Leslie B. Otten – Candidate For Maine Governor

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. Read more

God Has a Sign and it Reads: “Gone Huntin”!

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? Read more

Movie: “The Good Life” Coming to Brunswick, Maine April 15

PORTLAND, ME – Fly Fishing in Maine (FFIM) is proud to present screenings of “The Good Life – Tall Tails from the East”, a fly fishing feature film produced by Maine native Carter Davidson. The event, hosted by FFIM, will be at the Frontier Cafe and Cinema in Brunswick on April 15, at two separate showtimes of 6:00pm and 7:30pm.

This is the 3rd full-length feature from Gray Ghost Productions, with last year’s “East by Northeast” exciting angling audiences with amazing footage from all over Maine, New Hampshire and beyond. This year’s film tours the better part of the East from Labrador to the Florida Keys and everything in-between. Hitch a ride in the flying Beaver with Luke Gray in search of huge Eastern Brook Trout and enormous Northerns. Read more

Funding Maine’s Fish And Wildlife Department

Photo from fOTOGLIF

The people at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are claiming they are broke and are in need of funding, as much as doubling the current funding, according to Dr. Ken Elowe, Director of Resource Management for MDIFW.

You’ll get no argument from me that MDIFW is underfunded. What you will get are questions as to why and suggestions about the best way to deal with it. Let’s first address why the MDIFW is underfunded.

In the new issue of Maine Fish and Wildlife, MDIFW Commissioner Roland D. Martin, states that all the programs and responsibilities his department has to care for, brings back to the state of Maine some $2.4 billion annually. Maybe that amount could be more. Read more

Fishing Lures for Trophy Lake Trout

By Capt. Jim Hirt

In this article we will complete the series on catching trophy fish. I would like to explore location, presentation and lure selection for Lake Trout. Fishermen everywhere covet them for their table excellence giving them a nickname of poor man’s Lobster. Lake Trout baked or poached and served with melted butter is a feast fit for a king.

This slow growing member of the Char family can attain a life of over twenty years and have been known to grow to more than 50 inches and reach over 100 pounds. Lake Trout are mature enough to reproduce when they are six or seven years old. Some Lake Trout respond to a homing instinct. They return to the same spawning grounds year after year, while others do not. This trout lives in deep cold lakes. Their preferred water temperature is about 50 degrees. In the summer they stay deep and can usually be caught by deep trolling. But as the water cools with the fall season and into spring, artificial lures and flies may take lake trout fished shallower, near shore. Read more

Upper Andro Anglers Alliance And Telstar High School 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 Gilead to West Bethel on Wednesday, 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 the bridge at Gilead and take out at Newt’s Landing in West Bethel. Community members are welcome to help clean-up this and other stretches of the river. The town of Bethel will provide trash collection at Newt’s Landing and deliver to the town’s solid waste facility. Read more

Fishing Spoons For Trophy Tail Walking Rainbows

By Capt. Jim Hirt

In this article we will continue with successful methods of catching trophy fish. I would like to explore location, presentation and lure selection for Rainbows. The excitement of Rainbow Trout fishing is on the top of my list. When you hook up with a fish that goes air-borne, it is an experience you will never forget. This trophy fish is not as commonly caught on Lake Michigan as the other species primarily due to their summer location. Where there are exceptions, most of the time deep water is the best location to find them. Look for them in 150 feet of water and deeper. This fish likes deep water but don’t look for them on the bottom. Fishing the surface down to forty feet should be your target. Read more

Fishing Milwaukee Early Risers Catch Trophy Brown Trout

By Capt. Jim Hirt

In this article we will continue with successful methods of catching trophy fish. I would like to explore location, presentation and lure selection for Brown Trout. This is a virtual untapped resource on Lake Michigan. Most anglers get hung up on salmon fishing and ignore big Bulldog Brown Trout. Once you have an opportunity to hook up with a fish that is almost as big around as he is long you will be back for more.

Footballs, as we like to call them, are only about 3% of the catch out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The lack of popularity and pressure puts you in a great position to boat a real wall hanger. This unique specie has two strains; the Domestic or German and the Seeforellen. The bigger of the two is the Seeforellen with the state record at 36.5 pounds. I have landed German Browns over 20 pounds. This is definitely a trophy in any angler’s book. Where there are similarities in the two species on temperature preference the biggest difference is location. Domestic are more of a near shore fish and Seeforellens are a pelagic specie found suspended in deeper water. Read more

The Good Life – Movie Trailer From Gray Ghost Productions

Our friends at Gray Ghost Productions are at it again. Hang on for the March 27, 2010 release dates followed by screening scheduled for April. The Good Life is fishing from Florida to Labrador and stops in between.

Salmon Charters Milwaukee Trophy Chinooks The Best Time, Lure And Location!

By Capt. Jim Hirt

We are truly blessed with a world class fishery on Lake Michigan. It is not uncommon to boat fifteen fish in a five hour period. The management of this resource over the twenty plus years I have been chartering has been outstanding. Chinook Salmon, in the twelve to seventeen pound class, are a regular part of most trips. The big hogs over twenty five pounds are not as common as they used to be. It requires a special attitude on your part to target a wall hanger. Read more

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