December 8, 2025 • 28 mins
This week, Cal covers some fascinating new stats from Florida's bear hunt, an update on Snorticus, and the Wyoming Wombat Woman.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Col's week in review with Ryan cow Calaian. Here's
cap last week down in Clearwater, Florida, four anglers set
out for a day trip and a twenty five foot
catamaran as part of a birthday celebration, only to capsize
(00:30):
twenty six miles offshore and then cling to the whole
of the upside down boat overnight. On board was ninety
year old Clarence Woods and his son's Dennis, who was
turning seventy, along with family members Chris Harding Senior forty
two Chris Harding Junior, eighteen. The group didn't have any
communications equipment on the boat, no VHF, no satellite transmitter,
(00:53):
just cell phones that did not perform after they hit
the salt water. Once the boat began to take on water,
it flipped almost immediately. Woods later told reporters I didn't
have time to contact the coastguard. We were more concerned
about getting a life jacket on the ninety year old
and the eighteen year old. The one I was gonna
wear got hung up and I just had to leave it.
(01:15):
According to authorities, the boat's flare gun and strobe light
were also lost immediately, and I'm going to guess the
group's fishing tackle has not been seen either. A helicopter
search that evening had no success, and over the long night,
the four mariners struggled to stay afloat and keep up.
Morale Woods as a pastor and said that the group
prayed and sang the whole time. At seven fifteen am
(01:37):
the following morning, the Coastguard spotted the boat and brought
the group to safety. All four received medical treatment, but
aside from dehydration and a few scrapes, they escaped unscathed.
Now you might say that suffering a shipwreck and a
night exposed to the elements while contemplating death is a
good way to spoil a fishing party, But I can
guarantee that the sight of that Coastguard helicopter coming over
(01:58):
the horizon is the best birthday press Dennis Woods that
will ever receive. On top of that, I'd love a
good shipwrecked survival story when I'm ninety. Not a lot
of surprises at that point in life. I love a
young pe This week we've got stats, snort, report, crime,
and so much more. But first I'm going to tell
(02:18):
you about my week, and my week has been spent
in South Dakota with friends Chef Jesse Griffiths, Eric Johansson,
Tom Carpenter, Ryan laurim Er, Jared Worthington, and a hoopload
of dogs, black labs, Epani Old Breton, French Britney's wired
hair Gryffon named Hank, and Snort, who was the best
yellow lab in the group by far and away, no exception.
(02:41):
This week was a hosted trip that we put together
last year as a fundraiser for Pheasants Forever. As you
know that's a group I'm very supportive of. Eric's family
farm here in South Dakota is a great example of
a working farm cattle operation, meaning it's not just for
show or recreation. It's a replicable model for folks who
(03:04):
make a living providing food for America. Not a vacation
property set around wildlife. It's a family agricultural business that
uses all the tools in the toolkit to farm and
graze what is profitable and leave the rest for wildlife.
This is the prairie poth whole country full of intermittent
wetlands that do not connect to flowing water or water
(03:26):
that is permanently on the landscape, as in they are
not protected, especially with the changes proposed changes to the
waters of the United States that we covered last week.
These areas go dry sometimes because that's what wetlands do,
sometimes for years, and then they'll fill and stay for
a year or three years or five seasons. It's how
(03:46):
the ecosystem works. The Johansson farm chooses to farm around
that stuff, and the wildlife thrives unbelievable amounts of wild pheasants,
no planet birds ever. It's amazing to see their grazing ground.
They support native prairie. The wildlife buffers around the intermittent
wetlands are all native. It's you know, big, cold, flat, white,
(04:11):
wind blown country out here, but it's amazingly beautiful and
it's so impressive to get in the thick stuff and
take a walk and see how much wildlife's in there.
Just unreal. Anyway, big huge thanks to Jared and Ryan,
who are the dudes who got together lifelong friends, adult
(04:32):
life anyway, who got together and purchased this trip as
a donation to Pheasants Forever. They were able to bring
all their dogs out and it was super fun to
see a couple different breeds that I haven't been hunting
with lately. Anyway, get out there and work, and this
is an overwhelming place. There is scent everywhere when you're walking,
big stands of standing corn or sorgum, stuff that hasn't
(04:56):
been harvested yet, and a big congregator of wildlife. They're
in there trying to get the calories. On these super
cold days. The birds are really visible and it is tough,
tough hunting conditions for any dog to stay working the
way they should provide the opportunities for us knuckleheads with
the guns when they can just see those birds running
(05:16):
in front of them. Too tantalizing. So onto the Snort report.
As you recall snorts encounter with a rattlesnake more than
four years ago as left her with a bald ear
in this dry cold. It chaps just like your lips do.
But imagine taking your chapped lips or face and smashing
them all day into cattails and sorghum and coarse prairie
(05:39):
grass of a brace of stuff, multi floor rows, stuff
that got spines and stickers. That's what I deal with
on Snort's ear, what she deals with. So I carry
bag balm and liberally apply that to that little pink
ear to stave off open sores. But in these single
digit tempts we're experiencing, it's definitely pink and tender, and
you feel for it. On top of that obstacle. She
(06:02):
and I have been like a solo pheasant hunting team
most of the year. We're hunting big public spaces that
get lots of pressure, and we're running down individual rooster
tracks and scent, and often this pursuit includes literal running
to get our bird or ideally birds switching gears to
a place like this Johansson's there's birds sent everywhere. It's
(06:25):
much more dense, and in the case of walking the
corn and sorgum, like I said, the birds are way
more visible. They're running ahead of you with cotton tails
and hens, long tailed roosters zipping back and forth. Perfect
scenario and understandable for a dog to sprint ahead and
try to chase those birds. After all, we've been chasing
and sprinting after birds on the public land. But she
(06:47):
did not. She kept it tight and worked real close
and waited for the guns to go off and birds
to fall somewhere above her. She worked her tail off
in that super thick, snow covered, matted slew, cat old,
tall grass, frag mighty stuff. She got into the pheasant
tunnels rooted them out. Five is a magical time for
(07:08):
most bird dogs. It is for Snort. I'm just like
blessed to be around her. I knew this hunt was
going to be tough on her and I would have
to correct her with a couple of shocks from the collar.
