New moose season causes confusion for some hunters Elderly man shoots cow during wrong week

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Floyd Reynolds has quite a story about his first moose hunt.

Reynolds brought a 538-pound cow moose into the tagging station at Springfield in northeastern Penobscot County near where he had been hunting the entire week. By all accounts he was as pleased as a first-time moose hunter could be. The trouble was Reynolds wasn’t supposed to be hunting for a cow moose last week.

Neither Reynolds, nor those running the Springfield tagging station at Smith’s General Store were aware his permit required that he hunt a cow moose for the week beginning Oct. 8. So Reynolds went home with an illegal trophy.

Reynolds, 76, was assigned the week of Oct. 8, the second week of the hunt, when all antlerless-only permits are to be used. The fact Reynolds shot the cow during a week he was not supposed to be hunting meant he shot a moose out of season – even though it was during moose season.

While the moose hunt was held in September 11 years ago, this year marks the first time it has been divided into a split season, with a portion of the hunters in the field the week of Sept. 24 and the rest in the field next week.

Maine Lieutenant Tim Liscomb said Warden Paul Farrington spoke with Reynolds about the gaffe after the Pittston man called the department to turn himself in for his mistake, which could have cost him $1,000 and three days in jail.

“After he went home, he figured out he goofed,” Liscomb said. “Paul Farrington met with the guy and didn’t issue him a summons. It was an honest mistake where this was a new season and the guy is in his 70s.”

Before Reynolds even made his confession, those at the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife headquarters in Augusta had already heard of the mistake from Stuart Smith, who owns Smith’s General Store. Given the circumstances, Reynolds was issued a warning before he even knew he was guilty.

Liscomb said such pardons are given out on a case-by-case basis and would not be common during the new season, despite the confusion it could cause.

Birds unflustered on opening day

The first day of bird season didn’t seem to fluster the grouse, quail, or pheasants Monday around the North Maine Woods, the 3.5 million-acre stretch of forestland managed both for trees and for recreation by several companies. There were just as many birds spotted as there were parked pickup trucks and hunters clad in orange along the Telos Road that leads to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Sunday, the Telos Check Point was like Grand Central Station with 137 hunters passing through on their way to camps. It kept as busy opening day with another 88 just going in for the day, according to checkpoint attendants, who say the flood of pickup trucks and campers coming through their gates this time of year is normal.

But the North Woods are not the only place chock full of birds.

The week before the season opened, in northern Washington County there were as many as 30 to 40 birds a day seen along the dirt roads off Route 9, according to Russell Green of South Berwick, who was hunting moose up that way last week. Green didn’t see any moose until the end of the week, but he said the birds were everywhere.

Biologists say the dry conditions in the spring and early summer made for a productive breeding season for the birds this year.

Flexibility in orange clothing

New legislation this spring allows hunters some flexibility in their orange clothing requirements for firearms season on deer, which begins Oct. 27 for Maine residents. While many area stores have not changed their inventory, some outdoor clothing dealers have already started cashing in on the new statute.

The law, which goes into effect this season, authorizes the use of a jacket, vest, coat, or poncho that is a minimum of 50 percent hunter orange in color, in addition to a solid-colored hunter orange hat, during firearm season for deer and all seasons occurring at that time.

Previously, anyone hunting deer with a firearm had to wear two articles of 100 percent hunter orange clothing, one being a solid-colored hunter orange hat, and the other being a solid-colored blaze orange jacket, vest, coat, or poncho that covered the torso.

In outdoor stores from Labonville Inc., in Madison to Willey’s in Ellsworth to L.L. Bean in Freeport, there isn’t a piece of clothing with a half-orange, half-camouflage color scheme.

But near New Hampshire, a state where the camouflage-orange law has been in place for years, Kittery Trading Post has a selection, and according to outdoor clothes buyer Jim Brewster, the store has increased its stock this fall 13 percent because of Maine’s new law.

“Before, we carried 2 to 3 percent. Now, we carry 10 to 15 percent,” Brewster said. “Now, with Maine the same way, there are a certain percentage of guys who want to be fashionable in the woods. I think [interest] will grow.”

Bass threaten Limestone lake

Incidents of illegally stocked fish have been reported more recently by DIF&W fisheries biologists in their weekly online fishing reports that run January through September. Biologists say they have been encouraged to report these incidents more. It’s not a case of more incidents happening.

But something biologists are not reporting often is work on reclamation projects to rid lakes or ponds of exotic fish that have been illegally introduced, something regional biologist Dave Basley was doing Wednesday at Durepo Lake in Limestone, where an illegal introduction of bass has threatened the brook trout population.

The lake, its tributaries, and its outlet, Limestone Stream, support a popular wild brook trout fishery. But if the largemouth bass illegally introduced there made their way into Limestone Stream and its tributaries, that could change.

Fisheries Director Peter Bourque made the decision to try to eradicate these largemouth bass in the lake using rotenone before they become established in Limestone Stream. For now, fisheries biologists are holding their collective breath.

Deirdre Fleming’s Outdoor Notebook appears every Saturday in the NEWS. She can be reached at dfleming@bangordailynews.net or at 990-8250.