Longtime Dunkirk Outdoors Writer will be sorely missed… Gene Pauszek (center) shows off a walleye caught during the 2007 NCCC Walleye Derby By Rich Davenport, published April 4, 2022 The WNY Outdoors community lost another giant last week, when longtime Dunkirk Observer Outdoors Writer and Columnist Eugene “Gene” Pauszek crossed the rainbow bridge early on Friday, April 1, 2022, at home, while surrounded by family. He was 70 years old. Gene spent decades reporting on the goings on in the Great Outdoors for the Dunkirk Observer, bringing his bi-weekly column, “The Sportsman’s Journal”, to his m ..read more

Season opening dates and minimum crappie keeper size biggest changes to be felt Members of the AFC and their catch of crappie from Findley Lake. Crappie minimum goes up to 10″ this year. By Rich Davenport, published March 17, 2022 On March 17, 2022, the NYSDEC announced that new fishing regulations, based on two separate proposals released late last year, have been adopted and will take effect starting April 1, 2022. The two proposals, one aimed at streamlining the fishing regulations, especially as they relate to trout fishing in ponds and lakes, and the other separate proposal dubbed the “Bi ..read more

By Rich Davenport, published January 18, 2022 A pair of walleye caught while ice fishing on Chautauqua Lake Chautauqua Lake, located in the southwest corner of Chautauqua County, has long been considered one of NY’s premier natural lakes for recreational fishing, and is perhaps WNY’s most productive inland fishery, with only Lake Erie showing higher catch rates for black bass and walleye fishing success. This appears to be something that will continue for quite some time, as NYSDEC fall electro-fishing surveys seem to indicate. Mike Clancy, DEC Region 9 Fisheries Manager recently presented inf ..read more

By Rich Davenport, published January 6, 2022 Local anglers take in a fishing seminar at the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo in 2020 The covid covid covid has claimed its first event of 2022, as organizers of the Greater Niagara Fishing and Outdoors Expo have announced the event, which was slated for February 17-20, 2022 at the Niagara Falls Conference and Events Center, will be cancelled for this year, after Governor Hochul resurrected covid rules in the face of the far less dangerous Omicron variant detected as spreading in NY at the end of 2021. However, unlike the conditions these same rules h ..read more

By Rich Davenport, published December 10, 2021, updated 12/17/2021 A steelhead trout caught from 18-Mile Creek, Eden, NY As calendar year 2021 comes to an end, things have been rather busy in Albany, as the NYSDEC has announced another round of proposed regulation changes to the freshwater fishing syllabus, with the intentions being to streamline further the rules while also standardizing fishing season openers. These potential changes were first discussed during the NYSCC fall convention held on August 28, 2021. The announcement of new proposed regulations came on December 8, 2021, and reiter ..read more