Outdoor Guide Magazine Writer's Blog

Outdoorsmanism… and how to teach it!

2011-10-10T12:49:00.000-05:00

Alex is seven years old, and Ryan is nine. They are my grandsons, and that’s about all they have in common that I can see. The older boy has blonde curls, the younger one is a red-head, making me think they might share the genetics of the Scotch-Irish side of my family, from which my mother descends. But they get along fairly well, and none of my mother’s family ever did if I remember right.

I sometimes think I need to teach them about the outdoors, how to hunt and fish, track Indians and skin grizzlies. But truthfully, I don’t know where to start. Both boys are still fairly small, and sheltered to a point that they never have fallen out of a tree, or been bitten by a pet coon. I don’t even think they ever got real good and muddy. Their mother, who is my daughter, is the reason for that. Even as a little girl, she spent all her time studying, and eventually she became a doctor. And while she can tell you all about ameeba’s and hydrofilectic shock and auto-immune therapy, she hasn’t got the slightest idea how to tell a twelve-gauge from a twenty-two. She wouldn’t know a persimmon from a possum grape! Knowing that, I feel it is my duty to try to guide those little grandsons of mine toward the path of outdoorsmanism.

So I snuck them away from home just this past weekend by telling her we were going to pick up walnuts. It wasn’t a lie… we did for awhile. We must have filled up a whole five-gallon bucket! And then I brought out the .22 rifle for a little target practice. It scared Alex half to death and Ryan, biting his fingernails, asked if he could go play on the computer. I gave them the old talk about how any Dablemont worth his salt had kilt his first squirrel before he was ten years old, and how if a man meant to be self-sufficient he had to know how to bring home his own supper, just in case some day the world is taken over by left-wing liberals, hamburger soars to 20 dollars a pound, and McDonalds doesn’t have anything but a vegetarian menu.

We made a target out of a cardboard box by drawing a squirrel on it. I made the squirrel look a little too realistic, so they both felt sorry for the squirrel. They preferred to shoot at a bullseye target so I drew one of those too. And then we talked about safety, and how a .22 rifle works and how there is no recoil. Recoil is what had Alex worried. That little boy has watched way to dam-much TV! Then he wanted ear-plugs, because his mama had already told him about how loud noises can cause hearing loss. I said “heck Alex, this ain’t no darned artillery range!” And then he puckered up and so I went in and found a couple of pairs of old ear plugs.

“Do you want to shoot first Ryan?” I asked.

“HUH”? he said.

“Take those darned earplugs out until we get ready to shoot.” I said. They both looked at me and said “HUH?” in unison.

To make a long story short, they are both too short-armed to hold my Ruger .22 properly, and they missed the target badly. Alex ran down to look at where he hit, and started to cry when he couldn’t find a hole anywhere in that 3-foot by 3-foot box. His grandmother came out and made me quit yelling at him, and held him on her lap and tried to explain that even grandpa had missed when he was a little boy. (Frankly I don’t remember missing anything quite that badly.)

So I went down to rearrange the box against the stump and put a hole in the bullseye with the point of a bullet I had in my pocket, and we let Alex shoot again. He missed most of the back yard, but that hole he found in the target made him happy. He thought he done it. Ryan did a little better, he hit the box twice, not more than two feet from the bullseye. Then I showed them a little bit about form… how you bend forward at the waist, you close one eye, you hold the stock firmly against the shoulder and squeeze the trigger gently. I drilled that squirrel right in the eye I had drawn in with a black magic marker, and Alex cried again because I hit the squirrel.

I got out a little Stevens-Marksman rifle I own, a tiny little .22 made a hundred and five years ago. It is a very small and light hammer-gun, and it fit them better. Both boys shot it and missed the target a lot less than before. Alex didn’t cry this time, and so as a reward we went out under a big white oak to pretend we were hunting squirrels and see how we would go about doing it when we did actually go squirrel hunting. We took the rifle, unloaded. Alex sat there peering into the branches and got all excited when he thought he saw one.

So sometime this fall, we are going to go hunt squirrels. The boys won’t shoot of course. They’ll tag along, and I will kill a squirrel and show them how to skin and clean one, and I am sure Alex will cry again. But he has to learn that squirrels are not pets and they are evil and must be eaten or they will eat little bird’s eggs in the spring and we won’t have any bluebirds and goldfinches or cardinals.

Then eventually, as they grow older, I will have to teach him that rabbits and turkeys are evil too. But that is a long way down the line. The way my daughter is raising these two little boys, they may not shoot their first deer until they are 40. Then and only then, can I brag about how good I taught ‘em.

Please make plans to join me down at Bull Shoals Dam on Saturday, October 22. I will be there finishing a pair of wooden johnboats, giving away magazines and signing and selling my books. And there will be swap-meet folks joining me with hand-made fishing lures, hand-made turkey calls, hand-made fishing rods, antique outboard motors, old outdoor magazines, and all sorts of outdoor stuff of interest, probably 20 or so tables filled with outdoor items, many of them antiques.

We are doing this in conjunction with an annual event the Arkansas State Parks people put on called a Dutch Oven Cook-Off, in which a number of folks are cooking all sorts of things in Dutch ovens. You can sample the cooking, and learn how to do it yourself. It will all take place on the east end of Bull Shoals lake, at a big park pavilion nestled in huge oak trees overlooking Bull Shoals Lake. On the west end of the dam, there is a huge visitor center you will want to see, and I have been telling folks that since it will be right in the middle of the brightest of the fall colors, you ought to think about staying a couple of days and seeing everything in the area. Bull Shoals is back to normal, and there’s good fishing to be found there. Below the dam, the White River is full of rainbow trout, and you might think of hiring a guide for a half-day to take you trout fishing.

But I recommend that you get down into the National Forest south of Mountain Home, and see that country where Sylamore Creek flows, where Blanchard Springs Caverns are found. Take a tour of those caverns… spectacular! You might even want to go see the Buffalo River if you have never been there, float it if you have an extra day. Anyhow, come by and visit with us on October 22, and enjoy yourself at this big cook off and swap meet and johnboat building. I have hundreds of old outdoor magazines of all types I will be giving away that day to whomever wants them. The State Park number is 870-445-3629 if you need more info.

My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net, or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo.65613

Defective Dove Hunting

2011-09-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

Dennis Whiteside shows the big bass he caught on on his birthday, before releasing it.

Three doves winged in over the sunflower field where Rich and I were hidden amongst the stalks. I fired twice and they just kept going. At that time I had shot 8 shells without dropping a bird.

“Looks like I would get lucky just once,” I muttered.

“Maybe your best chance would be a dove that is just UN-lucky…” Rich thought to himself. I knew what he was thinking. He didn’t have to say it!

For one thing, those 20-gauge shells were bought on sale about ten years ago. Old shells lose their power. I am sure of that, though it hasn’t been proven. And for another thing, I had a defective shotgun.

My old friend Rich Abdoler had owned it since his boyhood, one of two model-50 Winchester automatics, and he knew I wanted one of those badly, so he sold me the one he least wanted. I figure he knew something about the guns inability to shoot straight, and took advantage of me. I am thinking about legal action, partly because the shotgun has a bound up poly-choke, one of those bulging chokes on the end of the barrel that you twist to adjust, from open to fully choked. It was stuck on full choke that evening, and the last thing you want while hunting doves is a full-choke barrel, and you couldn’t adjust it with a four-foot pipe wrench.

So you can understand why, by the time the evening was over, a top-flight experienced shotgunner like me had only killed two doves with 12 or 14 shells.

And honestly, one time I killed ten doves with ten shells, a long time ago when I was younger and not under so much pressure and had a really good shotgun.

So you shouldn’t be thinking I am just a lousy shot.

   I did have a pretty good dove dinner, if there is such a thing. Rich killed 8 doves that evening and gave me his. He was using a twelve gauge, because he was out of twenty gauge shells, having shot all he had the evening before at that very spot, taking a limit before sunset. So the doves I shot at were extremely wary, unlike the easy ones he had found the day before.

   I may never shoot that poorly again, and I doubt that I ever have before, and while it is extremely embarrassing for a grizzled old outdoorsman like me to admit to such an evening, you can see how journalistic integrity would compel me to report the bad outings with the good. I have always felt that honesty is the best policy when there is a witness.

You see some strange things when you are outdoors. That evening Rich and I watched three different doves light on standing sunflower stalks and peck away at the seed heads. Neither of us had ever seen that before. Doves are not known to perch and feed, as other birds do. They are ground feeders, and you have to have grain on the ground in fairly open areas to attract them. We saw three of them break the rules. But then again, I have spent enough time outdoors to not be surprised at anything I see. You can never say ‘never’ or ‘always’ about wild creatures.

Wildlife that doesn’t adapt at all seems to have trouble surviving in the changing outdoorsmen have created.

   My friend Rich Abdoler has been a Corps of Engineers Ranger on Truman Lake for many, many years, and he says this year there were seven fatalities on the lake. One of them was a man who died in an ATV accident. He says that the biggest resource problem they have on the 115,000 acres of public land around the lake relates to the illegal use of ATV’s, and the erosion and disturbance it creates. Men are becoming too lazy and overweight to walk, and ATV’s are the answer for a modern-day generation that wants to enjoy the outdoors without any effort. But you are nothing close to a hunter or an outdoorsman if you spend your time in the woods on the seat a motorized vehicle. Every year, there are thousands of people who die or are seriously injured on ATV’s. And you can never really see the woods as it is on one of those. But then again, there is a difference in being a hunter and a shooter. Today’s generation is losing track of the difference.

On that 108-degree day we had back in the early part of August, I floated the river with writer Jim Spencer and his wife Jill Easton. I wrote about that trip and mentioned that a very large bass had made a pass at my buzz-bait that day right near my boat. The bass was close, and I saw his tail as he rolled across the surface. So as it happens, I was on the river last week with my good friend Dennis Whiteside, paddling him down the river on his birthday. When we neared that spot, I told him about the big bass I had missed and eased him to within casting distance of that spot, where some big snags and a log rested in deep shaded water. I’ll be darn if he didn’t cast a white buzz-spin in to the exact spot and that big bass nailed it. He fought him awhile and landed him, we took photos of it and released it. It was a real beauty, and I will never pass that spot again without fishing it well. That big bass will get even bigger! You can see a picture of it on my website, that address given at the end of my column.

On Friday and Saturday afternoon, September 23 and 24, Sondra Matlock Gray and I will be at the Hammons Walnut Festival at Stockton Missouri handing out free copies of the outdoor magazine we produce. It is quite an event; if you have never been there you should come and see it. Then our big outdoorsman’s swap meet will be on October 22, at Bull Shoals State Park in north Arkansas, and it is in conjunction with an annual event they have known as the Dutch Oven Cooking Competition. Last year we drew about 1500 people to our swap meet, but they expect 2000 people to come to that Dutch Oven meeting, so we may have a big crowd. If you have outdoor items or gear to sell, you should attend this as a “vendor”. You can reserve space close to where I will be building my wooden johnboat, just by contacting Tabitha Stockdale at the Bull Shoals Visitor Center, phone 870-445-3629. Or you can e-mail her at tabitha.stockdale@arkansas.gov. Do that early so that all the spaces won’t be reserved already.

   If you want more information, you can write me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net. You can see recent photos from our Canada trip, or that big bass from last week’s trip, on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors. blogspot.com

High Heat and Tall Tales

2011-08-08T17:43:00.000-05:00

Jim Spencer shows off an excellent smallmouth! Photo by Jill Easton

Summer rivers often require pulling a canoe. Photo by Jill Easton

The heat didn’t ruin the beauty of the river in summer, and if you tried to stay in the shade, it wasn’t so bad. About mid-afternoon, it was 108 degrees, and I’m sure I have never been on the water fishing anywhere when it was that hot.

The fish weren’t tearing it up. I think most of them were reacting to the effect of warming water, and perhaps seeking deeper places to stay cool, wishing they had a cold watermelon! Fish love cold watermelon on a hot day.

Nonetheless, Jim was casting a small spinner-type lure he normally uses for trout, and he hooked into two or three hard-fighting smallmouth which were getting up close to two pounds. He’d land the fish, then release them quickly so they wouldn’t die of heat stroke.

Every now and then we’d beach my 19-foot square-sterned canoe on a gravel bar where there was a nice, cool, deep current and a chance to catch a fish, and we would wade out up to our armpits and cast to the other side. It didn’t work, for some reason; maybe the fish could smell us. In heat like that you sweat a lot, even in the water. I think maybe, in that river, we had an easier time of it that day than other folks in the Ozarks.

As I mentioned in my last column, outdoor writer and book author Jim Spencer and his wife Jill Easton, also an outdoor writer, spent a couple of days at my place last week when the heat was so awful. They were on their way to a trapper’s convention, as Jim still traps on the lower White River and has written a book on trapping.

When outdoor writers get together, they get outdoors somehow, so we went to the river and fished. The Niangua is one of my favorite rivers, though certain sections of it have been ruined by canoe rental companies who just pack it with people, and the refuse and waste that comes with great numbers of people, a number of them with drugs or too much alcohol. But there are places on this great smallmouth stream where the chaos and capsize crowd doesn’t go. That’s where I go. Only a few years ago, the biggest smallmouth I ever caught in an Ozark river, came from the place we fished last week.

I told Jim and Jill the story about that big fish, which I released, and showed them where I figured he still lives. When two outdoor writers are together, one can’t tell a fishing story the other doesn’t try to top. Jim held up that little brown hairy jig with a spinner on it and said, “See that lure? I caught a trout down on the White River not far from my house that would likely be able to eat any smallmouth in this river in one gulp.”

I listened, and though I hate to admit it, I think the story was probably true. Jim said it was a brown trout, and he figured it was a little better than 30 pounds. He was fishing with light action spinning gear and four pound line, after the stocking-sized rainbows that go 14 or 15 inches and rarely larger. The monster brown lay in deep water, and took the little spinner when it passed too close. Spencer was by himself, with a small net, and he kept the fish on for an hour.

“There was four different times I had that big trout up beside the boat, wallerin’ on top of my net, and all four times the net was too small to get him into it. The fourth time he gave a surge and the line broke. All I would have needed to land him was a big net, but who carries a net that big… who expects to ever catch a fish like that?

Big brown trout lurk in the White River, where they spawn in the middle of winter. There are a number of them in the fifteen- to twenty-pound class, and who knows how many that are larger. The biggest landed so far was 39 pounds.

About that time, Jill hooked a scrappy bluegill and hoisted it in. On those small spinners they were catching bluegill and green sunfish right and left, some big enough to put on a platter and make a nice fish fry.

On shallow places below the shoals, where you could see the gravel two or three feet below us, there were dozens and dozens of big black fish, slowly, slowly moving upstream. You could have gigged a hundred of them during the day, drum from two to eight pounds. I have never seen so many drum. Since they sometimes hit small lures, I am surprised we didn’t catch one or two. If you could have drifted a nightcrawler down along those gravel shoals and held it there awhile, I think you could have caught several.

But drum are not prized. The meat is white, and good, but the fish has such a large spine and rib cage that you have to have a big one just to get a filet of any significance. Nevertheless, no one complains about the fight they put up, as they are real scrappers. Before the day was over, we must have seen several hundred of them, a sight I never witnessed before.

We paddled upstream for hours, a couple of miles or better, than turned and headed back, well into the afternoon. I kept using a big buzz-bait, sure that I would hook a hefty bass that Jill could get a good picture of. Just before we reached my pickup, along a deep quiet bank with lots of logs, a monstrous largemouth bass followed the topwater lure and boiled at it right beside the boat. My jaw fell open as I saw his broad side and tail sweep across the surface. I am not exaggerating when I say he would have weighed seven or eight pounds.

Jim heard the eruption of water and turned to see the commotion on the surface beside the boat. “How big was that one?” he asked.

I just told him it was way too big to get in the net! But at least he didn’t break my line.

Last winter in early January, a friend and I floated an Ozark river hunting ducks when it was eight degrees at dawn. All day long the temperature never rose above twelve or fifteen. I have floated the rivers for years and years and years, beginning when I was just a small boy. In all that time, I never floated when it was that cold or when it was as hot as it was last week. But when it is hot, it is easy to cope with. You just get in the water, and stay wet all day. In that extreme cold, you are in real danger. With hip boots and heavy clothing, you are so bundled up you might not get out if you went in. Hypothermia is a killer that comes on you when you don’t know it is there. But what a day it was for duck hunting, mallards were everywhere. The only trouble is, I was so cold I couldn’t shoot worth a darn.

In 108 degrees, it is easy to cast, easy to paddle and easy to swim. Still, I think I will be happy when the cooling weather makes the fish hungry. In October and November, April and May, I won’t complain about a thing. If I should, somebody remind me about what July and early August was like. At my age, I might forget.

Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 and e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net.

Observations From My porch

2011-08-01T12:33:00.000-05:00

How to spend a very hot day and never complain about the temperature.

I sat on my screened porch this morning early, when it was at least as cool as it is going to get. A squirrel made a hole in the screen last winter, coming in to get at a bag of birdseed I had setting on a table. And a raccoon made a bigger hole last summer so he could get into a bag of corn cobs leftover from roastin’ ears I should have thrown out in the back lawn. So I am going to have to fix some places, when it cools down. I said that in February too… “I am going to fix that screen when spring gets here.”

As I get older, a lot more things go undone. You know what the problem is? When it is too hot, you can’t work, and when it is too cold, you can’t work! When it is just right, you remember how hot it was or how cold it was, and you take that time to go hunting or fishing rather than work, knowing those perfect days for hunting and fishing are all too few. That’s the way it ought to be. What harm does a hole or two in the screened porch do? If I just leave the screen door open, the coon won’t make the hole any bigger, he’ll use the door. And why worry about constantly mowing. My back lawn has a lot of wildflowers in it most all summer if I don’t mow, and there are baby rabbits in there, and more food for the birds if I don’t mess with it.

If you mow all the time, you have nothing but grass. If you don’t, there is variety and diversity, more wildlife and more birds. Dozens of species of birds live in the trees and shrubs behind my screened porch. One I saw this week was an indigo bunting and his mate. The female is very drab, but that male is a bright metallic blue, a tiny little guy whose color makes him stand out. I seldom see the bigger rain crows, also known as yellow-billed cuckoos. They are shy, and hard to see, because they actually see you and hide behind large branches. Their call is loud and raucous, a diminishing cluck, cluck, cluck, which old timers said would foretell the coming of a rain. Every morning and evening I hear them, and true to the legend, a rain always comes….within a couple of months. It happens every time I hear them.

Rain crows have had a feast this summer because they are one of the very few birds that will eat fuzzy, hairy caterpillars, and a huge crop of walnut caterpillars descended upon us in June. They stripped the leaves from walnuts and hickories and pecans, and some of the big trees in my lawn are nearly leafless. It won’t kill them unless it happens a couple of years in a row, and then it might. But nature doesn’t work that way usually, as things of mass destruction and aggravation, like those darned noisy cicadas, usually come in cycles. The numbers of walnut caterpillars across the Ozarks this year were unbelievable. They are gone now only because they changed into little brown moths with rusty-red colored collars, a little better than an inch long, and for the past week you could see them by the millions beneath lights at convenience stores. They have short lives; they just lay eggs under leaves and then die.

Sitting on my porch, I notice leaves on redbud and mulberry trees turning yellow, probably as a result of dry weather and heat. I watched a few yellow leaves drift down off the mulberry tree, giving just a little hint of the coming of fall, now only a few weeks away. Another hint is the maturing acorns on the branches of a giant white oak tree that grows nearby to shade my porch. That’s good news; we need a good white oak acorn crop for wildlife species of all kinds.

The heat is awful, and I suspect I should keep an eye on my pond, which I made years ago on this high ridge to give water to wildlife, a home for some fish and bullfrogs, and a cooling relief for my Labradors. As the water drops, the mud around it is an indication of all the visitors; raccoons and skunks, a fox and a bobcat, and several turkeys and deer. Because of the dry hot summer, we will see some deer dying in the Ozarks due to blue-tongue… also known as epizootic hemorrhagic disease. Deer which die from that awful affliction come to water to die, more of them in August and early September. Some years are worse than others, and I think this year will be one of those.

I still don’t know what the wild turkey hatch is going to be in this area. I haven’t seen many poults, but late-hatching turkeys are hard to see until late summer and early fall. The quail seem to be non-existent this summer, up here on Lightnin’ Ridge. In past summers, as I sat on my porch early in the morning and late in the evening, I have heard four or five bobwhite roosters whistling. This summer I have heard only one, and I heard him only one morning. What a shame that this Ozarks country will have fewer and fewer quail, until someday, I think we will have none at all.
Tomorrow, early in the morning, I will be on the river. An old friend of mine, outdoor writer Jim Spencer, will be here to visit, and we are going to float the Nianqua River and catch some bass on topwater lures. Another old friend, river guide Dennis Whiteside, reports that bass are clobbering the buzz-baits we love to use, if you know the water to fish. You have to seek out shady, deeper water with a little current to catch bass, but from now into September, buzz-bait fishing should be excellent for those who know what they are doing.

Jim Spencer and I began writing about the outdoors when we were just kids, back in the sixties. Looking through old magazines a few weeks back, I found an article he had written when he was 14 years old for Harding’s magazine, now known as Fur, Fish and Game. It was a trapping article, and he was paid for it.

Like me, Jim has always lived in the woods, his home now is at the edge of the national forest down in Arkansas, off in the middle of nowhere. We both obtained wildlife management degrees the same year, mine from Missouri University, his from Louisiana State University. About the same time, we began writing for Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines.

Not long ago, I found a book produced years back entitled, “The Best of Outdoor Life… the Greatest Hunting, Fishing and Survival Stories from America’s Favorite Sportsman’s Magazine.” In it were articles Jim and I wrote in the early 1970’s, and with our stories were others written by Zane Grey, Jack O’Conner, Archibald Rutledge and a list of famous writers who were old men when we were born, or long since gone. It made me realize that we are the last of a dying breed.

I don’t think the world will miss us when we are gone. That’s why we are going fishing tomorrow, with Zane Grey and Archibald Rutledge and Isaac Walton. It is going to be a great deal cooler, standing out in that current under a shade tree, than it is on my porch. If anyone needs us just… well, heck, nobody ever has needed us. I keep forgetting that!

My mailing address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. See www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com
Posted by Sondra Gray at 8/01/2011

The Little Jones Boy

2011-07-25T13:10:00.000-05:00

The two little boys were only 7 years old. Cousins, they had spent a day at their grandparent’s place in the country, and had wandered off down to the river, where they were forbidden to go. Their mothers had been distraught, threatening to never let them visit their grandparents again. Both had received a spanking, and they were pouting about the harsh discipline meted out. After all, their fathers had been there fishing only the week before, and the river sounded like great fun.

That evening they were sitting on the porch with their grandpa, and he was sympathetic. “Nothing seems fair when you’re seven years old,” he said, “and subject to the whims of cruel mothers set on keeping you from having fun.”

He had their full attention that warm summer night, as the sun began to set and they were all three enjoying a glass of lemonade Grandma had brought them. “I reckon it’s all because of that little Jones boy, years back, that they is so doggone mean to you two,” he said, “but I reckon we can’t speak of that, it's too awful to remember and I promised I wouldn’t tell you little guys that story. It was a bad, bad thing…best forgotten and too bad to talk of.”

It wasn’t quiet long. The two wanted to know who the little Jones boy was. Grandpa could tell that much, he reckoned. “Cute little guy… lived down the road apiece, but mean as a pet Billy goat. Course I can’t say anymore about him, cause nobody talks about it nowadays… reckon he’d be nigh onto a growed man now if he’d just not been so determined not to mind his ma.”

“Was that a whippoorwill I heard,” the old man took out his pipe, and seemed to want to change the subject. The two little boys wouldn’t hear of it. “Tell us about the little Jones boy,” they said, nearly in unison.

“No, no, boys,” the grandpa shook his head as he filled the bowl of his pipe. “It’s a story you don’t want to hear and yore mothers would skin me alive if I told you about that little Jones boy and the awful thing what happened to him.”

With an interest heightened by his hesitancy, the two begged him to tell them the story. “Please grandpa,” said one, “we won’t tell nobody.”

As the urging continued, the old man lit his pipe in the fading light of evening, swatted a fly with his fly swatter, and gave in. “Well, all right, I’ll tell you, but you’ve got to always keep this a secret between the three of us. Cause I may be the only man what knowed what happened to that little Jones boy.”

The old man sent a puff of sweet-smelling pipe tobacco smoke into the air, and took a deep breath, the two little boys’ attention riveted on him. “I reckon I was just a young man back then, when the little Jones boy up and disappeared. He was bad to just ignore his grandma and his ma, and folks thought for a while he just wandered off into the woods and might wander on back when he got good and hungry. Some folks said maybe he went off down to the river and got drowned or ate by a giant alligator snappin’ turtle or something, but his ma had told him never to go to the river, and she said he was sure to stay away from there, bein’ the kind of good kid he was.”

He drew a puff from his tobacco, noting he had the two boys in undivided awe; their mouths open with anxiety. “Only I never did figger he was a good kid. Mean as a snake, I’d say, bad to lie and sneak off, not mind his ma and kick old dogs and throw rocks at the chickens and that kind of thing.”

The old man continued as dusk settled and the sun left a blood red sky to the west, “So as I remember, that’s when I went down and set me a trotline for catfish in that big deep scary hole of water down there where you boys was just a couple days ago. And I baited it with big old worms and some shade peerch I had caught from the creek.”

With his two grandsons sitting on the wooden floor of the old porch before him, the old man shifted in his rocking chair and put his foot up beneath him, the way that old-timers do. The boys were totally enthralled with the forbidden story.

“Well sir, I tell ya,” the old man puffed on his pipe and listened as a screech owl wailed from the woods across the gravel road before the old farmhouse. “When I went back in the middle of the night, dark and scary as it was, I figgered I’d have me a big ol’ catfish. But I went out there in my ol’ boat and that line was hung up down deep on the bottom pulled back in under a big rock bluff.”

The screech owl wailed again, and the western sky began to dim as the old man continued. “I couldn’t pull that line up at all, so I just strips off my overalls and my boots, and I grabs my flashlight, and I dives into that clear deep river to see if I can unhang that hung-up trotline.”

Dramatically, he took his pipe out of his mouth and shook his head. “Don’t know if I should tell the rest of it,” he said quietly, looking at the floor beneath his rocking chair in mock anguish. The boys, beside themselves with excitement, urged him to continue the story, as they were now on their feet beside the rocking chair, hair standing up on the backs of their necks as the screech owl gave forth its eerie cry again.

“Well boys, you got to remember that its natures way to rid the world of the weak and the stupid,” he said, “when a kid won’t obey his mother, its like a little duck that gets off away from his brood and gets ate up by a big ol’ bass or a fawn that won’t stay hid, and gets ate up by a wolf…”

The little boys knew something awful must be coming. “Go on Grandpa,” one urged.

“Well I swum down into the deep dark water with my flashlight, an’ there he was, a humongous ol’ catfish the size of a full growed Hereford bull. A good axe-han’les distance it was between them beady little horrible eyes…”

Well boys I hates to tell it, I hates to remember it, but there ain’t no way to forget what I saw… there sticking out of his big ol' ugly mouth, full of jagged old teeth…”

The old man’s voice was just a whisper now, as he glanced over his shoulder as if afraid of what might be behind him… “Stickin’ out of his big ol’ ugly mouth was that little Jones boys leg!”

Years later when the two boys were much older, their mothers commented on how they never went near the river again when they were small. Sometimes it takes a grandpa to help raise little boys.

You can see this grandpa’s website at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. The e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net

The Rescue

2011-07-20T13:15:00.002-05:00

Larry Dablemont paddles the first official "float" of the new johnboat

Last November, I drifted slowly down a river in my johnboat, with a blind attached to the bow; limbs of sycamore and oak to hide me and the boat as I floated down the river. It was getting cold. I figured there would be mallards on the river, but there weren’t many.

As I looked downriver, trying to make out the movement of a flock of ducks, three wood ducks flushed from some brush alongside me, only twenty or so yards away. I dropped my paddle and picked up my shotgun in time to drop the last one of the three. A beautiful drake wood duck in front got clean away, but the other two were hens, and the last one folded cleanly and fell to the river downstream from me.

That night, I admired what a beautiful creature she was, and cleaned her, cutting out the two sides of meat lying to each side of the breastbone. The meat was dark, and red. I soaked it in milk overnight, and the next evening I cross-cut the two breasts into a total of 8 little steaks about an inch and a half wide, wrapped each in a small piece of bacon, sprinkled some special seasoning and garlic on them, and put them on a wooden skewer, with a slice of onion and green pepper between each piece of meat. In about fifteen minutes over a hot flaming grill, the meat was cooked, and it was delicious.

If you are a vegetarian, that is fine with me, but I am not. I like wild game, and I would not hunt anything unless I prepared the meat and ate it. That makes me a predator. You would think I would sympathize with other predators.

That brings me to only a few days ago, when I drove a couple of miles down the road that takes me from this wooded ridgetop where I live, and started to pull out on a two-lane highway, just beside a bridge over the river. As I stopped there, I saw another wood duck hen fly along before me, only a few feet from my hood, and right above her was a sharp-shinned hawk, death on wings.

The hawk nailed the woodie in flight, and drove her to the highway shoulder pinning her with its talons, and trying to rip away her neck with its sharp curved beak. I just stopped my pickup in the middle of the highway, jumped out and ran toward the scene of the crime, and rescued the squealing wood duck by threatening to make a football out of the hawk. It tried to carry the hen away, but he wasn’t quite as heavy as she was, and the hawk couldn’t get airborne.

Freed from the iron grasp, the hen waddled out into the highway as if stunned, the feathers on her back askew, her mouth open, squawking as only a hen wood duck does, a sound like no other on marshes or rivers. There had been no traffic, but I looked up to see a couple of oncoming vehicles now stopped, drivers frowning, not understanding the urgency of the situation. I got back in my pickup and the hen took to flight over the bridge, and was nailed again by the hawk. The feathers flew from her back when he hit her and knocked her to the bridge-top pavement.

What could I do? I jumped out again, screaming threats at the hawk, and the wounded wood duck dived over the side toward the river as the hawk retreated. I don’t know what happened to her, but I gave her a chance. Drivers in both lanes now were stopped, yelling something out their windows, hopefully directed toward that villainous hawk. If they were talking to me, I hope they are ashamed of themselves. After all no one should be in such a hurry so early in the morning, and patience is a virtue!

Reflecting on it later, I felt bad about what I did. Not so much about stopping traffic, but for not realizing the hawk had more right to take a wood duck for a meal than I do, because he was merely being what God created him to be. It isn’t his fault that he looks wicked and mean. Actually, I too have sharp toenails and little beady eyes. Certainly his plumage makes him more beautiful than I, and his graceful, swift and powerful flight is spectacular. When I am chasing rabbits out of my garden, there ain’t nothin' swift or graceful about it.

If the hawk had shot the wood duck with a shotgun, and cleaned her and cooked the meat, I would have less of a problem watching it. But the attack of the sharp-shinned hawk is swift, savage and heartless. In his talons, the duck would not die quickly; she would be partly eaten before her heart stopped beating. Maybe it is that part of it which makes it hard to watch, difficult for us to accept. Nature is perfect in its functions, but brutal at times.

