Back when there were no regulations on striped bass fishing, a friend and I often trolled the Gaspereau River in a canoe, using squid and big spinners.  On some tides, when the run was good, we’d hook into a lot of fish. Since there was no size limit we’d keep any striper that yielded good filets.

We trolled with fresh water tackle, fly rods and Hardy St. Johns with lots of backing, and the undersize bass you have to release today provided great sport.  Occasionally we hooked into large bass but most of the fish we filleted ran five to eight pounds.

We experimented with various baits – herring, gaspereaux, mackerel and even shad strips. For trolling the most effective bait was squid. Probably because it could be cut up into strips roughly one inch by six inches and would take a lot of pounding, it was the best to use with on our trolling rigs.  At the time only a few local anglers used squid; most anglers fishing the shoreline and the Gaspereau River with heavy tackle preferred herring.  Bloodworms, another popular bait today, was unheard of locally decades ago.  Back then (in the 1950s, 60s and 70s) a few anglers fished for stripers with large clams but I never hear of this bait being used today.

Nowadays, squid is often the preferred bait with anglers fishing along the Minas Basin.  However, from what I’ve been told, striper baits apparently are like the fashion trends you see with clothing.  In Baxter’s Harbour, Bay of Fundy fisherman John McCulley packages squid, herring and mackerel for striper anglers. He says anglers sometimes get a run on a particular bait; one year it’s herring, the next season squid and so on; and there seems to be no particular reason for the changing preferences.

What’s the most popular striper bait this summer?  John McCulley says squid is again numero uno, or has been recently.  At the current local hotspot, Porters Point, anglers fishing with squid have been taking a lot of keeper size bass.

There are many striper hotspots long the Minas Basin shoreline in Kings County.  The Guzzle near Evangeline Beach attracts a lot of anglers, as does the lower tidal section of the Gaspereau River.  Striper anglers are like salmon anglers, by the way – mum about their favourite fishing spots in other words.  Often you only find out about a hotspot – through the angler grapevine – after the stripers have followed the baitfish to some other area of the coastline.

To see how popular the Guzzle is, by the way, take a look at the web sites devoted to Nova Scotia fishing.  Lots of mention of the Guzzle there; anglers either looking for directions to the Guzzle or mentioning it as a great spot to fish for striped bass.

In June there was around 40 percent more rainfall than the same period last year, with an above average number of cold and windy days.  May wasn’t much better; earlier in May there were a few days when the precipitation came down as short-lived snowfalls.

In past years when we had similar spring weather, grouse and pheasant numbers often were down in the fall.  My hunting records indicate some sort of relationship between the spring weather and my hunting success.   In other words, a good spring weather-wise, a good fall upland hunting season; a bad spring weather-wise, poor hunting in the fall.

Now, not being a biologist, I’m only guessing that inclement weather during the peak nesting period for grouse and pheasants resulted in fewer birds in the game coverts.  I’m speaking solely of my own hunting efforts; perhaps overall the poor nesting weather in May and June had no effect on how much game I found while out with my bird dog.   It may simply have been bad luck and a lack of effort on my part.

However, since 1960 I’ve been keeping notes on every hunting day I’ve been afield; and notes as well on every day I fished in the same period.  In my notes I recorded the weather through winter and in the fishing and hunting season.  With these records, it was a simple matter to determine what kind of hunting success I had following a cold, wet spring and summer.

Now, as I said, I’m a layman.  My record keeping, in other words, is by itself probably totally useless to trained biologists.  Nice to have, yeah.  But wildlife biologists rely on a lot more data than mean temperatures and amounts of rainfall when assessing wild game populations or explaining why a hunting season has been good or bad.

Anyway, I’d guess – note that I said “guess” – that the weather to date hasn’t been favourable for nesting grouse and pheasants; and likely not all that favourable for nesting waterfowl either.  I saw some early broods of mallards that were decimated by the cold, rainy weather in early May.

