Autumn Anglers: Although the weather was chilly, the spirits of Walter Dickson of Eddington, his son, Richard, of Ellsworth, and Jim Peva of Surry were warmed by the sound of reels running during their October trip to New Brunswick’s Miramichi River. The die-hard Atlantic salmon addicts finished the season with a week’s fishing at Vince Swayze’s “Tuckaway Lodge.” How good was the fishing? Good enough so they made reservations for next year before leaving the river.

“It was fantastic,” said Walter. “It was cold in the mornings, all right – down to 28 degrees – but it didn’t make any difference. There was no need to fish early because the salmon wouldn’t look at a thing until around 10 o’clock or so. By then it was beginning to warm up and their fins were thawing out. When they started they took hold in good shape.”

“I figure we hooked about 50 salmon in the week we were there. Damn good-size fish, too. Some were in the 20-pound class and Jim had hold of an old walloper that would go 30 easily. It came unstuck right at the net. Boy!” the veteran angler exclaimed with a shake of his head. “The pools were full of fish. I never saw the like of it. We were fishing over salmon all the time. Think of it, those big fish taking little No. 8 and No. 10 flies, single hooks, too – no bigger than trout flies and sparsely dressed at that.”

Each year I get an urge to take a fling at fall salmon fishing, but that desire always is displaced by the sound of dog bells. Walter admitted that fall fishing is different. “The foliage was beautiful and the fish were taking; it couldn’t have been any better, really. But every once in a while I’d find myself wondering, `What am I doing here at this time of year?’ ”

Considering that Walter and his fishing partners have a cabin reserved for next fall, I’d say he convinced himself he could be doing worse.

Dick Ruhlin of Brewer also meandered over to the Miramichi for some late-season fishing. The well-known angler reported the pools he fished were stiff with salmon, but allowed they were “taking short.”

“Every fish I caught was hooked in the snout,” said Dick. “Most of the fish I raised just nipped at the fly. They weren’t real fierce. It was great fishing, though; plenty of fish, enough to keep you changing flies, that’s for sure.”

On second thought, maybe my dogs wouldn’t hold it against me if I fished the Miramichi for a few days early in October. You know, before the leaves are down in good shape.

Mention of Atlantic salmon reminds that, next year, three lucky anglers will enjoy world-class fishing for next to nothing. All that’s required is a cast into the Atlantic Salmon Federation’s “Angling Fantasy Raffle.”

First prize is a week of salmon fishing on the Namsen River in Norway. Second prize nets a week of casting for Atlantics on Iceland’s Laxi i Adaldai River. Third prize winner will present flies to the blazing-fast bonefish and ill-tempered tarpon cruising the flats off Boca Paila in the Caribbean.

The winners’ names will be drawn at ASF headquarters in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on Dec. 18. Each winner may bring along a guest to share the memorable pleasures of fishing in the grand manner. Sponsored by Frontiers International, the trips include two rods, guides, boats, meals, accommodations, and return airfare to New York from Norway or Iceland and to Miami from Mexico.

To land your tickets – $20 each or three for $50 – contact, Beth Jackson, Atlantic Salmon Federation, P.O. Box 429, St. Andrews, N.B. EOG 2XO Canada. Phone: (506) 529-4438; Fax: (506) 529-4985. Proceeds from the raffle will support and enhance the international non-profit organization’s many salmon conservation and management programs.

Now a word of advice: If you hook and land that third prize ticket and find yourself standing on the bow deck of a skiff while working a fly past the nose of a “taking” tarpon, please, brace your feet. The “silver kings” are notorious, no-holds-barred brawlers.

Because of a mixup in mailing, the following results of the Maine State Smallmouth Championship tournament held recently on the Penobscot River didn’t reach me until I was on vacation. But, better late than never.

You could say the casting and cranking of Steve Berecz of Deboeis and Charlie Bowe of Detroit were “right on the money.” Their total-fish weight of 11 pounds, 10 ounces netted them the $2,000 first prize, plus the “Best Bass Club” award as representatives of the Bangor Bass Club.

Second-place winners were David Garcia and Lee McAfee, both of Naples, with a total-fish weight of 11 pounds, 6 ounces and a “Lunker” weight of 2 pounds, 5 ounces. Ernie Brunelle of Lucerne and Michael Schultz of Dover-Foxcroft won third place with a total-fish weight of 11 pounds, 6 ounces, but with no Lunker weight. Mike McDonald and William Murzin, both of whom hail from Hudson, won the Lunker Award with a bass that weighed in at 3 pounds, 14 ounces.

Of the 34 teams entered in this year’s tournament, 24 brought in a total of 68 bass. The total weight of the fish was 133 pounds, 7 ounces; average weight per fish was 1 pound, 15 ounces. All of the bass were released live and without injury by fisheries biologists and tournament officials.

Now that they’re off the trail of fish tracks, it wouldn’t surprise me if the aforementioned anglers were now casting around for some deer hair to tie into “Bombers” and “bass bugs.”