I am a naturalist, trained and existing that way since boyhood, and I know what happens in the woods because I have always lived there and worked there. It doesn’t bother me to watch a hawk kill a rat, because I don’t care much for rats. I can hardly stand to see a little fawn or a baby rabbit killed and eaten by anything, even though I know the great Creator made it to be that way, and I need to accept it.

In the reality of it, there is nothing more brutal or savage than man. Man has this little streak of evil that wild creatures do not have. He is destructive, gluttonous and barbaric at times, and yet in most all of us, there is a ton of goodness, and compassion and sympathy. I see my friends and neighbors showing love and generosity constantly, and find it more often than not in complete strangers. But men are not part of nature any more. Neither am I. That poor hawk may have gone hungry that day, when God meant him to eat, to serve his purpose in nature thinning out the weak and sick, feeding his youngsters just as we must feed ours.

But if you were in one of those vehicles behind me, He meant for you to be a little more patient when somebody is trying to save a wood duck!!

What a great day we had at Bull Shoals State Park in north Arkansas, last Saturday, building an old time White River johnboat. A big crowd turned out and it was fun. We took the boat down to the lake and gave folks a boat ride and it didn’t leak a drop. Now we don’t know what to do with it. If you know someone in need of a 20-foot wooden johnboat like they made almost a hundred years ago, contact me. And you can see photos of the event, and the finished boat, on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

My publishing company has a facebook page now. You can find it under Lightnin’ Ridge, if you know the way to do that facebook stuff. The ladies who work for me, Sondra and Dorothy and Diane, take care of facebook and websites and computer stuff. I am a grizzled old veteran outdoorsman, and I ain’t never gonna get involved in such technical, modern nonsense. There’s fish to catch, rivers to float, wilderness to explore and computers are evil, to my way of thinking… like them darned hawks.
Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. Or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net. E-mails aren’t evil, I don’t suppose.

Hot Summer, Cool Stream

2011-07-11T13:05:00.001-05:00

If you have the ambition to get away from the air conditioning and get your body acclimated to summer, find an isolated section of river where canoe rental people do not operate, and plan a two- or three-day trip in the middle of the week with a friend who is inclined not to complain much about sleeping in a tent and having wet feet.

By doing so, you can actually get off away from the world’s problems. Float downstream and find a gravel bar or sand bar to camp on, where there is some shade of course. In the cool of the evening, find a deep shoal and wade out up to your waist above it or below it and cast a topwater minnow or a little popper of some kind with a spincasting outfit or maybe even a fly-rod. There will be bass waiting to jump all over that lure, I’ve seen it happen! When it gets dark, push your boat or canoe out into a big eddy fed by that river current, where there’s some deep water and rocks, and fish without lights, letting your eyes become accustom to the night. Cast a jitterbug toward the bank with a casting reel and a stronger line, and work it steadily across the surface.

If there’s a big bass anywhere close, he will jump all over that jitterbug. This time of year, the rock bank towards the upper end of the eddy where the current feeds it will hold the smallmouth, but the lower sections of a big deep hole, on the opposite bank where there might be logs and limbs, are where you will find river largemouth, and they can’t pass up a jitterbug either.

If the eddy is good and deep and has a bluff, chances are there’s a big flathead catfish, or several, maybe up to 25 or 35 pounds. I have caught a few catfish from small Ozark rivers that exceeded 40 pounds. Flatheads can be caught on trotlines set deep, across the eddy and baited with LIVE bait, like chubs or sunfish, or even small suckers. There are channel catfish in many streams too, and they will take nightcrawlers or dead bait, even chicken livers. It takes a lot of work to set and bait a trotline, and it involves some danger, as you can get entangled or hooked and pulled under by a weighted line. Have two sheathed knives on your belt to cut yourself free if you need to. If you set trotlines and run them in that deep water, DO NOT DO IT FROM A SMALL CANOE, USE ONLY A VERY STABLE CRAFT. I would never ever trotline from a seventeen-foot double end canoe! Actually, I wouldn’t even float the river in one.

I know it is hot, but I am tired of staying inside. I have fishing to do, and I have missed it. I don’t know that it was as hot when I was a youngster, fishing up and down the Big Piney River in July and August. There was no reason to hole up in the house, because we didn’t have air conditioning, and maybe everyone could stand the heat better because of that fact. What man has done to make life easier for himself has gone a long way toward destroying himself. Just think about that, there are so many areas where we have created monsters… not knowing it at the time. Maybe computers and televisions and some medicines fall into that category. I think everyone sees what alcohol and drugs have done.

Maybe air conditioning has us in a destructive grip as much as anything else. None of us would choose to live without it, but I know that men who lived without it stayed outside more and could take the summer much, much better. Of course our ancestors were tougher… they had to be.

We fished all through July and August, and as a teen-ager guiding float fishermen, we never let a 95-degree day never stop a daylong fishing trip. My clients would show up and we would start very early in the morning, when it was cooler. But we would float the river all day at times, always catching fish, even in the middle of the day. Of course, the river was more shaded then, because landowners hadn’t started clearing the banks of shade trees as much back then. There were a lot fewer cattle. The river had much more water in those times, and it was much cleaner. Shady gravel bars offered great places to stop and relax, and swim in a cool river current for a little while. Then it was back to fishing, casting to whatever shaded bank there was, where the water had a little current and a little depth.

It is a tragedy that so many of deep holes of water are filled in, and Ozark rivers drying up more and more. So many of the gravel bars now are covered with cow manure. It doesn’t have to be that way, as government programs pay for watering-devices up away from the river, and for fencing the cattle away from the stream, for setting aside strips of land which can be placed in grasses and planted in trees which support wildlife. Numbers of landowners have joined those efforts, and the results are amazing. But you have to pay for the work first, and then through the agricultural department, you are reimbursed for your efforts. Some landowners just don’t want to do it, and care little for our streams. But there are far more of them who would indeed join that effort if they just had the money to put up for the initial fencing, watering and planting. Of course, we have a state conservation department which has millions of millions of dollars they could use toward that purpose, and since they federal government would give it back to them, why wouldn’t they, as a CONSERVATION agency, want to see our rivers preserved? It could be done so easily, but it isn’t.

One landowner Bryant Creek, with some eroding banks along the river become worse each year, ask the Missouri Department of Conservation to come in and help him fix the problem. Two of the agency’s people showed up at his request, looked at the long stretch of eroding bank and said they could fix it for $18,000 dollars!

There is no money to help save our rivers…but we are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to stock elk, and a million dollars to finance a study to see if we have enough black bears in Missouri for a hunting season.

If the MDC would commit to a program of putting up the initial money to repair and fence off buffer strips along the streams which are so much treasures in the Ozarks, they would get it all back in little time, from the federal government. And all by myself, I could sign up dozens of landowners on our best streams who would be ready to make the change. Operating on nearly 200 million a year which we all give them, and wasting large chunks of that, the MDC will never spend a penny on such a rivers projects. I keep hoping that some private group like the Smallmouth Alliance, or Ozark Paddlers, or maybe even the Nature Conservancy, would just tackle one pilot project along one of our rivers to show what could be done. If you would like to see how this works, we will run a magazine article in the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal’s September issue, showing and telling what one river bottom owner has done with that government program, and why he says it has paid him big results… why he urges other landowners to do the same.

My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com, and you can e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net. Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, MO. 65613

No Icebergs for this Titanic

2011-07-06T12:12:00.000-05:00

   LEBANON, MO - I wouldn't exactly say this trip was a luxury cruise like those on the long running television show "The Love Boat." Nor, would I consider it a complete catastrophie like the one experienced during the famous movie "The Perfect Storm."

   Instead, our day upon the beautiful Niangua River proved to be one filled with adventure, moments of excitement and plenty of laughter.

   Our vessel, the oddly named Niangua Titanic," must have appeared a bit strange to many of the canoeist and kayakers occupying this portion of the river. Fortunately, there were no icebergs floating on the Niangua River this day.

   With two slightly overweight outdoor writers perched in the front half, the relatively short jon boat seemed to be a bit front-heavy as it headed down the river. I can best describe this as trying to carry an otherwise empty and flimsy paper plate with two loaded quarter-pound hamburgers sitting on the outside edge.

   Due to the interesting weight distribution and his location in the back of the boat, a much smaller veteran river guide Chuck Anderson of Lebanon rode considerably higher in the water. To outsiders, it likely appeared he was steering this unusual craft from high above the poop deck.

   "I've never paddled a boat with this much weight in the front," he said in an almost apologetic manner as we spun in circles through the first riffle. "It might take me a little while to get the hang of it."

   Outdoor Guide magazine editor Bobby Whitehead occupied the middle of the boat, while I was precariously perched just inches above the waterline on the bow. I'd like the think that some folks on the river may have confused me with Leonardo DeCaprio and his famous "I'm the King of the World" scene in the "Titanic" movie.

   "One bright point is that you have an excellent view of the river ahead," Whitehead jokingly told our 20-year-old guide. "You are sitting much higher in the boat than either of us."

   Fortunately, the river was clear, relatively calm and running at about normal level. It wasn't long before Captain Chuck regained his composure and had our boat almost fully under control.

   This exceptionally scenic stretch of the river just outside Bennett Spring, the famous Missouri trout park, is loaded with smallmouth bass and goggle-eye, as well as rainbow and brown trout. We were all anxious to test our skill at landing a few of these fish.

   "I always seem to have my best success using a simple marabou jig," said Captain Chuck. "This little lure will catch just about everything in this river."

   Rummaging through my limited tacklebox, I soon discovered a lack of marabou jigs. However, I did have an ample supply of C.W. Wilson's Crappie Rockets (www.crappierocket.com). Though these particular lures were not made from marabou, past experiences have proven the hair and tinsel jigs to be excellent fish producers.

   Soon, I was casting my lure to various likely spots along the river. And, it was almost like these fish had never seen this particular lure. Soon, I was enjoying one of my best float trips ever on a Missouri stream.

   After my third smallmouth in as many casts, Whitehead commented that these lures might also need to be called "Smallmouth Rockets."

   This little lure also produced numerous feisty rainbow trout and several goggle-eye. Nearly every stretch of calm fishing water seemed to produce fish.

   The others in the boat, too, were enjoying excellent fishing. Whitehead was using a small inline spinner and Captain Chuck stuck with his known fish-producing marabou jig.

   Though most of the action came while fishing from the boat, we would occasionally pull over to a gravel bar and fish both ends of a riffle. Here, too, we seemed to enjoy good fishing success.

   Even with the occasional spurt of excitement caused by riding out another riffle, our short day on the water seemed to end too quickly. The best part about ending our float was the One-Eyed Willy's concession stand situated on the gravel bar where we pulled out. Here, we enjoyed some delicious hamburgers, brats and other snacks following our float trip.

   Missouri offers many excellent rivers and streams ideal for floating. However, the Niangua River would certainly rate among the state's finest. Here, anglers and canoe enthusiasts will find plenty of outfitters, lodging and campgrounds to fill their needs.

   This particular float trip was hosted by fine folks from Lebanon Tourism and One-Eyed Willy's Campground and Canoe Rental. Numerous other similar facilities can be found all along this stretch of river.

   Folks wanting to learn more about floating the Niangua River or wishing to arrange for canoes, rafts or other watercraft can contact One-Eyed Willy's at 417-993-2628 or Lebanon Tourism at 866-LEBANON.

   It has been several years since I last floated a Missouri stream. This particular trip was so enjoyable you can be assured I'll be returning soon.

   But, float trips are not the only reason to visit this fabulous community. Here, there are more still great sites and attractions. For one, Lebanon is considered the gateway to fabulous Bennett Spring State Park. This is one of the most scenic and popular trout fishing areas in the entire state.

   Along with great trout fishing, the park offers fine dining, exceptional lodging as well as a modern campground with all the amenities.

   Lebanon also offers numerous fine restaurants including Dowd's Catfish and BBQ Restaurant, Napoli's Italian Restaurant, Andy's 417 Restaurant and Ollie's Ozark BBQ. Among the countless other attractions in Lebanon include the Lebanon I-44 Speedway, the Shepard of the Hills Outlet (world's largest Case Knifes outlet), the Heartland Antique Mall, the Route 66 Museum and Research Center.

   With all this and much more, it should come as no surprise that Lebanon was named to Outdoor Life's "Top 200 Towns for Sportsmen" for the third consecutive year.

LAKE MURPHYSBORO FOR GREAT EATING FISH

2011-07-05T20:32:00.003-05:00

Sitting on the dock fishing, one soon begins to talk with fellow anglers. I was surprised at the number of fishermen who are seeking fish to take home to eat.

Some anglers want fish for their family fish fry and do not need to catch and release all that they acquire. Some anglers just want some peace and quiet and a few fish for supper. Lake Murphysboro in southern Illinois is just the ticket for the angler in search of eating good fish.

As the clean waters warm during the summer, the catfish and bluegill fishing does the same. This 145-acre impoundment is located in a state park of the same name can be found about 1.5 miles west of the town of Murphysboro, Illinois in Jackson County. Camping, boat rent6al and access ramps are readily available. The 10-horsepower limit on marine engines helps to maintain a tranquility on found on the more popular nearby Kinkaid Lake. There are no pleasure boaters with whom to compete.

To reach the park travel Illinois Route 149 west of Murphysboro, turn north on Murphysboro Lake Road or Lake Access Road and follow the signs to the park.

The park’s hardwoods provide a shaded shoreline for the enjoyment of all on a hot summer day. Docks allow anglers to fish further away from the shoreline in comfort. Picnic tables are spread throughout the area and often find their way to the shore area.

Those wanting to fish without a boat can plant their lawn chair on one of the docks or along the shore and enjoy a relaxed atmosphere. Fishing pressure is not heavy during the week and only moderately so on the weekend. Holidays are another story. Trying to fish with all the family picnics going on can be a bit of a problem.

The numerous brush plies, submerged timber, rocks, drop offs and dead falls are home to an excellent population of bass, redear sunfish, bluegill, catfish and crappie. Fish attractors are strategically placed within casting distance of the docks. They are easily located by looking for a steel post sticking out of the water.

For the shore angler, the area from the concession parking ramp west all the way up to the disabled pier is a good bet. Another popular location for finding fish is in the far northeast part of the lake where there are numerous brush piles. Fly fishing anglers catch many bluegills from the well manicured shoreline.

The dam area and the small boat dock will also produce fish.

Weedy areas provide good cover for the lake’s sizable bluegill population during the summer months. Find the clear pockets in the vegetation and drop a worm impaled below a float for instant action. Bluegill and their cousin the redear sunfish tend to hold in water 6 to 8 feet in depth. Both will take worms, wax worms and crickets. The fish will be near the bottom. A popular rig is a small wire hook with a piece of nightcrawler impaled upon it. The weight of the bait allows the light line to sink to the bottom. If a float is to be used, the slip bobber is probably a good choice. One the depth of the fish is located, the slip bobber allows the angler to fish the same depth with each cast.

Good numbers of crappie can be found during the summer in water ranging between 12 and 18 feet. The area around the old concession stand area is a good place to start. The popular jig and minnow combo is a good idea. It tends to out produce the jig alone. Small minnows are preferred by locals.

In August the catfish tend to congregate along he dam and rip rap areas. Nightcrawlers and cut shad are the best baits. Other catfish locations are on drop offs in the north and east necks of the lake.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Old Boats, Old Times

2011-07-05T14:28:00.000-05:00

Norten and Larry in the canoe he used to guide float fishermen for more than forty years.

We’ve picked up the lumber for the White River johnboat we are building this weekend. The yellow pine log, cut at the Arkansawyer sawmill near Yellville, came from the watershed of the White River, and the boards are 21 feet long, 16 inches wide. What a boat that will be when we finish it! I am hoping for cooler weather next Saturday, there on the White River, where once upon a time there were nothing but wooden johnboats.

Rick Eastwold, the owner of Bull Shoals Marina, at Lakeview, Arkansas, says he has found a submerged White River wooden johnboat in Bull Shoals Lake that is about 60 feet deep when the lake is at normal stage. It may be nearly 100 years old, probably there when the lake filled in the early 1950’s. Because it has been underwater for all these years it should be fairly well preserved, but he is trying to figure out how to bring it to the surface without damaging it in anyway. I told him when he does that, I want to be there watching.

I am not sure what we will do with the johnboat we are building, but perhaps someone will want it for a museum or something of that sort. If you want to join us, we will be there, at the east end of Bull Shoals Dam at the State Park Pavilion, under big oak trees looking out over the lake, all day long this coming Saturday. There will be food and soft drinks, iced sassafras tea, and a couple or three old river guides who once paddled wooden johnboats down the White River for float fishermen from all over the world.

Today the White River is known for trout fishing, and right now they tell me the trout fishing is great because there are six generators running, keeping the river full. Usually this time of year there are low water conditions which makes trout fishing tougher. Fly-fishermen love the low water stages of course, but those who want to cast, or have a shot at the big brown trout on the river below the dam, like to see plenty of flow. Bull Shoals is very, very high right now, and they would be running more than six generators if they could, but the flooding on the Missouri demands that water be held in Ozark reservoirs as much as possible to keep the lower White and the Arkansas River from pouring so much water into the Mississippi.

Those who fish Bull Shoals Lake itself say the high water is great for future fishing, and if you know how to fish the lake now, you can catch plenty of bass, walleye and white bass. Some big walleye are now found in the White below the dam because they were emptied into the river with the huge releases of water necessary a month or so back. A guide at Gaston’s resort caught a big walleye recently on a night crawler right near the boat dock there, and the walleye had a 12-inch trout sticking out of it’s gullet. The trout in turn, had a hook and line in its jaw, so they theorize that the walleye took the trout from some fisherman who was fighting it on light tackle. That fisherman must have had some story to tell.

That guide I talked to said he has never seen so many walleye in the White below the dam as there are now. Norfork and Bull Shoals lakes, once known for bass and crappie and catfish, are becoming known now for some of the best walleye fishing in the Midwest. And there’s news this week of a new Missouri record striper taken recently by a Bull Shoals fisherman who had never caught a striper in his life… a sixty-pound-plus whopper.

Saturday, we’ll take time out from building that johnboat to listen to fish stories, and maybe tell a few. There will be pork sandwiches and baked beans, and potato chips and dessert, and cold soft drinks, even iced sassafras tea. I don’t know how many folks will be there selling paddles and old fishing lures, and wood-carvings of fish and wildlife, but there will be several. If you want to come and sell something relating to the old days in the outdoors, we have room, just call me and let me know what you want to sell. And if you have built a wooden johnboat, we’d love for you to bring it and show it off. We will also be giving away free issues of the Lightnin’ Ridge magazines, and I will be selling and signing my books. There’s a big visitor center-museum on the west side of the dam you want to be sure and visit too.

If you know any old timers who guided fishermen on any rivers in wooden johnboats, we would sure like to have them at this upcoming event as honored guests. We are bringing lots of old photos of those days that I think people will enjoy seeing, plus old magazines and posters from the 20’s to the 50’s. One fellow who will be there hand carves old wooden lures like the ones from those days, duplicates of the Heddon Lucky 13, the Bass-Orenos and others.

I am hoping my Uncle Norten might be able to come. My uncle guided his first trip in 1934 for 50 cents a day. For years thereafter he paddled wooden johnboats for fly-fishermen. Casting gear began to come on in the 1940’s, but you had to cast pretty good-sized lures to use those old reels and braided line. Uncle Norten guided fishermen every year of his life on rivers of the Ozarks except for the two years he was overseas during the war. That makes a total of 74 years of guiding through 2010. Who do you know that did something they made a living at for that period of time? I moved to Harrison, Arkansas in 1973, and Norten lived at Rogers at that time. We got together and took fishermen on trips on the War Eagle, the Kings, the Illinois, the Buffalo and Crooked Creek in north Arkansas until the late 1980’s when I moved back to Missouri. Uncle Norten moved up here in 2003, and we started guiding together again on the Niangua and Gasconade.

We used 19 foot square-sterned Grumman canoes, and sometimes were on the river for two or three days at a time, with camping gear and four fisherman between us. He guided on a regular basis for a dozen different fishermen who went fishing with no one else. Today they are all gone, and Norten survives them with great memories. The canoe Norten used was one he bought in the 1960’s, and he took his last trip in it last year on the Niangua.

Last week his wife and brother sold that old canoe, against his wishes. I tried to buy it and give it back to my Uncle, but to no avail. The new owner will never know the history and memories that old canoe holds. I seriously doubt if there is a river-boat or canoe anywhere that put so many miles of river behind it. We talked about those memories the other evening as my Uncle smoked a cigar and relived the old days, with tears welling up in his eyes. An era has ended. Another old guide will lift a paddle no more! He may well have been the last of them… except for me.

For information on this coming Saturday’s johnboat building day, call me at 417 777 5227 or email me at lightninridge@windstream.net. Information can also be found on my website, www.larrydablemont outdoors.blogspot.com

DROPSHOTTING BLUEGILLS

2011-06-29T09:45:00.001-05:00

Dropshotting, the popular bass fishing technique, is a variation on an old crappie technique. It is an effective technique for those days when the sun is high and the fish have lockjaw.

Bluegill anglers like to pursue “lunker gills” during the warm summer months and find them in the many ponds and lakes of the area. Lakes such as Crab Orchard Lake, Devils Kitchen, Little Grassy and Lake of Egypt are the best-known bluegill holes. But, there are other ponds in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge as well as city lakes spread throughout southern Illinois. Where there is water there are bluegills.

Dropshotting is a finesse presentation that is also known as controlled depth fishing.

It is particularly effective with light line regardless the type of rod and reel combination. For flooded brush fishing a long rod with four to 6 pound line is recommended. In jigging situations from boats stationed over a brush pile shorter rods can be effective.

Rig the line by tying a Palomar knot in the line, about 18 inches from the end, with a very long tag end. The Palomar knot is tied as follows: Double the line and form a loop three to four inches in length. Pass the end of the loop through the hook’s eye. Hold the standing line between thumb and finger, grasp loop with free hand and form a simple overhand knot. Pass the hook through the loop and draw line while guiding loop over top of eyelet. Pull the tag end of the line to tighten the knot snugly. Do not trim the tag end.

To the end of the line (on the tag end) attach a sinker. This can be a split shot sinker, but remember to tie a small overhand knot to the very end. It helps to keep the sinker from slipping off the end when caught in brush or rocks.

A piece of nightcrawler is threaded onto the hook. When the line is dropped into the water the worm and hook float above the sinker. Thus as the rod tip is moved, the action is applied to the bait not the sinker.

This rig can be cast, jigged or drifted. The key is to not move quickly. The idea is to wiggle the bait, not jerk it. Cast it out and let the bait sink. Watch the line float, twitch it and watch it float. Give it a shake occasionally which will cause the worm to twitch.

Bluegills relate to vertical structure such as sticks, trees and other vegetation in the water. On hot, sunny days they will seek out areas shaded from overhead light. This can be under docks, or a tree hanging over the water.

Fishing for these members of the sunfish family is a great way to introduce children to the sport as well as provide some tasty eating for the family table.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Boats Galor

2011-06-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

I have heard that the boating industry has been having a difficult time over the past few years. Probably that has a lot to do with the price of gasoline. But think for a minute about how many boats there are out there on inland waters across the country and in Canada. If you want a boat today, and want a bargain, you can find one. There are a ton of pre-owned boats for sale.

I only owned two fiberglass bass-boats in my life and that was a long time ago - they weren’t anything like today’s bass tournament boats. Both were very small, but that was thirty some years ago. Have you ever heard of a Kenzie-Kraft boat? It was a great fishing boat, made by a company in Oklahoma, but again, it was small enough to maneuver into flooded backwaters and heavy timber, and easily handled by a foot control trolling motor. I had a 70 horsepower motor on it, and that is the biggest motor I ever used.

I decided about thirty years ago that I wanted a lake boat that I could use for all the things I did, and I started using aluminum lake boats through the Lowe Boat Company in Lebanon that were capable of anything. I put a deck on the front of them, with a trolling motor and seat for fishing, which I could remove quickly when I wanted to use that same boat for duck hunting. Because I was an outdoor writer, I got special discounted writer’s prices, and usually sold the boats every two years and replaced it with another improved model, so therefore, I never had any money invested I couldn’t get back fairly easily.

But the idea of a boat for any type of outdoor activity, from bass and crappie fishing to trotlining and duck hunting, stayed with me. About ten years ago I started using War-Eagle boats which are all camouflaged, and I don’t ever worry about getting mine scratched up a little. It does a great job of putting me in a situation to fish for anything, or use it for hunting in any season. Because of that versatility, I can do more outdoors with my boats than those who own the metal-flake fiberglass bass boats can do, and for far, far less money. That may be the reason that today’s bass-tournament boats could fade away someday, to be completely replaced by metal. Cost, weight, versatility, and a fading popularity of fishing tournaments all play a part in that.

When the brightly colored metal-flake fiberglass bass boats began to come out, I lived in Arkansas, near Bull Shoals Lake, and I remember seeing those bright new boats sitting in front of mobile homes and small houses where a family did without a lot of things, or lived on government assistance. I knew a fellow who financed one of them with a 50-horsepower motor, and he had never owned a pick-up in his life that was worth more than a thousand dollars. It was something to see him pulling that bright new bass boat to the lake every Sunday with an old clunker needing a muffler, with rust spots on the fenders.

Those bass boats from twenty years or so back are still found all over the Ozarks, some sitting in a barn or a pasture with weeds growing up around them, and truthfully, though they aren’t very shiny any more, they still are just as good on the water as they ever were, if there’s a good motor with them. If you go out and look, you can find some of those bass-boats that aren’t much different in style from the new ones, for only a few hundred dollars. With some work, you can make them look really good again, and some of them have motors that can be repaired fairly easily as well.

Less than 75 years back, they were making little 4- or 5- foot aluminum V-bottom boats that were not very fancy at all. You could power one out on the lake with an 8 horsepower motor and go really fast, (at least for that time) find a good place to catch crappie, and feel like you were the luckiest fisherman in the world. There are thousands of them sitting around today in the Midwest, on old rusty trailers with flat tires. With aluminum prices as they are, they may be worth quite a bit at metal salvage places.

In Canada though, those little aluminum boats are still valuable, because outfitters can secure them to the pontoons of airplane and fly them out to little remote no-name lakes, and have a boat everywhere they want to take fishermen. Last August we visited several small lakes like that in Ontario, always with a little 9-horse motor you could carry around in the plane, and run all day on a gallon of gas. There was always great fishing, just because some old aluminum boat was there waiting, perhaps not used in months, but always dependable. I paddled two or three of them around fishing for bass and walleye and northerns, in waters where no big bright fiberglass bass boat will ever be able to go. Canada, and northern waters in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin, are not very good places for fiberglass boats because those lakes have rocks everywhere, just below the surface, and rocky reefs which appear out of nowhere in the middle of lakes so wide you may only be able to see one shore. Fishermen who come to Canada in the southern bass-boats sometimes don’t know what to expect, and over the past twenty years, thousands of fiberglass boats have been ruined on those rocks which northern lakes are famous for.

If the economy ever gets so bad no one can afford to buy a new boat, those of us who fish and hunt have little to worry about, there are enough good sound boats sitting around which haven’t been used in years which will do the job. They are not so pretty, but I learned years ago that it isn’t “pretty” that catches fish. The uglier my boat, the less I have to worry about it when I tie it up on the shore to hunt deer, or turkey, or run a trapline. The drabber it is, the more likely I am to be able to hide it when I am hunting ducks and geese. And it hasn’t depreciated much. I am thinking that the future of hunting and fishing boats made of fiberglass is not good. I believe if common sense prevails, fishing boats of the future will be made of metal.

I am looking forward to building the wooden johnboat down at Bull Shoals State Park in Arkansas in a couple of weeks, remember that we are looking for folks who want to come and sell old time fishing gear, or items which relate to the outdoors, like quilts or carvings, canned goods, paddles, old magazines, art, etc. See my website for details about that day-long event on July 9, at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot. com http://www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

I would like to thank everyone who sent messages of condolences to our family over the death of my father. We received e-mails and cards in overwhelming numbers, and they will be kept and treasured. Thanks to you all for and outpouring of prayers and sympathy. E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613.

FLY FISHING FOR CATFISH

2011-06-22T18:55:00.003-05:00

Fly fishing for catfish is a pro-active type of fishing as opposed to the more passive type of fishing we normally associate with this species. One cannot set back and wait for the fish to get the scent of a nightcrawler, cheese or dip bait. The fly fishing angler goes where the fish are and puts the bait on their nose.

The lower one third of a river is the favorite waters for this type of fishing. The size and aggressiveness of catfish tends to be less as one goes upstream.

The water to the lower areas tends to spread out and back up into the shallows. There is more wood in this section of a river and there are some flats available.

A popular staple of the fly fishing sport is a Number 8 rod. Attach a reel spooled with 27 pound Dacron backing, a fly line that is a standard weight forward one with a ten foot sinking section and you have a catfishing machine. The tippet is a fish deceiver. It is two foot of six-pound test monofilament line.

For lures, flys that imitate minnows work most effectively. Flys with eyes are probably best. These are often called streamer type lures. For color, light blue and white with some flash to them are a good choice. The idea is to imitate shad and goldeneye baitfish.

On the water look for shallow water of six foot or less near two to three foot deep water. It is not productive to fish deeper than ten foot. The fish are usually feeding up on a sand or gravel bar. Most often the early morning hours are the most productive with late evening being a second choice. In very clear water you can try the daylight hours. Some anglers will use a slip bobber to locate feeding fish.

The angler casts downstream and allows the line to drift across the bar as he makes a slow jerk retrieve. This action allows the current to swing the fly in a semicircle. The rod is used to bring it back to the edge of the deeper water or main channel.

You have to let the fish see the fly. Bump it off his nose.

Catfishing is a situational type of angling. There really is no perfect all purpose catfishing tackle. Always take multiple rods when going out on the river. What rod to use is dependant upon the area and water conditions. The fly rod approach is a very satisfying way to catch Mr. Whiskers.

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

Looking Backwards, Through Tears

2011-06-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

Dad shooting pool back in the day

Paddling a boat in later years

The author shown here with his dad

This will be a difficult column to write. On Father’s Day, my dad, Farrel Dablemont, passed away peacefully, with his family around him. He was 84 years old and had suffered for several years with Parkinson’s disease. He had been spared the tremors which go with that dreaded disease, but for the past year, walking had become very difficult. I am comforted by knowing that he is walking just fine now, the man who stood so tall and strong when I was a kid, who taught me little by little, over many years, the things a boy should know about living right.

My dad had many friends and family who have preceded him in death, and personally I believe that somewhere, wherever heaven is, there is a great reunion going on this week. And while there may indeed be streets of gold and great mansions in that place, I have a feeling there are also beautiful rivers and woodlands and wild ducks, and turkeys and fish. Dad wasn’t much of a fan of golden streets; he liked woodland paths with wildflowers in the spring and fall colors and a good tracking snow in the winter. He loved to float rivers, and while in my boyhood we were confined to the Big Piney and the Gasconade, as I grew up we explored many others, like the Buffalo, the Kings and the War Eagle in Arkansas, and one of his favorites, that we first saw in 1971, Crooked Creek.

We got to fish together one last time a little more than a year ago, before it became too difficult for him. That was quite a day, as we caught smallmouth and Kentucky bass and largemouth by the dozens in a stream not far from here.

