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By Louie Stout
If a new proposal gets through Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC) meetings over the next month, anglers could be fishing legally for bass as early as April 10 this year.
The DNR announced it has revamped original proposals that it presented at public hearings over the past year and will present a hybrid version at this month’s NRC meeting.
The new plan will be heard at the March 19th meeting in Lansing.
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(Provided by Michigan DNR)
The Michigan DNR reminds anglers that the dates for mandatory ice shanty removal are approaching. Anglers are required to remove shanties as soon as the ice is unsafe to hold them, regardless of the date.
Ice shanties must be removed from Lake St. Clair before sunset Feb. 22.
In the northern Lower Peninsula, ice shanties need to be removed by midnight March 15. Counties included in the northern Lower Peninsula are: Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Arenac, Bay, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Clare, Crawford, Emmet, Gladwin, Grand Traverse, Iosco, Isabella, Kalkaska, Lake, Leelanau, Manistee, Mason, Mecosta, Midland, Missaukee, Montmorency, Newaygo, Oceana, Ogemaw, Osceola, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon and Wexford.
In remaining counties of the southern Lower Peninsula, shanties must be removed by midnight March 1.
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(Provided by Michigan DNR)
The Michigan DNR announced the results from its 2014 Master Angler program - a program that has been in place since 1973 to recognize large fish caught by recreational anglers.
This past year, 987 anglers representing 19 states and Canada submitted catches that were recognized as Master Angler fish. That is a decrease from the 1,208 fish recognized in 2013. Of the entries accepted, 327 were categorized as “catch and keep” and 660 were categorized as “catch and release.”
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(Provided by Michigan DNR)
The Michigan DNR filed an appeal of a December 2014 federal district court ruling that returned wolves in Michigan and Wisconsin to the federal endangered species list and wolves in Minnesota to federal threatened species status.
The appeal - filed by the Michigan Attorney General in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia - asks the court to uphold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s December 2011 decision that removed the Great Lakes Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of wolves from the federal endangered species list.
The federal district court’s December 2014 decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the United States, in which the State of Michigan participated as a defendant-intervener arguing against returning the Great Lakes DPS of wolves to the endangered species list.
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Provided by Michigan DNR
Michigan recorded no fatalities during all hunting seasons in 2014, according to reports compiled by the DNR Law Enforcement Division. Ten incidents involving injuries were recorded in the state - nine in the Lower Peninsula and one in the Upper Peninsula.
“We had 10 incidents reported for 2014, which ties with last year for the fewest number of reportable hunting incidents since Michigan started tracking them in the 1940s," said Sgt. Tom Wanless of the DNR's Recreational Safety, Education and Enforcement Section.