Whitehall-Coplay Press

Upland hunters will experience some changes when the statewide season for pheasants opens Oct. 21.

This past Saturday (Oct. 7) the season opened for junior hunters, giving them first shot at a pheasant before the regular season opens.

The statewide archery hunting season kicked off this past Saturday (Sept. 30) for antlered and antlerless deer for the season that continues until Nov. 11. Then there’s the late archery season that starts up again Dec. 26 and runs until Jan. 13.

For sportsmen who hunt in WMU’s 2B, 5C and 5D, they can hunt both buck and doe from Dec. 26 through Jan. 28.

This past weekend provided perfect weather for the East Coast Steel Challenge Championship shootout held at Ontelaunee Fish & Game Association’s firearms ranges.

The four-day event in New Tripoli drew 310 shooters from 25 states with one coming as far as California. Shooters ranged in age from 7 to 70 and had pros like Smith & Wesson pro shooter and Hamburg resident Doug Koenig who was one of the competitors.

The archery deer hunting season for antlered and antlerless deer kicked off Saturday, Sept. 16, in Wildlife Management Units 2B and local 5C and 5D. The season statewide gets underway Sept. 30 and runs until Nov. 11.

With all the recent rain, productive fishing came to a halt as fishermen had to wait for local streams to clear and recede. When that happens most die-hard anglers hit the lakes as they’re generally not as affected by rain.

But with cooling temperatures, fishing picked up over the weekend and may continue barring any hurricane remnants. Our fishing reporters have this to say:

If you were a former member or used the Firing Line indoor shooting range on Roosevelt Street on the border of Whitehall and North Whitehall townships that closed a few years ago upon the passing of its owner, you owe it to yourself to check out the new Firing Line.

The Firing Line has been reborn and has transformed into a first class indoor shooting facility that sports a vastly improved and state-of-the-art air filtration system, exceptional sound proofing, classrooms, lounge area and retail shop in the enlarged former building.

As we’re in the last of the summer doldrums with fishing being poor because of rain and dove hunting is only upcoming, now’s a good time to catch up on what’s new in the outdoor related marketplace.

If you’re firearms buff, collector or historian, Jerry Lee’s 2018 Gun Digest is a necessary read. In fact, you can spend the remainder of the summer reading this vast collection of firearms information Lee has assembled in his latest work.

If you’re a motor boat owner and are you having motor problems because of ethanol contaminating the innards of your motor, a new survey by Boating Industry Magazine says those in the boating industry that manufacture, sell, repair and store recreational vessels are seeing a growing number of problems caused by ethanol-related fuels. Said one boat dealer in the survey, “Ethanol fuels are great for our service department but bad for our customers!”

In these Dog Days of summer, fishing in local waters often becomes slow due to high temperatures and low water conditions. All of which makes many fish lethargic. But instead of pursuing them with rod and reel, why not try a bow and arrow.

With the Fourth of July holiday this week, many Lehigh Valley folks take off and many go fishing. As such, here’s a rundown on what’s been happening on local waters.

Willie from Willie’s Bait & Tackle in Cementon says the Lehigh River is fishing good for almost everything. Big trout, smallmouth bass, rock bass, perch and fallfish. Sizeable smallmouth are readily taking leeches. In fact, Willie recalls taking his grandson down to the falls in Cementon last summer and every cast his grandson took a fish with a leech.