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Outdoors

Competitive fishing changes the sport

Fishing tournaments are a popular activity for some anglers, while others loathe such endeavors as a corruption of a sport they enjoy. To each his own, I suppose, but organized fishing tournaments at so many levels are now in place, that competition fishing is not going away and continues to grow. And is there anything inherently wrong with a fishing competition? That is and will have to remain entirely a personal judgement. Unlike most competitive ventures folks engage in, however, money is not the great motivator that draws most anglers to enter most fishing tournaments. With the ...

Crow among wild game dinner items

PINE GROVE — The buffet line inside the fire hall in rural Pennsylvania was a familiar sight last weekend as a crowd of about 150 people heaped dinner onto their plates before sitting down to eat, hear a little live music and wait for the raffle. Aside from a couple of vegetable dishes that were largely ignored, the food being served at the Taste of the Wild Outdoors dinner inside the Pine Grove Hose, Hook and Ladder Fire Company was anything but standard fare. The menu of 14 species that included stingray casserole, bear stew, raccoon andouille and rabbit kielbasa was the ...

Trout stocking starts next week

With all the snow, ice and frigid weather lately, it seems a little out of place to be announcing the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is set to begin its annual trout-stocking efforts next week, but that is indeed the situation. The statewide trout season for 2025 will begin on Saturday, April 5 with the Mentored Youth Trout Day on Saturday, March 29. All designated stocked trout waters will be closed to all fishing from midnight on Monday, Feb. 17 until 8 a.m. on the opening of trout season. During 2025, the PFBC will release about 3.2 million adult trout into 691 streams and ...

Hunting seasons get preliminary OK

At its regular quarterly meeting last weekend, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners gave preliminary approval to the 2025-26 hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits. No major changes to the general hunting seasons for deer, bear, wild turkey and small game were proposed. All those seasons and bag limits will be virtually identical to last year. The three proposed Sunday hunting days will be structured like last year. They are proposed for Nov. 16, 23 and 30, which will include the final week of the statewide archery deer season and the opening weekends of the statewide ...

Public is invited to count wild birds

Once again this winter, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is requesting the public to report sightings of turkey flocks. Information on the location of wintertime turkeys helps Game Commission wildlife managers determine possible sites for live-trapping turkeys for ongoing population monitoring and other projects. No turkeys are moved during the trapping efforts. All birds trapped will be quickly processed, leg banded and immediately released at the point of capture. Here in our region, Wildlife Management Unit 4D is one of four WMUs that will be using some extra data collection. The ...

Ice fishing might be a thing this year

It appears that we could be in store for a more traditional winter this year. We’ve already been “treated” to several weeks of cold, snowy weather, and that trend seems likely to continue. And after a couple of mild winters the past two years, it’s probably appropriate to say, “We were due.” But not being a fan of winter personally, I’m looking forward to catching up with my reading and research while hoping spring gets here sooner than later. Folks often ask me if I go ice fishing. While I have done some ice fishing, I freely confess that I don’t find it all that ...