Firearm Safety

1. Remove Ammo
Make sure you unload your firearms before storing. Always keep a gun unloaded until you are ready to use it.

2. Store Securely
You want all guns and ammo in locked storage. Store your rifles, handguns and ammunition in a safe place. A good gun safe bolts to the floor for extra security.

3. Handle Keys or Combinations Carefully
If your safe has a combination, memorize it. If you have to write it down, put it in an extremely secure private place like a safety deposit box. If you have a key lock for your gun safe, keep it with you at all times.

4. Protect Your Children
As soon as your children are old enough to be aware of guns, explain to them that they should only be handled by an adult with knowledge and experience. Be sure they understand how dangerous guns can be in the wrong hands. As they grow older, remind them that your guns should only be handled when you are present.

New Pacific Bluefin Tuna Record

A sinew-stretching encounter with a powerful giant tuna 60 kilometres off the West Coast has got Stoke man Brent Connor into the record books and made him a fisherman of international stature.
Mr Connor, a 42-year-old road marking contractor, now officially holds the world record for a Pacific bluefin tuna caught on 60-kilogram (130-pound) line.
He has a certificate from the International Game Fish Association to prove it, his 281kg (619lb 7oz) catch has gone to the association's Florida museum and he's pictured in the latest issue of International Angler magazine.
It all happened on September 10 last year while Mr Connor and five of his mates were on a two-day trip out of Greymouth aboard Tony Roach's 15.4 metre charter boat Cova Rose.

They all caught bluefin tuna, but it was Mr Connor's that stood out as a possible world-beater. So Mr Roach – an experienced hand with a strong reputation in the bluefin-chasing scene – made sure that all the requirements for a record entry were complied with.

Line testing and other stringent checks take time, and it was only a few weeks ago that the certificate arrived, followed by the magazine at the weekend.

Mr Connor, who was on his first tuna trip, said he and the same group were going back this year. The catch was extra-special because it occurred on the anniversary of the death of his brother Warren, whose life was claimed by a heart attack four years previously, when he was just 39.

"I think he probably gave me a hand to get the fish up."

The tuna took a hoki bait and was landed in 55 minutes, using a game chair and harness. It took all of the six fishermen and three crew to lift it aboard.

Mr Connor said the experience was "just amazing".

"It's like hauling in a bus."

He was exhausted but "still buzzing" the next day, he said, and hopes to one day travel to Florida to see the fish again. It was flown there at the association's expense because it had been seeking a Pacific bluefin specimen for its museum.

Nelson-based Mr Roach, who will begin his sixth season of tuna-fishing charters in August, said the fishery was attracting international clients. Half a dozen charter boats are used, with a number of other fishermen using their own boats, heading out from Greymouth and Westport to fish the Hokitika Trench.

"It's been awesome – it's one of the few game fisheries where your chance of a capture is really high," Mr Roach said. "They're real aggressive compared to swordfish or marlin, and fish deep. Some of the fights are five or six hours."

Last season one client caught an even bigger tuna – 334.5kg – but used his own fishing gear, which didn't comply with the tough requirements for a world record entry. Even so, Mr Roach believes it was the biggest Pacific bluefin ever landed anywhere.

Conservationists often express concern about bluefin tuna but Mr Roach said that most of the fish taken in the West Coast season, which only lasts about six weeks after the fish arrive to feed on hoki each year, are tagged and released after being measured alongside the charter boats.

California Bear Hunters Must Take a Tooth.

Bear hunters taking to the field this season will need to have their heads more closely examined, if they are successful in their hunt.
The California Department of Fish and Game biologists and wardens are requiring hunters to pull a tooth from the skull of every bear taken during the 2011 black bear hunting season, which begins July 9.

