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Thirty-odd years ago I got a pistol permit for the county in which I live, and because the law was so vague I asked the detective who processed my application what it meant in real terms when it came to carrying the gat.

“We don’t care what you do,” he said. “Just don’t go showing it off in public.” This was good advice 30 years ago, and it still is.

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From Charlotte, N.C. Fishing Examiner Jeffery Weeks:
In what may be the worst example of outdoor sports reporting in the history of America, ESPN has claimed that President Barack Obama is on the verge of banning recreational fishing.

ESPNOutdoors.com writer Robert Montgomery posted an article today [March 9] claiming that the administration's decision to end the public comment phase of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force means that Obama is likely preparing to issue an executive order outlawing recreational fishing in America.

Here's an excerpt from Montgomery's article, Culled Out: Public input period for federal fishery strategy has ended, which details how a new federal plan to rezone U.S. waters could, Montgomery believes, prohibit U.S. anglers from fishing in waters including parts of the Great lakes. Note that this article, as ESPN says at the end of the story, is an opinion column.

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is "fluid" and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn't issued its... [ Read Full Post ]

From Backpacker.com:
A ranger's life is dangerous business: Between a savage wilderness, sometimes savage people, and blind bad luck, there's a lot of ways things can go wrong. Case in point: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service officer Christopher Upton, 37, was shot and killed on Friday night while patrolling a stretch of Georgia's Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. Hunters mistook Upton for a coyote.

While looking through the night-vision scopes on their high-powered rifles, two hunters saw the reflection in Upton's binoculars and believed them to be the reflection of a coyote's eyes. One fired and discovered he'd shot Upton, who was killed instantly. He immediately called 911 and has been cooperating with authorities. [ Read Full Post ]

From The Star-Ledger:

The New Jersey Fish and Game Council today is expected to introduce a policy calling for the state’s first bear hunt in five years due to a surge in the state's black bear population and a corresponding increase in complaints.

The hunt, to be held during six days in December, is one facet of a bear management plan that highlights how much the population has grown and how non-lethal control techniques championed by former Gov. Jon Corzine have failed to stem bear-human interactions.

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Revised every year – this is the 30th edition --  S.P. Fjestad’s "Blue Book of Gun Values"  is the standard guide to firearms value. It is also a doorstopper:  the 30th edition tips the scales 3 pounds, 11 ounces. It is 9”x6” by  2 7/8 inches thick and runs for 2272 pages.  Stephen King wishes he could write books this big. So, invaluable as the Blue Book may be as a reference, it has never been very portable.  Until now.

Blue Book Publications just announced a new website that delivers the information in the Blue Book in a format designed for mobile phone screens. Subscribe to the service and you can leave your bulky Blue Book at home and check on the prices of guns at gun shows and auctions just by discreetly peeking at your phone. This is progress. www.bluebookinc.com

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Speaking of mobile phones,  I hate hunting with people who are constantly yakking on their phones in the duck blind. I am also trying to break the habit of reflexively answering my own phone when I’m alone in the field. I learned my lesson – I hope – last turkey... [ Read Full Post ]

Here's an interesting story from South Carolina about a recently introduced bill to outlaw the practice of "penning" coyotes and foxes. For those of you not familiar with the practice, there are many coyote hunters who choose to hunt with dogs, either decoy dogs or coursing sight hounds like greyhounds. Those dogs have to be trained somehow, and often it's with live-trapped coyotes.

From the story:

Seen any coyotes in South Carolina lately? If so, you're not alone. Though coyotes are not indigenous to the Palmetto State, their population is on the rise, according to Department of Natural Resources statistics - up 638 percent on average over the past 35 years. At the same time, the state's home-grown gray fox herd is down by nearly 49 percent, and red foxes are down by almost 35 percent. [ Read Full Post ]

You don’t have to spend too much time bumming around the gun dog world before you hear people pitting field trial dogs against meat dogs. The way I often hear it related, the field trial dog is one of style, grace, speed, and good looks, while the meat dog is a nose to the ground, hard charging, no-nonsense workhorse. Almost a white-collar, blue-collar distinction, if you will.

A fellow in the field trial camp put it this way (in a hunting forum) when it came to bird dogs recently:

“Given a perfect world, I'd rather hunt over the trial dogs…Life's too short to hunt with a boring, ugly dog that barely hunts out of shotgun range.”

No doubt that field trials/hunt tests are an excellent way to train for real hunting situations. And they demand a level of training that forces the amateur to focus and to follow through. In fact, some of my most intense training with Pritch was prior to a hunt test (as I didn’t want to be totally embarrassed.)

But I find myself leaning toward the meat dog camp. When it comes to retrievers I don’t mind a dog that skirts the bank on its way back... [ Read Full Post ]

Are fly fly fishermen the only anglers who read books?

I ask for a couple of reasons. First, when I look on the shelves of my local bookstore, most of the fishing-related books seem to be about some kind of fly fishing. There are relatively few about bass or pike, for example, and fewer still about non-fly gear. There are more non-fly anglers out there, but based on what’s for sale, they seemingly read less. Or at least buy fewer books.

Then, too, as a long-time angling author, most of the 15 or so books I’ve written, edited, or compiled over the past 30 years have been fly-fishing works. The common wisdom in the book trade has been that such books sell, and that general-fishing books do not.

It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve taken the time to write an angling book. So I’m thinking of getting back into that. I could write something about flies and fly fishing. Or I could write about lures and lure fishing. Decisions, decisions....

Then again, maybe the Internet has made books commercially obsolete. Now there’s a terrifying thought.... [ Read Full Post ]

One of the finest presents my wife ever gave me long before we were married was a Luhr Jensen Big Chief wood smoker. I have a heroin-like addiction to smoked salmon and trout, lox, and the ever-so-delicious Scandanavian gravlax. Needless to say this was a fine gift, and for a while there I found it necessary to treat every fish I kept for the table to an applewood or hickory smoking. Bring a nice platter of smoked fish you caught to a party and folks are impressed. It's fun to look fancy.

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I’m often asked about the perks of owning a gun dog. The answers are legion, but one of the best is that I hunt more, which means more wild-bird dinners. During the season, and long after, our menu ranges from dove to ducks, and most recently quail.

As I’ve said before, I’m no chef, but my wonderful wife is a maestro in the kitchen. So I turned these birds over to her. Jenny found a recipe in a new cookbook by Chris and Idie Hastings of the Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Chris, whom I’ve met briefly, is a bird hunter and a dog guy—the good chef prefers setters. He’s also one hell of a cook. For our meal, Jenny handled the prep and the sides (in this case, roasted winter veggies and couscous) and I manned the grill. Here’s how we did up the birds:

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Are you a net person or not? A lot of guides I know think using a net for landing fish is harmful to trout. It rubs off their slimy protective skin coating. Then again... what's worse for the fish? Fumbling and bumbling around trying to grab it by the tail? Or scooping it up with a net, and gently releasing it in short order? When I guide, I use a net, with rubber mesh. People want to land the fish they hook. They don't want to watch me punt a 20-incher by grabbing the leader. I know that.

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