Cold Weather When I Was Young

It is amazing how much worse extremely cold weather affects us as we get older. Now all I want to do is sit by the fire when it is freezing outside. I still make myself get out and do things, even going fishing on the worst days, but when I was a kid I loved the cold.

Squirrel hunting is so much better after all the leaves fall and the food for tree rats gets scarce. They have to move a lot more to find buried acorns and other things for lunch, and they are much easier to see in the trees.

When an oak is loaded with leaves a squirrel can go high and sit still and you will never see him. But with bare limbs you can approach the tree, throw a stick to the other side to fool him, and he will edge over to your side, offering an easy shot. And you can see them moving in bare limbs for a hundred yards where earlier you had to get within feet of them to spot them.

A couple of trips stick in my mind. Hal and I were easing through the dead leaves, making as little sound as we could, when we spotted a big black ball up in a oak tree. We had never seen anything like it. We could tell it was furry but it didn’t look like anything we had ever seen.

Hal and I both took aim with our .410 shotguns and fired on the count of three. The critter fell to the ground and, when we got to it, it looked like a squirrel. But it was a whole lot bigger than any squirrel we had ever seen. That was the first time I ever saw a fox squirrel.

Another time Harold and I were squirrel hunting and we saw something big and brown in a tree. It didn’t move. We could tell it was a bird but had no idea what kind. We started to raise our guns and Harold said something. I thought he said for me to shoot but later after fussing at me he said both of us shoot at the same time.

Anyway, I killed a great horned owl. They were not protected way back then, but we really didn’t know what kind of bird we were shooting, anyway. I kept that owl carcass around for months admiring it. I have no idea what it was doing on a low limb in the middle of the day and I have never shot another one.

We would have never have seen the owl or fox squirrel if the trees had been covered with leaves.

There is nothing quite as comforting as building a fire outside on a cold hunting trip and warming for a few minutes. I always wanted to be a pioneer and build fires by rubbing two sticks together or striking a spark with flint. But I never left home without some strike-anywhere matches.

One favorite place to build a fire was in our rock fort. In the edge of one of our fields there was a big rock pile about 50 feet long and 30 feet wide sitting 50 yards from the edge of the woods. There were huge rocks half buried in the ground and smaller rocks were everywhere. Over the years farmers had moved rocks from the field to that spot.

We build a circle rock fort about eight feet across and four feet high. Get down in the middle of it and you were out of the wind and well hidden. We had secret crannies in the rocks to store stuff and had built a simple fireplace. It even had what looked like a chimney but was so full of gaps between the rocks it was for looks only. Smoke came out everywhere.

We would sneak some eggs from the hen house, shoot a couple of birds and head to the fort for a feast. We kept an old tin can in it and would go to the nearby branch for water. It sat on flat rock on the edge of the fireplace and we could boil eggs in it in about thirty minutes.

Birds were plucked and gutted and put on a spit of green branches across the front of the fire. Slowly roasting a robin until it was golden brown gave off a delicious smell and it tasted good, but was so tough it was like trying to eat a good a smelling and good tasting inner tube.

Every winter we hoped for extreme cold. There was on big pool on Dearing Branch. Now by big I mean about ten feet long and eight feet wide. But when it got cold enough it froze over and we cold go ice skating on it. Ice slipping, really, in our boots. One time Joe, a little bigger than the rest of us, broke through and was thigh deep in freezing water immediately. We got mad at him for messing up our skating that day.

Our parents would not have been happy if they knew what we were doing and the possibility of getting wet, but in retrospect they probably did know. But since the branch was waist deep at its deepest, even on us boys, we were not in danger. And we always had our matches, heads dipped in wax to keep the dry, to start a fire and warm up!

Enjoy the cold weather like you are still a kid, if you can stand it!

What Is the Value of Rocky Habitat In Saltwater?

On the Rocks-Value of Rocky Habitat

By Alison Verkade, NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
from The Fishing Wire

Effects on rockx

Effects on rockx

Subtidal rocky gravel habitat recovering from fishing gear impacts on Georges Bank. Photo credit: NOAA-NURP

Marine rocky habitats provide Essential Fish Habitat for many fish species – places where fish can feed, breed and grow. They are places for fish to hide from predators and find food. They are among the most structurally complex habitats in the ocean.

