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May 2008
Gas prices keep me close to home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, we find that average gas prices in Atlanta are getting closer to $4 per gallon (it’s over $4 in some places).
The average per gallon was $3.85 late Thursday for regular unleaded. That’s about a dollar more than the same time last year.
If you’re a boater, count on the cost to be at least 20 cents more per gallon on the water.
If you own an 8-cylinder pickup like me, you’ve already experienced fill-ups at $70 or more. And can $100 per fill-up be that far away, given the curent rate of increases?
I have to admit that gas prices have drastically affect my own outdoors habits. With my F-150 getting maybe 16 mpg, I have yet to make a trip this year to some of my favorite places to fish like Lake Chatuge to the north, Oconee to the east and Seminole to the south.
Me and my family have been hiking/trail walking closer to home at places like Stone Mountain and the Elachee Nature Center near Oakwood. My fishing has been closer to home, too, which isn’t such a bad thing, considering it has allowed me to re-discover some places overlooked in the past.
So, how have gas prices affected your passion for the outdoors? Are you cutting back on trips, or just carrying on?
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You get one lure. What is it?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A recent online survey (AnglerSurvey.com) said that Rapala has the top-selling artificial fishing lures in the U.S.
But that could mean a number of different kinds of baits for different species of fish.
If you could only pick one lure (not live bait) to do your bass, striper, trout or other fishing, what would that be?
Mine would be a green pumpkin finesse worm on a jighead for bass. It’s versatile and frequently draws a strike around fallen trees.
If I’m struggling to draw some attention, I’ll almost always throw this bait.
I might rig it Texas or Carolina style depending on conditions.
What’s your favorite?
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Trout fishing for bass
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It looked like trout water. Fast-moving, full of rocks and rather cool water and with wader-wearing anglers stepping through it all to get to the fish.
But a trip last week with Chattahoochee River guide Rob Smith (River Through Atlanta Guide Service) was for black bass. The shoal bass, the river cousin of Georgia’s favorite freshwater species, the largemouth bass, is abundant in the Hooch. And with some typical bass lures like spinnerbaits and flukes, the shoalies are pretty easy to catch. Shoalies on the fly can be very productive, too.
The shoalie population from Morgan Falls past U.S. 41 is at an all-time high.
That’s thanks to a five-year stocking program by the state Wildlife Resources Division that aimed to bolster sportfishing in a stretch of river that has become too warm because of development for trout to survive through the summer. There’s still trout - Smith caught a nice brown on a fluke in the Cochran Shoals area on the recent trip - but most of those are fish stocked for the delayed-harvest portion of the river.
The warmer temperatures suit the shoalies, which are common in bigger numbers and sizes in the Flint River in middle and south Georgia.
“I’ve been fishing down here since 1970,” Smith said. “We used to catch them every now and then. We thought they were smallmouths. Now, you can go out there and target them.”
State fisheries biologist Chris Martin says 211,000 fingerling shoal bass were stocked in the river in a five-year program that ended in 2007, and indications are that they are doing well, with fish in the 2-to-3-pound range showing up in electrofishing samplings.
“They’re pretty spread out,” Martin said. “From Cochran Shoals to Thornton Shoals to below Highway 41. And they go further than that.”
The next step is seeing whether the shoal bass is able to reproduce and sustain the population. Martin said samplings this summer will look for fry shoal bass, proof that they’re able to spawn.
On the recent trip, Smith targeted the deeper holes in the Cochran Shoals, catching six or seven bass. At one point, he was getting a strike on almost every cast.
Working the lures aren’t much different than using them on a lake or pond. The big difference is accounting for the river current. But a spinnerbait ripped through the current still drew several strikes on the recent trip.
The brown trout hit the fluke while Smith was casting his way back to the shoreline.
“It seems that every time I go bass fishing, I catch a trout on a bass lure,” said Smith, who also works at the Fish Hawk fly shop in Buckhead. “I want to stay and fish.”
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Have you had a Man vs. Wild encounter?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Have you ever seen a bear in the woods while hiking or trout fishing in north Georgia? Was it no big deal? Or did it scare the heck out of you?
The state DNR sent out a press release late in the week reporting that a black bear was spotted in Roswell, and that, obviously, local residents were concerned.
It’s no surprise a bear was seen in the ‘burbs, especially this time of year, when young male bears on their own for the first time begin roaming to establish their own territories. That sometimes mean they stumble into urbanized areas. If left alone, the bears will eventually return to their traditional range.
“If a black bear is sighted passing through an area, the best thing to do is to leave it alone,” said Adam Hammond, WRD wildlife biologist. “Residents should never approach a bear and never, under any circumstances, feed a bear. Even worse, attempting to ‘tree’ or corner a bear in a certain area often compromises both the safety and welfare of the bear and the safety of the residents in the surrounding area.”
