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Black Bear Hunting in New Jersey up to Judges

November 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

The 2012 Black Bear hunting season in New Jersey is possibly in jeopardy and will be decide by a judge.   Two animal rights group have sued the state saying that the information used to report bear-human incidents are unreliable and lead to incorrect population counts.   They claim this has but too many pregnant females at risk.

These two animal rights groups challenges the policy that allows for a 6 day hunt in New Jersey.   Last year that failed to stop the season which ended up with 592 bears killed but the lawsuit was allowed to continue and now is at risk of ending the 2012 hunt.

The 2011 bear hunting season in New Jersey was the first in 5 years and has not happened since 2007 when a lawsuit stopped that season claiming that flaws in the management should have stopped hunting sooner.

Oral arguments on 11/29/11 go before a three judge panel focused on the Division of Fish and wildlife and their bear management policy.

Follow more on this story here: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700202395/Future-of-NJ-black-bear-hunt-now-up-to-judges.html

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Fisherman Forced to give up 881 Pound Tuna

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As an avid fisherman I just have to say this is totally wrong.  So long as he has tags he should have been able to keep the fish unless they prove he targeted the fish somehow using illegal fishing tactics.

This fish story may lack the epic qualities of Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 classic “The Old Man and the Sea,” but for New Bedford’s Carlos Rafael, the outcome was about the same. In both cases, despite catching and bringing home a huge fish, powerful circum­stances conspired to deprive the fishermen of a potentially huge reward.

Boat owner Rafael, a big player in the local fishing industry, was elated when the crew of his 76-foot steel dragger Apollo told him they’d caught a giant bluefin tuna in their trawl gear.

“We didn’t catch that fish on the bottom,” he said. “We probably got it in the mid­water when we were setting out and it just got corralled in the net. That doesn’t happen very often.”

Rafael, who in the last four years purchased 15 tuna permits for his groundfish boats to cover just such an eventuality, imme­diately called a bluefin tuna hot line maintained by fishery regu­lators to report the catch.

When the weather offshore deteriorated, the Apollo decided to seek shelter in Provincetown Harbor on Nov. 12. Rafael imme­diately set off in a truck to meet the boat.

“I wanted to sell the fish while it was fresh instead of letting it age on the boat,”he said.“It was a beautiful fish.”

It was also a lucrative one. Highly prized in Japan, a 754­pound specimen fetched a record price at a Tokyo auction in January this year, selling for nearly $396,000. These fish can grow to enormous size. The world record for a bluefin, which has stood since 1979, was set when a 1,496-pound specimen was caught off Nova Scotia.

However, when Rafael rolled down the dock in Provincetown there was an unexpected and unwelcome development. The authorities were waiting. Agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement informed him they were confis­cating his fish — all 881 pounds of it.

Even though the catch had been declared and the boat had a tuna permit, the rules do not allow fishermen to catch bluefin tuna in a net.

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New Record Carp – Doesn’t Count

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

LINCOLN – He has landed tonss of striped bass in Narraganset Bay,many  of them real lunkers, but the fish Dave Pickering landed in fresh water was beyond all expectations.

Fishing an undisclosed location in Rhode Island, Pickering would have set a new record by pulling in a 36-pound common carp. It is the largest freshwater fish ever taken in Rhode Island, over a pound bigger than the previous record a whopping 35-pound pike.

“It was truly was a fish of a lifetime,” said Pickering.

The fish will not go down as an official state record though.

“In order for that to happen, I would have had to kill the fish and taken it to a tackle shop to have it weighed,” said Pickering. “That’s the way things are done in Rhode Island. But I did weigh it on a Berkeley digital scale, we also took some pictures and released it. I am hoping we meet up again some day.”

The fish beat the previous record for a carp by over than three pounds, and it was Pickering who held the previous record, set earlier this year.

In fact, while most carp fishermen go a lifetime without landing a lunker that tips the scales at 30 pounds, Pickering has nailed three of them this year.

While it will not go into the official state records, the catch will become the new Carp Angler Group record for the state. Pickering is state chairman of that group, which maintains carp records for every state in the country.

