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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Thursday, August 1, 2019:
Colorado Parks and Wildlife to start selling ‘Leftover’ hunting licenses Tuesday: Colorado Parks and Wildlife is preparing for Leftover Day on Tuesday, when the agency will start selling unclaimed hunting licenses. According to a CPW news release, hunting licenses that were offered during the draw but have not yet been claimed often represent prime hunting opportunities, and they will become available for purchase on a first-come, first-served basis, starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday. “In the past, lines have accumulated long before our office doors open as hunters try to get the first shot at prime hunting licenses left over from the draw,” the release states.
Utah plans to increase the cougar hunt, but advocates warn that losing more big cats could pose big problems: Utah is poised to add 34 more cougar hunting permits across the state, alarming wildlife advocates who fear trophy seekers will wipe out the older and bolder cats, destabilizing the mountain lion population and boosting the threat to cattle. “Getting rid of the big cats, from a livestock-protection perspective, is very foolish,” said Kim Crumbo, senior carnivore advocate for Wildlands Network. “They live a long time because they learn to get along.” The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources wants to increase the number of hunting permits to 678 (out of about 2,700 cougars in the state) for the 2019-20 season. The Utah Wildlife Board will take public comment on the proposal before voting Aug. 22.
Hunting season is just around the corner. Have you taken a Hunter Education course? Learn more at https://t.co/ZYIhZTLmz0 pic.twitter.com/4Bg6SVdSF6
— Texas Game Warden (@TexasGameWarden) July 31, 2019
Man reportedly hunting Bigfoot fires shots at campers at a Kentucky national park: A man fired shots while at a campsite in central Kentucky after telling campers they were looking for Bigfoot, a television station reported. Brad Ginn and Madelyn Durand, a couple, told WBKO-TV that they were awakened up in the middle of the night Sunday as a man approached them and told them something destroyed their campsite at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park. The man told the couple that “it was Bigfoot country,” Ginn said. He then warned the couple to be careful and said he was searching for whatever destroyed the camp.
Minimalist fly-fishing: How to simplify your pursuit of trout: Beginning fly anglers are often overwhelmed with all there is to know about the sport. However, you do not need to carry every known fly pattern, three different rods, two types of fly lines, a daypack full of gadgets and how to match the hatch books. You do not need to know how to cast a fly line 60 feet or more, and you only need to know three knots. By taking a minimalist approach, beginners and veteran fly anglers can simplify their experiences and find great pleasure in the pursuit of trout.
Losing a fish is a familiar agony for anglers everywhere: Losing fish has been on my mind this week, and it’s an agony every angler experiences at some point in their lives. Anyone who says otherwise is telling a fish tale. My latest brush with the agony occurred last Monday night, when I joined a couple of friends for an evening on a small river that shall remain nameless. My jig had barely hit bottom when something solid tapped the leech in about 9 feet of water. I missed on the hook-set, but the leech was intact so I dropped it back down in hopes the fish would return. It did — and slammed the jig so hard it basically set the hook on itself.
New Illinois law could see more hunter ed in schools: A bill designed to promote hunting safety by allowing school districts to offer students a course on the subject was signed into law last week. The proposal, HB 3462, was inked by Gov. J.B. Pritzker without comment on Friday along with a host of other bills. The new law gives school districts the option to include hunting safety classes in their curriculum. “Students who are exposed to lessons in hunting safety have a greater chance of respecting firearms and using them properly for the rest of their lives,” said state Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, a sponsor of the bill. “As the law is shifting to emphasize the importance of safe handing—adopting legislation like this could make for an accessible path for students to learn these methods in-depth, early on in their lives.”
Washington offering up to $1,000 to encourage deer hunting in Island and San Juan counties: The state is willing to pay qualifying Camano Island property owners $1,000 to let people hunt deer. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced July 16 a plan to solve a problem more than a century in the making: overpopulation of deer that is putting pressure on birds, insects and native plants on habitats in Island and San Juan counties. Mainland properties in Western Snohomish County may be eligible as well. One property in the Warm Beach area is already enrolled. “Humans largely extirpated the predators on the islands as far back as the 1860s,” WDFW biologist Ruth Milner said. “And, with fewer people hunting the islands, deer are over browsing native vegetation, which means less habitat for other species.” Little publicly owned land exists in the islands; for many hunters, finding a place to go hunting is a huge challenge, officials said.
DNR warns online hunting, fishing license scams on the rise: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warns the public to steer clear of recent online hunting and fishing scams. According to the DNR, there are two unofficial websites offering hunting and fishing licenses. Each website urges consumers to pay a fee for a license. These transactions are part of a ploy to extract sensitive personal data. “You will not receive a valid fishing license from these misleading websites,” the DNR director of customer and outreach services says.
Kentucky is using ‘shocking’ boats to show just how bad its Asian carp problem is: Asian carp are a serious problem, and Kentucky is getting creative in dealing with the invasive species. To show how bad the issue is, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources used “shocking” boats to stun the carp so they’d float to the surface and could be collected and measured. Video shows countless fish leaping after the boat sent an electrical current through the water at Barkley Dam. Stunning fish with electricity is a common practice when it comes to counting the population or tagging them, the department explained. The stunning does not kill the fish, only temporarily shocks them so they can be counted or caught. “It’s just to give folks an idea of how many fish we’re dealing with below the dam. We collect and try to distribute to them to buyers,” said Ron Brooks, the department’s fisheries division director.
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