Rocky habitats are three-dimensional, providing both height in the water column and crevices between rocks. These crevices provide fish shelter from predators and strong water currents. Rocky habitats also contain a diversity of sessile (non-mobile) animals and algae that serve as food and cover for young fish.

compare

compare

Disturbed and undisturbed site with Atlantic cod swimming among dense invertebrate coverage. Photo credit: Institute of Marine Research, Norway.

These habitats include gravel, cobble and boulders. You might expect that a habitat made up of rocks would be rugged enough to withstand a lot of disturbance. That is not always the case. It’s really a matter of how much disturbance occurs. Natural or man-made disturbances that cause sedimentation, turbidity, water quality degradation, or directly contacts rocky substrate can harm or change these habitats.

Natural disturbances from typical storm events are usually not destructive because sessile organisms like barnacles and sea squirts are adapted to high-energy environments. They attach to rock surfaces and can remain upright in the moving current to take advantage of the influx of food and nutrients. However, this adaptation also makes them vulnerable to other disturbances they cannot escape. For instance, beach nourishment projects, where sand is used to restore beaches after major storms, can threaten these important habitats. Some of the sand placed on the beach may run off into the surrounding water. The runoff can cover nearby rocky habitats — filling crevices used by fish, or smothering the animals that live there. Other human activities like undersea gravel mining, construction and navigation dredging can actually scrape away the rocks and animals that live there, resulting in a loss of structural complexity.

Cod like rocks

Cod like rocks

Atlantic cod taking shelter in rocky habitat. Photo credit: NOAA Fisheries

What do changes to rocky habitats mean for the fish and other marine life that use them? Scientific studies have shown that algal cover and attached marine organisms in rocky habitats are important in the survivorship of commercial and recreational species like juvenile Atlantic cod, and forage fish like blueback herring, alewife and shad.

For centuries, Atlantic cod supported important commercial and recreational fisheries along the New England coast. Today, the Gulf of Maine cod stock is in poor condition. The condition of the Georges Bank cod stock is not much better, with few young fish being born each year. Blueback herring and alewife, collectively known as river herring, and shad are key components of the marine food chain. While the numbers of alewife seem to be increasing in some rivers, both species’ overall populations are much lower than historic levels. Protecting rocky habitats is important to helping all of these species recover.

Rocks shelter cod

Rocks shelter cod

Cod and rocky habitat. Photo credit: NOAA/SBNMS

How does NOAA Fisheries protect these important habitats?

We make recommendations to other federal agencies that fund or permit beach nourishment, mining or construction projects. We want to help ensure that projects can move forward in a responsible way. The key is to both protect the rocks that make up the habitat and the attached organisms and macroalgae that are essential for fish.

Why Track Florida Redfish?

Scientists Track Florida Redfish

redfish

redfish

Dr. Sue Lowerre-Barbieri and team from Florida’s Fish & Wildlife Research Institute implant acoustic tags in adult red drum to determine habitat use and site fidelity in association with reproduction as part of a three-year study to evaluate red drum spawning stock size and structure in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) fishery is one of the largest and most popular in the state of Florida. Whether it consists of one stock or subpopulations more strongly affected by local fishing pressure is a persistent question for resource managers. To begin to address it, there is a need to better understand reproductive behavior, such as the number and spatial distribution of spawning aggregations and movement to and from these aggregations. Of particular interest is whether red drum exhibit spawning site fidelity by returning consistently to some specific location, such as where they were spawned (known as natal homing).

Large aggregations of red drum form every fall in nearshore Gulf waters to spawn (Figure 1). Spawning typically starts in mid-September and continues for about two months. Since 2009, biologists with the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute have used aerial surveys to assess the distribution and number of spawning aggregations, as well as target aggregations for acoustic tagging.