His disease had taken the smile from his face, but he was smiling inside that day, and we talked then about how blessed he considered himself to be, with the very greatest of friends and a family blessed, I believe, because of the good life he had led.

He and my mother had moved up next to me in northern Polk County ten years ago, but dad lived most of his life over around Houston. His last twenty years of work, he drove a school bus for the Houston School District, and was so proud of that job and all the friends he made there. But of course you remember, if you read much of what I wrote, that he and my grandfather bought the pool hall in Houston when I was eleven years old, and I went to work there, from age eleven to the age of 16. I couldn’t wait ‘til school was out so I could head for my important job at the pool hall, where all my friends were, old men in their 60’s and 70’s we come to call the front bench regulars. What an education it was, the basis for a book I wrote a few years back, entitled “The Front Bench Regulars”.

On weekends, dad and I floated the river in one of the wooden johnboats he built, to fish for goggle-eye and green sunfish and smallmouth, or we set trotlines for huge flathead catfish up to forty pounds or so. We hunted ducks on the Piney out of those same johnboats, and in time I started guiding city fishermen on the river in those boats of his. Dad was proud to have built so many of those johnboats, and he perfected a johnboat with a plywood bottom in the late 60’s. In his lifetime, he must have built close to 110 boats. And we hunted rabbits and squirrels and caught bullfrogs and trapped a little and did everything you could think of that Ozark outdoor fathers did with their sons.

Dad had a close friend who was a blessing to our family, by the name of Charlie Hartman, one of the finest men I ever knew or ever will know. Charlie and dad were very close, and when I was young we hunted quail with Charlie because he raised and trained the very finest bird dogs in the Ozarks. And thinking back on it, I believe I developed the values I have today not only from what my dad taught me to be right and wrong, but from watching the men who were close friends of his, men who were the best examples a boy could have. His sense of humor, and quickness to laugh hard and long, were shared by those men, and spread to me at an early age. How could I not be happy? I was the luckiest kid in the world.

We went to country churches, we had big family get-togethers in the summer and fall, and I grew up. I never smoked or drank alcohol because dad forbade it, and made it plain that he set rules and I would follow them. I follow the same rules today, and have watched many of the boys from my youth ruin their lives with tobacco, alcohol and drugs which I never felt a need for. I had a dad who kept me too busy for that.

My dad looked at himself as a common man without much education, who loved to study the bible and tried to improve himself all through life in every way he could. He didn’t figure he did enough with his life, and he always regretted that. But he never knew the full extent of his influence, his teaching. He never knew fully the admiration people had for him, not for being some perfect person, but for being someone who loved other people, who wanted to do good things for those around him, and tried to correct his mistakes when he made them.

Today I am remembering the river as it was in early summer, when as a boy I floated with dad, casting a shimmy fly into swirling green pockets where goggle-eye and smallmouth waited in the depths. I remember the smell of the river just after sunrise, the sound of a paddle dipping quietly into the water, the singing of birds, the quiet roar of an upcoming shoal. Those days, long in the past, live with me still. I am not sorry they cannot be again, I am thankful we had them, and I still have them to savor and remember. And I believe, as strongly as I believe in the Creator that made those wondrous places and days, that there will be a time dad and I will be there again, floating a river more beautiful than any we ever saw, in one of those wooden johnboats.

But for now, I will go on doing the best I can here, with grandsons to teach what dad taught me. And there are many more stories to write about those good days when my dad was tall and strong, and I was young. There is so much I remember and so much to tell. I’ll finish a book someday that tells it all, when I get a chance to write it.

For those who knew my dad and would like to attend his funeral, the visitation will be at Pitts funeral home in Bolivar, 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, June 23rd. One funeral service will be at the Mt. Olive Baptist church north of Bolivar at 11:00 a.m. Friday, June the 24th. A second service will be held that afternoon at 3:30, at the Ozark Baptist Church a few miles east of Houston, Mo. where dad will be laid to rest, only a few miles from the Big Piney River he loved so much.

In the pool hall one summer evening, only yesterday it seems, I told Ol’ Bill I just couldn’t wait for duck season. He grew somber and said, “Don’t wish your life away boy… someday those treasured times you look forward to now will be treasured days you remember. When you get to be my age you will look backwards much more often than you look forward.”

DROPSHOTTING FOR BASS

2011-06-15T10:06:00.001-05:00

Dropshotting is a variation on an old crappie technique. It is a simple and effective technique for those days when the sun is high and the bass have lockjaw. It is not really a popular rig for the ground pounder but can be adapted to such use.

Tournament Pro, Rich Tauber recommends having one spinning rod rigged for dropshotting. His preference is a 6 to 6 ½ foot medium action rod. He spools it with eight pound green line. It can be used with bait casting equipment but the angler must go to heavier line and bait. For that rod set up he would use 12 to 14 pound test line and a 1/4 ounce or larger bait. For the spinning reel he uses a 4 inch plastic worm with a straight tail, not twister tail.

According to Tauber, the longer rods move more line when setting a hook. “They make you taller,” says Rich. “When all else fails,” says Tauber, “this rig is my go to rig.”

Gary Klein, describes dropshotting as the hot new deep-water technique. He calls it a light-line, finesse presentation that is also known as controlled depth fishing.

To rig the rod, one ties a Palomar knot in the line about 18 inches from the end with a very long tag end. The Palomar knot is tied as follows: Double the line and form a loop three to four inches in length. Pass the end of the loop through the hooks eye. Holding the standing line between thumb and finger, grasp the loop with free hand and form a simple overhand knot. Pass the hook through loop and draw line while guiding loop over top of eyelet. Pull the tag end of the line to tighten know snugly. Do not trim the tag end.

To the end of line (on the tag end) attach a sinker. This can be a split shot sinker, but remember to tie a small overhand knot to the very end. It helps to keep the sinker from slipping off the end when caught in brush or rocks. This technique is gaining so much popularity that special weights called “Bakudan” are being imported and will soon be available locally. Bakudan weights are ball shaped and have a swivel line tie. It also has a line clip that allows you to change the distance between the bait and weight without re-tying.

The worm is attached to the hook, much like a Texas-rigged worm, but without the bullet weight. When the line is dropped into the water the worm and hook float above the sinker. Thus as the rod tip is moved, the action is applied to the bait not the sinker.

This rig can be cast, jigged or drifted. The key is to not move quickly, more like fishing with an ice fly. The idea is to wiggle the bait, not jerk it. Cast it out and let the bait sink. Watch the line float, twitch it and the watch it float. Give it a shake occasionally which will cause the worm to twitch.

Dropshotting is one of a long line of fishing improvements that have come along in bass fishing. It won’t be the last. Give it a try this summer and see if it does not improve your catching success.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

One Month Away

2011-06-13T14:05:00.002-05:00

We finally have all the plans made for the big johnboat-building event I wrote about in this column a few weeks back. The Arkansas State Park system has okayed the whole thing and it will be held at the Bull Shoals State Park Pavilion overlooking the lake, under big shady trees. We’ll be building an authentic old time White River johnboat, and have other finished johnboats to display, along with artifacts from the early half of the last century on display.

Best of all, we are going to have several old-timers on hand who were guides on the Ozark rivers, men who paddled those johnboats down the White, the Buffalo, the Current, Jack’s Fork, James and Big Piney rivers. You can hear stories about what the White River country was like before the dams were built, and you can see old photos of the river and the people and the fishing from that time.

The Parks Department has also approved the selling of items from that era, so vendors who have old fishing lures and fishing gear, gigs, sassafras paddles, carvings, artwork, or similar items can set up there beneath the shade trees and sell their items for only 10 dollars per table. If you are interested in antiques, you may find some valuable old lures and fishing gear for sale on that day. My uncle Norten is trying to get some of his sassafras paddles made by then.

This whole area is beautiful, and there is a huge State Park visitor center there, and a 100-year-old johnboat dug from a sandbar on the White River years ago. State Park Naturalist Julie Lovett will be with us too, with some events she has planned to make the day even more enjoyable. There will be food and soft drinks there all day, and we will have a big kettle of sassafras tea with ice, for visitors to enjoy as long as it lasts. Best of all you can see some wooden johnboats on display, the boats that made Ozark river fishing famous. Only a mile away, Jim Gaston’s White River Resort has a restaurant which he has turned into a real museum, and the other direction there is the high tower which gives you a tremendous view of the whole region from a vantage point even eagles don’t climb high enough to see.

If you want to try your hand at trout fishing on the White River, come and camp for a few days, and if you do stay a few days, just a ways farther south you will find the Buffalo River, the Ozark National Forest and the Blanchard Springs and Blanchard Springs caverns. There are beautiful campgrounds on Bull Shoals and the White River, and dozens of resorts that rent overnight cabins on the lake and river. So plan to spend a few days if you come.

I’ll be there with Myron Nixon, working on finishing a wooden johnboat like they once floated down the White River a hundred years ago. We’ll be there all day Saturday, July the 9th. If you need more information, or want to set up and sell old-time items, call me at 417-777-5227, or get in touch with naturalist Julie Lovett or other State Park officials by calling Bull Shoals State Park, 870-445-3629.

HOT CATS OF SUMMER

2011-06-08T10:26:00.000-05:00

Part of the tradition of the south is catfishing in the summer. Southern Illinois is part of the south. After all, Marion, Illinois is actually south of Louisville, KY.

For the angler in search of some great catfish action, the southern tip of the state can not be beat. Locals fish for them using all sorts of gear from the jugs to salt water baitcasting reels. Here are some of the better locations for catfishing.

Crab Orchard Lake - This time of the year the best bet on the lake is the catfish action. Crab Orchard is accessible from Interstate 57 at Marion. The lake is a sprawling shallow body of water found on both sides of Route 13 about 4 miles west of the city.

Mid month the cats will be spawning in the shallow water. Leeches, cut bait and cheese baits will all produce fish. The later two are susceptible to spoilage and should be kept on ice. Caught fish should also be iced rather than kept in live wells or on a stringer.

To the south of Crab Orchard Lake on Spillway Road in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge is Little Grassy Lake. Little Grassy Lake is a heavily pressured lake this time of the year with the recreation canoe and kayak crowd using the lake during the daylight hours. However, for the angler willing to get out early in the day, catfish can be taken around the points on chicken livers, crickets, minnows and night crawlers.

Further to the south, down in Alexander County, is Horseshoe Lake where anglers drift night crawlers along the bottom in the evening. The action holds up throughout the summer. Try the middle of the lake during the night.

To the west of Carbondale, in Jackson County is Lake Murphysboro. This lake is next to Kinkaid Lake, famous for it's Muskie fishery. In Lake Murphysboro catfish action is also good in the evening but morning hours produce fish as well. Late in the summer, try fishing at night. Night crawlers, cut bait, minnows, leeches and stink baits work well.

Up north, of Marion in Franklin County is Rend Lake. The lake straddles Interstate 57 at Exit 77. Rend Lake is a large reservoir that is full of bragging size catfish. The action remains excellent in 3 to 4 feet of water. The best action comes in the coves and along the rip rap. Fish take cut bait, worms, crickets, leeches, and shrimp.

This summer may be just the time to explore the south, Illinois south that is! As the old song goes, it is summertime and the catfish are jumping.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

A Little Bolt of Lightning

2011-06-06T13:19:00.000-05:00

He doesn’t exactly streak across the floor like the flash of a bolt of lightning. He sort of bounces. But the little chocolate Labrador puppy I call Lightnin’ Ridge Bolt chases and bats at the soft sponge ball with his paw, then picks it up and bounces back to me, so proud of his accomplishment, and basking in the praise I give him for such a minor job. Since he is only six weeks old, it IS a big deal. I can envision him, nearly grown next winter, charging out into the marsh to retrieve a mallard drake that I have dropped in the decoys, and bringing it back to me; just as eager to receive praise for doing the job he was bred for.

Bolt will most likely be the last in the long line of dogs I began raising in 1978 when I lived in Arkansas. I didn’t know much about what I was doing back then, trying to train a Labrador, but I have a good idea now of what a Lab should be. Start them playing and frolicking with a ball at six or seven weeks, and make them into a companion, and figure if the ancestry is good, they’ll come into it like the moving of the hands of a clock, something that almost happens without you being able to see it.

Serious training at 8 or 9 months of age is great, but it is playing with a puppy at 8 or 9 weeks that pays the greatest dividends, and you can take that to the bank.

I have raised a ton of Labrador puppies. It began with old Brown-eyed Beau, my first retriever, a yellow Lab. Then there was Rambunctious, the chocolate Lab, one of the best I ever saw. Then there was Lad, even better perhaps, though no one who loves his Labradors tries to compare them. They are all wonderful. There was Simba and Czar, and Rambo, and Maverick, and their pictures can be found in my book on duck hunting, and in dozens of magazine articles I wrote about upland bird and waterfowl hunting over the years for magazines like Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Petersen’s Hunting and Gun-Dog. Bolt will be the last, I am sure, because I no longer have the time nor inclination to raise puppies.

At one time, I had sixteen Labradors here on Lightnin’ Ridge, bringing a half dozen or so when I moved here from Arkansas, intent on raising big, blocky old-style dogs with intelligence and hunting instincts. I saw the coming of the pointing-Labradors, and the field-trial Labs, and watched the breed decline because of it.

Labs were developed at the turn of the last century, off the coast of eastern Canada, bred to go out and bring in the tow ropes of ships in harbors. They were heavy-bodied, not skinny, most from 80 to 100 pounds. They were not fast, but with strong, heavy bodies and stamina to survive that cold, cold water. Their heads were blocky and their eyes focused on yours, and held an intelligence that was amazing.

In my opinion, they should still be that way, not wiry little fast dogs trying to win some stupid field trial trophy, or crossed somewhere with solid-color German shorthair pointers. Those field trial dogs are high- strung, fast, and lacking in intelligence, and today you can see it in dogs which won’t sit still, and are about two-thirds the size of old-style Labradors that hunters valued so much a half-century ago. They have scrawny looking faces, and their eyes give away their lack of intelligence.

Show dog breeding didn’t hurt the looks of Labradors, but show-dogs lost the instinct to retrieve and hunt. Puppy mill breeders in the last thirty years, trying to make fast money out of the popularity of the breed, hurt the Labrador even more. I look at those people with a total disdain, not just because of how they have damaged the breed so badly, but because of how they hurt individual dogs. How could anyone be so cruel as most of those people who raise puppies and sell to brokers? How could there be such a class of people, so greedy and with so little compassion, people who put puppies on wire floors, and confine dogs to small boxes and concrete floors that destroy their bone and joints?

I raised puppies to sell too, but none ever went to puppy mill breeders. I sold only to hunters, and those who wanted companions and pets, and there were indeed occasions that I refused to sell a puppy because I knew what would lie ahead for it. I learned that I had to watch for the puppy mill people, but most of them couldn’t afford my pups, and most wouldn’t stay long after they found I stopped using American Kennel Club to register my dogs.

My kennels were big and roomy, with shade. Anyone can come to Lightnin’ Ridge today and see them, though most are empty now. I bought plastic kids swimming pools for their kennels, and kept them filled with water in the summer. In time, when I could afford larger stock tanks I used those. I learned how they loved the cold, and hated the heat.

I only put my Labs on concrete when we had a female with puppies, so we could keep it cleaner, and keep the puppies inside controlled-temperature kennels. I don’t know how many puppies we raised, but there were a lot. And we doted over them like grandparents.

Now here I am after thirty years of raising puppies, down to my very last litter. I only have three grown Labs now. They are getting old, and none will have puppies again. These little chocolate siblings of Bolt’s will go to homes where most will be house dogs, companions and occasional hunters, as Bolt will be. All my personal Labradors were house pets, taught to stay on their rugs beside me, wherever I was, in my workshop, my office, or in the living room watching a ball game, or beside my bed where I slept.

Some of the Labs I raised over the years were trained to be drug dogs, some specially trained as guide dogs or companions for special needs. Several of them saved lives. One saved a Kansas family by alerting them to a house fire one night as they slept, frantically insisting they awaken, just in the knick of time. That big male was only 11 months old at the time. My dogs were too slow for field trials, and they did not point. They hunted close to me when I hunted pheasant or grouse, they found cripples, retrieved ducks when ice was forming thin layers and the cold winds numbed my face. This little puppy, Bolt, will do the same. And he will be the last of the Lightnin’ Ridge Labradors.

If you have an interest in Labradors, I urge you to please read the Chapter in my book, “Memories from a Misty Morning Marsh” entitled, ‘Aladdin’s Story…A few words on selecting and training a Labrador puppy’.

I will include that in this weeks contribution to my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com, in which I will put some pictures soon of many of my Labrador favorites from years past. And if you want a Labrador puppy, forget championships or distant ancestry and find a puppy whose sire and dam (both of them) are the kinds of dogs you want to see in a puppy. That above all else, will give you the kind of dog you want. Stay away from field-trial dogs and pointing Labradors.

Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or e-mail lightninridge@windstream.net

CATCHING AMERICA'S FISH

2011-06-01T20:04:00.000-05:00

Ask any angler regardless of his prowess with rod and reel, how he got started fishing. Chances are good that he began catching one of the catfish species from the lowly bullhead to the larger flathead, channel or blue cats. It is truly America’s fish. They are found in large rivers, impoundments, creeks, salt water or fresh. They are everywhere!

I began with bullheads in a creek near my home in northern Iowa. It has become a life long love affair with the whiskered wonders.

Channel catfish are probably the most popular single species of fish for eating and catching. Almost every angler with whom one speaks has a theory on how to fix catfish bait and where to find the big ones.

Catfish anglers are probably the most laid back and comfortable fishermen. They tend to like a leisurely time. The rigs are simple with a weight and hook on a line that is cast into the probable location.

A long slender fish, the channel catfish is a pale blue or greenish above and whitish or silver below. Although similar in size and shape to other catfish, the channel cat can be identified by its forked tail and the black spots on its side. Popular with aqua culturists, they are very suitable for fish farming operations.

They reach a keeper size of 12 to 14 inches by their third or fourth years. These are generally regarded as the best eating fish. The largest fish reach at length of 40 inches and a weight of 30 pounds. Larger ones have been known to exist but they are rare and usually constitute record class.

Channel catfish tend to seek out clean water with sand, gravel or rock bottom. A nocturnal feeder, channel catfish spend most of the year hidden in cavities or lying in deeper pools during the day. At night they move to shallower water to feed.

The external taste buds of the catfish are located in the four pairs of barbels or whiskers of the animal. These bottom feeding senses of taste and touch are more important than its sight. While moving across the bottom, they feed on fish, insects, crawfish, mollusks and some plant material.

Once the line is cast, the rod is propped up on a forked stick sunk into the bank. Other variations on this theme are used from either boats or on shore. But, the theme is basic.

Bait used for catfish is either live or dead and can range from minnows to leeches, crayfish, catalpa worms, leaf worms, red worms, frogs and cut bait. Some people will use chicken or turkey livers.

For the most sophisticated catfish angler there are patterns to fish. One of these is especially popular on small rivers and streams during summer.

Ground pounders wade and fishes live bait. The pattern involves fishing the bait below a slip float and allowing it to drift downstream over the larger holes, washouts, undercut banks, beneath brush piles and other dark hide outs.

The idea is to present a natural presentation of the bait by allowing the current to drift the bait in a natural manner. The bait is set so that it floats just a few inches off the bottom. Good baits for this kind of fishing include minnows, grasshoppers, crayfish and nightcrawlers. These are natural forage for the catfish as they are swept away into the current during rain or flooding.

During periods of overcast or drizzle, channel cats cruise the flats in search of food much as they do at night. Fishing in such conditions calls for a 3-way rig. One of the swivels is attached to the line that goes to the rod. The second is attached to a drop line of about 8 inches that has a heavy sinker on it. The third swivel goes to a line of about three-feet in length and has a hook on the end. The bait on the hook is allowed to float off the bottom and present either a minnow or leech in a natural looking presentation.

Cast upstream, allowing the bait to wash along the bottom and fall off the edge into any holes. Catfish will often be waiting in ambush.

Another pattern for the ground pounder is looking for a point of land or a large tree that has fallen into the water and is blocking current. Often fish can be found in the eddy hole behind the current break.

It is a good idea to remember that catfish love cover. They will hold around rocks and stumps in rough areas. Once one sets the hook, the fish will do his best to break the line. It is a good idea to use a tough line of at least 12-pound test and the same color as the water. If seeking larger fish, try one of the braided lines with more strength.

Tough line helps prevent the sandpaper-like teeth of the catfish from wearing or weakening the line. That can cause a beak at the most inopportune time. A high quality tough line will allow the angler to fish around rocky, stumpy underwater terrain.

Catfishing is a great way to spend the day or to introduce someone new to the sport. It provides action and good chance of success with a great dinner in the evening. With some of these tips, anglers can fish more rivers and streams closer to home. It will increase quality time on the water for young and old.

Back-water and Green Leaves

2011-06-01T09:39:00.000-05:00

On Millwood Lake, many Junes ago,
Floyd Mabry entices a bass from a jungle of flooded greenery on a topwater
lure.

I saw Bull Shoals Lake this past week, filled with water higher than it has ever been since the massive dam on the White River created it more than 60 years ago. The White River below the dam is also flowing more water than ever before, and has wreaked havoc on trout docks and resorts. Gaston’s White River resort had removed all their boats and one end of their dock, which probably accounts for one fifth of their boat slips, had been crumpled and destroyed by the high water. Stetson’s resort, one of the prettiest places on the White, had water flowing into their offices at one point, and docks on the lower part of the river toward Cotter had suffered similar flooding, and damage.

Because of the time of year, Bull Shoals, as all other Lakes in the Ozarks, has water backed way up into the tributaries, and that’s where the bass will be found. Bass are drawn into those shallows in June, even in fairly clear water, and early in the morning and late in the evening, you can catch them there, around the green branches of flooded trees and heavy cover.

I first experienced that kind of fishing on Table Rock when I was just a teenager at School of the Ozarks College. The college owned land on Clevenger Cove, and there was an old aluminum boat there next to an old abandoned farmhouse. A friend and I would sleep in that old house on sleeping bags laid out on a canvas tarp. That way we could fish until dark, and again at the earliest light. We paddled that old boat around, no motor of course. Who needed one?

In June one year, when the water was high, we’d just slay the bass on topwater lures like those big, long Rapalas or Lucky 13’s, even Jitterbugs and large Hula-Poppers. As the day wore on, we would switch to a big spinner bait and fish it over the top of flooded briar patches, and watch bass come up out of that brush and get it.

The fish would be at various depths, but always around that green vegetation submerged by the high water. One morning in June, with mist rising from the water before sunrise, I made the mistake of a long cast with a topwater Rapala, letting it settle on the surface in the very tip of the cove, over submerged greenbrier bushes. I made it look like a crippled minnow and a huge bass was convinced that was exactly what it was. He apparently was hungry, or had something against crippled minnows. He took it with a great deal of aggressiveness, wallowing a bit on the surface, and I got a good look at him even at the distance I had cast. He was at least seven pounds in weight, maybe better, and I was using old tackle that couldn’t overcome his ambition to take that lure into the brambles. The struggle was great, but short, and I lost the lure. I could do without the bass, but it was a time of my life when topwater lures were treasures.

Years later, I had good luck on Truman lake when it was high, doing the same kind of fishing in June with a spinner bait over flooded brush. And using a Zara Spook on Bull Shoals around flooded green vegetation, I got the best of some awfully big bass late and early on June days gone by. But the best such topwater fishing I have ever enjoyed was on Millwood Lake, fishing in a jungle of flooded brush way back in the woods with a fellow named Floyd Mabry, who worked for Bomber Lure Company. Those bass weren’t huge, most ranged between two and four pounds, but there were lots of them. He was showing me a new topwater lure that Bomber was making with propellers, and I can’t even remember what it was. But it worked. It was the last time I fished Millwood, way down in the southwest corner of Arkansas, and I have wanted to go back every year when early summer rolls around. If only I could afford the gas!

If you like to catch bass, I suggest you find a flooded cove in your favorite lake, and try to fish around a mixture of water and green leaves, sometime just after first light or just before it gets dark. Use a big spinnerbait close to the surface, or a big topwater lure that kicks up a ruckus to attract bass. Actually, a big long Rapala wouldn’t be a bad choice either. But have a strong rod, and heavy line!

I am sending a letter this week to the Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, asking him to explain the department’s connections with a Kentucky organization known as the Appalachian Wildlife Federation. Last fall, the MDC got 50,000 dollars from them, and turned over to them the information on tens of thousands of hunting license holders like you and me. I resent the fact that my name, address and social security number was given to any private group.

Thousands of you, like me, were sent, via U.S. mail, a package touting a big drawing for which about 16 high-powered rifles and several expensive big game hunts would be awarded. One of those hunts was hailed as a Missourian elk hunt in Kentucky; another was a big game hunt in Canada. All you had to do was send them 25 dollars per ticket, and they enclosed several. If you sent the Appalachian Wildlife Fund the money and the tickets, you’d be included in the drawing. Who knows how many Missourians sent them money for those tickets. I didn’t.

Suspicious of this whole thing, I called the only name given for the Appalachian Wildlife Fund. His name was David Ledford, in Kentucky, though recipients of the tickets were asked to send their money to an Ohio address. I asked Mr. Ledford if he would give me the name and address of the Missourians who won those expensive hunting trips and the 16 high-powered rifles. He hung up on me!

I will ask the Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation to disclose what kind of relationship the MDC has with Mr. Ledford’s group, and if they (the MDC) can tell me who won all those expensive rifles and trips. I am figuring that I won’t get the names, and if I don’t, I am going to wonder if the whole thing was a scam. I will pass on to readers what I find out. In the meantime, maybe there is a reader somewhere who sent in payment to the Appalachian Wildlife Fund for the chance to win something. If you did, let me know what information you received in return about the drawing.

I will say this again; for this type of thing, and many other things the MDC has done, an investigation should be conducted of that agency by our state’s attorney general. There isn’t room to detail all of it here, but in future columns I hope to relate some of what I have been told by MDC employees who want to see such an investigation regarding department spending they believe to be illegal. When this comes from within the department itself, it needs to be looked into. No news media in the state seems willing to go against this powerful agency, and they are the only agency in our state whose spending cannot be tracked. It is simply unbelievable that we have come to this.

My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com, E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net, or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613

TRY NIGHT FISHING FOR GREAT FUN

2011-05-25T14:08:00.001-05:00

Night fishing for catfish is a relaxing and peaceful pursuit. The whine of the reel as line pays out to a spot in the structure or vegetation. It seems so much louder in the night. It is a beautiful sound as the bait hits the water with a muffled splash. Placing the rod in the rod holder the angler sits down to enjoy the experience.

Y-e-o-o-w!!!, comes a cry across the water. Sitting on fish hook can bring home to one that organization is also important in nighttime angling.

Night fishing becomes important this time of year for two basic reasons: weather and recreational pressure. The heat of the day is often oppressive and the cooler temperatures of evening bring out feeding fish and angles looking for relief. Recreational boating pressure from non-anglers makes the daylight hours less productive for the angler.

During the summer the fish's metabolism is at a high point and he feeds frequently. The weather may be hot but there is a distinct lack of fronts going through to upset his lifestyle. The lush vegetation, provides ambush points for the catfish to lay in wait and allow the hapless minnows come to him. Competition for the food source from other fish is low as the weeds tend to scatter the fish of all species.

The water near the surface is warm and tends to be uncomfortable for the catfish. It is generally inhabited by smaller fish as they try to escape the big guys who are trying to eat them. The larger fish are found deeper in the comfort zone that is best of them.

Sitting on bait is not the only reason for organization in night fishing. Safety is another. It is important that the angler know the body of water well. If not already familiar with it, perhaps one should spend a day or two scouting during the daytime hours.

Learn where navigational dangers are to be found. This can be things like abandoned bridge or dock pilings. It also should include shallow water areas and submerged logs.

Once back at night, it is important that the angler is sure his night vision is in working order. Do not look at bright lights as that will temporarily spoil the night vision for several minutes.

It is important to close tackle boxes and stow unused rods out of the way. The fewer objects around the better for safety. Any tackle or coolers are best located about an arms length from the angler. This lessens the need to get up and walk around. You do not want something that could lead to trips and injuries in your area. It is a good idea to wear a PFD (personal floatation device) in case of an accidental fall into the darkness.

Night fishing is not all that productive right after sunset. One can use those hours to get into position for the nights action. By getting into position one can be sure of finding just the right location for the evening’s activities.

Night fishing is more comfortable from an angler's point of view. But, it also is a time when his senses become more alert and fine-tuned to the environment. Try it you will like it!

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

John-Boat Building Event

2011-05-23T13:23:00.001-05:00

As far back as I can remember it seems as if I was part of a wooden johnboat. I recall sitting in one of my grandfather’s johnboats on the creek behind his house when I was very young, sensing that I belonged there. Grandpa Dablemont had built a number of johnboats, the first of them long before I was born. He had learned to do that when he was just a teenager, using an old johnboat some farmer had left tied up on the Big Piney River. He got lumber from local sawmills and he and his brother kept figuring out ways to improve them.

By the time I came along, my grandfather’s johnboats were known all over the Ozarks. He made them to use as a fisherman, hunter and trapper, but also to sell to others, for as little as ten or fifteen dollars each. I remember being at his cabin on the creek which flowed into the Big Piney when he would have three or four of them in various stages, sitting on sawhorses, and maybe a dozen sassafras paddles being made at the same time, all with old time tools; hand-saws, planes, hammers, draw-knives, and wood rasps. He never once used an electric tool. When he died, his cabin still had no electricity.

Grandpa began to rent his boats, and his sons began to guide fishermen, long before I was born. By the time I was twelve or thirteen, I too was paddling johnboats down the river for fishermen with fiberglass rods and old Shakespeare or Pflueger casting reels with braided nylon fishing line. Dad was making johnboats by that time, and he was improving them even more, with his electric tools and the new concept of plywood bottoms which could be sealed, and therefore not have to be kept ‘soaked up’.

Before the plywood came along in the early 1970’s, Grandpa’s boats were made with pine cross-boards which had to be nailed on with about 1-8th inch cracks between them. When they were soaked in the river or creek, the boards swelled together so tightly that the boat didn’t leak. If you sat them up on a sawhorse in the back yard, you had to keep an inch or so of water in the bottom of them to keep them from drying out and leaking. If built properly and kept wet, those johnboats didn’t leak a drop. My dad and grandfather may have built and sold several hundred of them over the years to be used on those northern flowing rivers, the Big Piney, the Roubidoux and the Gasconade.

Different types of johnboats were built on the larger southerly flowing Current and White River systems. They were longer, and made with three boards running lengthwise on the bottom, rather than the crosswise boards we used on shorter boats. There were dozens of johnboat builders, but some were much better known because they built more boats. Charlie Barnes and his brothers began before 1920 down at Galena, Missouri, building johnboats for the James and White Rivers, and when entrepreneur Jim Owens came to Branson in the 1930’s and made float-fishing famous across the nation because of his publicity capabilities, he made Charlie his top boat builder and guide. The boats Charlie built had boards running lengthwise on the bottom, specially cut at Ozark sawmills out of yellow pine. They fit together with a kind of tongue and groove carpentry that must have taken some doing, and often sealed with tar and rags. Some leaked a little, but not much, and a little bailing solved that problem. In that time, with Jim Owens running three- or four-day trips down the White from Branson, and transporting the boat back by railroad flatcars, they needed lots of boats, most of them 18 to 20 feet long, but some even longer. Men who worked for him recalled commissary boats, boats used to transport camping and food supplies ahead of the floaters, being 24 feet long.

