DROPSHOTTING BLUEGILLS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

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

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Boats Galor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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FLY FISHING FOR CATFISH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

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Looking Backwards, Through Tears

Dad shooting pool back in the day

Paddling a boat in later years

The author shown here with his dad

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

My dad had many friends and family who have preceded him in death, and personally I believe that somewhere, wherever heaven is, there is a great reunion going on this week. And while there may indeed be streets of gold and great mansions in that place, I have a feeling there are also beautiful rivers and woodlands and wild ducks, and turkeys and fish. Dad wasn’t much of a fan of golden streets; he liked woodland paths with wildflowers in the spring and fall colors and a good tracking snow in the winter. He loved to float rivers, and while in my boyhood we were confined to the Big Piney and the Gasconade, as I grew up we explored many others, like the Buffalo, the Kings and the War Eagle in Arkansas, and one of his favorites, that we first saw in 1971, Crooked Creek.
 
We got to fish together one last time a little more than a year ago, before it became too difficult for him. That was quite a day, as we caught smallmouth and Kentucky bass and largemouth by the dozens in a stream not far from here. 

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

He and my mother had moved up next to me in northern Polk County ten years ago, but dad lived most of his life over around Houston. His last twenty years of work, he drove a school bus for the Houston School District, and was so proud of that job and all the friends he made there. But of course you remember, if you read much of what I wrote, that he and my grandfather bought the pool hall in Houston when I was eleven years old, and I went to work there, from age eleven to the age of 16. I couldn’t wait ‘til school was out so I could head for my important job at the pool hall, where all my friends were, old men in their 60’s and 70’s we come to call the front bench regulars. What an education it was, the basis for a book I wrote a few years back, entitled “The Front Bench Regulars”.
 
On weekends, dad and I floated the river in one of the wooden johnboats he built, to fish for goggle-eye and green sunfish and smallmouth, or we set trotlines for huge flathead catfish up to forty pounds or so. We hunted ducks on the Piney out of those same johnboats, and in time I started guiding city fishermen on the river in those boats of his. Dad was proud to have built so many of those johnboats, and he perfected a johnboat with a plywood bottom in the late 60’s. In his lifetime, he must have built close to 110 boats. And we hunted rabbits and squirrels and caught bullfrogs and trapped a little and did everything you could think of that Ozark outdoor fathers did with their sons.
 
Dad had a close friend who was a blessing to our family, by the name of Charlie Hartman, one of the finest men I ever knew or ever will know. Charlie and dad were very close, and when I was young we hunted quail with Charlie because he raised and trained the very finest bird dogs in the Ozarks. And thinking back on it, I believe I developed the values I have today not only from what my dad taught me to be right and wrong, but from watching the men who were close friends of his, men who were the best examples a boy could have. His sense of humor, and quickness to laugh hard and long, were shared by those men, and spread to me at an early age. How could I not be happy? I was the luckiest kid in the world.
 
We went to country churches, we had big family get-togethers in the summer and fall, and I grew up. I never smoked or drank alcohol because dad forbade it, and made it plain that he set rules and I would follow them. I follow the same rules today, and have watched many of the boys from my youth ruin their lives with tobacco, alcohol and drugs which I never felt a need for. I had a dad who kept me too busy for that.
 
My dad looked at himself as a common man without much education, who loved to study the bible and tried to improve himself all through life in every way he could. He didn’t figure he did enough with his life, and he always regretted that. But he never knew the full extent of his influence, his teaching. He never knew fully the admiration people had for him, not for being some perfect person, but for being someone who loved other people, who wanted to do good things for those around him, and tried to correct his mistakes when he made them.
 
Today I am remembering the river as it was in early summer, when as a boy I floated with dad, casting a shimmy fly into swirling green pockets where goggle-eye and smallmouth waited in the depths. I remember the smell of the river just after sunrise, the sound of a paddle dipping quietly into the water, the singing of birds, the quiet roar of an upcoming shoal. Those days, long in the past, live with me still. I am not sorry they cannot be again, I am thankful we had them, and I still have them to savor and remember. And I believe, as strongly as I believe in the Creator that made those wondrous places and days, that there will be a time dad and I will be there again, floating a river more beautiful than any we ever saw, in one of those wooden johnboats.
 
But for now, I will go on doing the best I can here, with grandsons to teach what dad taught me. And there are many more stories to write about those good days when my dad was tall and strong, and I was young. There is so much I remember and so much to tell. I’ll finish a book someday that tells it all, when I get a chance to write it.
 
For those who knew my dad and would like to attend his funeral, the visitation will be at Pitts funeral home in Bolivar, 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, June 23rd. One funeral service will be at the Mt. Olive Baptist church north of Bolivar at 11:00 a.m. Friday, June the 24th.  A second service will be held that afternoon at 3:30, at the Ozark Baptist Church a few miles east of Houston, Mo. where dad will be laid to rest, only a few miles from the Big Piney River he loved so much.

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

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DROPSHOTTING FOR BASS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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One Month Away

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

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

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

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

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

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

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HOT CATS OF SUMMER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A Little Bolt of Lightning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CATCHING AMERICA'S FISH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Back-water and Green Leaves

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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