Breaking News

Outdoors

Getting you prepared for fall turkey hunting

Hunting for turkeys in the fall has been a tradition from before the pioneers landed at Plymouth Rock. We wait for it religiously, and I couldn’t find the right ammunition this season for my new shotgun. Oh well. The old 12 gauge is very good at helping me bag my Thanksgiving bird. It seems quite possible that we will be hunting them in the snow this year. That opens up a great possibility of bumping into a flock because you can come upon tracks in the snow and still hunt those tracks until you hear or see them in the distance. Spring and fall turkey hunting methods differ so ...

Viral diseases threaten small-game populations

When I started hunting, small-game hunting seemed almost as popular as deer season. We eagerly awaited the middle of October and the opportunity to tramp the woods and fields looking for rabbits, grouse or pheasants. Not only were they great fun to hunt but also wonderful eating after returning home with some weight in the game bag on an autumn afternoon. The first animal I bagged in my hunting career was a rabbit, and I remember it like it was last week. But some of my fondest small-game memories were days afield shared with three or four good friends working together to find our ...

Grouse hunting for experts

Grouse hunters — who hope for good weather for the opener of the season this Saturday — have forever been looked upon as the elite among small game hunters. And why not? Most consider grouse as the king of game birds. The flavor of grouse is exquisite, as is the sight of those purists who hunt grouse exclusively. I know a few of this type and they belong with the fly-fishing purists. The finest shotguns grace their cabinets and their pressed canvas trousers, vests and other regalia signify that they haunt briars and thickets in search of Pennsylvania’s state bird. Like ...

Game lands tours are scheduled

Again this October, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be offering a series of nine self-guided driving tours on selected state game lands throughout the state. The agency suspended these popular autumn tours in 2016 for financial reasons but put them back in place last fall. All tours are free and will be held regardless of the weather. Only vehicles licensed for travel on public roads are permitted on the tours. I have taken several of these tours in past years and always found them to be a special opportunity to get well into the interior of some of these large game-lands ...

Scandal rocks fishing tournament

By Mark Gillispie The Associated Press CLEVELAND — The county prosecutor’s office in Cleveland has opened an investigation into an apparent cheating scandal during a lucrative walleye fishing tournament on Lake Erie last week. A video posted to Twitter shows Jason Fischer, tournament director for the Lake Erie Walleye Trail, cutting open the winning catch of five walleye on Friday and finding lead weights and prepared fish filets inside them. The winning anglers, Jacob Runyan, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, and Chase Cominsky, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, were immediately ...

Pa’s elk herd thrills hunters and others

The restoration of elk in Pennsylvania represents a great conservation success story. Native elk were found throughout Pennsylvania in the early 19th century but were all but eliminated from the state by the late 1800s, except for a small population in the area around Elk County. The Pennsylvania Game Commission began an elk restoration program in 1913 by releasing animals obtained from Yellowstone National Park, South Dakota and a private preserve in Pennsylvania. This effort continued until 1926 with 177 elk being transplanted into the central, northeastern and northcentral regions ...