Watermelons and Pocket Knives

Cutting a watermelon last week brought back great summertime memories. Since we had a commercial egg farm there was a big walk in cooler at my house. It stored eggs year round but during the summer there were always some watermelons in it, getting icy cold and ready to eat.

It was always a festive time when everyone gathered, usually in the middle of the hot afternoons, under the big pecan tree beside our house. There was an old outbuilding roof there on the ground. It sat on concrete blocks about two feet off the ground and its plywood cover was perfect for cutting and eating watermelon.

I spent many happy afternoons sitting on that old roof, a crescent of watermelon in my hands and cold juice running down my chin. It was the perfect way to cool off and tasted so good!

I usually ate the red flesh from the rind by biting off chunks of it. The adults were more decorous, using a knife to cut off bites size chunks, not wanting juice running off their chins onto clothes. Since I usually had on a pair of shorts and no shoes or shirt I didn’t care.

When I was eight we were eating watermelon and the big butcher knife used to cut it was lying near me. I decided to be a big boy and used it to cut off bite size chunks. When I finished, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to stab the rind laying on the plywood.

I will never forget seeing my hand slip off the wood handle and slide down the blade. There was no hand guard on the knife and my fist went all the way to the end of the knife. It didn’t really hurt for a second and I opened my hand to see a gash across my palm that instantly filled with blood.

Of course my mom freaked out and they rushed me to the emergency room eight miles away. I remember lying on the table with my right arm stretched out and my hand open while the doctor worked on it. My mom stood on my left holding that hand and keeping my face turned toward here. I wanted to watch what the doctor was doing but she would not let me.

Just as he finished up my mom asked why I was staring into her eyes, then she realized I was watching the reflection of the procedure in her glasses. It took eight stitches to close it up and I still have a faint white line across my palm from the scar.

I should have known better than be careless with a knife since I always had one in my pocket from the time I was about six years old. Back in the 1950s and 60s boys would rather go without pants than leave their knives at home.

We used our pocket knives for everything from playing games to cleaning game. We took them to school every day with no problems, and at recess we often carved or played games with them.

Almost all of us had “jack” knives with two folding blades that came out of the same end. One was longer than the other. That was good for what we called mumbly peg – a game where we used a piece of wood between two of us. You would open your knife with the long blade straight with the handle and the short blade at a 45 degree angle to it.

With the point of the short blade on the wood and the handle resting on your fingertip, with the handle and long blade parallel to the wood, you would flip the knife into the air. The trick with to flip it up high enough and spin it just right so the long blade point stuck into the wood.

You had to flip the knife high enough to come down with enough force to stick without flipping it off the board. Points were given based on which blade stuck. There was some skill to it and we could do it for hours.

Another game was split. Two of us would stand facing each other about two feet apart. You took turns throwing your knife, trying to stick it in the ground out from your opponent’s foot. When it stuck he had to move that foot out to it. When one of you could not get your foot out far enough, you lost. One twist in the game was if you stuck the knife between you opponents feet, usually after they had been spread apart some, they had to turn around backwards for the rest of the game.

To go full circle today, cutting the watermelon last week also reminded me of using my pocket knife to cut open citrons while dove or quail hunting. Citrons grew wild in many of the fields we hunted and after a hot afternoon of walking in the fall anything to drink sounded real good.

Citrons look like small watermelons but everyone considered the noting but hog food at best. The flesh when cut open is white and tougher than a watermelon, and dryer. And it tastes more like rind than the flesh. But on a hot afternoon with a parched throat even that bad tasting, tough flesh that was almost boiling hot from sitting in the sun, was a welcome treat!

Without my trusty pocket knife I could not quench my thirst very easily.

What Is the Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project?

