Lots of partridge and rabbits were killed in Maine in 1955. Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife sent a questionnaire to all hunters in order to collect game harvest information. Here’s what they found.
Deer 35,315
Partridge 185,690
Rabbit 193,525
Woodcock 22,660
Waterfowl 76,180
Gray Squirrel 27,940
Fox 27,940
Raccoon 31,290
Bear 2,275
Pheasant 34,145
I found this and lots of other interesting information and stories in the September 1956 edition of the Maine Outdoorsman and Conservationist newspaper.
I loved the story about awarding, for the second year in a row, a live Maine bear to the first Boston Red Sox player to hit a homerun during State of Maine Day at Fenway Park. It doesn’t say if the bear was on site to be handed over as the player stepped on home plate!
There’s a story about Blaine Grove who bagged the largest Tautog of the year, an 11 pounder caught off Nubble Light in about 10 feet of water. He used a double barbed spearhead.
And here’s another great story.
Ever see a fish eat a sea gull? A Neptune member relates that one day while relaxing on the veranda of the local yacht club, he saw a sea gull frantically struggling on the surface, only to be pulled under repeatedly until it disappeared from view. Then a large fish bobbed to the surface desperately thrashing to get down under. It had swallowed the sea gull and thus was too buoyant to sink. Our member states that he went down onto the float, grabbed the fish and hauled him up by the tail. It proved to be a large monk fish. When the belly was slit open a few seconds later with a pen knife, out toppled the sea gull, which flapped its wings experimentally a couple of times and then took off.
Amazing!
There was an article about what they thought was the successful restoration of Atlantic salmon to the lower Piscataquis and Pleasant rivers. And a photo of a nice striped bass caught in the Medomak River just below Waldoboro Village.
And there was a story of the arrest of a guy for poaching three deer. But he was released and the charges dropped after they found both of his hands in casts from a motor vehicle accident.
There was also a lengthy list of legislative candidates endorsed by The Maine Fish and Game Association. Of 162 Democratic candidates, 93 “have been named acceptable by the association, which also approved 107 of 177 Republican office-seekers.”