Wayne Hockmeyer has spent his entire life in the outdoors. As a young boy he spent his summers and the fall in the mountains of western Maine where he developed a love of fishing and hunting. Starting as a licensed commercial float plane pilot and flying instructor in Canada in the late sixties. he began guiding hunters for trophy whitetail deer. In 1976 he founded Northern Outdoors, a company that specialized in providing guided outdoor recreation trips in the State of Maine. During the next 30 years, Northern Outdoors became one of the largest wilderness outfitters in the world. He sold his interest in Northern Outdoors in 2003, but returned to guide hunters and fisherman for Northern Outdoors in the summer of 2006.
During the fall Wayne set up a remote tent camp that hosted 12 hunters a week during the month of November. Snow falls early in the Maine wilderness and "Mountain Camp" became a classroom for Wayne and his two assistant guides. There were three unusual aspects of "Mountain Camp" that made it very different from virtually any other commercial whitetail operation.
1. Most of the woods never saw a man during the entire season and the deer behaved in a normal natural manner, something that is impossible in virtually every State in America, where an army of hunters invades the woods driving the deer in all directions, forcing them to become a totally nocturnal unpredictable animal. Cars, roads, houses, dogs, odors and noises the other 11 months of the year had already made them mostly nocturnal and drastically modified all other aspects of their behavior.
2. "Mountain Camp" utilized climbing portable tree stands and there were always 40 stands in the woods at all times. These 40 stands were continually moved to different locations by the guides on an on going basis. Each day the guides had 12 set of eyes observing 12 different areas and every night each hunter was debriefed as to what they saw and their observations were put in a log.
3. During each day Wayne and his guides sought new areas and changed stand locations. On many mornings snow covered the ground and the deer left a precise map of their movements and behavior. Often the last two weeks of the season had total snow cover. The information this provided told a detailed story of their daily activities. Tracks in the snow can not lie.
Normal, natural deer behavior on a daily basis, the large number of daily observations by a large number of men in many different locations and the many days of mapping snow cover soon exploded many of the myths that abound about whitetail. Within a few years these lessons resulted in Northern Outdoors building a reputation of producing the biggest bucks in Maine history. "Mountain Camp" not only took Boone & Crockett bucks, many times it took multiple big bucks in a single week.
Today Mountain camp hosts 8 hunters a week and the camp is run by Wayne and Carl Staples. Carl is 26 years old and a Maine native. He has hunted all his life and 2008 will be his 3rd year at Mountain Camp.
Wayne recognized that Maine offered outstanding smallmouth bass fishing that was totally ignored by the fishing camps in the area and decided that Northern Outdoors would specialize in a species he felt was one of the best fresh water game fish in the world, Smallmouth Bass. The fishing was so good, he made a guareentee, "No fish, No pay".
In the early nineties Wayne began entering tournament bass fishing contests in Maine and Eastern Canada. Looking for an edge against other competitors, Wayne began experimenting with a new concept for a fishing lure, a fishing lure that actually looked like and swam like a real fish. The lure was the Banjo Minnow which led to his great success as a winning tournament fisherman and eventually to a very successful world wide TV infomercial. Instead of hiring a commercial film crew, Wayne choose to get the fishing footage himself and traveled all over the United States, Canada, Central America, The Caribbean and South America to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Banjo Minnow to catch all species of fish. He loves to show people just how effective the Banjo Minnow is at catching fish. Be forewarned, he loves to be challenged. If you can beat him with a different type of lure....no pay. Of course, Wayne then gets to fish!
Wayne has hunted in Africa, taken everything from Elephant to Kudu, caught Nile Perch from the White Nile, sailfish in Guatemala , boated Marlin and Tuna off Bimini, bonefish in Andros, made the first assents of various whitewater rivers in Quebec and fished the Grand Canyon from top to bottom (it has great trout fishing), but still thinks that early morning on a pristine Maine lake for smallmouth is hard to beat. Clean, clear water, pine scent in the air, mountains above, and a virtual guarantee of success, it's not a question of "will we catch fish?", but rather "how big?".
The other component part of Captain Outdoors guided trips is it's base of operations, Northern Outdoors. The reputation of Northern Outdoors speaks for itself. It is truly the world's first "outdoor adventure resort". It is unlike any resort you have ever visited. Located in a vast wilderness area, it combines a true wilderness experinces with most of the ammenities of the modern world. It has the unique ability of successfully serving those who think the "great outdoors is the space between the limo and the lobby" and the most hardened outdoor enthusiast. It has always strived to be the best at what it does, whether indoors or outdoors, whether you enjoy the bar, the hot tub, or a treestand in a frozen swamp, Northen Outdoors believes it is possible to be all things to all people. It is one of a kind.
