MID-WINTER BLUES AND VINTAGE STUFF

The winter of 2011 started off pretty good,as far as New Brunswick winters go,but the last few days have jolted us back to reality. Snow and freezing rain and more snow and cold weather to come later in the week will challenge even the hardiest of outdoorsmen. Normally,we have enough ice to try fishing some of the back guts and ponds on the lower Salmon River but this winter has been so mild up to this point,we just don't dare to chance it. That will all change after the cold snap that's forecast for next week and hopefully we can get out and set some lines to break up the boredom that usually sets in at this time of the year with the conditions we currently have.

     Most sportsmen here in New Brunswick have been keeping their fingers crossed in hopes of a decent winter so our deer herd won't get hit too hard. Our deer kill has been down significantly the last few years because of the harsh winters we have been burdened with and despite having a very good winter last year,the nay sayers are forecasting doom and gloom already for next season. I will reserve judgement until a lat

er date because I usually try to stay optimistic unless it's just too obvious to ignore.
     There has been a lot of talk lately on New Brunswicks premier hunting forum,nbhunting.com,about how our crown lands are being managed.Many hunters are now starting to realize just how poor a job the big forestry companies are doing managing OUR forests.The big problem is the forestry companies are managing for wood fibre and practically ignoring the needs of game animals. As of late,this isn't setting too well with the hunters and fishermen in this province and the big forestry companies and the government of the day had better revise their game plan because the cat is out of the bag and the general population will no longer stand for this type of short sighted management philosophy. With QDMA getting organized in the province,I look forward to this grass roots group of land owners putting pressure on the powers that be to move forward and come up with a plan that includes something for the game animals as well as strictly fibre enhancement.Things are so bad right now that in my view,we can only move forward towards better management policies because there is nowhere to go but up and the status quo is certainly not acceptable to outdoorsmen as well as the general public.
     The one thing sportsmen can do to help the deer herd out is to target the coyotes during the off season.It's too bad the fur market is so depressed because our trappers here in New Brunswick would put a hurt on these deer killers in a hurry if the money was there to make it economically feasible to pursue them. Nova Scotia has a modest bounty on them and from what I hear,many trappers and hunters are really going after coyotes hard this year. The DNR in New Brunswick would do well to borrow a page from NS DNR's management policies regarding coyotes and implement some kind of bounty on these dirty buggers. Even contests for numbers and size of coyotes can make a difference and I see that this year there are different contests being sponsored in various areas of the province. This will help to keep the numbers down and at least prevent some deer from being taken down by our coyote/wolf packs.

     As I am sitting here at my computer writing this months blog,I glanced out the window after some movement caught my eye and there was a nice pilated woodpecker hammering on one of the large trees in my front yard. I've always admired these large colorful birds with their jungle like call but they haven't always been as plentiful as they are right now. The spraying of DDT back in the 50's and 60's nearly wiped them out.How rare were these birds back then? Well,I had experienced woodsmen tell me they didn't exist and that I was seeing things! That's how rare these birds once were. Since those days,these beautiful birds have increased their numbers to the point where they are regularly seen in any old growth forests left,where they forage for insects.Here are a couple of photos I snapped while my visitor posed for me.

This month I have include a couple of souvenir items from my collection of vintage stuff I have collected over the years as well as another TV or stand lamp.This lamp was probably made during the "sixties" in a crafts class or by some industrious person who made crafts such as this in their spare time. This lamp was made as a fireplace with actual stones used in the construction,as well as a hand crafted shade made from pieces of wood lathe.

The next photo shows two souvenir items I picked up recently.Although they were considered as tacky items in their day,nowadays people collect this kind of thing just because it is kind of tacky!Go figure.Regardless of motivation,there is a growing segment of the population that likes collecting this stuff.

I will end this months blog with a reminder to outdoor folks interested in a day or week in beautiful New Brunswick to give me a call or drop me an e-mail and Ken and I will arrange an adventure to our part of the province on Grand Lake that you won't soon forget! Until next time,Happy Trails to you,Until we meet again!

THE YEAR IN REVIEW AND VINTAGE STUFF

The year 2010 is coming to a close and for sportsmen it was both a good year and a poor one,depending on the species being pursued. We had a very good ice fishing season last year with many nice pickerel and burbot being caught,as well as some land -locked salmon and brook trout. As usual,we caught some smelt and a few yellow perch,although we don't usually target this species.We certainly have them in abundance in our home waters of Grand Lake and Salmon River but most anglers here don't bother with them. We do get a few Frenchmen from the north that really like catching them and some sports take home buckets of them to fillet and freeze. Although perch are a prolific species in our waters,we have noticed in recent years that they can be fished out in certain areas with too much pressure. It never ceases to amaze me that some people can over harvest fish from an area and think it has no effect on the numbers left to angle. Our resources are NOT infinite! Sportsmen must harvest conservatively or the day will certainly come when the fishing or hunting will suffer. I have seen this scenario played out many times in our woods and waters over the years and there is absolutely no need of this occurring.

