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CL - Phil DiFatta
In Covington County, a one-day class will be held Oct. 24 at the Covington County Multi-Purpose Building, Hwy. 49 North, Collins. That class meets from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. To sign up, call 765-8252. Jones County will have another Hunter Ed class Oct. 24 from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the Laurel Police Training Center on Hillcrest Drive. To sign up, call Danny Evans 425-2148. Georgia Pacific Hunter Ed classes in Perry County will be held Nov. 11 from 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Call 928-3720 to enroll. In Stone County, Hunter Ed classes will be held at Red Creek WMA headquarters on Wire Road on Oct. 19, 20 and 22. The first two segments are 6-9 p.m., with the last beginning at 5. Call 928-4296. For all-day classes, students are instructed to bring a brown bag lunch and drink.
Gander Mountain in Hattiesburg will be the site of a Forrest/Lamar Hunter Ed class Oct. 8-10. The class will be from 6-9 p.m., and the concluding class on the 10th will be 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. For more information, call 268-6845.
Don't forget that the Forrest/Lamar Ducks Unlimited annual banquet will be Oct. 8 in Hattiesburg at the Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center. Doors open at 6 p.m., followed by a catered dinner at 7. Tickets are $45 single, $60 couple, $15 Greenwing (kids) and $275 sponsor. For more information, contact any committee member.
 Lyn-Holli and Christian Severson pose with a couple of Florida pompano they caught at the barrier islands while fishing aboard Team Brodie Charters. They also caught ladyfish, bluefish, hardtails, catfish and stingrays. The youngsters also saw pods of dolphins herding massive schools of mullet, and a 5-foot shark prowling the shallows.
 Linda Roman of Beaumont shows off a nice mess of 15 catfish she caught in Jones County recently. Her husband, Richard, didn?t do as well, but at least she ?let? him clean them.
 Ryan Barrett holds up two catfish he caught at Lake Bruin in St. Joseph, La.
 Trip Tisdale caught these white perch at Lake Bruin in St. Joseph, La.
Hey, someone wrote a letter to the editor about my weekly column that runs in the Hattiesburg American on Fridays and on the Outdoors Web site on Tuesdays. You can read about it here.
by noreply@blogger.com (Phil DiFatta)
 Charles Dawkins of Oak Grove shows off the 14 bream and 3 bass he caught at a private pond on June 7. Dawkins caught all 17 fish on a flyrod with a black gnat.
 Duyen Tang, fishing the oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana, caught this 28-pound Red Snapper.
 Purvis High football coach Tony Farlow shows off a couple of redfish.
 Greg Steelman of Purvis with a redfish he caught recently at the Louisiana Marsh.
 Dale Broom, of Petal, recently latched on to a small bream, only to have it attacked by this lunker bass while fishing at Paul B. Johnson State Park.
Tim Dunaway of Purvis was toolin? down the highway headed home from work, cruise set at 75 in a 65 zone ? no worry in the world, except that some Mississippi State Highway Patrol trooper might be having a bad day. Then the tail of what looked like a 4-foot cottonmouth water moccasin slipped from under the dash and dangled down between his legs. Suddenly, the presence of a state trooper didn't seem such a bad thing. But before Tim could say ?scat,? he realized he should have been wearing Depends Undergarments. ?I screamed like a little girl,? Tim admitted, ?and got both feet on the seat as fast as I could. That?s one time it helped to have little short legs. Still, I kept screaming like a girl and cussin? that snake the whole time.? ?Tiny Tim? did keep some of his wits, however, so he knew he?d risk getting ?fanged? if he dared brake his truck to a stop. He simply reached up and cut off the cruise control, then waited for the truck to come to rest. He waited, and he waited. And he waited some more, all while the snake kept a visual on its next possible victim. Just for the heck of it, reckon what Tim would have done if a car had pulled out in front of him? Would he have risked getting struck by the snake to hit his brake? ?Not a snowball?s chance!? he declared. ?Heck no. If somebody had pulled out in front of me ? they?d have just been hit. Lucky for them, nobody did, but it seemed like two hours before my truck ever came to a stop.? When it did, Tim bailed out. And with both doors open, he tried to coax the viper out. Nothin? doin?. No deal. Hard-headed snake. It appeared to have made Tim?s truck its home; won fair and square. ?I was still cussin? that snake and screaming like a girl,? said Tim, who is an athletic sort of guy, or was, ?but it ignored me.? After about 15 minutes, though, the snake finally grew weary of all the