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Ralph Loos

Illinois bow season opens Oct. 1 with few changes

Featured, Hunting, Illinois, National Hunting, National News, News /

The DNR has floated the idea of establishing additional Restricted Archery Zones in other parts of the state, but this year’s bow season opened Oct. 1 with only the original zone: the same cluster of central Illinois counties that limit harvest to antlered deer the first 31 days of the season.
The special zone shrunk from five counties to four last season, when Moultrie County was dropped. In 2026, bowhunters in Champaign, Douglas, Macon and Piatt counties again make up the zone.

Illinois bow season opens Oct. 1 with few changes Read More »

Ralph Loos: Michigan’s reliable hunting traditions got an update (upgrade?) this season

Featured, Hunting, Michigan, National Hunting, Opinion /

More than any other collection of like-minded individuals, hunters tend to get stuck in their ways — and I say that as a hunter who tends to get stuck in his ways.
There’s comfort in tradition, doing things the way they’ve always been done. The same shotgun is pulled from the gun cabinet first each year, and the same roads are taken to the woods. The same trail to the deer stand is walked. We even have favorite places to sit – and favorite places to mull bad judgments we’ve made.

Ralph Loos: Michigan’s reliable hunting traditions got an update (upgrade?) this season Read More »

Ralph Loos: Another Illinois DNR director, another test for state’s natural resources

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Illinois, National Fishing, National Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, Opinion /

We all live in the past because it’s one of the few things we’re truly confident in – good or bad, sweet or sour, we can give the past a solid thumbs up or thumbs down with little doubt or hesitation.
But the future? It’s just a wild guess. I say all that to say this: There was a time when the DNR’s director’s office seemed like a place where conservation experience mattered. And I say that to follow up with this: Gov. JB Pritzker’s recent appointment of Jim Montgomery to lead the agency is only the latest chapter in a long-running pattern that should make hunters, anglers, trappers and other conservationists at least a little skeptical.

Ralph Loos: Another Illinois DNR director, another test for state’s natural resources Read More »

Illinois’ Steeleville Ducks Unlimited chapter began rather humbly, has since raised $1 million

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

In the mid-1970s, a pair of southern Illinois men with an interest in duck hunting and conservation shared a common thought: would it be possible to start our own Ducks Unlimited chapter?
Much discussion and bits of exploration later, with a handful of others working alongside, the thought exploded.
“We lit the fuse, but we didn’t really know where it would lead,” is how Dave Wente explains it.

Illinois’ Steeleville Ducks Unlimited chapter began rather humbly, has since raised $1 million Read More »

Illinois native Trey McKinney makes Bassmaster history

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Illinois, National Fishing, National News, News /

Trey McKinney has spent much of his young fishing career proving that an angler from southern Illinois can compete with – and beat – the best bass fishermen in the country.
After finishing second in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings in each of his first two Elite seasons, he finally claimed the title this year – making history doing it.

Illinois native Trey McKinney makes Bassmaster history Read More »

Decades after it was shot, Boone and Crockett Club verifies historic whitetail as largest U.S. typical buck

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

It took 32 years, an electrician’s sharp eye and a painstaking Boone and Crockett Club verification process to reveal what Illinois hunter Sam Aiuppa had been keeping in his basement. The largest typical whitetail ever taken in the United States.
The B&C Club officially certified Aiuppa’s 1991 LaSalle County buck at 207-7⁄8 inches, putting the long-forgotten Illinois deer ahead of the legendary Jordan buck by 1-6⁄8 inches and into second place worldwide among typical whitetails, behind only Milo Hanson’s 213-5⁄8-inch world record from Saskatchewan.

Decades after it was shot, Boone and Crockett Club verifies historic whitetail as largest U.S. typical buck Read More »

Diamond Lake: late-summer options for curious anglers in southwest Michigan

Lake Profile, Lake Profile, Michigan /

For anglers in southwest Michigan looking for late-summer fishing opportunities, Cass County’s Diamond Lake offers plenty of options.
From stocked walleyes and northern pike to bass, bluegills, crappies, and yellow perch, the 1,020-acre lake near Cassopolis remains one of the region’s most diverse warm-water fishing destinations.

Diamond Lake: late-summer options for curious anglers in southwest Michigan Read More »

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