Statewide MS

As Big As they Grow

It’s still fun whether fish bite or not

March 30, 2009 Paul Johnson

“Y’all having fun, yet?”

The question, hollered at no one in particular, was a short, cynical editorial designed to relieve the tournament fisherman’s frustration on a day when the crappie were not cooperating. The non-response he got spoke volumes from his tournament competitors who were in earshot and not catching fish. […]

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Stolen Hunts

March 30, 2009 John J. Woods

You wait all year to deer hunt on your private property or lease. You spend endless hours planning. You fork out hundreds of dollars on food plots, other habitat improvements, maintenance and hunting gear. Excitement and anticipation build at a rapid rate. You are ready to hunt.

Then opening day finally rolls around, and you arrive at camp to find the gate lock is busted. The fence is run over or cut down. Hunting stands are vandalized, knocked over or, worse yet, gone altogether. Big-wheeled ruts are cut all over your planted plots. A deer carcass litters the camp road ditch, missing just the head.

Obviously, it’s a buck you didn’t get to harvest. Somebody else beat you to it. Trespassers and poachers have wrecked your hunting area and deflated your enthusiasm for a successful hunting season. […]

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Flooded Fantasy

March 25, 2009 Michael O. Giles

Mike Heard handed his dad a jig and cork rig attached to a crappie pole, and quickly began fishing for the succulent white perch. No sooner had the pair gotten their rigs into the water than the action began. Both father and son were soon hoisting some nice slab-sized “pan fries” into the boat and in the “supper well.”

Their day had begun with a bang, and the action never subsided for very long during the fishing trip. […]

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Washington, D.C.

March 25, 2009 Rob Heflin

Just before the time that Columbus was setting sail from Spain to settle his curiosities about lands to the west, the Mississippi River was doing the same thing it had been doing since the beginning of time. It was ripping through the middle of the “New World” and making its way to the Gulf of Mexico. […]

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High-Noon Showdown

March 25, 2009 Cliff Covington

In the movie “Groundhog Day,” weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is doomed to repeat Groundhog Day again and again until he learns that his actions can affect the outcome.

Anyone addicted to turkey hunting can easily understand the frustration experienced by Connors of having to live out the same frustrating scenario day after day. And such was the case for me during the 1992 spring turkey season. […]

Bass Fishing

Child-Proof

March 25, 2009 Michael O. Giles

Keith Lee launched his boat on the beautiful waters of Lake Pushmataha, and quickly headed to a favorite cove chock full of pads and bass. As Lee worked the pads with a golden shiner-colored Senko, he promptly caught his first bass. As he retrieved the Senko back to the boat through the pads and vegetation in a fast retrieve, the bass just couldn’t stand it. […]