Beginning Monday, you’ll be able to see a bit more outdoor coverage in your local news market, thanks to a cooperative effort between this newspaper and Bangor’s ABC TV affiliate.

For quite some time NEWS executive editor Mark Woodward and I have talked about opportunities that could combine our paper’s resources and outdoor coverage with those of a local TV station. During those discussions, we decided that at some point, we would explore our options more closely.

That point has arrived.

I’m pleased to announce that beginning Monday, and running each Monday on ABC-7’s

6 p.m. newscast, I’ll take this column’s format onto the airwaves.

The weekly feature is called “Going Outdoors,” and in the weeks ahead, I’ll strive to take you places you haven’t gone, introduce you to people you haven’t met, and show you a variety of ways to have fun in the woods and on the waters of our state.

I’m sure I’ve got a lot to learn about TV, and to be honest, I’m more than a bit concerned that the TV camera will add 15 or 20 pounds to my already less-than-svelte frame.

We won’t even talk about the fact that it may or may not turn out (as some have suggested) that I have a face made for radio.

All that aside, we’re excited about the opportunity, and hope the crew at ABC-7 is, too. My columns here will continue to run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Some weeks, column topics may translate well to TV. Other weeks, they won’t. In those cases, we won’t be bound by turning NEWS columns into features, nor vice versa.

The common denominator, however, will remain: “Going Outdoors” will be about going outdoors … and finding stories and having fun while we’re out there. Just like this three-times-a-week column is.

And as always, you’re invited to come along.

While I’m a newcomer when it comes to TV, spending 11 years performing a variety of jobs at this paper has taught me a few things.

I figure the goal of TV news and the goal of a newspaper ought to be quite similar: We both strive to inform … and to do so in an engaging, entertaining way.

That’s going to be the key to producing outdoors features you’ll want to watch, and we’ll work hard to make sure that happens.

But the key to having those features be a success is you, the reader and TV news consumer.

I hope you decide to check out our new cooperative effort on Monday … and on the Mondays to come.

As always your feedback is welcome (and, I’ve found, necessary). So are your ideas for future stories.

Thanks for all your help in the past … and the help you’ll undoubtedly provide in the future.

Ice on its way

A quick drive around the greater Bangor area Friday showed proof that winter is, indeed, on its way. It also illustrated the fact that avid ice anglers need to use caution, especially early in the season.

First, the good news: The view from shore at Luckey Landing on Pushaw Lake in Glenburn showed nothing but ice.

Likewise, Hermon Pond looked completely socked in during a visit to the public landing at the foot of New Hermon Mountain.

Now, the caution: Though ice is certainly forming, venturing onto area lakes and ponds in the near future should be a very tentative, cautious process.

Freezing rain and sleet have given the ponds that seem frozen a white glaze of ice on top of the frozen surface, and this weekend’s accumulations may serve to further insulate the ice that does exist.

That will slow the actual freezing process, as the ice remains protected from the air as temperatures drop.

And as ice anglers know, early snow isn’t necessarily a good thing, for just that reason.

Many of the area’s local lakes and ponds – 93 in Penobscot County and 60 in Hancock County, according to a quick check of the state’s law book – are theoretically open to ice fishing as soon as ice forms in the fall.

Theoretically.

Anglers who find safe ice on those ponds can fish for warm-water species (not including bass), but aren’t allowed to fish for trout and salmon.

Still, opting to exercise caution when heading onto a seemingly frozen pond at this time of year is a wise decision.

Especially wise is the decision to leave snowmobiles and ATVs on dry land for a few more weeks.

Food for thought.

Deer kill lower than hoped

According to the state’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, this fall’s deer kill is expected to come up a bit short of expectations.

That will come as news to some hunters, who often depend upon their ears to arrive at their own early estimates.

Simply put, if you tend to hear more gunshots in your neck of the woods than you did the previous year, it’s easy to extrapolate that data and assume that hunters everywhere else are having better success than they did a year ago.

That’s the case in my preferred hunting area, where it seemed that the familiar sound of gunshots rang out every time I headed into the woods.

Some days, several hunters ended up getting shots at deer. Other days, it was a bit slower. But on virtually all the days I hunted, I heard someone, somewhere, taking a shot at something.

While my informal and unscientific data-gathering may indicate the deer herd in Otis took quite a hit (or, perhaps, that the hunters in that area are horrible shots) my method apparently doesn’t mean much in the larger scheme of things.

According to the DIF&W, hunting conditions weren’t ideal – noisy leaves and crunchy snow dominated – and that led to wary deer and a lower-than-expected kill.

Though an actual count won’t be completed until March, the DIF&W’s model, which uses the total number of deer examined by biologists at meat lockers, roadside check stations and home visits, usually proves quite accurate.

This year’s estimated kill is 32,000, which would mark a 6 percent increase over 2002, but an 11 percent decrease from the expected kill of 35,800.

The highest deer kill in the past 10 years took place in 2002, when 38,153 deer were taken by hunters in Maine.

According to state deer expert Gerry Lavigne, hunter effort and harvest were below par during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

“Hunters did not seem to be ‘cashing in’ their any-deer permits during the final week of firearms season, as they commonly do,” Lavigne said in a DIF&W news release.

As one who didn’t receive a doe permit this year, I can’t say whether I would have “cashed in” mine or not … had I had the chance.

As it turned out, I never had the chance at buck nor doe during the final week, and ended up among the thousands who failed to fill their tags.

As Red Sox fans say … or used to say … Wait until next year.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.