Furs, Feathers & Fins...

Dove hunter and dog... 

Every wingshooter should have a good retriever, and vice versa.

On the Big Piney River where I spent my boyhood years, there were few crop fields or feed-lots, and so I didn’t ever hunt doves. Just out of college, I went to work as Outdoor Editor for the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock, and therefore, went on my very first dove hunt that September when I was only 21 years old.

Oh yes, I had hunted everything you could find on the Big Piney, ducks, squirrels, rabbits and quail… but Grandma McNew would have disowned me if I had shot a dove. She watched pairs of mourning doves raise young ones on their farm all summer long and she referred to doves as ‘birds of peace’. She referred to dove hunters as something else, and none of the papers I write for would print what she called them.

And just a year after her passing, there I was with a fellow who worked in the printing department of the newspaper, hunting doves over a little water hole west of Little Rock. I was good with a shotgun, so there was no worry there. But with half my limit down, I swung on a bird I caught a glimpse of, just almost behind me, and I folded him in mid-flight. Before it ever hit the ground I knew I had shot a robin.

Do you know what that would have done to me if it had gotten around that the outdoor editor of the states largest newspaper had killed a robin for a dove? You know, this is the first time I ever wrote about that. The guy I was with said he had made a mistake like that once, and told me not to worry about it, but I didn’t get over that for a long time. It was difficult for me to live with. Outdoorsmen don’t make mistakes!

On September the first, I will hunt doves with my old friend Rich Abdoler over a sunflower patch planted on the public lands of Truman Lake. But it will be hot, and my young Labrador will not be happy with dove feathers in her mouth. All three of us will be a great deal happier in a couple of weeks when the teal season opens, if only there is some cooler weather by then, and flights of those biscuit-sized early migrating ducks to be found. But that’s another column.

I never will be a dove hunting enthusiast because it is too close to a slaughter at times. Over those fields, burned wheat or cut sunflowers, it is just too easy, and it is too much a social event. I am too much a purist for this. On Truman Lake and at other wildlife management areas where grain is found on the ground because it is cut just for doves, there will be too many hunters and too much shooting. Opening day rivals the opening of deer season, except in most areas it sounds as if you are in a war zone.

In many areas, hunters are baiting doves, and that is illegal. But it happens so often, because there is this gray area between actual baiting and the harvesting of a stand of crops. Doves must have food on the ground, and when they find it, they come in by the droves. If you want to read more about them, their life cycles, diseases and so forth, there is a long article about doves and dove hunting in the September issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal. There’s not enough room in this column for doves if you are going to talk about squirrel hunting and topwater fishing, which I am about to.

You can truly feel like a hunter and be alone out in the woods right now hunting squirrels, which are working the hickories in big numbers. It is a good year for squirrels, and it is a great challenge if you use a .22 rifle, or even a small-bore shotgun like a .410 or 28 gauge. I like to borrow my dad’s over-and-under squirrel gun, a Savage-Stevens with a .22 caliber barrel over a 20-gauge barrel, to use as a squirrel gun, but it is more of a challenge to take my little Ruger .22 and see what I can get with it. I kill fewer, but I hunt more.

Early in the morning you can slip through a still woodlot and hear the squirrels chewing away on hickory-nut hulls, and see the pieces dropping to the forest floor. But there’s lots of greenery for them to hide in. Young squirrels are better eating than doves, in my book. And you will never hear of an army of squirrel hunters in the woods. You’ll be alone. I like that. Copperheads may have something to do with it, but I suspect today’s hunters don’t get to shoot enough when they go squirrel hunting. And you can’t bait squirrels.

Just the other evening I caught a four-pound bass on a top water buzz-bait on the upper reaches of the lake. It wasn’t far from the river that feeds it, but the water is so low and stagnant it looks like a different world than last year. We need lots and lots of rain, and the cool weather that will follow.

