A Million Dollar Fish

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

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SLIP BOBBERS AND EARLY SPRING FISHING

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/

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In the Eye of the Eagle

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.

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NEXT BEST THING TO LIVE CRAWFISH FOR BAIT

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/

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Bird Watching

 At the feeder outside my office window, a dove and cardinal give each other
space.  There is little trust among birds, and neither appreciates how much
I have to pay for bird seed!

There is a platform outside my office window where I feed birds, and therefore watch birds. I hate to admit that, because when I was a kid growing up in the Ozarks, the old-timers whom I idolized in the pool hall mentioned bird-watchers in terms they might use for folks who listened to opera music and drank tea with their little fingers held up.

And don’t get me wrong; I don’t go out in the bushes in short pants with binoculars in search of a ‘truncated whitzel’ or something of that sort. I watch my birds at close range, only a few feet from my office desk. And I note that by and large, smaller birds like the tufted titmice and juncos and goldfinch and chickadees get along fairly well. Even the cardinals have a fairly gentle nature. But smaller birds seem very timid, even around the cardinals. If a cardinal and a junco (snowbird) are eating at the feeder, they both watch each other and stay on opposite sides. I don’t think small birds trust anyone, and you can understand that. It is the way of the world that small creatures are  eaten more often than big creatures.

Male cardinals seem to be buddies, but the hen cardinals get flared up with each other on occasion, and I think that just goes along with being female.  Every now and then in the supermarket, I notice two ladies get to banging their carts together, both after the same bargain. You don’t see men doing that. In the sporting goods section, if there’s just one fishing lure left, we men go out of our way to let the other fellow get it, being patient enough to wait until the new box gets opened. And sure enough, you see the same thing amongst cardinals.

Doves are a peaceful bird with other species, but not so much with each other. You can’t really tell the difference between the males and females, but I see doves sort of get sideways with each other at this bird feeder on occasion. These birds of peace aren’t always peaceful when it comes to the last few sunflower seeds. It could well be that again, it is a female thing, but I can’t say for sure, and wouldn’t want to venture an opinion there without solid scientific evidence.  Still, I can’t see a gentleman dove pecking at some lady dove over something to eat. We men aren’t that way.  Just the other day I opened the door for a lady at the donut shop, and she got in front of me in line and got the very last strawberry turnover. It’s our nature to sacrifice our own preferences for those of women and children.

Bluejays are downright belligerent towards everything, and I get disgusted, watching them come in and try to take over, throwing seeds every which direction. Every now and then I lift up the window and threaten to acquaint a few bluejays with the business end of my BB gun. Nothing ever changes them; you never see a pleasant, considerate bluejay. They just want a few sunflower seeds for themselves and they’ll throw all the other feed out on the ground wastefully to get what they want. Some people are like that, and watching birds makes me realize that you can’t change them with kind words or rehabilitation. They were born bluejays and that’s the way they are.

I have less of a problem with the lone red-bellied woodpecker that eats at this feeder. He is a loner, and he chases every other bird off so he can get some food and leave. He isn’t wasteful and doesn’t use the bad language the bluejays are typical of. He just doesn’t like to be sociable, he wants to be left alone, and he doesn’t give any ground. Why he is called a red-bellied woodpecker I do not know because the only red he has is on the back of his head and neck, he has none on his belly. I guess I understand how out of sorts he might get being called something he isn’t.

I don’t think the grey squirrels are cantankerous or mean tempered. But they are greedy, and birdseed costs too much to feed them. Birds leave the feeder to a squirrel, and so I chase them off. You can see a grey squirrel’s problem, he just thinks of no one but himself, and can’t ever get enough to eat. Truthfully, I have to fight that same compunction. I hate it when the local pizza place is crowded and the salad bowl is empty at the food bar, or someone gets the last piece of thick crusted sausage pizza and all that is left is the thin crusted pepperoni. It is human nature to be darn sure you get a good plateful of pizza and one of those sugar-topped cinnamon strips before they are all gone. I run the squirrels off, but I feel guilty doing it.

It will be nice when spring gets here and everything has plenty to eat and all the birds get along better. I think that when spring gets here, I will be a little easier to get along with too. And I believe, though there is no scientific evidence to prove this, that when the worst of winter is over, the ladies in the supermarket will treat each other a little better than they do now.

