UPPER ANDRO ANGLERS ALLIANCE AND TELSTAR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO CLEAN UP ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER

As part of National River Cleanup, members of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance and students from the Telstar Challenge Course at Telstar High School in Bethel, Maine will clean up a section of the Androscoggin River from Newt’s Landing in West Bethel to Davis Park in Bethel on Thursday, May 19. Students, ages 16-18, will float down the river in rafts armed with garbage bags and towing garbage scow rafts to collect debris along the riverbanks. The clean-up flotilla will launch at 9 am from Newt’s Landing and take out at Davis Park. Community members are welcome to help clean-up this and other stretches of the river. The town of Bethel will provide trash collection at Davis Park and deliver to the town’s solid waste facility.

Northern Waters Outfitters of Errol, NH will provide rafts and garbage scows. Immediately following the clean-up, Bethel’s Best Pizza Grille & Dairy Bar will host a pizza party at Davis Park for all participants,.

Rivers and watersheds have been used as dumps for old appliances, shopping carts and other refuse. Litter, such as foam cups, plastic bottles and food wrappers float into waterways, build up along the shoreline and stay there for years. With landfill space at a premium, recycling efforts stymied by a lack of plant capacity and toxic waste expensive to control, a grassroots effort can help maintain a constituency for preserving and protecting waterways. In 2010, 2 million pounds of trash and debris were collected and 6,000 miles of rivers and streams cleaned across the nation. In years’ past the Upper Andro yielded over a ton of debris including bed springs, tires and tire rims, a boat motor and a 1950’s record player.

The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance sponsors the local clean up. Says Clean-up Co-ordinator and UAAA director Bruce Pierce, “There’s been a long-standing effort to improve the Androscoggin’s water quality and fishery-now we need to improve the shore land zone along this wonderful river.”

National River Cleanup was founded in 1992 by America Outdoors, the largest association of America’s outfitters and guides, to assist local groups in keeping waterways clean. In 2007 American Rivers assumed administration of the river clean up. American Rivers, founded in 1973, is the nation’s leading river advocacy organization. NRC Information is published on line at www.nationalrivercleanup.org.

The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance in co-operation with Trout Unlimited will host a free family fishing festival on Saturday, June 4. The festival will be held at Angevine Park on the North Road in Bethel, from 9 am to 2 pm, rain or shine. Free casting workshops and fly-tying instruction will be available throughout the day.

Local Maine guides and members of the Mollyockett Chapter of Trout Unlimited will teach the workshops. Instruction will include both spin casting and fly casting for older youth and parents. Maine’s Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Program will supply complimentary rods and reels for use at the festival.

Families can practice newly learned casting skills in the one acre pond and are welcome to take home their catch. The pond will be stocked with trout courtesy of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Each young angler will receive a mini-tackle box complete with bobber, sinkers and hook courtesy of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance.

Kids can learn how to tie flies with materials provided by local outfitters and fly shops. Children will be able to take home their hand-tied flies.

Families participating in the event will be eligible for door prizes from local outfitters and businesses as well as L.L. Bean and Kittery Trading Post. The Bethel Fire Dept. will host a barbecue of hotdogs and hamburgers, chips, and drinks and families are welcome to bring a pack lunch.

The weekend of June 4 and 5 is a free fishing weekend in Maine. Resident and Non-resident freshwater fishing licenses are waived each day.

The Family Fishing Festival is one of many nationwide events that provide families with an opportunity to have fun on the water. The events are promoted by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (www.rbff.org). For those families wishing to stay overnight and fish or canoe the Androscoggin River on Sunday, special family packages are available for the weekend at local lodging establishments.

For information on the Family Fishing Festival, contact the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance at 207-824-3694, fish@upperandro.com or www.upperandro.com.

Try the Rangeley Lakes Region of Western Maine

Salvelinus fontinalis – brook trout, actually a char, but close enough for those anglers who enjoy playing tag with this native of North America. The squaretail or spotted trout, as some old-timers still call it, is now nearly extinct in most states, except for a few strains living secret lives in the shadows of smaller creeks and brooks, waters so small and insignificant most anglers pass them by to fish the bigger put-and-take rivers stocked with dim-witted, hatchery-bred fish. Those brookies that do remain are, on average, no bigger than a finger with a large fish growing to no more than six inches.

