Fake Residency Net Idaho Poacher Jail Time and $27K in Fines 👩‍⚖️

I’m currently at the “it’s Thursday already?” phase of the workweek and am unsure as to whether or not that is a good thing as of yet.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get this Thursday morning dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about today:

AND ANOTHER ONE
FAKE RESIDENCY AND ILLEGAL TROPHIES NET IDAHO POACHER $27K IN FINES AND 18-YEAR BAN

Wyoming Game and Fish officials are on an absolute tear this fall with now having brought down the second case of massive residency fraud in a little over a week. On the heels of sending a Farson outfitter to jail, wardens were awarded with another jail sentence, set to kick off tomorrow, for an Idaho Falls man who pushed the limits just a little too far and found out.

In what was seemingly a good run for Idaho Falls resident Rodney Gilstrap, his six-year run as a fake Wyoming resident (strictly for hunting purposes) is officially coming to an end this Friday, November 7, as he is set to begin a 21-day work-release jail sentence. The penalty caps a multi-year Wyoming Game and Fish Department investigation that began with two anonymous tips and concluded with seven forfeited trophies, $27,905 in payments, and an 18-year hunting ban…

👌 Michigan DNR Proposes Doubling Elk Hunt Days to 45 Starting 2026. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has gone ahead and proposed major changes to elk hunting seasons in the northern Lower Peninsula, aiming to more than double the total hunt days from 21 to 45 starting next year. The first hunting period would shift from three separate four-day hunts in August and September to a continuous 30-day season running from the second Saturday in September through the second Sunday in October. The second period would expand from nine days (currently December 13–21) to 15 days, spanning December 1–15.

These adjustments are designed to offer hunters better weather, greater scheduling flexibility, and reduced pressure to make quick kills, according to DNR field operations manager Scott Eggeman. Public feedback is open through January 23, 2026, with final approval expected at the April 2026 Natural Resources Commission meeting.

🚔 Illinois Teen Arrested for Poaching Over a Dozen Deer in Late October Rampage. In late October, residents in rural Clinton County, Illinois, reported multiple deer shot from roadways at night and left to rot in fields. Illinois Conservation Police and the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation, discovering at least 13 carcasses—some headless, others untouched—scattered across the area. Evidence pointed to the use of a spotlight and .22-caliber rifle fired from a vehicle, which violates state laws on poaching, wanton waste, and illegal hunting methods.

Following public tips and a CrimeStoppers reward offer, authorities arrested 18-year-old Ashden McArthur of rural Carlyle on October 29th. Search warrants executed in Clinton and Marion counties recovered evidence linking him to the killings, which occurred on five days prior on Friday, October 24th. McArthur faces multiple felony conservation charges and criminal counts, with potential penalties including fines up to $5,000, hunting license revocation, and jail time.

💰 Yellowstone Grizzlies Worth $46K Each Annually, Study Finds. Like the old Mastercard commercials used to say, some things in life are most certainly priceless. And when it comes to Yellowstone’s famous grizzlies, many would argue in favor of that exact sentiment. But rather than concentrate on what these big bruins mean to us on an emotional level, researchers at the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey set out to put a more realistic financial value on each of the park’s grizzly bears.

According to the study, researchers estimate that each grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park generates approximately $46,000 annually in economic value through wildlife viewing, while black bears contribute about $15,000 each. Based on visitor survey data, the analysis calculates that bear sightings add roughly $8.7 million for grizzlies and $6.9 million for black bears to the park’s tourism economy each year.

🐊 Alligator vs. Alligator Snapping Turtle. I honestly never would have thought that the damn gator would have so much trouble with this one.

But what are you going to do with a damned snapping turtle attached to your neck?

🦭 Lions of the Wash : A rounded slab of fur and flesh breached the tension of the water — rivulets streamed from its crown and flowed back into the river from whence it came. Another set of inky eyes watched us from the port side… they were working in tandem.  

We were trolling for late-season salmon, upriver from the mouth of the Columbia: the graveyard of the Pacific, where over 2,000 boats had reached their end. Chinook and Coho were open, and we had four poles rigged to trail in the wash. It had been a slow morning, with few bites and no fish caught. Seals and sea lions materialized and dispersed like phantasms of the periphery. They paced the boats in anticipation of an opportunistic feast.

“Fish on!” Scott cried from the starboard side as he grabbed the Ugly Stik from the rod holder and began to reel. His lower body braced against the gunwale as the fish pulsed and pulled in defiance below. The line came in, followed by the mechanical clicking of drag as it retreated into the depths. Read the full story.

🦌 Thomasine's Buck: The deer were 700 yards from the road, their gray bodies easy to see against the fallen snow. Maybe a dozen does, a couple of forkhorns, a spike, all presided over by a nicely framed four-by-four. He was one of the bigger bucks we’d seen in seven days of searching.

From the cab of the truck, Mark and I plotted what was likely to be our last stalk before we had to start the cross-country drive home. We watched them browse contentedly at the base of a jumbled outcrop of sandstone boulders. Mark turned away from his spotting scope to say something when a gunshot cracked through the still, high country air. By the time he re-found the buck, it was on its last legs, stumbling out of view.

“Dammit.”  Read the full story.

👋 A Lifelong Bird Hunter’s Farewell to Arms : When he was a boy, my father came very close to shooting his own father in the back with a shotgun while quail hunting in North Florida. The incident haunted him for years, and he did not handle a gun again until he was a middle-aged man. When he finally did return to bird shooting, he did so with a grave attention to detail, and one of the details to which he attended most carefully was me.

I was twelve years old when he and a group of other men leased a twenty-thousand-acre quail-hunting plantation in South Alabama called Midway. The place came with a columned antebellum house; a cabin on a bass lake; a dozen or so good English pointers and setters; two red hunting wagons and four pairs of mules to pull them; horses to ride after the wagons; a number of men to drive the wagons and to train and handle the dogs—and God only knows how many quail. Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…