Shed Hunting Report

The shed hunting season is well under way for this year.  Reports are trickling in of people finding antlers.  I would say most of the bulls should have lost their antlers by now and all you have to do is go pick them up.  Sounds easy right?  Not so much...Currently the average for the "shedders" I talked to is about 100 miles of prime areas covered for every antler find.  This can be greatly increased if you can find areas that haven't already been checked by someone in the last couple weeks, but that is getting harder to find with this hobby increasing in popularity.  The recent weather we have had really dropped the snow pack and any of those buried antlers might start surfacing.  I would think right now if you can get into some ground not already looked at, the pickings would be prime.  One of the largest antlers I have heard about comes from Peter Tabor who noticed three tines sticking up through the snow and as he pulled on them the snow started moving three feet away as he unearthed the 24 pound behemoth!  

Then there are days when it really pays off and you can find 8 antlers in one day!

I would say if you are looking for antlers you had better get out there soon before a snow storm buries whatever is out there.  Good Hunting!  Stay tuned for some more fishing reports and video footage.

Ice Fishing Video

The much anticipated (probably not, but I will tell myself that) video footage from the GoPro camera!  I am also playing around with some different video editing software, so I put it into a trailer type video.  Lots more footage to come as I figure everything out!  If anybody has any thoughts or comments on how to improve either the video footage or the blog itself, let me know.

Trapline 2012

    Trapping has long been a part of the American heritage and was the original basis for most of the early exploration.  Fur was often regarded as currency in these early days and the trappers of the time were known to disappear into large watersheds for months at a time in pursuit of beaver pelts.  While most modern day trappers are not so dedicated, but rather pursue the fur bearers in more of a recreational manner, there are a few motivated individuals who still pursue the fur in the deep woods for long periods of time.
    I am in the category of recreational trappers who pursue the fur bearers of Northern Maine on a part time basis.  I got my start in trapping thanks to my uncle Bob Hersey.  As a kid we would always go visit around the holidays and I was awe struck by the piles of fur in his shed.  My fascination grew and then Bob offered for me to tag along on his trapline.  I quickly agreed, jumping at the opportunity and desperate to learn more about this fascinating hobby.  His patience was unending as I asked question after question soaking up information faster than a sponge.  I quickly learned that when trapping, every morning feels like Christmas, as you never know what might await you.  After tagging along once, I was hooked.  I proceeded to take the Trapping Safety Course, which is a requirement for all new trappers in Maine, learning additional information from the instructor Jerry.  I wanted to go back and take the course every year, as I had so much fun.  That first fall, Bob very generously offered to set a joint line with me.  I know he did so sacrificially, because had I not been hanging traps next to his, the likelihood of his catches would have been increased, but he showed me the ropes and I had a blast.  We trapped muskrats, mink, otter, fisher and beaver.  I had a very successful first season, in large part due to the fact that Bob guided me and taught me how to read animal sign.  I was familiar with looking at deer sign, but the small signs that I would have otherwise missed Bob pointed out.  He also showed me how to handle the fur after I caught it.  The painstaking process of preparing a beaver hide, the delicate cuts on a mink to miss the scent glands and skinning muskrat quickly were all lessons that were taught and committed to memory.  Check out the picture below for the fur picture from my first season.

My First Trapline

     I have trapped a little almost every year, only missing one or two years when I was in college and not able to find a place to put up my fur and store my traps.  This past year I had decided to do a little more targeting fisher and marten.  I knew that I would not have the time to devote this past year for canines or to put up any beaver catches, so I focused my efforts on what I could handle.
      Starting the first week of November, I started hanging steel at every opportunity I had, before work or on my lunch break and before I knew it, I had a respectable trapline set up.  I tried to keep about two dozen traps up for most of the season.  I was very pleased with my results, as I had a minimal amount of time to devote to trapping and all in all put up some good numbers.  I like to look back at the pictures and see the transition as the season progressed.  The season started with temps up into the 40's and rainy then got gradually colder until we finished the season with more snow than I could navigate through with my four-wheel drive pickup.  The season ended with the following total - 19 muskrats, 10 raccoon, 5 fisher, 5 marten, 2 mink, 1 beaver and one weasel.

