the outdoor gazette december 2012

December 2012 The Outdoor Gazette

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On The CoverMatt Trombley(Third Alarm Guide Service) with his sonLogan after a day on the Massachusetts coast.Matt’s good friend Todd with a Salmon River Steelhead.

Volume 6 Issue 12

Above - Someone shared this with me on our facebook page..... The brain washing hasbegun. HAHAHA!

Right - My brother Scott Allard from Fairfax ,Vermont. He missed the nice eight-pointbut the muzzleloader scope did not miss him!.... 9 stitches!

Publisher/Editor: Fred AllardGraphic Design: Dan Millet

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TTrreeaatt yyoouurrsseellff oorr aa ffrriieenndd ttoo aa ddiiggiittaall ssuubbssccrriippttiioonn ttooTThhee OOuuttddoooorr GGaazzeettttee

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sections folded on top of one anoth-er, the other sections can be stackedon top and secured with a ratchet

strap. Then just pull it off or on tothe lake. Sounds so easy doesn’tit….I’ll let you know how it works.

Josh’s Ice shanty will be on lakeMorey in Fairlee, Vermont and mineI have not decided yet, but I amthinking either Lake Tarleton inPiermont, New Hampshire or

maybe Bakers Pond inOrford/Wentworth. So if your outon the lake this winter, stop by sayhello.

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].

Deer hunting, duck hunting, arewinding down, only, a couple moreweeks to chase the wily whitetail,then it’s over for another year. Goes

by so fast!....on to the next outdoorthing. Like every season there aretoo many outdoor things to pursue.Too many to get them all in I mean.Time just isn’t plenty enough.

This winter the Allards are goingto hit the ice. Ice fishing is on ourfamily’s agenda for this winter. Weare all very excited. Good to see thekids looking forward to something

outdoors. To make it more comfort-able we are building some iceshanties, one for Vermont and onefor New Hampshire.

My son Josh has his almost com-pleted. It is a monster, but should beextremely comfortable. Completewith a picture window found in abuddies garage and a stove he weld-ed himself. A door, found in the backof my garage, and some metal roof-ing from an old fallen down barn inthe field behind my home. It willtake an army of men to get itdeployed and more importantly getit off the ice.

My shanty has a little differentdesign. It will be a sectional.Constructed in 4 ft by 8 ft sections.This way it can be taken apart andremoved piece-by-piece, and stackedin the back of a pick up truck.

The base is 8’x8’, and hinged sohalf the floor section folds on to theother. The wall sections are all fourfeet wide and so are the roof sec-tions. The roof will have a singlepitch.

Once taken apart and the floor

Hard Water, we can’t wait!

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Year-round fully equipped cabins, sleeps4-6 people. Right on the river and close toATV trails! A motorcycle destination!

Kayak & canoe launch on theMagalloway River, right across thestreet from our store. Rentals-Dropoff and pick ups available!

Last 12years the most successfulGuide Service in NH, 2010. New staterecord moose with 68.5 inch spread!You squeeze the trigger and we’ll dothe rest!

Best subs, burgers and steak sand-wiches around. Homemade soupsand salads. Steaks handcut asdesired. Excellent Ice Cream!

A great rest stop on one of the bestrivers in the North Country! Aanglers dream. Some of the besttrout fishing is right here!

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Ice Cold Beverages, Ice Cream, Burgers, ICE, GAS,Sandwiches and Deli! Fishing supplies - 1000's of flies.

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Cutting shop with 40+ years experi-ence, all butchering professionallydone. Cut, wrapped and frozen ifdesired.

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North Country Knowledge*Are the Smelt running

*Where are all the moose?*What is the hottest fly to use?

*Where are all the brookies hiding?

We have all the answers andmore! Stop in and chat awhileand learn what we know aboutthe NH & ME wilderness.

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

The floor system of Josh’s shanty, all insu-lated. Aluminum runners from my, ”I’ll usethat someday pile”. Hoarding pays off !

Mid construction. 2”x2” studs and luanplywood. The luan is only thing purchasedfor the project.The rest of the materials are scrap,scrounged or gifted.

Fun times ahead! The finished product,6’x10’. Complete with a self made woodstove and a bench cooler system that uses thelake ice to keep it cool.


Augusta, Maine - The MaineDepartment of Inland Fisheries andWildlife is excited to announce therelease of the 2013 Birder Bands,which are a great way to support theDepartment’s non-game and endan-gered species programs.

These unique bands are modeledafter actual bird bands theDepartment uses to monitor birdpopulations and make a great holi-day gift for birders and outdoorenthusiasts.

Through a $20 contribution,Maine Birder Band participants getofficially registered and receive anindividually numbered band. Theband is about the size of a turkeyband and can fit well on a binocularstrap, camera, spotting scope orother equipment.

The proceeds from the bands helpfund critical non-game bird pro-grams and supporters who wear thebands on gear raise awareness forthe important work the Departmentdoes for bird conservation.

“This is a great way for birdersand naturalists to support MDIF&Wand have that support be visible forothers to see,” said Bob Duchesne,author of Maine Birding Trail.

Since 2009, the Maine BirderBand program has helped to fundthe Department’s Bird Group effortsthrough voluntary donations from

people in 27 states and threeMaritime Provinces of Canada. Todate, Maine Birder Band funds havesupported Department efforts tostudy distributions and abundanceof coastal marsh sparrow species,survey remaining grasshopper spar-row habitats and launch MaineeBird.

The Maine Birder Band programis intended to provide the Mainebirding community an opportunityto support MDIF&W’s non-gamebird conservation efforts. Just ashunters and anglers fundDepartment efforts through licensepurchases, birders now have thechance to become a participatingconstituency by helping fund non-game bird conservation.

For more information or to pur-chase your 2013 Birder Band, call207-287-8000, visit our web site atwww.mefishwildlife.com or [email protected].

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries &Wildlife 2013 Birder Bands Now Available

Albany, NY -Whether you’re ahunter, taxidermist, deer processoror wildlife watcher, you can helpkeep New York State’s deer herdfree from chronic wasting disease(CWD).

With the recent detection ofCWD in Pennsylvania this pastOctober, the threat to our state’swild white-tailed deer has signifi-cantly increased. The bestapproach for protecting New York’sdeer is to keep infectious material

out of the state. By knowing andcomplying with CWD regulations,disposing of hunter-killed deerparts and carcasses responsibly, andreporting sick or abnormally behav-ing deer, you can help prevent itsspread.

Learn the facts of this threateningdisease and find details aboutactions you can take by visitingDEC’s recently updated ChronicWasting Disease webpages or byviewing DEC’s CWD Fact Sheet.

Prevent the Spread ofChronic Wasting Disease

The term “chronic wasting disease” describes the emaciation that eventually results frominfection ~ Photo by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,courtesy of CWDAlliance.


and money – that can be devotedto caring for your pack. No mush-er is going to want to take on moredogs than they can care for andprovide an adequate appropriation

of available resources.Additionally, space is going to haveto be a consideration, and youshould plan on a minimum of 100square feet of secure fenced inyard per two dogs – this is a mini-mum, we like to more than doublethat space for our kennel.Secondly, what you want to dowith your team, and your focusand goals, will determine what youwill need to be considering for ken-nel size. And lastly, your numberof dogs needs to fall within a per-sonal comfort range of what youfeel you can handle. We grew ourkennel rather slowly and deliber-ately because of our emotionalattachment and commitment tothe dogs. Remember, we startedout as one Siberian as a pet andgrew to two the second year. Wegrew slowly because we knew thatwhen we take on a dog, it is for thelife of the dog, and that is general-ly a 12 to 15 year commitment ifyou are starting out with a puppy.

A person can have a lot of funwith only one or two dogs. Webegan with a single Siberianintended to be a pet, and beganskijoring with her. This was fun,but with only one dog, it was anactivity either my wife or me couldenjoy individually, but not togeth-

er. By necessity to enjoy the sporttogether, we began seeking anoth-er Siberian. This introduction ofnecessity to accomplish the goalsyou have for the kennel will be thebackdrop to which you define yourcomfort zone and bring to focusthe sacrifices you are willing tomake to meet those goals. If youwant to be an Iditarod caliber rac-ing team, but four dogs is pressingthe outer boundaries of your com-fort level, well then you will haveto take a step back and take a morerealistically consideration of yourgoals. When we got to six dogs inthe kennel, I was pretty confidentthat we were done growing innumbers. However, even by recre-ational standards, six dogs is aminimum team size for dog sled-ding. You can run a sled with fourdogs, but you will probably beresigned to fairly flat terrain andnot get in a whole lot of distancewith the team. A passenger on thesled with the musher is definitelyruled out in a four-dog team. A sixor eight dog team is a very nicesize for running most of the ter-rain we encounter, and withbetween eight and ten dogs on ateam, you can begin adding a pas-senger to the sled. Does anybodyelse see pattern of necessityemerging with this logic? Six dogswere nice, and I could run theteam or my wife could run ourteam. I was fortunate to be able toconnect with some other mushersand run some of their dogs as ateam when we all would hit thetrail, but as fun as it was, it was notthe same as running your owndogs. The analogy that bestdescribes this is seeing your bestfriends kid score a goal in soccer orhit a home run for the team – it’s agreat feeling, but not the same asseeing your own child have thesame accomplishment.

Dogs number seven and eightwere a big step for us. It was adeliberate decision to push ourcomfort level to new boundaries.It would be the first time we wouldbe taking on two puppies at onceand would surely test our resourcesas far as devoting time to trainingpuppies while maintaining a six-dog kennel. My wife was much

Sometimes I feel like a publicspectacle. Inquiring minds want toknow. The often asked question,“How many dogs do you have?”sometimes seems more like asource of public amusement than asincere desire to learn about yourkennel and the sport of mushing.“Sixteen” is my reply. “You’renuts” and an under the breathchuckle, shake of the head or rollof the eyes is a most common reac-tion. I explain that sixteen is real-ly not a very big kennel in themushing community, and we areroutinely in contact with kennels of30, 35 and 40 dogs. I am thenreminded that someone else’sheightened level of insanity in noway diminishes my individual levelof insanity. So are we nuts? Arewe addicted or just devoted? Let’sexamine the recently posted ques-tion on a mushing blog – “Howmany dogs are too many?”

This is as personal a question asone can ask of a musher, and willvary a great deal from kennel tokennel, and be based upon a num-

ber of differing variables. Firstand foremost, mushers have astrong relationship and bond with

their dogs, and the primaryparameter to governing kennel sizeis going to be directly proportionalto the resources available – time

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By Allan Tschorn By Allan Tschorn

Tails from the TrailTails from the Trail

Playing the Numbers

This is a picture of the litter we whelped – known as the Coffee Litter. Momma Expressois about center, 4 pups on the right of her, 5 on the left.

Continued next page


uncommon. We were preparing totake on another two or three pup-pies (splitting the average of 4 to 6with the paternal kennel). We hadten puppies in the litter, one –unfortunately was still born.Zoom. From eleven, to a kennel oftwenty, literally overnight.

Although we would not be keep-ing all the puppies, we knew thatwe would have a kennel of twentyfor at least a period of 90 days.Our friends ended up taking 4 orthe puppies and we held onto theremaining 5, settling in at a restingcount of 16. We did end upexpanding our kennel space by anadditional 600 square feet. Thesquare footage of our kennel nowexceeds by almost double that ofour home, but it provides space forthe dogs, and since we don’t have aplay yard (yet), it is more than ade-quate space for them to run andplay.

The puppies are now just over ayear old, and we have begun ourfirst fall training with a singlestring of 16 dogs in harness pullingour ATV. It’s a lot of work, but inmy humble opinion the fun trumpsthe work any day of the week. Weare so looking forward to the snowto fly and the ability to break downinto two – eight dog teams. Lastyear we had only one team, andthe opportunity to mix up dogs inteam position was limited. This

year, we will be better able to mixand match dogs with similar abili-ties and provide double the oppor-tunity to develop new dogs intoleaders. We are feeling very com-fortable with the current numbersin our kennel – we give each dogdaily individual attention, they areall well fed on a quality kibble,they get treats regularly and eightto ten are in the house on a night-ly basis (and nights after a trainingrun, when they are tuckered out,we have been known to let all 16slip inside).

So are we addicted, crazy, devot-ed or just plain insane? I don’tknow. But I can assure you this.This passion of ours has tested usat every level. Financially, logisti-cally and emotionally – we havebeen stretched beyond where wethought our elasticity would snap,but we come out the other side –full of enthusiasm, full of life andfeeling very proud of our personalaccomplishments. And while youare deciding what label you wantto assign to us, we’re going mush-ing.

more committed to the additionsthan I was. We were out on one ofour group runs and I was standingon the runners with a good friend.He said, “So I hear you’re gettingtwo more puppies?” He obviouslyhad been in conference with mywife. I kind of mumbled, shruggedand nodded in a non-committalbut affirmative way. He smiledand looked me in the eye. “You’rein denial,” he said. “Resistance isfutile – you have the addiction.Enjoy it.”

Setting goals for the size of yourkennel for mushing can be a jug-gling act. When we took on thetwo puppies it was the work andresponsibility of two more dogs,but we would not realize the bene-fit of them as team members untilthe following year. And realistical-ly, you can’t expect too much inmature performance from a sleddog until they are two or older.And some dogs don’t hit theirstride until three or four years ofage. The flip side to this coin isthat you need to take into consid-eration the more mature dogs, andtheir likely longevity to continuedoing the type of runs, in terms oflength of the run and weight in thesled, that are congruent with thegoals and objective you have estab-lished for the kennel. The abilityto properly stagger the ages ofyour dogs for the task at hand is arefined process, and may never beperfect, but rather an ideal wewould all strive for.

Our experience up to this pointhas always seemed to be a pendu-lums swing between the extremesof not having enough dogs for thetask at hand to having too manydogs for the task at hand. Thisswing was always directly relatedto who wanted to go mushing andwho could go mushing. We beganto support tour operation foranother kennel, as they too wouldfind themselves in the quandary oftoo many dogs versus not enoughdogs for the task at hand. If youhave forty sled dogs and two pay-ing clients – you may have toomany dogs. However, if you have

forty sled dogs and a family gath-ering of twelve whom all want togo on a simultaneous tour – youwill find yourself on the short endof the stick with regards to dogpower. A responsible kennel oper-ator will resist the financial temp-tation to grow their kennel solelyfor the purpose of increasing rev-enue potential. It is a year roundcommitment to care for the dogs,and that needs to be weighed heav-ily when in the height of winterand all is going well. By partner-ing with another kennel, they wereable to slightly expand their capac-ity for tours without increasing thenumber of dogs in their respectivekennel. And quite honestly, at 16dogs we are not really big enoughto consider any kind of routinetour operations. It was a win-winsituation for both of us.

The ninth addition to the kennelwas not planned, but rather aserendipitous opportunity to dab-ble with another line of theSiberian Husky – a historic line ofthe breed known as Seppalas. Afriend had found a kennel sellingout, and he purchased a male, themain lead dog from the kennel.We settled on a female from thekennel that captured our attentionsolely from a picture we saw. Wediscussed breeding the line, butwere not comfortable with the roleof or responsibility of a “breeder”.Having to find potential appropri-ate homes, sell and say good-byewas well beyond our emotional orlogistical comfort zone. If andwhen our female came into heat,we agreed to do a breeding withthe understanding that we wouldsplit the litter between the twokennels. Somewhere in betweenthis planned breeding and theactual heat cycle and execution ofthe breeding plan, another coupleof Siberian puppies captured ourattention and joined the pack.The numbers are resting now ateleven.

