The 2023 bowhunting kill also was the first time since 2018 that it finished below 90,000, a 20% decline from 2020. Even though crossbows delivered 60% of the bowhunting kill the past three years, their overall impact on Wisconsin deer hunting could be fading after triggering a 37% increase in the bow-kill from 2014 to 2020.
Crossbow’s effect on bowhunting loses steam in Wisconsin Read More »
If so, now is a good time to start. Cooler weather and shorter days allow more time in your workshop to build nesting boxes for airborne hunters. And when winter ends, you can deploy your new housing units to attract and hold more mouse-hunting owls, and insect-eating bats and birds to patrol your properties and eat all those small annoyances.
HBuild better housing for bat, birds to control pests and insects Read More »
Do you want to make life more hazardous for mice, ticks, flies, gnats, and mosquitoes in your backyard or around your hunting property?
If so, now is a good time to start. Cooler weather and shorter days allow more time in your workshop to build nesting boxes for airborne hunters. And when winter ends, you can deploy your new housing units to attract and hold more mouse-hunting owls, and insect-eating bats and birds to patrol your properties and eat all those small annoyances.
Build better housing for bats, birds to control pests and insects Read More »
The captain’s chair at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sits empty a year after former DNR Secretary Adam Payne gave 10 days’ notice before retiring Nov. 1, 2023.
Payne served only 10 months after accepting Gov. Tony Evers’ appointment on Dec. 27, 2022. His Oct. 20, 2023, resignation letter cited neither job dissatisfaction nor age or health concerns. He was 55 when accepting the job. Evers, meanwhile, has said little about this cabinet vacancy, even though the DNR is Wisconsin’s most visible and publicly engaged agency.
A small fleet of fishing boats ranging from one-person kayaks to low-slung, rocket-propelled bass boats squeezed me from my preferred perch hole on a recent Sunday morning near my campsite at Idaho’s Lake Cascade State Park.
Rather than stress and feel aggrieved, I pulled anchor and rowed my cedar-strip rowboat 200 yards northward before dropping anchor again. The nearest anglers were a father and daughter fishing from huge sandstone rocks on a shoreline 75 yards away. Around lunchtime, I pulled my stringer aboard and counted 12 perch – three of them 12 to 13 inches long and built like smallmouth bass.
Commentary: Old anglers often choose their own company when fishing Read More »
Jess and Matt Weber will never know if it was the squirrel dumplings, turkey soup or a flurry of mid-afternoon trail-cam photos that put Jess in position to arrow a huge 10-point buck near Lake Geneva in southeastern Wisconsin.
Or maybe Jess should just credit her husband for letting her hunt while he watched their three youngsters the afternoon of Oct. 26, 2021. Then again, maybe she just outmaneuvered him by hiding his release while gathering her own gear and heading out, forcing him to babysit their kids, then 1, 3 and 6.
Patrick Durkin: Wife arrows big buck after couple’s 6-year hunt Read More »
One can’t help but smirk each autumn when the DNR issues its reminders and suggestions to hunters preparing for Wisconsin’s deer seasons.
A DNR press release on Sept. 12 advised: “Help Maintain a Healthy Herd: Avoid Baiting and Feeding Deer.”
Avoid? Perhaps the Wisconsin State Patrol should take the DNR’s lead and issue press releases that advise: “Help Reduce Motor-Vehicle Fatalities: Avoid driving 90 mph on two-lane highways, especially if you haven’t avoided heavy drinking the past three hours.”
Patrick Durkin: Wisconsin DNR keeps ignoring CWD elephant in the room Read More »
I don’t know the secret to creating a hunter, trapper or angler, but a key to failing those goals is a mother who won’t drive her kids to the woods or waters, and cook whatever they bring home.
Fortunately, my mom praised every stringer of perch, bluegills, crappies or bullheads I brought home from Madison’s Lake Mendota during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mom was more hesitant about squirrels and venison I hauled home, but none of it suffered freezer burns.
Patrick Durkin: Fresh fish took direct path to Mom’s heart Read More »
For nearly 40 years, I’ve tried to shower equal attention and affection on my three daughters, and for the past decade I’ve expanded those efforts to my eight grandchildren.
I don’t keep a log of time spent together, of course. “Quality time” can’t be measured in minutes or hours. Matters of the heart are like that, y’know. And yet we all try to make things fun when planning fishing trips to bluegill holes or hunting trips to turkey woods.
Commentary: Quality time in the outdoors can’t be measured Read More »
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