Category Archives: Fishing Ramblings – My Fishing Blog

Random thoughts and musings about fishing

Remembering Christmas Gifts

We all have memories of some Christmas gifts that were very special to us. Most of mine were something for the outdoors, like the Mitchell 300 spinning outfit I got when I was about 15, the .22 Remington semiautomatic rifle I was given when I was 12 and still use to plink and shoot squirrels, and the camping mess kit and canteen I used for years in the wilds of my backyard.

When I was ten or so I wanted a new bicycle. That is how kids got around back then. We rode everywhere, from school to local ponds to go fishing. We even went hunting on our bicycles. My desire was a shiny new red bicycle as shown in the Sears catalog. I just knew I would be proud and happy with it.

About two weeks before Christmas holidays started at my elementary school I was out in the shop. My dad was principal and shop teacher. He worked hard at school but also ran a farm where we had 11,000 laying hens and sold eggs to local grocery stores. We also raised hogs and cows and most of our food came from those animals and the huge garden we had each year. We did not have a lot of money but lived well.

That day in the shop I saw two old rusty bicycles sitting by a work table. I didn’t think much of them, they looked terrible. Then, on Christmas morning, my brother and I found those bicycles, now shiny with new paint and repaired to new condition, by the Christmas tree.

My young heart sank. I really wanted a new bicycle. I never gave a thought to the hours may dad sanded and painted those bicycles, or the time it took to repair any small defect. I rode that bicycle for years.

Now I appreciate the work he put into it and the fact we just could not afford new bicycles for my brother and me. I still regret not telling dad what that gift meant to me when I was old enough to think about it.
When I was 11 or 12 I had learned my parents were Santa Claus by my younger brother, three years junior to me, still believed. But he was beginning to question the idea of Santa Claus.

We lived in a big old frame farm house and it had an apartment attached to the back. For years we rented the two rooms to military families stationed at Ft. Gordon, then my grandmother lived there for several years. It had a bedroom, kitchen with room for a small dining table, and a bathroom.

A few days before Christmas that year I went to that bathroom since the other one in the house was busy. I heard chirping and opened the shower curtain, and saw a cage with two parakeets in it. I immediately knew they were Christmas presents for me and my brother but did not want to spoil the secret. We had not asked for parakeets but always loved pets of all kinds.

Christmas Eve my brother and I were in bed, trying to stay awake. He started asking me about Santa Claus and I had an inspiration. I told him we should ask for something from Santa that nobody else knew about. Since it was just a few hours before we could get up and find our presents there would be no way we could get that present unless Santa heard us.

I suggested we ask for parakeets! And guess what. The next morning, there they were. My parents almost ruined it by saying they were a gift from them. I saw my brother’s face drop.

I quickly covered, getting my brother alone and explaining that since Santa knew our secret wish was being fulfilled by my parents he did not have to bring us the birds. His face lit up and he believed for a couple more years.

Our gifts back in the 1950s and early 60s were very simple. There was always something special, like the revolving ducks you shot at with a rubber tipped dart. Or the bicycles, .22 rifle or camping gear. The rest of our presents were clothes and other needed stuff.

Stockings were hung by the fireplace and they were always stuffed with fruit like apples and oranges, pecans and small items like a box of sparklers. Strangely enough, the oranges looked just like the ones in the sack we had brought back from a visit to my grandmother just before Christmas in Florida and the pecans where the same kinds we had gathered from our yard. But finding them in our stockings made the oranges sweeter and the pecans taste even better.

Christmas does not have to be so commercial. Small things may not mean a lot right now to kids, but what you do for them now will bring great memories for them later in life. Parents’ time is more valuable than any gift could ever be. Spend time with your kids this Christmas and make memories that will last long after the toys are broken and forgotten.

Why Do People Fish and Hunt?

Factors Related to the Recent Increases in Hunting and Fishing Participation

This study was administered by the American Sportfishing Association under Multi-State Conservation Grant F12AP00142 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
from The Fishing Wire

After two decades of decline, hunting and fishing participation among Americans increased between 2006 and 2011, and a recent major research study pinpoints 10 major reasons for the increases. Hunting and fishing participation rates are up due to: 1) the economic recession, 2) higher incomes among some segments of the population, 3) hunting for meat and the locavore movement, 4) agency recruitment and retention programs, 5) agency access programs, 6) agency marketing and changes in licenses, 7) current hunters and anglers participating more often, 8) returning military personnel, 9) re-engagement of lapsed hunters and anglers, and 10) new hunters and anglers, including female, suburban, and young participants.

The Background

Throughout the latter half of the 2000s, numerous state-level trend surveys conducted by Responsive Management consistently showed increases in hunting and fishing participation. Given this clear pattern emerging across multiple states and regions, in 2011 Responsive Management initiated a project with the American Sportfishing Association, Southwick Associates, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife under a Multi-State Conservation Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to identify and better understand factors related to increases in hunting and fishing participation throughout the United States.

