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Room 206 was standing-room-only this afternoon, filled with a crowd of anglers opposed to LD 42, An Act to Prohibit the Use of Rubber Lures for Fishing.

Apparently word spread nationwide about this bill. Standing in the Capitol Rotunda between the House and Senate this morning, Rep. Steve Wood, an IFW Committee member, told me he’d received 758 emailed messages on the bill, only one of which was in favor - and only 122 of which came from Maine residents. Steve said it was the most messages he’d ever received on any legislative issue.

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This is a continuation of columns about legislative bills. Today we move on to coyotes, crossbows, Sunday hunting, watercraft, and more.

Crossbows are getting more attention every session. This year four bills will unleash a major debate about how and when these weapons can be used.

Senator John Tuttle and Representative Steve Wood are sponsoring two bills each. Senator Tuttle has a bill “to allow a person to hunt with a crossbow” and Representative Wood has one “to expand hunting with a crossbow.”

Sen. Tuttle is also sponsoring a bill “to allow a person who is 60 years of age or older to use a crossbow during the open seasons on wild birds and animals.” And Rep. Wood is sponsored a bill “to allow hunting for deer with a crossbow during the expanded archery season.”

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All of Maine’s big game animals will get attention during this legislative session. Although only bill titles have been published so far, in addition to the first 200 bills that are now available, we can tell you what the major and minor issues are going to be.

A battle over bears is brewing. Senator Ed Mazurek of Knox County has sponsored the bill proposed by the Humane Society of the United States to prohibit bear trapping and hounding, ban the sale of bear galls, make a second bear hunting offense a felony, and ban spring bear hunts. I have heard rumors that HSUS may have removed from their bill their proposal to prohibit spring bear hunts, reluctant to battle Maine’s Indian Tribes on that issue.

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Among the more than 1700 legislative proposals, there are plenty of bills to keep sportsmen busy and entertained. From coyotes to crossbows and brook trout to bears, there are 107 bills governing hunting and fishing, by my count. Eight of those bills are mine, sponsored at my request.

Bill titles were posted today on the legislature’s website. If you want to check them all out, go to www.maine.gov/legis/ and click on Publications, followed by Legislative Information Publications. You can select a list of bill titles by sponsor or subject. But be forewarned! The list of bills by subject takes up 145 pages!

In this column, we’ll take a look at issues governing fish, fishing, and fishermen.

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We wondered if the hour-long drive on winding roads on the foggiest night of the year would be worth it. And yes, it sure was! Our dinner at 76 Pleasant Street will unquestionably be one of our best of the year.

Read More.

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A state Hatchery Commission, after meeting 15 times and spending $500,000 on engineering studies and plans, recommended in 2002 that Maine quadruple the pounds of fish grown in the hatcheries of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and stocked throughout the state.

The Commission, chaired by then-Senator Chandler Woodcock (I was also a member), found that “there is increasing evidence that the state’s recreational salmonid fisheries no longer meet the expectations of many anglers. In addition, other New England states and Canada are heavily competing for the attention of these anglers and may be drawing anglers away from the state.”

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My favorite wild game cookbook is Cooking Wild by outdoor writer and editor Ken Allen of Belgrade. Guy Gannett Publishing Company, owner of the Portland Press Herald and other newspapers, published Ken’s cookbook in 1986.

When Gannett sold its newspapers, the publishing company was dissolved and the unsold copies of Ken’s book were donated to the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, which sold them for $10 a copy until the supply was gone.

Ken began cooking at eight years old, in a family that depended on wild and seasonal foods. When he was 10, a visitor from Massachusetts asked him what his favorite food was, and was shocked when Ken answered, “Fried squirrel.” His cookbook contains six squirrel recipes.

I use Ken’s book often, and will in fact be using it this week when I prepare a couple of North Dakota pheasants for dinner.