I know I said that I would write more about the court case over at Doniphan, Missouri where a judge ruled that the Missouri Department of Conservation’s charges against hunters pursuing deer with dogs was unconstitutional because the laws were too vague and not specific enough. He questioned agents who were unable to properly interpret the laws. I will put that off until next week, and next week I will also talk about the MDC biologists trying to change catfish regulation on Truman Lake. I support what they are doing there, and I will tell you why in next week’s column. They are trying to bring back the numbers of big catfish, and I think they have a good plan.

Now is the time to let me know if you would like to have a table at our big Grizzled Old Outdoor Veteran’s Swap Meet. This was a huge hit last year, with more than a thousand people attending. This year it will be held at a big gymnasium at the Brighton Assembly of God Church right off of Highway 13, about 17 miles north of Springfield, just east of Morrisville, Mo. on Saturday, October 9. We have a lot of things planned for that day, and if you have outdoor equipment to sell, from boats and motors to fishing lures, anything that has to do with the outdoors, you can get a table just by contacting me. The church will put on a big dinner that day at noon, and if you are interested in great bargains on antique lures or old guns, or canoes and boats, all kinds of outdoor gear, make plans to be there. It is free to all who want to come. And I will be there signing my books, giving away our October magazines, and helping to raise money for charitable causes, which is what all this is about. But then again, it is great fun when outdoorsmen can get together and tell stories and enjoy being together. I always look forward to this because I get to meet so many readers at such a get-together. If you have one of my books, bring it that day and I will sign it, which makes it worth a nickel more at most used bookstores.

We will honor many World War II vets that day, so please make plans to join us if you are a veteran. See more information about this on my website, which will include a map to the site, and some of what will be there… www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. Or just call my office to get printed information and a map sent to you…or to reserve a table. Call 417 777 5227, or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 The e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net.

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LOW WATER OPPORTUNITIES

In Addition To Great Fishing, Low Water Offers A Chance To View Structure Invisible Next Spring

 

The dry weather conditions of late summer present an opportunity for us ground pounders. The lack of rainfall causes local rivers and lakes to have lower water levels and present a clear view of shoreline structure.

To the more sophisticated angler this is a time to cruise the shoreline and plan next years fishing trips. The lower water exposes all of the structure in shallow water near the banks. In the spring the higher water floods the structure and the fish look for it. In the structure, they wait in ambush, for hapless baitfish.

Lakes and rivers vary in the amount of their structure. For the ground pounder smart enough to get out and record the viable structure it is an advantage for the following spring. Fall is a time to take a picture or video tape and mark locations of the structure on maps for future reference. Locations are marked. It is also a good idea to note the specific kind of structure that is found there as well.

On some lakes there boat docks, old piers, pilings, sunken boats, chunks of concrete. Old seawalls of wood or concrete are difficult to find, but the rotting wood provides areas for growth of algae, which in turn attracts bluegill and other panfish. Bass feed on those bait fish.

Concrete and rip rap provide rocky structure. Old wooden piers that are bad for people are good for fish. Fallen trees dot the shorelines of many lakes.

Brush can often be found in channels and feeder creeks. Any brush with 12 inches of water under it is a good place to look for fish. Water so shallow is often overlooked by anyone not accustomed to fishing such an area. During scouting of low water in the fall for spring fishing locations, if you cannot see the bottom, then you are not shallow enough.

Do not ignore junk in the water. The seasoned angler will not pass up such structures as old tires, and other man made junk. Patience is the key to finding fish structure.

Good maps are available locally for virtually all lakes. Most local bait shops and marinas have them at a nominal cost. These maps can be marked with the location of the structure so that next year you can go right to them. They can then be found even though they are underwater in the spring.


                                                      Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

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Crawdads - Bait & Breakfast

The crawdad is an unusual creature, always looking back where he has been, and going where his isn’t looking.  Quite often where he has been appears quite safe and there looms a bass or walleye or catfish where he is going and he winds up not going as far as he thought he would. That’s why the crawdad, or crayfish is you prefer, spends most of his tie under rocks. You may be standing in the knee-deep water of a small stream or good-sized creek and not see a crawdad anywhere while there are dozens of them around you. Turn over the rocks and they start scooting off backwards.

