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Patrick Durkin

Patrick Durkin: Homely, but tasty, burbot gaining respect

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Fishing, Wisconsin /

Vern Hacker has been dead since March 1989, but I recall his smiling face and deep respect for rough fish whenever someone makes news for catching a huge gar, burbot, sheepshead or another piscatorial pariah.
That’s because Hacker was the Don Quixote of fisheries biologists during his career with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Hacker always encouraged people to eat rough fish instead of burying them to fertilize their gardens or flowers. He especially despised those who tossed rough fish aside to rot, or killed them before dropping them back into the water.

Patrick Durkin: Homely, but tasty, burbot gaining respect Read More »

Patrick Durkin: George Meyer protected Wisconsin’s natural resources and outdoor heritage

Featured, Fishing, Hunting, National Fishing, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

Wisconsin lost its most devoted and enduring conservation watchdog Dec. 10 when prostate cancer killed George Meyer at age 78.
Meyer’s list of job titles in five decades of public service grew so long he almost had to unfurl a scroll when introduced at podiums across the state. And man, did Meyer tour Wisconsin. In 1993 alone, he delivered 240 speeches; speaking to just about any group, anywhere.

Patrick Durkin: George Meyer protected Wisconsin’s natural resources and outdoor heritage Read More »

Where things stand with the corner-crossing issue for hunters, anglers

Features, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Fishing, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

If you laid a checkerboard grid over aerial photos of any county in the rural Upper Midwest, and declared each red square 640 acres of public land, you’d likely assume it’s OK to step from one red corner to the next without trespassing on a privately-owned black square.
Right?

Where things stand with the corner-crossing issue for hunters, anglers Read More »

Patrick Durkin: Dissecting the numbers from Wisconsin’s 2025 gun deer season

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

Wisconsin deer hunters killed lots of deer during the nine-day firearms season, with slightly more does and fawns shot than bucks.
That surprised some folks, given how many called Nov. 22-23 the quietest opening weekend they’ve ever heard. But y’know, magazine-emptying fusillades seem a thing of the past.

Patrick Durkin: Dissecting the numbers from Wisconsin’s 2025 gun deer season Read More »

Patrick Durkin: Wisconsin’s nine-day gun-deer season has lost its clout

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

Wisconsin long considered its nine-day gun-deer season “the hammer” for managing whitetails, accounting for more than 90% of the annual deer kill during the early 1970s, and routinely 85% of it through 1995.
But November’s gun season has lost its clout. Since 2018, four of the past six gun seasons generated less than 60% of the total autumn deer kill.

Patrick Durkin: Wisconsin’s nine-day gun-deer season has lost its clout Read More »

Patrick Durkin: Bowhunters’ ‘tools of choice’ don’t matter to deer

3 Comments / Discussions, Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

Wisconsin’s bowhunters registered 103,904 deer during 2024’s four-month arrow-flinging season, the fourth highest archery kill in modern times and the fifth in which they’ve killed over 100,000 whitetails.
That success – driven mostly by folks shooting crossbows and compound bows, along with a smattering of “stick-bow” traditionalists toting recurves and longbows – ended a three-year slide in bow-kills from 2021 through 2023.

Patrick Durkin: Bowhunters’ ‘tools of choice’ don’t matter to deer Read More »

Patrick Durkin: Wisconsin bear hunters record a ‘very average’ year

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

Wisconsin’s bear hunters bagged 3,724 bruins during the 35-day season, a 16% decline from 4,432 in 2024, according to preliminary data. Though the overall kill also fell 8.6% short of the 4,075-bear harvest target for this year’s season, it was within 2.6% of the five-year average of 3,824 registered during the 2021 through 2025 seasons.

Patrick Durkin: Wisconsin bear hunters record a ‘very average’ year Read More »

Memories from a ‘wannabe duck hunter’

Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

While rearranging tools and lawn-care gear in our backyard shed last week, I paused to inspect the duck and goose decoys stacked high and wide along the shed’s south wall.
My hand-crafted decoys aren’t works of art, and I doubt they’d sell for much if dumped at a garage sale. Still, I built 99% of them back in the early 1980s, a time when I counted down the days until duck season with the same zeal I still have for deer season.

Memories from a ‘wannabe duck hunter’ Read More »

Patrick Durkin: Biologist Keith McCaffery left mark in Wisconsin’s deer woods

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “If a single man plants himself on his convictions and then abides, the huge world will come ’round to him.”
Maybe so, but Keith McCaffery, 86, of Rhinelander, Wis., is still waiting for many hunters to rally around his faith in scientific deer management. McCaffery staked deer biology’s flag into Wisconsin’s forests, woodlots, and farmlands as a young man. And though he defended that banner with keen humor and fierce fairness the past 60-plus years, he’ll never know his won-loss record in the court of public opinion.

Patrick Durkin: Biologist Keith McCaffery left mark in Wisconsin’s deer woods Read More »

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