Our February-March issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge Magazine is being printed now, and it has some good stories about how to catch fish in February and March.  Jim Spencer wrote about cold weather bass fishing, Monte Burch about walleye fishing and Keith Sutton about catfishing in the pre-spring conditions. I wrote about fishing in February with an Arkansas minister more than thirty years ago who caught a bunch of crappie, fishing down into cedar trees on Tablerock Lake. It was amazing, because he made his own crappie lures out of cut up plastic worms of all colors. His name was Gene Eidson, the preacher at a small church in Harrison, Arkansas. I suspect he may have called upon the Lord’s help in his crappie fishing… and he got it.

I think we should all call upon His help to get some decent weather in February, since it has been awhile since we had that. With a mild February, the river bass fishing can be great, and believe it or not, I have found some good striper fishing with top-water lures in Norfork Lake on a cold moonlit night before February ends.  I’ll talk about that in upcoming February columns, if we aren’t having any blizzards then.

Meanwhile, the place for our grizzled old veteran outdoorsman’s spring swap meet is set. We will have it where we had the fall swap meet, at the big gymnasium of the Brighton Assembly of God Church, 17 miles north of Springfield, just off Highway 13. It is free to the public and there are 40 tables available to anyone who wants to sell outdoor-oriented treasures, like fishing lures, camping gear, art, canned goods, baked goods, and the like. You can even bring canoes or boats to set up out in the parking lot. Someone will win a free fishing trip to Canada before the day is over. Tinker Helseth, the guide and outfitter from Lake of the Woods in Northwest Ontario, will be there in person. Call to reserve a table, or write. See all the details on my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.   The address here is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo.65613 or e-mail lightninridge@windstream.net.  Call 417-777-5227 to reserve one of those tables at the swap meet, they will go fast.

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NOW IS THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR SPRING FISHING

In the lull between the end of waterfowl season and the beginning of the ice out fishing, there is a slot of time to check out the fishing gear. It is a time to clean out the tackle box, check rods and reels, and replace rusty or dulled hooks.

Organization and convenience are keys to storing gear. If you did not do it last fall then now is the time. If you wait until later you are robbing yourself of fishing time.

There is nothing more frustrating than looking for a particular piece of equipment and not being able to find it. Organizing can take place on a winter evening while watching television with the family. One common method of organization is to use a different tackle box for each kind of fishing.

Organization does take a little advance planning. It is dependent upon what type of fishing you are planning. If all the fishing is done from a single boat and for a single species it is simple. If wadding is your thing then organization takes some planning for weight. Limited pocket space must be taken into account. There are just so many pockets in a fishing vest.

Since I fish for a variety of species from shore and sometimes by boat, I have developed a number of tackle boxes. I use those clear plastic boxes made by Plano and related companies. I label them as to for what species the tackle inside is intended. The boxes then go into a cloth bag on the particular date I plan to fish. If I want to go catfishing one day and bass fishing the next day it is just a matter of changing out the boxes.

Now is the time to check rods and reels as well as terminal tackle. The first step is to check the rods for cracks and/or unusual wear. Look at the guides carefully to find chips and cracks. A Q-tip passed through a guide will soon show where any abrasion has taken place. The cotton from the Q-tip will stick to any cracks or abrasion in the guide. Repair or replace the guide immediately as such sharp edges will eventually cut a line. That usually happens when that big fish is on the line.

Wipe down the rod with a damp cloth and wipe the guides with some Reel Magic oil so as to further cut down any friction as the line passes through them.

Turning to the reel the work really begins. The first step is to make sure it is functioning properly. Check the brake and drag. Strip off all the old line. Clean and lightly oil the inner workings. When disassembling the reel use a white terry cloth towel on the table beneath it. If a screw or some other part falls out it will be caught by the cloth and is very visible on the white background.

Once you reassemble the reel spool it with fresh high quality new line of your choice. Different pound test and materials can be placed on various reels. A small label should be attached denoting the date, pound test, number of yards and type of line on each reel. You will not remember which reel holds which line later in the season.

Finally check out your terminal tackle. Hooks are cheap to replace so rusty ones can be snipped off of lures and discarded. New quality hooks are applied. Any frayed line still attached to a bait is clipped off and discarded.

Crankbaits that have become faded can be renewed by the application of a little paint. Bent blades of spinnerbaits are easily replaced and the arms straightened. Tie crankbaits to a short piece of line and pull them through water in the bath tub to make sure they travel straight. If they do not travel straight then bend the eye so that they do run correctly.

In replacing any rusty or damaged hooks I recommend brand names like Eagle Claw and Tru Turn or related brands. Cheap hooks give cheap performance and hooks that bend or break are not going to provide satisfactory use.

By paying attention to the quality and condition of your fishing equipment at the beginning of the season many hours of wasted time on the water are avoided. It is fun to work up the anticipation of fishing trips by getting your gear in shape.

