thetournament the next day if I stayedwithin myself.

I could feel a little extra tension inmy body for the first three shots thesecond day. After getting those shotsbehind me I got back into the rou-tine and finished strong. When thefinal scores were tallied I was therunner-up of the tournament. I hadachieved what I set out to do a fewmonths earlier. My mind was quietnot only during archery tourna-ments, but also in everyday life.

Archery has the ability to exposeparts of our personalities. Oncethese things are exposed it presentsus with a choice on how we want toapproach the things in front of us. Ichose to improve something with myarchery game than in turn improvedall areas of my life. What will you dowhen archery exposes one of yourweaknesses? Shoot straight and becalm at the center.

When I started shooting competi-tive archery I spent hours in thebackyard launching arrows into thetarget. My mind wasn’t too terriblyinvolved in the process, which madeshooting easier.

As the days turned into weeks andthe weeks turned into months Ifound myself wanting to do anythingI could to improve my accuracy. Itwas before computers were in almosteveryone’s home, so researchingcompetitive archery on-line was anunheard of tool. There weren’t anyarchery forums you could sit downand filter through in the evening.Instead, you had to rely on the peo-ple you knew and the local archeryclubs to gain knowledge.

I made a habit of finding the bestshooters and shooting with them. Ilived by the motto, “In order to getbetter you have to shoot with peoplewho are better than you”, and I stilldo. If you’re not pushing yourself tobecome better in any aspect of life,you probably won’t succeed, or ifyou do, it might take you a lot longerto get to where you want to go thanit would have otherwise.Competition usually inspires peopleto do the very best they can do. Itdrives people to succeed.

After I began shooting with somegreat shooters I realized I couldcompete with them, but I alwaysknew I was missing something thatcould catapult me to the next level. Iwas missing a mental game.

Since I wasn’t sure how to achievea good mental game I bought a fewbooks about mental training in ath-letics. From there I bought a couplemore, which discussed ways to cen-ter the mind and remain calm on theinside.

After I read through the books Isigned up for a meditation class. Ilearned the proper techniques of

breathing and how to concentrateon inhaling and exhaling.

As I got more involved with mydaily meditation sessions I quicklylearned how difficult it was to letthoughts come and go without giv-ing them any extra attention. I foundmyself focusing on some thoughtsmore than others and before long Iwas lost in those thoughts, which

defeated the purpose of meditating.Although I struggled mightily withthis new concept, I trusted theinstructor when he said the processwould become easier over time aslong as I set the time aside every dayto meditate.

After a few months I knew I was alot further ahead than where I waswhen I started. The distractingthoughts still entered my mind, but

Anchor PointsBy Todd Mead

Finding a Quiet Mind

By Todd Mead

Anchor Points

My mind is quiet as I gaze across the Colorado landscape.

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

A special Test Waters designa-tion intended to enhance fishingfor large, wild brook trout at JobsPond in Westmore and MartinsPond in Peacham goes into effectwith the start of trout season onApril 13.

Jobs and Martins Ponds are twoof just a handful of ponds inVermont that have significantnumbers of wild brook trout, andthey are the only two ponds in thestate that consistently producewild brook trout longer than 15inches.

“This Test Waters designationshould contribute to even betterfishing at these two special ponds,”said Jud Kratzer, fisheries biologistwith the Vermont Fish &Wildlife

Department. The Test Waters designation

includes a two trout per day creellimit and a 12 to 15 inch protectedslot limit. Anglers have to releaseall trout between 12 and 15 inches,and they may only keep one troutover 15 inches per day.

State fisheries biologists havekept a close eye on the fish andfishing at both ponds in recentyears, and they will continue to doso.

The biologists will evaluate theeffectiveness and popularity of theTest Waters designation over thenext few years before making rec-ommendations to the Fish andWildlife Board about a permanentregulation for the two ponds.

Test Waters Designation for Jobs and Martins Ponds Now in Effect


tank and gently stirs the fry. Soonthey will be transported to thelakes or placed in rearing ponds togrow into fingerlings. Those fishwill be stocked in the fall. The

total incubation period is twenty-one days.

The quest to angle a large wall-eye begins innocently for me. It isestimated 5% of the walleyescaught in Minnesota are stockedfrom hatcheries. My favorite fish-ing spot is one of those lakes,stocked with not only walleyes butbass and crapppies too. Will I real-ize my dream and catch a nicewalleye?

The month passes quickly as myanticipation builds. Finally thewalleye fishing opener is here.This is the day I have waited forand dreamt about. The warmthon my back feels good as I stepinto the boat. My guide slips aminnow on my hook as I cast theline into the lake. Plop! My baithits the water and sinks into thedepths of the cool lake. I give twoturns on the reel to raise the min-now a foot from the bottom. Birdssing a cheerful song as the boatgently sways. Hours pass like min-

utes, when all of a sudden I feel atug on my line. I thrust my rodtoward the sky with a quick jerk toset the hook. The rod bendstoward the water. I am shaky, butkeep a firm grasp on my rod. I cantell this is a large walleye; I mustwork carefully to land her. I simul-taneously twist the reel as I raisethe fish toward the boat. Waterswirls as the fish breaks the sur-face. Wow! This is a huge fish. Sherolls; I can tell she is going to divetoward the bottom of the lake. Ikeep a tight line on her as I reelher steadily toward me. As shenears the boat my fishing partnerdips the net in the water, under thefish, and lifts her into the boat. Iwork quickly and gently to releaseher from the barbless hook. Thethrill of catching a prize walleyenever gets old. I must be careful to

release her right back into thelake; maybe I will catch her again.I lift the green-gold beauty overthe side of the boat and move herback and forth to pass waterthrough the gills. She splashes hertail and swims into the lake as Ireleased my grip. I watch her diveinto the water; with satisfaction onmy face. She is large and willreproduce thousands of eggs yet inher lifetime. Possibly she will growlarger, and someone else will havethe opportunity to catch her.

Anita lives in Grand Rapids, MNand is the mother of two adultchildren. She has been a hairstylistfor thirty years. Her empty nestallows time to pursue interests ofphotography, bowhunting, fishing,travel and food. You can followher on facebook, youtube andhuntervids.com.

Winter is long in NorthernMinnesota, although some thingsmagically happen that signal thecoming of spring. The pussy wil-lows bloom, the ice goes off thelakes and the Department ofNatural Resources (DNR) begintheir egg-taking and fish hatcheryoperations to stock many of theten thousand lakes. I anxiouslyawait all three.

I am giddy, like when I was achild. It is something special towatch; this walleye fertilizationprocess. I get out of my car atLittle Cut Foot Sioux Lake, justnorth of Deer River, MN. A chillywind stings my face as I walk tothe lake and step onto the dock. Iam eager to investigate the fishtraps and watch the egg takingoperation. It may be early spring,although the walleye dream beginstoday.

I peer into the water and seehundreds of walleyes. Many ofthese are trophy fish, although the

fishing season isn’t open yet.“Their eyes shine like diamonds inthe sky” the raspy voice whispersto me. I listen as my guide explainsthe process. “The water must be42 degrees for the live fish to beripe and release eggs. They will bemixed with sperm into a mixture

called ‘milt’.” He speaks softly asthough sharing a secret with atrusted friend. I watch as the

hatchery specialist places his handunder the fish and runs his thumbunder the walleye belly, releasingthe eggs. Milt is placed in a shal-low bowl and swirls with mud tobegin the fertilizing process. Themixture is then transferred to largejars in temperature-controlled

hatcheries. Within ten days, tiny walleye

called fry, hatch. They must becontinually stirred and kept mov-ing. They are transferred in aseries of tubing, to a tank, whenthey are the size of grains of rice.My guide places an oar into the

The Walleye Dream Begins

Anita lives in Grand Rapids, MN and isthe mother of two adult children. She hasbeen a hairstylist for thirty years. Her emptynest allows time to pursue interests of pho-tography, bowhunting, fishing, travel andfood. Follow her on facebook and watch hervideos @ "http://www.huntervids.com/?videos=northern-pike-spearfishing-anita-williams-pokegama" http://hunter-vids.com/?videos=northern-pike-spearfish-ing-anita-williams-pokegama-

Outdoors with AnitaBy Anita WilliamsBy Anita Williams

Outdoors with Anita


This Green Moutain Bone Collectioncan be seen in Hartford, Vermont.

-


Spring is in the air…snow is hope-fully gone & April brings on a monthwith so many choices & so little time!Last year brought early warmweather after a winter with very lim-ited snow. Waters warmedearly..spring spawning of manyspecies started early & inshore fish-ing on many lakes was on fire thefirst of the month. This winter isadding up to be a bit more average,steady snow in some regions, buttemps much closer to normal. Herein the tail end of March, Ice still hasit’s grasp on most smaller bodies ofwater & southern Lake Champlain.There is still a large snow pack in theTug Hill Plateau and theAdirondacks of New York, whichmeans swelling river levels and slow-er warming on the Salmon &Hudson Rivers.

So what does this all mean??Well…to many places to fish & tomany things to do! At the time ofthis writing we are getting a lateMarch snow storm that NewEngland and the northeast can beinfamous for. I had planned on

bringing the big boat out of storagein the next week or so (after return-ing from a well needed warm weath-er trip to Aruba, but that will be in

next months column!) but with thewhite stuff piling up out side rightnow that may have to wait for a bit..I have just returned from the SalmonRiver for a few days of drift boattrips last week. There was still 18”-20” of snow on the ground beforethis storm, with plenty still up on theTug Hill (which is the primary water

source for the Salmon RiverDrainage) so there is no doubt thatthere will be plenty of water for riverflows the next 4 -6 weeks. The waterhas still been pretty cold with all thesnow, temps about 37 degrees which

means you have to work for the steel-ies as a few mid to late day bites havebeen the norm. But there is plenty offish there, we have seen hens freshfrom the lake still full of eggs, but

also starting to see some “drop-backs” or hens that have alreadyspawned & have that skinny look asthey prepare to head back to thelake. Now once the snow starts to

melt out it will cool the water for afew days, but when the temps start torise it will be game on, as the drop-backs put the feed bag on! This canbe one of the best times of the yearas the fish will really have an appetiteafter a long winter in the river. Nodoubt April will find us out on theriver with multiple trips in thedrifter!

Now this warming water comingout of the creeks, flowing into thelarger bodies of water means onething…in shore BROWN TROUTaction! Last year saw boats catchingfish during the last few days ofMarch as what snow there was wentout early. Normally mid to late Aprilmeans the arrival of some warmingwater and the Browns will be righton the edge of where that warmwater meets the cold water. When Isay “warm water” it may be 3- 4degrees warmer then the overall lakesurface temp, but that is all it takes toget these fish into the feeding mood!Looking for off colored water where

a stream or creek dumps in will be agood sign of where the Browns maybe holding. Running flat lined smallstick baits off from Planer Boards or

Continued next page

The Crazy action begins!!

The captains son with a VT Gobbler from 2011.

Drifting the Salmon River in early March.

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

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ccaann bbee hheeaadd wwaallll mmoouunnttss oorr ffuullll bbooddyy ddeeppiiccttiioonnss..

