I’ve been writing a Quotable Sportsman column for The Maine Sportsman for five years, and over that period have reported on amazing, entertaining, and sometimes troubling quotes. From time to time I’m dipping back into those to share them with you in this column.
If I came another 10 years and didn’t get a bear, I’d still come back. It’s worth every penny.
Tommy Henley, a Tennessee bowhunter, bearless in his six years of hunting in Maine. Deirdre Fleming story, Maine Sunday Telegram, September 9, 2012.
A mother of 13 from Brownville offered a friend money to kill her husband and make it look like a hunting accident.
Associated Press story, Maine Sunday Telegram, September 23, 2012. Perhaps she thought 13 kids was enough?
Every single one that I found and that the other guys found, the show was just starting to come off them and they were totally untouched so it’s obvious it’s not a predator kill. You could see ticks right on them.
Eric Hall who with buddy Jerold Mason found more than 60 dead moose in the spring from the upper Androscoggin River Valley to the Jackman Region. Terry Karkos story, Lewiston Sun Journal, December 2 2011.
Fur trappers like myself are becoming rare. When I started buying fur 35 years ago, there were 150 buyers in Maine. There are five left.
Neil Olson who has trapped 10,000 beaver, more than 3000 red fox, and 1400 coyotes since 1973. Lewiston Sun Journal, November 20, 2011.
I just couldn’t believe it. When I was a kid, if someone had fallen in that river we would have sprayed them from head to toe with disinfectant. Now kids are swimming in it. It’s a remarkable thing.
George Marvin, who sailed from Florida and up the cleaned-up Penobscot River to attend the American Folk Festival in Bangor. Renee Ordway story, Bangor Daily News, August 25, 2012.
He was in fish heaven.
John Belvin of The Junction Store in Brownville after finding a mink in his tank of live bait. Lewiston Sun Journal, February 2011.
It’s a very emotional debate. People do it and swear its positive for the deer and it doesn’t matter what the science and the department say. That is a battle we are not going to win.
DIF&W wildlife biologist Lee Kantar, about deer feeding, a practice the department discourages. Deirdre Fleming column, Kennebec Journal, February 13, 2011.
Food plots will be used extensively in the future.
DIF&W Commissioner Chandler Woodcock, predicting this key activity will be a central feature in rebuilding Maine’s deer herd. At the Maine legislature, March 21, 2012.
PHOTO: Pileated Woodpecker carved by my Dad, Ezra Smith.