Author: Jim Low
(No) Duck, (No) Duck, Goose
The first waterfowl, the author’s golden retriever, Willa, ever fetched were a pair of Canada geese shot on a small pond. It tested the 55-pound puppy’s strength and determination, but was she ever proud of the accomplishment!
- Abundant Honkers Offer Nice Compromise
- How to Find a Goose Pond
- Tasting the Bounty, a Great Recipe
By Jim Low
I admire perseverance as much as the next guy, but at some point in a dismal duck season, a sensible person cuts his losses and finds something else to do. If the alternative advances state wildlife management goals, all the better. That’s why I have shifted my hunting efforts to Canada geese.
This close to Christmas, it can be hard to devote much time to hunting, which makes hunting Canadian honkers even more attractive. There’s not a county in the state that doesn’t have at least as many of the big birds as it needs. Consequently, you don’t have to go far to find them. Geese are nuisances around golf courses, city parks and subdivisions, where the combination of ponds and large expanses of mowed areas act like goose magnets.
Goose Abundance
When people can’t cross their own driveways or take a walk in the park without stepping in goose poop, they frequently ask the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) to do something to reduce goose numbers or at least move them away from people. MDC encourages people to take the initiative in controlling goose numbers. It even gives hunters and early hunting season in addition to the regular season, which runs through Feb. 6 this year, with generous daily and possession limits of three and nine respectively.
The key to cashing in on the abundance of Canada geese is finding landowners who are fed up with goose poop on their sidewalks and lawns, and convincing them that a polite, safety-conscious hunter like you is the answer to their problem. When you spot a pond with a bunch of geese around it, put on nice clothes, shave and knock on their door with a carefully planned sales pitch. Something like, “I noticed that you have a lot of geese around your pond and wondered if you have problems with them pooping on your driveway or tearing up your lawn?”
Request Permission – Here’s How
If they say no, that they like having geese around, thank them for their time and move on to the next place. But if they admit that the geese sometimes are too much of a good thing, tell them that you might be able to help them with the problem. Tell them that geese are gregarious, and if one group is using their lake, others will soon follow. But geese also are smart, and they quickly abandon places where they don’t feel safe. A few visits by a hunter during the three-month hunting season will discourage some of the flocks, keeping the number that visit their property to a manageable level. Don’t overpromise. Your chances of permanently scaring all the geese off a particular pond are practically zero. Anyway, most landowners want fewer geese, rather than none at all.
Be sure to mention important details, such as your willingness to call before each visit to their pond. Ask them what times of day and which parts of their property they feel comfortable with you hunting. And be sure to emphasize that you will always be careful to shoot only in safe directions, taking livestock, buildings, neighbors and nearby roads into account. You also can offer to share the bounty, should you succeed in bagging geese. A plucked and dressed – maybe even roasted – Christmas goose is a great way to say thank you for the privilege of hunting.
Be Ready, Go Prepared
My favorite goose pond is just two miles down the blacktop from my house. The owner is a widow who would be just as happy if she never saw another goose. She is so motivated that she calls me when she looks out her window and sees a bunch of geese. She long ago told me not to bother calling before opening fire. I can help myself any time. I try to cruise by her house whenever leaving the house or coming home to increase my chances of surprising a bunch of honkers. I keep my 12-gauge autoloader and a box of BB steel shot shells in the truck throughout the goose season, along with a pair of muck boots and coveralls. That way I can suit up and go to “work” on a moment’s notice.
I have occasionally hunted from a ground blind, but I usually jump shoot geese. The pond dam provides cover at the deep end, and a wooded draw at the other end offers cover for sneaking up on birds at the shallow end. If the geese are near the house, I park on the road and pop up over a little rise in the yard within 20 yards if the unsuspecting birds. Last year I bagged nine geese this way. My neighbor was grateful, and my retriever got some work she wouldn’t have had otherwise. I removed the breast meat from most of the birds and used to make one of my extended family’s favorite Thanksgiving appetizers – goose rumaki.
Favorite Recipe
This is a variation on the traditional recipe that uses goose liver wrapped in bacon. Instead of liver, I substitute half-inch cubes of goose breast meat marinated in teriyaki sauce. I wrap these in bacon with a slice of either water chestnut or jalapeno pepper. I also add fresh ginger and minced garlic to the marinade for extra flavor. Even my daughter, who ordinarily isn’t fond of red meat, thinks these are extraordinary.
Farm ponds in rural areas also are great places for this kind of hunting, though you might have to spend some time identifying the owner. Plat maps (land owner property/lot map) at the county assessor’s office are an excellent resource for this. I prefer knocking on doors and asking for information. It increases your opportunities to talk with landowners who might welcome a hunter thinning local goose numbers. Keep this in mind next time you pass a pond crowded with geese. It’s a great way to extend the fun of waterfowl season past the point when the ducks depart for Arkansas.
Aldo Leopold would say, “START GROUSING!”
- The ruffed grouse has had a long run of bad luck in Missouri, but time is still turning.
- The father of modern wildlife management spent time here documenting the bird’s decline.
By Jim Low
In 1886, legendary trap shooter A.H. Bogardus reported shooting 50 ruffed grouse as a diversion, while spending most of his time chasing turkeys in Clinton County, north of Kansas City. In 1918, an observer reported seeing 30 “partridges” a day in Oregon County in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks.
The next year, he could find none. The story was much the same in other parts of the north-central United States, as documented by no less an authority than Aldo Leopold.
The man who would become the father of scientific wildlife management spent part of 1928 and 1929 crisscrossing a huge triangular area defined by Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri. He focused on the current and historic abundance of bobwhite quail, cottontail rabbits, ringneck pheasants, prairie chickens, wild turkeys, waterfowl and white-tailed deer. His sources included direct observation, popular hunting literature and interviews with hunters and landowners. The resulting Game Survey of the North Central States was commissioned by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute. It was an early example of how hunting and the industry that supported it would put up the cash to make conservation a reality.
A hardbound copy of Leopold’s report occupies a reverential place on my bookshelf, thanks to my alert and indulgent wife who spied it in an antique shop. For the princely sum of $15, I acquired a window into conservation history. I had occasion to take it down today after reading through a report by Jason Isabelle, a resource scientist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The report was intended to update the Missouri Conservation Commission on a collaboration with the Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation. The report documents Missouri’s stubborn refusal to give up on a magnificent game bird that has continued to hold a place in Show-Me State hunters’ hearts and imaginations, long after it lost its place on our landscape.
Leopold’s work showed that ruffed grouse once occupied all but Missouri’s southwestern and northwestern counties. Although Missouri was at the far southwestern edge of the species’ original range, the plucky little birds were locally abundant wherever there was forest. Until the 1920s, that was most of the state. Ruffed grouse probably benefitted from early settlement. Their habitat requirements include impenetrable thickets that spring up when tracts of hardwood forest are logged off and then allowed to regenerate naturally. A patchwork of mature forest interspersed with regenerating clear-cuts of various ages is what “ruffs” need. Logging only becomes the enemy of ruffed grouse when cut-over land is converted to row crops or pasture.