BTT Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project
from The Fishing Wire

BTT is pleased to announce that our new tarpon acoustic tagging project is beginning shortly. The purpose of this study is to obtain scientific data necessary for tarpon conservation that will be used exclusively to protect tarpon and enhance their habitat through improvements in fishery management. BTT will not distribute specific data to the public and will only describe tarpon movements and habitats in a general way in order to build public support for greater protections. This project will help answer the following questions:

Is the tarpon population large and robust or small and vulnerable? If anglers in a particular location are fishing for the same fish every year, then the tarpon population is probably smaller than we think, and issues like shark predation will become a bigger concern. If fish move among regions every year, and anglers are fishing for different fish each year, the tarpon population is probably large.
Do tarpon use the same spawning site each year or move among spawning sites? On average, ocean currents will carry the larvae from a spawning site to juvenile habitats in a specific geographic region. If it’s the same adults at the spawning site every year, then local adult losses will cause declines in juveniles. If tarpon move among spawning sites, then the population will be more resilient.
How do changes in freshwater flows into coastal waters influence tarpon movements? Do the problems with Lake Okeechobee and Everglades restoration impact tarpon? Are the water issues in Apalachicola causing changes in tarpon movements?
What are the movement patterns and habitat use of mid-size tarpon (20-50 pounds)? How will these tarpon be impacted by coastal water quality issues? This size class, which is the future of the fishery, is very vulnerable to changes in coastal habitats and water quality.

Why Acoustic Tracking?

Although satellite tagging previously funded by BTT provided valuable data, the tags typically only stayed on the tarpon for a few months at a time, which prevented long-term tracking. In addition, because of the large size of the satellite tags, their use is limited to tarpon over 80 pounds.

The new Tarpon Program will use acoustic telemetry to track tarpon movements.

acoustic tags come in many sizes
Advantages of acoustic tags are that they are smaller and less invasive and can remain with the fish and active for up to five years rather than a few months. In addition, because acoustic tags come in a range of sizes, they can be used on tarpon from 20 pounds and larger, not just the extra-large adults. They also cost significantly less than satellite tags.

How Acoustic Tagging Works

Tags are surgically implanted in the abdomen. Each tag emits an ultrasonic ping that has a unique code for each tag. These pings are detected by underwater receivers when a tagged fish swims in range. When receivers are placed at strategic locations like inlets, bridges, and schooling locations, they can be very efficient.

As part of this four-year study, BTT will place 20 new receivers in waters around Florida, to add to the 60 receivers we already have in the water. In addition, colleagues at universities and state and federal agencies are using this technology to study movements of other fish species. Their receivers will also detect BTT tarpon tags. With more than 1,300 receivers in the water in the Gulf of Mexico, and more than 3,000 along the southeastern US coast, this project will be able to examine both local and long-distance movements for many years. BTT will tag 50 fish in each year of the study.

How You Can Help

Sponsor a Tarpon: Sponsor an acoustic tag for $2,500. You can name your tarpon, and will receive a certificate with its name, photo and initial capture info (very general location and measurements). Each time BTT downloads data from the receivers (approximately every 6 months), a summary of the general data on your fish will be sent to you.

Sponsor a Receiver: Sponsor and name an acoustic receiver (listening station) for $3,000. Each time BTT downloads data from your listening station, you will receive a summary of the fish that have been detected by that station.

Help us tag tarpon. Prior to a tagging trip, our scientists will put out a notice about when and where they will be, along with contact information. If you are fishing in that area when we are tagging, all you need to do is call us when you catch a tarpon. We’ll come to your boat, transfer the tarpon over, and take care of the rest. Remember to always keep the tarpon in the water!

Contact Us Today!

For more information and to sponsor a tag or receiver, please contact Alex Woodsum, Director of Development and Communications at 617-872-4807 or alex@bonefishtarpontrust.org

The purpose of this study is to obtain data necessary for conservation. Data from this study will only be shared with the public in a very general sense to explain how the data is contributing to conservation. Specific data on tarpon movements, habitat use, etc. will not be shared. Our goal is to use these data for conservation, not to help anglers catch more tarpon. So rest assured, the data is highly confidential.

Deep cover keys summer crappie success

Deep cover keys summer crappie success–why not make your own?

Editor’s Note: Here’s a nice little story on summer crappie fishing and building your own fish attractors from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission that could apply pretty much anywhere the fish are found.
from the Fishing Wire

Each spring, anglers comb the shallows at DeGray Lake in Hot Spring and Clark counties, probing tiny jigs and minnows at any likely looking spot in search of crappie. Rarely do anglers leave empty-handed when the dogwoods are blooming and the fish are spawning. But once summer’s heat sets in and the fish move out of the shallows, most anglers hang up the jigging poles or use the same tactics as spring, leaving the lake with hungry stomachs and a bare live well.

