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DEL.ICIO.USShare your outdoors tips
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not so many years ago, I floated down the Chattahoochee River trout fishing with a friend.
We used belly floats — those inflatable tubes with which you easily move to the areas you want to fish. I hadn’t fly-fished that way before and I found it to be extremely effective. For me, it beat wading on foot because it opened up so much more fishable water.
When we got to the river, my friend handed me a couple of Ping-Pong paddles, which were attached to tether lines with clips on the ends.
Puzzled, I looked at my buddy but he already knew what I was going to ask before I opened my mouth.
“Use them to paddle around,” he said. “They’ll keep you from getting turned around and they’re great to get you where you want to go.”
I thought my friend was a genius. And, well, it was true in this case. The paddles were great. Because they were made of wood, they floated when not being used. And the clips and tether lines kept them from floating away.
In the outdoors, necessity is truly the mother of invention. Hunters, anglers, campers, hikers all have their tricks to get the job done. They’ve been passed down, suggested by friends or just figured out on the fly.s
I had a recent conversation with a brother-in-law of mine and told him about using lint from the dryer to start a campfire. While I’m sure campers have been using this trick for years, it had dawned on me while I saw my wife cleaning out the lint trap of our dryer. I scooped up some lint and made a small test fire in the yard. Now I keep lint in a container in the garage.
“You can use Doritos, too,” my brother-in-law said. “There’s so much oil in them, they’ll hold a flame long enough to start a fire.”
I guess he’s a genius, too.
So, what’s your unusual tip?
Comments
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By JK60
December 7, 2007 8:31 AM | Link to this
I keep a small candle. Even if it gets wet, you can scrap off some wax and have a fresh wick. It will keep a consistent flame for your lint, shaved bark, twigs, even doritos.
By Dick Cheney
December 7, 2007 8:53 AM | Link to this
When you are out hunting birds with friends, look before you shoot.
By SugarHillDawg
December 7, 2007 12:11 PM | Link to this
Does anyone know a good way to increase your chances of getting a late season buck when you hunt planted pines?
By Realmc
December 10, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this
Scott, congrats on the new blog and glad to see you on the front page. Look forward to reading more of your work.
You may not remember this, but several years ago I sent you a short story entitled “Trophy Trout”. It is a story about catching gator trout in the St. Joe Bay when we lost our engine during a thunderstorm. You emailed that you were “intrigued” and might want to do a story about our survival. I have since published a book, “A Walk On The Beach, A True Love Story From Tybee Island”. That story is in the book along with other hunting and fishing true stories. There is a courtship and some romance interwoven around the short stories. You can go to Authorhouse.com for a free preview and read about the author.
Tip for the day: if you get caught up the creek (bay) without a paddle, which we did, and you have a filet board, a landing net with handle, a screw driver, a Coleman cooler and seat pedestals screwed to the deck,remove screws from pedestal, hinges from cooler, remove clamp from filet board (shaped almost identical to a paddle), remove handle from net, attach handle to filet board with hinges from cooler and, with sharks swimming around the boat, paddle like crazy and you just might survive!
Buddy McCoy
By DaBoss
December 10, 2007 12:26 PM | Link to this
I keep a couple of large buckets in the shed and when I do yard work I often save twigs and branches that can be used for kindling for the campfire. It sure beats looking for them at the campsite.
By Bobby Knight
December 10, 2007 1:22 PM | Link to this
Don’t hit your neighbor’s house with pellets.
By Gil Grissom
December 11, 2007 4:04 PM | Link to this
I saw on the show Forensic Files that the pelletized wood cat litter (I’m serious) is excellent kindling for getting a campfire going. Carry it in a plastic bag and light it up.
By lrw
December 11, 2007 5:11 PM | Link to this
Several year’s ago me and my brother-in-law were fishing Lake Lanier in early March. I caught one fish that day. IT WAS A 6LB 9 OZ SPOT. As we continued fishing another boat pulled up next to us and asked if we were having any luck. My brother-in-law told him we had cought only one and prceeded to show him the fish. The fellow could not believe it. The guy by the way was Junior Samples.
By DR Kilgore
December 12, 2007 2:59 PM | Link to this
This is Georgia…Isn’t everyone Jr. Samples? Come on up to Michigan and do some real Walleye fishing. You’ll never eat those bottom feeder things again.