I was prepared to do that, but I never had to.
I hardly whistled at her in two days. Leaves me
feeling like I just don't deserve a dog like this.
(07:30):
She focuses on the hunting. I focus on the shooting.
In the last two days she flushed more birds than
we have all season combined. It was just fantastic. The
only time I really had to whistle at her bust
out the coach's whistle is when we were done and
I turned for the county road and she went followed me.
(07:52):
She kept hunting, and it was tough. Man drifted snow,
frozen hands, faces frozen, that pink ear. It's tough. But
what you wish all hunts were. You knew you were
gonna get the opportunities if you just kept marching, it
was great. Snort comes from Riverstone Kennels. Eric here currently
has two of her relatives working on the farm, and
(08:14):
it's got me thinking it's about time I got her
some backup. I know they just don't make dogs like her,
but I'm sure they got a good substitute. So that's
gonna be coming down the pipe this spring. I hope
Chef Jesse, my good buddy Jesse Griffiths have died. Doy
Fame and the Hog Book and the Pheasant Book, which
are must haves if you're buying something for Christmas. Kept
(08:35):
us very warm this week with braised pheasant legs for
Fuugh and Catchia Tory, and then ample amounts of pheasant
breast thrown in at the last minute, savory killer hot meals.
At the end of cold days, watching great dogs and
putting birds in the bag. We drank some of that
Velvet Buck wine that you may have heard of on
Dan Flores's podcast. That is a great cold weather warm
(09:00):
you up wine, and a portion of the proceeds goes
to backcountry hunters and anglers, so keep that in mind
where you can find it. It's called velvet buck and
it goes great with game. Also, if you're looking for
something else to you know, stuff a stocking, don't forget
that fed up old trucks calendar. Portion of that goes
(09:23):
to backcountry hunters and anglers too. You can find that
stuff on themeaeater dot com. And I think we'll be
auctioning off this hunt again in the future. We got
to talk to Eric about that, but Jesse's in. We've
been scheming on ways to make it even more special
and coming out and getting this agricultural perspective is invaluable.
(09:43):
Seeing this many wild birds is invaluable. Seeing the dog
work is invaluable. So it's education and food and fun
and good camaraderie. And it's just hard to put a
price tag on that really is. I'll keep posted on that.
It's a heck of an experience. Moving on to the
applied statistics desk. Down in Florida, the State Fish and
(10:06):
Wildlife Commission has run its bear hunt lottery and awarded
the one hundred and seventy two permits for its first
bear season in a decade, which starts December six. However,
according to reporting by Orlando News six, as many as
forty four of those permits were awarded to anti hunters
who plan to sit out the hunt, But Chuck O'Neill,
president of Speak Up for Wildlife, says that if anything,
(10:27):
that estimate might be low. He said, quote, by the
time it's all over with, we've got at least fifty
two of the one hundred and seventy two tags, which
will reduce the number of bears killed down to about
one hundred and twenty or less. O'Neill has that math right,
and he's slung in some other numbers. He himself bought
two hundred and fifty one entries in the bear hunt
lottery at five bucks a pop. Overall, there were one
(10:50):
hundred and sixty three, four hundred and fifty nine applications,
and although we don't know how many separate individuals bought
all those chances or what their intentions were were, they
brought in eight hundred and seventeen two hundred ninety five
dollars for conservation. A last dish lawsuit to stop the
hunt has also failed. So by the time you are
(11:10):
hearing this, Florida's bear hunt will be underway. We'll see
if the hunt meets management expectations. This time around. Oh
side note, forgot to tell you we knocked down thirty
one birds in two days, did not lose a single bird.
Lots of dog power out there, gang. It was magical
hate losing Pheasants hate losing anything. For whatever reason, birds
(11:33):
are like very maddening. I feel like none of them
should get away with the little snort nose on their behind. Anyway,
if I could have a magic wand everyone, and I
mean everyone would learn about hunting and conservation and wildlife
management and ecosystem services and diversity, and they don't have
to love a bear hunt, but they're going to understand
(11:55):
it and not be against it. Short of that, Florida
Fish and Wildlife can can estimate the number of tags
bought by non participants or anti hunters and expand the
number of total tags to accommodate that kind of loss.
There Therefore, we could have a bidding war on our
hands where O'Neal and activists like him pay for more
(12:17):
and more of the fwc's budget, and the same amount
of hunters get to go out and hunt. What O'Neill
and the activists don't understand is that what hunters are
doing is they are paying for an opportunity, not a bear.
Not every hunt represents a dead animal. I can promise
you that. Now where does the cash from hunts like
(12:39):
this go? Florida Fish and Wildlife this year announced a
major revegetation project along the kiss Me Channel Lake's system,
with an initial investment of two point three million dollars.
So Chuck and all the other members of Speak Up
for Wildlife thank you for taking part in that. Moving
on to the bear desk. In other bear news, four
(13:01):
grizzlies captured in response to last week's attack on a
Canadian school group are being relocated out of the area
after DNA tests revealed that none of the trapped bears
were responsible for the attacks. As we covered last week,
a sal grizzly and two cubs came out of the
woods in Bellicula, British Columbia on November twentieth and attacked
a group of school children injuring eleven and sending one
(13:23):
adult and three kids to the hospital. Saliva samples were
collected from the clothes of the victims, and after several
traps and cameras were deployed in the area, four adult
bears were caught. However, the DNA of the trapped bears
did not match the saliva on file. The BC Conservation
Officers Service announced that instead of releasing these bears back
into Bellicula, they will be moved elsewhere within their home range.
(13:47):
Although relocations are difficult and dangerous, bears have historically done
very well when moved from place to place, so these
bruins are expected to do just fine. The Conservation Officer
Service decided to move the bears because this area of
New Halk First Nation's territory has seen a rapid increase
in bear human overlap in the last several years, with
about six bears currently per one hundred square miles. That
(14:10):
might not sound like a lot, and wouldn't be very
many black bears, who were much less aggressive than grizzlies,
But if you have that many brown bears who are
starting to hibernate later due to rising seasonal temperatures and
are getting more used to human food, you start to
get a lot more conflict like in this recent incident.