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy casting my flies to these spunky survivors, spending the better part of the fishing season prowling the smaller streams that drop down through the western portion of my state; but sitting here by the wood stove, watching a hard December sky spitting wet snow across our lawn, I’m thinking back to the summer when the weather turns hot and humid and most freestone streams begin to dry up.

That’s when its time to give the trout of my home State a breather. Time to pack up my fly rod and head north. No, not toward the Catskills or the Pocono’s, but past the Green, and even the White Mountains. I’m talking really north, as far north as you can travel up the east coast without the need for your passport.

Western Maine, specifically the Rangeley Lakes Region of western Maine, is teeming with wild brook trout native to the area, some as long as your arm. No really! The brook trout of the Rangeley Lakes Region are about as big as you’ll find south of Labrador. Oh, and just for fun, the place is chuck full of landlocked salmon that will leave you speechless as they tail-dance across a pool, spitting out your favorite fly just before they leap back under the surface.

In nineteen eighty-seven, my wife and I purchased a cabin on Aziscohos Lake, a long and narrow body of water formed in the late nineteenth century when the Magalloway River was first dammed to carry logs across its surface. The lake is situated along the westerly border of this wild section of Maine where the moose still outnumber the human residents.

Over the last twenty-plus years, I’ve kept a log of every fish caught from our cabin. To be counted, fish over sixteen inches must be measured before released, because as every angler knows, (but rarely admits) once measured, a fish estimated at sixteen inches magically shrinks to fifteen, sometimes fourteen inches depending upon the imagination of the one telling the tale and the gullibility of his or her audience.

Following Route 16 from Wilson’s Mills east to Rangeley, a little town sometimes mentioned in the New York Times travel section, you will cross at least five major lakes fed by countless streams, brooks, rivers and rills, their tannin-stained water tumbling down through balsam-and-spruce hills, with larger, fast flowing rivers falling out of the lakes, all working their way toward the mighty Androscoggin River. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend was the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance Two-Fly Fish Tournament. While I wait for results and “official” photos of the event from Wende Gray, Kevin McKay, who happened to tie for first place in biggest fish caught, has put together a great run of photos from his experiences.

Please follow this link to Maine Fly Fish to view the photos.

AUGUSTA – Commissioner Roland “Danny” Martin announced today that Dr. Kenneth Elowe will leave the position of Director of the Bureau of Resource Management on July 30, 2010.

Dr. Elowe, a 22-year employee of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, has accepted a position as Assistant Regional Director of Science Applications at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Region 5 headquarters, based in Hadley, Mass.

“Today, I have accepted Ken’s resignation with regrets,” Commissioner Martin said. “Ken has served this Department and the citizens of Maine with distinction, by creating and implementing several programs that now are nationally recognized, including Beginning with Habitat, and by being an outstanding spokesman for the agency. He truly is a talented individual and will be missed by all of us.”

In his new role, Elowe will be responsible for providing leadership and direction in the development and execution of high-priority regional science activities, including those involving climate change, adaptive resources management, and landscape conservation, particularly Strategic Habitat Conservation.

Elowe was named Director of Resource Management in 1998, which serves as the lead fish and wildlife biologist for Maine, after 10 years in the Department. Previous positions included Director of the Wildlife Division, leader of the Mammals Research and Management Group, and project leader for the Bear and Furbearer Group. As bureau director, he manages 120 employees, a $14 million budget, and all projects and initiatives related to wildlife and freshwater fish management.

For more than 11 years, Elowe has served as the Department’s senior liaison, building solid relationships with fish and wildlife agencies in other states and on the federal level, as well as conservation and sporting groups, and businesses.

“Ken has been instrumental in working with a variety of Maine conservation and sporting organizations in an effort to secure permanently protected funding for MDIF&W for the future,” said Peter Bourque, Director of Fisheries Program Development. “By ensuring proper funding, the Department can continue its efforts to preserve Maine’s outdoor resources for future generations.”

