opener

No Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener, but a governor opener hunt nonetheless

Governor Tim Walz was out bright and early Sunday morning to enjoy the first weekend of pheasant hunting in Minnesota.

The 2020 Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener event, slated for the previous day in Fairmont, was postponed until 2021 as a result of COVID-19.

The governor hunted with John Benson of Mankato and State Senator Nick Frentz on the private property of Blaine Phillips in southern Minnesota.

The birds didn’t cooperate, though: neither Governor Walz, Benson, nor Frentz bagged a bird. But, they did enjoy working with their trusty dogs and enjoying the beautiful weather and the camaraderie of the hunt.

Governor Walz, Benson and Frentz all wore masks when not hunting, and maintained a 6-foot distance from each other during the hunt, in keeping with the DNR and Minnesota Department of Health outdoor recreation guidelines.

Categories: Hunting News

Tags: Hunting, Minnesota DNR, Pheasants

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Camping Tips, Tricks and Adventures

Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener won’t be held in 2020

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Gov. Tim Walz announced today that the 2020 Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener has been postponed to May 6-9, 2021. The 73rd annual event was previously slated to be held May 7-10, 2020 in Otter Tail County but appropriate event action has been taken to curve the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the Governor’s Fishing Opener event postponement, the 2020 fishing season will still open on May 9.

Located in west-central Minnesota, Otter Tail is one of the largest counties in the state at more than 2,200 square miles, made up of 11 percent water and 22 communities. It’s comprised of the most lakes (1,048) in any U.S. county, including Otter Tail Lake.

“Thanks to Otter Tail County community leaders for your diligent planning efforts around this time-honored Minnesota tradition,” said Governor Tim Walz. “While our event together must be postponed, I still plan to enjoy the 2020 summer angling season using safe social distancing on one of our state’s 11,842 lakes, and I look forward to 2021 Opener festivities in Otter Tail County.”

The Governor’s Fishing Opener has been a Minnesota tradition since 1948. Each year, the event provides a new host community with an opportunity to highlight local fishing and other travel activities, attractions and points of interest. Opener festivities are organized by Explore Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, a Minnesota host community and many sponsors that make the event possible.

“Explore Minnesota has enjoyed working with the enthusiastic Otter Tail County community and we are all eager to pick up planning efforts for a great 2021 Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener,” said John Edman, Explore Minnesota director. “This is an incredibly difficult time, but our state’s tourism industry is resilient and strong. Together we will overcome this crisis and we’ll be here when residents and visitors are ready to ‘explore’ Minnesota again.”

The 2020 fishing season will still open on May 9 and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continues important work managing the state’s fisheries and other natural resources.

“We’re pleased to let anglers across the state know that the 2020 season will open as planned,” said Sarah Strommen, DNR commissioner. “We encourage anglers to start planning for new ways to enjoy the tradition of the Minnesota Fishing Opener close to home and in ways that also protect public health.”

The DNR urges anglers to use good judgement when choosing where to fish this season. “While we want people to enjoy outdoor activity to maintain health and wellbeing, we’re asking anglers to forgo travel to their favorite fishing spot and instead fish close to home to contain the spread of COVID-19. We also want to remind anglers to maintain social distancing at boat landings,” said Commissioner Strommen.

More information about the Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener and 2020 Minnesota Fishing season is available at mngovernorsopener.com and dnr.state.mn.us/covid-19.

Categories: News, Walleye

Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Fishing, Minnesota DNR, Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener

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Camping Tips, Tricks and Adventures

Excitement builds ahead of sturgeon spearing opener

Jonathan Eiden with his 85.5-inch, 171-pound sturgeon speared in 2019. (Wisconsin DNR)

OSHKOSH, Wis. — Anticipation is building for another season of lake sturgeon fishing on the Winnebago System. The 2020 spearing season opens on Feb. 8 and will last for a maximum of 16 days or until pre-set harvest caps are reached.

The Winnebago System is home to one of the world’s largest self-sustaining populations of lake sturgeon, with an estimated 18,500 adult females, 24,000 adult males and a unique spearing season dating back more than 85 years.

Interest in sturgeon spearing continues to be strong. The Wisconsin DNR sold 12,721 licenses (12,248 for Lake Winnebago and 473 for the Upriver Lakes) for the 2020 season. Licenses were purchased by residents from all 72 Wisconsin counties as well as 34 states. The deadline to apply for sturgeon spearing permits was Aug. 1.

As always, water clarity and ice conditions are the most influential factors contributing to harvest success during the sturgeon spearing season. The 2020 season will likely open with less than ideal conditions as a mild winter has created variable ice conditions throughout Lake Winnebago. Preliminary water clarity checks indicate relatively poor water clarity throughout Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes.

Despite unfavorable conditions, spearers are still excited to take to the ice for the upcoming spearing season, said Ryan Koenigs, DNR Winnebago system sturgeon biologist.

