I hate to belabor the point of time passing so quickly, but it is hard to imagine that another summer boating season on Lake Augusta has come and gone.
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources crews are stacking up the docks for another winter, and the familiar sight of boats zipping up and down the river won't be seen for a while. You will still see an occasional fisherman above the deflated Adam Bower Dam, but most of the fall fishing action is centered below the Bower Dam and the power dam. The area below the power dam has been producing some excellent night-time walleye catches.
The walleye anglers will be at it from now until ice, if we get ice. You'll see them out in all kinds of weather. Some old-schoolers prefer nasty, rainy, cold weather for walleye, probably because they then have the river to themselves. Walleye seem to like the cold. I have caught them by casting in between chunks of ice floating down the river. It makes me cold just to think about it.
For now, though, we are headed into the best month of the year. I like October so much that I'm going to start a petition to have six months of October. I like the brisk mornings and sunny afternoons, though they can only truly be appreciated while wearing an old, soft flannel shirt. The brilliant colors of the fall foliage, along with the aroma of the October woods, are a natural sight and smell tonic that will cure whatever ails you. Take the time and take a long walk in the woods sometime this month. The chattering of squirrels and the raspy call of the blue jays in the autumn woods always take me back in time.
Squirrels were the first game on the agenda. For a young hunter, they are the perfect quarry. Squirrels were really only a warm-up for the real thrill: Ringnecks.
It is now hard to imagine how plentiful they once were in this area.
There might be a trip or two upstate for turkeys, then came the big event, deer season.
Back then, it was a one-deer-per-hunter deal. If you shot a buck, you were done, whether you had a doe tag or not. Not every Tom, Dick, and Harry got a doe tag, either. I don't have to remind the older hunters how many deer we used to have. After deer season there was a bit of a letdown, as it was sort of the "peak" of the hunting season. But with the snow of winter came the bark of the beagles on the trail, and the hunting fire was lit again. A couple grouse tails on the shed door finished off the season.
The pheasants are gone. Rabbits and squirrels are still plentiful in many places. Turkeys have replaced pheasants and in many cases, deer. Deer hunting has changed dramatically.
We still have some good hunting opportunities. But I don't care what they say, I'd still like to see a herd of 15 or 20 deer trotting out along the side of the mountain. Seems to me the hunting was better back then.
n Ken Maurer, Herndon, is a licensed fishing guide and a regular contributor to the Outdoors section. Contact at kenrose@tds.net
Sports
Ken Maurer's Inside Line outdoors column: October the best month of them all
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Panthers, Shore to settle AAA crown
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Prolific offense carries Milton to final
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Panthers, Shore to settle AAA crown
