Free Republic

<p>The Sportsman Channel said Monday that Palin's series, "Amazing America," is being renewed for a second season that will start early next year.</p> <p>On the series, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska ex-governor profiles outdoor enthusiasts and craftsmen. The show aired Thursday nights and finished its first season May 29....</p>

President Obama announced plans to create the world's largest ocean sanctuary on Tuesday, expanding 87,000 square miles of protected ocean into 782,000 square miles of protected ocean—a nearly ninefold increase. According to Fox News, Obama is proposing an expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, to "protect it from drilling, fishing, and other actions." Obama made his remarks via a video message at a State Department "oceans conference," which actor Leonardo DiCaprio also attended as a featured speaker. The president's plan will likely be opposed by tuna fishing companies operating in the region and lawmakers concerned about the...

The use of drift nets, long vertical nets cast deep into the sea that catch all fish and mammals in their path, would be completely banned under a proposal put forward by the European Commission today (14 May). The use of drift nets has already been largely banned in the EU since 2002. However, the existing law has loopholes. Boats are allowed to keep drift nets on board as long as they are smaller than 2.5 km (1.55 miles) and that their use is not intended for the capture of endangered species. Fishermen are using this loophole to conduct illegal...

<p>For Don Knight, little compares to the adrenaline rush and camaraderie he feels heading out with friends to hunt rabbits, raccoons and deer in Alabama.</p> <p>But he said he worries that animal-rights groups around the country are intent on restricting his cherished pastime by pushing measures that, for instance, would forbid the use of dogs to pursue game.</p>

BULLHEAD CITY — Mohave County will explore every avenue to keep the 50-year-old Willow Beach Fish Hatchery Rainbow Trout Stocking Program going, said District 2 Mohave County Sup. Hildy Angius, R-Bullhead City. Angius also serves as Board of Supervisors chairwoman. In March, Angius submitted documents to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee and as a result was invited to testify before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies on Thursday. Angius paid for the trip to Washington from her Board of Supervisors travel allowance. Angius said she made the right decision in testifying....

BULLHEAD CITY — Mohave County will explore every avenue to keep the 50-year-old Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery rainbow trout stocking program going, said District 2 Sup. and Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Hildy Angius, R-Bullhead City, as she updated the Colorado River Tea Party Patriots at their Saturday meeting. The program is of great economic benefit to the Tri-state, which relies on sport fishing to help draw tourists to the area. Before the stocking program was suspended, an estimated 4,000 trout were stocked monthly below Davis Dam. The Bullhead City Council passed a resolution in February requesting the Fish and...

Candidates squaring off in the Republican primary, seeking to unseat Democrat Jeff Merkley in November, all support turning Oregon federal forests over to local ownership. Jo Rae Perkins, former Linn County GOP Chair, noted 53 percent of Oregon land is owned by the federal government. “This land should not be owned by the federal government. It needs to go back to the state and back into private ownership. Let the people take care of the land,” Perkins said. “We’ve got environmentalists who don’t even live in Oregon who want to bring a lawsuit against every timber sale there is. And...

Fishing lures are designed to attract fishermen and not fish. I didn’t make up that line, but I wish I had. It’s nearly as true as “all fishermen are liars.” My future father-in-law always instructed me that when I showed photos of the big bass that I had caught in his farm pond, tell people I caught them in a bar ditch. I did as told, because I wanted to keep fishing in that pond and keep dating his daughter. The fact that she had access to a pond with big bass certainly didn’t hurt the relationship. Old fishing lures...

All Andy Johnson wanted to do was build a stock pond on his sprawling eight-acre Wyoming farm. He and his wife Katie spent hours constructing it, filling it with crystal-clear water, and bringing in brook and brown trout, ducks and geese. It was a place where his horses could drink and graze, and a private playground for his three children. But instead of enjoying the fruits of his labor, the Wyoming welder says he was harangued by the federal government, stuck in what he calls a petty power play by the Environmental Protection Agency. He claims the agency is now...

Florida is one of five states that generally ban the open carry of firearms.  As with all such states, exemptions to the general ban are included in the law.  Florida second amendment supporters are pushing for a restoration of open carry rights in the state.  They have organized a number of open carry events under the exception for open carry to, from, and during fishing in the State.  Spacecoast321 at opencarry.org relates what happened when he attempted to join one of these events a few days ago (March 2014): Well after a lengthy hiatus I was finally able to...