During his tenure, Elowe has monitored the status of fish and wildlife resources throughout Maine; directed the development of effective management programs for all species; lead the strategy for conservation land acquisition; and worked with private landowners and timber companies to develop strategies to manage lands while maintaining wildlife habitat. Currently, MDIF&W and 11 companies have wildlife habitat management agreements regarding more than 500,000 acres of forested habitat.

In Maine, Elowe was one of the originators of the Beginning with Habitat program, which seeks to integrate the principles of landscape conservation into municipal comprehensive planning. Beginning with Habitat also serves as one of the two pillars for Maine’s Wildlife Action Plan.

“Ken has been, and continues to be, an enthusiastic advocate for Beginning with Habitat and landscape conservation, using every opportunity that arises in Maine and the northeastern states, within the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, and within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to support and advance sound landscape conservation application,” said Mark Stadler, MDIF&W Director of Wildlife. “His goal? That 50 years from now, our grandchildren will also be able to enjoy abundant and healthy wildlife management populations and habitats.”

Throughout his career, Elowe has sought to advance the concepts contained in Beginning with Habitat as well as worked extensively on endangered species policy and conservation initiatives at state and national levels.

Last year, Elowe helped celebrate the delisting of the Bald Eagle from Maine’s Endangered and Threatened Species List, after a 30-year effort by MDIF&W biologists and other natural resource groups to restore the populations in Maine.

Elowe is a member or a leader in the following groups: Atlantic Flyway Council, Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Strategic Habitat Conservation Committees, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies; and North American Waterfowl Management Plan Revision Steering Committee; also a federal-state joint task force on federal aid policy.

Students from Telstar’s Challenge Program [Telstar High School] collected over 800 lbs of trash, including bed springs, pylons, washing machine, air conditioner and refrigerator parts, during the annual river clean-up on the Upper Androscoggin River between Gilead, Maine and West Bethel, Maine on Monday, May 24. National River Clean-up is sponsored by American Rivers and locally by the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance. Magic Falls Rafting Company provided rafts and garbage scows to collect the trash. Bruce Pierce, UAAA Director, coordinated the event along with Steve Keane, Telstar Challenge course instructor.

I got a telephone call one day from Les Otten, owner of Sunday River Ski Resort. He wanted to know if I could meet him at his office. When I arrived he was on the telephone heavily engaged in a telephone conservation concerning the sale of several new condominiums being constructed on the mountain. Twenty-five years ago, a few hundred thousand dollars was a lot of money. I waited.

Les wanted to know if I was interested in building on an addition to one of his ski lodges. We walked around the building and peered under a deck where the addition would go, both of us raising several questions about the existing structure. Soon, with Les in his work clothes (dress slacks and dress shirt) and I in mine (grubs), we were both crawling on our bellies through the dust, gravel, weeds, debris and just about everything else one might have the pleasure of finding under a heavily traveled ski lodge deck. I did make a couple of comments about our adventure but I’ll refrain from posting them here.

I’ve told that story more than one time but as I was thinking more about it this morning after getting off the phone with Les, that action actually is a pretty good characterization of him. Here’s a man who could have sat in the comfort of his clean office but instead did not hesitate to roll up his sleeves and get dirty.

I’ve known Les for perhaps 30-plus years and during that time he has given unselfishly to his community. Time and space will not permit the endless list of how he has impacted the people in his home town and surrounding area.

Les Otten is a businessman who understands many things, among them tourism, promotion, marketing, investment, providing a viable product and operating within a budget. Whoever resides in the Blaine House will face daunting tasks and challenges. I believe he is up for the challenge and can put together the right people to make it all happen.

One huge undertaking will be the financial shortfall of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, a depleted whitetail deer herd, an overgrown population of coyotes and other predators, and environmental groups eager to make a living serving up lawsuits to stop hunting, trapping and fishing. The hunting, fishing, trapping and general outdoor recreation brings millions of dollars into Maine each year. The next governor has got to find a way to tidy up fish and game and make sure that those running it are in sync with the mission.

True to character, Otten will “roll up his sleeves and get dirty” on this issue.

All of the United States is at a crossroad. Things are changing and many of us don’t care for the direction it is going. If there’s one weapon we have as free Americans it is the right to vote. That’s where we can begin to push back.

