Bobby C’s Outdoors

Two pieces of legislation that would definitely lead to changes in the way Mississippians hunt have cleared their first two hurdles in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate.

Senate Bill 2048, passed by the Senate’s Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee on Monday (Jan. 28) would allow any hunter with a primitive weapon or archery permit “irrespective of age or disability” to hunt with a crossbow during any archery or primitive weapon deer season.

House Bill 1139, which got committee approval Thursday (Jan. 31), would allow hunters on certain private lands to use their “weapon of choice” during any regular or special primitive weapon season. […]

For several years, the Mississippi Bowhunters Association has been looking for help from the state legislature in confirming the right to hunt with bows during open gun seasons.

So don’t expect them to be happy after Monday’s deadline passed for introducing new bills in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate. No such “pro archery” legislation is on the table.

For the third straight year, no bills were introduced that would extend the only true archery season set in statute — the one that opens Oct. 1 and ends on the day before the first gun season begins. […]

When he caught a 17.34-pound bass Jan. 4 at Davis Lake, Jeff Foster did more than simply post the second-largest largemouth ever reported in Mississippi. He showed conclusively that Anthony Denny’s state record of 18.15 pounds is vulnerable.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that whatsoever,” said Ron Garavelli, the chief of fisheries for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “That fish right there could have — no, make that would have — broken the record had it been caught a couple of months later when it was full of eggs.

“We’re only talking about .8 of a pound difference between 17.34 and 18.15, so yeah, fully loaded with eggs it would have been the record.” […]