John Duncan, owner of www.yoyoguideservice.com, says catching crappie once the spawn has ended can be just as good as when they’re on the beds. Anglers just have to switch to deep-thinking mode. Once the water’s surface temperature begins to creep into the 80s, crappie seek the comfort of cooler water found a little deeper.

“If you just look across the surface, there doesn’t seem to be hardly anything to hold fish, but it’s a different world under the water,” Duncan said. “The Corps [of Engineers], the Game and Fish and some local anglers have sunk a bunch of brush piles throughout the lake, you just have to look for them.”

The latest electronics can be extremely helpful in finding brush piles made of branches and woody cover, but can be tricky to read when searching for brush made of bamboo or river cane, materials extremely popular with crappie anglers.

“If you’re using a side-imaging depth finder, wood will show up easily, but bamboo brush piles may only look like a shadow on the bottom,” Duncan said. “Sometimes you have to go right over it before you can really see what it looks like.”

Anglers who can’t afford high-dollar electronics still can find plenty of offshore options for crappie, it just takes a little more effort and elbow grease. A five-gallon bucket, some hand-cut bamboo and some fast-setting concrete is all it takes to create your own brush piles and place them wherever you want. Channel edges, points, drops and mid-lake humps are all good spots to set up as your personal crappie hole.

July 4 Holiday

Happy birthday USA!

The July 4 holiday should always put the birth of our nation first. The freedoms and rights that exist nowhere else in the world should be on our mind and we should remember the sacrifices made to get them. And we should be determined to keep them.

I am afraid there won’t be many more Independence Days where those freedoms can be rejoiced. Right now many of the rights in the Bill of Rights are under siege. It is unreal to me that so many people are willing to completely ignore the 2nd Amendment and try to ban guns, and destroy the 4th Amendment by taking guns and magazines that were legal purchased away from citizens.

They are also willing to violate the 6th and 7th Amendments dealing with the idea of being innocent until proven guilty. They want to violate your rights because some government official put a name similar to yours on a list. Seems like none of our rights mean anything.

Some of those same folks want to destroy the 1st Amendment on free speech by locking up anyone disagreeing with their prejudices on things like climate change. It amazes me some want to lock me up for talking about the weather in a way they don’t like.

The people we elect are not our leaders, they are our servants. But they ignore their own rules, pass laws that violate the constitution and seem determined to change the US to a country unrecognizable by those living here.

My daddy always said don’t elect an honest man, he will become a crook. But even with that pessimistic opinion it is unreal that many politicians seem incapable of telling the truth. Even when confronted with solid evidence they lied, they just tell bigger lies.

And the claim about government being transparent is a joke now. One of the worst examples of our federal government lying to us by hiding information is with the radical Islamic mass murderer in Orlando. The so called Justice Department first released transcripts of his 911 call that had most of the words he used redacted, or blacked out.

That stirred up such an outcry that another release was done, with fewer words blacked out. But how many words in the transcript were what he really used? Even though the law requires release of the actual recording of the call the “in”justice Department, to this day, will not release it. What are they hiding from us?

According to Dr. Richard Beeman, professor of history and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, after the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The US is the worst country on earth – except for every other one that exists or has ever existed. But how long will it last? We seem well on the way to losing it.

Fishing Lake St. Clair

What are you waiting for? Get out fishing Lake St. Clair

You’d be crazy to not think about fishing Lake St. Clair this summer – especially when you consider the plethora of opportunities available there and the fact you’re a short distance from modern-day amenities thanks to it being situated in a major metropolitan area. Renowned for its smallmouth bass and muskellunge, this waterbody (situated between lakes Huron and Erie) is billed as one of the most unique systems in the region.

And it should be noted that Lake St. Clair is part of something much bigger. Besides it being situated between two of the Great Lakes, the connection between the lake and the St. Clair River is a diverse habitat with multiple channels and is considered a delta – in fact, it’s the largest freshwater delta in North America.