high-pitched, girlie shrills from Timid Timmy, so it slithered out the open door on its own accord. Then, and only then, did ?Mr. Football,? ?Mr. Baseball,? ?Mr. Macho? Tim Dunaway realize he?d been scared almost to death by, and screaming like a cheerleader at, a harmless chicken snake. Kinda lends a whole new meaning to the term ?chicken? snake, don?t it? Actually, it took a lot of nerve to tell me this story. So Tim?s not such a big chicken after all. But the story probably would never have surfaced had it not been for Tim?s barber, Randy Anderson, and his associate, ?Nat the Rat,? who both told this tale to me. ?I used to have three people in life I thought I could trust,? Dunaway whimpered. ?That included my wife, my preacher and my barber. Now there are only two. I still trust the wife, and I?m glad my preacher?s one I can trust, too, because I gotta? go see him and ask him to pray for me because of all the cussin? I did at that #&%# snake!? On a serious note, I understand at least one little girl (not Tim) actually did get struck by a moccasin in South Mississippi recently. The critters are definitely on the move, for whatever reason. So be safe during your outdoor ventures, and keep an eye on the ground. Oh, and don?t do like Tim and leave your vehicle door open as an invitation. Your intruder might not be a harmless chicken snake.
Thanks to Tim Dunaway, I have been exonerated ? totally. Last year, about this time, I wrote a rebuttal to a letter-to-the-editor from a ?fan? in Burbank, Calif., in regard to my killing of a perfectly poisonous water moccasin that had parked itself underneath the open driver-side door of my pickup. Well, it seems that Tim recently found himself in a similar situation with a venomous snake. Only his predicament was far worse than mine. But, what happened to Tim was the exact scenario I used in defense of having to eradicate the aforementioned snake under my truck. Now, right off the bat, allow me to say that I do not condone the indiscriminate killing of just any ol? snake, and that will be evidenced later in this column. But there is a thing called self-preservation, and when it comes down to whether I?m going to die or the snake is going to die ? well, don?t bet on the snake. Nonetheless, Dunaway?s snake encounter is just hearsay as of this writing. The news came from Randy and ?Nat the Rat? at Randy?s Barber Shop in Purvis, so we must consider the source. Barbers, you see, have been known to lie, or at least bend the truth. So I?ll just have to wait ?til I can catch up with Tim to verify the story. From what I hear, it is both hilarious and terrifying, and I can only pray that my critic in California still reads my column. That would bring my readership up to five! Stay tuned for Tim?s adventure next week, but I have to tell you mine now. I had parked my pickup in exactly the same place as with the run-in with the moccasin last summer. This time, when I walked out of the hunting cabin in Covington County, I noticed a curved, S-shaped ?stick? beside my right-front tire. It had not been there before. And, even being the idiot I am, I knew right away it was a snake. So, being the so-called journalist I am, instead of reaching for my pistol, I grabbed my little digital camera and zoomed in. Just as I thought, it was a long chicken snake, and after snapping a couple of pictures, I tried to shoo it away from my truck. No deal. The snake wasn?t having any part of it. Instead of slithering off into to the woods, the critter slinked its way straight up ?somewhere? onto the frame on the front end of my faithful pickup. I never forgot it. I kept that thought in my mind, knowing a snake was ?somewhere? in or under my truck. Still, at some point I knew I had to leave the camp and go home. So, after some time, I cranked up and turned the truck around to load my 4-wheeler. Then, as I laid the ramps on my tailgate, the snake slithered out between my legs and into the woods before I even had a chance to get scared. Still, I think I set some kind of a standing broad jump record. But, the real purpose of this column is not to boast of records set by a leaping ?chicken,? rather to warn you that venomous snakes are on the prowl and moving about freely during the heat of the day, which lately has been 24/7. So, just because snakes are supposed to be mostly nocturnal, does not mean that you should let down your guard during your outdoor ventures any hour of the day. Look forward next week to Tim Dunaway?s tale of his terrifying encounter with a cottonmouth ? if he is willing to talk to me about it. Until then, be safe outdoors. Protect yourself not only from venomous snakes, but stinging insects and the harmful rays and heat of the sun as well. Take a kid or more with you if you can, and if you find others in distress, consider it your duty to help them out. That?s what sportsmen do.
