Hunters strain for gobbling in quiet spring turkey hunt season
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Syracuse, NY, United States (AHN Sports) – Though they are required to have more patience and be more cunning than their prey, turkey hunters are getting frustrated with the quiet conditions at this spring’s turkey hunting season in Central New York. Hunters across the state and beyond have been complaining about this spring hunt where there are not many birds being spotted unlike in the past. Also, the cautious birds are responding less to calls. According to turkey experts, the mild winter could have contributed to the slight change in the behaviour of the birds. In the past, turkeys come out in open fields in large flocks across Central New York during the cold months in order to feed. “This winter, they didn’t have to come out in the fields to feed,” Lance Clark, a senior wildlife biologist at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Cortland office, said via Syracuse.com. “They stayed in the woods where they found food and there was more (protection) from predators.” According to Clarke, the birds, this year, have broken up into smaller flocks earlier than usual. They also have remained in the woods most of the time even with arrival of spring and the longer days, which also signals the breeding season. Meanwhile, the success of each spring’s breeding determines the turkey population, according to experts. The wet and cold weather factor heavily in the rise of mortality rate among poults, or baby turkeys, as seen in the past several years. The number of local bird are reportedly slightly down. Wild turkeys, unlike their domestic counterparts, are agile fliers despite their weight. They are also very cunning and will take off at the slightest sign of danger. These birds get more cautious when leaves come out on trees at one point of the season, which occurred earlier this year. Instinctively, turkeys stop gobbling due to their perceive exposure to danger. Spring hunting, which target gobblers, or male turkey, coincides with the wild turkey mating season. It is when male turkeys can be called into gun range with “yelp” calls, or the imitation of the sounds of a hen. The spring turkey season in this state opened May 1 and will close May 31. This year, only one male bird may be taken per day. The limit has been pegged at two per season. Article © AHN – All
Louisiana village Cocodrie seeks to hook Ultimate Fishing Town tilt
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Terrebonne Parish, LA, United States (AHN Sports) – Cocodrie, considered one of the most productive fishing places on the entire Gulf Coast, is vying to win this year’s edition of Ultimate Fishing Town contest. The unincorporated fishing, shrimping and crabbing village in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, is one of 12 communities nominated from the state. Cocodrie, a waterfront town, located due west of Grand Isle, currently leads the 12 communities contending from Louisiana. Of the 766 towns nominated, Cocodrie currently ranks eighth with more than 900 votes. Officials of Cocodrie, one of the unincorporated areas in Terrebonne Parish, had always pushed fishing as the major selling point in attracting visitors to the parish and south Louisiana, in general. Cocodrie, also known as the gateway to the well-known Lake Pelto, has been regarded as one of the best in terms of offering inside and near-shore anglers an array of robust fishing places to choose from. It is known as one of the best inshore fishing spots on the entire Gulf Coast, thanks to its terrain and vast area of inside bays, sand and marsh islands. Voting for the best fishing town began May 1 and continues through May 31. The casting of votes is up to four times per day. The winner of this year’s Ultimate Fishing Town will receive a $25,000 grand prize plus a TV segment set to air at a later date on the World Fishing Network. Second and third placers will receive cash prizes. Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved
Danish restaurant Noma named world’s best
AHN News Staff London, United Kingdom (AHN) – Noma, a waterside establishment in the Danish capital Copenhagen, has won the World’s Best Restaurant award at a ceremony in London. The ceremony also recognized the world’s 50 finest restaurants. This is the third consecutive time Noma has won the award. Talking to reporters after receiving the award, Noma chef Rene Redzepi said, “This whole generation of new chefs just gets a confidence boost. It’s just amazing to be part of that and this adds to the momentum that’s happening.” In a tweet on Sunday, Redzepi said that 1,204 people were waitlisted to have food at their restaurant – a dramatic figure compared to two years ago when they had only 14 guests for both lunch and dinner. Before winning the prize for the first time in 2010, Redzepi said, the restaurant often had empty tables for lunch. “The day after, we had more than 100,000 people trying to book online, which is an obscene amount. So in one day, we could have filled our restaurant for almost 15 years. It was a crazy thing,” he stated. Elena Arzak won the “Best Female Chef” award, while her family restaurant in Spain also claimed the eighth spot. New York’s Per Se and Eleven Madison Park and Chicago’s Alinea at sixth, tenth and seventh places respectively were among eight U.S. entries in the top 50 list. “There is no doubt the World’s 50 Best Restaurants has changed the history of gastronomy,” El Bulli’s chef, Ferran Adria, said in a message to the organizers. Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved
Ohio hunters gear up for spring wild turkey season
