Hungry raccoons did not find friends in this fishing party

The American Indians called him arukun. He foraged the woods and streams of this land long before the white man came. Chief among his physical characteristics is his bandit-masked face, a trait that immediately identifies him by his more common name, raccoon.

Besides the telltale mask over his eyes, the other identifiable attributes of the raccoon include a grizzled gray fur and a half-dozen rings of yellowish white and black on his tail.

His appetite is enormous, and he will eat almost anything available, including berries, corn, insects, mice and frogs. He has also been known to dine like a gourmet on fresh and succulent brook trout.

A party of four fishermen I know have little love for Mr. Coon. While they were camping northwest of Patten recently, one or an army of those bandits consumed four keeper trout, one a 19-incher. This particular brookie was destined to become a wall-fixture, once taxidermist David Footer had completed his art work. Raccoons are not on this foursome’s dance card. Ah, the

Hampden’s Bob Clendenning, whose main forte is real-estating sporting lodges, reports that he recently four-wheeled into Ross Lake and sighted 40 moose, 12 deer and two bear. The tough recent winter, he observed, had taken a toll on the wild creatures, noting deer and bear appeared lean.

Total Atlantic salmon returns to the Penobscot River in 1993 declined by 26 percent compared to 1992 (1769 versus 2,379) and were 34 percent below the five-year mean. Unless there is a surge of fish entering the river this month, one dreads to see the score at the end of the 1994 season.

For a change of pace and taste, try fishing for pickerel. They are plentiful and make mighty good eating. Pickerel are voracious feeders, and while many fish take to dieting during the heat of summer, pickerel remain active. You do not have to travel far from home to find pickerel. They can be found in any warm water pond. There are innumerable waters that need to be fished to reduce the number of pickerel in them. Food supplies often are diminished because of too many fish.

Resident fishers pass up pickerel as an eating fish because of their many bones. That’s a shame becauseing them. Pickerel make a delicious chowder. Poach them until the flesh begins to flake and you can then remove the meat without getting many bones. Another method is to score the sides of the fish before frying and the bones dissolve.

Gertrude Bartlett once made me a pickerel chowder at Baskehegan Lodge that put her name on my list of skilled kitchen mechanics. Gert could boil rawhide lacings and make you believe it was Hungarian goulash. Gert’s husband, Biscuit Bartlett, was another favorite personality. Biscuit knew his way around East Grand Lake.

I had a telephone call one recent evening from a Sangerville reader. He wanted to know the difference between a muskie and a bass. I told him two to four feet.

Yesterday at this hour – that is if you’re an early-riser – anglers Gayland Hachey of Veazie, Tommy Prue and Claude Z. Westfall, Orono, Jeff Melmed, Bangor, Charles Robbons and Murray Ruffino, Norfolk, Va., were having breakfast at home. This morning they’re breakfasting in Alaska and racing to reach the most productive-looking king salmon waters.

One of the most pleasing happenings thus far this fishing season is the high numbers of striped bass invading river estuaries. The lower Kennebec has been a happy campground. Stripers spawn in fresh-water rivers and they can be caught both there and in coastal bays, coves and inlets on light fresh-water tackle of all kinds, including fly rods. Thus, stripers make an excellent alternate for fresh-water fishermen when the dog days of August reduce the sport inland.

The trick in fishing for stripers is to first find the feeding fish. Since bass move inshore on rising tides for a diet of sea worms, eels, squid, shrimp and forage fish like menhaden and herring, the best times to search them out are the two hours before and two hours after high tide, especially if the tidal change coincides with the nocturnal feeding habits of the fish.

To locate feeding fish, watch for terns or gulls hovering over surf or rocky shorelines. If the birds are feeding frantically on surface bait fish, there probably is a school of stripers just below the surface.

An Atlantic salmon angler hooked, boated and released a 33-inch striper the other day opposite the Veazie Salmon Club.