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Outdoors

Spring gobbler season around the corner

By Shirley Grenoble For the Mirror Soon several opening days will — for spring gobbler hunters — end a dreary winter season. Youth hunting season begins April 24 with the statewide season opening on May 1. If you have forgotten to send for the bonus spring turkey license, the deadline for doing so is April 30. I have heard from many parts of the state that gobblers are talking heartily and scouters are seeing lots of turkeys. This really is music to the hunter’s ears because last year’s spring season was a real dud for many of us, including me. Last season, it was ...

Anglers excited about cicadas

By Brian Whipkey The Associated Press ERIE — Anglers are expecting a fisherman’s paradise toward the end of May in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Brood X cicadas are expected to emerge after a 17-year slumber and the high-protein insects are delicious food for a variety of fish. Eric Hussar of Lewisburg, a commissioner with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, is looking forward to the cicada hatch. He said you can catch trout and bass with these insects. “Any type of predatory fish will eat them,” Hussar said, recalling the last time he fished during an emergence ...

Outdoors cycling benefits from virus

By Michael Precker The Associated Press It doesn’t seem right to put “silver lining” and “pandemic” in the same sentence. But the past year of COVID-19 has been a boon for bicycling, an indisputably healthy activity. “Bikes have been one of those bright spots, as we’ve been getting through this last year,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg told the National Bike Summit in early March. “People have been rediscovering how we get around, to the extent we still can.” The numbers bear that out. Bike sales rose by more than 40%, according to the National ...

Two-week deer season approved

HARRIBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission has approved concurrent hunting for antlered and antlerless deer through the duration of the 2021-22 firearms deer season. LNP newspaper reports that commission members acknowledged at their spring meeting Saturday that much of the feedback received since the two-week deer season was proposed in January was negative. But executive director Bryan Burhans said that during comment periods “we mainly hear from people who are opposed to things.” Officials said the commission’s 2020 deer hunter survey indicated that 52% of hunters who ...

Remembering my first trout season

This past weekend marks the earliest statewide opening of trout season that I can remember. For my entire lifetime, the first day of trout season was set for the Saturday in April closest to the fifteenth of the month. Last year, due to COVID-19 concerns, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission enacted a surprise opening of trout season on Tuesday, April 7. The even earlier opener this year has also been attributed to COVID-19 concerns, but I’m really not sure why. In any case, trout anglers will get to enjoy an extra two weeks of fishing this spring. As I work on this column, I ...

Archery program survives pandemic

HARRISBURG — In a year that has been anything but typical for students across the state, Pennsylvania’s National Archery in the Schools Program has helped to keep student archers safely shooting their bows throughout the 2020-21 school year. The program, which is managed in Pennsylvania by the Game Commission, is hosting a virtual state tournament through the end of March, allowing students to compete for NASP awards and scholarships. Pennsylvania NASP’s 2021 Virtual State Tournament began March 1 and runs through March 31. Students can shoot a qualifying score from home, school, ...