HILTON HEAD, S.C. — On a late January evening, hundreds of redfish clustered into a sliver of shallow green water in tidal waters a stone’s throw from the bridge between Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, surrounded by a sea of pluff mud at low tide.

Redfish often school in tight quarters like this in winter months across the Lowcountry, ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota hunter was lost Jan. 3 in the Mille Lacs County woods, and the odds of finding him on foot weren’t good.

The hunter was last heard from about 4:30 p.m. amid spotty cellphone reception and was last seen that morning, according to a sheriff’s department report.

Deputies attempted a brief search at 6 p.m. but were ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — We were driving down the interstate late at night, Bud Grant and me, talking and watching for deer. I was behind the wheel, and the concern wasn’t that I would crash into a buck or doe. Instead, we were simply on the lookout for wildlife, a favorite pastime of Bud’s while traveling.

An hour or so earlier, we had left a ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The delicious tuna and swordfish that ends up on plates across South Florida puts a dent in more than just your wallet — catching them puts a dent in global shark populations.

It’s common for sharks to get hooked on commercial tuna and swordfish longlines, which can stretch across vast areas of sea — 20 to 60 ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Legislation awaiting a final vote in the Kentucky Senate would strip state game wardens of their ability to enforce most fishing laws on private land and settle a growing controversy between regulators and angler groups who want to stock non-native, hybrid bass.

Momentum for the bill, sponsored by Sen. Gary Boswell, R-...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — In the 1850s, W.G. Gresham settled one of the earliest claims on Swan Lake, in southern Minnesota, a stone’s throw from the small burg of Nicollet.

Gresham, who later became a judge in St. Peter, Minn., had learned about waterfowl from Ishtakhaba, or Chief Sleepy Eyes, among other Native Americans. He shot brant and swans on ...Read more

WILDWOOD, Mo. — St. Louis County's largest suburb, known for leafy subdivisions and wooded hills, has a deer problem.

There are far too many, by official counts. And that carries risks: car crashes, property damage and the spread of ticks that carry disease. The city is in the middle of a five-year plan to trim the population by paying ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — What lures bird-watchers to Lake Apopka is the same thing that brings hunters there.

But one group shoots pictures, while the other shoots ducks.

Both pastimes are legal recreational activities around the state’s fourth-largest lake, a 30,000-acre body of water known worldwide for its crazy abundance of life, offering a ...Read more

HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Local anglers and bait store owners are forecasting a long ice fishing season ahead with some saying it's the best one they've seen in years, even as the frigid weather has made it too cold for some to go out.

Despite an "up and down" start to this year's ice fishing season for some, specifically for those who fish ...Read more

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Redfish cruise the shallow waters of Lowcountry marshes feeding on crabs and other marine life, their tails cutting the surface like a shark’s fin. Anglers reel in some 2 million annually. The excitement of “sight fishing” makes them South Carolina’s most popular saltwater sport fish.

But Matt Perkinson, a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — On the day before Thanksgiving, Cole Wagaman awoke uncertain whether he would hunt ducks. He lives in Kasson, in southern Minnesota, and the wind was whipping snow out of the northwest at 30 miles an hour, with a temperature in the mid-20s.

If he did hunt, he wouldn’t take along his golden retriever, Nellie, he knew that.

Too...Read more

PITTSBURGH — More than a foot of snow has blanketed many areas where local birds look for food.

"So if you have been feeding birds this winter, don't stop when conditions are at their worst," says Kenn Kaufman, a national bird author and artist who visits Pittsburgh regularly.

In the run-up to the Pittsburgh region's biggest snowfall in 16 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Ron McNamara is no Huck Finn. But McNamara, like Huck, knows something about nighttime travel on the Mississippi River.

“If you think it ain’t dismal and lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it once — you’ll see," Huck said in Mark Twain’s, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

McNamara...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Managers of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness say they will extend stricter food storage requirements for visitors, noting the rules have reduced encounters with black bears over the last two years.

The order was set to expire this spring, but now will be enforced for another five years, the U.S. Forest Service announced...Read more

BOSTON — Will Sundays no longer be peaceful days of rest for deer in the Bay State?

State wildlife officials are looking into expanding deer hunting opportunities, as they gather public input on Sunday hunting, crossbow hunting and minimum setback distances for hunting.

Massachusetts is one of only two states with an outright ban on Sunday ...Read more