The Polar Bear Open ended its season appropriately with the Bob Evans Classic under cold, snowy conditions and the tournament’s namesake winning two of the prizes on the St. Joseph River at 6 Span Bridge.
Steve Martin and John Dixon teamed up to win the Polar Bear Open last weekend on the Waldron Chain at Duke’s Bridge.
Adding depth to an already robust jerkbait collection, Strike King introduces the new KVD J300 Deep Sinking Jerkbait and an even wider color selection to the KVD Elite Jerkbait line up.
Mercury Report
Prosciutto-Wrapped Walleye
People love their walleye and for good reason. This freshwater fish, found in the northern United States and Canada, is easy to eat. Known for its mild and sweet flavor, the walleye is a favorite at countless fish fries as well as any number of festivals. You’ll find walleye on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair, and, of course, there’s the Mercury Marine National Walleye Tournament, which is part of the Walleye Weekend, an annual festival held in Fond du Lac, Wis.
For this recipe, Pat Kehoe, Director of International Partnerships at Ducks Unlimited Canada, a non-profit organization committed to the conservation of Canada’s wetlands and associated waterfowl habitats, shares his recipe for a simple, yet delicious, prosciutto-wrapped walleye.
MLF Report
By CHAD STEWART, Deer, elk and moose management specialist Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Deer herd
The 2023 Michigan deer hunting season is about ready to kick off, and we need to have some frank conversations about deer management in this state. Primarily, our deer seasons aren’t impacting our deer herd like many may think. If you are in the Lower Peninsula, we simply aren’t taking enough does during the season to control the growth of our deer herd in many areas.
Comparative harvest
Since 2000, do you know how many years we have harvested more antlerless deer than antlered deer in the state of Michigan? The answer is one. In 2009, we had an estimated antlerless harvest of 220,913 and an estimated antlered harvest of 215,104. Every other year in this century, we’ve taken more antlered deer than antlerless deer. If you make a quick comparison with the states around us, such as Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, they all typically harvest between 8% to 25% more antlerless deer than they do antlered deer in a given year. Using those measures, we should be harvesting between 43,000 and 68,000 more antlerless deer in the Lower Peninsula alone!
While this sounds like a lot, keep in mind that the Lower Peninsula has about 40,000 square miles of land. While not every square mile is created equally, and some of those square miles won’t hold any deer due to intensive development or other factors that make the land unappealing to deer, one can see that such an increase in total harvest CAN be achievable, especially in areas where deer are abundant.
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