My grandfather’s northern Ozark johnboats needed no ribs, as most were only 14- to 16-feet in length, but Charlie Barnes built his with metal ribs spaced about two feet apart, running across the bottom of the boat and partway up the sides. Current, Jacks-Fork and Eleven Point johnboats were usually made with wooden ribs. Barnes liked to find old wagon-wheel rims that he could use for ribs.

I don’t know how many johnboats I paddled down various rivers over the years before metal johnboats and canoes came along, but I can tell you, it seemed as if a sassafras canoe and johnboat were an extension of my body back then. Eventually, working as a naturalist on the Buffalo River, I built a few wooden johnboats as part of interpretive programs.

In the late seventies I wrote a book for a New York City Book Publisher entitled, “The Authentic American Johnboat” It sold about 100,000 copies and years after it was out of print, I noticed that copies were starting to sell over e-bay and Amazon for 80 to 100 dollars. So I rewrote that book, included a great deal more material in the new version, and entitled it “Rivers to Run, Swift Water, Sycamores, and Smallmouth Bass”. In that book there’s an entire chapter on how to build a wooden johnboat, including original plans on building a White River Johnboat, put together by Charlie Barnes himself.

On Saturday, July 9, Myron Nixon and I are going to build a 20-foot replica of Charlie Barnes' White River boats, and a 15-foot version of my grandfather’s Big Piney johnboat. We will do this at the Bull Shoals State Park Pavilion just a few hundred yards east of Bull Shoals Dam, just off the highway in a spacious, shaded stand of big oak trees, not far from where hundreds of wooden johnboats once floated down the White. We can do this because of the interest, and the help of Arkansas State Parks Interpretive Division, and the Bull Shoals Park Interpretive Specialist Julie Lovett.

We are still planning all this, but we hope to have other johnboat builders there with finished johnboats, and items from the early 1900’s like sassafras boat paddles, old gigs, fishing lures, antique items like rods and reels, trotline spools, fish nets etc. If you have those things and want to display them, please plan to be with us. We will display hundreds of old photos and hope to have old-time river guides come and join us so visitors can meet them and hear their stories. We also will have a catered dinner for those who are hungry, and will schedule an hour in the afternoon to go down to the river and give visitors rides in an authentic wooden river johnboat, and teach would-be river floaters how to paddle a boat or canoe from one side.

There isn’t room here to get into all of what we hope to do on that day, but if you want to be a part of it, or if you wish to display or sell artifacts from river life in that day between 1900 and 1950, contact me so we can reserve a space for you. If the State Park System okays it we will set up spaces where vendors can sell wooden paddles or carvings, old hand-made fishing lures, etc. At any rate, the plans are being made, and I will give more information on this free event in future columns. At that time, I will be able to give the names of some of the people who will be there for you to meet, and a schedule of talks and events. There will be a lot of interesting people involved in the celebration of the old boats and the old days on the rivers of the Ozarks. The place will be the State Park just east of Bull Shoals dam near Lakeview, Arkansas. The date will be Saturday, July 9, all day long.

Contact me by writing Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613, or e-mailing lightninridge@windstream.net. Get more information from www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

Devil's Kitchen Shellcrackers

2011-05-18T08:21:00.000-05:00

Watching the gold line slide out from the submerged tree branches is a thrill. Knowing that a sunfish was on the other end of the line means that we feast tonight. Shell Crackers (redear sunfish to northern anglers) are a staple in the clear waters of Devil’s Kitchen Lake in Williamson County. Further south the shell cracker feeds on snails. Snail habitat has little live vegetation. The feeding on snails gives rise to the name shell cracker.

Light tackle aficionados find great action for Shell Crackers in Devil's Kitchen Lake. Located 12 miles southwest of Marion, in Williamson County, Devil's Kitchen Lake is an 810 acre, clear water reservoir. At it deepest points, the lake is over 90 feet deep. The average depth is 36 feet.

The 24 miles of shoreline contains no development other than three boat ramps. Most of the shoreline is composed of steep, sloping cliffs that are wooded down to the water line.

The vegetation, in addition to the standing trees beneath the water, is composed of coontail and some pondweed. Water clarity is excellent with anglers reporting being able to see weed growth down to a level of 10 or 12 feet. The clear water sometimes presents a problem for the angler. Fluorocarbon lines in recent years have solved the problem of line visibility.

Fluorocarbon line does not absorb water and maintain 100 percent of its knot and line strength. This new line is abrasion-resistant which helps in the many tree limbs of Devil’s Kitchen Lake.

Small baits on light fishing line are the norm with panfish. The bite is sometimes very finicky and must be visualized to be detected. But with the new line, the gold line color stands out to the angler and the fish are not spooked. This helps the angler detect strikes sooner.

The angler can usually count on finding shell crackers in the ½ to 3/4 pound range. However, fish up to a pound and a half have been taken recently.

Like their cousin the bluegill, shell crackers spawn during the first full moon of May. The three or four days on either side of the full moon are the best days for fishing. The bluegill, not a bottom feeder, will feed on baits and lures presented at their level or above.

The Shell Crackers (redear sunfish) are a bottom feeder. You can watch then around the docks and shore as they turn their tails upward to feed below themselves. Out on the lake in the boat lanes fish for the sunfish by using pieces of night crawler, about 1 inch in length.

The four pound line with a light wire hook works well. Because of the heavy timber in this lake, the wire hooks work best You can reel down until the rod is pointed right at the hook and then pull straight back. The hook will straighten and come loose. Then check to make sure the point is not damaged. If the point is OK then the hook can be bent back into shape and used again.

Use a small split shot to help get his line quickly down to the feeding level of the shell crackers. Place the split shot on the line about 15 inches above the hook.

Because of the structure of this lake, the weeds can be found down as far as 12 to 18 feet below the surface. The unusual water clarity allows for this deep weed growth. Fishermen work the water between the shoreline and the trees. Shell crackers prefer a hard bottom with some weeds nearby.

By casting the night crawler piece and allowing it to fall to the bottom, ground pounders are able to fish it like a plastic worm fished for bass. Slowly jig it across the bottom and wood structure as you retrieve the bait.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

HANDS FREE PRODUCTS FOR GROUND POUNDERS

2011-05-12T14:09:00.000-05:00

Sitting on a sand bar night fishing during the summer is one of the most relaxing times I can think of except for the bugs. I HATE MOSQUITOES!

The main drawback to night fishing is the bugs. You have to turn on a light to bait up or to unhook a fish. The little night marauders zero in on my tender flesh and devour my blood. I have tried a number of insect repellents but they have to be reapplied and I seem to always forget until I am half eaten up before it dawns on me that it is time to spray.

The appliance has no smell in addition to being 98% effective. I do not think any spray can make that claim.

The times they are a changing. I have acquired two products from the ThermaCELL Company thanks to the recent Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers spring Cast & Blast event. During the opening evening dinner, members of the corporate outdoor community presented those in attendance a number of their products to test.

Tom Hamlin, of ThermaCELL, showed me the newest version of their mosquito repelling device. He also had a new product to their line, and all purpose Swivel Light. It clips to the hat bill, to the ThermaCELL Appliance, or on your belt. The 8 LED bulbs produce either a white or green light. You can switch from one color to the other.

Between these two products I think I will have a good time night fishing this year. As I see it, I can turn on the ThermaCELL Appliance and have protection in 2 minutes and full 15 X 15 foot protection in about 10 minutes. Couple that with placing the Swivel Light on the bill of my hat and turning on the white light, and I can bait up and cast out before sitting back to relax.

With a fish-on, I can land it, unhook the fish and re-bait and cast out again with no bugs.

At the end of the evening’s activity, I can pack up and head back to the car. The appliance goes in a pocket size holster so it will provide protection to the car and/or the fishing cleaning station. The light illuminates the way and can also be kept on to provide light for cleaning fish. NEAT.

This is a ground pounder’s delight.

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

The Coyote’s Gobbler

2011-05-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

The one the coyote pup chased to me.

It is late in the spring for white bass to be spawning in waters I normally fish, but my friend Rich Abdoler and I found them this past weekend, spawning at the same time that crappie were spawning. That doesn’t happen often.

We caught a stringer-full of fat crappie on light tackle, casting small white and yellow jigs up against the banks. But catching crappie when you know there are white bass to be caught on topwater lures is like settling for oatmeal cookies when you know there’s strawberry shortcake to be had. It’s like listening to opera music when you know Hank Williams can be heard just around the corner. Like eating a baloney sandwich with your wife when you know you could have had a steak dinner with Dolly Parton. Yeah, now you are getting the idea!

Well, if you have ever seen a two-pound white bass female take a surface lure in some flowing current, you still may not fully understand what I am talking about. We found them in a creek, somewhat filled by all the spring rains, but with clear green-colored water hiding a swarm of white bass. And the rods were bent for an hour or so like no crappie can bend them. I guess I am like everyone else, when I can eat crappie, I am glad I fished for them, but when I am catching white bass that get up close to three pounds and sometimes exceed that, it is hard to stop fishing for them. It is a late spawning season, but the later it comes, the more successful it will be, as a rule. You have to enjoy it while it is there, because it doesn’t last long enough. Like Hank Williams and strawberry shortcake, you just can’t get enough of spring.

I didn’t intend to write anything more about the turkey season. It was a tough season on hunters because of all the rain, and a very late nesting response. Never have I seen flocks of turkeys together so late in the spring as they were this year. Hens stopped mating, it seemed, and gobblers were together in groups of three or four instead of getting off by themselves. I would be calling a gobbler which had hens around him, and another gobbler or two right there. It doesn’t work very well.

When I did call in toms, they came in threes and fours, and there are too many eyes to make it easy to get one of them real close, get the gun barrel on him and shoot him. Having said that, sometimes you get lucky, and I have to tell this story, even though it is going to be very hard to believe. I promise, this happened, just as I am about to describe it.

It was the middle of the last week of the season, and I was in the woods at mid-morning when a gobbler got really vociferous in a field bordering the woodlands. I snuck to the edge and spied him out in the green grass, about 100 yards away, strutting and answering my call with a passion. He was alone! Hallelujah!

So I set up in a great spot, figuring that he was going to stay right there and answer me and not move. He did just that, and I watched him strutting and gobbling for about an hour and a half. Towards noon, a hen ambled down the hill and fed around him, not on a nest, as she should have been, and not interested in mating. He got interested in her, so now he is 150 yards away. Of course my calling is so good I have aroused the interest in a second gobbler, and down the hill he comes, strutting and gobbling and in the mood to fight. They charge each other, and 200 yards away, they have one big brawl, jumping and purring and wrapping their necks around each other like turkeys do, trying to spur each other with those little daggers on their legs. I don’t know which one it was, but one of them got tired of the fight and started up the hill with all the strutting gone, while the other followed, strutting and blowing and trying to get the other tom to spar with him some more. They are now 250 yards away, and I have known for awhile it is all over, I am not going to call in either of them.

But then out of the woods not far away, come a charging young coyote filled with vitamin water and vinegar, and hoping to have himself a gobbler for dinner. They were distracted enough with themselves not to see him right away, and he got close. This isn’t some old wily veteran coyote, it is a youngster, not even a year old, and not much bigger than a red fox. Ten yards from the gobblers, he notices they are bigger than he is, and slows his charge, wondering just how he is going to turn a 25 pound tom turkey which might just outweigh him, into a two- or three-day feast.

Slowing up to think about it cost him. One of the gobblers runs a ways and takes to flight, and is headed exactly away from me, gone and free from worry. The young coyote turns his attention to the whipped gobbler, and makes a run at him, hoping, I think, that the old tom will die of a heart attack, so that he can get his young jaws on his neck without getting flogged. That second gobbler makes the mistake of flying the other way, being no buddy of the first one, and perhaps remembering that down along the timber a seductive hen had been calling for quite some time!

He flies right at me, and I am so stunned I can’t find my shotgun as I watch him. Just in time I find it, leaning against the tree beside me, and I am looking at a huge gobbler coming at me with wings working, not gliding at all. When they want to, those big heavy toms can fly, and gain altitude. He’s bent on landing in a sycamore tree right before me, and I remember all the times I have bragged that you would never see me shoot a wild gobbler off a limb. That was then, when I was young and couldn’t foresee such a difficult season and some gobbler landing in a tree at noon.

The shotgun roared, and the big gobbler, which had just started feeling safe on that limb, plummeted 25 feet to the ground. Ah, it is a wonderful feeling to have called in a turkey and killed it, so I sit there relishing the moment, and I notice that 100 yards out, that young coyote is charging toward my turkey thinking he is the luckiest coyote in the world.

I almost didn’t get there first, but I made it a stand-off, warning him that if he grabbed that dead gobbler I would fill him with number six shot. He looked at me, and for just a moment I felt sorry for the little guy. He was skinny, with little pointed ears and an expression on his face that I have seen on mine after missing a turkey, or losing a big fish. He needed something more substantial than meadow mice and prairie voles. But to the larger predator goes the spoils. He is out there somewhere, my little helper, still hungry. And I have had some fried turkey, from the oddest turkey hunt I have ever been on. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, and when it comes to hunting and fishing, I am seldom very good if I’m not lucky.

See this weeks photos on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net.

Perseverance is Key for Mossy Oak Turkey Pro

2011-05-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

Mossy Oak turkey hunting pro Darrin Campbell of West Virginia displays the mature gobbler he harvested during his 2011 spring hunt in western Kentucky.

PROVIDENCE, Ky - Mention western Kentucky to most outdoor folks and their thoughts automatically turn to the terrific fishing found in the famous Barkley and Kentucky lakes.
   Bring up this same topic to Mossy Oak hunting expert Darrin Campbell of West Virginia and his thoughts begin to focus on the world-class turkey hunting found in this area.
   And, this is not without reason. Unlike Illinois where turkey numbers have struggled in recent years, Kentucky's turkey population is thriving.
   "We have a high percentage of adult birds in our flocks and they are coming into breeding season in excellent condition because of last fall's big mast (nut) crop," said Steven Dobey, wild turkey biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "The big harvest of two-year-old birds last season may have buffered (lessened) the number of three-to-four year-olds taken."
   As is typical in Kentucky, the 2011 spring wild turkey season opened April 23 anc continued through May 8. According to Dobey, hunters were looking at prospects of another excellent spring season.
   "I think we'll see some carryover from that reproductive boom in 2008," he said. "It was such a massive hatch."
   It was this exciting turkey outlook that lured Campbell and the 20-or-so other hunting celebrities and outdoor media to western Kentucky's lovely Winghaven Hunting Lodge. Not only was the Kentucky turkey population thriving, the lodge was situated in Crittenden County - one of the state's finest turkey hunting locations.
   "I'm sure we'll see good hunting tomorrow," Campbell said the night before the hunt. "We traveled some of the back roads today and spotted birds all over the place. This is going to be some world-class hunting."
   Of course, the sun was shining at that time and temperatures were hovering near the 80-degree mark. No one really anticipated the torrential rains and pounding hail that were to arrive later that night.
   The storms that came were unlike those many of the hunters had ever witnessed before. Along with the occasional bouts of heavy hail, rain poured from the sky most of the night. In fact, the water came so quickly that it flooded a large portion of the beautiful Winghaven Lodge.
   The hunters began to rise the next morning just as lodge personnel were wiping the final remnants of water interior of the building. The previous night's powerful storms had now passed out of the area and most of the hunters were wondering what challenges the unusual overnight weather would present.
   In it's wake, the storm left strong northerly winds, cloudy skies and temperatures nearly 40-degrees lower than the previous day.
   In most turkey hunting situations, the hunters would have merely climbed back into bed and await better weather. In Kentucky's Crittenden County, however, everyone was still looking forward to their time in the woods. No one wanted to waste a moment of hunting time in this turkey-rich area.
   Campbell and his hunting partner Outdoor Guide Magazine editor Bob Whitehead of St. Louis were assigned a somewhat isolated location some 15 miles from the lodge. Others were heading to hunting spots located within a few miles of the lodge.
   Though the previous night's weather delivered hunting conditions that were far from ideal, each hunter anticipated an exciting day in the turkey woods. Campbell said perseverance, even during less than ideal hunting weather, is often the key to succcess.
   "Unlike hunters, wild turkeys do not have the luxury of crawling back into bed and waiting for nicer weather," he explained. "No matter what kind of weather we have, each day in the wild turkey's life focuses around the effort for survival."
   Despite the conditions, success came rather quickly for Campbell and Whitehead. Locating a gobbling bird before daylight, Campbell concentrated on calling it into shooting range. By 6:30 a.m., his daily turkey tag was already filled.
   Success for Whitehead was only slightly slower in coming. His first opportunity to fill a tag came when two young male turkeys (known as Jakes) stepped into shooting range. Whitehead, however, opted to continue hunting in search of an adult gobbler.
   That opportunity came about 10:30 a.m. when a 24-pound longbeard walked into shooting range.
   Campbell and Whitehead's success proved to be a true lesson in turkey hunting. Rain or shine, hunters who really want to harvest a bird should dedicate every available hour to the turkey woods.
   "The best tip I can provide hunters is to spend as much time in the woods as possible" Campbell said. "It's a fact that you can't harvest a bird if you're not in the woods."
   He said that turkeys are in the woods every day and that is where the hunters need to be if they intend to fill their tag.
   Anyone seeking more information about the excellent turkey hunting opportunities found in western Kentucky should contact Russell Edwards at Winghaven Lodge at (270)836-7988. Additional information is also available on the website http://www.winghavenlodge.com.

New Products for the Turkey Hunter

A Call for All Occasions – Is there really one turkey call that works in every hunting scenario?

No, but HS Strut’s Starfire Crystal call comes really close to accomplishing this feat. Part of a new line of “Ring Zone” friction calls, the Starfire Crystal brings turkey calling to a new level.

This line of calls is designed using the latest in modern technology and scientific research to create a call that matches the pitch and frequency of a live hen turkey as tested by an oscilloscope.

The outer ring on the call keeps the hunter’s fingers off the calling surface to eliminate dampening the sound. The Starfire Crystal's resonating surface is doubled compared to most pan calls.

For more details, see the website http://www.hunterspec.com.

No Tree Required – Quickly finding a good tree after locating a hot gobbler can be a nearly impossible task.

However, Cabela's Tactical Tat'r Kickstand Turkey Vest has eliminated this problem.

The built-in kickstand feature allows comfortable sitting anywhere while the innovative “Speed Seat” technology features a rapid stow and deploy seat that quietly flips up and down in without fumbling.

A three-inch memory tech seat offers comfortable seating and is supported via a cushion back that utilizes raised, closed-cell, foam-padded mesh panels on pressure points to support your back.

The Tat'r features multiple pockets for calls, ammo, water, and everything else you'd stow away in your vest. An enlarged attached, lined bloodproof game bag with adjustable capacity is large enough to carry decoys and bearded trophies. The game bag has two quick-release buckles at the top for easy access.

For more details see the website http://www.cabelas.com

   Put an End to Mosquito Woes - Few turkey hunters will argue the fact that their number one problem is mosquitoes. Let's face facts, it is difficult to remain motionless with dozens of hungry mosquitoes hovering around one's head.   To celebrate ten years in the outdoor industry, ThermaCELL has introduced a newly designed hand-held appliance with many upgrades for the outdoor enthusiast. Taking into consideration customer feedback, ThermaCELL has redesigned the appliance to be more user-friendly.
   An ergonomically designed casing and matte finish ensure outdoorsmen will be able to hold the unit in comfort and stay concealed. The smoother functioning and quieter on/off button will also be desirable to hunters who want to remain unnoticed in the field.
   The ThermaCELL system creates a 15 by 15 feet zone of protection that is up to 98 percent effective against mosquitoes and other biting insects. The unit operates on a single butane cartridge that heats a mat releasing allethrin, a synthetic copy of a naturally occurring insect repellent found in chrysanthemum flowers. Each mat contains enough repellent for four hours of protection and each butane cartridge will operate the unit for 12 hours.
   For more information on ThermaCELL's complete line of products or for retail locations, please visit their website at www.thermacell.com.

   Lost No More - Few dedicated turkey hunters can deny becoming at least a bit disorientated in the woods. I can personally state that getting temporarily lost is something that occurs quite regularly.
   The fine folks from Bushnell have solved that problem with their Backtrack Point 5 navigation device. It's the perfect tool for spring turkey hunting when you are covering a great deal of unfamiliar territory. Simply mark the the location of your vehicle and it will lead you back.
   Hunters roosting birds in the evening can also find their way back to the exact location the next morning.
   Retailing for less than $100, the Backtrack Point 5 is an ideal tool for hunting, fishing or hiking. In fact, it will also guide back to your parked vehicle at the mall. For more details, see the website http://bushnellbacktrack.com.

FISHING BOAT DOCKS WITH A PRO

2011-05-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

Fishing boat docks is a good early spring technique that also works in the summer. It is basically a post-spawn pattern. Joe Thomas, professional angler is an expert with this pattern. I asked him about it while sitting on a dock at Lake Fork in Texas.

The Ohio based Thomas offered this advice to those wanting to fish manmade structures.

“There are two primary dock structures: floating docks for lakes and rivers where water fluctuates and the permanent platform docks that have permanent piers,” explains Thomas. “Both are productive but that they require different fishing methods to catch fish.”

Beginning with floating docks, Joe sees two thing happening. In deep cool lakes, especially those with spotted bass, a lot of the fish will hold on the structures under the dock. These are cables and weights that actually secure the dock in place. In that situation his favorite technique is to take a small jig or shaking worm (a glass bead and a little finesse worm) and shake it up under the dock. He throws it up under the dock along the side of the floating dock. When it comes across the cables and through in a way that the spotted bass are usually positioned to attack it.

His other pattern for catching fish on floating docks is when the fish are in that spawn to post-spawn mode. They will suspend, largemouth especially, right under the floats of the dock. Joe then takes a bait that dives 12 to 18 inches and works the perimeter of the floats. The bass will position themselves in the shade and come out to attack the bait. In this case his favorite bait is a jerk bait. Joe recommends using a minnow imitating color and jerk the bait along the perimeter of the dock trying to get the bass to come out.

If the fish are not active, Thomas recommends trying a wacky worm, or floating worm. He works that around the perimeters of the docks. “A lot of times they will follow the bait out from under the dock,” says Joe. He is quick to point out that they will not eat it, but if it is stopped and allowed to fall, the fish will go down and get it.

When it comes to stationary platforms, Thomas likes to stay more with a flipping method. He prefers to use a jig, Texas-rigged plastic worm or crawfish bait. He tries to get up to the actual structures of the pier. Explains Thomas, “Most of them have concrete on the bottom and they can vary in depth from 10 to 15 feet in depth.” To Joe the key is to find the depth where the fish are located. Once you locate that depth, you can then locate all the docks that are in that depth ranger and fish them all.

Joe explains that many people just fish docks and they do not think about the depth that those poles are in and where the fish were found. He believes that if you find the fish are in 3 foot of water you can run the wake and work that pattern in 3 foot of water. The key is to find where the fish are positioned and then use a subtle presentation. He recommends pitching or flipping and heavy enough tackle so that when a fish is hooked and he tries to get out the back side of the pier you can haul it out.

Concrete docks are a little more unique according to Thomas. The vertical concrete is usually in reservoirs and consists of such structures as pump houses, docks and bridge pilings. They are not as good at harboring bass but at certain times of the year they are worth exploring. When the shad hang around the bass will follow them to the concrete structures. Thomas believes that it is a good winter time structure because it is vertical.

In winter when a lot of lakes are drawn down, the fish will gravitate to vertical structure because they can move straight up and down with the bait and they do not have to travel great distances. That is when concrete is effective. Thomas catches bass with a jerk bait or spoon at this time. His key is to find the depth of the bait fish and then to key on it.

Every dock is different and has its own personality according to Thomas. Joe tries to develop a pattern within a pattern on docks. His theory is that if you realize that the majority of fish are coming on the first two to three docks in a cove, that is something you should register. But, within that pattern you want to know are they under the catwalks, inside poles or outside poles? Is the dock and isolated dock? Or are there groups of docks? More often than not Joe gravitates toward isolated docks because he has less to fish. The fish in that area are going to gravitate toward that one dock. He has found that day in and day out the isolated docks are going to be more productive.

Joe likes wooden ladders that go down into the water. The bass will hold on them and you can step a jig down the steps just like you would ledges. He has also found that people throw brush off of catwalks and it attracts fish. On the docks them selves, he looks for rod holders and lights indicating that people fish there. It is important to not only fish docks but also the structure that property holders place in the water along side of them.

STRIPERS AT KENTUCKY DAM

2011-05-03T06:28:00.000-05:00

It is no secret to ground pounders that tailwaters fishing is excellent fishing opportunity. I while back I had the chance to fish in Kentucky as part the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers annual Spring Cast & Blast event. We were guests of: The Lake Barkley Tourist Commission, City of Marion Tourism Commission, Eddy Creek Marina Resort, and Winghaven Lodge.

Prior to the event I enter the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area with the intention of fishing several of the small lakes inside. It is a bluebird day which we all know is not conducive to good fishing. After touring the area, I decide to give up on the fishing and head north to my accommodations in Eddy Creek Marina Resort.

On the way, I saw a sign for a visitor center at Kentucky Lake Dam. Deciding to learn a little about the dam I headed that way. Unfortunately the center was closed. Fortunately, I noticed some fishermen along the rip rap below the dam and decided to join them. The sun has disappeared behind cloud cover promising better fishing conditions.

The dam is 206 feet high with half of that below the surface of the water. The lake behind the dam stands 50 feet higher than the original surface of the Tennessee River to the south. Down river the Tennessee eventually flows into the Ohio River to the north of the dam near Paducah, KY.

Using a white fluke rigged Texas-style; I am successful in catching a couple of skipjack herring. Then I get serious about the stripers. I use the skipjack as cut bait and proceed to catch a couple of stripers about 10 pounds in size. Others around me catch more and also catch them on the white flukes.

Some of the gates of the dam are open and they contributed to the current flow. Most of the fish are caught along the edge of the current flow about 50 yards down stream. About 6 skipjack were caught for every striper bite. I am told that the stripers are in this water in search of the skipjack as forage. Many of the stripers are not landed. I lose several in the heavy current and large rip rap rocks.

The locals fishing along side of me claim that the skipjack are not good eating and they only keep enough for bait. The stripers on the other hand are prized locally for their eating.

Parking at the dam was ample in the lot and there are concrete stairs leading down to the shore. However the shore walking is difficult. Large rocks along the rip rap shoreline are extremely difficult to transverse. Walk slowly lest you sprain an ankle or worse.

All too soon it is time for me to leave and continue on my travels across the western Kentucky countryside to the Eddy Creek Resort on Lake Barkley five miles south of the town of Eddy Creek.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Rain and Rotten Luck

2011-05-02T13:09:00.000-05:00


Sometimes referred to as a spreading adder or hog-nosed viper, you can see why some folks are afraid of this harmless little snake. It mimics a cobra...

The flooding has kept me off the river, and I have not been able to check on the old Canada goose which laid her eggs in a hollow tree twenty feet above the river. I think she might be the same goose who lost her ground nest to flooding last year, and it shows that wild creatures are capable of shrewd thinking. She found a spot way above the floodwaters to bring off a brood of goslings. But that’s where her shrewd thinking ended, because she is less than a quarter mile down the river from an eagle’s nest, and I am fairly sure those eagles will not miss the opportunity to feed some or all of her young goslings to their eaglets. Eagles are tough on young geese and ducks.

But it is a remarkable thing to see this, because I have never known of geese nesting high in a hollow tree before. I have not talked to any other outdoorsmen who have seen it happen either. It is like she watched wood ducks nesting and decided to imitate them. If it weren’t for the eagles, it would have been a heck of a good idea. Anyhow, the photos of the old goose in her nest are on my website now, so if you would like to see this very unusual situation, go check them out. There are also some photos of an Ozark cobra!!

Well, it looks like a cobra. I happened across a hog-nosed viper, or spreading adder, one of the most harmless of all snakes, but the meanest-acting, most dangerous-looking of all Ozark reptiles. The one I found looked to be about 20 inches long, and they don’t get much longer than that. They spread their head and neck just like a cobra, and hiss and spit out foul-smelling venomous-looking stuff, and then eventually, they bite themselves, writhe in agony in a fake death, then roll over on their back and play dead. You can’t get the snake to bite you, but they look like they would.

In the back of their mouths are short fangs, which contain actual venom. That venom is weak, used only to stun and kill toads, which is their main food source. The way the fangs are situated, they couldn’t be use to strike mammals the way a copperhead or rattlesnake can. Their dangerous looks and actions get many hog-nosed snakes killed, but those who know about their phony act let them live. Trouble is, they do indeed look like a cobra, and they will raise their bodies, with flattened head, several inches above the ground when first confronted. I also photographed a big oak which was clobbered last week by a bolt of lightning, not far from Lightnin’ Ridge. You can see all those photos on my website… www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

I photographed a lot of things while turkey hunting last week, in between the rain and thunderstorms. I didn’t photograph any dead turkeys, and it hurts to say this, but just so all you grizzled old outdoorsmen will know that I don’t always succeed at what I do, (even though I seldom write about anything but the successes)--- I missed two big gobblers in two days.

In the past forty years of hunting wild gobblers, I have never missed two in one season, and have never had a spring that I haven’t killed at least a couple of gobblers, since I use to hunt in both Arkansas and Missouri, and occasionally another state or two before spring ended. But there are six days left in the season as I write this, and I have yet to measure a set of spurs, or drag one back to my pickup. And my confidence is very shaky, because I have garden work to do, and fishing to do, and my boots are almost worn out.

What happened was, I struggled to find a gobbler without hens. As a matter of fact, I never saw a season this late with so many wild turkeys still in flocks, as they have been this spring. I finally got three gobblers going in the deep woods one day just before noon. When gobblers are together, you have to fool three sets of eyes and with their eyes, that isn’t easy. But they came in under the brow of a hill, three toms, all gobbling, and I knew they were only fifty or sixty yards below me. For some reason, one of them, or another one from somewhere else, came around me, running at a good clip. If he had been to my left, I might have killed him, but he was behind me to my right, and as a right-handed shooter, you can’t have a much worse situation than trying to turn that way and shoot a gobbler which is going to put his head down and take off like a racehorse.

He got to within 15 steps or less, and I knew I might just let him go and possibly still get one of the gobblers in front of me to come on up. But it is hard to look out the corner of your eye at a long beard and a bright red head and maintain your composure. I knew better, but I just couldn’t contain myself. I struggled to get my shotgun barrel around and blast him as he reacted, but he was much faster than me. I squeezed off a shot at his head and neck just as he put a 12-inch cedar tree trunk between us.

The cedar tree may die, but the gobbler left untouched, and the toms down below me decide to head for distant woodlands. I kicked rocks and stumps and cussed my luck and asked God how he could let something like that happened to someone who used to go to church on a regular basis. I heard thunder off in the distance and that calmed me down considerably, so I apologized! I know God has more important things to do than help me shoot better, and I told Him that.

It didn’t help. I missed another one the next day, and may eventually tell that story too, but right now it hurts too much to recall it. If I am to learn humility at this stage in my life, I reckon I can handle it, but it ain’t easy.

