SPORTS
Looking Back
By Luke Clayton
Looking back over the past years, I have seen many changes in the way we hunt and fish. My friends often joke with me saying things like, “Luke, all you do is hunt and fish and talk about it on your radio shows, the TV show you do and then write about the adventure in the newspapers and magazines.
They are at least partially correct, I do spend a lot of time in the outdoors fishing and hunting, I always have but when I became an outdoors writer forty years ago, these outings changed from being all fun to fun with some work involved. I learned about photography and how to capture the images I needed to compliment my articles. I later bumbled my way through radio, luckily, I had some very experienced radio personalities such as Dan Foster to help me along the way.
Dan was the news man for radio icon Bill Mack for many years. I used to drive 50 miles each way every week to a little recording studio where Dan flipped the switches and produced my show. Now, I can record excellent digital sound right at home, email the file to my producer and BINGO, it appears on a total of 41 radio stations the next weekend and becomes a podcast everywhere.
In the beginning as a fledging writer, it was sometime difficult to make the connections necessary to provide good content for my readers but as the years passed, so did my knowledge of the outdoors and my connections with professionals that made their living as guides, outfitters, etc. I’ve learned a great deal from these guys and gals and to this day, seldom go afield or out on the water without learning something new.
I remember writing my articles on paper and then typing and mailing or delivering the copy to editors. Photos were a real challenge, I would rush to get the film developed, hoping I got some good shots, and then deliver or mail the photos. These days, a click of my computer button sends the images anywhere in a matter of seconds.
As you might imagine, there have been a great deal of changes in the way most hunters and anglers pursue their sports. It’s difficult for young fishermen to fathom but back then there was no GPS nor spot lock that keeps your boat perfectly positioned over a fishing hot spot. I remember well lining up with features on the shore, triangulating we called it in order to get “close” a fishing hot spot.
A marker buoy would be tossed out, the anchor would then be let out upwind a good distance and anchor line let out until the boat was on the buoy. In the early days of civilian GPS, the government scrambled the coordinates so that precise positioning was impossible. One could get within about 50 feet of pre-determined coordinates. We all thought this was awesome, it was much better than lining up with reference points on shore but nothing like the pinpoint positioning today.
I don’t think many anglers under the age of thirty could imagine lining up a water tower and barn or radio antenna on shore to locate a good fishing spot. This method would get you close out in open water and then it was necessary to turn on your flasher unit to find the structure/fish you were looking for.
WHAT IS A FLASHER? Young anglers will ask Well it has absolutely nothing to do with quick removal of one’s clothing in a crowd.! It was a device before the advent of the modern day graph that would indicate the depth of water and, if you learned how to read the flashers properly, show you the fish.
I never became really good at reading anything but the depth and structure such as trees and bottom structure but I fished with guides that could accurately identify baitfish and gamefish just by looking at how the flashes appeared on the unit. Beyond doubt, the biggest change in fishing sonar is the introduction of forward-facing sonar a few years ago. With these units, the angler actually sees his bait below the boat and the fish he is trying to catch. These units have become hugely popular and are in widespread use by both amateur anglers and pros alike.
I’ve fished with several guides that put the technology to good use and won’t deny that it is highly effective. Personally, I don’t enjoy keeping my head glued to a little computer screen that shows my bait and the target fish but I must admit I’ve learned a lot about what triggers strikes, especially with white bass. They almost always chase the bait up vertically before striking.
I remember hunting hogs at night with an electrician buddy way before thermal scopes were invented. We wired several DC light bulbs in series to a car battery way back in the woods and baited the spot heavily for a few days until we saw hog sign and then set up at night nearby with shotguns loaded with double-ought buckshot. We managed to put some fresh pork in the freezer in this manner.
And live feed trail cameras common today were light years ahead of the technology 40 years ago. Many hunters have a cell phone app that instantly sends them a photo from a game camera back in the woods somewhere. Some cameras transmit live feed video. Many hog trappers use this system to ‘drop the gate’ on their hog traps. They watch the video, real time within a couple seconds until all the desired hogs are inside the trap and then, press the ‘drop gate’ button!
My first “trail camera” was a 35 mm. film camera with a trip wire that ran across a game trail, connected to a little shutter connector. The idea was to run the trip wire across the trail and the deer would trip the shutter as it walked past. I would then get the film from the camera, get it developed and in a week or so see what had tripped the shutter. Well, that was the plan.
I don’t remember actually getting the photo of deer but did get some fuzzy photos of a skunk and armadillo! Email Luke through his website www.catfishradio.org Listen to his weekly hour long podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about everywhere podcasts are found.
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
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