Jeff Mulhollem, Author at Outdoor News

Rare pickerel with a blue mouth was surprise birthday gift for Pennsylvania angler

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, National Fishing, National News, News, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

Jack Bortz had never before fished this public water near Lake Wallenpaupack in Wayne County, Pa, but decided to try it on July 27.

He had no idea what to expect. All he had heard was that it was pleasant to paddle.

It was the Allentown civil engineer’s 26th birthday, and he was celebrating it by kayaking the lake he declined to name with his father, Doug Bortz, of Tafton.
They fish together often, usually out of their boat, but decided to float their kayaks this day. “I prefer to fish out of a kayak,” Jack said.

Rare pickerel with a blue mouth was surprise birthday gift for Pennsylvania angler Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: Pennsylvania Game Commission adds to state game lands months after being questioned about the topic

Featured, Fishing, Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

Five months after the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s former executive director was lectured by state senators in a hearing about the agency having too much state game land, the agency announced in July it was adding more than 5,000 acres to the nearly 1.6 million acres it controls.
I always thought adding to the game lands was a good thing. But I’ll won’t forget Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-Butler, Clarion, Erie, Forest, Venango and Warren counties, saying the following at the Feb. 8 hearing:
“It’s a philosophical question – if you have fewer hunters and you keep increasing the amount of land, that doesn’t jive, it just doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Notes off a soiled cuff: Pennsylvania Game Commission adds to state game lands months after being questioned about the topic Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: True Sunday hunting opportunity likely to become reality for Pennsylvania hunters

Featured, Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

A few issues ago, in this space, I commented on the partisan nature of the vote to move the Sunday hunting bill through the state House of Representatives, prompting an angry reader to call and complain about us supporting one of the parties.
He was dead wrong – we weren’t. Now the other party pushed a Sunday hunting bill through the Senate and a compromise between the legislation adopted by the two chambers is expected.

Notes off a soiled cuff: True Sunday hunting opportunity likely to become reality for Pennsylvania hunters Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: Will the recent consistent high heat negatively impact Pennsylvania brook trout?

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

The week before this issue went to press included six consecutive days with high temperatures exceeding 90 degrees in the central part of Pennsylvania. Can’t help but wonder how the prolonged heat affects our thermally fragile wild brook trout streams.
A Fish & Boat Commission biologist we consulted with suggested that the wet spring and higher water levels may be protective, for now, but if the weather stays scorching, it will be bad news for brookies.

Notes off a soiled cuff: Will the recent consistent high heat negatively impact Pennsylvania brook trout? Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: Would free fishing, hunting licenses help fill critical positions in Pennsylvania?

Featured, Fishing, Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

Like in Pennsylvania, Michigan’s leaders are having trouble attracting enough people to fill critical roles to protect society, so they have come up with a novel idea. A lawmaker there has introduced a bill to give first responders and prison guards free hunting and fishing licenses.
Wonder if that approach might help persuade more folks to be volunteer firefighters here? We have a critical shortage.

Notes off a soiled cuff: Would free fishing, hunting licenses help fill critical positions in Pennsylvania? Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: Politics now everywhere, including in fish and wildlife management

Fishing, Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

For a long time many of us thought – naively I suspect – that public policy making for hunting, fishing and wild resource management was nonpartisan. But everything is political, now.
As evidence, the Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee recently passed three pieces of legislation to expand Sunday hunting, mitigate crop damage by deer and provide representation for farmers on the Game Commission.

Notes off a soiled cuff: Politics now everywhere, including in fish and wildlife management Read More »

Surviving ash trees may hold key to saving species

Featured, Home Page News, National News, Nature Page & Night Sky, News, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

The invasive insect emerald ash borer is killing ash trees at an unprecedented rate in the United States, and now five North American species of ash are considered critically endangered, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
But a small percentage are surviving, and research by Forest Service scientists suggests that those trees may hold the key for saving the species.

Surviving ash trees may hold key to saving species Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: Reimburse Pennsylvania hunters if deer test positive for CWD

Featured, Fishing, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

Given the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s extremely robust financial position, the fast spread of chronic wasting disease in our state and the threat it poses to influence deer hunters to drop out of the sport, I strongly urge the agency to devise a way to reimburse hunters whose harvested deer test positive for CWD.

Notes off a soiled cuff: Reimburse Pennsylvania hunters if deer test positive for CWD Read More »

Notes off a soiled cuff: Thoughts on turkeys, CWD in Pennsylvania, and more

Featured, Hunting, Opinion, Pennsylvania / Jeff Mulhollem

By now, you likely have heard about researchers in Texas reporting last month on a case in which two deer hunters contracted a rare and fatal brain disease after eating venison from deer that may have been infected by chronic wasting disease.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has said there’s no connection between their deaths and being exposed to CWD, but the report sent shudders through hunting communities – like our state’s – dealing with CWD in their deer herds.

Notes off a soiled cuff: Thoughts on turkeys, CWD in Pennsylvania, and more Read More »

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Jeff Mulhollem

Rare pickerel with a blue mouth was surprise birthday gift for Pennsylvania angler

Notes off a soiled cuff: Pennsylvania Game Commission adds to state game lands months after being questioned about the topic

Notes off a soiled cuff: True Sunday hunting opportunity likely to become reality for Pennsylvania hunters

Notes off a soiled cuff: Will the recent consistent high heat negatively impact Pennsylvania brook trout?

Notes off a soiled cuff: Would free fishing, hunting licenses help fill critical positions in Pennsylvania?

Notes off a soiled cuff: Politics now everywhere, including in fish and wildlife management

Surviving ash trees may hold key to saving species

Notes off a soiled cuff: Reimburse Pennsylvania hunters if deer test positive for CWD

Notes off a soiled cuff: Thoughts on turkeys, CWD in Pennsylvania, and more

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