On pheasants and grouse, most information sources will tell you that cold, wet weather through the nesting season is tough on nesting birds and on hatchlings.  But how cold and wet does it have to be before game bird nesting is affected?

This question is difficult, if not impossible to answer. However, there’s an indicator of how extensive the cold and wet the weather has been through spring and it is corn planting.  Generally this is a reliable barometer of the extent of cold, wet weather and by extension, an indicator as well perhaps of how much game bird nesting might be affected.

The international conservation club, Pheasants Forever, sometimes refers to the planting of corn in pheasant belts as an indication of how weather might be a factor in nesting success.  Late planting due to bad weather, for example and possibly nesting will be affected.  Normal planting and perhaps weather won’t be a factor in nesting production.

“Really,” you’re saying to yourself.  “Sounds far-fetched to me.  It can’t be that simple.”

Okay, you’re probably right.  But just to see what effect the spring weather had on corn crops here, I contacted the local farming guru and  newspaper columnist, Glen Ells.  I ask Glen if the weather through May and June affected planting.

Most of the corn was planted on time, Glen said.  “I’d say the weather so far hasn’t hurt the corn crop.”

From this we can take it the cold, wet weather earlier may not affect game bird nesting at all, even though I speculated it might.  Let’s hope the corn barometer is right.

Brook trout fried in an iron skillet, the butter spattering in the pan as the fish brown up.

Is there any better spring dish?  Is there any better reason to go fishing than a golden brown, well fried, crispy pan of brook trout?

Anglers who’ve been fishing for brook trout more seasons than they can recall, pan frying them every spring, will tell you these are unnecessary questions.  Brook trout on the table, along with suitable condiments and vegetables, is one of the reasons most of us go fishing; in many cases probably the only reason.

Personally, I like a few dollops of catsup or salsa, along with a few onion slices with my trout.  I prefer eating small trout – and not because they’re safer to eat than larger fish when considering mercury content.  To me, the small trout taste better; they fry up crispier for sure, and the brown water, swampy taste of the larger brookies is absent.

As for the mercury content of trout, if you enjoy frying up the fish you catch, it’s something you should check into.  It’s enough of a concern that the angler’s handbook passed out with the fishing license every season contains a fish consumption advisory.  The advice, in a nutshell, is limit your consumption of freshwater sportfish, especially the larger fish.

The advisory doesn’t go far enough, however.  In effect, the advisory says that the mercury content is not all that high in rainbow trout, brook trout and white perch – below Health Canada Guidelines in fact – but just to be safe, limit your consumption of these fish.  Brown trout and smallmouth bass aren’t mentioned specifically but we should be cautious with these fish as well.

Where they don’t go far enough is limiting the advisory to freshwater fish.  From the studies I’ve read and what I’ve been told, striped bass and flounder also contain unsafe levels of mercury.  I’ve shopped several times at tackle shops in Maine where striped bass fishing was big.  At every store I was told that no one eats the larger stripers because of mercury content.  They simply aren’t safe to eat, is the word I got.

Yet here in Nova Scotia we’ve been legislated to release small striped bass, the fish that are safe to eat, and to keep large ones, the fish with high mercury content.  Don’t you find this bizarre?  The fisheries people advise us that due to mercury content in fresh water large fish we should limit our consumption to small fish.  Yet it’s a different mind set when it comes to stripers!

By the way: If you want to see how widespread mercury is in fresh and salt water fish, including the canned stuff you buy at the grocery store, go to your computer’s search engine.  Search for mercury content in fish.  You’ll be surprised and shocked by how prevalent mercury is in everything that swims in the water and has fins.  You may find that those pans of fried brook trout I raved about above don’t look so succulent any more.

How many anglers around the province fish for striped bass?  No one knows for sure but a marine license, which may be coming as early as next year, will at least tell us how many salt water anglers there are.