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MOUNTAIN DEER TAXIDERMY

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

Call Rodney or Theresa Elmer

WWW.MOUNTAINDEERTAXIDERMY.COM


from previous page

inline boards are the normal tactics.This may mean cutting in as close as5 to 10 feet of water, so long leadsout to as much as 175 to 200ft maymean the difference between fish inthe boat & just washing lures!Multiple hook ups & 15 to 25 fishdays are not out of the question;these can be fun family action after along winter & the itch to get out onthe water! These fish also make won-derful table fair, with very short ridesto get on the fish & not having tohead out to deep water, these tripscan mean more fishing time and lessboat rides in bumpy water!

For us April also means the arrivalof hearing on the Hudson River & of

course….HOG STRIPERS rightbehind them! We normally bring ourcharter boat down to marina atRondout Creek the last week ofApril. Rondout Creek lies on the cityline of Kingston, just south of theRhinecliff Bridge on the HudsonRiver. We dock our boat about amile up the creek at the RondoutYaht Club. Many fishermen fromNew York & Vermont await this timeof the year as this is the closest thesetrophy line sides get to us up streamfrom the Atlantic Ocean! As of nowwe are happy to say that we are near-ly fully booked for the month of May& our Striper trips! These fish offergreat table fair as well, no big sur-

prise that they have become one ofour most popular trips we offer & fillup fast after the holidays! I believethat this season will be a bit morecloser to normal ( if the weather pat-terns stay the way they are) andexpect the run to really take off bythe first week of May. Last seasonsaw some strong numbers of fishbeing hooked by mid April, ourusual bet of peak fishing betweenmothers day & memorial day willfind us there for the duration withbig smiles & full coolers!

The other thing that this rush ofmadness April brings is turkey scout-ing! The down fall of having somany fishing trips during the month

of May is cutting into one of my truepassions & that is spring turkey hunt-ing! I love roosting birds the nightbefore & coming back the nextmourning to find them screamingthere lungs out at every sound theyhear at first light! Our youth Turkeyseason is the last weekend in Aprilhere in Vermont, which will find myson Logan & I sitting with box callsin hand, trying to get him his firstVermont bird this season. Now hehad a his first chance last year….buta bit of “turkey fever” hit at the lastmoment and a blast of education isall that Logan’s 20 gauge did for thenice 3 year old long beard that camein mid morning after a bitter coldstart! We usually spend everyevening roosting birds the last twoweeks of the month, trying to get agrasp on where the birds will behanging come opening morning. Idid leave my self a few precious daysthe first week of May to get in someTurkey hunting, hopefully having acouple pinned down ready to comerunning to the call and make my sea-son a short one!! Ohh how I love therush of spring!!

A nice group catch of May Striped Bass.

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


Equipment for beaver trappinghas to be pretty heavy duty. Beaverare fighters to the end and willtwist in a trap until it escapes.Swivels are a must here as with themore swivels the chances of escapeare reduced. Number twelve gaugeor stronger wire is also a must.Trap six should be no smaller thana 4 for foot traps or 330 conibearsize. Traps have to be marked withyour name on every trap and in icetrapping your name tag has to beabove the ice so your traps can beidentified.

The goal is to quickly andhumanely dispatch your catch asquickly and efficiently as possible.Traps wired to large rocks will holdthem under water to efficiently dis-patch them. The goal is to avoidlosses because a beaver who hasescaped from a trap is an educatedbeaver and a little harder to catch.

Example: my friend Mark calleda month ago, a beaver had movedin and started munching his primefruit trees. I stopped in and toldMark: this will be like taking candy

from a baby”. Open mouth, insertwader. The first night I pinchedhim with a foothold and now itsgame on. This is one smart beaverand thus far has stumped me atevery turn. Mark is certainlyamused with this battle. When I

stopped the other night he asked if“I knew of a good beaver trapper”.Do not underestimate these toothycritters.

Now a few sets and some goodnews. Prior to this year if youtrapped beaver you could not put a

trap within 10 feet of a beaverhouse or dam. Effective this year inVermont the ten foot rule is gone.The theory behind this process is ifwe can trap more of them duringbeaver season it will mean trappingless of them in the summer monthsas nuisance beaver when their furhas no value.

An easy set is a spillway set.Spillways are little water waysbetween ponds where beaver trav-el. If the water is deep enough thisis the perfect spot for a 33 conibear. If shallow water exists anumber four will work just remem-ber swivels and no objects close byto tangle in.

A trail set is another producer.Find a place where a beaver leavesa pond to travel on land to fill hispantry. Place a number four in fourinches of water anchored deep andyou should get a rear foot catch.

A feed pocket set works well also.Find any piece of wood with thebark stripped off will catch abeaver’s eye as a potential mealand they will investigate. Again,remember the 4x4 rule.

Castor mound sets are construct-ed by placing a mound of mud onthe set and pouring some castor onit. Beavers are territorial and willinvestigate any intruders.

These pre-mentioned sets workwell before freeze up but will be

difficult after and God knows whenthat will happen so plan to be flex-ible. After freeze up the workbegins. This type of weather usual-ly weeds out the real trappers fromthe wana bees. Chopping ice everyday will test you to the extreme.Frozen fingers are the norm thistime of year.

Hopefully you marked your turfbefore freeze up. There is nothingworse than chopping through afoot of ice and hitting dirt. Myfavorite set is a leaning pole set.Chop a whole in the ice and put ina leaning pole, nail a platform on itto make a shelve large enough tohold a number 4 wired to a polewith some stripped branch baittied above. A 330 tied to the polewill have the same results.

A WORD OF CAUTION: DONOT, I REPEAT DO NOTREACH UNDER THE ICE TOCHECK YOUR SETS. There isnothing worse than having yourhand securely held under the icewhile you are on to. Unless you areinto chewing your own arm offplease carry a trowel or stick tocheck your sets with. On 330s besure to carry a safety and use ituntil your setup is complete to pre-vent miss firing. At last checkhuman hide has no value on themarket.

There are tons of sets, buy agood video or book, and checkthem all out. Once you catch abeaver dispatch if necessary andclean at the scene then hang to drycompletely .Lay flat on their backand cut from the base of their tailto their chin. Slowly roll andremove their fur. Once removed;it’s off to the fleshing beam toremove what you did not get in theskinning process. Once fleshed it’stime to tack to a pre marked furboard or hooped to get a ovalshape. Watch the knife work as any

By Randy BarrowsBy Randy Barrows

The Trap LineThe Trap Line

Beaver - Part Two

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

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

“The Outdoor Gazette”

Continued next page

from previous page

So you’re thinking about picking up alongbow or a recurve this year to huntwith…Excellent.

Like anything else, there is more thanone way to get started, more than onestyle, more than one way to practice.You get the picture.

Here’s the short version of how Iwould recommend for someone on theoutside of traditional archery and

bowhunting and wants to get in. Thebest way to do this is to find someone inclose proximity to you that is an experi-enced traditional archer and ask ques-tions and go shoot with them.If you cant do this then read on!First thing to do is find a bow that is

not too heavy for you. Remember accu-racy is far more important than bowweight. Generally if you shoot a com-pound, you should choose a traditionalbow that has a draw weight that is 10- 20lbs lighter. This is not an absolute ofcourse. This, like anything in this article,

is to be used as a guideline. You will haveto tweak these guidelines to fit yourneeds and abilities.

Ok so you have a bow that feels goodto you. Hopefully you have alsoacquired some arrows that are of thecorrect spine to match your draw weightand draw length or at least close. As aside I do not recommend you start withwood shafts from the get go. The reasonbeing is wood arrows can be a littlefinicky. Arrows from the same dozen canvery in total weight, spine and straight-ness. Starting with a shaft material that ismore “uniform” will make it easier tofocus on your shooting. But hey easier isnot always better. Success is in the eyes ofthe beholder and if you feel like woodenarrows are what you want to use, go forit.

Bow and arrow in hand,..The Stance- feet should be shoulder

width apart, slightly bend at the waste(your back and neck should be in astraight line), slight bend to the knees.Again, this is how I shoot and you willcome up with variations of all myinstructions that fit “You”. This is a goodplace to start though.

The bow and hands- First, when youdraw the bow do not put a death grip onit, hold it a little on the loose side. Thestring hand should have a glove or tabon it. I shoot instinctively and mostshooters that do this shoot split finger.One finger above the arrow and 2below.

The draw and release- When youdraw your bow. The bow should beslightly canted (tipped) so that when youreach your anchor point the nock ofyour arrow is directly below your eye.(leave both eyes open). Try this exerciseto clarify this. Stand up straight, holdyour bow straight and draw to youranchor point but do not release. Note

where the arrow’s nock is. It will be off tothe side of your face and not perpendi-cular to your shooting eye. Now repeat,bending at the waste and knees a little,and then cant your bow a little…nowdraw to your anchor and see where thearrow’s nock is at full draw. It should be

perpendicular to your shooting eye.The release- This is a very personal

choice. For me the longer I think aboutthe shot my accuracy proportionatelygets worse. So I draw the bow in onemotion, hit my anchor and release thearrow, no thinking, just doing! There aremany shooters that pause for a shorttime or do half draw then go to full drawand release..so on and so forth. This issomething you will have to figure out foryourself.

We now have our stance, our drawand release down. The last two equallyimportant pieces of the mystery are thefollow- thru and aiming. First the followthru is easy. You do not drop your bowor pick up your head…basically do notchange your position at all until thearrow hits the target. If you move beforethe arrow hits, the arrow will follow yourmovement. So if you shoot and dropyour bow arm before the arrow arrivesat its destination, the arrow will hit lowor under the target.

Aiming, well you don’t aim. You let ‘erfly. LOL. Seriously you pick a small spot

and stare at it. While you are hyper-focused on this spot, you assume yourstance, draw the bow, hit your anchor,release, follow thru and keep looking atthe spot till the arrow hits.

Few other hints for beginning tradarchers…pick a small spot not one the

size of a basketball. Place a spot about ?inch in diameter in the middle of apaper plate and try to hit it. Don’t just behappy hitting a bare paper plate. Youwill never be an accurate shooter if youdon’t use a small spot to shoot at. Don’tbe upset if you never hit the spot, beingand inch or three away, consistently, ispretty darn good shooting.

The next thing you should do if youare just starting is, only shoot out to tenyards for the first month or so. Work onthe stance and the release and the “pick-ing a spot” thing. When all thosebecome second nature then it will betime to step back…and that will be nextmonths article.

The picture on the left shows proper anchor point, nock of arrow in relation to eye posi-tion. - The picture on the right shows the anchor point and arrow nock to eye positioning,way off to the side. It is difficult to be accurate with this kind of shooting style.

Knees bent, slightlly bent at the waste,elbow up...lookin good!


mis-cuts will reduce the price ofthe furs.

Once dry it is off to the fur deal-er and depending on the year youcould be looking at a twenty dollarbill for your efforts. Do not forgetthe castor sack located near theanus and freeze these for sale downthe road or your own lure making.And the skulls, they are highlywanted for decorations of cabins.

