Wisconsin’s sportsmen largely support increased hunting, fishing and trapping fees, but a 50% increase is too much, according to results of the combined Conservation Congress and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spring hearings and online survey of 44 questions.

The magazines and the internet trolls make it sound so easy, but it’s a rare hunt that goes down simply and quickly.

Wild animals are never predictable, and wild turkeys never seem to do what they are supposed to do, according to those experts.

The internet is now full of “what if” hunting scenarios, and a recent one that caught my eye said, “A gobbler hangs up at 50 yards and you have tungsten shot. Do you shoot?”

In about 60 years of hunting, I’ve read a lot of articles around deer, small game, upland bird, predator and turkey hunting. It’s hard for magazines to come up with something truly new to say about hunting anything, although I keep buying them. You probably do, too.

Timing is everything.

For example, writing an every-other-week outdoors column can get tricky with hunting and fishing seasons, state and county meetings and providing enough advance notice for readers to react without giving them too much notice so they forget.

At the end of December, I wrote a column about how we sportsmen should consider passing on our hunting, fishing and trapping heritage to the next generation.

Wisconsin has about 100,000 fewer deer hunters today than it had in 2000, during the peak of the state’s harvest. Young people are busy with school sports, video games, social media and dating, and they are just not taking up hunting or fishing like they once did.

As sure as the arrival of robins, rain and green grass, the statewide combined Wisconsin DNR and Conservation Congress hearings are another sign of spring.

Some of the 44 conservation questions may touch most of us, including the topics of deer hunting and possible license fee increases, while others may be specific to a distant lake or river, and not interest us at all.