In the Federation of Anglers and Hunters fish committee annual report, Scott Cook estimates there are “well over 5,000 striped bass anglers” in the Bay of Fundy area alone.  Cook singles out Minas Basin as being one of the top striper fishing area in the province and he’s probably right.  Add the striped bass fishery along the Annapolis Basin, which was once one of the best areas in the province for striper angling, and you can see that the 5,000 angler estimate is likely a low number.

They came, they set up a special management area on the Cornwallis River, and they left.

I suppose this is an unfair comment on the upstream assessment of the Cornwallis River that started last year.  However, the word is that the assessment was kind of a flop, apparently because the study was set up in one of the most barren reaches of the Cornwallis River.   All that electrofishing, live trapping and angling to assess migrations of brown and speckled trout apparently didn’t turn up enough fish to make the study worthwhile.  Or so I heard at one of the wildlife association meetings.

Ever hear of the “lilac run?”

This is what an angling friend dubbed the spring migration of sea run brown trout up the Cornwallis River – at the time the lilacs are in full bloom, hence the name.

After fishing the Cornwallis River for over half a century, I never found any particular time when sea run browns ran up the Cornwallis.  Yes, there is a sea run, a good one.  On any tide, in fact, you’ll find a fresh run of, brown trout, all silvery and full of spunk from being in the salt water.  This is especially noticeable in the tidal areas of the Cornwallis River where, when we fished with bait, we often caught trout all running 11 and 12 inches.  The schools were like that, all trout of similar size and all moving upriver with the tidal flow.

How has your trout fishing been this spring?

Most of the anglers I’ve talked with tell me they’re having the poorest spring of trout fishing ever, and with no explanation of why it’s a below average.  Sure we’ve had some rain, but I’ve seen rainier springs when the trout fishing was great.

The anglers I’ve talked to have mostly been fishing streams and lakes in the eastern end of the Valley.  Wondering what fishing was like at the western end, I contacted Clementsvale angler Reg Baird.  Reg told me in a stream monitored every year the catch of brook trout is down a whopping 40 percent!

I assume from Reg’s report and my one man survey of anglers here there’s some kind of angling glitch happening this year.  Blame a changing climate, maybe?

Most anglers rate the brook trout as “the best eatin’ fish ever,” as a friend puts it.  Anyone who has had the pleasure of eating pan fried or barbecued brookies will agree that it’s one of the best when it comes to eating fish.  We’re talking fresh water and not salt water fish here, of course.  There are many who will argue that brook trout can’t compare to striped bass or flounder for table fare but, like I said, we’re talking fresh water fish here.

When it comes to frying up brook trout, the smaller fish are better.  To me, large brook trout, 10 inches or more, tend to taste a bit muddy or earthy – I can’t think of more appropriate words to describe the damp, river bottom flavour of large brookies.

Brown trout, even the smaller fish, aren’t as tasty as brook trout.  The same goes for rainbow trout.  Browns and rainbows have a bit too much river bottom flavour for me, but I suppose with a bit of experiment with various condiments they can be perked up and made tasty.

Fish for fish, I believe white perch and smallmouth bass stand out as superb table food, even when compared to brook trout.  To me, pan fried filets of smallmouth bass taste a lot like striped bass; pan friend filets of white perch are a close second.

Now, when it comes to eating fish not classified as a sporting species, the lowly gaspereau rates near the top.  For hundreds of years the run of gaspereaux has been a traditional spring fare in the Maritimes.  Never mind that nonsense about the gaspereau being to bony to enjoy.  Dining on the pale, slightly oily flesh of the gaspereau (which is high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids) is worth the effort of picking out a few thousand bones from each fish.

You could employ a method of preparing gaspereaux a friend told me about a few years ago.  After it has been cleaned and the scales and head removed, lay the fish on its side, cut along its length and remove the lower half of the body. This eliminates most of the rib cage and three quarters of the bones; what’s left is might good eating.