Officials will continue to use thermal vision drones and bear
(14:30):
traps to try to catch the bears responsible for the attack.
We'll keep you up to date with any further developments
there over to Pennsylvania for some brighter news on the
bruin beat. Pennsylvania hunter Nate Miller had the outing of
a lifetime last week when he killed the black bear
with a live weight of seven hundred and seventeen pounds.
(14:51):
Miller had set up a blind at five thirty am,
but after getting cold and deciding to move around to
warm up, he spotted a bear less than eighty yards away.
Three quick shots, the beast was on the ground, and
Miller was understandably overcome. He told Channel eleven News quote,
I'm shaking, I mean just I couldn't even talk right,
couldn't even stand up straight. It was an emotional dump
(15:13):
to give you a sense of how big this bear was.
Even with the help of three friends in a game sled,
it took almost five hours to move the eight hundred yards,
and park rangers accomplished the last one hundred yards with
an ATV. But Miller himself provides the most vivid example.
He said, quote, in the process of putting the ear
tag in, I could not pick the head up. At
(15:34):
the waystation, the measurements came in not just seven hundred
and seventeen pounds, but also seven feet five inches tall.
Although official results will take a few days to come back,
this is expected to be the biggest bear ever taken
in Butler County, which is almost on the Ohio border,
and likely to be in the top ten state wide.
Congrat toinate and everyone who's had success in the state's
(15:56):
bear hunt. Historically, PA has had one of the most
successful bear restoration programs in the country. I say restoration
instead of reintroduction because Ursus americanus was never fully extirpated
from Pennsylvania, even though it reached dangerously low levels by
the turn of the twentieth century. Keystone State carried out
some of the earliest bear repopulation efforts, moving almost fifty
(16:18):
bears in nineteen twenty two and nineteen twenty three from
Potter County in the north central part of the state
to five other locations. Again, from nineteen seventy nine to
eighty four, seventy two bears removed from the northeast to
the southwestern regions, and thirteen of those bears were documented
producing at least twenty successful litters. And although bears had
been slowly recovering through mid century, Pennsylvania Game Commission closed
(16:41):
the annual bear hunt in both nineteen seventy seven and
nineteen seventy eight, leading to a hockey stick shaped increase
in the number of bears through to the present day.
I'm going into all this history because it's interesting and
because in an ideal world it might reach the ears
of bear hunt protest like old Chuck O'Neill back there
(17:02):
in Florida. It was hunters who paid for those translocations,
hunters who sponsored those population studies, hunters who worked with
private landowners to conserve bear habitat, and hunters who had
the restraint to put down their guns for a couple
of years to give breeding animals a chance to get
a foothold. Without hunters, althose forested acres in PA probably
would have been logged for several more crucial years, possibly
(17:24):
delaying or even preventing the resurgence of bears there. Instead,
that seven hundred and seventeen pound behemoth the Nate Miller
killed spent his life enjoying acorns and wasp larva, likely
mating with a few appealing females and mixing it up
with a couple other male bears before having a tough
final few seconds. That life just couldn't have happened without hunters.
I have to believe that if Old Chuck knew this,
(17:46):
he'd be a little bit more open to what we
do and he can still go on love and bears,
I know I do. One last note for Pennsylvania. The
first Sunday Hunts in three hundred and forty three years
took place there over the past two weekends, with an
estimated five hundred thousand hunters taking part each day. All
you working stiffs and soccer game afflicted parents out there,
(18:08):
I hope you enjoyed your time in the woods. Big
huge thanks or congratulations rather to all of you who
lobbied your butts off to make that happen special shout
out to Pennsylvania back country hunters and anglers. You guys
pushed Big Rock uphill for a lot of years. You
should feel very very good about yourselves. Moving on to
(18:30):
the crime desk. You may remember all the way back
in March, I told you about a hunter and would
be social media influencer who caused akre fluffle in Australia
for picking up a baby wombat and posting the video online.
While she's back in the news and her latest allegation
landed her briefly in jail. Samantha Strabel, who goes by
Sam Jones online, has been charged with lying about her
(18:53):
residency to obtain a hunting license in Wyoming, which is
a common thing. She's facing eight misdemeanor charges, including six
counts of false swearing and one count each of taking
wildlife without a license, according to an article by Eli
Fournier over at the Mediator dot com. You can check
out Eli's article for the full story, but basically, Game
Wardens got an anonymous tip that ol' Sam hadn't lived
(19:15):
in Wyoming for the last two years, which would disqualify
her from purchasing resident hunting licenses. Wardens called the address
she listed as a residence, but the man who answered
the phone said Samantha had moved to Australia in twenty
twenty three. She returned in twenty twenty four and killed
an elk and an antelope on a resident tag. Earlier
this year, she killed a mountain lion on a resident tag,
(19:37):
even though she hadn't lived in the state long enough
to qualify for residency. When confronted by Game Wardens, she
claimed to have lived in Wyoming one hundred and eighty
days which is the cutoff for losing your residency in
the state. Problem was cell phone records and other evidence
proved she'd only been in Wyoming for seven days in
twenty twenty five and twenty nine days in twenty twenty four.
(19:59):
Strabel was booked into the Sublet County Jail on November
twenty one and released on her own recognaissance that same day.
If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail
and twenty six thousand dollars in fines. But I think
it's safe to say that the Wyoming wombat woman's career
as a hunting influencer is going to take a hit.
Officials with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife were asking for
(20:21):
the public's help finding the person who illegally killed the
female mountain lion. The lion had been shot through the
chest and then dragged into some bushes near the group
campsites at Gunnison City Mountain Park in Taylor Canyon, north
of Gunnison. The cat appears to have been killed last month,
just three days before the legal hunting season began. Anyone
with information about the killing of the lion is asked
(20:42):
to contact CPW District Wildlife Manager Cody Pryor nine to
seven zero six four to one seven zero seven to
five or Cody dot Pryor. That's prior at State dot
CO dot US Gunnison City Mountain Park last month. If
you're around the group campsites and he got some info,
hit up CPW. Killing the cat is bad out of season,
(21:08):
not eating the meat even worse. Suns and guns. A
Washington State man escaped jail time for killing five cow
elk and what wildlife officials described as a quote killing spree.