As far as table fare, beaver aregood to eat. Remove all fat fromthe beaver and season with salt,pepper and other seasoning ofyour choice. Place a rack in a roast-er with a drip pan for the excess fatto run off. Cook at 450 for fifteenminutes to sear the outside, thenlower to 350 and cook for thirtyminutes per pound making sure itis totally cooked. Lemon slices on

top add a little extra zest. Beavercan be used in stews.

There you go, enough info I hopeto get you started. Beaver are achallenge but remember I saidtrapping is not easy.

Keep your waders patched andlures in the shed and be sure totake a kid with you.

Randy

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.

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Stick and StringStick and StringBy Fred AllardBy Fred Allard

Getting Started Shooting in the Instinctive Style

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].


By Charlie ChalkBy Charlie Chalk

Behind the SightsBehind the Sights

Looking for a new way to havesome fun with targets?Muzzleloaders have long been veryaccurate target guns. Is as simple asa proper combination of powderand ball. Muzzleloaders are capableof great accuracy, so don't be con-tent with mediocre groups whenwith just a little time you can do aswell or better than most center firerifles. Many new rifles have come onthe market over the past year so ifyou are new to the sport, take time totalk to other shooters and your localgun store owner to see what theysuggest. Traditional caplocks, flint-locks or inlines; style is less importantthan quality.

That new gun will come with amanual of instructions. Read it care-fully. Safety rules are the first halfand the most important.Muzzleloading has a great safetyrecord so let's keep it that way.

To work up the best loads for agiven caliber you need to know theweight of the bullet and an accuratepowder measure. If you use blackpower substitute powder, there may

be variations in pressure and energyfrom an equal volume of black pow-der, but a general rule is these onlyslightly raise point of impact. Never

use any powder not specifically stat-ing for use in muzzleloaders.

Muzzleloaders require some acces-sories to give them proper "care andfeeding" and these accessories areeasily left behind when you travel to

the range. Trying to use a screwdriv-er that will not fit or trying to removea breechplug or nipple with anadjustable wrench because the toolsneeded were home on the bench, isnot fun. Basic tools will allow you to

load, clean, and do simple repairs. Additionally you need a few more

items. The "range rod" is a longerrod than your ram rod and it isdesigned to load without breakingand is long enough to make a greatcleaning rod when the day isthrough. Made of metal or fiber-glass, in all calibers, they allow formare consistent loading.

Loading powder in the barrelrequires a word of caution; NEVERload directly from any powder con-tainer as a spark in the bore couldend your shooting career. Pour pow-der into a measure. An adjustablemeasure is perfect to work up a loadfor the range or field. Take carewhen you measure powder. Somealways gets spilled so take time towipe the bench because each shotprovides a possible ignition. Taketime to clean up before you leave toavoid problems for others.

Remember the manual that hasthe safety information? The secondhalf of the book will give loadingdata. Anything below the maximumload are called "suggested" loads. Itbecomes your responsibility to figureout what works best and provides themost accuracy.

The most common guns are .45and .50, so how do you work up aload? Remember, never exceedmanufactures maximums and anyused gun should be checked by a

gunsmith before attempting anyload.

In the decision process for a prop-er load, we need to look at velocityand energy. Energy is figured by cal-culation of speed and weight of bul-let. You need to know how a specificrifle will perform with a certain bul-let and powder combination. Takean example of a .50 cal. rifle sightedin at 100 yards, using a round ball. Ifyou switch to a heavier conical bul-let, this change alone could drop thepoint of impact 8 to 10 inches,which could be outside the target.

The other factor, velocity, cannotbe compared to modern arms. Whatyou are looking for is the optimalload for a particular gun.Muzzleloaders are like people, we allhave our likes and dislikes and sodoes every gun. The optimum load isone that delivers the most velocitywith the least amount of powder.Beyond this point, unburned powderis being pushed out the barrel withthe bullet and you gain nothing invelocity or energy.

Most manufactures can supplysuggested optimum loads for theirguns or if you have access to achronograph you can work up yourown.

At the end of the day, you need tothoroughly clean your gun. All ofthe common powders you will useare corrosive. Putting one away dirtywill pit the bore and ruin the accura-cy.

Bore cleaners are a personal pref-erence. Most are water-based as thegeneral principal of cleaning is todissolve residue and dilute acidsformed by combustion. Take thatrange rod you bought some patchesand clean until you see no moreresidues. To preserve and preventrust, a light coat of oil finishes thework and you are ready to store itaway.

Google a search for muzzleloadingshoots in your area and get out anddo some shooting as the weatherwarms up. They are great fun andyou meet some great folks.

Smoke those Targets

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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.

own I'd be more than willing topurchase some from you.

Remembering names is not mystrong suit; not that there is one.We have hundreds of clients in aseason. On trips anglers may bewearing hats, sunglasses andwaders. Recognizing an angler at ashow or off the water may not bemission impossible but it’s close;and putting names with faces is

more difficult. The email wasaddressed to Jerry & I so it waslikely it was an Androscogginpackaged trip or an intermediateclass; it turned out to be an inter-mediate class. That’s one of thebenefits of keeping records withdates, names and other informa-tion required by guides.

The class was a gift certificatefrom his girlfriend. We have quitea few gift certificates for classesand trips. It was easier to remem-ber looking back on the class. Hesaid it was the best gift he had everreceived; a comment we’vereceived from several recipients ofgift certificates. I seldom remem-ber what flies we fish unless theyare hatch related. I use a few greennymphs; the most frequent is avariation of my ice nymph a size16 green bead head flashback. Ivaguely remember him having agood day with the green flashback.I tie most of my own flies but don’ttie commercially. This year I did

have three flies I sold at shows; theflashback was one. This was thebest winter I’ve had tying. I startedout in October tying at least adozen flies a day and by the timeJanuary rolled around the supplywas in good shape. A friend wascomplaining about having nothingto do and tied up 14 dozen for mysupply. After tying the flies he did-n’t complain about nothing to do.Pictures from our classes are onthe web site.www.nhriversguide.com/Learn-to-Fly-Fish-in-New-Hampshire.htm

Not a winter goes by that I don’tfind new patterns that look irre-sistible; hopefully that will go forthe trout as well. Good fly patternswork year after year; it’s not thetrout but the angler who usuallyrejects a pattern. That’s particular-ly true with wet flies that anglerslost interest in when nymphingbecame popular only to see theresurgence in soft hackle flies thathave been around for hundreds ofyears.

The late season snows will notonly benefit skiers and snowmobil-ers it should help anglers as well.Last year there was no snow pack;hence no runoff. Rivers were lowand warm for the spring and sum-mer. With a reasonably good snowpack flows should be higher withcooler river and stream tempera-tures. Hatches should be closer totheir normal cycles. Last year mostof the hatches were early; some bya few weeks including the alderfliesand hex hatch.

This year the big lakes are stilliced in. Salmon season onWinnipesaukee and lakes to thenorth will be closer to normal.There’s always the anticipation ofice out and smelt runs but whatev-er the conditions on April 1st whensalmon season starts anglers willbe on the lakes on any open waterand on the rivers.


Saturday March 23rd was theday I planned on starting the Aprilcolumn. We had just returnedfrom four days at Smugglers Notchin Vermont trying to squeeze in afew days of skiing before the sea-son winds down. In 2012 my lastski day was March 12th’ this yearwe could go into mid-April. I haveonly skied Vermont a few times;once was in the late 80’s or early90’s. A friend who has a time sharein Hawaii ended up with extrapoints that had to be used by April.Smugglers was one of the optionsand he invited a few of us to joinhim. Several years ago we drovethrough the notch on route 108 ona rambling return trip from fishingthe Au Sable River in New York. Itwas easy to see why the notch isclosed in the winter.

On any trip, even in the winterit’s always interesting to look at therivers along the way and thinkabout fishing them. I’ve neverfished in Vermont but there’s a lotof good looking water. Anotheritem for the “TO DO” list when Istop guiding. Skiing went fromgood to phenomenal thanks to sev-eral inches of powder. In 2005, 6& 7 we did ski & tie trips toSugarloaf in Maine along with atleast one trip to a friend’s place inTwin Mountain a few years ago.This trip a few of us brought tyinggear. It’s a relaxing way to spend alate afternoon or evening. It’s pret-ty good to have friends who fishand tie. Somewhere along the waywe may ski with someone whodoesn’t fish but about the onlyfriends I have hunt or fish andthere’s no shortage of skiers andtiers in the group.

Checking mail a few times a dayis a necessary evil and on the 23rdI received the following email: HiJim and Gerry, Last year you guys

taught me more about fly fishingin a day than I'd learned trying toteach myself over twenty years.The week after we had our guidedouting I spent the weekend inMiddle Dam along the RapidRiver. The weather that weekendwas unseasonably hot and talkingwith the local guide he was havinga hard time getting them to bite. Ilanded a couple small salmon that

weekend and had a few others Icouldn't land, all in all an amazingexperience. I could tell there wasone person who got it right, onenight at dusk you could hear hisscreams of victory for miles up anddown the river. The reason I'memailing you is to ask a question.You put a dropper on the end ofthe fly I was using, I've never hadas much success as I have with thatfly which is now gone. I believe itwas a green (caddis?) emerger,does that ring a bell and if so youguys tie your own or did you buy itlocally? I've been dying to get myhands on some, if you make your

Another Season

By Jim Norton By Jim Norton

From the back of a canoe

From the back of a canoe

Jim Norton is a native of NewHampshire and author of the bookGranite Lines. He enjoys fly-fishing& tying, bird hunting and a varietyof other outdoor activities and isalso a registered NH fishing Guide.Visit his website at www.nhrivers-guide.com

One of the anglers from our 2012 Northeast Fly Fishing Intermediate class.


I know some of you have heardme say “ Don’t miss hunting theevenings next week. The moon isrite for good bucks to be on themove early”. I get a lot a weirdlooks, some disbelievers and evena few think I’m plain stupid. Butthe ones that (even though theydidn’t get it but said ok, I’ll give ita shot) have tried and appliedwhat I told them? They becamequick believers and started to askme a lot more questions to betterunderstand the method.

So, if ya give me a chance andyou apply a100% honest effort, Ithink you each will find this con-cept works very well and is asimportant if not more importantthan your scent lock suit.Remember this concept is SIM-PLE, and works on ALL biggame animals.

Now just to get ya to easilyunderstand how to use thismethod. For those that takeevening drives or for those thathave driven around in the lateafternoons looking to catch aglimpse of whitetails. Have youever noticed (say over a coupleweek period) that you can bedriving around each night andnot see really anything. But thenone night you start seeing a fewdoe. Then the next night a fewmore does. The next night doesagain but as well you start seeingsome small bucks. Then the nextnight a few more small bucks andthe next night “WHAM” ya seesome slammers, the next night afew more slammers and then thenext night NOTHING??

It is simple! When you see theBIG BOYS on theirfeet.....LOOK UP AND SEEWHERE THE MOON IS INTHE SKY!! I know a lot of guysare hooked on the moon phaseand not that the phases of themoon don’t dictate a few thingswhen it comes to big game ani-mals. But the position the moonin the sky will dictate when BigGame animals are most active.Thus, you now know the mostimportant times to “not” missbeing out hunting. I use thismethod mainly on trophy white-tail bucks. But I have used thismethod successfully on blackbears as well. Because I use thismethod for whitetails, I willexplain how to simply use thisconcept to increase your success.

