2014 Women In The Outdoors Event At Bull Creek Coming May 31st 2014!

A GREAT ADVENTURE IS WAITING FOR YOU!

Women ages 14 and over are discovering a world all of their own; the National Wild Turkey Federation's Women in the Outdoors program was created just for them. Today millions of women enjoy outdoor activities such as camping, fIShing, shooting, hiking, and more. 

By becoming a member of Women in the Outdoors, you'll join a network of women who share the same hobbies and interests. You'll learn new skills, tune up existing ones, and make memories that last a lifetime in a relaxed, non-competitive environment. 

Spread the word to your mom, sister, friend or co-worker. Bring them all to the Allegheny Valley Chapter event for a fun and exciting day of learning and fellowship. NEW THIS YEAR .... Ages 14-18 only $15, this includes a Jake Membership. Ages 14-17 must be accompanied with an adult. Pre-registration is required

What WUl Be Provided: * Choice of 4 expertly instructed classes * Continental breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages * Equipment & materials needed for classes * A 1-year $35 membership in the NWTF * 1-year subscription to Turkey Country magazine and Turkey Talk 

If you are unable to attend our event, please visit WW.WOMENINTHEOUTDOORS.ORG to find other events in the state of PA throughout the year! 

CANCELLATION POLICY: The cancellation deadline is May 24, 2014. If you cancel after the deadline, you will be responsible for the full program fee. You may send a substitute if you cannot attend.

Please print the following 2 forms and mail, click on the imiges to enlarge:

Trout Stocking Could See Big Changes In Pennsylvania

By Bob Frye, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Patrick Robinson, president of the Sandy Bottom
Sportsman's Club in Seward, holds prize-winning
tag numbers 3743 and 3744 that were placed on two
of the several hundred brown and rainbow trout stocked
by the club in the nearby Conemaugh River
Wednesday morning. Each tagged fish is worth
$50 to a lucky fisherman.

Dwight Yingling is a happy man these days.

Owner of North Park Sports Shop in Allison Park, he's seen his business take off over the last two-plus years, ever since North Park Lake was dredged and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission once again began stocking it with trout. Last year was his most profitable ever.

That's not all about fish. Yingling runs a booming bike rental and repair business out of the shop, too, so a share of his customers are more likely to be wearing bicycle shorts than fishing vests.

But there's no denying the power of stocked trout either.

“Oh yeah, that's a big deal. Trout are a huge thing around here,” Yingling said. “The bass fishing in the lake is pretty good and is only going to get better. But bass fishing, that's something that just kind of goes on all summer long. There are never a lot of guys standing in line to fish for bass like there is for trout. Those trout produce a lot of business.”

He's expecting big things again this year, when trout season opens at 8 a.m. Saturday. An estimated 600,000 fishermen are expected on the water.

None of that is necessarily new.

The Fish and Boat Commission has been stocking trout for more than a century, with its oldest hatcheries dating to at least 1874, a time when fish were delivered to streams in milk cans aboard horse-drawn buggies and later trains. The commission even had its own railroad car, the Susquehanna, for almost two decades, using it to carry fish around the state and to a couple of World's Fairs.

The Susquehanna has passed into history, but the state still ranks in the top 10, if not the top five, nationally in how many trout it produces, stocking 3.2 million adult-sized fish each year, along with several million “fingerlings,” said southern hatcheries manager Tom Cochran.

But tough times lie ahead, the kind that might require a change in how the state funds fish and wildlife management.

The model

Traditionally, fish and wildlife across America has been supported on the sportsmen's dollar. Under the “North American Model” of conservation, fish and wildlife belong to all of the people. Yet state fish and wildlife agencies get 80 percent or more of their funding through sales of licenses purchased by hunters, trappers and anglers, and through federal excise taxes paid on sporting equipment like firearms, fishing rods and the like, said Ron Regan, executive director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

It's a system that's worked remarkably well, he said.

Once decimated populations of species like white-tailed deer, brook trout and turkeys have been restored, land and habitat has been conserved and revitalized, and the entire public has benefitted, he said.

“It's been a hugely successful model, the greatest story never told,” Regan said.

