Sportshow Dates page updated at BWS OutDoors

We have updated our 2015 Sport Shows page to reflect the dates for the 2015 New England Sports Shows for boating, camping, fishing and hunting

http://www.backwoodssportsman.com/Sport_Shows.html

BWS OutDoors and Kevin Dahlke added to HSM Outdoors Field Staff

From HSM Outdoors

***Announcement***

We would like to welcome Kevin Dahlke to HSM Outdoors Field Staff. Welcome!

Kevin Dahlke:

Hails from Rowley Mass. Kevin is an accomplished multi species angler who owns and operates Backwoods Outdoors Guide Service. Kevin spends a significant amount of time on the ice. An outdoor ambassador, Kevin loves to teach his craft to up and coming anglers. HSM Outdoors is proud to add this East Coast Ice Angling Dynamo to the team.

Ice Fishing Derbies page updated at BWS OutDoors

We have updated our Ice Fishing Derby page to reflect the upcoming ice fishing derbies across New England and keep checking back as we add more as they become available

Ice Derbies at BWS OutDoors

2014 banner year for Lake Champlain salmon restoration

Officials from the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation today announced that 2014 assessment results show continued gains in the Lake Champlain landlocked Atlantic salmon fishery restoration program.

VT Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 19 2015 New Hampshire

Conditions: Cloudy skies, air temperatures low 40's, moderate winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Psycho Shad

Was time to head back to New Hampshire and fish our favorite lake and see what can be caught as we generally do well for large and smallmouth bass and last winter we were finding the large perch and bluegill as well. Since it had rained the day before, the ice was a bit of a mess as there was standing water in most places and wasn't the best conditions for keeping your feet dry.

Last summer I had found some new structure in this lake that I wanted to try during the winter months. It is an underwater hump kind of shaped like a banana and the outside edges were around 16 feet deep and the top went up to 6 feet deep. My son likes running tip-ups on this lake a lot so we surrounded the hump and also placed a couple on top for covering all areas around it.

Report at BWS OutDoors

Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept Holds Free Trapping Seminar

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department will hold a free seminar entitled “Trapping Through the Ice” at the Edward Kehoe Education Center in Castleton, on Saturday, February 7.

VT Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

New Hampshire Free Ice Fishing Classes!

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Let’s Go Fishing Program, in partnership with other groups, is offering ice fishing classes open to the public this winter. Several are still available and coming up. Classes are free unless otherwise noted.

NH Outdoor News at BWS OutDOORS

Free Maine Snowmobile Weekend Slated for January 30-February 1

Snowmobilers will have the opportunity to enjoy the trails in neighboring states for free during a special weekend shared by Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. This annual three-day event will take place January 30-February 1, 2015 and allows all legally registered Maine snowmobiles to be operated in New Hampshire and Vermont without being registered in those states.

ME Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 18 2015 Massachusetts

Conditions: Cloudy skies with light rain, air temperatures low 40's, moderate winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Duckbill Drop tipped with a Maki Plastic Mino in shiner color and also the Clam Pro TackleThe Drop tipped with spikes

Was planning a trip to New Hampshire but the weather was predicting rain in the early afternoon and a much better chance up north. So decided to stay local and fish a small crappie pond and see how we do as we have not been there yet this season. The access area is usually the last to freeze in the area and the first to open so you really need to take advantage of it while you can.

Wanted to try a different area than we usually fish as last fall before freeze up I had been in the kayak and located some nicer crappies there. My son did his usual running his tip-ups with shiner minnows and was getting a lot of flags at the beginning but the fish just were dropping the bait on a consistent pattern.

Continue Report at BWS OutDoors

KIDS OutDoors page updated

We have updated our KIDS Outdoors page at BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors for the upcoming outdoor education classes offered across New England for Jan 20 – Jan 28.

Kids OutDoors at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 15 2015 Massachusetts

Conditions: Cloudy skies with rain/sleet/snow falling, air temperatures low 20's, moderate winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Psycho Shad tipped with a Maki Plastic Mino Head in fathead color

The bigger bodies of water here on the North Shore of Massachusetts are freezing over nicely and this is allowing us to venture to more variety of lakes. This particular lake has an abundance of large perch but what I want to fish here is the elusive crappie that we have caught up to 17 inches in length and also the fantastic smallmouth fishery that it has to offer.

The navionics software that I have on my cell phone is getting much better all the time and this is showing us more places of where to fish. Can't totally rely on this feature all the time and by exploring the waters in the summer months and recording the data with good electronics pay's off huge when using that in the winter months.
Continue Report at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 12 2015 Massachusetts

Conditions: Cloudy skies with rain/sleet/snow falling, air temperatures low 30's, moderate winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Duckbill Drop tipped with a Maki Plastic Maki in white color

There was a lake that I was fishing last fall that was producing a great 12 inch crappie bite and wanted to give it a try this ice season. The lakes ice is setup very nicely with a solid 8 inches of clear ice and this part of the lake has a lot of structure contours that range for 6 feet in areas out to 20 feet in the deeper parts.

Started marking fish right away but was soon to see that all they wanted to do was look at the bait and refused to commit to biting. Typically when we run into this scenario, we just keep drilling holes and search out the more aggressively biting fish as changing baits didn't seem to make much difference anyway. Was fishing all of the depth variations and finally worked out into the deepest waters and had one quick school of crappies move through at 6 feet below the ice.

