I have been at a two day meeting where one of the topics was how do we recruit more kids into outdoor activities specifically hunting and fishing. More importantly how do we get them to develop a conservation ethic? The future of wildlife conservation is very much in question as the numbers of hunters and fisherman face precipitous decline. Because much if not all of the funding for wildlife conservation comes from hunters and fisherman and there is not a young cohort in line to replace the aging population something will have to be done very quickly.
I spent last week in northern Maine guiding grouse hunters at Libby Camps. I enjoy the chance to spend time in remote country. The dogs seem to like it as well even though they arrived home exhausted. After a couple of days off they are sitting at the kennel gates waiting patiently to go again.
Today will be my last striper fishing trip for this year. It is a perfect fall day with a crystal clear blue sky and around 80% foliage change. The last two mornings have been very cold. In fact yesterday I thought that my clients might freeze. None of us was expecting it to be that cold or to be so slow in warming up. Fishing is slow but there are still fish around and I had a really big striper break my tippet Thursday morning. Here is one of the fish we caught yesterday.