                                                              Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

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

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THE BEST BUY I EVER MADE

You grizzled old veteran outdoorsmen out there might have gotten the wrong idea about me after I wrote that last column about hunting ducks. I mentioned having a hunting coat from Cabela’s. Owning a coat from Cabela’s sporting goods store is something of a status symbol. It can put you in a higher tax bracket with the IRS and cause the county assessor to increase your personal property taxes. You can wear a white shirtand a tie under one and go to one of the town churches. Just after that column, the guys at the local pool hall voted to not allow me to sit on the front bench any more.

When I was a kid, I really did go to the local army salvage store to buy my hunting clothing and a variety of items used in my hunting and fishing forays as a youngster. At the time, I was so poor I had to get used haircuts. I was so poor that I had a burlap bag for a lunch pail, with a hammer and a handful of walnuts in it.

And things haven’t gotten a whole lot better, so I don’t go to Cabela’s for hunting and fishing gear. I go to Wal-Mart like the rest of you, and look for a sale. Therefore I need to explain this Cabela’s hunting coat of mine.

Three years ago I was driving through Camdenton, Missouri and noticed a very large second-hand store off the road a bit. I thought maybe they might have a few good old fishing lures. When I got in there, I saw several clothing items lying on the counter, and a camouflaged coat beneath them caught my eye. It was a Cabela’s hunting coat, one that looked nearly new and most likely had never been worn. In a Cabela’s store, I imagine it may have sold for well over two hundred dollars. I didn’t even give that much for my bass boat!!

I ask the lady how much it was for, and she said she hadn’t checked it in yet. I figure some doctor or lawyer or congressman had got it for Christmas and it didn’t fit, so he brought it in there.

I asked the lady if she would just sell it to me without going through the procedure of checking it in, and she thought about it. She saw the name ‘Cabela’s’ and wondered out loud where the brand came from. I realized she had no idea what that coat amounted to, so doing some quick thinking, I told her it was an Amish clothing store over by Seymour.

She looks it over and says it ought to be worth 20 dollars. I tried to act like that was pretty high and I was reluctant to pay it! That’s sort of like trying to look surprised when the waitress notices that all the sugar and jelly packets that were on your table before you ate breakfast have disappeared. I dug a twenty-dollar bill out of my billfold with my trembling fingers and hit the door running, thankful that most second hand store employees don’t hunt ducks.

It has been the greatest hunting coat I ever owned, and when I hunt now, the only things about me that darn near freeze are what I can’t get under that coat and hood. This spring I will take it to a cleaner in town and stay with it until they’ve finished it. I would sorta like to be buried in it, if they allow that kind of thing.

I’ll probably be wearing it when I cash in my chips somewhere in Canada or South Dakota or Wisconsin, caught in a blizzard while trying to catch a walleye or shoot a goose. But now that everyone knows the whole story, I hope I can get all my readers back. Folks who normally buy a Cabela’s hunting coat don’t ordinarily read my column, so I hate to lose the fellows down at the pool hall.

We are planning another big Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal swap meet. It will be held on Saturday, March the 19th, and all I have to do is find a big gymnasium or events hall we can rent. We usually have our spring swap meet in the Nixa Community Center, but this year construction will make it unavailable. If you know of a centrally located church gymnasium or community center in the Ozarks that we can rent, call me.

My old friend and Canadian guide-bush pilot, Tinker Helseth intends to come down and tell folks all about fishing in Northwest Ontario. On that day he will give away by drawing a free stay at his lodge on Lake of the Woods, and a free guided fishing trip for a party of Ozark fishermen. We’ll make available about forty tables for vendors who have fishing gear/outdoor gear to sell, and it will be a very enjoyable day. So put it down on your calendar and I will give more specifics in later columns.

Should you want to catch some nice fish in January or February, you might remember that this time every year down on the White River in Arkansas, the brown trout finish spawning. I know it seems awfully early for spawning fish, but trout do that, unable to tell the difference between spring and winter. You can look at a trout and see it doesn’t have the intelligence of a smallmouth bass or a crappie. That’s why in the summer time they are so easily caught by fly-fishermen!

Trout, of course, are not native to the Ozarks, but decades back, fishermen who noted the extreme cold of our flowing springs and spring branches rightly figured that the cold-water species of trout would survive in selected spots.

When big impoundments like Norfork, Bull Shoals, Beaver, Table Rock and Greers Ferry Lakes were built, the outflow, coming from the bottom of those deep lakes, was very cold, even in the summer. Native fish could not live there, but trout could.

Rainbow trout have to be stocked, because even though they try to spawn, they do not have enough success at it to replenish themselves. Brown trout, on the other hand, do spawn successfully, in December and early January.