This is a change from last year, when the DFG only required a tooth be pulled from every other bear harvested during the season. The change stems from a request by the California Fish and Game Commission, which wants to take a closer look at the management of black bear hunting in California. The commission is the deciding body for hunting and fishing regulations. In 2010, a proposal to modify the number of bears legally taken during the hunting season was scrutinized by commission members as well as the public. During the regulation setting process, commission members and the public voiced a desire to look at regional bear hunt management.

 

The bear teeth provide insight in the bear population. A premolar is pulled from the bear’s mandible and processed at a Montana laboratory specializing in finding the age of an animal. Lab technicians can find the age of the bear, and reproductive events can also be detected in female teeth.

The DFG uses the information to monitor the bear population, which is then used to decide new hunting regulations.

California’s black bear population is estimated to be at more than 30,000. Current regulations allow up to 1,700 bears to be taken during the hunting season.

Anglers gear up for snapper season

Red snapper are perhaps the most favored and most controversial of all the fish in the Gulf. Every year there's a tug-of-war between conservation and recreation. This year is no different, as the season has been shortened by more than three weeks. It will begin on June 1st this year.

Most of Captiain Clay Blankenship’s charters are inshore, but at the start of red snapper season on June 1st, he’ll be headed for deeper water.

”Opening day, I’ll definitely be out there. Whether they get an inshore charter or not, I’m going to take them out there and pull on some,” Blakenship said.

JUST 48 DAYS

While the start of season hasn't changed, the length has. This year’s season will end July 19, making it more than three weeks shorter than in years past.

”This year’s season - the 2011 season - will be the shortest season yet ... 48 days,” said Kevin Anson with Alabama Marine Resources.

Anson said the season is figured on an assessment taken every five years, which is fed into a model to determine how many snapper can be caught. He said the current system doesn’t allow for year-to-year fixes, and the next assessment isn’t scheduled until 2013.

”In that five year period, there may be some increases to the population that just won’t be picked up because the information is based on some previous data,” Anson said.
Anson added that research done by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab shows a healthy abundance of adult red snapper, but that won’t change what you can catch this year.
RED SNAPPER RULES AND FINES
To be legal, the red snapper that are caught have to be a minimum of 16 inches long, and only two can be caught per day. There is also a possession limit of two, so if you go out on a multi-day trip, no matter how many days you’re out, you’re only allowed to come back with two red snapper.
If you decide to flaunt the law, be prepared. It could cost you as much as $500 per fish.

Texas Noodling to be legalized?

Brady Knowlton has scurried up trees to escape elephants. He has been chased by lions. But in years of hunting, he said, no experience compares to plunging his bare hand into murky water and feeling the powerful jaw of a big catfish clamp down on his arm.

“This is just a very unique thrill,” said Mr. Knowlton, a 30-year-old Dallas outdoorsman who has been hand fishing, or “noodling,” since he was a teenager. But to get his hands inside a catfish’s mouth legally, Mr. Knowlton must go to Oklahoma. Hand fishing is a Class C misdemeanor in Texas, punishable by a fine of up to $500. But that may not be the case for much longer. State lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill to legalize hand fishing, and the bill is now on its way to the governor’s desk.

But noodling has its detractors. In what could be seen as fishing’s class warfare, traditional rod-and-reel fishermen say noodlers tarnish the reputation of the up-and-coming sport of catfishing. And they worry that hand fishing could decimate the population of large male catfish.

“I had no idea it was against the law,” said State Representative Gary Elkins, Republican of Houston, who introduced a bill to legalize it. He said he could not imagine sticking his own hand down a fish’s gullet but that he did not see why the state should prohibit those who enjoy it from doing so.

It comes with some risks — including run-ins with snakes or snapping turtles and the potential loss of a digit or two. But Mr. Knowlton said it is a great way to enjoy nature. And using your bare hands to wrestle down a catfish that can weigh as much as 60 pounds, well, just seems more sporting.

