Deer season on the Gunflint Trail has been fairly successful for the few hunters who chose to give it a shot up here. A few nice bucks have been reported so far and everyone I have talked to seems to be pretty happy with this year’s hunt. There are fewer people hunting the Gunflint this year. Usually there are vehicles parked alongside the road every couple of miles, especially in the Gunflint Lake area.
Rumors of wolf populations are scaring many people into hunting closer to town where the deer population seems to be much higher. Preseason scouting on the Trail showed a lot of signs of wolves and very few deer rubs or prints. More wolves means less deer.
Wolves are becoming a problem up here, as I am sure you have heard me say before. Our dog has been going nuts in the back yard lately barking incessantly into the woods. More than usual anyway. She finally got out of the fenced-in area and sniffed out a dead wolf. It was a female and very small. It was curled up like a puppy with her front leg rested over her face. She looked very peaceful like she was sleeping; in fact I poked it with a stick first because she did not even look dead.
We called the Department of Natural Resources to find out what we should do and they gave us the number of a gentleman who collects dead wolves for the Fish and Wildlife Service. They told us we would receive a study report once the wolf had been inspected. There were no gunshot wounds that I could see and she was missing a little bit of hair in spots on one side. I could not tell if it was mange or simply rubbed off from the way she was lying on the ground, but I guess we will find out soon.
My thoughts on the overpopulation of wolves up here are not derived from hatred towards the animal. I actually like wolves. They keep me on my toes when I am filling up the boiler at night, and I understand the importance of their existence. My fear is that they will eat themselves out of house and home, ultimately becoming a threat to themselves and us.
This reminds me of an ocean fish down in Florida called the Goliath grouper, formerly named the Jew fish. The Goliath grouper is shaped like a largemouth bass and reaches weights of 800 pounds. They were commercially hunted with “bang sticks” by scuba divers to the point of near extinction and have been protected for about 20 years now. It is a widely shared opinion by many scientists and anglers that their population has rebounded quickly and they are literally killing everything that swims. It is hard to land a snapper, or any fish for that matter, without it being eaten by a Goliath on the way up.
Protecting an endangered species is vital, but intelligently managing that species after the fact is equally important.
Cory Christianson, a
graduate of the University
of Iowa, has worked as a
fishing guide on the Gunflint
Trail since 2000. If you have
any fishing reports or stories
to share, send an email to:
christiansoncory@hotmail.
com or call 218-388-0315.
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