Newshound Recent PostsCategories
Archives
|
December 31, 2008
by Fishery researchers, funded by a federal grant to determine the most expedient method for eliminating invasive lake trout from Yellowstone National Park, have come up with a variety of scientific and highly technical options.
Al Zale, Leader of the Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit at Montana State University in Bozeman, suggests the use of ultrasound, microwaves and electroshocking to help protect the native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake from the illegally introduced, non-native fish.
[ Read Full Post ]December 30, 2008
by At least two factors contributed to this year’s sharp decline in the number of deer donated to Wisconsin’s primary venison donation program, not the least of which are the economic hardships being felt by many Americans, including deer hunters.
[ Read Full Post ]December 30, 2008
by “There
are no bad days in a duck blind.”
--Charles F. Waterman
“Duck Blinds,” The Part I Remember, 1974
[ Read Full Post ]December 23, 2008
by In a recently published interview, legendary bluesman and rock guitarist Eric Clapton said he credits shooting and hunting with helping expand his social activities.
"I'm not really that gregarious," the 63-year-old said in an interview with The Art Newspaper. "And shooting with groups of people up and down the country has taught me a lot about how to get on with my fellow human beings."
[ Read Full Post ]December 17, 2008
by For folks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, ice fishing is a revered winter pastime.
I mean,
who can forget the movie Grumpy Old Men?
Here’s
something for anyone who’s ever ventured onto a frozen northern lake, used an
auger to drill a hole in the ice, and rigged their favorite tip-up to slam the
perch, walleye or tasty panfish.
The Bikini Ice-Fishing Team
is the marketing brainchild of the folks at Exotica Swimwear, based in the St.
Paul suburb of Mahtomedi, Minn., on the shores of White Bear Lake.
Not the
best-suited location in the universe to sell skimpy swimwear, you say? Well, by
all appearances, they’ve made the best of a tough market.
With the
additional sponsorship of a commercially produced fish house, a power auger
company and other ice-fishing equipment, the Bikini Ice-Fishing Team makes appearances at fishing shows and
tournaments across Wisconsin and Minnesota.
And, from the looks
of things, we bet they’re a tough act to follow.
[ Read Full Post ]December 16, 2008
by Background checks on the sale of firearms reached record levels during the month of November, resulting in a historic spike in sales following the general election.
Firearms retailers
across the country reported increased sales of many types of guns and
accessories following the election of Barack Obama on November 4. Most
attribute the spike to fears that an Obama White House and Democrat-controlled
Congress will reinstate the so-called “assault weapons ban,” prohibiting the
sale of certain firearms and high capacity magazines.
Data from the FBI’s
National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) indicated a 42 percent
increase in November firearm purchaser background checks. A total of 1,529,635
checks--the highest monthly total ever--were reported for the month, up from
1,079,923 in November 2007.
Federal law requires
FBI background checks on individuals purchasing firearms from federally
licensed retailers.
It should be noted that
here is no national data source that captures actual individual firearms sales
by month.
Mirroring a nationwide
trend, retail sales of firearms in the President-elect’s home state of Illinois
also skyrocketed in the weeks since Election Day, reflecting a 38 percent increase over the same period in
2007. According to the Illinois State Police, 24,076 background checks
were conducted in November 2008--up from 17,363 in November 2007 and 17,249 in
November 2006.
Illinois gun dealers
report that sales remained brisk throughout the Thanksgiving holiday weekend
with many customers acquiring several firearms at a time along with sizeable
quantities of ammunition.
[ Read Full Post ]December 16, 2008
by “When
blizzards and storm winds strike, other hunters curl up by the hearth.
Waterfowlers go forth.”
--Zack Taylor
Successful Waterfowling, 1974
[ Read Full Post ]December 15, 2008
by Catching
two fish on one dual-treble plug at the same time is an unusual and randomly
occurring fishing phenomenon, but this week a South Florida teen caught two
species of bass on
a single swimming bait while fishing at a neighborhood canal.
The S. Florida
Sun-Sentinel reports today that Luke Volpe, 13, of Southwest
Ranches, hooked a 1.5-pound peacock bass on the front treble hook of his bait,
and as he was reeling it in, a 5-pound largemouth hit the rear treble hook.
The
newspaper story noted that Volpe was using a spinning rig with 20-pound
braided line and a Yo-Zuri swimming plug.
Both
fish were released after the teen’s fishing buddy, Dalton Edens, snapped some
photos with his cell phone.
Pretty cool, huh?
[ Read Full Post ]December 11, 2008
by Did you hear the one about the Polish green activists?
Stay with me here.
It seems that the members of a Polish environmental organization reported an illegal logging
operation they discovered at a nature reserve near the northern town of
Subkowy. They told authorities that the clear-cutting ne’er-do-wells had
already chopped down and neatly stacked 20 trees at the reserve and marked
several more with matching notches, obviously planning to return and mow them down
as well.
When police
investigated the report, sure enough, they found the logging crew at work. In
fact, the entire clandestine operation, which included several tree cutters,
was operating quietly, under cover of darkness.
If you guessed beavers, you win.
The
Austrian Times reports today that when they were confronted with the
news, the Polish enviros were taken aback.
“The campaigners are
feeling pretty stupid,” a police spokesman told the newspaper. “There’s nothing
more natural than a beaver.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Here’s some advice for
extreme environmental activist types everywhere (even in Poland): Don’t react too quickly when
it comes to important matters of nature and the outdoors.
So, just chew on this.
December 9, 2008
by Teacher Leslie Vanlet was instructing her
Coopersville, Mich. East Elementary students yesterday about the demeanor and
characteristics of animals when an unannounced (albeit somewhat appropriate)
visual aid entered her third grade classroom--a six-point whitetail buck.
It was the buck’s method of entry that probably did the
most to disrupt the demeanor among the 23 students seated in the classroom.
That’s because it shattered a double-pane window and began galloping through
the classroom, wildly slinging a set of mini-blinds hooked onto its antlers
while leaving a trail of broken glass, tipped chairs and dumped desks.
During a lull in the action as the buck stood in a corner,
Vanlet was able to shuttle the children safely out of the room with the aid to
two other teachers.
“There was this horrific crash and glass shards were
flying everywhere and you wonder what in the heck is going on,” the first-year
teacher told the Grand Rapids Press. “It happened so quickly and yet it all
seemed like slow motion.”
Principal Marty Alexander told the paper that one boy was
treated for a small cut he received from flying glass. He said that one little
girl was “emotionally shaken” after the buck brushed against her.
There was no report on the emotional (or physical) impact
the whole ordeal had on the young buck, which exited the room the same way it
had entered.
In addition to the mess the estimated 160-pound deer left
behind and the turmoil it created, the children have something else to help
remind them about the day the buck crashed their classroom: a cracked two-point
antler that was discovered on one of the student’s notebooks.
“I’ll be able to tell this story for years,” the teacher
said.
And
now she has the broken forked tine to use as a far less-disruptive visual aid.
[ Read Full Post ]
|