“The fact that a variety of factors was responsible for the increases should not take away from the importance of each individual factor. The research isolated each of these factors as having a notable impact on the increase in hunting and fishing participation between 2006 and 2011.”

–Mark Damian Duda, Executive Director of Responsive Management

The Indicators

Two major data sources are available for measuring hunting and fishing participation trends on a national level: license sales data collected by the individual states and compiled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which are known as “Federal Aid” data, and the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, conducted every 5 years since 1955 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

At the time the grant proposal was submitted in 2011, the only available measurement supporting the research team’s hypothesis of a nationwide increase in hunting and fishing were Federal Aid data measuring license sales for the two activities from recent years; the other critical indicator, the 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, had not yet been released. However, shortly after the grant was secured, results from the 2011 National Survey determined that, between 2006 and 2011, hunting participation among Americans increased 9% and fishing participation increased 11% nationwide.

The Research Methodology

With the evidence in hand, Responsive Management and its partners began implementing the study, which entailed a combination of quantitative and qualitative research components. To examine factors responsible for the upswing in hunting and fishing participation, the researchers collected data from multiple stakeholder sources, accounting for perspectives ranging from agency professionals to hunters and anglers themselves. Overall, the study methodology included a comprehensive review of past research examining hunting and fishing participation; personal interviews with and a survey of fish and wildlife agency personnel representing hunting, freshwater fishing, and saltwater fishing divisions; a multivariate analysis of national hunting and fishing license sales data; and a scientific telephone survey of hunters and anglers in the states with the most notable increases in participation between 2006 and 2011.1 For the telephone survey component, a total of 1,400 interviews were completed with hunters in seven states that saw some of the most growth in hunting during the period of interest (Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, and South Dakota) and anglers in seven states that experienced some of the largest increases in fishing participation over the same period (Alaska, Idaho, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington). The survey of hunters and anglers explored various demographic and behavioral characteristics of new and returning participants in the two activities and also measured the relative importance of various factors that influenced participants to either take breaks from or return to the activities.

The data were collected and analyzed over an 18-month period, with the results from each study component examined independently and as a whole. The overall data eventually revealed that hunting and fishing participation increased between 2006 and 2011 not because of a single major reason, but because of a combination of factors, a perfect positive storm of reasons ranging from nationwide economic conditions to efforts on the part of individual state agencies to the confluence of key participant groups entering or re-entering the sports. Mark Damian Duda, executive director of Responsive Management, notes, “The fact that a variety of factors was responsible for the increases should not take away from the importance of each individual factor. The research isolated each of these factors as having a substantial impact on the increase in hunting and fishing participation between 2006 and 2011.”

Reason 1: The Economic Recession

The study found a negative statistical correlation between hunting license sales and increases in housing starts–as housing starts decline, hunting participation increases.2 The mortgage crisis and economic recession that took hold of the country at the end of 2008 resulted in fewer housing starts as fewer building permits were issued. Because some of the top occupations of hunters include building-related fields (e.g., construction, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and craftsman), a disproportionate percentage of hunters were under- or unemployed during the period between 2006 and 2011, leaving them with more free time in which to hunt. This is in contrast to Responsive Management research conducted during the height of the housing boom, when many hunters were not hunting due to a lack of time because of work obligations.

Reason 2: Higher Incomes Among Some Segments of the Population

Interestingly, the research indicates that hunting and fishing increased because of both the lower end of the economic spectrum as well as the upper end: the multivariate analysis also identified a positive association between increasing per capita income and participation in one or both outdoor activities, suggesting a scenario where some hunters and anglers have more to spend and can thus afford to take more hunting and fishing trips.

Reason 3: Hunting for Meat and the Locavore Movement

Somewhat related to the country’s economic downturn was growth in the segment of sportsmen motivated to hunt or fish primarily for the food: the period between 2006 and 2011 saw an increase not only in the proportion of participants who hunted or fished as a means of putting meat on the family table, but also in the percentage of “locavore” hunters and anglers, that is, individuals who go afield for reasons of self-sufficiency and a desire for organic, local, chemical-free meat. When hunters in the survey were read a list of factors that may have influenced them to go hunting, the top factor that was a major or minor influence was interest in hunting as a source of natural or “green” food, with

Camp ASCCA, Creative Commons License

68% of hunters naming this as an influence. When a similar list was read to anglers, 51% said that fishing as a natural or “green” food source was an influence in their decision to go fishing. Finally, in an open-ended question (where no answer set was read and respondents could name anything that came to mind), 56% of hunters said that they hunted for food, and 32% of anglers fished for fresh fish to eat. The desire for food, whether for economic reasons, locavore motivations, or a hybrid of both, played an important role in the recent increases in hunting and fishing participation. (Click here for a summary of research examining the growing motivation of hunting for meat.)

Reasons 4 and 5: Agency Recruitment and Retention Programs and Access Programs

A few key efforts on the part of individual state fish and wildlife agencies also helped clear a path for more robust participation in hunting and fishing. Of particular importance was the implementation of hunting and fishing recruitment and retention programs, which provide instruction to participants of all age levels and, in many cases, offer program events year-round. After a decade of states’ implementation of recruitment and retention programs, the intended results are beginning to manifest. (Click here for more information about Responsive Management research on recruitment and retention programs.)