The female finally went into heatand we did a breeding. Four to sixpuppies is an average litter, eight isa large litter, and ten is relativity

from previous page

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On this morning, we had thedecoys afloat, were tucked into the

brush and waiting for the flights tobegin all with just minutes to spare.Although we felt a bit exposed notbeing surrounded by a cozy elevatedblind we still felt we would be fine. Itwasn’t long until the first birdsapproached. After a volley of shotswe had a bird down. I jumped intothe kayak to make what I wasexpecting to be a quick retrieve.Despite my best effort, for some rea-son, in my shuffling of the kayak andheading off after the downed bird Ilost track of it. I had assumed it wasfatally wounded and would be float-ing feet up waiting for me to snatchit from the cold November water.Returning to shore after an ambi-tious effort with no bird I was con-cerned that this day could be lessthan productive. Neither Leo nor Icould explain the birds whereabouts.

Not being the type to dwell on ourmishaps we quickly got ourselves setback up with a little adjustment tothe hiding spot. It wasn’t long untilthe next birds approached. This timeI recovered a nice green head, whichquickly lifted our spirits. This wasfollowed by another green head, anda failed retrieve of the hen, whichmanaged to swim off on her ownaccord while I was after the drake.Then another hen that Leo nearlypaddled across the bay to New Yorkto retrieve determined to not looseanother bird. Then a pair of drakegreen winged teal followed by a misson both our parts of some buffle-heads that swooped in. We werethen caught off guard while naturewas calling on Leo and I was textinga buddy to tease him about being inFlorida on vacation during duck sea-

son in Vermont. He sort of got mewithout knowing because my teasingvia text may have cost us a few morebirds. This mini lapse in judgmentsoon passed when Leo took a henshoveler while I managed to some-how miss the drake. Despite my missit was a nice boost to keep us going.Leo did feel the need to ride me a biton that one, saying he was beingkind by leaving the drake for me. Atone point a couple dozen tealsplashed into our decoy spread withneither of us getting off a shot. Theones floating in front of me were sit-ting amongst several hand-carveddecoys that I just couldn’t risk shoot-ing up. So I scanned the sky to see ifany were in the air to find Leo doingthe same. Once we realized whatwas clear to shoot they were gone.We did get a good laugh on that one.In the end we managed in all to take7 birds this day leaving 2 unrecov-ered which still pains me as I writethis now. We should have left with 9for certain with the potential for atwo man limit of 12 with at least 4 or5 different species.

Day two would prove to be differ-ent. We set out a bit earlier to haveplenty of time to get set up and hid-den. We brought along PhilDeLaricheliere who we hunt withoften. We told him about the previ-ous days hunt and what a wild timeit was. Leo again mentioned thedrake shoveler I missed and the milelong retrieve he made on a hen mal-lard. I did tip my hat to him on bothof those deeds. After setting up witha similar approach as we had theprevious day, we sat back to awaitthe birds. Then we waited and wait-ed and waited. We did like mosthunters and adjusted the decoys likethis would improve our odds. Wehad a drop in temperature the nightbefore which had formed skim iceout to about the 50 yard mark. Webusted through it while setting outdecoys with hopes that a little windalong with the forecasted warmertemps would take care of the ice.This was not the case. The coldtemps may have froze up the sur-rounding puddles along with theadjacent marsh that was holding thebirds. They may have moved offover the night to bigger waters.Whatever the cause the birds werenot flying. Not even a shot all morn-ing. Sure there were a few thatbuzzed around. We did have a cou-ple of black ducks that, in my eyes,may have been close enough toshoot. However, Phil being thepatient seasoned Waterfowler he is,held back awaiting a closer pass.Although pass on that shot was the


Continued next page

Whether you hunt ducks or deer orany animal for that matter it’s amaz-ing what a difference a day can maketo your hunt. I’m sure over the past2 million years there have been timeswhen a hunter had an extremelyproductive day harvesting their nextmeal and then the next day was notso productive. If so then I would sayalthough times have changed, ashave the tools & skill of which we useto pursue our prey, in the end we arestill at their mercy.

A weekend ago my hunting buddyLeo and I decided to try a shorelinehunt in a bay that has historicallyoffered several different species ofducks for the hunter to pursue. Wehave taken at least a dozen differentspecies of diver & puddle ducks inthis bay over the years. In the pastwe have hunted from an elevatedblind built in mid-September. Thisyear I was working on a food plotalong with an elevated hut for hunt-ing deer. Because of this I wasunable to build the blind in the bay.Not having a blind would never stopus from pursuing ducks in this par-

ticular bay. We will simply paddleacross the river, ported the kayaks a

short distance over land to find our-selves in full view of the bay from theshoreline.

What a difference a day makes

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

Leo after a long retrieve for hen mallard


from previous page

rack in about 40 days. The buck was shot on opening

day. Trail camera pic’s started toshow up after the buck was shot;no one talked about it prior to thekill (imagine that).

The hunter’s name is Tom (uklast name), after he shot it he saidhe couldn’t hardly talk withoutstammering like an idiot, hethought he only won his local bigbuck contest ($60.00), until some-body offered him $2000.00 and anew rifle at the registration sta-tion.

The drop tine is longer than aroll of paper towels (about 13-14inches) and the buck died with itshead upright, the drop tine stuckin the ground holding the buck’shead up as though it was stillalive and not dead.That kindafreaked Tom out until he realized

it was truly dead. Buck was shotwith a .270.

He’s been fielding calls nation-wide concerning the buck.Someone took a photo of thebuck hanging out of his Saturnwhen he was en-route to the reg-istration station (found out hisname and address from hislicense plate). Tom said it tookfour guys to load the thing intohis Saturn; he had to call for help.

The buck was shot on privateland near Ridgeway, ironicallythe land is for sale now... Tomhad it at the shop for a couple ofdays; it is an amazing rack of alifetime.

Green Scored 201 and has 17”G2s. Scored 180 net as a typical 8which is 2 inches shy of the worldrecord. Shot just south ofRidgeway, WI.

Supposedly.... Here’s an 8 pointbuck, longest tine is 17 inches.It’s already insured for$10,000.00 and in a vault.

Rough estimate of the deer’s ageby the WI DNR is 3 1/2 yearsold. A Boone and Crockett repre-sentative is scheduled to score the

correct move, it would proved to bethe only pass they would make. It’sfunny what a difference a day canmake. We had high hopes for thesecond day of our hunt only to beskunked. That’s why we call in hunt-ing. There is no guarantee from oneday to the next.

Tom ? with the mysterious monster buck from Ridgeway, Wisconsin. Time will tell if thisis fact or fiction. Word on the street though is that it’s legit.

Now that the buck has been harvested, trail camera pictures of the big buck are now sur-facing.

The days harvest 2 guys 7 ducks

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.

Trophy Spotlight

who knows, could have been rabbit,could have been squirrel.

I am not sure exactly when mymother decided to hang bird feedersoutdoors around their ruralVermont home, I just know that Ihave been asked to fill them. Noproblem. I figure, she likes to look atbirds, so does the neighbor’s cat.She has had many visitors to herfeeders, the usual cardinals, chick-adees; various types of finches,sometimes rabbits will eat the seedsthat the birds drop on the groundand the dreaded pirates of the birdfeeder-Squirrels! It would not be sobad for them to take some food, butthat does not seem to satisfy them,they also want to destroy the feeders.Those feeders are expensive, espe-cially the squirrel-proof ones, Mom’ssquirrels seem to enjoy those in par-ticular.

Over the years Mom has triedmany different approaches to deterthe squirrels from the bird feeders,from the amount of information youcan find on line, this is not a uniqueproblem. She tried greasing thepole the bird feeders hang from,squirrel baffles, cayenne peppermixed in the bird seed. Those wileybandits were not deterred, it wascrazy.

Then Dad bought a Have-a-Hearttrap, and this was the foundation for:The Lasch Family SquirrelRelocation Program. The Have-a-Heart trap traps the live animal forrelease in a more suitable habitat, inthis case, far away from Mom’s bird-feeders. Many a squirrel dined onpeanut butter and Ritz before realiz-ing he was being prepared for a jour-ney to unknown and wilder lands. Iam not sure how many dozens ofsquirrels were relocated that sum-mer, however Mom became con-vinced that the same squirrel wasbeing captured repeatedly and thatDad was being neglectful of hisduties to remove the squirrel farenough from the temptations of herbirdfeeders. In the meantime an oldfamily friend, we will call him UncleDon, for the purposes of this story ashe wishes to remain anonymous (thereason will be clear shortly) was vis-iting from out of state. This is whathappened next; a squirrel had suc-cumbed to the trap.

Mom: “I think that is the samesquirrel from a couple days ago.”

Dad: “It can’t be. I took it up themountain on the other side oftown.”

Mom: “We should figure out away to mark it so we know if it is thesame one, I still think it is the sameone.”

Dad: “It’s not the same one.”

Uncle Don: “Hey, you got anywaterproof paint?”

Dad: “I have some paint for fish-ing lures.”

Uncle Don: “We could use that tomark the squirrel and it would stayon, so you would know if it’s thesame one.”

Mom: “It’s the same one.”It was decided. Uncle Don then

procured the waterproof, fishing lurepaint from my father’s basementworkshop. There was much discus-sion and debate over what kind ofimplement could best be used to dipin the paint and use as a markingdevice, I believe it when it was final-ly decided on, a pencil was used.Uncle Don approached the cagedsquirrel with his pencil and fluores-cent orange waterproof paint toattempt to mark him in a highly vis-ible way, perhaps on his hip or back.The squirrel, understandably agitat-ed at being trapped, was maniacallyjumping all over the trap as UncleDon proceeded to poke the paintcovered pencil into the trap just asthat squirrel decided to jump overthe pencil thus marking his under-parts with fluorescent orange paint.

I can promise you Mom never sawthat squirrel again. I figure he had alife altering experience and afterrelocation decided that bird foodwas just not worth it. Hey whoknows, he might be really popularwith the ladies.


“I got the little bum!” exclaimedmy dear sweet mother jubilantly, asshe shouldered her air rifle in tri-umph. The word she actually usedis not fit for a family magazine andcalled into question the squirrel’sparentage. Seriously I cannotbelieve she kisses her grandchildrenwith that mouth! And the look inher eye rivaled the steely look ofClint Eastwood in his iconic movieposter from “The Good, The Bad,and The Ugly.” The only missingcomponents were the bandolier andthe cigar clamped firmly betweenher teeth. I was a little frightened.This was yet another incident in anepic squirrel battle that goes backmany years.

My mother is a pleasant woman,she stand a bit over five feet tall andis of the roundish variety.

She enjoys baking, gardening,reading, and shopping. She can alsonail a squirrel looting a bird feeder atten yards with an air rifle with noscope-first shot is a kill shot-EVERYTIME. I think my father felt sorry

for the squirrels as he refused to getMom a gun, she had to borrow myson’s air rifle. Perhaps is has to dowith ethics and eating what you kill.

I am sure there are folks that consid-er squirrel a delicacy. To the best ofmy knowledge I have not eaten it, Ihear it is high in saturated fatsThere were a few times I asked whatwas for dinner and was told ‘stew’, so

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The outdoor magazine, Field andStream used to have a monthly columncalled “Grandpa and the Kid”. Thesewere usually stories about an old guywith his grandchildren. The story alwaysheld a message or it was reflective on lifein some way. I ‘m proposing that thestate of Massachusetts and MassWildlifedevelop their own “Grandpa and theKid” hunting program, but also includemoms and Grandmas.

It would be a new hunting opportuni-ty, and a win, win, win, for the state andit’s wildlife, and hunters both past andfuture. This program would be easy toimplement and administer, and it wouldbe all over with in one half day. This newprogram would allow anyone betweenthe ages of ten and sixteen, women, andanyone whose is eligible for a free license,to hunt bears, deer or turkeys onThanksgiving. All of these hunters’would have to hunt with anotherlicensed hunter to participate, (optionalfor the free hunters). It would be a youth,senior citizens and ladies day for hunting,all in one.

This hunt would be available to allnew hunters that are over ten years old,

regardless of whether they have takenthe Basic Hunter Education Class, (HE),or not. It amazes me that we can allow

our kids to drive a car without takingDrivers Ed, but they can’t hunt withoutHE. We are losing potential hunters, andthe woods are getting emptier every yearbecause of this. We must give these kidsand young adults a taste of hunting

before we make them take HE.Why can’t we allow new hunters to

take HE on line? (Presently ten statesoffer this). The current format for HE ispasse’, and it’s difficult, if not impossible

for kids to find the time to attend.MCLA offers three to four on-line col-lege courses every semester. One cantake a college level course on-line, butyou can’t take the Basic HunterEducation Class this way. These kidsspend most of their free time on-line,and this would be a perfect way toincrease HE enrollment.

All participants would pay $5 for aone-day license. This would allow themto hunt deer, bears and turkeys onThanksgiving Day only. A licensedhunter must accompany all participantsand only a muzzle-loader is allowed.This licensed adult cannot hunt otheranimals, (deer with a bow for example),at this time. The muzzle-loader is used toestablish good shot judgments and place-ment, and it adds a real historical con-nection to the pilgrims who hunted thesame animals on Thanksgiving Day.

The state says that we have to kill morebears, well here’s our opportunity. Mostbears will be denned up by now, but howcool will it be for a ten year old to actual-ly go bear hunting. We desperately needa youth turkey day, and again here’s ourchance. Granted there’s not much of achance of shooting a turkey while wear-ing fluorescent orange, but it could hap-pen. And how cool would it be to have akid actually shoot a turkey onThanksgiving, then go home and eat it.The overall impact on both these ani-mals would be minimal, but think of thememories that will be made on

Thanksgiving Day. And the child won’thave to miss any school either!

Our neighboring states all offer ayouth deer hunt the weekend before theregular firearms season. These weekendshave been welcomed with open arms.The only glitch in the system, accordingto Maine Fish and Wildlife personnel, isthat some adults take advantage andpretend that their child shot the deer.There are thieves in all groups; andhunters are not exempt. If this is thecase, the state should impose a $1000fine for those caught cheating.

Anyone who is eligible for a free-license should be able to participate onthis day too. It’s about time we gave ourhunting forefathers a break. Wouldn’t itbe great to see one of these old-timersget one more deer, and on ThanksgivingDay to boot? Besides, how many deerdo you think an eighty-five year oldhunter can shoot with a muzzleloaderanyway? And last but not least, women,(especially moms and grandmas’), thatfastest growing hunting group in thecountry, should also be permitted tohunt on this special day. There are moreand more articles on women joining thehunting ranks every month, here is achance to enlist a group of people thatnormally wouldn’t ever hunt.

We can establish a list of licensedhunters who want to help by havingthem check off a box when they buytheir hunting license. Most hunters nowbuy their hunting license on-line, and thesame procedure applies. Just check offthe box saying that you would be willingto help out on this day as the licensedadult. One could also help out the nextday when the downed deer, bear, orturkey needs to be checked in and theyouth doesn’t have a ride. The newlylicensed hunter could call MassWidlifeto get a list of potential helpers names inthe area. I can think of about fifty guysthat would be more than willing to help.

This is a no-brainer, a must do. It’s self-contained into one half-day and raisesno safety issues. It will have very littleaffect on game populations, but it willseriously increase our hunting popula-tion, something we desperately need.Thanksgiving Day may never be thesame, and how cool is that?

A Cool Thanksgiving

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

Mass MeanderingsMass MeanderingsBy David WilletteBy David Willette


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

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

Rancher's Rave Barbecue

A ranch style barbecue recipe, cooked in the crockpot.

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

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


Another fishing season gone byand as Flip Pallot would say: “etchedinto our memories”. The sun mayhave all but set on the 2012 season,but the 2013 season not that far off.Yes, the good news is that trout sea-son, at least in the rivers and streamswill open January 1st.