Noodling worries opponents of hand fishing because it is practiced during the summer spawning season. Females lay their eggs in underwater burrows, which are guarded by males, whose protectiveness makes it possible for the noodler to stick a hand into a burrow and come out with an aggressive catfish. The noodler’s score means one less big catfish in the population and leaves those eggs vulnerable to other predators.

Noodlers and some biologists dispute the argument that noodling affects fish populations differently than other forms of fishing. It is no different from snagging fish on the end of a hook, they say.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials will not speak for or against pending legislation, but officials have expressed some concern that noodling could deplete isolated populations of the long-lived and difficult-to-breed flathead catfish, the species that noodlers typically pursue.

John Tibbs, a fisheries biologist with the department, said a shift in the size of the fish population because of noodling, while possible, seemed “highly unlikely.” The wildlife department could respond to particularly sensitive populations with specific limits and regulations, he said.

But Chad Ferguson, a Texas fishing guide, is worried that noodlers will damage the growing sport of trophy catfishing. “The mentality of most of these guys attracted to noodling is to catch the biggest fish that they can and to keep everything that they catch,” said Mr. Ferguson, who has been a guide for 10 years.

The growing popularity of trophy catfishing has led to more tournaments with bigger prizes and has turned the catfish into one of the top game fish in Texas, Mr. Ferguson said. “It’s a black eye for the progress that we’ve made to really take the sport of catfishing to a more professional level,” he said.

Bradley Beesley, an Austin filmmaker and noodler who has made two documentaries about the practice and runs a noodling tournament in Oklahoma, knows that sentiment. Noodlers are often placed at the bottom of the fishing hierarchy, he said, with rod-and-reel fishermen and their expensive equipment at the top.

To Mr. Beesley, it is an unsporting assessment of his passion. “It’s simply the fairest way to combat another beast on their terms,” he said.

PA is raising the number of doe tags given out this year!

The length of doe season is changing. The number of doe licenses to be available is changing. Antler restrictions are changing. The Deer Management Assistance Program is changing.

Other than that, this year's deer hunting will look just like last year's.

When Pennsylvania Game Commissioners gathered in Harrisburg earlier this month to give final approval to seasons and bag limits for 2011-12, a number of species were discussed, some extensively. But deer, as always, dominated.

One change expanded the number of wildlife management units that will be managed under a split season format - five days of bucks-only hunting followed by seven days of either-sex hunting - to 11. The state's other 11 units will feature 12 days of concurrent buck and doe hunting.

The units with the split season are 2A, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4D and 4E. Those with concurrent hunting are 1A, 1B, 2B, 3A, 3D, 4A, 4C, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D.

That was not a surprise. Commissioners had given the change tentative approval in April, and stuck to the idea, even though enough people testified in opposition to the idea that Commissioner Ralph Martone, of Lawrence County, congratulated them on "connecting split seasons to everything but drought and famine in Africa."