After years of using thismethod, I know when to startdriving around looking for highlevels of deer activity. When to

start is simple. First: If youuse/look at the photo I sent youand then spend some time out-side every evening and pay atten-tion to where the moon is. Youwill know that the moon is in a

different place in the sky eachnight. Now, there is a time fromwhen the moon rises, to beingdirectly overhead that deer activ-ity is at its highest. Then again itwill repeat itself 12 1/2 hrs laterwhen the moon is in the oppositeposition. Why? Gravitational pullis at its highest twice within themoons revolutionary cycle.Understand this and you willsoon know when to spend specif-ic nights glassing.

Because evening hunts are mostconvenient and favorable formost hunters, we will us it as theprime example. Our season inIllinois starts in October and sun-set is usually around 6:30 and it isdark by 7:00. So when we put outour trail cams in July, and startgetting pics of certain big buckseach month, we start to payattention at around 4pm to where(what position) the moon is in. Inreference to the photo I sent you,the moon rises in the 9 o’clockposition and sets in the 3 o’clock.When I see the moon in the 1o’clock position at about 4pm inthe afternoon? That is when Istart scouting/glassing everynight for about a week or two.

SO, when the moon first reach-es the 1 o’clock position (around4pm in the afternoon) start glass-

The moon is just right ing EACH NIGHT until at darkthe moon is in the 9 o’clock posi-tion (or the moon hasn’t yetrisen). In that period of time, youwill see big game activity increaseeach night and 2 of those nightsyou should see some early move-ment from big bucks. Not only do

you want to look up and seewhere the moon is AT in the sky.But you want to mark that daydown on the calendar. Why?Because the moon will make onerevolution around the earth in 291/2 days and returns to its origi-nal position opposite the earthwithin only 27 days later. Thus,WHEN THE MOON IS BACKIN THE SAME POSITIONTHE NEXT MONTH, THEBUCKS WILL AGAIN BE ONTHEIR FEET EARLY! Thisallows you to count months

ahead to know when to definitelybe there to hunt him while he ison his feet during daylight hours.

So when you catch on to thismethod, you will know when tostart staying later in the morning,getting to the stand a lot earlierin the evening or just simply huntmid day. For those skeptical ortoo arrogant to try this, You’remissing out!!! For those that wantto know more, Jeff Murray wrotea book about this method back in1995. I got the book, read it,applied it and have been usingthis method ever since. Since1995 Jeff has made 3 DVD’s onthis method for those that hate toread. Unfortunately Jeff passedaway last year. But you can stillorder his book and his DVD’sfrom his sitehttp://www.moonguide.com/.This information is some of themost useful information I haveever came across while hunting.Again, I have been using thismethod since the book came outin 95. Jeff offers a moon dial thatwill cut out a lot of work for youor for those that simply want totake the easy way out. Personally,I have no need to use the dial.Once you spend some time afieldfiguring out this method. Youwont find a need to buy one. Sobest of luck to everyone this fall.

Brett is the owner and head guide forBackwoods Whitetails Outfitters. Bornand raised in West Central Illinois, Bretthas well over 25 years of experience inhunting all types of big and small game inthe backwoods of Illinois. Born the son ofa gunsmith, Brett was introduced intosmall game hunting as a young boy.Through his fathers love of guns, huntingsmall game and upland birds. Brett quick-ly developed a passionate hobby that wouldtake him to a career in the guiding huntersin the backwoods if West Central Illinois.

By Bret HomerBy Bret Homer

Anything WhitetailAnything Whitetail


By Mary KayBy Mary Kay

Reflections of the Outdoor AngelReflections of the Outdoor Angel

There’s one thing I have reallybeen enjoying – none other thanfishing! However, I do not like to becold. So fishing in the cold, a.k.a. icefishing, wasn’t big on my wish list.Yet, when I would be going to acabin in Southwestern Wisconsinmy first request was to go ice fishing!We’d just come through someREALLY bitter winter weather and20 degrees sounded quite balmy forice fishing. I think the key to my fish-ing expedition was knowing thatwe’d be stationed in a cabin on theMississippi River and have tip ups toalert success. I am not the kind whocan sit idly by waiting though. I haveto be out doing!

After losing my bag on the trip, Ihad to construct a warm outfit. Igathered layers from numeroussources and topped it all off with ablaze orange snowsuit. I once againhad reverted to being dressed like aman. How could I not though whenI was wearing MEN’s clothes?!? Ileft the confines of a warm cabinand plodded, yes plodded, down tothe ice. I made my way to the few in

our group already gathered on theice. First words out of the men’smouths had to do with my pinkgloves. I assumed they realized the

gloves clashed with the brightorange, but I didn’t care.

I was here to ice fish! Let’s getstarted. The guys were standingaround visiting with cold beveragesin their bare hands. They were more

brave than I was, but I bet next timethey’ll be sporting some pink gloves!

I saw the holes had already beendrilled and the bucket and poleswere ready to go. Why aren’t wefishing?? Maybe when they finished

the adult energy drinks (beer) we’dtackle (nice fish reference?) mydream. Drinks done, ok here we go.Nope, they reached for another. Iasked when we’d start fishing andthey said we were. The small rodswere in a holder, not in my hand.How was I fishing? If you can’t beatthem join them came to mind. Iwould have my own beer and standaround and “fish”. It was explainedto me that we were waiting for thetip ups to pop and then we’d knowthere was a fish on the other end. Iwanted to double my chances so Itook hold of the cute little rod andplopped it in the hole. I was jiggingand swigging (the beer) and nothingwas happening! At least I was warm.

Slowly our group meandered ontothe ice and I thought now thingswould really get hopping. They didall right but it was a lot of story-telling and laughing. Why weren’tthey fishing? I guess I was the onewho wanted to fish and the wonder-ful people of Wisconsin were morethan willing to accommodate me.Another friend of the group showedup with his chocolate lab, Lucy, and3 ? year old granddaughter, Bella.She immediately got into the spiritand wanted to fish. My kind of gal!Now I have a fishing partner.

She had no sooner gotten her linein the water when she exclaimed “Igot one”! I was jealous! Of a 3 ?year old. She’d been on the ice, in avery cute outfit, for 5 minutes andshe had a fish. I was dressed ratherfrumpily and had been out for anhour and had nothing. Bella pulledin her line and I was somewhatrelieved to see it was empty. I canNOT be upstaged by a toddler.Lucy, the lab, sprinted by and

showed off her catch. She had a fishin her mouth. What is going onhere? A dog catches fish, but me, theaccomplished angler, has nothing. Ireally don’t consider myself anaccomplished angler, but every timeI’ve been out I have had success!

The action all along theMississippi River seemed to be slow.No one appeared to be catchinganything, hopefully not even a cold!While my fishing partner was dis-tracted a bait fish was rigged on herline and put back in the water. Shewas told to keep fishing and againshe immediately said she had one.This time however it was true! Theexcitement was priceless. HerGrandpa T took the photos whileshe proudly displayed her catch.Now it was my turn! Bella had herfun! Plus she was pulled on a saucerto our spot. I had to walk all bymyself

I still wasn’t catching anything butBella had one more. Same methodas before! It made the day to see herjoy. I realized I wasn’t wearing myfish ring; was this the reason I wasn’tcatching? I had a pair of leopardgloves under my pink gloves to keepwarm, but that wasn’t working toowell. I guess I wanted to warm myhands but didn’t want to look like aquitter. Who do you supposejumped at the opportunity to takethe battery for the auger and put itback on its charge? That would beme. I looked like I was helpful/con-cerned. Not the cold wimp I reallywas!

Our group reconvened in thecabin. The warm layers meant foroutside were not needed, yet I didn’tshed anything except a tear or 2.The men were manly and took offthe coats etc. At one point I noticedone of the manly men, actually aretired firefighter and the 1st one tohave commented on my pink gloves,had on a PINK belt. He claimed itwas orange, and then changed thatto salmon. If anyone knows color it’sme, and his belt was PINK! It’s okthough, real men wear pink, and hewore it quite well I must say.

Even though my ice fishing wasmore beer drinking and storytelling,I thoroughly enjoyed my time. I willgive it a try again, but I will have toremember my key equipment – mycrystal fish ring! Look out ice fisher-men; I will be taking over your terri-tory.

Mary is the host of “The OutdoorAngel”. This is an Outdoors show thatfeatures a novice woman out hunting andfishing with the industries top pros.. MaryKay will inspire the uninspired to enjoy thegreat outdoors

Waiting for the tip ups to pop


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Bill "Pop" Burke, resides in Claremont, NH. If you would like to contact Pop send an email to: [email protected] "Pop" Burke, resides in Claremont, NH. If you would like to contact Pop send an email to: [email protected]

Turkey Scallopini BurgundyIngredients1 package Turkey Breast for Scallopini, or thinly sliced freshturkey1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper1/4 teaspoon garlic powder1/2 cup all-purpose flour2 tablespoons butter or margarine1/2 cup Burgundy wine, divided, or chicken broth1/4 cup chicken broth1 can (8 ounce) sliced mushrooms, drained

Instructions:In a bowl, combine salt, pepper, garlic powder and flour. Dredgeturkey in flour mixture. In a large frying pan over medium heat,quickly brown turkey in melted butter, turning once. Add ? cupBurgundy wine or chicken broth (reserve ? cup for demi-glaze).Cook on high for 1 minute. Remove turkey from pan and keepwarm. Pour remaining wine or broth and chicken broth into pan.Scrape loose all the brown particles and bring to a boil. Add mush-rooms and boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour demi-glaze over scallopi-ni. Serve over angel hair pasta.

Turkey Scallopini BurgundyIngredients1 package Turkey Breast for Scallopini, or thinly sliced freshturkey1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper1/4 teaspoon garlic powder1/2 cup all-purpose flour2 tablespoons butter or margarine1/2 cup Burgundy wine, divided, or chicken broth1/4 cup chicken broth1 can (8 ounce) sliced mushrooms, drained

Instructions:In a bowl, combine salt, pepper, garlic powder and flour. Dredgeturkey in flour mixture. In a large frying pan over medium heat,quickly brown turkey in melted butter, turning once. Add ? cupBurgundy wine or chicken broth (reserve ? cup for demi-glaze).Cook on high for 1 minute. Remove turkey from pan and keepwarm. Pour remaining wine or broth and chicken broth into pan.Scrape loose all the brown particles and bring to a boil. Add mush-rooms and boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour demi-glaze over scallopi-ni. Serve over angel hair pasta.


objectives will definitely be in con-flict.

Big Timber InvestmentManagement Organizations, RealEstate Investment Trusts and timberbarons have in recent years acquiredlarge amounts of forest land innorthern Maine, New Hampshireand Vermont and sometimes seemto have more interest in liquidatingforest assets to make a quick buckthan in sustainable forest manage-ment. In Maine, they have typicallyowned forest properties for 10-15years before “dumping” them.Much like absentee owners, mostseem simply to just not care muchabout the land or what grows on it.In some Maine townships, everydeer yard has been cut.

