We’ve been spending a lot of time scouting for the November rifle season, getting ready for what looks to be a pretty good year. While there’s a lot of talk about the declining northern Maine deer herd, our Central Maine deer numbers seem to be stable. During the scouting missions I’ve noticed the deer are really keyed on apples along with acorns and mushrooms. We have a pretty good mast crop this year and the beechnuts seem to be plentiful also. Chance are by the time November rolls around the deer will begin to move off apples and more toward the mast, but you never can really predict that. It’ll be based on weather – temperatures and wind. The more the apples fall in October, the fewer there will be left in November. Fortunately the mast crop is strong so the deer have plenty of wild foods available.
BOW HUNTING – Here in the Belgrade Lakes Region we are lucky enought to be close to the expanded archery zones in Waterville and Augusta. There are some awesome areas to hunt and the deer populations are high. We have some stands set up in prime zones and use climbing stands when hunters need to be mobile. I’m hoping to get out myelf a few more times in the next 2 weeks before Nov. 1, but it’s going to be tricky! We’ve got upland bird hunts and duck hunts already booked along with 5 more fishing trips. That doesn’t leave much personal time for archery.
Fishing – It always make me wonder why anglers flock to the waters during ice out when it
‘s freezing cold outside and the water temps are fridged, but they put their boats away prior to the exceptional October fishing. What’s up with that? With the exception of perhaps the June smallmouth bite, this is by far my favorite time to fish. This time of year we catch some of our biggest northern pike and bass of the year and the foliage is amazing. You don’t have to start at dawn either, which is seen as a bonus by some of my friends.
Foliage -The leaves are just about at their peak now and the color should last for about another 2 weeks. Sure is a pretty time for hiking.
Mushrooms – Speaking of hiking, the wild mushroom season for Oyster and Button mushrooms is almost here. It’ll be interesting to see how the season goes this year with all the rain we’ve gotten and the warm October. I know the early picking was really good for black trumpets, etc, so I think the October picking should be awesome!
~ Tight lines,
Mike
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