Outdoor sportsmen can be independent people. We love to be outside, in the forests, on the water, enjoying the peace and quiet and the beauty God gave us. But to protect that, we have to give a bit more than we take sometimes. I’m asking every sportsman in Maine to make it a point to vote on June 8, 2010. Vote for the candidate(s) that you believe best represent your ideals. Finding the right people is extremely important at every level of government. Don’t wait to see who comes out on top. Be the one who puts your candidate at the top.

Tom Remington

Eric York of Damariscotta, Maine caught a record-setting yellow perch on Damariscotta Lake on Feb. 28, 2010.

The fish was weighed 1.73 pounds and was weighed on a certified scale at Yellow Front Grocery in Damariscotta. The record was confirmed by Maine Warden Service Game Warden Joe Lefebvre.

The previous state record was caught by Chad Mostats of Portland on Worthley Pond in East Peru in August 1989. It weighed 1 pound, 10 ounces (1.625 pounds).

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Sportsman newspaper, which is edited by avid outdoorsman and TV personality Harry Vanderweide, jointly announce new records. The publication has maintained the state record book for more than 30 years.

According to Vanderweide, this is the seventh state fishing record set in the past three years. That is more new records in a three-year period than any other three-year period since the records have been kept.

The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance in co-operation with Trout Unlimited will host a free family fishing festival on Saturday, June 5. The festival will be held at Angevine Park on the North Road in Bethel, from 9 am to 2 pm, rain or shine. Free casting workshops and fly-tying instruction will be available throughout the day.

Local Maine guides and members of the Mollyockett Chapter of Trout Unlimited will teach the workshops. Instruction will include both spin casting and fly casting for older youth and parents. Maine’s Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Program will supply complimentary rods and reels for use at the festival.

Families can practice newly learned casting skills in the one acre pond and are welcome to take home their catch. The pond will be stocked with trout courtesy of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Each young angler will receive a mini-tackle box complete with bobber, sinkers and hook courtesy of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance.

Kids can learn how to tie flies with materials provided by local outfitters and fly shops. Children will be able to take home their hand-tied flies.

Families participating in the event will be eligible for door prizes from local outfitters and businesses as well as L.L. Bean and Kittery Trading Post. The Bethel Fire Dept. will host a barbecue of hotdogs and hamburgers, chips, and drinks and families are welcome to bring a pack lunch.

The weekend of June 5 and 6 is a free fishing weekend in Maine. Resident and Non-resident freshwater fishing licenses are waived each day.

The Family Fishing Festival is one many nationwide events that provide families with an opportunity to have fun on the water. The events are promoted by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (www.rbff.org). For those families wishing to stay overnight and fish or canoe the Androscoggin River on Sunday, special family packages are available for the weekend at local lodging establishments.

For information on the Family Fishing Festival, contact the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance at 207-824-3694, fish@upperandro.com or www.upperandro.com

“God Has a Sign And It Reads: Gone Huntin – Part II“, is now available for reading.

Okay, before you go into a tizzy and start screaming “blasphemy” or some other nonsense, give me a chance to explain the title. Believe me, it’s warranted. Many people in this country have fought long and hard to remove God from the docket, but I’m here to tell you, he’s alive and well, and rooted deep inside the hearts of a lot of American sportsmen.

Did you know that in Genesis, Chapter 9, God commissioned man with the job of wildlife management? He did. Did you know that Nimrod and Esau were very skilled hunters who hit the woods and fields with bows and arrows harvesting wild game for food? They were. Did you know that deer, antelope and other wild game were the chosen foods, even before man started eating domesticated meat? Read Deuteronomy Chapter 12. Did you know in Proverbs 12:27 it says that a lazy man neglects to roast his game, but the substance, (the meat taken through hunting), of the diligent man is considered precious? Well, it is. How about in Acts Chapter 10 where God himself commanded the apostle Peter to “rise, kill and eat” when he was hungry…and the passage spoke specifically about animals?

Yup…it’s all in there. The list of scriptures goes on and on my friend. And don’t even start about fishing. Jesus and several of the apostles were fishermen; some of whom even cast “lines” for fish, as well as nets. It was Jesus himself in John Chapter 21 who broiled some fish over a campfire for breakfast, and you outdoors-folk will also be glad to know that an occasional beer or glass of wine is not anti-biblical, no matter what you thought you heard. That’s right, I said it and I can back it all up.