In twenty twenty three, an employee at a timber company
reported finding five cow elk on a hillside south of Cosmopolis.
All the elk had been shot with a high powered
(21:28):
rifle and no meat had been harvested from any of them.
Game wardens weren't able to identify a suspect until ten
months later, when wardens ran into forty five year old
Richard Lauren Pratt at the crime scene. He'd broken into
the property by cutting open a gate, and wardens found
him in possession of two firearms, but since Pratt was
a convicted felon, they were able to confiscate both of
(21:49):
his rifles and match one of those rifles to the
poaching case from earlier that year. They were happy to
find the right poacher, but they weren't happy with the
conclusion of the case. The Washington Department of Fiching Wildlife
put out a press release stating that they'd worked out
a plea agreement with the Grays Harbor prosecutor that included
prison time, but when it came time for sentencing, the
judge handed Pratt something called a mental health sentencing alternative.
(22:12):
This slapped him with a ten thousand dollars fine and
a ten year suspension of his hunting privileges, but put
him in quote community custody for thirty six months. This
will likely include some kind of mandatory mental health treatment
and other probationary requirements, but it doesn't include prison time.
WDFW police Captain Dan Chadwick criticized the judge by saying
(22:33):
he is quote disappointed that Pratt's sentence doesn't include time
in the slammer, which is an understandable reaction. The press
release points out that Pratt could face up to one
hundred and sixteen months in prison if he violates the
conditions of this sentence. Moving on to the mailbag, a
(22:53):
quick reminder before we dive into the mailbag this week.
Along with sending an email to askcl you can also
call four h six two two zero six four four
one and leave me a voicemail. I listen to every message,
and you might just hear the sonorous sound of your
voice on an upcoming episode. Listener Keith Kempinich wrote in
(23:15):
this week with a quick clarification about a segment I
did last week on Minnesota's shotgun only hunting zones. He
pointed out that while the state Department of Natural Resources
has eliminated shotgun only zones, individual counties can still pass
ordinances that ban the use of center fire rifles. That
sounds great from a local control perspective, but there's a problem,
(23:36):
he said in his email quote. County lines do not
line up with current Deer permit areas, which will likely
result in a bizarre patchwork of areas in which rifles
are legal and not. Presently, the rifle and shotgun zones
do line up with DPA boundaries and are demarketed by
some major highways. Going forward, you might have DPAs which
(23:58):
are established for management purposes in which both weapons are allowed.
Depending on which county you're in. It's going to be
a mess. That does sound like a mess. Hopefully counties
will adhere to the statewide rules and not go off
and do their own thing. As we covered last week,
shotgun only zones aren't about public safety. They're about deer management,
which should be controlled by DNR biologists. Speaking of controversial legislation,
(24:24):
listener Charlie McDonald wrote in with a bad bill from
his home state of Michigan, House Bill four eight five
to one would limit the amount of land owned by
the state to no more than fifty percent of the
land in any given county, township, city, village, or school district.
This means that if there is a county where the
state owns more than fifty percent of the land as
a wildlife management area, the land that exceeds fifty percent
(24:47):
would be considered surplus and I assume sold off. Charlie
doesn't think this is a good idea, he said in
his email quote, HB four eight five to one is
yet another attack on public lands. Part of the flimsy
ration is that the DNR will manage public lands more
effectively if the agency has less land to manage. I,
for one, think the DNR is doing a fantastic job
(25:09):
providing quality access to state owned and managed lands, and
I have never once wished for less state land to
hunt and fish on. I'm right there with you, Chuck.
With the current attacks on federal public land, those state
parcels are more important than ever. Michiganders should contact their
state reps and tell them to vote no on House
Bill four eight five to one. Last one for you.
(25:33):
We cover urban deer hunting quite a bit on this program,
but mostly from the management and policy perspective, But listener
Chris Coffield wrote in with a great on the ground
report from his home state of New Jersey. He didn't
grow up hunting, but when he and his wife bought
a house that bordered a deer management zone, he applied
for the local management program in Somerset County. He highly
recommends it, and he sent me a list of pros
(25:55):
and cons for anyone who might be interested in joining
their own local programs. That hunting in an urban setting
has its downsides. It's not exactly a serene experience with
kids playing nearby, neighbors using their leaf blowers, and cars
driving past, he said. He tries to introduce himself to
the people who have homes nearby, but no one likes
seeing dead deer in their yard. To help the deer
(26:16):
die as quick as possible, he uses a heavy fixed
blade broadhead and only takes broadside shots. He also pointed
out that while you are allowed to take a buck
in his county, wildlife officials encourage hunters to take dose.
If you're someone who's only trying to kill big bucks,
an urban deer hunting program probably is not for you,
but the pros outweigh of the cons. According to Chris,
(26:38):
it's easy to get access to these areas and the
deer face very little pressure. That means you'll have tons
of opportunities for a shot, especially in the early season.
The shots are usually close given the heavy tree cover,
and tags are plentiful. In fact, in his area, you
risk losing your place if you aren't able to harvest
at least too deer. Plus, since it's the holiday seas
(27:00):
in and we're looking for ways to give back, Chris
pointed out that the fee you pay in order to
participate in the program is used to pay butchers who
work for Hunters for the Hungry. This is an organization
that takes donated deer and turns them into venison for
homeless shelters. It's a win win all around. Thanks a
ton for that email, Chris. It's a great reminder that
even if you live in an urban or suburban area,
(27:22):
you don't have to travel very far to get great
hunting opportunities. Check out your local deer management program and
get to fill in that freezer, even if it's not yours.
That's all I got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening, and remember to write in ask
c a l let's an askal at the meteater dot
com and let me know what's going on in your
(27:42):
neck of the woods. You know we appreciate thanks again.
