A Few Odds And Ends

This spring, I enjoyed several days of dry-fly fishing to a hatch of flies known as grannoms. I encountered these early season caddisflies several times, including on the BFO (big, famous, overfished) River. Remarkably, the BFO was not being pounded on the days I visited it. This occurred before information about the BFO's hatch appeared on social media.

Perhaps the closest I came to feeling out of place in the outdoors this spring occurred one evening on the BFO while I was rigging up where a pod of fine trout were rising. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two personal pontoon boats drifting downstream toward me. I could not believe the occupants of these watercraft anchored directly in front of me. I stared in amazement as they settled in. I was "treated" to "music" from a radio (?) that one of the boaters was playing. It didn't take him long to start some slurred "singing" to accompany the noise blaring from the radio. That was enough for me. I rose from my seat and wandered on up the BFO to find some trout that were not being serenaded from a pontoon boat.

The evening after a column I had written about my son's insistence that I try to hunt turkeys properly appeared in the Herald, I received a phone call from a local sportsman. He knew of my concern for declining numbers of turkeys. He knew that I believe excessive numbers of tags to kill extra gobblers during the spring is a contributing factor, that I believe afternoon gobbler hunting results in roost shooting of gobblers, and that I believe excessive numbers of predators have taken a huge toll on the birds. He also knew something I'd never considered.

"Rich," he said, "one of the biggest reasons turkey numbers are declining is due to the increase in crossbow hunting during the fall. I know you think fewer birds are being killed during the autumn than previously, based on game commission statistics. However, there are lots of fall turkeys being poached by guys shooting crossbows from tree stands in the fall, and not just during turkey season. They kill the birds, breast them out in the woods, and tote the meat home in their backpacks. This is especially true where some people are 'living off the land' and don't respect game laws."

Finally, if you run into guys in the outdoors in the next few weeks who sneak away from you, know that they're morel hunters, the most secretive of sportsmen.