But it's also facing challenges. The number of hunters and anglers has declined over time, just as fish and wildlife agencies have been increasingly tasked with managing “non-game” species, including everything from salamanders to peregrine falcons. Add in costs associated with health care, infrastructure like hatcheries more than a century old and more, and budgets have been stretched thin, Regan said.

“The system does still work,” he said. “But the reality is, if you've got fewer hunters or fewer anglers and fewer licenses being bought and less money coming in, hard choices will have to be made.”

Cutbacks possible

The Fish and Boat Commission has its troubles.

The agency needs to come up with $9.2 million by 2016, and every year thereafter, to account for rising costs, most of them state-mandated pension contributions it did not negotiate but must live with, said executive director John Arway.

To address that looming shortfall, the agency's board last January announced plans to close two trout hatcheries, one at Oswayo in Potter County and Bellefonte in Centre County. That would save $2 million annually, but at a cost of 750,000 trout – about 22 percent of the total stocked each year -- starting in 2015.

It's since backtracked but only partly. Under intense political pressure, the board agreed to delay the closures until July 2016 while it looked for more money.

If none is found, a reduction in stocking of that magnitude would be a huge hit in a state where trout are king.

Figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated recreation show that trout account for more than 4.5 millions days of fishing in Pennsylvania each year. No other species comes close to generating that much activity.

“I strongly believe the mission of the commission is to provide opportunities to anglers. To close those two hatcheries would be devastating,” state Rep. Martin Causer of Potter County, chairman of the House game and fisheries committee, said at a recent hearing at the Capital.

Rep. Marc Gergely of White Oak agreed, saying requests for the commission's trout stocking list are among the most common he receives in his office annually.

“We're a trout state. We want put-and-take trout fisheries,” he said.

Providing them costs money, though, and the commission needs help finding it, said executive director John Arway.

“I'm hopeful the legislature realizes that, if we're going to continue to stock 3.2 million trout and sustain the programs the public expects, they're going to have to come up with some additional funding,” Arway said.

License fees vs. sales tax

In decades past, whenever the commission needed money, lawmakers raised fishing license fees. They offered to do the same thing again more than a year ago.

The commission wants no parts of it.

The problem, Arway said, is that whenever license fees go up, some fishermen quit the sport. Some come back in time, but not all do. The result is a short-term bump in revenue that's more than offset by a long-term decline in customers.

Something else is needed, he said. He's been pushing two ideas: a new tax on water use paid by corporations, which the commission would get a share of, and a plan to re-allocate a portion of existing state sales taxes to conservation.

The former idea is unheard of in the Northeast, and has run into political opposition. The latter idea has worked in other places, though.

Since 1976 the state of Missouri has allocated one-eighth of 1 percent of all state sales taxes collected to its Department of Conservation. That's just eight cents of every $10 in taxes collected, but it's been a windfall for conservation, said department spokesman Joe Jarek.

In fiscal year 2012-13, for example, the department earned about $32 million through hunting, fishing and trapping license sales. But it got $102.5 million in sales tax revenues. That's by far the department's largest source of income, Jarek said.

“What's nice is, it's without sunset. It's just ongoing. We don't have to go back before the legislature every five, seven, 10 years to ask for more money in the form of license increases,” Jarek said. “We can essentially use it anywhere conservation related.”

Arkansas has something similar. Since 1997 it's devoted one-eighth of 1 percent of its sales tax revenue to conservation, split several ways. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission gets 45 percent of the money, as does Arkansas State Parks. The Department of Arkansas Heritage, a history agency, gets 9 percent, while Keep Arkansas Beautiful gets 1 percent.

The Fish and Game Commission's share amounts to a much-needed $25 million annually.

“It's been a godsend,” said spokesman Keith Stephens. “We were to the point where we couldn't grow. We couldn't do some of the things the public was asking us to do. We just didn't have the resources.”

A side benefit of the program, in addition to providing additional revenue, is that it lets all state residents -- sportsmen or not – have a say in fish and wildlife.

“You don't have to be a bass fisherman, for example, to be involved with conservation in Arkansas,” Stephens said.

In Virginia, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries gets one-half of 1 percent of sales tax collected on specific items, like tents and binoculars. That brings in as much as $7 million annually, said spokesman Lee Walker.