Opening Day - Ice Fishing 2013

The first day of 2013, found me waking with the sun to do a little “hard water” exploring, often referred to as ice fishing.  Most of the lakes here in Northern Maine open to ice fishing on January 1^st and it has long been a tradition of mine to fish opening day.  This was something I always used to do with my grandfather, so I am trying to carry on the tradition and get out and set my “flags”.  Brent and I headed out to check the ice thickness and drill some holes.  As we left, the mercury was hovering in the single digits and the wind was howling.  The windchill was somewhere around 24 below zero Fahrenheit which is hand numbing to say the least.  As we eased onto the ice the presence of several ice shacks gave us a sense of security, but we still stayed close to shore as we ventured past the shacks to the unclaimed territory.  After we had given everyone a wide berth, I drilled a test hole and found about 9 inches of ice.  Six inches of it was the nice black ice that is the strongest and the top three inches were the slush ice that has a white appearance to it.  I urge caution to everyone as the venture out, as there were spots of only 1-2" of ice.  We proceeded to setup our "base camp" and start setting out flags.  We only had a couple of traps up when Brent had a flag.  Running back, we saw the line flying off the spool indicating the sure sign of a running salmon.   Brent set the hook and quickly pulled in the yards of line as we anxiously awaited a glimpse of the silver streak at the other end of the line.  It's arrival at the hole showed the undersized fish, so we quickly snipped the line to let the fish grow.  It was in the 13" range.  We continued setting flags and just before we finished Brent had another flag.  This fish had taken lots of line and the smelt, but pulled a disappearing act as it was not tugging on the other end of the line when we arrived.  We finished setting and then it was my turn for a flag.  I quickly set the hook and pulled the fish in hand over hand only slowing as the flash got nearer the hole.  This fish was larger and a quick measure put it at 16 1/2", which meant it would have been my only fish I could keep over 16".  As it was still early in the day this beauty was released to swim another day.  The rest of the day was slow as we had a few flags with some bait thieves and I iced a large yellow perch.  Brent managed to pick up another of the undersized fish which we pulled out for a quick photo op before sliding it back into the icy depths.  A quick reminder to everyone that if you are planning on releasing a fish, keep it in the water as much as possible.  The fish do not fair well when they are pulled out onto the ice.  I brought along my new GoPro camera and got some really nice footage.  Check back soon for the compiled video as well as my trap line post which is almost finished!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope this finds everyone doing well, recovering from the hectic holiday season.  I know for me, the brightly colored packages under the Christmas tree produced several outdoor related items that I can hardly wait to try out!  Mad Bomber, GoPro, Abu Garcia and Cabela’s are just naming a few of the brands I had under the tree.  This year, I am also going to try and write some more reviews about products that I am trying and using to let everyone know what I have discovered about the products you should or shouldn’t count on for your outdoor adventures.  Stay tuned, as I am writing a piece about my trap line this fall and also opening day of ice fishing, which should be up by the end of the week!

Hunting Season Recap

I apologize for my absence around here lately, but the constant demands of life have afforded me little time to keep everyone updated.  I do have a couple of long awaited stories through, so let's get right to it!

I had promised a picture of a big a bear and that bear was taken by George Haley.  George is a friend of mine who owns and runs Moose Mountain Guide Service.  He has taken his fair share of black bears and decided that he would like to trap a bear.  Now before any naysayers start, let me put your minds at ease, bears are now trapped with a cable restraint on their paw that is very humane.  Last year, George decided to try his hand at trapping a bear.  He had game cam pictures of a large bear that he wanted to target, so he set the closure on his snare to a larger than required size in an attempt to catch only the larger bear.  He had many bears come in, but none were large enough to hold in his oversized opening.  The big bear also came on several occasions, but would not be fooled by the standard set and always maneuvered around the cable.   Time constraints and prior commitments would not allow George the opportunity to snare a bear in 2011.  The 2012 season started and George had a different strategy, to attempt a blind set to snare the bear.  Again smaller bears were caught and quickly pulled out due to George's generous closure size.  After seeing one of the bears that had pulled out, George was wondering if he had been too generous, as it was a very nice bear.  Determined to get the " big one", he stuck to his guns and sure enough, he got the 522 lb. boar!  

George's mother was also drawn for a moose permit this year, and the family got together to try their hand at tagging a bull.  The first day of hunting was tough, and while many moose were spotted, their lack of head adornment in the form of antlers, took them off the playing field.  The next morning, they arrived early to a likely field and saw the dark forms of moose in the field.  As it brightened, they could see a bull in the back of the field headed into the woods.  Knowing they would have little time, Milton (George's dad and subpermittee) pulled off a 275+ yard shot to down the "swamper".  It was a nice bull weighing a little over 800 pounds field dressed and sported a 48" spread on it's antlers.  I think the Haley's freezers will be full this year!

