Penobscots push back moose bid deadline

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A few weeks back I told you about an opportunity being offered by the Penobscot Indian Nation to a few eager moose hunters.

For the first time, the Penobscots are going to open their land to an open moose hunt for as many as four nontribal members.

The catch: Only the four top bidders who exceed the minimum bid of $10,000 will get to hunt.

Earlier this week, John Banks, the director of the Penobscot Nation Department of Natural Resources, said tribal officials had decided to extend the deadline for bids in the auction.

The new deadline for sealed bids is Sept. 21.

The hunts are scheduled to take place Oct. 1-5, with each winner hunting a separate piece of Penobscot Nation land.

The winning bidders will receive a hunt, with all lodging, transportation and meals, and will be taken afield by a Penobscot Indian guide.

For more information, call Banks at 817-7330 or go to www.penobscotnation.org.

Any-deer drawing Friday

If you entered your name in this year’s any-deer permit lottery this year, tomorrow’s your lucky day … maybe … as the state Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife makes its selections.

Actually, your chances are quite good: A total of 66,275 permits will be handed out to hunters who will be allowed to shoot does or fawns during the regular firearms season on deer.

Fail to get one of those permits, and you’re restricted to “horn hunting” in November.

As has been the case for the past several years, the BDN will not publish the names of all lucky winners.

Before the existing system was instituted, printing those winners was easy: All we had to do was list a series of digits that corresponded to the last two digits of your hunting license, and we were covered.

The whole process took up a small block of column space.

Nowadays, hunters are allowed to request specific Wildlife Management Districts, and the list is much more cumbersome, as all those names would fill countless pages of the morning paper.

But the DIF&W will have all the names up on their Web site as soon as their computer completes the random drawing. You can find those results at www.mefishwildlife.com.

Salmon season to open

If last year’s fall experimental Atlantic salmon season taught us anything, it may be this: There aren’t many fish to be caught in the Penobscot River at this time of year.

As anglers proved last year, however, when this year’s fall season – no longer “experimental,” but now an annual event – begins Saturday morning, there will be plenty of Atlantic salmon enthusiasts on hand.

The monthlong catch-and-release season will be heralded by a unified salmon club breakfast, which will be held at the Eddington Salmon Club from 6-10 a.m.

Members of all three local salmon clubs – Eddington, Veazie, and Penobscot – will be on hand to greet old friends and tell fish stories.

And even if you don’t plan on fishing, you’re invited to come by the club and join in.

Many of the anglers who choose to wet a line will do so in front of the Veazie club, and many others will do so a bit upstream from the Eddington club, directly across from Veazie.

But it’s a good chance that more than a few anglers will be trying their hand within sight of the Eddington club, and those wanting to sit back and watch for awhile won’t have to move from the deck after their sumptuous breakfast.

See you there!

Brewer hunter safety course set

In last weekend’s editions, you may have noticed a voluminous list of hunter safety courses from all parts of our coverage area.

Unfortunately, one of the largest and longest-running courses was not included on the official DIF&W list, and didn’t make it into our paper.

On Saturday I talked with Tony Richard of the Penobscot County Conservation Association to see what was up with his club’s always-popular class.

He assured me that there’s nothing to worry about: The PCCA hunter safety class is again being offered on a convenient weekend schedule.

Richard said this year’s course will be offered Oct. 13-14 at the PCCA clubhouse on North Main Street. Registration will be held Oct. 13 from 7-8 a.m., and classes will run from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. each day.

The cost is $3.

Richard advises students to bring a lunch each day. The minimum age for the class is 10, and students ages 10-12 must be accompanied by an adult.

As a proud graduate of the same PCCA hunter safety course, I’ve got nothing but praise for the program they put on.

And offering the class in a convenient two-day format is also a plus in my book.

To preregister, call Tony Richard at 827-3440.

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