The money is earmarked for spending on non-game species such as songbirds. That frees up license revenues to take care of the species hunters and anglers generally care most about, while – as in Arkansas – tapping into a “non-typical customer base,” Walker said.

Double-edge sword

Taking tax money from the general public like that worries some people, though.

Traditionally, fish and wildlife agencies – charged with managing all species for all of the people -- have been seen as catering to sportsmen above all others because they were buying the licenses and paying the bills. Across the country, there's always been a level of fear in the sporting community that that might cease to be the case if money comes in from other sources, Regan said.

Things are no different in Pennsylvania.

“In our minds, we think that you could justify some level of general fund support for the Game and Fish and Boat commissions, without any accompanying additional legislative oversight,” said Lowell Graybill of Elizabethtown, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs. “But we know very well that when you open up that can of worms, it's anybody's guess how things will quite end up.

“It's a conundrum. It's a concept that really raises some concerns.”

Causer did nothing to ease those fears when Arway pitched the idea of sharing sales tax money at a meeting of the House game and fisheries committee.

“The more you receive general fund revenues, the more it's going to change the agency,” Causer said. “Be careful what you wish for. There may be some oversight that comes with that.”

The future

In Missouri and Arkansas, voters directly decided to share tax revenues with their wildlife agencies via referendum. That can't happen here.

Pennsylvania has no statewide referendum procedure, said Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman. A change in how taxes are allocated would have to come through the legislature.

Gergely said he's going to try and foster those discussions and get a percentage of existing sales taxes directed back to the Game and Fish and Boat commissions. That's only fair, he said. Statistics from the Fish and Wildlife Service show that hunting and fishing generate billions in economic activity across the Commonwealth, benefitting everyone from gas station and restaurant owners to hotels and sporting goods stores.

“We have to start talking about redirecting a few of those dollars to support the agencies that do the work,” Gergely said. “We have to get that message out.”

Arway said he hopes the effort succeeds. Stocked trout provide all kinds of benefits, offering recreation and supporting economies and promoting mental health, he said. But they're expensive to raise and distribute, too.

“We've created a certain expectation among our anglers over a long period of time. And I fully support that (stocking) program,” Arway said. “But you've got to make decisions about what you can and can't afford.”

Bob Frye is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at bfrye@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobfryeoutdoors.

Big business locally

How big is trout fishing in Pennsylvania?

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission sold just more than 859,000 licenses in 2013. About 70 percent of those people also bought a trout stamp or a combination Lake Erie/trout stamp, either of which is required to fish in waters stocked with trout.

Western Pennsylvania supplies a lot of those trout fishermen.

Allegheny County alone accounted for 54,489 fishing licenses sold in 2013; no other county sold more than 32,000. Westmoreland County accounted for 23,845 fishing licenses sold, Cambria 17,671, Butler 16,166, Fayette 13,986, Beaver 10,229, Washington 9,060, Indiana 9,022, Armstrong 8,685, and Somerset 8,239.

Allegheny also led the way statewide with 35,987 trout stamps and Lake Erie/trout stamp combos in 2013.

RIP Club Member Ed Fuhrer Jr

Bull Creek has lost a valued member in Ed Fuhrer Jr.  Ed passed away unexpectedly last Sunday. From Allegheny Twp. 

Loving husband of Dawn Cloonan Fuhrer; dear father of Eddie and Matthew; son of Edward M. Fuhrer, Sr. and the late Mary Sue Fuhrer; brother of Sharon M. Fuhrer of West Leechburg. Friends received Wednesday only from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. at the THOMAS L. NIED FUNERAL HOME, INC., 7441 Washington St., Swissvale. Mass of Christian Burial in the St. Anslem Roman Catholic Church on Thursday morning at 9:30. In lieu of flowers, please send memorial contributions in Ed's memory to his family.

2014 Valley Trap League Schedule

Newborn Bald Eaglet Comes Out Of Its Shell

By John Hayes and Lexi Belculfine / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's a ... bird. A bald eagle chick hatched Friday afternoon from an egg laid five weeks ago in the nest overlooking the Monongahela River in Hays.
It's unclear if the hatched egg was the first one laid, and the eaglet's sex has not been determined. Two additional eggs are expected to hatch in coming days. Watch it happen live at http://www.pixcontroller.com/eagles/.

