Tuesday, March 18th, 2025

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Tuesday, March 18th, 2025

Breaking News for

Sportsmen Since 1968

Donald Wharton

New York’s Adirondack deer hunting holds plenty of history

The hunters were up and out of their camps early that morning on the West Canada Creek. Several of the men took the dogs into the mountains around the Stillwater and the others followed the shore or took boats to get into good positions around the Stillwater. French Louie picked out a choice spot at the head of the Swanson.
A couple hours later the hunters heard the dogs baying as they chased deer towards the water.

New York’s Adirondack deer hunting holds plenty of history Read More »

Hunting the Adirondack backwoods makes for some great tales to share

It was a warm day in the mountains, so rather than hunting I decided to do a few chores around camp, including splitting a little kindling.
As I was working on that a fellow suddenly came huffing and puffing up the brook in front of camp. He looked to be about 60 or so and a few years older than me. It was also obvious he didn’t know where he was. He also probably knew the forecast was for temperatures in the teens that night.

Hunting the Adirondack backwoods makes for some great tales to share Read More »

Black flies and brook trout create great adventures in the Adirondack backcountry

The first mile-and-a-half into the pond ended at the hardly discernible site of an old lumber camp. I knew there had been a lumber camp there 60 years earlier because I’d read about an old Adirondack woodsman named Ira Gray who’d stayed there one night while deer hunting.

Black flies and brook trout create great adventures in the Adirondack backcountry Read More »

What shaped the great Adirondack forest into what it is today?

Very often in the spring right after ice-out we would fish Long Pond in the backwoods south of Indian Lake. It was one of the best brook trout ponds in the area.
On many of our trips we would see large chunks of white aspen with the bark chewed off during the winter floating around in the pond. The beaver were there because of the aspen and the aspen was there because of a forest fire at the pond around 1900.

What shaped the great Adirondack forest into what it is today? Read More »

Looking back at New York’s Adirondack bush pilots of yesteryear

When I was a kid, I was lucky to go along with my father and a friend of his to set up the annual hunting camp at New York’s West Canada Lake. We flew in with veteran Eagle Bay bush pilot Bud Windhausen who picked us up at a place called Shallow Shore, in Speculator.
This was a great trip for me to be back in that remote country in the early fall before the start of hunting season with a chill in the air and leaves beginning to fall. One night we borrowed the ranger’s big flashlight and spotted five- and ten-pound lake trout spawning in shallow water next to the boat not far from the ranger cabin.

Looking back at New York’s Adirondack bush pilots of yesteryear Read More »

The ultimate trout adventure: Backwoods brookies

I got into backwoods trout fishing after reading an article in a national outdoors magazine about a couple of state biologists who hiked into a remote pond in what is now the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area. The author told of map-and-compass bushwhacking adventures and encounters with beavers, bears and large brook trout.
One of the story’s photos showed a trout too big to fit in a large frying pan. That was challenge enough for me.

The ultimate trout adventure: Backwoods brookies Read More »

Looking at 50 years of Adirondack predators

For several reasons there were many years when there were very few predators in the Adirondacks. Coyotes didn’t really proliferate until about 1970, some believe because of three severe winters in a row in the early 1970s that left the woods littered with dead deer in the spring. I remember loggers wearing snowshoes in felling trees and 3-foot stumps in the spring. If you saw a deer in those days, it was something to talk about back at camp.

Looking at 50 years of Adirondack predators Read More »

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