Staci Warren: Her Mainely Girl Adventures

Editor’s note: Staci Warren has joined The Windham Eagle to provide a unique woman’s perspective and column on the outdoors every month. She is a freelance writer whose blog, My Mainely Girl Adventures, is about a woman hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging and living in the Maine outdoors. She also loves camping, star gazing, wildlife watching, and hunting for fossils. She’s an active member and board member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is a monthly columnist and feature writer for The Maine Sportsman Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys mentoring women hunters and trappers.

By Staci Warren

Welcome to my first column as a writer for The Windham Eagle! I am a woman who is also a hunter, fisherman, forager, and trapper. I was not raised in a hunting family – my father owned five guns that were inherited and sat in the corner of my parents’ closet unused. I never understood the lure of hunting and in fact, could have easily been an anti-hunter had I not met my husband who basically lived and breathed hunting from the time he could hold a shotgun. I considered myself a hunting widow once deer season started and was annoyed with it by the end because while he was out hunting, i.e., having a good time, I was working full-time, caring for kids, the house and pets. I’m sure many women can relate.

Staci Warren with a nice native
brook trout caught by fly
fishing. SUBMITTED PHOTO 

As my kids got older, I was working a full-time job, attending college part-time and still doing all the stuff that moms do, but I actually felt like I had more time on my hands. We started camping in remote parts of Maine and took up fly fishing since the youngest of our children loves to fish. Fly fishing is now my preferred method, although striper fishing with quahogs is a lot of fun too. I hope to try fly fishing for striper soon.

At this time, the turkey hunting lottery also was established. In an effort to increase his chances of getting a permit, my husband asked me to apply. I had held a hunting license long before hunter safety courses were required, just to say I had one, so applying was easy. I ended up getting drawn for the permit. My husband, John, expecting he would be the one shooting, was surprised when I said, I’ll let you shoot if I can’t shoot your shotgun.” Well, I shot it easily, so the hunt was mine. I ended up bagging a turkey 25.5 pounds, just short of the then state record. Then deer season started. John agreed to take me. It required me shooting his .44 rifle and walking into a stand in the dark to get set up before deer started moving. I had never ventured far from home, so this was a big step for me, since I was scared of dark (terrified more like it), and of noises in the dark, so luckily my husband would walk me into my stand -he did that for about two years. I ended up shooting a five-point buck that year! From then on, I used hunting to challenge my fears and insecurities, and I could see the change in myself. I have grown much more confident and am proud of the woman I’ve become.

I began bear hunting in 2016, the same year as the bear referendum. I had helped schlep bait for a couple years for my husband and sons bait sites, but never actually hunted. By now, I was used to walking into and out of the woods at dark, but not with bear around, so once again, I would walk in alone in daylight but would wait for John to retrieve me. This was not because I was scared, but his concern for me should I meet a bear.

In 2018, I shot my first moose and my first bear. I became a bona fide hunter. I never considered myself a woman hunter, huntress, or lady hunter; I am a hunter and a fisherman.

I took up trapping after seeing a fawn and doe followed by a large bobcat minutes later on my game camera. I ended up finding the carcass of the fawn that was evidently killed by the bobcat. The number of deer in our area was significantly lower than past years, as were partridge, turkey and snowshoe hare. I soon realized you can’t take from one end of the game pyramid without balancing it by taking predators as well. I began targeting coyotes and bobcats. We caught four bobcats and two coyotes that first year, and continue to see them on our cameras, but more deer and smaller game have been showing up. We get regular calls to trap nuisance beaver that are destroying trees and flooding camps, but just don’t have time for everything.

Foraging for mushrooms and edibles like fiddleheads and ramps have become a real passion for me and John. When we’re not fishing or hunting, we’re hiking into remote spots and picking wild Maine mushrooms. We pick about eleven different types and my cupboards are bulging with canned fiddleheads and mushrooms! Caution, foraging can be addictive.

As the seasons come, I’ll share with you my adventures and I’ll share recipes from my foraging, and hunting as well as crafts like making soap, body lotion and lip balm from tallow to utilize as much of my harvest as I can.

Bear season will be upon us soon, and I’ll be busy setting up a new bait site and prepping for the opening day in late August. I hope you’ll come along for the adventure, and in the process become inspired to learn more. <