Talk to you soon.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Col's week in review with Ryan cow Calaian. Here's
cap last week down in Clearwater, Florida, four anglers set
out for a day trip and a twenty five foot
catamaran as part of a birthday celebration, only to capsize
(00:30):
twenty six miles offshore and then cling to the whole
of the upside down boat overnight. On board was ninety
year old Clarence Woods and his son's Dennis, who was
turning seventy, along with family members Chris Harding Senior forty
two Chris Harding Junior, eighteen. The group didn't have any
communications equipment on the boat, no VHF, no satellite transmitter,
(00:53):
just cell phones that did not perform after they hit
the salt water. Once the boat began to take on water,
it flipped almost immediately. Woods later told reporters I didn't
have time to contact the coastguard. We were more concerned
about getting a life jacket on the ninety year old
and the eighteen year old. The one I was gonna
wear got hung up and I just had to leave it.
(01:15):
According to authorities, the boat's flare gun and strobe light
were also lost immediately, and I'm going to guess the
group's fishing tackle has not been seen either. A helicopter
search that evening had no success, and over the long night,
the four mariners struggled to stay afloat and keep up.
Morale Woods as a pastor and said that the group
prayed and sang the whole time. At seven fifteen am
(01:37):
the following morning, the Coastguard spotted the boat and brought
the group to safety. All four received medical treatment, but
aside from dehydration and a few scrapes, they escaped unscathed.
Now you might say that suffering a shipwreck and a
night exposed to the elements while contemplating death is a
good way to spoil a fishing party, But I can
guarantee that the sight of that Coastguard helicopter coming over
(01:58):
the horizon is the best birthday press Dennis Woods that
will ever receive. On top of that, I'd love a
good shipwrecked survival story when I'm ninety. Not a lot
of surprises at that point in life. I love a
young pe This week we've got stats, snort, report, crime,
and so much more. But first I'm going to tell
(02:18):
you about my week, and my week has been spent
in South Dakota with friends Chef Jesse Griffiths, Eric Johansson,
Tom Carpenter, Ryan laurim Er, Jared Worthington, and a hoopload
of dogs, black labs, Epani Old Breton, French Britney's wired
hair Gryffon named Hank, and Snort, who was the best
yellow lab in the group by far and away, no exception.
(02:41):
This week was a hosted trip that we put together
last year as a fundraiser for Pheasants Forever. As you
know that's a group I'm very supportive of. Eric's family
farm here in South Dakota is a great example of
a working farm cattle operation, meaning it's not just for
show or recreation. It's a replicable model for folks who
(03:04):
make a living providing food for America. Not a vacation
property set around wildlife. It's a family agricultural business that
uses all the tools in the toolkit to farm and
graze what is profitable and leave the rest for wildlife.
This is the prairie poth whole country full of intermittent
wetlands that do not connect to flowing water or water
(03:26):
that is permanently on the landscape, as in they are
not protected, especially with the changes proposed changes to the
waters of the United States that we covered last week.
These areas go dry sometimes because that's what wetlands do,
sometimes for years, and then they'll fill and stay for
a year or three years or five seasons. It's how
(03:46):
the ecosystem works. The Johansson farm chooses to farm around
that stuff, and the wildlife thrives unbelievable amounts of wild pheasants,
no planet birds ever. It's amazing to see their grazing ground.
They support native prairie. The wildlife buffers around the intermittent
wetlands are all native. It's you know, big, cold, flat, white,
(04:11):
wind blown country out here, but it's amazingly beautiful and
it's so impressive to get in the thick stuff and
take a walk and see how much wildlife's in there.
Just unreal. Anyway, big huge thanks to Jared and Ryan,
who are the dudes who got together lifelong friends, adult
(04:32):
life anyway, who got together and purchased this trip as
a donation to Pheasants Forever. They were able to bring
all their dogs out and it was super fun to
see a couple different breeds that I haven't been hunting
with lately. Anyway, get out there and work, and this
is an overwhelming place. There is scent everywhere when you're walking,
big stands of standing corn or sorgum, stuff that hasn't
(04:56):
been harvested yet, and a big congregator of wildlife. They're
in there trying to get the calories. On these super
cold days. The birds are really visible and it is tough,
tough hunting conditions for any dog to stay working the
way they should provide the opportunities for us knuckleheads with
the guns when they can just see those birds running
(05:16):
in front of them. Too tantalizing. So onto the Snort report.
As you recall snorts encounter with a rattlesnake more than
four years ago as left her with a bald ear
in this dry cold. It chaps just like your lips do.
But imagine taking your chapped lips or face and smashing
them all day into cattails and sorghum and coarse prairie
(05:39):
grass of a brace of stuff, multi floor rows, stuff
that got spines and stickers. That's what I deal with
on Snort's ear, what she deals with. So I carry
bag balm and liberally apply that to that little pink
ear to stave off open sores. But in these single
digit tempts we're experiencing, it's definitely pink and tender, and
you feel for it. On top of that obstacle. She
(06:02):
and I have been like a solo pheasant hunting team
most of the year. We're hunting big public spaces that
get lots of pressure, and we're running down individual rooster
tracks and scent, and often this pursuit includes literal running
to get our bird or ideally birds switching gears to
a place like this Johansson's there's birds sent everywhere. It's
(06:25):
much more dense, and in the case of walking the
corn and sorgum, like I said, the birds are way
more visible. They're running ahead of you with cotton tails
and hens, long tailed roosters zipping back and forth. Perfect
scenario and understandable for a dog to sprint ahead and
try to chase those birds. After all, we've been chasing
and sprinting after birds on the public land. But she
(06:47):
did not. She kept it tight and worked real close
and waited for the guns to go off and birds
to fall somewhere above her. She worked her tail off
in that super thick, snow covered, matted slew, cat old,
tall grass, frag mighty stuff. She got into the pheasant
tunnels rooted them out. Five is a magical time for
(07:08):
most bird dogs. It is for Snort. I'm just like
blessed to be around her. I knew this hunt was
going to be tough on her and I would have
to correct her with a couple of shocks from the collar.
