Once Maryland’s Deer Firearm Season opens the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it’s time to start planning a hunt to fill your freezer. Known for its thriving white-tailed deer populations, Western Maryland is the perfect place to harvest deer for the winter. Its stunning natural beauty has long attracted outdoor enthusiast and hunters. Whether you’re heading to Western Maryland from out of state, or just looking for a change of scenery from your usual tree line, read[...]

The first segment of Maryland’s muzzleloader deer season opens statewide Oct. 19. This is one of several deer hunting opportunities offered in the state and typically coincides with pleasant fall weather. The early muzzleloader season runs from Oct. 19-21 in Deer Management Regions A and B. Region A consists of Garrett, Allegany and western Washington counties (private land codes 250 and 251); Region B is the rest of the state. Hunters in Region B can[...]

Turkeys usually conjure images of colorful leaves and crisp fall days, but with the arrival of spring comes the start of turkey hunting in Maryland. Spring turkey season begins April 18, 2018 and lasts through May 23rd, with a special youth turkey season scheduled the weekend of April 14-15. Found across Maryland, Eastern wild turkey populations are near an all-time high – now numbering around 40,000 – thanks, in part, to an intensive trap and[...]

I am very fortunate to have been born into a family of avid outdoorsmen. Although I have few memories of my grandfather (his nickname was “Pop Daddy”), as he died when I was 6 years old, my father told me that he had a reputation for being a knowledgeable, self-taught naturalist and avid hunter and fisherman. Folks used to say, "If Pop Daddy isn’t catching them, there is no reason to go." I have wonderful[...]

Nearly 50 miles in length and straddling the Maryland-West Virginia borders, the North Branch of the Potomac was first surveyed under a British sovereign’s land grant to Thomas Lord Fairfax in the first half of the 18th century. The Fairfax Stone survey marker, dated 1746 and located at a small spring, still designates the headwaters, and can be visited today. Lord Fairfax was awarded all of the lands between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, and[...]

I can remember my first fish as if I had caught it yesterday. It was a small but spirited bluegill from the waters of the Gunpowder River on a simple cane pole. Indeed, a defining moment in the life of a young angler. I haven’t been the same since! Now, sixty years later, that special joy and excitement still fills my spirit every time I see a bobber dip below the water’s surface. To be[...]