White Bass Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CRAYFISH - THE MIDWEST'S BEST BAIT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                               Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

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

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Tire Gardening

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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GO SHALLOW FOR CRAB ORCHARD BASS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder

 http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

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A Good Time Coming

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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LITTLE GRASSY BASSIN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Professionals, Experts and Champions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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