I was prepared to do that, but I never had to.
I hardly whistled at her in two days. Leaves me
feeling like I just don't deserve a dog like this.
(07:30):
She focuses on the hunting. I focus on the shooting.
In the last two days she flushed more birds than
we have all season combined. It was just fantastic. The
only time I really had to whistle at her bust
out the coach's whistle is when we were done and
I turned for the county road and she went followed me.
(07:52):
She kept hunting, and it was tough. Man drifted snow,
frozen hands, faces frozen, that pink ear. It's tough. But
what you wish all hunts were. You knew you were
gonna get the opportunities if you just kept marching, it
was great. Snort comes from Riverstone Kennels. Eric here currently
has two of her relatives working on the farm, and
(08:14):
it's got me thinking it's about time I got her
some backup. I know they just don't make dogs like her,
but I'm sure they got a good substitute. So that's
gonna be coming down the pipe this spring. I hope
Chef Jesse, my good buddy Jesse Griffiths have died. Doy
Fame and the Hog Book and the Pheasant Book, which
are must haves if you're buying something for Christmas. Kept
(08:35):
us very warm this week with braised pheasant legs for
Fuugh and Catchia Tory, and then ample amounts of pheasant
breast thrown in at the last minute, savory killer hot meals.
At the end of cold days, watching great dogs and
putting birds in the bag. We drank some of that
Velvet Buck wine that you may have heard of on
Dan Flores's podcast. That is a great cold weather warm
(09:00):
you up wine, and a portion of the proceeds goes
to backcountry hunters and anglers, so keep that in mind
where you can find it. It's called velvet buck and
it goes great with game. Also, if you're looking for
something else to you know, stuff a stocking, don't forget
that fed up old trucks calendar. Portion of that goes
(09:23):
to backcountry hunters and anglers too. You can find that
stuff on themeaeater dot com. And I think we'll be
auctioning off this hunt again in the future. We got
to talk to Eric about that, but Jesse's in. We've
been scheming on ways to make it even more special
and coming out and getting this agricultural perspective is invaluable.
(09:43):
Seeing this many wild birds is invaluable. Seeing the dog
work is invaluable. So it's education and food and fun
and good camaraderie. And it's just hard to put a
price tag on that really is. I'll keep posted on that.
It's a heck of an experience. Moving on to the
applied statistics desk. Down in Florida, the State Fish and
(10:06):
Wildlife Commission has run its bear hunt lottery and awarded
the one hundred and seventy two permits for its first
bear season in a decade, which starts December six. However,
according to reporting by Orlando News six, as many as
forty four of those permits were awarded to anti hunters
who plan to sit out the hunt, But Chuck O'Neill,
president of Speak Up for Wildlife, says that if anything,
(10:27):
that estimate might be low. He said, quote, by the
time it's all over with, we've got at least fifty
two of the one hundred and seventy two tags, which
will reduce the number of bears killed down to about
one hundred and twenty or less. O'Neill has that math right,
and he's slung in some other numbers. He himself bought
two hundred and fifty one entries in the bear hunt
lottery at five bucks a pop. Overall, there were one
(10:50):
hundred and sixty three, four hundred and fifty nine applications,
and although we don't know how many separate individuals bought
all those chances or what their intentions were were, they
brought in eight hundred and seventeen two hundred ninety five
dollars for conservation. A last dish lawsuit to stop the
hunt has also failed. So by the time you are
(11:10):
hearing this, Florida's bear hunt will be underway. We'll see
if the hunt meets management expectations. This time around. Oh
side note, forgot to tell you we knocked down thirty
one birds in two days, did not lose a single bird.
Lots of dog power out there, gang. It was magical
hate losing Pheasants hate losing anything. For whatever reason, birds
(11:33):
are like very maddening. I feel like none of them
should get away with the little snort nose on their behind. Anyway,
if I could have a magic wand everyone, and I
mean everyone would learn about hunting and conservation and wildlife
management and ecosystem services and diversity, and they don't have
to love a bear hunt, but they're going to understand
(11:55):
it and not be against it. Short of that, Florida
Fish and Wildlife can can estimate the number of tags
bought by non participants or anti hunters and expand the
number of total tags to accommodate that kind of loss.
There Therefore, we could have a bidding war on our
hands where O'Neal and activists like him pay for more
(12:17):
and more of the fwc's budget, and the same amount
of hunters get to go out and hunt. What O'Neill
and the activists don't understand is that what hunters are
doing is they are paying for an opportunity, not a bear.
Not every hunt represents a dead animal. I can promise
you that. Now where does the cash from hunts like
(12:39):
this go? Florida Fish and Wildlife this year announced a
major revegetation project along the kiss Me Channel Lake's system,
with an initial investment of two point three million dollars.
So Chuck and all the other members of Speak Up
for Wildlife thank you for taking part in that. Moving
on to the bear desk. In other bear news, four
(13:01):
grizzlies captured in response to last week's attack on a
Canadian school group are being relocated out of the area
after DNA tests revealed that none of the trapped bears
were responsible for the attacks. As we covered last week,
a sal grizzly and two cubs came out of the
woods in Bellicula, British Columbia on November twentieth and attacked
a group of school children injuring eleven and sending one
(13:23):
adult and three kids to the hospital. Saliva samples were
collected from the clothes of the victims, and after several
traps and cameras were deployed in the area, four adult
bears were caught. However, the DNA of the trapped bears
did not match the saliva on file. The BC Conservation
Officers Service announced that instead of releasing these bears back
into Bellicula, they will be moved elsewhere within their home range.
(13:47):
Although relocations are difficult and dangerous, bears have historically done
very well when moved from place to place, so these
bruins are expected to do just fine. The Conservation Officer
Service decided to move the bears because this area of
New Halk First Nation's territory has seen a rapid increase
in bear human overlap in the last several years, with
about six bears currently per one hundred square miles. That
(14:10):
might not sound like a lot, and wouldn't be very
many black bears, who were much less aggressive than grizzlies,
But if you have that many brown bears who are
starting to hibernate later due to rising seasonal temperatures and
are getting more used to human food, you start to
get a lot more conflict like in this recent incident.