As for last season it is already,“etched into our memories” andthose good times will last us a lifetime. I am positive that each andevery one of us has a special memo-ry of last year and all of the yearsthat came before. When we go fish-ing we do far more than just try andcatch a fish or two. We are castingfor memories as well. HenryThoreau got it right when he said:“Many men go fishing all of theirlives without knowing that it is notthe fish they are after”.

Most of can recall a special dayspent fishing with our Dads or possi-bly our Mothers. The life lessonslearned on those days haveremained with all of our lives. Thefortitude that dear old Dad had, hav-ing to re-bait our hooks every fiveminutes and constantly having to

untangle our lines, would have triedthe patience of a lesser man. Anyman who can endure an entire dayfishing with a child should surely bea candidate for Saint Hood.

I did not get to fish with my ownDad a whole lot, but we did have afew memorable times together. MyDad was in the service and much ofthe time we lived in places where itwas impossible to fish and there wereother times when he served in placeswhere it was impossible to take afamily. I do recall one occasion whenDad was on leave and the familyspent a week in a camp onCobbossecontee Lake in Maine. Ihad tried my best to catch fish fromthe shore near camp without anysuccess. The camp did not comewith a boat so my Dad arranged forus to go out horn pouting with anold friend of his who lived on thelake. We caught a mess of fish thatnight and my Grandmother cookedthem up for breakfast the nextmorning. I think that was my veryfirst real experience fishing. Thething I still remember the most ishow many times my Dad handed me

his rod on the pretense that he need-ed a free hand for a second. Needlessto say he had hooked a fish andwanted to give me the pleasure oflanding it.

Many years later I had the pleas-ure of taking my Dad fishing. We

spent a week canoeing and fishing inthe Allagash. We trolled for laketrout and white fish. This was beforeI had discovered the joys of fly fish-ing. The fishing wasn’t all that goodand I think my Dad only caught onefish. I have caught fish over theyears, but that one fish, that myfather caught, has a special place inmy list of most memorable fishingdays

As fast as this past season seemedto go by I still managed to add a fewmore fishing memories to the oldmemory bank. We didn’t get to fishmuch past the valley this year, butyou don’t need to travel too far tomake good fishing memories. I hadthe pleasure of guiding some greatpeople this year and I sincerely hopethat we created some lasting memo-

ries for them as well. Janet, Summerand I spent some a lot of qualitytime together fishing on the Sacoand Ellis last summer. Summer, forthe most part, is a pretty good fishingdog. She sticks close and knows thatswimming is off limits until the fish-

ing is over. Janet, Summer and I sincerely

hope that you made a lot of yourown memories last year and that youcreate many more in the comingyears. We wish all of you a verymerry Christmas and a happy NewYear.

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

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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].

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down from one generation to thenext. Many guns made in the 18thand 19th century are still out thereand still in good firing condition.

Given the huge number of guns

we own, it’s surprising how few gunaccidents we actually have.Although gun ownership increasesby about 4.5 million guns per year,our accident rate continues todecrease. The current firearms acci-dent rate is down to 0.2 per 100,000people. That’s 94% less than the1904 rate, and 80% less than the1930 rate. Child deaths fromfirearms related accidents are down90% from 1975. In fact, they arenow so low that a child has a one ina million chance of dying from a gunaccident. Much of this can beattributed to hunter safety training,the distribution of and use of gunlocks, and better training for newshooters. Still, accidents do happenand are almost always the result ofimproper gun handling.

Many gun owners still do not prac-tice basic gun safety, and I see thismany times in my store. I still haveto deal with closed actions, guns leftloaded, and barrels pointing in myface on an almost daily basis. Quitefrankly, when I read the accident sta-tistics, I was surprised they were aslow as they are. On a more positivenote, the NRA has been certifyingmore and more firearms instructorsas time goes on and shootingbecomes more popular. Almostevery shooting club now offers somesort of firearms training course, andthose classes put a huge emphasis onsafety. A few years ago the onlyadvice I could give new shooters wasto go out with someone who hadsome experience with guns. Now, Ican hand over a slew of businesscards from individuals who are certi-fied instructors and can providecompetent training in the safe use ofa firearm.

Accidents still happen. Every year,hunters shoot other hunters. Peopleshoot themselves while cleaningtheir own guns. How do you shootyourself while cleaning a gun? Inever really have understood thistype of accident. You would have tohave the gun loaded and the actionclosed, the safety off, and then pullthe trigger while pointing the gun atyourself. It’s even more mind bog-gling when people do this with muz-zle loaders. Then, not only does thegun have to be loaded, but it alsowould have to have a primer in placeand have the hammer cocked. Howcould anyone be that negligent withany gun?

Then there are the accidentsinvolving drugs and alcohol, wherean individual’s judgment is simplynot there anymore. “Foolingaround” with a loaded gun mayseem like a thrill at the time, but theresulting carnage is never veryrewarding.

Children often do not understandjust how deadly a gun can be, and itis the responsibility of the adult toinsure they will not handle gunsunless under direct adult supervi-sion. Guns should be stored out ofthe reach of children, or locked sothat they can not be accessed with-out a key.

Politics are also now a part of gunownership. Since the assassinationof President Kennedy in 1963, gunregulation versus gun rights hasalways been a political issue. Publicopinion has varied; often going backand forth between pro-gun and anti-gun views. Right now, with moreand more Americans owning guns,the pendulum has swung in a decid-edly pro-gun direction. As I expect-ed, incumbent President Obama hasbeen re-elected and will sit in officefor another four years. Althoughcertainly not a friend of gun owners,he has been able to do nothing toincrease gun restrictions. Part ofthat is because of a pro-gun House,one which would certainly not sup-port any anti-gun legislation.Another factor is the two keySupreme Court rulings which haveaffirmed not only the individualright to own firearms, but also theobligation of each state to complywith that interpretation of the sec-ond amendment. Given the lack ofboth public and Congressional sup-port, I really don’t see any likelihoodof new restrictive gun laws beingpassed.

I do expect that there will be callsfor bans on so called “assault rifles”and high capacity magazines again.This is an almost knee jerk reactionto any crime that takes place using


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

Continued next page

Yes, the United States has the mostprivately owned firearms in theworld. No other country even comesclose. The latest statistics show thatthere are 88.8 guns for every 100people in this country. That’s over200 million guns! That’s a lot ofguns. To put this number in per-spective, the next closest country isSerbia, with 58.2 guns per 100, thenYemen with 54.8, and Switzerlandwith 45.7 guns per 100 people.

While the number of guns ownedby individuals on a state level is notknown for most states, there havebeen studies done which poll thenumber of gun owning families.Wyoming leads the polls with nearly60% of all families owning guns.Locally, 42% of Vermont residentsown guns, 40.5% of Maine residentsown guns, and a mere 30% of NewHampshire folks report owningguns. I’m not too sure about that30% figure, since my own guesswould have been closer to 100%.

Let’s face it, guns are very popularin our country … and they alwayshave been. Since the first settlers

appeared on our shores, guns havebeen a part of daily life for many.They have been used for personaldefense, for hunting, sport, and forwar. Given our unique

Constitutional right to own personalfirearms, the number of guns ownedby individuals has continuallyincreased over time. Guns last along time, and are often passed

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from previous page

and second archery seasons end onDecember 9.

A detailed annual deer harvestreport will be available on thedepartment’s website (www.vtfis-

handwildlife.com) by early March.You can read previous reports on thedepartment website under “Huntingand Trapping,” by clicking on “BigGame” and then on “Big GameHarvest Reports.” The reports con-tain information hunters need to

understand the health of their deerherd and provides information onmaking informed harvest decisions.

“Hunters shouldn’t stop thinkingabout deer just because Vermont’shunting seasons are coming to aclose,” added Murkowski. “Hunterswishing to know what steps they cantake to improve the areas they huntfor deer should visit the depart-ment’s website and the Big GameHarvest Report for more informa-tion on deer herd management.”

Hunters continue to provide themeans for managing Vermont’swhite-tailed deer populations acrossthe state. Post-hunt deer densities inmost regions of the state remain atlevels within management objectivesset in Vermont’s big game plan for2010–2020, which is also availableon the department’s website.

There are regions in the statewhere some people feel there areeither too many or too few deer.Deer management will always be abalancing act and require a continu-ous series of corrections to keepVermont’s deer populations abun-dant, but not overabundant, for allVermonters to enjoy now and in thefuture. Vermont’s annual deer huntyields more than 800,000 pounds oflocal, nutritious venison worth mil-lions of dollars in food value alone.

Preliminary reports received from140 agents throughout Vermontindicate this year’s rifle season har-vest total is slightly higher than theaverage for the previous three years,according to the Vermont Fish &Wildlife Department.

As of December 4, 2012, withnumbers still coming in, it wasreported that hunters harvested4,897 deer during the Novemberrifle season. The average harvest asof this date for the previous threeyears was 4,867 deer. Final numberswill be tallied after all reports havebeen turned in and the informationhas been reviewed for accuracy.

Archery harvest totals are also upslightly to 2,915, compared with anaverage of 2,484 deer reported onthe same date over the last threeyears. Results for youth weekend arestill being tallied, but appear to be ator above the previous three yearaverage. Vermont’s whitetail popula-tion is healthy, and the antler restric-tion that started in 2005 has resultedin more numerous and older bucksin the deer population.

“Hunters this year saw the benefitsof managing for deer herd health,”said Adam Murkowski, deer biolo-

gist for the Vermont Fish & WildlifeDepartment. “Preliminary analysishas shown that not only are moredeer being harvested this year butthe physical condition of these deer

is indicative of a healthy and robustpopulation.” Harvest results will notbe complete until all agents send intheir reports after the muzzleloader

one of the AK-47 or M16 replicas.It’s always the same tired old rheto-ric coming from the same tired oldpoliticians. I don’t know how manymore times I’ll have to listen to theendless diatribes about “sprayingbullets” and “weapons of war.”They don’t know what they’re talk-ing about. Unfortunately, many gunowners are just as clueless. Toomany times, I’ve listened to huntersand gun owners ask me why anyonewould even want to own one ofthose “machine guns.” They aremissing the point.

What are referred to as “assaultweapons” are the same guns as anysemi-automatic rifle, shotgun, or pis-tol. They are talking about ANYsemi-automatic gun that uses a mag-azine. Yes, your Ruger 10/22 .22LRrifle, your Browning Buckmark pis-tol, your Remington 742 huntingrifle. These are all magazine fedsemi-automatic “assault weapons.”Other than appearance, they are nodifferent than the AK-47 and M-16rifles that anti-gunners rage about.How about all those “high capacity”magazines that seem to threatenpublic safety? Anything over tenrounds would be banned. Duringthe 1994 to 2004 ban, even .22 rifleswith tubular magazines that heldmore than ten rounds were banned.The result of the now defunct“assault rifle” ban was no decreasein the crime rate. That law was con-sidered a total failure and even lostthe support of the national policeorganizations the originally helped

sponsor it. Even the FBI had toadmit that the statistics did not sup-port the law, and dealt with a prob-lem that didn’t exist.

Will these renewed calls for an“assault weapons” ban go anywhere?I doubt it. Again, I can’t see wheretheir support would come from, andI certainly can not see Congress evenwanting to deal with such a divisiveissue.

As gun owners we have a responsi-bility to not only handle and use ourguns safely, but also to insure thatother gun owners do the same. Gunownership is increasing rapidly, andthose new owners must know how touse their guns. Any accident reflectspoorly on all of us, and misuse of afirearm exposes us to more politicalattacks. We enjoy a wonderful andunique right guaranteed by ourConstitution. We must do all we canto insure that this precious gift ispassed on to future generations.Safety and knowledge, and the abili-ty to pass that responsibility on toothers, is one of our greatest attrib-utes and it’s how we can help achievethat goal.

Dennis Thompson- 2012- 222 pound 7 point Vermont buck. Dennis took the deer inBethel.

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].

Preliminary Reports Indicate Slight Rise in Number ofDeer Harvested During Rifle Season

traveled many years ago. He wasn’tthe only buck on that ridge. I hadseen others, including my first buck,

plus a few others that got away. Igrew up hunting these woods and itseemed like I knew every tree andwrinkle in the terrain. On thisevening, my Dad and I had decidedto hike the ridge behind our oldhouse and check things out.

I had arrived at our parking spot afew minutes before my Dad, andmade my way into the woods to pokearound while I waited. I slippedacross the stream and up the steepbank of mature hemlocks and in afew moments I was in the woodswhere I grew up and explored inces-santly as a young boy. I made myway slowly to where we had a treestand, and right away I spotted theold fragment of wood hanging fromthe tree. The rest of the stand wascrushed on the ground at the base ofthe tall pine. It felt strange to now beold enough to have built and huntedfrom one of those old, rotten woodstands you find in the woods every sooften.

I worked my way uphill toward anold landmark; a very large whitebirch that had fallen in a little clear-ing on a knoll. It was now very rottenand not as large as it used to be, butright next to it there were still thecouple of cinder blocks I had piledup as a seat. Just beyond the birch inthe clearing were a scrape and afresh rub on a small beech tree. Thesign put me on alert, and I tip toedmy way to the edge of the knoll andpeered down the little valley beyond.Suddenly, my radio crackled. My

Dad had arrived.“Where are you?” he asked.“Just below the white birch” I

replied, and a moment later, in apatch of woods with several whitebirches, my Dad walked straight tome. We stood contemplating ourhike, together again on our old prop-erty, and mere yards from where hehad taken me on my first deer huntmany years before.

We climbed carefully, half hiking,half still-hunting up a series of thickbenches of mixed hemlock and oak.It was dry, but breezy, and the windcovered our noise as we traveled.There was some fresh deer sign, andin one clearing were two morescrapes. We separated at one point;Dad looped ahead to an old blindoverlooking a trail through a funnelwhile I made a swing below throughsome thick cover. His old blind hadcollapsed somewhat, but was stillthere, as was the trail with freshtracks below it where I crossed andmet up with him again.

We continued higher, and as wecrested the next steep section wecame across an old board halfburied in the leaves. It was soft andsoggy, with green moss on one side.We thought it may be from anotherold stand we had found long ago,just ahead. We automaticallyscanned the large expanse of openoaks as we stepped forward to thestand site, silently pausing togetherand checking all directions. It waseven windier up on the ridge, andthe constant dull roar of the windwas punctuated with the clattering ofthe bare, skeleton like limbs bangingtogether up in the canopy.

We came to the old standsite and saw the remains scattered onthe ground. One of the key trees itwas built in had fallen, and nothingbut a few ladder rungs remained ona smaller, adjacent tree.

“It’s still amazing,” said Dad, look-ing to the side.

I followed his gaze and saw thebranch. I had forgotten about it, butknew it well. Two trees, about 10 feetapart, had one straight branch thethickness of my forearm connectingthe two trunks with no interruption.It formed a perfect, natural “H”shape of smooth wood, and westruggle to imagine how it couldhave grown this way. We admire itevery time we pass by.

We split up for the rest of theevening, going in separate directions.I still-hunted in a loop around thecrest of the hill and made my wayback toward the side of the ridgewhere I had seen the buck at thebeginning of the story. As I creptsilently, slowly through the woods, I


The steady crunch, crunch in theleaves could have just been anotherhunter, but because of the cadenceand direction it was going I felt cer-tain it was a deer. The noise stayedjust above the lip of the ridge aboveme and I followed its progress until itcrossed a small saddle in the ridge. Istrained my eyes, peering throughthe mottled brown landscape of themixed hardwoods and spotted theback of a deer moving along justover the crest of the ridge. The ter-rain allowed me to only see thedeer’s spine, and just in front of thespine floated the long tines of thebuck’s rack projecting up above itshead, which was still hidden by theridgeline, about a hundred yardsaway. The deer steadily moved alongwith no hesitation or pauses, and Ionly glimpsed him for a momentbefore he was past and out of sight.I blew on my grunt call, but he did-n’t hear it or ignored it. After amoment the crunching rhythm ofhis footsteps in the dry leaves faded,and the woods were silent.