Here on the Gaspereau River and down the Valley on the Annapolis and Nictaux River I’ve never heard of this fish being called anything but a  gaspereau.  They’re referred to as kiack in other areas of the province, which might come from the Mi’kmaq word ki’ak.

Gaspereaux will take a fly, by the way.  I’ve caught gaspereaux in the Gaspereau River using size 12 yellow wet flies.  I’ve had to argue with federal fisheries officers on more than one occasion when doing so, however.  They told me I couldn’t legally angle for gaspereau, yet below me on the river fishermen were catching thousands of them in their nets on every tide.

Difficult to find nowadays is the finest fish treat of them all, smoked gaspereau.  At one time there were at least half a dozen smokehouses operating in the Gaspereau Valley when the spring run was on, all turning out smoked gaspereau.  I’m only aware of one smokehouse operating today in this area and good luck if you can get on the waiting list for a few of these golden, smoked goodies.

Anglers are calmer, more meditative than regular folks, say a bunch of scientists who have been studying stress and brain fatigue.

Back up a bit.  They didn’t single out anglers in particular.  What the scientists actually said was the outdoors had a calming affect on the brain.  Hang around in the outdoors enough and the effects of cortisol, a stress hormone that makes you cranky, easily distracted and stressed, will be washed away.

In other words, say the scientists, tests show the outdoors has a calming affect.  The tests measured brain wave readouts, indicating something as simple as viewing photographs of outdoor scenery relieves stress.

Now, I ask you, who hangs around more in the outdoors than anglers?  And what activity is more contemplative and obviously immersed in the potentially calming effects of the outdoors than angling?

So, I repeat myself.  Since the outdoors has a soothing effect on the brain, we can deduce anglers normally might be calmer and less stressed out than most of us.  Or to put it another way, stress of all kinds, the stress associated with everyday living and everyday problems can be relieved simply by picking up the rod and reel and going fishing for a few hours.

Anyone who fishes is well aware of this, that angling soothes the nerves and is a balm for the soul.  This was recognised and expressed as far back as the time the first books on angling appeared.  There  are lines in Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler (published 1653) that refer to angling as a rest to the mind, a cheerer of spirits, a diverter of sadness and a calmer of unquiet thoughts.  In the American and Canadian Sportsman’s Encyclopedia, published in 1913, angling is referred to as a “curious balm, a balm for troubles of the mind.”  Ray Bergman, my favourite angling writer, refers to trout angling as a “surcease from life’s trials.” You’ll find similar references to the calming effect of angling whenever outdoor writers stop preaching and teaching for a moment and become contemplative.

But we don’t need scientists and their experiments to tell us angling is good medicine.  Most of us discovered the calming effect of  fishing the first time we dropped a baited hook into a brook and sat back to wait for a trout to bite.  Some of my angling friends enjoy fishing so much that catching a trout or two isn’t as important as being out on the water.  They come home, they say, with a smile and if the creel is light, so what.

The booklet circulated at the Federation of Anglers and Hunters annual convention (held last month in Bridgewater) is interesting reading; containing resolutions member groups of the Federation bring to the convention, the booklet tells you what some of the latest thinking is when it comes to fishing and hunting.

Citing a great scarcity of rabbits, for example, the Queens County Fish and Game Association presented a resolution requesting a shorter hunting and snaring season, November 15 to January 31.  The Queens County Association also presented a resolution requesting clarity on the law regarding illegal feeding of wild ducks and geese.  It is not generally understood that this it is illegal to feed wild waterfowl, says the Queens County Association; and mixed messages about its legality is being received by the public from Natural Resources and the Canadian Wildlife Service.

These are typical of the resolutions on fishing and hunting that often come out of the Federation’s annual convention.  For the most part, however, the resolutions are a wish list.  Being okayed at the Federation convention doesn’t mean any changes, additions or whatever in the fish and game regulations and seasons addressed by the resolutions will ever come to pass.

