Friday, November 18, 2011

Fly Fishing for Panfish


Walking along the banks of a lake casting my 5wt Bamboo fly rod catching a few bluegill. Its a real blast catching them when your not trout fishing to keep in practice. Fishing small farm ponds can be fun by catching hand size bluegills. Small flies from number 10 to 18 works really well. My favorite is the Elk Hair Caddis. Very easy to tie for a dry fly. Cast it and let the fly drift on the surface and give short jerks. This make the fly to be alive. The other favorite is the Deer Hair Beetle. Use them in deeper water with hard jerks. I use the same hook size like the Elk Hair Caddis. Fish around logs , lily pads , shallow water. During the spring during spawning cast into the next and wait for the bluegill or crappie take the fly and spit it out away from the nest. Try a wet fly and let it sink in the nest, that drives the fish crazy. A Hair Ear Nymph size 12 works well for that. Always release the fish during spawning. Swim right back to the nest and guard the eggs from predators. Summer time the best to go in the evening few hours from dark. Pan fish will be feeding on the surface. Good time to use dry flies like the Royal Coachmen, Mosquitoes, small poppers and the list goes on. Fish them the same way like the Elk Hair Caddis. Be sure to take along some bug repellent to keep the biting bugs off. The Autumn I use nothing but wet flies such as small streamers size 14 and a stone fly nymph works really well for pan fish by jerking the fly hard but not real hard. The fish going deeper when the weather gets colder. Fish feeding like crazy getting ready for winter.

Snare Trapping


Back in my younger day I remember carrying steel traps over my shoulder and carrying my catch. After a while, it can get tiresome . Just recently I seen my very first snares at a hunting and fishing show. I bought a dozen for $19.00. I was excited about how cheap they are to set up and very light weight so you can carry more in your pack without getting a hernia. You can carry 150 in a 5 gallon bucket with no trouble. I like to see someone do that with steel traps. If there set right wont harm or kill the animal. The snare relax when the animal is not struggling trying to get free. So if someone pet was caught just release them with no problem. One day I had a chance to see a snare set for the first time. I met Willis Bentley has 150 snare traps on his trap line. Mr. Bentley showed me in his shop how to make snares from 3/32 steel cable that has 7x7 stands. Here in West Virginia snares have to have relaxing type lock system with a breaking point of 350 pounds or less. Must have a stop with a minimum loop diameter of 2 ½ inches to keep any deer from getting caught. The snare is used only one time. Then replace the wire each time you retrieve your animal. After a short lesson, its off to the trap line. This was the first time I ever drove a 3 wheeler threw woods. After checking a few traps, I seen a very nice coyote caught, it’s a female weighing 35 pounds. After taken the coyote out of the trap, Willis rig up another snare in the same location. Since 2004 Willis trap 58 coyotes , 20 raccoons and 62 fox using wire snares. If you are interested in using snare check with your fish and game commission for rules. Also contact state trappers association for classes and seminars.

Bear hunting during the gun deer season

Seven counties. Boone, Fayette, Kanawha, Monongalia, Morgan, Nicholas (private land), and Raleigh counties will be open for bear season during the deer gun season November 21 to December 3rd with out the use of dogs. The management objective is the need of additional bear harvest goal. With the concurrent buck-gun and bear season will occur when the maximum numbers of hunters in the woods. With the spotty mast crop this season will have the means that hunters will be successful will have to find in areas where the bears are feeding. All or parts of 24 counties will be open to hunt with or without dogs, from December 5th to the 31st. and all or parts of 37 counties will be open to hunt bears with out the use of dogs. Any hunter harvest a bear should submit a premolar tooth. Female bear harvest should save the reproductive tract or all entrails be kept cool and contact the nearest DNR District Wildlife Office to arrange pick up. Beer tooth can be sent in with an envelope hunters can pick at all checking station. Data from the tooth and entrails will help track the bear population monitoring

Juvenile Cited For Killing Buck





A Bridgeport youth has been cited for illegally taken a trophy buck along Medowbrook Road near Bridgeport. On November 4th investigation started from a Harrison County Taxidermist. Natural Resources Officer Sgt. Waybright examined the head and recovered a bullet from the 10-point buck allegedly shot with a rifle prior to deer rifle season. The field tag also identified the suspected shooter. Officer Waybright and Officer Randall Kocsis set up a meeting to talk with the youth and family soon after. The youth claimed he was bow hunting during the opening day of Archery season. When officers ask about the bullet the teen admitted to have been hunting with a 30/30 during the youth deer rifle season that can only take antlerless deer. He checking in the deer as a bow kill then taken it the taxidermist. The juvenile was cited for the following killing deer during closed season, illegal possession of wildlife, and improper checking of game. Since the deer determined the neck size and the measurement of the antlers of 15 inches made the 10-point buck to have a replacement fee of $1,000.00. The youth could face additional fines. The case is pending in the Harrison County Court House.

Two Arrested For Deer Poaching



Two Terra Alta hunters illegally killing a trophy buck. Natural Resource police was alerted on October 22 around noon. Officers Sgt. GA. Johnson, Officer J.A Rhodes and Officer P.S. Ferguson conducted surveillance near the hunting camp close to Terra Alta. That evening Ferguson and Rhodes spotted a pick up truck leaving camp. The officers followed the truck into Terra Alta then made traffic stop and found a 10-point buck in the back of the pick up truck. The two hunters Ernest Nice age 39 and Bryon age 37 were issued each three citations for illegal position of wildlife, giving false information to an officer and hunting without a license. Officer confiscated the buck deer, which had an inside antler measurement of 15 1/4 inches, making it large enough to qualify under the enhanced penalties section of the West Virginia hunting regulations regarding the illegal taking of trophy bucks. Both hunters will have to pay minimum of $1,000 replacement cost under the trophy deer regulations and up to $2,805 in fines and court costs.