VOLUME 1 • NUMBER 1
REPOWER REPORT
JUNE 1, 2019
This is the first edition of Paradise Marine Center’s Repower Report. This feature will run on a regular basis and will showcase one of the many repower projects performed by Paradise Marine. Each new report will feature product specifications on different outboard engines for all types of boats. We will also tell the story behind the project, the users, and their boats. In the first issue, we caught up with fishing guide Capt. Tim String, of Southern Outdoors Adventures. What is the make and model of your boat and how long have you owned it? My boat is a 2008 21’ Frontier Bay Boat which I have owned for over 9 years. It was previously powered by another manufacturers 150HP 4 stroke. How do you use your boat? I guide fishing clients all over Mobile Bay and the Delta. I also chase near shore species in the Gulf at certain times of the year. How did you decide to repower with a new Suzuki? I have owned all brand outboards; Mercury, Honda, Yamaha, Evinrude and Suzuki. I had previous
Capt. Tim String of Southern Outdoor Adventures. For trip information 251-610-7849
Suzuki ownership experience. I purchased a 70 HP Suzuki from Paradise Marine 11 years ago for a 17’ Boston Whaler. It had always given me good service and I was very satisfied with it. On this repower decision, I went with the recommendation of Kenny Myers, the outboard Master Tech Mechanic at Paradise Marine. He told me that Suzuki was the only way to go. I decided to go with the 175HP in line 4 cylinder, based on his expertise and our long relationship. What impresses you most about your Suzuki? There are four things that stand out for me when I compare it to my previous outboard. In my business of guiding clients, hole shot is an important consideration in shallow water. In this respect, the Suzuki excels. The hole shot is phenomenal, but not at the expense of top end speed. This baby flat out moves my boat. One of the most notable differences is the complete lack of vibration from the engin... it is smooth as silk. You could feel the previous engines vibration while holding the console handrail... not on this motor. There is no transmitted vibration to speak of. My customers constantly tell me how quiet this motor is compared to their 4 strokes. I also like the fuel economy of this engine, as I have 25 more horsepower without any increased fuel burn. Give us a memorable Fishing experience? Just the other day a personal friend of mine and
Questions about repowering? Paradise Marine Center is located at County Rd 8 and Hwy 59 in Gulf Shores. 251-968-2628
I ventured to South Mobile Bay to fish. We fished all morning with little success. We decided to have lunch at Tacky Jacks at Ft. Morgan and decide what to do next. We figured we would head back up Mobile Bay, and see if we could change our luck. On the way, I stopped and netted some menhaden. We hit our first spot and started live chumming with menhaden and got the trout in a frenzy. During the next three hours, we caught over 60 trout, weighing from 3-6 pounds. We went from zeros to heros in just a few hours.
SUZUKI 175HP Inline 4-Cylinder 4-Stroke Outboard Suzuki's DF175 is based on an inline four cylinder DOHC powerhead with a 175 cu. in. displacement. While the large displacement contributes greatly to producing exceptional acceleration and torque, it doesn't mean that they are comparatively larger and heavier in size. On the contrary, Suzuki's engineers have targeted this big block motor to be one of the lightest four strokes in the 175 HP class. At 474 pounds, Suzuki leads the class in power to weight ratio in a compact design. Offset Drive shaft for better balance on the transom. Self adjusting, oil bathed timing chain vs. over head belt. No belt maintenance or adjustment necessary. Variable Valve Timing for better midrange torque, Multipoint Sequential Electronic Fuel Injection for Top Performance in All Conditions. 2.50 : 1 vs. 2.00 :1. Lower gear ratio to swing a larger prop for improved acceleration.
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35 YEARS EXPERIENCE
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HUNTING & FISHING IN ALABAMA & THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE
FEATURES 8 14 18 24
8
14
18
28
EARLY SEASON BOWHUNTING TIPS By John E. Phillips A VISIT TO ANGLING PARADISE By Frank Sargeant KILLER FOOD PLOTS IN THE WOODS By John E. Phillips FEEL THE THUMP: A ONE POLE APPROACH STILL A GREAT OPTION FOR CRAPPIE By Greg McCain
28
WETLAND CREATION CREATING DUCK HUNTING HABITAT By Charles Johnson
34 54
HUNTING LAND INSURANCE ARE YOU REALLY COVERED? By Stephanie Mallory HOW TO CATCH A TRIPLETAIL WHEN THE PRESSURE PICKS UP By Mike Thompson
IN EVERY ISSUE Bets 6 Best by William Kendy
54
50
40
New Gear for Outdoorsmen by Great Days Outdoors Staff
48
The Gun Rack National Shooting Sports Month
42
From the Commissioner WFF Nongame Program Focuses on Biological Diversity
44
Hunting Heritage Profiles in Courage
46
From the Director Newest Waterfowl Hunting Opportunity
58
Paddle Fishing Late Summer Kayak Fishing Tips by Ed Mashburn
Kitchen 50 Camphouse by Hank Shaw
4 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
FISHING OUTLOOKS 60
Pier and Shore by David Thornton
62
Gulf Coast by Mike Thompson
64
Regional Freshwater by Alex Granpere
68
Prime Feeding Times, Moon, Sun, and Tide Charts
72
Pensacola Motorsports Trophy Room
74 76 77
Great Days Kids Corner
78
Catfish- Are They Really in the Cat Family? by Jim Mize
Classifieds & Fishin' Guides Fishing Tips by Captain Brian Barton
PROPERTY PHOTO HERE
PROPERTY PHOTO HERE
Cedar Creek Farms
Alabama River Waterfront Hunting Tract
Cedar Creek Farms is a one of a kind sportsman’s paradise. With over 1 mile of frontage off of Cedar Creek on Lay Lake, this property offers year-round recreational PROPERTY TEXT HERE opportunities. Build your dream lake house with a 500 acre backyard to play in. Boat and fish in the lake in the warm months or play golf at the nearby FarmLinks Golf Club. The property is a natural wildlife hub due to the frontage on Cedar Creek. Wildlife from all around come to the hardwood bottoms along the creek. There are rolling hills above the creek bottom making for excellent nesting and roosting habit for turkeys. The swamp off of Cedar Creek makes for a wood duck honeyhole. If fishing is your thing, Lay Lake is one of the best bass lakes in Alabama. A boat or kayak can be put in from the banks of the farm or a dock could be made for a boat. This property offers a one of kind opportunity for the avid outdoorsman.
This diverse waterfront hunting and timber investment with 3,067 feet of frontage on the Alabama River and Bailey’s Creek is a rareTEXT find. Located off CR 1 between Chrysler and PROPERTY HERE Perdue Hill, an area well known for quality deer, turkey, dove, and duck hunting, just over an hour from both Mobile and Spanish Fort. Enjoy easy access off Bailey’s Creek Road and an intricate internal road and trail system to access the multiple food plots, two duck ponds, and equipment shed on the property. Timber types include mature, unthinned hardwood, pine plantations that are almost ready for their first thinning, and recently converted pine plantation. Utilities are available at the offset camp site and there are multiple potential fishing lake sites and camp sites with hilltop views. Land of this quality is rarely available in this area, much less on the river.
Talladega County, Alabama, 537+/-Acres
Alabama Listings COUNTY Autauga Autauga Autauga Autauga Autauga Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Barbour Barbour Barbour Bibb Bibb Bibb Blount Blount Blount Blount Blount Bullock Bullock Butler Butler Butler
ACRES 535 317.65 240 116 110 3636 1995 710 492 425 346 200 179 98.6 30 24 87 80 66 60 50 80 48.6 395 54 10
Calhoun Calhoun Calhoun Calhoun Calhoun Chilton Chilton Choctaw Choctaw Choctaw Choctaw Choctaw Clarke Clarke Clarke Clarke Clarke Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Cleburne Cleburne Cleburne Cleburne
147.3 102 100 26.91 25 221 65.4 216 107 38 25 20 526 520 220 54 26 117 80 42 40 38 377 80 57 56.48
COUNTY Coffee Coffee Colbert Colbert Colbert Colbert Colbert Conecuh Coosa Coosa Coosa Coosa Covington Covington Covington Covington Crenshaw Cullman Cullman Dallas Dallas Dallas Dallas Dallas Elmore Elmore
ACRES 254 6 40 36 36 25 2 10 440 151 62 45 331 153.07 43 3 134 876.25 100 463.54 140 82.73 64 27 2000 450
Elmore Elmore Elmore Escambia Escambia Escambia Etowah Etowah Etowah Fayette Fayette Fayette Fayette Fayette Franklin Franklin Franklin Franklin Franklin Greene Greene Greene Hale Hale Hale Hale
342 264 213 671.6 68 27 275 167.3 57 260 232 155 133 112 608 563 552 165 118 30 1 0.72 940 186 96 92
COUNTY Hale Henry Henry Jefferson Jefferson Jefferson Jefferson Jefferson Lamar Lamar Lamar Lamar Lamar Lauderdale Lauderdale Lawrence Limestone Lowndes Lowndes Lowndes Lowndes Lowndes Macon Macon Madison Marengo
Monroe County, Alabama, 305+/-Acres
ACRES 88 200 104.5 400 330 245 125 94 192 136 104 92 80 60 30 80 1.36 1181 1013 790 783 656 930 60 100 772
Marengo Marion Marion Marion Marion Marion Mobile Mobile Mobile Mobile Mobile Monroe Monroe Monroe Monroe Monroe Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Morgan Perry Perry Perry Perry
264 387 325 250 215 120 1800 260 200 192 173 790 378.49 305 129 40 858 697 623 500 469 150 604.33 386 200 189
COUNTY ACRES Perry 120 Pickens 837 Pickens 450 Pickens 430 Pickens 217 Pickens 150 Pike 352.8 Pike 160 Pike 80 Randolph 407 Randolph 329 Randolph 78 Randolph 60 Randolph 52.4 Russell 1403 Russell 711.35 Russell 692.31 Saint Clair 296 Saint Clair 100 Saint Clair 41.95 Saint Clair 29 Saint Clair 14.28 Shelby 458 Shelby 253 Shelby 93 Shelby 43.56
Shelby Sumter Sumter Sumter Sumter Sumter Talladega Talladega Talladega Talladega Talladega Tallapoosa Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa
41 740 350 240 213 188 1314 1015 882 723.5 537 20.917 153 71
COUNTY ACRES Tuscaloosa 71 Tuscaloosa 70 Tuscaloosa 57 233 Walker 65 Walker Washington 1261 Washington 480 Washington 313 Washington 240 Washington 160 2365 Wilcox 2.5 Wilcox 84 Winston
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BEST BETS
BEST BETS FOR AUGUST These are our top targets for hunters and fishermen this month! BY WILLIAM KENDY
EARLY AND LATE AND SHADE IS GREAT In reviewing and editing all of the fishing articles for the August GDO I found that almost to a person our expert contributors agreed on three key points for “high summer” fishing. The first was regardless of whether you are fishing from a pier, beach, offshore, on the bank or floating on a river or lake, your chances of success are better if you fish early, late and take advantage of the shade offered by docks, overhanging trees, anchored boats or rafts, log jams, lily pads and even floating debris. You should also capitalize on any creeks or streams that afford cooler fish holding water.
VOLUME 23, ISSUE 8 August 2019
PUBLISHED BY: Great Days Outdoors Media, L.L.C. PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Joe Baya ASSISTANT EDITOR: Bill Kendy CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Wendy Johannesmann ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Samatha Hester
CONTRIBUTING FREELANCE WRITERS:
SUCCESS IS IN THE DETAILS Even though it may be scorching hot outside many hunters start to turn their thoughts to hunting season, especially if you are “Two Season Hunter” and August is a great time to start getting ready. John Phillips in his article, “Early Season Bowhunting Tips” shares his insight and years of experience as to things that hunters need to consider and do before and even during the early hunting season. From equipment preparation to practice to scouting to stand placement to timing and wind consideration John brings all of the pieces together. Phillip’s article on “Killer Food Plots” in this issue is also a must read.
IT’S AMBERJACK TIME August is the time for Amberjack off of the Alabama coast. Amberjack are structure fish so they will be hanging around high artificial reefs, rock piles, sunken wrecks or oil rigs. According to Angelo DePaola of the Coastal Connection in Orange Beach presenting a big live hardtail or a live bonito at an angle is the way to go (See this month’s Coastal Outlook”). Other baits such as Blue Runners, cigar minnows and vertical jigs will also work. Amberjack are tough big fish so conventional tackle in the 80-100 pound test level is standard gear. As an added bonus DePaola points out that you may also run across some grouper hanging out.
Chris Blankenship Daryl Bell Alex Granpere Craig Haney Charles Johnson Ed Mashburn Doug Max Greg McCain
John E. Phillips Corky Pugh Chuck Sykes Mike Thompson David Thornton Jim Barta Jim Mize Deneshia Larson
Patrick Garmeson Hank Shaw Joe Baya Don Green Babe Winkelman Bobby Abruscato J. Wayne Fears Nick Williams
Great Days Outdoors (USPS 17228; ISSN 1556-0147) is published monthly at P.O. Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 Subscription rate is $24 for one-year, $40 for two-years, and $55 for three-years. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stapleton, Ala. and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Great Days Outdoors Media, LLC PO Box 460248 Escondido, CA 92046 SUBSCRIBERS: All subscriptions begin the first issue for the month following receipt of payment, if payment is received by the 15th. Great Days Outdoors assumes no responsibility for delivery after magazines are mailed. All delivery complaints should be addressed to your local postmaster. CONTACT US: EDITORIAL | JoeBaya@greatdaysoutdoors.com ADVERTISING | SamHester@greatdaysoutdoors.com SUBSCRIPTIONS | greatdaysoutdoors@pcspublink.com Great Days Outdoors Media LLC PO Box 460248 Escondido, CA 92046 877. 314. 1237 info@greatdaysoutdoors.com www.greatdaysoutdoors.com All rights reserved. Reproduction of contents is strictly prohibited without permission from Great Days Outdoors Media, LLC.
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Early Season Bowhunting Tips BY JOHN E. PHILLIPS
In August if you haven’t already shot your bow and tuned it up, then resolve to start today. 8 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HUNTING
Always practice shooting your bow correctly for the most success. You can own the finest bow money can buy, the most-accurate broadhead available, the latest and best camo, gallons of odor killer and 50 pounds of deer attractant, but you still must prepare before and during bow season to have the most success hunting deer. Here are recommendations from some of the best bowhunters nationwide. TUNE UP FOR BOW SEASON If you’re a two-season deer hunter and hunt with a bow before your gun/deer season arrives, the best money you’ll ever spend on deer hunting will be to take your bow, arrows and release to a bow shop and have a professional archer tune your bow to make sure it performs the best it can. You also may want to get with an archery coach to check your form to make sure you’re shooting as accurately as possible. Shooting 3D archery is another way to tune up your bowhunting. CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT “I expect every piece of hunting equipment I own to fail at some time,” says nationally known bowhunting instructor Dr. Robert Sheppard of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “If you’re a seasoned bowhunter who hunts through the seasons with your bow, you must realize the importance of constantly cleaning your bow and other equipment.” “Before I hunt, I try and anticipate how, when and where my
equipment can fail, and then I attempt to prevent this from happening,” Sheppard said. “I check all my tree stands each season before I hunt. I test my bow. I sharpen my broadheads. I inspect my clothing. I go over every piece of equipment with a fine-tooth comb, checking for worn places and repairs that need to be made. Nothing’s worse than spending the time required to become proficient with a bow and to find a nicesized deer to shoot at and then failing to take that deer due to an oversight with your equipment.” PRACTICE SHOOTING YOUR BOW CORRECTLY I learned from the late Howard Hill of Harpersville, Alabama, the importance of practicing shooting your bow before and during deer season.. The first white man to take an elephant with a bow, Hill did all of the trick shooting in the movie “Robin Hood,” starring Errol Flynn and took ducks on the wing and deer on the run. An instinctive shooter, Hill was a master of detail. Every day until just a few months before he died, Hill shot a minimum of 100 arrows a day at targets – constantly going through the procedure of draw, aim and shoot. Hill told me, “Shooting arrows correctly improves your marksmanship.” The late Hugh Blackburn, a member of Archery’s Hall of Fame, agreed.
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Early Season Bowhunting Tips
“Practice alone doesn’t make a better shooter or a better archer. Practicing properly will train the archer to shoot correctly. The little things like being sure you come to the same anchor point each time you shoot, having a clean release, positioning your body properly for shooting and gripping the string correctly are often overlooked details that are required for consistent shooting and must be practiced regularly. Just because you’ve been bowhunting for several years doesn’t mean that you know how to shoot accurately. Allow someone else to evaluate your shooting and help you to correct it. Then when you have the opportunity to draw-down on a deer, the arrow will strike true when it flies,” Blackburn said.
a place that has less sign but a favorable wind and less hunting pressure. •
How much food is left where you plan to hunt? Of your five potential stands, the region with the most deer sign in it may have had the food depleted due to the deer’s intense feeding. Therefore an area that has more food in it but less deer traffic actually may be a better site to hunt than a site that’s been extremely active the previous week.