Big Red

Big Red

Figure 2.
On an acoustic tagging trip, biologists in the air guide colleagues on the water to an aggregation where they catch fish with a rod and reel (Figure 2). Within three to four minutes of bringing the fish on board, biologists

make a small, shallow incision between the pectoral fins along the midline of the belly, taking care to avoid the egg-laden ovaries, which lie close to the body cavity wall (Figure 3a).
insert an acoustic tag into the abdomen (Figure 3b) and close the wound with one or two stitches made of absorbable material (Figure 3c).
take length measurements and insert a dart tag behind the dorsal fin before returning the fish to the water.

3a

3a

Figure 3a. A small incision allows insertion of an acoustic transmitter tag.

3b

3b

Figure 3b. The tag slides into the belly of the fish.

3c

3c

Figure 3c. An absorbable stitch or two closes the incision.

Figure 4

Figure 4

Figure 4. The study area in which biologists conduct aerial surveys and deploy underwater receivers (shown in red) extends from Pinellas County to Sarasota County, roughly 0-7 miles west of the coastline.

During the tagging process, biologists take ovarian samples from females to determine whether fish were about to spawn that night or spawned the day before. A catheter (a small tube with a syringe at the end) is used to extract a few eggs. Later in the laboratory, biologists process the samples to make histology slides, which they examine under a microscope.

One of two types of acoustic tags, continuous or coded, is implanted into a fish. Continuous tags are used to follow an aggregation when reflected sun on the water would make an aggregation difficult to see from the air. Continuous tags constantly emit a signal, allowing biologists to immediately follow and track a released fish with a handheld receiver. The goal–dependent on the tagged fish remaining with the aggregation–is to track the aggregation to its spawning location around dusk.

To evaluate longer-term movements, biologists use coded tags that are passively detected by underwater receivers. Depending on research goals, biologists place 20 to 40 receivers at historic and recent aggregation locations off the mouth of Tampa Bay (Figure 4) to determine whether aggregations return to the same sites within the same spawning season and from year to year. Data from these fixed stations indicates site fidelity, while tracking data may reveal spawning locations. Although both tag types provide movement information, they differ in that continuous tags show both movement and direction over the short term (as long as biologists are able to track it), while coded tags show movement over the long term (up to two years of battery life) but without directionality.

Since 2009, biologists have worked on this methodology to test and improve sampling design as well as collect preliminary data. Results indicate that red drum survive the tag implantation, return to previously identified aggregation sites, and can move up to 16 kilometers (10 miles) a day. Using data collected from these pilot studies, researchers are developing larger-scale studies to estimate red drum spawning stock abundance and assess spawning site fidelity and potential mixing along the Florida west coast.

Why Is January A Good Time To Join A Bass Club?

If you have ever thought about joining a bass club, right now is the perfect time. All three Griffin clubs are starting their new years this month. If you want to join a club, the three clubs give you a variety of options.

The Flint River Club meets the first Tuesday each month so our first meeting is this week. We fish a tournament every month, usually the weekend after the meeting. Most are one day tournaments fished on Sunday but we do have two or three two-day tournaments on Saturday and Sunday.

Since the Flint River club is affiliated with both BASS and FLW Federations you can join either one or both, but you have to be in at least one. Members qualify to fish the state Top Six tournaments in these federations, giving you the opportunity to advance all the way to the BassMasters Classic or the FLW Championship.

Dues in the Flint River Club are $70 in the FLW Federation, but that pays local, state and National dues and gives you FLW membership. For the BASS Federation dues are $60 per year but you must also join BASS separately. Or you can be in both for $110 per year if you also join BASS.

Tournament entry fee is $20 each month, and we pay back the top four places in each tournament. There is also a voluntary $5 big fish pot in each tournament ant the winner of the big fish wins all of it. In addition a cumulative cig cish pot gets you into competition where the first person to catch a six pound bass wins everything in the pot.

The Spalding County Sportsman Club meets the third Tuesday of each month and fishes the following Sunday, with two or three two day tournaments.

This club is in the FLW Federation only. Dues, including local club dues of $25, are a total of $75 per year. Members can qualify for the FLW state top six, held in late March or April each spring. The BASS Top Six is held in November each year.

