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November 20, 2009 by
With last week’s approval by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, The Lone Star State will soon join 31 others as part of the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact (IWVC), a cooperative agreement honoring hunting and fishing license suspensions enacted by all member states.
A measure approved in the most recent Texas legislative session authorized TPWD to enter the compact.
“If a person plans to hunt, fish or trap in Texas and they have a license suspension in another state, this compact allows us to deny them a license,” said Major David Sinclair, Texas Parks and Wildlife’s chief of fisheries and wildlife enforcement. “The same will hold true for a Texan with a suspended license looking to hunt or fish elsewhere.”
Prior to 1989, when lawmakers in Colorado, Nevada and Oregon passed legislation to create the nucleus of Compact, if someone was convicted of poaching and had his hunting and fishing privileges revoked as a result, there was nothing to prevent him from obtaining a license to hunt or fish in another state.
Today, every Western state is an active IWVC member, along with a growing number of Midwestern and Eastern states.
Simply, the IWVC puts wildlife lawbreakers on notice that their activities in one state can affect their privileges in all participating states.
And any way you look at it, that’s a good thing.
To date, it is estimated that the IWVC has identified more than 4,000 poachers and other game violators whose hunting and fishing privileges have been revoked in compact member states.
While some details of the agreement regarding deer breeding regulations specific to Texas remain to be clarified, a TPWC spokesman said its goal is to enter the compact by February 2010.
[ Read Full Post ] November 13, 2009 by
A Minnesota man with a criminal history is suspected of illegally killing a massive-racked whitetail buck that could be the largest 8-point ever recorded.
Last week, Minnesota conservation officers seized the antlers involved in the case and on Thursday, Nov. 12 filed charges against Troy Reinke, 32, of Cannon Falls, Minn. Reinke was charged by the Goodhue County Attorney’s Office with 13 counts, including exceeding his limit and failure to register a deer.
According to the complaint, Reinke admitted to conservation officers that he shot a small doe and a small buck on separate dates in early October, and failed to tag or register either. Reinke said he shot the large 8-point buck, on Halloween evening.
State conservation officers confirmed that a scoring form utilizing Boone and Crockett measuring indicated the deer had a gross antler score of 190 5/8 and net score of 185. The only deduction was a small “kicker point” on the rack’s right side.
Though there is no specific Boone and Crockett category for 8-point whitetails, the largest 8-point typical on record was taken in Michigan and scored 183.
Rob Drieslein, editor of Minnesota Outdoor News reported that Chuck Corcoran, the Hampton, Minn., taxidermist who handled the deer for Reinke, said the buck field-dressed at 269 pounds.
“And it’s just a rack you’ve got to see to believe,” Corcoran said.
During their investigation, conservation officers seized a bow, two deer racks, the meat from the three deer, and the hide from the large buck.
Related media reports coming out of Minnesota indicate that Reinke has previous convictions for domestic assault, theft and fishing with too many fishing lines. According to court records, he served 120 days in jail recently for his second domestic assault charge.
Officially, Reinke has been charged with:
-Two counts of gross misdemeanor, transport of illegally taken big-game animals;
- One count, gross overlimit of wild animals;
-Two counts, misdemeanor, failure to register deer;
- Two counts, misdemeanor, failure to validate a deer license;
- Two counts, misdemeanor, untagged big-game animal;
- Two counts, misdemeanor, take overlimit of deer, and;
- Two counts, misdemeanor, take or hunt deer without a license.
If convicted on all counts, Reinke could face $19,000 in fines, up to a year in jail and revocation of his hunting license.
Investigating officers said they were initially alerted to the alleged poaching through a tip from a concerned sportsman.
A trial date has not been set.
[ Read Full Post ] November 10, 2009 by
Here’s a story to file under the Newshound’s heading of “be careful who you pick a fight with.”
It’s also a great indicator that the whitetail rut is well underway in the state of Wisconsin.
A 7-point buck point obviously chose the wrong adversary in his testosterone-induced attempt to exhibit male dominance when it challenged a 640-pound concrete elk statue in the yard of Mark Brye in rural Viroqua, Wisc.
Brye told outdoor writer Bob Lamb of the LaCrosse (Wisc.) Tribune that each morning he looks out in his yard at the stately bull elk given to him by his son and daughter because he likes to hunt elk out West. But one morning last week, the bull, well, wasn’t exactly standing upright.
The massive molded ungulate was instead resting on its side, its antlers broken and scattered in pieces on the ground.
And there, some 20 feet away, lay the 180-pound lifeless buck, its skull crushed from its repeated impact with the unforgiving lawn ornament.
Brye snapped a photograph to document the bizarre battle and its aftermath.
