The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Bagging a Hare Can be Good Sport – and the Dining is Fine

February 02, 2010 - Besides tradition, exercise and just plain fun, hunting on any given day may provide folks a healthy, nutritious, delicious main ingredient to turn into a memorable meal – a celebration deserving of china, crystal wine glasses and candlelight.

After all, as Kahlil Gibran described so eloquently in his poetic, classic book, "The Prophet," whenever a creature gives its life for our consumption, the sacrifice should not be taken lightly.

Since this column began in March 1988, I have touched upon this philosophy over and over, so during a recent interview with outdoors-writer William Clunie of Dixfield readers can imagine my pleasure when he highlighted this concept.

After asking Clunie about favorite recipes for varying hare, which most Mainers call "rabbit," his normally energetic, enthusiastic tone rose even more – up a full octave as he waxed enthusiastically about a recent dinner.

William sounded as if he were describing dishes from La Tour D'Argent on 15 Quai de la Tournelle in Paris, one of the world's oldest and most revered restaurants. The establishment has served diners since 1582.

"For the last rabbit I shot," Clunie said, "Nancy (his wife) quick-fried the serving pieces in olive oil before simmering them in tomatoes seasoned with Italian herbs."

After an appropriate pause, he said, "Boy, was that meal good."

With the same intensity, Clunie continued describing the side dishes, including oven-roasted herbed potatoes and honey-glazed carrots. Adjectives flew to describe flavors, making me think that this man was surprisingly slender for someone so interested in eating.

In my Jan. 10 column, I talked about the scarcity of rabbits in the bottom third of Maine, but hares prove plenty abundant around Clunie's home in Dixfield and certainly in the big woods that start about 20 miles north of him and extend to the Canadian border.

In fact, these long-eared critters are so numerous that Clunie often hunts them with a Ruger Mark II .22 rimfire semi-automatic handgun instead of his other choice, an old, classic L.C. Smith 12 gauge side-by-side with one barrel, an improved cylinder to blast out a wide pattern of number 5 shot to nail fast-running rabbits, darting along well ahead of the hound.

One recent winter, Clunie invited Harry Vanderweide of Augusta to Dixfield to shoot rabbits with bow and arrow. Talk about a challenge.

For someone such as myself who finds these animals so sparse in central Maine, it seems unbelievable that folks would use a handgun or bow and arrow to make it more sporting. Down here, it's too sporting already.

When Clunie's beagle, Molly, chases a rabbit, he often lets her run without shooting to give her plenty of work. But, just the same, William shoots enough meals to excite him enough to go into an epicurean monologue.

When snow gets knee-deep, Clunie starts using snowshoes for this sport, which means webbed feet much of the winter around Dixfield where the white stuff falls early and lasts well into spring.

Clunie likes warm weather to thaw the snow and then have cold temperatures refreeze it so winter's mantle settles and crusts for his dog. When light, fluffy snowflakes pile too deep, short-legged beagles have problems plowing along.

For Clunie, a good day of hunting requires settled snow with a little dusting to cover old tracks. Then, he likes the snow to have enough moisture to make a snowball, which creates good scenting conditions. Dry powder without moisture means the dog will have trouble smelling rabbits.

Clunie worked as a guide for years, but a bad back ended that career. Before his forced retirement from this profession, though, he guided deer, moose and bear hunters, bass and trout anglers and snowmobile and ATV users. In fact, the latter two kept him hopping as a guide.

For anglers, Clunie uses a rubber raft with a rowing rig on top. It's such a heavy combo that the rope handle for pulling it once bruised the inside of all my fingers and palm when he and I dragged the craft up a steep ramp from the Androscoggin River in Bethel.

After bruising the right hand so badly, it's easy to see why Clunie's back gave out after multiple abuses like that.

As I said to Clunie the first day we hauled the raft up in Bethel, "We might as well be pulling a locomotive."

Bass fishing in the Androscoggin made it worth the aggravation for someone such as myself, who only wrestled with the raft once or twice each fishing season. Poor Clunie did it daily for months at a time year after year.

It's winter, though, and rabbit season is hitting full swing – a time to think rabbits and snowshoes instead of summer angling.

KEN ALLEN / ALLEN AFIELD, Portland Press Herald, January 31, 2010


Lakes:
Regions:


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News