That worked to the ruff’s advantage throughout the 19th century. Settlers and city dwellers alike used wood to heat their homes, and farmers needed pole timber for fence posts. Annual timber harvested guaranteed the renewal of habitat for grouse, not to mention quail and rabbits.
Then things changed. Leopold made a perceptive connection between the fate of ruffed grouse and America’s transition from renewable to fossil fuels when he wrote, “Petroleum, coal, and steel are rapidly making the woodlot a useless appendage to the farm, which must be grazed ‘grouseless’ to pay its keep. Sportsmen should realize that a wood-burning gas plant for farms, or even an efficient wood-burning furnace, would do more to keep woodlots, and hence, grouse, on the map of rural America than many new laws or sermons on conservation.”
Of course, that was not in the cards. Progress proceeded apace and continues today. The 19th century’s patch-quilt of forest, regenerating clear-cuts, crop fields and pastures has disappeared. In the northern half of Missouri, it has been replaced by mega-farms where corn and soybeans extend as far as the eye can see, unbroken by fence or woodlot. In southern Missouri, we increasingly have unbroken tracts of forest. Most Missourians are unaware that their state currently has significantly more forest acreage than it did before European settlement. And since clearcutting became a dirty word, the supply of prime grouse habitat where hunters can experience the thrill of the ruff’s explosive flush, has steadily dwindled.
But Missouri’s state motto isn’t purely negative. Citizen conservationists – hunters once again – have always taken the attitude that someone has to show them that the ruffed grouse can’t be brought back. Next week, we will look at Missouri’s long – and continuing – history of grouse restoration efforts.
-end-
Aging Turkeys, by the Numbers
- Older gobblers aren’t always bigger, but their spurs are.
- Keep an outdoor journal, like building a time machine.
By Jim Low
Math has never been my strong suit, but a recent trip down memory lane sent me reaching for pencil, paper and a calculator. As I often do when a hunting season approaches, I pulled my outdoor journals off the shelf to refresh my memory about past turkey hunts. Reading the vital statistics of gobblers that have fallen to me and friends got me wondering how old those birds were, and how their ages related to their weight, beard length and spur size.
Turkey biologists learned long ago that the most reliable indicator of a gobbler’s age is spur length. A bird with spurs measuring less than half an inch are sure to be jakes. Nine times out of 10, if a bird’s spurs are ½ to 7/8 inches long and straight, with relatively blunt ends, it is 2 years old. Spur growth slows down after that, making it difficult to separate 2- and 3-year-olds. Birds with slightly pointier, curved spurs measuring 1 to 1½ inches long can be either 2 or 3 years old. If you bag a gobbler with needle-sharp, scimitar-shaped spurs longer than 1½ inches, you’ve got a bird that has survived at least four summers and winters.
Curious how my birds stacked up, I made a table listing these characteristics for the 21 gobblers that I took the trouble to record in detail. Nine had spurs long enough (averaging 1¼ inches) to fall into the 2- to 3-year-old cohort. Seven were 2 years old, with spurs averaging eight-tenths of an inch. The remaining four, and four were jakes, with mere nubs for spurs.
The older gobblers’ beards averaged 10.1 inches, compared to 10 inches for 2-year-olds. This is leaving out one gobbler that had 1-3/16-inch spurs and no beard at all, only a patch of thick, dark skin where a beard should have been. Also, I only counted the longest of three beards sported by a 2-year-old killed last year. If you include the two shorter ones, the 2-year-old birds average beard length climbs to an impressive 11.9 inches.
The longest spurs among the older toms measured 1-3/8 inches. They had pronounced curves and were sharp enough to be dangerous, but their length leaves little doubt that I have never killed a truly old bird. The heaviest gobbler in my records was a 2-year-old that had 7/8-inch spurs and tipped the scales at 26.5 pounds. Overall, the two 3-year-olds were heavier than the deuces, but only by 14 ounces. The four jakes (yearling males) averaged 14.75 pounds. The honors for longest single beard – 11.5 inches – also went to a 2 to 3-year-old gobbler. But on average, the older gobblers’ beards were virtually identical length. All this proves the rule that weight and beard length are not reliable measures of age.
Seeing how gobblers bulk up between one and three years of age, you might expect older birds to outweigh 2-year-olds by a bigger margin. The fact that they don’t is probably because the older, more dominant gobblers have less time to eat while they are busy kicking 2-year-old toms’ butts and chasing hens. Those same gobblers likely weigh more in the fall, after they have time to bulk up on acorns.
Delving into journal entries reminded me how written records bring memories to life like nothing else, including pictures. Details that make days afield special quickly slip away unless captured while they are still fresh in our minds. This hollows out our recollections. If you don’t keep a journal, consider starting. It doesn’t have to be time consuming. I use 6- by 8-inch books with blank, lined pages. They are available in most book stores or online for next to nothing. One lasts me two to four years, depending on how much time I spend outdoors. I keep the current one on my bedside table and make entries before going to sleep. Once you establish the routine, it’s automatic.
Most of what I record is factual – when and where I went, who was with me, what we caught, killed and saw, weather and habitat conditions and animal behavior. But I also include thoughts, feelings and anecdotes, like when someone’s dog made a spectacular retrieve or knocked his new Citori into 10 feet of water.
The accumulated knowledge has practical uses, but I expect the real payoff to come years from now, when I no longer can do the things I love most. Then, I will be able to sit by the fire, reliving my outdoor life. If I’m lucky, there will be some tykes to regale with tales from my storied past.
Anti-Tick Tactics – Protect Yourself
Warm weather is back. Hooray! Break out the camo clothes and turkey calls, fishing rods and binoculars. It’s time to enjoy the great outdoors again, but as you pursue outdoor fun, don’t forget that there are some less-than-desirable things pursuing you as well. Foremost among those things are ticks, there are several types, but deer ticks- also known as black –legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), have recently become known as the “bad boys.” They’re very, very tiny, hard to see, and their bite is nearly painless.
For as long as I can recall – and I can recall more years than like – ticks have been a source of concern beyond the “ick” factor. Back in the day, we worried about tularemia and Rocky Mountain Spotted fever. More recently, we have added Lyme disease, Lyme-like disease, Ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, borreliosis and probably a few others that haven’t crossed my radar yet.
The good news is that many of us will not get any of these maladies. The bad news is that the chances of getting them are NOT ZERO and the consequences are potentially life-changing. You want to do everything you can to reduce your chances of getting any tick-borne disease.
The additional good news is that there are excellent and very effective means of avoiding ticks.
Your first line of defense is clothing. Long-sleeved shirts and long pants make it harder for ticks to reach your skin. The wide variety of lightweight fabrics that wick moisture away from the skin makes it much more pleasant to dress for tick defense than it used to be. Choose light colors to make it easy to see ticks that hitch a ride before they find an opening in your defenses. You can further enhance clothing’s protective value by tucking pants legs into boots or using rubber bands to hold cuffs snug against your ankles and wrists.