Because it is the dark of the moon, and May, I will start doing some night fishing below submerged lights, for crappie and walleye, on both Stockton and Bull Shoals over the next two weeks. Nothing can compare to it when it is right. Over the years some of the biggest crappie and walleye and white bass I have ever caught have come from all-night excursions on my pontoon boat, especially on Bull Shoals, where threadfin shad are attracted to the lights, and huge fish congregate beneath those bait-fish schools. When the moon begins to come back, night fishing for bass with big spinner baits will be in its prime. And if the rivers ever get back to normal, float fishing for smallmouth should be great. This coming week may be the best time to catch spawning crappie too, as that kind of fishing is also late. You might begin to see why being an outdoor writer this time of year is a difficult way to make a living. Especially when you have the rotten luck I have! If my fishing goes the way of my turkey hunting, I might not catch a fish until the tomatoes are ripe.

E-mail me with your sympathies if you would like, at lightninridge@windstream.net, or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. And better luck to all of you, whether you deserve it or not!

FLY FISHING IS ADDICTIVE

2011-04-27T10:10:00.000-05:00

The tranquility of late summer on a pond is only enhanced by the grace with which my fly line snakes across the water. A couple of false casts and I let the fly settle to the surface. A couple of tugs and the water explodes with a big bluegill sucking in the feather and steel.

Bluegills are pound for pound one the great fighters of the fish world. On a light fly line with the whippy flexibility of a fly rod they are a tremendous fish to hook and fight.

There is no real mystery to this sport once one has the basic tackle lined up. If one speaks the language of fly fishing or can find someone who does he too can enjoy the finesse or casting a light fly or popper and fooling some unsuspecting fish into thinking it is dinner.

Fly fishing can be used on virtually all species of fish. Here in southern Illinois it is used primarily for a largemouth and smallmouth bass, trout, and bluegill and sunfish. It can also be used for other species if one adapts to the situation.

There are four basic areas of tackle to be approached in taking up the sport: the rod, the reel, lines and lures. In addition, it is a good idea to take some instruction or view a couple of the excellent videos available. Check your local tackle shop for the fly-fishing section and ask their advice. With the right equipment and a little practice one can quickly get started.

Fly rods come in different weights and are marked on the rod with numbers from one to 13. They run in lengths form six 2 feet to 9 feet. The longer ones are usually for casting large wind resistant lures with heavier line. Shorter rods are for fishing small streams.

Beginners are probably better off with the middle size of six or seven which are good for bass and bluegill. Beginning anglers are well advised to stick to one that is made of fiberglass rather than some of the other materials that are more expensive. A glass rod will allow one to cast medium size bass bugs as well as small panfish bugs.

Next, one needs a reel to go on the fly rod. The reel has nothing to do with the casting in fly fishing. It is a simple single action line holder. The spool is usually about 3/4 inch wide with a friction built in so that line does not roll off it without some pull by the angler.
The weight of the reel should balance the rod. It should also match the species you plan to catch. For bass and panfish the reel will only help keep the kinks out of the fly line. For the bigger fish, a different reel with drag, etc. will be required.

A quality reel is a lifetime investment that can be passed on to other generations. It is good to purchase the best reel you can afford.

Fly lines are of many types and weights that are matched to the fish the angler is seeking. The best all around line for the beginner is a floating line. It works for bass and bluegill as well as dry flies. Later one can graduate to the floating line with sinking tips, slow sinking and fast sinking lines which are used to put flies at different depths for fish such as northern pike and walleye. Fly lines are tapered toward the leader end and there is only about 30 yards on the average line.

For bass bug casting one uses weight forward line. The extra weight at the forward end of the line helps push bugs or flies. Most good rods will have the size and type of line that is recommended for that particular rod written on them.

At the end of the line is the leader which is usually about six to 7 feet in length. Most are tapered to a small size at the tippet. Knotless tapered leaders are easiest to handle. Tippet strength is marked by an "X" number. 2X or 3X are good numbers.

For lures begin with small bass surface bugs in plastic, cork, or deer hair for topwater panfishing. Little sinking bugs can be used for bluegills. Number 10 or 12 are good sizes in dry, wet or nymph flies. Number 6, 8, or 10 are good for streamers which are supposed to look like minnows to the fish. As for colors, choose black and browns or grays and white.

Beware angler, once you get hooked on fly fishing it becomes apparent that there is more to it than we are able discuss here. This will get you started in the right direction. Be aware also that this is an addictive sport that will soon consume your thoughts 24/7. It also is good for your blood pressure, unless you take your fishing too seriously. Then perhaps you should take up knitting.

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

Hunting the Trophy Mushroom

2011-04-25T13:18:00.000-05:00

With so much rain, assuming we have warm weather to follow, we could have a prolonged morel mushroom season, especially in northern parts of the Ozarks. And if you find a few, you ought to find a lot of them. Mushrooms fascinate me, maybe because as a kid I never got to hunt Easter eggs out on the farm like the town kids did.

I didn’t miss it so much. I remember one year grandpa told me he had found the Easter bunny hung in a barbed wire fence and he had spilled his whole sackful of Easter eggs in the creek. So my cousins and I had some hard-boiled eggs he had spray painted, and were just happy to know that the Easter bunny had got loose and recovered and there would always be next year. But you don’t have to have many hard-boiled eggs to be satisfied, and I always did want some chocolate ones.

I realize now that morels are like chocolate eggs, you can’t wait to eat some of them, but if you gorge yourself on them, you’re liable to get sick. Every year I eat so many mushrooms at the first setting that I get a little bit queasy. I give away a lot of mushrooms, but not until after the first bunch I find have made me a little bit sick. I do the same thing with spring crappie! And I am sure that if I had all the chocolate I wanted, I would get a little bit sick from eating them. I don’t know… I never did have all the chocolate I wanted. But I did eat a whole chocolate pie once in about ten minutes and it had such an awful effect on me that I think now I probably wouldn’t be able to eat more than half of one at one time.

Morels make a few people sick and you have to remember that. It is because some people just cannot eat any kind of fungus without having a reaction to it. You will hear many people say that the big red mushrooms which look like a morel are poisonous. They are commonly called ‘beefsteak mushrooms’, and they look like a gigantic morel, sometimes growing to the size of a bushel basket. They are definitely not poison, I have eaten a passel of them. But they will certainly cause a great deal of stomach distress for some people.

Morels began to grow here on Lightnin’ Ridge this year early in the second week of April, about the tenth or eleventh. I went out and found a couple dozen small ones on the 13th. They were all fairly high on the eastern-facing slope in scattered timber, but down the slope I couldn’t find any, and that is where they usually are the thickest. On the 20th of April, I found four dozen or so popping up down lower on the slope, but up high where I had found those first small ones, there were no new ones. That seems kind of odd to me. The early mushrooms were small, and drying out just a little and the later ones were larger and fresh. But remember that if you find drying morels, if you put them in the water, they will soften up and taste just fine.

The rain began the next day and continues as I write this, threatening to flood the whole Midwest. I am sure that any mushrooms still out there will last awhile, and a few new ones might grow. I think I can find some more while turkey hunting, if the sun ever shines again, and likely eat enough to get sick of them again. It is unusual to see a grizzled old outdoorsman like me who is sensitive to too many wild greens or mushrooms or too many fish at one setting. I have never had any trouble eating too much wild turkey, which I hope to do later this month. But I might also point out that while that one chocolate pie was a little bit hard on me, I have been able to eat well over a dozen donuts in only a matter of minutes, and I feel like I could do that any time. All the food groups that I have mentioned in the above paragraph, combined with lots of home-grown tomatoes and blackberry cobbler later in the summer, will perhaps keep you as healthy as I am. You need quite a few watermelons in the summer too, to stay anti-dehydrated.

Before I get off the subject of spring mushrooms, I might add that I have studied mushrooms for many springs, and I once watched a small mushroom that came up fresh one April morning, for three whole days to see if it would grow at all, and it did not. I believe they grow late in the night, perhaps in a matter of hours, and at dawn, they are as large as they are going to get. The little grey ones grow early in the spring, and lack much color, and the larger ones which are a more yellow in color, come up later. The largest one I ever saw was about 15 inches from the base to the tip. I may someday attempt to establish a wild mushroom record book, in which we can begin a trophy mushroom category, and a scoring system involving girth, height and some other factors. The world can never have enough trophy hunters, and this will help create more of them. There is a lot of money to be made from trophy hunters, and I believe many of them could be sold bags of mushroom seeds at a premium price!

If you want to be a trophy mushroom hunter, you had best do it on the next few warm sunny days we have. If you eat too many and are still a little selfish about giving them to your relatives, remember that you can just fry them, then freeze them when they cool. Then all summer you can thaw them out, heat them in a microwave and get a little bit sick all over again from eating too many mushrooms.

We have decided to have our historic john-boat building day on Saturday, July 9th, at which time we will build two different wooden river boats, one of them an authentic White River johnboat, and the other a Big Piney style johnboat like my grandfather made nearly a century ago. We are not sure where it will be, but we are going to select a place where there is plenty of shade and have a big dinner that day put together by Richard’s Hawgwild Barbecue out of Aurora, Mo. We hope to find and invite other johnboat builders, paddle-makers, wood-carvers and lure makers; in fact anyone who has a trade or craft relating to the 1900’s through the 1950’s, and just have an enjoyable day reflecting on the good ol’ days. I hope we have ladies bringing canned goods and baked goods, some watermelons and homemade ice-cream, musicians (without amplifiers) coming to play old-time instruments, and folks there displaying or selling old lures, carvings, quilts, etc. If you would like to come and bring something, you need to contact me about it. It is all free and you can set up a table and display your work or sell anything that relates to the old days before the 1950’s. The johnboats will be sold to the highest bidder, and sassafras paddles will be sold as well. I will let you know soon where we have decided to have this historic day-long event which may last way into the night. It will be a lot of fun, so keep that weekend open.

See my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com, and e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net My address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613.

TIME TO BOWFISH

2011-04-23T19:02:00.000-05:00

Splashing sounds are music to the heart of the bowfisherman. They expose the presence of spawning carp, the primary quarry of the fishing angler.

May is the primary month for most bowfishing. These large buglemouth bass (carp) move up into the shallows to spawn posing a ready target. It is also a great time of the year with the woods coming alive and each sunrise warming the water.

Around Mother's Day, the protruding dorsal fins glisten in the early morning sunlight. We walk along the shore and shoot or move quietly through flooded vegetation in a boat.

As water temperatures reach 60 degrees, carp begin moving to shallow water. As it gets to 62 degrees, spawning begins. Spawning reaches a peak at 65 to 68 degrees. By the time the water temperature is up to 80 degrees, the spawn is over.

The basic tackle is specialized yet inexpensive. Bowfishing kits, containing line, arrow, barbed arrowhead, and bow reel, can be obtained wherever archery tackle is sold. They also contain an instruction sheet for using the equipment. The entire kit is available for a modest amount. The only other thing needed is a bow.

For those who plan to wade, the use of waders is recommended. One can wade without them but the water is cold in the spring. In either case be aware of sharp objects under water that cause injury.

Advanced fishing anglers use tackle that can get a bit more specialized. Although heavy solid fiberglass arrows provide better penetration of the water, fish found on or near the surface, can be taken with aluminum or even wood arrows. Lighter arrows allow us to make longer shots.

Most shots are short. The line attached to the arrow provides all the stabilization needed. Thus most arrows do not have fletching. On longer shots, some sort of fletching is needed to aid stabilization.

A barbed arrowhead is necessary. The barbs keep the fish from coming off the arrow during the time it takes to retrieve it. Barbs can be reversible or with removable heads. Both allow us to remove the head from the fish with a minimum of damage to arrow and fish.

Most of the reels that come with the bowfishing kits are of a hoop design that is bolted or taped to the bow. Some of the more sophisticated types of reels are the spinning reel or the newer "retriever" types that are designed for bowfishing.

Fishing lines are usually braided nylon line. Some of the newer fibers and very heavy monofilament lines are also used. Regardless, it should have a test of at least 70 pounds.

Bowfishing spawning carp is ambush fishing. This allows us to control a number of factors. Among them are bottom make up, the angle of the sun, the effect of wind and cover for concealment. By taking a stand we cause less fish panic and get more shots. By standing still we use less motion decreasing the chances of the fish seeing us.

Carp usually will swim upstream during the spawn into tributaries until their progress is blocked by a dam or similar structure. This concentrates them below dams.

The best bottom material from the fishing archer's point of view is fine soft sand. The sand has the advantage of improving vision. Dark fish are highlighted on the light sand. A bonus is that the soft sand does not hold arrows that miss their mark.

Fish are spooked by shadows cast over the water. Working from ambush we can position ourselves with our face toward the sun. Any shadow will be cast behind us.

Windy water surfaces cause waves and ripples. Carp do not like them and bowfishermen have difficulty seeing the quarry. Fish will concentrate in protected areas where they are also more visible. Polarized sunglasses are helpful in locating fish as they reduce the suns glare off the surface of the water.

Light waves bend as they enter the water making the fish appear closer to the surface than is reality. Archers must aim beneath where submerged fish appear. How far to aim below the fish is a matter that must be learned by trial and error.

Bowfishing the buglemouth bass is entertaining and challenging. It is a simple and inexpensive sport. Why not give it a try next month?

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

The Miracle

2011-04-18T12:53:00.000-05:00

Mike Dodson with 9 1/2 pound bass he caught at Bull Shoals

He was right in the middle of an honest to goodness miracle in the woods, and I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been there. Mike Dodson was an honest to goodness outdoorsman who knew well the woods and rivers and the ways of the wild. He and I hunted and fished for everything together, back in the good old days. We hunted and fished for everything, from Arkansas to Ontario and Manitoba. The miles have separated us for the past 20 years, but the memories keep him close.

Just the other day, Mike sent me a picture of a nine and a half pound bass he caught from Bull Shoals lake on a single-spin, and invited me to come down and help him catch some more now that the moon is bright and the bass are hungry. No matter what lake you are fishing now, if you go out while the moon is full and high, and fish until it is sagging low in the west and turning color, you are going to have a better-than-average chance to catch a big bass. But it will be hard to hunt turkeys at first daylight without going to sleep.

Mike and I hunted the wildest of wild turkeys in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains together when I lived in Arkansas. We’d pitch off into steep canyons before sunrise, and cross to another ridgetop just because of one old gobbler. But as I said, that was back in the good old’ days. We aren’t so much too old to do that today, I credit it to being wiser, not older.

In the nineteen-eighties, I did a lot of guiding in Arkansas, taking float-fishermen on Crooked Creek, the War-Eagle and Kings Rivers, guiding some on Bull Shoals Lake as well, and occasionally on the Buffalo. In the spring, I guided turkey hunters in both Arkansas and Missouri, for more than a dozen years.

The miracle I am talking about took place one spring way back there when Mike and I set up a camp deep in the woods for an out-of-state ophthalmologist-surgeon and his father. Neither had ever killed a wild gobbler. The first morning, the older man demonstrated that he likely never would. Mike took him to a spot where two gobblers were sounding off, spent most of the morning there and came back thoroughly dejected.

“The old guy coughs constantly,” he said, “and he can’t hear and he can’t see well enough to kill a turkey if I could get one close. This morning I had one 60 yards away and he started coughing and looking around to try to find it and spooked it. What’s worse is, he can’t hardly walk more than a hundred yards on level ground without resting for a half hour. It is hopeless.”

I told his son what Mike had told me, and he smiled and said he figured there wouldn’t be much chance of his father killing one. He had lived with worsening lung problems from years of smoking, and couldn’t hear or see much. But he wanted to take him on a trip like we were on where they could be together, and have a chance to at least hunt and camp and enjoy the outdoors one more time, together.

We were being paid well, and Mike accepted that. His job was to do his best, and he would do it. The next morning it was a half-hour after sunrise before the old guy could get up and around, and Mike eased him off to a nice wooded ridgetop split by a faint old logging trail, and set him down overlooking a ravine where gobblers were roosting. They sat there for a while, with Mike calling and the old timer coughing, and lo and behold, a gobbler answered well below them on the wooded hillside.

The old guy couldn’t hear it. Mike decided to try to do the impossible anyway, so he placed the old man up against a big tree and sat down behind him so he could whisper instructions in his ear. As he called, the gobbler came up that steep woodland hillside, gobbling away, getting closer and closer. Just under the rocky edge of the ridgetop, he gobbled so close the leaves on the trees were shaking, and the old guy actually heard it. The excitement of that stilled his coughing, and Mike showed him how to put his shotgun against his shoulder with the barrel on the ground, so that he could help point the gun toward the gobbler if it ever showed itself, and he tried to guess what route the old tom might take to come up over the rock strewn hillside.

It was going to take a miracle, he thought to himself. Mike called again, the tom gobbled and he was right where he needed to be. A bright red head came popping up over a ledge, but the old hunter didn’t see it. The big tom stood there a moment, looking for that hen, then his head went down. When it did, Mike lifted the old timers gun barrel, pointed it to where he thought the gobbler would pop up again, and when that bright red head reappeared, he whispered, ‘shoot’. The shotgun roared and the blast echoed off a distant ridge.

The old man’s son and I were a mile away, but we heard it. We couldn’t know what had happened, but Mike told us later. The gobbler disappeared, and Mike heard it flopping around. The old hunter had never seen it. He thought he had missed. Mike went halfway down the ravine to retrieve the tom, and when he got back with it, he found his aging client sitting against the tree, his mouth open with amazement, his eyes moist with tears of happiness. He could see the gobbler just fine as Mike laid it at his feet. And he was spry enough to do quite a little dance of joy before a coughing fit overcame him.

“It was a miracle!” Mike told me, his eyes bright with happiness. “Nothing but a miracle!”

And I suppose indeed it was. We had a great week camped there. The next day the younger hunter got his gobbler when I called up a pair of them halfway through the morning. Mike and I got a tip at the end of the hunt that was more than I usually got for a whole day of float-fishing. I never heard from the guy again, and I am sure his father has passed away by now. But I am equally sure that he remembers well that week of turkey hunting. I’m sure Mike remembers too… like it was yesterday. It isn’t every spring that you are part of a miracle.

But there are more memories to be made. Old friends can’t be forgotten, and I intend to hunt turkeys this season with Mike Dodson, and fish in the moonlight where I might just miss a strike or two because of a lack of concentration that recalling old stories can cause.

This week, if you are an old-timer, and remember how to grab ‘yeller suckers’, you ought to be able to find some. And if you like to eat mushrooms, it is a good time to be looking for them too. ‘Ain’t spring grand’… as Ozark folks are inclined to say.

See Mike Dodson and his big bass on my website at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo 65613. Or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net

GROUND POUNDING ALONG FRANKLIN CREEK

2011-04-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

I first visited this small creek in the late 1990’s with two friends in search of tranquility in fishing. Not known as a great fishing location, Franklin Creek flows through the lovely valleys of a park by the same name. Located in Lee County, Illinois, about one mile northwest of Franklin Grove, Franklin Creek’s low lying areas along the waterway supports a bottomland forest of silver maple and hackberry.

The creek supports as many as 19 species of fish. The most common species are smallmouth bass, carp and creek chub. The flooding of the nearby Rock River aids in the stocking of fish as it backs up into the creek.

Franklin Creek is not a wide body of water and one could cast from one side to the other. Trees such as white oak, red oak, black oak and shagbark hickory line the shoreline. Slippery elm and Kentucky coffee trees are also found in the area. Ravines support an upland forest of sugar maple and basswood as well as a variety of shrubs normally found in more southern areas.

Ground pounders can walk the bank fishing in one deep pool after another. It is an experience of being at one with nature. I managed to entice a creek chub in one pool and a smallmouth in another. Ground pounding is probably just another name for stream walking.

Older literature on angling seems to gear all fishing to angling in streams. I have found it a natural conversion from fishing big rivers to moving up the feeder creeks like Franklin Creek. Fish too move up the creeks in search of safety, food and shelter from the heavy currents of big rivers.

Ground pounding can be a matter of wading to another location for better placement of the lure or moving up and down the shore to find a better spot.

After a heavy rain, or when backwaters are otherwise swollen, wading provides and opportunities to get to fish that have taken advantage of the conditions that allow them to forage back into creeks. The ground pounder is a trail blazer into otherwise unfished areas. There is no telling what one might find back there.

I found this time that the park had changed a lot since my first visit. The creek however remains much unchanged. There was no need for specialized tackle or accessories. Primarily all I needed was my waders. My chest waders worked but hip boots would be more comfortable in the warm days of summer.

I do not wade into water that is deeper than my waist even though my waders go up to my chest. I have a belt that I wear around my waist in case I should topple over in the water. It will slow the flow of water into the waders and allow for time to get up right and out of danger.

Polaroid sunglasses and sun block are always along with me on fishing trips. In addition to protecting my eyes, the glasses aid in spotting fish in the water.

A small tackle box fits in the zippered pocket of my waders and contains enough tackle for a day of ground pounding. If I think I need more tackle, then it is time to break out the fishing vest which has space of tackle, water, a camera and some lunch.

The day’s game plan was simple. From the parking lot, I just waded into the stream and moved down stream. I would normally wade upstream but the waters there were too deep. Wading in streams is an activity of stalking. The fish will relate to certain structures and conditions in the water.

The secret to this type of fishing is to learn the body of water and analyze the shore to see just where the fish might be located. Some of the structure in the water is obvious. Things like downed trees, sandbars, points of land, bends in the creek, undercut banks and large rocks are good to find. Other structure must be learned through practice.

The ground pounder must constantly analyze the water surface, shadows showing depressions or weed growth. Creek bottoms are subject to frequent changes due to flooding. Underwater riffles can be found by casting and bouncing the lure along the bottom. This method is good for breaks in rocks and vegetation in the weed line.

Ground pounding is a challenging way to fish. It takes time, patience and skill. It is interesting to search for a new challenge and to spend a few hours. Franklin Creek has always been that to me. It was good to be back there again.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Jim Gaston's Eagles....

2011-04-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

Jim Gaston, at Gaston’s White River Resort, snapped these spectacular pictures of nesting eagles. Jim is a dedicated photographer, and he gets some great photos. You can see many of them on his website, which is of the same name as his resort. Click on photo to enlarge.

Callin’ Gobblers is Easy, But…

2011-04-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

Turkey season is here; time to spend three weeks about halfway worn out three-fourths of the time. Get to bed early, let the garden go, learn to take naps in the warm sunlight leaning up against a tree. It is time to become one with nature; time to find mushrooms, look for arrowheads and suffer through occasional shots of adrenalin to your system each time a gobbler sounds off at whatever distance he might be… always either too far or too close. It is time to worry about ticks, marvel at the beauty of a dogs-tooth violet, and dry your damp socks at mid morning on the branch of a redbud tree. It is time to confine your fishing to the afternoon hours, and forget the bills.

I was just a kid when they opened the first turkey season in the Ozarks. Coach Weaver bought a turkey tag, a couple of turkey calls and a camouflaged shirt and went out before class every morning, coming back with stories of ‘almost’ and ‘darned near’. He darned near had one about every morning, it seemed.

In the pool hall back home, I sought the advice of the old timers, the Front Bench Regulars who had hunted gobblers before. Old Bill and my grandpa had killed dozens of wild turkeys when they were young, before so many had died of diseases brought by domestic farm birds, before spring burning, free ranging hogs and land practices began to destroy nests, and over-hunting thinned the flocks.

“Well, I’ll tell you boy…” Ol’ Bill said one April evening as he cut off a plug of tobacco and propped one foot on the edge of the spittoon. “Wild turkeys is easy to get if you don’t care so much about sleepin’!”

I pushed my homework to the side as pool balls clacked together and the screen door slammed. Ol’ Jim came in and plopped down on the front bench beside Jess Wolf and Virgil Halstead. He was Ol’ Bill’s main competition when it came to hunting and fishing stories, and amongst the Front Bench Regulars, the two of them were the most highly regarded outdoorsmen.

“You see in the spring, they get out there roostin’ together, sometimes 20 or 30 to a flock, and at daylight, they fly down and the romancin’ and matin’ commences,” Bill continued. “That old gobbler, he don’t care if you sound like the sweetest hen in the hills, if’n he’s got a half-dozen others right there on the ground beside him what’s treatin’ him like he’s Rudolph Casanova himself!”

I had no idea who Rudolph Casanova was.

“So what you do is, you listen late in the evenin’ when they all flies up to roost. You can hear ‘em a long ways off… whoof, whoof, whoof, here and whoof, whoof, whoof, there.” Bill used his arms to simulate a turkey flying up to roost as he gave the sound affects.

“Then a couple hours or so before dawn, you sneak back out there and rampage around, whacking the trunks of those roost trees like you was a mountain lion climbin’ up after ‘em, and they all fly off panicked an’ confused in the dark, ever which direction. The idea is, you scatter ‘em out to where they is here an’ there, and then you just wrap up in your old coat right there and nap awhile.”

It didn’t sound like what Coach Weaver would have done, but then, he hadn’t killed one yet either. I kept listening, my mouth open, intent on his story, as usual.

“You’ll get woke up by that ol’ gobbler soundin’ off when it’s just gettin’ light, and that’s when you get ready and be shore you’re hid really good, cause an old tom can see better’n a hoot owl with a good set of readin’ glasses.”

“An old gobbler can see a gnat flex his wings a quarter mile away,” Ol’ Jim throwed in.
Bill glared at him as if to let him know he didn’t need any help, and he went on, “But you don’t go to callin’ him ‘til you hear a ‘whoof-whoof-whoof’ here and a nother’n there. That means them hens is flyin’ down an’ he knows it. But they’re all spread out now an’ he ain’t sure they can find him nor he can find them, so when you start callin’, he comes lookin’. An’ you’ll hear him a gobblin’ an’ a struttin’ an' a blowin’. Then you’ll see that old red and white head stickin' up in the brush like a flag, and you’ll be shakin’ like a moonshiner at a revival meetin’. But you wait ‘til he gets about 30 yards away, an let him get his head behind a tree, an’ when he comes out you cut down on him an’ it’s all over but the braggin’. Time to go home for biscuits an gravy.”

“Go tell that Coach feller that he can hire me and Ol’ Bill an we’ll help him get a gobbler,” Ol’ Jim said. “Two dollars an hour and breakfast.”

I told Coach Weaver what I had learned, and it put me in good stead with him, but I think everybody got a good grade in Phys. Ed. anyway. I never did try Ol’ Bill’s method, although Grandpa told me it worked awfully good in the old days. It got to where there were so many turkeys in time that it just wasn’t necessary to go to all that effort. We’ve learned that a little later in the season when the hens start to nest and an old gobbler gets to where he comes off the roost lonely and ignored, just a mediocre turkey caller can lure him within range. But once he gets within range, you need to have a little bit of the woodsmanship that Ol’ Bill and my grandpa had. An old gobbler ain’t real smart, but he’s always got one toe on the panic button. Every year it seems I let one or two get away because I forget that!

I still hear Ol’ Bills last words on turkey hunting, many, many years ago, that evening in the pool hall. “Boy, callin’ gobblers is easy… killin’ gobblers ain’t.”

I have made myself another really good cedar box call, and I am ready. But I have noticed that this spring, there are an awful bunch of turkeys together, not broken up good like they should be. What that means is, you may have to be out there late in the morning to get some old gobbler off to himself. Most hunters leave too early in the day. Ol’ Bill never would have done that!

Want to see some really good eagle photos? Jim Gaston, at Gaston’s White River Resort, has taken some great pictures of nesting eagles that are just spectacular. Jim is a dedicated photographer, and he gets some great photos. You can see many of them on his website, which is of the same name as his resort. I have put a couple of them on my website too. You can see them at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. If you have never seen my magazine, The Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal, we have some sample copies to give away. Just send five stamps, and we will mail you one.

PRIMER ON FLY FISHING TACKLE

2011-04-06T04:03:00.000-05:00

Fly fishing can be used on virtually all species of fish. Here in southern Illinois I use for largemouth bass, trout, white bass, redear, crappie, pumpkinseed, bluegill and perch. The following is my feeble attempt to demystify the equipment.

In getting started, there are four basic areas of tackle to be approached: the rod, the reel, lines and lures. In addition, it would be a good idea to take some instruction or view a couple of the excellent videos available on the subject. Check your local tackle shop for the fly fishing section and ask their advice. With the right equipment and a little practice one can quickly get started.

Fly rods come in different weights and are marked on the rod with numbers from 1 to 13. They run in lengths form 6 ½ feet to 9 feet. The longer ones are usually for casting large wind resistant lures with heavier line. Shorter rods are for fishing small streams. Beginners are probably better off with the middle size of 6 or 7 which are good for bass and bluegill. To begin, most anglers are well advised to stick to one hat is made of fiberglass rather than some of the other materials that are more expensive. A glass rod will allow one to cast medium-size bass bugs as well as small panfish flies.

Next one needs a reel to go on the fly rod. The reel has nothing to do with the casting in fly fishing. It is a simple single action line holder. The spool is usually about 3/4 inches wide with a friction built in so that line does not roll off it without some pull by the angler. The weight of the reel should balance the rod. It should also match the species you plan to catch. For bass and panfish the reel will only help keep the kinks out of the fly line. For the bigger fish a different reel with drag will be required. A quality reel is a lifetime investment that can be passed on to other generations. Therefore, it is good to purchase the best reel you can afford.

Modern fly lines are of many types and weights that are matched to the fish the angler is seeking. The best all around line for the beginner is the floating line. It works for bass and bluegill as well as dry flies. Later one can graduate to the floating line with sinking tips, slow sinking and fast sinking lines which are used to put flies at different depths for fish. Fly lines are tapered toward the leader end and there is only about 30 yards on the average line. For bass bug casting one uses weight forward line. The extra weight at the forward end of the line helps push bugs or flies. Most good rods will have the size and type of line that is recommended for that particular rod written on them.

At the end of the line is the leader which is usually about 6 to 7 feet in length. Most are tapered to a small size at the tippet. Knotless tapered leaders are easiest to handle. Tippet strength is marked by an "X" number. 2X or 3X are good numbers.

Finally is the lure. Begin with small bass surface bugs in plastic, cork, or deer hair for topwater panfishing. Little sinking bugs can be used for bluegills. Number 10 or 12 are good sizes in dry, wet or nymph flies. Number 6, 8, or 10 are good for streamers which are supposed to look like minnows to the fish. As for colors, choose black and browns or grays and white.

Once you get hooked on fly fishing you will find that there is more to it than we are able to talk about her. But, this will get your started in the right direction.

DON GASAWAY - THE GROUND POUNDER
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

High Water

2011-04-05T13:31:00.002-05:00

The little lake in the center of the Ozarks is bigger right now than it has ever been. Pomme de Terre Lake is small in comparison to some Ozark reservoirs like Bull Shoals, Tablerock and Truman, but it is a rocky, fairly clear lake with some very good fishing, one of the few lakes in the Midwest stocked with muskellunge, known as muskies by fishermen.

Last fall, the Corps of Engineers decided that the spillway had some problems, and they shut down the outflow from Pomme De Terre and contracted out some concrete repair projects which seem to be a little behind. The rains which we have received in recent months have filled the lake to capacity, and it has backed up the Pomme de Terre River like I have never seen it.

Thousands upon thousands of live trees are in the water now, budding out and preparing to green-up in a huge backwater mess. This worries me, because if that water stands on those trees until the end of spring, I am afraid thousands of them will die. That happened on Truman Lake about 20 years ago, simply because the development on Lake of the Ozarks prevented releasing floodwaters from Truman. Millions of trees died, and the great duck hunting the lake afforded ended with that, as all the pin-oaks that were being flooded each fall and giving acorns to incoming waterfowl, died out. It seemed to be the beginning of the end for much of Truman’s watershed where cockleburs have now taken over.

