OUTDOORS

WITH LUKE CLAYTON

THE OUTDOORS

This is a fun time of the year for those of us that enjoy hunting and fishing. Early spring is said to be the time when ninety percent of the fish are in ten percent of the water. I believe that to be a pretty true statement. That’s not to say you can’t find crappie staging around brush in 10 to 12 feet of water or egg laden white bass chasing schools of shad in water 25 feet deep. Spawning fish move into and out of shallow water with the passing of each spring cold front. But the majority of fish species are moving to the shallows to procreate. Now is the time when fishing from the bank is most productive simply because fish are often within easy casting range. I’m coming to you from my PC very early in the morning this week. My plan is to head to a creek that feeds Lake Fork and have a yellow Beetle Spin in the shallows by midmorning. The creek has been packed with crappie and white bass for a couple weeks now, but the best bite is after the water warms up a bit, usually from around mid-morning throughout the afternoon. Most anglers desire to be on the water at first light but my plan for today is to allow the sun’s warming rays to heat up the shallows in the creek and put the fish in a feeding mode! Cast iron skillet, cooking oil, cornmeal, potatoes, onions, and pork n beans are already loaded in the old pickup, along with a good supply of dry cooking wood.

SPRING TURKEY HUNTING To my way of thinking, there is nothing tastier than wild turkey fajitas made from the drumsticks and thigh meat or chicken fried turkey breast, rice and cream gravy. In a few weeks I will devote a column describing several methods of cooking wild turkey meat, but first I have to harvest one! With the spring season opener quickly approaching, it’s time to get out there and pattern the shotgun. With today’s super tight chokes, it’s a must to know exactly where to set your sights in order to place the center of the shotgun’s group on the turkey’s neck. A few years ago, I was hunting with a new aftermarket super tight choke and had a gobbler hang up at what I thought was 40 yards, a long shot by my standards. I was shooting a load of magnum #4 shot and decided to try for the bird. After the shot, the big gobbler dropped instantly. I measured the distance from my blind to the downed bird and discovered I had misjudged the distance; it was 62 yards! This was way too far to be shooting a shotgun at a turkey, but the tight choke had held the pattern in place for the long shot. That same year, I actually missed two big eastern gobblers with the same shotgun/ choke inside 20 yards in heavy cover up in southeast Oklahoma while hunting at the Choctaw Hunting Lodge which, by the way, is an excellent ‘close to Texas’ spot to hunt the eastern birds. When I patterned the shotgun with that choke, I found the group to be about 4 inches in diameter at that close range. I joked with my guide that in past years, I had actually killed a few wild turkeys! He understood my misses when he saw that super tight pattern. PLENTY OF “EATER” HOGS IN THE WOODS January and February is traditionally prime time for wild pigs to be born. Most hog hunters I know, myself included, are reporting large numbers of what I describe as ‘eater’ pigs hitting our corn feeders. Wild hogs can and do breed throughout the year, but winter is prime time for sows to birth. Many hog hunters, myself included, are seeing lots of younger ‘eater’ hogs coming to our corn feeders. To my way of thinking, there is no tastier meat from the wild than slow smoked, tender wild pork from pigs weighing from 30 to about 75 pounds. Larger hogs are great eating too but a meal of smoked BBQ wild pig, barbeque beans and cold slaw is the stuff great dining memories are made of!

TRY SOMETHING NEW I plan to pack my Seneca 50 caliber Dragon Claw air rifle today and, after a few hours hopefully catching and cooking white bass and crappie, I’ll load my air rifle with 336 grain lead bullets and sit over a corn feeder back on the creek in an undisturbed area. I recently sighted in the rifle to be dead on at 50 yards; my goal today is a fat BBQ pig. A couple buddies and I are planning a turkey hunt in the Hill Country at the famous Y O Ranch, and some wild pork BBQ sandwiches to enjoy on the trip will be well received. I’m also planning to use the air rifle on the turkey hunt. The big hunk of lead traveling at around 700 fps will do little damage to the turkey meat with precise bullet placement, but hit a turkey with a centerfire bullet traveling at 3,000 fps and there would be little left for the skillet. If all works according to plan and I take a gobbler early in the hunt with the air rifle, I’ll break out the crossbow and try to shoot one from a blind. I love hunting with everything from a compound bow to a muzzleloader, granted it’s a challenge staying proficient with them all. I’ll let you know in next week’s column how things went on the creek and in the woods today. Until next week, be safe out there!

Contact outdoors writer Luke Clayton by email through his website www. catfishradio.org