Seasons warming up for hunters, anglers

Saturday marked the beginning of fall for a lot of hunters.
The calendar may show Sept. 21 as the day the season officially changes, but Saturday's kickoff of the Adirondack black bear season is really the opener to fall for many outdoorsmen and women in the region.
The black bear season is the first big game season to open, and the next few weeks will see a flurry of season openers as bow, rifle and black powder seasons for deer get going.
Paul Jensen, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Warrensburg, said the DEC didn't get many bear complaints this summer. That seems to indicate there is plenty of food in the woods, which makes it difficult to forecast the bear season, he said.
When there is natural food in the woods, bears don't have to roam far to eat, making them tougher for hunters to find.
Mast crops seem pretty good in the woods this year. Acorns were plentiful early on in the woods near me in Queensbury, though they seem to have slowed down the last few weeks as dry conditions persisted. Jensen said the beech nut crop, a major source of food for wildlife, seemed decent.
"The wild cherry crop was very good," Jensen said.
The blackberry crop in my backyard seemed stunted by the heat and lack of rain, but the wild apple trees I've seen have had plenty of fruit.
Still, the hard freeze of May that devastated some orchards in the region will probably affect some wild apple trees as well.
The cool nights and shorter days have sent many hunters out scouting deer in recent weeks, putting up tree stands and preparing for the chance to wing a whitetail.
By all accounts, the area's whitetail populations seem quite healthy.
Deer signs are plentiful. There was little winter mortality during the mild winter of 2009-10, Jensen said.
The first deer season of the fall will kick off Monday, Sept. 27, with Northern Zone bowhunters heading afield. Southern Zone bowhunters can hit the woods Oct. 16, with the Northern Zone rifle season starting a week later.
Fishing options
Many diehard anglers know that the cooler, shorter days of late summer and early fall are prime time to fish.
Bass and lake trout begin to come up from the deeper waters of area lakes to beat the heat.
I've had some of my best bass outings over the years in September, particularly for smallmouths that seem to become more active in the cooler water.
I've also had some great days on area trout streams in September and October, but it's looking like there won't be many stream trips this fall unless the weather pattern changes. Most trout streams around here are as low and clear for this time of year as I can remember, too low to fish. Thursday night's rain helped a little, but not much.
There have been a number of fish kills on area trout streams this summer, and fish are likely stressed out by having been bunched in cooler, deeper holes for most of the summer.
Trout season closes on most local waters on Oct. 15, but some streams (Schroon River, Kayaderosseras Creek, no-kill section of the Batten Kill) are open year-round. I wouldn't bother fishing now, but if we get some rain they could be worth a shot.
Many area lakes offer year-round trout angling as well, including through the ice. Among them are Lake George, Schroon Lake and Brant Lake. Thirteenth Lake, an underrated trout lake in Johnsburg, and Palmer Pond in Chester are open through Nov. 30.
Don Lehman can be reached at dlehman@poststar.com.
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