It seems unlikely that land use reg-ulation of any sort will effectively oradequately address the needs fordeer yard management in the fore-seeable future across Maine, NewHampshire and Vermont. It alsoseems unlikely that big money inter-ests will ever care much about theland.

On the other hand, many smallland owners in Maine, NewHampshire and Vermont do careabout the land, the forest and thedeer. They spend millions of dollarseach year on food plots, plantingsand management to benefit deer.Most of these folks are deer hunters.They recognize the importance ofdeer yards. However, very few have agood understanding of what a deeryard really is or what conditions arenecessary to sustain a deer yard. As a

result, some may inadvertentlyremove softwood cover and connec-tivity within deer yards as they man-age their forest lands for timber, agri-cultural or maple sugar production.Others may be out planting foodplots that don’t promote survival ofdeer through the winter. Some landowners may not care, but many oth-ers do care about deer.

Improving landowner awareness ofthe form and function of deer yardsis step one. Developing an under-standing of what the ideal condi-tions are within a good deer yard isstep two.

Understanding how various forestmanagement practices can providefor good deer yard conditions as wellas for good and sustainable forestproduction is step three. It seems tome that a sound educational processmight get the job of deer yard man-agement on private land accom-plished faster than enactment of anyregulatory process would. Fish andWildlife and Forestry Agencies in thenortheastern states should be takingthe lead.

Last month, I interpreted and pro-vided some commentary on the eco-logical observations made in theExecutive Summary of Pekins andTarr’s (2008) “A Critical Analysis ofthe Winter Ecology of White-TailedDeer & Management of Spruce-FirDeer Wintering Areas withReference to Northern Maine”(http://www.umaine.edu/cfru/All_coop/Publications/Pekins_RR_Complete.pdf). In this article, I will dis-cuss some of the management con-siderations of Pekins and Tarr. I willuse the term “deer yard” as meaningthe same as “deer wintering area”and “winter deer habitat.”

All deer yards must have two basiccomponents: 1) mature coniferstands that provide shelter fromwind and cold temperatures andareas having reduced snow depthswhere deer are able to move morefreely; and 2) adjacent forested ornon-forested areas where forage isavailable.

The best deer yards occur whereforage producing areas are highlydispersed within a matrix of matureconifer stands. In the best deer yards,deer don’t have to travel very far toget to either food or cover. Hence,Pekins and Tar list the three main

objectives necessary for creating andmaintaining an ideal deer yard:

• Provide for enough cover at alltimes (50 % of the area)

• Provide for a constant, abundantand accessible supply of forage, and

• Provide for a high level of inter-spersion of cover and forage so thatdeer can easily access both.

In northern Maine and NewHampshire spruce and fir providemost of the softwood cover for deer.Further south, hemlock and cedarprovide for more of the softwoodcover for deer. Hemlock is veryimportant in Vermont. Hemlockand cedar are actually better at hold-ing snow than spruce and fir. Pineswhich have less ability to hold snoware even used for cover in moresouthern areas where the need forcover is less and small patches ofsoftwood suffice.

Management of deer yards doesnot have to conflict with timbermanagement goals if those involvesustainable forestry. Silviculturalpractices involved in manage soft-wood timber can be identical tothose needed to produce ideal deeryard conditions. However, if the goalis simply to make a fast profit by cut-ting timber, deer yard management

By Wayne A. LarocheBy Wayne A. Laroche

Fish & Wildlife ManagementFish & Wildlife Management

Ecology of White Tailed Deer in Northern New England

Free movement of deer between soft wood cover and foraging areas is critical to survival ofdeer during winter.

Mature softwood canopy holds snow and reduces snow depth on forest floor.

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 say that I like turkey huntingis an understatement because infact I simply love it! I love to bethe trigger man, I love to be thecameraman, I love to be the guide,and I especially love taking outyouth and introducing turkey

hunting to first time hunters of allages! The thrill of the early morn-ing gobble to the calling a birdwithin range is what drives me to

hunt turkey every chance I get!So catch the fever, get out with

your friends, your kids, yourfriends kids and their sisters,mothers and brothers and enjoyone of the best adventures avail-able in New England! TurkeyHunting!

When you shoot that bird thisspring or fall, send it in toMaineHunters.com’s turkey photocontest and not only could youwin a prize, but you are sharingyour adventure with the world onephoto at a time!

Turkey hunting has to be one ofthe best activities for sportsmenever to happen! New England did-n’t have this opportunity when Iwas a youth, but in Maine I live inYork County where the first birdswere introduced back in 1977 tore-populate Maine and well, yes,we helped NH too! The birds werereleased in Elliot Maine and soondistributed into my town,Lebanon Maine by 1980 birdswere moved and relocated alongMaine’s border and for someunknown reason some of theseturkeys jumped the stream andmoved to NH! For me has neverbeen an issue, because I hunt bothMaine and New Hampshire annu-ally spring and fall, as well asMassachusetts and sometimesVermont!

In 2007 I started a little friendlycompetition called a Yankee Slamand a Yankee Grand Slam on theMaineHunters.com website. Ithasn’t caught on as well as I wouldhave hoped, but it still exists tothis day on our website. TheYankee Slam is six (6) birds in anycalendar year from any of the sixNew England states. This includesspring and fall birds and is actual-ly easier now that Maine allows 3birds, NH allows 2 birds, Massallows 2 birds, and you can huntVT,CT and RI. The YankeeGrand Slam is six birds, one fromeach New England State in a life-time. We issue a certificate to any-one that completes the YankeeGrand Slam and we post yourphotos for each of the slams onour website. If anyone is interest-ed in completing either of ourYankee slams full details are atMaineHunters.com.

In Maine you can start huntingat age 10 as a youth hunter and asa youth you hunt until age 16

when you can then hunt withoutsupervision by an adult licensedhunter. Turkey hunting is a greattool to keep a young hunter enthu-siastic about hunting. Many

youngsters get bored with deerhunting here in New Englandbecause of how difficult it is formany to even see a deer, nevermind have time enough for ayouth to settle in for a good shot! Ihave found turkey hunting to be agreat way to introduce youth tobeing patient and accurate! Myselfand one of my staff, Jay Wagnerput his daughter Cheyenne on sixturkeys in Maine over her six yearsas a youth hunter. She was the firstfemale in Maine on record toshoot a turkey every year from age10-15 on a youth license. My owndaughter having given up huntingat age 16 for school and friendactivities shot her first turkey atage 15 and just the other day atage 25 said she was interested ingetting back into hunting, but onlyturkey hunting for now! Themoral of this story is “turkey hunt-ing” creates memories that last!

Turkey Season is Here!

By Steve BeckwithThe Maine Hunter

Steve Beckwith is a Registered MaineGuide, ThermaCELL Pro Staff, andowns these owns these websites:• MaineGuideCourse.com• MaineHunters.com• CoyoteCrosshairs.com• MoosePermit.com• MaineGuidedHunts.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.

The Maine HunterBy Steve Beckwith

AttentionNew HampshireHunters

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Hummingbird to locate these jamsbut most of them are visible abovethe water. Old logs and timber willfloat down stream and literally pileup on these bends. HurricaneIrene in August of 2011 left us witha lot of this type of cover and sea-sonal flooding changes fishing spotsregularly.

Once you have located these areasit’s just a matter of positioning theboat so you can fish them consistent-ly. We use a simple lead jig headtipped with a crawler to entice thefish into biting. Dark and neutralcolors usually work the best whenfishing this river system. More timesthan not, the water is at best stainedand dark colors produce a silhouetteenabling the fish to detect them.Our two favorites are simple; black

and white. We’ll use up to a halfounce jig when there is a quick cur-rent but when the current is slack,we’d prefer a ? ounce. The trick isgetting the bait down through thetimber and back up with a walleyewithout loosing too many jigs. Thetechnique is nothing special; dropyour jig to the bottom, bounce,pause repeat. The closer to thestructure you can get the better.Once the sun comes up, fish theshaded side of the logs, the walleyewill lay right under them. The goalis to drop your jig in front of theirface so they have no choice but to eatit.

Like we mentioned before, readingthe river and the current is thebiggest key to our success. We can

The Connecticut River is a vastbody of water stretching 407 miles.The river offers up some great fish-ing and often times is an underesti-mated fishery. The winter monthsoffer anglers early ice on the setbacksin late December with a greatchance of catching panfish, walleye,pike, white perch and bass. Thenorthern region also holds some veryrespectable trout. Fishing the rivercan sometimes be a challenge as one

must learn how to read the river andits flow. Whether you’re fishing themain river or a set back, the currentcan make or break your day.

Summer time walleye fishing isone of our favorite times to fish.The method we use for catchinggreat numbers of walleye is fishingthem in the “wood”. Most of ourvertical jigging has been for crappieswhen they move out onto deep struc-ture in the summer months, we usedthis same pattern to locate and catchwalleye on the Connecticut River.

Walleye can be found throughoutmuch of the Connecticut River.There is no doubt that some areasoffer better fishing than others butthere are certain things we look forin any stretch of the river to be suc-cessful. Bends in the river collectdebris and logs that jam up duringhigh water times; these areasbecome great ambush points forwalleye. They also offer up shade forthe fish during the warm summermonths. The most productive jamsare those that are found in 15 feet orwater or more. We use our the sideimaging function on our

Hard Water FishingHard Water FishingBy D & B Ice AdventuresBy D & B Ice Adventures

Northeast River Walleye

Continued next page


catch fish at most hours of the day inany weather condition, water clarityect. . . but if the current is wrong,then you won’t stand a chance.Little to no current is best whenusing this method to catch walleye.The fish will use this time to theiradvantage to maximize their effi-ciency when feeding, less currentmeans less energy they have to usewhile feeding. It is important tohave a few spots in your area. Wehave noticed that it doesn’t take longfor the fish to become conditioned toour presentation. Having multiplespots to run back and forth to allowsus to stay on active aggressive fish all

day long.

from previous page

D & B Ice Adventures is based out ofBarre, Vermont and composed of two fish-ing fanatics: Dylan Smith and RobertBooth. With an equal drive time to theConnecticut River and Lake Champlain,the hardest decision is whether they want tocatch giant bluegill on the river or hugepumpkinseed on the lake with crappie in themix at both. These decisions have beenlogged through their blog www.dbiceadven-tures.wordpress.com which gives details onwhat they have to endure to be successful.You can checck them on facebook too atwww.facebook.com/DBIceAdventures.


still plenty of snow on the river bankmaking the footing less than desir-able. I had already slipped my waydown the rocks and managed to fallin soaking my right foot to the kneeboot and all! I also hit my shin andlost several layers of hide in the

process. As I was flounderingaround, I would have to guess thatmy fly was suspended over the waterdangling into space. Apparently, itcame close enough to the waters sur-face that it enticed a violent strike!Admittedly, I had no idea what hadhappened. So, I had no chance to setthe hook, never mind catch the fish!As I collected my thoughts andthought about taking off and drain-ing my boot, my buddy asked me if Ihad seen the fish come out of thewater after my fly? I told him that Ihad not and he then gave me his ver-sion of what had happened. Whichthen led me to cast several times intothe pool. On the third or fourth cast,all hell broke loose. This being thefirst river run salmon that I had evercaught, the aerobatic display totallyblew me away. What a blast! Ihooked and released several morefish that day but the first was keptand taken home to mom for herBirthday.

