The only people who are being successful at catching fish, especially in fresh water recently, are those who are on the water an hour before sunrise. How do I know this? Because I haven’t been getting out of bed early enough this year and my log is looking pretty dull with a lot of empty pages. As surface water temperature climbs into the mid-70s, 6 a.m. is just not early enough. Salmon have retreated to cooler, deeper water where a defined thermo cline has been set up. Lake trout are hugging the bottom, largemouth bass are hanging under the thick cover of pads waiting for anything to drop off into the water from the lily pads and smallmouths are finding it more comfortable in the deeper water.On the salt water front from Pete Santini’s Kittery Report, “The stripers have become a hit or miss situation right now. Some days they’ve been hitting pretty good but you need to fish deep. This is tube and worm type fishing and you need to fish very slow, 1.3-1.5 miles an hour and the same goes for if you are trolling live mackerel, which are also a very good bait for this time of year.” … “Quite a few schoolie-sized fish are hanging around the Amelia Earhart Dam – fish up to 34 inches. They’re feeding on the herring that are dropping back from the river.” … “The topwater fishing has been sporadic – early in the morning and out around Castle Island, and there’s some bluefish in the mix. Also, there’s still a flounder bite but you have to fish the deeper and rocky bottom, where they take refuge from the bluefish.”The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is now accepting applications for the 2014 Any Deer (Antlerless) Permit Lottery. Online applicants have until 11:59 p.m. Aug. 15 to apply at www.mefishwildlife.com, and those who want to apply with a paper application must do so by the end of the day on July 25. This year, there will be a total of 37,185 any deer permits available in 12 districts. These districts are primarily in southern and central Maine. This is a decrease from last year, when there were 46,710 permits available to hunters. “In the fall of 2013, we saw an increase in the number of successful hunters for the third straight season, a sign that the deer herd is rebounding from the back-to-back severe winters in 2008 and 2009,” said Chandler Woodcock, Commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. “While the deer population has made gains since 2009, this past year’s long, cold winter dictates that we move cautiously with the number of any deer permits we issue.” Earlier this year, the department decreased the number of moose permits available and suspended the turkey season in Northern Maine. Paper applications must be postmarked by July 25 or delivered in person to 284 State Street in Augusta before 5 p.m. on that date. Online applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 15 and can be found by visiting www.mefishwildlife.com.With some information still to be tabulated from physical check stations, MassWildlife Turkey Project Leader David Scarpitti reports that preliminary harvest figures indicate approximately 2,550 wild turkeys were taken by licensed hunters during the 2014 spring turkey season; slightly less than recent averages. Many factors likely contributed to the slight decline in turkey harvest in 2014. First, cold, rainy weather during the 2013 hatch (early June) resulted in sub-par poult production. Second, the longer, colder conditions of the past winter probably affected the timing and extent of spring turkey breeding movements. Finally, cold and rainy weather during the first week of the turkey hunting season when most hunters go afield may have influenced turkey hunter effort as well as turkey activity. Online game check, now in its second year of operation, continued to be a popular and convenient means of reporting turkey harvest, with approximately 60 percent of hunters choosing to check their game online, a 10 percent increase over last year’s online reporting. The fall