These clothing measures are most effective when combined with chemical repellants. Far and away the most effective of these is permethrin. This chemical is lethal to ticks on contact, and they know it. Just drop a tick on permethrin-treated clothing and see how it scrambles to get off!
Permethrin-based repellants are amazingly effective and because they work on all mites too, they also provide protection against the dread chigger mite. Permethrin has low toxicity to humans and is poorly absorbed by skin. It’s odorless once it dries, however, it is a toxin. So the recommended method of usage is by spraying on clothing. This is the best of all possible approaches anyway. Once sprayed on clothes, permethrin-based repellants remain effective even after several washings. It’s actually not the water and detergent that remove it, but rather abrasion. So to retain tick repellency as long as possible, wash garments on gentle cycle and line-dry them, rather than running them through a clothes dryer.
Do be aware that cats are more sensitive to permethrin than dogs or other mammals. If you have cats in your home, keep them away from areas where you are spraying clothing, and change clothes before inviting Fluffy up on your lap.
I buy my permethrin in bulk online and treat several changes of clothes at once. I lay the garments out on the driveway and spray one side, let them dry for a few minutes and then turn all the shirts, pants and socks over and repeat the process. I keep treated clothes separate from the rest of my wardrobe so I know which ones to wear to the woods.
The next-most-effective tick deterrent is DEET (N, N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide). Experts aren’t sure how DEET works, but there’s no question that it does. Like permethrin, it is supposed to be applied to clothing, not skin. Unlike permethrin, DEET comes off in the wash. It melts plastic, which is another significant disadvantage, and it smells awful and continues to smell as long as it is effective. You don’t want to get this stuff in your eyes, but it works.
If you want real protection, go with permethrin or DEET.
Of course, even with the best of protection, you are going to get bitten occasionally. This doesn’t have to be a problem. Your biggest risk of infection comes when a tick has fed for a while and regurgitates some of its stomach contents into your skin. This is most likely to happen some time after it attaches to you, so early removal is very important.
It’s hard to see every place on your body, so it makes sense to do a tick check with a friend as soon as possible after outings. (Insert joke here.) When you find a tick DO NOT use one of the old methods of removal, such as touching it with a hot pin or covering it with a turpentine-soaked cotton ball. These methods will almost certainly cause the tick to regurgitate, which is the last thing you want.
Instead, use the following procedure:
- Use sharp, needle-style tweezers or your fingers covered with rubber gloves or a piece of tissue paper to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.
- Avoid squeezing the tick’s body.
- Pull the tick slowly and steadily straight away from the skin until it pops free. This can take a few minutes.
- Disinfect the bite area and tweezers/fingers with alcohol.
Then you have two choices, save the tick for medical analysis and review (place it in a tissue and insert in a pill bottle) or destroy the tick. If you live in an area with high density to Lyme disease, save it and get the tick analyzed, and get to a doctor. If not, it’s up to you. I usually drop them in a jar of alcohol, a fire, etc. They’re nasty critters and deserve it, or you can just flush it down the toilet, like my wife does. If you are removing lots of ticks, it’s handy to use a piece of duct tape to corral them until you decide their fate.
Most tick bites are no big deal. However, you should keep an eye on them to be sure you don’t develop a bullseye rash at the bite site. If you do, get to a doctor for treatment. Tick-borne diseases don’t mess around and you shouldn’t either.
It’s actually possible to have serious medical problems even if you don’t get one of the more dangerous tick-borne diseases from a bite. Pay special attention to any tick bite on the head or neck. The proximity to the head and its sensitive neural tissue poses an increased risk of serious side effects from tick-borne diseases.
Besides the tick-borne diseases listed above, some people are particularly sensitive to the substances that ticks inject into bite victims, just as some people are extra sensitive to shellfish or peanuts. For these unfortunate few, any tick bite is extremely unpleasant and some can be dangerous. Tick toxicosis begins with reddening and swelling at the bite site. If you get a reaction that goes beyond the usual slight redness at the bite site, seek medical help right away. It’s not worth the risk of having it get worse.
Under no circumstances let fear of ticks keep you from enjoying the outdoors. Be prepared by taking the proper precautions and enjoy the outdoors.
Beat the Heat: Catch a Trout
Trout Parks in Missouri
This is the time of year when the only way to enjoy time outdoors is to have all or part of your body immersed in water. It’s the perfect time of year to immerse yourself in one of Missouri’s many trout waters.
The Show-Me State has a wealth of trout-fishing options, thanks to five cold-water hatcheries operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). Missouri’s four trout parks – Bennett Spring, Meramec, Montauk and Roaring River – each has an MDC hatchery to supply its needs, and MDC’s huge, modern Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery at Branson rears trout for the world-famous Lake Taneycomo trout fishery, plus trout streams and the winter urban trout fishing program in cities around the state. In all, these hatcheries crank out 1.6 million stockers a year. If that number doesn’t astonish you, your astonishment threshold is much lower than mine!
But that’s just a number. The proof of Missouri’s trout fishing is in the catching, and the catching is good. The daily limit in trout parks is four fish. If you are willing to rise early and know what you are doing, it’s no great challenge to hit this mark. Savvy trout anglers know that the water just outside trout park boundaries can be even more productive than fishing inside the parks.
This raises the question of permits. You need a daily trout tag ($3 for adults, $2 for anglers 15 and younger) to fish inside trout parks. You don’t need this tag outside the parks, but you do need a fishing permit if you are age 16 through 64. Also – very important – you need a Trout Permit ($7 for adults, $3.50 15 and younger) if you want to keep trout caught anywhere outside of trout parks.
There is some fine print to consider at Roaring River State Park, and you would do well to acquaint yourself with special regulations that apply on the 23 blue-, red- and white-ribbon trout streams. All this is listed in the annual Summary of Missouri Fishing Regulations, which is available wherever fishing permits are sold or at www.mdc.mo.gov.
It’s worth noting here that while MDC operates hatcheries at Missouri’s trout parks, it does not own the parks. Meramec Spring Park, just outside St. James, is owned and operated by the James Foundation. The other three are owned and operated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In addition to trout fishing, these state parks offer park stores with fishing gear tailored to local conditions, restaurants, swimming pools, hiking trails and campgrounds and cabins where you can retire for cool beverage.
Believe it or not, the DNR might have to shutter its trout parks if park-loving voters fail to turn out for Missouri’s general election November 8. The November ballot will include a vote on whether to renew the one-tenth of 1-percent sales tax for parks, soil and water. This tax comes up for renewal by voters every 10 years. The tax provides about three-quarters of the operating budget for state parks, so you can bet that most of the parks and trails will be closed should the tax fail to get a majority of voters’ approval.
This proposition will be titled “Constitutional Amendment 1.” The DNR will be forced to shut down or dramatically reduce fishing opportunities at Bennett Spring State Park, which has been a haven for Missouri anglers for 93 years, if the parks tax fails to get voter approval. If you value this legacy, tell everyone you know to vote yes to extend the tax for another 10 years.
