Rory Fenske, and the cat of his dreams.

By KW

The kid has gone a little wild for hunting.

It’s no surprise, given his family ties.

Wintersteen’s nephew, Rory Fenske, finaly scored this year during the lion season. And he wasn’t alone.

As of this evening, hunters have killed the most lions in a season since the hunt began in 2005. And it isn’t over.

Thirty three lions total, 20 of them females, have been shot since Jan. 1.

That was a busy day, with four lions recorded. Monday, there were two.

With a set season limit of 40 and a sub-limit of 25 females, it shouldn’t be long until this lion hunt is history.

It’s one that Rory will never foreget.

By KW

It seems harmless enough, that HB1127.

Find a nice elk horn, a great set of white-tail antlers, maybe a dead mountain lion or a hefty rooster pheasant, and you can make it your own.

If it’s on land you own or lease, and you send a note to GF&P saying you found it fair and square, that is.

Seems simple enough.

I’ll bet it won’t be. These things usually aren’t.

It’s waiting a hearing in the South Dakota House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Anybody have a reason it shouldn’t pass?

And is there any reason I shouldn’t be able to do the same thing on public land?

Tyler Olson had some luck, despite the advice from his uncle, Jeff.

By KW

I’d never heard of it.

Lake Alexander was an entirely new fishing hole to me. That’s probably because I’m not in the Boy Scouts. So I don’t get out to that little lake on the Medicine Mountain Scout Ranch near Hill City much.

But Wintersteen was there Saturday.  So was his nephew, Rory Fenske. (Who will be featured here on TIO shortly for a recent hunting adventure…)

So, too, was Jeff Olson, and his nephew, Tyler.

So, too, were the trout.

Just ask Jeff.  He took second in the ice-fishing derby on Alexander, which is also a fundraiser for the Black Hills are Boy Scouts.

And Wintersteen? Well, he tied for first. Then won a coin flip - in the SMALLEST TROUT category.

Nice.

That’s why you bring along those fisheries guys….

Hard at work, er, sport on Lake Alexander.

The GF&P commissioner with one of his trout.

The 50-year-old, Tyler, Rory and the Commish.

By KW

Our Take It Outside Alaska correspondent, Leo Woster (who is just now learning about his cherished appointment to the TIO field staff, without pay or benefits) sends us a link to a story that’s especially close to his heart.

Er, ribs, too.

Leo’s my cousin, as you might recall. He’s also an engineer from South Dakota Mines (which Leo and I would typically call Tech) and  former Lyman County farm kid who grew up on Uncle Frank’s place just down the road from our farm near  Medicine Butte.

Leo had a penchant for  riding horses, taming half-wild, half-grown calves at the Woster Family Rodeo and assembling assorted cast-off parts and pieces into internal-combustion jalopies that turned out to be rumbling indicators of his engineering career to come.

He also had a hankering for  big country - bigger even than the glorious Missouri Breaks. Many years ago he found it in Alaska, along with a variety of experiences that included getting run down, knocked down and kicked around by a moose.

So when Leo saw this report of a near-miss encounter between a moose and an Alaska school boy, he could feel the boy’s pain.

He could also proclaim: “Lucky kid.”

Seems so.

By KW

Jim Scull told me a great story the other day, about a guy in his 40s who learned how to hunt from his son.

Wait, not just how to hunt, but also how to love it.

And it was all thanks to one of the mentoring programs for young hunters that Scull and other committed sports across the state support.

Scull said the dad came up to him out of the blue and surprised him with a thank you. The guy said he had never been a hunter and didn’t know how to teach his son, who had the interest.

So Scull and his crew handled the mentoring, in association with HuntSafe instruction  coordinated by GF&P. And like the magic of an autumn sunrise over the marsh, a new hunter was born. Then a new hunting dad, too.

“Now he loves it,” Scull said. “And he and his son go out together.”

Nice story.

Great program.

Familiar feathers in the snow, a bad sign out near Kennebec.

By KW

This just in from Caster Don.

