Pittston Dispatch // PD Columnists // Don Jacobs - Outdoors With Jake

Sunday October 04, 2009 | 01:00 AM

That’s right, a knife. You don’t need a bow and arrow or shotgun or rifle and get this: you don’t even need a license. The only equipment required for this hunting trip is a knife and a basket.

The weather must be cool and damp. The recent rain and drop in temperature makes for excellent weather conditions for our excursion. We must first find our quarry. Knowing that they thrive off of rotting and decaying plant life, we should search near old tree stumps and rotting tree root systems. If you haven’t guessed buy now. We are hunting fungus and whether or not you know it, mushrooms are the fruit of a fungus.

I spent a couple of days this week in search of my two favorite fall mushrooms, the podpinki and the sheepshead. The podpinki is more commonly referred to as the honey mushroom. These could be found just about anywhere in the northeast, however I have the best luck locating them on old tree trunks and on the ground in old growth oak forests.

Mushroom pickers have their own little network. I knew it was time to look for mushrooms because my buddies started calling me to brag about their successful outings. While I don’t go around telling people exactly where I picked my podpinkis, I do let them know that they are popping up out of the wet ground. It is sort of a revelry call to man the fungus battle stations and grab your knives. Based on my first two outing, this could be a banner podpinki picking year.

The most sought after is the sheepshead mushroom. It is also called a ramshead, hen of the woods and the Japanese name, maitake. Maitake means "dancing mushroom". It is said that the mushroom hunter lucky enough to find one is often inspired to dance happily at the discovery. These are one of the best-known of all edible wild mushrooms. The mere size makes it easy to fill the freezer in one outing. The weight varies on how long the mushroom has been growing but the average weight is about ten pounds. It is quite abundant in most parts of the Northeast where there are abundant large oak trees.

It is a common practice to cut a sheepshead away from its root system while leaving the stem in the ground. Experienced mushroomers will go back year after year and find a mushroom in the same location. That is exactly what happened to me this week. I found seven sheepsheads along the path I take to my archery hunting spot. These same stumps produced mushrooms two years ago when the weather was perfect for fungus growth. Last year was considered an off year for podpinkis and sheepshead.

Wild mushroom storage for future use is always a topic of conversation between pickers. My mother cans her podpinkis and sheepheads in pint jars and with salt water. I personally like freezing them after a quick par boil. The sheepshead mushroom freezes very nicely and can stay frozen for quite sometime as long as they are frozen in water in an air tight bag. Many people fresh freeze them after wiping them off and vacuum sealing them. I guess it’s all personal preference.

The only problem with being a dedicated mushroom picker is the timing of it all. They usually start popping up right before the hunting season. For example, the Pennsylvania archery season started yesterday and the mushroom picking is just getting started. I guess I may have to grab my knife instead of my bow and head out on a hunting trip before the mushrooms go away for another year. The archery season is of course, six weeks long. So, grab your knife, we’re going hunting.

Are More People Fishing?

I usually don’t get caught up in statistics or number comparisons. But this one is interesting to say the last and I hope it is a trend and not just a numbers game. The number of Pennsylvania fishing licenses sold so far this year (871,499) has already surpassed the total yearly sales for each of the last four years. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission said it is the largest one-year percentage increase since 1980. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director Douglas Austen said this about the increase, “Fishing license sales are up 5 percent and overall stamp sales are up 4.36 percent over the same period from 2008, reinforcing thinking by many that people have returned to fishing as an affordable, family-oriented activity. The commission is also finishing the second year of a multi-year direct marketing campaign in cooperation with the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. We believe these efforts aimed at lapsed anglers have also had a positive impact on licenses sales.”If this is truly evidence that more people are looking for fishing as an inexpensive family oriented recreation than I say congratulations. There is nothing better than a family spending time together enjoying one of America’s favorite pastimes.

Changes in the Mentor Hunting Regulations

A mentored youth is defined as an unlicensed individual less than 12 years of age who is accompanied by a mentor while engaged in hunting or related activities. Beginning with this hunting season a mentored youth will need a permit. The permit costs $2.70 ($1 for the Game Commission, $1 for the issuing agent and 70 cents for the transaction fee). Benefits of this permit include that the youth will be provided with the necessary field harvest tags for one antlered deer and one spring gobbler. Also, by capturing data about how many youth are participating in the program and where they live, the Game Commission will be able to better plan on when, where and how many basic Hunter-Trapper Education courses will need to be held as these mentored youth approach 11 years of age, which is when a youth is eligible to take the course.