Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Black Bass and How to Make a Turkey Spur Necklace

Author Fishing with Son on Meddybemps Lake
Black Bass
Bring the Action June is peak spawning time for black bass and for a few magical weeks while the fish are guarding their nests, the angling is beyond compare. The spawn, abundant forage and jacked metabolisms, make bass exceedingly voracious and they attack lures with contempt, struggling against taunt lines with every ounce of their being. Angling excitement runs high, as aggressive strikes create watery explosions and hooked fish fly high into the air, in displays of astounding acrobatics. Meddybemps Lake (DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG), Map 36, D-4) and Big Lake (Map 35, B-5 and C-5 and Map 36, B-1) rank as two of the premier smallmouth bass waters in Down East and my personal favorites.

Meddybemps Lake at 6,765 acres contains numerous small coves, a rocky shoreline, abundant forage and a high quality spawning habitat. All of these essential elements combine to make the lake one of the best in the state in terms of the shear number of bass it produces. While bass are plentiful, they tend to decimate the available food supply, resulting in a below average growth rate. Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has classified Meddybemps as an S13 classification, to encourage an increased harvest by anglers by allowing “No size or bag limit on Bass”, except that under the general rules, only one bass may exceed l4in. Anglers should expect to encounter lots of small bass averaging between l0-12 inches. A great boat launch for accessing Meddybemps exists just off route 191 in the town of Meddybemps. Anglers should use caution when fishing Meddybemps as the lake is notoriously rocky, so slow speed, while navigating its waters, is mandatory.

Big Lake at 10,305 acres also maintains high a quality spawning habitat and the lake consistently produces of bass 11-14 inches. While even larger fish are always a possibility, extensive time and luck will be needed to find them. Access to Big Lake is possible via the west Princeton road, just outside of the town of Princeton. Fishing for bass is all about location, find underwater structure and the bass will be there. Depth maps and fish finders help anglers study bottom structure and locate fish but nothing quite compares to general firsthand knowledge of a lake or pond. Locating beaver lodges, underwater weed beds, sunken logs and stumps, rocks, shoals, ledges, drop offs and submerged islands, will put you leaps ahead of other fishermen. Mark these areas with a GPS or write down locations and you will be served for years to come with fishing hotspots. Sluggos, Blue Foxes and Terminator spin baits all elicit brutal early spring reaction strikes and anglers would be well served to have several of each in a variety of colors available in their tackle boxes before heading out. Having two poles ready and equipped one with a weed less Sluggo and the other with a spin bait or Blue Fox, anglers are well prepared for whatever conditions they may encounter.

Authors 2016 Spring Turkey
Turkey Spur Necklace or Hatband Hunters in pursuit of a tom turkey Down East this June will have from April 30th (Youth Day) to June 4th to score a trophy bird. Prime turkey hunting locations exist throughout Washington County, with some locales obviously much better than others. Do not limit your hunting to large open fields, as often better hunting options exist on smaller skidder roads, snowmobile trails and power lines where the compacted areas work to funnel birds into effective range. After locating that perfect hunting spot, plan to hunt on weekdays, rather than Saturdays. Hunting pressure is lighter during the week, reducing potential conflicts with other hunters. Nobody wants to go through the heart wrenching dilemma of arriving at their prime hunting location, only to find someone already parked there. Also, if possible find multiple locations in which to hunt, should your first or even second choice become compromised.

An exciting hunt starts in Northfield (Map 26, B-2) and driving logging roads into Smith Landing, the beautiful Great Falls (Map 26, B-2) and continuing south, following the Machias River into Whitneyville. Birds can often be found along this route picking gravel from roadsides and feeding and strutting in the large expanses of blueberry fields.

After shooting a nice gobbler this season, most hunters will want to in some way preserve their trophy. While a majority of hunters mount the tail and beard, a lesser know way of preserving the memory is by making a turkey spur necklace or hatband. This is a relatively easy process, performed with a few basic tools.
1. Using a hacksaw, cut through the leg bone above and below the spur. This leaves a half inch piece of the leg bone with the attached spur.
2. Next, take a knife and scrape off all the skin from the bone. Remove a turkey breast feather from the carcass and use it to push the marrow out of the leg bone.
3. After thoroughly cleaning the spurs, let dry in the sun or in a bag of Borax and then use rough sandpaper to remove left over bits of dried flesh.
 4. The leg bones (not spurs) may be whitened by soaking in a dish of hydrogen peroxide.
5. For a glossy look, spray the spurs with clear polyurethane. 6. String spurs on a leather string, using wooden beads as spacers.

2 comments:

  1. I grew up thinking that black bass was a distinct species due to a delicious black bass chowder one of my "friends to the family" would make. While still young, I searched for black bass only to continuously catch large and small-mouth. To this day I am not sure if I was excited or disappointed to learn I was already catching them and that the elusive (at the time) black bass is not a secret ultra-lucky fish to catch. I also learned later that the chowder also included yellow perch, sunfish and crappie. Thanks to your blog I am reminded of this dish and may just resurrect it.

    Glad to see that you are still posting to blogger. It's been quite some time since I have been on my friend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Thom,

      Nothing better than a hot chowdah on a cold winter day. Deep fried "black" bass is also delicious! Thanks for commenting!

      Delete

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