HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Redfish cruise the shallow waters of Lowcountry marshes feeding on crabs and other marine life, their tails cutting the surface like a shark’s fin. Anglers reel in some 2 million annually. The excitement of “sight fishing” makes them South Carolina’s most popular saltwater sport fish.

But Matt Perkinson, a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — On the day before Thanksgiving, Cole Wagaman awoke uncertain whether he would hunt ducks. He lives in Kasson, in southern Minnesota, and the wind was whipping snow out of the northwest at 30 miles an hour, with a temperature in the mid-20s.

If he did hunt, he wouldn’t take along his golden retriever, Nellie, he knew that.

Too...Read more

PITTSBURGH — More than a foot of snow has blanketed many areas where local birds look for food.

"So if you have been feeding birds this winter, don't stop when conditions are at their worst," says Kenn Kaufman, a national bird author and artist who visits Pittsburgh regularly.

In the run-up to the Pittsburgh region's biggest snowfall in 16 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Ron McNamara is no Huck Finn. But McNamara, like Huck, knows something about nighttime travel on the Mississippi River.

“If you think it ain’t dismal and lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it once — you’ll see," Huck said in Mark Twain’s, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

McNamara...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Managers of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness say they will extend stricter food storage requirements for visitors, noting the rules have reduced encounters with black bears over the last two years.

The order was set to expire this spring, but now will be enforced for another five years, the U.S. Forest Service announced...Read more

BOSTON — Will Sundays no longer be peaceful days of rest for deer in the Bay State?

State wildlife officials are looking into expanding deer hunting opportunities, as they gather public input on Sunday hunting, crossbow hunting and minimum setback distances for hunting.

Massachusetts is one of only two states with an outright ban on Sunday ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Department of Natural Resources is moving ahead with its plan to lower Minnesota’s walleye bag limit by putting its formal recommendation up for public feedback and possible legal review.

The agency hopes to make the change from six walleye to four, with the new limit to take effect March 1, 2027, said Brian Nerbonne, a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Tim Walz has a lot on his plate right now.

Pointing out that many Minnesota hunters, anglers and other conservationists consider it good news that he won’t seek re-election seems like piling on.

But there it is.

When he was elected governor in 2018, Walz seemed as if he might follow in the conservation footsteps of his ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The fact that Ross Petersen is a fishing guide and also a former mayor of Ely doesn’t make him unique. Two other recent mayors of that small town on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness also are fishing guides.

But Petersen does stand out among both fishing pros and politicians for another reason.

He’s not ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — As wind and snow blew hard across White Bear Lake on Dec. 31, Mark Walker was keeping to his winter clock. This time of year, he, his wife and his daughter make time for ice fishing.

Walker worked a bucket of crappie minnows over two holes from inside a heated ice house. He already had hauled in a 24-inch northern pike and a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — I keep my New Year’s resolutions simple. Stay out of jail at Christmas. And trust dogs to do the right thing.

Some years ago, in Tennessee, early on Christmas Eve, I was coming off the East Coast in a White Freightliner, loaded for Tulsa.

Which was when, rising over a hill, with another 18-wheeler passing me, I whisked ...Read more

WICHITA, Kan. — Deer carcasses and aluminum containers with the remnants of baked beans were found illegally dumped in a public ditch Friday, the McPherson County Sheriff’s Office said.

“With little info at this time, it appears the deer may have been taken lawfully, however, their disposal at this location is both illegal and tacky,” ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Imagine pulling up to a fishing spot. You hook a fish, a beautiful snook. As you reel it in, the water boils, a shark’s tail smacks the surface. The fish stops struggling. All that’s left of the snook is a bloody stump.

On the next cast the same thing happens. There’s no reason to continue fishing in this spot, ...Read more

A hunter who went missing a week ago south of High Rock Lake has been found dead, according to investigators in North Carolina.

The body of Jerry Eugene Sutton Jr. was discovered Dec. 16, in a wooded area about a 14-mile drive southeast from Salisbury, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office said in a Dec. 22 news release.

It’s suspected 41-year...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota waterfowlers will hold a Duck Summit March 27-28 in Nicollet — near the shores of venerable Swan Lake, which once was one of North America’s migratory bird meccas.

The planned gathering, long overdue, is born of the frustration of Minnesota duck hunters, who in autumn are tired of seeing mostly empty skies, but who...Read more