2006: The good, the bad and the ugly
2006 is almost a memory. Before it passes, I’d like to take a quick look back on some of the ways it affected the segment of the outdoor community that lives for hunting, fishing and the shooting sports.
For most hunting ventures, it was just an average year.
But, once again, another bright spot was the bear hunting, which was outstanding in the region with Fayette County also having another great harvest, including three bruins taken by three ambitious archers who took part in the state’s first-ever brief archery-specific bear season.
Again, deer hunters offered mixed reviews as Greene County’s awesome bucks petered out with many hunters getting skunked for the first time in years.
Even though pre-season scouting revealed some monster bucks in Greene County, the actual take of really large bucks – from most reports -was severely lacking last year’s numbers with average antler mass not as outstanding.
On the other hand, antler restrictions caught up with the herd in Fayette County, resulting in the harvest of more trophy bucks – “wallhangers” – than has been reported for many years as can be seen from the photos appearing in adjacent columns.
The downer was that many who harvested one of the big bucks admit it was the only one (deer) they saw.
Many others failed to see a deer, and others who saw a buck or two could not put enough points on one to shoot it.
Antler restrictions and increased doe license allocations may be helping to increase the size of the average buck’s antlers while allowing some of the damaged forests to regenerate, but the inability for some to even see a deer has forced many senior deer hunters to give up on the sport – a real bummer that has to be addressed.
Spring gobbler hunters got a shot in the arm in 2006 as a second gobbler tag was approved.
In another move involving spring gobbler hunters, the use of crossbows was legalized.
In a big surprise, what had to be a big Christmas gift for many, the Game Commission announced in December that hunting over bait would be legal in five densely-populated counties in southeastern Pennsylvania during the late deer seasons and in all subsequent seasons, beginning with the archery deer season next fall.
How long will it take before this becomes the norm statewide?
Maybe it should be legal to bait everywhere. Everywhere you go they sell all sorts of deer attractant minerals and feed.
I guess the city dwellers buy it to spread around so the deer won’t eat their shrubs. That must be it.
On July 7, Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed into law a bill that would transfer the oversight of taxidermists from the Game Commission to the Department of Agriculture.
As a result the Game Commission canceled its annual taxidermy exam.
Is it just me, or could this be the first step in dismantling the agency?
In another surprise (or desperate) move the Game Commission established a Mentored Youth Hunting Program that allows youngsters under 12 to take “formative trips afield with Mentoring adults.”
Under the program, a mentor is defined as a properly licensed individual at least 21 years of age, who will serve as a guide to a mentored youth while engaged in hunting or related activities.
The species identified as legal for the first year of the Mentored Youth Hunting Program were squirrels, woodchucks (groundhogs) and spring gobbler. The Board approved adding antlered deer in the 2007-08 seasons.
Early in the year, the biggest bruin ever killed in Fayette County, and the entire state, was certified as a new record.
Andrew Seman, 40, of Dunbar bagged he 700-pound-plus monster while hunting on Game Land 051 during the 2005 season.
There was even something for the trapping community in 2006.
In February the Game Commission changed rules on baiting and the use of decoys.
The new regulations also allowed the use of cable restraints for taking coyotes and foxes for the first time ever, but trappers first had to take an instructional course on the proper use of the device.
In January the first year of a doe study closed.
The mid-state study focused on female white-tailed deer survival and behavior during hunting seasons recently concluded. The three-year research project was a cooperative venture between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University.
The study was conducted in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 2G and 4B. It was designed to answer the following questions: What percentage of female deer survive from one hunting season to the next in both big woods and mixed habitats? What factors influence survival of female deer?
I don’t believe any results of the study have been released to the public.
Southwest Pennsylvania warmwater anglers got a boost with numerous stockings of various species, which included more additional walleye for the Yough Dam.
However, anglers still had to go another year without two key impoundments as Dutch Fork Lake and Ryerson Station lakes were drained due to leaking dams.
The Duke Lake trout stockings were shifted to Lake Wilma near Blacksville, W.Va. Although Lake Wilma is a beautiful lake, it is difficult to reach for most lake fishermen who fished regularly at Duke Lake.
All trout stockings continued to be announced, and more larger trout were stocked with each release, but the overall numbers were reduced with the tonnage remaining the same.
A note in the January/February issue of Pennsylvania Angler and Boater Magazine noted, “Beginning with the 2007 season, the Fish and Boat Commission will increase the size of stocked adult trout. There will be a 30 percent increase overall in the weight of these fish, and the average length will increase from 10.25 to 11 inches.”