More hunters also made it into the field thanks to programs that opened up access to hunting lands: the analysis revealed that the percentage of hunters in the state rating the quality of overall access to hunting lands as excellent or good had a positive effect on participation. Access is one of the most important issues that acts as a constraint to hunters; when access is good, participation is unimpeded. With ample research on the potential value in these types of programs having been conducted in recent years, the study was able to show definitively that these efforts are now taking effect and producing results. (For more information, please visit Responsive Management’s summaries of research on hunting and fishing access.)

Reason 6: Agency Marketing and Changes in Licenses

Many agencies in the survey and personal interviews emphasized the importance of their marketing efforts in recent years, not only for programs designed to boost participation but in the advertising of new or repackaged hunting and fishing licenses. Additionally, hunters and anglers were also asked about factors that prompted them to hunt and fish. Among hunters, 22% said that marketing efforts collectively had been an influence in their decision to go hunting. Among anglers, 20% said that marketing had been an influence in their decision to go fishing.

The marketing aspect of efforts to increase sales of hunting and fishing licenses dovetails with previous Responsive Management research that has established a correlation between increases in license sales and changes in license structure (i.e., the availability of new or modified hunting and fishing licenses). Such changes, which can include repackaging of licenses or a recombination of various privileges, can have the effect of marketing because the hunter and/or angler may perceive that a better deal is available, that the license is “new and improved,” or he or she may simply be reminded of the opportunities to hunt and fish.

Reasons 7 to 10: Key Groups Driving the Increases

In pinpointing the specific markets that helped drive the increases in hunting and fishing participation, the survey was able to isolate several groups of particular importance: current and longtime hunters and anglers simply participating more often, returning military personnel resuming their participation in the activities, the reactivation of former and lapsed hunters and anglers, and new female participants.

The project examined the characteristics of these new and returning hunters and anglers. Crosstabulations of established hunters and new/returning hunters highlighted some differences that help reveal who the new/returning hunters are. Compared to established hunters, these new/returning hunters are slightly more often female, are somewhat younger, are more often in the military or college, are slightly more suburban, have not been living in the same state for as long, and are more often hunting to be with friends.

Michael J Zealot, Creative Commons License

Likewise, compared to established anglers, the group of new/returning anglers again are slightly more often female, are markedly more often retired with new free time, are slightly more often identifying themselves as homemakers, are slightly more suburban, have not been living in the same state for as long, and are more devoted to fishing in freshwater (i.e., did not fish in saltwater as much as established anglers–because anglers could fish in both types of waters, established anglers fished in freshwater about as much as new/returning anglers, but they fished in saltwater much more often than did new/returning anglers).

The full report for the study is available by clicking here or by visiting
www.responsivemanagement.com/download/reports/Hunt_Fish_Increase_Report.pdf.
Responsive Management is planning additional research to continue exploring the impacts of each of the factors and variables uncovered in this study.

Study Methodology

Personal interviews with state fish and wildlife agency personnel.
Surveys of fish and wildlife agency staff regarding hunting and fishing participation and license sales data for hunting, freshwater fishing, and saltwater fishing.
Multivariate analysis of license sales data.
Review of past research on hunting and fishing participation.
A survey of hunters and anglers in states with large hunting or fishing participation increases according to the 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
Final evaluation and analysis of all data together and completion of final report.
States surveyed with marked hunting participation increases: Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, and South Dakota.
States surveyed with marked fishing participation increases: Alaska, Idaho, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.

Rip the Fishing Dog

Rip was my four footed fishing friend. He showed up at my farm one day and adopted me. There has never been a happier, more fun loving dog. His name fit him well. He never walked when he could run and his tail never stopped wagging. His smiling face welcomed everyone.

Rip loved to ride in my truck, but not the first time I put him in it. I tied his collar to a hook in the bed of the truck and he tried to jump out, almost hanging himself. I shortened the length of the rope and drove out to the farm and he never tried to jump out again. I quit tying him in after a few months an never had a problem again.

He would jump from side to side, putting his front paws up on the sides, going back and forth especially when getting near the farm or home. When I made a stop at the store there was almost always someone petting him when I came out. Despite his 90 pounds he just looked friendly and always welcomed a petting hand from anyone willing to give it. And everyone that saw him was willing.

Going to the pond was one of his favorite activities, but sometimes he got into trouble there. Rip would not swim but would wade out and sit down up to his neck in hot weather. Anytime I caught a fish he got excited and tried to sniff it. If I gave a bream to him he would eat it. I worried about the bones the first few times but he never seemed bothered by the fish he ate. I guess he liked sushi. And if I let the fish go he stared at the water then looked at me like he was asking why I let dinner go.

