Outdoor Guide Magazine May-June 2020

OUTDOOR

GUIDE

May-June 2020

MAGAZINE

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE to Bobby Whitehead upon his retirement, starting on Page 18

She’s fishing again.... Page 4

Elk hunt lottery......... Page 5

30 CELEBRATING

Spoon feeding.........Page 15

Amazing wolves.......Page 24

YEARS

HUNTING • FISHING • CAMPING • BOATING • SHOOTING • TRAVEL Missouri - Illinois - And Other Exciting Outdoor Destinations

Page 2

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Little fishing book tells big story

When I picked up “The Angler’s Book of Favorite Fishing Quotations,” I thought it might make a good recommendation as a Father’s Day gift if I wrote about it for Outdoor Guide Magazine. After reading it and remembering that this was the May/June edition, I realized it could make a decent Mother’s Day present too.

Published in February 2020 by Hatherleigh Press, the new book’s subtitle summarizes its content exactly: “An Inspired Collection of Wit and Wisdom for Those Who Love to Fish.”

Before sitting down to read the little 104-page, 5x7 hardback volume, I flipped through a few pages, absorbing the knowledge in bits and pieces. I was impressed by the names of the people and proverbs quoted in the text. The diverse dignitaries included Mark Twain, Lee Wulff, Tom Brokaw, Ann Landers, Patrick McManus, Henry David Thoreau and many other recognizable names.

A FAMILIAR NAME Then on page 28, I found the show-stopper for me. Brent Frazee is a specialty editor and contributing writer of the Gone Fishin’ column for Outdoor Guide, although perhaps better known for his 36 years as outdoor editor for the Kansas City Star. His quote is included in the “Connecting With Nature” chapter: Frazee

“There’s something about being on a lake at sunrise, tossing new-bought lures into the swirls on the surface and anticipating a hit. That’s my idea of fun.”

The quote is from his 2002 book, “Brent Frazee’s Ultimate Guide to Missouri Fishing,” he said. Almost 20 years since he published the sentiment, he said it still rings true to him.

“I don’t go to bars. I don’t chase women, and I don’t stay out late at night – unless I’m fishing,” Frazee said. “My idea of fun is trying to outsmart a creature with a brain about the size of a peanut.”

He said he was honored to share a page in the book with former president Herbert Hoover and to be in the publication with noted outdoorsmen, accomplished anglers and amazing authors like Izaak Walton, Lefty Kreh, Kevin Vandam, Jimmy Houston, John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. Our Brent Frazee is in some pretty good company.

BUILDING CHARACTER Chapter 3 credits fishing with Building Character and Skill.

The quotes reflect on learning and adapting to turn failures into fishing success.

“Fishermen,” according to Zane Grey, “no matter what supreme good fortune befalls them, cannot ever be absolutely satisfied.”

The fourth is an easy chapter to enjoy. “Humor on the Hook” features insights from a number of people not routinely associated with fishing. George Carlin, Jeff Foxworthy, Steven Wright and Garrison Keillor have their memorable one-liners captured.

“Three-fourths of the Earth’s surface is water, and one-fourth is land,” opines Chuck Clark. “It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn.”

The book’s only flaw might be that it includes fewer than 100 pages of these quotes, but there are plenty of gems throughout.

It was enjoyable to read from cover to cover, but I think its best attribute will be its timelessness and accessibility. I can certainly see myself reaching for it through the dead of winter or in the weeks, days or minutes ahead of my next outing, looking for a little inspiration.

BABYLONIAN WISDOM My favorite bit of wisdom in the book was found in Chap-

Published in February, this little book is packed with inspiration.

ter 1 about the “Soul of the Angler.” I’m not sure how true it is, but I’m happy to adopt the philosophy of the Babylonian proverb: “The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.”

John J. Winkelman is community engagement manager at Mercy Hospital Jefferson. If you have news for Outdoor Guide Magazine, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can follow John on Twitter at @johnjwink99.

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 3

3 Things YOU Can Do

to Help Pollinators

1 2 3

Plant Natives Native plants are a food source for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Add the plants shown below to your landscape.

Keep it Blooming Keep something in bloom each season. Some species bloom all year, others only in April and May, still others in July and August. Learn more at mdc.mo.gov/monarch.

Get Involved Protect native grasslands, provide nesting places, and become a wildlife gardener. To learn how, visit GrowNative.org.

Common milkweed

New England aster

Showy goldenrod

Prairie blazing star

Wild bergamot

Outdoor Guide

Page 4

May-June 2020

It took 48 years, but she’s fishing again

Photo and Text

By BRENT FRAZEE My wife Jana is the perfect example of a “lapsed” angler.

Before she fished with me in the Florida Keys this winter, she hadn’t cast a line in 48 years.

Her first – and only – fish-

ing trip before the latest one took place when we were dating and we were at my parents’ cabin in Wisconsin.

We were kids at the time, and I already had two loves – for her and fishing. I think she wanted to appease me, so she agreed to go fishing.

I know what you’re think-

ing. That trip must have been a disaster for her to “retire” from the sport at such an early age (she was 18 at the time.) We must not have caught anything, or maybe she constantly backlashed the reel, or maybe I yelled at her, or maybe we got eaten up by mosquitoes.

No, everything went great … or at least, so I thought.

We reeled in lots of crappies, Jana caught on right away,

and the weather was perfect.

That’s why it was puzzling when I asked her if she wanted to go with me the next morning and she answered, “No, I’m fine. I tried it and it was fun, but I’d rather stay back at the cabin.”

SEPARATE WAYS So started a long marriage of going our separate ways.

I maintained my passion for fishing, and she was always

Jana Frazee and Captain Jack Callion show the big shark she caught.

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happy that I did. She owned a clothing business and spent much of her time designing and working on new lines.

Which bring us to January, when my daughter Jenny and her husband Dennis vacationed in the Keys. They found a salty charter captain and went fishing for sharks.

It was a real adventure, complete with blacktips up to 150 pounds, long, exhausting fights, and a close-up look at the razor-sharp teeth of the fish they caught.

When they got back, they showed us photos on their cell phones and my wife had more than a passing interest.

“I’d like to catch a shark,” she said matter-of-factly.

All eyes at the dinner table turned to her and I said, “Who are you and what have you done with my wife?”

She smiled and said, “No, it sounds like fun. I want to do that.”

SHOULD BE FUN So we hired the same guide, Jack Callion, and headed out on an overcast day in the Florida Keys.

I was praying that: one, we wouldn’t get soaked; two, the Atlantic Ocean wouldn’t be rough that day; and three, that we would catch fish.

All three quickly came together. As we headed to a flat where our guide typically finds schools of blacktips feeding, Jack slowed his boat to idle speed and put a net filled with cut fish over the side.

Then he slowly motored in a straight line over the flat.

“These sharks can smell that chum from a long way,”

Jack said. “Once they pick up the scent, they’ll move in.”

He put out several lines, then we continued trolling.

It wasn’t long before one of the rods bounced in the holder. Jana stood and set the hook then held on. The shark fought so hard that it took the line around the boat two times before Jana could bring it to the boat.

It wasn’t huge … but it hooked my wife.

BUT NOT ALL DAY We spent the next 3½ hours catching fish, listening to our guide’s stories and enjoying the beauty of the ocean. We caught blacktips up to 35 pounds and lost even bigger ones that put up spectacular aerial fights.

By the time we got in, I could tell that I had recruited a new fisherwoman. Maybe not an avid angler, but someone who would enjoy an occasional day in the boat.

“I want to go out some more,” she said. “I won’t spend all day out there, but a few hours would be fine.”

And fine with me. As a lifelong fisherman, I have a passion for recruiting new participants. Getting women involved is the new frontier.

A national survey released in 2019 indicated that female participation in fishing reached an all-time high of 17.7 million in 2018. And there’s still a lot of room for growth, in my opinion.

These are new, exciting times for our sport. Women are increasingly finding that fishing is an equal-opportunity sport.

Just talk to my wife.

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Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 5

Lottery next step toward Ozarks elk hunt

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will offer Missourians the state’s first elk-hunting season in modern history starting this fall.

The Missouri Conservation Commission on April 8 approved the issuance of five permits for hunting bull elk for the 2020 season. Four general permits will be for the public, and one permit will be reserved for qualifying landowners.

Missouri’s first pending elk hunt comes after years of restoration efforts of the once-native species by MDC and numerous partners and supporters.

For this first elk season, MDC has designated a nineday archery portion running Oct. 17-25 and a nine-day firearms portion running Dec. 12-20.

The five permits will be for bull elk and will be valid for both portions. All permits will be assigned through a random lottery drawing.

“The timing of the season was designed to come after the peak of elk breeding during late September and early October and to avoid the elk season coinciding with portions of the firearms deer season,” said Aaron Hildreth, MDC biologist.

FEES AND PERMITS MDC will require a $10 application fee for those applying for the general permits.

Qualifying landowners will not be required to pay the fee when applying for the landowner permit. Those selected for each of the five permits must pay a $50 permit fee.

MDC will limit the random lottery to one application per person, per year with a 10year “sit-out” period for those drawn for a general permit before they may apply again.

If selected for a landowner elk permit, qualifying land owners will not be required to wait 10 years before again applying for a landowner elk permit.

Qualifying landowners may apply once each year for a general elk hunting permit and for a landowner elk permit but are eligible to receive only one permit annually.

The landowner elk permit is limited to resident landowners with at least 20 acres within the landowner elk hunting zone of Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties. Zone boundaries are shown in the application. The landowner permit is nontransferable and may only be filled on the landowner’s property.

General permits can be used in Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties, except the refuge portion of Peck Ranch Conservation Area. General permits are non-transferable.

“The allowed hunting methods for each season will be the same as for deer hunt-

ing,” Hildreth said. “The permits will allow for the harvest of one bull elk with at least one antler being greater than six inches in length. Successful hunters must Telecheck their harvested elk, like for deer.”

THANKS, LANDOWNERS Hildreth thanks the landowners who have supported the reintroduction of elk and helped create habitat that benefits elk and other wildlife.

While any qualifying land owner within the three-county zone is eligible to apply for a land-owner elk permit, Hildreth encourages only those who have elk on their property to apply.

“If land owners have not seen elk on their properties, I would encourage them not to apply so the permit can go to a land owner who has a better chance of being successful,” he said.

APPLY, CHECK ONLINE Applicants must be Missouri residents at least 11 years old by the first day of the hunt. Those selected must have their hunter-education certification or be exempt by age (born before Jan. 1, 1967) before they may purchase the permit. All applications must be completed online or at a local vendor.

Apply for the random elkpermit lottery May 1-31 online at mdc.mo.gov/buypermits or through a permit vendor.

Qualifying landowners must submit property information before applying at mdc.mo.gov/landownerpermits.

Applicants can see if they have been selected starting July 1 at mdc.mo.gov/ buypermits after logging into “Manage Your Account” and selecting “View My Special Hunt History.”

For more information about elk hunting, go online to huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/ hunting-trapping/species/ elk. For more about elk restoration, go to short.mdc. mo.gov/ZYJ. ELK RESTORATION Elk are a native species in Missouri but were hunted to extinction in the state through unregulated hunting during the late 1800s, Hildreth said. With partners and supporters, MDC reintroduced about 100 elk to a remote area of the Ozarks in 2011-2013. Most were cow elk with some calves and immature bulls. There now are more than 200, and their range has expanded to cover portions of Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties. The area is nearly 80 percent public land interspersed with private tracts.

“Our plan was to offer a limited season for hunting elk in Missouri once the herd reached a minimum of

200 animals with an annual herd growth rate of at least 10 percent and a herd ratio of at least one bull for every four cow elk,” Hildreth said.

“Those goals have been met.”

MDC hopes to reach a target population of 500 elk and will use hunting to manage herd size and location.

MDC gathered public input on elk hunting during 2018 and 2019 at several public meetings in communities around the elk restoration zone and through online public comment periods.

The elk hunt will be limited to Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties in the Ozarks.

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Outdoor Guide

Page 6

May-June 2020

Answer to isolation? Time outdoors

Photo and Text

By BRANDON BUTLER

Being a hunter and angler has many advantages. I never thought preparedness for isolation from my fellow Americans was one of them.

In these strange times, I find myself fine with the idea of social distancing. It’s something I have doing on purpose for 30 years.

Please don’t mistake that statement for any sort of downplay on the severity of our situation. This COVID-19 outbreak is unlike anything we have seen before. No one alive has dealt with these circumstances before. We are truly relying on each other to put an end to the spread of this virus. It’s kind of hard to fathom that the best way to help someone is to not go around them, but in this case, that’s a fact.

I realize many of you live in suburban areas. Your neighborhoods may not have the same sort of outdoor opportunities afforded to us who live a more rural way of life. From what I have read, though, regardless of where you live, most stay-at-home bans do allow for outdoor experiences. This is a great time for you to discover the many large public land properties and waters you

have access to.

FREE CAMPING To begin with, Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest includes 1,500,000 acres of land for you to roam. You don’t have to stay on trails.

You can just go stroll around.

Hiking and backpacking are allowed anywhere on the forest, and camping is free.

Just walk out into the woods and set up camp for a few days. I know not everyone is capable of doing so, but if you are, now’s a good time.

Missouri has incredible state properties. Our state parks, conservation areas, natural areas and recreation areas are some of the finest in the country. These properties are managed by the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Conservation, which has made many provisions to allow more people to be outside right now. You can enter state parks for free; you don’t need a pass.

The MDC has waived needing a fishing permit until at least April 15. So you don’t need to worry about buying a license. Grab your tackle box, go out in the back yard to dig some worms and then head to the nearest lake, pond or river.

Or go explore some other

water you’ve always wanted to check out and spend some time catching fish.

KEEP A DISTANCE Just don’t set up by anyone else. Keep your distance. Bring some fish home, filet them and have a fresh fish fry. It eases the mind a little to know you can provide a meal for your family from nature’s bounties.

Out in the woods, you can find shed deer antlers and possibly morel mushrooms. There is a lot of deer sign visible in the barren woods, so you might locate a great place to hunt this fall. Also, turkeys are starting to gobble. You can scout, if you’re a hunter. If you’re not, then just sit by a tree in the early morning and listen. If you’ve never heard a turkey gobble, you won’t be able to believe it.

Anyone can call to a turkey to make them gobble. You don’t have to be a hunter.

Pick up a box call. They are so easy to use. Walk out into the woods and throw out a few clucks. You can’t imagine how cool it is when a gobbler thunders back at you until you hear it.

There is a lot of hardship going on around us. Serious times call for serious measures, and we are in the

OUTDOOR

GUIDE

May-June 2020

MAGAZINE

HUNTING • FISHING • CAMPING • BOATING • SHOOTING • TRAVEL Volume 28, No. 3 • Published six times a year Office: 505 S. Ewing, St. Louis, MO 63103 News department — 618-972-3744

www.outdoorguidemagazine.com e-mail: news@outdoor-guide.com COVER created by Kathy Crowe, graphic designer.

Carl Green, editor – carl@labortribune.com Bobby Whitehead, editor emeritus Kathy Crowe, graphic designer

John Winkelman, associate editor — ogmjohnw@aol.com Lynn Fowler, circulation manager

— Account executives — Dan Braun, marketing director 314-256-4136 Lauren Marshall 314-256-4141 — Regional and specialty editors — Joel Vance Darrell Taylor Ray Eye Brent Frazee Brandon Butler

Curt Hicken Bill Cooper Thayne Smith Steve Jones Bill Seibel

John Neporadny Jr. Rick Story T. J. Mullin Ron Henry Strait

Larry Whiteley Ted Nugent Ron Bice John Sloan

– In Memoriam —

Jared Billings • Charlie Farmer • Richard Engelke • Mark Hubbard • Spence Turner • Hank Reifeiss Bill Harmon • Barbara Perry Lawton • Danny Hicks • Ron Kruger • TJ Stallings

Scott Pauley Tim Huffman John Meacham Bob Holzhei Jeannie Farmer Kay Hively Tyler Mahoney

— Staff writers —

Claudette Roper Brad Wiegmann Mike Roux Craig Alderman Randall Davis Jerry Pabst Ryan Miloshewski

Kenneth Kieser Gerald Scott Russell Hively Roxanne Wilson Gretchen Steele Jo Schaper Jed Nadler

Don Gasaway Terry Wilson Bill Keaton Charlie Slovensky Michael Wardlaw Larry Potterfield Tom Watson

Social distancing has made this a great time for scouting and working on outdoors skills.

throes of it. Fresh air, stiff legs and a stringer full of fish all are antidotes to anxiety.

Please take every precaution to keep yourself and everyone around you safe. Taking off for a walk in the woods isn’t going to hurt anyone and it will be good for your

mind, body and soul.

All the best to each and every one of you. We’re going to get through this together, and we will soon be floating rivers and sitting around campfires in large groups telling stories about our own isolation. I hope

you have a story to tell about the adventure you took in the wild when the outdoors was what you needed most.

