Special Reports
We here at GNO don't just sit around spinning hunting and fishing yarns. As much as we'd love to do that, we're also committed to exploring the issues that surround our favorite pursuits. That means we keep tabs on endangered species, invasives, land-use practices and more.
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Michigan ponders end to Lake Huron salmon stocking
June 27, 2011 by Dave Spratt
The Michigan DNR puts 1.4 million chinook salmon into Lake Huron each year and virtually none of them are caught by anglers. Most wind up as walleye food, so the department is re-evaluating the program with an eye toward ending or severely reducing it. At the same time, the division is working to identify other salmonid species that can not only survive on Lake Huron’s new food supply, but also thrive at a level that can restore Lake Huron as a destination for big-lake sport anglers. The contenders: steelhead, brown trout and Atlantic salmon.
Bears keep showing up in unlikely places
June 15, 2011 by Dave Spratt
Bear sightings have become increasingly common in more suburban and agricultural areas across the Great Lakes. In the past several years road-killed bears have been reported in Toledo, Ohio and Flint, Michigan; in 2008 a police officer shot one in southern Michigan's Battle Creek. Similar stories have come from the southern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario and even Iowa.
Move to cover, keep deer near
May 13, 2011 by Dave Spratt
Many deer hunters know how to attract deer with food sources such as food plots. But with techniques such as hinge cutting, timber stand improvement and strategic shrub plantings, you can supplement those ever-important food attractions by providing thick cover as well. And if you do it right, you can see that those deer you’re working so hard to attract have very little reason to leave at all.
Hunters have recourse against harassment
December 12, 2010 by Dave Spratt
Ohio's hunter harassment laws prohibit anyone from deliberately altering animal behavior in an effort to prevent someone from hunting. But the laws are difficult to enforce, because the DNR is understaffed, evidence is hard to come by, and often the aggrieved party is a neighbor who doesn’t want war with someone they have to live with 365 days a year. But it's not impossible, especially if the aggrieved hunter is committed to helping stop it.
Fizzing: A fish-saving strategy
September 15, 2010 by Sky Opila
Fizzing is the practice of inserting a hypodermic needle through the skin of a bass to release air from the fish's swim bladder, a gas-filled sac in a bass that is used to regulate buoyancy in the fish. Sudden changes in pressure caused by dramatic depth changes can harm fish.
Michigan aims to put teeth in feral hog rules
September 3, 2010 by Dave Spratt
Feral hogs destroy wildlife and threaten agriculture, and Michigan has somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 of the voracious critters on the landscape. To slow their spread, wildlife officials want to classify feral hogs as an invasive species and ban the ownership of Eurasian boars -- a move that would shut down hog-shooting ranches. But ranch owners say they shouldn't suffer because of a few bad actors.
Michigan aims to re-acquaint hunters with small game
September 1, 2010 by Dave Spratt
Folks like Luke Haynes and his dad Scott, who cut their hunting teeth on small game, are becoming rarer and rarer these days. But the game is plentiful and often nearby, and wildlife managers see those factors as key in an increasingly urbanized world that is turning its back on the outdoors.
Feral hogs in the north: Is it already too late?
September 1, 2010 by Dave Spratt
Wild hogs destroy crops and forests, contaminate water supplies and threaten wildlife and livestock. The breed prodigiously and can travel for miles when the shooting starts. In the southern U.S. they're a multi-million-dollar problem, but they're just showing up in northern states like Michigan and Wisconsin. The question is: Is it already too late?
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Huron's lake trout revival
August 4, 2009 by Great Northern Outdoors
One potential beneficiary of all the food web changes Lake Huron has undergone is the lake trout, a native predator that was extirpated from Lake Huron in the 1940s.
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Flyfishing 101: Be versatile without spending a bundle
July 22, 2010 by Dave Spratt
If you fish, but don't fly fish, that whole world may seem like something of a high-priced mystery to you. It needn't be.