Who among us hasn’t done the trick where we hold a fish, or deer, or whatever, out in front of us for a picture to make the critter appear much larger than it actually is?

This is one of the better examples of seen of this.

Shaffer Kelly killed this coyote in Franklin County in March.

Now, Shaffer could have said, “This thing weighed 120 pounds! It must have been a wolf hybrid! Or a purebred wolf!”

But Shaffer took the high road and told the truth. The coyote weighed 40 pounds. I say again, 40 pounds. Typical coyote.

But in this picture it looks giant, like one of those giant computer-generated wolves in that Liam Neeson movie, The Grey (which I personally thought was terrible despite its decent reviews).

Congrats on the coyote, Shaffer!

Andrew Schenker waits during a recent coyote hunt on 50 acres of land in Franklin County. Schenker is an investment adviser who offers his coyote hunting services on Craigslist. Photo by KYLE GREEN | The Roanoke Times

A few weeks ago fellow Roanoke Times reporter Duncan Adams mentioned to me that he’d found a Craigslist ad from hunter Andrew Schenker seeking areas to pursue coyotes.

Duncan wanted to do a story on it, though it was more my beat than his. He wanted to make sure I was cool with his doing the story. I was.

It ran today. You can read it HERE.

Schenker didn’t get anything, so Duncan got a taste of my life, in other words doing a hunting story with no game to show for it or a fishing story with no fish.

As you’ll read in the piece, it included information from a DGIF biologist that says, essentially, that hunting coyotes really doesn’t have an impact on the population. Once they are established in an area they are there to stay.

I know that idea doesn’t sit well with plenty of folks. Many of us have seen how coyotes can impact game populations, and we’d sure like to think that our hunting and/or trapping them helps protect our quarry, be it turkeys or deer.

Has anyone here seen the deer or turkey populations increase on their hunting grounds after killing coyotes?

Ah, California.

Land of milk and honey. And a Department of Fish and Wildlife that won’t even stand up for itself.

Read this column from my good friend Tom Stienstra at the San Francisco Chronicle on the DFW’s decision to cancel a predator hunting clinic.

Pitiful.

Steve Grubb, with whom I’m in a small hunt club in Roanoke County, reported having a decent deer season, taking a couple decent bucks (he sent pix; they were pretty nice) and some does.

He killed this ‘yote in Pittsylvania County the last week of December.

Here’s his report:

“I am 6-1 and 210 pounds  so you can see in the pic that it is full grown. We have had a problem with them down there for years. There is a huge dairy farm nearby that dumps their dead cows in a hole across the road from this farm and that’s the problem I am sure.

This critter was a 48-pound female which made it even better. No more pups for her. Earlier in the season I saw one the same size catch a mature hen turkey but couldn’t get a shot at it.

My buddy and I killed 8 mature does on his farm this year that were dry. Meaning they probably lost their fawns early in the spring. We are seeing very few young deer and most does don’t have any young with them. Don’t know what the answer is to this problem but its frustrating to say the least.”

There isn’t an easy answer to coyotes and it is frustrating.  Some experts say that killing them doesn’t do any good on a widespread level. But I think there is ample evidence that a concerted hunting and/or trapping effort can make an impact on specific spots. Some also may say that coyotes are nature’s way of dealing with Virginia’s booming deer herd. While I think the herd did get out of hand I worry that, at least in some areas, coyotes are gaining an upper hand.

I am fortunate to have a number of spots to hunt within two hours of Roanoke. I can’t think of a single place, from the big ones to the little ones, where coyotes have not had an impact on the deer and turkey populations. Some places are worse than others. My logs from this past season from hunting spots in Roanoke, Alleghany, Botetourt and Bedford counties show that I saw far fewer fawns than usual.

The landowners are all well aware of this, which is why they all have encouraged the hunters to make killing coyotes a priority. In fact, I wonder if there is any landowner/hunter out there who hasn’t declared war on coyotes?

Over the last couple of weeks I have had several reader requests to do more on coyotes and coyote hunting. I plan to do my best. I am not an experienced coyote hunter but I have a number of friends and acquaintances who are, and they all have been on me to go out with them. I actually do have a good electronic call. My hope is to get some lessons so I can get after the ‘yotes on my own.

As usual, Sunday hunting is among the topics being considered by Virginia’s General Assembly.

As mentioned in my column in today’s Roanoke Times, one of the bills, Senate Bill 803, would allow for the hunting of coyotes on Sunday.

There aren’t too many fans of coyotes (including Todd Burton, who sent in this shot from Rockbridge County), so doesn’t it make sense to include them in the exceptions to the Sunday hunting ban?

