Ah, crappie season. The time of year that we anxiously wait for after hunting season has ended. The first weekend of April found my brother-in-law Kenny and I heading south once again to Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee. This was the third year in a row we headed that direction on our annual spring fish adventure and the third year we had stayed at Cypress Point Resort on the lake's south side. Just a quick word about Cypress Point. The faculties are top notch and the people are super friendly. They have a cookout twice a week for their guest which is fantastic. The only place I've ever eaten grilled bologna. Their dock faculties are first rate. They are all covered so you can leave your gear in your boat when you come in at the end of the day. Just grab your fish and head for the fish cleaning station. Don't worry about your stuff, they have a night watchman that patrols the area all night looking after everything. If you have a problem with your boat, motor or anything just see Bubba the head honcho down on the dock. He's a good ol' boy and he'll look after you.

 Anyway back to the story. The past two years we had always gotten to the lake too late and had always missed the crappie bite so we decided to remedy that this year by going in early April. Even though we always seemed to miss the crappie we had always adapted and went with what ever was biting. Some fine catches of "gillies" were always caught along with some catfish. Anyway I've gotten off track. We anxiously watched the weather reports for a week hoping for just the right conditions. I must report that the weather was just the right temperature. Sunshine and seventy degrees was the order of the day. Beautiful! Just one thing we hadn't counted on, the wind. The morning we arrived full of enthusiasm the wind was howling. Gust up to twenty five miles per hour greeted us as we ventured down to the dock. Well twenty miles an hour winds may not be much on some lakes, but Reelfoot Lake is shallow with an average depth less than six feet and the wind can really churn it up. Like I said the lake is shallow and you have to really watch out for the stumps. Even out in the middle.

 Bubba said fishing was going to be tough because the fish had moved back out into the deeper water (if there is such a thing on Reelfoot) and staying over them would be difficult because of the wind. Well since we had came all that way we weren't going to let a little wind spoil our fun so we loaded up the boat and away we went. We weren't out to long when Kenny set the hook on a nice crappie. "This might not be to bad after all" Kenny said with a smile. He wasn't smiling much when it took him over an hour to catch another one. I wasn't smiling much at all either. I didn't catch a fish until after several hours had passed. It was a really nice fish, bigger then Kenny's two. But since it was only our first day of fishing we refused to get down. After all, as we all know the fish can start biting at any time. You just have to be there when they do. Well, after getting beat to death by the wind and waves we decided to give it up after three and a half hours and head in for some lunch with our catch of three crappie.

 After eating lunch and heading back down to the dock we talked to several of the other combatants that had wondered in off the lake. They hadn't caught any fish either. With that in mind we decided to give it up for the afternoon and head back to the cabin for a much needed nap. (We had left home at 2:00am, drove four hours, ate breakfast, checked in and started fishing.) We wondered back down to the dock around four o'clock to watch everyone coming in and to swap stories. When it was all said and done it turns out that the three fish we brought in was one of the biggest catches of the day. Some guys had stayed out all day and brought in none. Not good at all. But what the hey, we had two more days of fishing to go and conditions couldn't get worst, could they? How wrong we were.

 The wind blew all night long. You could hear it in the cabin with the door closed and the TV on. Man oh man. Not so good. Day two we fought our way against the wind heading to the restaurant across the road for some breakfast and down to the dock. We received some tips from Bubba and headed for the spot. Fighting the wind, which started getting cooler and a slight hangover we gave it our best until noon. Heading back to the dock for some lunch we were give out. It's amazing how the wind and waves just takes it out of you. The only things I caught were a largemouth bass almost six inches long and an old trot line! What a catch! (Sorry no pictures.) We didn't venture out that afternoon either.