I point this out because this is the time of year that bas fishing can be very good if you have a bucket of crawdads and a gentle wind. Drift a crawdad over a point in 15 or 20 feet of water…sometimes a little shallower and sometimes a little deeper, depending on the lake…and you may find out that summer bass are easy. Smallmouth and Kentucky bass are especially fond of crawdads, and they’ll take them any time of day. If you can stand the heat, you can catch bass on crawdads.

There are things you have to know first. Maybe this is a type of fishing better suited to spinning gear than the traditional bait-casting outfits us big time bass-mastering, lunker-busting, hog-hustlers would ordinarily use, compete with 12 or 14 pound line. Crawdad fishing is finesse fishing, and I like 6 or 8 pound line with medium action spinning gear with a fairly solid rod. You’ve got to set a hook and put some pressure on a good bass from time to time. I don’t use a really large hook, a number one or even a number two hook will work, with a light split shot about two or three feet above the crawdad. You want to get the bait down there on the bottom, and move it. A still crawdad is usually a crawdad which gets under a rock and stays there, so if you aren’t drifting over the points, keep the crawdad moving a little.

You hook the crawdad, or crayfish, through the middle of the tail, from the underside of course. And beware of those pincers, they work. Sometimes they can hurt a little, but not usually. If you are the kind of person who calls a crawdad a crawdad, you’ll never notice, but if you call them crayfish, let somebody else handle the crawdads,

Everything eats crawdads, bullfrogs and coons and snakes and fish and wading birds and even humans. They are crustaceans, just like lobsters except different…the main difference being the size. But out in deep water in most of our Ozark rivers and lakes there are some big ones, and they can be caught in specially made crawdad traps baited with raw chicken necks or hot-dogs. And those crawdad tails are delicious. My old friend and fellow outdoor writer, Jim Spencer, who writes for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, came up here to the Ozarks a few years ago to fish all night with me on my pontoon boat, and be brought with him about 10 pounds of Louisiana crawdads. During the afternoon he set up a big pot out on my back deck underneath a big oak tree and boiled those crawdads with seasoning, whole potatoes, whole onions and whole roastin’-ears.

When they were done, he drained all the water and put it all in a big plastic cooler, which in that case of course became a big plastic heater, and I ate so well that night I nearly forgot to fish. It has to be fairly simple to make crawdads delicious, because if you knew Jim Spencer you’d swear he couldn’t make a good baloney sandwich.

Crawdads have to be boiled live, and if they aren’t curled when you peed the tail, don’t eat them. Straight-tailed crawdads, according to Spencer, aren’t good for you.

I caught a nice bass just last week late in the evening using an artificial crawdad and a Carolina rigging, fishing slowly out from a gravel bank which sloped off fairly rapidly. The big one, about 5 pounds, picked it up when I stopped it, and fought hard. He was in 10 or 12 feet of water I suppose, out 20 feet from the bank. Bt he may have followed it, because we caught several smaller bass in only six or eight feet of water. It’s a great time to fish those plastic lizards and worms and crawdads late in the evening and into the night. But you have to fish very, very slowly, on the bottom, with some scooting or hopping action to the lure.

In case you are wondering, a Carolina rig is swivel tied in, about 2 to 3 feet above your plastic lure, with a sliding bullet or barrel-type led weight of an eights to a quarter ounce in size above the swivel which won’t slide down past it, and never gets close to your lure. When a bass picks up the lure, he doesn’t feel the weight, because the line slides.

If you don’t have live crawdads, they have some on the market now, made by YUM, which look and feel so alive they will work nearly as good as real ones.

Check my website to see information on the October swap meet, and our new Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor magazine.  It is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.  My mailing address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo 65613 and you can e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net.

