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There is strong discontent between the field staff in Game Management and the WRD/Game Management headquarters in Social Circle. In July, the field staff vented annomoulsy via an employee survey. As these comments attest, game management programs, wildlife and sportsmen are suffering, and the staff that implements those programs consider themselves poorly led. Each number…
It was a typical late Tuesday afternoon for Rhonda Peppers, of Bostwick. It was Nov. 2, and she had come home from work and planned to do some afternoon housework. Her son, Dylan, was 3 miles away in a deer stand, and her husband, Donald, was getting in his truck to head off to work.…
In this age of instant information from emails and text messages, it’s common for the folks at the GON office to receive lots of photos of giant bucks supposedly killed in Georgia. Most are photos we’ve seen dozens of times of bucks actually from Kansas, Texas or some other state. We don’t get overly excited…
Fishing is big business in Georgia, and it’s about to get even bigger. Gov. Sonny Perdue cut the celebratory ribbon at the official dedication of the Go Fish Education Center in Perry on Thursday, Oct. 7, with a host of many community leaders and supporters. Developed as part of the Go Fish Georgia Initiative, the…
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) deep drawdown of Blue Ridge Lake to more than 60 feet below full pool for dam repairs this summer has all but wiped out the trout population in the Toccoa River tailrace below the dam, rendering one of the state’s premier trout fisheries almost barren. An electrofishing survey was taken…
At the first glance, we thought we had the undeniable proof of cougars we have been looking for in our year-long cougar quest, but DNR officials have since pointed out a couple elements in these photos that leave species identification open for doubt. This series of photos was captured by Drew Atkins, of Franklin, on…
The talk around the fish-supper table rambled from the one that got away to the comeback of the beaver and eventually wound up with a plan to help out Georgia’s waterfowl population. Wood ducks are glad it did. Back in 1999, David Beecher, of Lyons, and a group of friends were discussing how the beaver…
Covington’s Lake Varner has anglers talking about something other than the giant bass it produces. The word on lips these days is “hydrilla” and the effects it’s having on fishing, wildlife and the lake’s ability to efficiently produce drinking water. “Hydrilla has matted probably 70 percent of the lake’s surface. You can go about 50…
Randy Hand, of Decatur, now holds the Georgia state record for the longest hunter-taken alligator after killing this 13-foot, 9-inch monster at Lake Seminole on Sept. 19. The gator weighed 692 pounds. Randy’s gator is just 2 inches longer than the old record, a 13-foot, 7-inch Blackshear gator taken in 2008.
Rattlesnakes can be frightening critters. But striking out and hitting a guy by surprise earned this Emanuel County rattler a hot spot on a Weber. John Vescuso, of Swainsboro, was by himself penning some cattle on a friend’s farm the evening of Aug. 11 when a silent, but ornery, eastern diamondback apparently took offense to…