The Silence family enjoyed a camping and fishing weekend on Kimball Lake in August. Above left: RaeAnne Silence shows off the tiny perch she caught. It wasn’t an eater but it put up a good fight! Above right: Genevieve Silence caught several little fish, including this red-eyed rock bass.
Jon at Buck’s Hardware Hank gives this week’s outdoor column:
Perhaps this week I should change the name of this report because I haven’t been talking to many people about fishing. Hunting is the topic of choice.
Plenty of grouse are being taken so far. There has been some discontent with comparison to last year but it sounds as if most are finding a few to take down. Again, more success is being had by those who take a walk rather than road hunt.
The state moose hunt has begun and as of this writing nine moose have come in here at the Big Game Registration Station. Far fewer moose are being allowed to be taken this year. For example, the zone where I live typically has a harvest of five to seven moose. This year however, only two are allowed to be taken in that zone.
I checked the DNR site for the 2012 aerial moose survey and they estimate around 4,200 moose in northeast Minnesota with a plus or minus range of about 1,000. Moose numbers are going down but the so-called “tip over” disease is causing many more problems for the moose than is the hunt. I hope the biologists are able to solve the problem and that’s the reason they’re at the store gathering tissue samples. But I can see the argument of “if they’re dwindling in numbers, why contribute to the loss?”
Bottom line… moose hunts make money. It’s sad but also a reality. So where do you stand on the issue, should we have a hunt or not?
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