For more Driftwood Outdoors, check out the podcast on www.driftwoodoutdoors. com or anywhere podcasts are streamed.

Video and Book Reviews — By BILL SEIBEL

Title: 300+ CRAPPIE FISHING TIPS Featuring Charles & Travis Bunting Author: Tim Huffman Publisher: Huffman Publishing

Soft Cover, $12.99, 140 Pages with 27 black & white photographs | ISBN# 978-0-9989089-1-5

(Note: This book is available from Amazon.com as an e-book for $3.99 or in soft cover for $12.99 or from Grizzly Jig Co., 303 Ward Ave., Caruthersville, MO 638320, call 1-800-305-9866.)

In these days of television fishing shows, the emphasis of tournament fishing seems to be on making the anglers stars. However, the techniques used by those stars remains a major value to the average weekend fisherman. Bass, of course, get the lion’s share of airtime and ink, but crappie also garner a big amount of time and interest.

And it is the crappie and the stars who catch them that author Tim Huffman has captured in this book, particularly the thinking and actions of a very successful father-son team, Charles and Travis Bunting of Jefferson City, MO in this compilation of tips. These tips are aimed at helping us normal folk catch a few of these elusive, wonderful panfish.

The Buntings are “the only team to win National Championship Classics in all three major circuits,” the author notes. To be successful, tournament fishermen must catch fish no matter what the season, the weather, the water conditions or the good or bad catch performance of last week, yesterday or even 15 minutes ago.

Understanding the pro’s vocabulary and all that his words mean in terms of season, conditions, equipment, locations and techniques is difficult. But the Buntings, thanks to the author’s skill, reveal much of this. For example, the first three chapters (of 19) and 65 tips are dedicated to jig fishing.

Charles Bunting says, “I rate jig fishing as the easiest to learn and perform. It’s an easy way to fish because you are basically dipping vertically. You need a sensitive pole and a few jigs. It’s one of my favorite ways to fish.”

The author captures the Buntings’ versatility with chapters including: • Pitching & Corking • Spawning & High Water • Crankbaits • Trolling & Jerkbaits • Slow Trolling • Run & Gun Slow Trolling • Jigheads, Scents & Spinners

• Fall Transition & Ledges • Dock Patterns & Shooting • Advanced Electronics • Anchoring Tactics With Power Poles • Beds … Porcupine & Others • Muddy Water Brand Baits

• Miscellaneous Tips, Fish Knowledge & Habitats • Tournaments, Pre-fishing & Recreational Fishing • Travis … on Winning

Another chapter profiles Charles and Travis Bunting.

In the chapter on winning, Travis shares the mental aspects of fishing tournaments and how they apply to recreational fishing. As noted earlier, the star qualities of the tournament anglers are important, but what they do – the equipment they use, the techniques they use and the kinds of places they fish – are important to those of us who fish for fun and food.

And author Tim Huffman captures a huge amount of this info in his book about crappie fishing.

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 7

EXPERIENCE ELLINGTON &explore

CLEARWATER LAKE

CURRENT RIVER

the

BLACK RIVER

outdoors Hike the ozark trail

e l l i n g ton mo . com

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~ Only 2 Hours South of St. Louis ~

Clearwater Lake and Webb Creek Recreation Area - Hwy H

–Spring, summer and early fall is when a cracklin’ campfire feels the best. Bring the family to camp, boat, fish, and unwind on crystal clear Clearwater Lake. This area of the lake is formed where Webb Creek and Logan Creek empty into Clearwater Lake.

Water Family Fun It is known for its crappie, catfish and bass fishing with fun for the entire family.

Camping is available at Webb Creek Recreation Park; plus a full service marina with boat/wave runner rentals on site.

Webb Creek Park features over 40 campsites, swim beach, playground, showers, picnic pavilions, boat launch, and more.

Call Webb Creek Marina at 573-461-2344 for marina, boat rental and campsite information or visit www.recreation.gov to make reservations. If you are interested in all the conveniences of home call Webb Creek Cabins for cabin rentals, 573-461-2244.

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Black River and K Bridge Recreation Area- K Hwy –

Float, canoe, fish and explore the beautiful Black River this fall. Enjoy swimming, camping and picnicking right on the banks of the Black River. K Bridge Recreation Area and Campground offers playground, showers, electric and comfort station, visit www.recreation.gov to make reservations. Floats (raft or canoe) can be Black River arranged on site by calling Jeff’s Canoe Rental at 573-598-4555. A small general store is also available on site.

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Current River -Hwy 106 to HH Highway- Fish, swim,

camp and relax on majestic Current River. Great place to explore Current River. Rough camping is available at Log Yard Landing (known to the locals as Cardareva Gravel Bar) and the School Yard. These are available on a first come basis, electric is not available. Bring your tubes, rafts and kayaks; a perfect day float….put in at Powder Mill and float to Log Yard.

4

Blue Spring- Hwy 106- This

Current River

spring is the 6th largest spring in Missouri and known for its deep blue color. It has been said that this spring is so deep, if submerged the Statue of Liberty’s torch would not be seen above the water and actually the bottom has never been found. Take your camera!

Blue Spring can be accessed by boat, kayak, or a short .25 mile walk from Blue Spring parking area. The spring may also be accessed by an easy hike along the river from Powder Mill Recreation Area, Blue Spring hike approx. 2.2 miles round trip.

5 Rocky Falls

- NN Hwy- A cascading crystal Rocky Creek drops from the Ozark Mountains into a lazy pool which eventually winds through the Ozarks to Current River. A must see if you are in the area and fun for all ages. Wear non-slip shoes and use caution when climbing on the falls. Picnic tables provided.

6 Current River Conservation Area

–Consists of 28,000 acres of state land. Deer, turkey, eagles, elk and a multitude of wildlife can be seen. UTV’s, ATV’s and vehicle traffic are welcome on miles of gravel roads and trails that wind through some 60+ food plots. Buford Pond, Missouri’s first fire tower, a 1926 log cabin and an earthen Fort Barnesville can all be found here. Buford Pond provides fishing and picnicking and is a favorite location of all. For hunting enthusiasts an unstaffed rifle and archery range are provided.

Current River Conservation Area is home to the Missouri Ozark Ecosystem Project, the world’s most comprehensive forest management study. This 100 year project spans over 9,000 acres.

Main park entrance located on South Road in Ellington, other entrances located off Hwy 106 and HH highway. Primitive camping is available. Elk viewing and maps of the area are available at the main park entrance.

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Local Flavor – While in town you won’t want to miss the Reynolds County Museum while visiting Ellington. This museum is filled with relicts from days gone by and the rich history of the Ozarks. Volunteers staff the establishment and are happy to answer questions; Open Mar-Nov, T-F 10-4. Call 573-663-3233 for Reynolds Co Museum more information.

Need a spot for the kids to play, then visit Brawley Park located on South Road. This park features a playground, basketball courts, picnic pavilions and short hiking trail.

Want some nostalgia from a couple decades back; how about a drive in movie? One of only a few drive-ins left in the Midwest is located just south of Ellington on Highway 21., call 573-945-2121 for info.

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Blair Creek- Hwy 106 – This area is a favorite of the local’s spring, summer and fall. For the person who is looking for the unknown, adventure into the wild Ozark hills for the beautiful views, caves, swimming, picnicking. Here riding the back roads in ATV’s, UTV’s and 4-wheel drives is exciting and Blair Creek fun. Entrance located North of Hwy 106 across from Blue Spring entrance.

10 Ozark Trail

- Hwy 106- Blair Creek & Current River section; Hwy 106 – Whether you are looking for a one day hike or want to make a few days of it; hiking these sections of the Ozark Trail is rewarding and adventurous. Such splendid locations as Rocky Falls, Klepzig Mill and Buzzard Mountain Shut-Ins are Klepzig Mill located right on the trail. For the adventurous visitor this is a must!

11 Peck Ranch

- H Highway, Shannon County- Listen for the bugle this fall! Elk are now roaming the hills of the Ozarks and can be seen in Peck Ranch, Current River Conservation Area and the surrounding region. Thanks to the Missouri Department of Conservation’s recent Elk Restoration Program elk were released into the elk zone beginning in the summer of 2011. With the third release the summer of 2013 the elk herd is nearing 200 bulls, cows and calves. Peck Ranch is open from sunrise/sunset daily and offers a driving tour. Bugling occurs in the fall, Sept-Nov. Check the Missouri Dept of Conservation website for Elk park closing details. Maps are available at park entrance.

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Scenic Highway 106- This 26 mile drive between

Ellington and Eminence is known state wide for its scenic views and beauty, and is especially a favorite in the fall. This section of highway is also home to the Trans-America Trail and sees many bicycle travelers from April-October.

Bicycle enthusiasts say it’s one of the “toughest sections on the trail” and known for the steep hills & hollers.

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TransAmerica Trail

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Ellington Chamber of Commerce | www.ellingtonmo.com | Find us

Page 8

Outdoor Guide

A lesson to be learned from COVID-19 panic

By DAVID HOSKING The March-April Outdoor Guide Magazine had an article about disaster readiness.

Readers were advised to prepare for a catastrophic event by stocking up on essential items such as dry foods, canned goods, potable water, medicines, flashlights, a cook stove, matches, emergency cash, as well as securing important documents. These are some of things that would enable one to endure a medium-term disaster when essential items would likely be in short supply.

After that article was written, the COVID-19 virus rapidly emerged as a pandemic affecting the U.S. and the entire world with catastrophic impacts to human health and safety, elderly care, stock markets, national economies, supplies of basic consumer items, and the evaporation of livelihoods for millions of people.

Without a doubt, the Coronavirus pandemic is a major catastrophe facing all of us for the coming months, perhaps longer.

So how many of us were truly prepared for a calamity of this magnitude? A clear indication that most people were not prepared is the widespread panic buying that exploded in mid-March. Panic buying sets in when government officials mandate business closures, employee layoffs, suspension of non-essential services and stay-at-home orders.

IRRATIONAL BUYING Panic buying is not the same as preparation buying. Panic buying occurs after an emergency has already happened when everyone simultaneously fears that the supply of basic items will likely be in short supply. In Missouri, we often laugh about how crazy grocery stores become the day before a snowstorm that will last only two or three days at most. That irrational behavior is the result of panic buying out of fear, real or imagined, of running out of basic necessities.

As a consequence of the Coronavirus pandemic, panic buying has at times stripped our stores of items such as toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods, eggs,

Guest Editorial

SURVIVAL SUPPLIES • One gallon of water per person per day.

• Canned food, dry mixes, rice, beans • Flashlights, candles, matches, camp stove • Emergency cash • Secure documents in a safe place • Backup supply of medicine

milk, bread, flour, hand sanitizer, bleach, medical thermometers (and batteries for digital ones), isopropyl alcohol, liquor, guns and ammunition. Some banks were running low for cash withdrawals.

Although grocery stores have so far remained open during this crisis, panic buying and hoarding continue to deplete store inventories almost as fast as stocks can be replenished. Sadly, this practice of personal greed has left many people without access to some essential items. Fortunately, most stores now limit purchase quantities.

STRANGE DAYS The Coronavirus pandemic is an extremely serious threat to our nation’s welfare. Americans are suffering, dying and experiencing grave economic circumstances and deprivations. There are significant strains on hospital services, schools are closed, and there has been talk of death panels. In some locations police services have been suspended unless calls are about violent crimes. In some states, gun stores have been ordered closed, thereby leaving many citizens without the means for selfprotection. These are extraordinary times.

Anyone experiencing serious troubles from the Coronavirus deserves our empathy and compassion. That said, I believe that if a different type of catastrophe had occurred, we would find ourselves much worse off. We continue to have access to electricity, food, gas stations, building supply stores, water and sewage services, transportation, ATM banking, Internet, telecommunications, TV entertainment, and online purchases.

If a disaster had occurred, such as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or a major earthquake from the San Madras fault in Missouri, many of the services that we have now would easily evaporate for a long time. Imagine our lives with no electricity, or the other amenities mentioned above.

Our government is already struggling to provide health services and financial relief to citizens affected by the Coronavirus, so imagine how long it would take the government to provide help in the event of a total collapse of our infrastructure.

WHEN PREPPERS STOCK UP So, with lessons from the current pandemic, when things return to normal, everyone would be extremely wise to begin preparations for the next catastrophe by stocking up on necessities before a crisis is on the horizon. Preppers typically purchase goods when they are widely available and often on sale. They organize their purchases, securely store them in a dry and cool location (i.e. basement), and rotate their consumption according to expiration dates.

Fear of deprivation is a great motivator.

During the Great Depression, my father experienced food deprivation, and he always harbored a great fear of going without food later in his life. After he passed away, I discovered his basement inventory of over 800 cans of food, two full freezers, and a host of other essential supplies. He was an early prepper in the true sense.

Disaster-readiness guidelines can be found on many websites, and readers are encouraged to follow the advice very carefully, especially after we get past the current shortages of essential items. Some of the websites are ready.gov, cdc.gov, redcross.org, nsc.org, homeadvisor.org and fema.gov.

David Hosking is an engineer, land surveyor, mapping specialist and outdoor enthusiast with experience in remote parts of Canada, Alaska and Afghanistan. He lives off the grid in a cabin in Missouri.

May-June 2020

— Random Shots — Buzzards – nature’s true undertaker

By JOEL M. VANCE It was a revelatory moment, like when you discover that a raw oyster on the half shell, complemented by a dab of horseradish and accompanied by a sip of crispy white wine, is light years finer than the disgusting blob of indefinable food you thought it was.

I topped a hill and there in the middle of the road ahead of me was a vulture snacking on a road-killed vulture – evidence that even wildlife citizens enjoy an exotic and nontraditional meal once in a while. Not that I’m advocating we replace oysters with carrion, but I am advocating that we learn to appreciate even the most apparently disgusting creatures in nature.

Disregarding the disgusting sight of a vulture snacking on one of its own, I confess to having been a fan of the buzzard, a.k.a. turkey vulture, for many years.

Given the current panic over the looming threat of coronavirus, perhaps there is somewhere in the digestive tract of a turkey buzzard chemical elements that would send coronavirus back to the hidden crevices from whence it came. After all, buzzards can digest botulinum, anthrax and other toxins, even a smidgen of which kill a human being in a heartbeat.

Buzzards are properly called vultures. We probably could live without them (people do), but life would be a bit more messy. They are the manure bug of the skies, performing a vital function ... but most people don’t want to know about it.

THE BUZZARDIAL TRACT Turkey vultures are as familiar in North American skies in the summer as the fleecy cumulus clouds with which they keep company. Vultures have exalted the art of soaring and playing amid the invisible currents of air.

Their airborne antics would make any glider pilot gnash his teeth in frustration when in buzzard company, for he is doomed to rejoin the earth long before they must. Only on the ground is the turkey vulture awkward.

Nothing is more overcome with panicky clumsiness than a vulture when surprised by a fast-approaching automobile while it snacks on some creature who dueled with Michelin radials and lost. Of all the birds, vultures offer the most clear and demonstrable service to humanity. They eat offal that otherwise could putrefy and become a human-health danger.

A prime mystery of the animal world is how a vulture escapes the microbes that laid low his dinner, but escape it they do. Experiments have shown that vultures have dined on enough anthrax or botulin to have killed susceptible animals 10 times over ... with

absolutely no ill effects, not even heartburn.

Yet, for all the invulnerability of the buzzardial digestive tract, I can find no ongoing studies of why. Don’t you want to know why toxins so terrible they make warmongers blanch and terrorists thrill go through vultures like ice cream through a child?

Whatever neutralizing agent lurks within the convoluted colon of a buzzard must be a powerful one indeed, and it’s somehow comfortingly ironic to think that perhaps the cure for cancer (or of coronavirus) can be found in the digestive processes of a bird scorned by some, ignored by most and that lives on rotted meat.

WE JUST DON’T KNOW I found a couple of studies of how vultures routinely digest bacteria that would eliminate a human being in seconds, but both basically concluded that they still don’t know how the birds do it.

Michael Roggenbuck, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said, “our results show there has been strong adaptation in vultures when it comes to dealing with the toxic bacteria they digest.” Well, yeah, we already knew that. But how?

Another researcher said “the avian microbiome is terra incognita.” In simpler and more common terms, “beats the hell out of us.”

One study showed vultures easily outdid coyotes and crows in manufacturing antibodies to botulinum toxins. Another focused on enteric pathogens, including salmonella in the intestines of turkey vultures, saying, “Very little data exist on the intestinal microSee RANDOM SHOTS page 10

Three black buzzards scan the scene for a potential meal

– Shawn Carey photo

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 9

Fly fishing for mid-depth smallies

Photos and Text

By TERRY & ROXANNE WILSON

While mid-depth refers to the portion of the water column that is sandwiched between the surface and the stream bottom, the most productive areas to target are the current seams and pocket water.

