I didn't see many hunters out during the four-day December antlerless seasons, but there were more than were out there for the muzzleloaders' 10 days.

Three of us went down to hunt the hills and hollows around Wonewoc on the Saturday of the December antlerless. I saw more deer (all anterless) in five hours than I saw during my entire time bow hunting and gun hunting locally.

54B is rifle country and I was lucky enough to take a nice nub buck with my .270 at about 90 yards. Even without harvesting a whitetail, it would have been a good trip just seeing deer and hunting different ground.

In the next few weeks I will be offering little tidbits about the nine-day gun deer season. The accident rate as most of you know was quite low, with only seven non-fatal incidents. The accident rate was 1.12 per 100,000 hunters.

Mentoring hunting licenses were up 12%. The 12,226 licenses this year compared to 11,331 in 2010 and 9,907 in 2009. Female license holders numbered 56,458.

Baiting and feeding complaints were down 15% from 2010. The North led the way with 69, followed by the West Central area with 50 and the Northeast with 41.

Our neighbor to the south, Illinois, saw a seven-day gun deer harvest of 98,000 whitetails, down slightly from 2010.

With the mild weather, even the north hasn't seen much hard water fishing. A recent survey reported that 590,000 Wisconsin residents more than 16 years of age ice fish, up from 479,900 in 2000. Reasons cited for the sizeable increase included easy access, relatively mild temperatures, better equipment and more two-home folks spending time in the state beyond the summer months.

In 2006, ice anglers spent 11 million hours fishing. They caught roughly 14 million fish, keeping approximately 6.6 million. Pan fish made up the majority of fish caught with 11.7 million, followed by northern with 866,000 and walleyes with 750,000.

In 2011 there were 122 ice fishing tournaments statewide. So far for 2012, 56 tourneys have been approved.

Wisconsin bear harvest num-bers were down this year, but Pennsylvania's 2011 bear season was the second best ever. The 3,968 bruins were a couple of hundred off the 2005 kill that numbered 4,164.

During the four day firearm season 3,154 were taken, and 257 were taken with archery equipment. Another 557 were taken during an extended season during the first week of the deer season.

The largest bear taken weighed in at 767 pounds and was taken by a crossbow. Eighty-one bears tagged weighed in excess of 500 pounds.

Those numbers are quite significant when one realizes that Pennsylvania does not allow baiting and I don't think it allows hound hunting.

The Natural Resource Board recently had two controversial issues to deal with. The first was a proposal to allow deer stands and blinds on public land over night. It argued that it would be more convenient for hunters, especially those long in the tooth. Opposition suggested a stand or blind would create the impression that the area was staked out by a hunter, possibly resulting in hunter conflicts.

The second proposal would allow leaving trail cameras on public land over night between Sept. 1 and the conclusion of the archery seasons. The cameras would have to be secured to prevent theft and the owner would agree to allow removal if the DNR deemed it necessary.

I don't know whether either idea is a good one. I don't know how you would secure either piece of equipment if someone wanted to rip it off.

With a stand or blind, perhaps a fee might be a compromise. Yes, the land is public, but potential conflicts have been resolved by fees in other sticky situations.

I don't know if you use deer scents or not, but they have a pretty good kick. Recently, two Alabama 18-year-olds were charged with criminal mischief and misdemeanor theft when they stole "deer bombs" from Walmart. Caught on security cameras, they took the "bombs" and went to a clothing area and set them off in the pockets of clothes, causing $11,000 in damage. The guys are free on $13,000 bond.

Calumet County Sportsmen's Alliance raffle tickets are out there and all the proceeds go to conservation related programs in the county. Might be a good stocking stuffer!

Until next time, keep your hooks sharp, your feet warm and your powder dry!

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