•
What effect will the weather have where you plan to hunt? If a storm hits on a hunt day, you may prefer to hunt a place with really thick cover, rather than an open feeding area. But if a warm front is moving in on your hunt day, you probably can assume that the deer will be active.
CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS In other words, don’t overlook anything while scouting. •
Which area have you been away from the longest that has had the least amount of hunting pressure? Deer are more likely to frequent good hunting sites when their chances of seeing hunters there are less.
•
Which of your hunting regions can you approach with a favorable wind? To make the proper stand choice on hunt day, you must know the direction in which you’ll have to walk to your hunting site, and what wind conditions are the most favorable for that particular stand.
•
Which stand has had the most deer activity of the sites you’ve picked? Oftentimes because of wind direction or due to the site with the most deer activity also may have had the most hunting pressure, you shouldn’t go to the spot with the most deer sign. However, you may pick
Identifying the best place to hunt on the day you plan to hunt should involve more than locating a tree stand site where there’s evidence of feeding activity. If you overlook small details like wind and weather conditions, hunting pressure and availability of food on the day you plan to hunt, your entire scouting program may be just wasted time. BUILD A BUCK “HOT SPOT” During preseason scouting, create a buck hotspot to use. Search for thick-cover areas like: Old fields that have been allowed to grow up in weeds; Two or three year-old clear cuts;
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Early Season Bowhunting Tips
Practice alone doesn’t make a better shooter or a better archer. Practicing properly will train the archer to shoot correctly. Big briar patches around old home places; Cane thickets on the edges of creek banks; Old hedgerows that have grown up in briars and brambles; and or Areas that have been timbered, with the limbs and brush left on the ground for a year or two. Walk completely around these thick-cover regions, and look for an easily-identifiable landmark, such as a very tall tree, a big old dead tree, a large stump, a little creek or a sinkhole, any type of terrain break or landmark you can identify at night. Next, try to determine the direction of the prevailing wind in your area. Walk straight into the thicket with the landmark at your back. Ten to 12 yards into the thicket, use pruning shears and a small handsaw to cut a path. You don’t want other hunters to see this path from outside the thicket. Cut the path to the center of the thicket, two to three feet wide. Then cut an eight foot diameter circle in the center of the thicket for placement of a blind. Next, cut three shooting lanes, five to 10 yards apart, that extend from the circle 30-40 yards into the thicket. Leave the area, and don’t return until you’re ready to hunt. PLOT YOUR WAY TO A BUCK You accurately can predict when, where and from what direction you can expect a deer to show up. But to have a successful deer hunt, you must get to your stand without spooking the buck you hope to take. Although most deer hunters know this fact, few hunters understand how to accomplish this feat. To get into your stand before daylight, 1/2- to 1 1/2-miles from the nearest road, you once had only several options. You could: 1. Leave flagging tape marking the path from your stand site to the truck. However, you also told every other hunter in the woods to follow your flagging tape to your tree-stand site. Often another hunter would move to that spot with a wrong wind and spook the deer you’d planned to bag. Or, on the morning you wanted to hunt, the other hunter might be at your stand site when you reached it. 2. Attempt to find your way back to your stand in the dark without getting lost. If you’d hunted the same area for years and had good navigation skills, you might could walk a straight line for a mile or more in the dark, but probably not 3. Follow a compass course at night in the dark without us-
Putting out trail cameras before bow season starts will aid you in pinpointing deer and learning where they feed, bed and move.
ing your flashlight to get to your tree stand. If you turned your flashlight on, a deer could see it for a great distance. Even if you used a flashlight, your compass wouldn’t put you exactly at your tree stand. 4. Wait until first light to see the direction you needed to go to reach your tree stand and hope you got in your stand before the deer came along the trail you expected him to take. All these options have problems associated with them. However, you can solve many of these hunting problems by utilizing a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Once you log your stand site as a waypoint in your GPS receiver, you can navigate back to that stand site within 20 feet at any time of the day or the night without getting lost. You can also walk a straight line back to your vehicle using the GPS receiver if you’ve marked your truck as a waypoint. A GPS receiver allows you to go to your stand site in the dark without getting lost. The GPS receiver also will tell you how far you are from your stand and keep you on course. Then you’ll walk the shortest distance from your vehicle to your stand site. Successful deer hunters usually reach their stand sites long before daylight and well ahead of the bucks. Today, many hunters prefer to use www.onxmaps.com since they don’t have to have cell phone service to use this app, which includes maps and wind and weather tools used by many professional hunters and used by many professional hunters and coordinates with your GPS to work offline. Also placing trail cameras in your hunting area before and during bow season will help you identify where and how deer are moving.
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Early Season Bowhunting Tips
TIME YOUR HUNT Although deer never do what we think they will all the time, usually they are creatures of habit. Generally, deer will feed at night or early in the morning, return to their bedding area at daylight and eat again just before dark. In regions of intense hunting pressure, deer may remain in thick cover all day or may feed in the middle of the day when the smallest number of hunters stay in the woods. During the rut, bucks often will appear in the daytime at any place that does frequent, including scrapes and feeding sites. Based on these assumptions, you can hunt two or three stand sites in one day, if you know how to navigate effectively. For instance, if you hunt a bedding area or a scrape next to a bedding place during the rut, then you’ll probably see a buck just before daylight until an hour or two after daylight. If the section of land you hunt has plenty of hunting pressure, you know most hunters will leave the woods around 11:00 am and return about 2:00 pm from their lunch breaks. After you’ve hunted a bedding region in the morning, you may want to move to a feeding spot where bucks may appear during the middle of the day to feed. They know they more than likely won’t have a hunter encounter at that time of day. At 12:30 pm, you may want to change stands again and move to a creek crossing or an escape trail, understanding that as hunters return to the woods, they’ll spook deer. The bucks then will head back toward their thick cover sanctuaries. At 3:00 pm or so, you may want to move your stand site again and walk to a bedding area where you hope to see a buck leaving this region just before dark to go to his feeding place.
Practice shooting your bow from various distances, using a rangefinder to see how well you’ve guessed the distance.
However, just changing stand sites won’t insure your success. You have to know before you move that when you get to the new stand site that you can hunt with a favorable wind, so that the buck can walk to you without smelling you. You also must understand how far you are from the stand and in what direction you need to walk in to move quickly to that stand. A GPS receiver will give you this information if you’ve logged all your stand sites in as waypoints. Also with a GPS receiver, you can stay on your stand until the last minutes of shooting time and still walk out of the woods in the dark to your vehicle with no difficulty. FIND BUCKS WHERE NO ONE ELSE WANTS TO HUNT To pinpoint big bucks, hunt in areas where no one else wants to hunt. Some hunters have recognized that they take the biggest bucks on their properties from the spots most hunters believe are the worst stands, including: stands near highways, in open fields and sometimes on the edges of a pine plantation; in small necks of woods not 100-yards from hunting camps with activity; in the middles of extremely dense cover where the hunter may not be able to see more than 20 yards, since the deer may walk through little openings in thick cover during the daytime; and/or on a small island in shallow water where the hunter must wear chest-high waders to reach it by slugging through 1/2-mile of swampy, muddy, water; and at sites in the middle of extremely dense cover where the hunter may not be able to see more than 20 yards. But these assumptions may not be true, although most hunters assume that if they can’t see for a long distance they can’t spot a big buck. You can have success taking deer in the early bow season. 12 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
It’s easy to love the rain when you’re prepared for the storm. In Alabama, we love the rain. It gives us beautiful forests, a thriving agriculture and even helps power our hydro plants. But a thunderstorm is a different story, especially if the power goes out. Good thing Alabama Power is engineering and incorporating the latest technology to prevent outages and restore power faster than ever. As soon as it’s safe, our whole team works around the clock to get your lights back on. And we keep you informed about our progress. If you’ve got an outage, we’ve got you covered. Report online at AlabamaPower.com/reliable. Or call our 24/7 outage support line at 1-800-888-APCO (2726).
© 2019 Alabama Power Company
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A VISIT TO
ANGLING PARADIS BY FRANK SARGEANT
14 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
SE
FISHING
On the east side of the Chandeleur Islands is a thin rim of beach facing the open Gulf of Mexico. On the west side is angling heaven: Thousands of acres of shallow grass flats and sand holes where sea trout, redfish, flounder and other inshore species thrive in numbers unimagined in more accessible waters. The Chandeleurs are a necklace of uninhabited barrier islands located 50 miles east of New Orleans on the edge of the Gulf. They’re about 25 to 30 miles south of Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula. The form a sandy arc bowed slightly from north to south, with a total length of around 45 miles. It’s possible to run out to these storied islands, fish all day and run back by sundown, but that’s a very tough day on the water. A whole lot better way to go is to take advantage of the numerous floating fish camps that make multi-day trips to the islands, giving anglers a place to sleep, three squares a day, showers and a place to relax, along with a home base for a fleet of flats boats. Mike Hayes, owner of MDH Foundation Repair in Daphne, has made the trip many times, usually with a crew of anglers from his company and associated businesses. Hayes for the last 20 years has operated a well-known foundation repair and basement waterproofing company on the east shore of Mobile Bay. “It’s a great chance for a bunch of guys that love inshore fishing to kick back, relax and get to know each other without the pressures of work,” Hayes said. “It’s also some of the best fishing you’ll ever find anywhere.” He pointed out that the most recent trip, on the 88-foot “I’m Alone” out of Pascagoula, was typical of the great fishing action at the islands. “You get out there before daylight, they feed you a big breakfast, and then everybody hops in the boats and goes fishing at first light,”Hayes said. “Most of the flats are two or three feet deep so you can see where the grass is and where there are sand holes and the fish are usually in the sand holes.” Hayes said that most anglers throw paddle-tail plastic jigs on 1/8 to ¼ ounce heads, using typical flats tackle, seven foot spinning rod with a 2500 size reel, loaded with 10 to 15 pound test braid, with a couple feet of 15 to 20 pound-test fluorocarbon leader to the lure. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 15
A Visit to Angling Paradise
“You can catch about anything that’s out there on the jigs,” Hayes noted. “You can load up on trout and reds, you’ll catch flounder, pompano big jacks and ladyfish. I caught a 40 pound black drum on the last trip and one time I caught a 40 pound redfish.” However, he said that anglers who are focused on lunker spotted trout might want to throw topwaters.
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“You can just about catch the smaller trout until you’re tired of it on jigs, but for those big fish, a big topwater that will walk the dog definitely does better,” Hayes said. “You don’t catch as many, but the big ones really blast something like a Rapala Skitterwalk.” He said the big trout bite best at dawn and dusk, but some hit all day for those who stick with the topwaters. Anglers who want to concentrate on redfish might offer a Vudu Shrimp or a DOA Shrimp under a popping cork. Here as elsewhere, some areas are red hot while others nearby have few or no fish. Anglers should look for current, bait schools, “live” flats with lots of rays and sharks, and of course diving birds and slicks. Anglers fish until noon, then head back to the mother ship for lunch and maybe a brief nap before going out to fish until sundown. Then it’s back to the big boat for a shower, a drink and a steak or seafood dinner before bed. Life is good, huh? Most trips include two full days of fishing plus a half day on the last day, with three to four hours spent in transit out and back. An especially nice feature of booking these trips is that
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16 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
A Visit to Angling Paradise
CHANDELEUR ISLAND CHARTER SERVICES: Due South Charters
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Southern Sports Fishing
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Diversion Charters
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Chandeleur Charters
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Joka’s Wild
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Southern Belle Fishing Tours https://fishsouthernbelle.com
Chandeleur Islander Lodge
https://www.chandeleur-islander.com the skipper knows where the hotspots are from previous trips, and will not drop anchor until you’re in the center of the action so long runs in the small boats are rarely necessary. There are a number of charter services offering Chandeleurs trips out of nearby Mississippi and Louisiana ports, and most provide skiffs or center consoles 14 to 19 feet long to fish from. Anglers can also make arrangements to have their own boats towed out to the islands. All boats are supplied with radios, making it possible for those fishing together to share the wealth when they get on a school of fish. For those who like to wade-fish, there are miles of flats shallow enough to enjoy this tactic. All you need is a pair of wading booties. While waders don’t cover as much water as those drifting, they spook fewer fish and can sometimes load up from a single large hole. Louisiana limits apply throughout the chain of islands; 25 trout daily, plus 5 reds, meaning you can bring back a whole lot of fish. See the full limits here: http://www.wlf.louisiana. gov/fishing/saltwater-finfish The shape and extent of the islands vary with each passing hurricane, and scientists say sea level rise will someday make them no more than a memory, but for now, they’re a great fishing destination. Bottom line is if you’re a serious flats angler, the Chandeleurs should be on your basket-list. Cost is typically $700 to $1000 per angler, and that’s a darn good deal for an all-inclusive trip that includes transportation, lodging and food plus boat use and of course you’ll be bringing back an ice chest loaded with fresh fillets that make the experience all the more valuable.
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Killer Food Plots in th BY JOHN E. PHILLIPS
The reason for choosing to plant blends of seeds in hidey-holes is to have a variety of plants that are highly palatable in a small green field throughout the year.
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HUNTING
he Woods How do you find a nice deer to hunt that other people don’t? Here’s what some experts recommend. WHY AND HOW TO CREATE EASY HIDEY-HOLES “In the last few years on many properties where I’ve hunted, deer have become scarce in established food plots and most open-wood places. But I’ve found the best way to ensure that I have a place to hunt deer, and where my odds of seeing and taking deer are extremely high during the season, is to create hidey-holes,” said longtime deer researcher Dr. Grant Woods of Readsville, Missouri, To make a hidey-hole, you only need three items - a backpack leaf blower or a rake, seeds and fertilizer. Try and get as far away from a 4-wheeler trail or a food plot as you can, take a backpack leaf blower and four to five pounds of some type of seed that germinates really quickly with you. “I use my backpack leaf blower to blow the leaves away in about a 20x20 circle or rake them away,” Woods explained. “I’m simply exposing the ground. I’ll search for a place where perhaps a tree has fallen down, or there’s some sunshine peering through the treetops deep in the woods. By yourself, you can carry a five pound bag of seeds, a leaf blower and a 50-pound bag of fertilizer without much trouble to your destination. In about 45 minutes, I can blow all the leaves off the ground, spread the seed on the ground, spread the fertilizer and create some green forage for deer. Then when there’s nothing more for them to eat, the deer will be there. “People make two mistakes when they create hidey-holes like this. They hang their tree stands right on top of the hidey-hole, instead of putting up their tree stands 20 to 40 feet away. The second mistake hunters make is telling their buddies where they’ve planted their green patches, because their buddies more than likely will hunt them and scare the deer away,” Woods said. Woods gives some advice on how you can constantly keep good hidey-hole places to hunt throughout most of bow and gun season. “Come down out of your tree after hunting in the morning, get your leaf blower, seed and fertilizer, go in and create a hidey-hole, and then return to camp and eat lunch. Don’t hunt that site for two to three weeks, so the deer will discover that little green patch and start feeding on it. Remember, this is a hunting spot, not a food plot. I try to create these green patches where my hunting buddies won’t find them. Food plots receive so much hunting pressure that 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 19
Killer Food Plots in the Woods
Greenbrier, pictured here, grows up off the ground and is one of the deer’s favorite foods, especially in the late season. Fertilizing it increases the food production for deer, as well as its palatability.
these little hidey-holes are generally much-more productive for taking big bucks than food plots are. “I start making hidey-holes every Saturday, beginning in September. I continue to create them all the way to deer season. As long as the ground isn’t frozen, the seeds will germinate. I only hunt each hidey-hole about three times a season, not every weekend. Whether you blend your own seeds or use commercial seeds, you’ve only got about $25 worth of seed and fertilizer and about 45 minutes worth of sweat equity invested to create a hunting spot to take deer. Other products you can use to make hunting spots are buckwheat, peas and other fast-germinating seeds. You can use this method for making hidey-holes until about two weeks away from a killing frost. “Instead of spending so much time scouting, look for places where other hunters don’t hunt, and develop hidey-hole green patches in those spots. You’ll drastically increase your deer-hunting success. Even in just-thinned pine stands, you can create these types of food plots and be highly productive over them,” Woods noted. Many hunters also consider the OxCart an invaluable tool to move seed, fertilizer and other items to make hideyholes in the woods. This load-tested to 1,100 pounds small cart makes hauling and unloading large loads easier, while reducing physical strain and enabling you to get more work done quickly and with much less effort. The OxCart combines a rear-offset dump-pivot point for 20 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
greater control with a hydraulic-assisted tub lift for easier heavy-load handling. Featuring a swivel feature that reduces backing, the OxCart also has commercial-grade durability with an all-square-tube construction, full mandrel bent NASCAR-designed axle support and tractor-grade runflat tires. You can purchase a conversion kit accessory that turns it into a farm cart/wheelbarrow in seconds for use in land maintenance and hunting prep. In states permitting the baiting of deer, hunters use the OxCart too for carrying corn to feeders. Visit www.oxcart.com to learn more. WHAT TO PLANT WHEN IN SMALL FOOD PLOTS Wildlife researchers have experimented with different types of seeds to blend together and produce food for deer in hidey-holes that they’ll eat during bow and gun season and that possibly may provide food for deer and turkey during the spring and summer. Daniel Bumgarner of Wildlife Management Solutions (WMS), who has degrees in fish and wildlife management and natural resources management, explains, “When planting small green fields in the woods, here are some of the mistakes people make, not: Making a soil test. You must balance the pH in the soil to get maximum growth and production of whatever you plant. Some new innovations have been made in calcium products specifically designed for small food plots. This lime formation is water soluble and has only a small weight as compared to agricultural lime. For instance, 400 to 450 pounds of this new lime is equivalent to 2,000 pounds of bulk ag lime, it comes in a bag, so that it’s easy to spread, and it works much faster than ag lime to adjust the soil’s
Killer Food Plots in the Woods
pH. The brand my company likes is Aqua Aid (www. aquaaidsolutions.com), usually found at any farm-supply store. For instance, if you have a 1/4-acre food plot, and the soil test calls for one ton of lime per acre, you’ll only need three bags (150 - 200 pounds total) of Aqua Aid per acre.” Learning how shady that small food plot will be. Is this hidey-hole planted in a clearcut that receives a lot of sun or in a hardwood forest with primarily shade during the day? Clovers and brassicas are better suited for shadier sites.