Viewed on live video from a wildlife camera focused on the nest, the egg began showing signs of pipping -- pecking from inside the shell -- at 11:05 a.m. Friday. Hatching began at 2:36 p.m.

"We have a hatch," said Bill Powers of PixController, which provided the camera.

By about 4:30 p.m. the baseball-sized eaglet was clearly visible when the mother stood or moved around the nest, the cracked egg still lying near the other two eggs. The male eagle roosted nearby or brought fish to the nest while the female continued incubating the remaining eggs and warming the eaglet with her body.

The hatching marks the Hays eagles' second consecutive reproductive success. They fledged an eaglet in 2013. Eagles enter into "extended partnerships," often until something happens to one of the mates.

The average incubation period for bald eagle eggs is 35 days. This egg hatched in 37 days.

Ornithologist Bob Mulvihill of the National Aviary said while prolonged cold weather could have lengthened the incubation period, it's more likely the hatching occurred at the furthest point of the normal incubation range.

Jim Bonner, executive director of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, said he isn't so sure. The egg that hatched Friday might not be the first laid. The late timing could indicate that the first egg didn't survive, and it was the second egg that hatched.

"It's right on the cusp. I wouldn't deny that this is the first egg, but I have a tough time saying that definitively," he said.
Eventually more evidence will be available.

"If in time we see two eggs have hatched and one didn't make it, it could be that what we're witnessing now is actually the hatching of the second egg," said Mr. Bonner. "This could be due to the fact that the [first] egg was infertile from the start or that the eaglet died while still in the shell. It's impossible to know without actually physically inspecting the egg."

Audubon communication director Rachel Handel said Friday's hatching occurred quickly, but can take as long as 48 hours from the first signs of pipping to when the eaglet wobbles free of the shell.

"Before the eaglets actually break through the main shell, they break through an inner membrane, and it is possible for the parents to hear the chick from outside the egg," she said. "After the eaglet hatches, it will be wet. It will dry quickly, will be a light gray color, and will appear to be very fuzzy. Its eyes will be brown; skin, legs and lining of its beak will be pink."

The male, slightly smaller than the female and with a distinctive white feather on his right side, will occasionally warm the eggs and the eaglet when the mother temporarily leaves the nest.

"Once all hatching is complete, the young will develop relatively quickly, especially in size," Mr. Bonner said. "They will develop their second down around 10 days old. During the first few weeks one parent, usually the female, will always be at the nest."

The young remain vulnerable. There's a 50 percent mortality rate in the first year for eaglets, which should be ready to leave the nest by the Fourth of July, said Gary Fujak, state Game Commission wildlife conservation officer.

Having protected the nest from a raccoon attack and at least one avian predator, the eagle parents thwarted another attack Wednesday.
"Around 2:30 p.m. a red-tail hawk took several swipes at the male bald eagle while he was on the nest," Mr. Powers said. "The female was quick to respond and chased the hawk away."

Newly hatched chicks are totally defenseless, giving predators the best opportunity to raid. A crow, owl or hawk could snatch a chick and fly off before the eagle parent could react. A raccoon or other predator could take an eaglet easier than it could an eagle egg. When the weather warms, snakes will be a constant threat.

"People should understand this is all totally normal -- it's what happens in every bird nest everywhere all the time," Mr. Bonner said. "It's just that usually we don't have the luxury of looking into the nest with a video camera."

Human interest in the unfolding eagle drama has been high. People from as far away as Holland are watching the live video of the nest provided by the PixController security camera company and state Game Commission, which handled more than 10,000 page views during the hatching. High use resulted in a temporary disruption of the video feed as the chick began to peck through the shell.

The camera will remain in place as long as there is activity in the nest, Mr. Fujak said, adding that the Game Commission hopes to expand the use of such cameras.

Someday, it could live-stream cubs at a bear den, he said.

Kathy Hartos of Dravosburg said her daughter, a teacher, has been regularly showing her fourth-grade class in Delaware the video.
"That camera is like watching National Geographic or Animal Planet," she said.

Early Friday evening she and other eagles' fans -- no, not those Eagles, put your Terrible Towel away -- flocked to the Great Allegheny Passage near Sandcastle to get a different vantage point of the nest perched high on the hilltop. Just visible from the trail, the nest appeared still, save for the moment when an eagle would swoop in.

