Naivete’ and childhood go hand-in-hand like two love-sick teen-agers walking through a park. It’s universal: If you’re a kid, you simply haven’t seen enough of society to know what’s real and what isn’t. It’s called childhood ignorance, and it’s a wonderful thing.[…]
“Uncle Johnny, you didn’t wrestle a bear,” my nephew Ryan McLellan said in a hunting camp a few years ago when I told him the story of the night I wrestled a 450-pound Canadian black bear and pinned him to the mat until the count of 10. “That’s a lie, or at best, it’s one of your tall tales.”[…]
Unfortunately, some Louisiana outdoorsman still wear the terms “poacher” and “outlaw” as badges of honor. Like kleptomaniacs who steal trinkets they don’t really want and will never use just for the thrill of the take, these poachers and outlaws don’t get a charge unless they shoot at least one duck over the limit, harvest a couple undersized redfish or shoot a doe on a bucks-only day.[…]
My 84-year-old grandfather has had so much skin cancer surgery, it’s amazing he still has any dermis covering his body. A fair-skinned man of English descent, he worked his entire life as a glazer, and consequently spent nearly as much time outside as your average tree.[…]
It’s early December, and you’ve gotten a hot tip. Your buddy just returned from a trip to Lafitte, and he and some other friends caught redfish at will in the back of a dead-end canal.[…]
Senators and representatives, who have to go to the voters every certain number of years and ask for their jobs back, are necessarily influenced by public opinion.[…]
Although the shot fired at bass pro Gary Klein during the 2003 Bassmaster Classic was heard around the world via ESPN, I was more interested in an incident that happened to one of his fellow contenders — Harold Allen — while he was fishing not too far from Klein.[…]
It’s said that a frog will allow itself to be boiled alive if placed initially into a pot of water that’s cool. It won’t even notice the incremental change in water temperature until it’s too late.[…]
I celebrated a birthday last month, and judging by the number of candles my wife stuck in the cake, I must be 34. My kids think that’s ancient, but I would guess there are actually a whole lot more people in America older than me than younger.[…]
If you’ve ever watched a parade, you probably noticed that as a marching band approaches, you hear the bass drums first and the highest-pitched instruments last.[…]
There are many things I love about spring — manicured azaleas bursting with red, purple and white blossoms, the smell of freshly cut grass carried on thick breezes, and the rhythmic “tick-tick-tick” of a topwater bait that’s interrupted by an explosion from a yet unidentified fish.[…]
Did you know that there may be a free upgrade to your present GPS receiver? No you don’t have to return the unit to the manufacturer for upgrading. If your GPS receiver has a capability to attach a PC interface cable to a computer, you or anyone who is computer literate may install the upgrade.[…]
The old logging road was a promising place to look for sign. It ran through a year-old clearcut before dropping off a slight ridge into Winn Parish’s Dugdemona swamp.
Before timber harvesting, the ridge had been covered with a variety of oak and hickory trees, providing a rich food source. It also was the nearest high ground that would serve as a refuge when Dugdemona River inevitably experienced its annual flood. A hard rain a few days earlier made scouting conditions perfect.[…]
Reading the owner’s manual for a fish finder or GPS navigator exposes you to terminology found nowhere else. Here is a quick primer translating some common but important terms in the language of electronics.[…]
George,
Hey, buddy! How’s everything? Long time, no see. I know it’s probably taxing to run the entire free world, but hey, a 20-minute phone call is only 99 cents. Is 20 minutes too much to ask from an old chum?[…]
Ask the conventional angler in our state if they’ve ever heard of Tony Accardo, Pete Cooper or Tom Nixon, and chances are Nixon is the one that comes up with a blank.[…]