Frankfort news

By Tom Seymour

338-9746

tomgseymour@gmail.com

Let me begin with a correction to a past column. I had announced that Hillary Hoyt was awarded the title of Maine Teacher of the Year. That is incorrect. Instead, Hillary was named Waldo County Teacher of the Year.

History note

Frankfort saw lots of activity in June of 1905. An article in The Republican Journal states: “This is a busy town at present. Hundreds of teams pass through daily with supplies for the railroad and swarms of Italians are at work. The Mt. Waldo Granite co. have about 250 cutters employed at their work, besides a large number of quarrymen and roustabouts. There is also a large crew employed at the village, constructing a new dam.”

Under the feeder

There was trouble in paradise this week as a male cardinal, a stranger, attempted to infringe upon the resident male cardinal’s territory, i.e., my bird feeder. The two bright-red birds had quite a tussle, but the resident cardinal succeeded in driving off the intruder.

As for me, I’m just happy to have these beautiful birds visiting the feeder just outside my office window.

Perchin’ prediction

Red-hot saltwater fishing is on the feathery edge of bursting out. Another two weeks at most should see schools of mackerel coming into our bays and coves and the striped bass migration has already begun, with fish just trickling in, but soon, huge schools of stripers will arrive.

With this in mind, my friend and professional fly-tier, Ty Coates, sent me a goodie package and in it were two of his “Maine Mackerel Killers.” These are souped-up versions of the venerable Christmas trees, rigs with mackerel flies dangling from dropper lines. Ty’s rig, though, is the best I’ve ever seen and hopefully, I’ll get to try it out real soon.

Weekly quote

This week’s quote just goes to prove that taste is subjective: “Fredric’s pressed duck at the Tour d’Argent in Paris isn’t bad, but it can’t hold a candle to coot stew, properly cooked by a good Maine cook.” — Kenneth Roberts.