In July, the PFBC announced that trout season would start two weeks earlier in 18 southeastern counties because the water warms up so quickly.
Another state record also fell in 2006 as a 47-pound flathead catfish was caught on the Ohio River.
The lot of Pennsylvania’s steelhead fishermen was also bettered as the PFBC announced in September that it was moving forward with four projects tat will provide 8,800 feet of stream frontage for public fishing access in Erie County.
In October the PFBC announced that additional waters would receive purebred or tiger muskellunge in 2007 and beyond.
Locally the list included Lake Somerset in Somerset County and the Youghiogheny River in Fayette, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties. Loyalhanna Lake in Westmoreland County was added to the program in 2006 and its allotment was doubled to over 6,000 muskellunge.
Kudos
To our cooperative friends whose efforts benefit all sportsmen throughout the year, we say thanks.
We should all thank the Yough Fisherman’s Association, Trout Unlimited, The Dunlap Lake and Virgin Run Dam stocking committees, Pheasants Forever and its many supporting groups, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Grouse Unlimited, Perry Sportsmen and Fairbank Rod and Gun Club, Wharton Township Sportsmen, Fayette Gun Club, Centerville Sportsmen and Roscoe Sportsmen for their commitment to youth hunting, fishing and shooting programs.
Big shoes to fill
Thursday, Sept. 21, the local sporting community lost a good friend when George Adam of Star Junction passed away.
George was secretary for the Yough Fisherman’s Association, where he also was in charge of the annual membership drive and was a regular Sunday feeder at the club’s trout nursery and personally helped with the stocking of the home-raised trout in area lakes and steams.
He was also an active member of the Star Junction Fish and Game Club, where he developed the youth-only fishing area at Virgin Run Dam two years ago as the project coordinator.
With George as the driving force, the project came to fruition as he did much of the physical work to develop the project as well as raising needed funds by securing monetary donations from area businesses sportsmen’s groups and securing trout donations from local cooperative nurseries
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Another giant on the outdoor scene, Dr. Uriel C. “Doc” Bartlett, passed away on Oct. 11.
After serving in the military during the Berlin crisis, Doc returned to Uniontown, where he established a chiropractic office in the Gallatin Bank Building until his retirement in 1990.
Doc was an avid fisherman and hunter and an active and enthusiastic member of the Izaak Walton League for over 50 years, where he served in numerous local, state and national capacities, fighting to preserve and improve the environment and the lot for all lovers of the great outdoors, including hunters, fishermen, environmentalists and naturalists.
Congratulations
May 13 Randy Rhodes and Mark Barchek won the Yough Walleye Association’s 12th annual tournament at the Youghiogheny Reservoir.
Their six-walleye limit was nearly two pounds heavier than that of the nearest competitor, weighing 16.5 pounds with the heaviest walleye weighing 3.3 pounds.
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Farmington brothers Mark and Richard Fike won the 2006 Cabela’s National Team Walleye Championship which was held at at Lake Sharpe in South Dakota, June 23-24.
After all the walleye were tallied, the Fayette County team headed home $25,000 richer and clutching a pair of magnificent trophies, plus they also received a new Ranger 615VS boat with a 150 hp Yamaha VMax motor.
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On July 14, Ray Johnson Jr. of Point Marion and a couple of his buddies went fishing in the Cheat River after finishing up the midnight shift at Mylan Laboratories in Morgantown.
They drove up the Cheat to fish near the outflow on the dam, and about 9:45 in the morning, Johnson hooked into the catch of a lifetime – a flathead catfish that weighed nearly 40 pounds.
Wildest story
This time the fish warden had a fish story of his own to tell.
Fayette County Waterway Conservation Officer Scott Opfer had a tale to tell, but unlike Santiago in Hemmingway’s “Old Man and The Sea,” he had proof in hand that he had caught his big fish – in this case, two big fish.
On Sept. 1, Opfer was jigging a nightcrawler below the Cheat Lake dam near Point Marion when all of a sudden it felt like a pretty good fish was pulling out the drag. As he was reeling in, the fight got tougher and tougher.
After battling the fish for some time, Opfer’s buddy helped him land it.
His buddy reached under the gill cover and hoisted it out of the water.
To their amazement, they pulled up a 22-pound flathead catfish with Opfer’s original catch, which it attacked, still in its mouth and lodged halfway down its throat – an 18-inch drum fish.
Opfer had digitals photos to back up his story.
It will be a while before anyone can top this fish tale!
Happy New Year!
Herald-Standard outdoors writer can be reached on line at rschoener@heraldstandard.com