Once again, our Take It Outside field editor (an upaid position that involves wandering the hills and vales, tules and creeksides, frozen lakes and windy shorelines, then reporting back in words and pictures) brings us a road report from somewhere out in the hinterlands.

In this case, it was Chamberlain. CD went out for some ice fishing but did plenty or snooping and snapping along the way.

He also posed a question: “Have you heard anything about how the wildlife is holding up across the state during this tough winter?”

Last I heard, the losses were mostly limited. But there have been losses, for sure.

Don has evidence  here of both the living and the lost in the wildlife population.

Horned lark lament.

Still among the living, pheasants catch some sun along a shelterbelt near Presho.

By KW

Anybody can miscount. Remember Jack Merwin and Tony Dean in that Missouri River walleye tournament way back in the day?

They showed up at weigh-in with 17 walleyes in their live well (the individual limit then was eight per day), apparently because of an on-the-water miscount.

Or, as Tony later put it: “That’s the only time Jack every caught more than I did.”

I miss that guy, and his sense of humor.

I think we can all presume that the Nebraska angler caught with 249 trout was doing more than miscounting.

He was hogging a public resource, big time. And he got caught.

Good for the officers who caught him - whether you call them game wardens, conservation officers or simply law enforcement agents.

By KW

Not meaning to wear out a subject, but indulge me a couple more thoughts on the open-fields discussion.

Is this a problem of actual experience or perception?

Do conservation officers really abuse the open-fields doctrine? Or have they? Do they snoop around unnecessarily on private land? Are they inconsiderate and disrespectful of landowner rights?

And can anyone give me specific examples of that behavior?

Or is it simply the fact that they can legally enter private land without permission that angers some, but clearly not all, farmers and ranchers?

Also, this seems to be largely a West River issue. Rarely have I heard from East River landowners who are upset about open fields. (And remember, I worked for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls or Pierre for much of my news career.)

To me, landowners and COs seem to get along better east of the Missouri than west of it. True or not? If true, why is it?

By KW

As I understand HB1014, a monster trophy white-tailed buck is more valuable to society than a just run-of-the-mill, braggin’-sized  white-tailed buck.

The bill, introduced by the House Ag & Natural Resources Committee on behalf of GF&P, would increase the civil penalty that can be imposed for the illegal killing of deer and antelope, but only if those critters were trophy sized bucks under Boone & Crockett scoring.

Current law allows for a $1,000 civil penalty for deer and antelope of all kinds. This change would increase it to $5,000 for trophies. So a white-tailed buck that scores 150 points or more would be $5,000. A buck at 140 points would still be $1,000.

The bill also uses the same concept to increase the civil penalty on an illegally taken trophy bull elk from $5,000 to $10,000.  Currently elk, mountain lion and buffalo carry a $5,000 civil penalty. Bighorn sheep and mountain goats are already at $10,000.

Elk in the non-trophy category as defined byHB1014 would stay at $5,000.

I see the idea. The biggest trophies are the most valuable and most likely to be popped by some unscrupulous hunter after a big set of horns. So they need more protection, through bigger penalties.

I guess it also says that society loses more when a truly trophy animal is poached.

I wonder if that’s true?

By KW

Republican state Rep. Mike Verchio of Hill City has a couple of bills in the Legislature that should get hunters talking

HB1066 would authorize at least one and possible more landowner-sponsored big-game licenses, available to resident or non-resident hunters, good on the landowner’s property only.

The bill would require a landowner with sponsored licenses to allow an equal number of public hunters, in the second half of the season, and for antlerless animals only, if the landowner so chooses.

HB1067 would require conservation officers to get landowner permission before entering private lands during the course of performing their  “ordinary duties.” Exceptions would be cases where probable cause or reasonable suspicion of illegal activities exists; when wildlife laws are, have been or are expected to be violated; to dispatch crippled or distressed wildlife; and to respond to emergencies, accidents and threats to the public.

They’re familiar bills, and both have died before in the Legislature.

Think they’re likely to die again?