Mr. Fujak said he cleared his plans Friday night to be there -- separated from the nest by hill, highway, scrap yard and train tracks. The noise and human presence doesn't seem to bother the nest residents, he said.

"Wildlife changes and makes adjustments," Mr. Fujak said. "... With the exception of the trains, cars and humans, this is a good habitat for eagles."
The eagles could continue returning to this nest for years to come, he said.

The nearby river provides the eagles with fish, though eagles will eat ducks, rabbits and squirrels, too. Hopefully, he said, a stray cat doesn't wander too near the nest.

"There could be some things happening in the nest that aren't warm and fuzzy," he said.

Trout see more than humans, but anglers who know what trout see have the advantage

By John Hayes / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sometimes it's easy to see trout, easy to image they see the bait the way the angler intends it to be seen.

Not so. For decades it's been known that trout eyes contain the same type of rod and cone structures that enable humans to distinguish among colors and shades of light. During periods of a trout's life, it sees a broader spectrum of color than humans can perceive, and new research suggests that some colors, unseen by older fish, can be used to attract young hatchery trout.

Understanding what trout actually see in and out of the water can give anglers a practical advantage.

"Trout eyes are somewhat similar to human eyes," said Mike Depew, a fisheries biologist for the state Fish and Boat Commission and fly angler. "But there are differences in what they see that you should take into consideration when choosing a bait or moving around near the water."

Human eyes have three types of color receptors. Specialized cones responding to light frequencies of 565 nanometers allow us to see reds. Other cones set for 535 let us see greens, and blues are detected at 440 nanometers.

Trout have four color receptors. They see the reds, greens and blues seen by humans but with some differences -- what an angler sees as a dark red lure is perceived as bright red by the trout. But with the fourth set of color receptors, trout can sometimes detect ultra-violet frequencies as low as 355 nanometers, below the spectrum visible to humans.

"Those ultra-violet cones are only active when the trout is young and during spawning runs. Science doesn't quite understand that," said Depew. "Maybe it helps them track really small prey when they're young, up to about 2 years old. It reappears when trout mature. It's unclear if that occurs [throughout the trout family], but it seems to be there in salmon, steelhead and possibly rainbow trout."

Pennsylvania stocked trout grow quickly, leaving the hatcheries when they're 1 year old. Depew said it's believed that stocked trout still possess the ultra-violet cones enabling them to see low color frequencies, while older hatchery-raised trophy trout, holdovers and pre-spawn native trout of the same size do not see those colors.

With that in mind, color selection can be crucial to anglers. Colors that seem unnaturally bright to native and older trout can spook them, both in and out of the water -- a big yellow lure, an orange hat. But the new research suggests that flecks of vivid colors in the fluorescent range can pique a young trout's interest.

"Small bits of fluorescent color don't imitate anything natural," said Depew, "but they can create a hot spot. A bit of fluorescent orange, yellow or pink absorbs UV rays and projects that back into the visible spectrum. It's not really visible to them on the surface or just under the water, but it gets more visible the deeper you get."

Sparkle materials in flies, and gold or silver spinner blades, can have a similar effect, sending glimmers of hot light through the water, often triggering an instinctive strike response among stocked trout.

With the optical rod structures, trout are believed to see degrees of light about the same as humans. A broad change in light at dusk and dawn, or even cloud cover, can trigger feeding. A a narrow change of brightness -- a shadow passing overhead -- can send a trout scurrying.

Trout have both monocular and binocular vision. With eyes on each side of its head it can look out to one side with a single eye, or focus both eyes on a single point above or in front. Optimal focus is at about 2 inches, which might explain why they mistake hooks for legs.

"Essentially, the fish can be facing forward in the current and still see slightly behind and to the side," said Depew. "They see through the surface of the water in a sort of inverted cone-shaped area, with the point of the cone at the fish's eyes. The deeper it is in the water, the broader the base of the cone and the more they can see above the surface."
Anglers can take advantage of a 30 degree blind spot behind the fish. But when a trout breaks its forward-facing position and turns slightly, it may be looking back at you.