What really makes really interesting reading are annual reports from wildlife groups and Federation associated clubs that are published in the booklet.  The reports usually review conservation and fish enhancement projects taking place around the province and other activities that benefit game and fish.  From the reports, we can see that much good work on our behalf is being done by wildlife associations and clubs affiliated with the Federation.

Now we come to the reports distributed at the convention by the wildlife division of Natural Resources.  It was no surprise when it was noted in the report (using Canadian Wildlife Service statistics) that there’s a long term decline in the number of woodcock hunters.  Back about 30 to 40 years ago almost every shotgunner I knew hunted woodcock, either avidly or at least a few times a season.  Nowadays, I’d be hard-pressed to name three or four serious woodcock hunters.

The DNR report also confirms what every upland hunter already knows – that pheasant harvests are declining rapidly, especially in some of the usually prime hunting areas in the Valley.  While no figures are available for the season that just ended, Natural Resources says that in the 2011 season the harvest was down in Kings County by about 48 percent and in Annapolis County down 68 percent.

When harvest figures are tallied and calculated for the 2012 season I believe we’ll see another drop in the pheasant harvest.  This opinion is based  on talking with hunters up and down the Valley and on spending a lot of time last fall in the pheasant coverts.

Readers of this column will recall I’ve often reported on efforts by wildlife associations and hunting clubs to have the waterfowl season extend into January across the province on black ducks, mallards and geese.

Most of the time it appeared those efforts were ignored.  If any word came back from higher up – read Canadian Wildlife Service or Environment Canada – usually it was that black duck numbers were too low to allow additional harvesting in counties where the season has been running from October 1 to December 31.

However, Environment Canada reports that in the past two or three years the black duck population has increased substantially – something like 30 to 32 percent.  As a result, Environment Canada proposes to implement several changes on black duck harvests and the waterfowl season in general.

If implemented as proposed, waterfowlers will have a longer duck season in the province and an increase in the early part of the season in the black duck bag limit.  Here, briefly, are some of the changes proposed for the upcoming waterfowl season:

Previously, the daily bag limit for ducks was six and not more than four could be black ducks.  For the 2013-2014 hunting season it is proposed to increase the daily limit of black ducks to six for the first part of the hunting season – October 1 to December 14.  For the remainder of the season the daily bag limit of six ducks will revert back to four black ducks.

Also proposed is an increase in the length of the waterfowl season for ducks from October 1 to January 14 across the province.  Waterfowlers in most areas across the province, and especially waterfowlers in the Annapolis Valley, will welcome this change.  I believe I speak for Valley hunters when I say we’ve often felt short-changed when we couldn’t harvest black ducks and mallards in January.

I’ve touched only on proposed changes in waterfowling that affect ducks such as mallards, blacks and teal, three birds heavily harvested by waterfowlers.  For a look at other proposed changes, on the possession limit of geese for example, check out the Environment Canada website.

While I’ve used “proposed” for the changes in the waterfowl season and black duck bag limit, I think you can count on them being implemented in the upcoming season.  As I said above, this good news for waterfowlers.  On the down side, similar changes on black ducks bag limits in other Maritime provinces are being opposed – on the grounds that while black duck numbers are up in recent seasons, the population is still low compared to what it was a decade or so ago.

What’s the difference between a good hunting season and a season you’d rather forget?”

A friend who hunts pheasants without a dog thinks the answer to this question is the number of birds you harvest.  He told me recently he was satisfied with his pheasant season, his brother and him bagging a dozen roosters between them.

Another hunter who has a bird dog told me his pheasant season wasn’t really all that good.  “I got a baker’s dozen exactly,” he said.  “A lot less than last year.”

From the perspective of these hunters, the number of birds bagged obviously determines how they assessed their season.  Which is fair enough.  While you could reasonably argue there are other factors determining how good a season one has, the bottom line is that you like to harvest game; why else would you carry a firearm?  So if you don’t bag much of anything and hoped to, you rightly could say you’re not happy with the hunting.

