For much of my adult life, I had fished for Atlantic salmon in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where guides told me long-lining was illegal for the king of freshwater game fish. That law struck me as odd, even though I seldom resorted to using the tactic in Maine, where it’s legal.

William Clunie of Dixfield, a fishing, float-trip operator, guides trout and smallmouth bass anglers on the Androscoggin River, and in summer heat, his bass clients outnumber trout casters interested in the river’s rainbows, browns and brookies.

When writers meet, a topic often pops up that intrigues me. Someone will mention an incident that makes such a salient point that the experience appears far too perfect to be true. Most writers feel reluctant to use these phony-sounding anecdotes, but as our courage builds through the years, we eventually write the story, because it’s too good for proving an axiom.

MONMOUTH — Jeri Kahl doesn’t belong to any birding organizations. And Midge Burns doesn’t consider herself a birder. But both women are loon experts on their respective big-loon lakes.