Seams are areas where fast and slow water merge, and often the slower water forms an eddy that is easily identified visually as the water is circled back upstream. Bronzebacks can position themselves in the slower water to conserve energy while observing the smorgasbord of edibles that are constantly swept by their positions in the faster current.

Pocket water is also easily identified where the water appears “humpy.” This is caused by rocks hidden just beneath the surface which force the water up and over their tops. These water humps are formed immediately downstream from the rocks, which serve as current breaks that enable bass to comfortably maintain their positions before darting out into swifter water to grab passing morsels.

Smallmouth bass often feed on nymphs at mid-depth in moving water because they provide easy, reliable meals.

Because these nymphs are presented in moving water, any impressionistic replication of mayfly nymphs is adequate.

NORTH FORK NYMPH While your favorite nymph patterns will be equally accepted, we use a pattern we call the North Fork Nymph.

It’s simply our adaptation of mid-20th century English river keeper Frank Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail Nymph. We tie it “in the round” (without a carapace) so that as it tumbles through the current, it will appear natural. The thorax is formed with picked-out rabbit dubbing.

Subaquatic caddis, actually larval and pupal stages that fly fishers refer to as nymphs, can be imitated by simple, soft hackle flies consisting only of thread, floss or dubbed bodies and sparsely wound wet fly hackle.

The late Sylvester Nemes revitalized these popular flies that date back to the second century in The Soft-Hackled Fly and his other books.

Both mayfly and caddis representations are effective along the seams of the lower sections of riffles and in pocket water with moderate current. Cast upstream and allow the fly to sink to the desired depth or cast it upstream and across at an angle determined by the speed of the current so that drag doesn’t negatively affect the fly too quickly.

In sluggish currents, downand-across presentations can be equally effective. At the end of a down-and-across drift, when the fly is affected by drag and begins to rise to the surface, it may appear to the smallies that the nymph is about to emerge as a dun.

Many strikes occur in this portion of the drift if current speed is slow enough to permit the nymph imitation to get deep into the water column.

STRIKE INDICATORS Many anglers, especially while employing the upstream or up-and-across presentation, prefer to use a strike indicator or a fluorescent mono section to connect the fly line to the leader to help them detect hits. The use of strike indicators eliminates

Smallmouth bass often feed on nymphs at mid-depth in moving water for easy meals.

the nymph’s rise to the surface at the end of the drift, but it does ensure a drag-free drift, which is the most difficult aspect of any dead-drift presentation.

Short casts are necessary to maintain control of the fly.

Long casts make strike detection and positive hook-sets more difficult. Smallmouths suck in nymphs, but they are capable of rejecting phonies very quickly. Slack line or tardy strike detection dramatically reduces the number of hook-ups.

Getting close to bass, especially in clear water, increases the risk of spooking them.

Swift water helps to some degree to conceal the angler, but care must be taken in choosing casting locations. A little planning is necessary in

advance of the first cast. Try to determine where the bass will be holding and what position you need to take to best accommodate an effective presentation.

ON THE BASS MENU Minnows provide smallmouth bass with meals that are higher in calories than any of their other menu items.

Smallies often cruise areas that attract minnows and take up lies where intercepting them is likely. Many different species of minnows occupy smallmouth streams. In addition, anglers tend to classify the fry of other game fish as minnows, which further expands the list.

Matching the minnow is certainly one productive concept, but again we pre-

fer a more impressionistic approach. Several classic streamer patterns such as Black Ghost, Black-Nosed Dace, Muddler Minnow and the ubiquitous Woolly Bugger have produced well for decades. Unweighted streamers presented on slow-sinking intermediate lines enable both natural fly action and depth control.

These mid-depth tactics will enable you to effectively present flies to smallmouths in areas of the water column that are ignored by many anglers. It also provides an easy transition for the trout angler wanting to expand their angling opportunities because the equipment, fish locations, and techniques are already part of their fishing bag of tricks.

Pere Marquette rebuilding campground

By ELIZABETH DONALD Campers fond of Pere Marquette State Park, west of Alton, IL, will have to find a new spot for most of the summer, as a long-delayed renovation project will be under way in those months.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is investing approximately $1 million in Pere Marquette’s campground this summer, upgrading the electrical service to 50 amps and rehabbing both the Class A and B campgrounds.

The Class A campground has 80 sites, 30 of which are available for advance reservation, as well as two “Rent-aCamp” cabins. The Class B tent camping area is more like a tree-shaded field, with fire pits and a shower building.

A CCC PROJECT Pere Marquette State Park was a Civilian Conservation Corps project during the Great Depression in the 1930s, its lodge constructed with limestone quarried from nearby Grafton and a five-story, 700-ton fireplace dominating the Great Room of the main lodge.

The 8,000-acre state park has more than 12 miles of trails, attaches to the Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail, and hosts visitors seeking hunting, boating, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, rock climbing and camping most of the year. Seasons are designated for deer, squirrels, doves and turkey, with 5,000 acres open for hunting; fishing is on either the Illinois River or Mississippi River.

But the campground wasn’t

designed for modern RV camping. Most RVs now need 50 amps to support them, and most of Pere Marquette’s are 20 or 30 amps, according to site superintendent Chris Hespen.

It regularly ranks about four out of five stars on sites like CampgroundReviews. com, praising the views and recreation (and the lodge’s fried chicken), but criticizing it for “outdated” amenities and utilities. Travel site TripAdvisor ranks Pere Marquette at 4.5 out of five stars, with reviewers citing many of the same concerns.

“Pere Marquette is so special for its historic and natural environment that most of the people who come here deal with the trials anyway, because of the experience,” Hespen said.

Away from the campground, Pere Marquette has hiking trails with incredible views of two rivers.

A family enjoys camping at Pere Marquette State Park

The renovation project is replacing water lines and renovating dump stations, providing new freshwater fill and blackwater dump stations, and leveling the camp pads to make it easier for campers to level their rigs.

All electrical light poles and security lights are being replaced, and there will be new water lines and hydrants in the Class B campground, Hespen said.

YEARS IN THE MAKING The project has been on the books for many years, but like many state-funded facilities, Pere Marquette had to wait in line while the state of Illinois endured a two-year budget impasse.

“So many times, we have

– Illinois Department of Conservation photos

tried to restart this project,” Hespen said.

Now it’s finally going forward, managed by the Illinois Capital Development Board. But for the summer, that means no camping in the main campgrounds. Hespen said the park’s reservation system, organized through ReserveAmerica.com, is marked closed through August. It may not be that bad, he said, but once the project is contracted, he can revise those dates.

That hasn’t stopped the phone calls. Hespen said he can’t give anyone a hard opening date.

In the meantime, the closest state parks are Beaver Dam to the north and Eldon Hazlet on Carlyle Lake, he said.

“It’s not Grafton, but I don’t

know what to tell them,” he said. And under the Covid-19 virus, all Illinois state parks are currently closed anyway.

The upper group campgrounds are not affected by the project, for now. They’ll remain open, but there’s a separate project “in its infancy” to renovate them as well, Hespen said. “It is in the similar condition that it’s been the last couple of years,” he said. “But it’s not the ‘shovelready’ project that the Class A and B campgrounds were.”

Also on tap for Pere Marquette this summer: a new roof, which Hespen said visitors may not appreciate, but it’s a big-ticket item to get accomplished. “Any time you can bring money to your park, you are happy,” he said.

Outdoor Guide

Page 10

• Random Shots flora of carrion-feeding birds in general.”

THE BUZZARD COUNCIL Well, not totally. There once existed, though tenuously, the Buzzard Council of America, founded in 1979 by a group of famous wildlife artists and outdoor enthusiasts. The BCA grew by word of mouth until it numbered about a 1,000 members (I was a proud one). Each year, America’s leading wildlife artists flipped a coin, and the loser painted a buzzard stamp print. The organization even held an annual

May-June 2020

from page 8

picnic to celebrate vultures and, incidentally, indulge in what I deduce was hefty amounts of adult beverages – no doubt to spur the creative juices for the chosen stamp artist.

The first stamp print (in 1980) was a turkey vulture, the most common of North American vultures, painted

by David Maass, the second a black vulture painted by Robert Abbett. The third print was of a group of African vultures enjoying a snack on a defunct critter of the veldt and the fourth (and final) print featured the endangered California condor. The group became so

popular that it began to dominate the careers of the artists, and they shelved the organization until buzzard enthusiasm cooled a bit. It has never, sadly, resurfaced.

FEET LIKE CHICKENS A vulture’s cleanup duties are not altruistic. They do it to survive. Though members of the order Falconiformes, which includes hawks and eagles, buzzards rarely take live prey and really aren’t equipped to do it. They’re slow and have feet more like chickens than like taloned raptors.

One writer described turkey vultures as “degenerate raptorial birds,” which could have been either a biological or social judgment. The family name is Cathartidae which comes from the Greek word “kathartes” meaning “cleanser.”

Here is where I have to differentiate between the turkey vulture and the black vulture.

Turkey vultures equal good while black vultures have proved, especially recently, to be as black hearted as they are exteriorly. To put it gruesomely, they have been accused of and proven to be fond of pecking the eyes out of small, helpless farm

animals like calves or lambs until the defenseless animal dies, after which they eat it.

Blame global warming, which has encouraged black vultures to migrate from South America northward to the American Midwest. Black vultures are protected by the long-standing migratory bird treaty but can be shot if you can prove that they are fatally mugging baby livestock.

BUZZARD EPITOME Do buzzards stink?

One historical ornithologist, Elliott Coues, thought that the vulture not only stank horribly

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because of what it ate but had an intrinsic stench that so deadened its olfactory sense that it didn’t mind diving headfirst into putrefying meat; however, I have been in petting range of a zoo buzzard and could detect no aroma at all, good or bad.

An ornithologist studying a nest found its young inhabitants aromatically inoffensive until they started eating carrion. As some wise person said, “You are what you eat.” Vultures have little sense of proportion and will dine on a juicy chunk of long-defunct mammal until they are too heavy to fly. Then they sit around like overstuffed middle-income television watchers until they digest enough to be able to fly.

There is almost nothing a vulture won’t eat if it’s dead. Leonard Lee Rue III said he’d never seen a vulture dining on another vulture, although, as I said, I once did and that scene has lingered with me as the epitome of something. I haven’t decided what and try not to think about it.

However, one observer watched two turkey vultures snack on a defunct skunk and reported that they left the scent gland untouched. Apparently even a vulture has its limits.

A MARGINAL BEAUTY At close range a vulture of any species is of marginal beauty. Its head is raw- skinned red and its feathers a dusty brown. Most turkey vultures have the slightly frayed appearance of a seedy undertaker in some American frontier town whose customers generally wind up in the Boot Hill cemetery. The featherless head allows the buzzard to root around in gore without needing an industrial strength bird napkin to clean up.

The turkey vulture has a sixfoot wingspan which enables it to stay aloft almost endlessly on thermals rising from the heating earth. Because nature›s elevators don›t start working until the sun gains authority, buzzards rarely soar before 9 a.m. They often sit on damp mornings with wings outstretched, perhaps drying them.

Vulture parents are a mixture of good and bad. They build no nest; the female lays two (sometimes one, sometimes three) eggs on the ground, often in a cave, crevice or hollow tree. But both parents incubate the eggs for 30 to 40 days and both feed the young by regurgitation.

While it may not appeal to you nor me, pre-digested food – notice the euphemism, like “pre-owned car” – works wonders on young vultures. They’re ready for their maiden flight in eight to ten weeks. They’re not bad looking as birds go – covered with a fleecy white down. But that gives way to the bleak adult plumage.

Regurgitation is a neat trick (so to speak) often used by turkey vultures when threatSee RANDOM SHOTS page 21

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 11

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May-June 2020

Wildlife Wrangling and Outdoor Ramblings

Nature’s law creates a real stinker

Photos and Text

By RANDALL P. DAVIS

Well, it was bound to happen.

I mean after 50-plus years it was greatly overdue.

If you engage in something long enough, certain invariable “laws” not only come to visit, but they happily cling to you.

It doesn’t really matter which law – the Law of Large Numbers and Percentages, or the Law of Averages, or just plain Murphy’s Law. When your number is called, you’ve had it.

I received mine on Valentine’s Day. It was a most heartfelt gift, with sincere meaning.

And one which has lasted to this day and likely a few days more.

You see, I got splattered by a skunk ... right in the chest.

The day prior to my spritzing, I had placed a cage trap at a hole leading under a client’s front porch. The client was positive the striped kitty was there, as he had witnessed it shuffling toward he hole a couple days before.

After receiving the client’s call saying the cage door was down, daughter Sarah and I

went to retrieve the little stinker.

SURE, NO PROBLEM When working with caged skunks, one must proceed slowly and quietly to keep the animal calm. I always place a poly tarp over the cage at the time of setting so that when the animal is caught, it feels secure hiding inside.

Then it’s a matter of cautiously walking up to the side so the skunk can’t see you, gently picking up the cage and carefully loading it into the pickup.

I did just that without any problem. Professional finesse all the way. Even the client was impressed (while observing from a distance) by the ease of removal.

But then one of those “laws” stepped up.

You see, the client never actually saw the skunk in the cage. He wasn’t really sure any animal was inside. There was no smell, so in his mind, it’s “Am I really paying for a genuine removal?”

Sensing his curiosity, I asked if he would like to take a glimpse at the beast. He was willing.

Skunk bided his time, waiting for just the right moment.

Obliging, I grabbed a threefoot length of rebar I had in the pickup bed and s-l-o-w-l-y lifted the tarp just enough to reveal a positive capture. The client was satisfied and walked away.

PROBLEM Then, as I lowered the tarp, the skunk wheeled, brandished its ample rear-end and ejected a healthy gush of yellowish liquid.

In the next nano-second, I watched as most of the rhinostopping goo hit the tarp’s edge and jettisoned out onto the pickup bed and tailgate. The final few drops continued at

Relax!

a velocity that even Keanu Reeves’ backward, bulletdodging Matrix maneuver could not have avoided. That’s when I was baptized.

The wind was blowing strong from the north, and I really didn’t think I got hit … that much. So, I closed up the tailgate and shut the camper door.

When I opened the cab door, the wind washed in around me, pushing a wall of eye-watering scent into the compartment and enveloping Sarah. She slowly turned to me, wide-eyed. “He got you? OH, that’s nasty!”

I stripped off my jacket and chucked it back with the skunk.

My gloves were just as bad and joined the jacket. But still I reeked.

Imagine the trip home – tight pickup cab, heater roaring, eyes watering, fighting off unconsciousness. By the time we got home, even our eyelashes would have gagged Pepe’ LePew. ESSENCE OF SKUNK After managing the skunk, I peeled off my outer clothing and draped the reeking garments in the tree. The pickup, well, it’s uncertain when the original bouquet of raccoon urine, beaver castor and bat guano will return. I do know my dogs still take deep interest in the vehicle’s interior.

The deal is, skunk essence will blend with the tiny water droplets in the air and when you breathe these in, adhere to your nose hairs and sinuses.Then EVERYTHING smells like a skunk to you – the inside of a septic tank, a bucket of Vick’s vapor rub. Your toothbrush.

It all smells like skunk, but it really isn’t.

Here’s another example of

this marvel of nature. Last year, I picked up a caged skunk, duly wrapped in a poly-tarp, gently slid it into the back of the pickup and closed the camper door.

During transport, the beast christened its first automobile ride with an itty-bitty, striped kitty-tail spitty. Instantly my pickup became a rolling stink bomb … and we needed to stop for carryout pizza.

HUH, WHAT? While Sarah went in to pick it up, I watched with apprehension as patrons would exit the eatery, straighten, look side-toside and then slowly lift their box lids and smell the contents.

Their wide-eyed expressions perfectly complemented the question, “Just exactly what toppings are on this pizza?”

I simply slid lower in the seat.

Considering my recent perfuming, it’s a good thing my wife was gone for a few days.

Let things air out a bit. If not, I’d have to face another “Law” – the Law of the Wife’s Nose … and subsequent cold shoulder.

I guess I’m a stinker no matter what happens.

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May-June 2020

Taneycomo was tough but it produced Photos and Text

By TYLER MAHONEY

My good friend and outdoor writer Payden Hays and I spent some time in Branson, MO recently. It seems to have become an annual tradition to fish Lake Taneycomo at the start of the new year.

While we have had some great trips in the past with dozens of fish, this time was a little slow.

We arrived at Lilley’s Landing Resort and Marina at midafternoon on Friday and prepared our gear. Since I showed up a little early, I went to the dock and made a few casts.

On the very first one, I caught a small rainbow trout, throwing a 1/8th-ounce sculpin/ginger

Fishing around the dam proved to be worthwhile.

marabou jig.

While some might think that’s great, there are many fishermen who agree that catching a fish on the first cast can be bad luck.