“Lake St. Clair is a phenomenal fishery,” said Cleyo Harris, a fisheries biologist based in Waterford. “It doesn’t need stocking and provides numerous unique opportunities for anglers who pay it a visit.”

Now you might ask: exactly what are those opportunities?

How about spearing for northern pike or yellow perch during the winter months? Lake St. Clair is the only waterbody in the state open to yellow perch spearing. The season is January first through the end of February and anglers can use a hand-propelled spear, bow and arrow or crossbow.

Additionally the daily possession limits for northern pike was recently switched from two to five, with a 24-inch minimum size limit, on Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River and the Detroit River.

“It should be noted that Michigan has about one-third of Lake St. Clair within our jurisdiction and the other two-thirds are under Ontario,” explained Harris. “Canada doesn’t allow spearing at all so it’s important to be aware of where you are on the waterbody when you engage in this type of activity.”

Muskellunge and yellow perch are ideal targets during the summer months on Lake St. Clair as well – along with walleye and smallmouth bass. According to Mike Thomas, a fisheries research biologist stationed on Lake St. Clair – what makes these populations unique here is you can actually target them all on a single day.

You probably have a good chance of catching your limit of walleye and smallmouth bass and also catch a 50-inch muskie and target yellow perch – all in the same day on the same waterbody,” he exclaimed.

Thomas is quick to point out other opportunities the average angler isn’t aware of on Lake St. Clair; including largemouth bass along the shoreline, panfish opportunities in canals and marshes, white bass during the summer, good northern pike presence in the delta, and his personal favorite – hook-and-line fishing for lake sturgeon in the delta.

The hook-and-line lake sturgeon season is open on Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River from July 16 to November 30 with the possession season being from July 16 through September 30.

“I think this is one of the only places in the state where you have a realistic chance of catching a lake sturgeon,” Thomas said. “Not enough people seem to realize that.”

Being in a major metropolitan area means Lake St. Clair is often quite busy during the summer months, as evidenced by the vast numbers of boats milling about on the water. This activity is facilitated by numerous state-managed access sites to allow all types of boaters an avenue for getting out. This year anglers visiting those sites will likely see one of two creel clerks collecting data on the lake – for the first time since 2005.

“Creel is a big thing for us this year,” explained Harris. “We’ll be looking to collect catch information from anglers after their trips so we can continue to provide the best fisheries management possible for Lake St. Clair.”

Those new to the lake should heed this advice from Thomas in relation to the fact that despite being on average 12 feet deep, if the wind picks up it can get a tad treacherous.

“When you’re on the open waters you’ll just want to be mindful,” he explained. “On a calm day you can feel comfortable in a 14-foot boat, but if the wind comes up quick you could get uncomfortable pretty fast. The delta area of the St. Clair River is more protected and is a good place to fish on days when there’s too much wind.”

There’s still plenty of time this summer to explore Lake St. Clair. For more information, visit Michigan.gov/fishing.

Not Able To Go Fishing

A few years ago a popular song said “you don’t know what you got till its gone.” For years I have been complaining about being worn out after fishing a tournament but I managed to fish two to three a month, as well as fishing some other days.

I had neck surgery on May 26 and have been out of the house exactly four times as of July 1 since getting back from the hospital, and I should not have ridden into town one of those days. Spending 22 to 23 hours in a recliner, trying to find something on TV worth watching, has made me wish for aching muscles and tired body after a day fishing.

Some things stand out. After a rain last week I woke up around 3:00 am and looked out my office window where I have had to sleep. There are no curtains or blinds on those windows and I was amazed at the number of “lightening bugs” in my front yard. I have never seen so many fire flies in one small areas. The bushes and trees seem to glow with lights flashing everywhere, much like an over decorated Christmas display.

I think the rain made them more active, probably bringing them out to mate. That is what the flashing light is – a display of light to attract a mate. Seeing them brought back memories of growing up on a farm without air conditioning and spending evenings after dinner outside where it was a little cooler.

Fireflies were common around the house and I spent many nights catching them and putting some in pint Mason jars, after carefully punching holes in the lid with a ice pick. I wanted to keep them as pets but their lights always faded fast after being imprisoned, and they were always dead the next morning.