I have thought of this buck manytimes since then, but especially now

as I leaned against the large ash tree,scanning from above the benchalong the hillside where that buck

Family TracksBy Brian Lang

Continued next page

Physical connections, like this tree, may someday be broken. But connections in your mindand heart can never be severed.

Connections

By Brian Lang

Family Tracks


from previous page

litter and may have 2-3 litters per year.Conservation partners working

together to restore New England cot-tontails throughout their rangeinclude the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service and its Partners for Wildlife;the Natural Resources ConservationService; state fish and wildlife agenciesin New Hampshire, Maine,Massachusetts,

Connecticut, Rhode Island andNew York; the Wildlife ManagementInstitute; Roger Williams Park Zoo;the University of New Hampshire;and the University of Rhode Island.Additional conservation partners inNew Hampshire include the Societyfor the Protection of NH Forests, N.H.Audubon, the Great Bay NationalEstuarine Reserve, and the towns ofLee, Durham,

Londonderry and Pelham.For more information about New

England cottontails and the range-wide recovery effort, visit newengland-cottontail.org.

The N.H. Fish and GameDepartment’s Nongame andEndangered Wildlife Program is thesteward for species not hunted, fishedor trapped. Through wildlife monitor-ing and management, plus outreachand education, the NongameProgram works to protect over 400species of mammals, birds, reptiles,and amphibians, as well as thousandsof insects and other invertebrates.Learn more at wildnh.com/nongame.

CONCORD, N.H. – Nine NewEngland cottontails that were bornand raised in captivity now call NewHampshire home. They are here as aresult of a major effort among sixstates to restore their population andprotect them before they disappearforever. A special fundraising effort isnow underway through the N.H. Fishand Game Department’s Nongameand Endangered Wildlife Program tosupport this multi-faceted restorationeffort for New Hampshire’s onlynative cottontail.

The nine New England cottontailswere born in a captive-breeding facili-ty at the Roger Williams Zoo inRhode Island earlier this year. InSeptember, they were transported to aspecial outdoor pen at the Great BayNational Wildlife Refuge inNewington, N.H., where they willspend the winter while transitioning tolife in the wild.

In addition to captive breeding, on-the-ground habitat restoration is help-ing to create more of the shrublandhabitat that New England cottontailsneed for food and shelter. This winter,biologists will provide supplementalfood and will be monitoring areaswhere wild New England cottontailsare known to still occur.

The Nongame and EndangeredWildlife Program is seeking publicsupport for this exciting restorationeffort. Tax-deductible contributionsmay be sent to the Nongame andEndangered Wildlife Program, NewHampshire Fish and GameDepartment, 11 Hazen Drive,Concord, NH 03301. (Make checkspayable to NH Fish andGame/Nongame Program.) For aprint-and-mail contribution form, visitw i l d n h . c o m / Wi l d l i f e / N o n g ame/support_nongame.htm.

New England cottontails are endan-gered in New Hampshire and are acandidate for listing under the Federal

Endangered Species Act. They occurin parts of southern Maine, southernNew Hampshire, Massachusetts,Connecticut, Rhode Island and south-eastern New York. Their current dis-tribution is less than a fifth of their his-toric range.

These native rabbits are 15-17 inch-es in length, with a brown and graycoat that does not change color withthe seasons. They often have a blackspot between the ears and a black lineon the edge of the ears, which canhelp distinguish between them fromEastern cottontails, but these featuresare not always present.

New England cottontails are activeyear round at dawn, dusk and at night.In the summer, they feed on grassesand forbs, and in the winter they eatbark, twigs and buds of shrubs andyoung trees. They have 3-8 young in a

had flashbacks to each deer I hadseen in the area over the years. Iremembered just where they stood,walked or ran, and where I waswhen I spotted them. I rememberedeach deer trail, and the buck sign Ihad found. As I approached the lipof the ridge, I spotted a large scrapebelow a hemlock bough. The firsttime my Dad brought me up here,we found heavy buck sign, and formany years after I had found bucksign following this edge, and itseemed as though the current gener-ation of deer hadn’t changed.

I stood until dark against that ashtree, shivering in the cold wind. Iremembered that large buck I saw goby and all the other deer I had seenover the years, including my firstbuck, which I had shot just below on

the same ridge. Unlike any physicalconnection, which can be broken,connections you make in your mindand hold dearly in your heart cannever be severed. Whatever mayhappen to that land, the memoriesand experiences my father and Ishare in those deer woods will liveforever.

A special fundraising effort is underway to help restore the endangered New England cottontail.

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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].

Special Fundraising Effort Underwayto Help Restore New England Cottontails


myself consciously thinking aboutany part of my shot sequence mygroups tend to open up. I’ve alsonoticed that if I can hear someone

talking I know that my concentra-tion isn’t where it should be. Duringmy best shooting I can’t hear any-thing and my mind is quiet andrelaxed.

I always pay attention to how I’mshooting from day to day. As you allknow some days are much better orworse than others. I shoot as long asI can on the days that I’m shooting

well. On the days that I’m not shoot-ing well I usually put my bow awayand let it sit for a day or two. I do thisto avoid picking up bad habits fromsloppy shooting. The good days helpbuild my confidence and I don’twant to destroy what I have built byreinforcing anything that is bad.

I always reward myself when I’mshooting too. Whenever I make agood shoot I always mentally patmyself on the back and say, “Goodshot Todd.” If I make a bad shot Idon’t acknowledge it and I go on tothe next arrow. This makes it a loteasier to let a bad shot go during atournament without putting toomuch emphasis on it. When youover analyze you open a can ofworms that can come back to hauntyou. You have to realize that every-one who has shot archery has missedbefore and they will miss again.Nobody is perfect.

I encourage all of you to set upyour own practice routine. Onething that you must remember is thatalthough something works for oneperson it might not work for you. Ihave given you the examples of myroutine so you have a general guide-line to follow. My routine is far dif-ferent than many people that I know,but it works for me. The secret isfinding something that is easilyrepeatable.

The routine must also bring enjoy-ment to your shooting session.Shooting can become boring ifyou’re not constantly challengingyourself.

Do whatever you have to do tomake your practice pay off when themoment of truth arrives whether it’sin the woods or on the tournamenttrail.

The most common question I getasked about archery is how often Ipractice. This question sometimesmakes me squirm because practicetakes on a different meaning forevery person. Whenever I attempt toanswer the question I always relateback to my early experiences.

When I was much younger I usedto shoot one arrow after another forhours on end. Since I didn’t haveany purpose behind my practice Ieventually got target panic. I put toomuch emphasis on where the arrowhit instead of how the shot felt.

I began punching the trigger andafter a while I couldn’t hold the pinon the target. It felt as if there was acement block on my sight pin. In thebeginning the pin settled under thebulls-eye. I compensated by adjust-ing my pin to hit a little high. As timewent on the panic became worse andI couldn’t get the pin above the bot-tom of the target face. That’s when Irealized that my practice routinedirectly related to the problems thatI encountered.

Shortly after I diagnosed the prob-lem I learned how to shoot a backtension release which is a releasewithout a trigger. I learned to aimand the let the shot happen, ratherthan force it. After a solid ninemonths of training I finally was ableto shoot with confidence again. Atthat point I decided to organize apractice routine that would workwell for me in order to attain thegoals that I set.

I learned that the number ofarrows I launched every day didn’tmatter as much as the purposebehind launching them. I told myselfthat I would not shoot an arrowunless I had 100% concentrationbehind the shot. Some days I wasable to shoot a hundred arrows whileother days I only shot 20. I knew thatas long as my concentration was cen-

tered on the task I was performingthen I would get the most out of mypractice. If I found my concentra-tion drifting into other areas I imme-

diately stopped shooting. Thishelped me to form a better mentalattitude than what I had when I usedto launch arrows for hours at a time.

I’ve found over the years that con-centration and group sizes usually gohand in hand. My groups are thetightest when there are no outsidethoughts in my mind. The only thingon my mind is aiming. If I find

Anchor PointsBy Todd Mead

Practice

By Todd Mead

Anchor Points

Practice makes perfect! The author honing his skills at the range during the off season.

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


The Gazette’s Hunting and Fishing Solunar Tables

Send us yourpictures

so all our readers

can enjoythem

Email jpg’s tofred@the

outdoorgazette.comDon’t forget to write

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

and where you live.Thank You.. Fred


Hell, no. On the plus side – I wasable to pick up some very good bar-gains at very low prices. I guess I wasat the right place at the right time –something that almost never hap-pens to me.

The tackle manufacturers areresponsible for this problem ofunnecessary demand. They’re in thebusiness of selling stuff so it’s in theirbest interest to convince us we’re notenjoying the experience unless wehave the biggest, or lightest, ornewest or most expensive. I canunderstand the pride of ownershipthat comes with expensive, hand-made tackle - even if I don’t ownany. If that makes you happy, that’sall that matters. However, expensivetackle is not essential. Believe it ornot, it’s possible to enjoy yourselfcompletely without blowing yourkid’s college fund.

Does anyone need every rod evermade ranging from one-weightthrough whatever? If you wantthem, more power to you. Have aball and enjoy yourself. But, don’tthink you can’t enjoy yourself with-out them. How about lines? Do youreally need four different densities ofsinking lines? Is it necessary to sallyforth encumbered by a baker’s dozenflyboxes containing several thousandflies? Most of us risk a hernia totingall the stuff that passes for “essen-tial” equipment.

My friend, Larry Mucci, was agreat proponent of the less-is-morephilosophy. He carried a single,

ancient, fleece-lined flybook. Hefished only with emerger patterns ofhis own design. He also fished theonly rod he ever owned. Couldn’t heafford anything more? Sure he could– he simply was happy with what hehad.

Even his preference for casting wassimple - not to mention effective. Heused the old Leisering Lift method.He’d cast upstream with a slack lineand long leader, giving his emergerstime to sink as they drifted withoutdrag. Then he’d wait until the flywas just upstream of where hethought a trout might be holding. Atthat point he’d stop the drifting line,letting it come tight and the flywould rise to the surface, looking likean emerging insect.

This waiting around gave himplenty of time to take in the sightsmissed by most of the other fly cast-ers on the Beaverkill River. In fact,Larry might make only one cast inthe same amount of time otherswould make eight or ten casts. He’dstill out-fish them and continued todo so even when they began crowd-ing around him, thinking Larry wasfishing to the only trout in the pool.He’d give up his spot, take over theirvacated positions and continue out-fishing them. More than oneencroacher went home muttering tohimself.

Here’s a sporting proposition: justonce, go light. In fact, find out exact-ly how light you can go and still havefun. In spite of risking equipmentwithdrawal, take only one rod, reel,line and leader. Leave your vesthome and carry a single box of flies.You’ll be amazed at how good it feelsto go out and not worry if youbrought the right x, y, or z. Youmight even rediscover the joy youknew when flyfishing was somethingnew.

P.S. Purely in the spirit of publicservice, I’m willing to accept all thattackle you’re about to get rid of. Iknow several South Americanorphans who will be happy toreceive whatever I can’t use.

Can there be too much reliance ontechnology? Can technology dimin-ish the joy of fly fishing? At whatpoint does technology begin tippingthe scale in the wrong direction? It’sall a matter of opinion. However,sometimes, when we’re stuck in themidst of too much technology, welose sight of the goal: to enjoy learn-ing about, and participating in, oursport.

So many people have told me“Keep It Simple, Stupid” that I’mamazed I ever allowed myself to getcaught up in believing if it’s bigger,or newer, or more expensive, it mustbe better. It’s as if the goal is tosomehow become better, neverthinking about how much fun I wasalready having. I’m also amazed Inever developed an inferiority com-plex although Ruth insists there’s nochance of that ever happening.(Hmmmmm – I need to think aboutthat one.)

Fly fishing has not been my onlyexperience with this phenomenon.Once upon a time, I shot registeredtrap and skeet. If you think fly fish-

ermen can become neurotic overequipment, spend a little time at agun club. Countless guys I’ve knownhave anguished over missed clay

birds and thought they’d solve theproblem by buying a newer, moreexpensive shotgun. Did it work?

K.I.S.S.

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

Tony Lolli is a broken down fly fishingguide, freelance writer, sheriff ’s deputy andne’er-do-well from northeastern Vermont.His book, Go-To Flies: 101 Patterns thePros Use When All Else Fails, is availablethrough bookstores and Amazon.com.

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


This Green Mountain bone collection is in Norwich, Vermont.

-


The final minutes of the 2012 VTBig game season are ticking down,with the Black Powder gun put away& wishing we had a little more snowto enhance this year’s hunt. It hasbeen a pretty tough road for ourcrew this year with the up & downweather, snow coming in betweenseasons and not staying around longwhen it did. I am very happy to saythat EVERY day I spent in the deerwoods this year my 10 yr old SonLogan was right by my side! Wehunted dawn till dusk during theyouth weekend with only a fleetingopportunity at a doe on the openingday that just didn’t slow down longenough for a good shot. We did huntthe opening three day’s of ourfirearms season with six does makingtheir way past our blind…but thebucks seemed to elude us. Therehave been some really nice buckstaken in our area of Rutland Countythis season, as a half dozen years ofantler restrictions are starting toshow the fruits of the Fish & Gamesefforts! I can count close to a dozeneight to ten pointers taken with in a5 mile radius of our home, all bucks

I would be proud to shoot in anystate! I just hope that mother natureis kind to our herd this year, as mastcrops are scarce and the lack of food

in the woods has put the deer intobrowse mode very early this fall.

We spent six days prior toThanksgiving hunting the GreatNorthwoods of the Pittsburg NewHampshire area, but again there wasvery little spotty snow to help us out.

Cold weather we did have, with acouple mornings starting out in thesingle digits. But this made for verynoisy conditions a tough still hunt-ing, as this is the primary tactic thatwe employ up there as the deer are

pretty wide spread. We did jump afew but I believe the herd is stillrecovering from the tough winter of2010/2011 as most reported seeinga few does but the buck kill was waydown from years past. We did see ahalf dozen Moose, including a reallynice four year old Bull at 35 yardsthat had about a 45 inch spread, giv-ing Logan a really great show and

getting his heart pumping for amoment! The lucky member of ourgroup was my middle brother Marktaking a 155lb 7 point VT buck onthe second morning, but out side ofthat freezer is looking bleak for veni-son this year!

We have gotten in some water-fowl hunting & the cold weather haspushed the dabblers down in betternumbers then we saw in theChamplain Valley last year. Diverducks such as Bluebills, Buffleheads& Goldeneye are starting to show up,hopefully providing us with somedecent gunning over the later part ofthe season. Our season closes justbefore the Holidays, but Logan & Iare planning on wrapping our water-

fowl season getting in some gunningfor some sea ducks over Christmasweek with Capt. Jack Renfrew ofCoastline Guide Service ofPlymouth Mass. We have huntedwith Jack in years past during themonth of October, this will be ourfirst time down to test our enduranceand brave the elements that theAtlantic Ocean will dish out in lateDecember!

Fast action for tough birds is usual-ly the menu for the day, with anoffering of Eiders (Eidah’s as downeastah’s call them) Old Squaw & amix of Scoters with an occasionalBrant can all be expected to fly bythe boat at any time! Three inchshells with loads of number two’s areusually what is needed to knockdown these hearty birds, alwaysbeing on the ready to make a finish-ing shot on the birds once they hitthe water as they are notorious fordiving and swimming long distancesafter being hit!