In this club the tournament entry fee is $25 and we pay back the top four places. There is also a big fish pot and a cumulative big fish pot just like in the Flint River Club. In both clubs, if no one catches a six pounder during the year the member in the cumulative pot catching the biggest bass during the year wins it. And in both clubs, the pot starts over if someone catches a six pounder so it is a new competition.

The Potato Creek Bassmasters meets the Monday after the first Tuesday each month. The clubs stagger dates like this so we don’t have conflicts. They fish the Saturday after the meeting and have a couple of two day tournaments, too.

The Potato Creek club is not affiliated with a federation. Instead, they have their own Classic where members can qualify to fish a tournament for the money in a pot raised during the year. It can be a fairly big amount. They also have the two big fish pots like the other two clubs.

All three clubs allow members to fish by themselves or with another member. We do not have draw tournaments. Also, in both the Flint River and Sportsman clubs members can bring a guest, limited to one time per year per guest. Guests can enter the tournament and daily big fish pot but not the cumulative pots. Members must be at least 16 years old, but youth can fish with adult members in a concurrent youth tournament each month in the Flint River and Spalding County clubs.

All three clubs also award points in each tournament to those catching bass. At the end of the year the point standings earn plaques for the top fishermen and “bragging rights” for a year. Some work hard to do well in all tournaments to place high, and the teams going to the Top Six tournaments are based on point standings, but some don’t seem to care about them.

In the Flint River Club this past year I won the points standings, Chuck Croft was second, Niles Murray was third, fourth was JJ Polak, fifth was Travis Weatherly and sixth place was John Smith.

I also won the Spalding County points standings last year, Raymond English placed second, third was Kwong Yu, fourth was Zane Fleck, Russell Prevatt was fifth and sixth was Niles Murray.

The Potato Creek top six were Raymond English first, James Beasley second, Bobby Ferris third, Lee Hancock fourth, Niles Murray fifth and Mike Cox sixth. As you can see, some of us fish with two clubs and a few are even in all three!

In all three clubs we have more members with boats than members without boats, so we can usually find someone for you to fish with if you don’t have a boat but want to give club fishing a try. It is a lot of fun and a great way to learn how to catch bass better.

What Are Otiliths and How Do Biologists Use Them To Determine Ages of Fish?

Biologists use otiliths to determine the age of fish
from The Fishing Wire

Ever wonder how biologists figure out how old a fish is and how fast it’s growing? Here’s how they do it, from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

Otoliths show fish ages

Otoliths show fish ages

Pictured is an otolith from a largemouth bass. The bottom is the cross-section, revealing the rings of this 8-year-old fish.

Age is one of the most important pieces of data researchers collect about both freshwater and saltwater fish. Biologists use bones in the inner ear of the fish called otoliths, or ear stones, to determine how old an individual fish is. These bones have rings very much like a tree trunk, and every year environmental triggers cause a new ring to form. Biologists remove the otoliths from the fish and count the rings. There are several things researchers can gather from this information.

Size at age: Size at age graphs are created by comparing a fish’s age to its length. This tells researchers how fast the fish are growing and at what age they become big enough to catch. The information from size at age can be used by management officials as part of the decision making process on length limits and to evaluate the quality of the food sources and habitat in a water body.

Year Classes: Researchers can also use age data to follow groups of fish born each year called, year classes. For example, biologists observed large year classes of bass following drawdowns on lakes Toho and Kissimmee. These fish went on to produce many trophy bass and biologists were able to document long-term improvements resulting from management practices.

Mortality: Biologists can estimate the rate that fish die from the number of individuals collected from each year class. This is used to predict how many fish will be available to anglers in future years.

Largemouth bass can reach 16 years old in Florida. After about 8 pounds, some say you can guess the age at about a year per pound. This is nothing more than a good guess though, as FWRI biologists have seen 10 pounders that range from just 4 to 14 years old. Black crappie can make it to 10 but rarely make it past 6 years old. The same goes for most of the bream, like bluegill and shellcracker.

Wildlife Seen from A Deer Stand

You never know what you will see from a deer stand. Friday morning I was settled in my climbing tree stand before daylight, waiting on a deer to wander by. For the next couple of hours I got a show I did not expect.