People make two mistakes when they create hidey-holes like this. They hang their tree stands right on top of the hidey-hole, instead of putting up their tree stands 20 to 40 feet away.
One of our favorite plantings for shade is driller radish that tolerates shade well and doesn’t store starch like other brassicas do. When the driller radish is planted and emerges out of the ground, it grows quickly and handles warmer conditions than other radishes do. You can plant it earlier in the fall, and the deer will start feeding on it in
early bow season. An area doesn’t require cool weather or a frost to convert the starches in it to sugar. The driller radish in the Deep South typically doesn’t winter kill but keeps producing deer food until the end of gun/deer season. The biomass clover best for shady sites is frosty berseem clover that resembles alfalfa more than clover and can handle many different soil types from extremely-wet to sandy loam that drains well and continues to grow, even when the soil temperatures are cool. Realizing that planting a small green field in a tiny clearcut on the side of an open pasture or any other site that gets plenty of sun, gives many-more options. You can use cereal grains like triticale - a cross between wheat and grain rye. Deer love the triticale we recommend that produces much more tonnage than wheat, oats and grain rye do and offers good sugar content. You’ll usually have about twice the sucralose in the triticale that wheat has. It handles the cold weather really well and doesn’t have much fiber content in it. This triticale can have 10 – 12 inch leaves. Winter peas and brassicas do well in full sun too, where I prefer to plant annual clovers, like crimson clover, arrowleaf clover, berseem clover and Persian clover, instead of perennial clovers. Understanding how effective the blends of seeds are. Today most deer hunters prefer to use food-plot plantings with a variety of different seeds blended together. Then no matter the weather conditions or other factors that cause food plots not to be productive, their food plots always will have some type of plants coming up in them. DIVISION OF CLUTCH PRODUCTS INC.
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251-433-3696 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 21
Killer Food Plots in the Woods
Wildlife Management Solutions Deer Magnet seeds are an annual planting that aren’t damaged by the weather and can be planted in freshly-cut clearcuts, on the edges of pastures, along the edges of agricultural fields or in openings that receive full or almost full sun.
I’ll choose driller radish, frosty berseem clover and fixation balansa clover - a blend planting that pays off under a wide variety of conditions. Fixation balansa - an annual reseeding clover - can tolerate a pH of 4.5 - 8.5 and handles very-wet soils and very dry soils that drain well. It’s the hardiest variety of green-field planting we know. To have an attraction for the bowhunter in the early season, I’ll plant this seed blend and possibly add some type of turnip that will be productive a little later in deer season. We’ll also add in some wheat, hoping we can get about 6 hours of sunlight on the plot. Then our grains will grow. Mississippi State University did a study on deer preference foods about 3-years ago and planted a wide variety of various seeds. Frosty berseem clover won the trial, and fixation balansa came in a close second. Fixation balansa is a biomass clover that makes a lot of tonnage wherever it’s planted, fixes nitrogen and is a great soil builder. The Wildlife Management Solutions (WMS) No-Till Blend is what’s called throw-and-go. You can rake the leaf cover off the plot, scratch that plot up with a rake, sow the seeds and see the seeds grow. But, even with small plots, the more intensively you till the ground before planting, the better production you’ll get from your food plot. This seed blend has been designed for the weekend hunter who doesn’t have any or very little equipment with which to till the soil. So, if there’s any way you can get into a small food plot with a disc on the back of your four-wheeler, the plot will do much better. Another advantage to the WMS No-Till Blend is that when the wheat matures that we put in this blend, it doesn’t have any hair (awnless) on the ends of the seeds. For that reason, deer as well as turkeys will feed on this wheat even into the early spring - eating the heads right off the stalks of 22 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
this wheat. Recognize that some blends are made for one planting per year. The WMS Deer Magnet Blend contains forage triticale with black oat seeds that grow very aggressively, aren’t injured by the weather, stay very palatable to the deer and yield more tonnage than other types of oats. This Deer Magnet Blend includes driller radish, chicory, frosty berseem, fixation balansa, Persian clover, crimson clover and arrowleaf clover with the frost master winter pea.” To learn more about WMS seeds and blends, go to https:// www.facebook.com/productsforwildlifemanagement/ and www.productsforwildlifemanagement.com, or call 1-800877-4089. WHY PLANT A SMORGASBORD OF FOOD FOR DEER Dr. Woods mentions that no magic crop exists that meets all his requirements for a good food plot: production, palatability, digestibility and nutrition. So, he suggests that you choose plants that will mature and become palatable to deer at different times. Rotate your crops just like a farmer does to provide more of what a deer needs in its food and food that’s available year-round. HOW TO HAVE SMALL FOOD PLOTS ANOTHER EASY WAY Dr. Keith Causey, retired wildlife professor from Auburn University, says, “If you fertilize naturally occurring plants and trees, deer will select those plants to feed on much more readily. For instance, if you fertilize one end of a large patch of Japanese honeysuckle or blackberries, deer will come to the fertilized patch.” Identify foods deer enjoy, and fertilize them. For instance in the South, during early hunting season, deer often feed
Killer Food Plots in the Woods
Instead of spending so much time scouting, look for places where other hunters don’t hunt, and develop hideyhole green patches in those spots
on poke sallet, which usually lasts for the first week or two of hunting season. Deer may favor greenbrier (smilax) next, honeysuckle, blackberries, sumac, wild plums, persimmons, pecans and acorns, to name a few. These fertilized naturallyoccurring plants will attract deer. To learn more about hunting deer in hidey-holes and small hunting sites, check out John E. Phillips’ book, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties,” available in Kindle and print at http://amzn.to/1vIcj4m. To learn more about hunting deer in hidey-holes and small hunting sites, check out John E. Phillips’ books, available in Kindle, print and Audible, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties” at http://amzn.to/1vIcj4m and “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows” at http://amzn.to/11dJRu8.
Daniel Bumgarner of Wildlife Management Solutions (WMS) formulates seeds in its wildlife blends to solve problems for land managers and hunting clubs.
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FEEL THE THUMP:
A one-pole approach still a great option for
CRAPPIE BY GREG MCCAIN
Gerald Overstreet often catches better quality crappie along the Alabama River when he changes from trolling to a onepole approach.
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FISHING
Mention one-pole fishing for crappie, and many seasoned fishermen scoff at the notion. In particular, tournament competitors like their chances of cashing a check when some type of trolling technique produces money fish. Admittedly, the various iterations of multi-rod trolling are an ultra-efficient means of crappie fishing. Simply based on sheer numbers, putting more lures in the water probably means more crappie. An eight rod spread across the front of a boat, with the potential of more lines out the side or the back, will catch more fish given the right conditions. Yet, those situations exist when trolling is not an option. Fishing conditions, particularly around gnarly wood structure, negates the opportunity to spread rods in every direction. A streamlined, one-rod approach can be more effective in standing timber, in a crowded stump field, and even in open-water areas filled with shallow treetops. Other fishermen are particularly blunt about what they view as the monotonous nature of watching a spread of rods. A common refrain is “I hate trolling.” Some fishermen are even perfectly willing to sacrifice numbers for the pure joy and adrenaline rush of “feeling the thump.” “It’s definitely one of the reasons I like to fish with a single rod at times,” said tournament veteran and crappie guide Gerald Overstreet. “There’s nothing quite like feeling that thump.” Overstreet (Overstreet Guide Service, 251-589-3225) and most other tournament competitors concede the need to troll at times, and he and tournament partner Steve Brown will almost always be found with a rack of B’n’M trolling rods in the boat. Even then, a common practice for Overstreet and Brown is to deploy seven rods and preserve the final pole in an eight-rod tournament maximum for strategic employment in select spots. While there are many possibilities for one-pole fishing for crappie and dock shooting and traditional “cork and minnow” presentations come to mind, the following are three definite possibilities when a single rod suffices. Practicing one of these approaches works on most crappie fisheries and serves as a viable option year round. THE CLASSIC ONE-POLE PRESENTATION Most knowledgeable crappie fishermen associate “one-pole fishing” for crappie with a particular presentation. They use a long rod up to about 11 feet long and vertical jig around some type of structure. The technique can be deadly when crappie are located in dense wood structure that does not allow for trolling. An expert with one pole can quickly put a limit of slabs in the boat, dialing in on such features as the depth fish are holding, the speed of the drop of the lure, even the best side of a structure to fish.
“Sometimes, it’s just like trolling,” said Mike Vallentine, owner of CrappieMasters and one of the most passionate one-pole advocates in the industry. “The fish will tell you what they want. Based on your electronics, you know the fish are there. They might not like the drop rate of a bigger jig, but quickly changing to a smaller jig, and it’s not time-consuming like changing out an entire spread of trolling rigs and it will produce immediately. “Maybe it’s a situation on a bright, sunny day, and all the fish are holding on the shady side of standing timber. It’s hard to pinpoint those fish, but you can hit the exact spot with a single jigging rod,” Vallentine pointed out. In his tournament travels with Crappie Masters, Vallentine rarely finds a venue where one-pole fishing is not productive. Because his fishing time is usually limited during tournaments, he also wants a technique that is not time-consuming. “There’s nothing I like better than having one rod on my deck and knowing that it will produce,” Vallentine said. “That’s why I like one-pole fishing. Anyone who trolls will tell you they need a lot of time, sometimes as much as an hour, to get ready. Breaking off is a common occurrence when trolling, and re-rigging takes time. “With just one pole, you can break off a jig, re-tie, and be back to fishing in less than a minute,” Vallentine added. Vallentine one-pole fishes with Ozark Rods Pro Series poles. He pitches, flips, and vertically drops lures to exact locations with practiced ease. “Varying your presentation is one thing to consider,” “Sometimes I just strictly fish vertically. Other times, I will flip past a piece of structure and allow the jig to pendulum past the spot holding fish,” Vallentine said. “You can learn to judge the drop rate of a jig and get to that exact sweet spot with a short flip or pitch.”
There’s nothing quite like feeling that thump.
According to Vallentine anglers can also fish the entire water column easier with a one-pole approach. He gives an example of fish that are holding at eight feet but want the lure one to two feet above them and it is much easier to make that lure presentation with a single rod. Guide Brad Whitehead (Brad Whitehead Fishing on Facebook, 256-483-0834) practices the classic one-pole approach on Tennessee River lakes and also on the Bear Creek Development Authority (BCDA) lakes in northwest Alabama. His rod of choice is a B’n’M 7 ½-foot Crappie Wizard. Because the water he fishes is generally deep – up to 30 feet on 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 25
Feel The Thump: A One-Pole Approach Still A Great Option For Crappie
Louisiana crappie pro Steve Danna drags a slab away from the knees of a cypress tree, a common location for him to target slabs.
Pickwick and Wilson lakes – he usually fishes jigs up to ¼-oz. and pairs them with Crappie Magnet plastics. “There are a few things you can do with these rods,” Whitehead said. “You can toss it or flip it and let it fall. That looks like a dying threadfin shad, and that approach can work, but I like the straight-down presentation. The boat movement will make this bait look natural. That’s usually all the movement that you need to trigger a strike.” PITCHIN’ AND FLIPPIN’ Louisiana angler Steve Danna is one of the iconic figures in the crappie fishing world. The ProFormula (www.myproformula. com/) and B’n’M pro is rarely happier than when pitching a jig around cypress trees with his signature rod series on his home waters, Lake D’Arbonne in the northern part of the state. “It’s not one of those things that will work year-round, but it’s certainly a technique that I practice from pre-spawn until well into the summer,” Danna said. “Even in the hot summer months, there will still be males guarding fry in shallow water.” After years of refining the technique, Danna designed his own rod with the help of the staff at B’n’M (www.bnmpoles.com). The result is a product well suited to Danna’s pitching prowess. The Steve Danna Tree Thumper, available in 10- and 11-foot models, is a perfect blend of sensitivity and power. Danna works all sides of cypress trees, abundant on lakes like D’Arbonne and others around the Southeast, first pitching a jig past his target and allowing the lure to swing back past the structure. Once the jig has completed its arch, Danna works it vertically a couple of times and then quickly moves to his next target.
as a primary forage on D’Arbonne. “I can get that jig into spots that you couldn’t possibly reach trolling or even casting,” Danna said. “It’s something I like to do, and I find it effective just about anywhere that I fish that has a population of shallow crappie.” OLD-SCHOOL APPROACH Overstreet encounters plenty of situations where an old-school casting approach works well for him on Alabama River impoundments. In particular, he can target shallow or mid-depth crappie down to about 12 feet with a varie ty of casts, flips, or even vertical presentations. He executes all of the above with an unusual rod choice, the B’n’M SharpShooter Six, designed for dock shooting but equally applicable to casting situations. The SharpShooter Six is a little stiffer than the original, ultra-limber SharpShooters. “It works well casting,” Overstreet said. “I still like the flexibility of it, which allows me to cast even the lightest of jigs.” Overstreet uses B & B weedless hair jigs or TTI-Blakemore Road Runner (www.ttiblakemore.com) heads equipped with Midsouth plastics. “I’m going to troll when the situation calls for it,” Overstreet said, “but even in tournament situations, I catch plenty of key fish casting. I also like to cast when I’m just fun fishing, and I also have clients who just don’t want to troll. “I’ve got plenty of tops up and down the Alabama River that I can cast to and catch lots of crappie.”
“I can pitch and cover a single tree quickly,” Danna said. “The key is finding that tree that is holding the most and the best crappie.”
Overstreet runs to one of the many treetops or stumps that he has marked on the river. He scans the area with his Garmin Panoptix LiveScope electronics and determines the number and even the quality of the fish holding there.
Danna usually works water from about two to five feet deep. The shallow water allows him to use a light jig, usually 1/32nd oz., that produces a slow, tantalizing fall. He ties most of his own hair jigs, many in colors that mimic crawfish, which serve
“I can see where the fish are holding using the LiveScope,” Overstreet said. “I’ll back off just a little bit, cast past the stump or top, and then inch that lure back over the top, hoping to hit the sweet spot. You can’t really duplicate that presentation by
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Feel The Thump: A One-Pole Approach Still A Great Option For Crappie
trolling.” Often, particularly in areas with little or no current, the fish will scatter around structure. In those scenarios, Overstreet makes random casts that dissect an area. His retrieve is usually slow and steady with occasional stops or subtle hops of the lure. “They’ll hit at just about any time,” he said. “Sometimes it’s on a straight retrieve and other times on the fall. It’s a thrill to feel the thump and to see that line jump. “It’s also fun to play the fish back to the boat as opposed to simply lifting them while vertical trolling.”
It’s not one of those things that will work year-round, but it’s certainly a technique that I practice from pre-spawn until well into the summer BLENDING TECHNIQUES The time sometimes arrives on tournament day when Overstreet and Brown realize that their trolling presentations are just not producing the numbers and quality desired. A frequent change is to reduce the number of trolling rods to six or seven and use the shorter jigging or casting rods to target select locations. One such occasion occurred several years ago in a Crappie Masters tournament on the Alabama River. The team quickly caught limits both days of the tournament but were never satisfied with the weight. “Both days, we started using a single pole, putting one trolling rod in the rack because you can only use eight rods total, and began to catch a better quality fish,” Overstreet explained. “It’s not something we do all the time, but there are those times when a little change-up helps. “We didn’t want to quit trolling, but the single rod produced key fish both days and improved our weight.” The result was a better finish that allowed Overstreet and Brown to inch up the standings and to earn a check. “We knew the areas we were fishing, and the single pole allowed us to pinpoint portions of structure that we might not reach trolling. In some situations, you might troll past a stump and the trolling lures just don’t hit that sweet spot,” Overstreet explained. “We can take the single rod and hit either side or the front and back, maybe give the fish a little more time to see a lure than would be the case with trolling,” The approaches to a livewell full of crappie are many and varied. Trolling is certainly effective. However, don’t dismiss the notion of a single rod. Add to your crappie arsenal with any one of these single-pole approaches. They all work.