Jack’s Chocolate Lab Gunner hasmade over 6000 retrieves in hishunting career; he is slowing down abit but at 11 years old he still pushesthough the seas like a champ! Jack’s21 foot custom built boat built byDuck water Boats of Ohio makes fora safe and enjoyable hunting plat-form and steady gunning. For getting

in some great sea coast hunting &fishing be sure to check out Jack’sweb site out www.coastlineguideser-vice.com, a great friend and superbseamen, he will take great care ofyou!

I have made the trek over to theSalmon River for Steelhead 3 timesso far this fall, at the time of thiswriting I am planning on headingover next week (Dec 17th) for oursecond drift boat trip of the fall.Thanksgiving weekend found usover to Pulaski with strong northwestwinds & heavy lake effect snow com-ing down that the area is noted for.The river was running low from thesummer drought, which made for

Continued next page

Happy Holidays!!

Matt with his son Logan after a day on the Mass coast

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

A nice take of Eiders with Coastline Guide Service

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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

Albany, NY- The completedbarrier at Orwell Brook willreduce the numbers of parasiticsea lamprey entering LakeOntario

Did you know a single adultsea lamprey is capable of killingup to 40 pounds of trout andsalmon in its lifetime? To controlthese parasitic fish, techniqueslike chemical treatments (lampri-cides), trapping and barrierdams are used.

Recently, the Great LakesFisheries Commission, DEC’sLake Ontario Unit and Region 7staff completed construction ofa sea lamprey barrier on OrwellBrook, a Lake Ontario tributary.The new barrier will:

Prevent lamprey access toabout 1.7 acres of preferred

spawning and larval habitat.Eliminate an average of 47,398

lamprey larvae upstream of thebarrier.

Allow native aquatic organismsto move upstream when barrieroperations are ceased duringnon-sea lamprey spawningmigrations.

Decrease the frequency oflampricide treatments fromannually to every four years.

Visit DEC’s Sea Lamprey web-page for details on additionalcontrol efforts in the GreatLakes and connecting tributar-ies, as well as lamprey facts andimages.

bumpy ride in the drift boat but wedid bring a few fish to the net. All ofthat Lake effect snow has meltednow & some warmer rains havebrought the Salmon River Reservoirback up to full capacity & the river isrunning back at normal fall levels.The reports have been some fantas-tic early season Steelhead are hitting,which mirrors our September &October trips success and superaction!

The heated drift boat can take thesting out of numb fingers and add to

the splendor of drifting the river inquiet peace with out the hum of anengine. Viewing wildlife such as BaldEagles, deer & turkeys adds spice tothe trip, putting bright chrome steel-head in the boat puts the icing on thecake! We will continue to do a coupleof trips over to the river each monththrough the winter, March & Aprilwill find us putting in some long daysbefore the spring runs wanes off &the big boat takes over for the sum-mer!

The Holidays will be upon before

we know it….. Giving us the chanceto spend time with our loved ones,enjoy watching our children growbefore our own eyes, and relish thefood and drink of the season that willmake memories for years to come.We wish every one a Very HappyNew Year, looking forward to meet-ing new friends and catching up withold ones in the New Year!

We will be starting our annual tourof the winter sportsman shows,beginning with the RockinghamFishing & Hunting Expo in southern

New Hampshire, then three days atthe Yankee Sportsman Classic inEssex Vermont on the third weekendof January. Stop by the booth, visitfor a bit and find out what’s new!Hope to see you there!!

RIGHT - The completed barrier atOrwell Brook will reduce thenumbers ofparasitic sea lamprey entering Lake Ontario

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

New Barrier for Sea Lamprey Control in the Great Lakes


Mink resemble weasels in manyways but the only major difference isthe mink is much larger in size. Malemink weigh in the two to threepound range while females averagetwo to three pounds. Both male andfemale will measure in under eight-een inches normally although if youtrap around lakes larger ones arepossible. Both vary in color frombrown or black.

Mink are found both in the U.Sand Canada. They normally breedin February and have their young inApril depending on the weather.Litters consist of six to twelve youngand are born in old rat houses or anyholes that offers protection from theelements.

Mink fur is usually prime from thefirst of November until Februarywhen the breeding starts.

Mink are at home on land or inwater. Their diet consists of mice,rats, crayfish, frogs, muskrats andbaby ducks. Mink live in rivers,brooks, swamps or any body ofwater that offers food and shelter.

Female mink tend to be home bod-

ies seldom trekking far from home.Male mink however tend to never behome. Studies have shown that

males have a route they travel thattakes them two to three weeks tocomplete. Kind of sounds like a

trapper and his wife with mother athome taking care of business whileDad is away tending his trap line.After a fresh snow sometime go outand find some mink tracks and fol-

low them for awhile and you will beamazed at how much ground theselittle critters cover in short order.

Hopefully while scouting youfound mink tracks away from waterwhich usually mean it’s a male minkand he is on his route. Try to con-centrate on these mink and give thefemales a break. Yes you can and docatch female mink but rememberthese females produce twelve youngper year on average and cleaningthem out will mean less mink nextyear. At $14.00 to $20.00 per pop adozen will give you more in the pay-check category.

While in the water mink will checkevery nook and cranny they come to.This may not be a big feat in oureyes but when you factor in they dothis all day long every day this ishuge. If you have ever had a pet fer-ret you know what I am talkingabout. They are the C.S.I. team of

the forests. Next month I will go over a few

sets that will help you catch these lit-tle critters.

I hope your trapping season is

going well. Mine started out slow butis cranking along now. The weathercertainly has not been the trappersali , with hurricanes , cold weather,70 degree weather , back to 20 wehave certainly run the gamut thisfall. Oh well its better than the alter-native, a foot of snow.

Keep your waders patched andyour lures in the shed. Take a kidwith you please.

See ya on the trap line.

By Randy BarrowsBy Randy Barrows

The Trap LineThe Trap Line

Mink

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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By Charlie ChalkBy Charlie Chalk

Behind the SightsBehind the Sights

The knife sheath is as importanta piece of gear as anything youhave for the outdoors. Fixed bladeknives all come with one, thoughtoday, even some good knives comewith cheap sheaths of nylon orplastic. They hold a knife, but lackthe style of a leather sheath.Another reason to create your ownsheath is that you got a knife, butno sheath. I did that on an EBaybid on a Marbles “Field Craft”from the early 1900’s. Crafting asheath is the only option.

Getting the materials for a sheathis simple. Online dealers likeTandy sell some small pieces inbulk. Most lots will have pieces bigenough to make one sheath. Oaktanned is best, but whatever type, itshould be thick, typical of com-mercial sheaths.

Another source, especially if youlike a ‘vintage’ look is found atthrift stores. Old cowboy bootshafts can be cut off and makesome unique sheaths. Perhaps youcan think of other sources of goodleather?

Other goods you need are thread,saddle needles or “Speed Stitcher”,awl and contact cement. You willwrap up with dye and wax, both

which should be at shoe shops. Designing the sheath is simple.

Get out a pad of paper and a pen-cil. Trace out the entire knife, han-dle and all, on the paper. Afterthat’s done, fold the paper aroundthe knife. Always allow adequatespace around the blade for expan-

sion when the knife is in the sheathand stitching sides. You need a beltloop, which can be formed by extraleather coming off the back top ofthe sheath and folded down andstitched, or it can be a simple stripadded on the back and stitched topand bottom. Either way this beltloop is step one, before other stitch-ing.

The idea here is to transfer yourdrawing to the leather as accurate-ly as possible, and then cut it out ascleanly as possible. Place yourleather on a cutting board and laythe sheath design over that. Use apencil to trace the outline. Whenyou’re done you should have some-thing that looks like picture fourbelow. Pencil is good for markingleather because you can see it, butit isn’t too dark.

Now, cut along the pencil lineswith a sharp razor knife. You maychoose a spacer to go between theedges. It’s basically the exact sameoutline, but wide enough to catchthe stitch line, but not so wide as tointerfere with the blade in thesheath.

Putting it all together will bewhere you need contact cement.

Contact cement, is great forleather. You use it by spreading alayer on both sides to be glued,wait fifteen minutes, and then pressthe pieces together. It adheresinstantly and gives a strong, flexiblebond. Stitching is easier when theedge is positioned with the cement.

Now take your awl or SpeedStitcher and begin around theedge. Try to keep spacing equal.While the stitcher comes withthread, the use of saddle needlesand thread may be easier. It is easyto push the stitcher at an anglethrough the leather and makeunequal stitches. The traditionalmethod is to punch holes with anawl, then use two needles and a“saddle stitch”. To do this, punchthe holes for your seam. Fold theleather into position when makingthe holes, so you’re sure they willline up. Cut a piece of thread fourtimes the length of the seam.Thread a needle and run it throughthe first hole. Center the thread soyou have equal amounts on eachside. Thread a second needle onthe other end of the thread. Passeach needle in turn through thenext hole and draw tight. Whenyou get to the end, backstitch for atleast two holes to lock the stitch.After stitching, trim the edges ofthe leather for a neat appearance.

If you notice, I have not men-tioned any type of keeper strap. Isee no need if you design yoursheath to be of a deep design thatonly exposes a third of the handle,or less. Straps are just more workwith some form of snap. A deepsheath will work just fine.

Almost all of the sheaths I makeare deep sheaths. The deep sheathsare also historically the earliestdesigns.

That covers the basics. Studymore on designs and decorations tocreate a truly original design if youwish. The best compliment youcould get on your work is; “Wouldyou make one of those for me?”

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.

Making a Knife Sheath

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shotgun up, the bird had disap-peared. My one and only sightingand I blow it. I wonder what thehunting legend thinks of my“skills”??

Well, there’s always tomorrow.

Same plan, same place and sametime. Now I figured I could catcha little nap, but as the days seem togo in Vermont, I did a littleunplanned fishing. We caught din-ner and enjoyed some fresh brooktrout and LOTS of laughs. Okay,maybe I’ll head to bed early –beauty sleep, remember? When itwas 11 pm and I wasn’t tired Iwondered if I should stay up for afew more hours and work onadrenaline.

I finally did give in at 12:30 andgot a little sleep. The routine start-ed again, but this time instead ofLane Benoit, Jay Faherty, HIPSblind and a phenomenal turkeycaller, would be meeting me. Wegot on the way and met up withJeff Mulready. I guess TimMulready had enough of me theprevious day!

After what seemed like a 5-mile

hike ducking in and out and overand around, we came to our spot!Jeff had a pop up blind, which weset and I waited. The cameramanwas in the blind with me and I hadto jab him several times because hewas SNORING. I didn’t want himto blow my chance because he wassleeping. If I was able to stay alert,he needed to make an effort ratherthan sounding like a freight train inthe serene surroundings. Jeff andJay were heading toward the blind– time to go. No! I hadn’t gottenmy bird yet. Well, we were chang-ing spots, after all this was hunting,not sitting! It turns out that TimMulready wasn’t tired of my sissygirl hunting style (my words – nothis!). He was out, along with sev-eral others, spotting birds for me!All these men were on my side!!Tim was in communiqué with Jeffand it was time to move again, he’dspotted a Jake. Maybe my guyfrom the previous day, Lane will beproud!

Now the real fun started. I didfeel a little bad for the hen figuringthis was the last walk with her off-spring. It was then explained tome that the Jakes are young gob-blers, helping with breeding. I toldyou I’m a novice, and I’m notafraid to look silly asking the ques-tions! How else will I learn? Wehad a game plan and again hikedto where it would all happen.

Just as predicted the pair madetheir way from the field where ini-tially spotted and were on coursefor us! They must have read thescript! Watching and waiting, theblood was pumping. Now, I startedto wonder if I’d really be able toget the shot off. Pictures of theyouth season flooded my mind andI was re-invigorated. But now“my” turkey seemed to have a dif-ferent idea. They were heading

I’ve made plenty of turkeys in mylifetime, but I’ve always purchasedthem at the store – frozen. Well,I’ve come to Bennington, VT witha different intent. I am going toshoot my very own turkey! At leastI’m going to TRY to shoot my veryown turkey. It all started lastmonth, also in Bennington, VT.

I was given my 1st taste ofturkeys up close with LeeDufresne, owner of Elusion Camo;Jay Faherty, owner of HIPS blind;and Kevin Hoyt, videographerextraordinaire! We would go outearly in the morning on “practiceruns”. Their season is the monthof May and they were trying tolocate the ideal hunting ground.When it was suggested I come backfor an actual hunt, I jumped at thechance.

After a VERY successful salmonfishing trip, it was time to headback to my new friends. The carloaded with my fresh catch – Icaught over 200 pounds – theexcitement began to build. I’dbeen seeing pictures from youthhunts and figured if they could doit, so could I! I even was taking mypotential success one step further.I have a crystal fish ring that Ialways wear when I fish. Now I amthe proud owner of a crystal owlring. The owls share the woodsand I hadn’t found a turkey ring –yet! I had my Elusion Camo andnow all I needed was to harvest abird.

My 1st day was to be spent withguys known to me as the CoyotePatrol. They’d given me the thrillof a lifetime with a coyote huntdone with dogs. They were takingme from coyote mode to turkeymode. I was to meet the Mulreadybrothers, Jeff and Tim, at 4 am inNew York. Don’t these guys knowI need my beauty sleep? On top ofit I would have to drive all the wayto New York to meet them! Thatsounds worse than it is. I justneeded to cross the VT border andI was there. Meeting at 4 meantleaving the house at 3:30, whichmeant I needed to get up around2:45 – IN THE MORNING! Ican’t just roll out of bed, put on myElusion Camo and be off. I have toproperly prepare. I’d need to getthe makeup on and fix my hair! Idon’t know why I was concernedabout getting up so early because Ididn’t really sleep due to anticipa-tion and the unknowns swirling inmy head.

Hoosick Falls, NY here I come,look out turkeys. In addition to the

Mulready brothers and my cam-eraman, I had the legendary LaneBenoit along with me. His familyis known for their deer tracking

successes, but are all around out-doorsmen. Lane had his cameraalong to capture the sights andsounds as well as my 1st hunt/har-vest. Wouldn’t you know theturkeys were not “talking”? Didn’tthey realize how far I’d come forthis? After hours of slow action,we switched into coyote mode.This is the real love of theMulreadys, and a newfound pas-sion with me! We got the dogs andheaded back out for a bigger tar-get. Maybe I would go home withsomething.

Lane Benoit and I took up resi-dence and waited. We weren’thearing the dogs, but my eyesstayed focused and continuallyscanned the area. Lane was thesmart one, getting in a little catnap,but I figured I’d catch a few zzz’slater. I was on a mission! Ithought I spied something in thedistance but didn’t want to wakeLane. After all I’d been wrongbefore! Well, he was stirring and Isaid I think there’s a red foxstraight ahead of us on a hill.Lane quickly saw what I was excit-ed about, but pointed out it was adeer.

It appeared to be bright red (sim-ilar to my hair!) so it was natural(unlike my hair!) for me to assumefox. While we were chit chattingabout the deer, Lane looked at meand saw a turkey beyond. I slid myeyes and sure enough. I knew youcouldn’t shoot a hen, so I remainedstill. Lane said it was a Jake, butthen we questioned what time itwas – the hunt stops at noon – andby the time I had the safety off and


By Mary KayBy Mary Kay

The Outdoor AngelReflections ofThe Outdoor

Reflections of The Outdoor Angel

Continued on page 31

to cross. Hurricane Irene in August

of 2011 had a major impact onthe rivers and streams in theNortheast. Some pools on the

Connecticut, Pemigewasset andother rivers and streamschanged; overall we made outmuch better than Vermont. Foranglers who like to fish remoteponds a few of the trails in theWhite Mountains are still notopen.

