Days GON By: July 2016

Each month we turn back the clock to see what was being reported in the pages of GON, both 20 and 10 years ago. Here’s a look back at what appeared in GON. 

20 Years Ago: July 1996

A Solution To Poaching: It’s pointless for a DNR ranger to write a ticket if a judge doesn’t punish the one who gets the ticket. In July 1996, GON looked at 12 counties and compared fines for various hunting offenses. Our subscribers often say how amazed they are at the wide variety of fines there are for the same offense.

In Johnson County, the average fine for hunting over bait (it was illegal 20 years ago) was just $9.85. However, in Hancock County, the average fine was $295.85.

Also in Johnson County, the seven individuals given a ticket for hunting big game from a public road were never charged in court. That average fine came to $0. In Jeff Davis County, the average penalty for the same offense was $432.

Twenty years ago, Bert Deener, of Waycross, was published with this 1.51-lb. crappie he caught in a Ware County pond. Today, Bert is a WRD region supervisor in the Waycross Fisheries office and a freelance writer for GON.

This picture was published in the July 2006 issue. Some top experts of George Perry’s world-record bass believe this is a photo taken in front of the Helena post office of the 22-lb., 4-oz. bass caught in 1932 from Montgomery Lake in Telfair County. The identities of the man and boy in the photo remain a mystery.

Carl Sawyer caught this new state record flathead catfish 10 years ago. It weighed 83 pounds. Another 83-pounder was caught in 2010 by Jim Dieveney. Both state records came from the Altamaha River.