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LAKE BARKLEY'S OTHER PANFISH

Ground Pounders Can Find Many Catfish Prowling The Shoreline On Lake Barkley, KY

Like its sister lake, Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley is well known for panfish action in the form of bluegills and crappie. However, while fishing there we discovered its other panfish, the whiskered wonder.

It occurred to me that catfish are probably the ultimate "pan fish". They are the most popular eating fish across the country and are enjoyed by millions of Americans.

Lake Barkley is formed by the damming of the Cumberland River. The 40 mile long lake runs parallel to Kentucky Lake and a few miles east of it. The lake itself is about 80,000 acres with little development along the shoreline. Much of the shoreline is the property of the TVA or the State of Kentucky. The water level generally reaches a maximum in late spring and early summer. It declines until late fall and then levels off for the winter months.

We were fishing with a local favorite, a jigging pole. It is a 12 foot, very light rod, (some people use fly rods) that has an ultra light open face spinning reel. We were not fishing for catfish but did catch them with the light jigs and plastic grubs in dark colors. More traditional baits are recommended for catfish action.

The ultra light gear can work well and provides excellent action that is both challenging and productive. Unlike the usual summer pattern of fishing early a.m. and late p.m., fall fishing requires action during the midday. The fish seem to be more active during the late morning and early afternoon warm up. Live green weeds near deep water are a good location to begin. The green weeds provide oxygen which in turn attracts baitfish. The catfish are attracted to the baitfish.

Catfish action is usually good throughout the lake. In the fall more fish seem to be taken closer to shore. In most of the lake, catching catfish is more of an underwater structure game. Locals look to the downstream points of islands, creek intersections and the main channel ledge. Along the main channel one can try vertical jigging with a slip bobber in about 15 feet of water with such tasty items as chicken livers, cut bait and stink baits. With the current of the lake, the scent given off by stink baits covers a large area can attract catfish from a long way away.

The catfish taken from this lake are very clean and make excellent meals for the table.

                                                               Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

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A Poem For Our Readers....

  Still paddling float fishermen on the rivers of the Ozarks, Uncle Norten Dablemont (center of photo) guides the boat while fisherman Dennis Whiteside admires a bass taken on a topwater lure during the heat of midday in August.
At right -- Summer beauty -- This long-ear sunfish, which many anglers call a "punkinseed is bright orange during the summer months with brilliant irridescent blue streaks around the head. They spawn over a period of two months in the ozark rivers. Apparently this one was a little hungrier than most. He thought he could eat a lure bigger than he was. These sunfish seldom reach weights of a half pound. But, a mess of larger ones, fried whole, makes a mouthful or two of great eating.

----“The heat we’ve been a havin’ ain’t necessarily pleasin’, but there ain’t no snow in the tomato patch, and there ain’t nobody freezin’. It's only in the 90’s, and the fishin’s fairly good, so I figure summer’s goin’ pretty much the way it should.
 
The squirrels are workin' the hick’ries, and somewhere’s it’s a rainin’, so I’ll wait 'til we get our share, and you won’t hear me complainin’. Life is great on this old farm, and I ain’t a gonna whine, cause as long as I can catch some fish, then things is goin’ fine.

Ma’s cannin’ is nigh over, ‘til the apples come to ripen, I can’t figure why that woman’s always sittin’ ‘round and gripin’. I’d take her out a fishin', if she’d promise to be quite, but when she’s rantin’ and a rarin’ I can’t get the fish to bite.
 
So if your lookin’ for some good advice, I’m just the man to give it… I say summer
won’t be wasted, ‘less you just forget to live it. There’s a sunset that’s worth seein’ and the sky is full of stars, there’s the sound of water flowin’ over river gravel bars.

There’s fireflies o’er the meadows, summer flowers here and there, and I can hear a bullfrog beller, and a hoot owl off somewhere. When tomorrow comes a dawnin’ its likely to be hot, but I can say that even if it is, I druther see it… than not.
 