I talked to a Corps ranger recently that I fish with, and he said that it looks as if water will begin to be released on April 7, and if so, Pomme de Terre will soon be back to normal, with no loss of trees in the watershed. I am praying he is right. He should know what he is talking about. Ranger Rich Abdoler, one of my closest friends, is a forestry major who has worked on Truman Lake for 38 years, and he is a very knowledgeable outdoorsman. He doesn’t believe that any trees will be lost because of the floodwaters now seen on the river and other tributaries to Pomme de Terre.

Truman Lake will receive that huge release of water, and it may ruin fishing on the Pomme de Terre arm of Truman Lake, as the river flowing into it will likely be very high for quite some time. Truman Lake has lots of walleye and white bass, and a good population of hybrids (white bass-striper crosses) which grow to 15 pounds or so. The new flush of water might make it harder for most fishermen to fish the river above Truman, but I believe it might draw some large schools of hybrids after April 7, if fishermen know how go after them. But duck hunters on the Pomme de Terre River died a year ago when they tried to navigate the high, swift waters above Truman Lake, and I hope anyone who tackles it this spring will have the boat to handle the size of it.

It has been a late season for spawning walleye, and white bass, which run up those tributaries, because water temperatures this spring have been colder, longer, than normal. But this past week, we found hundreds of white bass males up small tributaries to several lakes, and they were hungry. But females weren’t to be seen, and the whites weren’t taking topwater lures at all. I expect all that will be changing soon.

White bass are fun to catch on light tackle, but if you use light tackle, you might catch a big walleye while fishing for them, and find it hard to handle. I have said this often, but if you don’t like to eat white bass, it probably is because of the layer of red meat found on whites, stripers and hybrids. Filet the white bass you catch, then put those filets in ice water for just a short time, and the filets will become very firm. Then take your filet knife and skim off the red meat found just under the skin. The white meat you are left with is delicious. I wrote recently that I believe white bass filets are tastier than any others except crappie, walleye, bass, catfish, and bluegill! Ands while that is true, when visitors at my place try white bass filets I have deep-fried, no one complains about the flavor, They are very good.

Several readers have asked me about the letters they received from a group known as the “Appalachian Wildlife Fund”. Thousands of Missouri hunters got a group of tickets in the mail from that mysterious organization, and yes, they got your address from the Missouri Department of Conservation, after donating $50,000 to the MDC. Assistant Director Tim Ripperger says it was all above the table, that sunshine laws mean that anyone can get your name and address and other information which you give to the department when you buy a fishing license. But years ago, when I tried to get such a list, I was told it would cost us thousands of dollars. He says things have changed since then.

At any rate, the Appalachian Wildlife Fund sent all of us tickets which the letter said might win us about 17 different rifles, and four or five hunting trips, including a moose hunt in Canada, and a “Missouri Bull Elk” tag in Kentucky, where, coincidentally, the MDC is acquiring several hundred elk to stock in a selected area of the Ozarks. To win, you had to return the tickets with $25 for each, and then you were eligible for the drawing.

The whole thing sounded very suspicious to me, so I called the man behind it all, David Ledford, head of the Appalachian Wildlife Fund, who lives in Kentucky. I hoped to find out who won those rifles and hunting trips. He refused to give me names and addresses, and hung up on me. Who is David Ledford, and is he the only one involved in the “Appalachian Wildlife Fund”? Were all those prizes awarded to some lucky Missourians, or were the winners pre-determined? Wouldn’t it seem we could all know that, since our license information was used?

Someone needs to investigate this, perhaps our state’s attorney general, or a news agency. But the MDC seems too powerful to be investigated, and none of us may ever know what happened. I know this; when I give information on my hunting and fishing licenses, which gives my social security number as well, I don’t want that information being given to anyone. But make no mistake about this… the MDC received a 50,000 dollar gift, and David Ledford and the “Appalachian Wildlife Fund” made some big money with the information given them. Not one newspaper or TV station in our state will look into it, because no one investigates the MDC, who gives tons of free info to the media each year to prevent that.

We will see if we can get names and address of license holders from the MDC, in order to send out free Lightnin’ Ridge magazines to everyone. Somehow, I doubt it.

My mailing address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. The e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net (no g on the end of lightnin). My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

JIG FISHING BASICS

2011-03-30T13:58:00.000-05:00

Bass fishing with jigs is a tried and true technique for the bass fisherman with a boat. Shore anglers are beginning to use more with success by fan casting.

There are a number of types of jigs on the market. The little finesse jig with its smaller profile are popular. Some people think that the only place you can use them is in clear water situations or rocky lakes. They work well in stained water as well.

It is just a smaller profile jig with thinner wire hook and weed guard. The finesse jig requires lighter line. Anglers usually add a small crawfish or small chunk. The natural look of the jig is enhanced by staying with basic colors of brown, pumpkin or green/pumpkin. Because crawfish are a basic food for bass, the trailer helps to make the jig appear like one. It is recommended that one stay with the 1/4 ounce to half ounce size it is possible to go with 3/8 ounce.
Bigger jigs that have been popular for years still work. Some people call them Bubba jigs. The best technique in the summer is to punch the jigs through the grass in 8 to 15 feet of water. One usually uses a one and one quarter ounce jig with a really big craw on it. This rig has proven itself year after year.

Many people lack confidence in the jig as a bait. Pros recommend that one stick with the basic colors of: black, blue, brown and pumpkin. It is good to try to develop a feel for the jig whenever you go fishing.

Confidence is a key to jig fishing. If you lack confidence the only way you will get it is by using the jig. You might not get a whole lot of bites the first time. But, if you just experiment and keep trying eventually you will have a day with a bunch of bites. That builds your confidence. You have to develop a feel for it.

When fishing in grass, use the jig on braided line. If fishing in wood or grass then the fluorocarbon line is recommended. It is a lot more sensitive than monofilament line.

Swim the jig around wood type cover. A lot of people too often fish the jig only on the bottom. If fishing a lay down in a river, try using a 3/8th ounce jig and not let it hit the bottom. Just swim it through the branches. Fish like to suspend in such areas.

The urge is to throw into the branches, allow the jig to fall to the bottom and then bring it back to the boat. Keep it swimming through the branches for those suspended fish. Larger jigs have more buoyancy than the smaller profile jig. You can also put a larger craw on it.

Some people tight line a jig. They do not let the jig fall naturally. When fishing a jig on the bottom toss it to the bottom by allowing a slack line. Do not lose contact with the jig. It will fall more naturally than letting it fall with a tight line. If you feel something heavy on the line set the hook. If hoping it immediately releases more line to the jig. The idea is to let the jig fall naturally. It comes with practice.

Sometimes fish just want the jig on the bottom. If that is the plan then do not use a lot or rod movement. Just crawl the jig along the bottom. If you are not having any success with that bring the rod from the nine o’clock position to 12 o’clock and hop it. If the fish really want it way up off the bottom then you can continue to a 3 o’clock position. It is a reaction strike and it is something you just have to play with to see if they want one on the bottom or higher up.

Another technique is swimming the jig around boat docks. Many times after the spawn fish will suspend around boat docks. Target the foam. Look for the dock or marina that has foam around it. Use a light jig because the fish are feeding on shad. Fish the jig like a spinnerbait around that stuff. You just cast up there and hop it back with a swimming action. Keep the jig just under the water like you would a spinnerbait working boat docks.

If fishing a chunk or craw on the back of the jig, try adding a rattle for sound. It can really make a difference.

If one takes a rattleback jig and shakes it in his hand it makes a lot of noise. But, if you put it in the water it does not really make a whole lot of noise. If you put the rattle in the plastic trailer it makes a lot of noise due to the movement of the plastic.

Another change in a jig is to create a small profile jig by trimming the skirt. You can vary the weight of a jig by thinning the trailer or skirt. It is possible to take a half ounce jig and make a 3/8 ounce jig out of it by trimming the skirt and thinning the trailer. Trim the skirt about a half inch below the hook.

In cooler weather stay with dark colors and in hot weather move to the light color jigs and skirts. Although browns are good, the pumpkin colors work well in summer. Pumpkin/green and watermelon work well in the summer. Black/brown/amber have also been known to catch fish in summer. Camo jigs will work in summer.

The jig is a popular lure. One can use it throughout the year. It really shines in the cooler months. You can fish it from a half foot of water to 30 foot deep. In summation, if you want to be an above average angler it is a bit of tackle that you really need to add to your arsenal.

Call Ms. Wiggins…

2011-03-28T17:22:00.001-05:00


On our spring hikes on Truman Lake, we pass at a respectable distance, this nesting eagle, which has nested here for at least 7 years.

Remember last week when I said spring was here and the fishing was about to bust loose… I hereby rescind that column. I don’t know that the fishing isn’t just as good as it was last week when we had those warm days, but I know I quit trying to find out. There were icicles hanging from my oak trees just a night or so ago, and I built a fire in the fireplace. Somebody in the Ozarks hasn’t been living right! This is the latest spring I can remember, and I wouldn’t doubt if every tree frog on Lightnin’ Ridge hasn’t froze to death because of it.

Floating down the river before winter came back, I saw a brand new eagles nest being finished up. And not far away, a pair of Canada geese were nesting in a hollow sycamore about thirty feet above the water. It was where a large limb had broken off, leaving a big hole, and those geese are taking advantage of it. It isn’t far from a nest I found last spring up above a gravel bar against the trunk of a large tree, where an old goose was incubating eggs, and threatened to attack me. A few days after I found it, a big rain raised the river and washed away that nest. Maybe that same pair of geese learned from the experience and selected this hollow way above the river to escape any floods.

If you were to ask a biologist where wild geese nest, he probably wouldn’t name a hollow sycamore thirty feet above the water as a nest site. That’s a nesting place for wood ducks and hooded mergansers. But wildlife species learn to survive by adapting. Giant Canadas have long been known to nest high above the big rivers of the upper Midwest along the ledges of bluffs and rock outcroppings. Seeing those geese in that hollow sycamore is really an unusual sight. I wish I could be there to watch those goslings leave the nest and hit the river.

They might be prey for one of the biggest river otters I have ever seen, only a quarter mile downstream. Maybe she was unusually big because she is about to have youngsters too, but that was a king-sized otter.

There’ll be some great fishing soon, I am sure of that, when it gets to a point where fishermen want to let the fire burn down and the sun is warm enough for just wearing one or two shirts. And I am betting that it’ll get nice enough in the next couple of weeks that we can take one or two of our annual spring trips to a wild area on Truman Lake where you can forget civilization exists for a whole day. We take ten people per trip, across the lake on a pontoon boat to a remote woodland where a pair of eagles are nesting, and you can get a good look at them, without disturbing them. We take a three-hour hike up through the woods; returning for a mid-day fish fry, then hike again for three more hours. You will see some wildlife, if we are lucky, including those nesting eagles, and some trees of several different species that are as large as any you will find. It is a great trip for all you master naturalists out there. We are going to try several dates between now and the beginning of turkey season, and if you want to get on the list, call Sondra Gray at 417-234-9104. We meet fairly early in the morning at Wheatland Missouri, and the cost is $40 per person.

I will be speaking on Friday evening, April 1st at a father and son wild game dinner at the Cass County Elks Lodge at Harrisonville, Missouri that is open to the public. It begins at 6:30, if you would like to attend and bring a youngster. I do as much public speaking as possible, much of it to raise money for charities and different causes. If you would like to have me come and speak to your group, or church for any type of event where country folks and outdoor lovers congregate, you can call Sondra at that number above and she will schedule it. I never charge for such events, and I love to help raise money for good causes.

I remember when I was a boy running that pool hall for my dad in Texas County, there was an old timer who had been a preacher most of his life and never really had his own church. He would just go where he was needed occasionally, to little country churches where the pastor was ill or had to miss a Sunday for various reasons. One Friday evening a country church deacon came into the pool hall and found old Preacher Booker there telling a big fishing story. He asked if he’d be available on Sunday morning, and the Preacher allowed as how he would. Then the church officer asked what kind of money they were talking about and the good Preacher thought a moment before answering. “Well sir,” he said in his deep strong preaching voice, “I most generally give a dollar, but if you’ll allow me a whole hour I’ll be glad to pay a little more!”

I never preach sermons, but I have a lot of good outdoor stories to tell if you won’t charge me too much and you’ll let me stay for dinner.

The man who won the Canadian fishing trip last week at our spring swap meet is David Ball, a 58-year- old truck driver who has never fished in Canada, never caught a walleye or a northern pike or a muskie. He will not be able to say that much longer. David has done some fishing, but not as much as he would like, and he intends to take his wife to Lake of the Woods in September to fish for a week with Tinker Helseth, who graciously provided this trip. We were hoping someone would win the trip who had never been there before.

We’ll have another big swap meet next October. In the meantime, the April-May issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal will be out this coming week. If you’d like to get a copy, call my executive secretary, Ms. Wiggins, at our executive offices, phone 417-777- 5227. Ms Wiggins missed our swap meet when she tried to cross the creek between here and town, and flooded out her old ’89 Datsun pickup. Some local folks stopped and helped her get it started but they said she was a real mess by the time they got it running, what with wading around in that creek and getting her makeup all washed off and her fingernails broke and her hair back to looking natural.

Ms Wiggins is a fair secretary, but I don’t want her coming to some public event representing my magazine looking too natural. If you call her, tell her you missed her, not seeing her there, even if you didn’t. She could really use some second-hand parts for an ’89 Datsun pick-up.

My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com and my e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net You can write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613.

CARE AND FEEDING OF A DAY PACK

2011-03-23T18:49:00.000-05:00

The modern day pack is a blessing to the ground pounder. It is possible to carry, lunch, tackle, first aid kit, and anything else one would desire on a day along the shore of his favorite stream, lake or river.

Regardless of how a day pack is used, hiker, fisherman, hunter, book bags, it is subject to wear and tear. With a little maintenance a pack can last through many years of service.

When purchasing a pack wear the kind of jacket you will be wearing while using it. Look for extra long webbing on the shoulder belt adjustment as well as the hip belt. If you do not have your coat with you take a jacket off the rack in the store before putting on a new pack. During inclement weather you will most likely be wearing extra clothing not usually worn to the store while shopping. You should purchase a pack with straps that have extra length so that you have room for expansion.

It is wise to pick a pack with a “haul loop” on the top so that you will not be grabbing the shoulder straps. Repeated carrying of a pack by a single shoulder strap can lead to failure of the strap. This usually happens at the most inopportune time.

Proper maintenance helps you avoid problems later in the field.

Keep all the buckles and shoulder strap buckles fastened when the pack is not worn. When storing the pack it is a good idea to hang it on a clothes hanger by looping the straps over and closed around the hanger for support. Open all the compartments and air out the pack before storage. To prevent mold and mildew be sure that the pack is completely dry. Never store a pack that is wet, damp or dirty.

Packs can be cleaned regularly by using a soft brush and mild soap and water. Never use harsh detergents or tumble dry the pack in a dryer. While cleaning check for abrasions, tears and any loose threads.

Inspect your pack regularly. Check any stress points for abnormal wear. Make repairs as necessary before going into the field. Repairs can be made using strong upholstery thread or unwaxed dental floss and a heavy duty needle.

Take care of all the zippers. Clean them often with an old toothbrush and lubricate them with a high quality silicone spray. Frayed fabric should be trimmed back to keep it from getting caught in the zippers.

When ready to pack for the field distribute the load weight carefully so as not to be unbalanced. Day packs are made to ride on the back with the top of it about six inches below your collar.

It is wise to take the time to experiment with your packing arrangement at home before taking to the field. You will then know exactly where everything is when needed in the woods. Things least likely to be needed should be in the bottom. Clothing is an example. Next are items such as pruning shears, knives, etc. They should be wrapped in zip lock bags with a rubber band around the outside. With these two layers the bag is stable when you set it on the ground. Lighter objects go in the upper layers.
Do not overload a pack. Overloading can cause harm and discomfort to your back. The day pack should only hold things that you might need for one day in the field. Items such as: a first aid kit, extra clothing, rain gear, food for lunch, a camera, and ammo are all that is needed. Items that are sharp such as tent pegs, climbing items like tree spikes, etc. can cause damage to the pack. It you need them wrap them in an item of clothing to protect the pack integrity.

Water bottles, maps, compass, G.P.S. units, and fire starting kits are placed in the outer pockets where they are more accessible. You can also place any snack or trail mix there as well.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

White Bass Time

2011-03-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

It’s funny what spring does to us. It never seems to treat us fishermen the way it ought to. We had a rough February here in the Ozarks, with so much snow and cold. I had hoped for good conditions for fishing long before March arrived, and that sometimes happens. I remember those times when the tail end of the second month of the year gave us some great fishing. It was tough this year because conditions gave us very cold water temperatures to contend with well into March.

If you know what you are doing, you can catch fish even in those conditions, but most of us want to have a day when we can fish without our ears and toes and fingers completely frozen with the effort. Finally we are there. It came later than usual. In years past I remember seeing those first yellow jonquils blooming up here on Lightnin’ Ridge by the third week in February. This year, the first one bloomed on the 15th of March.

As much as I prefer to go out and catch a big walleye this time of year, I know that I will have a great deal more fun catching white bass on topwater lures in the next few weeks, because there are so many more of them, and so much more action. We sort of let white bass take a back seat to everything else because they aren’t quite the game fish that walleye and bass are. And you just cannot make white bass taste like crappie and walleye. But everyone who fishes for them much knows that they are very good to eat if you filet them, and then go back over the filets with your knife to skim off all that thin layer of red meat, and remove the red line down the middle of the filet as well. It takes a little more time, but it is worth it.

I know that late and early in the day, on those same tributaries where white bass run, walleye are also lurking in a little deeper water below the shoals, and as I told you in another article a few weeks back, you can best catch them on those longer, deeper running lures, and jigs. If you want to improve your chances with those jigs, add a minnow to them, by passing the hook through the minnow’s mouth, out the gill and then through the back.

White bass are readily taken on road-runners and just plain jigs, but when you catch them on the little topwater lures that ruffle the surface and look like dying minnows, it is a great deal more fun. The only problem is, those early spring topwater fishing techniques that work so well on white bass won’t catch any walleyes. Every year, I have this nagging feeling that my pursuit of the white bass, which put up such a strong, hard fight in gently flowing water, keeps me from catching walleye or crappie that I might find somewhere else.

Looking for white bass all through April might indeed cost you some other fish, but when you find those big heavy females, which get up close to four pounds in some waters, you just forget about those light-hitting crappie. I always say to myself that I will get all the crappie I want in May, fishing at night under the lights. What I want more than anything is a well-bent rod and a fish that makes my drag whine a little.

There are always readers who want me to pinpoint good white bass fishing spots, and I don’t do that. Learn how to find them and there are a million places in the Ozarks where they will be. The last place I want to fish is in a crowd, so I forsake those spots that attract lots of fishermen, and find them where I can get some solitude.

One year a long time ago, my good friend Rich Abdoler and I were fishing in Arkansas on the Long Creek arm of Tablerock Lake right at the beginning of April. We went back up into a long cove where a small creek was gurgling and trickling in, something you could have jumped across. In the very end of the cove was a deep hole where we found some Kentucky bass eager to take our topwater lures. So we tied up to a snag along the bank and started fishing across that hole, catching one every now and then that would go 14 or 15 inches. The sun disappeared behind a ridge and tree frogs were singing all around us and it was nice and still and warm. And suddenly, white bass just moved in. We started catching them, and they were huge, some of the biggest whites I have ever seen. We landed a couple dozen of them in the last hour there, and I’ll bet we caught six or eight that would have exceeded four pounds. On the light spinning tackle we changed to, those fish stripped line against the drag and felt like monsters out in that deep, dark pool.

So don’t wait for anyone to tell you where the white bass are, go out and find them where no one else is looking for them. And find a walleye or two. If you catch any big ones, don’t tell a soul where. But call me and tell me, and I’ll check it out and won’t tell a soul where it is!

On March the 19th we had the biggest and best grizzled old outdoorsman’s swap meet we have ever had, and I want to thank all you folks who read this column for coming. As always, when there are hundreds and hundreds of people coming by, it is hard to get to talk to everyone as much as I would like to. But we had a great day, and a great time, with the gymnasium packed all day. Tinker Helseth, the Canadian outfitter who joined us, gave away a free trip to his Lake of the Woods lodge. We had a drawing at 3:00 p.m. and a little girl drew out the name of David Ball from Brighton, Mo. She then drew the name of Larry Wecker from Topeka, Kansas, who won the beautiful smallmouth painting by Al Agnew.

We received 560 dollars in donations from the vendors and visitors, and I will add to that 480 dollars I received from the sale of my books and turkey calls that day, to make a total of 1,040 dollars which will be donated to two benefactors…. a local food bank to feed hungry people in this area, and also to the White Oak camp for underprivileged children, down near Alton, Missouri, which lost much of its funding this year. So we made some difference as well as having a great time, and we will try to do it again. I want to thank all the many people who helped make it possible, and the people of the Brighton Assembly of God Church and Mark Cross, their assistant pastor, without whom we couldn’t have even considered such a get-together.

I gave away a good number of our magazines, the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal, which many of you are now familiar with. And now there are some ladies in the Ozarks who want to form a new magazine for Ozark women, and I promised I would help them get one started if possible, publishing it for them and staying as far away from the ‘putting it together’ as possible. They are meeting in Buffalo Missouri next Saturday, March the 26th, and if you have an interest in such a magazine, you might want to attend that.

To find out about the time and place, contact me. Call our offices at 417-777-5227. My mailing address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613, or e-mail me at lightninridge @windstream.net. The website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.

CRAYFISH - THE MIDWEST'S BEST BAIT

2011-03-16T10:35:00.001-05:00

From Lake Michigan salmon to catfish in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, anglers of this state find that crayfish is a fish’s Sirloin steak.

Crayfish, crawdad, or crab, they are all the same. Virtually every freshwater body of water contains them. Fish found in the same water eat them with delight.

Homeowners often find crayfish in small mounds of mud the shape of volcanoes in their well-groomed lawns each spring.

Scientists tell us that although often thought of as aquatic animals, these mini-lobsters will often live in burrows for their entire life. They are a burrowing subspecies from the more commonly seen water species. A cousin to the lobster and shrimp families, there are about 22 species of crayfish in Illinois.
These land based critters need only to keep their gills moist in order to survive. In spring this is no problem due to frequent rains. As summer wears on there are periods of prolonged dry spells. To survive during this time, crayfish will burrow down into the ground to the water level and manage to keep their gills moist there.

As they burrow, the mud is forced to the surface and forms a mound around the mouth of their den opening. Most of this digging is done at night. Warm humid nights are the most active.

Often the mound gets smashed down. This does not hurt the crayfish. They can continue to live in the burrow. They are able to tolerate very low dissolved oxygen levels. A crayfish can live in such a burrow for eight to 10 months without coming to the surface.

Each burrow is different. Some will be near water on a shoreline. Others will be many yards away from any surface water areas. Some will connect to ponds and ditches. Others will just go straight down to the water level. They can go down 10 feet. They will have secondary lateral passages as another exit. The secondary passages will be about half that length. They move a lot of dirt.

Most species of crayfish are omnivorous. That is, they will eat virtually everything. Some will eat only vegetation. But, most will eat insects, grass, vegetation, earthworms and anything else they come across.

All crayfishes are edible but some are better tasting than others. The burrowing types tend to have a smaller tail muscle because they are not always swimming around.

One way of fishing for the crustacean consists of lowering a piece of meat into the hole on a string. The crayfish grasps the meat and is reluctant to give it up. The bait is raised slowly to the surface and the crayfish is carefully removed.

Another sure fire way to catch crawdads is with a minnow trap. It is the easiest to use. The trap is a wire mesh cylinder with an inverted cone at each end. Bait is placed inside. The crawfish crawls into the open end of the cone and cannot figure how to get back out. The bait is usually any type of cut up fish or cat food.

Want to do a little fishing for crayfish? Try placing a piece of fish or worm on the end of a fish line and lower into rocky areas of a stream. Dangle it between rocks and in crevices. The crawfish takes hold and can be gently reeled to the surface.

Crayfish can be kept alive for long periods of time by storing them in a cooler between layers of wet newspaper. Just alternate the layers of crayfish and layers of newspaper to keep them wet. Store them in a refrigerator and use as soon as possible.

For those needing to be stored for prolonged periods freeze them. By freezing only the tails one can store more in a limited space. Freeze them quickly while they are still fresh. When thawed the meat will still be firm and stay on a hook.

Small crayfish can be fished whole. Just hook them through the last section of the body, just in from of the tail. Some people remove the claws and hook the crayfish through the ridge just behind the head. Either method seems to work.

Many anglers just like to fish the tails. They pinch off the tail at the first segment and then peel the shell. The meat is then impaled on a small hook. If it looks too soft to stay on the hook try boiling the tails first. Boiling tends to firm up the meant.

Rigs for fishing with crayfish tend to vary according to species and water conditions. Split shot and bottom walking rigs are popular on a hard bottom body of water. On a soft bottom anglers tend to use jigs. Both methods require fishing the bait slowly.

For the most part, the weight of a crayfish is enough to get it down to the desired depth if a light line is used. If using a heavier line some weight may need to be added.

Panfish anglers tend to use a slip bobber and fish the crayfish so that it dangles just over the top of the rocks or other bottom structure. They often like “peelers.” Peelers are crayfishes that have shed their outside shell. As crayfish shed their shell in order to grow they are without their shell for a day or two. Refrigerated at about 40 degrees, the process can be delayed by halting the hardening process for 10 to 12 days.

Fishing with crayfish tends to increase angler success. It is not as challenging as artificial baits. But, if one is willing to put out the effort and stand the smell on his hands, then it is the way to go.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Tire Gardening

2011-03-14T13:24:00.000-05:00

Burt Blades’ mother, in her 90's, finds gardening in her son's tractor tires much easier. The garden plants are higher, easier to
keep watered and weeded.

Tinker Helseth is a Canadian guide and outfitter who will be at the swap meet Saturday, and will give away a free trip to his lodge on Lake of the Woods by drawing.

I was looking at my garden the other day and it looks too small. I love garden fresh vegetables of all kinds, and I know I have to do some work on it. In the past, March and April have demanded a lot from me. It is a time for hunting turkeys and catching walleye, white bass, crappie and black bass. But you can’t have fish stew without tomatoes and potatoes and onions and things grown in the garden. And most of my readers are country folks who know that anything you buy in a grocery store won’t come close to what you grow in your own garden. So this year, I get to thinking that with prices of vegetables rising so much, it might be a good time to haul in some more rich soil and some manure and double the size of my garden, so me and the raccoons and deer and rabbits and squirrels will have more to choose from, and Gloria Jean will have something to keep her busy while she can communicate with nature.

But a fellow visiting my place last week changed my way of thinking about gardening. Burt Blades and his wife Debbie have a different kind of garden, and it works better than mine. He goes out and gets old tractor tires, great big ones, and puts hardware cloth across the bottom, widens the top by cutting off the top side with a sawz-all, and fills it with soil and manure and has the most perfect, weed-free garden I have ever seen. In one of those tires last year he grew enough green beans to can 47 quarts. In others, he grew tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, onions, etc. And every year, he alternates what he grows in each. The lower cupped rim of the huge tires holds water, and allows the soil to stay moist with less watering.

It looks as if I need some great big old tractor tires now. If you have some, call me. I also need a dump truck full of good soil, as the dirt up here on Lightnin Ridge is a little bit thin. I might trade a boat, a coon dog, or something of that sort, or maybe some of Gloria Jeans antique dishes if you can bring the dirt when she is in town sometime. And maybe what we ought to do is get a bunch of these tractor tire gardens going and do some trading of produce as well. I might be willing to part with some tomatoes and cucumbers and fish for some good roastin’ ears. The doggone coon and her young ones get into my corn each year and I haven’t got the heart to shoot her until her babies grow up, and by that time she has always moved to some other ridge.

Folks know how I view the tire situation in our country. Our government has required that everyone pay several dollars just to get rid of old tires. So there are many who just keep those old tires and throw them in our rivers. Along many of the rivers I float, you can count 30 or 40 tires in a day. What we should do is pay for old tires and recycle them to produce both oil and rubber. But we don’t, we aren’t that advanced yet. Maybe someday we’ll get there, and if we do there will be thousands of dollars worth of tires in our Ozark Rivers to be retrieved. But if you have big tractor tires, I am in the market for some and I am thinking that I have some good things to trade, maybe some coon meat about the middle of the summer.

That earthquake this week was awful, and now we will face the cost of our progress as nuclear radiation will be released to kill many more people. But it is unstoppable… our numbers, and our unquenchable demand for our resources, our destruction of our forests and waterways. We are all a part of it, and we cannot stop the avalanche we have started. Someday our country will face a similar catastrophe. At such a time, it will be nice to be as far away and as independent as possible. It is human greed that causes men to be so dependent, to destroy that around him which keeps him alive. We have to have nuclear power I suppose, but it is like all the things God gave us to make life better… mankind finds a way to destroy himself by using good things in such horrible ways. I don’t know if the Creator sends earthquakes, tornadoes, famine and pestilence. Maybe we bring those things on ourselves by what we do to the earth. It is more than I can understand, I have no answers. Every time I buy a tank of gas, I know I am part of the problem too.

As expensive as gas is getting, I am always interested when my neighbor Don Jones talks about using water and baking soda beneath the hood of my pick-up to create hydrogen to supplement gas fuel. He says he makes his own systems, and can see to it my pickup gets 25 miles to the gallon, whereas now it only gets about 18. Don will be at our swap meet next Saturday to show people how it is done, and his website, if you are interested, and if you can understand that kind of technical stuff, is www.ozarksfreefuel.com.

Uncle Norten told me he is coming to our swap meet with several of his handmade sassafras boat paddles, and the Iconium Country Store folks are coming. They have some of the most beautiful outdoor stuff you have ever seen, lamps and knives and blankets and tables, and all sorts of art. I have written about that store before, one of my favorite places in the Ozarks.

Tinker Helseth will be here this week and I am going to show him some Ozark fishing if we just get some decent weather. This morning there was a white coat of snow up here on Lightnin Ridge, and the river was up. Tinker is anxious to give away that fishing trip for two, to Lake of the Woods, Ontario, at our swap meet. You can hear him talking about Canada this coming Friday morning on my radio program, from Stockton Lake, at 8:30 a.m. Many of you in western Missouri can pick that up on 107.7 f.m.
Another thing I didn’t mention last week is a small lure company just getting started that has some of the best looking small and large spinner baits I have ever seen. A couple of other companies will have new lures, but then there are all those tables with antique lures too. I just found out one carver is bringing a full sized wooden Indian he carved, for sale.

I am busy making my turkey calls, and don’t forget that Myron Nixon and I are working on an old-fashioned wooden johnboat we hope to finish at the swap meet. I intend to float that johnboat down the river this summer and revert back to my boyhood, using the same fishing gear I used back then. Our swap meet is for old-timers, and should be a lot of fun, held at the Brighton Assembly of God Church at Brighton, Mo, 17 miles north of Springfield on highway 13. Call my executive secretary, Ms. Wiggins to get information about it. Her number is 417-777-5227.

