Old Tigers

"Rich, you've written a couple of columns about young sportsmen. Why don't you ever write anything about sportsmen your age?" Donna asked me one evening (I'm 72).

"There aren't a lot of us left," I replied. "A lot of sportsmen my age have given up hunting, especially deer hunting, because there aren't many deer left to hunt on public land. Some have health issues that have forced them to the sidelines. Also, at our age many of the places we once frequented are just too physically challenging to fish or hunt any longer."

"But, there have to be guys out there," she said.

She is right, of course. A few "old tigers" still try to catch some fish or put their tags on turkeys or deer.

One, a dedicated archery hunter, is only a couple months younger than I am. He spent the entire autumn archery season in the woods, seeing only a few deer before tagging a dandy buck.

My friend Scout is going to turn 70 this year. He prowls his favorite hunting grounds year-round, and he gives fall turkey hunting and deer hunting real efforts. This past fall he downed a gobbler with an eleven-inch beard, an exceptional bird, especially during the fall. Scout does not hunt turkeys during the spring. He insists it is not because he thinks it's too easy, but I'm not sure I believe him. He searches for morels during the spring, which is probably harder than gobbler hunting. Over the years he has tagged many bucks, and this year he gave deer hunting as much effort as a 30-year-old would give it.

Last summer I needed help writing an article a magazine editor had assigned me. It is to deal with Lake Raystown, which I know nearly nothing about. Stan Grove of Williamsburg is about my age, but he still fishes the big lake regularly. He has won numerous bass-fishing tournaments and is a past recipient of the Blair Bassmasters Angler of the Year Award. He and his wife LuAnn spent an afternoon sharing information about Raystown with me. I found that Grove often uses multiple fishing outfits on a single Raystown adventure. (And people say we fly-fishermen are over-geared.)

Another old tiger occasionally phones me about sporting matters. He is constantly afield and fishes regularly. On one of his calls last year, he made sure I was aware of a hatch of flies the trout were gorging on.

These are just a few of the old tigers who are still on the stream or in the woods.