This got me thinking about wildlife encounters that outdoors enthusiasts have. I’ve never really some across a wildlife situation that I thought was dangerous.
Earlier this month, me and my 10-year-old participated in a Scout camping weekend near Clayton and were awaken by a bear, whose roar echoed through the woods. The animal roared three or four times, and while it was a bit unsettling, it really was no big deal.
I’ve surprised a few poisonous snakes over the years, and I had strange staredown with a raccoon that had me getting my fishing pole ready to use to swat it. But that’s about it.
Not exactly Man vs. Wild, huh?
So, what about you? Do you have a story, whether scary or funny, to tell about a wild encounter?
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Is this how buying a license will be?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As I stood helplessly at the “sporting goods” counter recently at a Gwinnett County Wal-Mart, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is what the future holds with the new fishing/hunting/boating licensing system the state will implement by year’s end.
My fishing license was about to expire and, with a bass-fishing trip planned to start the next day, I stopped into a Wal-Mart close to home to re-enlist. I figured I’d pick up a license, maybe some offset hooks, and be home in less than a half-hour.
Um, no.
It was nearly an hour just to get someone to turn on the cash register and key in my info. That was only after going to the front of the store three times to tell them what I wanted and that I needed help (that didn’t help) and then flagging down another store employee who eventually found someone who could help.
I was told that nobody works at the sporting goods counter for an entire shift, but instead alternates between that department and the hardware area. I found nobody in either department, by the way.
Then, I had to explain to the person helping me what trout and WMA licenses were.
I wondered, is this how buying a license will be in the new system?
The state announced the new system earlier this year, saying the decade-old current system is antiquated and falling apart, and must be replaced. Contracting with Central Bank, a Missouri data and financial firm that manages similar licensing systems in 21 other states, the state put into motion a new system that will be Internet-based and offer real-time license sales. Real-time data is important in preventing duplicate licensing and blocking sales to those who are not allowed to have a license.
Central Bank will charge an additional fee — call it a handling fee — of at least $2.75 per transaction, but more troubling may be the certainty that there will be far fewer places to walk in and buy a license. Central Bank will contract with the top 20 percent volume sellers in the state to offer in-person sales, leaving many Mom-and-Pop stores out.
Most of those in the top 20 percent are big-box stores like Wal-Mart.
The state says it’s still a work in progress with Central Bank. The exact number of retail outlets there will be once the system goes online (boating licenses by September; hunting/fishing by December) hasn’t been finalized. And, since the new system is web-based, virtually any store with the needed computer equipment may still be able to facilitate sales.
Like the current system you still will be able to purchase licenses from your home computer, which, I suppose, is where all of this is headed anyway.
But know that there will be far fewer than the 1,100 outlets which currently sell licenses in the “old” system.
More than 90 percent of Georgia hunting/fishing/boating enthusiasts buy their licenses in person, while they buy a pack of hooks, new line, or live bait. At small tackle shops, they also can talk to people who know where the fish are biting or spin a story about the guy down the road who bagged a 10-pointer.
At Wal-Mart?
Um, no.
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What’s your fondest outdoors memory?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There were many firsts during the summer between by seventh- and eighth-grade years and they all came on the same trip.
It was the middle of the summer of ‘75 when I went on the fishing trip of a lifetime — 10 days in the Canadian wilderness with family and friends. We were in a group of eight who drove from my native Wisconsin to Vermillion Bay in Ontario, then airplaned deep into the some of the most beautiful lake country on Earth.
It was my first trip out of the country, first time in a plane, first camping trip to the middle of nowhere and first experience catching fish in a barrel. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.
It was a 12-hour car ride from Central Wisconsin to Ontario and another two hours on a plane. The outfitters shuttled the group and gear on several trips back and forth, and once they were done we didn’t see them again for five days, when they brought ice.
No electricity. No running water. If you could brave the cold Canadian water (perhaps in the 50s) you could take a bath, but once was enough of that. We had tents, food and a fleet of fishing boats owned by the outfitters.
It was incredible fun.
To this date, I have never caught as many fish as I did on that trip. Northern pike, walleye and smallmouth bass bit so frequently that if we made five casts without something biting our Daredevle spoon we moved on. And if we got a little bored, me and my best buddy would race the boats across the lake and back.
It also was the first time I remember feeling somewhat equal to my father, which is a big thing for a 12-year-old boy who wants to be treated more like an adult than like a child. He let me drive the boat, pick spots to fish and our conversations were deeper than ever before. He went to get the firewood while I started a fired — and not the other way around. Wow.
That trip ended too soon. I was ready for another week once the plane returned to pick us up. I still hope to take a similar trip with my son and help him start feeling like an adult, too.
So, what’s your fondest outdoors memory?
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