Officials will continue to use thermal vision drones and bear
(14:30):
traps to try to catch the bears responsible for the attack.
We'll keep you up to date with any further developments
there over to Pennsylvania for some brighter news on the
bruin beat. Pennsylvania hunter Nate Miller had the outing of
a lifetime last week when he killed the black bear
with a live weight of seven hundred and seventeen pounds.
(14:51):
Miller had set up a blind at five thirty am,
but after getting cold and deciding to move around to
warm up, he spotted a bear less than eighty yards away.
Three quick shots, the beast was on the ground, and
Miller was understandably overcome. He told Channel eleven News quote,
I'm shaking, I mean just I couldn't even talk right,
couldn't even stand up straight. It was an emotional dump
(15:13):
to give you a sense of how big this bear was.
Even with the help of three friends in a game sled,
it took almost five hours to move the eight hundred yards,
and park rangers accomplished the last one hundred yards with
an ATV. But Miller himself provides the most vivid example.
He said, quote, in the process of putting the ear
tag in, I could not pick the head up. At
(15:34):
the waystation, the measurements came in not just seven hundred
and seventeen pounds, but also seven feet five inches tall.
Although official results will take a few days to come back,
this is expected to be the biggest bear ever taken
in Butler County, which is almost on the Ohio border,
and likely to be in the top ten state wide.
Congrat toinate and everyone who's had success in the state's
(15:56):
bear hunt. Historically, PA has had one of the most
successful bear restoration programs in the country. I say restoration
instead of reintroduction because Ursus americanus was never fully extirpated
from Pennsylvania, even though it reached dangerously low levels by
the turn of the twentieth century. Keystone State carried out
some of the earliest bear repopulation efforts, moving almost fifty
(16:18):
bears in nineteen twenty two and nineteen twenty three from
Potter County in the north central part of the state
to five other locations. Again, from nineteen seventy nine to
eighty four, seventy two bears removed from the northeast to
the southwestern regions, and thirteen of those bears were documented
producing at least twenty successful litters. And although bears had
been slowly recovering through mid century, Pennsylvania Game Commission closed
(16:41):
the annual bear hunt in both nineteen seventy seven and
nineteen seventy eight, leading to a hockey stick shaped increase
in the number of bears through to the present day.
I'm going into all this history because it's interesting and
because in an ideal world it might reach the ears
of bear hunt protest like old Chuck O'Neill back there
(17:02):
in Florida. It was hunters who paid for those translocations,
hunters who sponsored those population studies, hunters who worked with
private landowners to conserve bear habitat, and hunters who had
the restraint to put down their guns for a couple
of years to give breeding animals a chance to get
a foothold. Without hunters, althose forested acres in PA probably
would have been logged for several more crucial years, possibly
(17:24):
delaying or even preventing the resurgence of bears there. Instead,
that seven hundred and seventeen pound behemoth the Nate Miller
killed spent his life enjoying acorns and wasp larva, likely
mating with a few appealing females and mixing it up
with a couple other male bears before having a tough
final few seconds. That life just couldn't have happened without hunters.
I have to believe that if Old Chuck knew this,
(17:46):
he'd be a little bit more open to what we
do and he can still go on love and bears,
I know I do. One last note for Pennsylvania. The
first Sunday Hunts in three hundred and forty three years
took place there over the past two weekends, with an
estimated five hundred thousand hunters taking part each day. All
you working stiffs and soccer game afflicted parents out there,
(18:08):
I hope you enjoyed your time in the woods. Big
huge thanks or congratulations rather to all of you who
lobbied your butts off to make that happen special shout
out to Pennsylvania back country hunters and anglers. You guys
pushed Big Rock uphill for a lot of years. You
should feel very very good about yourselves. Moving on to
(18:30):
the crime desk. You may remember all the way back
in March, I told you about a hunter and would
be social media influencer who caused akre fluffle in Australia
for picking up a baby wombat and posting the video online.
While she's back in the news and her latest allegation
landed her briefly in jail. Samantha Strabel, who goes by
Sam Jones online, has been charged with lying about her
(18:53):
residency to obtain a hunting license in Wyoming, which is
a common thing. She's facing eight misdemeanor charges, including six
counts of false swearing and one count each of taking
wildlife without a license, according to an article by Eli
Fournier over at the Mediator dot com. You can check
out Eli's article for the full story, but basically, Game
Wardens got an anonymous tip that ol' Sam hadn't lived
(19:15):
in Wyoming for the last two years, which would disqualify
her from purchasing resident hunting licenses. Wardens called the address
she listed as a residence, but the man who answered
the phone said Samantha had moved to Australia in twenty
twenty three. She returned in twenty twenty four and killed
an elk and an antelope on a resident tag. Earlier
this year, she killed a mountain lion on a resident tag,
(19:37):
even though she hadn't lived in the state long enough
to qualify for residency. When confronted by Game Wardens, she
claimed to have lived in Wyoming one hundred and eighty
days which is the cutoff for losing your residency in
the state. Problem was cell phone records and other evidence
proved she'd only been in Wyoming for seven days in
twenty twenty five and twenty nine days in twenty twenty four.
(19:59):
Strabel was booked into the Sublet County Jail on November
twenty one and released on her own recognaissance that same day.
If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail
and twenty six thousand dollars in fines. But I think
it's safe to say that the Wyoming wombat woman's career
as a hunting influencer is going to take a hit.
Officials with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife were asking for
(20:21):
the public's help finding the person who illegally killed the
female mountain lion. The lion had been shot through the
chest and then dragged into some bushes near the group
campsites at Gunnison City Mountain Park in Taylor Canyon, north
of Gunnison. The cat appears to have been killed last month,
just three days before the legal hunting season began. Anyone
with information about the killing of the lion is asked
(20:42):
to contact CPW District Wildlife Manager Cody Pryor nine to
seven zero six four to one seven zero seven to
five or Cody dot Pryor. That's prior at State dot
CO dot US Gunnison City Mountain Park last month. If
you're around the group campsites and he got some info,
hit up CPW. Killing the cat is bad out of season,
(21:08):
not eating the meat even worse. Suns and guns. A
Washington State man escaped jail time for killing five cow
elk and what wildlife officials described as a quote killing spree.
