Outdoors

“We can’t hunt unless we’re in some type of club and then it’s mostly hunting preserves,” Marieke (Rieke) Kuchenbecker said of living in Germany. “We can’t have guns to hunt or target shoot.”

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The skeptical questions, and impromptu speeches disguised as questions, sounded all too familiar to Wisconsinites Jan. 11 during an hour-long press conference on chronic wasting disease at the annual Archery Trade Association Trade Show.

TOWN OF RIDGEWAY at HYDE — The 10th Annual Hyde Area Squirrel Hunting tournament brought back memories of bygone days when dozens of cars and trucks once crowded in-person deer registration stations.

Those who chase whitetails during Wisconsin’s late archery season often dub it bowhunting’s toughest challenge.

One of the simple-to-use turkey calls, originally called an Easier Yelper by Quaker Boy Game Calls, just got even easier.

Introducing The Slider, by Quaker Boy.

A recent study finds that Sweden’s hunters and hunting groups are slowly changing their ethics as they adapt to modern international influences such as invasive species, well-traveled hunters, and hi-tech cameras, smartphones and other gadgets.

BLACK EARTH CREEK, DANE COUNTY – Anglers seemed more motivated by Saturday’s bluebird day greeting Wisconsin’s early catch-and-release trout season than hooking and releasing brown trout.

Early catch-and-release only trout season opened Saturday, Jan. 5 statewide, with exception of spring ponds and Great Lakes tributaries; artificial bait only, but barbless hooks no longer required. The season runs to midnight May 4.

TOWN OF BRIGHAM — The Department of Natural Resources five year (and then some) Southwest Wisconsin CWD, deer, and predator study in Grant, Iowa and Dane counties is entering the third winter of netting adult deer. An absence of winter snow and cold have slowed the netting this year.

A longtime deer biologist/wildlife professor wrote last week to share a unique encounter from the Massachusetts’ deer woods that left him baffled.

When Buddy Hynek's brother calls, all bets are off and he heads to Spring Green or Richland Center to help, instead of heading home to Lone Rock.

The jig-hooked minnow 3 feet below my hole in Lake Winnebago’s ice swam doggedly in place on its tether, as if yelling up at me, “All right, all right. Leave me alone. I’m trying!”

It’s difficult to predict when solid ice will appear these days. I know many have been waiting anxiously for the first solid ice, but the most important thing to remember is safety early in the season.

Instead of tossing leftover food in a garbage can or garbage disposal, consider saving some items that are fit for birds and other wildlife to consume.

Wisconsin’s white-tailed deer can serve more than a recreational outlet for nearly 600,000 hunters, including some from 33 foreign countries.

Some recent hunting season changes may come as a surprise to hunters believing the long-standing closures still apply. In some cases they do; others have been changed during the last decade or more recently.

License sales dropped again and CWD's infection rate continues to climb.

Balsam branches are more flexible than Frasers and hold heavier ornaments, but hold fragrance, freshness and some say splendor just as well and the newbie.

Adrian Alan, range manager at Vortex Optics and a former officer in the Madison Police Department, believes from experience that the moment a hunter comes inside from the last day’s hunt is the time to begin thinking about next year.