It was funny to catch toad frogs and put a lightening bug near them. I guess some would find it cruel but frogs eat bugs, and when one slurped in a lightening bug the light would continue to glow off and on inside the frog, lighting its stomach from inside.

I have also spend more time than usual at the computer. Even though five or ten minutes at the time are about all I can sit, I watched a good bit of the weigh-in at the BASSFest on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma last week. This Elite series event is live streamed during the day with cameras in several of the top pros boats, and weigh ins are streamed live. I could lay back in my chair and listen to weigh in without trying to see the angler holding up a bass.

I usually don’t sit at a computer or TV and watch someone else fish, I want to be out there in the boat myself. And I have been lucky enough to spend time in the boat with many of the top pros. The day the field at Texoma was been cut from 108 fishermen that started on Wednesday down to the final 12. Of those 12 I have spent the day in the boat with two of them, and with several more that made the top 50.

Lake Texoma was several feet above full pool due to flooding rains in the area. Several of the fishermen shared pictures of picnic tables, bathrooms and road signs almost completely underwater. Most of the fishermen were flipping or pitching jigs to bushes that were normally on dry ground but now in up to four feet of water.

Those guys are good but they fish the same way all of us do, they just do it better and more efficiently. It is amazing watching one of them flip a jig to a bush three times in the time it would take me to make one pitch to it. And they can make a one ounce jig enter the water by a bush 30 feet away without making a ripple in the water.

Watching them fish that way reminded me of the way I caught a lot of bass back in the 1970s at Clarks Hill. We would fish around coves, casting Texas rigged worms to button bushes and willow trees in the water.

I did that for hours this past April at Clarks Hill in the Sportsman Club tournament and practice and never caught a fish. How those Elite Bass Pros manage to catch five bass per day weighing 15 to 20 pounds each day in a four day tournament amazes me. They make it look easy, but those of us that do it know it is not.

Watching those guys fish is driving me crazy wanting to go fishing. But the doctor said at least six weeks, which means I will miss all three club tournaments this month. The Flint River Club is at Lanier today and I really want to be there trying to hook some of those three to four pound spotted bass like I caught the Sunday before my surgery.

I try to never miss a tournament in a club and have not missed many since starting to fish with the Sportsman Club in 1974. My goal each year is to win the point standings in the club and it is almost impossible to do that if you miss even one tournament during the year. I will be trying to catch up the rest of this year.

Lake Trout on Lake Michigan

Tips for Targeting Lake Trout on Lake Michigan

By Buzz Ramsey
from The Fishing Wire

It’s no secret that lake troutt have become the most numerous fish in Lake Michigan and you cannot consistently win tournaments without spending most of your tournament and pre-tournament days targeting them.

Although lake trout can position themselves throughout the water column, for example, in mid-level temperature layers where the bait and other sport fish like salmon are found, they spend a large portion of their time on or near the bottom of the lake. This tendency to hug the bottom is especially true during the middle of the day when the sun is bright.

In addition to being drawn to investigate flashers and lures trolled in the bottom-hugging zone lake trout prefer, these fish will positively respond to the stirring up of bottom sediments. It seems the more you can stir up the bottom by occasionally dragging (it’s really more like skipping) your lures and/or occasionally bouncing your downrigger ball on bottom the more lake trout you will catch.

Some avid trollers targeting lakers will extend a short length (18-to-24 inches) of chain or wire from their downrigger ball to help draw these bottom-hugging fish into their gear. The reason adding a short length of chain, such that it will scratch bottom occasionally, is used is that it will accomplish the goal of stirring up bottom sediment without jeopardizing the loss of your downrigger weight. Keep in mind this technique is best used when trolling over flat bottoms and not where bottom structure makes just skipping the bottom difficult or impossible.

Another method used to stir up bottom sediment is to employ a triangular shaped flasher, like an 8 or 10 inch Fish Flash, which will stir up bottom sediment without hanging up or tripping from your downrigger release. Try running near bottom, occasionally touching sandy bottoms, in combination with a 48-to-60 inch leader and spoon, spinner, Spin-N-Glo or spinning bait. You want your gear running fairly close, ten (10) feet behind the downrigger ball, so it will be in or near the sediment cloud.