But I digress. My personal favorite among Missouri’s incredible array of trout waters is the North Fork of the White River. This gorgeous stream meanders through Douglas and Ozark counties on its way to Lake Norfork. The 8.6-mile stretch of the North Fork from the upper outlet of Rainbow Spring to Patrick Bridge is a designated Blue-Ribbon Trout Management Area. That means anglers can only use artificial lures and flies, you can only keep one trout a day, and it must be at least 18 inches long. In practical terms, this guarantees a high-density of 12- to 18-inch trout and superb catch-and-release fishing. It also ensures there are plenty of adult trout to spawn each year and maintain the North Fork’s wild trout population.
Trout caught here and in Missouri’s other wild trout streams are impossible to confuse with hatchery-reared fish. Their colors are beyond belief, and their flesh – if you catch a keeper and can bring yourself to eat it rather than taking it to a taxidermist – is simply out of this world. It has the color of wild-caught salmon and rich, complex flavor. Smoked on a charcoal grill, it puts store-bought product to shame.
The Summary of Fishing Regulations has a wealth of information about the North Fork and other Missouri trout waters. After perusing it in the air-conditioned comfort of home, grab your fishing gear and wade into the chill waters of your chosen stream for some of the world’s best trout fishing.
Bear Awareness Dawning in Missouri
The Largest Wild Mammal in the “Show-Me State” Should Not Be a Source of Fear, but Deserves Respect
Eugene Gerve was awakened by the furious barking of his dog one May night. When he shined a spotlight into his yard in Webster County, Missouri, he was startled to find a 300-pound black bear a scant 15 feet away, rapidly emptying a cat food dispenser.
Gerve is one of a growing number of Missourians who have learned to take bears into account, whether they are at home or at play. The new awareness results from a black bear restoration program conducted by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission in the 1950s and 1960s. The program’s success guaranteed that bears – who can’t read signs – would eventually cross the state line and repopulate their historic range in Missouri.
They began doing that at least as early as the 1980s and more likely in the ‘70s. Interestingly, Missouri probably would have gotten its own bear population without Arkansas’ help. DNA studies strongly suggest that bears in Webster and Douglas counties, which has Missouri’s highest-density population of the animals – are genetically distinct from Arkansas bears who probably stem from a remnant population that survived near-extermination in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Wherever they came from, the Show-Me State has an estimated population of several hundred black bears. Although they are much more common south of I-44 than in the northern two-thirds of the state, there have been confirmed sightings all the way from the Arkansas border to the Iowa State line. So no matter where you live, hunt, fish or camp, you might encounter a bear.
Bears are least likely to run afoul of humans in the fall, when “hard mast” food items – mostly acorns, are abundant. Spring and early summer are another matter. Bears are lean and hungry after their winter fast, and there’s little for them to eat besides grass and tender young vegetation. Things ease up a bit as summer progresses and berries and other “soft mast” become available. So the time you need to be most concerned about bears is from now until nuts start falling.
With that in mind, here are some thoughts about living with bears.
AROUND HOME
Gerve’s experience illustrates the main point to remember for preventing bear problems at home. Bears are not finicky eaters. Berries, roots, small animals, carrion, pet food, grain bins, bird seed, garbage and barbecue grills all are equally enticing to their sensitive nose. So it’s important not to leave these where bears can get at them. If you live north of the Missouri River, you probably don’t have to invest in bear-proof garbage cans, but it would be wise to keep containers of bird seed, pet or livestock food in locked buildings.
IN CAMP
You need to adjust your attitude if you travel south of the Missouri River to float, fish, backpack, camp, hunt or picnic. If possible, keep coolers and other food containers locked in vehicles when unattended, along with trash.
When float-camping, bring along bear-proof containers, such as sturdy coolers with sturdy latches. Army-surplus ammunition cans are available in sizes large enough to accommodate all the non-perishable food you need for a couple of days. Never bring these containers or anything that smells like food into a tent or soft-sided camper at night. Hunger sometimes overwhelms the natural shyness of black bears enough to try to snatch food from under the nose of sleeping people. A slight miscalculation can result in a bear grabbing a camper’s foot instead of a hot dog.
When you are fortunate enough to bring fish or game back to camp, show the same caution with the harvest as you would with store-bought food stuffs or garbage. Don’t leave gut piles or other offal lying around camp or in the water nearby. Keep them far from camp or put them in trash bags and keep it where foraging bears can’t smell or reach them.
BRUIN FACE-OFFS
Even if you observe the foregoing cautions, you might end up face-to-face with a bear. I incurred such an event!
It’s important to remember that black bears are naturally afraid of people. Thousands of years of fighting losing battles with humans have removed most of the aggressive black bears from the gene pool, so when confronted by a human, 99.99 percent of black bears run away (unlike grizzly bears, which don’t live in Missouri). We will get back to that 0.01 percent of black bears in a minute.
Black bears and people end up face-to-face in two ways. One is when a bear is lured close to people by the promise of food. A bear that is rummaging in garbage, raiding a cooler, or guzzling nectar from a hummingbird feeder generally heads for the high timber when a human shouts at them, honks a horn or bangs pots and pans – all from indoors and at a safe distance, of course.
If a bear ever fails to hightail it when humans appear, call the nearest Missouri Department of Conservation office, conservation agent or law-enforcement agency for help. Bears are protected in Missouri and shooting one just because it showed its face where it isn’t welcome can earn you a hefty fine. If imminent loss of safety is involved, that’s another story.
The other way that bears and people end up in confrontations is surprise encounters. A bear foraging for berries might not hear a hiker walking silently along the Ozark Trail. Similarly, a bear has no way of knowing that it is approaching a deer hunter sitting in a tree stand. In cases like these, it’s up to the human to defuse a potentially dangerous situation. This is very important. Please heed.
Proximity is a very important consideration in handing bear confrontations. Just like people, bears have a personal space inside of which they feel threatened. Spying a bear 50 yards away, before it sees you, is a very different situation than looking up and seeing a bear that has just seen you 15 feet away.
In the first instance, the thing to do is to quietly leave the area. If the bear notices you as you are leaving, it might stand up on its hind legs. This is not a threat. The bear is simply trying to get a better look at you and figure out what you are. Don’t make eye contact, which bears perceive as aggressive. Instead, speak in a calm, conversational voice (letting the bear know that you are a human) and slowly back away until the bear is out of sight. Then quietly leave the area.
If you are uncomfortably close to a bear when you first see it, don’t turn and run or make any other sudden moves that might startle the bear. Again avoiding eye contact, back away. When surprised at close distance, a bear may feel threatened whatever you do. In such cases, black bears often snap their jaws and stamp their feet. This is the bear trying to intimidate you. It is not a sign that it is about to attack. If you back away without eye contact, the bear almost certainly will leave the area once it is sure you are not a threat.
It is not uncommon for black bears to make bluff charges to scare off a perceived threat. This is incredibly frightening. I have been bluff charged by a bear that I knew was restrained by a foot snare and I still fell over backwards in absolute terror. The good news is that bluff charges are just that – bluffs. If you do not react aggressively, the bear will leave after having given you a good scare. If you are made of sterner stuff than I was, the best way to react to a bluff charge is to look away and stand still. When the bear backs off, take your cue and back away slowly.