This was the third year in arow we've had a hot dry sum-mer. There was a lot of damageto the small brooks and streamsthat support wild brook trout.Trout fishing in many of therivers was subpar as a result ofthe warm water and low flowconditions. The winter of2011/12 was basically snowless;combined with no rain fromJanuary until late May. Thatresulted in great conditions forwading in March, April andMay. With the lack of rain and

run off rivers that normallyhave good salmon fishingincluding the Merrymeetingand Winnipesaukee were disap-pointing.

In March I had my boat onthe water; in 2011 it was June.We did have rain in late Mayand June; that was short-livedand by July rivers and streamswere at record lows that contin-ued into October.

The Androscoggin was at2700 to 1800 cubic feet per sec-ond most of June; by Septemberit was down to 1450. TheConnecticut was low most ofthe summer; at North Stratfordthe flow was often 400-450. TheAlder f ly Hatch on theAndroscoggin was out by June12 that's the second time in thelast three years that it has start-ed before the 21st. It used to bethe last weekend in June orearly July before the hatch start-ed. That's a direct relation tothe warmer water temperatures.The same was true for the hexhatch on ponds; the hatch wasearly statewide again this year.

Overall the spring fishing wasgood but by June most of therivers south of the notches werenot worth fishing. The Pemi andSaco held up pretty well untillate August and the Pemi fishedwell into September. Water tem-perature on the Androscogginwas in the 70s for most of Julyand August and I didn’t fish theriver. In the summer warmsunny days and high water tem-peratures can make fishing diffi-cult; low flows decrease the oxy-gen level, not a good combina-tion.

There were a few days on theAndroscoggin in June andSeptember on the Connecticut


Continued next page

The end of each year I sendout a mailing to clients; this col-umn contains excerpts from theletter along with a few ramblingthoughts. The November col-umn Kennebec Runs was thefirst time I tried using DragonNaturally Speaking software.Typing is a skill (more or less)for anyone who writes unlessyou’re a survivor from the pre-historic days of secretaries.Efficiency is somewhat relatedto keyboard skil ls; that andbeing able to corral thoughtsinto sentences and paragraphswhich sometimes seems moredifficult than herding cats. Notan original thought but from amemorable super bowl commer-cial. Fortunately I learned totype while in the Marines start-ing as a keypunch operator.

Working in an air conditionedenvironment was preferable tocrawling around in the mudwith a rif le in the tick infestedsouthern states which also had alot of snakes. Unfortunaly theyhad the concept that allMarines had to maintain thebasic skill set so there were fre-quent trips to the rifle rangeand boonies for maneuvers.

Proficiency with a keyboard orpad is something todays young-sters grow up with; it’s almostintuitive. Spelling and grammarwere two of my many weakpoints; spell checkers, softwareand repetitiveness eventuallyhelped but Barb, my wife alwaysedited columns and articles.Using Dragon was like goingback in time; there were a lot oferrors. Overall it’s pretty goodand faster than typing; there’sproblems with pronunciationespecially with unique local

names. It’s capable of doing alot of time saving tasks.

2012 was my tenth year guid-

ing; I never anticipated guidingthat long. Now it’s year by yearmostly determined primarily byhealth and a growing awarenessthat if I continue guiding until Ican’t physically do it I’ll miss alot of fishing days. This wasalmost an injury free year untilOctober when I lost a monthwith a banged up leg.

Bird season went down thetubes with the exception of afew days in mid-Novemberwhen I was able to get our setterDuchess out to stretch her legs.She’ll be ten next spring; all ofour female setters have hunteduntil they were twelve or thir-teen but there are no guaran-tees. There’s always a last dog;from my wife’s viewpoint thatwould have been a few dogsago; that will be another bridge

2012 in the rear view mirror

By Jim Norton By Jim Norton

From the back of a canoe

From the back of a canoe

The Androscoggin in October just as the fog is starting to burn off – Jim Norton


Continued from page 29

from previous page

in late August and earlySeptember when the fishing waspoor. Overall the fishing in Juneon the Androscoggin was prettygood in September it was moredifficult. Overall we did betterthan expected given the condi-tions.

Being able to have the boaton the water in March andApril provided the opportunityto fish rivers l ike theMerrymeeting, Pemi andWinnipesaukee that I would notnormally be able to do. Lowflow conditions made it possibleto row upstream and fish differ-ent sections of the rivers. Thatwas good news the bad wasthere were very few salmon inthe rivers. I had the boat on thewater 50 days; 10 or 15 morethan a good year. TheConnecticut around NorthStrafford was in the high 60sand low 70s many days butoverall the river fished well inJuly and August.

Labor Day weekend with lowflow and sunny days turned outto be disappointing. The excep-tion was the Androscoggin; thesame weekend the river fishedwell although the water temper-ature was in the mid 60s. Troutin the Androscoggin are used tohigher water temperatures thanthe Connecticut and are usually

more active when the water is inthe 60s.

June on the Androscogginwas pretty good. The alderflyhatch was on for three weeks;on the 30th clients were stillable to land several fish usingalderf lies. We fished the hexhatch about every other night.The last week of June the watertemperature on the ponds wasin the 70s and we stopped fish-ing ponds. There were someexcellent evenings on the riverfishing dries including stone-flies.

In September there did notseem to be as many trout in theAndroscoggin as previous years.Although we had some verygood days there were sections ofthe river drifting and wadingthat we normally fish that didnot produce. On the other handwe were able to do well from thewayside picnic area to SevenIslands which sometimes can bemore difficult.

This year we ran ourAndroscoggin package the lasttwo weeks of June andSeptember. In September wehad two days without clients.My partner Gerry, my wife Barband I were able to get out andfish. One day on theAndroscoggin was excellentGerry has a video clip on his

fishing blog of Barb catchingtwo trout on back to back casts;actually it was three but he didnot have the camera on.

HYPERLINK "http://flyfish-n e w e n g l a n d . b l o g s p o t . c o m / "http://f lyfishnewengland.blogspot.com/

The other day we fished apond and did well on driescatching brook trout in spawn-ing colors.

The show schedule for2013:

January 5th & 6thRockingham Hunting & FishingExpo Salem NH - speaker

January 18th – 20th

Marlborough Mass Fly FishingShow - tier and speaker

March 2nd & 3rd Fly FishNew Hampshire Show PelhamNH – booth

March 9th & 10th Twin StatesBig Game & Outdoor ShowLebanon NH booth

Check our web site for tyingand presentation dates.

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

the wrong way! Fine, we’ll headthem off at the pass. I didn’t real-ize we’d have to hike through theAmazon to do this! It was so over-grown with prickly bushes andtrees I’ve come away with cuts andscrapes. The tall grass hides themucky mud but my $10 camou-flage rubber boots (fashion) did thetrick. I kept up without falling. We(at least Jeff) were confident we’dgotten ahead of the birds.

The field was filled with tallgrass, so I assumed we’d pop hisblind in the middle and wait. I’dbe able to do this. But no, he hadan entirely different idea. Jeff

handed me his gun and I was nowon point. I still had it in my headthat we were ahead of the birdsand they’d be coming our way. Jefftold me to walk slowly, and alsowatch the tall grass, they could behiding. I guess I didn’t focus asmuch on the tiny detail because allthe sudden there are 2 birds inFLIGHT and he tells me to shootat the redhead. What now? Hewanted me to shoot myself ? Whathad I done to make him so mad?

He actually meant the redheadedbird, not me; at least that’s hisstory! The excitement took overand I didn’t have the gun shoul-

dered properly but I did get off ashot and…. I…. MISSED.

I wanted to cry, but not becauseI’d missed. I hurt my finger. Stillcan’t figure how, but I had to beholding the gun some odd, girlyway and with the recoil, my lefthand pointer finger was in thewrong place. How does anyone goturkey hunting and only comeaway with bruises (ego included),cuts and scrapes? Well, I did, but itwas all worth it. I came to turkeyhunt, which I did. I enjoyed mytime hiking through the woods andtrudging the Amazon. I was one ofthe guys and liking it.

I’ve heard many stories of truehunters not bagging their bird sowhat did I expect? It certainlywould have been nice to feast onfreshly harvested turkey, but there’salways next year. By then, hopeful-ly my gun skills will have improvedif the bird takes flight. I still main-tain if I had a shot on the groundI’d be eating turkey.

That’s my story and I’m stickingto it! Might have had the sameoutcome as the flyer but at least Ican dream! I’ll be back next yearand will walk out of the field withmore than a 20-pound pop-upblind!


out that if yearlings, for example,make up only 20% of the harvest

before and antler restriction thatonly 10% of that number are likelyto be passed on by a basic antlerrestriction. So, buck populationsthat already have an excellent agestructure should not be expected tobenefit much by imposing an antlerrestriction of any kind.

The facts are: A. Implementationof even the most basic fork-hornantler restriction results in protectionof all spike bucks. (This means thatspikes stand the best chance amongall antlered bucks of passing on tothe next age class.); B. Yearling buckswith well developed antlers have nosuch advantage and are subject toharvest as yearlings (This means theyhave some lesser chance of passingon to the next age class).

“OMG…an antler restrictionmeans we are killing the best of thebest.” The genetics of our deer herd

is sure to go to “HE…double hockeysticks.” Deer hunter and deer biolo-gist alike find it easy to “leap” to thiskind of conclusion. This is not sur-prising, just look at the “facts!”

To the alarmists, I would say:“Whoa…now! Not so fast! Calmdown.” We may need to dig a littledeeper into the science of genetics,phenotypic expression, and naturalselection and maybe even do a littlemore research before getting overlyexcited about the fate of our deerherds.

Simple antler restrictions that pro-tect spike bucks may turn out to notbe the preferred way to managebuck populations through the longterm. Perhaps, more complicatedantler restrictions involving a “slotlimit” approach that culls spikebucks instead of protecting them willturn out to be preferable to “ushumans.”

Think about it. Big antlers orsmall antlers, white-tail deer are like-ly to continue as a species just fineeither way. Big bucks, big antlers,those are things that are probably ofgreater importance to us huntersthan to the whitetail as a species.

Bigger deer and antlers add valueto deer and deer hunting experi-ences. On the other hand, as regula-tions become more complicate, theybecome more difficult to abide by.This can take some of the fun out ofhunting and reduce this value.

So, science needs to help us answerthe questions concerning how fastcan genetic and phenotypic changesoccur. Will antlers get smaller in justa few years, decades or millennia?We as hunters and wildlife managersneed to answer the questions con-cerning what enhances and sustainsthe value that deer and deer huntinghave for us.

Science to date has provided noevidence pointing to any eminent

No whitetail population can beexpected to include a large percent-age of big, older aged bucks if mostof its’ young bucks are killed as soonas they develop antlers. There is no“rocket science” involved here.” Ifyou eat most of your bean sprouts,you are not likely to get a lot ofbeans from your garden.

There is simply little room forargument; bucks like beans needtime to age and grow if you expectto get more out of them. Deer herdsthat have benefited from the use ofantler restrictions have had relativelyhigh numbers of yearling bucks intheir harvests before implementationof a restriction, typically 60% ormore being yearlings. The mostbasic fork-horn restriction “saves”and passes on to the next age class alittle more than half of the yearlingsthat would have been harvested.Hunters in Vermont have definitelynoticed a marked improvement inthe average weight and antler size ofbuck’s harvested following imple-mentation of an antler restriction. Itreally was not necessary to look at

the harvest data. It was obvious tomost people that visited deer check

stations.On the other hand, again, it does

not take “rocket science” to figure

Joe Blodgett of Corinth, Vermont with a trophy buck he took on the first day of the 2012VT muzzleloader season.

By Wayne A. LarocheBy Wayne A. Laroche

Fish & Wildlife ManagementFish & Wildlife Management

Antler Restrictions: Will Smaller Antlers be the Result

Continued next page


from previous page

events come 2013. Dues will beused to build our target inventoryto start with but after that whoknows.

I hope you will join us as a mem-

ber or as a participant at one ofour shoots. If you are new to thesport or just want to try it come onout and give it a whirl. Most of ushave plenty of extra gear for you totest drive before you commit realmoney to it.

If you are an experienced com-pound shooter/bowhunter and thesport is losing the “it” factor foryou, put down those trainingwheels and pick up a real bow. The“it” you lost is in a longbow orrecurve I guarantee it.

Just kidding about the trainingwheel thing. I use that one on mycompound bow shooting friends allthe time. Bowhunting no matterwhat equipment you use, is theultimate challenge.

If you are like me, you havemany outdoor activities that youenjoy. Of those, are one or twothat you absolutely can’t go muchtime with out doing, you are pas-sionate about to the level of, whatmy wife calls, obsessed. (She tendsto over react I think…LOL)

I love to bowhunt with tradition-al archery gear and practicing withthat gear with folks cut from thesame cloth, gets me excited as well.There are a lot of great clubsaround to bring together sports-men and women of the same likesand passions.

So a few of my buddies and Ihave decided to start another. Aclub that will bring traditionalbowhunters /archers together forgood times good hunts and spreadthe “word”, show people the pathto bowhunting nirvana,show…calm down Fred.

MontShire Traditional Bowhunters, a group of bowhuntersfrom both sides of the river thatshare a passion for traditionalarchery and bowhunting.

There are already clubs in bothVermont and New Hampshire. InNew Hampshire there is the WhiteMountain Traditional Bowhunters.This group of folks is primarilyfrom the Manchester area.

They even have a lot of theirevents in Massachusetts. I havebeen to few of their events and wasa member at one time. They are agreat group ofbowhunters/archers and a lot offun to be around. For most of usnorth country folk, it is just too farto head down there on a regularbasis to attend their events.

In Vermont there is the GreenMountain Traditional Bowhunters.I have been a member of this clubsince Greg Magnant of Essex Jct.

called me more than 15 years agoto start the club. I have cataloguedmany great memories with mem-bers of this club and I am sure Iwill have many more. The onlyissue with that club is a majority ofthe members and it’s events, are inthe Burlington, Vermont area andagain it is just too far to make reg-ular appearances.

The birth of MontShireTraditional Bowhunters is here.What will this group provide for it’smembers? That remains to be seenin the long run. In the short term,MSTB will come together as agroup and begin planning a tradi-tional shoot or two for 2013. Oneof our biggest goals is to provideevents in all corners of the twinstate area, so that we all share inthe travel commitment equally. Weare committed to producing 2-3

genetic calamity that is a likely out-come of antler restrictions. If it had,you would almost certainly haveheard about it. It would be big news.This means there very likely is timefor study and observation on whichto base future management deci-sions.

Wildlife managers should not thinkof throwing away or rejecting theobvious benefits realized by improv-ing buck population age structure forthe sake of preventing possible nega-tive genetic affects, which at thispoint in time are mostly speculation.On the other hand, biologists shouldbe gathering the data necessary tomonitor changes in deer populationsand running the scientific experi-ments, which will be necessary to

make informed management deci-sions in the future.

We in the public sector shouldindeed question and encourage ourbiologists. It is good for them andfor us.

Montshire Traditional Bowhunters founding members , Ken Monte (the shooter) and EdEarle (in the dark tank top) have teamed up to form MSTB. The club of tradtionalbowhunters and archers hope to host events all over the twin state area.

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].

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

Stick and StringStick and StringBy Fred AllardBy Fred Allard


the breech plug and nipple, usingextreme care to remove all old pow-der residue, the nipple I use a pin toclear the small ports that the primerflame exits to ignite the powdercharge, making sure it is clean andclear when held up to a light!