At about 7:15 two squirrels came out of a hollow tree near me and went through their morning stretches then headed to the ground to look for breakfast. Every time I watch gray squirrels I am amazed at how they can climb down a tree upside down. And I remember being told there is not a gray hair on them, and searching the next one I shot. They have white, black and brown hair but no gray hair, although from a distance they look gray.

Then I saw movement to my right and eased my rifle up. A gray coyote came into sight about 60 yards away, easing along looking for his breakfast, too. I got my scope on him for a few seconds and probably should have pulled the trigger, but he was moving, I didn’t want to spook any deer that might be nearby, and he just looked too pretty to shoot.

After the coyote went out of sight I settled down again and checked my watch. It was almost 8:00. Immediately I caught a flicker of movement to my left, the direction the coyote had gone and I assumed it was him coming back. I was wrong and was amazed when a bobcat came up the ridge.

I have been in the woods a lot in the past 55 years and this is just the second bobcat I have ever seen. The first one came out onto a pipeline I was watching for deer, sitting on a stand my Uncle Adron had put me on at daylight. I was about 16 years old so it was at least 45 years ago, but I still remember thinking how big the cat looked. It was about 100 yards from me and I did not have a scope on my rifle back then, so I could not get a real good look at it.

The one Friday was about 30 yards away and I got a close look at it through my scope. It looked like it was about three feet long from the tip of its nose to the end of its stubby, short tail. The legs were long and the cat seemed to be built for speed. I thought it was about two feet high at the shoulder. The tawny brown fur had dark splotches all over it, with dark stripes on its legs.

The cat crossed the logging road I was watching then headed through the thick pines. I was still thinking about how pretty it was, and how it and the coyotes had probably killed all the rabbits I had seen on the farm over the summer when I heard a deer blow down the hill from where the bobcat had disappeared. I guess it was spooked by the cat but I got my gun ready.

A few minutes later a yearling came up the trail and crossed the road. I got a good look at it through my scope but decided it was just too small to shoot. I like killing a yearling each year and cutting it up into roasts, but I have some in the freezer so I didn’t shoot, hoping a bigger deer with more meat on its bones was following it. No such luck.

Then, about 30 minutes later, another flicker of movement to my left drew my attention. A beautiful red fox came slinking through the woods, going the opposite way the coyote had traveled earlier. I had seen the same fox a few days earlier right at dark but the red color really stood out in the brighter daylight. I watched it through my scope for a minute or so until it went out of sight.

Around 9:30 the two squirrels were back near the hollow tree. I was surprised they were still around after all the predators that like to eat them came by. Another squirrel chattered its warning cry about 100 yards down the hill and the two near me froze, hugging the tree they were in.

A red tail hawk sailed in and lit nearby. I watched its head swivel around looking for something to swoop down on. It stayed put for a couple of minutes then flew on to another hunting spot. After a few minutes the two squirrels near me started moving around again.

I love watching wildlife even if I don’t get to kill any deer while hunting. Seeing a bobcat made my year since they are nocturnal. They are not real rare around here but they mostly move and hunt at night so it is unusual to see one. I am told trappers catch them regularly.

Coyotes are not native here and are a problem. They kill a lot of wildlife, including deer fawns. A pack of them can kill a grown deer and a bobcat can kill a deer too. Foxes kill a lot of song and game birds as well as squirrels and rabbits. Bobcat, hawks and coyotes also take small game and song birds.

But all these animals, predator and prey, are part of nature, just as I am. I think they have their place and have a hard time killing them just to kill them. I would rather share the game animals and enjoy watching the other predators hunting for food, just like I am.

Gunfight Rules

Got this in email – I do my best to follow them. Do you have any to add? Post them in comments.
!

Gunfight Rules

In a gunfight, the most important rule is ….. HAVE A GUN!!!

These are shooting tips from various Concealed Carry Instructors.
If you own a gun, you will appreciate these rules… If not, you should get one, learn how to use it and learn the rules.

RULES
A : Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians.

B : Its always better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

C : Cops carry guns to protect themselves, not you.

D : Never let someone or something that threatens you get inside arm’s length.