The Senate seems to think so. It unanimously passed SB 803  but its fate in the House seems less certain since it will likely end up in the House Natural Resources sub-committee, where Sunday hunting proposals go to die.

That sub-committee also is in control of HB 2225, which would allow hunting on Sundays on private land with the landowners permission.

State wildlife biologists have assured us that Sunday hunting will not cause population harm to the state’s game wildlife. Given that, allowing landowners to make the call about allowing hunting — or not —  seems a sensible, first-step compromise that respects property owners’ rights.

Still, I harbor zero optimism that it will pass.

Am I wrong?

A few diehards still get out there and camp and hunt in the national forest. There is game to be had out there, and these shots submitted by Kevin Taylor are proof.

Here’s his report:

“Thought I’d drop you a couple of pics of how our season has gone thus far during the second week of muzzleloading. On doe day from a ground blind in which I had seen numerous does on the muzzle opener, I was sure I was in the right place to take advantage of the doe day. Alas, no does bothered to show up and it was after eleven o’clock when this spike showed up and being in the N.F I’ll take that spike for the freezer as it may be my only chance to fill it during the season.

The interesting part was that as this spike climbed the ridge to me, I heard a fairly close shot that I thought to be one of my hunting companions, Ed Ward of Blue Ridge. Wouldn’t you know it, my two-way radio began to buzz. I silenced it as I readied for my own shot.

Once the deed was done I turned my radio back on and called Ed. He had indeed shot and taken one of the prettiest coyotes I’ve ever seen and Mr. Hicks of Hicks’ Taxidermy concurred when Ed took the pelt to him. The second picture is that of Lynn Blankenship of Troutville with his 6 pointer “pictured left” and my 9 pointer that he and I took on Wed. of this week.”

Congrats to these guys for a super week, doing it the old-fashioned way!

Ralph Barton sent in this shot on Friday, with the note below:
“Hope all is going well…. I’ve been out hunting my butt off these last few days… finally got a chance this morning to go online and check out the blog.  Some nice deer on there but I was expecting to see a bunch of the real brutes showing up….. doesn’t seem to be happening yet?  I really thought the rut was taking off but I honestly can’t say I’m seeing it in the woods that much. I’ve hunted hard all day since last Friday and I have seen 5 bucks.  Two of those definitely appeared to be trailing…. noses on the ground…. but the others were just strolling through.  Overall my deer sightings in general are very low… not seeing many does even though the game-cams prove that they are in the area.  Of course with the heavy acorn drop it may just be that the deer aren’t traveling much…. maybe the activity is happening in small key areas?

Got a nice Bobcat yesterday…. photo attached.”

I love how the bobcat is almost an afterthought! This guy is truly addicted to deer hunting.

As for a shortage of hero shots maybe part of it is that I don’t get every shot up immediately. Simply can’t. But I also think the best is yet to come. I think this week is going to be the week. I sure hope so because I plan to be out there a lot!

We are in the process of overhauling Roanoke.com, and we’ve been reaching out to readers for feedback on what they’d like to see with the new site. We even have a blog, The Refresh RT blog, to keep readers in the loop.

So, let me pose that question to you all: How can we improve the Outdoors content on Roanoke.com? What are we doing well? What can we do better? What else would you like to see? Are there other outdoors sites we should look at for ideas?

Be blunt and honest. Your input will make a difference.

First, some basic background on what we have now.

–Outdoors stories and columns that appear in The Roanoke Times comprise part of our online Outdoors package. I write nearly all of these.  Read more »

I just picked this up off the wire.

“SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — Wildlife officers have killed five cougars recently in a Sisters subdivision where the animals were hunting for food and getting on decks.

The cougars are believed to be a mother and four of her young.

Federal predator control officers killed three cougars estimated at 18 to 20 months old on March 18. The mother and a juvenile male were killed Thursday.

KTVZ-TV reported Monday (http://bit.ly/GRxdqV) the killings followed reports of a cougar seen with a domestic cat in its mouth, several other sightings, the loss of chickens and attacks on two dogs.

A spokeswoman for the Oregon wildlife agency, Michelle Dennehy, says problem cougars aren’t relocated because that would just move the problem elsewhere.”

My brother’s best friend, Tyler Hoyt, lives in Sisters, a cool mountain town in the Cascades. I sent Tyler an email asking how close this was to his house. His answer: “a quarter mile.” He added that he never sees cougars.

I told him people around here see cougars all the time, and we don’t even have any.

Check out the coat on this coyote, captured on “film” in the Riner area.

That thing sure still has a pretty coat on him!