Newly opened Cabela’s store in Scarborough worth the trip

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New Cabela’s worth the trip For sporting shoppers, browsersDuring the month of November, outdoor enthusiasts in these parts are likely to hear one question, over and over, from fellow members of the blaze-orange fraternity.

“Get your deer yet?” other hunters will ask.

This spring, another question has become equally popular, and everyplace I’ve gone in the last three days, I’ve heard a variation of it.

“Have you been to Cabela’s yet?”

My answer is “Yes.”

Cabela’s opened its first Maine store last week in Scarborough, and I got the chance Sunday to check out the 125,000-square-foot store for myself.

I was impressed, and I imagine most visitors were.

Here then, are a few reflections on my own two-hour tour:

. Cabela’s is not just a store. Not even close. On Sunday, many people were seriously shopping. Many others, like me, were just browsing and checking the place out.

Each group found what they were looking for.

For me, the highlights were the displays of game mounts – everything from a musk ox to a Cape buffalo to a black squirrel – and the massive aquarium, where pickerel, bass and trout swam past as dozens of visitors stood and stared.

. Even adults can be kids. I know. Many of us don’t need much of an excuse to revert to our childish ways. Cabela’s gives you the opportunity, and makes it fun.

A shooting range was mostly enjoyed by kids, but adults also took a few shots. And in several bins, inexpensive popguns were available for sale … and sampling.

One thing I quickly learned: When you hear a popgun war break out at Cabela’s, chances are the kids aren’t to blame. Adults got as much of a kick out of the guns as the kids did.

. Ever hear of Roxanne Quimby? One surprise was a sizeable display of Burt’s Bees products.

That company, you may recall, was once owned by Roxanne Quimby, who sold her share of the company and bought thousands of acres of Maine woodland. Many Maine hunters and anglers still associate the company with its co-founder.

Quimby doesn’t care for hunting, and access to much of that land isn’t as easy as it once was.

I heard several customers grumble about the display, proving that the grudge some Mainers feel toward Quimby still runs deep … whether she still owns the company or not.

. It’s big … but not that big. One veteran Cabela’s customer told me this store was a “baby” compared to some of the company’s larger stores across the country.

That may be true, but I found the store plenty big for a shopping expedition.

One piece of proof: One member of my party exited the store after our allotted time and was a bit disappointed.

“I wish they’d had an aquarium,” he said.

They did, of course. He just didn’t end up finding it, even after two hours of perusing the aisles.

Worcester cashes in again

On Tuesday I told you about local angler David Worcester, who caught his first Penobscot River Atlantic salmon in 10 years (the river has been closed to spring salmon angling since 1999) on Monday morning.

On Tuesday, I caught up with Worcester again, and he was still smiling.

The friendly Brewer fisherman had enjoyed another productive – if brief – morning at the Eddington Salmon Club.

On Monday, you may recall, Worcester’s day of fishing was over shortly after it began, as he caught a fish he estimated weighed eight or nine pounds after 20 minutes of casting.

On Tuesday, he returned to his lucky spot and repeated the feat in even less time.

“I was done in 10 minutes this morning,” Worcester said with a grin.

Worcester went back to the same lucky rock, waited for a lull in the ferocious upstream wind, and dropped his fly exactly where he wanted.

And when that fly swung past the holding lie that had produced Monday’s fish, his rod bent beneath another salmon strike.

Worcester’s second fish in as many days was about the same size as the first, he said.

With his day of fishing finished – anglers are required to stop fishing after catching and releasing one fish – Worcester had to make other plans for the day.

Not that his day’s chores took him very far from the river.

Worcester headed home, put his lawnmower on a trailer, returned to the Eddington Salmon Club, and mowed the club’s lawn.

And after that, he graciously passed along some salmon fishing tips (including the location of his lucky rock, and the holding lie, and the identity of the lucky fly) to a curious, rod-toting writer.

Congratulations, and thanks, are definitely in order, even if the writer in question found the fishing a bit more frustrating than Worcester did.

Postscript: On Wednesday afternoon, I headed back to Eddington, looking for Worcester.

I told myself I wanted to see how he was faring. Honestly, I was probably looking for a few more hints.

As it turns out, he’d already been to the river … and left.

According to angler Roger D’Errico of Hampden, Worcester spent only 10 minutes fishing on Wednesday morning before catching his third Atlantic salmon in three days.

jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

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