    The spring salmon season was very good this year with many large salmon being taken.There was a very large run of msw salmon in 2009 and this was the reason so many large salmon were caught in the spring of 2010. Not all guides and sports experienced good fishing but if you had the right flies in the right pattern,the salmon were taking well. Although the run of sea trout was very early this past spring,there were very good numbers of large trout in both the Miramichi and Cains River systems. The fishing for brook trout in the early summer was also very good,with pan sized brookies taking everything being tossed at them.
    The fishing for bright salmon started off well but quickly deteriorated as the temperature rose and we experienced a heat wave that took its toll on both the salmon and the fishermen who angle for them. There was a large kill on the Miramichi because of the soaring temperatures and prudent outfitters and sports left the fish alone until the temperatures moderated and the fish weathered the storm,so to speak. There was some  excellent fishing if you were lucky enough to be on the water during these brief periods of opportunity but the timing had to be right. The same could be said of the fall fishing.The run of hook-bills was late arriving and it was only the lower stretches of the Cains that held some of the large males that Cains River anglers love to hook. The fall fishing on the Miramichi River was rather disappointing because of the high water conditions at the end of the season but there were some fish taken.           
     The striper fishing on the Saint John River was good again this year but you have to know your stuff or you could spend a lot of days going fishless. Good electronics combined with the right bait and gear usually produced fish for sports and guides who know the river.The musky fishing below the headpond was virtually non-existant because of the low water conditions and high water temperatures. The Mactaquac Headpond did produce some muskies in the Woodstock area but the fishing was still poor overall.
    There were good numbers of grouse and woodcock available for the upland hunters and Jamie and Dallas took full advantage of this fact by bagging many grouse while out scouting.
     If there is one species in New Brunswick that would be a sure bet to bag, it would have to be black bear. The province is overrun with these beasts and while trophy animals are a little harder to take,bagging an average sized bear is pretty much a slam dunk. This is the only species that I would say pretty much carries a guarantee to harvest. That's how good the hunting is in New Brunswick for bear.
     I wish I could say the same thing for white-tailed deer but I would be lying. That being said,there are still good opportunities for trophy white-tails,but you really have to work at it and Lady Luck must be smiling on you. The deer kill for the 2010 season was about the same as the 2009 season which was at the low end of the scale. The weather played a large part in the harvest figures with warm temperatures and high winds coupled with lots of rain keeping the numbers on the low side.
     We had a very good waterfowl season this year in our area. If you look back at my previous posts,you will see some photos of our group out hunting close to home on the first day of the season. Dallas and Jamie also had some good goose hunting during the early season in some private fields. I got a nice wood duck and it is at the taxidermists right now getting mounted.I've wanted to get one of these beautiful ducks done for some time now and I finally got a specimen worthy of mounting. The colors on these ducks are simply stunning.

     On a more personal note,I was fortunate to have won the 2010 Chipman Summer Festival photography contest in the wildlife category. The following photo is one of two puffins I took off of Grand Manan Island during a tour I took while vacationing on that little jewel of an island. I would recommend a tour of the island to all those looking for a relatively unspoiled natural paradise to vacation in.I really love Grand Manan and have visited there many times during my life and I will certainly be back there again.This little island has a good population of white-tails and many islanders were bemoaning the fact that an invasion of Frenchmen from the mainland landed there this deer season and since the island is pretty much private land,the inevitable hard feelings and ill will come to the forefront and many islanders are vowing to post their land to make sure another repeat season doesn't happen again. It will be interesting to see what happens next year on Grand Manan.                                                                                                                        

Although we are experiencing some unusually mild and wet weather right now,we are looking forward to some good ice next month so we can get out and do some ice fishing.This can be very enjoyable if you are well equipped for the weather and know the area you are fishing.We have ice shacks that are wood and plastic that we put out on Grand Lake,as well as portable huts for day trips on Salmon River,which has more sheltered coves to provide some cover from the winds that are always present at this time of the year. Our rates are very reasonable and if you require accommodations,the Pioneer Lodge has cabins very close to the lake where we fish.