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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 27
Wetland Creation;
Creating Duck Hunting Habitat BY CHARLES JOHNSON
Planting grain cops near the shore ill increase the food sources in moist-soil management areas.
28 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HUNTING
Constructing your own waterfowl paradise can be a simple process to improve your duck hunting success For decades deer hunters have manipulated forests and fields to enhance the habitat. Food plots are part of their overall plan. Various seed plantings help produce abundant forage for deer in wildlife openings. This simple process has provided ample hunting opportunities. Many duck hunters may not realize that wetland creation is not much different. A little more planning will be required in creating duck hunting habitat that will attract ducks from any direction. The extra effort will be worth it in the form of many successful hunts throughout the season. It is important in establishing wetland habitat for ducks to be diverse. The life cycle, growth, nesting brooding and food availability are all critical for survival of waterfowl. Ducks engage in high-energy activities and quality food sources are important. Creating a wetland for waterfowl habitat doesn’t have to be complex. Simple ponds, flooded marshes and timber tracts can provide the necessary resources for waterfowl from season to season. Landowners and duck hunters have several options to create or improve wetland habitat. WETLAND CREATION – BUILDING A DUCK POND Landowners building a pond or lake for waterfowl may want to consider making it multipurpose. The water impoundment could be used for ducks and for fishing. The planning and construction would need to be modified so both goals could be accomplished. Selecting a location for the pond is the first step in the planning for wetland creation. This includes determining the size and shape of the pond. A water source like creek or small stream would ensure a continuous supply of fresh water. “Before starting construction on a duck pond, landowners should have the soil tested to verify the ability to hold water,” advises Seth Maddox, Migratory Game Bird Coordinator with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division (WFF). Maddox also mentions that if the site location is already part of an established wetland, a permit would be required from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
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Wetland Creation; Creating Duck Hunting Habitat
Most ducks are dabblers and prefer shallow water to feed. Teal only need a few inches, just enough to set down on the water. For other ducks 6 to 18 inches of water depth is sufficient and 24 inches should be the max for most waterfowl to feed.
Good water control can save a lot of headaches and backaches.
There are several companies that specialize in the construction of lakes, ponds and dams. Choose one that is certified and bonded when creating duck hunting habitat. Maddox mentions that the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division provides technical assistance to private landowners free of charge. They enjoy getting out and helping landowners create or improve waterfowl habitat on their property. Contact Maddox at seth.maddox@denr. alabama.gov. When building the lake or pond the bank or shoreline should not have a steep drop off. A shallow or gradual slope will help waterfowl transgress the water when feeding. The topsoil should be saved. After excavating return the topsoil. There are seeds waiting to germinate. “In lakes that will be used for both fishing and for waterfowl habitat, a gradient is better,” Maddox advised. “The pond should be deep on one end and shallow on the other.”
CREATING DUCK HUNTING HABITAT – HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? When creating Duck hunting habitat, costs can vary tremendously depending on the scope of work to be completed. You may be surprised to learn that creating duck hunting habitat can be considered a land improvement and can be eligible for financing. Before construction on the lake or pond is ready to begin, landowners should contact a lender that is experienced in financing rural property and understands how improvements enhance the value of property. One such lender is First South Farm Credit. They can help not only with financing the land improvements but also the equipment needed to improve and maintain your rural property. “Based on the equity in the property we finance ponds, lakes and improvements to the property,” advises Frank Loftis, First South Division Vice President. “We can look at the property on a case-by-case basis to determine financing available for the landowner.” Loftis further mentions “There are many aspects to financing rural property and each case is different. Just know that in addition to lending money for the purchase of rural property that may include good duck hunting habitat, First South can finance the land improvement needs that are often associated with these type properties.”
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LIL SLICK = BIG
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theslicklure.com 30 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HOG RUSH
Wetland Creation; Creating Duck Hunting Habitat
“THERE WILL BE BLOOD”
Even small ponds or lakes can be enough to draw in ducks
CREATING DUCK HUNTING HABITAT – MOIST-SOIL MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES Another method of wetland creation is “moist-soil” management. This system began back in the 1940s when it was introduced in the Illinois River Valley. The method is similar to natural wetland management, but on a smaller scale. “The moist-soil management process is using water, natural seed banks and manipulated soils to promote germination of desired plants,” Maddox mentioned. “It is both an art and a science.” While many landowners provide conventional grown agricultural crops for waterfowl, the moist-soil management goes a step further. The planted crops do meet some nutritional needs with carbohydrates, there are other nutrient needs. Maddox commented that wintering waterfowl require natural vegetation and invertebrates(insects). The natural food sources provide amino acids for fat and calcium for egg production.
THERMAL NIGHT
HUNTS
IN ALABAMA
Creating a moist-soil management area is relatively simple. The most critical factor is water control. The area will need to be flooded in the late autumn to early winter months. During the spring, the area is drained, and the soil allowed to dry out. The size of the moist-soil management area can range from around one-half acre upwards to 100 acres or more depending on how much land the owners wants to allocate. Generally, an area should have about 50 percent open water. A size of around 5 to 10 acres should be enough to start. The key is good water control structures,” Maddox said. “Good water control can save a lot of headaches and backaches.” There are several different types of water control structure to employ during wetland creation. A screw gate valve operates by turning a handle or wheel on a large screw to open and
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www.HOGRUSH.com 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 31
Wetland Creation; Creating Duck Hunting Habitat
Using moist-soil management techniques can enhance the natural grasses for all types of waterfowl.
close a valve or gate to hold or release water. Screw gates can be somewhat expensive and difficult to install. But they are easy to operate.
“The landowner may want to flood an area of hardwoods,” Maddox commented. “This would be beneficial to wood ducks and mallards.”
A water board gate is operated by adding or removing boards inside a drain box located in the middle of a dam or levee. Board gates can be difficult to install but are easy to operate.
In the spring the water level is drawn down and the trees are not harmed. For successful moist-soil management water is left in the wetland until the danger of frost has past and growing season begins.
Moist-soil management areas only require a few inches of water to be effective. Water depth of around five to eighteen inches is sufficient. The key is being able to control the water depth.
WETLAND CREATION – MANIPULATION OF MOISTSOIL MANAGEMENT LOCATIONS In some areas the landowner may want to manipulate the soil to enhance plant growth and establish a natural food source.
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32 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Wetland Creation; Creating Duck Hunting Habitat
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FOUNDATION REPAIR
Water levels in moist-soil management areas of around 6 to 18 inches is sufficient for waterfowl.
CONCRETE REPAIR
To enhance moist-soil plant species, disking, mowing or burning are methods to employ during wetland creation. This disturbance does not have to be done every year. “Annual plants are the most desired species,” Maddox reported. “These include wild millets, sedges, bidens, panic grasses, sprangletop and annual smartweed.” Maddox pointed out that the timing of water drawdown is tied to the general plant response. Early season drawdowns produce smartweeds. While mid-season drawdowns contribute to grasses and millets. Other food sources can be planted in the late spring and summer months then flooded in the fall. Favorite duck foods include corn, Japanese Millet, grain sorghum, chufa and rice. Make certain the soil is dry enough before venturing into the area with tractor or other equipment.
ENCAPSULATION
Soil disturbance can also create the growth of undesirable weeds and woody plants. These can be controlled by mowing, herbicides or flooding. Moist-soil management is a simple and cost-effective method to enhance waterfowl habitat. All types of ducks and other wildlife can benefit from wetland creation. So take a look around your place, you may be just a few steps away from many more successful hunts next season. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 33
HUNTING
Hunting Land Insurance Are you Really Covered?
BY STEPHANIE MALLORY
34 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Hunting Land Insurance - Are You Really Covered?
Treestand falls. Fires. Shooting mishaps. ATV accidents. You hope these things never happen on your land or hunting lease, but if they do, are you covered? When you own land, lease land or are a member of a hunting club, you take on a degree of legal risk. Landowners have a duty to guests and lease holders. Hunters need liability insurance to protect themselves, other members of their hunting group and guests against acts for which they could be held legally responsible. If you don’t have liability insurance, you risk losing all of your personal assets and your family’s security. Ed Wilson, vice president of Outdoor Underwriters, a leader in the outdoor insurance marketplace, says no one wants to believe something bad will happen on their lease or land, but accidents do happen and it’s simply not worth risking it all by having no liability insurance. Although important, liability insurance is often misunderstood. It is designed to provide coverage for landowners and hunting clubs for acts which they could be held legally responsible. “This type of insurance coverage is not for accidents that necessarily occur to you, but is designed to protect you from being held responsible for accidents that injure someone else,” Wilson said.
LONE
Society’s litigious nature means that a landowner or hunting club takes on some risk anytime someone is on the property. Under common law, a landowner has a duty to invitees, licensees, and to a lesser degree, trespassers on their property. A landowner is expected to inspect his property, remove hidden dangers, keep the property in a reasonably safe condition, and take precautions to protect a user from foreseeable danger. Still, if someone gets hurt on the property, the landowner can be held responsible. There are so many possibilities for injury on private and hunting properties, which makes liability insurance so important. “We all know about the dangers of falling from a treestand while hunting, but a lot of people are injured when moving and setting stands up,” Wilson said. “For example, you’re helping a guy move a stand and it comes out of the tree and falls on his head. That’s a bad accident and there is some cross-member liability that can go into that accident. Accidents like these are rare, and there’s a good chance you’ll never have a liability occurrence, but when an accident does happen, it’s generally big and you need to be protected.” Wilson goes on to explain that even minor accidents can end up in substantial lawsuits. “Hunters don’t think anything about climbing a 20-foot ladder, but someone can get severely hurt just climbing up three feet. After all, people fall off step ladders in their houses and end up paraplegics. You don’t have to fall far. We recently
WOLF
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Hunting Land Insurance - Are You Really Covered?
had a case where the steps gave out on a stand. The climber fell and was injured. A liability allegation has been made against the club. The injured party feels the club should have warned him about the steps. Those you hire to help maintain the property can also get hurt and sue. For example, if someone is operating your farm equipment on your property and gets injured on that equipment, you are liable. “Or, if a bush hog you’re operating pulls a tree down on someone, you have the liability for operating that tractor,” Wilson said. “There are about a hundred different scenarios that can come into a liability discussion.” So, what should a landowner or hunting club members look for when selecting liability insurance? Wilson says it’s difficult to look at multiple plans and discern the difference because companies use the similar forms to construct a liability policy. The forms are produced by insured services offices and approved by the 50 states insurance commissioners.
This type of insurance coverage is not for accidents that necessarily occur to you, but is designed to protect you from being held responsible for accidents that injure someone else,
“What you have to remember is that liability is shaped by their exclusions,” he said. “It doesn’t tell you what’s covered. It tells you what’s not covered. When you look at a general 36 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
liability policy, look for the exclusions that are going to be excluding something you want covered, whether it be treestands, ATVs or member-to-member coverage. Be sure that certain things incidental to the hunting club don’t have additional exclusions applied.” There are other considerations to keep in mind as well. For example, pollution is not covered under a general liability policy. So, if you have old oil wells or diesel tanks, you’ll need to understand a general policy won’t cover issues involving those things. “When it comes to hunting club policies, be sure you get member-to-member coverage and guest-liability coverage,” Wilson said. “Member-to-member coverage is an endorsement that’s written to provide coverage between cross-member claims. If I put you in my treestand and you get hurt, that’s a member-to-member claim, not necessarily a hunting club claim. In a shooting situation, everyone gets pulled in, but liability really rests with the shooter. If for some reason, there’s not member-to-member coverage on the policy, the policy will defend the hunting club and members, but not the individual that did the shooting. There’s likely to be no settlement because the club didn’t do anything to cause the shooting.” Before purchasing liability insurance, Wilson recommended checking to see what your homeowner’s insurance covers. “You can’t buy a broader policy than your home umbrella policy for all of your personal liability. Your personal umbrella is about the cheapest, best coverage you can buy in the whole insurance world. Sometimes they won’t extend that coverage to your land for whatever reason, for example, if you have it set up in a corporation, or if you have it in partnership with another family member or hunting buddy.” So how much does liability insurance cost? Prices vary, of course. There are several different programs
Hunting Land Insurance - Are You Really Covered?
from large multi-million dollar landowner policies that get a per-acre rate that is built into the hunting lease to small individual club policies. “When a small club comes to me to buy a policy, I refer them to the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA), which has a policy that starts at $200 that includes membership into the association.” Wilson said he put association programs together and worked with the QDMA to help individual hunting clubs get the same kind of coverage that larger investor landowners receive but with similar prices. When selecting your policy, he recommends using a group that’s experienced in recreation and timberland liability insurance. You want someone defending you with strong resources, such as a claim adjuster that knows how to go out in the woods and adjust a claim and attorneys who are familiar with landowner laws. When it’s all said and done, Wilson says to remember when you purchase liability insurance, you’re buying peace of mind in knowing that someone will step in and defend you if the unthinkable happens. Safeguard yourself, fellow club members and your most valuable assets with liability insurance.
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For more info on the events or CCA Alabama www.ccaalabama.org 251-478-3474 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 37
ATV Spreader • Spreads seed, fertilizer, sand and salt. • Adjustable towbar with
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Rivers Edge 18ft - 2 man • Removable padded seat and backrest. • 36 inch wide foot platform. • 500lb capacity • Flip-back shooting rail for easy entry
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Rivers Edge 15ft - 2 man • Removable padded seat and backrest. • Two tree blades for simple mobility. • 500lb capacity • Two rachet straps w/ safety tie-off ropes
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38 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
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Time 6 AM 6 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 9 AM
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MID STATE STOCKYARD 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 39
NEW GEAR BY WILLIAM KENDY
Gamo Whisper Fusion Mach 1 Scoped Air Rifle
Featuring the noise dampening Whisper® technology, the Whisper Fusion Mach 1 scoped air rifle delivers a velocity of 1,020 feet per second in .22 caliber with PBA Platinum pellets. It sports a fluted polymer jacketed 20.5 inch steel barrel, molded synthetic stock, fiber optics front and rear sights, a custom action trigger and a 3-8-40 air rifle scope plus more. Offered in both .17 and .22 caliber. Suggested Retail Price: $269.99 www.gamousa.com
Outdoor Edge® Introduces the New ChowLite™
Weighing only 1.6 ounces the ChowLite™ eating utensil measures 7.75 inches long and is perfect for backpackers or outdoorsmen to carry in their packs for those meals and tasks in the field. Crafted of 420J2 stainless steal the ChowLite’™s one-piece deign swings open and locks securely to reveal a full-size fork and spoon with a serrated food separator, integrated bottle-opener, can opener and flathead screwdrive. Suggested Retail Price: $19.95 www.outdooredge.com
Killerdock Announces Slot Fish Cleaning Station
The Killerdock Slot fish cleaning station is constructed of strong non-corrosive high grade aluminum followed with a clear SystemXMarine ceramic coating that offers protection from saltwater, UV rays, cleaning solutions and more. The 52” x 24” cutting surface features a two degree slope to drain water, blood and entrails through the rear slots. Includes an accessory tray, knife sharpener and cup holder. Easy two person installation. Suggested Retail Price: $1,245.00 www.killerdock.com
40 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
NEW GEAR FOR OUTDOORSMEN
Igloo Introduces New Mission Series Cooler
From the backyard to a spontaneous adventure in the wild, the Mission cooler series was created with all the best features of Igloo’s hard-side coolers in mind. Ultratherm® insulation, along with a silicone rubber lid gasket provides long term ice retention. Other features include a lockable lid, FDA approved food grade liner, oversized heavy duty grab handles and other benefits. Available in 50, 72 and 124 quart sizes. Suggested Retail Price: $139.99 - $249.99 www.igloocoolers.com
New Spectre Magnetic Expandable Broadheads
To eliminate broadhead failure the new Sprectre broadhead utilizes magnetic blade technology to hold the blades closed during flight but insures instant opening upon impact. It features an aerodynamic, machined 7075 aluminum ferrule with a hardened carbon-steel four face chisel tip and the thickest strongest razor sharp blades of any expandable broadhead on the market. It is available in a three-pack in both 100 and 125 grain versions. Suggested Retail Price: $44.99 www.viperarcheryproducts.com
New Mepps® Aglia® Bait Series
The Mepps® Aglia® Bait Series combines proven Aglia® fish striking and catching ability with the specific colors and forage patterns of the prey favored by predatory fish. Offered in 12 airbrushed blade patterns and two-color tail combinations, the Aglia® Bait Series spinners come in sizes #0 - #5 and are available in dressed treble hook, plain treble hook and plain single hook models. Suggested Retail Price: $4.25 - $8.40 www.mepps.com
Reliable Portable Power When You Need It
The 37,000 mWh high-grade Lithium-Polymer JumpStart battery is compatible to jump most cars, trucks, SUV’s, boats, ATV’s and other power equipment and can recharge up to 1,000 times. It also includes a powerful 8W, 330Lumen LED flashlight with 4 modes (low and high beam, SOS and strobe) with a 495 foot reach. Ergonomically designed, the JumpStart is constructed of machined aluminum to withstand rugged use. Suggested Retail Price: $119.00 www.limitlessinnovations.com
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 41
WFF Nongame Program Focuses on Biological Diversity
Photo Credit: Carrie Threadgill
More than 95 percent of the wildlife in Alabama are not hunted
When the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division is mentioned, most people think of whitetailed deer, wild turkeys or largemouth bass. However, WFF is so much more than huntable wild game and species of game fish. Alabama has such vast biological diversity that it is ranked fourth in the U.S. in that category. More than 650 species of wildlife are found in Alabama, and one of the duties of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is to ensure this diversity is enjoyed for generations to come.