“I could tell the buck poked the statue a couple of times by the chipped paint on it,” Brye said, adding that the deer must have rammed it like a mountain goat because of the damage inflicted to its own antlers and body.
A Wisconsin DNR conservation officer investigated the unusual incident and tagged the buck for the family’s personal use. The resulting venison tenderloins will undoubtedly generate plenty of stories as they are savored as table fare at the Brye household in coming months.
And what about the battered bull elk?
Brye says he might attach the buck’s antlers on the bull to mark the fateful November battle, though he’ll need some help to return the heavy statue to its feet.
“I can’t tip it back up until I get a whole bunch of guys to help me,” he said.
[ Read Full Post ] November 10, 2009 by
Investigators in Ohio believe rising unemployment and a tough economy is driving some ginseng diggers in the state to illegally harvest the root on private land and out of season.
For the past month, State Wildlife Officers from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife have been contacting many Ohio ginseng dealers and diggers as part of an ongoing investigation.
To date, Ohio wildlife officers have identified more than 30 individuals and 60 violations of Ohio law relating to ginseng root harvesting. As the investigation continues, authorities say formal charges will likely include digging ginseng without landowner permission, collecting or possession of ginseng during the closed season, failure to maintain accurate records and failure to certify ginseng prior to export.
The perennial herb is one of the most sought-after medicinal plants in the world. American ginseng occurs from Quebec, Canada, west to Minnesota and south to Georgia and Oklahoma.
Ohio certifies about 3,000 pounds of ginseng for export annually. There are 46 licensed ginseng dealers in the state with an estimated two to four thousand diggers. The number of diggers/harvesters varies annually depending on market conditions.
Last year, 3,626 pounds of ginseng were legally harvested in Ohio and sold to dealers at around $400 a pound. The value of the dried wild root fluctuates, and was as high as $1,000 per pound in 2007.
[ Read Full Post ] October 29, 2009 by
In a story from: www.spinner.com
A teenage folk singer was attacked and killed by two coyotes in a national park in eastern Canada.
Taylor Mitchell, 19, was attacked while she was hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands Park, Nova Scotia, when she was attacked by two of the animals on Tuesday. She died of her wounds on Wednesday.
Nearby walkers heard her screams and alerted park rangers, who arrived on the scene and shot one of the animals. The other has yet to be found.
A police spokesperson said the two coyotes were "extremely aggressive" when rangers arrived on the scene.
"Coyotes are normally afraid of humans. This is a very irregular occurrence," Bridgit Leger, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told Reuters news agency.
Mitchell was airlifted to hospital in Halifax but died there. Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services said she had been admitted with multiple bite wounds on her body.
"Words can't begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman," Lisa Weitz, Mitchell's manager, said. "She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future."
Mitchell's debut album 'For Your Consideration' had been recorded earlier this year and the artist had been on a tour of eastern Canada when the attack occurred.
"She was so young and talented -- her big dreams were a perfect match with her big, kind heart," said Michael Johnston, the album's producer.
Biologists said attacks by coyotes -- also known as prairie wolves -- were extremely rare because the animals were usually very wary of humans. The area of the park where the attack happened has now been blocked of as officials try to find out what caused the attack.
[ Read Full Post ] October 23, 2009 by
A deer hunter in northwest Kansas has provided the state Department of Wildlife and Parks with photographic evidence of a mountain lion he watched from his treestand earlier this month, marking the first live cougar documentation in The Sunflower State in 100 years.
The hunter, who was not identified by the KDWP, took the photographs while aloft in a treestand near Wakeeney. He told officials the lion emerged near a pile of corn he was perched above and he was able to snap multiple photos as it approached within 10 feet of the tree stand.
“They aren’t real good pictures,” Mike Mitchener, wildlife section chief for KDWP told the Hayes Daily News. “(but) they’re good enough.”
The hunter told wildlife authorities that the animal looked up at him, then moved out of sight, he said. The entire encounter lasted less than a minute, and the lion never stopped walking.
“KDWP staff were able to verify that the location was in Kansas, and the story seemed legitimate,” said Matt Peek, KDWP furbearer research biologist.
Although the origin of the mountain lion is unknown, cougars have appeared with varying frequency in other Midwestern states since the 1990s. In November, 2007, a young male mountain lion was shot by a landowner in Barber County. Prior to that, the last documented occurrence was in 1904.
“KDWP receives numerous reports of mountain lion sightings annually,” Peek added, “but almost all have either been cases of mistaken identity or lacked physical evidence indicating a mountain lion had been present.”
[ Read Full Post ] October 22, 2009 by
The Martha’s Vineyard (Mass.) Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby committee voted last week to disqualify the heaviest bluefish entered in its competition after it was found to contain ice cubes weighing 1.8 ounces in its stomach.
