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Doug Smith

Even if the fish aren’t biting, the ducks aren’t flying and the pheasants aren’t flushing, Doug Smith says any day spent outdoors is a good day. A Minnesota native, he’s been covering the outdoors for the Star Tribune since 1995. He considers walleyes fried over a campfire to be gourmet cuisine.

Minnesota's total wolf kill at 346

Posted by: Doug Smith Updated: December 27, 2012 - 2:42 PM

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Minnesota's wolf hunters and trappers have killed 199 wolves so far in the late-season, and, including 147 wolves killed in the early season, now are 54 wolves shy of the DNR's  400-wolf target quota.

The total wolf kill for the early and late seasons now is 346. The late season ends Jan. 31, unless the target is reached before that date. 

Hunters during the late season, which began Nov. 24, have killed 132 wolves in the northwest zone, where the target quota is 187. That is the only zone still open. The northeast zone is closed  because hunters killed 58 wolves there, two above the 56-wolf target quota. And the east-central zone closed after  hunters in that zone killed nine wolves. The target quota was 10.

Hunters registered 147 wolves during the early portion of Minnesota’s first wolf season that ended Nov. 18,  53 fewer than the statewide harvest target. That means hunters and trappers in the second season can take up to 253 wolves.

 

 


 

 

 

 

Bighead carp, a 47-pound whopper, netted in Lake Pepin

Posted by: Doug Smith Updated: November 21, 2012 - 1:36 PM

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More bad news on the invasive species front in Minnesota: A 47-pound bighead carp was caught in a seine net by commercial fishermen Nov. 16, in Lake Pepin near Frontenac.
While other adult bighead carp have been found in Lake Pepin and the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers, this was the largest carp caught so far, DNR officials said.
“It adds more evidence that Asian carp continue to work their way up the Mississippi River,” said Tim Schlagenhaft of the DNR’s Mississippi River team at Lake City.
“Fortunately, it’s usually a single adult that shows up,’’ he said. “There’s no evidence of reproduction.’’
Commercial fisherman Myles Rolbiecki of Minnesota City, seen in the photo above, netted the monster fish. Bighead carp, members of the Asian carp family, are nonnative species that can cause serious ecological problems as they spread into new waters.
The catch fits the pattern of occasional adult Asian carp captures from the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers over the past 15 years. Individual bighead carp were caught in the St. Croix River in 1996, 2011, and 2012, and four silver carp were caught from the Mississippi River between Winona and La Crosse since 2008.
Populations of bighead and silver carp are established in the Mississippi River and its tributaries downstream of pool 16 in Iowa. There is no indication bighead or silver carp are reproducing in Minnesota waters of the Mississippi or St. Croix rivers.
 
Here’s more from the DNR news release:
 
The DNR and other partners are aggressively implementing an action plan that was developed in 2011. This plan includes an active monitoring program involving fisheries surveys, commercial fishing, and eDNA testing.
The plan also addresses construction of fish barriers at several sites including Lock and dam 1 and locations in southwestern Minnesota that are threatened by Asian carp coming up the Missouri River basin.
The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $7.5 million in 2012 to design, construct and evaluate Asian carp barriers. The Legislature also approved funding for the Coon Rapids Dam on the Mississippi River to improve its effectiveness as a fish barrier.
Other options being discussed include closing the lock at Upper St. Anthony Falls to prevent passage of Asian carp. This would require congressional action.
The Legislature also appropriated funding in 2012 to establish an Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center at the University of Minnesota. The center will focus on research to develop tools to monitor and control populations of Asian carp should they become established.
Bighead carp can weigh up to 110 pounds and silver carp up to 60 pounds. They are voracious eaters, capable of consuming 5 to 20 percent of their body weight each day. They feed on algae and other microscopic organisms, often outcompeting native fish for food. Scientists believe Asian carp could severely disrupt the aquatic ecosystems of Minnesota waters.
More information about Asian carp is available on the DNR’s website at www.dnr.state.mn.us/asian-carp/index.html.

Leftover wolf licenses sell out in less than a minute

Posted by: Doug Smith Updated: November 19, 2012 - 2:49 PM

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More than 300 leftover hunting and trapping licenses for Minnesota’s late wolf season, which begins Saturday, were sold out in less than a minute Monday.
“They went really quickly,’’ said Rick Nordby of the Department of Natural Resources. He said five people were in line at the DNR’s St. Paul office when the surplus licenses went on sale at noon.
“We got one person through,’’ he said, before the licenses were gone. The licenses were available at the 1,500 electronic license vendors around the state.
The DNR offered 187 surplus hunting licenses and 130 surplus trapping licenses — leftovers that weren’t bought by people who had won the right to buy them in a lottery. Applicants not selected in this year’s early or late season wolf license lottery could buy the licenses on a first-come, first-served basis.
The DNR allocated 2,400 wolf licenses for the late hunting and trapping season.

Field report: Minnesota deer harvest down 6 percent so far

Posted by: Doug Smith Updated: November 16, 2012 - 4:56 PM

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Minnesota’s deer hunters have killed about 134,000 whitetails so far this season, down about 6 percent from this time last year.
The decline wasn’t unexpected, because the Department of Natural Resources issued fewer antlerless tags to hunters this year.
Meanwhile, deer license sales are up 2 percent to 462,365. The biggest increase is in deer license sales to 10- and 11-year-olds, which jumped 13 percent to 10,055.
 
 DID YOU KNOW?
     •The DNR has sampled about 800 deer for CWD near Pine Island, Minn., where a single deer was found with CWD in 2010. So far 634 samples have come back negative; the rest are pending.
•Officials confirmed the first case of rabies in a whitetailed deer in Minnesota recently. The sick deer was found in Mower County. “It’s the first one we’ve ever documented,’’ said Michelle Carstensen, the DNR’s health program supervisor. It doesn’t mean there’s lots of deer with rabies, she said. “It’s a rare finding, but it’s a good reminder for people not to handle sick deer.’’ Any mammal can contract rabies, she said.
•Officials are investigating reports of a horse shot by a deer hunter at a Pine River-area ranch. A firearm was seized and a projectile was recovered from the dead horse.
•A young deer hunter near Fosston accidently tripped into a bear den and had to kill the angry bear.
•Conservation office Jeff Johanson of Osakis has had three cases this fall where hunters shot at pheasants out the window of a vehicle.

Wolf kill at 129, hunters exceed northeast zone quota

Posted by: Doug Smith Updated: November 16, 2012 - 10:02 AM

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Hunters now have killed 129 wolves in Minnesota's first-ever regulated wolf hunt, and the northeast zone closed Thursday after hunters reached, and then exceeded, the 58-wolf target quota there.

Hunters registered 59 wolves in the northeast zone  -- one over the target. DNR officials had said earlier the targets for each zone were approximations,  and they weren't concerned if the final tallies were a little below or above the target quota.

The agency closed the season in the north-central zone after hunters killed eight wolves there, one below the target quota of nine.

Still, it was  the first time hunters have a hit or exceeded the target quota in any of the three zones.

The only area of the state where wolf hunting continues is In the northwest, where hunters have killed 62 wolves; the target is 133. However, about half of that zone is closed now because the deer season in that portion of the wolf zone has closed. And both the deer and wolf seasons there will close Sunday.

The DNR set a quota of 200 wolves for the early season, and 200 for the late hunting and trapping season, which opens Nov. 24.

Meanwhile, hunters and trappers have killed 77 wolves in Wisconsin, including two that were radio-collared by researchers, officials said Thursday.

 

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