There’s cooler days a comin’, us old-timers can remember, but let’s waste no days of August whilst we’re waitin’ on September. If your pinin’ for a better time, just listen when I say, it may be all we got, so just enjoy today. God sends us autumn’s beauty, He sends the springtime dew, He made the birds, He made the bugs, and He made August too.”-------------

Well, I know that poetry is not often seen in outdoor columns, but I thought some of you readers might like that one. Do you know who wrote the above poem? He wrote lots of poetry years ago. If you can name him, just the answer to me on a post card, and we’ll put all the correct answers in a bucket, and when we have our Grizzled Old Outdoor Veteran’s Swap Meet, we will draw out one of those postcards and give someone a really nice prize of some sort. It will be a surprise prize, so to speak, but something a grizzled old outdoor veteran or outdoor lady will be happy with.

So I guess this is as good a time as any to announce the whereabouts and whenabouts of that get-together which was so well received last fall. We will hold it in the big activities building, at the Brighton Assembly of God church, just off of Highway 13 between Springfield and Bolivar. We’ll fix up a map for those who want to attend. This year we will limit the swapper’s tables to 50, and have a big fish fry dinner just like we had last year. It will take place the 9th of October, from 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. It is a beautiful big church with plenty of room, and a separate coffee room where folks can sit around and drink coffee and relax and talk. This year we are going to pay special tribute to the World War II veterans who attend, setting aside a special room for them to get together, with name tags made for them, so all the people who come can know who they are.

Of course, if you want to reserve a table, you should do it between August 20 and September 20. I will be gone to Canada until August 20, working on a book about old time Canadian guide and bush pilot Tinker Helseth. So don’t worry about getting a table until then, when I return. If you want to sell outdoor paraphernalia, old lures and gear, old camping stuff, anything that pertains to the outdoors, this is a great place to do it. And we hope to have ladies bringing canned goods, jellies, and baked goods to sell as well.

Last year’s swap meet was a great time, and this one will be too. Put it on your calendar, and I’ll say more about it when I get back from Canada.

We are going to have some October interpretive float trips, like we have had in past years. Dates aren’t set for those, but if you want to go on one of those trips on the Niangua River, we will take about 18 to 20 people at a time, with guides who are Ozark natives, and naturalists. One of them will be my 86-year-old uncle, Norten Dablemont, who guided his first river fishermen in 1934. How long ago was that? He has been guiding fishermen ever since, and if you want to arrange a float fishing trip with him, you can contact me about that too.

Norten has had a group of regular clients over the years who have passed on, one by one, so now he is available more often than he was years back. Does anyone know a guide in his mid-eighties who can paddle two fishermen upstream (you heard that right, upstream) for several miles on a fishing trip, and then back, all day long?

Lightnin’ Ridge Books will also be publishing a new book for one of the nation’s best Outdoor Writers, Jim Spencer. Hopefully it will be done by the time our swap meet is held in October and Jim will be there autographing it for readers. It is a turkey hunting book which he titles “Bad Birds”. Any turkey hunter anywhere is going to love this book. Spencer is not only a great writer, but one of the best turkey hunters I ever met. He has enough experiences with old gobblers in a dozen different states to write several books.

And before we end this, I need help from any of our catfishing readers. At Cabool Missouri on Saturday, September 18, the senior citizens center will hold a fish fry for area elderly people, including a number of war veterans. They would like to enlist our help, needing about 75 pounds of catfish for 150 people. This is a great opportunity to help others, and I intend to donate my limit of catfish. If you can donate 5 pounds, then it would only take about 15 of us to allow some elderly people to have a great afternoon. Just freeze it, and call me after August 20th.

Remember I am still looking for someone who might like to do part time work for our publishing company, distributing outdoor books and the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Magazine, and dealing with advertisers in the magazine. It involves occasional travel, and I need an outgoing person who likes to meet people, and loves the outdoors.

Check my website for more information about all these things over the next few weeks, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. The e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net.

