When fishing: Men do that?

My friend Staci and I went fishing recently. The water was down, the air wasn't too hot and the fish were jumping! It was the third time we had attempted to fish this spot and we arrived early enough to be the first in.

We had the luxury of being able to enjoy the nature around us and try out a few different flies to see what the fish were biting. A pair of Mergansers flew overhead and then swam past us while we stood waist-deep in the current.

We would cast, change flies and then change spots on the stream. It was great. Eventually, a man parked on the edge of the road and started walking down to the stream to fish as well. I wasn't the least bit concerned because I had just had a great experience in GLS with Greg.

I stopped watching him when Staci yelled to point to the fish jumping in front of her and then we watched as her fly rod created an arc back into the water and she started fighting the fish at the other end.

I left my spot in the water and walked over to offer any help and to snap photos. While we were taking pictures and admiring her beautiful salmon, the man congratulated her and then walked right past us to fish in the spot where Staci had just been standing. I was in shock. Who does that? We didn't look like we were packing things up and we were far from our two fish per day limit.

Staci explained that it happens A LOT to her. But only when she is fishing by herself or with female friends. It never happens when she is fishing with her husband. WHAT??!!

I was shocked at the clear lack of respect and sportsmanship that this guy was demonstrating. Not since dealing with my hippies have I been so dumbfounded over people's actions.

But, we had a couple things going for us that he didn't have:
1. We were in waders and could get a lot furthur out into the water than he could.
2. We are not women who will be pushed around.

I snapped this picture, knowing that I would post it to demonstrate the rudeness, and then changed my fly to the one Staci was using and proceeded to walk back out to where she had been standing and make him move to a new location. I worked on my casting and watched as a fish jumped a few times in front of me.

We fished for another hour or so then called it a day and moved on. Staci was able to take home dinner and I chalked up a few more hours of fly fishing practice. Disrespectful fishermen or not, we had a great time fishing the hidden streams in Maine.

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....

So much to celebrate - let's give away stuff!

As you know from my last post, this month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, 10 years of hunting with my Dad and a milestone birthday. In honor of all three, I want to give away some great Maine stuff to all of you! Rules: 1. Leave a comment 2. On Oct 28 (my big bday), Dad will pick a number and the corresponding post will win. What will you win? A big basket of great Maine and outdoor things! Such as: fly fishing flies, blueberry something, Maine maple syrup, apple butter (to be made by me on Tuesday), something related to deer hunting and a couple of great books signed by local authors. (Pictures will be posted when I am back at a computer). So thank you for your support and for helping my celebrate such a great month!!

So much for respectable stand placement

Dad has hunted on the land that houses the Sky Condo for the better part of his life. About six years ago, we built the SC and started hunting there full time. At that time, there were no other hunters near by. A few years ago, a hunter bought a bordering piece of property, re-did the old camp that was there and brought his buddies along. We haven't had a lot of incidents with them (trespassing last year, putting pink ribbon on my tree seat and lying to us when we asked them what they shot - a search through the list at the tagging station said an 8-point buck). Two years ago, Dad bought a piece of land that is separated from the Sky Condo property by a powerline and a driveway that is privately owned by our hunting neighbor. The land was bought in May and once October came, our neighbor put a treestand up along the edge of the powerline, facing our new piece of property and right next to our traveling path. We were cautious from that point ...

and a strong cup of coffee

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