Tearing things up was also a favorite pastime. I had a bundle of yellow insulation at the barn and tried to use it to insulate a house for him before taking him to my house. The next day it looked like a yellow snow storm had hit the area. At home sticks of wood from the woodpile would be dragged into the yard and chewed to bits. Maybe he was part beaver. No rug had a chance on the back deck, it would be nothing but threads the next day. He even chewed the handle off an ax left in a stump in the woodshed.

When he was ten years old I got a friend for him. Ginger is a brindled pit bull but very gentle, and she and Rip played together. They got along great.

Rip loved it when I got out a gun. The first time I shot a squirrel in the back yard I wondered how he would react. The shot did not bother him, he just ran and got the squirrel and brought it to me. From then on if I walked out with a shotgun he started looking up in the trees. I even trained him to go around the tree so the squirrel would move where I could shoot it.

But both Rip and Ginger were terribly afraid of thunder. Last summer while I was at the lake they dug under the fence during a storm and got out of the yard. Two days later, on a Saturday, I got a call from a neighbor about a mile down the highway saying Rip had been hit by a car. He was alive but dazed. I took him to an emergency vet clinic and they sedated him. That night at about dark I called and they said he might recover. He was no worse but no better, either.

I went to bed at midnight planning on fishing a tournament the next day. About an hour later the vet called and told me Rip was going into convulsions. He probably had brain damage and had less than a 25 percent chance of recovery. More likely he would just suffer until he died. I choked out “Put him down.”

I could not catch a fish the next day – my broken heart kept me from thinking about fishing. I picked his body up from the vet and buried him under the pear tree with Merlin and Squirt, watering the ground with my tears as I dug.

Two days later Ginger came home, safe and sound.

Four Footed Fishing Friend

Rip Was My Four Footed Fishing Friend

Everybody needs a dog to make them realize what it is like to have boundless energy and the pure joy of being alive. My dog Rip constantly amazes me. He never slows down from daylight to dark and finds everything from cats to old pieces of wire and waterhose extremely interesting.

He lives up to his name daily. Nothing is safe from him that he can get his paws or teeth on. When the cold weather hit I bought a cheap indoor/outdoor thermometer to monitor the temperature in his insulated dog house. It sat on top of his house out of his reach, but the wire probe stuck an inch or so into his house.

One morning last week the probe reading was flashing. Sure enough, to no real surprise to me, he had grabbed the end of the wire in his house and pulled it out, chewing it up. So much for keeping up with the temperature in his house.

Exuberant is the best word to describe him. He doesn’t walk when he can run, and he doesn’t run when he can bounce like a kangaroo through the woods. He loves to chase a thrown ball, stick, plastic bottle or anything else, and will bring it back for more. I get tired of the game much faster than he does.

He loves to fish. That is one of the few times he will sit and stay still. Anytime I make a cast he watches the arch of the lure, never letting it out of his sight. When it hits the water he watches with great interest, waiting on a bass to jump. I think he wants to go chase them but so far I have been able to keep him on the bank.

Rip loves to wade in the shallows, lapping up water and cooling off. When it was hot he would wade out and sit down, submerging his body chest deep. He does not like to swim, though, and will not get his head wet – on purpose.

At my pond I had dug out some dirt near the bank with a back hoe, making a three foot deep hole right by the bank. The outer rim of the hole has a couple of inches of water covering it. Rip waded out around the rim then decided to come straight back. When he hit the deep water his head went out of sight. I will never forget the look on his face when he came up and immediately headed to the bank.

When he got out on the bank I was laughing so hard I could not stop. He did his usual trick when confused, he started running around me in circles. It is amazing how fast he can run in a 20 foot circle without spinning out. The harder I laughed, the faster he ran. I am surprised he did not turn himself into butter.

Rip can really make me feel old. While working on a siphon on my pond dam, I had to climb up and down the dam. I am just able to pull myself up it by hanging on to limbs and inching along. Rip runs in circles around me while I am doing this, running up the dam face like it is flat ground. I have to remember he has four wheel drive compared to my two, but he often will circle me 20 or 30 times while I make one transit.

Rip is a pretty good squirrel hunter, too. He surprised me the first time I fired a gun near him. I did not try to train him at all, but he is definitely not gun shy. The first time I fired a shotgun he just looked at me, then he heard the squirrel fall. He immediately went to it. Now if he sees me with a gun he starts looking up in the trees for my target.

Last week I shot a squirrel and it fell outside the fence around the back yard. Rip was watching and got real excited. When I went to get the squirrel it was not there. I let Rip out and he ran to where the squirrel fell the tracked it straight to a stump about 30 yards away. He stuck his head in the stump and pulled the squirrel out. Although the squirrel bit him on the nose and he yipped real loud, he hung on and shook it, killing it instantly.

I want to train him to tree squirrels but Rip does not bark. I have had him almost a year and he makes lots of different kinds of noises from a whine when I won’t take him with me to a strange combination growl/whine when confused to yipping when bit by a squirrel, but he just will not bark. That is a good thing most of the time.
Dogs can be a great joy and a real pain. The pain seems short and the joy much greater overall. Everyone needs a Rip to keep them laughing.