An all-time-favorite trolling combination used by anglers wanting to target lake trout is to rig a size 2, 4, or 6 Spin-N-Glo in combination with a size 0 or 1 dodger. The dodger’s side-to-side swaying motion adds additional action to the already lively Spin-N-Glo and is the go-to combination for many charter operators and avid anglers. Most rig their Spin-N-Glo 24-to-30 inches behind their dodger. It’s important to place a few plastic beads between your Spin-N-Glo and hook so this lure will spin freely.

Some of the more productive Spin-N-Glo colors for lake trout are Luminous Spot, Stop N Go, Luminous Green, California Watermelon, and Red Hot Tiger. These finishes are now available with glow-in-the-dark wings. So, in addition to the phosphorescent bodies the wings also glow. To see them visit www.yakimabait.com or ask your local dealer.

And it’s not just dodgers that are used in combination with Spin-N-Glo. Take last year’s Salmon-A-Rama “Yakima Bait Rewards Program” winner who trolled a Spin-N-Glo in combination with Fish Flash to take home real money – it could be you this year.

Stupid Claims Made while Blaming Guns for Violence

Here they go again.

It never fails – a gun is used in a high visibility shooting like in Orlando last week, and the democrats and others immediately want to ban guns. I would be more willing to listen to them if they didn’t make silly, inaccurate statements and tell plain flat out lies about guns.

If nothing else, the claims that the killer last week was anything but a terrorists makes those making that claim lose all credibility with me. When they further say something stupid along the lines that automatic weapons should be banned I know they are not rational.

Private ownership of automatic guns has been almost completely banned in the US since June 26, 1934. The federal law that went into effect 82 years ago means, if you want to buy an automatic gun, you have to get a special federal firearms permit for each one you want. And those permits cost $2000 per gun! The law is so restrictive that, even after the FBI investigates you and approves you for a permit, you can not carry that gun across state lines without getting permission each time.

The “gun show loophole” is another myth pushed by the gun banners. It is common to hear something like “If you buy a gun at a gun show you should have to go through the background check.” You do, under current law.

To sell guns you have to possess a federal firearms license (FFL) and run a background check on every sale. Saying the gun show needs to run a background check is like saying a mall should sell you shoes. Just like at a mall, businesses rent spaces and sell their products. So you can buy shoes from a business that sells them in the mall just like you can buy a gun at a gun show from a business that sells them, and they have to run the background check.

How about those “private” sellers or “unlicensed gun dealers” many whine about? An individual can sell a personally owned firearm without a background check at a gun show or anywhere else.

How many guns can an individual sell before they must have an FFL? Federal law makes it a felony to buy even one gun to resell without an FFL. So its pretty hard to get inventory without becoming a felon if you want to become an unlicensed gun dealer.

Facebook as gotten into censorship over this in a big way. Several of my friends and I posted or shared something comparing so called “assault weapons” and hunting guns. It listed all the ways they are the same and the ways they are different. It pointed out the only difference is the way the gun looks. Nothing but a list of facts, but apparently the powers that be at Facebook disliked it and censored it from all our pages.

If you can’t provide facts to back up your opinion, censor the facts that go against your prejudices.

One brain dead congressman claimed the gun used in the killing in Florida could fire 700 rounds per minute. Even if you know nothing about guns you should be able to see how stupid that is. That amounts to almost 12 rounds per second. Any rational thought given to that number shows it is not possible, just another irrational claim to scare people about guns.

All the silly claims about banning guns to protect you and to keep terrorist and criminal from getting them is nothing but an effort to distract you from the real problem. Take the shooting in Orlando. The guy had been checked more than one time by the FBI and cleared and taken off the ‘no fly’ list. The FBi was notified a man was trying to buy level 3 body armor – the highest level “bullet proof” vest civilian can buy, but they didn’t follow up because they said they didn’t have enough information. It turned out to be the mass shooter.

