Dave's bear had a crescent mark

                                                Nice bear…… about 200 lbs.

Dave and His boar

Excellant hunter and his hard earned trophy. Dave sat in the stand for 4 days waiting for his chance at this bear. A larger boar came in on the second night but never gave him a shot.

He stuck with it……turned off the Thermocell and his bear came in. You see the result. (Leave the Tcells at home…bear are leery of strange odors…and none came in as long as he was using his.)

Not to the surprise of many….MDIFW has dropped the ball again. They sent out the bear registry book, but no tags??? A contingent of elated bear hunters descended upon Coreys Market in Monticello to discover this little glitch. We had to pack it up and go to Houlton because Michelle and Darren had the wisdom to keep their extra tags from last year. (Which they were supposed to mail back.)The wardens gave her permission to use them until the right ones arrived.

We got our Maryland friend tagged up and set so off we went. But I made a promise to my guide buddy to post this here.

SO BE AWARE HUNTERS A MANY……..MDIFW HAS COME UP SHORT AGAIN!!!!!

Yosemite News Release
August 25, 2009
For Immediate Release

Media Contacts:
Scott Gediman 209-372-0248
Kari Cobb 209-372-0529
Poaching Suspects Charged in Yosemite National Park

After an extensive investigation, three individuals face multiple federal
charges for poaching within Yosemite National Park. Over the past several
years, Southern California residents Chad Gierlich, Chris Gierlich, and
Kyle Narasky have allegedly poached multiple trophy-sized deer within the
park boundaries. The investigation uncovered a complex, concerted effort
by these individuals to illegally hunt within the park and kill trophy size
bucks. Search warrants resulted in the seizure of items such as bows and
arrows, GIS devices, mounted kills, and several items that lead to the
charges being filed.

This interagency investigation was conducted by Yosemite National Park
Rangers, Pacific West Region Special Agents, and California Department of
Fish and Game Wardens. Multiple federal charges regarding the illegal
hunting have been filed which fall under the Lacey Act and Title 36 CFR
(Code of Federal Regulations). In addition to poaching within the park,
state charges have been filed alleging that illegal hunting activity
occurred on land under the jurisdiction of the California Department of
Fish and Game.

“This is the most egregious case of illegal hunting we have uncovered here
in Yosemite National Park. Wildlife in Yosemite is as important as Half
Dome or Yosemite Falls. We take this activity very seriously and will
continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute anybody found to be
partaking in this activity. This is a very serious offense and we want to
send a clear message that we will not tolerate illegal hunting in Yosemite
National Park,” stated Yosemite Chief Ranger Steve Shackelton.

The defendants are scheduled to appear in Federal Court in the next few
weeks.

-NPS-

Editor’s Note: For more information on the State of California’s
investigation and prosecution, please call Warden Patrick Foy at
916-508-7095

Kari Cobb
Media Relations

Here’s an important message from my friends over at FHFH:

Knight Revolution Recall Notice

Dear Friends,

We wanted to pass along this important recall information for any of our contacts who may have one of the affected muzzleloading rifles from Knight. The Knight Revolution and Revolution 2 are being recalled by the manufacturer. More information can be found at the Knight website using the following link:

http://www.knightrifles.com/revolutionrecall

If you know anyone else with a Knight rifle please share this message with them!

Take care and God bless,
Josh Wilson
FHFH Operations Director

Thanks Josh…….remember to support Farmer and Hunters Feeding the Hungry in Your community!!!!

Hey folks its April 10th 2009…….and I want to go fishing!!!!

My river is in Flood stage…..the lakes are adrift in ice slush and chunky. NOAA says the floods are North into the valley, the St. John Valley. The Aroostook,St Croix and St. John are overflowing. The ice is tryng to leave but …….still no fishing.

Tulips are up and the robins are singing. The ducks are back and quacking across the sky. All signalling the coming of our favorite season.

MUD SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loggers pack it in and go home….their shutting down the woods.

Lakers……bide your time. The ice is trying to break up in area lakes. Get your boat ready!!

Rivermen……the waters will fall and rise once more before they settle for the season. The second flood will leave and the trout will rise anew on the falling waters of late May and early June.

Aroostook's Fiddleheads are coming!!!!

Well it’s 4/2 and the Fools have run away. There are a few good jokes out there. Like this one from our friends over at Jerky.com

If you know a good one post it here in the comments….keep it clean. Or I will delete it!!!

I recently received an interesting email from Kurt Lane. The Treasurer of the ACCA…….Aroostook County Conservation Association. I want to share it with you:
Aroostook County Conservation Association: Sunday, March 22, 2009
As you can see by our name, we intend to involve/represent The whole of Aroostook County. I’m sure you’ll agree, the States non-management of our area is leading to tradgedy, particuly in regards to our deer herd. Many traditional yards here are showing losses of 65-85%. We organized on Jan 6 of this year, since then we have signed up over 100 members. We put on the coyote hunt to help make known to the general public the problem with winter predation, by the States own addmission the leading cause of winter loss. While we intitaly thought to start some sort of winter feeding program, research has lead us in another direction that will be a more beneficial use of our funds. Despite the availability/quality of winter feed, a deer will draw from it’s fat reserves. The key to winter survival in this regards is putting on as much fat as possible before yarding. This lead to the start of a seeding program with Irving Woodlands. We will be seeding down their winter roads and log yards with forage plants suitable for this. This promises to have a huge impact on this part of the problem. Irving has agreed to split costs and labor. The Public Lands dept here is also onboard with this program, although details have not been finalized. We hope to involve all the large woodland owners.
We have held monthly meetings at the Northeastland Hotel in Presque Isle, featuring speakers addressing the different problems our deer are facing. Gerry Lavigne, a former state biologist spoke in Feb on the predation problem, I’m sure you’ve heard of him. We had the head of Quality Deer Managment from Maine give us a presentation on food plot and benefits. Our last meeting, held on the 16th of March had our regional biologist Rich Hoppe and Maines head moose and deer biologist Lee Kantar. They spoke on the problems associated with winter feeding, but more interesting was the Q&A period on our herd in general. Despite past history, many thought the state would take some sort of action at this point. It was made clear, buisness as usual. This galvanized several individuals into preparing a citizen inititive, aimed at forcing the state into action. This is being worked on now, I expect to see the finished product in the next several weeks.
What can you do? We need members to up our political pull,as well as for our practical applications.. While we have several on the roster in your area, your part of Aroostook County is largly untapped. We need people across the county that are willing to work . We need PR. We have a huge job ahead of us. We are going to make a difference.
If at all possible,you should attend our next meeting being held on the 21st of April, 6:30 pm at the Northeastland Hotel in Presque Isle. A rep from the Whitetail Institute will be our speaker, helping us as we move into our seeding program.
If you’d like more info, feel free to contact me,or our president Jerry McLaughlin- 592-2516
Thanks
Kurt Lane; Treasurer ACCA

I will try to make it there…….how about you??

Another deer killed by Coyotes!!!!!

I took this picture last week near an area I am monitoring and taking pictures of deer in.  This doe ran off with snarling beasts ripping at it’s hindquarters. The pack that attacked didn’t kill her outright, but tore at her until she fell, then they disemboweled her alive. A  hard way to die for such a wonderful creature of God. (BN REECE2009)