So I have to ask, how was your pheasant season, how was your waterfowl, grouse and rabbit hunting?   Did you base how it was or wasn’t on game harvested or on the quality of the hunt?   The “quality of the hunt” is difficult to define, by the way.  For me it means a hunting season is satisfactory if I’ve had good dog work on pheasants and had opportunities to bag a few of those crafty old roosters that haunt the corn fields and blackberry canes.  It means hunting on crisp, clear autumn mornings when there’s something intangible about the day that just seems right.

It’s not that bagging game isn’t important.  Like you and everyone who hunts, for deer, rabbits, grouse or waterfowl, I like to harvest wild game.  But just getting out in the fields and marshes to shoot something shouldn’t be all that hunting’s about. The other intangibles have to be there.

Now, at this point I should observe that the way grouse, pheasant and rabbit harvests have been dipping in recent seasons, hunters may soon have to be satisfied with quality hunts and not be concerned about filling the game bag.  Actually, small game hunting truly isn’t all that good here anyway, especially when compared to other areas across Canada and the States.

Let me give you one example.  I corresponded recently with a gentleman who owns a pheasant hunting ranch in South Dakota.  I discovered from him they harvest more pheasants in one week than we do here in an entire season.   Hard to believe isn’t it.  I was stunned to learn that besides planting vast winter feeding plots, the ranch also puts out at least a ton of corn every year as winter feed for pheasants.

It’s big business there, of course.  Pheasant hunting, as well as waterfowling and upland hunting, are pastimes here, pleasant, traditional pastimes where bagging small game in any quantity could and likely will  become a thing of the past.  It’s simply a matter of time.

Not to put rabbit hunters down, but waterfowling, deer hunting and even pheasant hunting calls for a lot more out in the field know-how and expertise than rabbit hunting does.

However, rabbit hunting is unique in that it’s the only sport where hounds (and snares) can be legally used to harvest game.  The hound work is what makes rabbit hunting attractive and unique.  Running hounds on rabbits, and all that’s involved, gives this sport an allure not found in other hunting.  As a guy who has spent many winter afternoons listening to the hounds and banging away at hares as they zipped across wood roads, I believe no other wild game hunting offers as much enjoyment.

As I’ve often said in this column, rabbit hunting appeals to many people because of its simplicity.  You don’t need decoys, game calls, tree stands, blinds, high calibre rifles, bird dogs, or any of the paraphernalia that goes hand in hand with upland, waterfowl and big game hunting.  You don’t even need a hound even though beagleing is the heart and soul of what makes rabbit hunting so great.

But appealing as it is, what appears to be a general scarcity of rabbits in many areas has seen harvest numbers and hunters declining.  According to statistics released by the Department of Natural Resources, the harvest plummeted over 50 percent last season when compared to what it was three seasons ago.  When last season’s harvest is compared to what it was six seasons ago, the decline is even more drastic.

If I read the DNR tables correctly, hunter numbers are also down overall.  This is natural, I suppose.  Some hunters likely have been discouraged by low rabbit numbers and as a result, fewer and fewer of them are taking to the woods.   Look for this to change when the rabbit population rebounds – if it ever does.

Now, what was this season like?  For one thing, I’m getting mixed reports as usual.  Most of the hunters I’ve talked with say hunting has been fair to poor and rabbits are difficult to find.  This isn’t the case everywhere.  There are always pockets here and there where hunting is good but, bottom line, the rabbit population has been low in many areas for years.

As I said, there are exceptions.  One hunter I interviewed told me he and his friends usually bagged six or seven rabbits every time they went out this season.  He hunts in a wider area than average, in Kings and Lunenburg County, using a couple hounds. While he says the season “wasn’t that good,” he and his companions had a better season than any other hunters I interviewed.