The Fish, caught by Stephen Pietruska of West Tisbury, weighed 13.86 pounds, exceeding the leading boat bluefish by .05 pounds.
The annual Derby awards prizes in both shore and boat divisions for bluefish, striped bass, false albacore and bonito. The top prize in the boat division is a new truck.
The ice cubes were discovered when Pietruska’s fish was cut open and examined—a standard Derby procedure when a fish becomes a new category leader.
Pietruska said he did not know how the ice got into the fish’s stomach, but suspected it occurred because he forced the fish with its mouth open into a cooler filled with ice.
The Martha’s Vineyard Times reported that no further action would be taken by the Derby Committee, according to its official statement on the case.
“Although the angler’s intent may have been to protect the freshness of his fish for the filet program and to reduce the loss of weight of his fish from catch to weigh-in, it is the responsibility of the angler to bring a fish to the Derby scale without any ice that may add additional weight to his catch.
“There was insufficient evidence to prove intent to deliberately increase the weight of the fish, so no further action is to be taken,” read the official committee statement.
[ Read Full Post ]October 21, 2009 by
For the rest of his life, Caden Smith will probably relish the time he caught a catfish weighing more than himself—a feat he will quite likely never surpass. That’s because last weekend Caden, a 40-pound 4-year-old, caught and released a 45-pound flathead catfish from Texas’ Trinity River.
Caden was fishing with his family near his home in Joshua, Texas when he hooked the fish of his short lifetime.
“He battled for his life,” his uncle Dan Smith told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
Proud mom Natalie said the fish was as big as her son.
“When they got it out, he hugged it,” she said.
Though not a record breaker—a 56-pounder caught in the Trinity in 2004 holds that distinction for a junior angler—it is an impressive feat nonetheless.
Per the wishes of the newly seasoned angler, the bottom-feeding behemoth was released, to fight again.
[ Read Full Post ] October 17, 2009 by
Probably no genre of angler is more obsessed with casting accuracy and prowess than fly fishermen.
And, when it comes to fly casting, there’s not a book and movie combination that brought more interest and excitement to the sport than the 1976 memoir “A River Runs Through It,” by Norman Maclean, and the subsequent 1992 film featuring emerging (at that time) mega-star Brad Pitt.
On Sunday, a monument honoring the central character in the story, minister and fly fisherman John Maclean, was dedicated at the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth St. in Missoula, Montana. It was in this Western city that Maclean presented his first sermon as pastor of the congregation one hundred years ago this year, in February 1909. He planned and oversaw the building of the current house of worship, which was completed in 1915.
Rev. Maclean, his wife Clara, and son Paul—around whose 1938 murder the book’s plot is constructed—are all buried in the church cemetery.
Fly-fishing notwithstanding, it could be said that casting is equally important in movies. As proof of this premise, The Newshound offers the photographs of Rev. Maclean and actor Tom Skerritt, as the latter depicted the fly-fishing pastor in the film. Pretty incredible similarity, wouldn’t you agree?
If you only saw the movie and neglected to read Maclean’s magnificent book, you missed some classic and inspiring fishing lines (pun intended). Among them:
“Poets talk about ‘spots of time,’ but it is really the fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone. I shall remember that son of a bitch forever.”
“He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume...that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”
“Eventually all things merge into one and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.”
[ Read Full Post ] October 16, 2009 by Authorities near Cooke City, Montana are continuing to investigate an incident in which a hunter accidentally shot his companion in the middle of his struggle with an attacking grizzly bear on Saturday.
Both hunters survived the bizarre incident. The boar grizzly, estimated to be more than 20 years old, was not as fortunate.
Officials with the Montana Fish Wildlife and Park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have not released the names of the hunters involved, but said they discovered no negligence and the shooting is officially ruled as accidental.
A joint investigation conducted by the Park County Sheriff’s Department determined that the two hunters were tracking what they believed to be a black bear near Cooke City at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Upon entering a thicket of very dense, 6-to-8-foot second-generation pine their quarry—which turned out to be a grizzly—jumped one of the hunters.
“He was yelling at his partner to shoot the bear,” Park County Sheriff Allan Lutes told the Powell (Wyo.) Tribune.
The newspaper reported that the first shot (from an unspecified gun and caliber) struck the hunter in the arm. Follow-up shots proved fatal to the bear.
The sheriff reiterated that the shooting was accidental and the incident was the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Simply, said the sheriff, they never saw it coming
“Bam! There he was. I don’t think they had a heads-up the bear was that close,” said Sheriff Lutes.
[ Read Full Post ]
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