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Columbus, OH, United States (AHN Sports) – Outdoorsmen, in particular experienced turkey hunters, are prepping for the opening of this year’s spring wild turkey season. The Ohio turkey hunting opens in all 88 counties on April 23 and continues through Sunday, May 20, according to the Ohio Department of National Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. Apart from their passion, America’s million of turkey hunters are widely viewed as a different outdoor breed. These hunters are regarded for their intense focus in their pursuit of the deceptive birds. Though they appear too heavy for flying, wild turkeys are surprisingly agile fliers unlike their domestic counterparts. They are also cunning and very cautious. Turkeys are known to scamper — fly or run — at the first sign of danger. Hence, pursuers, most especially experienced hunters, need to have extra patience and they have to be more cunning than their target. Turkey hunters, at times, are known to hunt bleary-eyed from the crack of dawn to after dark. They sometimes have to endure miles of trekking, while they yelp at a few distant toms in the hopes of locating a gobbling bird. In early spring, the male species, also referred to as gobblers or toms, announce their presence to females and also to competing males via their gobbles. Hens, in turn, yelp to let their male counterparts know their location. The ODNR expects around 70,000 licensed hunters to take part in Ohio’s popular spring wild turkey season. The estimated figure does not include private landowners hunting on their own property. The wild turkey population is estimated at more than 180,000 birds in Ohio. Last year, hunters harvested a total of 18,162 wild turkeys in state during the youth and spring turkey seasons. Wildlife officials, however, are not optimistic in this year’s forecast because of the hot temperatures in March coupled by a low wild turkey hatch last year. “Ohio has again experienced a record low wild turkey hatch, with last year’s nesting season negatively impacted by rainfall and flooding,” said ODNR Wildlife Biologist Mike Reynolds. “The early onset of spring-like weather and green vegetation could make it harder for hunters to see and hear turkeys, creating challenging hunting conditions this season.” Young hunters in the Buckeye State can participate in the special youth-only turkey hunt from April 21-22. They must possess a valid youth hunting license and must be accompanied by a non-hunting adult, 18 years of age or older. Meanwhile, spring wild turkey season also opens in Michigan next week, but only in certain areas since the state is divided in a number of units…
Exotic big-game hunt banned in Texas; three antelope species protected
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Austin, TX, United States (AHN Sports) – After a federal judge rejected a last-minute appeal by ranchers for an injunction early this week, hunters in Texas will no longer be able to shoot down three endangered species of antelopes without a federal permit. Effective Wednesday, April 4, 2012, the scimitar-horned oryx and two-related African antelope — the dama gazelle and the addax — will be fully covered by the federal Endangered Species Act. The U.S. government will stop allowing anyone to hunt these exotic antelopes native to Africa without a federal permit. The new measure puts an end to years of sport hunting on Texas’s exotic game ranches. The hunting ban, which is expected to radically change exotic game hunting in the state, was greeted by animal-rights groups and people who abhor such “canned hunts”, but it also upset the affected ranchers whose efforts have led to rise in the numbers of these animals, which are either extinct or nearing it in their natural habitat, in the world. The scimitar oryx, a species of the oryx, was named so referring its magnificent horns which resembles a scimitar. It is said to have given birth to the myth of the unicorn. Its existence was indicated on an inscription on the Egyptian tomb of Sabu of Sakkarah nearly 23 centuries ago. The scimitar oryx once inhabited the whole of North Africa and roamed its plains in vast herds, but was declared extinct in the wild in 2000. These creatures have thrived in Texas, which is the only place in the world that has the largest population of these three endangered antelopes. According to the Texas-based Exotic Wildlife Association, the scimitar-horned oryx’s numbers in a captive breeding program in Texas grew from 32 to more than 11,000 today. The dama gazelle, the rarest of these three, numbered only nine in 1979 but there are more than 800 today. Meanwhile, there were only two addax known to exist in Texas in 1971, but there are more than 5,000 of them today. In 2005, the three creatures were listed on the Endangered Species Act, but they were exempt from the no-hunting rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That exemption, however, essentially maintained the status quo, pertaining to the “taking” – or hunting – and transportation of the said animals. The federal exemption was lifted Wednesday after it was successfully challenged by Friends of Animals, a Connecticut-based animal-rights organization adamantly opposed to hunting. The group also helped have the three species listed on the Endangered Species Act in 2005. According to the impacted ranchers, the …
Anglers looking forward to generous West Coast salmon fishing
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Seattle, WA, United States (AHN Sports) – Anglers are will be greeted with lots of West Coast salmon fishing, including the largest Sacramento River Chinook return in the last seven years, after the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted Thursday afternoon a set of ocean salmon seasons. The recommended seasons, which provides both recreational and commercial opportunities coastwide, will be a treat to all fishermen, but mostly for California and Oregon anglers. The abundance forecast salmon returns in the Sacramento and Klamath Rivers this year, the largest number since 2005, is expected to fuel ocean salmon fisheries off California and Oregon. For 2012, Sacramento River fall Chinook forecast is expected at 819,400, which is very high for the needed number for optimum spawning this fall, while the Klamath River fall Chinook will be four times greater than average, and the highest forecast on record since 1985. The Oregon Coast natural coho is also predicated to reach about 290,000, the largest number since at least 1996. Area fishermen were impacted by poor Sacramento returns in 2008 and ’09 that led to the largest ocean salmon fishery closure on