GOING TO EXTREMES
Now we get to that troublesome 0.01 percent of cases where a bear turns aggressive. These usually result when a female bear perceives a threat to her cubs. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually have to get between the sow and her cubs to trigger a protective attack. Just being too close for her comfort can be enough.
The best way to avoid this scenario is to make noise wherever you go. A sow that knows you are coming will get her cubs out of your way. If you see a bear cub, immediately leave the area the way you came.
A far less likely scenario is an encounter with that rare black bear that has lost its natural fear of people. Such bears do attack people on very rare occasions. However a bear attack begins, do not try to run away. The best track-and-field athletes in the world could not outrun a bear on level ground, let alone in the woods.
The black bear experts I have interviewed over the years advocate fighting back if you are attacked. Unlike grizzlies, which are not deterred by resistance, black bears have been repelled by small adults using nothing more than bare fists, rocks, sticks or whatever other weapons were at hand.
While I understand this, I also know that not everyone has the mental makeup to put up a fight in the face of an angry bear. I honestly don’t know if I could. If you find yourself unable to fight, then wrap your hands and arms around your neck and head and curl up in a fetal position. In all likelihood, the bear will stop when you no longer seem like a threat.
If the attack continues for more than a few seconds, the bear might actually be trying to kill you. At that point, you have no choice, but to screw up your courage and convince the bear that it will have to pay a high price for your life.
Having said all this scary stuff, I want to emphasize that more people die of bee stings, drowning, bicycle accidents, falls at home and infected hangnails than die of black bear attacks.
If you scour news media and historic records going back 200 years, you will be lucky to find a dozen cases of fatal black bear attacks. These are wild animals that deserve tremendous respect, but they do not pose a significant threat to people.
Don’t let overblown fears provoked by Hollywood horror flicks keep you away from Missouri’s outdoors!
Ecstasy & Empathy: Dichotomy of Hunting
Killing two young turkeys and watching a mother hen’s reaction to their loss set the writer to thinking about the nature of hunting. Jim Low Photo
- If hunting doesn’t occasionally tug at your heartstrings, you might need to think a bit more deeply about it.
- Far from threatening the natural world, hunting is its best hope for survival.
- Turkeys share a sacred lesson about Hunting, Kindred Spirits, the Circle of Life
By Jim Low
One of the reasons I love hunting is the way it takes me inside the natural world.
Blood sports make me part of natural processes in ways that are unavailable through nature photography, nature study and other “non-consumptive” activities, which I also enjoy. Opening day of fall firearms turkey season this year made me keenly aware of this difference.
Dawn found me tucked beneath the screening branches of cedar trees between two pastures. Just at sunrise, I heard soft clucks issuing from the bordering woods. I made a few “sleepy yelps” on my slate call, then put it aside and rested my shotgun on my knee.
My pulse rate ticked up a few beats.
Moments later, a young turkey glided down and landed directly in front of me, in easy shotgun range. It was followed in quick succession by six more poults (turkeys hatched this year) and one hen.
Any turkey, young or old, male or female, is legal during Missouri’s fall hunting season. I had wanted to shoot a gobbler, but now I began thinking otherwise. I am a mediocre fall turkey hunter at best, so this was a rare opportunity to harvest the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner.
Also, the fact that you can shoot two turkeys on the same day in the fall season meant I might be able to kill two tender young birds that would be amazing table fare. So, when two of the small birds stood with their heads inches apart, I dropped the hammer, and both went down.
As often happens, the remaining six birds did not scatter immediately. Inexperienced and bewildered by a thunderclap out of a clear sky, they milled around excitedly, stopping occasionally to gawk at their stricken flock-mates. I lowered my gun slowly and settled in to watch, expecting the survivors to vacate the premises fairly quickly.
Moments after my shot, a mature hen came on the run from the west, near the center of the pasture.
This open area, unapproachable by predators without being spotted, is where a cautious old bird would fly down. In the flurry of arrivals in front of me, I hadn’t noticed her leaving the roost.
The old hen quickly made her way to the two downed birds, which were in their final death throes. She watched until their struggles ceased, then began pecking them gently, first one and then the other. After a few minutes, she began grasping their wattles in her beak and lifting their heads, then dropping them. This went on for quite a while, gradually escalating to her taking a step or two backward and tugging at the dead poults.
After this had gone on for perhaps half an hour, she stepped over one of the dead poults, spread her wings and settled down as if brooding a clutch of eggs. After a brief interval, she arose and did the same thing to the other downed bird.
This dispelled any doubt in my mind that all the hen’s actions were an effort to revive the lifeless poults.
This was a revelation to me.
Such maternal devotion would not have been surprising in a mammal, but I never expected it from a bird. During the hen’s ministrations, the rest of the flock made repeated moves to leave, led by another hen. They would drift away a few yards before looking back to see if the devoted mother was following. Seeing that she wasn’t, the flock would drift back for a while, but as time went on, the flock’s tentative departures took them farther and farther away.
Finally, drawn by the pull of her flock, the mother hen began her own series of departures and returns. An hour or so after the fateful shot, she finally abandoned the dead poults and followed the flock out of sight.
For many years, I resisted the urge to attribute human-like behavior to other animals. Anthropomorphizing wildlife is frowned upon by many biologists and hunters, but well after over half-century of watching quadrupeds, including dogs, I am forced to conclude that “lower” animals share a great deal – perhaps most of human emotional responses.
I don’t know what went on in the brains of that mother hen and her companions, but it’s difficult for me to attribute it to mere instinct. For that matter, who’s to say that human emotions aren’t instinctive?
This line of reasoning might raise the hackles of some hunters who refuse to concede anything to people whose empathy leads them to eschew or even disapprove of hunting. But, it seems to me that if we are willing to take the lives of animals, we ought to be willing to think critically about it.
For me, the notion that turkeys and other game animals experience grief and other human-like emotions is not a reason to stop hunting.
All animals, human and nonhuman alike, take life and have it taken from them.
Turkeys eat grasshoppers and lizards.
Deer kill one another and have been photographed eating small mammals.
Strict herbivores kill plants.
Modern-day humans seldom fall victim to predators, but it matters little whether you die in the jaws of a grizzly bear or in the grip of Streptococcus pneumoniea.
Either way, you are dead at the “hands” of something that wants to eat you.
The predator-prey relationship between humans and game animals is as old as our respective species. They, and we, are intricately adapted for the fateful dance we share. The predatory urge encoded in human DNA is why many of us still feel a powerful pull to re-enact the timeless drama of the chase. It reminds us of what we have been and what we remain as, at a very deep level. And it can tell us much about why we are how we are.
Hunters since time immemorial have felt deep connections to the animals they pursue.
This connection goes deeper than nutritional necessity.
Our hunting forebears saw game in the same light that I saw those turkey poults and their devoted hen. They saw kindred spirits, worthy of respect and empathy, worthy of immortalizing on cave walls. They knew themselves to be integral parts of the pulsing, exultant, poignant pageant of life.