After making some big ribeye steaks for dinner, we decided to head out for some wade fishing below Table Rock Dam. We arrived a little after 10 p.m. and fished until midnight when things started to slow. Almost immediately upon arrival, Payden had a nice rainbow on the line.

With two units of water, we continued with the heavier 1/8th-ounce sculpin and dark colored jigs and caught numerous fish and missed several others.

One of Lilley’s employees was also fishing near us and landed a really nice rainbow trout on a jerkbait.

SWITCHING UP Eventually, I switched things up and put a white/ pink 1/16th-ounce marabou jig under a float. I used my headlamp to light the area just above the float to see. Many anglers recommend not using light, but there was so much ambient light from the dam, I don’t think it caused as much of a negative effect.

I caught several more very quickly just letting the jig drift with the current, twitching it occasionally.

The first night resulted in this nice rainbow.

I ended up with a hardfighting, beautiful rainbow trout before we left, measuring in the 16 to 17-inch range. It was a fattie and was released unharmed like all the others.

The rest of the weekend was tough. We rented a boat all day Saturday and Sunday, spending time mostly in the trophy area down to Short Creek.

The best-producing bait was the marabou jigs by far, but we had to work for them.

White/gray jigs were working close to the dam, but sculpin patterns worked better a little closer to Fall Creek.

AT THE BOTTOM We ultimately found that simply letting our jig reach the bottom and bounce along in the current was most productive.

You’ll lose jigs, or at the very least some paint on the jighead, but the trout wanted the bait near the bottom. The best area for this tactic was just above and through Fall Creek in the area known as the Narrows.

Throughout the weekend, live nightcrawlers were not effective. Small crankbaits from Duane Doty’s signature series in the 2.5-inch range did produce some fish, but came at a cost. I lost both of Duane’s

custom painted jerkbaits. If you ever see them, you’ll understand the pain of the loss.

Doty, who works at Lilley’s Landing and also guides with Ozark Trout Runners, showed me a new drift rig for dragging small crankbaits behind the boat.

It’s pretty simple. Attach a bell sinker to a snap swivel and slide it on your main line.

Then attach your main line to a regular barrel swivel.

Use 6 to 8-pound test as a leader from the barrel swivel to your crankbait. That allows the bait to reach the bottom and you’ll feel a distinctive tick as it bounces off the rocks.

I landed several trout from Fall Creek to Short Creek on the shallow side close to the docks using this method and they hit hard like a freight train.

Using crankbaits is a method that will usually catch larger fish and increase your odds at a brown trout.

SOME TAKEAWAYS • IF you aren’t having luck, have a system down to find a pattern. For example, start your first drift on the shallow side and then move deeper on the next drift if you don’t catch any. You’ll eventually locate where the trout are holding.

• DON’T be afraid to try something new. Marabou jigs are our go-to option, but each time I visit Taneycomo, I try to learn

a new technique. There are so many different ways to catch them, and on some days it’s going to take some adjustment. Be sure to ask the folks at Lilley’s or maybe watch some Youtube videos ahead of time to learn some new drift rigs with live bait or scud imitations.

Over the course of our trip, we caught roughly 45 rainbow trout. It seems like a lot, but on previous trips, that was pretty normal to catch in one day alone. Nonetheless, it was a great time.

We learned some new techniques and explored areas of the lake we hadn’t visited before.

Give it a chance if you haven’t had the opportunity. Lilley’s Landing is a great resource for everything you want to know about the lake.

More of Mahoney’s writing and videos are available at mahoneyoutdoors.com.

Fishing was slow but steady throughout the weekend.

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BE A RESPONSIBLE RIDER Remember, Multipurpose Utility Vehicles (Side-by-Sides) can be hazardous to operate. Always wear your seat belt, helmet, eye protection, and clothing appropriate to the driving situation. Keep doors and side nets closed. Never carry a passenger in the cargo bed, stay off public roads, obey cargo limits and guidelines, and never drink and drive. ALL MUV DRIVERS SHOULD WATCH THE SAFETY VIDEO “MULTIPURPOSE UTILITY VEHICLES: A GUIDE TO SAFE OPERATION.” Be sure to follow the Owner’s Manual directions when carrying cargo or towing a trailer. Avoid excessive speeds, and never drive faster than conditions permit. All Pioneer models are recommended for drivers 16 years of age and older, and tall enough to wear the seat belt properly and reach all the controls. The passenger(s) should also be tall enough for the seat belt to fit properly and brace themselves, if needed, by placing both feet firmly on the floor while firmly grasping a hand hold. Whenever you drive off-road, make sure you follow all the “TREAD LIGHTLY” guidelines, and always stay on established trails in approved areas. Keep your off-road area clean, use common sense, and respect the rights of others. We strongly recommend that you use only Honda approved accessories that have been specifically designed and tested for your vehicle and do not remove any original equipment or modify your Honda in any way that would change its design or operation. Operating your Side-by-Side vehicle with a modified engine, emissions control system, or noise-control system may be illegal. Always obtain written permission before driving on private lands, and obey all the laws and regulations governing your off-road areas. Specifications, programs and availability subject to change without notice. All specifications in this brochure—including colors, etc.— apply only to models sold and registered in the United States. Some models shown with optional accessories. Pioneer,™ Unicam,® Honda Phantom Camo,® QuickFlip,® are trademarks of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. FOX® is a registered trademark of Fox Factory, Inc. ©2017 American Honda Motor Co., Inc. A3909

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 15

Spoon feeding with Brian Snowden

By JOHN NEPORADNY JR.

When bass hang around docks on his home waters of Table Rock Lake, Brian Snowden likes to spoon feed the fish.

The Bassmaster Elite Series pro believes offering a steady diet of spoons to bass holding around docks is effective for a couple of reasons.

“It allows you to get a reaction strike and allows you to get a bait to depths of 20 to 40 feet at a rapid speed,” he said. He also notices the spoons mimic the forage (minnows, shad and bluegill) that also hang around docks.

Spooning around docks starts producing for Snowden about two to three weeks after the spawn when bass move out to deeper water to recuperate. The Missouri pro continues to catch dock bass on spoons throughout the summer and into late fall.

Checking the bottom contour is the key to finding the right deep-water docks to spoon for bass. “On highland reservoirs you typically want the end of the dock to be over 40 feet to 80 feet,” Snowden said. “I look for docks sitting close to or next to something underneath the water such as a creek channel, the side of a point or actually on a point where there might be a deep side that falls off quick and the other side might be more flat.”

FALL & SUMMER Main lake docks are Snowden’s primary targets in the dead of summer but his ideal spooning spot in the fall is a creek channel that bumps up against four or five docks in a major cove.

Docks sitting next to standing timber are also prime spots to spoon for bass.

When bass start staging under docks, the fish are usually shallow (20 feet or less) so Snowden tempts them with the slower fall of a Bass Pro Shops flutter spoon. However, for most of his dock spooning presentations Snowden relies on a white 3/4-ounce Bass Pro Shops Strata Spoon.

He improves the action of the spoons by replacing the factory-installed split rings with Bass Pro Shops Crane Swivels with Interlock Snaps. He also upgrades the treble hooks

on his spoons with Owner ST-36 hooks (number 2 for the Strata Spoon and 2/0 for the flutter version).

Weather and time of day determine where Snowden pitches his spoons to the floating docks. In early morning or overcast days, Snowden notices bass tend to roam the edges of docks, so he keys on the front ends and sides of docks and any nearby standing timber. On sunny days, bass tuck into the shade of the docks, so Snowden mainly pitches into the shady areas such as dock wells.

The Table Rock guide pitches his spoons on a 7-4 heavy-action St. Croix Legend Elite rod and Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Series baitcast reel (6.4:1 gear ratio) filled with 17- to 20-pound fluorocarbon line. The heavy line comes in handy when Snowden has to throw over boatlifts and the cross members in the dock wells.

“I try to make pitches directly into the dock and let the bait fall and then hop it back until it gets close (to the cross member) then I reel it up,” he says. “You just can’t go too fast because if you get your boat past the stall your bait is in, a lot of times your spoon will hang in the corners of the cross member.” Then it’s usually time to tie on a new spoon.

THAT FIRST FALL Snowden estimates about 85 percent of the bites occur on the spoon’s initial fall. He allows the spoon to fall with a slight bow in his line to increase the action of his lure.

“You want the line to come very free off of your reel so the spoon is falling freely but you want to pay real close attention to any time that thing stops falling because usually that is a fish,” Snowden says.

He recommends setting the hook during the initial fall any time you see the line twitch, stop or move faster than usual because it indicates a fish has sucked in your spoon.

After pitching his spoon, Snowden starts counting down the lure to determine the depth of his first bite. He estimates the Strata Spoon falls at a rate of about 1 1/2 to 2 feet per second so he counts down to 10 and then engages his reel. Next he pops the rod “pretty hard” to cause his spoon to rise about 18 to

24 inches and then lets it fall about a foot. As the spoon pendulums back toward the boat, Snowden repeats the rod popping motion again and then reels in the spoon if he fails to trigger a strike.

Snowden finds bass either hugging the bottom or suspending around the docks.

Bass are usually on the bottom if Snowden locates fish around docks sitting in the 20-foot depth range. When fishing docks in the 40- to 60-foot range, Snowden pinpoints summertime bass

suspended around the thermocline, which is usually about 30 feet deep at Table Rock.

Spooning for dock bass produces both numbers of fish and quality bass for Snowden. If he finds a dock loaded with spotted bass, Snowden usually catches lots of fish in the 14- to 18inch range. The Missouri pro also knows some docks that attract strictly largemouth, and he can usually catch some 4- and 5-pounders from those boat houses.

Brian Snowden feeds bass a steady diet of spoons at Table Rock Lake.

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Page 16

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Camping Gear & Gadgets Directory has the goods on 2,400 national forest campgrounds There are about 2,400 campgrounds in the U.S. National Forests and Grasslands system, most of them rustic, beautiful and inexpensive. So how do you plan a trip taking advantage of that national treasure?

Fred and Suzi Dow have the information you need on a handy, free website, the U.S. National Forest Campground Guide, which has detailed, organized information.

After 20 years of preliminary research, it was compiled by the Dows between May 1996 and October 1998 as they traveled with their trailer and their dog. They live in Arizona now and continue to visit the forests and update the directory, which covers all developed campgrounds with at least 10 sites that are accessible by regular vehicles.

The National Forest Campground Guide is free and online at forestcamping.com. It can also be purchased as an EBook or in nine regional guides at the same address.

Titanium river knife is made for water adventures The NRS Titanium Pilot river knife is designed for life on the water.

The sheath locks the knife in place until the user squeezes both sides of the release.

The cutting edge has both smooth and serrated sections plus a rope-cutting hook. The tip is blunt to protect against accidental punctures of boats, gear or skin.

The 3-inch blade is sharpened on only one edge to prevent injuries in tight spots, and the rubberized grip wraps around the handle for maximum control.

Finally, the sheath clip attaches the knife where it needs to be, and a bottle opener and oxygen tank valve wrench are built into the handle for when they are needed.

The blade is titanium. The knife weighs 5.5 ounces.

Kelty tent for six has room, will travel light Kelty’s Discovery 6 tent provides plenty of room in a package that’s easy to carry and set up.

It sleeps six and weighs 14 pounds on the trail. The oversize D-style door makes entry and exit easy. It has a full-coverage, seam-taped rainfly to keep campers dry.

The night-light pocket turns a headlamp or flashglight into a tent lantern. It needs just two fiberglass poles to support the polyester and mesh fabric, and it has color-coded fly and tent connections.

The Kelty Discovery 6 tent sells for $199.95 from rei.com and ships for free as long as the stores are closed.

The Titanium Pilot river knife lists for $149.95 but was selling for $112.39 at rei.com.

Zenbivy Bed is more than just a sleeping bag

Darn Tough is rated as the best in a bunch of hiking socks

The Zenbivy Bed is not just a sleeping bag, and that allows it to adapt to temperatures better than any sleeping bag can.

Open it up and use it like a blanket when it’s warm. As it cools down, zip up the footbox to shut down drafts while maintaining the “blanket top” so it still sleeps like home.

Even colder? Tuck in the sides with the zippers and pop your head and arms under the hood, and you are in a full EN rated (23ºF limit) sleeping bag that’s as snug as any mummy. Finally, one comfortable bag for all seasons.

The two-piece bed accommodates a 20” to 25” air mattress and has a useful stow pocket plus zippers on both sides.

Zenbivy Bed prices start at $209 for synthetic and $279 for down filling. To see them, go online to zenbivy.com.

When the Good Housekeeping Institute Textile Lab went to evaluate a bunch of different hiking socks, the best of the lot was one you may never have heard of – the Darn Tough Hiker Boot Sock.

Darn Tough socks are made mostly of Merino wool with added nylon and spandex for stretch. They are seamless, so they stay secure on the ankle without bunching or creating blisters.

The wool material wicks away moisture while also keeping toes warm in colder climates. These socks are medium thickness, hold up well and can be used year-round.

TinyJohn incinerator toilet doesn’t need water!

TinyJohn is a compact and sleekdesigned waterless, self-contained gas-fired toilet that incinerates waste into a sterile ash can be emptied later. They are great in offthe-grid cabins, RVs, boats, guest houses and additions.

Made bv EcoJohn, TinyJohn provides ecological, economical and logistical benefits where a standard toilet is not practical.

Model 12 runs on propane or 12-volt DC, model 120 runs on propane or 120-volt AC and model 240 uses propane or 240-volt AC. TinyJohn sells for $3,285 at ecojohn.com. Estimated delivery time is four weeks. Bowl liners are $35 for 100, a vent kit is $200 and a catalytic converter for $99 will clean the exiting air to reduce any odor and keep the exhaust fan clean.

Darn Tough Hiker Boot Socks and other varieties are sold at many websites, typically for about $25 a pair.

Stove uses wood to cook, grill, boil and generate power

Three-legged trail stool folds up small but goes camping big

BioLite’s CampStove 2 Bundle is a portable wood cooking system that generates electricity and creates smokeless wood flames to use for grilling, boiling, cooking and charging The stove can burn sticks, wood scraps or pellets and comes with portable grill and kettle-pot attachments. It also stores in the kettle.

The system can boil a liter of water in 41/2 minutes, and the grill can hold up to four hamburgers.

It includes a flexlight to illuminate the cooktop. It charges devices by generating 3W of power.

The REI Co-op three-legged trail stool is light enough to take on hikes but sturdy enough to use all around the campground, for sitting or as an impromptu table.

The aluminum legs are designed for maximum load capacity, 200 pounds, and for minimal weight and bulkiness, 1 lb., 2 oz.

The seat, of ripstop polyester, is 15 inches high.

Folded, the chair is 4” by 22”.

The Campstove2 Bundle is available for $229.95 at bioliteenergy.com, along with other combinations of features at varying prices.

The trail stool was on sale for $22.39 recently at rei.com, temporarily reduced by $7. Shipping was free.

May-June 2020

Outdoor Guide

Page 17

Claudette’s Kitchen

Sustained by faith and common sense

By CLAUDETTE ROPER

“Did you hear that Corona Extra sales are down because of this [Covid-19]?” asked Mountain Man. My first reaction was, “People can’t really be that stupid!”

Now I could never be accused of believing that our media tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. After all, you can’t let that get in the way of a good story, eh?

Searching the Internet isn’t much more dependable, but it did net a lot more information outside the pre-determined narrative.

One thing it noted was the fact that the spread of the coronavirus in China had negatively affected beer sales.

This came at a time when sales would normally increase due to the Chinese New Year celebrations. It is also noteworthy that other brands saw a dip in sales as well.

It’s hard to know where we will be with this pandemic when you receive this issue. As I’m writing, we just received the news that the social distancing recommendations had been extended to the end of April, and St. Louis just issued a stay-at-home order.

We’ve been asked by many how we’re doing, selfisolated on our 104 acres in the middle of nowhere. The answer is great! We’ve read the book and know the end of the story. Our faith and a little common sense sustain us. To me the bigger question for all of us should be, “What are you learning?” Here are some of our answers.

THINK OF OTHERS It’s important to think of others. Phone calls, texts, Facebook messages and notes of encouragement work wonders, especially for those folks who are living alone.

Leaving eggs or other items in our mailbox for anyone in need maintains social distancing while blessing others.

Thanks to the Missouri Department of Conservation for their waiver of needing a permit or trout tag to fish.

This waiver ran from March 27 through April 15, at which time MDC reassessed the situation. Note: All season dates and limits continued to apply and be enforced. This is food for both body and soul.

Folks like my hairdresser can’t earn a living in isolation. When I finally get a haircut, she’ll also get paid for those she couldn’t give me during this time. Let’s hope others do the same so folks like this can recover.

Mountain Man and I actually do like each other, even after a month of not being apart here on the farm. That’s a good thing, since divorce isn’t an option and neither one of us wants to go to prison.

NEEDS OR WANTS? We’re distinguishing between our needs and our wants.