So what’s with the title of this article? Why would it say that God has…’Gone Huntin’”? It’s because I’m bringing him into any and every hunting camp that will personally invite us both in, that’s why.

Not Just Inside Four walls

I’m a hunter, born and bred, and I’ve fished since the age of seven. I’ve got more outdoor stories inside me than you can shake a stick at, and yes, I was raised like most country boys, with a good Mama and a strong Christian background.

However, sad as it may seem, many outdoorsmen today, myself included, have little time for the standard church ceremonies. And I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, and I’m certainly not blaming anyone. Most of my friends are what I affectionately call “modern rednecks”, and that’s a good thing. The guys and gals I know, who love to share hunting and fishing stories over an open fire-pit in the summertime, are also God-fearing, red-blooded Americans, and very proud of it! They work extremely hard…often six days a week or more, they love their families, and any time off they may get, is spent out in the woods and fields or on the water, with family and friends in tow.

Unfortunately, many of us only get the traditional Sunday off as a day of rest, and though we firmly love God…and our pastors…we find it difficult at best to squeeze in a mid-day or evening service that could potentially be spent in camp or on the lake. Obviously, I need to stress that anytime we, as individuals, can make the time to go to church, we should. Our families need the support and so do the countless pastors who strive hard to keep us spiritually fed and “on track”. However, there are a myriad of sportsmen across the country who simply feel they don’t have time on Sunday, and who instead, go “out there”, all the while just trying to enjoy themselves after a hard week, yet still feeling a sense of guilt about it. And that’s where I come in…

Spiritual ‘Road Trips’

About two years ago, I was struggling as a concrete contractor, (self-employed), and found myself working long, hard hours, often six and seven days a week, just to keep the jobs moving. I found that there was little time for church anymore, and with my spiritual upbringing, I was guilt-ridden, especially if I tried to squeeze in a few days for spring turkey hunting or fall deer hunting. In time, I messed up my back and found I couldn’t do the strenuous work anymore so I quit…and immediately found myself unemployed and practically starving. The up side was that my situation drove me back to the books and most importantly, my Bible, and after many months of contemplating where my life was headed, I made the decision to bring both my faith and my outdoor passions, together. The only thing I didn’t want to do was change who I was and become some stuffy old Bible-thumper, knocking on people’s doors and shoving “God” down everyone’s throats. One day it came to me that I didn’t have to change, and ‘Mountain-Man Outdoor Ministries’ was born.

I won’t bore you with details but suffice it to say I’m a redneck, a hunter, a fisherman, and an outdoorsman, and I just happen to like sharing my faith when I can. What better way to do that than to just “be me”, and preach the Word, redneck attitude and all, through which I have also been appropriately referred to as “The Redneck Preacher”. Funny how God works sometimes, isn’t it? We are developing outreaches and programs designed to help kids, and are very interested in working to help set-up special hunts and trips for special people, (any age, disabled or incapacitated beyond their means), who are unable to enjoy hunting on their own anymore.

I’d like to think that the many friends and contacts I’ve made in the professional outdoor industry would be willing to help me in this venture by donating trips, hunts, and much needed gear. If you or anyone you know, wishes to become an active partner in this ministry, please contact me. I am available for interviews, discussions, and studies, and would love to be invited into your hunting camp this season! There’s no better way for me to share my faith than to visit hunting camps across America, share some campfires with redneck sportsmen just like me, hunt and fish with them, and, in effect, bring God straight into the heart of the American Hunting Camp.

I just wonder how many invitations I’ll actually get! You think Waddell and The Nuge could stand the extra excitement in camp? A Redneck Preacher with a Bible in one hand, a rifle or shotgun in the other, and a turkey call hanging out the side of my mouth. Hmmmm….I dunno… Let’s praise God, pass the ammo, and find out. And did I warn you I’d be bringing a camera and cameraman along for the ride? I didn’t? Uh oh…

(Blaine Cardilli is a freelance outdoor writer, industry prostaffer, and seminar speaker on hunting; He also enjoys teaching christian studies to rednecks & sportsmen, and has been referred to as The Redneck Preacher. He can be reached on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theredneckpreacher)