I bet that hurt
This past Saturday the American Kennel Club announced its 2009 registration numbers indicating the most popular dog breeds in the United States. For the 19th consecutive year the Labrador Retriever is the most popular purebred dog in the country. But there is a breed making progress towards unseating the Lab. The German Shepherd overtook the Yorkshire Terrier for second, the first time it has been that high in more than 30 years. The Shepherd was America’s most popular dog in the 1920’s but it fell out of favor and has only been making up ground since the end of WWII.
This has irritated the Lab to the point that one actually shot her master last Saturday in California. A hunter was trying to retrieve his duck decoys on a pond near Los Banos which is northwest of Fresno. The dog stayed in the blind until she saw her chance. The Merced County Sheriffs Department figured that the dog stepped on the shotgun knocking off the safety and firing the weapon. Her master, who is 53 and should have known better, was hit in the back with some No.2 shot. No names were given but the hunter was treated and released from a local hospital. Accident?…I’m not so sure.
2009 Most Popular Dogs in the U.S.
1. Labrador Retriever 2. German Shepherd 3. Yorkshire Terrier
4. Golden Retriever 5. Beagle
We're movin on up!
Many of you are familiar with the Flint Hills Wildlife Refuge southeast of Emporia, Kansas. Not far from there is the Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Plant which has a cooling lake as part of the overall facility. The lake does stay warmer than an average body of water its size because of the plant but it is not a tropical paradise. Even so, over the last few years fishermen have sometimes claimed to have seen an alligator in the small lake.
Just last week the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks were called to the lake one last time to check out a gator rumor. Game Warden Brad Hageman had chased down these sightings before always with great skepticism. This time the rumor measured 5 feet, 3 inches.
A local fisherman had snagged the dead alligator and pulled it to shore. A spokesman for the Kansas DWP told the Emporia Gazette, “It was found yesterday floating in the effluent area. We’re still trying to determine what to do with it.” So far the age of the animal has not been determined and the DWP is not sure what to do with it. It apparently managed to survive for a few years until this unusually cold winter. One possibility is that it was a pet that grew too large and was released into the lake by its owner. No word on whether it had eaten any Jayhawks.
TC Palm photo
The Pacu is a fresh water fish native to South America and a relative of the piranha although not a flesh eater. Small ones are often kept in Aquariums by hobbyists. Now it seems they are getting a foothold in Florida. Just last week a huge one turned up in the river at Port St. Lucie.
A local man, Mike Iania, went to River Park to try his hand at fishing Saturday January 16 around 7:00 in the morning. He soon found a giant, strange looking fish dead on the shore. He and his son Matthew took the fish to local bait houses and even showed it to employees of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It was eventually determined that is was a huge Pacu. The monster went 38 inches in length and 17 inches in girth. It weighed 52 pounds making it much larger than the current world record for the species.
Although it was thought that Pacu were not reproducing in Florida waters, the fish was a female ready to spawn. Not only that, but the cold weather also killed a number of much smaller Pacus in the same area. It is illegal to release these fish into the wild but add the Pacu to the growing number of exotic species that have invaded the United States. Florida isn’t the only place. Late at night I understand some Minnesotans have seen pink camels running about.
I recently ran across a terrific new book you should check out. As a history buff, I really enjoyed Tom Long’s new volume about duck and goose hunting and how it all began in North America.
In Spent Shells along the Atlantic, Long has drawn from field notes and many stories gathered over the years. He shows his incomparable experience in pursuit of ducks, geese, old decoys and colorful stories gleaned from market gunners to modern hunters who have shared his passion for this great American sport. Tom draws from his five decades of tramping up and down the Eastern Seaboard enjoying countless waterfowl hunts to create this outstanding book.
I particularly appreciated Long’s zeal for taking kids to the marsh. The book features a father introducing his son—as well as other youngsters—to the “unique world viewed from a duck blind,” as the author puts it. The 240 page book contains 364 pictures with more than a few spectacular color photographs taken by the author and other photographers. There are also rare and precious black and white prints of old clubs, blinds and hunting stands dating back a hundred years or more.
It has been a long time since I found a truly good waterfowl-hunting book. You will like this one. To see the book and order go to: www.spentshellsalongtheatlantic.com
Spent Shells Along The Atlantic
240 pages, 365 photos
$55.00 plus $7.95 S&H
From Roger Sparks Publishing
Snook
The fishing in Florida has been so good lately you can just pick them up. You would be in a little trouble though. If you watched the bowl games that took place in Florida this season you no doubt heard about the unprecedented cold snap. The Orange Bowl in Miami was played at the lowest temperature in its 76 years. The frigid temperatures have also had an impact on Florida’s saltwater fishing.
Some saltwater fish have become so lethargic in the cold water they just float to the surface and sometimes even die. Naturally certain people are helping themselves to hundreds of these fish. Apparently some of this easy take is even being sold. All of this is illegal and in fact the snook season is always closed this time of year.
Because of numerous reports from the public about people picking up or netting these fish, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently issued emergency regulations to protect the state’s snook, bonefish and tarpon fisheries from these unscrupulous fishermen. The new orders temporarily extend closed fishing seasons for snook statewide until next September. They also establish temporary statewide closed seasons for bonefish and tarpon until April. People will be allowed to collect and dispose of dead fish killed by the cold weather but that’s it. Brrrr.