That’s really nothing new, but it is a whole new application. Instead of talking about bow-hunting equipment or a cooktop, we’re talking about food and for some people, apparently, even toilet paper.

We’re learning not to take freezers full of wild game, one of our own cows, and shelves full of canned goods from the garden for granted. The dehydrated fruits and vegetables are a blessing and there are live turkeys, chickens and guineas running all over the place providing eggs and prepared to offer their lives, if necessary.

Unfortunately, squirrels are off limits right now, but fishing is good.

Foods we don’t usually eat much, such as dried beans and black-eyed peas, can be pretty tasty in lieu of the fresh vegetables that we’re not going to the grocery store to buy. Furthermore, it’s a good time to get more creative with the things that we do have. There’s never room for being picky at this house, but that’s even more true under these circumstances.

CHICKEN AGAIN? We can eat the same thing (in disguise) for several days in a row. Grilled chicken legs with baked sweet potatoes and home-canned green beans the first night, chicken noodle soup the second night and quesadillas the third night. Raw carrots, cauliflower, pickled okra and a variety of olives fill the gap when the salad runs out.

Dehydrated okra is a favorite snack for travelling. It’s

tasty, nutritious and doesn’t require refrigeration, so there’s always some on the shelf. As it turns out, it is also great to throw into a pot of chicken soup. Even better, after a short soaking and draining time, it’s also good rolled in some flour and fried.

Not everyone has faired as well, and my heart goes out to them. Not everyone has the opportunities that we have here on the farm. That being said, just about everyone has the ability to make phone calls, write cards, texts or e-mails and help someone in need. You’ll benefit more than the recipients.

Hopefully this will be behind us by the time you read this. If so, go out and buy some Corona, catch some fish and make beer batter for your fillets and those last late morels. Cheers!

Grilled chicken legs can become soup and then quesadillas.

– Three Many Cooks photo

Outdoor Guide

Page 18

May-June 2020

30 years of good times

Will retirement suit Bobby Whitehead after 30 years with Outdoor Guide?

By CARL GREEN The year was 1988. Robert Whitehead, known to his many friends as “Bobby,” had been working at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, selling retail advertising.

St. Louis was a two-newspaper town in those days, but under a 1976 federal law intended to keep newspapers from closing, the Globe and the Post-Dispatch were allowed to combine their business operations. As the gears turned, people like Bobby got caught in the middle – and sometimes spit out.

“As it turned out, it allowed papers to combine their production staffs, advertising staffs, classified and so on.

Eventually, they made a deal and the Globe went out of business,” Bobby recalled during an interview. The topic was how Outdoor Guide Magazine came to be a thing, as they say these days, and how he is shifting into retired life.

He grew up in the St. Louis area, mostly in Jefferson County, and majored in journalism at University of Missouri, where he was sports editor at a student newspaper.

But in that dark moment in 1988, he knew that if you can sell ads one place, you can do it somewhere else, and that place turned out to be Tradin’Times, a free weekly that excelled at

classified ads, especially for cars. Bobby was executive director for Kansas City and St. Louis for a short time.

It wasn’t a big step from there to another venerable publication, Ed Finkelstein’s St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune, where in 1990 – 30 years ago – Bobby sold ads for the newspaper and a side project, the program for the annual boat show each February and the first inkling of what would become Outdoor Guide Magazine.

THE BOAT SHOW Bobby worked with outdoorsman Kevin Howard, who was producing the program and using the Labor Tribune to distribute it. Howard was also behind the Outdoor News section that started running in the newspaper in 1984, a precursor to the Outdoor Guide pages that now appear twice a month. Veteran writers Ron Krueger and Bud Theis provided columns and additional content. It was a good team.

But the boat show was sold to National Marine Manufacturers Association, which forbid selling ads in the program to groups not buying booths in the show, quite contrary to how Howard and his team had been operating.

“We didn’t really want to do that,” Bobby recalls. “They

had a couple of other things they wanted us to do that we didn’t really want to do, too.”

So the group carried on, like a hunter who missed a shot but kept at it.

“We decided we were going to publish a boat show program, but it was an unofficial program. We were going to continue to do it, and to do it our way,” he said.

And it worked. “We did so well – and we put so much work into it – that people at the show would say, ‘Wow, this is really neat. Is this a regular thing? What is this?’ ” Then they took it back to Ed Finkelstein.

“We decided that maybe we had something here – maybe we had the start of a new outdoor publication,” Bobby said. “Ed liked the idea and said, ‘Well, don’t lose money.

If you don’t lose any money, we’ll do it.”

THE QUARTERLY This version was called Outdoor Guide Quarterly, and it focused on hunting, fishing, boating and camping. The first issue, with 32 pages, came out in April 1992.

“I thought it was beautiful.

It was magnificent,” Bobby recalls. “I remember taking a copy of that first magazine with me and looking at every page, just thinking ‘Wow!’ and ‘Look at this, isn’t this

A NICE CATCH – Just last year, Bobby caught this smallmouth bass in northwestern Ontario.

wonderful! This is going to be great. This is a new publication. It’s going to be fantastic!’ ” He and his wife Debbie celebrated that success with a vacation to Cancun. But when they returned, the editors had moved on, for varying reasons.

“We were already working on the next one,” he said. “We had a new publication that had a lot of promise, but we didn’t have any editors.”

Some accomplished outdoor journalists were interviewed but the fledgling magazine couldn’t pay enough to reel them in.

“I thought about it and thought maybe I could do it,” Bobby said. “I didn’t know the difference between a spinning reel and a bait caster. I knew a little about fishing, but I didn’t know much about anything.”

But he stepped up anyway, serving as managing editor while still selling ads, relying on expert outdoorsmen such as Charlie Farmer in Missouri and Curt Hicken in Illinois. “I got to know them right away,” Bobby said. “They became my mentors and started teaching me, and they started providing content, and so we forged on.”

That tradition of relying on expert writers to provide authoritative information and advice in a highly readable format continues to this day.

Even with a rookie editor, the magazine was a success.

From its quarterly beginning, a year-end holiday issue was added, which now lurks under the skin of the NovemberDecember issue. The boat show program was adapted and became a sixth issue. It now is part of the JanuaryFebruary issue. Already, they had the six-issue schedule that readers now enjoy.

“Every year it seemed to get bigger and better and prettier, and before you knew it, we were into it 30 years,” Bobby said.

TAKING STANDS The longtime editor sees speaking up for conservation as one of the key goals and accomplishments of Outdoor Guide. The magazine was there when the Missouri Department of Conservation started the Stream Teams volunteer program. It helped launch Share the Harvest, in which hunters provide food for the needy. Outdoor Guide spoke up and was counted

when conservation interests defeated plans to dam the Meramec River, and it spoke up on the issue of using jet boats on natural streams.

“Instead of just providing good, solid outdoors information – how to, where and when – we paid attention to the politics of it, what was going on in Jefferson City and nationally, how issues were handled,” Bobby said. “We started voicing our opinions on certain areas. We took a stand and informed our readers about what was going on.

Conservation is at the root of it all. It’s not just a how-to or a where-to.”

HOOKS AND BULLETS At the same time, the magazine has stuck to its hunting-and-fishing origins, what Bobby likes to call, “Hooks and Bullets.” Content gradually improved, as did use of color and graphics.

“We got smarter, and we learned more along the way,” he said.

He is proud of Outdoor Guide’s tradition of colorful, uncluttered, action-oriented covers.

“We have a beautiful, startling photo, whatever it might be,” he said. “That has been one of the hallmarks of the magazine. When you look at the cover, you see a beautiful scenic shot. There are very few words. We let the cover stand by itself.”

Distribution of the magazine also evolved. About 10 years ago, the old system of paid circulation by mail and newsstand was replaced with the current system in which some paying readers get it by mail, but most pick it up free at a long list of St. Louis region retail outlets. He credits LaborTribune Marketing Director Dan Braun with that innovation, which greatly increased

circulation. “I think that’s been about the best way,” Bobby said.

With a small editorial staff, typos and language errors were a common problem until a copy editor position was created seven years ago in conjunction with the Labor-Tribune. And now, as Bobby Whitehead eases into a well-earned retirement, he leaves skilled and experienced salespeople, editors, writers and graphic artists to carry on the tradition.

His deep and strong collection of outdoor writers remains – familiar names such as Joel Vance, Gerald Scott, Bill Seibel, Larry Dablemont and Claudette Roper still appear almost every issue, along with the younger writers Bobby became known for encouraging and developing, such as current contributors Brandon Butler, Darrell Taylor and Payden Hays.

“It’s been a vehicle for a lot of young, aspiring writers,” he said. “A lot of young folks have tried their hand at writing. We’ve helped them out, and they’ve blossomed into really good communicators.”

EXCITING AND OUTDOORS Now he plans to keep a hand in the operation as it transitions. His dream? More good times.

“I’d just like for it to survive,” he said. “There’s a good, solid readership out there. A lot of folks have been getting it for a long time and enjoy it, and I’d just like for it to continue, and I think we’re on track.

“We entertain the reader and inform the reader. We talk about Missouri and Illinois, where we spend most of our time, but we also talk about other destinations, great places to go. Anything that’s exciting and outdoors is fair game.”

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 19

He’s like Bobby Knight mixed with Dylan & Hemingway Photo and Text

By BRANDON BUTLER The first time I met Bobby Whitehead, he broke my heart. It was the spring of 2010. We were at the inaugural Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers Cast and Blast in Branson. About 20 of us outdoor communicator types were in attendance, but the night had whittled our number to fewer than 10.

I was new to Missouri at the time, having arrived from Indiana only a few months before. There, in the home of the Indy 500, I had already been president of the Hoosier Outdoor Writers, the youngest ever. Listen, “Hoosier” is not a derogatory term back there.

We embrace it with pride.

Think Bobby Knight. Think championships. Hoosiers.

Perhaps my britches were a bit big. Or maybe he was too secure in his hierarchy. Either way, I’d been “learned up” on this Bobby Whitehead fella,

having been told he was the Godfather of all things to do with Missouri outdoor communications. If I wanted a place, I’d have to kiss the ring.

I rose to the occasion.

He was intimidating. Can’t lie. I was still in my beer drinking days, but he was sipping straight whiskey. On the rocks. His hat was of the fancy straw sort, with a blue bandana wrapped around the base.

He was wearing sunglasses inside, playing chess. You know what Larry David said about people who wear sunglasses inside? He said there are only two types of people who wear sunglasses inside – blind people and assholes.

NOT IMPRESSED So there Bobby sat, wearing his sunglasses. I was armed with what I believed to be an impressive collection of my written work, all organized nice and neat in a fancy scrapbook, “Driftwood

Outdoors” in calligraphy on the cover. How could he not be impressed?

He wasn’t. I brazenly asked him to take a look. He brushed me aside, saying something along the lines of “Later, Jack.” I had interrupted Missouri’s Bob Dylan in the middle of a “Like a Rolling Stone” lick. Hemingway at his typewriter. Picasso before a half-colored canvas. Whitehead in front of a chess board.

How dare I? Curt Hicken rescued us both. After Bobby had brushed off my advance in annoyed fashion, Hicken took my book, gave it a few compliments and handed it back to me in a way that gently exposed my folly but also put the inside-sunglasses guy in perspective. He was flawed.

He was human.

THE BOBFATHER I don’t remember the second time I met Bobby Whitehead. Or the third or

THE BOBFATHER – Brandon Butler, at right, shares a moment with his ‘Bobfather.’

the 30th. All I know is, a very special relationship was born, and it has flourished. I fell in love with this man. He became family, and so much more than family. I’ve sought his advice, drank from his overflowing cup of wisdom and told him things I’m glad

only his ears have heard. He’s my guide. My mentor. My friend. He’s my Bobfather.

Congratulations on your retirement, Bobby. You deserve so many more days catching smallmouth and chasing gobblers. I hope to be with you on some of

these coming adventures.

I’ll row you down any river you wish. Please know that I realize my life wouldn’t have advanced the way it has without you shepherding me over the peaks and through the valleys.

I love you, Bobfather.

The time we almost lost Bobby Whitehead

By BILL SEIBEL

With all of his more recent health problems, few folks know Bobby-Boy almost died back in the early 1990s.

I’ve known Bob for about 40 years, back when he was peddling ads and I was the outdoor editor of the then-dying St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

I did a little writing for his fledgling Outdoor Guide start-up, we talked hunting and fishing together occasionally, and he wangled an invite to a turkey hunt on the 600-acre cattle farm where I had a hunting lease, in the rugged hills of Ozark County, a mile and a half from the fabled Caney Mountain Refuge.

The hunt started off great.

Less than 200 yards from the gate and the parked truck, as

we walked along a tote road capping a ridge top, I stopped to owl-hoot. The response was immediate. Three roosted gobblers hammered their morning challenges about 100 yards down a slope from us.

We set up, played the tree call game – a fly-down cackle with a hat beat against a tree – and waited. We heard the flopping of wings as the boys came down, so we set up. I put Bobby in front of me about 20 yards, got comfortable and called.

The birds hooked, hit the tote road and marched on by us, gobbling their “Come along and play” message as they went.

“What now?” a disappointed Bob asked.

AN OZARKS HIKE I explained that we would stay off the road, looping through the woods to get in

front of them, change calls and try again. It was a tough hike.

Ozark County hills aren’t easy.

As we came over one wooded point, two birds gobbled ahead of us. The woods were still pretty open, and the birds were on the backside of a point across from us. I put Bob at the base of a huge oak, backed off about 25 yards, settled and ripped off a string of yelps.

They answered a couple of times but didn’t move much.

So I decided to play coy, clucking a couple of times and then getting quiet.

I warned Bob, “Make like a rock – don’t move!”

After about 15 minutes, which seemed like an hour, I saw two mature toms ease into view heading directly to us. When they were about 50 or 60 yards from Bob, he lifted his gun and shifted his position. There was a very loud “PPPPppuuutt!!” as two black-

THE HAT – Bobby Whitehead and his white hat have been a common sight around the boat show. Here he poses with a couple of show staff members.

feathered streaks disappeared over the crest of the point.

“Why did you move?” I asked, more than a little upset.

“I didn’t see ‘em,” he groaned. “You quit calling, and I figured you fell asleep.

Now what?”

I growled, “We walk some more!”

We headed over the point the turkeys had just vacated and went uphill to a cleared fencerow. Before we got there, we heard the loud, angry “ppprrreeee” of fighting gobblers maybe 75 yards below us.

I grabbed Bob, pushed him to the base of a huge cedar tree and whispered, “Put your gun across your knee and DON’T move.”

THE SOUND OF SUCCESS I quickly moved to the fencerow opening about 25 yards in front of Bob, pulled

a hen decoy from my vest and stuck it in the ground.

Then I quietly moved about 20 yards behind him, cuddled another cedar and gave out a string of yelps. Several gobbles answered.

Before I could call again, I heard rustling in the leaves.

Two jakes or immature gobblers ran to the decoy and I saw Bob push the safety off his 12-gauge pump. I was about to yell “NO!” because the birds were so close, I figured he’d kill both. The gun roared – and a third bird I hadn’t seen flopped into sight.

Bob jumped up and sprinted to the flopping bird faster than I can tell about it, stepping on the warty head. I walked up with a big grin, and Bob, who had laid his gun aside, grabbed me with a big bear hug and repeated, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Then, before I knew what

was happening, he gave me the biggest, sloppiest wet kiss – fortunately on the cheek – that you could imagine. That’s when Bobby-Boy almost met his ancestors!

DON’T FORGET TO CALL Seriously, the outdoor world and the outdoor communications world will miss the smooth, competent people skills and organizational skills of Bob Whitehead. He has worked long and hard to produce a quality product, to strengthen communicators’ organizations as well as individual communicators, and to write good stuff himself.

Hopefully, he will enjoy retirement and keep in touch with some of his old friends.

Personally, I would miss very much that familiar “Hi, Marine” greeting on the phone if he doesn’t stay in touch.

BOB & JACKIE – Bobby met up with St. Louis Cardinals football stalwart Jackie Smith four years ago in Bolivar at a meeting of the Missouri Outdoor Communicators.

Page 20

Outdoor Guide

Who is this Bobby Whitehead?

Here’s what some of his closest friends have to say

Editor’s note: We asked the Outdoor Guide writers to share any stories or comments they might have on working with Bobby Whitehead during his 30 years with the magazine. As always, they responded.

Helping young writers get started

Bobby Whitehead has done more for conservation and outdoor writing than most. His little publication, Outdoor Guide Magazine, has helped writers run stories that may not have been published otherwise.

I would be interested in knowing how many of our young writers’first stories appeared in Outdoor Guide. I am thankful for Bobby’s work and his friendship.

Perhaps more importantly, how many young people have read this unique publication and gained an interest in outdoor sports? Well done, Bobby, and please enjoy your retirement.