After the spawn, they feed voraciously, and you occasionally catch one from ten to twenty pounds out of the White River below Bull Shoals. Most of the browns aren’t that big of course, but there are plenty of three- to four-pounders caught, and an abundance of browns in the river’s first twenty miles which will go between five and ten pounds. My biggest was eight pounds, and I catch them on six- or eight-pound line with spinning gear, casting white jigs or six-inch suspending rogues. While fishing for the browns you usually catch plenty of the smaller stocking-sized rainbows too. I have a friend on the White, by the name of Bill Shinn who guides trout fishermen.

Guides are never as busy in January and February as they are the rest of the year, so it is a good time to call him, or any of the other guides along the White. Bill’s number is 479-477-0335. But any of the docks along the river can give you the numbers of fishing guides, or just rent you a boat so you can try it yourself.

You can call our office number, 417-777-5227 where my executive secretary, Ms. Wiggins can sufficiently confuse you no matter what information you are seeking. Or you can write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613, e-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or see my website at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

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COLD WATER CRAPPIE ACTION

Early spring is a good time to get rid of those winter blues with some fishing action. Crappie fishing will really puts some fillets on the table.

Of the two species of crappie, black crappie and white crappie, the white prefers the larger more open water. But, both species will suspend in relation to the points, sunken islands, bars, creek beds and debris. Both species can and do inhabit the same waters.

Early on the fish are feeding constantly. They feed up for the spawn. Then when it starts warming the fish will move to colder parts of the water. They are somewhat lethargic and are tougher to catch.

Both species have roughly the same spawning habits, laying eggs in water 3 to 8 feet in depth, once temperatures near the mid-sixty degree range near cover. Whites tend to like brush piles, bushes, or sunken logs. The blacks like reeds or other weeds. There can be a great deal of pre spawn angling in main lake channels and bays due to warming water.

Deep creek channels are the key to cold water crappie locations. One can begin by searching for likely summer holding areas and then back tracking to the nearest deep creek channel. Then follow the channel to the best available holding area. At times this can be a considerable distance. Some areas are more promising than others. Ones with wood in or near the deep water are best. Rock and sunken brush or weeds are excellent. Even stumps will do the trick. The more dense wood will have the best chance of holding crappie.

If the bays or creek channels do not seem to have any wood available either visible or hidden beneath the surface try submerged points, bends and intersections. A good topo map will help here. Dark bottoms can be good source of fish. They get the early sun and hold warmth from the sun. Channels that dead end minimize current flow that draws off warm water.

Good bays should have no channels, or at least not adequate ones. If all else fails try the deep water and fish deep. Follow an old creek channel and pull up on deep stumps. There are many anglers who catch crappie out in 20 to 20 foot of water all year around.

Jigs are the bread and butter of crappie lures. A good assortment of leadhead jigs, in 1/16 to 1/64th ounce, in crappie colors of white, black and yellow are a basic. Some of us are confirmed fishers of artificial lures and prefer red hooks on our lures. Black/chartreuse to watermelon/chartreuse, red/chartreuse and June bug/chartreuse are popular colors for lures. We cast them around trees and shallow grass. You then reel back the lure very slowly. The idea is to stay in contact with the cover at all times.

Try to stay over the top of weeds. Many like to use 1/8th ounce jigs but they tend to reel a little faster. That is where many people go wrong because crappie will not go down to get bait. They are always looking up so you must keep the bait above them.
For those who prefer natural baits the basic is minnows or wax worms.

Fishing for crappie in the warming water of spring can be very productive. It is also a time to unlimber that old casting arm and get rid of the winter blues.

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

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A Cold Day for Ducks

                                            

                                             Dennis Whiteside with a limit of river ducks...

                                          Floating behind a blind on the river, duck hunting.
One Sunday night in mid-December, the temperature had dropped to about 6 degrees Fahrenheit. I called my friend Whiteside and the conversation went like this… “I guess that trip down the river tomorrow is off,” says I. “I hear it’s gonna be about 10 above for a high.”

“Why?” he replies. “You too old and soft to take the cold?”

By a few months or so, Whiteside is older than I am. I was figuring he couldn’t possibly make it and I’d have to do all the paddling and thaw him out at the end of the trip so he could get his hip boots off. And then he wonders if I am worried about the cold! Was John Wayne afraid of the Indians?

We met at 9:00 the next morning, and it was 8 degrees above zero. Dennis Whiteside and I did this very thing when we were 18 years old and in college at the University of Missouri. My dad would go with us on weekends and the three of us would float the Piney in one of our old wooden johnboats, jump-shooting ducks.