“In order to qualify for that record, all that is needed was an accurate weight, a picture and a witness, and I had all three,” Pickering said.

Thirty-pound carp are rare in Rhode Island, and Pickering said as president of the Carp Angler Group, that he knows of only four others that have been caught, all by different people. He is the only one in the group’s archives that has landed three plus-30-pounders.

“This fish has drawn national attention in the carp world as fishermen from all over the country have commented on the catch on the Carp Angler Group Forum which is on their website,” said Pickering. While the location where he landed the fish will remain a secret, his method will not. Pickering said he landed the fish on a Chub Stalker carp rod with a Shimano 3500 Baitrunner reel that was spooled with 15 pound test Berkley Big Game line.

“For bait, I was using Pescaviva pineapple flavored sweet corn on a hair rig that was fished ahead of an oatmeal based method ball,” said Pickering, getting technical with his description.

Pickering fishes extensively for carp all over Rhode Island as well as nearby Massachusetts. He has landed thousands of carp and catches upwards of 650 carp a year.

The Lincoln resident is also a member of the New England Outdoor Writers’ Association and has written about carp fishing in many national and regional magazines. He also conducts seminars on carp fishing in New England.

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Tips on How to Avoid Bear Attacks

August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With quite a bit of recent coverage on the bear attack of a boy in Norway, Bear-Hunting.Org, a portal for hunters has released some tips on how to avoid a bear attack.

They claim that most bear attacks are due to sows, or female bears, defending their cubs. So it’s especially important if you are out when bear cubs are you need to be extra careful when hunting to make sure to avoid cubs and their unruly mothers/

Here are a few tips they have released that may help you avoid a bear mauling:

1. Carry a can of bear pepper spray and keep it readily available as a bear attack is often very quick, it won’t do you much good to have your pepper spray in a backpack or back at your base camp.

2. Avoid making eye contact with the bear as they will perceive this as a threat. Also bend your needs to hunch down and stand with your side to them to appear smaller and less threatening.

3. If you do get attacked protect your chest and also your abdominal area. This can best be done by trying to get into a fetal positions. Use your hands to protect your neck and stay sill until you are sure the bear has left.

4. Avoid a messy camp, food items often draw bears in with their keen sense of smell it’s good to avoid making your camping area a target.

Bear-Hunting.Org recommends checking with your state’s department of wildlife and natural resources for more information on preventing bear attacks and learning about recent bear attacks in the area. Be sure to visit their bear hunting website to obtain the guide when it’s released.

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Washington to Increase License Fees

August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Starting Sept. 1, the base cost of most hunting and fishing licenses in Washington will increase.

In a news release, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) said that this is the first general recreational license fee increase in more than a decade.

The department announced the new fees, which will replace a temporary license surcharge that expired in June of 2011, and is expected to generate about $8 million in revenues annually for activities that support hunting and fishing.

Recreational license revenues are used to manage fisheries and hunting seasons, release trout and steelhead for recreational fisheries, regulation enforcement, monitor fish and game populations and help maintain wildlife habitats.

The 2011 Legislature approved the fees to help meet rising costs and shortfalls in revenue for managing hunting, fishing and the fish and wildlife populations that are the focus of those activities.

Not all license fees will increase, and some will decline, including those for youth, seniors and persons with disabilities.  New license fee prices are available on the WDFW website.

“The new fees are critically important in maintaining fishing and hunting opportunity and make it possible for the department to fulfill its dual mission of conserving species while providing sustainable fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation across the state,” said WDFW Director Phil Anderson. “The fees reflect the cost of managing specific fisheries and hunts, and are competitive with fees charged in neighboring states. At the same time, we made an effort to encourage broad participation through youth and senior discounts.”

Revenues from the license fee increase will replace the 10 percent license sale surcharge that expired in June, and will fill a projected deficit in the account that funds fishing and hunting activities. Without the license fee increase, WDFW said it would have been forced to make major cuts in hunting and fishing seasons and opportunities.

“Fishing and hunting contribute more than $1.4 billion a year to the state’s economy, benefitting local communities, small business owners and the people they employ,” Anderson said. “Maintaining fishing and hunting opportunity is vital to Washington’s economy and quality of life.”

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