ORLANDO, Fla. — Gardner Nordman is an expert fisherman. But if he played football like he was fishing on this particular day, DeLand coach Rick Darlington surely would have benched the senior quarterback.

“I just had an off day,” Nordman said later.

It’s a good thing this kid knows how to catch all types of water species, because the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Mike Anderson perhaps could have been first chair in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, playing clarinet or oboe or another of the reed instruments.

Instead, Anderson blows a duck call. He’s obsessed with it, really — the high balls and the feeding chuckles that can fool mallards and other wild fowl into thinking Anderson is ...Read more

TACOMA, Wash. — Recently, a jarring video hit the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police Facebook page that shows an officer popping out of the dark on the Fox Island Pier in Pierce County and yelling, “You, come over here now! Police!”

It was like something out of an old episode of “Cops,” before the officer’s tone ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of fish died in Minnesota lakes and rivers earlier this summer during a five-day stretch of intense heat.

Fish kills are a natural occurrence in Minnesota, but the intense heat wave July 16-20 triggered an unusual wave of deaths across the state, even in lakes with good water quality, said Isaiah Tolo, fish health ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Walk into the Moccasin Bar in Hayward, Wis., and along with sipping a tall, cool one you can gawk at a mount of Cal Johnson’s record 1949 muskie. At 67 1/2 pounds and a tad longer than 60 inches, Old Cal’s memorable catch occurred on Lac Courte Oreilles near Hayward.

Not far from the Moccasin, at the Freshwater Fishing Hall ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Cooking up a shore lunch of freshly-caught walleye, bass or northern pike is a Minnesota tradition.

But because harmful mercury can be found in higher quantities in fish caught in northeastern Minnesota, the state’s Department of Health now has a special consumption limit.

This year, the state advised that kids and others in ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — While swimming in the east pond at Freedom Park in Star, Marc Brandes saw something peculiar in the water in front of him.

“I thought it was a feather, or some gross mucusy thing floating around there,” Brandes said. “Then I realized it was moving.”

He had his daughter grab a bucket, and together they scooped up a tiny...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After three years of closure, recreational fishers and local fishing guides welcomed the return of salmon fishing Thursday on the Sacramento River and in the Klamath River Basin.

“This year they bumped the limit to two per person, so I think it’s gonna be good,” said Austin Wilson, a year-round fishing guide who ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — One day a long, long time ago — in 2013 — Madison Grimm, then 6 years old, and her parents, Adam and Janet, were working in their garden at their home near Vermillion, S.D.

“That’s when our phone rang,” Madison said. “It was a friend who said my painting was among the top 10 in the national Junior Duck Stamp Art ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you point a flashlight into the waters of Lake Gaston after dark, you may see “glowing eyes staring back at you,” according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

That would be the walleye, an ambush predator known to have very sharp “canine teeth.”

Stranger still is the fact these non-native fish ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Whether catching bad guys is tougher than catching walleyes, perhaps only Tom Neustrom knew. But for sure different equipment was needed.

As an undercover narcotics cop in Chicago, Tom drove a van with a carpeted ceiling. Also he sported an Afro-style hairdo, and for bling, he swung gold chains around his neck.

Years later as a...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California wildlife officials have begun authorizing sheriffs in the state’s northern rangeland to use rubber bullets, paintballs, pepper balls and other injury-causing harassment methods against wolves, and are working on a plan to allow ranchers to use some of the same techniques.

The authorizations mark a significant...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — In 1955, the first year a hunting education and firearms safety program was offered in Minnesota, kids who took the classes were expected to show up for instruction in person — and perhaps bring a gun with them.

Breckan Nelson, 13, of Lakeville, took a different approach to graduate from the Department of Natural Resources’ ...Read more

SEATTLE — Summer crabbing season started Thursday. But while the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says it should be a similar season to last year’s, there are a few things that have already made this season unique.

From locational harvesting times and poisoned shellfish to tagged crabs and smuggled crustaceans, here are some key ...Read more

WANCHESE, N.C. — On a late March morning, barrels full of slippery bluefish straight off the boat glistened in the sun at O’Neal’s Sea Harvest in Wanchese. Within hours, the fresh catch would be shipped to seafood markets stretching from Canada to Louisiana.

“You try to get it in and out as quick as you can because it’s perishable,”...Read more