Spike buck
Last week a Louisiana man shot a deer. That doesn’t sound like any big deal does it? Well…chances are you never shot a deer quite like this one. Mount Lebanon is small community in the northwest part of the state. Last Tuesday morning Robert and Shirley Mewborn were having coffee in their kitchen. Robert had no intention of going hunting when all hell broke loose.
All of a sudden there was a crash and a huge commotion coming from the diningroom. They jumped up only to discover a deer had smashed through their dining room window. Mrs. Mewborn’s only reponse was to run out of the house in terror. The deer, which was a spike buck, began trashing all the furniture. When Mr. Mewborn confronted the animal it dashed into their granddaughter’s bedroom and started tearing it up as well.
Robert had had enough. He grabbed a .22 rifle and dispatched the intruder. When the dust settled, the couple called their son who had been deer hunting all season without success. They will be allowed to keep the venison. During the wild episode the Mewborn’s granddaughter was in the shower. I wonder if she ever saw the movie “Psycho”.
Telegram photo
Ice fishermen will do just about anything to turn their shacks into sports bars. I have seen ice houses that resembled beautiful rec-rooms on the inside. But an enterprising young man out in Massachusetts just launched what has to be a first. The little town of Warren is west of Worcester in the central part of the state. Not far from there is a place called Ouaboag Pond that is popular with ice fisherman.
Just last Thursday local man Andrew R. Giza, 21, drove a stretch limo onto the ice for the first time taking along two passengers for a day of ice fishing. Such an attraction drew the attention of a reporter from the Worcester Telegram. Giza answered the obvious question, “They ask us why we got a limo and I say ‘Why not?’ ” Giza paid $400 for the 1989 Lincoln limo and fixed it up. It contains an electric fireplace, a television with a DVD player and Xbox for games. There is also a small refrigerator for refreshments.
The main feature is a hole in the floor. “You can sit there and cast a jig without ever leaving the vehicle,” Mr. Giza told the reporter. The maiden voyage did not go without a hitch however. One of Giza’s friends had to go get his pickup to pull the low slung limo off the pond when it got hung up on a chunk of ice near the boat ramp. Henry Ford is rolling over in his grave.
Hiwaiian Lion?
Over the last few years there has been a sort of mountain lion mania sweeping the whole country. Countless reports have surfaced of mountain lions being sighted near schools, small towns, city parks and farms in states where the animals are not normally found. Photos are often posted on web sites which, when investigated, often turn out to be shots taken in a western state on a legitimate hunting trip.
But the latest fraud really takes the cake. This time a mountain lion turned up in Hawaii! Yes, cougars can now migrate across oceans. According to the Garden Island, which is a newspaper on the island of Kauai, word had recently spread around the island that a local hunter had killed a mountain lion at Polygala, but it could have been near Koki, or perhaps it was Aimee Canyon. Mothers were yanking children off the street. Guns were dusted off.
Well…not to worry. Local state wildlife biologist Thomas Kapaau solved the mystery. A Kauai man had indeed shot the lion but he did it in Arizona! The excited hunter had simply sent a photo back to his family via computer. From there it got loose on the net and took on a life of its own. Who knows, maybe a little Maui Wowie helped the story along.
Do you fish for tuna?
Some people are concerned with the Federal Government’s increasing intrusion into the private lives of U.S. citizens. As of January 1st, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to know if you intend to fish in the ocean. Congress recently authorized something called the National Saltwater Angler Registry which is supposed to give scientists a better idea of the numbers of recreational anglers and migratory fish caught off our shores. This is an effort to protect and manage certain fish species.
U.S. officials said that 8 of our 23 coastal states sold licenses which did not include certain information the federal government now requires. Hence a new federal license you didn’t need before if you went on vacation and wanted to go ocean fishing for a day or two. At first that sounds bad, but it should be realized that for thirty years the NOAA and state fisheries agencies have relied on information collected by staff who waited dockside or visited piers and jetties to interview anglers and actually count and measure fish. This system was really hit and miss.
The new license system will create a phone list of fishermen and outfitters the NOAA can call to collect more accurate information about the number and type of fish being caught and where they are caught. The national registry is free in 2010, but the license in 2011 and beyond could cost as much as $25. Gee…what a surprise.
Silver carp
You may remember the Asian carp controversy in Illinois which I told you about back on November 17. There is a great fear the fish could work their way into Lake Michigan through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and cause all sorts of problems. Illinois officials have made a strong attempt to stop the fish with electric barriers and other efforts, but is it enough?
Some simply want the whole waterway closed. The State of Michigan is now suing the State of Illinois and Chicago over the issue and Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin have filed documents to join the suit. Indiana has indicated it will soon do the same. This will reopen an almost 100 year-old Supreme Court case about how states can use the water of the Great Lakes. In addition, the eight states that border the lakes all agreed to a compact governing the waters in 2008. The question is whether Illinois is in violation of the agreement and/or the old Supreme Court decision.
Michigan wants an injunction to close the locks of the Chicago system immediately and possibly to separate the Mississippi River system from the Great Lakes altogether. The suit puts Illinois in a difficult position. The closing of the locks would hamper the local barge industry and might require massive alterations to Chicago’s wastewater infrastructure. This could mean 100’s of millions of dollars. Illinois is now really under the gun and some solution to the Asian carp problem must be found. Stay tuned.