– Ken Kieser outdoors writer

A bag of worms in the bargain

I first met Bobby at a St. Louis Boat Show booth when he convinced me that an Outdoor Guide subscription for $5 a year was the best bargain in the whole convention center, and he even threw in my choice of a pack of rubber worms.

Since that day I have reached out to him for advice, assistance and brotherly love, which he always provides without hesitation. His heart is as big as his talent.

– John Winkelman associate editor

A warm heart and kindness

I’ve known and worked with Bobby for nearly three decades.

I remember that when I was new to writing, my work was questionable at best, but he allowed me to write for the magazine while he guided me along until I gained experience. I’ve always appreciated him for helping me get started.

On a more personal side, one of his greatest characteristics is his warm heart and kindness. It doesn’t matter whether a person is young or old, rich or poor, a newbie or the president of a company, he treats people with respect and holds out a helping hand. I wish a great and enjoyable retirement to a fellow writer/photographer, editor and friend.

– Tim Huffman author of fishing books

Thank God for ‘Bobby Boy’

Sometimes God smiles down on us and blesses us with someone really special in our lives. That someone for me has been “Bobby Boy,” as some of us affectionately call him. Bobby has been a mentor to a lot of us writers and more importantly, he has been a true friend. Not only is he the heart of Outdoor Guide Magazine, he is also the heart of the Missouri Outdoor Communicators organization.

My prayer is that in your retirement, Bobby, you will once again be able to watch beautiful sunrises through the trees in your beloved turkey woods and feel the tug on your line of a Canadian smallmouth or walleye.

Please know all of us writers are always here for you, however you need us. I will close this with the same words you say to me every time we talk: “Love you my friend!”

– Larry Whiteley radio host and writer

It’s fun talking to Bobby

I kind of had my say in the long story two pages before this one, trying to tell the story of Bobby Whitehead and the Outdoor Guide. But I didn’t go into one of the most special things about him – how easy it is to talk to Bobby about anything.

Whatever you might have to tell him, he’s interested in it, he’ll listen and he’ll enjoy your story. He’ll probably have a long yarn of his own to share, but he’ll wait until you’ve finished pontificating before launching into his own. I’ve burned through a lot of time talking to Bobby, and listening to him, these past seven years. I wish we all could enjoy our lives as much as he does his. Best wishes, brother, and keep up the good attitude!

– Carl Green editor

Writing assignment keeps giving

When I met Bobby years ago at an AGLOW (Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers) conference at Niagara Falls, he asked me to go to Branson to write a series of stories. Eighteen-plus stories later on the area, Branson remains unforgettable.

Bobby is a mentor, always encouraging writers and opening the doors of opportunity for them.

– Bob Holzhei outdoors writer

She finally got to meet him

I recall hearing many wonderful stories about Bobby Whitehead from my late husband, Charlie Farmer. According to Charlie, this relationship was a close bond of brotherly love.

Listening to these fun-filled tales made me eager to someday meet Bobby. It soon came to pass at the first Missouri Outdoor Communicators conference I attended in Branson. I remember pulling into the parking lot and observing a tall man standing outside and visiting with a group of people. It soon occurred to me that this must be Bobby Whitehead.

I departed my car and quietly approached him, asking, “Are you Bobby Whitehead?”

With a big smile, he said, “Yes.” I introduced myself and mentioned that I was Charlie Farmer’s widow. From that moment on, we had and still have a nice friendship. I owe a lot to him for his encouragement, support and generous compliments for my writing endeavors.

Aside from this, Bobby will always hold a special place in my heart.

– Jeannie Farmer outdoors columnist

Happy trails, my bloodbrother!

As we celebrate another wonderful springtime, even during these verytryingpandemicconditions,Imakemyselffocusonthepositives and all the wonderful things that it means to be anAmerican hunter.

Of course, nothing quite equals the celebration of the American Dream quite like the hunting-conservation lifestyle, and communicating with all my fellow hunters, fishermen and trappers fortifies my spirit to always embrace the good while we fight the bad and ugly.

One of my most appreciated and humbling joys is communicating with my fellow sporters here in the pages of Outdoor Guide, thanks to the creativity and status quoobliterating vision of our bloodbrother, Bob Whitehead.

Bob was beyond courageous to take a chance on the old guitar player with my no-holds-barred, unapologetic, pure honesty about the hands-on conservation lifestyle in the great outdoors.

I think of Bob often as I write to share this sacred connection with God’s miraculous Tooth Fang and Claw nature creation, and I thank the great man with all my heart and soul.

We wish Bob happy trails, good health, great hunting adventures and the continuation of his hard-earned American Dream Beyond the Pavement.

Godspeed my bloodbrother! You are with me always.

– Ted Nugent hunter and rock star

May-June 2020

A tale: Bill Harmon, Bobby and me

In 1994, the late Bill Harmon, of Durham, Kan. and I traveled from my lake home at Wagoner, Okla. to Tulsa to attend a press conference at the sprawling (and famous) Zebco fishing tackle headquarters and manufacturing facilities.

The occasion marked Zebco’s introduction of a gleaming, welldesigned and highly useful item promoted as “the last bait-casting reel to be made in America.”

Each press member attending (six or seven, I recall) was presented with one of the reels, housed in a sturdy and attractive walnut box. Mine remains, never used but often admired. Presentations were made by the late Jim Martin, then president of the company, and Carl Malone, the NBA basketball star and a lover of bass fishing, who served as a media spokesman for Zebco at the time.

Harmon, my best friend, was an excellent writer, humorist and outdoor sports enthusiast. We were fortunate and honored to meet Bobby Whitehead at the gathering. We learned that the three of us were spending the night at the same motel and we agreed to have dinner together. It was a long and lively session, filled with stories of our pasts and outdoor writing ventures.

Bobby outlined his duties at Outdoor Guide and told us at one point, “I don’t pay much, but I would really like to have you two writing for me.” We accepted, and lasting friendships and associations followed.

Unfortunately, friend Bill died of cancer in 1998. His hunting, fishing and conservation articles in Bobby’s magazine and the weekly Hillsboro and Marion newspapers in Kansas had won him many awards, and he regaled readers with humor and astute prose.

Bobby introduced us to the good folks at Lake of the Ozarks who staged the Sportsman Challenge, a spring event to host a large media group for turkey hunting, fishing and entertainment.

Harmon and I attended for several years and enjoyed the event, which provided many columns and articles for us and for Bobby and Outdoor Guide.

I had the privilege of writing and providing photographs, including cover shots, for Bobby and Outdoor Guide for nearly every issue he produced in the 26 years I’ve known him. He also honored me by publishing some of my work in the Labor-Tribune. He has always been a good and accomplished writer, a friend of great stature, a gentleman, and most of all, a class act.

– Thayne Smith, RV writer/photographer

A powerful voice for conservation

Bobby Boy, wow! Congratulations on your retirement! You have been a powerful voice for conservation and the entire outdoor sporting scene. Your presence as a mentor to so many, including us, has had a tremendous impact on many lives. We hope you’ll continue to share that wealth of knowledge as willingly as always. We wish you the best of times in your retirement.

– Terry and Roxanne Wilson fishing writers

Outdoor Guide is Bob’s baby

Bob is a tireless, energetic advocate for all aspects of the outdoors. The respect the industry has for his efforts is obvious.

I cannot begin to say how proud I am of Bob’s transition from straight advertising salesman par excellence to the avid believer in, and supporter of, the outdoors – its locations, its people, its heart. His writings are moving, his energy contagious, his sincerity above reproach.

Outdoor Guide is Bob’s baby. He gave it birth, and what an adult it has grown to be. Bob has earned his retirement, and we all wish Bob and Debbie health and happiness in retirement ... and then some.

At the same time, we welcome Carl Green, the Guide’s copy editor, to take over the role as co-publisher. Carl is a veteran journalist and avid outdoorsman. He and his wife Lois love a challenging outdoor adventure. His article in last December’s Guide about their snowshoeing in Michigan makes that clear.

Carl will carry on in the same manner as Bob, with Bob still having a few fingers in the pie, and that means our readers will continue to enjoy the Midwest’s finest outdoor publication.

– Ed Finkelstein publisher

BIG AWARD – In 2017, the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers gave Bobby the “Best in Show” award for his column, “The Condo,” about his experiences at Lake of the Ozarks. The column also won for best fishing writing. Here, he displays the plaque alongside Labor-Tribune Editor Tim Rowden.

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 21

Appeal of RV life carries on strong

Photos and Text

By THAYNE SMITH

Historic events have played a major role in the lives and lifestyles of most Americans.

Those who own RVs, or are potential buyers, are no exceptions. The way we live and travel is often dictated by major events.

We react dramatically to times of change. Crises dictate adjustments in our lifestyles.

Periods of economic growth and decline greatly affect our buying and spending habits.

New products, designed to enhance our comfort, are at the top of our shopping lists.

It’s well known, in fact, that the first interest in what we call RVing developed when a

fluid called gasoline was used to power automobiles called Model Ts. With some pieces of canvas added, sometimes said to be waterproof, and draped over the side of the vehicle, the motorized “camp on wheels” was born.

The comforts it afforded were greatly enhanced (during the time of World War I) when a highly refined version of the same liquid provided light and power for portable Coleman lanterns and camp stoves.

‘HOUSE CARS’ ARRIVE The coming of larger automobiles and the so-called truck in the 1920’s gave new emphasis to the growing demand for “campers.” A few manufactur-

Outdoor Guide writer Jeannie Farmer checks the exterior finish and features of a new fifth-wheel RV.

A Taneycomo Lake campground at Branson hosts a variety of RVs and appeals to many trout anglers.

ers and a lot of do-it-yourself carpenters, mechanics and engineers started making what were popularly called “house cars.” They contained stoves, lanterns, bunks and beds, chairs and benches and storage areas.

A few even had hand pumps to draw water from barrels for drinking. In some, the pumps also supplied water for sinks and the washing of dishes, utensils and bodies.

The “tent on wheels” idea took on a new meaning in the early 1930s when Kansans, Okies and Texans abandoned their prairie lands and used vehicles of various sorts to escape the infamous “Dust Bowl.”

As the youngest member of the P. B. and Myrtle Smith family, living in Healy, Kansas, I remember well the trials and tribulations of those terrible windy, dirty storms. Eventu-

ally, they caused illness to family members and the hiring of a neighbor and his sturdy International truck to move the family to a rocky, hillside farm near Marshall, Ark. END OF THE WAR More changes, many refinements and assembly-line manufacture of RVs came at the end of World War II, serving the pent-up desire of Americans to see their own country first, visit historic and tourist attractions and recreate in comfort.

New types and styles of RVs were introduced. Folding camping trailers (often called “pop-ups”), travel trailers of many kinds and sizes, truck campers (including slide-in units for pickups and larger coaches (called “chassis mounts”) built on a truck frame and big motor home-type units

(mostly converted buses) became popular.

Sales were spurred by more stylish units, more factories, more competition, better roads across the nation and high employment rates. Manufacturers banded together to form the TCMA (Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association), followed by the RVA (Recreation Vehicle Association) to adopt names for types and styles of units, standards on construction, nationwide promotions and common goals.

The association was revamped in 1975 and became RVIA (Recreation Vehicle Industry Association), following the disastrous Energy Crisis of 1972-73. A number of manufacturers were bankrupt and overall sales fell sharply over a two-year period.

UNCERTAIN TIMES Ups and downs followed the winds of war and the ending of the Cold War through following years, with generally steady growth prevailing.

The next major disaster – the tragic events of September 11, 2001 (popularly known as 911) – definitely changed America forever. Seeds of uncertainty were sewn throughout the land, and many doubts were planted in the RV industry. However, the worst fears of industry leaders were not realized.

Just the opposite prevailed, in fact. Travel plans and patterns changed drastically and American citizens adopted new modes of work and play. For many of us, leisure time took on more meaning.

Airline use plummeted while a new wave of patriotism swept across the land. Trips to foreign lands lost appeal and a desire to stay a little closer to home came with warnings and thoughts of domestic and international terrorism. Even on our own continent, travel by air declined sharply with rules and regulations and rising prices that were not conducive to leisure pleasures.

Fortunately, however, airline and cross-country leisure travel has soared in recent years, as populations and the economy reached new heights in America. At the same time, the sales and uses of RVs have joined them.

Many in America’s growing population have adopted the attitude that it is patriotic, educational and less expensive to “see America first,” saying the 911 tragedies made them realize life can be fleeting, and that leisure time is best spent near home, or on our own precious continent, with family, friends and loved ones.

In great numbers, they have turned to RVs to make it happen.

MDC launches nature podcast series

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is launching a new podcast, Nature Boost, to focus on the positive impact the outdoors has on each of us.

Research has linked spending time outdoors to an increase in overall physical health by decreasing stress, anxiety and depression. Spending time in nature, conservation areas, backyards and urban parks – when they are open – is believed to ease stress levels and increase attention spans and creative problem-solving skills by up to 50 percent.

“We’re very excited to share this Nature Boost experience with both our seasoned outdoor enthusiasts and those brand new to discovering nature,” MDC Director Sara Parker Pauley said. “It’s a chance to learn about the incredible natural resources we have right here in Missouri, including how those nature experiences are changing lives every day.”

Topics include nature, health, outdoor recreation and native Missouri wildlife.

Each episode features an MDC expert or partner, and highlights ways listeners can

• Random Shots ened. Vomiting may lessen their payload so they can make a quicker getaway or it may serve the same purpose as a skunk’s fusillade. If that doesn’t work, a vulture may collapse and appear dead. No one knows if this is a purposeful escape maneuver or the result of psychological overload. If you aren’t sufficiently grossed out, here’s another factoid – one source says vultures defecate on their feet to cool them off while another says that the acidic defecation kills bacteria (although considering that they’re gulping it down at the other end, the mind boggles).

THE PLUS SIDE It’s true that a buzzard is not beautiful – but surely there

from page 10

must be a homelier bird somewhere. Consider the superbly functional design: featherless head and neck, the better to shed gore. Beak as sharp as poultry shears. Raspy tongue to extract delicate morsels with the adroitness of a seafood gourmet picking at a lobster, feathered ruff a biological bib.

I find vultures much maligned, fascinating and likable. They mind their own business, harm no one, perform a useful function without complaint and under working conditions that would have union workers on violent strike. They’re poetry in motion, and they seem to have a bit more brain than the average bird.

benefit from nature, whether seasoned outdoors people those unfamiliar with nature.

MDC staffer Jill Pritchard serves as the podcast host and brings an entertaining and engaging approach to sharing these conservation stories.

The first episode of Nature Boost is available for download on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Additional seasons are in production. Subscription is available.

For more information, go online to mdc.mo.gov/natureboost or to https://youtu.be/ w1bnKTrqzvg.

The one buzzard I was privileged to pet was a captive, fed on hamburger and, for all I know, chips and soft drinks as well as a refreshing concoction of anthrax and botulism bacteria. It was curious, clever and friendly. No buzzard ever started a war, though if there is an Ultimate War they will be in attendance after the gods “draw the veil over what follows.”

One thing is certain, if a pandemic ever wipes out the last Adam and Eve, standing over the carcasses will be a vulture and a coyote squabbling over the tidbits. Were buzzards ever to fade from the skies, our eyes would be the poorer. Were they to change their diets, our health would be the poorer.

Up the buzzard!

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Outdoor Guide

Page 22

May-June 2020

Outdoor Gallery Send in your favorite outdoor photo to news@outdoor-guide.com and you could be the winner of a $50 gift card from Kenrick’s Meats & Catering.

COLD CATCH – Dave Mangelsdorf of Barnhart, Mo. hefts a beautiful smallmouth bass from Table Rock Lake on a cold winter’s day.

– Photo from White River Outfitters Guide Service

GOBBLE, GOBBLE – Dan Clark of Collinsville, IL with his turkey taken this spring in Massac County in southern Illinois on private property, weighing 23 lbs and with a ten and a half inch beard.

MISSED THE LANDING – Mike Phelan of Fort Lauderdale reports that his friend’s 15-year-old son landed a mako shark from Mike’s boat on a spring break visit – all while Mike himself was playing golf.

FAMILY AFFAIR – Jacob Debus, above at left, caught this 40-pound-plus monster catfish in the Anderson Hollow Cove at Lake of the Ozarks with help from his brother Justin (at right) and sister Jenna.

EVENING CATCH – Darrel Binkley of Binks Guide Service reports that these two walleye were caught using a stick bait after dark on Lake Norfork in Arkansas as they moved up to spawn. Contact Binks at binks@centurytel.net.

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 23

Outdoors people know how to beat virus

By KAY HIVELY There are few reliable tools that can fight the coronavirus, but sportsmen and women have some tools that will help carry them through this scary time. Old habits and procedures, common to outdoorsmen, can and will benefit them well.

With the national guidelines that have been made public, including regular hand-washing with soap and hot water and avoiding crowds, outdoorsmen should also do some of the things they normally do, and do them more often.