E : Never say “I’ve got a gun.” If you need to use deadly force, the first sound they should hear is the safety clicking off or the hammer cocking.

F : The average response time of a 911 call is 23 minutes; the response time of a .357 is 1400 feet per second.

G : The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always Win – there is no such thing as a fair fight. Always Win – cheat if necessary. Always Win – 2nd place doesn’t count.

H : Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets …. You may get killed with your own gun, but he’ll have to beat you to death with it because it will be empty.

I : If you’re in a gun fight:
(a) If you’re not shooting, you should be loading.
(b) If you’re not loading, you should be moving.
(c) If you’re not moving, you’re dead.

J : In a life and death situation, do something …. it may be wrong, but do something!

K : If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. Nonsense! If you have a gun, what do you have to be paranoid about?

L : You can say “stop” or any other word, but a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much a universal language; and, you won’t have to press 1 for Spanish/Mexican or 2 for Chinese or 3 for Arabic.

M : Never leave an enemy behind. If you have to shoot, shoot to kill. In court, yours will be the only testimony.

N : You cannot save the planet, but you may be able to save yourself and your family.
If you believe in the 2nd Amendment, forward to others you know who also believe.

Are Tail-Spinners Good for Cold Water Fishing?

Try a Tail-Spinner for Cold Water Angling

Today’s feature comes to us from Lee McClellan at Kentucky DFWR.
by Lee McClellan
from The Fishing Wire

This is the sixth and final installment of a series of articles titled “Fall Fishing Festival” profiling the productive fishing on Kentucky’s lakes, rivers and streams in fall.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Some lures on the market have stood the test of time, catching fish decade after decade. The Dardevle spoon, the Panther Martin and Rooster Tail in-line spinners, the Jitterbug and the Hula Popper still catch fish today like they did when swing music topped the charts.

The tailspinner is another old-time lure that still catches fish consistently, and one of the best winter lures for black bass.

“The tailspinner is one of the only lures to catch a documented 10-pound smallmouth bass and a documented 10-pound largemouth bass,” said Chad Miles, administrative director for the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

They are not just bass lures, however. They also catch sauger and walleye below locks and dams during the winter months. Trout also hit tailspinners as do white bass during their spring spawning runs.

The lure is a simple design; a piece of lead impregnated with wire and a small Indiana or hammered Colorado spinner blade attached behind it with a treble hook underneath.

A Bowling Green businessman named Cecil Pedigo began tinkering with a tailspinner design in the 1960s. He employed a triangular-shaped piece of lead with a concave face to help the lure sink slower, along with a hooked dressed in marabou behind a small Indiana spinner blade.

He called it the Spinrite, still held in legendary regard among smallmouth anglers in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Uncle Josh Company purchased the Spinrite from Pedigo and discontinued the lure many years ago, but a Kentucky company is bringing the lure back, appearing in tackle stores in the state soon. Tailspinners are also found in tackle stores around major reservoirs in Kentucky and from most outdoor retailers.

The late Billy Westmoreland, considered by many the greatest reservoir smallmouth angler of all time, caught a 10-pound, 1-ounce monster smallmouth on a Spinrite in late winter while slicing points with one on Dale Hollow Lake. He also hooked a smallmouth on Christmas Day of 1970 that he believed weighed between 12 and 14 pounds, larger than the world record. The Spinrite popped out of the fish’s mouth during a long fight. The memory haunted him for many years.

Slicing points with a tailspinner is a highly effective and easy presentation for black bass in winter. Fire a tailspinner to a main lake or secondary point and let it flutter down to bass suspended near the point. Reel just enough to keep the line taut and watch intently. Set the hook if you see your line jump, go slack or you no longer feel the blade of the tailspinner thumping in your hand.

This presentation is deadly on difficult-to-fish steep points that grow in importance to bass when water temperatures drop to 50 degrees and below. Fish the front and both sides of the point.

A ½-ounce tailspinner is the most popular, but a ¾-ounce works well in windy conditions or on deep lakes. These weights work best for smallmouth and spotted bass on our clear, mountainous lakes such as Lake Cumberland or Laurel River Lake.

