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Godfather of bass fishing leaves quite a legacy

By Walt Young sports@altoonamirror.com Ray Scott, often referred to as the “godfather of modern bass fishing, passed away in his sleep on May 8. He was 88. Scott was a masterful promoter who in 1967 had the vision of “building the sport of bass fishing to its rightful place in the first rank of American sports.” That vision came true to a greater extent than even Scott himself probably dared to dream of at the time. He was born on August 24, 1933, in Montgomery, Alabama, where he grew up during the Great Depression in a one-bedroom house with his parents, a brother and ...

Firefly researchers have tough time doing their work

By Mary Ann Thomas The Associated Press Growing up around Seattle, Ainsley Seago said she never saw a firefly until she visited Hershey as a teenager. These days, she watches in amusement as her 10-year-old son, Maxwell, enjoys catching lightning bugs and releasing them. “How can you not catch them?” said Seago, associate curator of invertebrate zoology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. “They are magical and look like supernatural glowing creatures that fly.” What looks like a wonderland of tiny, flashing lights are really mating signals for lightning bugs. ...

Hunting, trapping new year scheduled to begin July 1

Pa. Game Commission Pennsylvania's 2022-23 hunting and trapping licenses are currently on sale. Buying one is key to getting in on some exciting action. The new license year begins July 1. It is once again big on opportunities, featuring a record number of bull elk tags, as well as seven weeks of archery deer hunting, a firearms deer season that includes the weekend after Thanksgiving, the chance to hunt trophy black bears, more stocked pheasants than anywhere in the Northeast and more. License prices, meanwhile, remain unchanged, with one notable exception. This year, for the ...

New Blair Waterways Conservation Officer getting acclimated

Editor’s note: Frank Mehalko was hired as the new Blair County Waterways Conservation Officer last November after the position had become open. Mehalko recently participated in a question-and-answer session with Altoona Mirror sports writer John Hartsock and discussed his experiences in his first year of stocking fish and enforcing laws in the 2022 trout season, which began statewide this past April 2. With the state’s bass fishing season opening today, Mehalko will begin to concentrate his efforts into enforcing the laws and ensuring safety for fishermen who are out on boats and ...

A few things you can add to your recipe book

By Shirley Grenoble For the Mirror Because I get many queries about how to cook wild game, I try to offer cooking strategies and recipes from time to time. When I first started my outdoor writing career back in the 1970’s, the only women writers were cooking writers. I was determined to never be labeled with that title. Nothing wrong with being a cooking columnist, but when I began writing outdoor pieces, both press and public were reluctant to read anything other than that from a female writer. So for many years, I never offered a cooking tip or a recipe I had spent many ...

Opening of bass fishing season only one week away in Pennsylvania

By Walt Young For the Mirror When bass season opens on Saturday, June 11, all species of fish will once again be fair game in Pennsylvania. The start of bass season, however, typically doesn’t generate the crazy amount of activity the first day of trout season does. That’s probably because trout are stocked by the thousands in so many Pennsylvania waters, making all those easy-to-catch hatchery fish readily accessible for opening day anglers. While bass fishing is also tremendously popular, the start of the season simply doesn’t include that “get ’em while you can” ...