Perhaps the next fondest birthdaysalmon was the one that nearly was-n’t! The setting was in Pittsburgagain, this time at the headwaters ofthe first lake from the bridge onMagalloway road. I was up there forthree days, the weather was warmand the water was high and verycold! I had fished the river just belowthe bridge but it was so cold I waslucky f I could stay in the water foran hour tops without being able tofeel my legs! I was catching fish butnothing legal, everything seemed tobe out of the same mold, twelve tothirteen inches. So, having a canoe

at the camp, I got the idea to launceit at the bridge and go down rivertowards Green’s point. My plan wasto stay along the rivers edge anddrag the canoe behind to get it backupstream to the bridge. The planseemed like a good idea, safeenough. I guess I should have con-jured up a plan “B “from the get go,plan “A “was a complete failure. Ihad not taken into considerationhow deep the water was as I mademy way towards the lake! The firsttime I went over my waders, wasn’ttoo bad, I was able to regain myfooting and get back into the shallowwater but the second go around wasnearly a total disaster. My savinggrace was the canoe, I was able tohold on to it and kick to the shore,well actually the edge of the ice. Ipulled the canoe up into the treesand made my way through four feetof snow to the road and back to mytruck, wet tired and damn cold! I didgo back on the third day of my stayand manage an 18 inch salmon.This is the fish that almost wasn’tbecause I didn’t catch it until it wasnearly time to leave for home! Beingyoung and foolish didn’t even enterinto the scheme of things until I hadgotten a little older. It wasn’t untilthen that I realized that waders fullof water, the out come could havebeen much different.

I had always heard stories aboutfishing the Merrymeeting River inAlton, wall to wall cars, and wall towall fishermen. I have only had thepleasure of that experience once!I’m sure that I left a lasting impres-sion on some as the village idiot!Having never been there, I wasn’t allthat sure what to expect. So, I soughtout the advice of a friend of one ofmy cousins. I think my cousin’sfriend set me up and he was in thebushes laughing his backside off atmy display of pure stupidity! What isthat river, maybe 25 feet wide? Well,he convinced my to put in my canoeat the old marina in Alton bay andpaddle upstream! The only thingthat saved me from a beating fromsome angry fishermen was the factthat it was mid week and there wereprobably only 30 or so there fishinganyway! Most all of them had some-thing to say and the words weren’tthat of encouragement believe me.Being somewhat embarrassed at thesituation I had gotten myself into, Iended up fishing off the bridge thatconnected Governors Island to therest of the world and managed tohook a barely legal salmon for Mom.

Then there were years that Momhad salmon, legal or not wasn’t theoption. There was on year that theice had gone out early and we were

Mark April 19th on your calendar!Go ahead, right now, don’t wait. Ok,now that you’ve done that, I’m surethat you’re wondering why. Theanswer is simple, I told you to! No,not really, April 19 was my mother’sbirthday. And, every year for herBirthday from the time I canremember, I always caught a salmonfor my mother on her birthday! Inever missed a year from the time Iwas probably 13 or 14, honest. I did-n’t have a secret spot, although therewere some more memorable ones,but there was no secret, just a lot ofluck! The ritual began as a result ofhaving forgotten her birthday in thefirst place. I had been up to DanHole pond with a cousin and hemade mention that he and his wifewere coming to my parents houselater on that evening, they had acard for my mother’s birthday. It wasthe last time that I forgot her specialday! I had neither money nor anytime to get anything, I didn’t evenget her a card but I had caught asalmon that day, my first ever so Ithought that would be a fitting gift to

her! As it turned out, the best giftever and a tradition was born.

Quite possibly the most memo-rable was an accident. I was fishingthat stretch of the Connecticut River

below the first lake dam. There was

A Salmon for Mom

Southern Side UpBy Alex Cote

Southern Side UpBy Alex Cote

Continued next page


from previous page

trolling one of the bigger lakes. I wasthere with friends that had rented acabin for the week. I had limitedtime so was there for an overnight.The fish were hitting like crazy. Theword was each of the two boats werelanding 30 to 35 fish a day and drop-ping almost as many before they gotto the boat. The only problem wasthe fish were all shorts. Well, Ithought that my chances were good,I only needed one fifteen inch fish,how could I miss, right?

It was early afternoon before Icould get there and they were wait-ing impatiently for me. We got backon the water right away. They hadtaken over twenty fish in that boatthe other boat had done even betterwith several keepers. We fished untilwell after dark and caught plenty offish, all short! Oh well I still had thenext morning. One of the guysoffered me a legal fish but declinedthe offer, it wasn’t the same if I did-n’t catch it for mom myself.

The lake was like a piece of glassthe next morning. The fish werenonexistent. We couldn’t buy a strike

no matter what we tried. Now I wasgetting desperate to say the least. Iremembered a trick that I had beentold about some years prior from anold timer in Maine. With nothing toloose, I gave it a go and as sure as theday is long, I hooked a salmon. Itwas only fourteen and a half inchesbut he fought like he was much big-ger. So, my thinking, he didn’t knowhe was a short so my mother would-n’t taste the fact that it was half andinch short! It was the only fishcaught between the two boats thatmorning.

That seems like so long ago butsome memories last forever.Although my mother passed on inMarch of 1993, April 19th still holdsa special place in my heart. It is adate that I will always remember.

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.

It seemed after discussing some ofVermont's habitat concerns at theTwin State Outdoor Show withDave Mathews and Fred Allard, asmall, feathery realization came tomind, that could set a new stage forconservation and deer manage-ment.

Turns out, the chickadee may holdthe keys to our deer woes. Thinkabout it. Forest lands acrossAmerica are in decline. Total forestacreage declines 1.1 % every 5years, nationally. Not the end of theworld, but it counts. The shocker isthat the "INTERIOR FOREST"(the smaller life under that bigcanopy) is disappearing 5 timesfaster!

What does it mean? Less biodiver-sity, less overall habitat, less cleanwater, less tree age diversity, lessbirds, less deer and easier predation!The good side is our state isn't com-pletely without interior forest. Butthe strong canopy in the lion's shareof it, has changed the game, anoticeable amount. Our state's deercarrying capacity has declined someand will probably trend downward ,since our average tree is a 9" hard-wood. What to do? Enter the chick-adee! Song birds in general, are onthe decline for a whole host of rea-sons. Loved and well thought of byall, their plight has not gone unno-ticed. Town conservation commit-tees to Audubon, to Vermont

Woodlands Associations and thelike, work and encourage bird habi-

tat improvements and guess what, ithelps all wildlife! It promotes aworking forest and timber industrywith sound forest management in aincredibly "Public Acceptable" way!

Visit Audubon Vermont's websiteand check out the forestry practisesportion! What a great how to andwhy, about managing forest land!Vermont's Fish & Wildlife's Dept.'sweb site has links to these and othersso don't say they aren't on it. Talk toyour neighbors, your grandmother,and the flat lander transplants down

the road and encourage them to "Do it" for "THE BIRDS"! It's a

feathery no brainer! I just love the garden and carrot

analogy when I speak to folks! "Ourforest is a garden, you wouldn't thinyour carrots with a lawn mower

would you? You would pull one hereand there and keep thinning, work-ing on and loving this life givingthing... every chance you got...Right? What should we do?"

They usually stare at you for a sec-ond and then suddenly admit yourRight! "We should do something!"Who knows, you could end up withsome firewood, a new place to huntand fresh venison from the localmonster buck! My wife, TheresaElmer has become a new member ofVermont's Fish & Wildlife boardrepresenting Washington county forthe next six years and encouragesfolks to contact her with concerns orthoughts around the rule makingprocesses and the like. E-mail isbest, but stopping by the shop orcalling her will be worth your while.

Women represent the largestgrowth segment in hunting and fish-ing and I think she'll fit the bill per-fectly! How was that DEAR?

By Rodney ElmerBy Rodney Elmer

Taxidermy TrailsTaxidermy Trails

Rodney Elmer and his wife Theresa ownand operate Mountain deer taxidermy inNorthfield,Vermont.

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ccaann bbee hheeaadd wwaallll mmoouunnttss oorr ffuullll bbooddyy ddeeppiiccttiioonnss..

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..

MOUNTAIN DEER TAXIDERMY

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

Call Rodney or Theresa Elmer

WWW.MOUNTAINDEERTAXIDERMY.COM

Does this little player hold the key to bigger antler's and more deer?

to bring so I generally load up withlight tackle spinning, cranking andfly gear to cover all bases. On arecent trip to John’s Pond in

Mashpee, we made the mistake ofbringing our bass gear only to dis-cover that the rainbows were feedingheavily on a midge hatch of somesort. I won’t make that mistake againtrust me. While pitching football jibsand slugo’s for largemouth’s we wit-nessed a kayak fisherman catch overtwo dozen 15’-18” rainbows on spin-ning tackle. Of course I had to ven-ture over to his corner of the pondand find out what he was using. Alight spinning outfit tipped with 4 lbfluorocarbon and a small black mud-dler minnow pattern. Like I said I

won’t leave the fly gear in the truckever again on that pond. We didmanage to scratch out a few bass inthe 3-4lb range and the chain picker-el were hard to keep off our lines hit-

ting just about anything that youthrew into the weed edges. One ofthe main attractions is the broodstock salmon that have been stockedevery year in many ponds down theCape. After these fish have passed bytheir prime spawning age they arereleased to the enjoyment of manylucky anglers. Many of the salmonrange in the 7-9lb range so it canmake for a very exciting day even ifyou manage to entice just one toyour offering. I have yet to enjoy asalmon of that size, but have wit-nessed a few acrobatic encountersfor other lucky anglers. While trout,salmon and bass dominate the scenemany ponds and lakes also offer siz-able populations of crappie, bluegilland jumbo yellow perch. Whiteperch are true saltwater fish on theCape with a few historic runs eachspring at locations like theChequesset Neck Dike in Wellfleetand the Weweantic River inWareham. These spawning perchare aggressive feeders and if youtime it right (usually on a flood orincoming tide connected to theMarch full moon) it’s not hard to filla pail of these excellent eating mem-bers of the bass family. Shad dartsand clam worms under a bobber arethe basic set up, but I enjoy catchingthem on 5 weight fly rods tippedwith any small fly or even a strip ofperch belly on a hook. Back to thetrue freshwater variety. Access toomany ponds are provided by town orstate ramps and most also have abeach area that provides scenicshoreline access to wade or cast fromshore. It’s not unusual to see tourna-ment ready bass boats, a few kayaks

and shore anglers all fishing thesame body of water. While I use my16’ aluminum duck boat (minus thecustom blind) you do have to make


By Captian John CurryBy Captain John Curry

The Coastal ZoneThe Coastal Zone

When most anglers think of CapeCod, visions of 40 lb stripers andangry bluefish tearing up gearamong the many bays and rips ofhistoric places such as Cuttyhunkand Martha’s Vineyard generallycome to mind. What many don’tknow is that Cape Cod is a freshwater fisherman’s paradise with avariety of species available yearround. Anglers in Massachusettsenjoy very liberal regulations andmost game species are open yearround. While this past winter pro-duced a few weekends of suitable iceconditions to set up a tip up or jig-ging, for the most part open waterfishing dominates the scene. I like tocall March and April the “in-between” season. It’s after huntingseasons for sea ducks and rabbits andbefore the May run of stripers enterour bays and inlets. While many ofyou are still drilling holes for perchand walleye we Cape Codder’s aretossing soft plastics for pre-spawnlargemouths and stick baits to hun-gry chain pickerel. Cape Cod is lit-tered with many ponds and few siz-able lakes. While there is only one

stream that I know of with troutprospects, the majority of our spring

fishing is done in crystal clear ponds.Often it is a hard decision whichbody of water to hit and which gear

Dave Hodsdon of Dennis Ma, 3.5 lb Largemouth caught 3-2-13

Cape Cod’s Freshwater Variety

Continued next page

Pickerel, Author 18” chain pickerel John’s pond Mashpee Ma. 3-24-13

CONCORD, N.H. – DiscoverWILD New Hampshire Day isalmost here! This free outdoor fes-tival takes place from 10 a.m. to 3p.m. on Saturday, April 20, 2013,on the grounds of the N.H. Fishand Game Department, 11 HazenDrive, Concord, N.H.