Here is some good advice on staying healthy when the world is suffering.

• BE OUTDOORS AS MUCH ASYOU CAN – If you are lucky

enough to live in a rural area, go for a walk in the woods, along the creek or through the pasture. Dress properly and walk, maybe even stroll, your route. Take time to enjoy nature. Look for animals or just watch cloud formations that will make your walk more enjoyable and keep you outdoors longer. Use the time to think and plan, perhaps thinking about your next hunting or fishing trip. Maybe take a gun and do a little squirrel hunting.

In the outdoors, alone or with a companion, there is less chance of coughing or sneezing on someone and less chance of being coughed or sneezed upon.

In urban areas, find a more secluded spot such as a park, a hiking or bike trail or an urban nature preserve to get some fresh air and good exercise.

• TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH – Vitamin C and

zinc, for example, are believed to boost your immune system, which can help ward off viruses. Just be sure your

doctor approves if you are just starting to use these or other health aids. Usually a phone call to your doctor’s office will get the answer about your use of anything to avoid or what your body can take safely.

Also you should eat well and stay hydrated. Water is always good for your body. It is good for your skin, helps keep your nostrils moist (which helps avoid nose bleeds), and, of course, it helps keep your kidneys working.

Overall, staying hydrated can help strengthen your immune system. And don’t forget to get the flu shot each year. Even though there isn’t a vaccination for coronavirus yet, avoiding the regular flu will help you stay healthy.

• AVOID ALCOHOL – I know this is a big one because many outdoorsmen love a cold beer on a hot day, a glass of wine with dinner or a soft chair, fireplace and hard liquor after dinner. But alcohol suppresses the immune system and can make a virus last longer – maybe even a few days longer.

And, of course, alcohol causes dehydration, something not needed if you are battling coronavirus.

• KEEP DOWN STRESS – It can sometimes be hard, but reducing stress is important.

Most of the things we worry about aren’t worth our efforts.

As writer Richard Carlson once wrote, “Don’t worry about the small stuff – and it’s all small stuff.”

Really, the small things usually cause the most stress.

Put another way, “Just let God take care of it.”

• EAT HEALTHY – A diet of fruits and vegetables that provide vitamins and minerals is a great idea. When you eat meat, be sure it is well cooked.

Everything you eat should

be as healthy as possible … so remember that when you grocery shop.

Outdoors people are lucky, but luck doesn’t come without effort. So be careful and don’t take chances with this or any other health problem. If you suspect you may have any unusual health problem, just call your doctor and get it taken care of.

Those who care about you want to see you hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and being outdoors for years to come.

Outdoor Guide

Page 24

May-June 2020

Amazing wolves don’t need protection

By TED NUGENT

I love animals, they’re delicious!

And of course beyond that pragmatic self-preservation edict, I truly love everything about God’s miraculous nature.

I live it!

Well, I love pretty much everything about nature, but I’m not so very fond of fire ants, skunks or porcupines, and I could do without rattlesnakes, brown recluse spiders and a handful of other cantankerous and bothersome, if not downright life-threatening, nuisance critters.

Being that as it may, I would like to pledge my undying love for my fellow predators of the wild, like the mighty cougar, bear, coyote, fox, wolverine and many others. But mostly, how I admire and revere the incredible wolf!

All God’s creatures have their place, and in the real world, co-existing with mankind, a healthy, survival-based balance must be struck to maintain viable populations of all predators and prey alike.

The jury is not still out on what that balance should and must look like, which is why we don’t, or at least, shouldn’t, allow populations of dangerous predators to live in our neighborhoods.

FAMILY FIRST We love the wild creatures, but we love our children and families even more.

I find it simply amazing that anybody could possibly be so disconnected and outright stupid as to not understand why there are no cougars, bears and wolves in their hometown neighborhoods. For those denial cultists so embarrassingly removed from reality, allow me to explain.

Wolves and neighborhoods cannot co-exist. Wolves and schoolyards and children’s playgrounds cannot co-exist.

Wolves and cityscapes cannot co-exist, and wolves and healthy big game populations cannot co-exist, all of which is why the pioneers of this country wiped out the wolves and bears and cougars wherever we cleared our expanding civilization – to make sure dangerous animals would not kill us or our children and kill our livestock and our big game animals.

Yet more fascinating than this example of self-imposed ignorance is the insanity of people, living in regions where wolves have already been wiped out, trying to force other people to live with dangerous animals.

Do as I say not as I do has always been the hallmark of soulless, pompous, arrogant, uncaring hypocrites who must

Wolves kill healthy prey, not just the weak and sick.

think their lives are more important and more worth saving than those of others.

Which brings us to the wolf dilemma and threat in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Utah.

There are reasons why there is a regulated wolf hunting season all across Canada and Alaska, and those reasons include safety, wildlife value management and proven scientific sustain-yield harvest responsibilities, to keep wolf numbers in check in order to maintain a balanced wildlife bio-diversity.

LONG-HELD NONSENSE Wolves don’t buy hunting licenses or have game killing

– Wyoming Tribune Eagle photo

seasons or bag limits on the amount of big game they kill.

And the long-held nonsense that wolves only kill the weak and sick is borne from clueless Bambi-brainwashed city kids who have never set foot in wolf country.

Wolves are hard-core opportunity killers, and they kill mostly healthy deer, elk, moose, bison and other critters, based solely on random, rightplace, right-time convenience.

American hunters have proudly brought back thriving herds of deer, elk, moose, pronghorn, turkey, bison, wild sheep, mountain goats, bear and cougar by demanding an end to indiscriminate marketing slaughter and investing gazillions of dollars to pay for

scientific research and sound science-based regulatory game law enforcement.

Without these thriving populations of big-game animals and the American hunting families’ dollars, there would be no money to pay for such management and critical enforcement.

Remember, wolves will not pay for game wardens and scientific research to keep game populations in good shape. Left to their own devices, wolves kill indiscriminately, and the results have always been devastating, not just to wildlife populations but overall wild ground conditions.

Run a Google search of Isle Royale in northern Michigan if you want to see the politically correct, self-inflicted abject waste that such a hands-off policy guarantees.

WIN-WIN, LOSE-LOSE Hunting and managing wolves, just like all big-game animals, is a win-win-win all around with wildlife in the asset column.

Hands-off protection of wolves and other predator species is a guaranteed lose-loselose horror story, putting the animals squarely in the liability column every time.

Don’t ask the residents of Minneapolis or Detroit what we should do with wolves. Ask the families who actually live in

wolf country what really goes on with wolves in their lives.

Right now, wolves are in the liability column wherever they are unnecessarily protected and unmanaged.

Conversely, wherever a sound, regulated hunting season exists for wolves, they are in the asset column and doing just fine, thank you.

WOLF MANAGEMENT Entire regional economies go boom or bust based on predator management. Predators don’t buy groceries, food, lodging, gas, supplies, ice, land, buildings, dogs, bait, sporting goods, guides, outfitters, permits, fees, licenses or hire butchers or taxidermists.

True conservationists must unite to demand wolf management to put this magnificent big-game animal in the asset column where it deserves to be.

Please visit HunterNation. org to see the sound science that we are pushing into policy.

If you cherish and demand healthy, thriving wildlife in the asset column, please get involved and let us demand that wolves be managed responsibly.

Wolves are not threatened or endangered, and we must demand that they be delisted immediately and that regulated hunting seasons begin in all regions where the wolf population needs managing.

5935 S. LINDBERGH BLVD., ST. LOUIS, MO 63123 MUNGENASTMOTORSPORTS.COM | (855) 584-0166

We sell and service all Honda power equipment!

For optimum performance and safety we recommend you read the owner’s manual before operating your Honda Power Equipment. Specifications subject to change without notice. All images contained herein are either owned by American Honda Lawn Mower Co., Inc., or used under a valid license. It is a violation of federal law to reproduce these imags without express written permission from American Honda Motor Co., Inc., or the individual copyright owner of such images. All rights reserved. Honda, Honda Lawn Mower model names and their trade dress are trademarks of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. used under license from American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Many Honda engine, trimmer, lawn mower, power equipment and veicle model names, and associated trade dress may be seen at ww.honda.com © 2108 American Honda Motor Co., Inc. C0579 Please read the owner’s manual before operating your Honda Power Equipment and never use in an enclosed or partially enclosed area where you could be exposed to odorless, poisonous carbon monoxide. Connection of a generator to house power requires a transfer device to avoid possible injury to power company personnel. Consult a qualified electrician. Specifications subject to change without notice.

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

30 years with Bob

By ED FINKELSTEIN Co-Publisher It’s with m i x e d emotions that I write this “farewell” column to my dear friend and fellow journalist Finkelstein Bob Whitehead.

I’m happy for Bob because he has more than earned his retirement. We’ve been together for more than three decades. When Bob started with me as an advertising salesman for the Labor Tribune, he quickly showed his ability to harmonize with people, and his ad sales soared. It wasn’t long before he became, and continued to be, the Labor Tribune’s top salesmen.

His pride of accomplishments never got the best of him as he always strived to be better. Along the way, he nurtured others, and they too prospered.

Much to my surprise was Bob taking a liking to the outdoors. The Labor Tribune had an outdoor sports section created by another great writer, Kevin Howard.

I guess it was Bob’s reading it and becoming good friends with Kevin that helped him decide to dip his toe into that world.

Before we realized it, he was immersed, body and soul. It wasn’t long until Bob urged the creation of a separate publication, and the publication’s first iteration, The Outdoor Guide Quarterly, was born. It then morphed into today’s Outdoor Guide Magazine.

The rest is history.

WHAT WE’LL MISS Bob has served so many outdoor organizations in leadership positions that they too will miss his guidance, experience and wisdom.

I’m sad too, because most of all, I will miss Bob’s cheering, booming voice in the office.

I will miss his enthusiasm for both the Labor Tribune and the Outdoor Guide and his camaraderie. I will miss, speaking from a practical business sense, his strong relationships with the outdoors community that has resulted in the ad revenue that kept Outdoor Guide the proud publication it is. We anticipate that will continue under the steady watch of Dan Braun and Lauren Marshall,

two of Bob’s longtime friends and advertising cohorts.

The continuation of Outdoor Guide Magazine by Carl Green will be Bob’s legacy.

KRUGER’S TRIBUTE The great outdoor writer Ron Kruger said it all in a memo to us after reading one of the issues, and this is indeed a fitting tribute: “I just finished looking though and reading some of the articles in the latest Guide. I’m not blowing any smoke your way when I say it is by far the best outdoor tabloid in the nation.

It contains a great mix of articles and subjects about the outdoors, written with a professional quality that rivals any outdoor publication on the market.

“In fact, I’d rather read the Guide these days than Field & Stream and Outdoor Life and their New York idea of the outdoors. The Guide is written by real outdoorsmen, for real outdoorsmen, and it is written about as well as any outdoor publication put into magazine (and especially tabloid) form.”

Nothing more needs to be said. Retire in peace and good health, Bob. We’ll miss you!

Page 25

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Outdoor Guide

Page 26

May-June 2020

Rural Ramblings

May and June weld spring to summer

By RUSSELL HIVELY

May and June mark the beginning of summer. These months are when young wild turkeys have become poults, baby deer still have their spots, buck deer are beginning the velvet antler stage, and birds are ready for their fledglings to leave the nest. *** Last year, 2019, seemed to be the year of record brown

trout caught in Missouri. Paul Crews, of Neosho, set a new record (34 pounds, 10 ounces) in February, only to have it broken by Bill Babler, of Blue Eye, in September. Babler’s record brown trout tipped the scales at 40 pounds, six ounces. *** Late June marks the time when catalpa worms can be found – good fish bait. ***

Grasshoppers also make a good fish bait. A person cannot imagine that during the Dust Bowl, grasshoppers were so abundant that farmers put tubs of oil on their front-end loaders and drove up and down the fields to collect grasshoppers that had descended there. *** Sometimes simple things are best. For example, if a person simply runs a new fishing line under warm tap water, it will

Woodchucks used to be called ‘whistle pigs’ because they would whistle when surprised.

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be more flexible and spool onto your reel easier. *** A different way of taking part in wildlife preservation is to volunteer for the annual Missouri Department of Conservation turkey count. The count takes place in June, July and August. All a person must do is record the turkeys seen during these months. *** Did you know some people mark the beginning of summer by when they swat the first mosquito or spot the first lightning bug? *** Mulberries usually ripen in June. Little is done with ripe mulberries today, but in the past, the purple berries were used to make wine or canned as a fruit. Most people know when mulberry season begins by the purple droppings of birds. *** Did you realize that an estimated 4 billion pounds of feathers are generated each year from poultry production? *** People are using less and less cow’s milk today. Do you realize that the milk from one cow could help make over 117 gallons of ice cream, 66 pounds of butter or 150 pounds of cheese? *** Is it true that early May is the asparagus and rhubarb time of

the year?

*** Memorial Day is special to many folks. It is a time when most cemeteries are spruced up and decorated. For some reason, the most popular flower growing in many cemeteries is the peony. *** Public school terms usually end in late May. At one time, perfect attendance was one of highest achievements a student could obtain. *** In rural schools it was not uncommon to have “strawberry days.” Strawberries usually reach their peak in mid-May. Kids were released from school to help pick strawberries. However for years, Cassville schools took March 1 off because that is the opening day of trout fishing at nearby Roaring River State Park. *** Woodchucks are also known as groundhogs. At one time they were called “whistle pigs,” because they produce a shrill whistle when scared or surprised. *** Many people claim summer begins on Memorial Day. May and June seem to weld spring onto summer. These are times when nature reaches its peak.

Anyway, that’s what the Rural Rambler thinks.

Warsaw Mo. noted for trails, river access Warsaw, Mo., population 2,177, has been named one of the Great Places in Missouri for its downtown Drake Harbor and nine-mile trail system, a recreation favorite for both residents and visitors.

Development began in 1997 when boat courtesy slips were installed in the harbor along with the first section of river trails. Warsaw is in Benton County along the Osage Arm of Lake of the Ozarks and just east of Truman Lake.

More businesses have come because of the improvements, plus events such as Jubilee Days, the Ozark Cigar Box

Guitar Music Festival, and Heritage Days, which draws crowds of over 10,000.

Main Street was renovated in 2001, the Truman Lake Mountain Bike Park followed in 2008, Phase II of Warsaw Riverfront Trails came in 2009, and Steamboat Landing in Drake Harbor was added in 2009.

Out of numerous nominations from Missouri, theAmerican PlanningAssociation chose Warsaw and Kansas City’s River Market Neighborhood for the award.

For more information, go online to welcometowarsaw. com or call (660) 438-5522.

Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 27

The old-timer’s walleye story

Photo and Text

By LARRY DABLEMONT

Back in the ‘70s, when I was working as an outdoor columnist for the Arkansas Democrat, I became involved in the Greer’s Ferry Walleye Tournament, which took place in late February and March. They offered a million-dollar prize to anyone who could catch a world record walleye.

I got to know some great people up there, good fishermen and honest enough to do it right.

Of course, when they found out that the world-record walleye reported years earlier was a complete hoax, they found out that the world record actually HAD been caught from Greer’s Ferry during one of those spring events by a man named Nelson. He never did get his million dollars!

But one of those years I was up at Clinton, Ark., in late February having coffee in one of those little restaurants where old men gather, and they were talking about Big Ed Claiborne’s 19-pound walleye, caught the week before.

I was only 24 years old.

That brought a few smiles from those old-timers who read my outdoor columns

and knew that, as of yet, this kid from the Big Piney up in Missouri had yet to catch even one walleye. Most of them had caught hundreds of those glassy-eyed “jack salmon.”

THE OLD-TIMER After most of them had gone that morning, one oldtimer said he would tell me a story if I would promise not to write about it. I promised, and listened, and now almost 50 years later, I am going to break that promise.

He said that the big walleye out of Greer’s Ferry go up the Little Red River in February, preparing to spawn. He said there are two baits they love more than anything – big nightcrawlers and small bluegills.

“If’n you go up that river and set yourself a half-dozen trotlines for catfish, well that’s all legal,” he said. “You just bait up one that has five or six hooks in a little hole across the deep water below a shoal.

Then you do the same thing up in the next hole below the creek riffles and the same thing up in the next ones ‘til you’ve set all the trotline hooks what’s legal an’ tagged ‘em like the game wardens want it done.”

He slurped a big cup of coffee and hunched over closer to me and said, as if he were afraid someone else

The fisherman never got his million dollars.

might hear, “You know when them fisheries biologists was up there shockin’ walleye in the Li’l Red at night last year an’ they caught that big hen walleye that you run a pitcher of in yore newspaper?”

I nodded … they said they figured the walleye they had shocked, photographed and released might have weighed 24 pounds.

“Well sir, that there walleye was caught on one of my trotlines,” he said. “And they

found ‘er.”

