In 1946, Arthur MacDougall, Jr. published “Dud Dean and His Country“, another collection of his popular Dud Dean stories. Dean was the fictional Maine guide who was the cornerstone of most of MacDougall’s writing. Tales of Dud Dean’s adventures captivated outdoor readers nationwide throughout the early-to-mid 20th century.
Click here to read more about Arthur MacDougall, Jr. and Dud Dean.
“Dud Dean and His Country” contains 12 stories and 171 pages of Dud Dean tales. Most follow a similar pattern in story development, with a heavy emphasis on dialogue and Dud’s famous storytelling. Dud and Mak (MacDougall himself) go on quite a few adventures, mostly fishing in the Maine woods. The book also includes a few hunting stories.
Here’s a recap:
Introduction – The intro to this book focuses on dialect. Throughout the development of the Dud Dean stories, MacDougall made it a point to emulate the local Maine dialect through his writing. That’s why instead of using the proper spelling for much of Dud’s speech, he would mold words to shape the way he believed Dud would talk. While it was a challenge, I think he mastered the art, and the many small intricacies of the local speech are recorded on paper as well as I’ve ever seen.
Dud’s Country, Its Men and Fishermen – This chapter is a bit of an introduction to the country that MacDougall wrote about in his stories. Most specifically, Dud Dean’s country is the upper Kennebec River valley. This is where most of the stories take place. But Dud’s country extends beyond the Kennebec, and encompasses much of Maine. MacDougall explains some about the Kennebec valley, the fish in the area, and how they are taken. It’s a great primer to set the stage for the stories to come.
The Angler From Athens – It’s a beautiful summer afternoon on Moosehead Lake, and Mak finds himself sitting on the shore, waiting for an evening fishing with Dud. It Just so happens that a fellow from the town of Athens is in the area for business, and has a hankering to do some fishing. He catches wind that Mak and Dud are headed out on the lake and ends up with them in the canoe. It’s an interesting evening of fishing. The guys have stumbled onto a rare occurrence: lake trout are rising to dry flies on the lake’s surface, and they are huge! Barns, the angler from Athens, thinks he has this fly fishing thing figured out, but he drives Dud and Mak nearly crazy with his incompetence. Someone has a huge trout on the line at the end, but whether or not he’ll land it is another story!
Dark of the Moon – Dud and Mak are waiting for dark to do some fishing for salmon on the Kennebec. They’re joined by a stranger, who sparks up a conversation and ends up staying to fish with them. While the stranger has read Mak’s stories on fishing with this Dud Dean character, he hasn’t a clue he’s fishing with the two in the flesh. As dark arrives, the fly fishing gets good. Mak has a nice fish on and the young man comes over to enjoy the fight. It’s here MacDougall inserted one of my favorite quotes: “Twice blessed is the man who is genuinely enthusiastic over a fish at the end of the other fellow’s line!” It isn’t until after some more exciting fishing and Dud’s expert landing of a monster salmon, that the newcomer realizes who he’s been fishing with. The fate of the salmon takes an interesting twist.
Crazy Stiller Goes A-Fishing – Pierce Pond in western Maine is well known for its ability to grow big fish. But, according to Dud Dean, it hadn’t always been that way. During Dud’s younger years, the pond was believed to be void of trout and salmon. Folks from the area spent considerable effort stocking salmon over the years, but as far as they could tell, nothing took. Pickerel were in Pierce, and as Dud states: “Pickerel an’ trout don’t mix, as everybudy knows. The pickerel welcomes the trout ‘ith wide-open mouths. An’ bine-by the pickerel is lonely.”
One summer, a traveling salesman by the name of Stiller wants a place to go fishing. Stiller is known to be a little off his rocker, and the local store keeper thinks he’ll play a trick on Stiller and send him up to Pierce Pond on a wild goose chase after the salmon that don’t exist. Dud, of course, is chosen to be the guide. He and Stiller make the long trip up to Pierce Pond, and Dud and the townfolk are in for the shock of their lives!
Once in the Stilly Night – Dud tells Mak of his first experience hunting for racoons (or as he calls them, ‘rarecoons’) with a fellow from Lewiston and his friends. The guys have a crazy night chasing the coon hound all over the countryside. Coming from Dud, it’s an incredibly entertaining story.
Men and Mice – Dud and Mak are out fly fishing on a boat in the lake in the middle of a rainstorm. The fishing is terrible. They are about to give up and head ashore, when Dud mentions something about fishing with mouse imitations. He proceeds to pull a few out of his fly box, and suddenly the fishing heats up.
Dud Guides a Lady – Dud gets tricked into guiding a woman, just the two of them, on a trip down the East Branch of the Penobscot River. Aside from the awkwardness of the situation in general, the woman’s personality and the tough conditions of the trip make for a great story, which Dud isn’t all too crazy about retelling.
Bass are Bass – Being a die hard trout fisherman, Dud is like many old time natives in that he doesn’t care to fish for bass. Mak is trying to convince him to try out a bass pond, where he’s heard the fishing is great. But it’s tough to get the old guide to believe that a lowly fish like a bass could hold a candle to the nonmigratory salmon. Dud finally goes, and after tangling with a few beauties on the end of a fly rod, he may just get a new outlook on things.
A Moonlight Cannonade – One winter, an old fishing client of Dud’s decides to come up north for some rabbit hunting. The rabbits (snowshoe hares) are particularly abundant this year, and they have a hound to chase the critters around. Though Dud thinks it’s crazy, they go hunting for the rabbits on a moonlit night. The rabbits are all around, and the shooting is fast and furious. But Dud soon learns that those little critters are quicker and tougher to hit than they look!
Red Flannel – Spruce Pond is tucked away in a beautiful little spot in the mountains above the Kennebec. Zack has a cabin up there and knows how to fish the pond better than anyone. When Dud and Mak head up there to fish one fall. Though the fish are actively feeding, the anglers can’t seem to find a fly they’ll take. But Zack knows just what they’re biting on, and he won’t let on easily. Through some creative bargaining, they finally get it out of Zack, but it’s he who has the last laugh.
The Latest Dog – It’s bird hunting season, and Dud takes Mak over to look at the latest dog of his, a pretty looking setter. They go out for a hunt and the dog performs extremely well. While most of MacDougall’s stories are about fly fishing, he does an admirable job describing a bird hunt with Dud Dean. It’s a little reminiscent of a Burton Spiller story. But what Mak can’t seem to understand is why Dud gets a new dog shipped to him at the beginning of every bird season, and returns it at the end, only to get another dog the next season. The mystery is explained in the next story.
Dud’s Irisher – For a short time, after quite an ordeal, Dud has possession of a beautiful Irish setter. But a strange turn of events reveals that the dog was stolen, and Dud returns the prized canine to its rightful owner. While the loss of the Irisher is unsettling for Dud, the owner makes him a proposition he can’t refuse.
The stories in “Dud Dean and His Country” continued to build on the already lofty resume of Arthur MacDougall and his Dud Dean stories. The book was originally published in 1946, but its widespread popularity resulted in another printing, in 1974. The 1974 edition was published under a different name: “Dud Dean Maine Guide”. Aside from the name change, everything else about the two books is identical. Both copies are relatively easy to find an are available at a reasonable price. If you like Arthur MacDougall’s Dud Dean stories, you’ll want to be sure to pick up a copy of one of these books. They’re an important piece of the Dud Dean collection.
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