BE CAREFUL OUT THERE

Recent wildfires in the Pinelands have burned some 400 acres and are indicative of the high level of fire danger in our fields and woodlands. Dry conditions with little rainfall and windy days make the outdoors especially vulnerable to fires.
Trout fishermen and campers are reminded that campfire restrictions are in effect throughout the state and building a fire directly on the ground is prohibited unless in a fire ring of steel, brick, masonry or other non-combustible material.
The Forest Service says fire danger is very high in Burlington County as will as Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex County, south of the Raritan River.
The danger is graded as "high" in Hopewell Township and most Southern counties.
The Forest Service says 99 percent of all wildfires in New Jersey are caused by humans.

DOG TALES

The book we mentioned in the print column, "The Best Hunting Stories Ever Told," is joined by a heap of hunting and fishing books at Skyhorse Publishing in New York.
Go to www.skyhorsepublishing.com.
A terrific book if you're a bird dog fan is "Afield - American Writers on Bird Dogs" also from Skyhorse. This is a pleasant surprise as most of the contributions are not from the usual suspects - outdoor writers, but those outside the field, so to speak.
There is, for example" a wonderful story by Tom Brokaw and his Labradors.

BEARS GALORE

"The bears have taken over."

That was the word I got from an old colleague still hunting my former club in the Catskills up in Neversink River country.

He said he had a sow and cub right below his deer stand, but having no desire to shoot a bear shooed them away.

A neighboring camp tagged five black bears and one buck.

I just got back from Pennsy Sunday morning. Never saw a buck on my hill, but in truth I only sat in my blind about a total of six hours during the two week season since I had already filled my doe tag.

Of course there were deer tracks in the snow all around it when I went to take it down...must be the midnight shift of whitetails.

It was 12 degrees Sunday morning. Opening day, Dec. 5, it was pushing 70.

A friend, in his 61st deer season, killed a five-pointer in Mendham, but he knows the good spots and they're sure not on public land.

MAN CATCHES HUGE TUNA - FEDS REEL IT IN

What a bummer. A Massachusetts commercial fisherman hauled in an 881-pound bluefin tuna, that could have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars to the shusi loving Asian market, but federal authorities said, "sorry, Charlie - no tuna for you."
The fish was caught in a net and tuna are only allowed to be taken on rod and reel. The boat captain said nobody ever told him that and he had bought 15 tuna permits over the past four years. NOAA' s law enforcement division says the matter is still under investigation.

CATCH AND CATCH AGAIN

A second fluke that I caught and tagged has been recaptured according to Jeff Dement, tagging director of the American Littoral Society. The 13-inch flattie was first caught in June off the nude beach at Sandy Hook and caught again in August in the Raritan Reach. The fish grew an inch and a quarter in that time and was released again with the tag intact. I'd like to see it caught once more when it reaches legal size.

Meanwhile George Horvath of Trenton caught a 28-inch striper in June, 2010 from the North jetty at Barnegat Inlet. The angler tagged it and released the fish. In July, 2011 the bass was caught again, in Chesapeake Bay. Horvath didn't say what the striper's size was on recapture.

Tagging kits are available for sale at a modest price from the ALS. Call (732) 291-0055 or go to www.littoralsociety.org.

FISHING CLOSER TO HOME

With the price of gasoline, sportsmen on a tight budget may want to take a look at angling opportunities close to home rather than a six-hour drive to the Adirondacks.

A "Flyfishers Guide to the Big Apple, Great Waters within 150 miles of New York City" will be the featured presentation at the Nov. 14 meeting of the Ernest Schwiebert Chapter of Trout Unlimited at the Pennington fire house starting at 6:30 p.m.

New Jersey Audubon president Tom Gilmore, fly fisherman and book author, will give the talk which is free and open to the public.

SUNDAY MONEY?

Possible Sunday hunting is a big issue in Pennsylvania, where it has support from most hunters, but opposition from the farm bureau.

However, a bi-partisan legislative study says hunting on Sundays could generate up to $804 million in economic activity, support nearly 7,500 jobs and rake in some $57 million in state and local taxes.

The report found that hunting is worth nearly $3 billion to the state's economy with deer hunting accounting for about $1.7 billion of that total.

Other than commercial and semi-wild operations, New Jersey allows Sunday bowhunting on WMAs and private land.