A LOT OF WALLEYE As to whether he was telling the truth, I don’t know, but that old guy ate a lot of walleye. On many of the reservoirs in Missouri and Kansas, the same thing could be done, and a fisherman who started catching the smaller male walleye could surely figure out what pool the females were coming from soon afterward.

You cannot legally fish for

walleye at night in the spawning period, but you can set your lines in the afternoon, run them in the morning and keep the catfish, or the walleye, that you catch. Not very sporting, but some fishermen like to eat walleye, not caring how they are caught.

Up one river I know of, fish traps are already being used. Conservation agents waiting downriver in their pickups, looking for some kind of technical violations, will never find them.

CATCHING WALLEYE Walleye spawning runs are beginning, and I intend to go to my favorite places in various tributaries to catch a few very soon. My best days are the days with no sunlight, overcast and dreary, because a walleye’s eyes are sensitive to sunlight.

I’ll fish vertically in deep pools below shoals, with light-blue or blue-green halfounce jigs, having big hooks tipped with night crawlers or chubs. But the old fellow back then was right. You wouldn’t need the jigs if you found a few small bluegill that you could set out on the bottom with half an ounce of weight about two feet up the line.

And while it is indeed against the law to fish for walleye at night, you can motor up the river, or paddle

down it, and shine a light into the deep waters looking for a rod and reel you have recently lost, and you’ll see the congregating walleye by shining their eyes.

Then you might know where some are the next day.

Be darn sure, if you do that, you have no fishing gear in your boat, because that is a technicality that a pair of wardens, waiting somewhere in their pickup, can use.

It isn’t that you cannot fish at night for catfish or crappie, but if you catch a walleye in darkness, you darn sure better release it. And in an Ozark river, you cannot keep a bass in March, April, or May, no matter what time of day you hook it.

LARRY’S NEW BOOK Larry Dablemont has a new book out, “Recollections of an Old-Fashioned Angler,” published by Lightnin’ Ridge Books, Box 22, Bolivar MO 65613. It has 40 chapters that collect some of the best stories Larry has told in his columns over the years. He says on the back cover: “These memories I have are worth more than anything I own. I would like to share some with you.” It is his 11th book and comes post-paid for just $15.95, or call (417) 777-5227 to charge it, or go to the website larrydablemont.com.

PULA’ FAST ONE. No filters needed. Just pure, untouched beauty where our gentle rivers leave you longing for more. Take some mental health days and find out if time away in the heart of the Ozarks (and a big plate of our famous barbecue) really is better than a bowl of mom’s chicken soup. Plan your trip at PulaskiCountyUSA.com.

Outdoor Guide

Page 28

May-June 2020

Your Guide to

GREAT GEAR

Underwater camera system gives anglers a look below

Aqua-Vu’s new HD10i system is one of the most advanced underwater cameras available, with a bright 10” screen that you can see in bright sunlight.

Resolution is 1080 pixels in color, the highest available.

The touch screen lets anglers zero in on fish in any water conditions. Its new power saving mode allows up to 6 hours of time running.

It also comes with HDMI video output and 125 feet of cable. Depth, water temperature and camera direction all are displayed on screen. Filtering software clarifies the underground image in all conditions.

A pole attachment for viewing under docks is available.

Invisible infrared lighting is also available for low-light conditions.

The top-of-the-line HD10i Pro Gen2 system is available for $1,099.99 from www.aquavu.com.

All-synthetic hunting boot adds stability, traction

Lowa’s new Innox Pro GTX TF is a lightweight, allsynthetic boot made for hunting, where fast and light is the name of the game.

The boot features a bi-injected DynaPU midsole for superb rebound, durability and cushioning and a PUMonowrap frame for lateral stability.

It is designed to provide reliable traction and support for hunting and features closed lace hooks for security plus toe and heel caps for added protection. It is also durable, waterproof and breathable.

The Innox Pro GTX YF lists for $235 and is available online from numerous suppliers.

Kayak has everything a paddling angler needs

Costa makes sunglasses from discarded fishing nets

Costa Del Mar has come up with something new and useful – making new sunglasses out of the discarded plastic fishing nets and gear polluting the oceans. It’s an estimated 640,000 tons a year.

The nets are collected at fishing ports in Chile and the group Bureo recycles them into pellets. Costa molds the pellets into the sunglass frames in its Untangled Collection, which uses Costa’s 580 series polarized glass lenses.

The four models are called Victoria (shown), Caldera, Pescador and Baffin, named for the cold water current that carries discarded nets across marine ecosystems.

The Untangled collection lists from $199 to $219 at costadelmar.com. The Pescador can come with an optional side panel.

Passion 5X scopes by GPO are precise, reliable

German Precision Optics (GPO) offers two new Passion 5X rifle scopes that offer precise, reliable and high-quality performance, in 1-5x24i and 3.5-18x56i versions that provide enhanced clarity, exceptional brightness and true color from dawn to dusk.

The second focal-plane scopes have one-piece, dust-proof, waterproof and nitrogen-filled bodies that offer constant pointof-impact plus strength and durability.

The “iCONTROL” illumination system ranges from “barely visible” for low-light conditions to “extremely bright” for daylight and features a microfiber optic dot for precise close and long-range shooting.

Other features are high-transmission lens coating, hydrophobic exterior lens coating, easy-to-read adjustable turret with rotation markings, fast-focus rubberized ocular and an extra-wide magnification adjustment ring reticle. Both scopes have lifetime warranties.

The Passion 5X scopes are available at retailers and at www.gpo-usa.com. List prices are $879.99 for the1-5x24i and $1,179.99 for the larger 3.5-18x56i.

Brooklyn Kayak Co. puts the angler in charge with its BKC RA220 Angler Sit on Top Fishing Kayak, which comes with paddles, an upright chair and a rudder system.

The rudder is foot pedal-controlled for all water conditions and without paddle steering required. Two flush-mount rod holders keep fishing poles out of the way during paddling or keep lines in the water for trolling or still fishing. The hull has a cutout for a fish finder.

It is such a stable platform that you can stand up in the kayak for long casts without falling overboard. Paddle rests keep you from losing them while you’re busy fishing, and drain ports clear water that splashes into the kayak.

The kayak has watertight storage spaces and a large cargo area for multi-day adventures. Hull weight is 68 lbs., maximum load is 450 lbs., and the length is 138 inches. It is a one-seater.

The Angler Sit on Top Fishing Kayak lists for $1,497 but was being offered for $897 at Amazon.com.

Mojo caller has remote control, tripod, decoy

Mojo’s new Triple Threat is a three-part system including a user-friendly, remote-controlled predator caller and a built-in tripod to get the sound waves above blockages that could distort it.

It was designed by Terry Denmon, who has called predators, large and small, on four continents. He insisted on high-quality sound.

Features include an accurate cone speaker, the award-winning Mojo Critter Decoy and tripod, easy storage in the handle and remote control up to 300 yards. It can play any sounds that can be loaded on a standard SD card up to 32 GB and has 50 of its own on-board sounds.

It operates on eight AA batteries and has a charging port for rechargeable batteries. Four hot buttons store favorite sounds at pre-determined volumes.

Mojo’s Triple Threat lists for $239.99 at mojooutdoors. com and is also available online from several outdoor supplies retailers.

Plug N’ Pure cleans the air wherever you plug it in

There’s no doubt that the outdoor life can get your house a little stinky sometimes, so Breathe Green offers an easy solution, the Plug N’ Pure odor eliminator.

Just plug it into an outlet where you need it and it will begin removing bacteria, viruses, pet odors, cigarette smoke, mold and mildew, using a combination of activated oxygen and ionization.

Plug N’ Pure is small and compact, good for bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, closet and basements. It traps airborne particles and freshens carpets, draperies and dust-collectors with its low-noise, low-energy operation.

Prices run as low as $42 at plugnpure.com, and it is available at retailers including amazon.com and Walmart for $50 to $60.

Deception blind keeps low profile of just 46 inches

Alps Outdoorz’ unique NWTF (National Wild Turkey Federation) Deception Blind maintains an unusual low profile of only 46 inches.

It is lightweight and perfectly suited for low-slung chairs, such Alps’ Vanish and also for the NWTF Grand Slam Turkey Vest.

The blind provides an exceptional vantage while keeping hunters concealed. The smaller footprint and unique four-hub design make for easy and quiet setup. The aluminum hubs are constructed with engineered tips and pins, and the frame uses strong, flexible fiberglass poles.

Durable polyester fabric with blacked-out backing helps keep you concealed. The 270-degree Silent-Trac window system provides limitless window positions. The door is extra large and has a big zipper. It comes with a carry bag with a shoulder strap.

Deception Blind was on sale for $149.99 at mossyoak.com. The Vanish chair is $54.99 at alpsbrands.com.

May-June 2020

Outdoor Guide

May – spring’s beautiful time

Photos and Text

By JEANNIE FARMER

“April showers bring May flowers.”

This lovely month brings merriment to the heart of all nature lovers and those who pursue the wonderful outdoor sports that spring weather offers. It’s a time filled with the warm colors of love and gorgeous flowers blooming in sparking sunlight.

Included are the pure white blossoms of dogwood trees, an array of lilacs adorned with clusters of tiny, beautiful petals and brilliant yellow daffodils swaying in a gentle breeze.

It also welcomes us with delightful celebrations and traditions from the past, embracing Mother’s Day, May Day, the May Day basket and the Maypole.

For many, Mother’s Day is the most joyous occasion we celebrate this month. It’s being observed this year on

Sunday, May 10. Many interesting facts mark its history and origin.

History records that Miss Anna Jarvis, who never married, is known as the founder of Mother’s Day. As a child with great admiration for her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis was inspired to establish the first Mother’s Day in the United States. Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis, living in West Virginia, was the mother of 11 children. As an activist and social worker, she was involved in her community, church and civic affairs.

MOTHER ON THE JOB Becoming aware and concerned about the unhealthy conditions surrounding her community and leading to childhood death, Mrs. Jarvis formed Mother’s Day Work Groups in local churches.

This allowed women the opportunity to attend to poor families in need of medications, monitoring the health

Redbud is one of May’s beautiful wildflowers.

FISHING

of both mothers and children.

Because of her devotion to mothers, she stated: “Someday, someone must honor all mothers, living and dead, and pay tribute to the contributions made by them.” When Mrs. Jarvis died in 1905, Anna reflected on her mother’s words and was determined to pursue the establishment of a day for mothers. Carnations were her mother’s favorite flowers. Considering them to represent her mother’s pure love, the daughter sent them to church services in Grafton, W.V. This act generated great interest in the initiation of a Mother’s Day celebration.

On May 10, 1908, she arranged events and meetings in her mother’s church. With unwavering support, similar gatherings spread rapidly to towns, cities and states. The efforts led to a national campaign for the formal dedication of Mother’s Day. Anna’s dream came true on May 8, 1914, with the signing of a Joint Resolution by President Woodrow Wilson designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. WHAT IS MAY DAY? May 1 is a special day which is also known as May Day. It celebrates the oncoming of warmer weather, longer days and the miracle of new life. It’s honored by many with

HUNTING

the making of May baskets.

This tradition was handed down from the early American settlers who came to the U.S. from Europe.

I recall my mother telling the story that when she was a young child, it was time to make a May basket filled with flowers to be placed on a neighbor’s doorknob. She explained it was a traditional way of celebrating May Day. It also presents an opportunity to teach youngsters why it was established and the reason for its name, and the importance of making a May Day basket.

The tradition also encourages children to make May baskets for special acquaintances. Decorate the basket and fill it with an arrangement of colorful flowers, little gifts or sweet treats. Surprise a neighbor by leaving it on their doorstep. Before departing, knock on the door or ring the doorbell. This friendly act of kindness will bring happiness to that special person in your life.

MAKING A MAYPOLE Another tradition highlighted on May Day is the making of a Maypole. In the early days, history notes, it was actually a living tree.

With the passage of time, it has become associated with almost any species of tree trunk. Flowers and ribbons

Page 29

Dogwood blooms mean it’s probably May.

are used to garnish the tree, in order portraying masculine and feminine energy.

So adorned, the Maypole now symbolizes a spring folk dance to be performed around its base. Music and singing accompany the dancers, waving colorful ribbons, as they sing, weave and dance around the pole.

For many generations, this

custom has been practiced in England, Germany and Ireland. The Maypole holds special significance to nature’s creation, representing the celebration of new life in song and dance. It inspires binding, loving relationships between the spirit and soul of all humanity, to be preserved and cherished in the delightful month of May.

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Outdoor Guide

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Outdoor Guide

May-June 2020

Page 31

One-poling for spring crappie

Photos and Text

By TIM HUFFMAN

One-poling for crappie might be called jigging, vertical jigging, dabbling, doodle socking or dipping. No matter what it’s called, using a long pole to jig for crappie is a one-on-one challenge that works great in our Outdoor Guide region.

THE GRIZZLY ATTACK Louie Mansfield owns the most famous crappie store in the country, the Grizzly Jig Company, in Caruthersville, MO. He doesn’t get away from the store as much as he would like, but when he does, he prefers to be fishing with one pole in his hand.

“There are many good lakes for jigging,” Mansfield said.

“Reelfoot and Truman are my favorite lakes for one-pole fishing. There’s nothing like putting a jig beside a piece of wood cover and getting a bite.”

Mansfield uses a new pole called the 10-foot Grizzly Pro Balance. He says pole balance is everything when it comes to better sensitivity to feel more bites. Also, the right balance means less fatigue during a day of fishing because the wrist and forearm have to do less work.

He rigs it with 6-pound test high-vis Sufix and a Dead Ringer 1/16- or 1/8-ounce

jig. When Grizzly fishing for both bluegills and crappie, he switches to a 1/32-ounce Grizzly Jig with a wax worm.

“People have fancy, expensive glass boats that are very nice, but a simple aluminum boat still works great for onepole fishing,” Mansfield said.

“It’s easy to maneuver in and around thick stumps and trees where I like to fish. No matter what a fisherman uses, it’s important to keep the boat as far away from the trees as possible to avoid spooking fish.

“My presentation is very simple. I usually pitch against or past the tree and let the jig fall. After it stops, I’ll bounce it a time or two. If fish are finicky, I’ll leave the bait still for a long time. However, when fish are aggressive, I’ll get aggressive, too, and keep moving.”

TRUMAN RUN & GUN Kevin Rogers is a Truman Lake expert who has many tournament wins. He loves his home lake but says another great jigging lake is Lake Fork, Texas, where fish of 2 1/2 and 3 pounds are not uncommon.

“I was born with a jigging pole in my hand,” he said. “I fish other ways, but there’s nothing that compares to holding a jigging pole and feeling the bite. I single-pole fish year-round.”

Kevin Rogers is an aggressive run-and-gun fisherman. He believes the more stumps and trees he fishes in a day, the more crappie he will catch.

FISHING FAST His equipment includes 10and 11-foot Jenko Kevin Rogers series rod and 15-pound-test Spiderwire braid. The pole is rugged and stiff to swing fish into the boat but is also sensitive. Spiderwire is white, easy to see, sensitive and strong enough to swing crappie into the boat. Baits for active fish are three-inch plastics with a 1/4-ounce jig head.

“I fish fast,” Rogers said.

“The key to a run-and-gun method is only to fish good spots and fish them over and over. There will be fish there that may not bite until a certain

time of day. So we hit spots several times, maybe five times before we get the crappie to bite.

“It’s important for me to drop my jig into the water as many times as possible during a day.

I’m looking for aggressive fish and catch a lot of fish with this strategy. However, it doesn’t work when fish are lethargic and want a slow presentation.”

DUNKING A MINNOW The one-pole fishing of 50 years ago still works today. Better equipment and line makes it more enjoyable and efficient, but it’s still dunking a minnow.

Louie Mansfield prefers to single-pole fish in thick, wood cover. He uses 1/16- and 1/8-ounce jigs but will switch to a 1/32 to target both bluegill and crappie.

Mother Nature’s live minnow will catch crappie. It has the advantage of being the best bait when crappie fishing is tough. A minnow placed in front of a crappie can draw a bite even when the fish doesn’t want to eat. It’s like placing a piece of cherry pie in front of us … we’ll usually eat it even when we are not hungry.

A good rig is a 12-foot pole, 6- to 10-pound-test line, a slip-cork, sinker and #1 or 1/0 crappie hook.Agraphite pole is best for good sensitivity when fishing without a float, but even with a float, the graphite

is lighter weight and easier to use. Set the float depth and drop beside a likely tree, stump or other cover. It’s simple.

One-pole crappie fishing is fun. Drop a jig or minnow beside a shallow-water log and expect a fight. Crappie provide action fishing and good food for the table. Now is a great time, so get out and have some fun.

Tim Huffman’s books, “Limiting Out for Crappie” and “300+ Crappie Fishing Tips” can be purchased from Amazon in paperback or kindle, and in paperbacks at Grizzly Jig Company.

Outdoor Guide

Page 32

May-June 2020

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