Summer Lasts Until…?

By John Criner

Times Outdoors Columnist Summer officially lasts until September 23, which is the first day of autumn.

That’s about two months more of, as the song says, “Living is easy”. Easy living requires a good air conditioner unit and a lawn mower to stay ahead of the rapidly growing grass. If you are not out of school or on vacation, summer can get to be a long time.

With the exception of a few places, fishing has started to get difficult. This last week of full moon rejuvenated the fish, but the really slow fishing is late July, August, and mid September. Just because autumn is officially Sept.

23, does not mean it will get cool. It’s usually October before the weather is nice. The thought of roasting marshmallows over an open fire sounds very good. Horseshoe reports some decent crappie fishing and fair bream fishing.

The bass fishing is early morning or late evening.

Crappie are under the piers fairly deep. Nothing seems to bother the catfish and there are reports of limits of nice cats. Wapanocca is poor fishing with hot water and heavy moss and very few people are using the lake. Tilden Rodgers Lake always has its share of fishermen sitting under the shade trees or on the pier catching some decent catfish and a few small bream. A couple of trips to the Marion Sports Complex lake found no fishermen enjoying the crossing pier and the lonesome shade tree. Burnt Cane continues to produce good numbers of small to medium sized bass and bream. Bear Creek is probably the best lake to visit. Regular fishermen are catching some large shell crackers down deep off the points and small bass around the sea wall at the camp grounds.

Its is a very nice place to camp and the mosquitoes are not as bad as around home. This is a good time to trout fish in the cool waters of the hill country streams. Cotter seems to be the hot spot with good strings of fish being caught. Lake Poinsett remains closed but Charles and Lake Hogue are producing some good catfish and fair numbers of good bream.

Living out in the country there are always varmints to contend with. Our yard stays torn up due to the armadillos, which dig big holes, turtles that lay eggs and they hatch out little turtles leaving large holes.

There is an abundance of squirrels that enjoy digging up nuts from last year and devouring the pecans.

Colleen gave me a squirrel proof bird feeder that really works. The busy tails tried it a few times and finally gave up. Papa Duck purchased an armadillo trap from Louisiana and it really works… There is no solution to the turtle problem because of the proximity of the lake.

Hurricane Barry has brought a torrent of unwanted rain. We are 13 inches above normal of rain fall and the river is still near flood stage. With the changing atmospheric pressure and additional water, it may take several days for even the catfish fishing to return to normal. School is out, so take the kids with you. We use to go to the old swimming hole. Horseshoe is the closest thing to a natural swimming hole. Ask Andy the game warden some questions and if you have any pictures or stories, send them in so we can all enjoy the tales. If you have any topics that Papa Duck should write about, send them to me. This time of year the outdoor world becomes very limited and suggestions are appreciated. Lakeside Taxidermy is slow this time of year and we can get your trophy mounted very quickly at a reasonable price and it will look great.

Papa Duck Lakeside Taxidermy 870732-0455 or 901 482-3430 jhcriner@hotmail.com

John Criner