Conditions change what trout can see. When cloudy water obscures vision, larger whiter presentations can help the fish to notice the bait. A choppy surface from wind or riffles refracts light, altering colors, brightness and even the lure's position. If possible, go deep beneath the chop to give the trout a better opportunity to size up the bait.

Some lures stimulate multiple trout senses. Sparkle materials in paste baits can trigger visual and smell responses. Flies and spinners of particular colors and shapes can cause vibrations in the water that pique a trout's visual and lateral-line senses, which detect vibration.

Dress to blend into the surroundings, and move slowly and quietly. Be aware of the position of the sun relative to you and the spot where you're fishing -- don't be conspicuous on the horizon. Avoid casting a shadow across the water -- sometimes even the passing of a fly line can spook fish.

And when you see a trout well enough that you're looking at its head and eyes, you're busted -- it's probably looking right back at you.

John Hayes: jhayes@post-gazette.com.

New PA Game Commission Website To Go Live In Mid-April

Marketing hunting in Pennsylvania

By Bob Frye

The Pennsylvania Game Commission's new website is about to go live. Its new marketing campaign will follow close behind and be focused largely here in western Pennsylvania.

The website, an addition to the existing one, is called GoHuntPa.org. It will debut in mid-April, right after the agency gives final approval to hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits for 2014-15.

The intent is to make it a streamlined version of the agency's regular website, with information only on hunting-specific topics like seasons, places to hunt, pheasant stockings and where to buy a license, said Keith Snyder, the agency's outreach and education division chief.

The marketing campaign will begin in September with a series of radio and print ads and billboards encouraging people who hunt periodically, but not every year — “fringe” hunters, Snyder called them — to come back to the sport and stay. The outreach effort will focus on the nine Pennsylvania counties with the most hunters. Allegheny leads that list by a large margin and will see much of the advertising along with Erie, Westmoreland, York, Lancaster, Butler, Cambria, Berks and Cumberland counties.

The advertising effort will continue through November, he said. There will be a heavy emphasis on deer hunting, given that the whitetail attracts more hunters than any other species in Pennsylvania.

“There is no close second,” Snyder said.

The goal of the campaign is to get the commission back to selling one million hunting licenses a year by 2018-19. It sold about 944,000 general licenses — not including specialty tags like those for muzzleloader, bear and archery hunting — in 2012. The commission hasn't hit the one million mark in licenses sold since 2004.

The cost of the marketing program is about $450,000 annually. Federal grant money covers that.

“I can hardly wait to see the results,” commissioner Dave Putnam of Centre County said.

Report: Pa. Could Save $5M By Merging Game, Fish and Boat Commissions

By Brad Bumsted

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is the only state with separate game and fish commissions, and it's likely to stay that way, says a leading proponent of merging the agencies.

“The chances are minimal, at best,” said Rep. Robert Godshall, R-Montgomery County, a wildlife and hunting enthusiast who believes the agencies should merge.

Consolidating the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission would save about $5 million annually, according to a detailed report released on Wednesday by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee. It's an issue that has been debated periodically for 60 years.

“It's common sense,” Godshall said of a merger. Despite the odds against legislative approval, “I still want my voice to be heard,” he said.

Officials of both agencies told committee staff they worry about the possible “dilution” of their agencies' missions, according to the report.

“The question is, why take two very efficient agencies and combine them into one that is less efficient?” said John Arway, executive director of the fish and boat commission. “Simply put, we do a lot with a little.”

Matt Hough, executive director of the game commission, told the committee that he believes a merger would result in “minimal savings.”

The committee report suggested taxpayer savings could be less than $5 million depending on factors such as building renovations, “bumping rights” of employees for jobs and coordination of computer services.

“It's a source of pride for Pennsylvania (that) we have resisted trends to move to a single agency like other states,” Hough told the committee.

“I don't think there's much interest in merging them,” said Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Altoona. “We don't put any (state) tax money into those agencies.”

Hough said other states' officials have told him they wish they had separate agencies like Pennsylvania. Godshall, a lifelong hunter, challenged that assertion.

After a similar study 10 years ago, Godshall said he wrote to officials in other states to assess their preference on single or separate agencies. He said the game commission tried to sabotage his survey by telling out-of-state agencies not to respond, but Godshall said he got 25 responses showing states with consolidated agencies prefer it.