Celebrate the arrival of springby letting the kids try archery, cast-ing, wildlife crafts and more. Seeretriever dogs in action, live ani-mals, big trout and trained falcons.You’ll also pick up lots of greatideas for conserving energy andprotecting our environment.

More than 35 outdoor, conserva-tion and environmental groupsfrom throughout New Hampshirewill have booths, displays and

demos at the event. It’s a great wayto find out how you and your fam-ily can care for the environmentand get connected to life outdoors.

Special presentations anddemonstrations go on throughoutthe day,

including turkey calling for kids;a live animal presentation by theSquam Lakes Natural ScienceCenter; landscaping for wildlifetalks; a mobile DES Air QualityMonitoring Station; retrieval dogdemos; and map and compassinstruction. For times, visitwildnh.com/Newsroom/2013/Q2/DWNH_Day_040513.html.

The Fish and Game LicenseOffice will be open during theevent, so stop by and purchase

sure of the local regulations if youare bringing a larger vessel to theparty. Some ponds have outboardhorsepower restrictions and somesmaller bodies of water ban the useof any motor propelled craft. Likemany states we have seen an explo-sion of kayak fisherman for many ofthe same reasons.

If you go:Massachusetts offers a 3-day non-

resident license and as mentioned

earlier all game species are openyear round. Here are a few goodplaces to target that have publiclaunch sites and trailer parking ifneeded.

John’s Pond, Mashpee, MA. Thelaunch is on the northern shore lineright off of Hooppole Rd.

Mashpee-Wakeby Pond, Mashpee,MA. This location has a nice bigtrailer lot located on Fisherman’sLanding Rd.

Scargo Lake, Dennis, MA. Smalltrailer lot & launch off of Rte 6ADennis, MA

Mass regulations. www.eregula-tions.com/massachusetts/huntin-gandfishing/fishing-seasons/

Lodging. Country Acres Motel inSandwich Ma. They cater to fisher-man year round and offer attractiveoff season rates. (Tell them I sentyou!)www.countryacresmotel.com.


John’s Pond 3-24-13

from previous page

your fishing or hunting licensewhile you’re at Discover WILDNew Hampshire Day. Be sure tocheck out special deals on Fish andGame merchandise, too.

The event is held rain or shine.A food concession is availablefrom 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.Please note that no dogs areallowed; service animals only.

Now in its 24th year, DiscoverWILD New Hampshire Day

began in New Hampshire in 1989as an observance of Earth Dayand a celebration of the state’swealth of natural resources andoutdoor recreational opportuni-ties.

Discover WILD New HampshireDay is co-sponsored by the N.H.Fish and Game Department andthe New Hampshire Departmentof Environmental Services(NHDES).

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.

Don’t Miss Discover WILD New Hampshire Day

Seeing big trout and salmon in a real stocking truck is always a highlight of DiscoverWILD NH Day. NHFG photos

Getting close up to the fish in the hatchery truck where fish are transported to lakes andstreams throughout New Hampshire.


Trail Camera Photo Contest

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22001133 TTrraaiill CCaammeerraa PPhhoottoo CCoonntteesstt

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Two (2) Winners will be drawn randomly andannounced in the January 2014 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. 2014 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.

AArree yyoouu wwoorrrriieedd tthhaatt bbyy sseennddiinngg iinn yyoouurr ppiicc ooff tthhaatt ttrroopphhyy bbuucckk oorr hhuuggee bbuullll mmoooossee,, wwiillll ggiivvee aawwaayy

yyoouurr sseeccrreett llooccaattiioonn?? NNoo nneeeedd ttoo wwoorrrryy!! WWee wwiillll ppoosstt yyoouurr ppiiccss aannoonnyymmoouussllyy,, wwiitthh aass lliittttllee

iinnffoo aass yyoouu lliikkee.. YYoouurr sseeccrreett iiss ssaaffee wwiitthh uuss!!

AArree yyoouu wwoorrrriieedd tthhaatt bbyy sseennddiinngg iinn yyoouurr ppiicc ooff tthhaatt ttrroopphhyy bbuucckk oorr hhuuggee bbuullll mmoooossee,, wwiillll ggiivvee aawwaayy

yyoouurr sseeccrreett llooccaattiioonn?? NNoo nneeeedd ttoo wwoorrrryy!! WWee wwiillll ppoosstt yyoouurr ppiiccss aannoonnyymmoouussllyy,, wwiitthh aass lliittttllee

iinnffoo aass yyoouu lliikkee.. YYoouurr sseeccrreett iiss ssaaffee wwiitthh uuss!!

Trail Camera Picture of the Year - Marty Wall - Randolph, VTRandom Winners - Donald Cooke- Columbia, NH

and Robert Drouin, N. Anadover, MA

Sponsored by Chadwick’s Trail-Cams

Roscoe Blaisdell - Raymond, NH



Roscoe Blaisdell- Raymond NH, an otter carrying one of it’s pups

Unicorn from PA- Brendon Hilker

Early Struttin' Gobbler- Chip Hodges- Carrollton Georgia


By Michael DouglasBy Michael Douglas

Primitive Skills

is convenient. In nature convenience can kill.

Over reliance on gear has led totragedy. Gear can fail. Fabricsrip, zippers fail, poles break and

the weather doesn’t care eitherway.

What if you could incorporatethe best of both worlds? Howmany people dream of the abili-ty to walk in to the wildernesswith nothing and come out ayear later in fine condition?What would that look like?Regarding shelter, it would beginwith a temporary reliance on thefragile modern systems men-tioned until you ironed out themistakes and came up with ashelter design that did every-thing your modern equipmentprovided.

It would take a few attempts to“dial it in”, but you would even-tually realize a few important

concepts essential to building agood nights sleep in any weatherconditions. The hours of laborinvested would condition youand narrow the time required tobuild your shelter. You woulddevelop awareness for the bestlocations, the weather patternsand the amount of daylightneeded to build your shelter.

It wouldn’t take you long torealize the importance of a fewcritical concepts. Most impor-tant of these is getting yourselfoff the ground to prevent con-duction. A close second is pro-tecting yourself against the ele-ments with a structure thatoffers protection against rain,insects, and the cold. The mostoverlooked component is creat-ing a small living space to heat.The most efficient shelters are assnug as a mummy sleeping bag.

Once you can build a shelterfrom what nature provides, youwill experience certain sideeffects. The rest of your equip-ment becomes luxury items.The confidence and connectionyou develop with the landscapeincreases.

While your appreciation foryour home grows, the stressattached to potentially losing itdiminishes. It takes a number ofattempts, but the freedom andsecurity that comes with know-ing how to build your shelter offthe landscape is well worth theinvestment.

Having a good Shelter is thedifference between a pleasantouting and struggling to survive.In our modern world we rely onlight weight synthetics and alloysto provide us with tarps, tents,hammocks, and “bivvy” sacks .Most sleeping systems aredesigned to be lightweight andprovide protection from themechanisms that would rob youof your body heat.

To prevent conduction we usea neoprene sleeping pad. Tostop radiation and convection weuse a tent or “shell” and amummy sleeping bag with lots of“loft” or dead air space isrequired. The better the qualityof the tent and the sleeping bag,the more expensive it is. Evenoutdoor clothing has gotten highspeed. We wear non-absorbing“wicking” layers close to ourskin to keep us dry, fiber pileinsulation layers to keep uswarm, and a shell to repel thewind and the rain. We’vereplaced our native knowledgeof the landscape and the best

shelter approaches to that land-scape with high tech solutions.While expensive, this approach

Shelter Building (part1)

Primitive Skills

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

Michael Douglas has been sharingSurvival, Tracking, Awareness, WildForaging, and Primitive Technology at theMaine Primitive Skills School since 1989.He continues to be a student of the naturalworld and our abilities to interact with itthrough his school and full immersion tripsin the North Woods. He is eager to answerquestions and hear your comments and canbe reached at [email protected].


practices, science, and land usagein large measure defines the WhiteMountain environment we enjoytoday. This continuing influencespills over into Maine’s mountainregions to the east and the GreenMountains of Vermont to thewest. No doubt these voices alsoring out loudly in the Adirondacksof New York and echo on acrossthe continent.

Begun 20 years ago as a series ofinterviews for Appalachia, theAppalachian Mountain Club’sflagship publication, MountainVoices for the first time puts all 15interviews together in one volume.That’s 15 discussions with 17 peo-ple. Guy and Laura Watermanand Bradford and BarbaraWashburn were inseparable in lifeand certainly are inseparable inconversations about their experi-ences among the WhiteMountains.

Authors Mayer and Oreskes haveorganized the 15 interviews intofour segments: Mountaineering,Conservation and Wildland Ethics,Life on the Trails, and Work in theWhites, depending on the intervie-wee’s passions and focus. Theysubtitled the result as “Stories ofLife and Adventure in the WhiteMountains and Beyond.” It’s anapt subtitle as the interviews havethe feel of stories recounted overcoffee in a mountain club hut orduring a trailside lunch.

Illustrated with black and whitephotos from the AMC’s exhaustivearchive or with photos taken dur-

ing interview sessions by profes-sional photographers NedTherrien and Jonathan Kannair,the book is nicely launched by aForward written by early intervie-wee Laura Waterman. AnAfterward by Mayer and Oreskesnot only provides an ending butlets the authors express their senseof progression in the much lovedmountains since the project’sinception two decades ago.

Even before European settlementbegan, the White Mountains helda special significance to people liv-ing in their proximity. For modernsociety it is the domain of loggerand the tourist, the hiker and theskier. Farmers and foresters liveand work in the mountains’ shad-ows. Mountain thickets drawhunters, and mountain rivers andlakes are fishing grounds for someand merely admired by others.