Even if there was some way to stop selling guns some folks imagined to be “semiautomatic assault style weapons,” which means any gun some find objectionable because of their looks, and confiscate the millions already in private ownership, what effect would it have? Those kinds of guns are totally illegal in France. Yet 130 people were killed by terrorist using them last November. The got them into the country and to a concert and other public places in spite of the total ban.

Geraldo Rivera said on the news last Friday that we need to do something about “semi machine guns.” President Obama aaid the terrorists had “a Glock with a lot o clips in it.” With gun banners saying stupid things like that, it makes me totally ignore them since it is so obvious they do not know what they are talking about.

Why Guntersville Drops out of Listing of America’s Top Bass Lakes

Guntersville Drops out of Listing of America’s Top Bass Lakes

By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire

After once sitting atop the heap, this year Alabama’s Lake Guntersville did not make the top 10 in the annual listing compiled by Bassmaster Magazine of the nation’s top bass fishing spots. Toledo Bend Lake in Texas topped the charts this year, for the second year in a row.

In fact, Guntersville did not even top the southeast division, where it came in 5th. Santee Cooper in South Carolina was listed as the tops in the southeast.

North Alabama’s Lake Guntersville is still producing some whopper fish these days, but state studies indicate low numbers of fish in the 15 to 18 inch class, producing slow fishing for most anglers at present, and also indicating that fewer big fish will be caught in future as the current crop of lunkers ages out of the population. (Mike Carter photo)
And G’ville was only the third best lake in the TVA chain. Both Chickamauga, upriver, and Kentucky Lake, downriver, were placed above the 70,000 acre North Alabama lake.

What’s happened to the big lake–the economic driver of much of the economy in Jackson and Marshall counties?

Nothing unusual, according to biologists with Auburn University and with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR).

“We’re seeing a natural downturn at Guntersville, the result of what we call recruitment, or the success of spawning, in past years,” says Matt Catalano, assistant professor of Fishery Science at Auburn.

“The lake had an outstanding year class in 2008 when a huge number of the fish that were hatched survived to eventually become adults, and by 2011, anglers were seeing the results of this year class in their catches–there were more 15 to 18 inch fish than ADCNR had ever recorded in a continuing study of over 20 years at the lake,” said Catalano.

“But as fish get older, there’s a natural mortality as well as some fishing mortality, and not only that the larger fish are harder to catch–they’re more wary because they’ve been caught and released, and they’re not in the same places that the smaller fish are most of the time.”

Catalano said that continuing studies indicate that there are now more fish over 20 inches than there have been at any time during the study years, but that the more numerous 15 to 18 inch fish have fallen off to an average figure that’s 30 to 40 percent below the numbers in the 2011 peak.

“We don’t measure angler success, but with that many fewer fish in the mid-ranges, it’s sure to have an impact on the fisherman’s success,” said Catalano.

What brought on the big year class in 2008–and can the lake be manipulated to make it happen again?

“There seems to be correlation between years with low water flow from the spawn on into June and having a high survival rate of the fry,” says Catalano. Low flow typically results in clearer and shallower water, which results in more aquatic weed growth, and in return this builds a strong food chain as well as providing lots of cover where young fish can hide from predators.

Since Guntersville is part of the TVA chain, controlling the water levels to benefit the fish is probably not an option. The lake levels are manipulated to maintain navigation for commercial traffic, and for flood control; fish and fishermen have to deal with what Mother Nature give us.

However, Catalano said there’s some evidence that past stocking of Florida strain bass has helped improve the overall genetics in some areas of Guntersville, and heavy stocking could have a good result in a year when the natural spawn is down.

“Stocking a lot of young fish on top of a healthy native population usually doesn’t have much of an impact because the habitat is already full,” says Catalano. “But we know that stocking Florida bass has had very good results in other lakes around the country–in the right place at the right time, and with the right volume, it could improve the fishing.”

Changing the rules for anglers to reduce bass harvest, on the other hand, does not seem likely to produce much result.

“We tag a lot of bass on this lake and the number of returns we get give us some idea of what the harvest is relative to the number of fish. It’s pretty minimal–we think natural mortality is a far larger factor here,” he said. “That means tighter harvest rules probably would not have a measurable impact.”