This next step is the most impor-tant step of all, in making sure your

gun will fire correctly when you needit too! Using a hair blow dryer drythe entire gun, inside and out untilthe barrel is noticeably hot to thetouch, also do the same to thebreech plug and nipple and anyother parts that became wet in thisprocess. After getting everythinggood and dry, parts will be hot fromyour hair dryer, allow them all tocool to room temperature and thenre-assemble. Make sure to use nip-ple anti-seize grease also called“Gorilla” grease lightly on the“threads only” of the breech plug,nipple and threads on your springtension bolt if on your gun. “Do

not” allow any of this grease to enterthe nipple ports or the breach plugarea the powder rests in, this onesure way to get yourself a misfireand loose that buck of a lifetime.The purpose of this grease is toallow easy removal when cleaningyour gun. Not using this will causebreach plugs and nipples to corrodeinto the threads and this can destroyyour firearm or make removalalmost impossible.

After the gun is fully reassembledlet you gun air dry over night beforeloading it! This is how to make sureyour gun fires when you need it too!I use 90-100 grains of powder anddo not use pellets, I use quick load-ers, plastic container (find themwhere black powder supplies aresold) that holds a lead and a premeasured powder charge, forreloading after gun has been fired.These are handy when you need aquick second shot. Check you man-ual of your model gun for bulletsizes and powder suggested for yourgun before loading your muzzle-loader! Keep your powder dry is anold saying, but remains the sametoday for black powder shooters!

Always stay safe call the factory ifyou have any questions about clean-ing, loading or using a muzzleloader.Happy hunting and shooting!

Keep your powder dry…I am sure many sportsmen have

different ways of cleaning their muz-zleloaders and if it works for you?Super! I have developed a methodto clean my inline black powder riflethat can be used for most any muz-zleloader made today! So if you arenew to muzzle loading or want afoolproof method for cleaning yourmuzzleloader? Keep on reading!

I always make sure I have a bottleof bore cleaner, bore butter, cleaningpads, and nipple anti-seize greasehandy. You can buy a kit at Walmartor about any sporting goods shopnear you these are not expensive,under $20. You will also want an oldtowel to lay your gun on while disas-sembling the breech assembly. Getout your wife’s hair dryer when sheisn’t looking. Also having a roll ofpaper towels handy or rags is a plus.

I start by removing the breechassembly, then remove the nippleand breech plug, making sure I laythese parts out in such a way Iremember their return into my gunassembly when done cleaning. Eachgun is a little different; I have a T/CBlack Diamond that I have convert-ed over to 209 primers from its orig-inal No. 11 cap firing system. The209 gives you a much hotter ignitionand has a lot less misfires then othercaps do.

After you remove the breechassembly, you should now be able tolook right out through your barrel,when held up to the light! If not, youforgot to fire off the round in thechamber before beginning to cleanyour gun! It’s ok… But you will needa bullet extractor accessory, whichhas a screw type tip that you attachto your ramrod and insert it downthe muzzle until it reaches the leadlodged in your barrel. Screw theextractor into the bullet lead firmly

and pull it out using your ramrod.Then clear the old powder and dis-pose of it in a wet paper towel. Ofcourse if you have one of the breakdown barrels muzzleloaders you stillhave to remove the nipple, breechplug and clean it as well.

With you barrel cleared you cannow begin the cleaning process. I usea funnel and a container of warmsoapy water, I flush the inside of mybarrel thoroughly and then usingpads soaked in bore cleaner attachedto my ramrod, I push several patch-es through the barrels length untilthey come out almost clean. I onlyrun the wire brush attachment downmy riflings about every 5-6 clean-ings, it will make your barrel stayaccurate longer by not over brushingthe riflings too frequently.

With the barrel now clean but stilldamp, I set it aside and using borecleaner and hot soapy water I clean

Muzzleloader Care and Cleaning

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


major factor in one’s success at theseevents. It was a big deal to see anangler with a flasher unit at the firstevent three years ago, now it’s theexact opposite. Flasher units,underwater cameras, electric auger,portable fish houses, and micro plas-tics have all become a part of thetournament scene here in Vermont,giving those with an open mind abetter chance at bringing home aplaque.

Weigh-in takes place in the after-noon and all anglers participating inthe event need to be present toweigh-in. One thing is for sure, everyone of these tournaments that I havefished, have been a complete toss up.I recall one day when the winning

bag consisted of only one crappie.That fish wasn’t a monster but it wasone of a very few that had beencaught that day. At another event,just about every angler weighed intheir six fish. Bags of up to 4.5pounds have been seen at theseevents.

You can find more information onthe VT Sportsman Hard WaterTournament Series at:www.vtsportsman.com, Forum -http://vtsportsman.proboards.comor Facebook.

Tournament Fishing Vermont,Small State, Big Competition

To many, winter is not an enjoy-able time of year. Between the windand cold why would you ever leavethe comfort of home before sunriseto go trudge through snow and slushjust for some fish? Well, for a selectgroup of us, a little camaraderie,bragging rights, and the thought ofpulling fish through the ice is morethan enough motivation to leave thecomfort of our warm homes.

Some would argue that Vermont isbehind the times when compared tothe rest of the states along the icebelt but we think that is not necessar-ily true anymore. When you attendan ice fishing tournament, such asthe ones put on by the VermontSportsman Hardwater TournamentSeries, you will find the same pas-sion, intensity, and gadgets being uti-lized to search out a winning limit ofpanfish. The Vermont Sportsman’smission is to help advance the sportof fishing and outdoor recreation inthe North East by providing the

highest level in education, competi-tion and product promotion.

The tournaments we are talkingabout are all located on , what isconsidered to be the sixth great lake;Lake Champlain. With close to 500square miles of fishable water theoptions are nearly endless. Thesetournaments target panfish, morespecifically bluegill, pumpkinseed,and both black and white crappie.Depending on the location, differentspecies will comprise the winningbasket.

This coming year, two tourna-ments will be held at Dillenbeck Bayon the Northern end of the lakewhile the other two will be on thesouthern part of the lake at LaphamBay and Larabee’s Point. NorthernLake Champlain boasts plentifulpopulations of large pumpkinseedand black crappie while theSouthern end a winning bag will be

composed mostly of bluegill andboth species of crappie.

The majority of people who fishthese tournaments are locals, howev-er the series has gained a lot of inter-est in recent years and has seen anumber of competitors travelingfrom New York and Pennsylvania.Each event is a one-day competition.Take off is usually at 6:00 am andanglers have until 3:00 pm to getback for weigh-in. Like all tourna-ments, there are designated bound-aries, which are determined andmarked at the start of the event.Anglers are allowed to weigh-in sixfish of which only three can be crap-

pie.Anglers spend most of the day

fishing within sight of everyone, thismakes keeping a good area to your-self all the more difficult. Mostanglers choose to spend the day inthe shanties moving from time totime in effort to stay on a decent bite.Some that prefer to stay a little moremobile in their efforts to search outthat small spot that seems to be hold-ing a good number of fish. Both tac-tics have their advantages and disad-vantages. Although this is a singleperson event, many fishermen worktogether in hopes of locating andstaying on a school of crappie or theever so present pie plate pumpkin-seed that inhabit the shallow weedbeds of Northern Lake Champlain.

There is a wide array of tech-niques used on tournament day, butone thing is for sure, the modernway of catching fish is becoming a

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

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.


read about the cartridge since it wasintroduced by Remington in the80’s. In fact at the time, some of thebigger gun writers hailed it as thenew must have deer round. On theadvice of a respected friend thatknew Alex was comfortable with a20 gauge pump, we chose the 7mm-

08. We added a couple of boxes oftheir managed recoil ammo and wewere golden. Or, so I thought any-way. I got the rifle home, mountedthe scope and got it bore sighted.The next afternoon was “D” day.This little rifle handled so sweet, Ijust had to have one of my own! Ilooked high and low at the local gunshops but nobody had a secondmodel 7. I ended up with a model700 sps youth 7mm-08.

To say that I’m sorry for the choiceof a 7mm-08, would be a hugeunderstatement. I absolutely loveeverything about the rifle itself andthe cartridge is impressive to say theleast. Being interested in hand load-ing, it didn’t take me long to playwith the 7mm-08. I created a loadusing a 162 grain bullet beingpushed by IMR 3031 powder. Wehave taken three deer to date withthe hand loads. They all droppedwhere they stood. I’m no expert byany means but when I hand load, Itake my time and each round is care-fully loaded to duplicate the veryfirst. When we target shoot, it isn’tuncommon to shoot dime sizegroups at 100 yards off a bench rest.

Well, now I have another challengeto overcome. The wife has alwaysenjoyed shooting sports. When thethree older kids were younger, week-ends found the clan in search of 3Darchery shoots. It was fun, we all gotexercise and the misses collected afair bunch of trophies in the process.Then came Alex II! Not that thathas been a bad thing but it crampedour style a bit. Now that he has got-ten older and found a passion for theoutdoors, she has opted to join us inthe deer woods, at least for now.

Here comes the challenge, we onlyhave 2, 7mm-08’s!

I have been taking on-line classes,studying to become a gunsmith.Part of my studies call for me to do aproject gun. My project is to take amilitary rifle and sportier it. I needto replace the stock, mount a scope,change out the trigger assembly ect.When the wife started to look overmy shoulder, she fostered an interestin my project gun. That was untilshe started to hunt with Alex II andlugging around my model 700. Thelight weight and shortness of theyouth rifle has given her secondthoughts. I recently did someresearch for part of my classes andstumbled onto Marlin’s website. I’mnot entirely sure, but maybe Ibought the first 2 rifles in haste. Notthat I regret my choice, because Idon’t! Marlin has turned out a sweetlittle youth rifle in the model X7available in the Remington 7mm-08.This little gem is supplied with anadjustable trigger, 22 inch barrel anda recoil pad on a composite stock.Now I understand that this isn’t yourGranddaddy’s wood stock hand medown bolt action rifle, it doesn’tclaim to be. It does claim to be agreat out of the box shooter and hastaken the hunting world by shockand awe! With an MSRP of 390bucks, it certainly is more thanaffordable for even a kid with apaper route! In shopping around, Ihave seen them for under 350.00!With an in the box weaver stylescope base included, it’s a can’t missdeal for someone in the market for agreat Christmas gift! I hope the wifedoesn’t read this! So, it isn’t a woodstock but for the price, you van easi-ly go on line to Boyd’s or Hoague’sstocks and buy one! As your youthout grows the rifle, a stock can beeasily replaced if need be! My per-sonal choice is the short youth modeland composite stock. But, that’s me!The X7 is available in 25-06,30-06,and .270 long action calibers. Inshort action, the choices are 7mm-08,.243.and .308. For those wishinga more weather resistant rifle, thereis a model X7S. S being stainlesssteel. Available in the same calibers,the MSRP is a tad over 500.00. Agreat deal for a quality out of thebox shooter very capable of sub ?inch groups.

Well, the numbers aren’t in butfrom all reports, this ha been a ban-ner year for New Hampshire deerhunters. Both the size of deer andharvest numbers appear to on therise. Unconfirmed reports have sev-eral bucks in the 160 to 170 inchrange have been taken. The real

We had sat for about 2 hours andhe was more than ready. If I couldonly get him to be reasonably still foranother ? hour! I reached into myday pack and pulled out my antique25 year old game boy! It was thesame game boy that kept his oldersister amused for hours while waitingfor a flag ice fishing many years ago.It too kept her quiet on a deer standor two in her younger days. Now, itwas a God send for Alex II. I don’tthink he had the hand held gamepowered up for 5 minutes and therehe was. I reached over and took thegame boy and pointed to the right.The spike kept coming. I whisperedthat he was a small deer and it wasup to Alex to shoot or not. He mut-tered something about me beingcrazy or something along those lines.He followed the bucks progress. At30 yards he stopped, Alex slipped offthe safety and at the report of therifle the deer dropped where hestood. A monster buck? Definitelynot, but in the eyes of a 12 year olda true trophy by any measure. Somemight disagree but that’s what makes

the world go round. Kids at this ageare still a work in progress. Theyneed the rewards that come from thelessons that we have taught them.

Several years back, after seeingdeer at 90 plus yards, I traded in a

Ruger that sat in a case for a shooterfor Alex. I settled on a RemingtonModel 7 youth in a 7mm-08. Now Ihad never fired a 7mm-08 but had

Best Wishes and Happy Holidays

Southern Side UpBy Alex Cote

Southern Side UpBy Alex Cote

Continued next page

A Young Alex Cote and his deer.


from previous page

if people demand more deerthen RECRUITMENT canwithstand. The term “treerecruitment” is often left out ofour conversations, what ashame! Sure the deer are doingok because the old canopy isstill doing it’s job, but what hap-pens to things when they dieoff ? Deer Numbers will drop orcrash in some areas, putting fur-ther stress on good yards, speed-ing their demise.

According to the U.S. ForestService in 1997, Vermont con-tains 177 million cords of wood.An average of 26 cords peracre. Since 1966, the averagediameter of these trees hasincreased from 8.3 to 9.16 inch-es (diameter breast height), andthe average number of trees peracre has increased from 170 to187 (trees 5”or larger in diame-ter). Increased tree diametermeans less wildlife period.Since 1948, the net growth oftrees has exceeded removals. Infact, about twice as much woodhas been grown as was cut orotherwise removed! Currentlywe cut less then a 1/4 of 1 per-cent!

Don’t worry, when the price isright our forest will come down.The down side too much ofwhat people do is money driven,or benefits themselves andthoughts of our future are for-gotten completely. We shouldpride ourselves on good forestryand thoughts of the future. Weshould be telling our state gov-ernment that we want goodforestry practiced on our stateand federal lands, the ones weall can use.

We want the forestry and thewildlife divisions of governmentto at least share information,and remove this riff between

them! We must demand aforestry minded educationalprogram from state agenciesand the media. As outdoor peo-ple with a deep connection toour land, the trees spell thefuture of how we treat ourworld. They aren’t just trees!

The funds needed to protectour natural resources comefrom a small percentage of thepopulation participating inthose activities. Imagine theeffect it could have if those peo-ple stopped or slowed? Orimagine the other way, everyonetries to hunt and fish and wenow must limit everything.

The “green” movement mayjust save the day, who knows! Asmany middle- aged people aremoving towards a self-reliantlife style, the youth of ournation seem more dependentthen ever. It’s time to reconnect,slow down, calm down, build afire and talk of what life shouldreally contain.

The fish and wildlife dept.must look to the future for fund-ing, to continue to educate thepublic about forestry, wildlifeand the need for nature we can’tsurvive without. Combat inva-sive’s, monitor man’s consump-tive and economic demands andoffer guidance and solutions tothose who will listen and workagainst those who don’t. Runthat chainsaw with care andimagine the future as you do.Love diversity and wildness.

How many maple buds does ittake to make a pound of veni-son? Check out the Vt. Divisionof forestry web. site!

With high fuel prices, ourforests can come to the rescueand we can help out the wildlifetoo. As I drive my tractor slowlythrough my woods, chainsclanging, looking for my next“weed tree”, I often get discour-aged by the amount of workthat needs doing, just like a biggarden.

The young balsam fir trees inthe old winter bedding areaneed hardwood relieving. Thoseyoung birches and poplar seemto outgrow everything aroundthem. It only seems to take acouple of thinnings around soft-woods to give them an advan-tage at the light necessary andnot get choked out.

A lot of work, and probablywill not get done in 99.9 % ofour state’s forests, where soft-wood areas have been removedor thinned. A major forestrymistake, in my opinion, is toremove or thin a softwood standand not encourage it to growback. THIS SHOULD BE AMAJOR ISSUE WITHHUNTERS! Deer winteringarea’s canopy trees are in gener-al, middle to old age.

The large numbers of deer &moose demanded by hunters tobe on the land has age classes oftrees missing in many tradition-al yarding areas. Next time youwalk through your local winter-ing area, look for yourself.Count the numbers of big hem-

locks, say 15” and up, themediums- 7” to 15” and smalls6” & down.

