New World Screwworm Detected for the First Time in Hunter-Killed Texas Elk🪰

ven•a•tic: fond of or living by hunting

NORTH AMERICA’S MOST-READ OUTDOOR NEWSLETTER

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:

YAY!
NEW WORLD SCREWWORM DETECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUNTER-KILLED TEXAS ELK

If you happen to have "flesh-eating flesh-burrowing parasitic maggots in the West Texas big game supply" on your 2026 Q4 catastrophe bingo card, congratulations. The rest of us were hoping the news cycle might at least coast into 2027 without reintroducing livestock plagues, but alas, state wildlife officials just confirmed a New World screwworm detection in a Pecos County elk.

The detection was confirmed this week by wildlife officials after a hunter-killed female elk in west Texas tested positive for New World screwworm. The sample was officially verified by the USDA’s Knipling-Bushland research lab in Kerrville, bringing a whole new level of biological dread to this fall's hunting season…

🔨 Florida Man Charged After Illegally Shooting a Gator and Finishing It Off With a Hammer. A West Palm Beach-area business owner is staring down a barrage of felony charges after Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers came across a dead alligator with a hammer protruding from its forehead earlier this week.

Officers discovered the carcass after responding to an anonymous tip that 66-year-old Desmond Keogh had killed the gator and was without any alligator tags or legal authorization to kill the animal. Upon questioning, he soon admitted to shooting it once in the head and then bludgeoning the injured animal with a hammer until it finally died.

The charges include illegally killing, injuring, or possessing an alligator (a third-degree felony under Florida law), using or displaying a firearm during a felony, and discharging a firearm in a public place. A conviction on the wildlife charge can carry prison time, fines, equipment forfeiture, and a mandatory five-year ban on obtaining an alligator harvest or trapping license.

🧑‍⚖️ Montana Court Dismisses Hunting Charges Against Former FWP Director, GOP Lobbyists at State’s Request. At the state’s request, a Big Horn County Justice Court has dismissed misdemeanor hunting charges against former Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Director Dustin Temple and two former Republican legislators and lobbyists, Scott Boulanger and Jason Priest. The men had been cited for criminal trespass and failure to obtain landowner permission after November 2025 bird-hunting trips that used South Hay Coulee Road (also known as BIA Route 750 or Campbell Road) on the Crow Indian Reservation. They said they held valid Crow Tribe permits and licenses, stayed in their vehicles, relied on OnX maps showing the road as open, and were only trying to reach tribal land rather than hunt on adjacent private property owned by Monette Farms.

The state moved to dismiss after evidence submitted by Boulanger’s attorney—that the road is open to the public—raised reasonable doubt about the case. The court granted the request, but the state indicated the charges could be refiled, so the matter is not necessarily closed. The underlying dispute centers on whether the road is tribal/public or private, with the men arguing that FWP and the county relied on incorrect information about its status

🐏 Utah DWR Proposes Reinstating Pilot Mountain Bighorn Sheep Hunt, Updates Land Use Programs. Following a rebounding local population, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has officially proposed reinstating the bighorn sheep hunt on the Box Elder, Pilot Mountain unit for the fall 2027 season. Jointly managed with Nevada, the hunt was paused after 2020 due to a shortage of mature rams. Thankfully, rising population numbers prompted Nevada to reissue a permit in 2026, paving the way for Utah to propose a renewed hunting season running from September 1 through November 30, 2027.

Alongside the bighorn sheep proposal, the DWR submitted recommendations for the 2027–2029 Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit and Landowner Association programs. The agency plans to approve three new CWMUs and renew 83 others, opening over two million acres of private land to hunters across 130 total units, while setting annual permit allocations and voucher rules for participating landowners. Public feedback is being gathered through online submission portals and a series of regional advisory council meetings scheduled throughout November 2026.

😲 What a monster of a marlin. These boys got after it last weekend out on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

That’s it right there. That’s the marlin fishing dream…

🙏 Committing the Mortal Sin: “Thou shalt not eat largemouth bass.” Based on the sheer volume of times I have heard this sentiment repeated, I’m almost certain Moses ran out of room on his tablets, or else that would have certainly made the 11th spot.

Perhaps my favorite activity within the sport of bass fishing is trolling. By trolling, I am not talking about letting out lines behind my boat while I cruise the shallows for hungry fish but rather online trolling when the day is done. Few things bring me greater joy than seeing images of people posing with their lunkers next to the cleaning station posted on social media with an irate crowd of commentators asking why they did not simply throw that “breeder” back. How did we get to this point though? Read the full story.

🦆 The Longest Retrieve:  Don’t send her. Don’t send her. For a solid minute,I stood motionless, watching, trying to determine just how hard the drake mallard had been hit. Ruby was not so patient, tugging on her leash behind me and whining softly. Duck territory in the northern states can be big lake country. The inland bodies of water where I love to hunt are small compared to the Great Lakes but large enough to claim a duck hunter and his dog. In that respect, they could just as easily be as big as an ocean.

I’ve never been one to hang my ego on a dog’s performance. It’s just a duck, after all, or so I kept telling myself, but deep down I knew we had to get that bird, one way or the other. I was raised to do everything possible to retrieve crippled birds, even if it meant ending the hunt early to mount a thorough search. Read the full story.

🎣 The Test: The top half of the yellow sun shimmered just above the low mountains to the east, throwing a lemon cast on the early morning light. Dew clung to the high weeds bordering the path, the air was hazy and still and the temperature had yet to begin its ascent to triple digits during the record July heat. I slid down a grassy bank into Silver Creek, waded gingerly upstream to what I deemed a promising spot in the narrow Idaho river and positioned myself just in front of cattails and willow bushes. I stood still in my waders, cradling my nine-foot fly rod.

Two other anglers and I were drawn to this stretch of the renowned trout stream by the morning hatch of gnat-like tricos that entice feeding rainbows and browns to the surface. The summer hatch attracts anglers from around the world. One fisherman in a blue shirt squatted on the outside of an upstream bend and the other waited downstream. Curiously enough, the downstream angler’s wife or girlfriend positioned herself behind him in a short skirt, the water topping out at knee-level. Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…