More information and directions can be gained from my website, www.larrydablemont outdoors.blogspot.com. E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613.

GO SHALLOW FOR CRAB ORCHARD BASS

2011-03-09T10:03:00.000-06:00

A lack of underwater structure in Crab Orchard Lake, makes fishing the shoreline shallows a must. Largemouth bass are a species that relates significantly to structure. To catch Crab Orchard bass work the shallows.

Crab Orchard Lake is the largest of three lakes within the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge near Marion, Illinois. It is about a six hour drive south of Chicago on Interstate 57. Created in the 1940's, the lake is shallow and does not have a lot of timber. The standing timber was cleared prior to the original flooding. There are some trees that have fallen into the lake from the shore due to bank erosion.

A significant portion of the Largemouth population is larger than the 15 inch minimum size limit. Growth rates for bass remain good and are attributed to lake productivity and abundant gizzard shad. Annual supplemental stocking of both threadfin shad and bass has contributed significantly to the fishery.

There is some structure to be found within the lake in the form of rocks, stumps, floating logs, brush and changing bottom structure. Most ground pounders rely on a combination of weed edges and wood when fishing the shoreline. The more shallow the areas the better they bite. During hot weather, fish are found in depths of four to 12 feet. The water is fertile and green to brown in color. This is due to 60 percent of the bottom being clay.

Bass are opportunistic feeders. They do not like to travel any further than necessary. Fishing the shallows can be very rewarding, especially if it is near deep water.

Crab Orchard has a number of bank fishing areas with the best known being Wolf Creek Causeway. The causeway divides the lake with a long dike composed of steep rip rap banks. Fishing is good there all year around. There are a number of brush piles and man made structures in this area. Fish relate to them.

Another good area is the rip rap along Illinois Route 13 as it crosses the lake between Marion and Carbondale. The area has a number of fish cribs, placed there to attract game fish. The wooden structures are excellent places for bait fish to conceal themselves from the larger predator bass.

Largemouth can be found in the western end of the lake. They like the wood structure to be found in the coves of the northwest part of the lake as well as the stumps and American Lotus pads of Grassy Bay. On the north side of Route 13, largemouths are taken in the brushy shoreline of Long Neck and Cambria Neck.

All of the larger necks offer good weed growth. Successful ground pounders work the weed edges and some sort of wood along the shorelines. Emergent water willow and stands of cattails can be found throughout the lake. Pondweed is the most abundant submergent species.

Crab Orchard is a user fee area. A permit is required and it can be obtained at the Visitors Center on Illinois Highway 148 just south of Old Route 13. Fees collected are used to repair and improve roads, buildings, campgrounds and trails. It also pays for exhibits, educational programs, natural habitat protection, guided walks and hikes and other visitor activities including visitor safety and protection.

For further information about the refuge and fees, one can call the refuge office at 618 997 3344.

Crab Orchard Lake is a fishing Mecca for shallow water bass anglers. Ground pounders can find fishing action to suit their desires.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

A Good Time Coming

2011-03-07T12:36:00.001-06:00

This beautiful painting of Ozark smallmouth bass will be
given away at the March 19 swap meet.

Charles Duren's handmade knives will be displayed for sale...

Handpainted, numbered wingbone calls by Ed and Will Davis
will also be on sale at the swap meet.

Have you ever seen an old fashioned Ozark River johnboat? Well, you can watch one being built at our swap meet on Saturday, March 19. Master carpenter, Myron Nixon will be helping me build one like my grandfather and father built when I was a kid on the Big Piney River, guiding fishermen for 50 cents an hour. Boy how times have changed… now I make ten times that much per hour on a good day! Maybe I ought to say I will be helping him… but not much.

We are only one week away from our Lightnin’ Ridge, Grizzled Old Outdoorsman’s Swap Meet, and some readers have been asking about the free fishing trip to Canada for two people which will be given away that day, by drawing. Tinker Helseth owns a beautiful lodge on Lake of the Woods, about an hour north of the Canadian border north of Minnesota. He also has outpost cabins on wilderness lakes where he flies fishermen to fish for bass, walleye, northern pike, muskies and even crappie. The trip will be a four-day outing custom made to whatever the winner wants to do, and will include lodging, some meals, boats, motors and guides.

I am hoping someone wins it who has never been to Canada, because it will be an
unforgettable trip.

Tinker Helseth will be at the swap meet all day to give out literature and answer questions about fishing and hunting in Canada. You will really enjoy meeting this old-time Canadian bush pilot, outfitter and guide. He is the real deal, and can tell you about everything from calling moose to catching muskies.

But we will have a great deal more at our swap meet than Tinker and me. Our editor and outdoorswoman, Sondra Gray, will be there, along with Gloria Jean and a couple of my daughters, giving away sample copies of our magazine, the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal. I am hoping to meet readers of this column, and will sell and sign my books there, a great deal cheaper than you will find them in any bookstore. I have seven books, and the profit from those book sales will go to several charitable causes, including the Ozarks Food Harvest, which helps feed the hungry in our area, and also to a Christian camp called White Oak Camp, which is a week long experience in the summer for underprivileged children. At our fall swap meet last October, we raised 1,580 dollars which we gave to five school districts in the Ozarks to use in buying shoes and coats for some children who needed them.

I am making turkey calls, and will have those on hand. Whenever someone subscribes to our magazine, they will get a free hand-made western cedar turkey call that is so good that it will cause turkey hunters to give up the pastime of turkey hunting because it is too easy. We also intend to give away a beautiful painting of smallmouth bass at my table, a painting done by Al Agnew, about 2 feet by three feet, matted and framed, signed and numbered and very valuable.

Outdoor writer Monte Burch will be at the swap meet too, one of the best outdoor writers in the Midwest, with more than forty years of writing for top national magazines. He will have some of his books on hand which he will sign for you. There will be some of Jim Spencer’s turkey hunting books there also, and some old, old magazines, and old hunting and fishing books that are truly antiques. Sondra Gray will even have some of our older back issues of the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal for sale.

We expect to have 35 tables with all sorts of hunting and fishing gear, and there will be lots of antiques amongst them. One of our vendors is a fellow who is an authority on antique fishing lures, who will appraise any old lures you might want to bring.
We will have a table full of hand-made turkey calls by craftsmen who are a great deal better at it than I am, and one of the tables has some hand-made and hand-painted wingbone calls that are absolutely too beautiful to use. Another table will feature some fantastic woodcarvings and knives handmade by Charles Duren. He uses antlers for handles on Norway steel blades, and he carves some of those handles with delicate wildlife heads or scenes. Those knives are unique, one-of-a-kind treasures. You can see one on my website, given later in this column.

There should be a number of old rifles and shotguns; some just good hunting guns, and others antiques. But I think what we will have the most of is fishing lures, rods and reels so you should be able to find a good buy on new or used fishing gear. When you throw in furs, art, camping gear and miscellaneous items of that sort, you have the makings of an enjoyable all day event with lots of bargains.

And while we have always forbidden ladies from reading this column… which I write for grizzled old outdoorsmen only, we are going to have a special place for ladies at our swap meet, a room which we will set aside for any women who would like to get away from the men and sell some quilts, baked goods, canned goods, or things of that sort.

If you are a lady, and would like to have a table in that special section, just let me know. If you want to make some cakes and pies and cookies and that sort of thing, I can’t imagine you taking any of them home with you. If you only have a few items, that’s okay, bring them and we will find a place for you, on account of, you are a lady and us grizzled old outdoorsmen appreciate that.

At 1:00 p.m. we will have a special demonstration on how to do chain-saw woodcarving, using a specially made blade and chain. When the carving is finished, it will be given away too.

Dinner will be served between eleven and one o’clock that day by the youth of the church, and I think there may be some biscuits and gravy and coffee there early in the morning for anyone who missed breakfast. The only thing you have to pay for at our swap meet is the food and whatever else you want to buy while you are there. There is no charge for admission and we are not charging for tables, but if you want one of those tables you need to let us know soon, we are running out of space.

All this is in a big gymnasium adjacent to the Brighton Assembly of God Church, which is just off Highway 13, seventeen miles north of Springfield. Look for the Pleasant Hope exit, at highway 215 south, and follow the signs. A map is on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

Anyone who wants to bring boats and motors or canoes to sell may do so; we will find a place for them close to the entrance of the gymnasium. Call in advance.

The purpose of this event is to help folks sell some of the stuff littering their basement, and have a good time. We are thankful for the people of the Brighton Assembly of God, who make it all possible, and will remember this is a church building. It will be a day that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it, as the bible instructs us, and be reverent. Come and join us!

You may call our offices for more information, 417-777-5227, or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net.

LITTLE GRASSY BASSIN

2011-03-02T18:50:00.000-06:00

The slow rolled spinnerbait cruised through the water bumping off stumps and other submerged wooden structure. Suddenly, from the darkness appears a streak that snatches the bait and heads for parts unknown. This scene is repeated daily on Little Grassy Lake in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge near Marion, Illinois.

Beginning with early spring, Little Grassy Lake has great bass fishing.

The lake takes its name from the creek that formed it. The lake was built in 1940 as part of the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. It is located about 8 miles south of Carbondale, Illinois just off Giant City Road. The shoreline of the lake is about 36 miles, with an average depth of 27 feet and a 90 foot depth in the channel at the spillway. The lake is four miles long and one mile wide. The shoreline is wooded and rocky and provides some of the most beautiful scenery in the state. Most of the adjoining land is leased to church, school and youth groups, but the lake itself is the property of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The lake does have a moderate amount of standing timber, good shoreline rip rap areas, and assorted vegetation. Known for big bass in the past, the lake did have a problem with fishing pressure in the early 1980's.

Largemouth bass are found in ponds, lakes and reservoirs of Illinois, as well as some rivers and streams. It is essentially a lake bass. Coloration can vary, but they are usually dark green on the back and becoming lighter green on the sides.

Bass generally build their nest in water of about 18 inches to 3 feet depth. But, they can be found as deep as 15 feet. They tend to spawn when water is 63 to 68 degrees in temperature. As youngsters, they feed on zooplankton. Later, as adults, bass eat small, swimming animal life. Fish make up about 60 percent of their diet. Crayfish are an important part of their diet.

Anglers take bass using natural baits including such things as minnows, crayfish, worms, hellgrammites and frogs. Any artificial bait that imitates the above is a good bet. A local favorite on Little Grassy Lake is the plastic worm fished Texas style (weedless) slowly over the bottom around submerged trees and other heavy cover. Early morning and early evening are the best time to seek bass. The most consistent producing times are the two hours just before sundown.

The average life span of a bass in Illinois is about four years, with few surviving more than 8 or 10 years. A four year-old fish will average 13 inches in length and weigh about a pound and a quarter. A nine-year old fish will weigh about 5 pounds and be approximately 20 inches in length.

In addition to the bass, Little Grassy Lake contains good populations of catfish, crappie, bluegill, and rock bass.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Professionals, Experts and Champions

2011-02-28T13:19:00.000-06:00

On a calm spring morning, walk and listen and call, and you can be successful on your first hunt. Success depends more on patience and persistence than on calling ability or gear.

"A wild gobbler is no respecter of persons" an old turkey hunter once told me.."sit me down in the woods with a king and I am his equal, in the eyes of an old tom." Any beginner can call in a wild turkey on any given day, and any self-proclaimed professional or expert can fail.

I went to the National Wild Turkey Federation meeting in Nashville Tennessee two weeks ago. I wanted to hand out some of my magazines and show some people my book on wild turkey hunting I wrote a few years ago, “The Greatest Wild Gobblers”. And while there I met with some interesting folks, as there were lots of ordinary hunters like me, looking at all the booths and folks hawking their wares.

It was the last such trip for me… no more. What time I have I want to spend outdoors, not in some city so clogged with traffic you are risking your life when you drive. Besides, I can’t afford to buy the gas to get there! Shucks, I bought a new shirt at Wal-Mart, and shined my cowboy boots and when I got there, everyone else had on camouflaged hunting garb. In the middle of Nashville!

The place was filled with experts and professionals and team hunters and everywhere you looked was the words ‘trophy’ and ‘champion’. The silliness of grown men competing in a turkey calling championship astounds me. Experts and professionals serve as judges, sitting behind curtains listening to callers striving to gain fame and acclaim as “turkey calling champions”. Imagine the high point of your life being the accomplishment as a turkey-calling champion. Nowadays there are more turkey calling champions and professional turkey hunters than there are professional athletes. I am always amazed how many of them live in suburbs and are 50 pounds or so overweight. To tell the truth, interest in calling contests seems to be waning as the simplicity of turkey hunting begins to dawn on people.

Those judges must feel like the silliest people in the world. Who amongst those would-be champions sounds different than the others? If you went out into the woods on a still calm April morning and called like one of those champions, you might offend a turkey. You’d be as out of place as a woodpecker with a jack-hammer. I think if you snuck a real hen turkey in on one of those judges, it might finish last.

The NWTF exhibition hall hosted a ton of “game ranches” offering hunters shots at huge “trophy” deer and elk. A space there costs from 800 dollars up. But, those people have the money. A large number of those places charge thousands of dollars to line up a hunt for the wealthiest of hunters and their trophies are often raised in captivity, fed special meat product diets to produce the huge antlers.

I grew up around Ozark hunters who were nothing like what I see in those places. I see hunting, at least what I knew and grew up with, as something much different than hunting is going to become in the future. When you are actually talking about “scoring” wild turkeys, and trying to get in a record book, you aren’t going to be hunting with me, I have nothing in common with you. If you are teaching some little obese boy how to use an ATV to hunt from, I know little of your hunting world, and want nothing to do with it.

One large company, out to make millions from the sale of their products, advertises their team of professional hunters as “Turkey Thugs”. Do we really want to involve the word “thugs” in hunting today? Aren’t there enough anti-hunters without inciting more with such terms?

I am a hunter, not a thug. I will hunt wild gobblers dressed in hunting clothes that didn’t cost much more than a half-tank of gas, and I’ll get years of use out of them, with the help of a patch or two. My old shotgun is scratched and scarred from hundreds of days in the woods. I doubt if I could sell it for much, but you couldn’t buy it because of the memories it invokes. One box of shells will last several seasons, and I don’t save turkey beards or spurs. I quit that 20 years ago. I will walk when I hunt turkeys, I don’t want to even be close to an ATV. I just pray I don’t get in the woods with someone who has one. I won’t be hunting trophies, and if somebody calls me a professional or expert, I will be offended just because I saw so many of them there at the wild turkey convention that I didn’t admire much.

I like to make the calls I hunt with, they only involve about ten minutes of work and they are a little bit crude, but they will compete with any of those calls I saw at that convention that costs thousands of dollars. And I am not kidding folks, they had calls there at that convention that cost hundreds of dollars, even thousands… and people were buying them. The economy must be improving.

I believe that hunting and fishing is a poor place for teaching youngsters competition. The woods and waters left in a semi-natural condition for us to use and enjoy, are sacred places. If you want to be a professional, do it legitimately. If you want to compete, do it on a sports field or in an arena or, the local pool hall! Let’s get back to being hunters and fishermen and conservationists, and not experts, professionals, and thugs. Because if we lose the right to hunt in the future, it won’t be because of what anti-hunters have done, it will be because of what we hunters have made of hunting.

There is nothing easier than calling up a wild gobbler when conditions are right, nothing harder to accomplish when conditions are wrong. Last year I was within 60 yards of an old tom that stayed in one little area for three hours while I watched him, and tried my best to call him to me with no luck. That day, I was the worst turkey caller in the world. The next day, miles away in different woods, I suddenly got good at it again.I called a wild gobbler about mid-morning that gobbled at me about 200 yards away, and ran to my call as hard as a wild turkey can run. He nearly went past me, running. His head was bobbing back and forth so fast it was like shooting at a rabbit. The second gobbler was a bigger, older tom than the one the previous day, judging from his spurs.

You can get one of my little wooden calls at the swap meet we are going to have March 19th. I will make a bunch of them and if I run out I will show you how to make your own. I don’t want too many of them out there in the woods though, the population of wild gobblers may suffer if they should fall into the hands of some experts and professionals. I don’t want those turkey thugs to get ahold of one.

There will be an Ozark turkey call maker at our swap meet with some really good, top quality box calls. If you want to reserve a table for yourself, do it soon, as we only have about ten tables left. See all the information about our swap meet on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. In a week or so I will write about all the things we expect to have there. It is going to be a great event, and lots of fun for all of us common everyday grizzled old veteran outdoorsmen. Best of all, we are going to raise some money to help people in need in the Ozarks.

Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or e-mail me at lightninridge@ windstream.net

FLYFISHING AIN'T THAT HARD

2011-02-23T17:33:00.001-06:00

Fly fishing is often thought of as a sophisticated sport that requires a complicated combination of tackle. Major tackle manufacturers and retailers have taken much of the mystery out of the selection.

With some basic education the novice fly angler can enjoy a great summer in the rivers and lakes. Many contain trout or have our usual game fish that will also take a fly if properly presented. Bass and sunfish are particularly active when it comes to taking a fly.

Most rods are made of either graphite or fiberglass. Some are constructed of bamboo but they are well out of the price range of the beginning anger. The graphite rods are lighter than fiberglass. They allow for a decrease in the wall and diameter size. To increase sensitivity the fibers are wrapped on a bias. Lighter rods allow us to use them longer with less arm fatigue.

Fiberglass rods are heavier with less sensitivity.

Fly rods come in lengths of six to 12 feet. The recommended lengths are eight and one half to 9 feet. Shorter lengths are used for special situations. In areas with open coves and a low over head tree canopy a shorter rods works better.

Rods are rated by weights. For trout and panfish a weight of 4, 5, or six is right. For bigger fish like bass a 7, 8, or nine weight rod will do well. Most fly anglers like the eight weight rod for bass and a five for trout. A compromise of a six weight rod works well for both species.

The selection of a fly line is where the confusion seems to greet most of us. Line on a fly-fishing reel is composed of four sections. Working out from the spool, the first part is the backing.
Backing attaches the fly line to the reel and allows the fly line to form larger coils. That reduces line memory and aids in winding the line more quickly when the fish is hooked. It also allows the fish to make longer runs.

The fly line itself is what is cast in fly fishing instead of the lure as in other fishing. Fly lines are rated to match the fly rod. The rating is printed on the spool and package.

The leader is a length of tapered monofilament that attaches the fly to the line. The thick part is closest to the reel and is called the butt. Next is the taper and finally the tippet. The tippet is the thinnest part of the fly line and attaches to the fly.

The fly has no appreciable weight. It is propelled by the lines movement. The rod is drawn back, called loading, and then cast forward, called unloading. The forward movement is also called “shooting the line.”

With a little basic instruction we can learn to be fly fisherman. Instruction can come from an instructor or from a video. There are a number of good ones on the market. DVD’s are particularly helpful because it is possible to move to a particular section that you want to concentrate upon with ease.

There are a number of ready-to-fish combos on the market now and available from mail order companies like Cablea’s and Bass Pro Shops. Some other sporting goods stores also carry them. The Concept line from 3M Scientific Anglers offers rod and reel, with the line already spooled with backing and tapered leader. Some packages include an instructional video and booklets. All the tackle selection is already completed by an expert.

Those who have never tried fly fishing owe it to themselves to add this equipment to their arsenal of fishing tackle. It is another element in angling and a very relaxing way to spend a day at the river, lake or pond near home.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

Migrating Turkeys

2011-02-21T14:36:00.000-06:00

Wild Turkey enthusiast Jim Spencer, on an Arkansas creek after a successful spring day.

Birds are singing again, spring must be on its way. But only a couple of weeks ago, I saw a big V-formation of geese heading south again, and there were three wild turkeys in with them…honest!

The grizzled old veteran turkey hunter, Jim Spencer, who is one of the best outdoor writers in the country, says he didn’t worry about the wild turkeys during the deep snow. “They just stay up in the trees he says, “and live off of the new maple and box elder buds.”

Spencer lives down in the woods next to the National Forest in Arkansas, and he says it is ice storms that kill the turkeys, not so much the snow and cold. If it gets so deep they can’t wade around in it and scratch through it, they just stay up in the trees and wait it out.

“I grew up over along the lower White River,” he said, “and in East Arkansas, where the rivers all come down and join the Mississippi, there is a wide flood plain with lots of turkeys. In the spring, near Clarendon, I have seen the water fill those bottoms for miles and miles, and the turkeys have no ground beneath them. They can stay up in the trees and survive for weeks if they have to. They are a tough bird.”

Spencer is a turkey-hunting nut. It has become an obsession with him, and he will start hunting them in mid-March in the deep south, and hunt them until the last day of the last season in the northern states. His new book, “Bad Birds” is something all turkey hunters will want to read.

I admire him because he does what he writes about, and has for many, many years. He doesn’t get it out of books. No one knows the outdoors better than my old friend Jim Spencer, but a lot of that is because of what I have taught him over the years. He won’t admit to that.

In the 1970’s he and I set up a camp in the Ouachita Mountains in early April, and hunted turkeys for a week. We had a bet on who would get a gobbler first. On opening morning, Jim set his box of shells out on the table as we ate breakfast before daylight. I found an old half brick there in a campfire ring left by deer hunters, and it fit perfectly in that shell box, being the same weight as his shells. So I removed the shells and put the brick in the box, and at daylight, high on a mountaintop, listening to an old gobbler sound off, Jim discovered the practical joke. Rather than just laugh about it and be a good sport, he had to get even, and on a float trip one afternoon a day or so later on the Fourche River, I opened up my tackle box to find it full of small rocks and pine cones where my lures had been.

We will see who can bag the wildest turkey this year, going by spur length and little else. I have the advantage because I make a little box call which is so effective some states have talked about outlawing it.

And the good news for any of our turkey hunting readers is… I will give away some of them, and sell some, at our spring swap meet. Anyone can make one in a matter of a few minutes, and I use nothing else.

We still have half of the tables available at our swap meet, March the 19th. We will limit it to 40 tables, but that is a lot of outdoor gear for sale, lures and calls and antiques and everything you can think of for the outdoorsman who can’t afford to buy from the big Sporting Goods Stores and is looking for bargains. If you have outdoor gear for sale, you need to contact me to reserve one of those tables. They are free, as is the admission.

I don’t know how it was where you live, but up here in the woods on Lightnin’ Ridge we had a record cold temperature a couple of weeks ago, thirteen degrees below zero. Then a week later we had a record high temperature for that date… seventy-two degrees! Isn’t that something? I haven’t got the slightest idea what is causing things like that. I don’t believe anyone else does either. Blame it on what you want, but if you laugh at the idea that huge, increasing populations of people and massive energy use is affecting our planet in ways that are a threat to mankind, you have your head in the sand, or somewhere similar.

Whatever is happening, I doubt we can figure it out, and I doubt we can stop the end result, but it will be something catastrophic in time. We can’t change it and we can’t stop it. Most of us may be gone by the time it all takes place, and then again, maybe we won’t. I talk to young people who have no idea what it was like to be able to drink out of an Ozark river. They have no worries about that kind of thing. I have seen creeks, even rivers flowing in the Ozarks which now are nothing but dry beds; for instance, the Little Piney River in Texas county. Only a few years back, I saw rivers in the Ozarks reach their lowest levels, and their highest levels within a year. Since then, that has become a regular occurrence. Hundreds of springs in the Ozarks which flowed constantly since men first began to settle here, have gone dry, and they say the water level below us is constantly dropping, down hundreds of feet from what it once was.

What happens, I wonder, when all the oil and natural gas is removed from huge cavities beneath the earth, leaving those places to dry up and collapse. Could that cause earthquakes, I wonder. Well, I don’t know any answers to anything, I just wonder. In time I guess we will know what we did wrong or right. But the biggest snowfall I have ever seen, and record low temperatures and record high temperatures within a week of each other just isn’t right.

Mine may be the last generation to mourn the fact that our rivers are what they are now, rather than what they use to be. We may be the last people who remember getting clean water free. If you don’t know what you missed, I guess you don’t miss it. I for one, do not understand how millions mass together with their daily lives devoted to accumulating more money and treasure that doesn’t last. I can’t understand traffic jams and pavement being that attractive, especially when you never hear wild birds or see the sun rise and set.

But I know it has to be that way. I am glad those masses are there in those huge cities instead of out here in the country. And where you are isn’t so much of importance as just being happy. You can easily see why those folks in Chicago and New York would be so happy, and I guess we are all envious of what they have in California. I have heard that Los Angeles and Hollywood is almost like heaven, and the people there are so much smarter than folks anywhere else! You can turn on TV and see that!

I guess there really isn’t anything to worry about, we can cleanse the water, dig deeper landfills, and there will always be plenty of oil, and wild turkeys.

Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613, e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or see my website at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.net

FLY FISHING FOR SPRING CATFISH

2011-02-16T20:13:00.000-06:00

Silently drifting though the air, the line snakes it way across the water. Dawn is just breaking through the mists when the streamer drops delicately on the surface and sinks.

The line tightens as a forked-tail fish mouths the streamer and moves off to deeper water. Catfish like to eat their prize in the safety of deep water. Using a streamer to catch catfish? Streamers are for fly fishing. Catfish don’t bite a fly. Or do they?

Today’s fly angler has expanded his list of prey. Catfish are the most recent to join the list of the hardcore fly fisherman, and the most fun. The prolific catfish can be found in almost any body of water in the middle of the country.

Catfish prefer a drop off are as where a riffle meets a pool. In the evening they move up to the shallow eddies and flats where they feed through the cooler nighttime temperatures. It is during these feeding periods that they are most vulnerable.

For those interested in catching catfish with a fly rod, a good starting point in the choice of tackle. A long, rather stiff, rod with a weight forward line to match is the beginning. For the more bulky fly a bass taper weight forward line would be good. A good tackle shop can help with the choice.

If more than one line is to be used, store them on extra spools so that the lines can be changes in response to lure selection and changing water conditions.

Monofilament of about five-pound test works well in a length of three to four feet for the tippet. If being able to see the line is a problem, then a colored mono line is OK. A float indicator can help identify a light bite as would a small ultra light float.

The choice of fly tends to lean toward anything that imitates a crayfish, leech or night crawler. Channel catfish tend to be bottom feeders. To match the hatch one has to match what is swimming or crawling on the bottom.

Fishing time tends to be early morning hours, up until about an hour after sunup. This bite does not last a long time but it can be done for a while and then one can move on to other types of fishing.

Fly fishing for catfish can be done on just about any lake, river or pond. If one is wadding, do so with great care as holes in the bottom can cause serious problems for the unsuspecting angler who steps in them.
The catfish has been described as a muscle with whiskers on one end and a forked tail on the other. That is not too far from the truth. On the light tackle of a fly rod and line the catfish is a formidable challenge. And it is a fun way to begin the day.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

There’s One, There’s Two..

2011-02-15T12:46:00.002-06:00

Many years ago in the fall of the year, I pulled into Tinker Helseth’s lodge at Nestor Falls, Ontario, on Lake of the Woods, late at night. Choosing not to awaken anyone at that late hour, I parked near the lake, climbed over to the back seat of my pickup, into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. I had driven all day and I was tired. Rambunctious, my Labrador, slept soundly in the front seat. He was along to retrieve ducks and grouse. I had stopped in Minnesota and bought a twenty-pound bag of his favorite brand of dog food. It was in the open bed of the pickup with most of my other hunting and fishing gear.

I was awakened by old Ram’s low, ominous growl, which continued even after I told him to be quiet so I could sleep. Obviously he was upset with something. Could be some Canadian outlaw was eyeing up my gear in the bed of the pickup, so I reached down beside me and grasped the shotgun lying along the floor. It was then I felt the whole pickup lurch a little as a heavy body climbed into the bed behind me. Suddenly I was wide awake. A thief was only a few feet away, with only the back glass separating us. He was big, black and hairy… and scary in the middle of the night like that. But he came for only one thing, that bag of dog food. By the time I got over the seat and out the door, he was gone with it, heading toward the lake. He wasn’t the biggest black bear I have ever seen, but sometime that night he gained about 20 pounds by eating that whole bag of dog food.

The next morning at breakfast, Tinker, an experienced and knowledgeable outdoorsman, bush pilot and guide, told me that bear was becoming a real problem. He had learned how to get the lids off their garbage cans and break into sheds, and he wouldn’t leave. He was a young male, a threat of some proportions, as well as a nuisance. In time, he would have to be shot.

I asked Tinker if they would eat him eventually and he laughed. He said he’d just as soon eat old Rambunctious. Even local Indians wouldn’t eat bear meat, and he said he had never tasted any that didn’t ruin his appetite. He said Americans come to Canada to hunt bear for bear rugs mostly, not bear meat. Most talked about how good the meat was to justify getting a rug.

Just last year when I was fishing with Tinker, he showed me a couple of places where he and another guide were baiting for bears, where American hunters would take one in the fall. How else can you hunt a bear up there, by finding a trail and set up a tree stand? Black bears aren’t like deer. You won’t be successful without baiting them or hunting them with dogs, and if you bait them, getting one is pretty much a sure thing. Local dumps attract dozens. And there are so many of them, killing a few doesn’t hurt the population at all. Around Lake of the Woods, black bear are very abundant.

How many do we have in the Ozarks? Care to make a guess? The Missouri Department of Conservation wants to know, badly enough that they are spending about 885,000 dollars to get a close guess. According to Tim Ripperger, Assistant Director for the MDC, they feel they can figure out just about how many Missouri has by doing DNA testing on patches of hair left on barbed wire fences, and that type of thing. You can see why that would cost almost a million dollars. But the MDC only has to pay a quarter of that; the federal government is paying three-fourths of it. In this day when there is all this talk about the federal deficit of trillions of dollars, laying out a half million to try to figure out how many bears we have is no big expense! I asked Tim if I could get in on that, maybe get a few thousand for going down to the National Forestland and counting tracks or something. Because I am so skeptical, almost to a point of being amused by this, I don’t think I would qualify. They have, after all, some top flight, book-trained biologists who will come up with an accurate figure for only 885,000 dollars. Sure they will!

That figure needs to be better than 500 bears, and it will be, eventually, because the Missouri Department of Conservation badly wants to sell some bear tags and have a bear season. They have arrived at a figure of 500 to 600 bears necessary for a hunting season, and I would bet my boots that Missouri doesn’t come close to having that many, but how could you prove we don’t? I know a little bit about bears from spending so many years hunting the National Forestland in northwest and west Arkansas for more than twenty years, where I have seen several. They have a bear season in Arkansas, mostly for those hunters who would pay about anything to get a bear rug, even if they wouldn’t pay much for a freezer full of bear meat.

In those mountain forests, black bear are so elusive and wild that seeing them is unusual. Who knows how many there are! They are easier to see however if you bait them. One Jasper, Arkansas backwoodsman got friendly with one when he started taking the bear a daily offering of day-old donuts from a local bakery. Three months of that made the bear fairly tame, so he started taking pictures. One day he took pictures when he had forgotten the donuts, and the bear chewed on him a little bit. He had to have 120 stitches to atone for no donuts.

I can guarantee you that we won’t have 885,000 dollars spent counting bears without having five or six hundred counted when it is all over. In time we will have a limited bear season with some hundred dollar bear tags and some new non-resident hunters paying three times that to get a shot at a bear skin rug. But if you want one bad enough, come by and talk to Tinker Helseth at our swap meet this coming March, and he can help you get one easily, right there beside the bait bucket in northwest Ontario, with time to catch a limit of walleye during the afternoon.