BY CHRIS BLANKENSHIP Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
That’s where WFF’s Nongame Wildlife Program comes in with its mission to manage, protect and enhance nongame wildlife, which makes up about 95% of the native species in Alabama. Projects cover many endangered species, including the gopher tortoise, Eastern hellbender, Carolina and Mississippi gopher frogs, Eastern spotted skunk, West Indian manatee, loggerhead sea turtle, red-cockaded woodpecker and the Eastern indigo snake. Nongame projects funded by PittmanRobertson funds and grants include bald and golden eagle surveys, colonial wading bird surveys, the bat monitoring
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and conservation program, whooping crane conservation, brown pelican conservation at Gaillard Island in Mobile Bay, plovers and oystercatchers monitoring along the Alabama Gulf Coast and falconry promotion. The accomplishments and success stories during the 35-year history of the program are many. Among them are the release of scores of bald eagles that restored a nesting population in Alabama; the “Bring Back the Bluebird” project that produced more than 10,000 bluebird nest boxes with the coordination of more than 1,000 volunteers; management of Gaillard Island in Mobile Bay to protect the nesting habitat of brown pelicans, resulting in an additional 10,000 birds in eight years; reintroducing the threatened Eastern indigo snake to the longleaf pine ecosystem in south Alabama; and establishing the North Alabama Birding Trail and assisting with additional birding trails across the state. The Nongame Wildlife Program biologists conduct hundreds of surveys each year, such as eagle surveys and monitoring the presence of white-nose syndrome that threatens bat species across the state. These efforts help them keep track of populations of imperiled species and better manage our state’s nongame wildlife. Although the Nongame Wildlife Program deals with animals that aren’t hunted,
FROM THE COMMISSIONER hunters make it possible to fund the nongame program. Hunting license revenue, combined with federal matching funds derived from an excise tax on gun and ammunition sales, provides the funding for the program. Those who don’t hunt can contribute to the program via the Nongame Fund Tax Checkoff located on state income tax forms and/or by purchasing a Wildlife Heritage License. The program helped develop the State Wildlife Action Plan to focus conservation efforts in a number of areas. For animals and habitat in greatest conservation need, the categories include certain amphibians, crayfish, birds, fish, mussels, mammals, snails, reptiles, other invertebrates, river basins and terrestrial habitats. One keystone species in Alabama has received special attention. Governor Kay Ivey declared April 10 as Gopher Tortoise Day in Alabama this year as efforts continue to document the population of animals and available habitat. The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) inhabits coastal plain counties of Alabama, and the gopher tortoise burrow benefits a wide range of animals. It has been documented that more than 360 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates spend all or a portion of their lives in either active or abandoned gopher tortoise burrows. Some species, like the Eastern indigo snake, are dependent on these burrows for survival. Visit www.outdooralabama.com/nongame-wildlife-speciesprojects/gopher-tortoise-project for a variety of information, including on the Alabama Tortoise Alliance.
A Must Read for Turkey Hunters. “Any information that came from outside was highly suspect. Anything that came from inside, even from members of your own family was, in many cases, tarred with the same brush. Nobody and by that I mean nobody, gave away a thing. The “boy” in this story is blessed with an honest and benevolent grandfather who learned the hard way. Alan covers very well what has come to be called “The bad old days” when you mostly made it on your own or you didn’t make it at all.” TOM KELLY
A population enhancement program for the Eastern indigo snake has been in progress since 2006, and efforts to reestablish a viable population in south Alabama continues. This past April, 15 more Eastern indigos were released in Conecuh National Forest, which put the total number of snakes released since the program started at 170. WFF’s Habitat and Species Conservation Coordinator, Traci Wood, said the goal is to reach a sustainable population of about 300 snakes. While the ADCNR depends on volunteers and concerned citizens in our conservation efforts, the general public is not allowed to interact with many nongame species. To determine which species are covered under these restrictions, go to www.outdooralabama.com/hunting/alabama-huntingand-wildlife-regulations and click on the links for Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals. Our Nongame Wildlife Program fields a great number of requests for information about certain species or wildlife encounters each year. The program has established an information page that can answer many of these common questions at www.outdooralabama.com/nongame-wildlifeprogram/nongame-wildlife-faqs. The reason Alabama enjoys so many species of plants and animals is because we are blessed with a diversity of habitats across the state, ranging from the Appalachian Mountains of north Alabama to the sugar sand beaches along the Alabama Gulf Coast. Please help us keep our great state at the forefront of such a treasured status.
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Profiles in Courage
EARLY CONSERVATION LEADERS SET THE EXAMPLE
BY CORKY PUGH Executive Director, Hunting Heritage Foundation
Alabama’s early conservation commissioners set a sterling example of courageous stances on issues that were fraught with political controversy. Had they not done so, we would not be so fortunate as we are to enjoy abundant fish and wildlife populations. There was no equivocating, “Some are for it; some are against it,” kind of double-speak. When John Wallace, the first Commissioner of the then Department of Game and Fisheries, took the helm in 1907, little public support existed for game laws. Wallace previously served as a senator for Madison County, and had passed Alabama’s first hunting laws. In the next session of the legislature, 66 of the
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state’s 67 counties were exempted by local legislation, leaving only Madison county subject to the new restrictions. FOCUS ON WHAT IS RIGHT Undaunted, with determination to do what his conscience told him was right, Wallace went on to become the first head of what is now the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Serving for 15 years, he established conservation education as a priority, recognizing that public policy ultimately reflects public sentiment, and that only through an informed citizenry could sound conservation laws be realized. In an address to the Alabama Press Association in 1908, Wallace stated, “Without the support, and the enthusiastic co-operation of the press of Alabama, it would have been impossible for
HUNTING HERITAGE the Department of Game and Fish to have made the success it has of the statutes committed to it for enforcement. The editors having at heart the state’s best interest, have informed the people of the provisions of the law, dwelt earnestly and eloquently on the benefits of the legislation and have cemented sentiment forever in Alabama favorable to these statutes.” This was in the era when people got their information from newspapers. There was no electronic media. One can only imagine the difficulty Wallace faced in slowly but surely turning the tide of apathy, ignorance, and sometimes-outright resentment over this new idea of conservation. The very idea that government had any business telling people what they could kill or catch, in what numbers, how, and when was unthinkable to many. Drivers licenses had not even come into being, and the notion that a license would be required to hunt or fish was an even more foreign concept. As Tom Kelly characterized it in The Boy in the Back of the Boat (a chapter from his book Dealer’s Choice), “This state, God love it, did not even require a driver’s license until 1936, and at that time anybody who was already driving went down to the courthouse and bought one. When the desire to own an automobile came to John Moore, he was just like everybody else. If you had the money and wanted a car, you bought one, and having bought it, drove it home. Licensing, road regulations and drivers training were as unheard of as walking training would have been. “The horse was a substitute for the feet and the automobile was simply the logical improvement of the horse. The thought that any governmental official, be he national, state or local, would presume to comment on your ability to use any of these conveniences, was foreign. The fact that such people might actually attempt to regulate that use was absolutely inconceivable.”
In the early years, there was no body of sound science upon which to base decisions. There was no professional staff to provide input for informed decisions. Game laws were passed, piece by piece. Basic fair chase laws banned the use of poisons, snares, deadfalls, explosives, and bait. Closed seasons were established and daily bag and creel limits were set. Licenses to hunt and fish were required for the first time ever. Only through the courage of dedicated public servants like Wallace, Quinn, and certain members of the Alabama Legislature were such laws adopted. As President John F. Kennedy put it in Profiles in Courage, “A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality.” The Hunting Heritage Foundation is an Alabama non-profit organization established in 2011. To see what HHF stands for go to the website at www.huntingheritagefoundation.com. You can write to us at: P. O. Box 242064, Montgomery, AL 36124, or corkypugh@mindspring.com. * The opinions expressed in this column are solely that of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff and management of Great Days Outdoors Media, LLC.
The prevailing mindset was that there was an inexhaustible supply of everything. This mindset had been passed down from generation to generation of Americans. The early settlers came to our country with the notion of “conquering the land”, clearing forests to build homes and establish farmsteads. Wildlife was viewed as merely a source of food, fur, or feathers, or a nuisance to be done away with. Consequently, fish and wildlife populations were largely depleted, with some species extinct or on the brink of extinction. VISION AND FAR-SIGHTEDNESS “For a number of years, the public took little interest in what the distinguished and able Mr. Wallace was trying to do. The public generally was slow to become conservation-minded. The idea was entirely new in Alabama and in the South, and it took a man of Mr. Wallace’s vision and far-sightedness to carry the cause of conservation to the hearts of the people,” said I.T. Quinn in his article entitled “Anniversary Thoughts” published in the March 1931 edition of the Alabama Game and Fish News, the official publication of the Alabama Department of Game and Fisheries (now DCNR). When Wallace died in office, I. T. Quinn succeeded him as commissioner. Quinn built on the solid foundation that Wallace had laid. Quinn worked just as hard at building public sentiment for sound conservation laws. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 45
Newest Waterfowl Hunting Opportunity
No longer will you have to go out-of-state to hunt sandhill cranes! It is not every day that a species that was once hunted to the brink of extinction has a population rebound enough to open a new hunting season. Chances are that no living Alabamians have ever had the chance to hunt sandhill cranes in their home state, since hunting was suspended for this species across the United States in 1916. In 2019, Alabama’s hunters will once again have the opportunity to hunt this bird in The Yellowhammer State through a limited-quota draw hunt.
BY CHARLES “CHUCK” SYKES Director of the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF)
In 2011, Kentucky became the first state east of the Mississippi River to open a sandhill crane hunting season since 1916. In 2013, Tennessee became the second state to open a season. Since 2011, more than 11,000 permits have been distributed and more than 3,000 cranes have been harvested in these two states. Beginning in 2019, Alabama will be the third state to open a sandhill crane hunting season. In the mid-2000s wildlife biologists began noticing an increase in wintering sandhill cranes in Alabama, primarily
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in the northern part of the state in the Tennessee River Valley (TRV). Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division (WFF) began counting cranes in 2010 as part of our annual aerial waterfowl surveys. As wintering cranes have become more numerous and shown up in new areas, these large birds have piqued the interest of many hunters, prompting them to voice interest for an opportunity to hunt sandhill cranes in Alabama, especially since Kentucky and Tennessee have opened seasons. WFF personnel have been working for several years on passing a proposal through the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway Councils for an experimental hunting season in Alabama. In 2018 the proposal received concurrence from both Flyway Councils and was approved by the USFWS Service Regulation Committee. The first three years of Alabama’s sandhill crane hunting season are considered experimental, meaning a state must demonstrate that implementation does not have a significant impact on the species. Sandhill crane hunting in Alabama will be a limited-quota draw
FROM THE DIRECTOR
Limited Quota Sandhill Crane Hunting Zones 43
LAUDERDALE
72
LIMESTONE
Killen
72
MADISON
COLBERT
72
11
431
LAWRENCE
43
FRANKLIN
DE KALB
Guntersville Haleyville
MARION
278
278
WINSTON
431
278
11
ETOWAH
Gadsden
CHEROKEE
278
11
278
BLOUNT 431
FAYETTE
11
68
MARSHALL
CULLMAN
278
Jasper LAMAR
Limited Quota Sandhill Crane Hunting Zones
72
JACKSON
Huntsville
72
43
WALKER
CALHOUN
ST. CLAIR
CLEBURNE
11
Birmingham JEFFERSON TUSCALOOSA
TALLADEGA
PICKENS
SHELBY
BIBB
GREENE
CLAY
RANDOLPH
COOSA CHILTON
Opelika
PERRY ELMORE
SUMTER
80
Demopolis
80 MACON
Montgomery
80
MARENGO
431
LEE
AUTAUGA
Selma
80 DALLAS
CHOCTAW
CHAMBERS
TALLAPOOSA
HALE
RUSSELL
Union Springs
LOWNDES
MONTGOMERY
Seale
431
82
BULLOCK
82
WILCOX BARBOUR
BUTLER PIKE
CLARKE
WASHINGTON
431
CRENSHAW
MONROE
COFFEE
CONECUH
HENRY
GENEVA
231 HOUSTON
MOBILE
BALDWIN
The conservation foresight of our forefathers and the recovery efforts by many wildlife professionals have created opportunities to hunt sandhill cranes once again in the eastern U.S. Among hunters, sandhill cranes have come to be known as “ribeye of the sky.” If you are interested in hunting sandhill cranes in Alabama, your opportunity has arrived. Beginning in 2019, Alabama’s hunters who get drawn to take part in this hunt will have stories to tell and table fair to share.
Dothan
COVINGTON ESCAMBIA
DALE
son bag limit and possession limit for sandhill cranes is three (3) and based on the number of tags awarded to an individual permit holder. Two sandhill crane zones will be designated, one hunted and one non-hunted. The sandhill crane hunting zone will be defined as the area north of Interstate 20 from the Georgia state line to the interchange with Interstate 65, then east of Interstate 65 to the interchange with Interstate 22, then north of Interstate 22 to the Mississippi state line. The non-hunting zone will be the remainder of the state.
Sandhill Crane Hunt Zone Sandhill Crane No Hunting Zone
hunt, you must be drawn for a permit and tags to hunt. To be eligible for the drawing, an applicant must be at least sixteen (16) years of age or older and a resident of Alabama or a Lifetime Hunting License holder of the State of Alabama. Applicants must obtain a valid All or Small Game Hunting license, plus a State Duck Stamp; or a Lifetime Hunting License plus Lifetime Duck Stamp; or be an exempt resident landowner or immediate family hunting their own land; or an Alabama resident over 65 years of age; or combination of above. The drawing for sandhill crane permits and tags will be by randomized computer drawing, and applications will only be accepted online at www. outdooralabama.com. 400 hunters will be drawn for a permit (1 permit per hunter) for a total of 1,200 tags (3 tags per hunter). The application period will open in September 2019, with the drawing taking place in early October 2019. Drawn hunters must take and pass the online sandhill crane identification test before receiving their permit and tags. Permits and tags are non-transferable. Permits and tags will be issued once confirmation is received that drawn hunters took—and passed—the online test. Drawn hunters must also obtain a Federal Duck Stamp and Harvest Information Program (HIP) certification (if applicable) to legally hunt. Once you have the necessary licenses and stamps and the permit and tags in hand, then you are ready to hunt. When you harvest a sandhill crane, before moving the bird, fill in the appropriate harvest information on your permit and tag and attach the tag to the bird. Each harvested crane must be accompanied by a completed tag (each tag allows the harvest of 1 crane) and must match information written on the permit. All hunters issued sandhill crane permits MUST go online to fill out and return a post-season survey, regardless of whether they hunted or harvested a sandhill crane. Failure to complete and return the mandatory post-season survey will result in hunters being ineligible to apply for a permit in future drawings. WFF has selected a 60-day season beginning in early December 2019 and running through late January 2020 for the inaugural limited-quota sandhill crane hunting season. The daily and sea-
The Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division’s Migratory Game Bird Program is dedicated to improving migratory game bird habitat and hunting opportunities on public and private lands throughout Alabama. We are excited to offer new hunting opportunities to hunters across the state. We are currently working on restoring habitat and infrastructure on our established wildlife management areas, as well as, establishing, restoring, and adding habitat and hunting opportunities in other parts of the state. Biologists are available to provide technical assistance to landowners and other entities regarding many aspects of migratory game bird management. For more information about the Migratory Game Bird Program or WMAs visit www.outdooralabama.com.
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NATIONAL SHOOTING SPORTS MONTH
This is a great time to introduce a friend to the shooting sports. In 2017, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) established August as National Shooting Sports Month (NSSM). NSSF felt that firearms owners deserved a dedicated time that draws positive attention to their sports and its many benefits. NSSM serves as a reminder to make time to enjoy a day at the range whether by yourself or with a family member or friend.
BY CRAIG HANEY Photo submitted by Craig Haney
A good habit is to clean the bore and check for obstructions before shooting.
Research by the NSSF shows that 24 million Americans are very interested in learning about the shooting sports, making NSSM the perfect time for someone to give target shooting a try. There are dozens of sports from which to choose including hitting paper and steel targets with handguns and rifles, cowboy action shooting, blackpowder shooting, to breaking clay targets in the sporting clays, skeet and trap shotgun sports. Once you have set up a time to take a family member or friend to the range, it’s a good idea to go over safe handling rules with them. RULES FOR SAFE GUN HANDLING 1. Always keep the firearm’s muzzle
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pointed in a safe direction. This is a most basic safety rule. If the muzzle is pointing in a safe direction, no injury can occur if there is an accidental discharge. A safe direction means a direction in which a bullet cannot possibly strike anyone, taking into account possible ricochets and the fact that bullets can penetrate floors, walls and ceilings. 2. Firearms should be unloaded when not in use. Whenever you handle a firearm or hand it to someone, always open the action immediately, and check the chamber, receiver and magazine making certain there is not ammunition in them. NEVER assume a firearm is unloaded. Unload your gun as soon as you are finished shooting it before you bring it into a vehicle,camp or home. Always keep the action open when not in use. There are times in the field when common sense and the basic rules of firearms safety will require you to unload your firearm for maximum safety. Never cross a fence, climb a tree or perform any awkward action
THE GUN RACK and firearm malfunction or ruptured cartridge case. Also they protect your eyes from the possibly of springs, solvents or other agents from contacting your eyes when cleaning your firearm. 8. Make sure the barrel is clear of obstruction before shooting. Open the action and make sure no ammunition is in the chamber or magazine. Then make sure the barrel is free from any obstruction. Even a small bit of mud, snow, excess lubricating oil or grease in the bore can cause dangerously increased pressures, causing the barrel to burst on firing or bulge. A good habit is to clean the bore and check for obstructions before shooting.
Hearing & eye protection- Plinkers, target shooters and hunters should always use hearing and eye protection.
with a loaded gun. 3. Don’t rely on your gun’s “safety”. Never touch the trigger on a firearm until you are actually ready to shoot. Never pull the trigger on any firearm with the safety in the “safe” position or anywhere in between “safe” and “fire.” It is possible that the firearm can fire at any time, or even later when you release the safety without ever touching the trigger again. The only time you can be absolutely certain that a gun cannot fire is when the action is open and it’s completely empty. 4. You cannot take a shot back. Once the gun fires, you have no control over where the shot will go or what it will strike. Don’t shoot unless you know exactly what your shot is going to strike. Be certain that your bullet will not injure anyone or anything behind your target. No target is so important that you cannot take the time before you pull the trigger to be absolutely certain of your target and where your bullet will stop. 5. Be sure to use the correct ammunition. Using incorrect or improper ammunition can wreck your gun and cause serious personal injury. It just takes a second to make sure you are using the correct ammunition when you are loading your firearm.
9. Don’t alter or modify your firearm. Any alteration or change made to a firearm after manufacture can make the gun dangerous and usually voids the factory warranty. Check the owner’s manual for more information regarding the warranty. If you have lost your manual contact the manufacturer for a copy. 10. Know your firearm. Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the firearm(s) you purchase. Don’t go to the range and shoot a box of ammunition through it and then put the pistol in the bedside table until there is a break-in or the rifle or shotgun on the closet shelf until hunting season. Spend time at the range on a regular basis practicing the safe rules of gun handling and shooting your gun until it is second nature to you. Owning a gun is serious business. You must know how to use, handle and store your firearm safely. A foolproof gun has not been manufactured yet.
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Do not spray oil or other solvents on ammunition or place ammunition in excessively lubricated firearms. Poor ignition, unsatisfactory performance or damage to your firearm and harm to yourself or others could result from using such ammunition. 6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care! Occasionally, a cartridge may not fire when the trigger is pulled. If this happens, keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction. Carefully open the action, unload the firearm and dispose of the cartridge in a safe manner. 7. Wear hearing and eye protection while shooting. Adequate vision protection is essential and exposure to shooting noise can damage hearing. Shooting glasses protect against sand and dirt, twigs, falling shot clay target chips
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BY HANK SHAW
Photos by Holly A. Heyser and Hank Shaw
Catfish Courtbuillon This is a lighter, slightly more refined version of the traditional Cajun dish. The sauce reheats well, but the fish needs to be eaten as soon as it’s been sauced. It is served with simple steamed rice. Prep: 25 mins • Cook Time: 30 mins • Total: 55 mins Ingredients SAUCE • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter • 1 small white or yellow onion, minced • 2 celery stalks, minced • 1 red bell pepper, minced • 1 serrano or jalapeno pepper, minced 50 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
• • • • • •
2 Roma or plum tomatoes, seeded and diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 tablespoon Cajun or Creole seasoning 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 1/2 cups chicken or seafood stock
FISH • 5 tablespoons bacon fat or lard • 1 to 2 pounds skinless fish fillets • 1/2 cup flour • 1/2 cup fine cornmeal, a/k/a “fish fry” (Look for Louisiana plain fish fry) • 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley • 1/4 cup minced chives or scallions • 5 to 10 basil leaves, torn up. • Lemon juice to taste
CAMPHOUSE KITCHEN Instructions 1. Make the sauce. Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat and saute the onion, celery, red pepper and serrano until soft, about 5 minutes. 2. Add the garlic, tomato, thyme and Cajun seasoning and let this cook another minute or two, then pour in the white wine and bring to a boil. Let this boil down by half, then add the stock and simmer this uncovered for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and set aside. 3. In another frying pan, heat the bacon fat. Mix the flour and cornmeal. Salt the catfish fillets, then dust them in the flour mixture. Fry the fish over medium-high heat until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. 4. Drain any extra fat, leaving only about a tablespoon. Add the sauce to the pan with the fish, add the chopped herbs and lemon juice to taste. Swirl it all in the pan to mix. To serve, carefully lift a fish fillet with a long spatula, or two spatulas, and set on individual plates. Spoon over some sauce and serve with steamed rice.
Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Sauce I use this cherry sauce with wild pork mostly, but it’s great on duck, or even with pheasant or chicken. Prep: 20 mins • Cook Time: 20 mins • Total: 40 mins Ingredients PORK • 1 to 2 pounds pork tenderloin or loin, preferably in one or two pieces • Salt • 2 tablespoons canola, sunflower, grapeseed or rice bran oil SAUCE • 1 large shallot, minced • 1/3 cup Maraschino liqueur or brandy • 1/3 cup glace de viande (see above notes) • 1 tablespoon green peppercorns • 20 to 30 cherries, pitted and halved • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter Instructions 1. Take the pork out and salt it well. Set it on the cutting board for 20 to 40 minutes to come up to temperature. Do this before you start chopping vegetables and pitting cherries. 2. Get the canola oil hot in a large frying pan that will
hold the pork all at once. Sear the pork on all sides over high heat, then drop the temperature to medium and cook the pork until it’s done, about 10 minutes. Use a meat thermometer or the finger test for doneness to determine this: you want 145F for farmed pork, 155F for wild, which is medium-well. 3. Move the pork to a clean cutting board to rest, while you make the sauce. Add the shallot to the pan and cook for 2 minutes over medium-high heat; you need at least a tablespoon of oil in the pan, so add a bit if you need to. 4. Take the pan off the heat and pour in the liqueur; this prevents it from igniting in your face. Set the pan back on the heat and use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits in the pan. Add the glace de viande or cooked down stock, as well as the green peppercorns, and boil this down by half. 5. Add the cherries and vinegar and cook, stirring often so the cherries are all coated, for about 2 minutes. Take off the heat and add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, swirling the first tablespoon to incorporate it before adding the second. Add salt to taste. Slice the pork and serve with the sauce. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 51
Camphouse Kitchen
Stuffed Grape Leaves
While this is a basic recipe for vegetarian stuffed grape leaves with short-grain rice and lots of herbs you can stuff your grape leaves with whatever your want. I’ve seen recipes for bulgur wheat fillings, ground meat, pumpkin, fish, mushrooms, and, most often, rice. Prep: 45 mins • Cook Time: 1 hour • Total: 1 hr 45 mins Ingredients • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Roughly 50 grape leaves 1 1/2 cups short- or medium-grain rice, such as sushi or arborio 2 shallots, minced 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley 2 tablespoons minced fresh mint 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons dried tart berries (optional) Salt and black pepper 2/3 cup olive oil 1 teaspoon sugar 2 lemons, zest grated and juiced
Instructions 1. Pour boiling water over the rice and stir well until the water is milky. Drain the rice and rinse it well. Add the shallots, garlic, parsley, mint, chives, allspice, coriander, cinnamon and the berries, if you are using them. If you are zesting the lemons, add the grated zest, too. Mix well and set in a bowl. 2. Line a shallow pot with grape leaves; this prevents 52 AUGUST 2019 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
the stuffed grape leaves from sticking to the pot. Stuff the grape leaves as described above, tucking them in snugly into the pot. If you have gaps, it’s nice to put in a garlic clove, which adds some flavor, and is tasty once cooked. 3. Once you have all the grape leaves in the pot -- and it is perfectly OK to add them in layers -dissolve enough salt into 2 cups of water to make it salty, about a tablespoon, and then dissolve the sugar in the water. Pour this over the stuffed grape leaves. Then pour over the olive oil and the lemon juice. 4. Set a plate over the dolmades so they don’t unravel during cooking. Cover the pot and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook this way for 50 minutes. Turn off the heat and wait at least 20 minutes before eating. If you want, spoon some pickled berries over your stuffed grape leaves when you serve them.
Beer Can Pheasant
Beer can chicken is one of the best ways I know to roast a chicken, especially in summertime, when you can do this recipe on the grill. But, while you can jam a regular beer can into a pheasant, the birds are generally too small. But a Red Bull can will fit. Fill it halfway with beer. Prep: 30 mins • Cook Time:45 mins • Total: 1 hr 15 mins Ingredients • • • •
2 empty Red Bull cans Enough beer to fill half the cans (use any beer you want) 2 whole pheasants 1/4 cup olive oil to coat birds
Camphouse Kitchen
• •
Salt and black pepper 1 tablespoon dried thyme
Instructions 1. Take the pheasants out and let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Bring the beer out, too, as you don’t want cold beer in the can. 2. Prepare your grill for indirect heat. If you are using charcoal, put the coals on one side of the grill, leaving another side free of coals. If you are using a gas grill, fire up only half of the burners. 3. Rub the pheasants all over with olive oil. Mix the salt, pepper, and thyme in a bowl and sprinkle it over the pheasant. 4. Fill the Red Bull can halfway with beer; it doesn’t matter what kind. Drink the rest of the beer. Put the can inside the pheasants’ cavity and place the pheasants on the cool side of the grill. The legs and the can will act like a tripod to keep the pheasant upright. 5. Cover the grill and come back in 40 minutes. After that time, check the pheasants and add more coals if needed. Stick a thermometer into the thickest part of the pheasant’s thigh — you want it to read 160 degrees. If it’s not there, close the grill lid and come back in 15 minutes. Keep checking this way until the pheasant is done. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, poke the spot between the leg and breast with a knife and look for the juices to run clear, not pink. 6. Carefully move the pheasants to a pan. Let them rest
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for 10 minutes. Carefully lift it off the can and carve up into serving pieces. Consider brining your pheasants first, especially if it was a wild bird. Mix 1/4 cup of kosher salt with 4 cups of water and add some seasonings: I like bay leaves, rosemary and cracked black pepper. Submerge the pheasant in this brine for 4 to 8 hours, then drain and let sit in the fridge uncovered the next day — this helps you get a crispy skin. After that, you can do this like a regular beer can chicken.
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HOW TO CATCH
TRIPLETAIL
WHEN THE PRESSURE PICKS UP BY MIKE THOMPSON
Capt. Jay O’Brien landed this huge tripletail in August 2017
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FISHING OUTLOOK
Almost every year, in early June, the Gulf Coast’s near shore waters gain a welcome group of visitors. The tripletail, aka blackfish, move in from the Gulf to invade the coastal waters, wherever the visibility and salinity is to their liking. The tripletails are known for their odd habits, fighting ability and of course, their great taste on the dinner plate. They also grow to impressive size, allowing those with smaller boats to battle the brawny fish. All these traits make triple tails a very sought after fish. Word gets out quick, via bait shops, boat repair shops and thanks to today’s technology, the Internet. Once word spreads that the tripletails have arrived on the scene, (usually after the water temps reach the mid-70’s) coastal angler’s familiar with the tripletails get very excited. This excitement leads to intense fishing pressure on tripletails. It’s not so much pressure on the fish, but the well-known habits of the fish that put anglers in hot pursuit of the same areas. WHAT THEY LIKE Tripletails have an intense fondness for shade and structure. All along their journey northward in summer, triple tails will inspect and homestead various types of shade that they encounter. Buoys, channel markers, crab trap floats, solitary pilings and floating debris will all attract the tripletails. During a typical summer, there will be hundreds of boats
weekly, banging on anything putting off shade, in search of the tasty fish. This pressure causes the fish to ‘wise up’making them more difficult to catch. WHEN THE HEAT IS ON! As summer drags out into July and August, the heat can become intense. This horrible heat makes it harder to suffer through hours of fishing in search of now highly educated fish. As this happens, the number of anglers chasing blackfish will start to dwindle, as those anglers deem the fish no longer worthy of the effort and pain. For some anglers that may be true, but for others, late summer is the time for trophy fish. The anglers that continue the pursuit of tripletails after it is no longer automatic, can reap the benefits of their determination. This determination can produce the fish of a lifetime! THE GRINDERS I took the time to talk to two fishing teams that are deadly serious in their pursuit of tripletails. This dogged determination has led to impressive catches for both teams in late summer. Both teams are active members of the Alabama Coastal Fisherman’s Association and were happy to dispense their knowledge. Captain Jay O’Brien, of Irish Wake Fishing, is a charter fishing guide based in Mobile, Alabama. While inshore fishing for species such as speckled trout, redfish and flounder are his top priorities, O’Brien also has developed a love for targeting tripletails. “After a slow down in action for specks and reds, we
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How to Catch Tripletail When Pressure Picks Up
the structure, not on top of it. If a tripletail is there and the water clarity is good, they will see the shrimp swimming by and will ease up on it if they are hungry, O’Brien is not always in charter fishing mode. He enjoys sport fishing with friends in pursuit of the tricky tripletails. Such was the case when he caught a record breaking tripletail in August of 2017.
Lynda Capps boated this monster tripletail in August 2018
sometimes target tripletails. We start looking for structure, whether fixed or floating, We look for any floating debris, such as weeds, trash or debris. I’m often in the tower of my boat looking for fish at every stop. Stationary fish are easier to spot but if I see a silver flash or silver blob hanging around structure, it’s time to get real” O’Brien said.
“A couple of my tripletail chasing friends invited me along on their boat to target some fish in the bay. We were not doing so well, with only one or two fish pulled on board the boat. The water clarity was really off that day, After a tide change the water cleared and the big fish appeared,” O’Brien explained. “When she pulled down the cork, it was a steady pull. It was like she did not know she was hooked. As I pulled her towards the boat and we showed her the net…that’s when the party started! After a 15-20-minute fight, I got her in.” O’Brien is a big fan of catch and release. As a matter of fact, he likes to tag his tripletails and release them to help scientists track the movements of the fish. On this day, he had a dilemma.
O’Brien’s bait choice for tripletail is a frisky live shrimp. He pairs that with a popping cork, placed two to three feet above the shrimp.
“I thought long and hard about tag and release, but the fish was over 28 pounds and broke the existing ACFA record at the time. I decided to keep the monster and have it mounted at my home to enjoy for years to come,” O’Brien said.
“Size is not so important to me on the size of the shrimp, but it must be lively enough to catch the attention of the tripletails,” O’Brien said. “I tell my customers to cast near
Cecil and Lynda Capps are a husband and wife team. that love to target tripletails. They make a very good team and their success chasing the fish is widely known. Cecil was a
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How to Catch Tripletail When Pressure Picks Up
longtime angler fishing the Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) circuit. After so many years chasing kingfish, he decided to purchase a bay boat. “After my wife retired as a school teacher, we started fishing together. She always complained that I left too early and stayed too late. Now that we fish as a team, her attitude has changed a bit,” Capps said. Cecil and Lynda started targeting tripletails (blackfish) because of the great food quality of the fish. Together they work to get the best out of every trip. “We have learned that it is very important to make the proper cast to any target we come across. You must put the bait where it will drift as close as possible to the target. We use a set cork rig just a couple of feet above the bait. We prefer big live shrimp, but have done well on live croakers and pogies,” Cecil said. The Capps run along markers in the Intercoastal Waterway, crab traps in Mobile Bay and also markers in the Mississippi Sound. “We have noticed the blackfish in the Mississippi Sound are more numerous, but generally run smaller than those on the bay. The sound fish run from 8-12 pounds with an occasional bigger one,” Cecil pointed out. “As the summer moves on, we encounter larger fish, but they have become very spooky after being pounded so much. You have to downsize your line and hooks to fool them. You also have to target spots that other people might ignore. Floating logs, trash or weed lines can all hold fish in late summer. One August day, in 2018, the Capp’s team was concentrating their efforts on the eastern side of Mobile Ship Channel. Looking for anything new floating in the area, the couple noticed a log that was slowly drifting southward with the current. “I am the designated lookout for the boat. I have to spot anything floating that might hold a fish,” Lynda said. “I spotted the log and urged Cecil to head that way. The log was cluttered with grass and debris. It actually looked like a small island. When we approached, we saw at least two fish under it. I casted out a bait and caught one immediately.” The first fish was a keeper, so after landing it the Capp’s team made a second approach to the log. “When we went back, I saw the wide tail of the huge fish. I tossed out a bait and soon the fight was on. When fighting large tripletails it is important to have a good captain driving the boat. My husband Cecil is that guy. He pulled me away from the log and the fish came with us. The big tripletail made multiple runs and the fight lasted at least 25 minutes,” Lynda recounted. Once the fish was on the boat, Cecil Capps estimated 25 pounds. Lynda thought a lot more. The Capp’s team caught two more fish off that same log. One was undersized, while the other made the ride home. “We went home and got cleaned up so we could go weigh
the big fish at Jemison’s Bait-N-Tackle. People gathered round looking at the big tripletail as we weighed it. When it weighed out at 29 pounds, I was thinking it should weigh more. I mentioned this and the saleslady at the shop said the big fish had bottomed out the scale. We moved the fish to a larger scale in the back and it weighed 31.20 pounds! What a whopper” Lynda said. The Capp’s team had this advice for tripletail novices. “You have to have lots of patience and be prepared to burn a lot of fuel. The best conditions include flat seas. That also means intense heat. Bring plenty of water and some cool towels to help endure the weather,“ Lynda pointed out. “Also we advise leaving the under-sized fish alone. Tripletails will often swallow the hook. There’s no sense in taking that chance when the fish under-sized.” CONCLUSION When the heat is sweltering, causing you to think twice about hitting the water, take the advice dispensed above. It just may result in the fish of a lifetime!
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LATE SUMMER
KAYAK FISHING TIPS
The big bass came to a kayak angler from its dark, shady hideout.
WHERE TO GO August is a good time to visit places where many kayak anglers don’t usually go- smaller, shaded waters such as local streams and backwaters of larger lakes and rivers and protected areas of coastal salt waters. Late summer is a great time for exploring smaller waters which can offer some great kayak fishing opportunities.
BY ED MASHBURN Photos by Ed Mashburn
For instance, all across northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida are many smaller streams which feed into larger lakes, and these small waters can be great in late summer for kayak anglers. In northern Florida, some wonderful spring-fed rivers provide cool, clear water that hold some very big bass for kayak anglers willing to work in weedy, thick cover areas.
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All along the northern Gulf Coast, kayak anglers can find great places in bays, bayous, and even smaller lakes. The main idea at this time of year no matter where a kayak angler chooses to go is to get out of the hot sun and to find places where fish take shelter from the heat, too. Anglers who put in small freshwater creeks and rivers with overhanging tree limbs can find some very good bass and panfish up in the shady areas that remain cooler all day. If the shaded water is fairly deep, then it’s a perfect setup for good late summer fishing. For saltwater anglers, look under docks and other structure that makes a shadow. Don’t neglect fishing under moored and anchored boats. Particularly good for late summer kayak fishing are boats that stay moored for long periods of time. These
PADDLE FISHING boats provide good cover and shade for fish, and kayak anglers can approach and fish these boats from all sides in many cases.
power boats moving at speed at night to see an unlighted kayak on the water.
Redfish in particular love to hole up under docks in late summer where they can ambush shrimp and small crabs and pinfish without exposing themselves in the sunny water. Flounder will often take up position under docks which give shade and protection. It’s hard to beat live bait, but shrimp are eaten up by pinfish and other bait-stealers very quickly in August. Try live bull minnows with just enough weight to take them to the bottom.
And finally, keep an eye on the weather. Kayak anglers don’t have much shelter when on the water, and those sudden pop-up thunderstorms which happen daily on the Gulf Coast and the Deep South can be very dangerous for kayak anglers. When the first rumble of thunder is heard, start looking around for shelter and start heading for safety.
For kayak anglers, late summer is a fine time to throw soft plastic lures which can be slowly bumped along the bottom near cover and shade. Whether freshwater or saltwater, kayak anglers who choose to fish low and slow with jigs and unweighted soft plastics can find some great fish.
As an added advantage kayak anglers have that bigger boat folks don’t, when caught in a sudden and sharp thunderstorm, kayak anglers can often take refuge from the rain and wind by carefully paddling the kayak under a dock structure. I’ve waited out any number of quick late afternoon thunderstorms by easing my kayak under a dock and letting the rain fall and the wind blow. I stayed dry and comfortable in my kayak.
WHEN TO GO Early and late is a good idea for kayak anglers at all times, but in the late summer, going when the light is low and the sun is not beating down mercilessly is almost a necessity. Most kayak angler who put in at earliest sunrise or before will be willing to come off the water by nine or ten o’clock before the sun gets high and hot. Kayak anglers, whether in fresh or salt water will want to keep an eye for surface feeding fish. It’s not uncommon, depending on the water, for freshwater kayak anglers to encounter spotted bass, white bass, and even stripers in very early open water as they feed on schools of shad. Kayak anglers who find surface feeding bass can use a jig or lipless crankbait which can be cast a long way to help stay with the feeding fish which often move quickly to follow the shad or other baitfish they are working. In saltwater, mackerel, trout, and big redfish will often explode on pogies and other schooled up baitfish in early morning. The kayak allows anglers to move in much closer to these early morning feeding fish without spooking them. A large topwater plug worked slowly along a lightline from a dock can produce some major blowups from big redfish and trout, and fighting a big fish at night on topwater lures is a whole lot of fun. Fishing at night can be extremely good. Lighted docks and bridge structures can offer some of the best night fishing to be found anywhere.
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Kayak anglers who go out late at night should be sure to have a light on the kayak which can be easily seen. Late summer night fishing kayak anglers can encounter some of the most fantastic surface action imaginable. All species of bass feed heavily on top late at night, and in saltwater, specks and reds congregate under dock lights to explode on shrimp and other small food things. LATE SUMMER KAYAK FISHING CAUTIONS Kayak anglers need to make sure they have plenty of water or other drinks aboard. It’s easy to lose track of how far a kayak has been paddled, especially if the fish are biting, and a drinkless kayak angler can face a real problem. It’s important for a kayak angler to keep hydrated. Also, at night, kayaks used for angling must have a light visible for safety reasons. It can be very hard for other boats, especially
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Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook
Flounder like to hang around docks and piers in the back bays this month.
“All this growth and feeding activity brings a good number of predatory gamefish inshore to feast on the relatively small baitfish.”
BY DAVID THORNTON Photos by David Thornton
MIDSUMMER SIMMER! August may bring a little relief to the long, hot and sultry summer some years along the “Emerald Coast”. But midday is still going to be the time most pier and shore anglers avoid unless cloud cover puts a cap on the searing sun. Most often the gulf is fairly calm and clear this month, except when some tropical disturbance has stirred the waters. August begins the most active part of hurricane season in this region. So keeping in touch with tropical weather forecast is pretty much the norm. Prayer works
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too! Otherwise, we just have the ‘typical’ summer thundershowers that pulse with the heating of the day, and cooling (relative) at night. The water temperatures are likely at their warmest of the year (middle to upper 80s) most of August. But the days are getting shorter, and some years may even bring a bit of drying offshore breeze, especially later in the month. This tepid water and tropical weather fuel a spurt of growth for “young of the year” (YOY) forage fish and gamefish as well. The competition begins early in life for these sea creatures that either eat, or get eaten to feed each other in fascinating
FISHING OUTLOOK interrelationships. All this growth and feeding activity brings a good number of predatory gamefish inshore to feast on the relatively small baitfish. Anchovies, sardines, herring, baby jacks along with other species that spawn in the spring are growing rapidly (about an inch per month). This provides a lot of near shore and from shore fishing opportunities for anglers so inclined to brave the heat and venture forth.
August has a few other species that show up around the piers in numbers large enough for anglers to target.
MIDSUMMER ON THE SAND Pompano can still caught from the beach this month, but they are far outnumbered by ladyfish, bluefish and especially juvenile jack crevelle which typically show up in the surfzone by late August. These 8 to 10 inch long miniature versions of the adult jacks are every bit as tenacious fighters relative to their size. And at times they dominate the bite in the surf zone in late summer. But they are a blast to catch on ultralight spinning tackle! Plus anglers can still catch any of the three species of kingfish (king croaker) called “whiting” and “ground mullet” which are growing fast as well. Pinfish and other small fish in the surf often make shrimp disappear from the hook like magic this time of year. But using small pieces of Fishbites on a #6 kahle hook and ultra light spinning tackle can at least give you a shot at some of these more desirable species. They are still present in the surf along with slot size redfish, flounder and even speckled trout along the Alabama beaches. Specks often feed along the beaches of Alabama whenever the salinity of the back bays and estuaries is too low to sustain their other food sources. Alabama anglers will have to deal with new regulations on creel and size limits for speckled trout (with a creel limit of six) and flounder (14” minimum with a creel limit of five) beginning August 1st. The most notable of these changes are for speckled trout which will then be a ‘slot’ limit of 15” minimum to 22” maximum length, and one oversized speckled trout will be allowed. . Speckled trout can be caught on a variety of lures ranging from soft plastics to spoons to hard twitch baits. Anything that mimics the finger mullet or other baitfish they are pursuing can be effective with a good presentation and timing. These fish generally like slightly moving water, and medium to low light situations. That means early or late in the day are generally going to be the best times to fish for them. Along with those short periods when clouds from thundershowers may obscure the sun. And night time fishing around lighted docks and piers can bTiny Flukee very productive for trout, especially “white trout”. Around
the lights, a 2 1/2” Zoom or other small soft plastic lure on a lightweight jighead is a good imitation for the glass minnows which these fish feed on, and can be very effective. August is a great month for blue crabs along the coast as well. Kids using nets of all sorts can easily spot the crabs in the clear water near the beach and scoop them up. The mature females are coming ashore to lay the eggs that have been growing under their bodies for months. That orange mass on egg-bearing female crabs (referred to as “sponge crabs”) protects them from harvest by humans. But large predators like redfish, drum and stingrays aren’t constrained by man made laws. APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING Pier fishing in August usually presents quite a variety of options to anglers. Common nearshore pelagic fish, like king mackerel can be relatively scarce. But offshore pelagics like sailfish, mahi and juvenile African pompano may be fairly abundant at times. Especially around the Florida panhandle piers. Also, tarpon can periodically be found in good number from these piers, though their numbers of migrating schools are dwindling. But it is the inshore pelagic fish that dominate the bite from the piers this month. August is also a good time to experience the bull redfish ‘runs’ or ‘attack’ by a hungry horde of jack crevelle from these beach piers. At times hundreds of these large redfish or jacks may be feeding simultaneously on the surface near the pier in an unforgettable frenzy! But ladyfish are usually the most abundant species. And they are often in the company of bluefish, spanish mackerel, juvenile king mackerel and even Little Tunny (“bonita”) whenever they show up. So it pays to be ready for action at any time. August has a few other species that show up around the piers in numbers large enough for anglers to target. Flounder often use the shade and cover from piers to ambush their prey. And schools of hungry mangrove snapper often maraud in the shadows of the pier or around submerged rocks, jetties and other hard structures looking for their next meal. “Grovers” are wary adversaries on light tackle and fight hard for their size. They are growing fast in anticipation of soon joining their kin around reefs farther offshore in the gulf. But once they reach 10” TL in Florida, they are fair game for anglers intent on a tasty meal. Alabama anglers have to wait a little longer for mangrove (aka gray or black) snapper to reach the 12” TL legal length. Also, after August 1st Alabama pier and shore anglers will be required to purchase an additional $10 “Gulf Reef Fish Endorsement”to retain these mangrove snapper. I don’t make the rules folks, just try to abide by them. Still, Alabama and northwest Florida shorebound anglers have plenty of other inshore and nearshore species to target in August. Also there will be more rail and beach space opening up as schools resume during the month. And once the heat abates a bit, the fish and the fishermen will respond by spending more great days outdoors. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 61
Gulf Coast Fishing Outlook
Great grouper can be caught this month with frisky live baits BY MIKE THOMPSON Photos by Mike Thompson
You gotta start thinking early and late if you want to make your fishing trips both enjoyable and fruitful in August. Red snapper season has wound down and the activity at the launches should be more tolerable. Let’s look at a few options on the water this month. ALABAMA Inshore fishing will be more difficult in August unless you start your trips earlier in the morning, or late in the evening if you are targeting speckled trout. Some of the most reliable action can be had at sunrise along the beaches of Gulf Shores. Slow sinking MirrOlures or silver spoons will do nicely, however, live croakers are hard to beat. At night, the gas rigs in
Mobile Bay will be very active with trout. Live shrimp, free-lined works best. You may have to check a few rigs to find the fish. Middle Bay Light is also a consistent location to find both specks and white trout in August. The large, wooden range beacons along the ship channel will be holding fish as well. Comb the area tossing grubs to locate the fish. One of the most effective grubs is the Cocahoe Minnow. Hot summer is an excellent time to use these grubs with a 3/8ths oz. head. Black back with pearl sides (aka Tuxedo) is a proven producer. As August moves on, Mobile Bay will get loaded with menhaden, especially
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the upper bay. These menhaden are feasted on by bull reds, jack crevalle and tarpon. Most anglers will anchor the boat and start chumming with pieces of menhaden. It’s a hot, miserable, way to fish, but having a canvas top makes it a little more bearable. When the rods bend over you never know what’s going to be on the other end, giving you spurts of excitement during your mission. OFFSHORE On the Alabama coast anglers are coming off a great red snapper season. Now the sights are set on amberjack. Sometimes referred to as ’reef donkeys’ these fish can test your muscle and your mind. Angelo DePaola of the
FISHING OUTLOOK Coastal Connection had this advice on catching amberjacks. “Amberjack will be holding on rock formations, oilrigs and the large sunken ships. Aj’s like big live hardtails. The also love a live bonito, two-ten pounds in size,” DePaola said. “When you hook one of these big amberjack, you should move away from the structure to get the angle on the fish. Reeling straight up and down, your success will be limited.” While targeting amberjack on the spots mentioned you are bound to run across some grouper. DePaola had this advice.
to watch the look on kids faces as they get on a quick bite,” Necaise said. FLORIDA FOCUS With the books closing on red snapper season, it’s time for panhandle anglers to look elsewhere for fun and excitement this month. Amberjack are available to retain, so many folks will take aim on them. Captain Matthew Champion of Championship Charters in Destin had this advice.
“With amberjacks open again, we will set off in search of structure, natural bottom or anything else that might hold “If you want to catch the larger grouper you should fish just off AJ’s and grouper. For the amberjack we like to use live the bottom. In this situation you will be using jigs and smaller blue runners or ruby red lips. The bigger fish will be further butterflied baits. Fish these baits in a yo-yo fashion, up and offshore. We like to say that: shorter the trip, the shorter the down. You will have success on the smaller grouper by using fish,” Champion pointed out. live pinfish,” DePaola said. August is a great month for dolphin. Look for grass patches to In addition to longer trips, bigger fish theories, Champion believes bait size helps catch bigger amberjacks. spot the colorful fish. “Dolphin can be caught around grass in decent numbers on both live bait and artificial. Carry along some pinfish and croakers. Use your artificials first, because dolphin can get wise up quick. After they figure the artificials, you can switch to live bait and continue the bite,” Depaola added.
“I like to use long metal jigs to catch big amberjack. Bigger the jig…bigger the fish. On our short trips the amberjack are usually between 18-24 pounds,” Champion said. “On the eight hours trips farther out, they average 30-45 pounds, with an occasional 80-pounder.”
MISSISSIPPI The weather is just as hot over in the Pass Christian area of Mississippi this month. Anglers know they must adapt to the grueling temperatures to be successful. Captain Clay Necaise of Outkast Charters takes his clients to productive areas during the most productive times for different species of fish. As a former shrimp boat and oyster boat captain, Necaise knows the places where fish hang out throughout the year.
After an amberjack adventure, Champion will start trolling for Wahoo and sailfish. For both he likes the same set-up.
“In August, we will hit the shallows early for trout. We use plastic grubs under a popping cork. A lot of different grubs will work, but I catch more fish on a High Waters Get’ Em Shad. They have a multitude of color options, but my go-to color is Pocket Change. My second best color choice is called Sweetheart,” Necaise advised. After an early morning spurt of specks in the shallows, it’s time to hit the bull redfish that are plentiful around the various barrier islands. “The ends of the islands are great places to target bull reds in August. We catch most of our bulls on live croakers, fished on a Carolina rig. The action can be hot and heavy, with an occasional black drum crashing the party!” Necaise said. The next target on the Necaise list is the triple tail. This gives folks on board a chance to cool off traveling from spot to spot. “I look for tripletails under crab trap floats, around oyster reef poles and any floating debris we run across. I use a live shrimp under a popping cork a foot or so deep. We always use a decent sized treble hook fishing for the tripletails,” Necaise explained. Although really not on the target list, Necaise will stop on a bird school to allow the younger folks on board some action. ”I’ll stop and let the kids on board tangle with ladyfish or Spanish mackerel if the fishing has been slow. It’s always fun
“We troll ballyhoo and skirted lures. The best colors seem to be: blue/pink, green/purple/black, along with solid white. The white marlin prefer pink,” Champion said. “When we find floating grass, we will target the mahi-mahi that hang around it.” As Champion gets closer to shore on the way back, he will change his lures to attract the kingfish. “On the way in we will tie on some Yo-zuri Crystal Minnows in the six inch versions. We are looking for what we call ‘beach kings’ or snake mackerel.’ This is a good way to wrap up a fishing trip,” Champion said. CONCLUSION Summer is still brutal weather-wise. Take all precautions to stay hydrated. Water and Gatorade are your friends. Save the ‘malty beverages for when you get back to the dock. See you on the water. Important Contact Information Captain Matthew Champion Championship Charters 850-565-0573 Captain Clay Necaise Outkast Charter 228-233-7760 Angelo Depaola - The Coastal Connection with EXP Realty and the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club 850-287-3440 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // AUGUST 2019 63
Regional Freshwater Fishing Outlook
Fish a small soft plastic worm in deeper water for some big late summer bream. BY ALEX GRANPERE Photos by Ed Mashburn
ALABAMA WATERS
LAKE PICKWICK Fishing guide Captain Brad Whitehead says that a good way to find crappie in August is to set the boat up with a spider rig. Multiple rods increase the chances of locating the best concentrations of crappie.
“Spider rigs with lots of rigs using crank baits and minnow-tipped jigs can be good. Anglers should try hot colored crank baits- pink and orange crank baits can be great,” Whitehead said.
“Later in the day, try big plastic worms fished on ledges in the 15-20 foot depth,” Whitehead added.
For bass anglers in August, the key will be fishing early. There will be a good top water bite, but as the sun
WILSON LAKE Captain Brian Barton specializes in Pickwick and Wilson lake catfish,
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gets higher, shad go deeper, and the bass will follow them.
FISHING OUTLOOK smallmouth and largemouth Bass.
ing Guide Service
from the dams.
“August is very good for flathead catsAt night after 10:00 is usually the best bite, but rain or current can produce good flatheads at any time,” Barton said.
Many anglers at Eufaula will want to look for created trash piles in 18-25 feet of water for bass holding close to the structure. Deep running crank baits and jigs work well around the deeper structure.
Crappie anglers should look for shad which will be higher early in the daysay four to six feet deep- and then move deeper as the day goes on.
Anglers should look for log jams and big trees in the water. Flatheads love wood cover. “Try to fish during peak generationusually during late afternoon. Late in August, the thermometer will start to disappear, and then fish will be scattered all over the lake,” Barton advised. White bass and hybrids will be chasing shad below the dam, and watching for feeding birds over schools of shad being pressured from below by stripers can be very productive in August. LAKE WEISS Captain Lee Pitts fishes Lake Weiss year-round, and he has some advice for anglers who want to catch fish on the northeast Alabama lake. “We still have very good bass fishing in shallow water in August. We’re fishing water in the three to five foot range,” Pitts said. “Anglers should look for wave action and dam-produced current to find actively feeding bass.”. As the sun gets higher, anglers should move off the banks and concentrate on docks and blowdown trees that make shadows on the water. Crankbaits and jigs worked in and around the dark shadows can be effective. Pitts advise anglers to try buzz baits in silver and shad patterns. “Spooks and Chug-Bugs can be great on early mornings and cloudy days. In mid-day, work jigs and Texas-rigged worms on ledges. Try pumpkin-green colors,” Pitts advised. LAKE EUFAULA “There will be a good early top water bite. Frogs and spinner baits fished around shallow water cover will be strong. Fish the lily pads early.” said Captain Sam Williams of Hawks Fish-
Anglers should look for log jams and big trees in the water. Flatheads love wood cover.
“Willow fly hatches can produce some really good bream fishing. Also, be aware that some big bass will be close to the feeding bream and they’ll be feeding on the bream that are feeding on the willow flies,” Williams said. Crappie anglers on Eufaula will want to fish the creek and river ledges. Night fishing around bridges and causeways and other light-producing structures will be best. “Catfishing is always good at Eufaula. In August, try jug fishing with cut bait for some really good catfish action,” Williams pointed out.. MILLER’S FERRY Joe Dunn of Dunn’s Sports in Thomasville says that In August, the crappie bite will be more of a river ledge, main creek channels situation this month. Anglers looking for slabs should spend time bottom bouncing jigs and live minnows in 18 feet of water or so. This bottom bouncing technique works best when the lake is having water moved through it when the dam is pumping water. When the dam is moving water through the lake, crappie anglers should try deep vertical jigging over tree tops in river channels. Trolling multiple rigs can be very strong in August with both jigs and Road Runners can be very good when the water is still with little current
Bass anglers at Miller’s Ferry in August should look mostly for moving water and use crank baits, Carolina rigs, drop-shot rigs, and underspinner baits around ledges and creek mouths. A good early morning bite can occur around grass. For most kinds of angling at Miller’s Ferry in August, Dunn points out that moving water and good current is crucial. LAKE GUNTERSVILLE According to Captain Jake Davis from Mid-South Guide Service bass anglers should have a wide range of fishing techniques to select from for this August’s bass bite. Anywhere along the main channels of the lake will be good where the grass is thickest. When asked what color frog anglers should use, Davis’s response is, “Black, black, and black. The bass can see the black frog overhead easier than any other color.” The Pro-Z Tree Frog is a very good top water frog for Guntersville. When the top water bite slows, anglers can still catch lots of bass using Tightline Jigs Legends Muscle Crawler jigs with Missile Baits D. Bomb trailers. Let the heavy jig punch through the weed cover to the shaded areas where the bass will be holding. Panfish anglers can fish the backs of channel along grass lines to find some good bream fishing. SIPSEY FORK Over at Sipsey Ford, Randy Jackson from Riverside Fly Shop points out that terrestrials will be the best bet for fly anglers in August. Ant patterns, crickets, and grasshopper flies will work well because that’s what the trout are seeing at this time. Streamers can be good in August. The streamers should look like small shad which are in the river now.
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Topwater frogs are great for August bass when fished over thick weed mats.
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Cloudy days will work best for trout in August, and the clouds may help hold the temperature of the air down a little, too. Anglers should look for beds of coontail moss in the river which hold immature bugs for the trout to feed on. The coontail moss grows all along the river waters, but it grows thicker farther down the stream.
Catfish will be in eight to ten feet of water close to the main river channel, and they will bite on a variety of live baits.
MOBILE/TENSAW DELTA Captain Wayne Miller from the Mobile-Tensaw Delta Guide Service helps anglers find fish in August. “In August, it’s by far the month of main river fishing. A few deeper lakes off the rivers are OK, but the fish will be deeper,” Miller said. In August, the bass congregate in schools, and they orient to shad schools on the main rivers. Miller advises anglers to bounce from point to point in the big rivers. Anglers may hit three or four points which have no bait and no fish. But when the big schools of shad are located, the bass will be there. Shad pattern crank baits will be very effective when the bass are schooled up and working shad. Panfishing on the Delta is slow in August. Crappie will be as deep as they can get, and not very active. Catfish will still be good in August, and catfish angler in the main rivers can expect some big cats to show up and be ready to fight.
FLORIDA WATERS
LAKE TALQUIN Jeff DuBree Whippoorwill Sportsman’s Lodge says that anglers on
Lake Talquin in August should be looking for stripes. There are some big striped bass here, and they seek out the cooler water of spring-fed creeks that feed into the main lake. Stripers when found will bite on swim baits, white bucktails and big Zara Spooks. In particular, many striper anglers look at Ocklawaha Creek and its springs for hot weather striper fishing. Bass will be in deep water near the creek channels and wherever shad are schooled up. Using heavy spoons and deeper running spinners like the old Little George spinner are effective for the deep water bass. Bream will still be solid around the edges. Try fishing crickets around the docks and other shade-producing shoreline structure. Catfish will be in eight to ten feet of water close to the main river channel, and they will bite on a variety of live baits. Cut shad is very effective. LAKE SEMINOLE Jody Wells is an experienced fisherman who fishes Lake Seminole a lot and he says that bream will still be on the beds somewhat in August, and anglers can have a lot of fun with them by using crickets and red worms.
Important Contact Information Joe Dunn Dunn’s Sports 334-636-0850 33356 Hwy 43 Thomasville, Al Capt. Lee Pitts Leepittsoutdoors.com 256-390-4145 Capt. Brian Barton www.brianbartonoutdoors.com 256-412-0969 Capt. Sam Williams Hawks Fishing Guide Service www.hawksfishingguideservice.com 334-355-5057 Capt. Brad Whitehead Bradwhiteheadfishing@aol.com 256-483-0834 Capt. Jake Davis Mid-South Guide Service Msbassguide@comcast.net 615-613-238 Captain Wayne Miller Mobile-Tensaw Delta Guide Service 251-4557404 Millewa12000@yahoo.com
Bass will be deep in August, but topwaters, especially frogs, fished near hydrilla beds in seven to ten feet of water can be very good early and late in the day.
Jeff DuBree Whippoorwill Sportsman’s Lodge Lake Talquin 850-875-2605 Fishtalquin@gmail.com
Wells advises anglers looking for bass to look at ledges and sandbars in deeper water. The bass will follow the schools of shad, and by fishing deep with soft plastics, anglers can usually find bass eager to bite. Colors are variable, and Jody tells anglers to use whatever color soft plastic they have faith in.
Jody Wells- Lake Seminole 850-269-2420
Hybrids and stripers will be schooling in August. Fishing folks looking for some hard-pulling fun should look for working birds and schools of shad on their electronics. If the shad are found, the big fish will be near. There are lots of two to four pound hybrids, stripes, and white bass at Seminole.
Randy Jackson Riverside Fly Shop 17027 Hwy 69N Jasper, AL 256-287-9582 Riversideflyshop.com
Tony Poloronis Outcaster’s Bait and Tackle 631 Hwy 98 Apalachicola, FL 850-653-4665
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TROPHY
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Daniel Robinson with his 8lb 9oz catch
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Marci Armitage, made a perfect shot on first deer which was a massive doe in Jackson MS
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Brett A. Williams caught this beautiful Bull Redfish along the causeway in Mobile, AL
PHOTO of the MONTH Michaela Lambert with her red snapper
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Charles Ford, 84.2lb Cubera Snapper during the Redneck Riviera Spearfishing Tournament
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KID'S CORNER
TROPHY ROOM 1
1
ST
ST
Fish
Snapper
Addison Vontroba, 12, hooks her first snapper
Sean & Christian caught this 5lb, 24� Flounder at Mullet Point, Al, during a Jubilee
Dawson Boone Talbot and his dad Philip, first fish, caught in Puppy Creek, Chunchula AL
Jackson Bakker, 8, killed this 175 lb, 9pt buck on family farm in AL
Steele Sealy, 11, caught this 13lb bass on private lake in Wilmer, AL
Isabella Sanderson, 6, first deer with her dad, Jackson AL
Kali Clark, 6, killed her 11pt 218 lb in Dallas Co
1
ST
Buck
Lexi Collins, 4, caught this bream in Marengo Co.
Kenlie Morgan, 13, gave her first buck a dirt nap in Baldwin County
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FISHING TIP
Wilson Lake Catfish BY: CAPTAIN BRIAN BARTON
In August start your search for Wilson Lake catfish in the mid lake region. If a thermocline develops, like it does most years, actively feeding fish will remain at or just above it. The thermocline depth is usually 40-50 feet deep and it can be located and identified by turning the sensitivity up on your sonar unit. A solid line will appear across the screen representing the thermocline. Drive your boat over ledges, humps, and other structures that are at the depth of the thermocline or shallower. Once you mark schools of fish note the depth the fish are holding. If fish are suspended five or more feet off the bottom, your best bet is to sit directly above the fish and lower your bait to their depth. For fish holding near the bottom, trolling float rigs .3 to .5 mph may work best. Best baits are always cut skipjack herring, shad, and live bream in that order. Skipjack heads and cut bait chunks two to three inches thick are always the ticket for trophy cats. If you want a cooler full of smaller catfish for the frying pan, fish the same locations, but downsize your bait and tackle. For trophy catfish I use medium heavy BnM Silvercat rods with reels spooled with 80 pound test Vicious braided line. I use 60 pound test mono for leaders. Pencil sinkers or cannonball weights are best for dragging while trolling because they have
less hang ups. I use two to four ounces depending on depth and current. For smaller fish I opt for Vicious 10 pound mono on medium action bass tackle. Nighttime will be your best option in August. If you can’t fish after dark the first and last couple hours of daylight will provide you with the most action. Fish should be fairly aggressive once located. My rule of thumb while fishing stationary is to sit 20 minutes. If no fish or good bites occur in that time move on to another location. For guide trip information contact Captain Brian Barton at 256412-0969. All charter info can be seen at our website www. brianbartonoutdoors.com.
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A GREAT DAY OUTDOORS
Catfish- Are They Really in the Cat Family? taking a catfish off is simply to have someone else do it. Catfish come in an assortment of types and sizes, but from channel cats to walking catfish, the hides on these fish are tough enough you could probably make boots from them, in particular, the walking catfish. BY JIM MIZE
August is National Catfish Month, which would be widely celebrated if more catfish had calendars. Still, these fish deserve recognition for a number of reasons. For starters, they get big. Catches over a hundred pounds have been recorded, so it’s no wonder that legends of even bigger monsters abound. Every dam in the vicinity of a catfish is believed to have monsters lurking nearby that at one time or another scared off divers. If that’s the case, however, I have just one question: Why is it so hard to figure out where to fish? And for those catfish that have chased divers, what’s the closest bait to imitate that? Everyone has different techniques for locating these fish. One guide I know who specializes in big flatheads claims he just drives around watching his fishfinder until something shows up on the screen that resembles a submerged Volkswagen. Probably the trademark characteristic of the catfish is its whiskers, or more appropriately perhaps, its handlebar mustache. Not since Snidely Whiplash tied poor Nell to the tracks has something this sinister come from beneath a railroad trestle. Catfish can prove to be surprisingly good table fare, considering that the first person to try one probably didn’t know whether to fillet it or shave it. Another fact that catfishermen should remember is that these rascals have spines on their dorsal and lateral fins that can prick and deliver an irritant to the careless person handling these fish. With the proper care, such accidents can be prevented. The best technique I’ve found for avoiding injury when
The one thing that prevents catfish from ranking higher on the piscatorial social ladder is that they are only beautiful to catfishermen. In fact, these fish get a little scary when you fish for them in the dark. For instance, they have really wide mouths stretched tightly in a cynical smile. Their eyes are cold, lifeless beads. Their skins are slimy and slick. In short, catfish look like they were assembled using parts no other fish wanted. They even swim in a methodical, sweeping motion that looks like they’re stalking. Someday, Stephen King will do a book called The Catfish. I’m not sure what happens after the doorbell rings, but it will be hideous. Maybe part of the reason catfish are so different is that old phrase, “You are what you eat.” I’ve caught catfish on dead minnows, chicken gizzards, stinkbait, and fish innards. I’ve found them gorged on stuff that looks like it washed off a bridge in the rain. I’ve concluded they weren’t eating but responding to another catfish who said, “Honey, can you take out the garbage?” At times, I’ve even concocted my own catfish bait. Here’s one of my favorite recipes. First thing on an August morning, buy a pound of frozen shrimp. Put them in a Zip-Lock bag and place them in the trunk of your car. Park in the sun. Ready to use in 8-10 hours. These things will be so ripe the catfish can smell them coming on the cast. Another effective catfish bait is chicken livers. Maybe that’s what first attracted me to catfishing, the ability to get rid of something that repulsive. The reason everyone uses these smelly
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baits is that catfish reportedly have an outstanding sense of smell. I doubt it. Otherwise, how could they eat this stuff? It makes you wonder if the catfish that bite are the ones with sinus trouble. Another technique used in catfishing is to attract them to your bait by chumming. Where legal, you sink a mesh sack full of large quantities of something that smells, like chicken parts, bones, fat, anything with odor. The catfish then show up and bring all their chums. Perhaps the most interesting way to pursue catfish is a technique known as grabbling, noodling, and a host of other nicknames. With this approach, the fisherman or woman wades in with the fish, finds a hole in the bank where a catfish might reside, then reaches into the mouth of the catfish, grabs hold and pulls him out. These fish that can go a hundred pounds sometimes grab back. Other times, they aren’t fish at all, but turtles or snakes. I just have one question about this sport and the men and women who participate in it: “WHERE were these people’s mommas?” The real reason they call it noodling is that if you catch cats this way you need to have your noodle checked. Stories abound of big cats just chomping down and swimming off, taking the victim with them. It makes you wonder who was fishing for whom. When you reach in and these cats clamp down it must give a whole new meaning to the phrase, “I got a bite.” All this makes me think catfish really are in the cat family . . . the wildcat family. JIM MIZE prefers catfish that bite his bait rather than his body parts. You can find his awardwinning books of humor at www. acreektricklesthroughit.com
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