This month I have a couple of very nice vintage items to show my readers.The first photo is of a folk art carving from a Quebec artist of a trout that has been mounted on a plaque.This carving was done at a studio and is signed by the artist. I am not certain of the year it was done but I am guessing the "60's".

The next item shown is a photo of a rifle I recently purchased with the help of a local antique dealer who picks outdoor items for me when he comes across them.I was absolutely thrilled to get this gun as it was done by a local who is now deceased.It is a "sporterized .303 British built by the late Moses Weaver of Coal Creek near Chipman. Moses or"Mosey" as he was called by many who knew him,was a guide who also did gunsmithing as well as carving and paintings of outdoor scenes during his lifetime. As of late,his folk art paintings are in high demand and commanding some fairly high prices,if you can find them. This is in part due to his living relatives seeking them out and offering high prices for these hard to find paintings,especially the larger ones depicting action hunting scenes. Moses also did a lot of guns for his American sports who visited each fall as well as doing carvings on guns for locals wanting a personal touch such as a deer head or a moose to decorate their favorite firearm. I feel very fortunate to have purchased this gun and I look forward to hunting with it next fall during deer season.By the way,its mounted with a Weaver scope. It only seems fitting.

In closing,I would like to wish all my friends and acquaintances a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy trails to you......Until we meet again!

BIG BUCKS,BUCK WARS AND MORE VINTAGE STUFF

New Brunswicks 2010 deer season is now one for the books and according to the numbers,it was a season very similar to the last one in terms of deer killed. The weather this year wasn't good for hunting by any measure and I'm sure this had a lot to do with the low numbers tallied this season. We had a lot of rain and many days the wind was blowing hard. This,combined with above average temperatures,kept the deer laying low and hunters out of the bush,choosing to drive around and staying comfortable in their vehicles.

      Our crew hunted hard,especially the last week of the season and we found both the hunting conditions and the deer numbers to be very disappointing this season. We started out,as usual,hunting the big woods of Gaspereau River and the Harley Road,which is on the eastern side of Salmon River. It didn't take long to realize that the deer continue to suffer a miserable existence in habitat dominated by Jack Pine plantations and too many moose. We usually concentrate on the different brooks and drainages in these areas and hunt the ridge lines that accompany this type of habitat. Many times these drainages hold the only decent habitat because of the buffers left along these brooks and the deer will use these spots as travel corridors,following the ridge lines when moving around from one area to another. These big woods bucks are having to travel further all the time because of the dwindling deer numbers and this makes it harder to catch them when they get running around looking for does.

     Kenny once again proved his worth as a guide by setting his cousin Duane up on a nice track in the area I got my buck last year.I have talked about Duane in previous posts and I spoke of his being in the Canadian Armed Forces. Because of his career in the military,he just doesn't have the time to scout and prepare for the deer hunt,so Ken does the scouting for him and helps get him set up on his post.Duane is a sitter and he has been greatly rewarded for his patience over the years,having taken many nice bucks while hunting with us.This year was no exception as he took a very nice buck,having only posted for about forty minutes before the buck stepped out at eighty yards.He hit the buck in the front shoulder and he dropped on the spot,which is always nice because it's not much fun trying to track down a poorly hit deer in big woods that run for miles.The following photos show Duane with his 2010 buck.

    I asked Duane if he was going to get his head mounted and he replied that he thought this buck was too small! I would be overjoyed to take a SMALL buck like this one any day! Although this bucks rack was on the light side and had short brow tines,he also had a nice spread of nineteen and a half inches and a kicker off the back of his G1 that added character to the rack. In Duane's defence,if you know the calibre of white-tail heads he has on the wall,I guess you could understand why he's calling it too small. Although Duane was the only one to score on a nice buck,Dallas had three chances at two different four pointers and Jamie and I both had a long distance encounter with a nice heavy ten point buck that was just too far away. Jamie had left his post at lunch time to join me at my blind and that's when the buck decided to come out in front of Jamies stand location. Talk about poor timing! Jamie also encountered a nice little six point and what Jamie later described as an absolute "monster"at lunch time on another day while out doing some scouting.Unfortunately these bucks were also well out of range and all Jamie could do was look at them and admire them from afar.

     The trail cam photos below show two of the bucks we were hunting this year. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos but unfortunately they were the only pictures I got of these bucks. The  second one on the right side of the page is the big boy I spent most of the season hunting. What is remarkable about this buck is the fact he wasn't the dominant buck in this area. There was a very large bodied buck in the area and we seen evidence where {the tracks} the buck in the photo was run off by the bigger buck. If you look closely at the photo of the buck I was hunting,you will see a tuft of hair sticking up on his rump as if he was prodded by a set of horns.I have seen this on other deer and this seems to fit the profile. The tracks of the largest buck were absolutely huge! There were also a couple of other nice bucks in the area that were travelling in the same area as the other two. The first buck on the left side of the page was a buck Dallas was trying to intercept but he's still running around out there.

