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In
this Issue FIN,
FUR & FEATHERS
After the certified coldest spring on record, who would have figured it would get so warm so quickly. It all averages out, the old timers will tell you. Considering the phone calls I’ve had from experienced turkey hunters concerning a lack of cooperative gobblers locally, you could have knocked me over with a tailfeather when the state announced that the spring season harvest numbers were very close to a new record. The key word here I think is locally. Increased hunter numbers and hens that were on their nests the first week of the season had gobblers moving into areas where they are not normally hunted. Other areas within the district that had less pressure and were a little cooler perhaps had more hens in a breeding mood. Once mama has laid her clutch of eggs and is setting on them she has no need of Tom, and he is off to greener pastures. • • • • • At the public hearing concerning North and South ponds, state officials Mattson and Russo of the EPA outlined a plan to cut phosphate and other pollutants by 20 to 25 percent in the near future, citing pollution sources that abound in the 74 square mile watershed. Spencer took it on the chin, especially the water treatment plant. As I see it, they want the plant to squeeze another 30 pounds of pollutants from the effluent per year. The EPA’s own statistics show that tons of contaminants from uncontrollable sources, including the forests, open land, and wetlands, leach into these waterways each year, and they are worried about 50 pounds total that they feel they may be able to affect. “Much ado about nothing” comes to mind. If I can’t count the pebbles on the bottom of South Pond in 30 feet of water, well, I’ll just assume they’re all there. The EPA also wants to increase the height of the gate at South Pond by 18 inches, claiming (get this) that since the floodwaters come from the other end of the pond, this will not increase property and basement flooding for those poor souls that live along the river between the ponds. Bullfeathers. They claim to have gotten this info from the Army Corp of Engineers, flood control specialists. If these nitwits didn’t have North and South ponds to worry you over, they’d create a crisis elsewhere. Job security, you know. • • • • • Easter Sunday, way up in Maine, a litter of royally bred English Setter puppies was born. Two of them now reside in town. Paul Wozniak has a male and John T’s Easter Lily is in my kennel. Setter pups are cute in the extreme, and their boundless enthusiasm even wears out the grandchildren. Shoulder-length ears on the lemon freckled head wipe the food dish while she eats. The 9-year-old similarly bred male she shares the kennel with has become a mother hen and protective as hell of his young charge. I’ll tell you, grandchildren and puppies will keep you young and laughing a lot more than local politics, dealing with state agencies, and the local news. • • • • • The Worcester County League of Sportsman’s Clubs held its annual appreciation dinner at the Spencer Country Inn. Rep. Anne Gobi of Spencer won Legislator of the Year award, Jim Talvy of West Brookfield took the Agriculturalist award, Steve Howell of Paxton won Sportsman of the Year, and your lowly scribe took home the Words of Wisdom award. This is the second largest sportsman’s association in the state (the state council being the largest) and by a long way the most active. We hold many state agencies’ feet to the fire and more importantly do what we can to assist them in information gathering and creative implementation of their programs. If it were not for Terry Hanson and the Spencer Sportsman’s Club, there would be no northern pike program in Massachusetts. If it were not for the Mass. Conservation Alliance, the state would have lost millions of federal dollars per year for the last several years when the governor wanted to put dedicated Fish & Wildlife funds into the general accounts, and with G.O.A.L. and the MCA’s help recently, more millions were rescued from the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Act funds. The League is part of all this. We will lead the fight to make the state’s environmental arms strong and preserve the sporting heritage in this state for years to come. We will succeed. • • • • • Doe deer are more secretive of late, trying not to draw attention to the fawns she has hidden nearby. In an environment as lush as we have locally, twins would be the norm and triplets on occasion. These spotted fawns will stay put where she left them, and upon her return she will clean up any scent-producing material they left, and move them to another secure location. In an area with a lot of bear, this is their picnic season, so heavily do they prey on fawns. Around here coyotes are the major predators, but luckily rodents and rabbits are abundant enough with their litters to take up some of the slack. It is not too early to get the archery equipment tuned up, and/or replaced. The same goes for shotgunners. Then, with the equipment doing its part, all you have to do is practice, right? • • • • •
Imagine being on North Pond just after sunset. The breeze has died,
and the water lies like black silk around you. The quiet is broken
only by the sound of your spinnerbait purring along in the surface
film, when suddenly a huge hump bulges in the water 6 feet from
the lure and arrows straight for it. The rod is nearly torn from
your grasp—or—South Pond lies flat in the cool gloom
of an overcast evening. Fifteen feet below the surface and a ways
back from the boat, a miniature brown trout imitation is attached
to the ring eye with a loop knot in the fluorocarbon leader about
twice as thick as a human hair, all of these measures designed to
give the fraud maximum wiggle. The boat is going side to side over
the channel, letting the slight current work the lure. And in the
dark, the rod is whipped down nearly to the water’s surface,
and the reel sings its song. |
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