ALLEN AFIELD: Increased bag limit hurts

Outdoors

Published
January 21, 2012

ALLEN AFIELD: Increased bag limit hurts

Here's the good news. In my lifetime, trout and salmon fishing in Maine has improved -- not a lot but enough to notice.
Published
January 21, 2012

Fly Fishing Gets Cold

KENNEBUNK -- Dan Dykstra couldn't wait to wade into the cold water of the Mousam River. So he asked fellow fisherman Kevin McKay to pull over for a taste of the brown trout fishery after they drove down from Bangor earlier this month. And didn't the Old Town fisherman get into a mess of brown trout?
Published
January 21, 2012

HUNTING: Contributions of hunters come in many forms

Hunting is big business. If you doubt it, consider that fish-and-wildlife-related activities generate $2.4 billion in economic value for the people of Maine. Deer hunting alone brings in an estimated $200 million a year. That huge economic impact depends on maintaining a healthy natural resource. Managing that resource is an expensive proposition, and most of the bill is footed by sportsmen and women.
Published
January 19, 2012

KIDS TRACKS: While waiting for snow, give skating a try

Mother Nature hasn't felt like offering up much white stuff (until recently) for my family to enjoy our usual outdoor winter fun on skis and sleds. So, we're adapting. The cold spell has offered conditions to get outdoor community ice skating rinks around southern Maine up and running.
Published
January 19, 2012

DEIRDRE FLEMING: Gift inspires artist who knows Baxter State Park well

When Friends of Baxter State Park President Barbara Bentley learned two weeks ago that the privately owned parcel beside Katahdin Lake would be given to Baxter State Park, she turned to the one person she thought could truly understand the nature of this unusual place.

Published
January 19, 2012

ON SKIING: Snow guns help ski areas combat woeful winter

After a big tease in the form of snowstorms around Halloween and Thanksgiving, it's been a distressingly snowless ski season thus far. The country has less than half the average snow cover over the past five years for this time of the year, and we New Englanders in particular expect some snow on the ground before mid-January.
Published
January 14, 2012

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI — Erskine graduate canoes 72 days from St. Paul to New Orleans

A lot has changed on the river since Mark Twain wrote "Life On the Mississippi" in the early 1880s. A lot, however, has remained the same.
Published
January 14, 2012

DEIRDRE FLEMING: Maine’s deer herd is getting help from IFW

AUGUSTA -- A century from now, Mainers will look back and say the state's fish and game department did what it promised, vowed Chandler Woodcock last week.
Published
January 14, 2012

BOB HUMPHREY: L.L. Bean celebrates with old favorites

Every state has its own distinct lore and recognizable icons. Mere mention of Maine to most anyone across the country invariably elicits mention of lobsters, moose and L.L. Bean. Most Mainers -- and a good many folks from away -- are familiar with the tale of an avid outdoorsman named Leon Leonwood Bean who, a century ago, returned from a hunting trip with cold, damp feet and decided he could build a better boot.
Published
January 14, 2012

MARK LATTI: Time for ice fishing, and going after black crappie

Cold temperatures this week means that the ice has finally set on many lakes and ponds in the area, and it's time to fish. You will still want to check the thickness of the ice before heading out, as the balmy December means ice thickness is not quite what you would expect this time of year.