The game commission effort to interfere with his survey was “a little bit unethical,” Godshall said.

“I agree,” said Hough, who was not director at the time.

“It's time we start looking at what's going on in other states,” Godshall said. There's no reason officers of each agency couldn't learn to enforce fish and game laws, he said.

“I think it still needs to be done,” said Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, adding the state would be better able to oversee one agency.

“We're the only state that hasn't (consolidated),” Metcalfe said. “Both independent agencies have thumbed their noses at the public again and again.”

Brad Bumsted is Trib Total Media's state Capitol reporter. He can be reached at 717-787-1405

Increase in poaching could restrict spotlighting

By Bob Frye 

If there's a downside to success, this is what it looks like.

Since the advent of antler restrictions in 2002, Pennsylvania has been producing more big bucks that ever. At the very least, hunters have been shooting more big bucks than ever.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission's official record book shows that hunters have entered more trophy deer in the last 10 years than during any other decade in history.

Don't think the bad guys haven't noticed.

“I think it is valid to say we have experienced an increase in poaching numbers over the last couple of years,” said Rich Palmer, head of the commission's bureau of wildlife protection.

A “fairly significant” number of those deer are being taken illegally at night by poachers using spotlights, he said.

That's not a surprise to Jay Delaney.

A member of the Game Commission board from Luzerne County, he said, with so many hunters using trail cameras these days, more people are aware of the deer out there.

It doesn't take long for word of a big buck to spread, he said. Then, everyone wants to get a glimpse of him.

“If there's a big buck in the neighborhood, the lights are out there every night looking for that guy,” Delaney said.

That had commissioners debating last week whether it might be time to expand the state's prohibition on spotlighting, or “spotting,” as it's commonly called.

Currently, spotlighting is legal far more often than not.

You can't do it during the statewide firearms deer season that runs for two weeks starting the Monday after Thanksgiving or during the extended firearms deer season in “special regulations” counties, including Allegheny, that runs from the day after Christmas through the last Saturday in January.

You can't have a firearm, bow or “other device capable of killing wildlife” in the vehicle when spotlighting, and you can't shine your light on any buildings, farm animals or photoelectric cells.

Otherwise, it's legal year-round from sunrise to 11 p.m.

Lots of people do it, too, and not only hunters. There are many people, especially in rural areas, for whom spotlighting is a longstanding family activity, said commissioner Ron Weaner of Adams County.

Changing the rules in such a way as to put an end to that would be “a really hard decision,” he said.

“There are a lot of really legitimate reasons to allow recreational spotlighting,” Weaner said.

Poaching is a real concern, especially among sportsmen, though, added commissioner Ralph Martone of New Castle.

Delaney agreed and said he might support banning spotlighting during all big-game hunting seasons, which, in parts of the state, begin as early as September and run through the end of January.

Palmer suggested if the board moves to expand the time period when spotlighting is illegal, it move away from thinking in terms of hunters only and take a broader approach based on a “specific date range,” he said.

“You have a lot of people who spotlight but don't hunt, who don't know wildlife management unit boundaries. If you want to expand this, we should look at going with a specific date range,” Palmer said.

Some commissioners aren't ready to act just yet, though.

Commissioner Brian Hoover of Delaware County said before he would support any kind of “drastic change” in spotlighting rules, he'd like to see some statistics.

He would like to know how many deer are being killed using lights at night, whether that's changed significantly over time and, just as importantly, whether changing the rules might address the problem.

He asked, “can we effectively make a difference” by further limiting spotlighting?

No one had an answer at the board's working group meeting this past week in Harrisburg, so the commission plans to debate the issue further before taking any action.

“I think we need more discussion before we lay anything on the table,” Delaney said.

Bob Frye is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at bfrye@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobfryeoutdoors.

Big trout to be found in certain waters at certain times

By Bob Frye Pittsburgh Tribune Review

There's rare, then there's really, really rare.

State record-size fish fall into the latter category. Few anglers will ever hook one, let alone land one, in their lifetime.

It is possible to tie into a really nice fish on occasion, though. That's never truer than in trout season.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will stock 3.2 million trout this year, most of them of the 11-inch variety. But it also will release tens of thousands of hefty brook, brown, rainbow and golden rainbow trout.