The last hunting story I have from this years big game season is a friend of mine Lance Cunningham.  He was out deer hunting the week of Thanksgiving.  His party had hunted hard, but no one had tagged a deer.  Lance had found a pocket of deer on a ridge, with good buck sign in it.  It was Thanksgiving day, and they were only hunting until noon to pack up and make it home for a Thanksgiving supper.  Lance was still hunting his way back to pickup when he heard a noise.  Freezing, he strained his ears and heard it again.  It was the distinct sound of an animal walking through the leaves above him on the ridge.  Having seen moose in the vicinity, he assumed it was probably just another swamp donkey.  That was when the rest of the hunting party called him and told him to hurry back to the truck, because they were all waiting on him.  Lance assured them he would hurry, but could not forget that sound and had to investigate.  As he eased up the ridge on full alert, he saw a large ledge and decided that once he could see past that he would be able to tell what was making the noise.  He slowly worked around the ledge, and as he did a buck materialized in the beech whips in front of him.  Seeing it was a nice buck, Lance fought to put the crosshairs on the buck's shoulder without having beech whips in the scope.  Finally, he thought he had a clear shot and fired.  The buck bolted and Lance was unsure of his shot, so he worked the bolt again and let a shot go at the running deer.  As soon as he fired, the buck piled up.  As Lance got closer, he could see that one side of the rack was nontypical and that it was a very nice buck.  It field dressed out at 190 pounds with 12 points.  4 points on the typical side and 8 on the nontypical side.

Stay tuned, because I have some trapline pictures and stories as well as shed hunting reports and hard water fishing is knocking on the door!

Deer Season Winding Down

As I write this, the last day of muzzleloader season dawned crisp and cold.  Last night, our temperatures bottomed out below the 0 degree Fahrenheit mark for the first time this fall.  Very fitting to mark December's entry.  I haven't posted in a while and wanted to catch people up on what has been happening here in Northern Maine as deer season progressed.  The deer sightings and harvests seem to be up dramatically from what we have seen for the previous two years, but are still far from what I consider a good population level.  There were a lot of young deer shot this year which I would have expected from our mild winter, but I also talked to lots of people that passed on some of these younger deer to let them grow.  When it comes to the topic of which deer should you shoot and which ones should you pass, I feel that there is no one answer to that and the decision should be made at the individual level.  Essentially, I feel if a deer excites you when you see it, that is a deer you should shoot.  That excitement level may or may not change for people as time progresses.  For me personally, a spike horn used to evoke a lot of excitement and therefore I was very happy to shoot a spike horn, but now I am happier to let that deer walk and target an older age class.  It will be very interesting to see what transpires this winter and if we can sneak by with another mild winter.  If that is the case, I would be hopeful for next years season.  Well, I will get off my little soap box and tell you about some deer!

First off, Josh Caron was hunting a piece of ground that he had discovered a pocket of deer in a couple of years ago.  Not having a chance to get back into that area until this year, he was pleasantly surprised when he had just started to poke into the woods and doe appeared.  Josh watched her for a moment, then decided that her behavior was slightly untypical and his eyes started probing the brush behind her.  To his amazement, he could see a mature buck in the raspberry bushes.  The buck had his head down as if to hide behind the bushes, but the buck's gaze was fixed on Josh and he knew he had little time to waste.  Smoothly easing the rifle to his shoulder, he settled the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger.  The deer bucked, giving clear evidence of the shot finding it's mark and ran up the hill only to collapse after going about 30 yards.  Josh was elated, as he approached the buck and could see the thickness in the deer's body.  After dragging the deer to the road, Josh had quite a task ahead of him as his tailgate wouldn't open.  Josh has loaded a few deer in his hunting career, but this one was just not possible to get over the broken tailgate.  After many attempts and a finally a strap cut from his cooler, he was able to get it loaded.  His battle eluded to the fact that this was a large bodied deer.  Just how big? ... 247lbs. field dressed!  This was the heaviest deer tagged in our area and was truly impressive.

One buck wasn't enough for the Caron family though and later that week Josh's brother and his brother's wife were both able to tag nice bucks on the same day.  That is the way hunting should be, with 3 family members getting deer over 200 pounds!  Unfortunately, this probably won't happen again for quite a while, but it is a nice picture!  Way to go Caron family!

Matt Collin also filled his tag and his freezer with a 202 pound 8 pointer.  He glimpsed this buck running through the woods as he was driving by.  He managed to stop and get a running shot on the buck, anchoring it with a solid shoulder hit.  He didn't make it too far, before he was able to catch up and deliver the final shot.  Congratulations Matt!

Bud Soucy pulled off some long range freehand shooting for his buck.  Spotting the buck about 250 yards up a skid trail in a block that had been harvested, he couldn't tell how large the antlers were, but could tell it wasn't a spike horn and made the split second decision before the buck bolted.  His shot was true despite the distance, and the buck dropped in his tracks.  Nice shooting Bud!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more upcoming stories!  I haven't forgotten about some of the stories I promised and I will get to them, and I'll be writing some trapline stories soon too!