Posts by Nick Carter
Georgia Cougar Quest
In June 2010, GON put the call out for proof of wild cougars in Georgia, offering $1,000 for the best evidence. Now it’s time for our readers to decide who gets a check. A year into the Georgia Cougar Quest, we have fielded hundreds of reported sightings of large cats from across…
Read MoreTarget Coyotes During the Fawn Drop
Coyotes are omnivores and opportunistic predators. They travel alone or in small packs, hunting and foraging mostly at night and covering miles of ground in search of food. Nose to the ground and ears perked to scan the landscape as it passes, they remain alert to react quickly on any feeding opportunity or danger…
Read MoreShoot-Up Sinclair Crappie in May
Shooting-up crappie can be the quickest and easiest way to fill a limit. Following the spawn, when the fish pack-in under docks like canned sardines, they are hungry. Getting a bait into the deepest, darkest recesses beneath a dock is the only thing standing between the angler and a mess of crappie. And if you’re…
Read MoreChattahoochee River Brown Trout Stocking To Cease Permanently
It’s official. Following six years of study, biologists with DNR have concluded that brown trout are reproducing in numbers significant enough to warrant a permanent cessation of brown trout stocking in the Chattahoochee River tailrace below Buford Dam. DNR Fisheries Biologist Patrick O’Rouke said they’ve finished crunching all the numbers from a study that began…
Read MoreConservation Law Enforcement Corner – April 2011
Georgia’s WMAs are generally pretty heavily patrolled in comparison to private property. And poachers typically aren’t as blatant about their illegal activities on public land. However, turning hunting dogs out illegally on a WMA, like a couple of hunters last year in Bleckley County, isn’t exactly a covert operation. The odd thing is, it wasn’t…
Read MorePoachers Sentenced in Dodge County Case
In a case that has raised the ire of area hunters, five people accused of numerous wildlife violations involving spotlighting deer and poaching turkeys in Dodge County were sentenced Feb. 28 after pleading guilty to all charges against them. Two remaining defendants in the case, who entered not-guilty pleas, are scheduled for a June trial.…
Read MoreProposed Regulations Changes for 2011-2013
Included in WRD’s proposed regulations changes, and open for public comment during meetings in April, are WMA user fees for non-sportsmen as well as significant changes to bear regulations, doe days in some northern counties, Northern Zone raccoon regulations and expanded hog hunting on public lands. Also, there are some new state park and WMA…
Read MoreChattooga River Brook Trout Breaks S.C. State Record
The Chattooga River downstream of Burrells Ford has produced a second South Carolina state record brook trout in less than a year for the same angler. Wes Coker, of Gray Court, S.C., caught a 2-lb., 14.56-oz. brookie on March 25, 2010. He broke that record on Dec. 23, 2010, with a 4-lb., 10-oz. fish measuring…
Read MoreLongline Slab Crappie During West Point’s Spring Spawn
There’s a reason tournament partners Earl Kitchens, of Gray, and Wayne Ard, of Lizella, drive halfway across Georgia to fish West Point Lake. The crappie fishing can be that good. And, in late February and early March, when the first waves of egg-heavy females begin pushing into the shallows to spawn, the fishing gets that…
Read MoreConservation Law Enforcement Corner – February 2011
The grass is always greener. That might not be the case for a Florida man guilty of gigging redfish in Georgia waters. Mark Quinton Thomas, of Yulee, Fla., was caught last Feb. 20 with 56 illegally gigged redfish at the Meeting Street boat ramp in St. Mary’s. He pleaded no contest to charges of gigging…
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