The next tip to consider is saltwater fishing. No moccasins to worry about there if you jump in ? only sharks. Just kidding, but I really did have a shark try to tow me out to sea one time while surf fishing. About a six-footer latched onto my 20-foot stringer and didn?t wanna let go, so I DID. But, that?s another story for another day. Right now, I understand the saltwater fishing is hot, both literally and figuratively. I?ve had excellent reports from Pascagoula to areas below New Orleans. Folks have been catching great numbers and some really nice-sized speckled trout and redfish. But still, how do you beat the heat while fishing salty waters where there?s not even a drop of shade? Well, first you hope there is at least a slight breeze, which there almost always is. Secondly, if you?ve got a canopy onboard, use the darn thing for heaven?s sake. So what if you look like a sissy? At least you won?t look like a sun-parched sissy when you arrive back at the dock. And use sunscreen. On my first red snapper fishing trip years ago, I was told (since I had my shirt off to expose my muscles, or lack thereof) that I?d better apply sunscreen. ?Ha,? I laughed. ?Wops don?t burn.? Wops, of course, being people of somewhat Italian descent like me. Folks, lemme tell you, the heat was like it has been here for two or three weeks, and I?m living proof that Wops do burn. Heck, the only parts of me that wasn?t blistered were the soles of my feet, which explains why I had to stand up for three days and nights. Actually, I exaggerate (it was only two days), but if you?ve got a grain of sense in your noggin, you?ll protect yourself from the damaging rays of the sun when you, and hopefully you will, go fishing. There?s nothing we humans can do to stop the heat, but we can catch fish during this heat wave. Fish deep, drink plenty of fluids ? AND TAKE A KID WITH YOU EVERY TIME YOU CAN.
If you?ve been living inside an active volcano the past couple of weeks, I suppose you might consider the weather we?ve been experiencing here in the Deep South as mild. If not, the only way to describe it is HOT! Oh, you could describe it as beautiful, but still HOT, which reminds me of the words an old country song ? ?Too hot to fish, too hot for golf, and too cold at home.? I?m not much of a golfer, so I really can?t say if it?s too hot for golf, though I suspect it is for most. As for being ?too cold at home,? there?s no way I can say that. In fact, as long as I can pay the power bill, I?ll keep my thermostat set so low that I?m ashamed to put in print. Let?s just put it this way: I?d rather sleep under a quilt and try to figure a way to pay the power bill than I would sleep on top of the covers and sweat down at night. But, who cares how I sleep at night? The real issue here is, in this case is, is it ?too hot to fish?? And the answer is ?no,? with some modifications, of course. Check back for my 'Never too hot to fish" tips.
Too hot to fish? No way. Just modify your fishing schedule a bit. One such change of direction might be to fish at night. Depending on your work schedule, you could fish late afternoons into the night, or you can fish the wee morning hours before daylight until it gets too hot after the sun comes up. However, even the nights have been hot and sultry of late. Though I haven?t done much of it lately, my next suggestion would be to fish the many rivers and streams Mississippi is blessed with. The streams often act as breezeways, and if nothing else the refreshing wind currents will make the heat a little more bearable. Also, overhanging limbs will offer some relief in the form of shade. You could, of course, jump in every now and then and cool off, but I can?t suggest that because of my own buzzard luck. With my luck, I?d land straddle a snag. That, or I?d find the biggest, meanest water moccasin in the world.
 After many years of talking about it, the Pierce brothers Robert Pierce, right, of Collins and Jerry Pierce, center, of Petal, finally got together and went to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where they met family member Charlie Kranz, left, of Gulfport and went fishing. They fish the in-shore reefs and within a few hours had caught their limit of speckled trout.