“Sturgeon spearers are well versed in reading ice conditions and have shown the capability to pursue their passion despite variable ice conditions,” Koenigs said. “We routinely hear from spearers that it’s the chance to get together with family and friends, to relive old memories and create new ones that keep them coming back year after year. The 2020 spearing season offers another opportunity to renew those traditions.”

The success of the fishery and the fish population is a testament to the strong co-management of the sturgeon resource between DNR staff, stakeholder groups and passionate members of the public, Koenigs said.

“These are the good old days within the Winnebago System sturgeon population,” he said. “There are more fish in the system now than there have been for decades and more big fish than we have had since the early 1900s. More than 10 percent of the female sturgeon harvested during the 2019 spear fishery were larger than 70 inches.”

Season and License Details

Spearing hours run from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and all sturgeon must be presented at a DNR operated registration station by 2 p.m. of the same day the fish is harvested.

The system-wide harvest caps for the 2020 season are set at 430 juvenile females, 950 adult females and 1,200 males.

To spear sturgeon, people must have a paper copy of their sturgeon spearing license and tag on their person. A Go Wild card, driver’s license, purchase receipt or a PDF copy of the tag are not valid proof of a spearing license or tag.

Successful spearers must immediately validate their carcass tag by removing the validation stub. Spearers do not need to attach validated carcass tags to harvested fish before registration as long as the spearer stays with the fish until registration. However, the harvest tag must be attached to the sturgeon if the spearer leaves the fish prior to registration. DNR recommends that spearers bring a clear plastic zip-top bag and tie to protect and secure the paper tag to the fish.

More details about sturgeon spearing throughout the Lake Winnebago system, including the complete 2020 rules, regulations and list of registration station locations [PDF], can be found on the DNR website.

Categories: News

Tags: Lake Winnebago System, Spearing, Sturgeon, Wisconsin DNR

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Thoughts on neighboring Pennsylvania’s Saturday deer opener

I moved to New York in the late 1960s, and for me it was the best of two worlds. I grew up in Pennsylvania and hunted, fished and trapped in the Keystone State until I graduated from college. I no longer trap but after more than 50 years, I still hunt there every season. When I moved to the Southern Tier I felt it was a dream come true because living so close to the Pennsylvania border I could hunt and fish in two states, with the opening day of deer, turkey and fishing season all coming on different dates.

However, there was one little, okay, call it one big hitch in my in my hunting plans. Both the New York and Pennsylvania deer season opening dates came on a Monday and because of my job, I never, not ever, got go hunting on the opening day of deer season in either state. For my entire working career, I wished deer season could open on a Saturday. Only after retiring did my wish come true.

After retiring almost 20 years ago, it no longer mattered to me when opening day occurred. I could and did go anytime. All this changed, of course when, in an effort to include more hunters, both states moved the opening day of the regular firearms season to a Saturday, and not everyone was happy. It didn’t matter to me of course because I could go anytime. And besides, if it allowed more hunters to get out, I was glad for them. What could possibly go wrong?

On the evening before this past season’s opener on Saturday, those of us who are avid bowhunters found ourselves in a tree with our archery tackle on Friday and then having to go home and trade in our bows for rifles and our camouflage clothing for blaze orange in order to go out the following morning. Worse yet, it left no time to remove our tree stands and climbing ladders prior to the Saturday morning opener. The transition seemed hectic to say the least. Clothes had to be taken out for an all-day sit, lunches had to be packed, rifles had to be checked and archery equipment had to be taken out of the truck and placed out of the way until it could be put away for the season. All this in only a few hours before we had to turn in and get up the next morning. “If only we had a day or two between seasons,” I lamented to a friend who found himself in the same situation. As crazy as it was for many of us, the new Saturday opening for the Pennsylvania deer season would prove just as problematic as did New York’s, only in a different way.

For the first time in more than 50 years the Pennsylvania firearms season opened on the Saturday after Thanksgiving rather than the Monday after, but the logistics for getting out proved to be no better for me than they did in New York. My son and his family flew from their home in North Carolina for the Thanksgiving holiday and they would be leaving to fly back on Saturday morning. The idea of my going hunting without seeing them off would never fly in my house, so once again the excitement of going hunting on opening day would have to wait another year at least for me.

Deer season is now logged into the books, and because one season closed the night before the other one opened I still have equipment to remove from the woods. To reach my stands on the farm I hunt I have to traverse a road that bisects two hay fields and a corn field. Warm weather and hubcap-deep mud on the road through these fields have kept me from getting to my stands and ladders in order to store them until next season. I’ve been waiting since December for enough cold weather to freeze the mud so that I can drive through it without making things worse or getting stuck.

I find I’m in the same situation in Pennsylvania. I have two stands and climbing sticks still in the trees they were in when the archery season closed in November. In order to get to them I have to cross two creeks and, because of rain and melting snow, both creeks are currently too high for me to safely cross. In one state I have to wait for a freeze and in the other I’m waiting for the water to go down.

A Saturday opening day has its merits as well as its drawbacks, but if more hunters can get to go, then why not? For this hunter, keeping it to a Monday would prove far less frenzied.