Tinker will be giving away a free fishing vacation to his Lodge on Lake of the Woods, by drawing, on Saturday, March 19, during our daylong Grizzled Old Outdoorsman swap meet, held at the gymnasium of the Brighton Assembly of God Church, seventeen miles north of Springfield. He can tell you all about black bears and walleye and moose and the Canadian Wilderness. He has been guiding there since he was 11 years old, more than fifty years now. But he also is a master at chain-saw wood carving, and he will create a carving of a fish on that day, and give it away by drawing too. You can watch him give a demonstration from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. and learn how to do it yourself.

I will be there all day too, and am thinking about giving a seminar on how to count black bears in the Ozarks. You can use that knowledge perhaps to get a federal grant.

My website has all the information on the swap meet...www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. You still can get a table there to sell outdoor gear, and everything is free. No charge for a table, no charge to get in. Write me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo.65613 or e-mail lightninridge@windstream.net

VERSATILITY WITH SPINNERBAITS

2011-02-09T19:59:00.000-06:00

Casting to the stick up, an angler can see a bass suspended just next to it. Why does he ignore the lure? The answer may be that this particular spinnerbait is the wrong color or has the wrong shaped blade for this fish at this time.

There are seemingly an endless variety of spinnerbait blades and skirts in an infinite variety of colors. All of them will produce if used in the right combinations and under the proper conditions. They can be used in clear as well as stained water. They work in cold water conditions and in the heat of summer.

The most popular colors are white, chartreuse, black and a combination of these colors. Both the blades and skirts can be in these colors.

Blades come in three basic shapes: Colorado, willow leaf and Indiana. The later is a kind of tear drop shape, while the Indiana is more oval and the willow leaf is more oblong. The less streamlined Indiana and Colorado have more resistance in the water and provide more vibration. The streamlined Willow leaf provides little vibration but gives off more flash.

When choosing a color the nickel or silver work well in clear to slightly stained waters. The gold or brass is used in the rest of the water spectrum, up to muddy water. The colored blades work well in most water when flash is not being attempted.

Fishing spinnerbaits is a skill that the beginning bass angler should master before going on to more sophisticated lure and patterns. There are such patterns as slow rolling or bush bumping or perhaps buzzing and dropping. These techniques are too numerous to further explore here.

As you can tell by the above, there are a variety of uses for the spinner bait. Many bass anglers will have a number of rods rigged up with different spinnerbait combinations of skirts and blades. In this way when they encounter different water conditions or structure, they can drop one rod and pick up another. The idea is to maximize the time one has a productive lure in the water. Time spent removing one spinnerbait and tying on another, is time not spent fishing.

The Speed Bead Terminator spinnerbait is a good example of how science has made the multiple spinnerbait use simple. They have the same wire spinnerbait shaft as the other baits in their line except there are two subtle differences.

Half way up the blade portion of the shaft is a small twisted wire on which the tandem blade can be attached. The difference between this and other spinnerbaits is that this one allows the blade to be twisted onto the shaft and it still spins free. Other baits would require the cutting of the section of the shaft that contains the blade in order to change blades. By allowing the shaft to be twisted on and off, blades can be changed in seconds instead of several minutes.

At the end of the same shaft, standard baits have a wire look that holds the other blade of tandem bait. In most baits, this loop has to be bent out in order to remove a blade, the blade changed, and then the loop bent back. The end result is a weakened shaft and lost fishing time. The new bait has a small bead that can be slid back for changing of the blade. Upon the completion of the change, the bead is slid back in place and the bait is ready for action.

Changes in spinnerbait construction allow for an angler to fish different sizes, colors and configurations of blades on the same bait shaft with little or no loss of fishing time. One can make a single blade spinner bait into a tandem and vice versa with little effort and time. Coupling that with the ability to change the rubber skirts make spinnerbaits popular. Anglers can fish deep or shallow, clear or stained water, under all weather conditions.

The spinnerbait is easy to fish and one of the most versatile baits in the angler’s tackle box.

The Grim Reaper is White

2011-02-08T10:55:00.002-06:00

Light enough to travel on top of the snow when it crusts just a little, bobwhites have to find food above it, and they are easily picked up by the eye of any predator, especially a hawk. It takes twice as much foodto keep their body heat at a constant level when the temperature is 10 degrees, compared to 40 degrees.

Twenty inches of snow fell on this wooded ridgetop where I live. In all my life living in the Ozarks of southern Missouri or northern Arkansas, I never saw more than twelve inches of snow fall at one time. Even in Canada, and in the mountains out west, where snow accumulates to several feet over the course of a few winter weeks, I don’t know if they have twenty inches fall all at once.

I know this; a snow of that depth is tough on wildlife, even wild turkeys. I have noticed that in a deep snow, winter flocks of turkeys which have been using fields to feed in, forsake them and remain in woodlands. The reason for this has to be in part the inability to escape predators in deep snow. The wild turkey may fly when surprised by a hunter or a bobcat or fox, but he needs to run a little ways first. If he isn’t hard pressed, he will just run and never fly at all. This snow nearly eliminates that possibility. In the timber, a turkey, especially the young ones, can take to sudden flight and gain the protection of overhead branches where they can perch, and be out of reach of most ground predators. I have seen young turkeys do this often in the winter in snow.

But food is going to be tough to come by, because in a snow of this depth, it is tough to find places where turkeys can scratch through it. In a situation like this, all wildlife, including deer, depends on heavy thickets, and especially thick stands of cedar. For a covey of bobwhite quail, those cedar thickets may be the only chance. In the cedar thickets, the snow is much less deep. The berries on buckbrush and juniper, (what we refer to as red cedar) are not highly prized for food by anything but a few species of small birds, so they last all winter long, off the ground. But right now those small bitter, blue cedar berries can mean survival for quail, turkey and all kinds of small birds. Even deer and some predators like the fox will eat them.

But all birds need grit, and if quail are deprived of access to small gravel, they may die in less than a week. Surprisingly, they can live without water for weeks. In the winter, when severe cold freezes everything up, all wildlife species live for prolonged periods without water, even doves, the one bird species which seems to need water the most in the summer and fall. The grit which must be in the bird’s crop (which old time Ozarkians pronounced ‘craw’) is necessary to grind up and digest larger seeds and acorns. That’s why right now you will find quail and all other birds coming to roadways, both paved and gravel, where bare surface is created by man’s machinery.

Rabbits and small ground mammals are much more exposed to predation in this kind of snow, but again, they find the heavy cover and thickets and burrow in. They too do without water, but they can find food in the bark of small woody growth and saplings.

Some small ground mammals, in mice and rat families, will not hibernate at all in the winter, but most will hibernate some. And there are others which hibernate the entire winter, a matter of months perhaps. Squirrels and raccoons, skunks and opossums will hibernate for only short periods, during times of extreme cold and heavy snow, and survive it that way. Fox squirrels hibernate for a longer period of time, it seems to me, than do gray squirrels, but never more than just a few days.

For predators, it is not as hard to survive in a difficult stretch of winter, but when you have twenty inches of soft snow, foxes, coyotes and bobcats have to find it difficult to maneuver. The eagle, owls and hawks aren’t much affected by it. All three will eat carrion if they have to. But a hawk after a mouse or bird, plunging into a deep, soft drift, can struggle to get out of it and into flight.

I feel sorry though, for the quail more than anything else. Bobwhites have been declining in the Midwest for two decades to some extent, and each year it seems to more likely that someday there will be none at all in the Ozarks, or any state north of the Ozarks for that matter. If you feed them, you have to remember how vulnerable they are to predators and house cats when they become concentrated and depend on food provided by man in some regular place. They need open patches of ground to find grit, and they need heavy cover close by to escape. Next time you think about clearing out a cedar thicket, think about what it is like right now for a covey of quail in an area with little protective cover.

I am amazed that wildlife survives the winters they seem to be able to survive. It seems so amazing that wild creatures can function without water… and if you are thinking they eat snow, they get almost no water that way. Have you ever once observed a wild bird or mammal in the wild eating snow? In all my time outdoors, I never did.

Somehow though, enough of any species survives the bottleneck of winter to keep that species going. And I have observed that in almost all wild creatures, there are cycles. When a species seems hard hit by some disease or hard winter or flooding or whatever, it seems to have a strong comeback by increased production of young. Some may want to refer to it as ‘mother nature’, but as I watch and learn, I realize that a mind greater than men can comprehend must be behind this amazing plan of survival.

Once many years ago, when I was a Naturalist for the National Park Service on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, I and two other young men set out to float a long length of the river in johnboats with basic supplies. We intended to film and photograph the river in winter, to show at summer night programs to visitors from the city. It was in January, and we got our tent set up one evening just before a major ice storm which kept us there for three days and nights, hoping the tent would hold up. One night as we huddled in that tent listening to light freezing rain and sleet peppering our shelter, we wondered how wild creatures around us coped. I would have felt better sitting around a fire in a river bluff cave, but it made me think about some things. Survival suddenly became the only important thing. We didn’t have to worry about the teeth of a predator, we had guns. The only concern then, for three days, was enough to eat, and the ability to stay warm.

A wild creature’s life is nothing else but that, always. Stay sheltered, stay fed, and stay hidden. In twenty inches of snow, those simple things become the most complicated tasks, and more wild creatures will die of predation, starvation, freezing or disease in the next month than any other three months of the upcoming year.

Our February-March issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Magazine is out. They are now in the magazine racks of 120 Wal-Mart stores in Missouri, north Arkansas and east Kansas. You can see the new magazine on my website… www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. If you can’t find one any other way, call my executive secretary, Ms. Wiggins, at 417-777-5227 and she will tell you how to order one or get a subscription. Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613, or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net

EARLY SPRING FISHING WITH SLIP BOBBERS

2011-02-02T12:57:00.001-06:00

The versatility of slip-bobber fishing is made for early year action. It allows the angler to adapt to conditions and whatever species they seek.

Sitting on the shore and staring at a bobber dancing on the surface of the water may be food for the Zen consciousness, but it does nothing to put fish in the cooler. Staring at a bobber may be all that some people get to do early in the year.

Changing temperatures and winds make early spring fishing a challenge. Movements of fronts through the area cause changes in the feeding activities of fish as well as water temperatures. Because fish move to find their comfort zone, they are often in different locations at different times of the day. They will also move up and down the water column in response to water temperatures.

So where does one begin to seek out early spring fish?

A good location is in the backs of coves and other secluded bays. It is here that water begins to warm faster than in the deeper waters of the main body of the lake or river. A plain kitchen thermometer can be used to take water temperature readings in various areas. Tied to a line, it can be lowered and raised in the water to find temperatures at different depths.

Look for warming trends and begin to fish those areas first.

Warmer water is usually the water closest to shore in the spring. The sun shining on rocks or mud bottoms will warm them. In turn they hold the heat longer. The warmed structure helps tow arm the water surrounding it. It is important to approach such areas quietly. Fish in shallow water, especially clear water, spook easily.

In the spring, fish are generally interested in locating spawning sites. They will often be found near areas where such activity will later occur.

For walleye, areas of hard bottom structure are good places to begin. Also look to areas where creeks feed into a larger body of water. The water will be warmer there by a degree or two and that can mean fish will be present.

Rip rap is a good location as are most rocky areas in general. If the wind is blowing toward the rip rap, the warmer water will be blown there as well. This in turn attracts bait fish and the predator fish follow.

In rivers, look for eddies just off the current. The fish locate those areas and wait next to the faster current in hopes of a hapless bait fish passing by in the faster water.

Once an area is selected it is time to seek the depth at which to fish. All fish seek their comfort level when it comes to water temperature. On warmer early season days that will be near the surface or in more shallow waters.

The slip bobber allows the angler to place the lure or bait at precisely the same depth as the fish. Anglers can easily change fishing depths by moving the line stop up and down. In a boat with electronics, this is more easily accomplished as one can know precisely where the fish are suspended. For the ground pounder it involves a little more work. One has to experiment by changing the depth until a fish is caught. Then fish that depth.

The slip bobber gets the bait to the right depth. Slip bobber systems allow the angler to move back from the fish and cast to them in the targeted area.

The slip bobber rig consists of a line freely passing through the bobber with a hook and bait below and a slip know stop above. The line slides through the bobber and stops at the slip knot. The slip knot can pass through the rod guides during casting and retrieval.

The slip knot is set at the depth the angler wishes the bait to suspend. If the bait is not heavy enough, then a split shot can be added to the line beneath the bobber for additional weight.

A small hook suspended below the slip bobber can suspend a minnow or other live bait in the fish’s view. Simply cast the rig to the desired water area, allow it to sit for a bit and then retrieve it slowly. Slowly is the operational word. The fish are usually sluggish from the cold water temperatures.

It is a good idea to work the entire area, be it rip rap or culvert drainage. On rocky or sandy shorelines, try working the bait along the bottom. Allow it to just bump the bottom and then jig it along with a lifting motion. In warmer water or when fish are more active, try to suspend the bait about 9 inches off the bottom with the same rod motion.

For those using artificial lures, any small to medium size minnow imitation is probably a good selection. Twitch them on the surface or just beneath it. Some people get good results with rattling crankbaits in this situation. Floating crankbaits work well if you stop the retrieve periodically. They represent an easy meal to fish as they suspend in the water.

The two keys to remember are: Fish slowly, and look for water that is warmer than that around it. Early spring fishing is often a hit or miss prospect. But, with a slip bobber your chances are increased.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

A Million Dollar Fish

2011-01-31T11:44:00.000-06:00


Big Ed Claiborne actually caught the world record walleye, a little better than 21 pounds. In the 1970's, no one knew it was a world record.

Greers Ferry Lake sits in the rugged southern part of the Ozarks down in north-central Arkansas. I first saw it when I was 22 years old, just out of college, the new outdoor editor for the state’s largest newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat. It was January when I went to work there, I graduated from college in December. I had a degree in wildlife management and had been writing a weekly column for the Columbia Tribune. What I didn’t know about being an outdoor editor was considerable, but they hadn’t ever had one, and they were looking for someone who would work cheap. That was me.

Something else I didn’t know anything about was walleye. I hadn’t ever even seen one in person. On the Big Piney River where I grew up in southern Missouri, there weren’t any. The old timers in the pool hall called walleye, “jack salmon” and talked about catching them over on the Current River. In the pool hall, I would read about them in the outdoor magazines which were such a big part of my education.

When I started to work at the Democrat, in late January, Greers Ferry was getting ready for the World Walleye tournament, wherein fishermen from all over the Midwest would try to catch a world record walleye. The prize for such a fish was a million dollars. The newspaper sent me up there to write about it, and I sure as heck wasn’t about to tell them I had never seen a walleye. Dickey Bailey and Big Ed Claiborne had seen several. They were both involved in the walleye classic, and they sort of took me under their wing and promised not to let anyone know I was greener than a spring hickory sprout when it came to walleye.

The irony of that situation was, Big Ed Claiborne had caught a 21-pound, so-many-ounce walleye already. He should have been a millionaire, because his huge walleye is today recognized as a true world record if I am not mistaken. At that time the world record was a hoax, a 25-pound walleye taken from Old Hickory Lake in Kentucky. A few years ago a fisherman involved in that record came forth because he was getting old and couldn’t live with his guilty conscience, and he confessed everything. It turned out that the world record smallmouth from Kentucky was also a hoax.

I don’t believe Big Ed’s fish was legal, because both he and Dickey Bailey had a secret way of catching big walleye… they would go up the Little Red River at night when the huge fish were spawning and fish for them in deep holes below the shoals, using bluegill. It wasn’t legal to fish the river after dark during part of February and early March.
Arkansas fisheries biologists had found a 25-pound walleye up the river the year before, shocking fish at night, a legitimate world record. There was a picture taken of it, and it was used for years in Arkansas to promote that World Walleye Classic. Fishermen came from all over to have a shot at that million-dollar fish.

In a few years, the whole thing was abandoned when promoters from the Greers Ferry area figured out that it was getting way out of hand. There are people out there would do about anything for a million dollars; dynamite, poison, nothing was beyond that kind of person. Dickey Bailey told me once, “You know, there are a lot of people who would murder someone for a million dollars. If I caught one, I might never get it back to the dock.”

So the world walleye classic became not such a big thing, and I don’t know if they even do it anymore. I know that Big Ed and Dickey and some of their friends annually caught a walleye or two close to or over twenty pounds. If there is a 25-pound walleye anywhere today, I suppose it is there.

I didn’t stay long in Little Rock. I’d just as soon live in Chicago. But the Ozarks of north Arkansas was a great place to live and so I moved there. I caught my first really big walleye about fifteen years later when I was fishing Bull Shoals Lake with a wiggle wart lure in early March. It weighed about 11 pounds, was 29 inches long. It had a big growth on one side of it, but it fought like a tiger. It was five pounds smaller than one I saw caught from Bull Shoals by a friend of mine one night in May, fishing with shad under submerged lights. What a walleye that was!

About 20 years ago, I caught my biggest walleye in Canada one October afternoon. We were hunting ducks and geese in Manitoba when someone I met up there took us out on the Red River, noted for the biggest channel catfish in the world. Using a jig and minnow, fishing straight down, I caught a 30-inch walleye in about 15 or 20 feet of water, landed it and took a picture, then released it.

Here in the Ozarks today, I never release a walleye that is legal size unless I have my limit. I release most every bass I catch, and I eat every walleye I catch. They are so good to eat that I just can’t give one up, and when I fry a walleye, I lock the house and pretend no one is home if one of my friends shows up.

Of course I am writing about walleye because it is time for them to spawn, way ahead of everything else. Most will spawn up rivers above the tributaries in water way too cold to induce romance in any other fish. You can bet that right now, even with the snow and the cold, many are staging in deep holes up above the lakes, and when it is finally a little bit warmer, I will catch a few while fishing for whites or hybrids, or bass, from late February all the way into April. They will hit a spinner bait on occasion, because I have seen big ones caught by my uncle on spinner baits. They will hit those rebels and rapalas that you jerk down under water and they will hit a variety of jigs used for white bass. If you really want to catch them in February, use a heavy jig tipped with a minnow, or a blue-green deep running crank bait, and longer thinner ones are better than short fat ones.

Everyone knows they are sensitive to bright light, so those dark overcast days, or early morning, late evening situations are best. You probably can catch them at night better than during the day, but consult the fishing regulations, because for a period of time each spring, it is against the law to keep a walleye from rivers from 30 minutes after sundown to 30 minutes before sunrise.

With low water conditions, many walleye will not go up the rivers to spawn, but will spawn on rip-rap or rocky points out in the lake, and reservoir fishermen catch them there in February and March. That actually happens to some extent each year, even when there is plenty of water.

Big Ed Claiborne and Dickey Bailey are gone now. There are others who will go after the biggest of the Midwestern walleye in Greers Ferry and the Little Red. But Bull Shoals and Norfork have giant walleye too. February is the beginning of it and if it’s too cold for you, then you just ‘ain’t no grizzled old outdoorsman like we was’, back in the days when there were million dollar walleye to be caught, and all my tackle wasn’t worth much more than a twenty dollar bill!

Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 654613 or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net. See all the details for our big outdoorsman’s swap meet on March 19, on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

SLIP BOBBERS AND EARLY SPRING FISHING

2011-01-27T14:26:00.000-06:00

Slip-bobber fishing is made for early season action. The versatility of this technique allows the angler to adapt to conditions and the species of fish he is seeking.

Sitting in the boat or on shore and staring at a bobber dancing on the surface may be good for the Zen consciousness. But, it does nothing to put fish in the cooler. Staring at the bobber may be all that some people get to do in the spring.

Changing temperatures and winds make early spring fishing a challenging experience for even the best anglers. Movements of fronts through the area cause changes in the feeding activities of fish as well as areas of water temperatures. Because fish move to find their comfort zone, they are often in different locations at different times of the day. They will also move up and down in the water in response to water temperatures.

Where should one begin to seek out early spring fish activity?

A good location is in the back waters. It is here that water starts to warm faster than in the deeper waters of the main body of lake or river. A plain kitchen thermometer can be sued to take water temperature readings in various areas. Look for warming trends and begin to fish those areas first.

Warmer water is usually the water closest to shore in the spring. The sun shining on rocks or mud bottoms will warm them which in turn will hold the heat longer. The warm structure helps to warm the water surrounding it. It is important to approach such areas quietly. Fish in shallow water, especially clear water, spook easily.

In the spring, fish are generally interested in locating spawning sites. They will often be found in areas near areas where such activity will later occur.

For walleye, areas of hard-bottom structure are a good place to start. Also look to areas where creeks feed into a larger body of water. The water will be warmer there by a degree or two and that can mean fish being present.

Rip rap is a good location, as are most rocky areas. If the wind is blowing toward the rip rap, the warmer water will be blown there as well. This in turn attracts baitfish and the predator fish follow.

In rivers, one should look for eddies just off the current. The fish locate these areas and wait next to the faster current in hopes of a hapless baitfish passing by in the current.

Once the area to be fished has been selected, it is time to seek the depth at which to fish. All fish seek their comfort level when it comes to temperature. On warmer early season days that is shallower.

The slip-bobber allows the angler to place the lure or bait at precisely the same depth as the fish. The angler can easily change fishing depths by moving the line stop up and down. Electronics can help locate the depth at which the fish are feeding or suspended. But, it is the slip-bobber that gets the bait in the right location. Slip-bobber systems allow the angler to move back from the fish and cast to them in the targeted area.

The sip-bobber rig consists of a line freely passing through the bobber with a hook and bait below and a slip knot stop above. The line slides through the bobber and stops at the slip knot. The slip knot can pass through the rod guides during casting and retrieving. The slip knot is set at the depth the angler wishes the bait to suspend. If the bait is not heavy enough, then a split shot can be added to the line beneath the bobber for additional weight.

A small hook suspended below a slip-bobber can suspend a minnow or other live bait. One simply casts the rig to the shoreline, allow it to sit for a bit, and then retrieve it slowly. Slow is the key to this type of fishing as the fish are still usually sluggish from the cold water temperatures.

It is a good idea to work the entire area, be it rip rap or culvert drainage. On rocky or sandy shorelines, try working the bait along the bottom. Allow it to just bump the bottom and then jig it along with a lifting motion.

For those who insist on using artificial lures, the small to medium size minnow imitations is probably a good selection. Twitch them on the surface or just below. Some people get good results with the rattling crankbaits in this situation. The floating crankbaits that actually suspend in the water if you stop the retrieve work well because they represent an easy meal to the fish.

The two keys to remember are: Fish slowly, and look for water that is warmer than that around it. Early spring fishing is often a hit or miss prospect, but with a slip bobber, ones chances are increased.

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

In the Eye of the Eagle

2011-01-25T10:56:00.002-06:00

Where once there were almost none, they are now plentiful. Will we ever know when they have reached a point where there are too many, as there are too many geese, too many herons, too many cormorants. And if we do, what will we ever be able to do about it?

Were you aware of any eagles last week? It was eagle awareness time in the cities where people could come to nature centers and see an eagle close-up. It seems like such a goofy thing to those of us who live out in the country and see them all the time, year round. There are more eagles today than you can shake a pair of binoculars at. Once this winter I saw eleven in one place on the river, and each year one will roost in the oaks above my pond several times, 100 yards from my office.

There is an eagle nest on the river less than two miles from my home, as the crow flies, or as the eagle flies too. It has been there for years and every year I observe the sequence of building up the nest, mating and laying eggs, feeding the eaglet, or eaglets, watching the young birds take to flight and learning to do things on their own. I know where there are six such nests on waters where I hunt and fish. There is one nest I can look down on in the spring, from a ridge top where I turkey hunt. It is fascinating.

Each year, when we have mild calm days in late February, we conduct a day long trip to Truman Lake, take a dozen people across it on a pontoon boat to a very wild inaccessible area, and have a fish fry dinner and a couple of three-hour hikes out into the woods. Part of that day is spending 30 minutes or so at rather close proximity to a pair of eagles preparing a nest for the coming spring.

They keep building that nest up, adding more sticks to it, making it heavier and stronger. To me it is a marvel, that nest high up in the triple fork of a huge sycamore, that withstands the winds it must withstand.

I have watched eagles for hours, observed them enough to become very “aware” of them. In 1958, I saw my first one, and I will never forget it. He was bathing in the river in November, and my dad sneaked right up close to him in our johnboat while we were duck-hunting. Because of the blind on the bow, he didn’t know we were there, and we got to within 30 yards of him. It was an “eagle awareness day” if there ever was one. There were almost none to be seen then.

It is said that young eagles do not develop the white head until sometime between their second and third year. It is said they are capable of killing a young calf, and they are. That makes farmers wary of them. I think there are times in the winter when they are seen eating on a calf that they found dead and someone figures they killed it. Eagles eat as much carrion, I believe, as the average buzzard. Back during the deer season, I floated a river and saw five of them sitting on a dead doe, having a feast.

And that is not to say they are not a powerful, deadly raptor. They are. I have observed that power, that strength. Amazing! They will eat ANYTHING they can clobber and kill like a slow bolt out of the blue, and I have seen them do that, when I was out somewhere being aware of eagles. They also do a pretty good job on fish in northern and western trout waters, but you know they don’t seem to eat many fish here in the Ozarks that they actually catch. They feast in the winter on lakes where natural die-offs give them plenty of fish to eat.

And in the Ozarks, they are rough on migrating ducks and geese… not so much the healthy ones as the ones which have been crippled or are sick. And an eagle loves coots. Coots are so numerous, slow and stupid they are like eagle candy. I guess you could say that coots are lacking eagle awareness.

It’s a funny thing about what is happening in our natural world, with migration patterns so absolutely different now than 100 years ago. We have plenty of migrating eagles pass through the Ozarks, but some are here year round, never leaving. Those which nest close to me never go very far, it seems. At any time of year, I know about where I can find them.
I believe, when you start being aware of eagles, you have to be aware that those eagles living in the Ozarks year round live a much different life than those out west, even though they are the same bird. That’s understandable, Ozark outdoorsmen like me eat more squirrel and less pizza than our relatives in St. Louis, more fish and less fondue, you might say!

Recently a friend called and read me something a writer from the city had written, touting the unbelievable sight of an eagle. He said that an eagle can spot a rabbit at a distance of one mile. Those are the things you read from writers who live in the suburbs, drive to work in traffic jams, and go to “eagle awareness days” observations.

It comes from getting all you know, and all you write, out of a book. Scientists examine the eyes of an eagle and figure out what they think he can do with them but they don’t spend enough time outdoors watching what they do with them. Just a few days ago, I was out in the woods behind my house when I saw an eagle flying over, just above the treetops. I stood there watching him, and he was nearly above me before he saw me, and the second he did, I saw him react. Often, on the river I see them before they know I am there, and you can see them react then too. Yes, I know what great vision they have, but in that city where that writer works, there are folks oohing and aahing about how an eagle can see a rabbit a mile away. Maybe he CAN… but he DOESN’T.

He flies low over the water, hunting ducks or fish, he doesn’t get up there a couple hundred feet to spot them and make an osprey-like dive to catch breakfast. I reckon maybe he could see a rabbit at a mile if it was on a concrete parking lot, running in circles. But then, I don’t think he’d fly a mile to get one.

The time will come that all who write about the outdoors will have grown up in the city, and live in some crowded suburb, and write about the outdoors from what they read in books. The old time writers who actually lived out there, and did what they write about, are becoming few. It is great to know what the books say, because those people like John James Audubon and Roger Petersen, were out there in the woods making observations, but you need to spend ten hours out in the wilds by yourself for every hour you study those books. That’s where you learn the most. Combining the two gives you an insight few will ever know.

When I was a wildlife management student at the University of Missouri, I saw things in the books that did not fit what I had seen in the woods and on the river as a boy. That is because, as I said, an eagle in Montana, and an eagle in Missouri, are to some degree, different birds.

Remember this…You can best be aware of the eagle, by watching him when he is not aware of you, off in the wilds somewhere.

To join one of our day-long trips into the woods between now and spring, send an address and we will mail you the information.My address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. Or e-mail lightninridge@windstream.net The website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.

NEXT BEST THING TO LIVE CRAWFISH FOR BAIT

2011-01-19T14:28:00.000-06:00

The line cuts through the water on this warm summer eve. The angler cranks three of four times on the bait cast reel then pauses. He cranks three or four more times and pauses again. He gives it a jerk to the right and then one to the left before beginning the scenario again.

From a nutritional standpoint, crayfish is probably the best food source for the bass. That is probably why it is the most popular forage. But, they also feed on shads and bluegills.

Probably the most versatile and least understood weapon in the angler=s tackle box is the crankbait. Often an imitation of crawfish, they are the next best thing to the real McCoy. They come in so many colors, shapes and sizes that many anglers just forgot about them in favor of something Aless complicated.@ Others try to make them more complicated than need be.

There is just no time like the present to fish a crankbait. They are suitable for virtually any bass fishing situation. Crankbaits allow the angler to quickly cover a lot of water. The tendency is to make long casts. That is not necessary. Casts of 30 to 40 feet are just the ticket.

To those not sure what exactly makes up a crankbait, it is a hard, wood or plastic, buoyant lure that will dive and wobble. Most have two sets of treble hooks sometimes making lip grabbing of a bass a bit of a thrill. The depth at which the lure runs is directly related to the lip size on the front of the lure. Generally speaking, the bigger the lip, the deeper goes the bait. This can be varied by retrieving the lure slower or faster to get the desired depth.

Lipless crankbaits, such as the popular Rat-L-Trap, are meant to just retrieve with a steady and fast reeling of the line. This keeps it above any vegetation or structure and out of snags.

With all those hooks, one would suspect that snagging on underwater objects and vegetation would be a problem. Surprisingly enough that is not always the case. If the angler feels a heavy contact with an obstruction, quit reeling for a second or two. The bait will normally float upward enough to avoid getting hung up. Just give it a little slack but be aware that this is often the time when a fish will attack the lure. They see it as a forage animal in distress and an easy meal.

Crankbaits come in an endless variety of colors. Most are designed to imitate a bait fish, usually shad, crawfish or bluegill.

For the beginner, it is recommended that one start with a couple of shad color, bluegill color, or shad imitations.

The rod can be fiberglass or graphite. But, most anglers find that the graphite is a bit to fast. A rod that is 70 percent fiberglass and 30 percent graphite seems about right. It should be light to medium action, depending upon the size of crankbait to be used. The 7-foot length rods are most popular with the pros.

The reel can be either spinning or bait casting. It should be spooled with 10- to 12-pound test monofilament line. High visibility line is popular as it can be seen to tighten or move to the side.

The most important key to fishing crankbaits is finding the right size and color that will work best at the depth of the water in which you are fishing. Factors such as water clarity and color of lure are important but the depth is the key. Because crayfishes are seldom found deeper than 6 feet, the odds are better for the angler if he stays in the shallow water.

A basic rule of thumb might be the clearer the water the smaller should be the lure. A 1/8th ounce lure is fine for clear lakes and when fish are spawning. It will stay shallow and give off good vibration. For deep lakes, try 1/4 and 5/8 ounce with 3/4 and 7/8 ounce lure being the best on in stained water of big reservoirs.
Here is a final word to the wise in fishing crankbaits in shallow water for bass. The main idea is to bump something with it. It might be the bottom, stumps, rocks, boat docks, logs, old pillars, or sunken boats. Bounce off of it, hesitate, and then hope for a strike.

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/