My wife threatened to hit me over the head with a rolling pin when she saw me dumping the water out of her bird bath in the backyard. Birds get thirsty, too, she figured. Two things: First, I had already disposed of the only rolling pin we ever owned a long, long time ago in anticipation that it might be used for such violent purposes. Secondly, when I explained that I had nothing against the birds and that I wasn?t trying to dehydrate them to death, she dropped my son?s old aluminum baseball bat (since she couldn?t find the rolling pin) and agreed to listen. I told her I was going to replace the stagnant water with fresh water. Now, do you have any idea what I?m getting at? Some of you do, I?m sure, but most of you don?t, including me. No, really, there is a point to be made here, and that?s the fact that mosquito season is upon us, and there are certain things you must do as an outdoors person to protect yourself. One of those things is to drain any standing, stagnant water. The American Mosquito Control Association, AMCA, (I?m not making this up) suggests three things, something they call the 3 Ds, that encourage outdoors folks to protect themselves from mosquito-borne disease. And the first rule is to DRAIN any standing water that might be a breeding ground for mosquitoes (such as a birdbath). Empty buckets of standing water, discard old tires (properly, of course) and drain or empty anything that might be a mosquito breeding ground. The second D suggests that you dress properly. Mosquitoes are attracted to dark colors, so AMCA says to wear light-colored clothing outdoors that fits loosely. Skeeters can bite through tight-fitting clothing. The third D recommends that you DEFEND against the blood-sucking critters by applying a safe, approved mosquito repellent. I?ll go a step farther and add the use of a mosquito-repelling Therma-Cell unit because it?s effective and not messy to use. But! Hold the press. DiFatta has come up with a fourth D that I consider almost as important as the first two put together. The fourth, or DiFatta D, would be to DEODORIZE. Now I realize that it?s hot in Mississippi during the summer (duh), but I know for a fact the less body odor you emit, the fewer mosquitoes will choose you. And there are TWO kinds of odors that mosquitoes crave - good odor and bad odor. ?Good odor? has a perfumy smell. So don?t wear sweet-smellin stuff (hair spray, perfume, cologne, even aromatic deodorants) during outings. At the end of the day or night, you may still smell good wearing that stuff, but you won?t have much blood left in your veins. Bad odor, of course, is plain ol? body odor. But, if you can?t apply deodorant or cover up B O with perfume, what DO you do? Well, the first requisite is to be clean. Bathe or shower using unscented soap. And it wouldn?t hurt to use unscented deodorant afterward. But, regardless of how you do it, from swimming in a sea of insect repellent to wearing an insulated jumpsuit with gloves and a ski mask (of course you?d die from heat stroke), the main thing this summer is to protect yourself from mosquitoes and the sometimes deadly diseases they carry. That having been said, here?s hoping you have a wonderful summer during all your outdoor endeavors. And when you get outdoors, be sure to take a kid with you ? EVERY TIME YOU CAN.
 Richard Roman, fishing in a pouring rain, thus the rain umbrella, caught this 10-pound grass carp using chicken livers as bait. He also caught a bunch of catfish.
If you think getting hooked in the mouth by a barbed wire fence (while fishing) is strange, wait ?til you hear what my dexterity challenged friend Earl Sellers has done this time. ?Little Stevie Wonder? Stapleton, my vertically challenged friend, stopped by Earl?s NAPA store in Purvis to pick up some parts, and you won?t believe what he told me about Earl the Pearl?s latest misadventure. You?ll recall not so many columns ago if you?re one of my three loyal readers that Earl had snagged himself in the mouth on a barbed wire fence while fishing a farm pond. And you might also recall I left you with the question: What will the boy do next? Well, it seems that Earl got himself hooked in the finger with a treble hook, which in itself is not so unusual. But that?s only the beginning of the story. When I called Earl to get, as the late Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story, Earl at first refused to cooperate. ?What ARE you talking about?? he asked. However, I informed him that Stevie Wonder and NAPA employee David Moucheron had given me the scoop, and he might as well come clean. So he did. ?I was taking the bottom hook out of the hard part of the fish?s lip, and he flopped,? Earl recalled. ?When he flopped, the top hook caught me, and me and that fish (about a 2-pound bass) both went down in the pond. He was trying to swim away with my finger, and it hurt like the devil, but I finally caught him with my other hand.? But, Earl has only two hands, strangely enough, and there was not a soul in sight to lend one. So he had to improvise. ?I bit the line in two,? Earl said, ?but I still couldn?t turn this thing loose ? ?cause wherever he went, so would