The Lake Guntersville Conservation Group, formed to try bringing the fishery back through stocking and other efforts, has slated its next meeting for July 31 at Goose Pond Bait & Tackle, on the water just south of Scottsboro, at 3 p.m. Those who would like to join the group can contact Sharon Carter at 256 218 0613.

Stupid Common Sense Gun Laws

When I was six years old I had my tonsils taken out. As a present for being such a “big boy” during the surgery I got a BB gun, my first gun of many. I was extremely proud of that gun and it was my constant companion for the next two years, carrying it almost everywhere I went. It was a great way to learn gun safety and prove to my parents I could handle a gun responsibly.

During the next two years I got my second gun, a semiautomatic Remington .22. That rifle had a tubular magazine that held 16 high power Long Rifle bullets. The boxes those bullets came in had the warning “Danger, range one mile” printed on them.

I was not allowed to take that gun out of the house unless an adult was with me. Daddy took me out to shoot it fairly often, and I killed my first squirrel with it when, at eight years old, I saw one in the woods across the road from the house after school one day and got Gladys, our housekeeper, to go out with me since nobody else was at home.

My parents accepted that I had learned gun safety at that point and I was allowed to go out with my gun, only if alone or with an adult, for two more years. At ten years old I was finally allowed to go out with my friends. For years we hunted together during season and carried our rifles every where we went, even when no season was open.

No one gave a second look to three 12 year olds walking into town with our rifles, propping them by the door of Mr. John Harry’s store and going in to buy a coke and pack of crackers for a nickel each and a box of bullets for our rifles. A box of 50 Long Rifle bullets was 62 cents, if I remember right.

The summer I turned 18 I graduated from high school, was accepted at the University of Georgia for that fall, registered for the draft and got a job making roof trusses for a pre fab construction company. One day that summer a few weeks before my 18th birthday I went to buy some .22 bullets at Mr. John Harry’s store and he told me he could not sell them to me since I was not 18 yet.

Although I knew automatic guns and sawed off shot guns were illegal, that was my first run in with so called “common sense gun control laws.” It took five years after President Kennedy was killed with a mail order rifle for congress to “do something” and pass a law that banned mail order sales of guns, as well as sale of rifle ammunition to anyone younger than 18.

That gun control law was supported by the NRA, because it was just the start of the long history of “doing something” that always ended up restricting gun owners rights while doing nothing to have any impact on crime. It sounded somewhat reasonable and didn’t restrict gun owners rights much so it was not opposed. The NRA and I have learned the camel in the tent proverb now and oppose such silly laws since we know if you let a camel get his nose in the tent you will soon be sleeping with a camel.

In the 48 years since that law was passed every time someone uses a gun illegally and makes the news the knee jerk reaction is to “do something” that involves restricting gun owners rights. So now I and many other gun owners oppose all such silly “do something” bills.

Right now the big push is to renew a 1994 law banning some guns because of the way they look. The “assault weapons” ban lasted ten years and was allowed to expire in 2004 because facts showed it had absolutely no effect on gun crime. But now gun banners are trying to bring back such a totally ineffective law.

Rifles of all kinds are hardly ever used in crime. And the way they look had no impact on the way they work. For example, the 1994 law banned the sale of a common gun called an AK 47. So the foreign manufacturers of the AK 47 took the working metal parts of the gun, put them on a different looking wooden stock, and sold it as a MAK 90.

I bought one, mostly out of protest for the stupidity of a law banning guns because of fear. It is fun to shoot, bullets are cheap, and even with a 30 round magazine it has never committed mass murder. I also own an AR 15. It sits quietly in my gun cabinet with its 30 round magazine loaded and attached, and has never jumped out to go shoot somebody. It only comes out to go out to the farm and the only thing it has shot is some paper and a couple of deer.

Another big push is to close a myth, the “gun show loophole.” Since it is a federal felony to sell guns without a FFL unless it is your personal firearm, and any FFL seller must run a background check, there is no loophole.

Expect to hear calls and see childish actions like a sit in shutting down the government because you don’t get your way. Just remember any new law will be as effective in lowering gun crime as the law that stopped me from buying .22 bullets, bullets I had been buying for six or seven years, when I was 17 years old.