As I rounded a turn on the narrow backroad, I was delighted to see the steep hillside on the right was awash in the white and pink blossoms of mountain laurel. Part of my mission that day was to photograph some fresh mountain laurel, so finding this particular stand of our state flower in ...

Schools are done and summer officially arrives later this week. While I’m not going to offer any predictions, I’m cautiously optimistic that we finally might be returning to more normal summer weather patterns this year compared to the rainiest summer on record last year. That ...

Beginning Monday you can apply for new hunting licenses. And by the way, there are some changes in elk hunting seasons for the upcoming year. One important change, of which hunters should be aware, involves application for elk licenses, which are awarded by lottery. Two new elk seasons ...

By Matthew Brown The Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — Grizzly bears are expanding their range in the U.S. Northern Rockies, spreading from remote wilderness into farmland amid a legal fight over proposed hunting. New government data from grizzly population monitoring show bruins in ...

I watched in awe the ceremonies commemorating the landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy. There was President Trump’s speech. I cried as I looked on at the few remaining veterans of that day that are now so feeble that most could not even stand on their own. Also, I read the astonishing ...

After last week’s revelations from the auditor general’s office that appeared on the front page of the Mirror on May 31, does anyone still think the Pennsylvania Game Commission is capable of managing its own financial resources, let alone the wildlife resources of ...

BELLEFONTE — The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission announced that a pending construction project will result in the temporary closure of its H.R. Stackhouse Training Facility and surrounding areas that include portions of Fisherman’s Paradise, located in Benner Township, Centre County. ...

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is seeking public comment on proposed changes to fishing tackle regulations along a section of Spruce Creek located in Huntingdon County. At its next meeting on July 15 and 16, the Board of Commissioners will consider a proposal to add ...

The past week for me will rank as one of the strangest in recent memory. It all started so simply, when I realized I had a few open days on my schedule just before the Memorial Day weekend. That welcome situation prompted me to plan a trip with my brother to Presque Isle Bay on Lake Erie for ...

By now you have probably heard that the Pennsylvania Game Commission has added a hunting pro to their public relations staff as their new marketing specialist. Many will probably think that it is about time they added someone who can speak for the hunting community and who knows from ...

After another wet and rainy spring, it’s hard to believe that the Memorial Day weekend is here already. Next weekend, of course, will mark the opening of the summer recreation season for many folks. With that in mind, the first of two Fish-For-Free days for 2019 in Pennsylvania occurs next ...

A hunter crippled a wild turkey one season. He spent three days looking for it but had no luck. He hung up his gun for the rest of the season. “I know that bird is dead,” he said “and that’s my limit for this year.” That’s top-drawer sportsmanship. But there are more ways than ...

You sure can’t use May’s weather to prove a global warming theory. I sat in the woods one day last week and endured a hailstorm and winds so cold, I thought it was deer season, not spring gobbler season. For the umpteenth time in my life I wondered why I was out there. “Why am I not ...

May is a grand month for outdoor enthusiasts in Pennsylvania. Glorious weather and the splendid return of green foliage makes springtime a beautiful time of year throughout the region. Turkey hunters take to the woods in hope of coaxing a gobbler into shotgun range, while trout fishermen ...

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is excited to announce a new state record flathead catfish. On April 6, angler Jeff Bonawitz, 54, of East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County launched his boat from the Muddy Creek public access area located south of Lower Bear Island ...

If someone had told me I wouldn’t catch a single trout on a dry during the entire month of May here in central Pennsylvania, I would have been willing to bet almost anything I owned to the contrary. But that is indeed what happened last year — the lack of dry-fly success, that is, not ...

Outdoor television shows suggest that using decoys on your turkey hunt draws turkeys irresistibly to your setup. Reality sets in, however, when you actually set up your decoys, turkeys appear and seem to be spooked by them and won’t approach your set ...

The Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Ted Kennedy sums up what he sees along the river in the Grand Canyon: “It’s buggy out there.” That is to say, an experiment to change the flow of water from a dam near the Arizona-Utah state line appeared to boost the number of aquatic insects ...

A text message from my old friend and expert bass guide Ken Penrod appeared on my phone late last Monday afternoon. It simply said, “Have an empty boat tomorrow. Can you come down?” Without hesitation I responded that my brother Dwayne and I would be happy to occupy the empty seats in his ...

Well, April is almost gone. Before us stretches a month of trout fishing at its best and spring gobbler hunting, one of the supreme thrills of the hunting seasons. The opening day of deer season has been officially set for the Saturday after Thanksgiving but that has not changed the minds of ...