my finger. I had no other choice.? And you ain?t gonna believe that ?other choice.? Actually, even I could think of a couple - like walking out to get help. Or pinning the fish to the ground with one knee so I could free one hand to remove the hooks. But not Earl. He has to do things the hard way, so he meticulously raised the fish?s lips to his own as if to kiss it and then bit the fish?s lip in two. That freed the hook from its mouth, but what if the fish had flopped at precisely the wrong moment and embedded a hook in Earl?s lip? That?s gotta take a lot of guts (or lack of gray matter). I can see the headlines: ?Fish Catches Fisherman (but throws him back).? The ?surgery? was successful, however, and Earl was so glad to be free of the fish that he let it go. I can?t help but wonder what the fish went back and told its friends as to how its lip got broke. Anyway, there are a few pearls (that?s why I call him Earl the Pearl) of wisdom to be learned from Sellers? miscues. First, if your treble hooks on your lures have become dull and rusty, replace them with new, needle-sharp ones, which is what Earl had done prior to his most recent fishing outing. That way, the hooks will set more firmly in a fish?s tough jaw or lip. Also, you?ll stand less chance of getting lockjaw with new hooks. Secondly, it?s not a bad idea to have a fishing partner along when things go awry, such as a hook in the hand. And last, if something like this does happen and you?re by yourself, for heaven?s sake, don?t tell anybody; it?s embarrassing. On second thought, tell me. It makes my job a lot easier. And so ends another installment of ?The Misadventures of Earl the Pearl.? I should note here to the little old ladies who said I was being too rough on Earl that this is all in good, clean fun. He?s a friend, a good friend. If he weren?t, he?d sue me! Besides, since there were no witnesses, he never should have said a word.
 Hunter Beasley landed this 200-pound-plus tuna after a two-hour battle near Venice, La. Aboard the Luna Sea were King, Bealsey, Rod Jenkins, Chess Clay and Randy Coulter.
Staying close to home is only the beginning of the many things an outdoors person can do to cope with tough economic times. Staying home, period, is NOT one of them, however. Here are a few other things The Champion of Cheap can suggest. My retail friends might not like it, but sometimes you gotta do ? what you gotta do. - Dig, dip or otherwise catch your own bait. It may seem ?beneath? some folks, but great satisfaction may be derived from digging your own worms, dipping up crawfish or somehow catching crickets. - Lots of folks already do this, but freezing a bottle of water or two not only will keep drinks and food cool, as well as the fish you might catch, but it?ll knock a few bucks off the price of your fishing trip. - Take it from someone who?s so tight he saves (and washes, of course) plastic utensils and foam cups for hunting, fishing and camping outings: the more you can prepare at home, like sandwiches and drink mixes (Kool-Aid), the more you?ll save, thus you?ll be able to partake in such outings more often. - Use dry oak or hickory wood to ?charcoal? your catch. It?s just as good if not better. - Take a friend and share expenses. There are so many things I could suggest you do during these tough economic times I could write a book. First, I gotta learn how to write! And while I?m trying to learn how to write, if you get the chance, take a kid fishing. Kids don?t eat much, but they could catch your next meal!
The freshwater fishing has not been the best in the world in my neck of the woods lately, but the saltwater species appear to be plentiful, with large catches of speckled trout and redfish. And just because bass, crappie and bream fishing seems to have slowed for various reasons ? warmer water, too much rain in places, etc. ? doesn?t mean there are not fish out there for the catching. You might have to fish a little deeper than you did earlier in the spring, but the catfish will bite most any time. And while the whiskered critters might not be the most sporting of freshwater fish, they?re tough to beat fresh out of the skillet or deep fryer. I like to fish the many dead, or oxbow, lakes adjacent to Mississippi?s rivers. There?s no telling what you?ll catch, from crappie to catfish, to bass and bream, along with the toothy, hard-fighting gar and even an occasional small alligator. Small alligators, I must say, are no fun to catch, even less fun to unhook and quite illegal to keep. But if you toss your lure or live bait accidentally near a small gator, chances are you won?t retrieve it without the gator attached to the end of your line. When my son was young, he had a bad habit of doing that, and guess who had to unhook the critter while looking over his shoulder for Momma Gator! But if you don?t have a small pond or oxbow you can fish, state lakes abound in Mississippi, and the cost to you will not break the bank (heard that saying lately?). The cost to fish a state lake is minimal, and all that is required is a valid fishing license for folks 16 and older.
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