In twenty twenty three, an employee at a timber company
reported finding five cow elk on a hillside south of Cosmopolis.
All the elk had been shot with a high powered
(21:28):
rifle and no meat had been harvested from any of them.
Game wardens weren't able to identify a suspect until ten
months later, when wardens ran into forty five year old
Richard Lauren Pratt at the crime scene. He'd broken into
the property by cutting open a gate, and wardens found
him in possession of two firearms, but since Pratt was
a convicted felon, they were able to confiscate both of
(21:49):
his rifles and match one of those rifles to the
poaching case from earlier that year. They were happy to
find the right poacher, but they weren't happy with the
conclusion of the case. The Washington Department of Fiching Wildlife
put out a press release stating that they'd worked out
a plea agreement with the Grays Harbor prosecutor that included
prison time, but when it came time for sentencing, the
judge handed Pratt something called a mental health sentencing alternative.
(22:12):
This slapped him with a ten thousand dollars fine and
a ten year suspension of his hunting privileges, but put
him in quote community custody for thirty six months. This
will likely include some kind of mandatory mental health treatment
and other probationary requirements, but it doesn't include prison time.
WDFW police Captain Dan Chadwick criticized the judge by saying
(22:33):
he is quote disappointed that Pratt's sentence doesn't include time
in the slammer, which is an understandable reaction. The press
release points out that Pratt could face up to one
hundred and sixteen months in prison if he violates the
conditions of this sentence. Moving on to the mailbag, a
(22:53):
quick reminder before we dive into the mailbag this week.
Along with sending an email to askcl you can also
call four h six two two zero six four four
one and leave me a voicemail. I listen to every message,
and you might just hear the sonorous sound of your
voice on an upcoming episode. Listener Keith Kempinich wrote in
(23:15):
this week with a quick clarification about a segment I
did last week on Minnesota's shotgun only hunting zones. He
pointed out that while the state Department of Natural Resources
has eliminated shotgun only zones, individual counties can still pass
ordinances that ban the use of center fire rifles. That
sounds great from a local control perspective, but there's a problem,
(23:36):
he said in his email quote. County lines do not
line up with current Deer permit areas, which will likely
result in a bizarre patchwork of areas in which rifles
are legal and not. Presently, the rifle and shotgun zones
do line up with DPA boundaries and are demarketed by
some major highways. Going forward, you might have DPAs which
(23:58):
are established for management purposes in which both weapons are allowed.
Depending on which county you're in. It's going to be
a mess. That does sound like a mess. Hopefully counties
will adhere to the statewide rules and not go off
and do their own thing. As we covered last week,
shotgun only zones aren't about public safety. They're about deer management,
which should be controlled by DNR biologists. Speaking of controversial legislation,
(24:24):
listener Charlie McDonald wrote in with a bad bill from
his home state of Michigan, House Bill four eight five
to one would limit the amount of land owned by
the state to no more than fifty percent of the
land in any given county, township, city, village, or school district.
This means that if there is a county where the
state owns more than fifty percent of the land as
a wildlife management area, the land that exceeds fifty percent
(24:47):
would be considered surplus and I assume sold off. Charlie
doesn't think this is a good idea, he said in
his email quote, HB four eight five to one is
yet another attack on public lands. Part of the flimsy
ration is that the DNR will manage public lands more
effectively if the agency has less land to manage. I,
for one, think the DNR is doing a fantastic job
(25:09):
providing quality access to state owned and managed lands, and
I have never once wished for less state land to
hunt and fish on. I'm right there with you, Chuck.
With the current attacks on federal public land, those state
parcels are more important than ever. Michiganders should contact their
state reps and tell them to vote no on House
Bill four eight five to one. Last one for you.
(25:33):
We cover urban deer hunting quite a bit on this program,
but mostly from the management and policy perspective, But listener
Chris Coffield wrote in with a great on the ground
report from his home state of New Jersey. He didn't
grow up hunting, but when he and his wife bought
a house that bordered a deer management zone, he applied
for the local management program in Somerset County. He highly
recommends it, and he sent me a list of pros
(25:55):
and cons for anyone who might be interested in joining
their own local programs. That hunting in an urban setting
has its downsides. It's not exactly a serene experience with
kids playing nearby, neighbors using their leaf blowers, and cars
driving past, he said. He tries to introduce himself to
the people who have homes nearby, but no one likes
seeing dead deer in their yard. To help the deer
(26:16):
die as quick as possible, he uses a heavy fixed
blade broadhead and only takes broadside shots. He also pointed
out that while you are allowed to take a buck
in his county, wildlife officials encourage hunters to take dose.
If you're someone who's only trying to kill big bucks,
an urban deer hunting program probably is not for you,
but the pros outweigh of the cons. According to Chris,
(26:38):
it's easy to get access to these areas and the
deer face very little pressure. That means you'll have tons
of opportunities for a shot, especially in the early season.
The shots are usually close given the heavy tree cover,
and tags are plentiful. In fact, in his area, you
risk losing your place if you aren't able to harvest
at least too deer. Plus, since it's the holiday seas
(27:00):
in and we're looking for ways to give back, Chris
pointed out that the fee you pay in order to
participate in the program is used to pay butchers who
work for Hunters for the Hungry. This is an organization
that takes donated deer and turns them into venison for
homeless shelters. It's a win win all around. Thanks a
ton for that email, Chris. It's a great reminder that
even if you live in an urban or suburban area,
(27:22):
you don't have to travel very far to get great
hunting opportunities. Check out your local deer management program and
get to fill in that freezer, even if it's not yours.
That's all I got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening, and remember to write in ask
c a l let's an askal at the meteater dot
com and let me know what's going on in your
(27:42):
neck of the woods. You know we appreciate thanks again.
Talk to you soon.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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