I posted this picture and caption on my Facebook page the Sunday after I got back from our 2025 Maine moose hunt. The post has reached more than 170,000 people and garnered 400 comments. I am currently talking with the Maine Warden Service and the Maine Professional Guides about what next steps I can take. I will name the guide and his guide service in order to make sure no other hunter has the experience that we had. A Maine moose hunt should be a celebrated event and for some, a once in a lifetime hunt. This is me after 3.5 days of moose hunting. It was one of the worst hunts that I have experienced. The guide we hired showed up hung over/still drunk from the night before. He admitted he didn’t scout. He slept in the backseat...
I had a pit in my stomach when I first saw the photo. I was ok with the bobcat behind my house. I loved having the fox around. But that coyote was an unwelcomed sight. To make matters worse, it was walking past my camera every night and every morning. Sometimes even during daylight hours. What is it about coyotes that causes us to have such polarizing gut reactions? I have hunted coyotes and I have seen them in the woods while I have been deer hunting. There are few things more unnerving than walking into your stand in the dark and hearing a coyote howl close by. The coyote on my trail camera was just too close to my house and looked too comfortable coming and going. I am not the only one who feels like this. The fur bearer management...
Hunting property in this state can be hard to come by. I am aware of that. 94% of the land is privately owned. I have put posted signs on the land that Dad and I usually hunt on to informed trespassers that the land is actively being managed, watched and hunted on. I also have a tendency of posting trail camera photos of trespassers on my Facebook and IG pages. I have no problem making these people internet famous. In almost every situation that I have encountered, simple communication would have taken care of any property line confusion or permission being (or not being) granted. The number of hunters is declining every year. We need to get creative in how we encourage more people to join our ranks. But, sometimes things happen that...
It was a miserable walk into the stand in the dark. Sheets of rain and wind pelted us as soon as we stepped out of the truck. Even though Dad had filled his buck tag, he was willing to head into a stand and hunt for a doe. We walked as quickly as we could to our respective stands and waited for daylight. I wondered if it was even worth being out because of how poor the conditions were. But, you can’t shoot a deer if you’re not in the woods. Around 7:30am, a deer hobbled into view and bedded down. It was dragging its right leg, not walking or putting weight on it. I know deer can survive with a broken leg but there is something about a wounded animal that just doesn’t sit right with me. I had both my buck and doe tag still in my...
When George Smith died three years ago, I lost one of my biggest cheerleaders. He was always trying to figure out how I could advance my outdoor writing career. He connected me with the editor at Downeast Magazine when they produced an issue all about hunting. My article was featured on the cover, and I was the center article. George published his book, "Maine Sporting Camps," one year before he was diagnosed. He asked me to write a chapter so that I could say that I was a published author. He was forever promoting me and encouraging me. When George died, the voice of the Maine's outdoors became quieter. Until now. It is with some emotion and excitement that I announce the launch of Hunt & Harvest. My monthly column will appear...
In October 2023, I met Jim Shockey during his stop at Cabela’s on his book tour. We talked writing, the outdoors and hunting. He invited me to come up to Pacific Rim Outfitters on Vancouver Island and hunt spring black bears. I couldn’t say no. When I stepped off the small plane at the Port Hardy airport, the weather had turned gray and rainy. I rented a car and made my way to camp. Dave met me when I arrived, showed me to my cabin, and told me that I could drop my bags and change before my guide R.J and cameraman Ryan, would whisked me off to sight in the rifle that I would be using. It was Jim’s father’s Remington 700 300 Win Mag with a Leopold scope. We arrived at a gravel pit that was frequently visited. Empty shells littered...
As the 2024 hunting season kicks off, I can not believe that it has been a decade of hunting bears in Maine! I remember planning the initial meeting at Cabela’s and inviting every hunter I knew in the greater Portland area. I wanted to prove that there were plenty of people who were passionate about bear hunting in Southern Maine. If I remember correctly, the room was close to packed when James Cote started talking about the bear referendum and what the plan was to win at the ballot box. I look back now and cannot believe it was 10 years ago! I had never hunted a bear. I knew how to talk about the various methods but I had not experienced a hunt. When that meeting ended, a bear hunter named Steve offered to teach me how to bear...
I leave my trail cameras out all year long. Photos of coyotes, deer, porcupines and racoons show up on my phone. But in the spring, those first trail camera photos of babies, cast off yearlings and bucks bring early season excitement to all of us. There is a fun uncertainty of what animals will show up in the photos. You don't have to be a hunter to enjoy getting a sneak peak into the woods around us. I think we can all enjoy the start of new life and new adventures.
The last thing you want to think about when you are chasing animals through the woods, is if you can physically do it. There are a lot of things that I can not control on each hunt but the one thing I can control was how healthy I am. So, when I saw my name had been called for my moose permit in 2021, I called my friend Jeremy and started training. Jeremy owns and runs Fit to Hunt, an online training organization that works with people to meet their fitness goals. He has created a few training programs for me depending on what I was hunting. My moose hunt focused on increasing my upper body strength so that I could hold my 7.5lb rifle steady without needing to rest it on a truck or steady stick. On the Wednesday of my hunt, things...