A ¼-ounce tailspinner works fantastic for sleepy, lethargic winter largemouth bass in shallower reservoirs such as Barren River Lake, Green River Lake, Yatesville Lake, Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Largemouth bass are the toughest of the black bass to catch during winter.

The late Ted Crowell, former assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, used to catch largemouth bass from Lake Barkley in winter on a Spinrite. He said many of the fish were so fat they weighed 5 pounds, but were only 18 or 19 inches long.

“You can cast it out and fish it like a spinnerbait over grass or mud flats,” Miles said. “The flats near deep water often hold big largemouths in winter.”

The compact design of a tailspinner makes it easy to throw one a country mile. Increased casting distance lends more stealth for the low, clear winter conditions on reservoirs.

Extra casting distance also comes in handy for walleye or sauger below locks and dams in winter as well as during the spring white bass runs. Sauger strike tailspinners fished just off the bottom below locks and dams on the Ohio and Kentucky rivers during the coldest days of the year.

Walleye in the tailwaters below Lake Cumberland, Green River, Carr Creek and Nolin River lakes strike tailspinners as well.

Smart anglers fishing below dams replace the treble hooks with a sharp single hook to reduce lures lost on the snag-prone bottom common in these areas. This is a good idea for those throwing tailspinners for trout in tailwaters as well.

White bass running in the headwaters of Nolin River, Taylorsville or Herrington lakes strike tailspinners with abandon, often soon after the lure splashes down.

Tie on a tailspinner this winter and let this old war horse work its magic.

Author Lee McClellan is a nationally award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

Auld Lang Syne and Remembering People

The song “Auld Lang Syne asks “Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?” The beginning of the new year is a good time to remember our past and people that influenced our lives. They should not be forgotten.

Many people impact us over our lives and affect the way we think and the things we like to do. Most important are our parents and family but it branches out to people we go to school with, work with, and meet in clubs and church.

Do you ever stop and think about what influenced you to love fishing? All kids seem to instinctively like fishing and enjoy going, but many never get that chance. And others seem to turn away from fishing as they grow up. But without the chance to go fishing growing up, few will become fishermen after they become adults.

Although I had only one brother, my father and mother had many brothers and sisters and those aunts and uncles influenced me in many ways. Most of them lived within a few miles of where I grew up so I had lots of contact with them all the time.

Uncle Adron, my mother’s youngest brother of five, took me deer hunting my first time when I was 14 years old. He also took me fishing and introduced me to Crème worms, the first plastic worms to come out, back in the 1950s. He taught me where to fish them, how to fish them, and ways to fight and land bass that hit.

Uncle Mayhu lived in Virginia but made annual summer trips to Georgia. I always looked forward to his visits because I got to go fishing with him almost every day he was in town. He and Uncle Adron fished together and let me go along on most of the trips to local farm ponds and lakes. Uncle Adron had permission to fish almost every pond in the county and we had many memorable trips.

I also got to go to New Port News, Virginia and visit Uncle Mayhu most years. He took me to tidal rivers and creeks to catch catfish and bass as well as fishing for saltwater fish in the James River and Chesapeake Bay. Those saltwater trips were great and I was amazed at how many fish we caught, and the variety. Many I had never seen or even heard of in central Georgia since there was no saltwater fishing within many miles of where I grew up.

Uncle J.D. owned a hardware store and he sold fishing and hunting supplies there. I bought many of my fishing and hunting supplies there at a very steep discount. It seemed something extra was always included after my purchase, too.

He also had a farm where we shot doves and fished in his pond. He gave me and army surplus gas mask bag the first time I hunted there when I was about eight years old and I still use it to this day, over fifty years later, to carry essentials when I go deer hunting. Old and ragged now, I carry it for the memories although newer more fancy bags are left at home.

Uncle Roger was a salesman for a big outdoor distribution company and always seemed to have something for me when I visited. From boxes of bullets to a brand new bass plug, he seemed to delight in my thrill of getting those items and using them. He did not fish much but loved to hear about the fish I caught on things he had given me.