Fishing During Christmas

Christmas was a wondrous time when I was growing up. From the oranges and apples in the stockings hung from the mantle to the bullets and hooks I got every year, I was always thrilled to find what Santa had brought. It was amazing how he knew I loved to fish and hunt and always knew what caliber bullets and gauge shotgun shells I needed.

The best thing about Christmas was the two weeks out of school. That meant I could hunt all day, not just an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon. And daddy was also off work since he was the local school principal. Although we still had the 11,000 laying hens to take care of each day since they don’t take holidays, he had more time to go quail hunting.

During quail season we hunted every Saturday, but that was just one day a week. During the holidays we usually managed to go at least three days a week. I loved following the dogs and watching them work the birds. Although I usually shot at the covey with my .410 on the covey rise, it took me a long time to figure out I had to aim at one bird. I am not sure I ever killed one with that little shotgun.

By the time I was a junior in high school daddy had gotten rid of the quail dogs. He said he just did not have the time to spend with them. But by them one of my best friends had a pack of beagles and I had a drivers license so we went rabbit hunting almost every day during the holidays. That was as much fun as bird hunting.

Every Christmas I got a brick of .22 bullets, ten boxes of 50 each in a carton. All those bullets looked like they would last forever. Back then when squirrel hunting it was important to kill a squirrel with every shot. We did not want to waste a single bullet. And my eyes were good enough and my arms steady enough that I made most shots count.

I never realized at the time how much freedom I had, and thinking back I am surprised. Although times were different and I was pretty safe from weird people, there were lots of things that could happen to a young boy out in the woods with a gun. But my mother never fussed, she just let me go. I am somewhat surprised she did not smother me since she had lost her first child. My sister died at 18 months old about a year before I was born.

We never went fishing in the winter back then because we had no idea the fish would bite. I have often wished I could go back to the early 1960s and fish Clark’s Hill in its youth (and mine!) in the winter. By the time I discovered bass fishing during Christmas in the mid-1970s it was still great, but within a few years hybrids were stocked and fishermen started showing up on the lake at Christmas. Until then I pretty much had it to myself.

I taught school and worked in education so for many years I would head to the lake the day school was out and stay until Christmas Day. We had a small travel trailer at a boat club and my dog and I would be the only ones there. I would eat when I was hungry, sleep when sleepy and fish the rest of the time.

On Christmas Day I would meet Linda at my parents’ house for the day. She usually had only one day off and if she had more she would often fly up to visit her folks in Maryland. Either way I would head back to the lake the day after Christmas and fish until time to go back to work after New Years Day.

I hope everyone is making memories with their kids this Christmas. Going hunting or fishing with them even for one or two days during this hectic time will give them memories that will last a lifetime. And it will reinforce the good things in life that are still available if you just look for them.

Give you kids and yourself a change from the busy stores and away from the TV. Get outside and create some memories.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Memories

Do you ever wish for a simpler time at Christmas? If you are old enough you know of more simple holidays that involved family and friends, church and great food. For me almost all my memories also included the outdoors. From kids getting BB guns and rushing out to shoot them to adults getting new shotguns and shells for an afternoon quail hunt, guns and Christmas always went together for me.

My Christmases growing up in the 1950s and 60s always ran a similar pattern. We went to Florida the week before Christmas to visit my Grandmother who live there. That was usually a four day trip but we always came home a couple of days before Christmas to enjoy everything we had been working on, from the door decorations to the tree.

Christmas Eve we always had a service at Dearing Baptist Church, singing wonderful songs and eating great food. Then it was home to make sure the stockings were hung, milk and cookies were out for Santa and off to bed, where we tried to stay awake and listen, but never could make it long.

Well before daylight we would wake up and rush into the living room where a wondrous spread of gifts awaited up. There was always on big item wished for all year, a bicycle, a .22 rifle, a set of briar proof hunting clothes. Then there were smaller gifts.

I always got a brick of .22 bullets, 500 rounds promising many happy hours of shooting. And I could count on a box or two of .410 shells for rabbit hunting. Guns, bullets and shells were always prized. I am sure I got regular clothes and other things but really don’t remember them.

The stocking was kept to pull down last because it would be stuffed with small things. There were always a couple of oranges and I never made the connection that they looked just like the ones in the sack we had brought back from the annual visit to my grandmother in Ocala Florida the week before Christmas. But there were also boxes of sparklers, often a pocket knife, maybe the knife, fork and spoon set to go with the mess kit under the tree.

After exploring the gifts over and over I usually wanted to go outside and shoot my new guns and bullets. But I couldn’t go far. Christmas Day was the day for just my parents and my brother and I to have a big lunch together. We didn’t visit other family members until the days after Christmas.

My dad often took me quail hunting after lunch, one of his loves. We would go get the dogs from a nearby pen and head to fields where we knew the coveys would be feeding. If we didn’t go quail hunting I would usually get with a friend and go squirrel hunting, or go by myself. I loved being in the woods all along.

