I believe that, if a practice is legal and you buy the right licenses or permits, then you should be able to practice your sport without criticism. Well, I guess I believe that most of the time.
I don’t believe in hunting exotic species that are imported to locations where they are not indigenous. I know it’s legal, but it is not for me. I am also personally opposed to high-fence hunting ranches. I once interviewed a famous Texas hunter on my radio show and expressed that opinion. He responded, “I guess you think it’s more sporting to sit in a tree on your 40 acres than it is to stalk an animal on foot over 4,000 acres?” See! There are two sides to every argument.
I used to get a list every year from the Michigan DNR listing the 20 largest pike taken during the year in their state. Usually, at least 15 of the 20 were taken by spearing the huge pike through the ice. It’s not for me and is a practice I’d like to see banned. I am sure that you fans of spearing are going to let me have it.
How about taking a look at a couple of subjects that are being debated by state legislators currently? It looks like Wisconsin is going to finally allow trolling throughout the state. Trolling, both forward and backward, has been illegal on much of Wisconsin’s inland waterways.
Why? I can’t give a good reason for the life of me, yet, a small majority of Wisconsin anglers are against allowing trolling to be practiced.
No motor trolling, but it is OK to practice “row trolling.” Yes, indeed, there are people who use special boats and row around all day pulling big honking muskie plugs behind their boats. Now doesn’t that sound like a party?
Personally, I like to troll when I need a break from casting. I usually only troll when fishing for pike or muskies. Is it effective? Yeah, I’d say it is. You can cover a lot of water in a short amount of time. I’ve trolled for walleyes on big water. I like to troll to find fish and when I do, then I switch to casting or jigging because I like to do that better.
No offense to guys like our own Captain Bob Rossa, but trolling for salmon and trout on the big pond is their lifeblood. I realize that they can’t cast for these fish. I just don’t like dragging the fish through the water after they are hooked.
Of course, it would be impossible for Captain Bob to stop the Migrator to fight the fish. Can you imagine what would happen to the six or eight lines he was pulling if he stopped? It sure would be nice, though, to be able to fight an acrobatic steelhead mano a mano rather than using the boat’s motor to pull it along.
Trolling doesn’t hurt a fish when you catch it. Trolled fish are almost always hooked in the lips and are easily released. Yet, Wisconsin fishermen don’t seem to have any problem with live bait rigging for muskies and letting the fish swallow the bait and the hook deep down in their bellies before they set the hook.
The subject of using drones for hunting has been discussed quite a bit in Illinois and other states. The hunter would ostensibly use a drone to scout for target animals one day prior to going out to hunt them.
To me, the bottom line is that I don’t like drones. Not for sporting issues and not even for commerce. I refuse to believe that it is cost effective for Amazon to attempt to use drones to deliver their packages, no matter what they say.
Heck, I have qualms about using trail cameras to scout. I’m not sure if that operates in the spirit of fair chase. Then again, the cameras are used to scout and to figure out the positioning of tree stands. They don’t really help you harvest an animal. You hang a couple of stands and the camera may help you choose which stand to climb into on the day of the hunt.
I guess that the drone would be performing a similar function, but the idea just rubs me the wrong way. There is just too much technology creeping into our sports.
Fishing report
Northern Illinois – Dave Kranz from Dave's Bait, Tackle and Taxidermy in Crystal Lake reports: "Well, we are back to a cold spring and this will slow the bass spawn to a crawl. I fished a tournament on the Fox Chain on Sunday and got second place and $400 for only three bass. The key to Sunday was pitching tubes and craw worms tight to cover or using wacky rigged Senkos. The Three Oaks Recreation Area is starting to come to life. I have heard of a few bass caught on spinner baits and Rat-L-Traps. We saw a nice photo of a pike that was taken on a stickbait." Call 815-455-2040 for an updated report.
Lake Michigan – ”Salmon and trout have started to show up in the Illinois waters of Lake Michigan for the past few weeks. Coho salmon, brown trout, lake trout and a few king salmon are being caught. Fish the warmer shallow water between 15 and 35 feet. That is where you will find the fish right now. Small OO orange dodgers with Peter Flies tied 16 inches behind them will catch most of your fish. Aqua and mirage Peter Flies have been the best colors.” The Lake Michigan Fishing Report is provided by Captain Bob Rossa of Migrator Charters - 815-338-8093
The Wisconsin inland game fishing season opens on May 2.
Turkey hunting – The first season in the North Zone concluded with a preliminary harvest of 2,343, up from 1,848 last year. Fifty counties were up, 11 were down, and five remained the same. McHenry County’s total was 15 birds, up from 10 last year. Only one gobbler was harvested in Lake County.