Content

Content

Hand over fist

June 1, 2012 David Hawkins

Greg Parker guided his flat-bottomed boat toward a spot near the northern shore of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. In the boat were no rods and reels, no bait buckets or tackle boxes — just a large cooler with some ice, a bag of gloves, a roll of duct tape and a few other tools of the hand-grabbers trade.

Parker cut the motor, removed his life vest and allowed the boat to glide to a near stop before he rolled over the gunwale, hardly making a splash. In his hand was a catch stick, used by poultry workers to collect chickens. […]

Content

Crappie Hotspot Series – Enid Lake

June 1, 2012 Phillip Gentry

An ad on the back page of a magazine touted a particular brand of crankbait as “the newest and hottest tactic on the water.” In the ad, a young crappie-fishing guide wearing a NASCAR-style fishing jersey emblazoned with sponsors displays a slab crappie while the images of the crankbait in hot pink and neon chartreuse colors fills the background. All the “new” hype over catching crappie on crankbaits makes Ken Franklin just smile. […]

Content

Hayfield Coyotes

May 1, 2012 David Hawkins

Shot Risher has a great vantage point from the seat of his tractor to see just where his hay mower is cutting. Since some of his fields are quite large, it takes several minutes to make a pass. Starting at the outside and working toward the center, one of the more common sights are field mice scampering for cover.

Often they run toward the center of the field and the last remaining tall grass.

Coyotes have learned the sound of the hay mower and tractor result in easy pickings, as the mice lose their tall grass cover. The same goes for hawks and even owls. The rodents that flee into the small, wooded areas are likely to be greeted by a bobcat, coyote or even a large snake. […]

Bass Fishing

Get the drop

May 1, 2012 David A. Brown

When bass respond to factors such as weather or fishing pressure by playing hard to get, anglers can often tempt those tough bites with a dropshot. The basic rig is pretty simple, and the action, well, there’s not much to it. […]

Bass Fishing

Kermit commandos

May 1, 2012 Michael O. Giles

Pete Ponds spotted a flash and swirl that sent a school of small fry skittering across the top of the water. The Bassmaster Elite Series pro instantly sailed a Scumdog Walker Frog past the small fry and started working the lure back in a walk the dog pattern.

Just as it passed over the small fry, a bass crushed the lure and headed down toward deep water. Ponds dropped his rod tip, reeled in the slack and snapped the rod back, driving the Owner hooks deep into the jaws of the lunker bass and turning it toward the boat. […]

Bass Fishing

Lipstick on a frog

May 1, 2012 David A. Brown

Double nickels, 55 — that’s the water temperature mark that Jackson angler Alfred Williams eagerly awaits each spring. That, he said, is the threshold for his favorite largemouth bass tactic — frogging.

An old-school bass buster with plenty of big fish to his credit, Williams knows that a hollow-belly frog like his favored Snagproof Tournament Frog can entice some of the most aggressive surface strikes imaginable. […]

Content

Cats in the cracks

May 1, 2012 Chris Ginn

As much as he likes to catch giant catfish, there’s not much that makes four-time national catfish champion angler Phil King from Corinth happier than watching a 7-foot Cabela’s Fish Eagle spinning rod double over under the weight of a feisty channel cat.

And to hear him tell it, his happiest months of the year are April, May and June because that’s when the channel cats start backing up into the myriad cracks and crevices along Pickwick’s multitude of craggy rock banks. […]