I still have the .22 rifle I got for Christmas when I was 12 years old. It still works well and is very accurate even after killing untold numbers of squirrels, birds and paper targets. Guns are often passed down from generation to generation if they are taken care of and cleaned.

The week after Christmas was filled with visits to kin folks houses. Usually there were huge meals at lunch time and my aunts and uncles hosted the meal on different days. That was quite and undertaking with over a dozen adults and 20 or so kids running around. Five of my mothers brothers lived near us and she was the youngest, so even when I was very young some of my cousins had kids my age.

I don’t know how we stuffed so much into the two week holiday from school but we did. It seemed we never slowed down from heading to Florida the day after school was out until the church services on New Years Day and then back to school.

Later in life deer season became important. Back in the late 1960s season was open all November then closed until opening again from December 26 to January 1. I hunted as much as possible during that week. Then in the mid 1970s I found out bass and crappie would hit good during Christmas holidays and started spending most of them at my place at Clark’s Hill, fishing and hunting every day except Christmas Day when I joined my family for dinner.

We all have Christmas memories and that is one of the things so important about this time of year. I hope everyone makes so great new ones this year!

What Is Project Healing Waters?

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Event Provides Therapy and Recovery

Project Healing Waters On the Water

Project Healing Waters On the Water

Today’s feature comes to us from the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries
from The Fishing Wire

In mid-October the trout stocked waters of Back Creek below Dominion’s Bath County Pumped Storage Station provided valuable recreation and rehabilitation for a special group of anglers on a two-day trout fishing trip in the Virginia Highlands. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF), Dominion, The Guilford Foundation of Richmond and Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) hosted a combination of 12 active duty military personnel and veterans recovering from wounds and injuries incurred while serving their country. Warriors and vets from the following military medical facilities and Veterans Administration (VA) centers took part in the two day fly fishing event: McGuire in Richmond, Fort Eustis Warrior Transition Unit, Hampton, Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Salem and Staunton-Harrisonburg Community Based Outpatient Clinic. Service members and guides also participated from VA Medical Centers in West Virginia at Beckley, Huntington, Clarksburg and Wheeling. Volunteer Guides from the PHWFF programs provided one-on-one support for each warrior and vet fishing designated sections of Back Creek called ‘beats’. Another 40 plus volunteers from the sponsoring organizations pitched in to make this event a great success for a special rehabilitative and therapeutic fly-fishing experience.

Group Of Warriors

Group Of Warriors

Each warrior and vet was given a complete fly fishing outfit from rod to waders featuring gear provided by a number of outdoor retailers. For the fourth year in a row, Dominion overstocked the delay harvest section of Back Creek with very nice rainbow trout. This assured the new fly fishers an opportunity to hook up with nice fish on their new 5 wt. rods. This special stocking using private hatchery stock while immediately benefiting the event, enhances the fishery for all the anglers who come to fish Back Creek. Bath County Pumped Storage Station employees provide great support and they kindly allow the group to use their facilities for the event. Phil Johnson, PHWFF Virginia’s Regional Coordinator expressed a big “THANK YOU” to all the volunteers who help make this one of our program’s best trips this year. A special plaque was presented to Dan Genest, Dominion Coordinator for PHWFF sponsored events, in recognition of his service to the organization. Mike Puffenbarger and family who operate Maple Tree Outdoors and provide the home cooked meals for the group while visiting the Virginia Highlands, were recognized for their support of the event now in its fourth year. David Coffman, VDGIF Editor for The Outdoor Report e-newsletter provided goodie bags for the vets and volunteers featuring gear and information to enhance their outdoor activities and provided photos of the participants in a special CD following the event. The Warm Springs Inn was also noted for their contribution of accommodations for the service member guests.

The many volunteers who assist with the PHWFF events note that, “We’re not just taking them fishing…” The volunteer guides who assist the service members while fishing come from a variety of backgrounds and fishing oriented organizations including the Fly Fishers of Virginia, Trout Unlimited, and PHWFF Program Leads who hold fly tying classes and casting workshops at the veteran facilities and military hospitals. Many of these Program Leads are also veterans themselves who have been through rehabilitation and recovery and see this as a way of giving back to fellow service members working to recover from their injuries both physical and emotional. Participants in Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF) programs and alumni receive therapy, physical and emotional rehabilitation and support for their recovery and transition back into their communities.

Project Healing Waters

Project Healing Waters

WSLS TV NBC Channel 10 Roanoke news anchor John Carlin, in his Virginia Crossroads news feature, came and interviewed the warriors at the Dominion sponsored event to get a feeling on what this program has meant to the lives and families of service members who have experienced post traumatic stress disorder – PTSD. Be sure and watch this video clip for a close-up, personal and passionate look at the healing power of fly fishing…

“Is it possible that flowing water (and a few fish) are more powerful than medicine? As helpful as group therapy? Perhaps more. For veterans returning from war the answer is often yes… http://www.wsls.com/story/23661378/virginia-crossroads-project-healing-waters

Visit the Project Healing Waters website to see how you can support this valuable program. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings. The 2-Fly Tournament is the organization’s headline event each May to raise awareness and funding for its 146 programs across the nation in 46 states. Visit the PHWFF website for more details. For outdoor recreation opportunities in Bath County visit their website.