Hunting allows us to maintain that intimate connection to the natural world.
Without it, we risk thinking ourselves above and outside the circle of life. We could fail to recall our connection to the natural world at our own peril as a species.
It is no mere coincidence that hunters are, and always have been, the beating heart of the conservation movement. We don’t only do it simply to ensure the availability of living targets or merely because we like killing things.
As the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset observed, modern humans do not hunt to kill. We no longer need to pursue game to sustain life. Rather, we kill in order to have hunted, to maintain an authentic and utterly irreplaceable connection to the natural world.
My exultation in a successful turkey hunt was tinged, as it ought to be, with reflection about what it means to take a life.
I wonder how often nonhunters give similar consideration to the deaths they farm out to others.
In spite of the pang it sometimes gives me, I am more than proud of my hunting. I see in it the best hope for the future of things “natural, wild and free.”
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CWD Testing More Important NOW Than Ever
- MDC will conduct mandatory CWD sampling in 25 counties Nov. 11 and 12.
- Check the fall deer and turkey booklet to see if your county is included.
- Hunters can get deer tested for free throughout archery and firearms deer seasons.
By Jim Low
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) needs help from hunters to keep the deadly deer disease called chronic wasting disease (CWD) from spreading to more deer in more areas of Missouri. In light of recent developments, hunters might want to take advantage of free testing for personal reasons, too.
MDC will conduct mandatory CWD sampling of hunter-harvested deer in 25 counties during the opening weekend of the fall firearms deer season, Nov. 11 and 12. Counties included in this year’s sampling effort are: Adair, Barry, Benton, Cedar, Cole, Crawford, Dade, Franklin, Hickory, Jefferson, Knox, Linn, Macon, Moniteau, Ozark, Polk, St. Charles, St. Clair, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Stone, Sullivan, Taney, Warren, and Washington. These counties comprise Missouri’s CWD Management Zone. It includes counties where MDC conducted mandatory CWD testing last year, plus St. Clair County, where a new outbreak was detected earlier this year, and five adjacent counties.
MDC also has added four counties along the Arkansas border in southwest Missouri to the CWD Management Zone. CWD has not been detected in any of these counties yet, but a serious outbreak of the fatal deer disease just across the border is cause for extra vigilance there.
Hunters who harvest deer in these 25 counties during opening weekend must present their harvested deer at one of the Department’s 56 CWD sampling stations so staff can collect tissue samples to test the animals for CWD. You can find a list of sampling stations at www.mdc.mo.gov/cwd, or in the 2017 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Regulations booklet, which is available wherever hunting permits are sold.
In addition to the mandatory testing, MDC offers free testing for hunters who wants their deer checked for CWD. This is particularly important considering recent news about the susceptibility of some monkeys to the brain-wasting disease.
In a study led by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, macaques that were fed venison from CWD-infected deer developed the disease. The researchers noted that there still is no known case of CWD affecting humans. However, the apparent susceptibility of physiologically similar primates led them to conclude that, “the most prudent approach is to consider that CWD has the potential to infect humans.”
I am not an alarmist person by nature, and I am not going to let the small risk of shooting a CWD infected deer or the equally small risk of contracting CWD from eating infected meat, deprive me of a sport that I love and the pleasure of eating venison. However, with free testing available, I certainly will take every deer I kill to one of the eight MDC offices and 55 taxidermists around the state who are participating in the voluntary CWD sampling program. I put venison in the freezer, labeled with the date I shot the deer, and wait for test results before consuming it. That just seems sensible to me.
I also do what I can to avoid spreading CWD. For years, I put corn around my trail cameras to get better deer pictures. I stopped several years ago, when it became clear that anything that unnaturally concentrates deer and increases the potential for CWD transmission. I stopped putting out salt licks and mineral blocks for the same reason. The prions that cause CWD are shed in deer urine, so I also have stopped using urine-based deer lures.
After field-dressing deer, I usually take them home and process them myself. In the past, I got rid of carcass by putting them in the woods behind our house and letting scavengers dispose of them. No more. Now I put them in heavy trash bags and send them to the landfill, just in case they had CWD. If you take your deer to a commercial processor, you’re covered. In Missouri, they are required to send all their carcasses to approved landfills.
MDC’s regulation guide has more ideas for reducing the spread of CWD, along with tips for making the sampling process quicker and easier.
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Show Me the Grouse!
- Part 2 of 2
- Missouri hasn’t given up on this native game bird.
- Grouse need old and young forest to thrive and that means cutting trees.
By Jim Low
Thrup! Thrup-thrup! Thrup-thrup, thrup-thrup-thrupthrupthrupthrupthrup!!!
Goose bumps roughened my arms and a chill crept up my spine. I continued to listen to what could have been someone trying to start a balky pickup truck on a distant hilltop. But it wasn’t a pickup, and it wasn’t in the distance.
A scant 100 yards uphill from where I sat in the growing dawn, a handsome brown and black bird strutted atop a fallen tree trunk. Every couple of minutes, he stopped, threw out his chest and beat his wings to a percussive crescendo, hoping to attract the attention of a mate. It was thrilling evidence that the ruffed grouse was back in the Ozarks.
This was in the 1980s, and although grouse restoration was new to me, it was anything but new to Missouri. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) had been trying to bring back this native game bird since the 1940s, but in the last quarter of the 20th century, MDC made a strong effort to re-establish the species in the Show-Me State, bringing in cocks and hens from the Upper Midwest. They were released in the central Ozarks, north-central and east-central Missouri. By the mid-1990s, more than 4,500 grouse had been released in areas thought to have the combination of old, young and middle-aged forest that grouse need to thrive.
Initial results were encouraging.
The birds seemed to be multiplying. The MDC eventually approved a limited grouse hunting season and expanded it in the late 1980s, but then, what once seemed success gradually turned to failure. In Missouri, as in other states at the southern edge of the species range, grouse numbers declined. Acting on advice from hunters and biologists alike, the Conservation Commission closed Missouri’s grouse season in 2010. Lack of suitable habitat was cited as the cause of the decline.
“Ruffed grouse need a mosaic of old and young forests to prosper,” said MDC Resource Scientist Jason Isabelle. “They need areas where timber harvests or storms have removed or killed all the trees, creating early-successional forest habitat. They just can’t survive without scattered areas of disturbance in a larger forest setting. Over the course of the last several decades, the amount of young forest habitat has declined substantially throughout the southern portion of the ruffed grouse’s range.”
Small remnant pockets of grouse survived in a few of the original restoration areas, including the wooded hills just north of the Missouri River in east-central Missouri.
When the Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation (QUWF) persuaded MDC to revisit the idea of grouse restoration, their attention turned to this area. Working with QUWF and the USDA Forest Service, MDC conducted an analysis of habitat in the river hills region in Callaway, Montgomery and Warren counties.
One of the things the River Hills Conservation Opportunity Area has going for it, in terms of grouse habitat, is several Conservation Areas (CAs) totaling more than 20,000 acres. Using cutting-edge technology, MDC was able to quantify habitat variables on this large acreage at a level of detail that had never been possible before.
Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) was the key. LIDAR uses airborne lasers and global positioning system (GPS) technology to identify vegetation type and height and map its extent. This, along with ground surveys of remnant populations, showed what habitat the birds were using, and enabled MDC to focus on producing more of it. That work will take place on the Grouse Focus Area consisting of Little Lost Creek and Daniel Boone CAs, and on nearby private land included in the larger Grouse Emphasis Area. MDC will provide assistance to landowners who are interested in creating grouse habitat on their property.
Isabelle and other MDC biologists concluded that a renewed reintroduction program in the River Hills area was not likely to succeed with habit that existed there in 2013. However, they believed that grouse restoration could take hold at Little Lost Creek and Daniel Boone CAs if they could increase the amount of high-quality grouse habitat there by 20 to 25 percent. With that goal in mind, MDC set out to create the conditions needed to bring grouse – and eventually grouse hunting – back to Missouri.
MDC has long understood that small, even-age timber harvests create conditions critical to the survival of a wide range of wildlife that depends on “edge” habitat. Species from wild turkeys and songbirds to chipmunks and lizards thrive in the wake of such “even-age” timber harvests, as lush, diverse vegetation springs up. Grouse will use regenerating acreage for as long as 25 years following an even-age harvest. However, usage falls off sharply beyond 15 years.
Some people deplore even-age harvests as “clearcutting.” But decades of experience and a growing body of scientific evidence supports the position that carefully regulated small-scale timber harvests can enhance wildlife diversity without damaging soils or water quality. The eco-friendly, 10- to 50-acre even-age harvests employed by MDC to enhance wildlife habitat today are very different from the rapacious denuding of hundreds of thousands of acres that devastated the Ozarks at the turn of the 20th century.
MDC has been working to create grouse habitat – hardwood forest regeneration sites – on Little Lost Creek and Daniel Boone CAs since 2015. At their meeting last month, the Conservation Commission received a report from Isabelle outlining the next steps on Missouri’s renewed grouse restoration program. By the years 2020 and 2026, Isabelle expects the combined efforts of government agencies and private cooperators to increase the amount of high-quality grouse habitat in the River Hills Focus Area by 23 and 27 percent, respectively.
The plan outlined by Isabelle calls for 120 grouse from donor states in September and October of 2019 and 2020. Twenty grouse will go to each of three sites on Little Lost Creek CA and three on Daniel Boone CA. After that, MDC will track the transplanted birds’ progress with roadside surveys of drumming grouse each spring. If all goes well, these two CAs will become the source for grouse expansion into habitat on surrounding public and private land.
Most Missourians alive today have never heard the thrumming serenade of a ruffed grouse cock. If MDC and its partners succeed, that could change in our lifetime. To learn more about how MDC intends to reach that goal, check out the management plan for Little Lost Creek CA.
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Voyage of Boatylicious Discovery
- Missouri River 340, this ain’t no mama’s boy kayak float trip.
- You don’t have to go to Alaska or Mt. Kilimanjaro for an authentic outdoor adventure.
- What you learn about extreme sports will pale in comparison to what you learn about yourself.
- This year, the event will run August 8-11, 2017.
By Jim Low
Missourians who wonder if they have the physical and mental toughness necessary to be extreme athletes don’t have to go far to find out. They can test their mettle against a force of nature…the Missouri River.
In 2006, Scott Mansker and Russ Payzant, self-avowed “river rats,” decided to organize a paddle race to raise awareness of the world-class, but then little-known, recreational opportunities on the Big Muddy. What they came up with was a nonstop ultra-marathon race from Kansas City to St. Charles. The distance between those two points – 340 miles – provided a name for the event, the Missouri River 340 (insiders generally shorten the name to MR340 or simply, “The 340”). That first year, the event drew 11 solo paddlers and five tandem teams. They were given 100 hours – a little more than two days – to finish the course.
Today, paddlers are allowed only 88 hours to finish the course. They paddle so hard that the friction of their shirts causes their nipples to bleed, a distraction that veterans avoid with duct tape pasties. The skin of their palms sloughs off in enormous blisters…more duct tape.
They endure the heat and humidity of August.
They risk literally being blown off the river by tornadoes or microbursts.
But if you think these obstacles cool the ardor of potential participants, you don’t understand the mindset of ultramarathoners. Within days of wrapping up the inaugural Missouri River 340, Mansker and Payzant’s electronic in-boxes were flooded with email from paddlers eager to sign up for the next year’s race.
Participation ballooned so rapidly that they were forced to limit entries. By early June of this year, nearly 500 individuals and teams had signed up for the race. They will come from all over the United States and as far away as Japan to compete in 11 divisions: Women’s and Men’s Solo; Women’s, Men’s and Mixed Tandem; Solo Pedal Drive; Tandem Pedal Drive; Team (3-4 paddlers); Voyageur (5 to 10 paddlers); Dragon Boat (11-plus paddlers); and SUP (Stand Up Paddler.)
Last year’s top time – an astonishing 38 hours, 22 minutes – was posted by a six-woman team calling themselves “Boatylicious.” The next four entrants to reach St. Charles were all solo paddlers, three men and one woman. All made the grueling paddle in under 45 hours. That’s an average of more than 7.5 mph, including time to eat, drink and nap.
Napping is a must. Even if you do, you stand a good chance of experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations, especially at night. The 340 is scheduled to take advantage of a full moon, but phantom voices and spectral presences are a common experience in the profound darkness and calm that prevails between sunset and moonrise. These can get you in trouble if you pay more attention to them than you do to what’s actually there.
Things like wing dikes, buoys, bridge pilings and barges. While paddling at night in the 2007 MR 340, a mixed tandem team – ages 66 and 70 – misjudged the distance of an approaching barge and were plowed under when they tried to cross the river in front of it. While their $5,500 kayak was being chopped to bits, the couple desperately clawed their way along the bottom of the barge’s hull, trying to avoid their boat’s fate. Astonishingly, both paddlers emerged with only scrapes and bruises and were rescued by the barge crew.
Racers are not entirely on their own. A fleet of safety boats patrols the pack, checking on paddlers’ health, handing out sport drinks, helping in emergencies and – inevitably – picking up contestants who are simply played out.
Bringing up the rear is a safety boat known as “The Reaper.” Their job is to collect paddlers who fail to reach each mandatory check-in point in the pre-determined time necessary to have even a remote chance of finishing the race. Slow, but dogged, paddlers dread the appearance of “The Reaper” the way that schoolchildren dread the end of summer. But without this measure, the pack would become too strung out for safe supervision.
All this combines to produce epic stories: the cancer survivor who began training for the race while still undergoing chemotherapy; the alcoholic who set out to prove something to others and instead found the inner strength to overcome her physical and mental demons; world-class athletes who push themselves far beyond normal limits of human endurance and ordinary people who perform extraordinary feats.