Odds are good you have amodest number of good size

canopy trees, 15”+ with nolower limbs a deer can reach.Replacement canopy trees ofmodest size may exist, but areusually half the number or a lotless. Finally, new recruits areusually none existent or close.New wintering areas are neededto begin growing NOW!

Replacing aged canopies mayprove difficult if not impossible

shocker, in the Southern third of thestate. Not that it is that much of ashock to those of us that live here butit certainly takes away of the bigwoods lore of Northern NewHampshire.

Not to be out done by myyoungest, I made good on myfirearms deer tag with my frontloader. I took a fat 130 pound spikeout of the same ladder stand Alex IIhit pay dirt out of. So now I havebeen out as much as possible withmy bow trying to make amends for alast minute blown shot last year. I’dlike to think with several weeks leftthere is still hope for me. Looks like

we will be down to the wire onceagain.

I have been laying scent trails andhave created a line of mock scrapes.The pictures tell me that I am on tosomething! Time will tell all. So,from the Cote house to you andyours, Best Wishes and HappyHolidays.

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

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

Skidders, Backhoes, Dozers, Loaders & Excavators. Skidsteers, Feller-Bunchers, Forklifts, Chippers, Screeners and Forwarders.

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By Rodney ElmerBy Rodney Elmer

Taxidermy TrailsTaxidermy Trails

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

Forestry and Wildlife


By Captian John CurryBy Captain John Curry

The Coastal ZoneThe Coastal Zone

my woods legs” as appose to their“sea legs”. It takes me a solid day toget the feel for downed logs, bogholes and steep ridge slopes. A verydifferent motion than I am used towith the constant rocking or balanc-ing on the boat. The past few sea-

sons have been absent of any signifi-cant snow fall in my area of theAdirondacks that I hunt, so I havefound that my eyes also need toadjust to this new chaotic environ-ment of trees, branches, leaves, cat-tails and ever-present shadows. I

always find it magical how such alarge animal can simply stand still intheir natural environment and notbe seen until they move and that telltale white flag goes up. I haven’teven mentioned the best part of deerhunting yet and that of course is ourdeer camp. A true tar-paper shackbuilt in the 1800’s as a homesteadand void of all modern amenities.No running water, electricity orbathroom. Reachable only by ATVthis place is heaven and its surround-ed by woods for many square miles.After a day or so of seeing tails I startto settle in and the real hunt begins.Mostly I hunt the week ofThanksgiving so the main rut activi-ty has ended so it’s stand huntingearly then I like to take it all in andstill hunt the rest of the day. Thisseason I was joined by my long time

hunting partner Bob Gallinger andhis 9 yr old son Brian. Bob lives inActon, MA and his family hasowned the camp since 1944. Markand Connor Hobin of St. Albans,VT have a camp not far from oursand we have enjoyed hunting withtheir family for many years. Well thedeer activity was better this season asthe mild winter has seemed to helpour numbers just like in other partsof New England. Bob shot a nice 6point earlier in the season so he wasmainly teaching Brian more aboutthe woods and understanding deeractivity. This worked very well forthose of us with unfilled tags in ourpockets as we had two willing stillhunters to help move some deeraround. Having arrived theSaturday before Thanksgiving I hadseen probably 5-7 deer each day byMonday afternoon. With no decentshots on bucks yet I was feeling pret-ty confident that we would connecton a deer as the week progressed.Connor missed a fat spike horn ( yesthey are legal in NY)on Sunday so hewas looking for a little redemptionand for a 17yr old I must say he is apretty darn good deer hunter havingalready taken a big 8 point two sea-

sons ago still hunting on his own.On Tuesday afternoon Bob and Idecided to “push” a ridge that wehaven’t hunted yet this season. Theridge runs east and west and is bor-dered by a large pond on one sideand a swampy creek on the othercreating a natural funnel for deer tomove away from the still hunters.Mark Hobin had to go back to workso Bob decided that Connor and Ishould stand on either side of theridge and he and Brian would walkthrough the top section with thewind at his back. I found a perfectstump with a clear lane down eachside that a skidder left 3 years agoduring the last cutting. I settled inand began to soak in the fall sun-shine as it was a perfect 42 degreeswith a light westerly breeze. I didn’t

While the sea will always be callingmy name and I can’t go a day with-out checking the tide and weatherforecast, there is one time of the yearwhen I get a little distracted. Youguessed it, deer season in the NorthCountry. While I’m no Bo Jacksonthese days , like many of you I am atwo sport athlete, Fishing &Hunting! Notice the fishing comesfirst. My career as a professionalguide on Cape Cod consumes muchof my time from January toNovember. January through Aprilsees me attending and exhibiting atthe regional sporting trade showsand preparing my gear and boat forthe upcoming season. From midApril to early November its game onwith chasing fish all over NewEngland. Around the end ofNovember the boat is winterized andthe gear is cleaned and stored for along winters nap. While I hope thisnever gets old I do look forward tomy time in the woods. Imagine howgood it feels to sit on a downed logbasking in the autumn sun withsmells of maple leaves, balsam andferns when for 10 months out of the

year the sea, salt flats and ocean misthave been the majority of what’sgone up my olfactory organ. It mayseem a little strange, but this awak-ens my senses and as someone who

can read the water by smelling theair for signs of bait and game fish Ijust love the drastic change theNovember woods brings to my wellbeing. As with most of my clientswho have stepped on my boat eachyear I find myself needing to “get

Our deer camp in the Adirondack Mountains.

Left to right - Bob Gallinger, Connor Hobin, and Brian Gallinger

Two Sport Athlete

Continued next page

take long when a single shot rang outand I knew exactly where it camefrom. I turned on the portable andheard Connor excitedly say to Bobthat he shot at a small buck thatcame right up to his location. Bobtold him to hang tight as he juststarted his walk and he saw anotherdeer jump and even smelled a buck!Well I stayed right in my spot and abig doe came right up to me andstopped 20 yards away. I froze andshe froze. The wind was in my favorso I hoped for another buck to be hoton her trail. After what seemed like30 minutes, but was really like 2minutes my radio came back on withConnor asking for assistance and offshe ran with another deer behindher much bigger that I never saw thehead on. That’s what I get for leav-ing it on I guess. Connors deerended up being a 125 lb 5 point that

should have been an 8 point, but ahorn broke off when it collided witha tree on its last leap. I never sawanother buck that week, but had amagical time refreshing my sensesthat had become locked into theland and sea surrounding my homehere on the Cape. As I write this it’salmost opening day of theMassachusetts shotgun deer seasonand I am a little itchy to go, but Ihave much to prepare for before thefirst spring run of Stripers.


Québec, CA – The Ministèredes Ressources naturelles et de laFaune (MRNF) recommends thatfishers exercise care when con-suming wild Atlantic salmon. Thepresence of the parasitic wormAnisakis simplex, found in over200 species of fish including cod,mackerel and herring, appears tobe on the increase in the salmonpopulation worldwide.??Eatinginsufficiently-cooked wild salmoninfected by the parasite may posea threat to human health, causingdigestive problems and allergies.To avoid contamination, it isimportant to apply all the follow-ing rules:?

•avoid eating heavily infestedfish;

•remove all visible larvae whenpreparing the fish and beforecooking it;

•cook the fish sufficiently beforeeating it (the internal temperatureof the fish must reach at least63°C for 15 seconds).

The consumption of raw salmon

is not recommended unless it hasbeen frozen for at least seven daysat 20°C, a temperature that is notusually reached in a domesticfreezer. Smoking the fish is onlyeffective if the internal tempera-ture of the fish reaches at least63°C for 15 seconds.

The parasitic larvae are foundmainly in the entrails of the hostfish, but can also be found in theflesh. In salmon, the presence of alarge number of parasites leads toan inflammation around the fish’sanal opening called the Red VentSyndrome. In light of current sci-entific knowledge, there is no indi-cation that the inflammation has anegative impact on the salmon’ssurvival rate or reproductive suc-cess.

To gather more information onthis syndrome, the MRNF, work-ing with salmon river managersand the Centre québécois sur lasanté des animaux sauvages, willcontinue to observe the situationin some salmon rivers in Québec.

Québec, CA – The Ministère desRessources naturelles et de la Faune(MRNF) has published the survey’sresults of the George River migrato-ry caribou herd population. The sur-vey was carried out in July 2012, inpartnership with the Newfoundlandand Labrador Government’sDepartment of Environment andConservation, the Institute forEnvironmental Monitoring andResearch and the Torngat Wildlife,Plants and Fisheries Secretariat.

The total herd population is cur-rently estimated at approximately27,600 animals. Biologists from bothprovinces consider the survey’sdescriptive accuracy to be superiorto normal standards, at around 10%.

Other herd health indicators, such

as adult survival rate and calfrecruitment rate, are also beingmonitored by the biologists, whobelieve the herd’s population couldfall to less than 25,000 animals byOctober 2012.

In October 2010, the herd’s totalpopulation was estimated at roughly74,000 animals, and the recent sur-vey confirms an ongoing decline ofthe George River migratory caribouherd population over the past fewyears.

Given these results, the MRNF willconsult the Hunting, Fishing andTrapping Coordinating Committeeand the other partners concerned toprepare a caribou management planidentifying management measuresaimed at restoring the herd.

Augusta, Maine - With bodiesof water beginning to ice over, theMaine Department of InlandFisheries and Wildlife and theMaine Warden Service would liketo remind ice anglers and otherswho enjoy outdoor winter activitiesof the importance of safety whenaround ice.

“We can’t stress enough theimportance of checking ice condi-tions right now,” said Capt. ChrisCloutier of the Warden Service.“Never guess at the thickness ofthe ice - check it for yourself.”

Test the thickness of the ice usingan ice chisel or ice auger and checkwith local bait shops for knownthin ice areas. Remember that newice is usually stronger than old iceand ice seldom freezes uniformly.Ice that forms over flowing waterand currents, especially nearstreams, bridges and culverts, canbe particularly dangerous.

Refrain from driving on icewhenever possible. If you must doso, make sure to keep the windowsdown, unbuckle your seat belt anddiscuss emergency plans with anypassengers in case you need to exitthe vehicle quickly.

Wearing a life vest under your

gear and having a pair of accessi-ble ice picks can be life-saving deci-sions if you do fall through the ice.Remember that your helmet andsnowmobile suit, even if it’s non-buoyant, may keep you afloat forseveral minutes. Kicking your feetlike a seal can help propel you ontothe ice.

If you witness someone fall intothe ice, call 911. Instead of puttingyourself in danger by trying toreach the victim, assist them fromthe shore by reassuring them helpis on the way and extend objectslike a rope, ladder or jumper cablesto them if it’s safe to do so.

While many factors other thanthickness can cause ice to beunsafe, the Warden Service sug-gests staying off ice that is less thanfour inches thick. Ice that is at leastfour inches thick may allow for icefishing or other foot activities while5-inch thick ice often allows forsnowmobile or ATV travel. Eightto 12 inches should support mostcars and small pick-up trucks, butat least 12-inch ice is recommend-ed to support a medium sizedtruck.

For more information, visitwww.mainegamewarden.com.

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

from previous page

Reminder - Take SafetyPrecautions When Around Ice

George River Caribou HerdMRNF publishes the survey’s results

Wild Atlantic Salmonto be consumed with care


Trail Camera Photo Contest

22001122 TTrraaiill CCaammeerraa PPhhoottoo CCoonntteesstt

22001122 TTrraaiill CCaammeerraa PPhhoottoo CCoonntteesstt

SSppoonnssoorreedd bbyy CChhaaddwwiicckkssTTrraaiillccaammss..ccoommSSppoonnssoorreedd bbyy CChhaaddwwiicckkssTTrraaiillccaammss..ccoomm

22001111 TTrraaiill CCaammeerraa PPhhoottoo CCoonntteesstt WWiinnnneerrss ;;

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

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

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

one chance to win one of three Trail Cameras.

AArree yyoouu wwoorrrriieedd 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 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 is Dan Green from Lyme, NHRandom Winners - Thomas Flynn from Holderness, NH

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

2012 contest finalists - Vote for your favorite on our Facebook page2012 contest finalists - Vote for your favorite on our Facebook pageSponsored by Chadwick’s Trail-Cams


Trail Camera Photo Contest 2012 contest finalists - Vote for your favorite on our Facebook page2012 contest finalists - Vote for your favorite on our Facebook page

Sponsored by Chadwick’s Trail-Cams


it will thrill, such as when theFord family successfully rearsbarred owl hatchlings andreturns them to the wild. Otherstories are much darker.

Facing down armed poachers,tracking escaped murderers, orsmashing drug smuggling opera-tions takes a tough character.And the reader learns that lifefor a game warden and his fami-ly isn’t all sunny days in thewoods.

Ford writes in a straight for-ward unadorned style that iseasy to read, whether taken inone sitting or in 35 easy pieces.The conclusion of each story hasthe reader eagerly turning thepage to see what comes next.

What Ford fails to do in thesestories is bang his own drum, orstar in his own narration. Hewrites of the people he encoun-ters, the land and the animalswithout embellishing his ownrole in the tale. His is a humblerecounting that allows the workitself to hold the starring role.

Suddenly, the Cider Didn’tTaste So Good is a book withMaine at its heart. However, anyVermont, New Hampshire, orupstate New York game wardencould tell similar stories. Anyhunter, angler, hiker, boater, orwildlife enthusiast in thoseplaces will find that Warden

Ford’s narrative applies equallywell in those places as it does athome in Maine. Anyone wholoves and spends time in the out-doors will enjoy this book,though some may wish for somemore of Ford’s thoughts andfeelings about his work. Clearlyhe loved the characters heencountered in the course ofprotecting Waldo County and itswildlife.

In the years since he retiredfrom the Warden Service, Fordcontinued to fight crime by twicegetting himself elected Sheriffof Waldo County. He is also anaccomplished wildlife artist andwrites outdoor oriented columnsfor multiple publications. Thismay be his first book, but itshould not be his last. He’s inpossession of a real talent forstory-telling and no doubt he hasa wealth of more good storiesjust waiting to get out.

But, in order to find out whythe cider suddenly didn’t taste sogood, you’ll have to read thebook. The answer to that ques-tion will not be revealed here.

Suddenly, the Cider Didn’tTaste So GoodBy John FordIslandport Press 2012218 pages, $16.95ISBN: 978-1-934031-94-0

There is no more quintessen-tial outdoorsman than a State ofMaine Game Warden. Theyseem to meet life head on, pur-suing law breakers, rescuing lostpersons, patrolling wild country,nursing sick or injured animals,and educating the public insound conservation practices aswell as wilderness safety.

All this and more is confirmedin the 35 varied stories told inthe pages of retired MaineWarden John Ford’s new book ofreminiscences. Suddenly, theCider Didn’t Taste So Goodstems from a 20-year career as awarden in Waldo County,Maine. Fortunately, Ford heededhis game warden stepfather’sadvice to write notes and keepthem so he could later recall thedetails of his adventures. Theresult is a sometimes funny,sometimes deadly serious

account of two decades alongMaine’s game trails.

With a forward by retiredChief Warden John Marsh,Suddenly, the Cider Didn’t TasteSo Good reads like stories toldaround a campfire or over pieand coffee at the local diner.Much of it will make you smileor even laugh outright; some of

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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”.

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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Pictures Gone WildPictures Gone WildOur reader submitted photosOur reader submitted photos

Not seeing many deer in Vermont, but at least we are seeing something!

Jayson Lucarelli. He is originally from Brownsville, VT, but he lives in The Forks,Maine now. 263 lbs. 9 points.

Alex Cote of Raymond, New Hampshire. 8 points 152 lbs. 34lb Striper caught on the Hudson River by 9yr old Alex Polli of Pittsford VT.photo courtesy of Third Alarm Charters.

the outdoor gazette december 2012

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