Continue Report at BWS OutDoors

Trout stocked for New Hampshire winter anglers

Winter anglers in New Hampshire had some trout stocked especially for them this fall. The New HampshireFish and Game Department stocks trout every year during the fall months, mostly to bolster the winter ice fishery. This should translate into some exciting action for winter anglers, according to Inland Fisheries Division Chief Jason Smith.

NH Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Maine IFW To Resume Capture and Radio-Collaring of Moose

Starting next week, The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will take to the air in year two of an intensive five-year moose study that will provide a greater understanding of the health of Maine’s moose population, particularly factors that impact their survival and reproductive rates.

ME Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 10 2015 Massachusetts

Conditions: Sunny skies, air temperatures low teen's, moderate winds, bait of the day - running traps with shiners as bait

The ice in Northern Massachusetts has finally come around so that we have safe travels and now we can stay closer to home instead of driving to northern New Hampshire. Today was going to be my son's choice of fishing day as to where he wanted to fish.

He picked a lake that has no depth contours as the majority of this lake is only 6 feet deep and he likes running traps and on a typical day here there is generally a lot of action. There were already a number of groups on the ice and fortunate the area that we wanted to work there weren't any anglers there.

Report At BWS OutDoors

Ninth annual No Child Left Inside Winter Festival

Grab your warm weather gear, bundle up your children and join us for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s (DEEP) No Child Left Inside® ninth annual Winter Festival at Burr Pond State Park, 384 Burr Mountain Road, Torrington.  A full range of fun, outdoor winter activities for the entire family will be happening on Saturday, February 7, 2015, 10 AM to 3 PM.

CT Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Deer hunting season on Black Rock Parcel on Block Island will be open Tuesday - Friday from January 20 to February 13

The Department of Environmental Management's Division of Fish and Wildlife is preparing for the annual deer hunting season at the Black Rock/Rodman Hollow parcel on Block Island. The Black Rock hunt will open on January 20 and run through February 13. Hunting on the parcel will take place weekdays from Tuesday through Friday, and there will be no weekend hunting on the property. Hunters taking part in this year's hunt were selected by a lottery application process.

RI Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Visit VT Fish and Wildlife at the Yankee Show this weekend

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is urging visitors to the Yankee Sportsman’s Classic show this weekend, January 16-18, in Essex Junction to stop by their exhibits and attend their seminars. 

VT Outdoor News at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 6 2015 New Hampshire

Conditions: Cloudy skies, air temperatures low teen's, moderate winds with snow falling, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Dingle Drop XL tipped with a spike and Maki Plastic Mino in shiner color

Still no ice security here in Northern Massachusetts so hopefully today is the last have to drive north to find ice day. Went back to central NH and stopped at a lake that once again, have wanted to fish but today was finally the first time able to get out onto it.

The weather wasn't really the best as the temperatures have finally started dropping into the ice making mode and on top of that the winds and snow were blowing quite a bit as well. Noticing throughout the day that the wind direction was constantly changing and that is never a good thing when you are fishing as it can change the attitude of the fish upon every direction change.

Continue report at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report January 2 2015 New Hampshire

Conditions: Sunny skies, air temperatures mid 20's, moderate winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Maggot Drop tipped with spikes, Blade Spoon tipped with Maki Plastic Maki in white color

The ice here in Northern Massachusetts is taking its sweet time in forming and getting thick enough for allowing us anglers to finally get our ice season underway. So we made the drive to the lakes region of New Hampshire and fished a lake north of lake Winnipesaukee. After dealing with a surprise snow storm we arrived at the lake and glad to see little snow and 7 inches of good ice.

This season so far we have been fishing lakes that we have never been to at all and always enjoy fishing new lakes and trying to figure them out. A lot of work goes into this before we even leave the house as we will research a particular lake on the computer as to get an idea to what the lake offers for fish species as well as to see how it has been fishing.

Continue report at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report December 27 2014 Massachusetts

Conditions: Sunny skies, air temperatures low 50's, moderate winds calming later in the day, bait of the day -Clam Outdoors Pro Tackle Psycho Shad

The ice here in Southern New England just is having a tough time forming this winter with the warm weather and rain every so many days. So with that there is no need to put the kayak's away yet as we are still able to fish the open waters.

Headed to a small local pond that has a good population of crappie in it. I have a number of new tackle lure items this winter season and lately I will generally pick one of them and fish that the whole trip to allow myself to get comfortable with it and see what and how the fish like and react to that chosen bait.

Continue report at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report December 19 2014 New Hampshire

Conditions: Cloudy skies, air temperatures low 30's, strong winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Dingle Drop XL tipped with a Maki Plastic Mino in watermelon color

At this time of year you really don't have a lot of choices to pick from for the lakes that you can ice fish on. Anything that has any size to it, will still be in the open water state and will be for some time to come. Also, we are all about trying new lakes that we haven't seen before and adds to the excitement of trying to locate fish on a body of water that you have no knowledge about.

So looking at the map and trying to guess as to where the ice will be thick enough to get out onto, the area that we ended up in is a river/swamp/open lake area that is suppose to be holding some nice fish. Upon arriving there, the gate to the boat landing was locked and we had to take a decent walk through the woods to get to the waters edge.

Continue report at BWS OutDoors

Fishing Report December 8 2014 New Hampshire

Conditions: Sunny skies, air temperatures mid 20's, moderate winds, bait of the day - Clam Pro Tackle Blade Spoon tipped with a Maki Plastic Maki in white

The ice has finally found its way to New England but to find safe ice to walk on you have to drive and find it. We finally found some in the lakes region of New Hampshire and the conditions that we had were 2 inches of clear black ice on the bottom with 2-3 inches of cloudy white ice on top.

Continue report at BWS OutDoors