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Five Ways To Save Crankbait Costs

Outdoor Guide Publisher Bob Whitehead

One of the most frustrating aspects of crankbait fishing is losing them. Crankbaits are one of the more expensive terminal tackle components. Production costs force the prices a little higher each year. But, they are effective lures and valued by the angler. Here are five ways to cut down on the number of crankbaits the angler loses each season.

NUMBER ONE A common method used by river anglers who experience the loss of a lot of tackle on submerged trees, rocks and other objects is simply to remove the forward treble hook on a crankbait.

Most crankbaits tend to run with the forward end slightly lower than the back. With the treble hook removed, the body of the lure will bounce off submerged objects taking with it the rear hook.

NUMBER TWO Hung up? The most obvious way to get unstuck is to pull the bait lose from whatever has snagged it. Failing that pop the line.

Hold the rod in one hand. With the other hand pull some slack in the line between the reel and the first rod guide. Allow the line to pop tight. The jarring of the line sometimes will pop the lure back ward freeing it from the submerged snag. Repeat several times until the lure works loose.

NUMBER THREE The next two methods involve the use of products on the market under a several trade names. The first is an extendable rod that has a spiral coil at the end. The tool extends to about 8 feet. The spiral portion is used to capture the line and then slides down the line to the lure. It captures the lure and can be used to break it loose from whatever is holding it.

NUMBER FOUR The next is a heavy weight on the end of a strong line. Fasten it to the fishing line and allow the weight to slide down the captured lure. The strong rope of line is then pulled back to the angler as it pulls the lure and fishing line free.

NUMBER FIVE The final tool is the Ultimate LureSaver Titanium R/S System. A big name for a very small product. The system allows you to pull lures free instantly without having to move the boat or move along the shore to another location. It allows retrieval without disturbing the fish.

The device is made of Titanium and replaces your split rings that hold the hooks. When the lure hangs up, the angler just wraps the line around his hand and pulls steadily. The LureSaver opens, releasing the hook from the lure. It then closes again and you get everything back except the hook. Back at the boat, just replace the hook and your back in business.

Because the LureSaver is made of Titanium, it has a lot of memory and always returns to its original shape. The quick replacement of hooks allows for more time spent fishing instead of repairing tackle or messing with trying to get the lure up from the entanglement. It does not have any effect on the action of the lure.

The really neat thing about this product is that it allows you to fish structure, rocky bottoms, brush piles and weeds without the fear of losing valuable crankbaits. It also cuts down on the amount of line and lure trash that is left in the water.

This product should be available in most tackle stores and bait shops. If you need help in finding it contact the company at their website of www.ultimateluresaver.com.

                                                    Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

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A Special Smallmouth

In the middle of the week, on a stretch of river where the canoe renters don’t operate, you can get off to yourself and not see another soul all day. Especially now, while it is so hot. Dennis Whiteside and I figured on that, a week or so ago. So we set off down an Ozark river one morning expecting to catch some big bass on topwater lures right off the bat. I have never been able to figure out why there would be times I don’t catch fish. I have a lot of experience and confidence, and I can put a lure right where I want to put it about 105 percent of the time. I have spent so many years floating down Ozark rivers that I can make most any lure look so good in the water that sometimes it fools me. And I am modest about it too! Dennis isn’t quite as good at it as I am, but he thinks he is, and on occasion he fools the fish into thinking that too.

So why we fished two or three hours with only three or four little dinky bass to show for it, I cannot say. But we did. We stopped in the shade and ate a sandwich and remarked about how hot it was, and how pretty the river was when there wasn’t anyone to be seen on it all day but us. And we argued about why we weren’t catching bass right along that were as long as the boat paddle blade. He had one theory, and I had another. But we weren’t ready to give up, because we both remember those days in mid to late summer when it appears the river doesn’t have a bass in it anywhere, and they just start getting interested in lures all at once. Dennis, who guides fishermen on Ozark rivers all over southern Missouri and north Arkansas, commented about how many times he has seen some great big ol’ bass caught on a topwater lure in the middle of the hottest day of August, and I can recall the same thing.