It’s no surprise then that thousands of spectators turn out to witness the spectacle. The biggest crowds gather at both, the starting point at the mouth of the Kansas River, and the finish line at St. Charles’ Frontier Park. But people also throng to the mandatory check-in points scattered along the course. Ground-support crews mingle with relatives of racers, news media and curiosity seekers. Highway bridges with pedestrian walks are favorite vantage points for gawkers and photographers.
If you want to get in on the fun, either as a participant or a tourist, visit rivermiles.com/mr340/ for details of this year’s event. You also can follow the progress of the race Aug. 8-11 through posts on the MR340 forum, rivermiles.com/forum/YaBB.pl.
Kayakety Yak – Maneuvering, Fishing, Funning & Rigging, (Part 2 of 2)
- Certain optional kayak gear is handy and necessary.
- Customize your fishing kayak for comfort and function.
By Jim Low
With a new Kayak, there are quite a few features to look for, understand and think about. Here are some of the features that are important to me:
ADJUSTABLE SEATS & FOOT BRACES
Before writing a check, take time to sit in several kayaks to see if you can stand to sit in it for hours. Try to find a dealer that will allow you to test “drive” kayak before purchase. Ideally, a seat should have an adjustable, padded back rest. The seat should also be padded with a material that allows water to drain away from your kiester.
Equally important are adjustable foot rests. Pushing on these anchors you in your seat, providing a solid paddling platform. They should be adjustable, not only for different leg lengths, but to allow you to change your leg position to avoid stiffness. The surfaces of these pedal-like accessories should have a non-slip surface.
ROD HOLDERS
Sometimes these are built into the kayak’s hull and hold rods upright. This works fine, as long as you don’t encounter any overhead obstructions. Much better are rod holders with swiveling mounts that fold parallel with the deck. Having multiple rod holders allow you to switch baits without re-rigging.
TACKLE COMPARTMENTS
Most kayaks have fore and aft cargo compartments, but these are hard to reach on the water. Small compartments within reach of the seat are more practical.
ANCHOR TROLLEYS
You don’t need much of an anchor for kayak fishing, but they do come in handy when you want to hold your position against current or wind. Anchors need ropes, and having loose rope around your feet is inconvenient, not to mention dangerous. Anchor trolleys keep your anchor rope organized with cleats and allow you to instantly tie off anchor rope at the desired length and release it just as quickly. A small, foldable anchor will fit easily under or beside your seat, out of the way but available when needed.
CUP HOLDERS
You laugh, but nothing is worse than cracking open a drink only to have it tip over in your lap moments later. Well, okay, lots of things are worse, but a spilled drink is bad enough. When not holding drinks, cup holders are useful for holding snacks, phones, lures, pliers and a dozen other things.
ACCESSORY MOUNTING SYSTEMS
These really are the mothers of all accessories. Factory-installed accessory mounting systems permit you to customize your kayak in ways limited only by your imagination. They accept universal mounting plates can be drilled to accept anything you want. This is an easy way to keep cell phones, tablets, GPS units and other electronic devices handy. Naturally, if you are short on imagination, manufacturers have lots of ideas, including tackle bins, live wells, rod holders, fish finders and, yes, cup holders.
RUDDERS
Paddling into the wind can be a challenge when fishing on lakes or large streams. A rudder or tracking skeg keeps you on track without constant correction. This is especially handy for trolling.
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
Speaking of trolling, trolling motors made specifically for canoes and kayaks are available. Hobie offers kayaks equipped with their patented MirageDrive, the original kayak peddle-drive system. These items aren’t cheap…unless you compare their prices to the cost of a bass boat.
One often-neglected accessory is a top-quality paddle. A cheap paddle will wear you out if it doesn’t wear out first. Don’t balk at spending a couple hundred dollars on an ergonomically friendly paddle that keep you, your wrists and shoulders out of the orthopedic surgeon’s office for years.
Fishing kayaks have become so popular that organizations dedicated to them are springing up around the country. Missouri has two that I know of: Missouri Kayak Fishing Association and the Show Me Kayak Fishing. You might consider hooking up with these folks for help learning the ropes of kayak angling. Once you go ‘yak, you’ll never look back!
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NO SUNDAY BAY
- Where there are no fish.
- Where you won’t catch the largest smallmouth of your life.
By Jim Low
“There is no Sunday Bay,” intoned Tim Mead as he loaded the last huge pack into a Kevlar rental canoe. “If there is a Sunday Bay, it has no fish. If it does have fish, they won’t bite, and if they do bite, they are all small.”
He turned and looked expectantly at the rest of his party. The three of us nodded in solemn agreement and off we went.
Having been here every summer for the past 30 years, Tim took the stern seat in the lead canoe, a compass and a detailed map of Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park perched on the gear in front of him.
For the first hour and half of paddling, we occasionally heard and saw a motor boat near the American shore to our south. Then we rounded a spruce-clad point, and the motorized world disappeared.
For the next two days, the only human voices, or other sounds of civilization, we would hear were our own voices and the hiss of a Jetboil stove.
We would be serenaded by loons and challenged by eagles.
We would receive multiple visits from a large and determined snapping turtle bent on laying eggs and we would catch more 3- to 5-pound bass than I ever imagined possible.
We would sleep on the ground, sip tea laced with plum brandy and fall so deeply under the spell of the Canadian boundary waters that going home would hurt.
Technically, our journey began with an 8-mile lift via johnboat to Prairie Portage, on the U.S.-Canadian border. The real adventure commenced after we checked in at the Canadian customs office and launched our two canoes into sprawling Basswood Lake.
Having read Tim’s book, Quetico Adventures, I had a good idea what to expect during our five-day trip. I was prepared for coolish weather (nighttime lows in the 40s), rain, mosquito swarms and living on dehydrated food. I thought I was prepared to encounter amazing fishing, but when the first 20-inch bronzeback darted from the depths to make a pass at my surface plug, all my mental fuses blew.
Before I knew what I was doing, I jerked the plug out of the water and shouted. Well, I shouted something I hoped my paddling partner, Mike Quinn, wouldn’t hold against me. I assume he heard worse during his years in the Navy, but what my swearing lacked in creativity, it made up for with awestruck intensity.
In 50-plus years of chasing smallmouths in Missouri, I had never seen one close to that big. In the next half hour, Mike and I landed or hooked and got good looks at the five biggest smallmouths I had ever seen in person. And we were only an hour into the first day of fishing!
Over the following four days, we caught bass until our arms ached. Tim caught one largemouth bass whose mouth could comfortably accommodated a softball. He estimated its weight around 8 pounds, not a monster by Southern standards, but not bad for a fish species living outside its original native range and competing with fish their ancestors never had to contend with.
These included northern pike between two and three feet long and smallmouth bass that would have sent their Show-Me State kin dashing for cover. Boundary Waters smallies aren’t just long; they are built like defensive tackles, and they fight like demons, alternately burrowing toward the bottom and executing head-shaking jumps that would do a tarpon proud.
The smallmouth bass here bit with equal verve on everything from plastic grubs to Zara Spooks.
They bit at high noon, and at dusk, and at dawn.
By Jim Low
By Jim Low