Looking Back At Fall

Not only does the calendar say fall is in the air, it actually feels like fall. Growing up in middle Georgia I could never understand the books and magazines we read talking about fall weather starting by Labor Day. It still felt like summer to me for several more weeks.

Now I realize those articles were written by folks living way north of me. I got a taste of early fall in Wisconsin this year where it was freezing the second Saturday in September and the week before it had been colder than it is here in late October.

It was amazing. We watched the trees on a hillside overlooking Crab Lake change day by day. We fished that lake four days during the week and there was a definite difference in the colors on the hillside each day. They got brighter and more colorful from one day to the next.

Fall is fantastic. Not only is it the cooler weather, it is all the other changes that make is so special. There seems to be a quickening of all activities from the hot, lazy days of summer. Squirrels get busy eating and storing the falling hickory nuts and acorns that start bouncing off my roof this time of year. Both trees and tree rats seem to sense the coming cold.

A walk in the woods shows a big change. Suddenly things start to open up and you can see for a long way through the understory where just days before vines, brush and leaves blocked your view after just a few feet. Not the tree trunks seem spaced out with room between them.

Nights get here quicker every day. No longer can you linger on the water long after dinner time. And fishermen can sleep in a little later in the morning, too. To be on the lake at the crack of dawn now means launching your boat an hour later, at least until Daylight Savings Time goes away with the last of the longer days.

The sky looks totally different now. Rather than the washed out faded blue with hazy clouds of summer, many days you see clear bright blue skies. Clouds are stark white fluffy balls as they float along, with a sharp contrast between their bright side, the blue sky and their gray shadowy side.

At night the stars and moon seem brighter and closer. The “Harvest Moon” in September is big and bright as it heralds the start of fall and the time to bring in the crops. The “Hunter’s Moon” in October will seem close enough to touch and even brighter as it rises over the traditional start of hunting times. And the stars shine hard and bright, losing a lot of their twinkle in the cooler, drier air.

Fall always meant pecan time. I loved it when we picked up all the nuts we could see in our front yard then raked the leaves to the ditch and burned them. The smell of burning pecan leaves always take me back to those times, and I will never forget raking through the ashes finding missed pecans that was roasted just right. Eating them sitting by the warm ashes in the ditch made them taste better than any other time.

Fish get more active just like the squirrels. Cooling water makes them start feeding better than they have since last spring. They gorge themselves on the abundant shad and other baitfish that seem to crowd the lakes. They, too, seem to sense the lean cold months to come.

Best of all it is now time to sit in a tree and watch for a whitetail to come near. Bow hunters get a peaceful week or two when it is cool enough to enjoy being in the woods. Sweat does not drip from your nose as you try to stay still enough to fool a buck like it did the first part of the season. And bugs don’t bother you quite as bad – until the mid morning sun warms them up enough to buzz in your ears.

Even dogs welcome the changing weather. My dog Rip is always active, running around, jumping like a kangaroo when he hears something rustling in the leaves or sees a bushy tail squirrel bouncing away. But now he will suddenly take off, running in big circles like a greyhound on a track, seeming to celebrate the cool air and young muscles that have been lazy so long.

All too soon fall will be a pleasant memory as we shiver in our deer stands and fishing boats, wishing it would warm up a little. Enjoy it while you can.

Growing Up In A Small Town In Georgia

I was getting my every-other-Saturday haircut from Mr. Ralph one fall when the conversation turned to squirrel hunting. One of the old men sitting around the checker board said he wanted a dog that would tree squirrels. I said Hal had one and Mr. Ralph said “I didn’t know Tippy would tree squirrels.”

That is what I love about growing up in a small town and why I am so thankful for my childhood there. Not only did the local barber know which friend I was talking about by his first name, he knew his dog’s name, too.

I grew up in Dearing, GA on Highway 78 near Augusta. We had a caution light on the main highway and there were six stores in the town. You could buy everything you needed in each one, including gas, fresh meat, clothes, guns, fishing tackle and canned goods. They were typical country stores of the 1950s and the owners knew everyone that came through the door.

My house was a half mile from the center of town, right on the “city” limits. The sign was right in front of my house on Iron Hill Road and we had 15 acres. On it were seven chicken houses with 11,000 laying hens, a hog house with sows and nearby a pen to raise out the young pigs, and fields with ponies and cows.

One property line had a branch running near it and where I swam and caught fish. We also tried to dam it up every summer, working like beavers but not nearly a good at dam building as they are. I also explored that branch from end to end and knew every hole and stump in it, and could tell you where a fish would hit my home-made chicken feather flies.

That was a simpler time. There were no video games and TV was black and white with two channels available to us. Kids spent their free time outside when not in school or doing chores. We hunted, fished, shot guns, build forts and tree houses, dammed creeks and roamed the woods and fields.

