Ross Bielema 24 May 2023

Season 4 brings plenty of turkeys but few shots

If there was an action-packed video trailer of this column, it would show plenty of hens, jakes and tom turkeys running around plowed cornfields, sandhill cranes dancing, shots at a big tom on the ground and in the air, and me falling out of a folding stool (performed by my stunt double, of course) and rolling into the side of world’s smallest ground blind. I don’t have a name for this blockbuster movie yet, but the working title is “Season 4: Mo
Ross Bielema 10 May 2023
Spring exciting time for wildlife lovers, animals
As the brown, dry landscape recently freckled with snow yields to the ever-spreading greenery, hope for life and renewal swells in all of us. After my recent column on hunting turkeys in the snow, I was surprised (as we all were) to see a few days in the 80s! That’s one of the dangers of a two-week lag time on columns. But it wasn’t too many days later that snow returned to Shawano County and areas north.
Ross Bielema 24 April 2023
Rough waters may be ahead for wake boat users
Balancing the interests of the state’s lakes and rivers users is a never-ending challenge, but the state’s wake boat users hit an unseen obstacle earlier this month when the public weighed in on these specialized watercraft. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held its usual spring hearings on a variety of conservation-related topics, with more than 11,000 residents and non-residents voting online April 10-13 on 76 questions.
Ross Bielema 10 April 2023
Hunting turkeys in snow good possibility
Turkey season is just around the corner, but you might not notice with all these lingering spring snowstorms. Conversation in my circle of friends has moved to talk of hunting gobblers in the snow. I try to avoid this in Zone 3 (which includes portions of Shawano County and all of Waupaca County) by applying for the second season (this year, that’s April 26 through May 2).
Ross Bielema 5 April 2023
LETTER: Schools need more guns, users for protection
To the editor: Six minutes.
Ross Bielema 20 March 2023
Spring hearings to address outdoor issues
The results of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt around the world, including here in Wisconsin, where April’s combined Conservation Congress and Department of Natural Resources spring hearings will be held virtually. These hearings give hunters, anglers and other wildlife lovers in all 72 counties the chance to voice their opinions on a number of state fish and wildlife proposed rule changes as well as proposals by America’s only grassroo
Ross Bielema 8 March 2023
Radio personality prefers teaching over trophies
Marc Drewek, a weekly outdoors radio show host for more than a dozen years, has an enviable number of big bucks under his belt and still enjoys chasing them with bow, muzzleloader and rifle. Today, he’d rather teach newcomers about hunting through the state’s Learn to Hunt program or on his own. “I was deer hunting when stands were little wooden planks in the trees,” said Drewek, 63, as he spoke to members of the Clintonville Bow Hunters Club on
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