When it finally comes to pass that the rivers drop to their summer level, and bass begin to clobber topwater lures, you might catch a lunker at any time of the day. That’s because, even though it is simmering hot above the water, it is fairly nice underneath it. And sure enough, about three o’clock that afternoon, we started hooking a few nice ones on topwater lures with propellers on both ends. And we fought a good number of them, losing some and winning some, noticing that when a big bass gets ahold of a lure, he knows just when to jump and just how to throw that lure. That happened a time or two. But a pair of grizzled old veteran outdoorsman like us don’t often admit to defeat. I release all the big bass I catch anyway. Sometimes I release them before I get them in the boat!

Only a few days later, I decided to take Gloria Jean and the editor of my magazine, Sondra Gray, on that same stretch of river, with the help of her husband David. There would be four of us in that 17-foot johnboat, which is a pretty good load. So I put two folding lawn chairs in the middle for the ladies, and David and I paddled from each end. Gloria Jean, of course has caught so many big fish that she often gets to bragging about it to complete strangers. She’ll be found in the local grocery store with some stranger cornered, bragging on me or some big fish she caught, and it just embarrasses me to death. She caught her first smallmouth many years back and there have been many big ones since then, thanks to getting the very best guiding and teaching from her mother and father’s second favorite son-in-law, which is me.

Sondra, learning a great deal about the outdoors in a hurry, has caught her first limit of white bass and crappie this past spring, and some nice largemouth bass, but never a smallmouth. That trip on a hot day last week was to be the day she learned about smallmouth. And, as you might suspect, there weren’t any to be had.
David, riding in the front of the boat, caught a nice largemouth on a topwater lure, and we stopped on a shoal or two and waded late in the evening, to catch more largemouth and Kentuckies. It wasn’t the greatest fishing but it wasn’t bad.

It was getting fairly dusky, and we were a mile or so from the pickup, and poor Sondra hadn’t caught much of anything. You have to understand how fanatical she is about fishing to know what that meant. The lady loves to fish, and when you start talking about how it isn’t so much what you catch, but just enjoying the outdoors, she doesn’t buy it. Sondra is just getting into fishing, and she wants to catch something. She wants to catch lots of them, and big ones at that.

We approached a shoal as the lightning bugs flashed around us, and the last colors of an evening sunset spread low across the sky. Gloria had already quit fishing and was bragging on how good I was at paddling that boat when I saw Sondra cast toward a weedy bank where the water was flowing gently, only a few feet deep. Her spinning rod arced, and she knew she was in for a battle. The fish was no doubt the best one of the day, her first smallmouth. It stripped line against her drag, and came up out of the water.

Well, Sondra has a knack for fishing, and she is lucky. She learns in a hurry. And of course David was waiting with a net. When he missed that fish on the first pass, I just knew he wouldn’t get another chance, but he did, and with the netting, the battle was over. But the excitement wasn’t. Sondra lost her balance and the lawn chair leaned precariously and capsized. I was out of the boat about to take a picture, and I acted quickly. I made a saving grab at my dip net, which was about to be crushed under the lawn chair. Thankfully I saved it, and Sondra didn’t get all that wet. Gloria Jean said I still had the same lightnin’ reflexes I had thirty years ago, and David said he was afraid that lawn chair was beyond any repair. But the bass was still in the boat and just fine, and Sondra was smiling.

It made a great picture, and David and I finally talked Sondra into turning it back, which she did with a great deal of reluctance, only after I agreed to exaggerate the size of it in any future stories.

We drifted silently down the river toward the gravel bar where my pick up waited as the moon rose bright and high above the water. A barred owl hooted in the distance upriver and a small bullfrog was practicing in a nearby pocket. Everyone was happy, including the smallmouth. He doesn’t know it, but he got to be a very special first fish.

See pictures of that bass on my website, as well as our new August-September Lightnin’ Ridge magazine, on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com. The e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net, and you can write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613

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