Wildlife `stockholders’ can consider fishing changes

Out and About: If you are among the many anglers expressing disenchantment with Maine’s inland fisheries, plan to do some serious casting at the forthcoming Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife hearings regarding proposed changes in ice fishing and open water fishing regulations.

Again, I urge sportsmen to suppress the common notion that fisheries and wildlife hearings are cut-and-dried. Your input does have an influence on decisions regarding regulations, but you must express them either verbally or in writing. Remember, as sportsmen you are the stockholders and directors of the DIFW. So consider fisheries and wildlife public hearings as your management meetings.

Following is the schedule of statewide hearings I have received regarding proposed changes in ice fishing regulations for 1993-94 and 1994-95 and for changes in open water fishing regulations for 1994-95: Machias, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, University of Maine, Science Building, Room 102. Lincoln, 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, Mattanawcook Academy lecture hall, 15 Reed Drive. Deadline for comments, Sept. 26.

Rangeley, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, Rangeley High School, Loon Lake Road. Augusta, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22, Augusta Civic Center, Penobscot Auditorium. Deadline for comments, Oct. 2. Ellsworth, 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, City Hall council chambers, Church Street. Deadline for comments, Oct. 3.

The agency contact person is Andrea Erskine, DIFW, 284 State Street, Station 41, Augusta 04333. Phone: 287-5201.

The news release announcing the hearing dates states that the DIFW’s proposed fisheries-regulations changes are “needed to provide for the effective conservation of Maine’s inland fisheries and to enhance fishing opportunities statewide.”

There’s no question something must be done to rejuvenate the landlocked salmon, brook trout, and togue fisheries that once had anglers from far and wide hooked on Maine fishing.

Too often, nowadays, I receive calls from anglers who have fished the state’s waters for 25 years or more, but who, after several years of catching short fish or no fish, allow “they won’t be coming back.” Simply put, Maine and the DIFW can’t afford to lose them.

You can see your breath in the frosty glow of the full moon and feel the cool fingers of fall touching your face, but an even surer sign that hunting season is just over the hill is the announcement of the Penobscot County Conservation Association’s 25th annual Hunter Safety Course.

The course will be conducted Sept. 18-19 at the clubhouse grounds off North Main Street in Brewer. Usually, about 200 future hunters step to the club’s firing lines for the hunter safety course that is required to obtain a first-time Maine adult hunting license. Applications for the PCCA’s course have been distributed in local schools and will be available at the clubhouse prior to the event. The course fee is $3.

Professional instruction will be given in all aspects of hunting, including survival, map and compass reading, firearms familiarization, handling, marksmanship, and, last but by no means least, landowner relations. Because of changes in the state’s hunter-safety policies, the skeet range will not be used this year. Since 1958, about 125,000 Maine youngsters have taken hunter safety courses.

For more information regarding the PCCA’s course, contact Bob Hunt or John Fahey or call the clubhouse at 989-4709 on Tuesday evenings only.

Speaking of skeet, the Hermon Skeet Club will hold a “Fun Shoot” at its ranges off the Black Stream Road on Sept. 18. The event, that is open to the public, will feature the club’s new sporting clays range. According to member Kurt Soneson, the sporting clays have left a lot of veteran skeet shooters talking to themselves.

Skeet shooting, you may know, can become mechanical because the shots offered at each station are repetitious. Sporting clays, however, offers a variety of unexpected shots simulating situations encountered while hunting.

For example: running rabbit, springing teal, “birds” approaching from in front and behind and rising from both sides in “singles” or “doubles.” The Hermon club’s sporting clays range is the first in this area.

The Fun Shoot contests, which include skeet, trap and sporting clays events for all levels, begin at 9 a.m. A noon lunch break will give participants a chance to remove their ear plugs and cool their barrels. Afternoon contests will continue until, as they say, “the last gun’s fired.” Prizes include hams, chickens, and turkeys.

Interested in “picking and poking” at sporting clays during the Fun Shoot? Contact Kurt Soneson at 825-3858 or Harold Gerow at 945-3545. Sounds like a good time to me.