Uncle Walter, daddy’s brother, took me saltwater fishing the first time I ever went. He loved going to Carrabelle on Florida’s panhandle and fish for trout. We went and stayed a week and the wind blew so bad we were able to go out only one day, but I fished in the boat canal and caught dozens of topsail catfish.

Those men will live in my memory as long as I am alive. I cherish the things they taught me and the trips I took with them. And they helped instill the love of fishing I have that will also live in me as long as I live. My mother loved fishing, too, and was probably the biggest influence on me, and that is a strong motivation in my life.

Family is important. At the end of the year, remember people who have influenced you and honor their memory. In fact, do that every day, not just at the end of the year.

Christmas Time Growing Up Country

Christmas was always a wondrous time growing up in rural Georgia in the 1950s and 60s. We had little compared to today but we had great fun and I have fantastic memories of those Christmases long past. I hope today’s kids are experiencing things they will always remember, too.

Until I was 12 years old I lived in an old farm house that was heated by an oil burning stove. It sat in front of the old fireplace that still had a mantle so that is where we hung our stockings. And they were stockings. We always talked mom into letting us have one of her worn out stockings – and back then, they were stockings, one for each leg – to hang. It would hold a lot!

Oranges and apples were always in them and I enjoyed them, but more fun were the boxes of sparklers, caps for the cap gun I played with for years, some fish hooks and sinkers, and other small items. Sometimes there were small toys, too, but they were usually quickly lost.

Santa always left some great outdoor gifts. Every year I got a block of ten boxes of .22 bullets and several boxes of .410 shells. I got a used .22 rifle when I was about 8 years old and it was great, but when I was 12 there was a brand new Remington semiautomatic .22 with a scope on it under the tree. I still have that gun and shoot squirrels with it.

The .410 shotgun was a hand-me-down and it killed many squirrels and a few doves and quail. My brother still has that gun. He got it when I started using dad’s 12 gauge shotguns. He had three, an old pump Winchester he had growing up, and two semiautomatic guns.

That old pump gun was temperamental. It had a hammer and a very light trigger. So light that sometimes it would fire when a shell was loaded and the slide slammed shut. One day I was sitting on a tree lying in the woods and bumped the butt against it. Fortunately the gun was pointing straight up since it fired. I learned then to never cock the hammer until I was ready to shoot it.

I still have that old pump and the two semiautomatic shotguns and use them when I get to go bird hunting.

Family and friends were very important and we always spent time with my uncles and aunts and dozens of cousins. We usually visited them the days after Christmas since we were in Florida the week before Christmas. One of my aunts lived in Ocala and dad’s mother lived with her. We would head down there the day after school holidays started and spend several days with them.

I loved Florida, from visiting Silver Springs to picking oranges right off the tree. Strange thing was, the oranges in our stockings looked a lot like the ones we had picked and brought home. I also loved digging in the soft sandy soil in my aunt’s back yard. I spent hours digging holes – and filling them back up.

Christmas lights were great and we got to see a good many on our trip since we drove straight through both ways, and it was about a 12 hour drive back then. We passed one house in south Georgia that had a very pretty yard and a pond in front of it. My mom said it was her dream house. They had some lights around the house that the pond reflected and they were beautiful.

Christmas lights were very subdued back then compared to now. No light icicles hanging from eaves, no big lighted statues in the yard. Most house had a single Christmas tree in front of a window. A few had lighted trees outside and very few had other lights. Many houses did have manger displays, the real reason for the season, and it seems it was more honored back then.

I did get to go hunting during the holidays, from trips by myself to kill squirrels to running my friends pack of beagles for rabbits. I loved both. Deer hunting was a few years in the future back then. I didn’t go deer hunting until I was 16, just a couple of years after the first season opened in Georgia.

We also hunted Christmas decorations. An old abandoned field a couple of miles from our house had a lot of cedar trees in it and they were perfect Christmas trees. We also went to an old home site and collected Smilax, which I found out later is green briar. It stays green all winter and was thick at the old home site. We made wreaths out of it and also framed our door with it. It was very pretty since everything else was pretty drab after the leaves fell off the pecan trees in the yard.

I hope you have some great Christmas memories and make even more this year.