The colder and wickeder it gets, the more ducks you will find, because all the marshes and ponds freeze up and the river gives them open water, and quite a bit of food as well.

At 18, we perhaps had greater physical abilities, but I figure we weren’t as smart then. That morning as we headed down the river with me paddling and Dennis clutching his shotgun in the bow, I wondered if we were any smarter than we ever were. If you dump a boat on a rough shoal in that kind of cold, you are in real trouble. Your life can depend on getting a fire built in a hurry. We had a stable 18-foot johnboat, and we both know how to paddle it. If you can paddle on one side, and make that boat go where you want it to go with a minimum of effort and no noise, you can sneak up on ducks or anything else, without taking the paddle from the water.

Duck-hunting a river behind a floating blind is next to impossible if you can’t paddle from one side without making a sound. And you have to have enough water. When you drag over a shoal, you make so much noise everything knows you are there for a half mile down the river. This year, many of the rivers we normally float in the winter are just too low. The lower end of the Big Piney had plenty of water, and plenty of ducks.

Thirty minutes after we started, we spied a group of 12 or 15 mallards about 200 yards downriver, and we began a slow silent drift, hidden by the blind attached to the front of our boat. It took awhile, but in time, we were right in the middle of them, and the whole flock took to flight about 20 yards before my partner’s gun. Sometimes miracles happen. Dennis fired 3 times and 3 drake mallards folded up and plummeted into the river. He never did that when he was 18, if I remember right.

We stopped and drank hot coffee, and tromped around a little to get the feeling back in our feet. It isn’t hard to stay warm when you paddle a boat, even when it is that cold. We have good gear to keep us warm, having acquired coats and gloves that Eskimos would envy. But hip waders or chest waders, no matter how many socks you have on, do not keep your feet warm enough if you sit in a boat without moving them for hours at a time.

Back in the boat, Dennis takes up the paddle, and I am in the bow with my old dependable pump gun. The pressure is awful! I know I have to equal his shooting prowess and I am so cold I don’t know if I can find the doggone trigger on my shotgun. Down the river a quarter mile, there is a huge flock of mallards… too many. The shoal is a little rough, and the water breaking against the boat as we scoot through it makes a metallic slapping sound and some old hen mallard gets nervous. She remembers her grandmother saying something about this kind of situation. She starts squawking and we watch them take to flight at 60 yards.

You never have a day when all goes perfect. If you didn’t have that challenge, it would be too easy for us grizzled old veteran outdoorsmen. But the next flock was in a perfect spot, and Whiteside got me to within good shotgun range. I clobbered a greenhead drake with my first shot, and he just flew off. So I picked out another one and my dependable old pump gun wouldn’t pump right. I think the WD-40 oil in it had froze up, and suddenly it became an UN-dependable old pump gun. I got off a second shot by finally breaking it loose, and I hurried too much and missed.

Nothing hurts worse than to shoot twice and have nothing to show for it just after your hunting partner has scored a triple. But I am an outdoor writer, and I cannot redesign a hunting trip, I have to tell the truth and write about it the way it happened. Especially when there is a witness! And that’s the way it happened, dad-blame it! Even though it was mostly the shotgun’s fault, I shot twice and had nothing. But there is always a silver lining inside the rainbow, a pot of gold inside a dark cloud, or something of that sort, and just through the shoal, in another eddy, there was that mallard drake I had shot at, stone dead in the middle of the river.

Just after that, two gadwalls jumped from a little pocket, and I shot one time and dropped them both. We stopped and built a big fire and had more coffee whilst I bragged about that last shot. Before that crackling fire, I got to where I could feel my feet again, and I let Dennis get back in the front of the boat. Maybe 100 yards downriver, three mallards swam out from behind a log and took to flight. Whiteside fired once and folded another drake mallard. That made his limit, and it wasn’t even noon yet.

By three p.m. we were so darn froze, we were wishing the take-out point was a bit closer. The temperature had soared to almost 20 degrees but not quite. By taking one shot at a time with my newly undependable old pump gun which would hardly pump, I had my limit of mallards and a pair of gadwalls. We had fired a total of 11 shells to kill 10 ducks, but I had missed twice. Dennis hadn’t missed at all. I might point out that he has missed plenty since then.

That night we cleaned ducks in my basement, and remembered those long ago days when we were 18 years old. It was nice to float the river again like we did when we were kids, just as tough as we were then, better shots than we were then and with hunting coats today that came from Cabela’s instead of the army salvage store. There are more eagles today, less water in the rivers and fewer ducks. And back then, it never got nearly as cold!

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

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