According to the obituary that ran in Monday’s editions of this newspaper, Charles Dowling Sr. of Whitneyville died at the age of 81.

I never knew Mr. Dowling. Never met him. All I knew was the stuff you learn from any obituary: Where he lived … how he put bread on the table … who his closest relatives were … and what he enjoyed doing.

Mr. Dowling, the obituary informed us, enjoyed hunting and planting flowers.

He also enjoyed Atlantic salmon fishing. That was in the obit, too. And it was the point of a message I received a day later, via e-mail.

Sometimes, my old journalism instructors told me, it’s the writer’s job to paint a picture. Other times, they told us, that’s up to the source … and the journalist ought to know enough to get out of the way and let that source talk.

With that lesson in mind, I offer you parts of the poignant e-mail Vaughn Anthony sent.

Anthony did know Mr. Dowling, you see. And he fondly remembers spending time on Down East rivers with this sportsman who has moved on:

“As we gather around our warm wood stoves on these cold winter nights and think back to our trips to Canada last year to fish for Atlantic salmon, it’s easy to miss the passing of one of the old and great Atlantic salmon fishermen of Maine,” Anthony wrote.

“In Monday’s Daily News I happened to notice the death of Charlie Dowling on last Friday. The talk of salmon fishing these days is the hope for the Penobscot, and maybe a chance to have some catch-and-release fishing for salmon somewhere, sometime in one of our Maine rivers again.

“No one talks about the good old days and the people like Charlie Dowling and his brother, Harold, harassing the poor salmon at Whitneyville 50 years ago. I was a young lad then, just discovering the joys and frustrations of chasing this great fish up and down the rivers, trying to find one that would bite my newly tied killer fly.

“Each day would pass and a new killer fly would emerge from my tying vise that I knew would catch anything that moved. Charlie was always there, or seemed to be, and he was catching fish. One year we caught 100 salmon out of the Machias River and Charlie caught more than his share. And if he had reported all that he and his brother caught, the count would have been even greater!

“For Charlie had a method. He never wore boots ’cause he (and Harold) couldn’t feel the temperature changes in the river that way. At Whitneyville the salmon used to pile up below the Whitneyville Dam (where there was an eddy that had the fish facing backwards into the mouth of the fishway) and they would lay in the pool below the falls all the way down to the bridge of Route 1A and throughout the big pool below.

“Charlie would walk the river in his old pants and sneakers and find all the little spring seepages of cold water which would sometimes hold the upstream moving salmon.”

Anthony wrote vividly of those past angling experiences, and his e-mail served as a history lesson for a neophyte salmon angler, like me. First and foremost, however, the e-mail was an ode to an old friend.

“Reading Charlie’s obituary brought back those old memories and made me sad. Charlie must be nearly the last of the good old fishermen that really knew how to catch those great old fish.

“I learned a lot from Charlie, Harold Wakefield and Roger Wakefield (who taught me how to catch black salmon in April in the Pleasant River) and from all the others that used to sit on the rocks at Whitneyville or on the benches at Academy or Cable Pool on the Narraguagus.”

Environmental changes have taken their toll, Anthony wrote, explaining that Atlantic salmon fishing isn’t the same … nor is the planet we’re living on.

“And so we sit by the wood stove, watch the cold winds blow, and think of the good old days and read of the passing of Charlie Dowling … and wonder, does anyone other than me remember him and how he would shuffle up and down the river, testing the temperature of the water with a great big smile on his face?”

Mark Latti of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife checked in with word you may have been waiting for: The DIF&W’s turkey permit lottery will be held on the morning of Feb. 10.

Our hope is to publish the names of all 15,600 lucky hunters in the days following the drawing. That, however, is still a work in progress, and I’m not making any promises that we may not be able to keep.

Whether we print those names in the NEWS or not, the good news is this: Plenty of Mainers are going to get a chance to go turkey hunting this year … and they’ll find out about their good fortune with plenty of time to stock up on the necessary equipment.

Get your catalogs out, and start dreaming along with me. New shotgun … decoys … camo clothing … a call or two … or three …

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