Commissioners also adopted another proposal that had been championed earlier in the year by Martone and Commissioner Bob Schlemmer, of Westmoreland County.
The change is that units where bucks previously had to have four antler points to a side to be legal will now be managed according to a "3-up" rule. That means any buck with three points on one side - excluding the brow tine - will now be legal.
The change - which impacts units 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and 2D - was adopted to make it easier for hunters to identify what is a legal deer, said Schlemmer.
"I've heard from a lot of our older hunters in particular who wanted to say thank you because now they don't have to worry about that brow tine," Schlemmer said.
Hunters don't have to look for the tine, but if they see one in those units, they can't count it as the third point, warned commission Executive Director Carl Roe.
Commissioners also set the number of antlerless deer licenses to be made available. In most management units, the allocation is designed to keep the herd at existing levels.
There are a few exceptions. The commission is - as always - trying to lower the deer population in the state's three most urban units, including 2B, which surrounds Pittsburgh.
They also upped the number of doe permits issued in units 2D, 2F and 3D. In the case of 2F, it was to offer more opportunity, since licenses there typically sell out within a matter of days, explained Martone.
In 2D, the goal is to lower the deer herd, as a citizen advisory council recommended, he added.
In Unit 3D, the goal is to lower the deer herd a bit more and speed up forest recovery, said Commissioner Jay Delaney, of Luzerne County.
Commissioners lowered the doe license allocation to allow the deer herd to grow in units 3B, 4D and 4E.
Commissioner Tom Boop, of Northumberland County, who recommended those adjustments, said he would have preferred more dramatic changes.
"I'm just really tired of catering to the timber industry on wildlife. Whether people like it or not, we are about providing recreational opportunities for hunters," Boop said.
Boop's frustration - long on display over the deer program - was nothing new. He predicted back in January that the buck harvest from 2010-11 would be drastically down over prior years.
That didn't come to pass, at least according to the commission's chief deer biologist, Chris Rosenberry. The agency's estimated buck harvest in particular was actually 13 percent higher than the year before.
Boop, in a March 16 letter to Roe, questioned the veracity of that.
"Quite frankly, no one that I have talked to since the news release believes that the estimated antlered harvest figures are accurate," Boop wrote to Roe.
"Although I would like to believe that ‘no creative accounting' has been utilized, I am skeptical,"
He continued in that same vein at the commission meeting. When Rosenberry gave a presentation to the board, Boop asked him if he actually believed Pennsylvania held enough deer to support a harvest of 316,240, last season's estimate.
Some have suggested that would mean Pennsylvania had upwards of one million deer, or 36 per square mile, he said.
Rosenberry's answer was that "it doesn't matter." The commission does not manage deer based on how many live within the state, he said. It manages deer on a unit basis, with the size of the herd in each based on deer and habitat health and human tolerances.
"If those goals for the deer program are being met, it doesn't matter" what the number of deer is, he said.
Cal DuBrock, head of the commission's Bureau of Wildlife Management, echoed those sentiments when asked about the total number of doe licenses being issued this fall.
The total is 902,000, the highest it's been in the last several years. But that's irrelevant, given that the commission manages deer by specific wildlife management units, he said.
Commissioner Delaney said commissioners and the public would like to have population estimates, though.
He also asked why Pennsylvania's forests are not getting healthier faster, given the presence of fewer deer compared to past highs.
Roe suggested it's possible to see quicker change, but only by further lowering deer numbers and keeping them down longer, something that would likely prove unpopular with many hunters.
"That's where the social aspect of management comes in," he said.
"It takes time," Rosenberry added.
Finally, commissioners changed the rules regarding DMAP. It gives landowners coupons that hunters can redeem for doe permits good for their specific properties.
Last year, commissioners capped the number of permits and counted them against the overall doe license allocation.
This year, there is no limit on coupons, and they will be offered in addition to regular doe licenses.
Requests for coupons must be justified, however, said President Commissioner Ron Weaner, of Adams County.
"Public landowners will have to present a management plan for their property, and it will have to be approved by staff," Weaner said.

Texas bill would allow hellicopter hunting

Snorting, slashing and digging, some two million porcine predators are rampaging across the state, Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, told his fellow lawmakers Wednesday, warning some are even venturing into urban areas.

Although landowners have the right to shoot feral hogs on their property, Fraser wants Texans to have the right to organize hunting trips and shoot them from helicopters.

Once-domestic hogs, now feral, they root up pasture land, tear down fences, destroy crops and occasionally endanger people. Studies show they do some $400 million worth of damage a year.

The Senate voted 29-2 to support Fraser's bill. Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, was the only one to speak up on behalf of the hogs. He said he understood the problem but had concerns about the hunting notion.
Interestingly, Fraser's bill is labeled “relating to the taking of certain feral hogs and coyotes.” No one spoke up for the lowly coyote, perhaps because they worried about incurring the wrath of a certain gun-toting jogger, whose own coyote encounter is well known. Gov. Rick Perry will now sign the bill.