The Place to Be…Outdoors!

Missouri's special Canada goose season is just ahead inearly October, with a daily limit of three. It is to take advantage of theresident population of giant Canadas which have mushroomed in number over the past few years.

What a time to be an outdoorsman! I don’t think I ever saw so many squirrels and so many hickory nuts.  Up here on Lightnin’Ridge, there’s a carpet of hickory nut cuttings, and young squirrels are fighting over the best limbs to set on. Trouble is, the woodlands are still so green, and there are so many spider webs across the trails. I hate spider webs. 
You can still find a copperhead or two if you aren’t careful… and I ain’t all that crazy about them either!  This time of year they look for warm places as the night cools.  Rock and concrete hold warmth, and they are drawn to concrete driveways and pavement at dusk. Last year one was drawn to my front porch, and another one came into my basement because I made the mistake of leaving the big overhead door open.

I live on a pretty good copperhead ridge, but then again, you take the good with the bad. The number of wildlife species found around my home on this wooded ridgetop is amazing. I love the birds which move in and out seasonally, and about a week ago, late in the evening, there was a bobcat in my backyard. I sit on my back porch sometimes and marvel at the increasing activity. Butterflies are everywhere, doves and rabbits feed around the garden.

Doves are coming to the Ozarks now by the thousands from up north. And the season on them extends through this month. Most hunters quit them within the first week so if you want to hunt doves, some of the best hunting can be found in days ahead.  But another bird is moving in too, the blue-winged teal.  Actually, they are a little behind schedule, but I keep thinking they will get here soon because of the cool weather we are having.
 
They are the first of the migrating waterfowl, little drab-looking ducks with light blue wing panels about half the size of the mallard. If you know how, you can look at the tail feathers and tell if a teal is a mature bird, or one hatched this past spring. Young birds have a notch in the end of the tail feathers. In a good year, there will be three or four young teal in your game bag for every mature one. That tells you that most puddle ducks like mallards and gadwall and widgeon probably had a pretty spring hatch as well. Blue-wings are drably colored now, but when they come back through in April, they are beautiful. The drakes have a white crescent like a quarter moon in front of the eye, and their heads are iridescent black and blue. You can’t describe any beautiful creature adequately. You have to see them.

The teal season opened last Saturday, the eleventh, and I will try to hunt them and doves this week if I can, but then again, I know some places on rivers above some of our Ozark lakes where the bass will be tearing things up, and it is hard not to go after them. If I do that, I can also set some trotlines and try to catch some catfish. This time of year you can occasionally get a forty or fifty pound flathead. I caught really big bass last year on suspending rogues, a bait you jerk and stop. But those lures also catch two other fish moving up the tributaries in the fall, walleye and hybrids (striper-white bass). And from now way into October, it will get better and better. If you ever hook a hybrid that is 12 or 15 pounds in size, you will never forget it. It is a fight that, like the wild ducks, can’t be adequately described.

Archery season opens this month for deer, way to early for me because there’s the fall turkey season in October, and a special Canada goose season from October 2 to October 10.  You are allowed three geese per day, and we have a ton of Canada geese in the lower Midwest now. But goose hunting is a great deal more difficult than hunting deer with a bow or turkeys.  It involves finding a field where they are feeding or water where they are resting, and using decoys.  It can get to be work. Teal hunting is also work at times, and marshes in September have water snakes and mosquitoes. But hunting teal and geese have a special attraction for me because I love to take my Labrador and let them retrieve. If you never owned a young Labrador, you have missed out on much of what makes life worth living. It is a way to have high blood pressure without even trying. 

I have to take this opportunity to clear up something about our outdoorsman’s swap meet on October the 9th.  Someone the other day mentioned that I must make a lot of money out of that day, because I sell a lot of my books there. That’s not why we have the event, we do it to raise money for some specific charitable causes, and the profit made from selling my books on that day will go toward buying winter coats and shoes for some kids who don’t have them. I got involved in that with a big church in Mtn. Grove, Missouri many years ago, and another in Parsons, Kansas. 

I just love having that day, because I get to meet so many of my readers, but there is no money involved for many of us who are working at this event. We decided, since it is held in a church gymnasium at the Brighton Assembly of God, that we aren’t going to charge anyone who wants a table, and it is open to the public free. The church members who are putting on a big dinner will charge for the meal, but not to make a profit, just to pay for the food, and money left over from that meal will also go to charity.

Last year more than 50 tables were filled with all kinds of outdoor gear and antiques, and before noon we had more than 1000 people come in to take advantage of those bargains. We hope those who have tables will sell a lot of items and donate something back to our charity, but no one has to pay anything. It will be a great day, and I hope you can come.  In this column, I will keep giving details as to the outdoor items we will have, inside and outside.

So far about half the tables have been spoken for, but we only have about 50 so if you want a table, you have to let me no as soon as possible.  I think we’ll be full before October gets here.

And when it is all over, we will announce in this column how much money we raised, and some kids in the Ozarks who do not have adequate shoes or coats for the upcoming winter will have some. Last year the sale of my books alone raised nearly five hundred dollars, and the rest of the swap meet doubled that. I would love to raise 2,000 dollars this year. Please come and be a part of it. One fellow last year told me he bought some fishing reels and lures that were worth three times what he paid for them. 

Come and help me that Saturday, we will have a great day. Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net. Call Ms Wiggins to reserve a table. She works here in my office when she isn’t outside trying to shoot squirrels out of my hickory trees. Her number is 417 777 5227.  My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com
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