As we reported in Friday’s BDN (and as you likely suspected, if you’ve been outside during the past few weeks and live anywhere near a lake, pond or mud puddle) the mild spring has resulted in many of the state’s lakes losing their ice much earlier than they usually do.
Shortly after open-water fishing season was declared open on Thursday afternoon, I spoke with Gordon “Nels” Kramer, a fisheries biologist who works out of the Enfield office for the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.
Kramer said the most surprising thing to him wasn’t the fact that Cold Stream Pond — a sprawling 3,628-acre lake in Enfield, Lincoln and Lowell — was ice-free.
The amazing thing to Kramer was how rapidly the lake lost its ice.
“It’s interesting,” Kramer said. “I fished not this past Sunday but the previous Sunday [March 14] and I had a dozen inches of ice. I went back last Sunday [March 21] and there was four inches.”
And the four inches that were covering Cold Stream Pond, he said, was not the kind of ice that he put much confidence in.
Kramer explained that over the years, he’s done plenty of survey work on lakes late in ice-fishing season.
Getting onto the ice in the morning on those days is often easy — a simple hop over three or four feet of water is all it takes — but biologists sometimes find it more difficult to get off their ice island later in the day. Warmer temperatures, wind or rain erodes the ice or shifts it, and biologists generally find it will take more than a short hop if they want to avoid splashing down in the water.
As a result, they sometimes end up wading across a 10- or 20-foot wide moat.
“Getting off [the ice] is always the most important part of the equation,” Kramer said.
This year, Kramer said, Cold Stream Pond went from four inches of ice on Sunday to entirely ice-free on Thursday morning. And that, he said, may be a record.
It’s certainly the earliest ice-out since the DIF&W began compiling records back in 1952.
“The earliest that I have records for, prior to this, is April 2, 2006,” Kramer said. “But the average ice-out is the 23rd of April. We’re about a month earlier than average and more than a week earlier than the next earliest date.”
Presque Isle show on tap
The sporting expo circuit moves to Presque Isle this weekend as the Presque Isle Fish & Game Club holds its 12th annual Sportsman’s Show.
The show runs today and Sunday at the University of Maine-Presque Isle’s Gentile Building.
More than 75 exhibitors will be on hand and plenty of children’s activities are planned.
Show hours: Today from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Sunday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Admission is $4, but children age 10 or younger get in free.
Turkey seminar scheduled
Avid wild turkey hunters are already planning their May adventures, and newcomers to the sport and others looking to hone their skills will be heading to Corinth for a valuable seminar on April 17.
The Wild Turkey Hunting Workshop will run from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at the Corinth United Methodist Church, and will cover topics like biology, locating birds, calling and setup strategies.
The course will feature Dave Priebe, a Quaker Boy Game Calls pro staffer, and Mark Caron, a biologist with the DIF&W.
Door prizes from Quaker Boy will be handed out to lucky attendees, and a pot luck barbecue will follow the workshop. Organizers will provide grills, hot dogs and baked beans. Attendees are invited to bring meat to cook or other food to share.
Admission to the workshop is free, but donations are accepted.
For more information or to register, call Dan Kusnierz at 379-2660 or go to www.corinthmethodist.com and click on the turkey hunting workshop link.
Moose permit deadline update
If you’re hoping to take part in the state’s moose hunt this year, there’s one deadline you ought to be aware of.
Those prospective hunters who apply for the annual permit lottery on paper forms must hand-deliver their forms to the DIF&W in Augusta by 5 p.m. on April 1. If the form is mailed in, it must be postmarked no later than April 1.
In recent years the DIF&W has encouraged prospective hunters to take advantage of its online MOSES system and apply for moose permits on the Internet.
The department no longer prints and mails applications to the participants of the previous year’s lottery. Those who don’t apply for the moose lottery through the Internet can print out a paper application through the DIF&W Web site and mail it to the department or stop by the Augusta office.
If you’re planning on applying for the lottery online, your deadline is not imminent: Internet applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on May 14.