No one was surprised to see a kid with a gun. Many days I would hit the woods at the creek below my house on Saturday morning and hunt up the creek with my .22 or .410. The creek crossed Highway 78 just outside of town and I would get there at lunch time. Then it was time to pick a store, go in and lean my rifle or shotgun in the corner and get a cold drink from the ice box and a can of sardines, Vienna Sausage or potted meat and have lunch. A box of saltines were always open and available to anyone buying something to go with them.

After lunch I would sometimes hunt back down the creek or hit the road and head home. Walking down Iron Hill Road with a rifle did not draw a second glance, but everyone would wave. I could stop at Harold’s house on the way. He was the only other boy in town my age. We started kindergarten together and graduated from the University of Georgia together 17 years later. Hal was two years older than me.

My father was principal of Dearing Elementary School and my class had 27 students in it. We had basically the same group from first through eight grade but then went to High School in Thomson eight miles away. Thomson High was huge after Dearing Elementary. My class there had just over 150 in it and grades nine through 12 had over 500 students!

All the kids went to church at least three days a week. Sunday mornings we were in Sunday School then church and evenings found us in Training Union and then church. Prayer meeting was every Wednesday and RA’s for boys and GA’s for girls met on Monday nights. We boys talked a lot about hunting and fishing and the highlight every summer was a camping trip or two with all the boys and three or four of the men.

I am very thankful for my youth and wish every kid could have the kind of experiences I had back then. I think there would be a lot less crime and drug use. We didn’t have time for such foolishness. The outdoors tends to do that to you, and you learn respect for others and nature when you are spending time in the woods.

Kids still have opportunities to hunt and fish but almost always have to be accompanied by an adult in today’s crazy world. Try to help them go hunting and fishing any time you can.

Thanksgiving Memories

This holiday season always brings bittersweet memories. I am very thankful for my mother and will forever remember the wonderful things she did for me and that we did together. But she died Thanksgiving week 13 years ago so all the memories are tinged with sorrow.

One of my favorite memories happened at our place at Clark’s Hill. It was the middle of a warm June day and I was taking a break after lunch. When I left our camper and walked up the hill to the bath house I saw mom fishing under the dock by herself.

A few minutes later walking back down the hill I saw mom fighting a fish. I got close enough to hear her talking, coaching herself, saying things like “Play him slow” and “Keep the rod tip up.” I stood by a pine tree for several minutes enjoying the scene before going to the dock and helping her land a nine pound carp.

Mom was totally happy fishing. She would fish anywhere there was water and didn’t mind fishing alone or with others. She and another lady neighbor used to take our truck and 12 foot jon boat to the local Public Fishing Area. Both of them were in their sixties but they would go out and fish all day. Dad fixed up a winch system so they could load the boat by themselves. I have a mounted 2 pound, six ounce shellcracker she caught in 1982 on one of those trips.

Another great memory also involves the Public Fishing Area we called the “state ponds.” Mom and I had fished for several hours, me casting for bass and her fishing with live worms for anything that would bite. We took the boat out of the pond and I walked out on the dam. In the spillway below the pond I could see bream in the pool of water.

Mom and I got our rods and reels and her bait and crawled down the dam to the pool of water. For the next couple of hours we caught bream after bream. We had contests to see who could catch the most on one piece of bait and who could catch the smallest fish. That was a tough contest since none of the little bluegill were over three inches long.

That was one of the many times I totally lost track of time while fishing with her.

Mom was deathly afraid of snakes but loved fishing even more. One day as we walked down to my bass boat tied up under the dock at Clark’s Hill we saw a snake slither off the dock, onto the boat and into the hole at the transom where the controls came out. I told mom there was no way I could get the snake out.

After thinking about it for a few minutes mom gingerly got into the boat. We fished all afternoon but I don’t think she ever completely relaxed. I knew the snake was happy in its dark hole and would not come out, especially with us moving around and talking, but I don’t think mom’s feet ever rested on the deck of the boat in one place very long that afternoon.

Many nights mom went out with me to check trotlines and bank hooks. She was happy holding the light or helping bait hooks. Several times we would bait up our lines, get out on the bank, build a fire and fish with rods and reels for several hours while waiting on catfish to find our set hooks. I remember sitting by the fire with her and talking about anything and everything, but don’t remember whether we caught anything or now.

One summer I found out I could go out with a spotlight at night, find carp in the shallows and gig them. Although I thought it was legal to kill a carp any way you could I found out later gigging them, especially at night with a spotlight, was not legal. We still had lots of fun.

I would gig a carp then raise it out of the water. Mom would sit on the back casting chair and would open the live well as I swung the carp over the side. I would put the gig over the lip of the live well and she would drop the lid, letting me pull the gig out while leaving the carp inside.

One night when mom opened the live well my dog Merlin jumped as I brought a crap over the side. She jumped right in the live well. Mom and I laughed till we cried at the sight of Merlin’s head sticking out of the live well, with a look at said “get me out of here!”

I am glad I have such good memories.