record. The Sacramento River fall Chinook support fisheries south of Cape Falcon, in northern Oregon. In the Council’s adopted seasons, recreational fisheries in southern Oregon and California are designated for Chinook only. It will run from May 1 through Sept. 9 in the following areas: Brookings, Eureka, Crescent City area. It will also run from April 7 to at least October 7 in areas further south. The central Oregon coast, on the other hand, will allow Chinook retention that will run from March 15 through Oct. 31. Some of the commercial fisheries in those areas are Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain, Oregon, which will be open from April 1 through Aug. 29 and then on Sept. 5 through Oct. 31. Meanwhile, commercial fisheries in the Humbug Mountain to the California border area, which will be open in May, June, July, August and September, will have Chinook quotas in June (2,000), July (1,500), August (1,000), and September (1,000). Those from the California border to Humboldt South Jetty will be open from Sept. 1-5 and will have a Chinook quota of 6,000. As …
New Hampshire: Deer harvest up, bears killings in decline
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Concord, NH, United States (AHN Sports) – There was an increase in the total number of deer killed during the 2011 New Hampshire hunting season compared to the previous year, while the black bear harvest declined as contained in the newly published “2011 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary.” Data gathered by wildlife biologists from the state’s various hunting seasons in 2011 are summarized in the annual publication. Last year’s hunting season statistics are categorized. It includes the various totals of town and Wildlife Management Unit (WMU). According to the report, the 2011 New Hampshire hunting season yielded a total of 11,109 deer killed, an increase of 14 percent from the 9,759 deer taken in 2010. Archery hunters accounted for 2,787 of the total deer harvest, while muzzleloader and “regular” firearms hunters took 2,251 and 5,596 deer, respectively. The annual report indicated that the heaviest deer taken in 2011 weighed 245 pounds. That huge kill was made by Jon B. Dunkling of Williamstown, VT, using a muzzleloader. The black bear harvest, on the other hand, resulted to a total of 418 kills, a 41 percent decrease from the previous year. It marked a 27 percent decline from the preceding 5-year average of 574 bears. The decrease in harvest is said to be the direct result of abundant and diverse mast crops across much of New Hampshire. The abundance of food reduced the need of bears to travel in their search for food. The state agency’s 2011 harvest report also included statistics for moose, turkey and furbearers. Due to the cool and rainy weather, the 2011 moose hunting season turned out to be a success and also a thrilling challenge for participants, which included hunters who travelled from 16 states to take part in the nine-day season. Of the total 290 moose taken, 81 percent were courtesy of New Hampshire residents. Robert Houel, 78, was the oldest moose hunter. He took a 900-pound bull in Wildlife Management Unit C2. The youngest participant was nine-year old Dylan Douglas, who knocked down a 500-pound cow in WMU J2. The 2011 spring gobbler season and youth hunt yielded a total of 3,672 wild turkeys, the numbers were almost the same as in the previous year. Turkey hunters took a total of 643 birds in fall season, 432 were harvested during fall shotgun season and the archers took down 211. As for the New Hampshire furbearers, they remain abundant and widespread, with a total of 497 trappers holding …
‘Iced’ Fishing: warm weather prevails for angling in Colorado
Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Denver, CO, United States (AHN Sports) – Ice anglers in Colorado may have to settle for some smaller stocker trout on their ice fishing trip this year and store their hooks and other ice fishing gear with the opening up reservoirs and lakes due to the sudden warm weather. The buzz among anglers is that Colorado ice fishing is officially over. According to the fishing report from North Park Anglers, the prevailing winds from the Northwest have been hammering the ice. The early warming of the weather has opened North Lake, a thing that has never been seen by many seasoned anglers. Shorelines throughout South Park, including Antero and Spinney Mountain reservoirs have been opened due to the warm weather and wind. It could translate to the shortest ice fishing season in recent memory. Plenty of fish were reportedly caught from the shores of Lake John. It has also been reported throughout many of Colorado’s most famous fisheries, with anglers hoping they have brought with them their open water fishing gear. Meanwhile, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported that there has been a rapid deterioration of any remaining ice at Elevenmile and other surrounding reservoirs. It has prompted the agency to recommend people to stay off those areas that might appear accessible and until they are completely ice free. Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is sick, broke and headed to court
AHN Sports Staff Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN Sports) – A flamboyant lifestyle appears to be catching up to former NBA star Dennis Rodman. According to a report, Rodman is “extremely sick,” “broke” and can’t afford to pay large child and spousal support payments. The Los Angeles Times reported that according to court documents, Rodman is behind in his payments and faces a court hearing Tuesday. Rodman faces up to 20 days in jail for failure to pay spousal and child support, according to an attorney for his ex-wife. The report stated that court documents said that as of March 1, Rodman owed $808,935 in back child support for the 9- and 10-year-old children that he had with his third wife, Michelle Rodman. The 51-year-old Rodman also owed $51,441 through March 1 in back spousal support, Michelle Rodman’s attorney Jack Kayajanian alleged in court documents. Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved
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