The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission has announced that fishing license sales have increased over 11 percent in comparison with license sales of last year at this time.

That’s a whopping increase of 67,389 licenses sold to bring the current number of licensed anglers in the Commonwealth to 683,031 thus far for 2012. With bass season due to open on June 16, which coincides with Father’s Day weekend, I would expect even more sales activity.

The PFBC now has a gift license available for those folks that are hard to buy for and the price is right at $22.70 and can be bought online or over the counter at over 900 retail locations.

I’ve made a much more concentrated effort to hit the waterways this year and do some angling. Normally I do catch and release fishing, but I turned some friends and co-workers on to the fine table fare of fresh caught salmon, walleye and perch and they are clamoring for it.

You know the old saying, “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”

I have put out many an invitation to others to join me on some angling adventures on local waters and the Great Lakes. The easiest fish to catch and the most populous are the pan fish species like the blue gill, crappie and perch. These fish also provide some of the tastiest culinary experiences that you can bring to the table for friends and family.

• Please pay attention to wildlife on the highways as they are on the move looking for food and last year’s young are forced away from their mothers as new babies are being raised.

We have been seeing plenty of young bucks in velvet roaming around. These youngsters are not as savvy to the ways of humans as their adult mother guided them for the past year and now they are apt to get in conflict with humans.

A young bear was killed on I-80 a few weeks back as he tried to cross four lanes of heavy traffic. He would have been a fine PA bruin to see in the big woods in November. However, the bear population continues to creep into human populated areas (or do we sprawl into their areas) and the results are never good for the bear.

• This year, I went proactive with the garden effort by putting up a fence! It’s not much of a serious fence, but it is meant to be a wildlife deterrent at least.

The Zanella boys over at Zanella Milling hooked me up with fencing, posts and ties to keep the garden green and the economy green as well. I am determined to eat a green bean or cabbage from my garden this year.

Hunting season was welcomed in our area as the deer population became a nuisance as they preferred the gardens to the flora in the wood lots.

Time will tell if the effort pays off and if it does, I might have to take some fresh fried fish and slaw over to the boys at the mill!

• The bucks are showing their antlers growing in velvet now. The velvet is a hairy skin covering on the antlers that contain nerves and blood vessels to feed the bone. This period of antler development is the most vulnerable time for antler injury due to the soft tissue growing.

Antlers are a true bone and are composed primarily of calcium and phosphorus and are deciduous. This means that the buck will grow and then drop them each year.

They grow from the pedicels located on the frontal bone of the skull. The annual antler growth is determined by a variety of factors, including the deer’s age, day length (photoperiod), testosterone hormone, nutrition and genetics.

Antlers will grow ¼ inch per day and the older the deer, the greater the antler growth. At age 3 ½ to 6 ½ you will see bucks in their prime physical state. Deer younger will be smaller on the average and bucks much older will be on the decline in their physical state and antlers will decline as well.

Remember to keep an eye out for those deer and watch your trophy antlers grow by the day!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle