Lakeside August September 2014

1 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Contents

from the lake

13 10 34 8

ABOUT MORE THAN HONEY

4

THE SECRET’S IN THE SEEDS

28

SOUTHERN CAVIAR

8

ONE SHOT, ONE KILL

34

JOYFUL NOSTALGIA

45

Bee farmers work hard to keep vital part of ecosystem Boiled peanuts still a favorite snack along lakes

PARTY ON THE LAKE

13

I GOT THE BLUES, BABY

20

Pontoon boat company makes life on the water the best it can be Camden festival highlights cornerstone of American music

FAITH & FIREARMS

Group incorporates religion with outdoors in youth program

24

Hunters prep for dove season by planting sunflowers

Sniper offers tips for better marksmanship Company offers carriage ride through historic city

52

KEEPING THE FUTURE ALIVE

56

Make a trip to Woods Bay Group works to preserve waterfowling passion

SHHH...BE VERY QUIET PHOTOGRAPHY Matt Walsh matt@theitem.com

CONTRIBUTORS Jade Reynolds jade@theitem.com

PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Cary Johnson Howard cary@theitem.com

CLARENDON COUNTY MANAGER Gail Mathis gail@theitem-clarendonsun.com

Leigh Bruce leigh@theitem.com

ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Waverly Williams Mark Pekuri Paige Macloskie Karen Cave

Bristow Marchant bristow@theitem.com

Rosie Peavy rosie@theitem.com

2 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

ON THE COVER

60

Animals’ senses make them formidable prey

COLUMNISTS Earle Woodward Jolie Brown

Jim Hilley jim@theitem.com

EDITOR

BORED TODAY?

EDITOR Rob Cottingham rob@theitem.com

Raytevia Evans ray@theitem.com

Hello again, Lakeside faithful.

Thankfully, summer lasts a bit longer around here than it does in other areas of the country, giving locals plenty of time to enjoy the outdoors.

With that in mind, we focused on all the fun to be had on the water for our cover story and interviewed Adrian Reyes about his boat company, American Pontoon Co. Reyes and his wife, Angela, run a tight ship over there and work hard to keep people happy by providing some of the best pontoon and tritoon boats around.

Love boiled peanuts? Newcomer Catherine Foley takes a look at “Southern caviar” and how it became such a favorite, and Ray Evans talks with a teacher who also doubles as a farmer/beekeeper.

Dove season is just around the corner, and farmer Cecil Rowell talks about the preparation that goes into his family’s favorite pastime. If you’re heading out there, you might want to read sniper Larry Wix’s tips for marksmanship.

Ever wonder what makes some animals so crafty? Bristow Marchant talks with the experts to get the skinny on your favorite wild game.

We’ve got all this and more for you in this edition as we continue our push to provide interesting and entertaining looks at the wonderful life outdoors. Thank you again for picking up Lakeside, the active look at the active life in the Midlands.

To advertise in LAKESIDE contact Gail Mathis at 803-464-1157 or gail@theitemclarendonsun.com

Photo by Matt Walsh American Pontoon Co. is all about creating the ultimate boating experience. Along with Candis Montgomery Lee, Sherryl Linkous and Autumn Lamontagne, owner Adrian Reyes took us out on Lake Marion to show us what their boats can do.

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 3

About more than

Honey

Bee farmers work hard to keep vital part of ecosystem alive

by RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com

4 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Leroy Steigerwalt: Teacher, farmer, beekeeper

L

eroy Steigerwalt looks in on the thousands of honeybees in the colony he maintains in the backyard of his home on Manning Road in Sumter. He notices that one of the hives may be having a little trouble and stops to check on it.

“This hive is being robbed,” he said. “Bees from the other hives have been stealing their honey. They probably won’t produce any more honey in this hive this summer.”

During the school year, Steigerwalt can be found teaching science to eager and impressionable youngsters in the classrooms of Kingsbury Elementary School. But when the summer months roll around, his focus goes directly to beekeeping, harvesting honey and organic farming. Steigerwalt and his family run a farmers market from June to the end of summer vacation. Along with their naturally grown vegetables, Steigerwalt and his wife also sell fresh honey.

Making the transition from teacher to farmer and beekeeper is not that different, he said.

Because he’s a science teacher, the topic of bees and beekeeping comes up in his lessons.

“The bee lends itself to lessons in the classroom. I also use the honey as rewards for students,” he said.

Compared to store-bought honey, Steigerwalt said, his students have said over and over again that they like fresh honey more than the stuff sold on grocery store shelves.

In the bee colony he maintains, Steigerwalt said about 60,000 small honeybees go back and forth daily to one of the many hives. Altogether, more than 1 million bees come and go from the colony, bringing in nectar from flowers to create honey in their respective hives. In 2013, the family sold 47 pounds of fresh honey in less than three hours.

Besides being able to use his beekeeping experience to create teaching moments for his students, Steigerwalt said he has learned quite a bit about it himself, especially after researching and reading about bees, their natural habits and beekeeping.

“What I’ve learned is that no matter how many books you read or how much research you do, they’re going to do what they want to do because everything a bee knows, they’ve known it since birth,” he said.

This year, the Steigerwalt family also grew its own vegetables.

“It’s all organic. No pesticides or herbicides,” Steigerwalt said.

“This year, I got some help from my wife. Last year, we had the farmers market, and everything was South Carolina produce, and I shook the hands of the men that grew it.”

In his backyard this year, Steigerwalt maintains a garden of everything from tomatoes and squash to sweet corn – all grown naturally. The family also uses the land they lease in Gable for organic farming. With school out for summer vacation, some of his students who live in the neighborhood also stop by to help out with the garden.

Organic farming and buying organic produce is becoming more popular in the U.S., Steigerwalt said. It’s healthier, and people are more comfortable making a purchase knowing where their food is coming from.

“My generation is saying, ‘That’s enough.’ Tomatoes shouldn’t all be the same size if they’re naturally grown,” Steigerwalt said, describing many tomatoes for sale in grocery stores. “The vegetables in stores can be a week old. After anything is three days old, we give it to the fire station or others in the neighborhood.”

On top of the fresh vegetables and honey, Steigerwalt accidentally fell into raising and selling organic chickens.

“My colleague hatched some chickens in her classroom and didn’t have anywhere to keep them,” he said. “She asked if I would take them, and I did and then realized I had nowhere to put them either.” Steigerwalt maintained them until he was able to put up an outdoor structure for them. At that point, he started raising and selling organic chickens.

Now with a number of heritage chickens and some hens, Steigerwalt and his family also sell fresh eggs. Maintaining an organic garden, heritage chickens and running a small farmers market is all tedious work throughout the summer, but Steigerwalt has teaching moments that transfer from his work at home to his classrooms.

School in Sumter is officially out, but in the meantime, Steigerwalt can be found from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at 1246 Manning Road at his farmers market, teaching his students and his neighbors interested in his products about where exactly their purchased produce originated.

Leverne Newman: Business owner, beekeeper

When he was a child, Leverne Newman attended Lemira Elementary School and lived on the boulevard where he resides to this day. Newman recalls that during the Great Depression, you needed stamps to get sugar and other necessities. The oldest of eight children, Newman said he remembers supplies being rationed during that time and his family, farmers by trade, meeting their needs by growing sugarcane and growing some of the necessities AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 5

Kingsbury Elementary School science teacher Leroy Steigerwalt is a local beekeeper and sells fresh honey in the summers. His hives in his backyard see more than a million bees when he’s harvesting honey in the summer months.

they needed during those times.

“We were farm people, and there were so many things rationed which could be hard on a large family,” Newman said. “So we grew our own sugarcane for sugar, we had cows, hogs and chickens. My uncle, who didn’t live far from us, had beehives, so we also harvested honey.”

As a child, Newman helped his uncle with beekeeping and harvesting honey. However, he didn’t start maintaining his own hive until he encountered a swarm of bees on his way home one day.

“I was walking barefoot on the dirt road on my way home. At the time, I had been helping my uncle with his bees, and he would give the neighborhood kids honey for their help. At that time we called it ‘robbing the bees at night,’” Newman explained, laughing. “Now we call it alleviating excess honey because you take some of it and leave the rest of it for the bees.

“I was walking on the road, and there was this swarm of bees. I jumped in the ditch and covered my head. The bees pitched in a tree on the other side of the road, and I went to my uncle and asked him

6 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

to help me get the bees out of the tree.”

With his uncle’s help, Newman started keeping his first hive of bees, and by the end of that summer, Newman said he had three hives of his own to maintain. In the past, Newman has maintained about 350 hives at a time, using them to extract pure and natural honey for sale and pollinating other farmers’ crops in Sumter and surrounding areas.

Today, Newman has been a beekeeper for 70 years and continues to maintain about 50 hives at his home on U.S. 521 and outside his business, Newman Furniture in Sumter. He continues to help farmers by pollinating cucumbers. Through the years, Newman has learned a lot about the lives of bees and speaks enthusiastically about them and his beekeeping experience and also makes it fun and interesting for kids when they visit his store. If you’re ever at Newman Furniture on Camden Highway, he can teach you a thing or two about the lives of bees and sell you some of the sweetest honey in the Sumter area.

Lee Steigerwalt clears one of his bee hives using smoke to check on the bees and the honey. Steigerwalt, a science teacher at Kingsbury, is an organic farmer and beekeeper.

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 7

Southern caviar

Boiled peanuts still a favorite snack along lakes

by CATHERINE FOLEY reporter@theitem.com

H

ear the words “boiled peanuts,” and multiple images form in your memory: Driving down the road with your family and seeing a hand-painted sign that reads “boiled peanuts for sale” next to a giant pot steaming with the familiar salty scent, attending a baseball game and raising your hand to summon the vendor with his zipper bags filled to the point of bursting with the savory snacks, or family get-togethers when each member of the family anxiously waits by the Crock-Pot for the goobers to soften with the ingredients of a personalized family recipe.

There is something instantly recognizable about the easy-toopen shells containing the intensely salted juice. Boiled peanuts have for many generations been deeply rooted in the culture of Southern cuisine. It was not by chance that it was unanimously voted the South Carolina state snack in 2006. But what is it that puts a boiled peanuts recipe right next to Grandma’s mac and cheese in our cookbooks?

The peanut plant has become such a norm in Southern cooking that it is hard for us to imagine its South American origins.

Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil at the beginning of the 16th century, where they discovered the natives eating peanuts. These navigators brought the plant with them to western Africa, where it was widely accepted because of its similarities to a groundnut native to that region. Because it was so easy to grow, the crop quickly replaced the Bambara groundnut in African cuisine and became a popular treat.

8 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

However, Africa was not the only region to be introduced to the peanut. Spanish galleons brought the plant with them to the Pacific islands, Philippines and Indonesia, and by the early 1600s, peanuts had arrived in Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Japan. It was not until 1769 that the first documented accounts of peanuts in the North American British colonies appear.

There are many reasons why peanut growing took off on an international level. The crop is easy to grow and is exceptionally nutritious. The plant requires little attention, and dried peanuts can be stored for months. Early tradesmen could also transport the crop for long distances without having to worry about its spoiling.

Although the plant was taking off throughout the world, the act of boiling peanuts remains nearly isolated to the Southeast of the United States.

The popularity of the peanut plant increased throughout the states as well, but not in the way of boiling them. By the second half of the 19th century, it was common to order a bag of peanuts at baseball games and movies or provide them with a family barbecue.

When World War I began, peanuts were being incorporated into candies, cakes and salads. But the rest of the country preferred to have their peanuts roasted, and the thought of boiling them would have seemed taboo to anyone not from the Southern states. Most Southerners find that anyone above the Mason-Dixon Line tends to almost gag at the taste of a boiled peanut. Boiled peanuts remain a uniquely Southern snack.

For those boiling peanuts for the first time, Gerald and Sharon Alsbrook, who run The Peanut Stand in Manning, recommend using green peanuts.

While there are numerous accounts of how the peanut plant came to be such a popular crop in the United States, the exact origin of boiling peanuts is unclear. There are many stories about the popularity of the snack skyrocketing during the Civil War. Rations were low for the Confederate soldiers, and improvisations were necessary. Some accounts say that the soldiers began digging up peanuts and boiling them with salt to act as a preservative.

These soldiers found that the taste was enjoyable, and the new method remained a regular snack.

While the popularity of boiled peanuts could have increased during the Civil War, it is probable that the process was discovered long before by African slaves and had already been a part of the Southern diet. Some think that boiling the peanuts originated as a way to save the crop if the peanuts were too green. An account of a Union soldier, W.H. Shelton, who was given the snack by blacks he encountered reads: “boiled peanuts, which was a favorite way of cooking when the bean was too green to bake.� Even though the origin is unclear and there are no real stories of the first time someone discovered the priceless taste of boiled peanut, most Southerners agree that the final product has been as strongly etched into the culture as fried okra and banana pudding.

Recipes for boiled peanuts can be altered to fit the tastes of those eating them by changing the amount of time spent boiling and the amount of salt added to the mixture. Some prefer their peanuts to be extra salty, while others prefer a lightly salted taste. If you plan

on boiling dried peanuts, the peanuts will have to slow cook for at least eight hours, as opposed to green peanuts, which only have to cook for at least one hour. Green peanuts are only available around the harvest time, but dried peanuts are available year round.

According to Charles Edens, a member of the South Carolina and National Peanut Boards, the texture of the peanut after it has been boiled also depends on the maturity of the crop. Typically, the more mature the peanut, the longer it should boil. Peanuts that have already been roasted cannot be boiled.

Making this celebrated snack is surprisingly simple. Fill the pot with water until the peanuts float, leaving room at the top.

For the average salted taste, add a half cup of salt for every gallon of water. Normally, the salt is added when the peanuts are about three quarters of the way to the desired texture, but this is not necessary. Continue to add water throughout the process to replace that which boils away. If there is not enough water in the pot, the peanuts could burn and potentially become a fire hazard. If you must leave your pot unattended, turn off the heat. The peanuts will continue to simmer and then soak, which will not harm the final product. When your peanuts are at their desired texture, take the pot off the burner and continue to let the peanuts soak in the solution while it cools. This solidifies the flavor. More helpful hints can be found at www.boiled-peanut-world.com James Deaton of Sumter, who has been growing peanuts for 10 years, recommends using green peanuts when boiling. He suggests AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 9

Left: Gerald Alsbrook removes the stems from the peanuts before they can be boiled.

Above: A bag of James Deaton’s boiled peanuts rests on the counter next to one of the American flags that decorate his stand. not to overdo the salt content and be patient with cooking. Deaton thinks that boiled peanuts are “like fried chicken, a staple tailgate food.” For Deaton and his son, boiled peanuts bring memories of football and baseball games. He thinks the farmers who grow peanuts have a deep love for their crop, which transcends into the love people have for boiled peanuts. For the past three years, Deaton and his son Derrick have operated a boiled peanuts stand on U.S. 15 just before Airport Road.

Gerald and Sharon Alsbrook, who run The Peanut Stand in Manning, agree that using green peanuts provides the best product, which is why their shop is only open from the beginning of May

until Labor Day, when green peanuts are available. Boiling peanuts has been in this family for 60-plus years, according to Gerald.

Gerald and Sharon began operating this location in 2008, but selling peanuts had been in the family long before, starting with Gerald’s father, who owned a store in town for several years before relocating to The Peanut Stand. For them, boiled peanuts represent sharing something they love with other people. The Alsbrooks serve traditional boiled peanuts, which Gerald refers to as “Southern caviar.” They prefer to keep their business as close to its family tradition as is possible and still sell their peanuts in stamped brown paper bags, like Gerald’s father.

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Below: During the summer season, boiled peanuts signs and crates are a common sight along the roads of the Southern states.

Right: James Deaton, right, sells a bag of his boiled peanuts to Otis Smith, a regular customer at Deaton’s stand.

A popular way of boiling peanuts that differs from the original flavor is known as the “Cajun” recipe, which involves adding many different spices to the boiling water along with the salt. Some simply add Old Bay seasonings, while others add a concoction of herbs. This recipe, found at www.boiled-peanut-world.com, calls for: 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon white pepper, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon sweet basil, 1 large bay leaf and one 3-ounce bag of Zatarain’s crawfish, shrimp, crab boil seasoning. If you are boiling green peanuts, add the Cajun seasonings to the pot and stir well. If you are boiling dry peanuts, you must wait several hours before adding the spices. Should you use another pre-

packaged seasoning, be sure to read the ingredients. If salt is included in the package, then reduce the amount of salt you would normally add in order to not oversalt the peanuts.

The peanut itself is found in cuisines around the world, but there is something traditionally southern about a boiled peanut. Perhaps it is the memories we associate with the snack. The salt-scented steam coming from the top of the pot intermingles with our image of home. It is unclear why boiled peanuts remained contained within the South, but the boiled peanut has made itself one of the main food groups in Southern cuisine. A non-native would say the taste is acquired, but for the majority of us Southerners, the thought of never enjoying a boiled peanut is incomprehensible.

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 13

PArTY ON

THE LAKE

by ROB COTTINGHAM rob@theitem.com

14 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Pontoon boat company makes life on the water the best it can be

Sherryl Linkous, Autumn Lamontagne and Candis Montgomery Lee lay out in the sun as Riley and Molly walk around on the deck of a pontoon boat recently renovated by American Pontoon Co.

O

nce the warmer weather gets here, there’s nothing more liberating for a Southerner than to head out on the water, whether it’s a lake, a river or the ocean.

Here on lakes Wateree, Marion and Moultrie having a boat is about as important as picking your favorite sports team or choosing your firstborn’s name.

Well, almost that important.

While there are so many options out there in choosing a boat, an absolute favorite among boaters who want to have an all-around good time, whether it’s fishing or partying, is the pontoon boat.

American Pontoon Co., located at 11141 S.C. Highway 260, aims to provide the best pontooning experience possible, operating on one simple mantra.

“If you can think of it, we can make it,” said owner Adrian Reyes.

“Anything you can imagine.”

And when he says “anything,” he means it.

Adrian and his wife, Angela, are currently working on a 40foot houseboat in their shop. When it’s done, it’ll have the luxury features and amenities a Southern boater dreams of.

“It’ll have four TVs, a refrigerator, air conditioning, a full kitchen and a working bathroom,” Reyes said.

American Pontoon wasn’t always such a hands-on business, according to Reyes. It originally began as an online business through

which the couple would sell pontoon kits and ship them all over the U.S. The business began 15 years ago in New Jersey, where the Reyeses are from, but the couple decided to move to the Manning area about eight years ago. Adrian has been putting smiles on customers’ faces ever since.

Though Adrian has been working on boats since he was a kid, his business didn’t involve renovations and complete builds until a certain experience influenced him to do so. On the Fourth of July one year, Adrian invited some friends to join him and his wife on their pontoon boat for an outing on Lake Greenwood in New Jersey.

More people showed up than they expected, and while riding on the lake, Adrian noticed his boat felt sluggish in the water and wasn’t floating like it should.

“I called all my friends and got their weights,” he said. “I did some math and found out we were 2,500 pounds over the limit for my pontoons.”

The predicament led Adrian to find a solution, and in his research, he found three main problems facing pontoon boaters that needed to be addressed.

Adrian’s boat used small, outdated 19-inch pontoons, which were a standard for quite a while but way too small to support the group he took out on Lake Greenwood. The solution was fairly obvious.

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 15

Linkous adjusts her shades while chatting with Lee at the front of the boat.

Lee jumps off the back of the boat to cool off in the water.

16 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

“Make ‘em bigger,” he said. “The smallest pontoons we use are 26 inches wide, and they only get bigger from there. I recommend big tubes on everything.”

The second problem was the carpeting. Many boats feature outdoor carpeting comparable to Astroturf or some other material that doesn’t last very long. Once the carpet gets wet, it’s a matter of time before it starts to deteriorate and grow mold. Adrian decided his boats wouldn’t feature such a low-quality material.

“We use a marine-grade vinyl flooring material called MariDeck,” he said. “It’s a non-absorbent, urethane product that I’ve been dealing for 14 years.

We recommend it for all our boats. It has a seven-year warranty and doesn’t collect dirt or allow mold to grow on it. All you need is a hose to clean it. It dries really quickly.”

Bigger tubes and a better floor remedy the problems above and below the deck, but what about around?

“Many pontoon boats feature a very flimsy siding that doesn’t last very long,” Adrian said. “We did some research and found an aluminum composite material that’s strong and durable.”

The material, which is an aluminum-urethane aluminum-layered product, is harder and thicker than most siding materials and comes in 12 color options.

Adrian’s boats also feature seating with an upgraded vinyl cover that comes with a seven-year warranty. The frames on Adrian’s boats have a lifetime warranty.

Adrian took these concerns and made a business model out of them, renovating pontoon boats or building them from the tube up. His company builds all kinds of boats, including pontoon boats, dredge barges, houseboats and the increasingly popular tritoon boats.

“Tritoons are something that is really becoming a hit product,” Adrian said. “We add a larger center tube and fix it between the two pontoons. The center tube features an integrated engine mount and offers even more lift.”

With more lift, the boats gain buoyancy and become capable of carrying more people and moving at higher speeds with better gas mileage. It also helps alleviate the engine’s workload.

As far as engine work goes, however, Adrian said he shies away from it.

“We’ll do an oil change or a tune-up,” he said, “but when it comes to major engine work, we send them across the road to our buddy, Jimmy, at C.J.’s (Outboard & Marine).”

The Reyeses are all about community, referring their clients to neighboring businesses for any additional work they want done on their boats, such as the graphics featured along the sides of their boats by Chris Pack, a local artist.

Other customization options include stereos, lighting, seating configurations, hydraulic steering and custom cabin, door and railing fabrication.

Timeliness is also a pillar upon which American Pontoon stands, according to Adrian.

“We don’t want people to wait months on end for repairs or builds,” he said. “We try to be done within a week to 10 days of starting a project.”

Adrian’s products are also affordable, with basic pontoon packages starting just north of $16,000 and tritoon packages starting at about $20,000. American

Adrian Reyes, owner of American Pontoon Co., works on the railing, deck and door of a pontoon boat recently at his shop on S.C. Highway 260. Every detail of a boat renovated or built by American Pontoon Co. is custom-made, tailored to the requests of the customers, and the railings are no exception.

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 17

18 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Pontoon also offers financing options for its products. Similar packages will run about $40,000 or more with larger, big-name manufacturers, according to Adrian.

“People know what they want, and they know what they like,” Adrian said. “Here, they can come in and tell us. Then we build it.

The product speaks for itself.”

Repairs and upgrades are also a very large component of the company. Adrian said plenty of people have brought in pontoon boats that just need touch-ups in a few areas to make them waterready again.

“Don’t waste time buying a new boat,” Adrian said. “These things are a big investment, and replacing the entire boat is such a hassle.

Just bring it in and let us update a few things. Instead of replacing a $30,000 boat, we can repair and replace the seats, the flooring and other elements for about $6,000 to $7,000.”

If you don’t have a trailer to transport your boat, Adrian said they can help you out.

“One of our ads says, ‘No trailer? No problem,’” he said. “We’ve got trailers of all sorts to help you out there. We’ll come pick it up, do the work and return it to you. We also sell trailers for those who want to buy one.”

The Reyeses have established themselves within the boating

community as a respected name in quality, according to Adrian, who said they stay pretty busy just from word-of-mouth testimony between friends.

“We’ll work on someone’s boat, and less than a week after we give it back, one of their friends will come in and have a project for us,” he said. “We’ve got return customers from all over, including Charleston, several places in North Carolina and some from several states away.”

If you’re hoping to have Adrian work on your pontoon rig, it’s best to make an appointment. Currently, they’re booked for several weeks in advance. Once he gets your boat in, however, he promises a quick return.

“It’s all about having the best experience you can on the lake,” Adrian said. “And we can do that. We take all that imagination and make it a reality for folks.”

American Pontoon Co. will be hosting a grand opening combined with a charity event called The Gathering of Angels on Oct. 25. The Reyeses will be raising funds for Angela’s project known as Community Angels, which helps people in need with bills and other concerns. Chaos the band will be headlining the event as the featured entertainment at Baxley’s on S.C. Highway 260. The party runs from 9 p.m. till 1 a.m. Don’t miss out.

Facing page: Left, Reyes and his wife, Angela, ride on their service boat they use to tow customers’ pontoon boats. At right, Montgomery Lee, Linkous and Lamontagne play with a football on a sandbar. With quick access to such beautiful scenery and recreation, life on the lake can be an absolute pleasure, and American Pontoon Co. can help you get there.

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Robert Lighthouse

Jeffrey Broussard

photos courtesy Danny Riddick

I got the blues,

baby!

by RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com

Harper

20 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Camden festival highlights cornerstone of American music

Bill “Howl-NMadd” Perry

T

his year, Kershaw County and the surrounding area will celebrate the 18th Annual Carolina Downhome Blues Festival.

Get ready to enjoy performances by a number of locally and regionally known blues bands. The three-day event kicks off Oct. 2 and is $15 a day. Here’s what you have to look forward to during the festival this fall.

WHAT: The 18th Annual Carolina Downhome Blues Festival WHEN: Oct. 2-4 WHERE: Historic Downtown Camden (Contact the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County, 810 Lyttleton St., Camden) COST: $15 Friday and $15 Saturday Background The Carolina Downhome Blues Festival is known statewide for its different blues styles from all over the world. The festival offers acoustic, blues rock and Zydeco among other blues genres each year. The festival will take place in historic downtown Camden in sites around town in an effort to create a blues music crawl in several intimate settings.

The Lineup • Jeffrey Broussard & the Creole Cowboys (Louisiana) – Zydeco Party Band • Billy Thompson Band (Washington, D.C.) – Rockin’ Electric Blues • Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry & The Perry Family Band (Mississippi) –

Electric Blues • Little Bit A Blues featuring Warner Williams, Jay Summerour & Eric Selby (Washington, D.C.) – Piedmont Blues & Country Roots • The Hollerers (Georgia) – Blues Rock • Brett Barnard & The Hitman Band (Georgia) – Blues Rock • Harper & The Midwest Kind (Australia/Michigan) – Blues Rock • Norman Taylor (New Jersey) – Contemporary Acoustic Blues • Robert Lighthouse (Sweden/Washington, D.C.) – Acoustic Delta Blues Venues This year, participants will be invited to visit numerous sites in the historic downtown Camden area for food, fun and music. One site already confirmed is The Venue on Broad, along with a number of other local restaurants. The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County will provide a full schedule of performers, events and locations.

Thursday’s free admission kickoff and business after hours will be in conjunction with the Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce.

Armbands for the event are available by phone, web and at the sites during the event in October.

Sponsorship Sponsorships are available for the 18th Annual Carolina Downhome Blues Festival. For more information on sponsorships, call (803) 425-7676.

Billy Thompson

Jeffrey Broussard

Robert Lighthouse

John Long

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 21

Be careful out there

during deer season

by EARLE WOODWARD earle@theitem.com

B

efore this issue of Lakeside expires at the end of September, the South Carolina 2014 deer season will be in full swing.

Archery season will open Aug. 15, and for some counties in the Midlands and along the coast, gun hunting will open as well.

Most of the remainder of the state will open Sept. 1.

There are some areas of the Upstate that will open later, so check the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources regulations handbook before you head out.

But, for most of us here in the Midlands, the season will be under way shortly.

Deer season can be a deadly time of year for outdoorsmen. It seems like every year we hear about someone who has either been killed or severely injured while deer hunting; most of the accidents occur because of falls from deer stands. The sad part is that most falls are preventable.

Every year, I take down my stands and give them a good going over before I hang them again for the coming season. I look for things such as loosened nuts, worn bolts and cables that are rusted and damaged. I also replace the nylon ratchet straps that hold the stands to the trees every other year. Once the stands are re-hung, I place an additional ratchet strap around the top and bottom of each stand to hold it tightly against the tree.

Hey, I’m a pretty big fellow, one who comes close to exceeding the weight limitations of most pre-manufactured hangon-type stands. The last thing I want to have happen is to step on a stand and have it part from the tree and come crashing to the ground with me in it.

I have a good friend who took a tumble from a hang-on stand, and when it was all said and done, he had a steel rod holding his femur together and took months and months to get over it; he now hunts from

22 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

ground blinds.

A lady who works with me has a husband who fell from a climbing stand when the cable parted. He is now in a wheelchair.

Accidents happen, and they happen to good people.

Make very, very sure that the stands you hunt from are in good shape and secured properly to the tree; 20 feet in the air is no place for an accident to happen.

Don’t forget to give the ladder or screwin steps a good once over as well. Almost every ladder is held to the tree by a length of rope that circles the tree and attaches to a cleat on the other side of the ladder; some do have ratchet straps, but the theory is the same. If you’re on the way up and a rope or strap gives way, you’re on your way down faster than you went up.

Also check things as mundane as how the steps on the ladder are arranged. My hunting partner, Jack, had a ladder on which he had misaligned a set of steps near the top; there were two right steps and no left step. Well you can guess what happened; he forgot about it one evening, in a hurry to get down, and fell; he caught a root at the base of the tree and cracked a couple of ribs. It could have been a lot worse.

Screw-in steps can also crack and rust.

I used some steps once that were hinged, and on a cold morning, the pin in the hinge snapped. I guess it was because of cold weather. Fortunately for me, it was the second step up, and I only fell about 4 feet; it hurt nonetheless.

Homemade stands are the world’s worst.

Most people, myself included, have built a ladder stand out of treated lumber; we forget that the treating process puts chemicals into the wood that dries it out over time. A nail put into a step this year may not hold next year once the wood has dried and shrunk away from the nail. I know someone who broke his back when he grabbed a step and

it pulled free. Luckily, he recovered with no serious consequences.

I have not been in a tree without a safety belt or harness in more than 20 years. Most store-bought stands these days come with a safety harness of some sort, but there are better ones to be had.

Today’s vest-type harnesses are comfortable and functional at the same time. They support your body by distributing the weight from your legs, to your waist and torso. The old waist or chest harnesses put all the pressure on your diaphragm should you fall, making it almost impossible to breathe.

One company even has a safety harness worked into a pair of insulated pants, so all you do is put on the pants and slip into the shoulder straps like they were a pair of suspenders.

I’ve been very lucky I have never had to use a safety harness. I’ve never fallen but came close a time or two, but never have I left the stand accidentally.

There are also “Life Lines” that support you as you climb up and down the ladder or steps. The transition from ladder to stand and then stand to ladder may be the most dangerous time of the hunt; keep your harness attached to something at all times.

Listen, I’ve been hunting deer since I was in my early 20s, and that gives me about 40 years’ worth of experience. I say that so that you will understand that I was young and stupid once myself. I knew that I was the safest hunter in the woods and nothing could or would happen to me; then I had friends, just as good as me, who got hurt. I learned from their mistakes.

Deer season is a wondrous, glorious time of year, one that I really enjoy, as I hope you do; don’t let an accident take the joy out of it for you or your family.

Inspect your equipment, and by all means, hook up.

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24 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Faith & Firearms

Group incorporates religion with outdoors in youth program

by JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 25

Andy Pack, fishing guide for Cross Trail Outfitters, holds Christian Lessard’s gar recently.

A

new way to get your children involved in the outdoors and grow their faith has come to South Carolina.

Cross Trail Outfitters is a national, nonprofit youth hunting and fishing club designed for youth 7 to 20.

“It introduces or strengthens their relationships with Christ through the outdoors,” said Joel Chandler, outfitter for Black River chapter of CTO. “Today we spend a lot of time in front of the TV or on cellphones. When you get outside and see what God has made, you can really be inspired by it.”

Wade Merritt, state director for Cross Trail Outfitters of South Carolina Inc., agreed.

“Once you see what God has created, it’s easy to go from there,” he said.

He loves fishing and hunting, and as the father of four boys, he wanted to share that with them. But he also wanted to tie in a spiritual component.

“I went to our pastor and asked, ‘Why don’t we have something like this?’ or ‘Why can’t we get something like this started?’” Merritt said. “He looked back at me and said, ‘Why don’t you start it for us?’”

He did some research, and while he found many good options, he thought this was the best fit because it’s nondenominational.

“It’s something I thought was important,” Merritt said. “We take

JIA

all types. Especially kids nowadays, their parents may have gone overseas, or they may have lost a parent, especially a father figure.

We want to provide a male role model in their lives.”

Girls are involved, too, but right now they are limited to day trips.

“We don’t have enough women involved to take girls out to a camp,” Merritt said. “For obvious reasons, I’m not going to do it.

We have to ask a female parent or guardian to go with us for an overnight trip.”

He and Chandler, who is the father of two daughters, hope more women will volunteer.

“I’ve taken my daughters hunting and fishing,” Chandler said.

“They are very, very good shots. When they were younger, they’d ask, ‘Daddy, could you take such and such deer hunting?’ And we’d start with, ‘Have they ever shot a gun?” No. “Well we can teach them.’ It was a very natural progression for me.”

His daughters are older now and a bit busy to participate, but they are supportive, Chandler said.

Merritt’s son, Chad, brought a friend to one of the gatherings once.

“He thought it was pretty fun,” the 10-year-old said. “We went skeet shooting. I think it’s (CTO) awesome. I like hunting, and I like fishing. I like doing all that type of stuff, and of course, I like Christ.

Honestly, to me, it’s one of my top priorities to keep doing this.”

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During trips, they have a question of the day and a Bible verse of the day during their morning devotional time, Merritt said. Then at the end of the day, they gather around the campfire and discuss their thoughts on the question and Bible verse.

Anything harvested is used.

“The Lord made us dominion over all the animals and all the earth,” Merritt said. “We are to use those resources appropriately and wisely. We’re not killing animals and not using it. We’re using animals, eating it ourselves or donating the meat to a needy family.”

Hunting could also be used for predator control when hunting coyotes and feral hogs, he said.

“God gave us these creations,” Chandler said. “That implies stewardship over these things. It’s a responsibility God gave us, and it’s also a privilege to take care of His creation, to use it for His honor and glory. Man as a whole has a problem. We’re selfish. We think about me at the moment rather than good stewardship.”

Extinct species are an example of this mismanagement, he said.

During monthly meetings, the youth learn skills and receive religious instruction tied to those skills. For example, at Chandler’s last meeting they worked on casting for fish.

“We taught them how to tie a hook on the line and tie a proper knot,” he said. “We showed them how if they are connected properly to the line, they stay on, but if not, the knot may fail and break. It will not do what it’s designed to do.

“We tied it into our connection with Jesus. If we really hastily tied the knot, it won’t hold up properly when tested. It won’t hold up when the storms of life come against us. It’s practical application of Scripture.”

Both his and Merritt’s groups are looking for more participants as well as volunteers.

“We need Christian adult volunteers to help with this ministry,” Chandler said. “God has many, many ways to reach people and touch people. CTO is just another tool in His tool box. It’s a very, very specific tool – the appreciation of the out-of-doors – and it’s a good way to reach some who otherwise may not be reached.”

Older boys, the 16- to 20-year-olds, often serve as mentors, too, Merritt said.

“It’s all about grooming a young man to become a responsible member of society and a responsible follower of Christ,” he said.

“We’re always looking for Godly men to grow this ministry. You don’t need to know how to hunt and fish. We can teach you. You just need a heart for kids and a heart for Christ.”

They also need landowners willing to share their property.

“That is one thing that CTO is dependent upon, the generosity of landowners and leaseholders to make property available to the youth ministry,” Chandler said. “That’s another way people can be involved.

For more information on Cross Trail Outfitters or how to find one in your area, visit teamcto.org.

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Taylor Robertson holds the catfish for Chad Merritt recently.

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The secret’s in the seeds Hunters prep for dove season by planting sunflowers

by ROB COTTINGHAM rob@theitem.com

Manning farmer Cecil Rowell has been hunting dove for about 51 years.

Rowell enjoys the outdoors with Duke, his Brittany.

28 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

R

egardless of a hunter’s game of choice, he or she often has a ritual or perhaps several steps of preparation for the upcoming season.

Deer hunters scan forests for hoofprints and antler scratchings on trees. Waterfowlers search for secluded, swampy areas perfect for spotting ducks and other birds. And turkey hunters ... well, they’re pretty much out of luck.

Of the many critters S.C. Department of Natural Resources monitors or regulates, few draw as much passion – and equally extensive prep work – from their predators as mourning doves.

Cecil Rowell, who runs Rowell & Sons Farms with his two sons, Michael and Chad, has been a dove hunter for quite some time. In fact, he’s been hunting them for about 51 years.

“I started with a 12-gauge single-fire shotgun,” he said, smiling as he reflected on his childhood. “Definitely learned to make each shot count.”

Rowell still has his first gun, as well as his father’s L.C. Smith double-barrel shotgun, and in the years since his adolescence, he’s learned the best way to bag some doves is to flash a little yellow in the fields.

“I plant sunflowers every year,” he said. “People used to use wheat and grain back in the day, but it was too close to baiting, so it became illegal. Sunflowers are still legal, though, and doves love them.

It’s like McDonald’s for people; they just can’t stay away.”

Planting sunflower fields is legal, but there are some guidelines to follow. See the list of rules here: http://bit.ly/WNTGym.

Though the official opening day isn’t until September, dove season begins in the late days of spring for Rowell.

“You typically want to work it so the seeds are fully developed as the season kicks up,” he said. “Some folks stagger their plantings so that different areas are ready at different times of the season.”

A lifelong farmer, Rowell said growing sunflowers isn’t the same as dropping a pile of corn here and there.

“You have to treat it like it’s a real crop,” he said. “You plant it, you water it, you fertilize it, and you have to weed it.”

Rowell said a good ballpark estimate for a 10-acre plot of sunflowers is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $1,400.

“A bag of seed for 10 acres is about $180,” he said. “Then you factor in $75 an acre for fertilizer, plus the cost of pest-control chemicals ... it adds up pretty quickly.”

Rowell said his current crop should still do fine but noted that dry spells throughout the growing season caused some of the flowers to be stunted and not as bountiful as they could be. Either way, he’s ready for the season to start.

“It’s a family tradition,” he said. “We have dove hunts every year.

Every Thanksgiving, me, my sons, my nephews, my son-in-law or anyone else in the family get together, and we go on a hunt.”

Aside from the sunflowers, which Rowell grows in Clarendon County, the land on which his family hunts also features a pond and lots of sand, which doves apparently enjoy.

“They’ll occasionally eat some of it to help with digestion,” Rowell said. “And they’ll roost around the pond.”

Cecil Rowell stands in the middle of his sunflower field just outside Manning recently and takes a look at some of the plants.

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 29

The dove-hunting veteran said he doesn’t abuse the advantages his land provides and hunts at specific times, waiting for times when the birds are most likely to fly into his field.

The pastime might be a sporting outing for Rowell and his family, but like many hunters, the Rowells eat what they kill or give it to someone else to eat.

As most anyone who’s eaten dove will say, they’re pretty good.

“My son, Michael, likes to marinate them for a few hours, then wrap them in bacon and throw them on the grill,” Rowell said.

“My wife, Debra, likes to pan fry them with gravy and serve it over rice.”

For those who have never hunted dove before and think they’d like to give it a try, Rowell said he’s got a few suggestions.

“Practice first,” he said. “Practice a lot. Try shooting at skeets a few times to get the hang of it, learning to keep your eye on the target. Learn to be patient, and when you finally decide to go dove hunting, bring lots of shells.”

Even after several decades of chasing the little birds, Rowell hasn’t lost his love for the sport but said there is a rival source of entertainment aside from pulling the trigger.

“Sometimes I don’t know which I like more – trying to get a few or watching others shoot,” he said. “Watching family is always fun, and hearing how many shots it takes another hunter to hit one can be pretty funny.”

Taking all the highs and lows into account, Rowell keeps a smile on his face when talking about the pastime and all the work that goes into it. He can’t imagine it any other way.

“I love it, being down in Clarendon,” he said. “All the fishing and hunting I can handle. I couldn’t have been born anywhere else.

And to pass it all on to my two sons ... it makes a man proud.”

For more rules on dove hunting, go online to dnr.sc.gov or call your local SCDNR office.

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 LAKESIDE 35

One shot, One kill Sniper offers tips for better marksmanship

by BRISTOW MARCHANT bristow@theitem.com

36 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

Cpl. Larry Wix said patience is a big part of his job, as he might find himself waiting for orders for quite some time.

M

any sportsmen would like to improve their aim and accuracy, whether they’re firing at a bull’s-eye in the backyard or trying to bag a prize buck. Aspiring marksmen do what they can to improve their skills on their own, but most could benefit from some professional help.

There are people who shoot not only for fun, but also because their careers, and sometimes people’s lives, depend on it.

Snipers, such as Cpl. Larry Wix with the Sumter County Sheriff ’s Office, are specially trained to take high-precision rifle shots from long distances. In extreme situations, such as a hostage crisis, a police sniper may have only one shot to defuse the situation, and missing the shot is not an option.

It takes hours of focused and dedicated training to develop the skills of a sniper. Law enforcement and military organizations have rigorous requirements to earn a sniper’s certification, and shooting skills must be practiced regularly to maintain sniper status.

“It’s an intense program,” Wix said. “It’s generally a 40-hour course.”

A sniper will normally have more high-tech equipment than a civilian hunter — special long-range scopes can be used for tactical surveillance as well as nailing a target — but there are skills and a certain level of knowledge a sniper develops during training that can help an amateur gunslinger feel more like a professional-grade sharpshooter.

Below are some tips from a sniper: 1) “ You’ve got to have a sense at all times of your breathing, your muscle reaction,” Wix said.

In training, snipers are taught to pull the trigger at a specific point in their breathing cycle and how to slow their heart rate while looking through the scope. A punishing physical training program boosts a sniper’s cardiovascular system but also gives him or her the tools to slow and control physical responses when a steady hand is needed.

2) Know your rifle. Learning the intricacies and special characteristics of your own preferred weapon will help you know how it fires under all conditions.

“It’s just like getting to know your car, your fiancée or your children,” Wix said. “You have to learn its habits, how it reacts in different situations, what kind of ammo it likes, different things like that.”

Along the same lines, finding the right ammunition for your gun can affect its performance.

“Ammo is like anything cheap. The more expensive it is, the better quality you’re going to get.”

3) “Range time is the most important thing,” Wix said.

You don’t need the 40 hours that are standard for a sniper certification, but practice always makes perfect. Take the time to develop your shooting skills, honing your craft over time.

At the police firing range, Wix and his fellow officers can train for a hodge–podge of extreme scenarios, from simple target shooting from shorter and longer ranges to scenarios that involve firing into cars, house windows or any other objects a criminal might use as a barricade.

An amateur sportsman won’t be facing that kind of pressure, but he or she can adopt the standard for sniper training: Judge your ability on the closeness of your shot to the target and consistency over multiple shots.

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 37

4) Find a comfortable position.

This isn’t as big a concern for the professional sniper. “We train in all different positions, not what’s most comfortable,” Wix said. But you probably have more freedom in choosing where and how to take your shot, so take advantage of it.

One thing snipers do learn from positioning themselves is how important it is to have good support for the weapon, thus maintaining the stability needed for a steady shot.

“Free standing is probably the hardest (position to shoot from), just because of the recoil and the weight of the weapon.”

5) Passion.

If you really want to be the best shooter you can be, you have to be dedicated to developing your skills. For the top marksmen, crafting a shot can be a lifelong love affair.

“Since I’ve been old enough to hold a gun, I’ve been shooting,” Wix said. “It’s got to be something you want to do because you like it, because this is your backyard hobby.”

6) Start big.

A crack shot prides himself on being able to hit even the smallest target dead on, but nobody starts out with that kind of precision. Get acquainted with hitting your mark on a larger, short-range target, and add more challenges for yourself over time as your abilities improve.

“It’s better to start with a big target and hone in on it,” Wix said.

The kind of target you choose doesn’t really matter, as long as it best matches your current skill level.

“We practice with a variety of targets. It’s a personal preference. Some like to use clay targets or paper targets.”

7) Be patient.

“Take your time. It’s a learned behavior.”

Wix has had the time to develop into a skilled shooter.

He’s been with the Sumter County Sheriff ’s Office for three years and before that worked on the sniper team for the Department of Corrections for an additional six years, a group with a special focus on controlling prison riots when jail staff ’s lives may be at stake.

Reaching a sniper’s level of success at shooting isn’t a one-time event either. Improving and maintaining your skills as a marksman is a lifelong process.

“We have to qualify every month to keep up our qualifications.”

Wix, a sniper on Sumter County Sheriff’s Office’s Emergency Response Team, pulls out his rifle and sets up his gear for a few shots recently at a local shooting range.

Wix is armed with a $2,000 Remington 700 setup and a lifetime of experience.

Wix takes notes after adjusting his aim for a shot. While his rifle is definitely a great tool, Wix said his notebook is far more important to his job.

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T

Tips,

hey’re vermin to some and cunning adversaries to others. Squirrels have long been a source of fascination and frustration for gardeners and bird enthusiasts engaged in a near-constant battle to keep them away from nuts and seeds put out for birds.

Greased poles. Loud music. Motion-activated sprinklers.

Bill Adler Jr. has heard all the strategies, and tried many of them.

The 57-year-old humor writer has been collecting tips to keep squirrels from avian meals for three decades. He recently updated his 1988 book, “Outwitting Squirrels: 101 Cunning Stratagems to Reduce Dramatically the Egregious Misappropriation of Seed From Your Birdfeeder by Squirrels” (Chicago Review Press), for a third edition.

The most important thing to know? While technology has changed, squirrels still have little else to do all day but strategize.

And they’re good at it.

“There’s no one technique that works for everyone,” Adler says.

Try a few different strategies, and be willing to change.

Most of all, Adler says, don’t sweat it too much.

“I have to admit, I care a little less (these days). I care in a different way,” he says of his squirrel strategy.

Squirrels still eat more from his birdfeeders than the birds do, but “I don’t mind that I personally don’t always win.

“I enjoy outwitting them, I do. But these days I win the battles and not the war.”

Here are some tips (some serious, some not) from Adler and others to bring a little harmony to your backyard:

serious and not,

for keeping squirrels

away

by SARAH WOLFE Associated Press

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Washington, D.C., yard home, Adler puts out some unsalted mixed nuts along his steps.

“If you feed them, they will tend to leave the birdfeeder alone,” he says.

Squirrels also love corn, so if you don’t want them invading your feeder, keep your birdseed corn-free.

You also can try filling your feeder with safflower seeds, which are high in fat and protein.

“Many favorite backyard birds favor safflower seeds, but squirrels typically do not,” says John Schaust, chief naturalist for Wild Birds Unlimited.

THE TECHNICAL These days, there are motion-activated outdoor cameras if you want to monitor your feeder and even motion-activated sprinklers to douse offending squirrels.

“Squirrel-proof ” birdfeeders abound. The best, according to Adler and other experts, are those that sit on a 5-foot pole and are covered with a plastic dome or “baffle” that’s hard for squirrels to cling to.

If you want to get even more high-tech, there are weight-activated feeders that actually cover up the feeding ports when a squirrel latches on.

“Squirrels are foiled but not harmed in any way,” Schaust says.

While some particularly wily squirrels have been known to scratch up the pole and baffle enough to gain access, bird enthusiast Barbara Bergin of Austin, Texas, has a slippery solution: petroleum jelly.

She actually greases the pole her feeder hangs from with Vaseline every now and then and says it works like a charm.

“As a bonus, it’s also fun to watch the squirrels slip off the hanger,” the 60-year-old orthopedic surgeon quipped.

THE CRAZY Adler devotes a chapter of his book to his own misadventures with squirrels, dating back to his bachelor days, when he first moved to Washington from New York. Wanting a pet in an apartment building that didn’t allow them, Adler invested in a birdfeeder.

“The next day I got a squirrel, which was not part of the instructions,” he says.

He tried yelling, coated the bricks of his building with Teflon, squirted the squirrel with water, even rolled out some stainless-steel spikes.

Nothing worked.

After hearing similar stories from other frustrated bird lovers, Adler decided to pen the first edition of his diatribe against the rodents. Also included in the book are feeder ratings, ways to attract certain birds and 101 “cunning stratagems” to keep squirrels at bay.

Some are practical. Most are hilariously ludicrous.

Some of the more entertaining: * Dig a moat around your feeder. Fill it with piranha. * Trap squirrels and send them to Antarctica. * Encourage your neighbors — and what the heck, your local government — to use drones to monitor and, ahem, deal with squirrels. * Buy a squirrel costume. Parade around your yard wearing it.

Squirrels can’t figure out what in the world is going on and it drives them away. * Buy some lasers and set up a hologram show in your yard.

Make holograms of cats and hunters. * Cry. Maybe the squirrel will feel sorry for you and go away.

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 41

On Lake the

PHOTO PROVIDED NANCY BYER

PHOTO PROVIDED VERONICA MARS

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PHOTO PROVIDED TRENA BROCKINGTON

Please submit photos to cjohnson@theitem.com or rcottingham@theitem.com Deadline for submissions for the next edition is September 15, 2014.

42 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

PHOTO PROVIDED NANCY BYER

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 43

Bored today?

Make a trip to Woods Bay

by JIM HILLEY

jim@theitem.com 44 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

W

oods Bay State Park, along the Clarendon and Sumter county lines east of Interstate 95, offers a fascinating glimpse at the unique flora and fauna thriving in one of the many Carolina Bays found in the Carolinas and parts of Georgia. The park offers hiking on a three-quarter-mile trail that circles an old mill pond and a 1,500-foot boardwalk over a stretch of swamp and shrub bog.

To get an even closer look, visitors can reserve kayaks to venture into the heart of the park on a mile-long kayak trail. The cost is $7 for a half day or $12 for a full day.

Unfortunately, a thick growth of brush along the boardwalk limits what can be seen by visitors, and the facility is in need of an extension into the more open areas. Park Ranger Regina Huff said such an extension is in the works.

“We would also like to build an observation tower,” she said. “That would allow visitors to see all four habitats in the park; currently they can only see two.”

It is uncertain when such upgrades will take place, but in the meantime, the South Carolina woods are always an excellent place to enjoy a stroll. The park has a visitor’s center, restrooms and a large picnic shelter.

Admission to the park is free, though the park is only available for day use, open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pets are allowed on leash only, and disruptive pets and their owners might be asked to leave.

Consumption of alcohol is not allowed in the park.

To reserve a kayak, email Huff at wbaysp@scprt.com.

For more information, call the park at (843) 659-4445 or visit www. southcarolinaparks.com.

Facing page: The boardwalk weaves its way through Woods Bay State Park.

Above: A small alligator hides among some lily pads next to the boardwalk.

The first portion of the boardwalk offers an excellent opportunity to see wildlife.

Right: Spiders such as this female Golden Orb spider are common in the park, spinning beautiful webs. The spiders and their webs are harmless to human beings, but keep an eye out for the webs along the trails.

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photos Matt Walsh | LAKESIDE AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014by 45

Wateree Fishing Report

Lake Marion Fishing Report

by JADE REYNOLDS

by ROB COTTINGHAM

Hot weather dampens but doesn’t smother fishing

Summer heat streak wreaking havoc on fishing trips

jade@theitem.com

rob@theitem.com

S

umter is filled with hot, humid days that raise the surface temperature of the lake.

“Fear not,” said Andy Owens, owner of Vengeance Tackle.

“The fish will still feed, but they may be a little harder to find.”

His store is located on Liberty Hill Road, Camden, and he’s a longtime fisherman of Lake Wateree.

If targeting bream, Owens recommends checking for beds in the back of coves near sea walls or boat ramps. These fish meccas will range from 10 inches to 3 feet deep.

Once you find a hidey-hole, the No. 1 bait of choice is live red worms, he said.

“Use the whole worm threaded on a No. 6 bronze cricket hook for best results,” Owens said. “For no-mess fishing, use small beetle spins in a variety of colors.”

If you are trying for the elusive bass this time of year, start with a variety of top-water lures around rocky main lake points. If that doesn’t work, he recommends moving to grass patches on the main lake or on secondary points and using buzz baits, poppers, frogs and large walking top-waters.

“Once the early morning bite stops, move out to deeper humps and creek channels,” Owens said. “Target the 17- to 20-foot depth range. Large crank baits, jigs, Carolina rig and shaky heads are the best choice for deeper bass.”

If stripers and white perch are more your taste, they can be caught schooling around early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Lures of choice are top-water bait that mimics shad, spinners or spoons, he said.

The blue catfish is not completely gone this time of month, but don’t expect the catches to be behemoths.

“Expect lots of numbers, just not real big this time of year,” Owens said. “Three- to 5-pound catfish are the norm. Use a variety of baits, including cut bream and shad, night crawlers, dough baits, shrimp and chicken livers.”

46 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

N

ow that we’re getting into the hottest months of the year, plans for vacations and other leisurely activities have to be adjusted accordingly. The sun and afternoon storms can be brutal menaces for any plans made by boaters, swimmers and sunbathers.

Such a statement rings even more true for fishing trips, and veteran angler Don Drose Sr. has the inside scoop on fishing strategies on lakes Marion and Moultrie for this time of year.

“The crappie have been slowing down quite a bit,” Drose said.

“Some people are having luck at depths of 14 to 18 feet of water.”

Drose also said anglers might want to frequent ledges and dropoffs and occasionally transition into the shallower areas of the lakes.

Bass have been somewhat missing in action as of late, but Drose said some anglers might have some luck if they stick to tried-andtested methods.

“If you’re going into the shallows, fish at a depth of eight to 15 feet,” he said. “They also love gathering near stumps and ledges. Try casting a plastic worm out toward those areas. They’ve done well in the past.”

As far as catfish go, Drose said fishermen have been having fairly good luck with blue catfish.

“Drifting with floating rigs seems to be getting some action,” he said, “especially when using live bait, such as shad or perch.”

For even better luck, Drose said waiting until the sun goes down is a great option.

“Head out at about 8:30, 9 p.m. or so,” he said. “Set your hooks at about six to 10 feet of water.”

Flathead catfish will prefer deeper waters at all times in this season, Drose said. And like the blues, flatheads will be more active at night.

“Fishing the channels at a depth of no more than 34 feet at night is the ideal way to do it,” Drose said. “Just don’t go much deeper than that, especially during the day.”

According to Drose, the heat has played a huge role in the fishing season, especially recent streaks of 90-plus-degree weather.

“All this hot weather causes oxygen to be depleted at the lower depths,” he said. “This especially true when the surface water itself is regularly reaching 90 degrees.”

The fish will go where the oxygen is, according to Drose. He said part of deciding where and how to fish in these conditions can be helped by determining where the oxygen line is in the water.

To figure this out, Drose recommends putting a live perch on your line and casting out. Let your line drop to a certain depth, perhaps even the bottom. After three to four minutes, reel it in.

“When you look at your bait, its mouth will be open and its gills will be flared out,” Drose said. “If you see that, you need to move to shallower waters.”

The depletion of oxygen can be especially hazardous for ponds, Drose said. In some cases, if there’s a long, hot spell, the bottom of the pond loses a lot of oxygen. The next time a heavy rain comes through, all the water from the bottom mixes with the rest, causing oxygen content to drop throughout the pond and potentially killing everything in it.

“As long as you’re fishing three to four feet above the oxygen line, you’ll be fine,” Drose said.

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 47

Brandon Griffin, 13, has been with the Sumter Junior Golf Foundation since he was 5 years old and recently qualified for PGA Nationals. |

48 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 LAKESIDE

Keeping kids on par Program teaches life lessons through golf

by RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 49

I

t’s never too soon to experience the discipline, the challenge and the pure relaxation that comes with being on the green.

Patience, perseverance, sportsmanship and responsibility are just a few lifelong characteristics head coach Willie Robinson is teaching the members of the Sumter Junior Golf Foundation.

Robinson – with the help of more than 10 volunteer coaches – teaches local youth the fundamentals of the sport and how to apply many aspects of the game to life.

“We teach them everything about golf, and I tell them what they learn on the golf course can apply to life,” Robinson said.

And through the years, not only have they had members sign up repeatedly each summer, but also quite a few of them have improved at the sport and grown to love the challenge and the relaxing feeling Robinson said comes with being a golf lover.

Jeffrey Shirley, 12, has been playing golf for years after visiting a course with his dad and trying it out. He has spent three years with the foundation and continues to improve as a golfer.

“I’ve learned how to putt better and chip. I learned from watching the other players, too,” Jeffrey said.

The group has seen a few members continue playing the sport and become successful while still returning in the summers to give back to other young golfers.

Solomon Deas and Javonte Isaac both went through the program, where they learned to love the sport.

“This is my second year coaching, and I went through the program about eight years ago,” Deas said. “I didn’t like team sports because I didn’t like the idea of playing a sport well and still losing if the team doesn’t do well. So I wanted to try an individual sport.”

Deas, who now plays for Erskine College, recently qualified for the state championship held in July. Isaac watched golf on TV

and thought he would give it a shot. He quickly became skilled at the complex sport and says he loves it and draws a lot of parallels between life and the game.

“I learned to love this game, and it can be applied to life. I also have a passion to help kids, so I came back to coach, and I do a juvenile delinquency golf program as well,” Isaac said.

Robinson, a retired member of the military, has been with the program for 16 years and has watched the program grow. Each year, they get regulars who return to participate in the program as well as a lot of newcomers. Like Deas and Isaac, some of the students are participating in tournaments in the state as well as national tournaments. Thirteenyear-old Brandon Griffin is one of a few members who showed off what he has learned with the program when he competed in the PGA Nationals in late July.

The program has been around for more than a decade, first as a First Tee organization. Although it’s no longer with First Tee, administrator Tom Payne said they continued the program under a different name and receive some assistance from local organizations to help students pay the fee to participate. It offers a Tiny Tots program for participants between the ages of 5 and 7 along with its regular program for students 8-17. For Tiny Tots, the program is $25 per week, and for youths 8 to 17 years old, it’s $65.

The program is preparing to finish out the last few weeks of the summer but welcomes interested participants who may want to try out the program next year. For more information about the Sumter Junior Golf Foundation, call (803) 773-2171.

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AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 51

Camden Carriage Co. founder Joy Gensler, left, and guide Anna Thompson lead the Belgian draft horse, Big John, through the streets of Camden.

A child takes a break from riding his bicycle to meet Big John. It is common for children to greet the horses during the day.

Joyful nostalgia Company offers carriage ride through historic city

52 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

by CATHARINE FOLEY reporter@theitem.com

Guides Anna and Matt Thompson enjoy joking with Big John, which adds to the lighthearted atmosphere.

O

ne evening, approximately 18 years ago, Camden resident Joy Gensler took her pony and pony cart out for a ride around the city. The Spanish moss hung heavy on the branches of trees far older than the children playing beneath them, and the sunset began changing the blue of the sky to shades of pinks and purples.

Having seen the carriages in Charleston and Savannah, Gensler had always been drawn to the click-clack of a horse’s hooves on the pavement. As her pony trotted through the streets of Camden, people stopped their cars to wave, and children ran to greet the pony. Something about the atmosphere felt natural to Gensler, and she knew this would not be her last time taking the cart out around town. Gensler continued to take these tours, and it was not long until friends asked to join in. People began requesting her makeshift carriage for romantic tours and even weddings. In this way the Camden Carriage Co. was established.

Carriage rides are most often associated with the Charleston or Savannah areas, where one can take a guided historic tour of the cities. For both famous cities, this is a common tourist attraction.

Many people are not only fascinated by the history and beauty of these locations, but also the antiquity of the carriage. After seeing the welcoming and encouraging reactions of the Camden inhabitants, Gensler thought that Camden deserved to have its history presented in the same way. Within the town, there are numerous sites filled with not only the history of South Carolina, but also the history of our nation. Camden was the location of many essential events in the American Revolution and Civil War. In addition to the well-known areas of Camden, guides also show many historical, antebellum homes not in the historic archives to give a

real sense of both the Camden and Southern cultures. Carriage rides are a unique way of allowing people to get in touch with such an important time period for all of America while also providing a sense of the period lifestyle. As you ride down the road and move with the movements of the carriage, you feel closer to the beauty of Southern history. Gensler’s fascination with the Victorian era also inspired her to dress in period-appropriate clothing while giving the tours, which enhances the romanticized aspect of the carriage ride.

Gradually more and more people requested rides, and Gensler acquired her first horse, Beauregard, and carriage in order to upgrade the business. The carriage is still used by the company today as its Vis-à-vis carriage and has been featured in the television series “North and South.” With the new additions, she was able to book larger groups, and the popularity of Camden Carriage continued to increase.

As her business began to grow, the number of tour requests became too much for just one person and one horse. About eight years ago, Gensler sought the help of Michelle Marble, who also owned a horse capable of pulling a carriage. Marble gradually became more involved in the business, and when Gensler retired in June last year, Marble and her family bought the company in order to continue giving the tours. Camden Carriage now has six horses and three carriages to accommodate the number of guests. The Victoria carriage provides romantic seating for two people while the Vis-àvis carriage fits three to six. For parties larger than six, there is the limousine carriage, which can hold up to nine people. Although they have traded the Victorian costumes for a more casual look of buttonup shirts and pants better suited for the summer heat, the guides

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Joy Gensler, who has always loved the iconic look of a carriage ride, founded the company approximately 18 years ago to share this experience with other people.

will wear the costumes upon request. Other costumes include a Western semi-formal and formal.

In addition to historical tours of Camden, the business also offers carriage rides for many special occasions, which can include weddings, proposals, country picnics and Christmas-themed rides.

The staff has received requests for weddings from as far as Charlotte and Atlanta and are willing to travel up to three hours for events.

They own a team of black horses and a team of white horses and are able to coordinate with the family’s desired color scheme. The team works to ensure the final details of the wedding flow smoothly on their end. Camden Carriage was also requested for an Indian Baraat that aired on the Bravo television series “Newlyweds: The First Year” and remains willing to assist in this tradition. In 2013, Camden Carriage threw a Halloween party, offering ghost tours throughout Camden. The business also threw a Christmas party

featuring carriages decorated with Christmas lights and sleigh bells.

According to the family, the sleigh bells are a big hit among Camden residents. They have had many families tell them they look forward to hearing the bells jingle as the horse pulls the carriage down the streets. The family also held a Toys for Tots drive at this event.

The staff ’s enthusiasm is contagious. The guides have a sense of humor that adds flavor to the already colorful history of Camden.

Camden Carriage believes in providing accurate historical accounts that are intertwined with the stories of the people. The staff often finds that the most interesting details for customers are the real-life narratives, such as that of Dr. Todd, brother of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was a doctor in the Confederate hospital that operated in Camden during the Civil War. When describing her favorite part of the job, Marble’s face lights up with the passion she feels for getting to know the clients. For her, making these connections is almost

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Above: Founder Joy Gensler, left, stands with the Camden Carriage team, Anna and Matt Thompson, Becky Burdette, Michelle Marble and Danny Davis.

Left: Guide Anna Thompson takes the carriage down one of the many streets of Camden.

Right: Big John nuzzles guide Matt Thompson, who strongly believes in having a close relationship with the horses.

more entertaining than the history. She thinks “there is something about how relaxing the carriage is that makes people open up, and by the end of the ride, it’s like you’re best friends.” What Gensler misses most since retiring from the business has been the children.

It is not uncommon for children to run up and want to pet the horses.

“You can just see the sheer joy on their faces when they see a horse for the first time,” Gensler said. The horses are welcoming and greet the children as they pet their noses.

The love the family has for the horses is strongly felt throughout the tour’s duration. As the guide gently puts on the harness, the horse receives treats and hugs for patiently waiting. The staff takes extra care to ensure that the horses are never working harder than they are capable. Teams of horses pull the larger groups as opposed to a single horse for the smaller parties. The horses are

given regular breaks to rest and rehydrate, especially in the summer season when high temperatures can make the driving difficult.

One of the horses, Big John, was a former vault horse unhappy with his early retirement. The family decided to add John to its team, and immediately the Belgian draft began showing signs of a more positive attitude. Since then, he has adjusted nicely to his new job and loves mingling with customers.

If you feel that your loved ones would enjoy this experience, Camden Carriage offers gift certificates for its Victoria and Vis-à-vis carriages. For more information on planning an event with Camden Carriage Co., visit its website www.camdencarriage.com or read guest reviews on Tripadvisor. To schedule a tour, call (803) 425-5737. Prices for the tour depend on the carriage used.

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Keeping the future

Alive Groups works to preserve waterfowling passion

by ROB COTTINGHAM rob@theitem.com

56 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

photos provided by Delta Waterfowl Foundation

W

ith the popularity of shows such as “Duck Dynasty” and the prevalence of brands such as Ducks Unlimited, one would think national interest in duck hunting hasn’t wavered much.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, and the Sumter Chapter of Delta Waterfowl Foundation is working hard to preserve the passion locally.

“We’re just a bunch of middle-class fellows working to preserve the future of waterfowling,” said Snapper Newman, a member of the local branch. “The foundation does a lot of research about preservation and works to protect waterfowl habitats and foster a growing population of ducks, geese and other waterfowl.”

The chapter has been around for about six or seven years, but Newman said there’s been a new wave of membership turnover in the past few years, including himself.

“I’ve only been here for about a year,” he said. “We’re working to build up a heritage fund with the main organization.”

Waterfowl Heritage Fund is a program that allows the parent organization to direct funding to its individual chapters, helping

it fund conservation and hunter recruitment efforts locally.

Conservation projects include predator management, scholarships and building and setting up henhouses and wood duck boxes.

“We’re in the planning stages of building many henhouses and duck boxes and setting them up throughout the area,” Newman said. “We’ll be specifically targeting swamp and pond areas that already have duck populations so that those populations grow.

We also work to spread awareness about preservation, strongly encouraging hunters to shoot fewer hens than drakes (male ducks).”

Newman said the club now sports 22 members who are developing several projects. The group recently held the inaugural Sumter Chapter Delta Waterfowl Bass Tournament at Pack’s Landing in Pinewood. Thirty-two boats competed in the event, with father-son team Ronnie and Tripp Mills taking first place with a total weight of 27.6 pounds.

In addition to the bass tournaments, the group also hosts an annual banquet, this year’s edition being set for Oct. 17. To fund their projects, the group seeks sponsorships from local businesses and donations from area supporters.

AUGUST- SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE 57

One of the local chapter’s current undertakings is the development of a local First Hunt program, an effort in which members take people out to hunt ducks for the first time.

“It’s mainly aimed at attracting children to the pastime,” Newman said, “but it’s open to people of all ages, so long as they’re mature enough to understand gun safety.”

Newman said the group has been approaching local hunters to help with the initiative and has reached out to private property owners and hunting clubs that own land along the lakes and rivers.

“We’re trying to get the ball rolling,” he said.

“The more people we get involved, the better off we’ll be. We’re hoping to have it ready by the upcoming waterfowl season.”

While ducks are the main subject of the hunting program, Newman said they’ll also be hunting other waterfowl, such as geese and seaducks.

“I’ve been hunting ducks for 15 or 16 years, and I love it, but hunting geese is really fun, too,” Newman said.

Newman suggests that those interested in becoming a part of the Sumter Chapter of Delta Waterfowl reach out to an existing member or visit its Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/1lk19v4.

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Beavers Nature’s aquatic architects

by JOLIE ELIZABETH BROWN jolie2@clemson.edu

B

eavers are like most of our wildlife: You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them. People seem to have a love/ hate relationship with beavers. For instance, my grandmother and grandfather live on a lake in the Upstate, and they love to see wildlife in and around their home.

My grandmother calls her local beaver “Mr. Beaver.” Mr. Beaver only visits at dawn and dusk, and my grandmother loves to watch him swim ever so gracefully around her shoreline. However, my grandma will fuss and fuss about how Mr. Beaver comes in her yard when she isn’t looking and snacks on her sweetgum trees.

Beavers are the largest rodents found in North America, generally weighing between 40 and 50 pounds. They’re usually a dark brown to reddish blond color in our area. Along with their larger size come larger teeth. Their front teeth, or incisors, are bright orange on the front, and they grow continuously throughout a beaver’s life. They have a long, flat, scaly tail that is used as a rudder when swimming and as an alarm during times of trouble. If a beaver is concerned, it will slap its tail against water to warn its peers of impending danger.

South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources tells residents that beavers do not feed on fish; they’re strict vegetarians whose diet consists of aquatic plants in the summertime and bark from woody plants, such as trees, in the colder months. Beavers will remove and eat the bark of the trees and use the remaining wood as construction materials for their dams and lodges.

Beavers are great engineers and are our only rivals when it comes to altering the environment. Beavers use their skills to build fortified homes along streams using whatever is handy, such as sticks, logs, mud and other debris. They then create underwater entrances to their humble abodes to keep predators out.

Beavers have been called “nature’s architects.” According to the

Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management, “The habitat modification by beavers, caused primarily by dam building, is often beneficial to fish, furbearers, reptiles, amphibians, waterfowl and shorebirds.” However, I know there are nature lovers out there who do not have a use for beavers or the flooding problems they create.

I live with one of them.

My husband is a farmer, and he manages forestland for his family. He dislikes beavers and their tendency to back up water that eventually floods and destroys crops and timber. Many people living in the Lowcountry with wetland areas around their fields and woods feel the same way.

On the other side, there are scientists who think we should leave beavers to their work.

“We’ve lost more than half our wetlands in this country, and beavers are returning the land back to its natural state,” says Sharon Brown, author of “Beaver Wetlands.” The dams that beavers build help to restore freshwater wetlands. Wetlands are considered to be the world’s most valuable terrestrial ecosystem in terms of natural services. Wetlands serve as water storage and climate regulation and are superior wildlife habitats.

Whichever side of the fence you are on, no one can deny that, like all animals here on planet Earth, beavers have a purpose and a place in our ecosystem. For more information on beavers, visit South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources website at http://www. dnr.sc.gov .

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Shh...

Be very quiet Animals’ senses make them formidable prey

by BRISTOW MARCHANT bristow@theitem.com

60 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2014 | LAKESIDE

T

he modern hunter may have the technological advantage over her prey, which is unlikely to come armed with rifles and scopes, but the animals have some built-in advantages of their own. Unlike human hunters, they can see in the dark.

Their eyes and ears can move in ways nature didn’t design ours to, picking up sights and sounds that are unknown to their pursuers.

And an animal’s snout can put your nose to shame.

But a better understanding of a critter’s sensory perception can help you hunt and trap them, according to Charles Ruth. The wildlife biologist has dedicated his life to studying game animals’ differences as the coordinator of the deer and wild turkey program at the Department of Natural Resources.

“Most hunters in the state hunt one or the other,” Ruth said.

Deer have strong senses of sight, smell and hearing, each of which can pose its own challenge to hunters.

A deer’s eyes are especially attuned to low-light conditions, which helps the animal forage under the cover of night while giving it some protection from predators.

“For any animal, if you look at when it’s active, it will tell you a lot about its vision,” Ruth said. “Deer have a greater number of rods in their eyes than humans, so their perception is much better at night than ours is.”

A high number of photoreceptors isn’t a deer’s only advantage. Deer are also one of several animals with a tapetum lucidum – a Latin term meaning “bright tapestry,” an extra layer of tissue behind the retina that reflects light back to the receptors – bouncing around inside the eyeball, increasing visibility and resulting in the “shining eyes” phenomenon seen in many animals.

What counts as an advantage at night can be a disadvantage in the light of day. Because their eyes evolved to see best in lower-light conditions, deer’s eyes absorb light at a lower wavelength, resulting in less distinct vision. They appear to have very limited recognition of colors, for example.

“How they see we don’t really know, but we think it’s something like being colorblind,” Ruth said. “They can see basic whites, blacks and grays, and that’s about it.”

Because of a deer’s poor color vision, hunters don’t have to worry about what color clothing they wear, but Ruth advises wearing

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a broken camouflaged pattern that matches the background environment.

“If the deer sees leaves and an orange vest, it won’t see the color, but it will notice a big uniform block” against the background, he said.

But the lower wavelengths seen by deer also allow it to pick up on sights unseen by hunters. Certain detergents have brighteners that emit an ultraviolet light from clothes, normally invisible to humans, but which deer perceive as a “glow” around the hunter. Deer are very sensitive to movement, so stillness is also key.

Deer can make up for their poor eyesight in other ways, however. A deer’s external ear is about three times the size of yours, and they can move each ear independently of the other, increasing the range of sounds a deer can pick up and identify. The deer’s snout, like its eyes, also contains more receptors than a human nose, but that’s just the beginning of its smell advantage.

Deer have preorbital glands running alongside their eyelids that produce secretions the deer leaves behind on objects as a scent message for other deer; they have similar glands inside their foreheads and their legs that they rub on trees or plants to leave a scent marker, and other deer can use their own advanced olfactory systems to pick up on the first deer’s presence.

“They can communicate with their saliva when they lick branches,” Ruth said.

“Humans have lost those olfactory goodies … we don’t go around sniffing butts.”

Deer calls are a good way to attract a buck or doe (“there’s a whole series of snorts, grunts and bleats they make,” Ruth said), but it’s even more important to beat the deer’s snout. Keeping clean and using deodorants or scent-eliminating sprays can stop you from emitting any telltale human smells (having a favorable wind can also make or break a day in the deer stand). Hunters also mimic certain “sex-related scents” a deer uses to signal it’s in heat and looking to attract a mate. Deer urine can come in handy at this point.

If you’re looking for a bigger and more dangerous catch, there are ways hunters can help themselves locate an alligator during the September to October hunting season.

“If you shine a light at them, you’ll see two reddish-orange spots,” because gators, like deer, have a tapetum lucidum in their eyes

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that reflects light back when shined directly on them, said Jay Butfiloski, coordinator of DNR’s fur-bearer and alligator program.

Alligators prefer to keep their heads down while on the hunt, gliding along the surface with only the eyes and the raised slits of the nostrils above the waterline. That can make the reptile hard to spot for unsuspecting prey and unprepared hunter alike.

The tapetum can make the difference. A variety of lighting gear is available for those going eye-hunting, the simplest being a household flashlight. But specialty lighting gear can be clicked onto a belt or worn on the forehead like a coal miner’s helmet. If you can fit a portable battery into your boat and don’t mind lighting up the night, a light with 3 million candlepower could illuminate 300 to 400 yards in any direction.

“With LED lighting, they’re getting smaller,” Butfiloski said.

“There are lights you can wear on your belt with a cable that connects to a pack that allows you to operate with your hands free. Those are pretty popular.”

Other animals with tapeta are susceptible to this technique.

Deer eyes can often be spotted with a flashlight from the woodline, and raccoon hunters use it to locate their quarry among the tree branches. But a gator’s place near the top of the food chain makes him more susceptible than others.

“Deer and some of the others are prey species. By nature they’re jittery, so it could send a deer running,” Butfiloski said.

“Others (like gators) not so much. Their senses evolved to find food, not to warn them of danger.”

A deer’s disadvantages are almost reversed in the state’s most popular game bird.

Turkeys, like other birds, have a much less developed sense of smell but counter with a heightened sense of sight. The birds best known for their appearance at Thanksgiving have monocular vision, which allows them to move one eye independently of the other, and because of how their eyes are situated on the turkey’s skull, they can also see a larger circumference around them.

“They can see all but immediately behind them, or about 300 degrees,” Ruth said. “A human, side to side, can see maybe 180.”

Just as deer have an advanced set of olfactory glands to take advantage of their sense of smell, turkeys have a wide variety of audible calls, from the stereotypical gobble to a catlike purr, which can send different messages to any fellow members of the flock in the near vicinity.

And once again, human hunters can use those sounds to their advantage. Spring hunting season even coincides with the bird’s mating season, when the woods are filled with the sound of turkeys in love and tricky sportsmen out to deceive the lonely warblers.

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“In spring, it’s very common for the male to call up the hens,” Ruth said, “so you can trick them with the calling.”

But as in all romances, using the right line is key.

“The wrong call in the wrong situation can put a turkey off,” Ruth said.

Because of the turkey’s superior vision, you want to be more conscious of your clothing choices than with deer.

“For turkeys, you want to use all camo,” he said. “Anything out of place, the birds will notice it.”

The birds also have a very sharp eye for even the smallest movement (the better to catch prey or local tiny seeds), so keeping still on your turkey hunt is also a must. But because of the birds’ poorly developed sense of smell, hunters don’t have to worry about what they smell like before they head into the bush.

Other game animals, from squirrels and rabbits to coyotes and bears and a host of game fowl, all have their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the senses, and it only takes some careful observation to learn how those differences affect the way they interact with their environment.

“If you look at how an animal operates, it will let you see what senses are good for them,” Ruth said.

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