The 17 people whose thoughtsand words shaped MountainVoices also shaped the mountainlands the rest of us appreciatetoday. Their vocations and avoca-tions differed markedly, but theirdevotion to the mountains is wor-thy of our gratitude. Our thanksshould also go to Mayer andOreskes for shaping 17 voices intoa chorus.

Mountain VoicesBy Doug Mayer & Rebecca OreskesAppalachian Mountain ClubBooks 2012226 pages, $18.95ISBN: 978-1-934028-80-3

The voices of New England’smountains resonate down throughthe centuries. Captain JohnSmith’s first English languageaccount of “the white hills” in1614 began an unbroken line ofpoetry and prose and oral recita-tions that continues to the presentday.

In the eighteenth century, Dr.Jeremy Belknap penned the firsthistory of the region. In the nine-teenth century came Henry DavidThoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne,John Greenleaf Whittier, and LucyCrawford with her marvelousHistory of the White Mountains

The twentieth century gave usthe verse of Robert Frost, as wellas the clear, unambiguous voices ofMiriam Underhill, Daniel Ford,Laura and Guy Waterman, amongmany others. As the twenty-firstcentury gets rolling, authors Doug

Mayer and Rebecca Oreskes,along with Appalachian MountainClub Books, have joined forces inMountain Voices to bring togetherthe character and gifts of 17 of themost devoted and influentialWhite Mountain voices.

Several of the “voices” featuredby the authors are silent now,stilled by human frailty and theconsequence of being mortal. Nomatter. Their influence on sport,business, conservation policy and

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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Pictures Gone WildPictures Gone WildOur reader submitted photosOur reader submitted photos

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

us for scanning. 4 headlines of 30 characters or lessand the month and year you would like on the cover

Want to buy one? send email to [email protected]

The Coolest Gift IdeaThe Coolest Gift Idea

Price is only $20.00 including postage

Price is only $20.00 including postage

Large mushroom eaten by deer, you can see the teeth marks in the close up

Bobby Sholan of St Johnsbury Vt- First shed of the season, found in NH


During deer season Ben, Heath,and I were hunting a remotemountainside just north ofMonroe, New Hampshire. Benfound a monster moose shed thatmust have fallen off the daybefore. When I say big, I meanreal big, he also said he saw manyother old horns. Shortly after deerseason Matt (one of my bestfriends and also the most deter-mined horn hunter I ever met),Phil (a new friend and a goodwoodsman with the lots of thesame outdoor interests as myself),and I went back to where Ben hadfound the four matched antlers. Ifigured we could find some oldhorns and with a little luck wecould find the other half of Ben’smoose rack.

The day started out well, wewere about half way into our onemile walk, when we found somefresh moose sign an open hardwood slash and with a little look-ing around we found a freshmatched set of antlers from a littlebull. When we got to the base of

the mountain we all split up. Philwent to the north, while Pete mytwo year-old lab and I went to theeast. Matt was right between us,about a half a mile apart. It wasnot long before I heard Matt and

Phil saying that they had an antler.After that find, it was about everyten minutes someone was on theradio saying they found another.

The woods where mostly softwoods and steep with old skidroads. There was about six inchesof snow on the ground, and Petewas having a field day. Every timePete or I would find an antler, Iwould carry it back to a root ballof a big spruce tree. We were

using this tree to keep all theantlers in one place since we hadfound too many to carry around.After a few hours Pete and I hadfifteen antlers all at least one yearof age .

After talking to Matt and Phileveryone was very eager to go to

the far side of the mountain andsee if we would have the sameluck. We had a lot of work aheadof us but agreed to give it anotherhour. Pete as always was choosingthe route up over the mountain, aswe neared the top was getting tobe hard going, and before I knewit we were in the thick soft woodsand blow downs and boulders. Ishould have turned back the waywe had come, but I stayed with itcrawling on my hands and knees attimes. I could see Pete was veryexcited. I was hoping it was

because we were getting close tosome open ground with someantlers, but as it turned out it onlyseemed to get thicker. In the mid-dle of this mess, Pete found a bigcat track nothing like I have everseen. I grabbed Pete and kept himclose, the cat was not far away andthe only path, if you could call itthat, was the way the cat had gone.When I finally got into the openwoods I had ripped my wool jack-et and both of my rubber boots. Icould see the big cat’s runningtracks going down a big drainage.We definitely bumped him out ofthick fur on top of the mountain..I am not a biologist, but I think itmust have been a Canadian Lynx.

It was now two o’clock and weall met at the root ball where myantlers were. To my surprise whenwe were together we had thirty-five all together but only oneframe pack. Phil was able to getten on the pack while Matt and Icut down a moose rub and tiedabout 200lb of moose antlers to itwe left five antlers behind as wecould not handle any more weightfor the long, difficult journey out.

By the time we had the last ofthe antlers tied on the weather hadchanged and now it was snowingextremely hard. About half way

out Matt and I started to fatigue asevery step the antlers swung sideto side, making the 200lbs seemeven more. We almost gave up afew times. It took two long hoursto get to the truck, every muscle inmy shoulders more than hurt and Iknew Matt felt the same, but Philwas fine. The lesson we learnedwas everyone needs to carry theirown frame pack. It was a great daywe never found the other half ofBen’s rack and all but four antlerswere old. I am sure we will beback in the spring and to try again.

By Trevor BunnellBy Trevor Bunnell

Bucks and BonesBucks and Bones

Trevor on the left, with his shed huntimng buddy matt carrying out 200lbs of bone. Philalso was loaded up with with a heavy load on his frame pack.

Bunch of Bone


By Hank Stokes

The light is changing. The days aregetting longer. Spring is near. Soonthe snow will be gone. The tree budswill open. Forests will awaken andplants will be competing for everydrop of sweet sunshine they can get.

Before those tiny leaves unfold andcreate the canopy that will shade theforest floor, a curious group of plantscalled spring ephemerals must makeits years supply of food in those fewshort, light deprived days betweenthe snows disappearance and theforest canopy’s opening. One plantin particular is of greatest interest tome as an avid forager. In fact, as wildedibles go, the importance of thisplant cannot be understated. MajorAmerican cities have been namedfor it (guess which one, the answer isat the bottom), a river in Vermont isnamed for it, and festivals are heldevery year all over the East Coast. Itgoes by several names that varyregionally; wild onion, wild leek butI know them as ramps.

Ramps are indeed leeks and areclosely related with familiar plantslike onions and garlic, who are all, inturn, part of the lily family. Despitetheir pedigree, ramps are unique intheir flavor, sharing flavors with mostof their cousins. They have a bulb inwhich they store the energy madefrom light that reaches the forestfloor.

This period extends from aboutearly April, until mid May in theNortheast, though varies greatlywith local conditions. Frequentlythey are found in clumps in closeproximity to other clumps. Theseclumps are usually found in riparianenvironments with a dominant hard-

wood canopy. Riparian environ-ments are usually found adjacent tostreams and drainages, though fre-quently may be isolated in wet,though drained areas of the forestfloor.

The ramp stalk is white and fre-quently fades to purple crimson,though sometimes stays white. Theyhave lance shaped leaves that are

dull green. By far the most positiveway to identify the ramp is by itssmell. It smells like an onion, Period!If you find a plant that you think is aramp but it doesn’t smell like anonion, it isn’t. It may be harmful oreven fatal if you eat it.

Which brings me to an importantpoint. If you aren’t sure, don’t eat it.That goes for anything you findgrowing in the forest, not just ramps.Do your research and even diligentresearch can’t replace competentinstruction from someone who stud-ies wild plants. You might get awaywith eating it, you might just be upall night with the runs, or you mightdie. But don’t chance it. A secondnote on responsible harvesting; don’ttake more than you will use, anddon’t clean out a spot. Ramps cangrow with amazing abundance, orbe very sparse and spread out. Theyalso grow and spread very slowly, soit’s important to take only one or twobulbs from a clump before movingon.

When foraging, it can be very pro-ductive to use other plants to helpfind your target plants. Trout Lilies,also edible and quite common acrossa variety of environments, can fre-quently be found growing on thesame forest floor. These have deepgreen matte leaves, that look as ifsplashed with bleach. Sometimesonly one leaf will be attached to astalk that leads underground to abulb that is starchy like a potato.

A second plant to watch for willdoubtlessly be comfortably recog-nized to most folks who have spentany time outdoors. That is theemerging stalk of the Ostrich Fern,known as a fiddlehead. Ramps andfiddleheads often share the samebag-ride home after an afternoon offoraging in the spring. If you are notsure what this looks like, go checkout some bluegrass. Pretty similar,eh?

These are again, deep green andshiny, frequently with bits of browntissue papery stuff stuck in them. Ifthey are wooly or slimy, stay awayfrom them. Traditional folk wisdomsays that fiddleheads should beboiled in two changes of water,though no sources seem to say why. Ihave gotten sick after eating themonce, though I think it was coinci-dentally timed food poisoning due tounder-cooking them not to beblamed on the fiddleheads them-

selves. Though their flavor is mild it’salso unique and not comparable toanything I know that is commonlyavailable from the grocery store.Saute them well in olive oil with salt,pepper and garlic after havingblanched them. Use them any placeyou would use asparagus. In myopinion, the best way to eat them issour pickled, speared on a toothpickin a gin martini.

So, you found two acres of forestfloor covered with ramps and yourbuzzing with excitement. Youresponsibly pick a bag full of rampsand head home. Now what?

Cut the leaves from the stalks andthrow the leaves on top of hot pizzafresh from the oven. Put the wholeplant right on the pizza before it goesinto the oven. Stuff those sameleaves into the cavity of a fresh troutwith two pats of butter, some saltand pepper, drizzle with olive oil,wrap in aluminum foil and toss intoa 350 degree oven until flaky. Thebest batch of homemade kimchi Ihave made, I used ramps (I’ll savethat recipe for another article).Pickle them in a brine of apple cidervinegar, salt, and sugar with whatev-er spice combination you like.

Pack your food processor with thegreen leaves and drizzle olive oil intothe machine as it processes them intoa slurry. Transfer the slurry to ice

cube trays and then the frozen cubesto a plastic bag. Take these out asneeded for recipes that require oliveoil and garlic. I recently came acrossa dish that I was previously unfamil-iar with, but I think may be perfectfor ramps. The dish is called bagnacauda, and is a European peasantdish, which no doubt, has many vari-ations.

The common features are olive oiland butter in varying combinations,anchovies, and garlic. All of which is

warmed just enough that the flavorsinfuse the oil. This is then servedwith bread and fresh veggies for dip-ping. I am super excited for rampseason so that I can try this recipeout. They can be used anywhere youmight use green onions, garlic, oronions. Imagination and excitementare key!(Chicago) (The WinooskiRiver)

Harvested Ramps

Fiddleheads -Combine these with RampsHMHM! Two of the authors favoritespringtime wild “offerings”.

Ramps in there natural state

Spring Foraging for Ramps and Fiddleheads

april 2013 - the outdoor gazette

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