    Although I wouldn't say 2010 was a good year for taking big bucks in our area,there were a few nice ones taken by some of the locals. A migrant hunter from the Moncton area shot a very nice wide and heavy nine point in Bronson that I never got a photo of but Trevor T. of Chipman got a nice even ten point while driving in to his stand just outside of Chipman. Trevor told me this buck had to be the stupidest buck in N.B. because he let Trevor stop the truck,get out and put his hunter orange on,load the gun up and walk out in front of his truck to take the shot! However you got him Trev,he's still a nice buck! 

    Another lucky hunter scored on a nice buck from the Coal Creek area. Matthew LeBlanc, a youth hunter travelling with his father,shot his first deer,  a nine point buck standing in a clear-cut. Matt dropped him with one shot at about three hundred yards! That's a pretty good shot, Matt! Hope you have lots more to come! The next photos are of Matthews deer.

    Kevin H. of Chipman got a nice wide nine point buck from the Harley Road and I've had an unconfirmed report of another young hunter that kill a huge buck in the Ripples area near Lakeville Corner that was over three hundred pounds field dressed! The word I got was the local butcher processed two hundred and twenty-six lbs.of meat from the buck for this young hunter. Unfortunately,I haven't got any photos of this buck,but if I get any I'll include them in a later post. The first deer registered in Minto this season was an oddity.Apparently,this deer was a doe with one horn in the middle of its head! In other words,a unicorn! Only in Minto!The local big buck contest had thirty-seven contestants and there were only two bucks registered.The winning deer was a six point, two hundred and three lb. buck. The runner -up was two hundred and one lbs. To me, that isn't a very good showing,considering the calibre of hunters that were entered in the contest. Two thirds of the deer hunters entered were what I would consider to be "hard core" hunters,with at least one good buck taken in the past. They all agreed the hunting was pretty tough in our neck of the woods this year.
     A trophy white-tail buck is one of the most sought after big-game animals in North America. Each year tens of thousands of hunters take to New Brunswicks woods in search of these elusive creatures and in the process of doing so,many times these hunters rub each other the wrong way.Sometimes its locals pitted against migrant hunters and other times its locals challenging other locals for what is perceived to be "their' hunting grounds. Why would grown men and sometimes women, get down-right mean and quarrelsome over the pursuit of an old buck deer? When I first pondered this question, I thought it was an ego- related thing such as "mines bigger than yours", but the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion it comes from a much deeper level. The emotions displayed sometimes between hunters comes from the instinct to survive. We hunters still carry this with us to a certain degree and many times when we encounter other hunters in our area,we instinctively feel a need to protect our territory from intruders. If a hunter could rationalize these negative feelings  and realize the origin of these emotions, he would soon realize the folly of his ways. Crown land belongs to ALL New Brunswickers and we hunters have to learn how to share it. It pretty much boils down to using a little courtesy and respect and most situations will resolve themselves. Another thing that pits hunter against hunter is the many debates about choice of weapons,hunting methods,hunting rules and a myriad of other subjects. Many times these subjects prove to be very divisive and we end up hurting ourselves  rather than improving our lot. So the next time you feel your hair bristle when you see another hunter in your area,try to remember that the emotions you are feeling come from a long ago time when things were very different. Take a deep breath,chill out and remember,that other hunter is most likely just like you, a regular guy out trying to down a big buck and get to experience one of the greatest thrills a man can have,wrapping your hands around a big New Brunswick white-tail bucks horns!

    The following photos show some more vintage items I have collected over the years. The second picture  is a stylized, hand carved goose that can be used on a nite table to hold jewellery or smalls. This nice carving is signed M. Thamlov and is circa 1965. The first photo  is a beautiful porcelain plaque with a painting of two brook trout,circa 1960.

The next  items are two very nice cookie tins,circa 1950, lithographed with a king fisher  and an ivory-billed? woodpecker. Note the detail and beautiful colors of the lithos.

   I have a ton of vintage items I have collected over the years that I will continue to include in my blog and I hope my readers will enjoy seeing more of this stuff in the future. If any sport,young or old,experienced or not,is looking for a guided adventure in New Brunswick, just give me a call and Ken and I will arrange a trip to the beautiful Grand Lake area that you will not soon forget!
     Play Safe and Happy Trails to you!.......Until we meet again!