“They're definitely important for us, we feel,” said Rick Lorson, area 8 fisheries manager in the commission's southwest region office in Somerset. “They create a lot of excitement, a lot of enthusiasm, so we're glad to provide them.”

The goal is to stock about 8,500 “trophy goldens” — averaging 14 inches and 1.5 pounds — and 20,000 brook, brown and rainbow brooders. Those are fish 21⁄2 years old in the case of males, and 31⁄2 years old in the case of females.

If it's “unlikely” any of those fish will be record size when released, there will certainly be lots of big ones, with rainbows often the biggest of all, said Tom Cochran, fish production manager for the agency's southern hatcheries.

“You can get some of the bigger rainbows to go 6 to 8 pounds,” Cochran said. “And occasionally, they get even bigger than that.”

So where should you fish to have a chance to hook one of those bruisers?

That depends on what you're looking for.

If you want to catch a trophy golden trout, get out early in waters close to lots of people.

The commission stocks all of its goldens before opening day, Lorson said, so early is better than later. They only go into selected waters, too.

You won't find any in streams considered “low yield,” in that they attract few fishermen and consequently get just one in-season stocking. Streams managed under delayed harvest, fly fishing only and catch and release only rules don't get goldens either.

All other stocked waters managed under statewide regulations get at least a few, but some get more than others, based on things like the recreational use potential of the water and the surrounding human density, Lorson said.

What that means is, all other things being equal, a stocked stream in Allegheny County, like Pine Creek, will get more trophy golden trout per mile than a similar-sized stream in rural Somerset County, just because there are more people fishing it, he said. Likewise, an urban lake will get more goldens per acre than a similarly sized lake in a rural area, he said.

Things are a little different when it comes to rainbow, brown and brook brood trout. They get stocked on a per-mile or per-acre basis, too, with metro lakes getting more than rural ones.

But they're released into all stocked waters, regardless of regulation, Lorson said. They get sprinkled in throughout the pre- and in-season stocking period, too.

“That's essentially a numbers thing,” Lorson said. “We have more of them, so we get them in as many places as possible so that people have a chance to hook that big one.”

At least some of those big fish get caught. The Fish and Boat Commission runs an “angler awards” program, which allows fishermen to get certificates for catching big fish.

A brown trout qualifies for a certificate if it weighs at least 5 pounds, 8 ounces. The standard is 5 pounds, 3 ounces for rainbows and golden rainbows and 4 pounds for brook trout.

Junior anglers can get an award for smaller fish. There are catch and release categories for adults and kids for fish of certain lengths, too.

A look at the awards handed out last year shows big trout came from a number of area waters, including Deer and Turtle creeks and Deer Creek Lake in Allegheny County; Buffalo Creek in Armstrong; Traverse Creek and Bradys Run Lake in Beaver; Yellow and Evitts creeks in Bedford; Bull Creek in Butler; Chess Creek and Laurel Run in Cambria; Yough River and Virgin Run Lake in Fayette; Little Mahoning Creek in Indiana; Laurel Hill and Bens creeks and Stonycreek River in Somerset; Pike Run and Miller Run in Washington; and Fourmile Run, Linn Run, Loyalhanna Creek and Twin Lake in Westmoreland.

Your chances to get into a few of those fish are here already, too.

The trout harvest season doesn't start until April 12 in Western Pennsylvania, but anglers can fish for trout on a strictly catch and release basis right up to opening day on “approved trout waters open to year-round fishing.”

The list of local waters in that program is long. They're identified in the fishing summary book issued with each license.

That's relatively new. The rules allowing for year-round fishing for stocked trout just went into effect last year.

Not everyone likes it, admitted Tom Qualters, law enforcement supervisor in the commission's southwest region office. Some worry about hooking mortality leading to dead trout before anglers are allowed to keep them, he said.

But the program is popular overall, he said.

“There were quite a few people who took advantage of that last spring,” Qualters said. “Probably not as many up this way, in the mountains, and that may be tied to the weather and when there was open water. But it seemed like once you got down off the mountains, in the lowland areas, there were a lot of people fishing these lakes through March and into April.”

The big fish will be there, Cochran promised.

“Our fisheries managers put in their requests, and we fill them,” he said.