Every year I always look forward to making my pilgrimage to and every year I have certain streams and locations within those streams that I like to fish just after ice-out. I start out on the Presumpscot River in Windham and work my way north to the Kennebec and Penobscot River up north.
Hungry trout and Landlock have spent the entire Maine winter under feet of ice just waiting for me to present them my fly for the taking.
Every year I also like to try out new patterns, equipment, clothing and most importantly anything that will keep those mosquitoes, black flies and the infamous Maine's No-See-Em’s off me. See, for as long as I have lived flying insects that bite have always enjoyed me. At night, one mosquito in the cottage and the only one person that was repeatedly bitten, you guessed it, me, in just a single night and I would feed ‘em to satisfy their cravings for an entire week.
Couple of years ago I discovered a nice little product called AFTER BITE The Itch Eraser, it is a treatment for insect bites and stings as proclaimed on the side label. After discovering you have been bitten by an insect just apply it to the infected area and within minutes the sting and itch is gone.
Buzz-Off Insect Repellent was a nice product that I discovered up in Greenville and after the first year or so of use they were in violation of a trade name law and changed the name of their product to Lewey’s Eco-Blends.
Last fall I tested a product that you apply a patch to your body and the active ingredients will seep into you and some how it will run through your pours and repel insects. OK, worth a shot I thought. My first day in Alaska fishing as I was getting ready gear in order a fisherman came walking out and after a polite discussion on the fishing and what he used to take them he made the comment, the bugs are not too bad right now, but in a while they will be. I applied the patch to me and went fishing. I had forgotten all about it, the fishing, excuse me, the Catching was out of this world and it was sometime later that night it dawned on me that I had not one insect bite. Oh, I saw them flying around me most of the day, but not a single irritating bite. The product claims to last at least 36 hours, I had that single patch on for more than three days before replacing it with the only other one I had. The patches in my case worked as claimed and I believe that it made an already enjoyable fishing trip to America</ST1
’s Last Frontier even better.
This year I made a number of purchases of LL Bean’s Buzz-Off shirts as my product to test this year. Now regulars that frequent this chat board know my feeling on any of the LL Bean product, but this year I am putting it all on the line and let the chips fall where they may.
The very first morning of the trip as my brother cleaned up the remnants of the past winter around the cottage into something resembling a funeral pyre or one of the greatest rescue signal fire, I was set upon by a wild horde of mosquitoes that chased me back into the cottage with coffee in hand. First order of business a liberal application of After Bite to the vicious wounds I had just received, and an application of Lewey’s Eco-Blends, and from out of the bottom of my well worn travel bad, the first of the LL Bean’s Buzz-Off shirts.
Product testing had officially begun on Friday, May 25, 2007 at 0724.
A number of years ago I made a purchase at LL Bean of a hood and jacket made out of netting to keep those pests off of me. It’s the type of item you never want to be photographed wearing, but out in the Maine woods when they are out in full force I could give a darn what I look like as long as those mosquito and No-See-Em’s stay away from eating the flesh off my arms.
So for two weeks the ritual was shower, deodorant and a healthy dose of Lewey’s Eco-Blends.
Skipping a few pages of notes I will jump right to my conclusion.
I don’t know if it was the LL Bean Buzz-Off shirts, Lewey’s Eco-Blends, the LL Bean mosquito netting jacket, all's I know there was only a few times that I had to use the itch out and then it was only to my hands. The stuff must work on Black Bears also, I am happy to report I did not receive a single bite from a bear this year.
As always, when in Maine, </ST1I am happy when no animal or insect wants to eat me.
AK Skim<O</O<O</O
Hungry trout and Landlock have spent the entire Maine winter under feet of ice just waiting for me to present them my fly for the taking.
Every year I also like to try out new patterns, equipment, clothing and most importantly anything that will keep those mosquitoes, black flies and the infamous Maine's No-See-Em’s off me. See, for as long as I have lived flying insects that bite have always enjoyed me. At night, one mosquito in the cottage and the only one person that was repeatedly bitten, you guessed it, me, in just a single night and I would feed ‘em to satisfy their cravings for an entire week.
Couple of years ago I discovered a nice little product called AFTER BITE The Itch Eraser, it is a treatment for insect bites and stings as proclaimed on the side label. After discovering you have been bitten by an insect just apply it to the infected area and within minutes the sting and itch is gone.
Buzz-Off Insect Repellent was a nice product that I discovered up in Greenville and after the first year or so of use they were in violation of a trade name law and changed the name of their product to Lewey’s Eco-Blends.
Last fall I tested a product that you apply a patch to your body and the active ingredients will seep into you and some how it will run through your pours and repel insects. OK, worth a shot I thought. My first day in Alaska fishing as I was getting ready gear in order a fisherman came walking out and after a polite discussion on the fishing and what he used to take them he made the comment, the bugs are not too bad right now, but in a while they will be. I applied the patch to me and went fishing. I had forgotten all about it, the fishing, excuse me, the Catching was out of this world and it was sometime later that night it dawned on me that I had not one insect bite. Oh, I saw them flying around me most of the day, but not a single irritating bite. The product claims to last at least 36 hours, I had that single patch on for more than three days before replacing it with the only other one I had. The patches in my case worked as claimed and I believe that it made an already enjoyable fishing trip to America</ST1
’s Last Frontier even better. This year I made a number of purchases of LL Bean’s Buzz-Off shirts as my product to test this year. Now regulars that frequent this chat board know my feeling on any of the LL Bean product, but this year I am putting it all on the line and let the chips fall where they may.
The very first morning of the trip as my brother cleaned up the remnants of the past winter around the cottage into something resembling a funeral pyre or one of the greatest rescue signal fire, I was set upon by a wild horde of mosquitoes that chased me back into the cottage with coffee in hand. First order of business a liberal application of After Bite to the vicious wounds I had just received, and an application of Lewey’s Eco-Blends, and from out of the bottom of my well worn travel bad, the first of the LL Bean’s Buzz-Off shirts.
Product testing had officially begun on Friday, May 25, 2007 at 0724.
A number of years ago I made a purchase at LL Bean of a hood and jacket made out of netting to keep those pests off of me. It’s the type of item you never want to be photographed wearing, but out in the Maine woods when they are out in full force I could give a darn what I look like as long as those mosquito and No-See-Em’s stay away from eating the flesh off my arms.
So for two weeks the ritual was shower, deodorant and a healthy dose of Lewey’s Eco-Blends.
Skipping a few pages of notes I will jump right to my conclusion.
I don’t know if it was the LL Bean Buzz-Off shirts, Lewey’s Eco-Blends, the LL Bean mosquito netting jacket, all's I know there was only a few times that I had to use the itch out and then it was only to my hands. The stuff must work on Black Bears also, I am happy to report I did not receive a single bite from a bear this year.
As always, when in Maine, </ST1
I am happy when no animal or insect wants to eat me. AK Skim<O
</O<O</O
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