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Outdoors

Dove, early Canada goose seasons start next week

Scanning the calendar for perspective on this week’s topic, I was mildly stunned to discover that this coming week marks the beginning of September, which is the traditional opening of the dove and early Canada goose seasons. The arrival of those early hunting seasons always seems to catch me a bit off guard. I certainly enjoy bird hunting, but I also love summer and the many outdoor activities it provides. And summer never seems to last long enough to suit me, and that makes it even harder to think about dusting off the shotguns in preparation for another bird-hunting ...

Fishing with live bait long-standing tradition

Like most anglers of my generation, I started my fishing career using live bait. My first catch was a brook trout that gobbled a garden worm on a long-ago first day of trout season. And while my first recollection of catching a bass was a big largemouth that clobbered a topwater lure, most of the bass I caught as a youngster were with minnows, crayfish and even some night crawlers. I always harbored a considerable fascination for artificial lures, even though my youthful angling budget limited the number of them I could acquire. As I got older and had more money to spend on fishing ...

Spinnerbaits are versatile, bass-catching lures

By Walt Young sports@altoonamirror.com Largemouth and smallmouth bass are undoubtedly the most popular freshwater gamefish in North America. It’s also probably safe to say that more lures have been designed to catch them than all other freshwater fish species combined. Like many bass anglers, I have a deep fascination for all types of bass lures. I own many more lures than I could ever hope to fish with, but each season I continue to add to that lifetime accumulation. There’s always some new model or new color that is a “must have” and somehow gets crammed into an ...

Bad start for new doe license system

By Walt Young For the Mirror Back in April when I reported on the new system that had just been approved for the application and sale of antlerless deer licenses, I saw some possible glitches in the process. I refrained from commenting on them at the time because doing away with the mail-in applications to county treasurer offices was long overdue. And hopefully, those potential problems wouldn’t come to pass or only be minimal anyway. Hunting licenses are valid from July 1-June 30 of the following year. Under the previous system, new hunting licenses went on sale on the ...

Sports at a glance

Badgers LB suspended MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin linebacker Jordan Turner, the Badgers’ second-leading tackler last season, has been suspended from the team for a violation of the athletic department’s discipline policy. Athletic director Chris McIntosh announced Turner’s suspension Friday. The school didn’t offer additional details or specifics, noting federal law prohibits it from disclosing information regarding disciplinary actions toward a student. But Turner said via Twitter that “earlier this week, I was cited with an OWI first offense along with additional traffic ...

Reflections on 50 years of fly-fishing

By Walt Young For the Mirror A couple of weeks ago, I spent a few hours talking about fly-fishing with some young friends. These guys are in their mid to late twenties and are quite knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their favorite sport. Having started fly-fishing and fly tying back in 1964, I enjoy talking shop with the younger generation about their perspective on the state of the art. When I was their age, fly-fishing was as much a religion as it was recreation for me. Driven to be the best I could be with a fly rod, I began collecting and studying the best books on ...