Competitive high school ice fishing. Who woulda thought? In Wisconsin, it's a growing sport, complete with rankings, trophies, a state tournament, cheers and, yep, team uniforms. Not officially sanctioned as a varsity sport, the activity is growing in popularity in western Wisconsin four years after starting up as a way for teams to square off against schools in eastern Wisconsin during the statewide championship planned for Saturday on Lake Winnebago. The championship will be the eighth and final event of the season for the state circuit, which remains loosely affiliated under the unofficial direction of activities directors and coaches, some...

For generations, tour boats have been collecting fishing enthusiasts in Key West, Fla.: taking them for a day of deep sea casting; providing them rods, bait, companionship; and then, when the day ends, there's a little wharf-side ceremony. Everyone is invited to take his biggest fish and hook it onto the "Hanging Board"; a judge compares catches, chooses a champion, and then the family that caught the biggest fish poses for a photograph. The one up above comes from 1958. Notice that the fish on the far left is bigger than the guy who, I assume, caught it; and...

It’s no coincidence that sage grouse habitat also happens to intersect both the largest untapped coal deposits in the country as well as large parts of the Bakken oil field. It’s clear the primary motivation to focus on sage grouse for ESA listing is to provide yet another tool for special interest groups to block energy development. And in this obstructionist toolbox, there’s no heavier sledgehammer than the Endangered Species Act. What an interesting irony, then, that so much effort is going into “protecting” one bird from energy development, when the Obama administration is turning a blind eye to hundreds...

It’s a dilemma that comes with the territory if you’re an ice-fisher, when you run out of beer it’s going to be a long time before you can go grab a six-pack. Until now… Meet the Lakemaid Beer Drone. Wisconsin-based Lakemaid Beers - whose tagline is "Great Fishermen need Great Beer" - was inspired by Amazon’s announcement that it was planning on using ...

BROOKLYN, MI – Marc Melson plans to use part of his ice fishing prize money to go on vacation with his wife “somewhere warm” -- far from the ice and snow. Melson and cousin Joe Thornburg won first place in the 2014 Midwest Open Ice Fishing Tournament, taking home the grand prize of $20,100 for their winning catch of 7.99 pounds. This was the first year the duo competed in the tournament, but they’ve been fishing for as long as they can remember. “We’ve been ice fishing since we were kids,” Thornburg said. “It’s a family tradition.” Fishermen from nine...

<p>ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Have you heard about the two kids from St. Paul, brothers, actually, who started their own bait company and are now getting the attention of pros?</p> <p>They produce their own fishing videos, hawk their brand with shoe-leather savvy, and have landed a sponsorship of sorts, being named to the "pro staff" ranks of a major fishing-gear manufacturer.</p>

Salvage logging on lands burned by last summer's Douglas Complex wildfire in southwestern Oregon is in full swing on privately owned forests, but not on public lands. ... On BLM lands, federal environmental laws require a lengthy planning process that includes the public. The Douglas Complex fires burned through 76 square miles on a patchwork of public and private lands.

U.S. law enforcement agencies are conducting thousands of investigations using a law that makes violating state wildlife statutes a federal crime, often ensnaring hunters and fishermen for seemingly minor infractions. Some even suffer stiff federal prison sentences. Special agents and wildlife inspectors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conduct about 2,500 investigative cases a year of violations of the Lacey Act, a 1900 law meant to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife. ... Rock star Ted Nugent, an avid hunter and fisherman .. "Good, decent families' lives are being turned upside down and ruined by out-of-control jackboot game agencies, particularly...

Former U.S. vice presidential candidate, governor, best-selling author and original “Mama Grizzly” Sarah Palin returns to series television on Sportsman Channel to host a new show – the first part of the network’s “Red, Wild & Blue America” programming plan – for the fast-growing outdoor lifestyle network. Titled “Amazing America with Sarah Palin,” the weekly series will premiere in April 2014. The announcement was made today by Gavin Harvey, CEO of Sportsman Channel. Amazing America with Sarah Palin is an anthology of stories that explore some of the most original, interesting – and sometimes inspiring – people, places and pastimes...

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is seeking information about the theft of waterfowl decoys and hunting blinds from the Escalante State Wildlife Area near Delta ... Colorado Parks and Wildlife had partnered with Ducks Unlimited members to teach kids and novices how to hunt ducks and geese.