 That night saw severe storms coming through the area. Tornado warnings, high winds and hail warnings were all over the region. Our last day of fishing we opened the cabin door to sunshine and winds out of the north. A hundred and eighty degree turn around. If we were going to go home with a mess of fish this had to be the day. It wasn't long after getting to the stump fields that Kenny had a fish on. Alright! we thought, this is it. Well at the end of four hours of fish we had boated six fish. Not bad compared to some and not as good as others. After eating lunch we came across Bubba at the dock rigging up some poles for some fellows we had meet from Washington, Missouri. "What's up" we asked. They were headed to the spillway to try their luck. We looked at each other and decide what the heck, let's go too. Well the spillway was a bust. Did manage to catch a couple of small fish but nothing to waste my time writing about. So we headed back to the lake.

 We gave it our best shot for the last couple of hours of fishing time. No fish caught and no bites. Oh well. Nine fish total for three days of fishing isn't the best but at least it wasn't thirty degrees and windy. I would say better luck next year but we have decide to give the crappie a rest for a while. You would think that after fourteen years we would have hit it right at least once. That's the breaks I guess when you have to plan your trips two months in advance. Next year we have decided to just go later in the spring and go after bluegill. Bringing home a mess of these tasty fish is always fun.

 If you decide to go to Reelfoot Lake crappie fishing you might try these areas. From Green Island Point across to the spillway. This area is full of stumps and if the wind is right you can drift across them at just the right speed. The majority of crappie we have caught from this lake have come from this area. Use crappie drop rigs that have two hooks on them set at different depths to cover more area. Also use more than one pole if possible. You might also want to try the southwest shore line. Though we haven't caught a lot of crappie from this area it looks very promising and comes with rave reviews from the locals. Just don't get out to far from the shore. The water does get deep there, up to thirteen feet (probably the deepest part of the lake), but the stumps don't go out that far.

 Reelfoot Lake has a long history and is a great place to go. Just hope that when you go you can get there at a time when the wind isn't blowing. We'll let you know how the bluegill fishing goes next year. Later, James Burns

  Visit Cypress Point Resort at http://www.cypresspointresort.com and tell them you heard about them from Backwoods Bound.

 We were contacted recently by Kim Lucas asking us to take a look at a book she had written called Fly-Fishing with Trout-Tail. I wrote her back and said we would love to see the book and to send it along. It arrived and from the moment I removed it from the package I knew this book would be something special. The cover photo is really beautiful and it makes you wish you were there alongside Trout-Tail casting away. Though the book is written from a childs view of fly-fishing, children of all ages will enjoy it. The book is top quality with a hardcover so it will stand the test of time. Not being a fly-fisherman myself, (something I'd like to correct) I knew the basics about the sport and I learned several things from the book I hadn't known. I'm sure you too will learn something new or it will at least reinforce something you know or even bring back something you may have forgotten. My kids also loved the book and have read it several times. They now have the fishing itch and I have to take them soon. Maybe Trout-Tail will take us to his secret spot?

  The book is very well written and the illustrations are superb. Kim has written it so children can follow the story without any problems. (I guess that's why I whizzed through it without a hitch.) I mentioned the cover photo as being beautiful, well that is only the start. This book is filled with great photographs that make you imagine you're on the river casting your fly to a rising trout or just sitting on a rock with your feet dangling in the cool clear water. We recommend you add this book to your outdoor library.

  To order Kim's book visit her web site at www.trouttail.com. I don't know if she is going to extend the program or not but Kim was donating one dollar to Trout Unlimited for every book sold. Whether she continues doing this or not I think it was a great thing to do and she should be commended for her efforts. According to her web site, as of 12/31/02 there had been $800.00 donated to Trout Unlimited. Doesn't sound like a lot of money but that was money she could have put in her pocket but chose to donate it to a great organzation. Great going Kim!

  For more information about Fly-Fishing with Trout-Tail visit Kim at www.trouttail.com and to learn more about Trout Unlimited or to join, visit their site at www.tu.org. And remember "Fly-fishing is .....much more than just catching fish." - Trout-Tail

  With the wind under their outstretched wings, 39 Gould’s wild turkeys descended upon their new home in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona this morning at 10:00 a.m. (Mountain time), April 16, 2003, and thus wrote another chapter in the wild turkey’s success story.

 The wild turkeys were released from a holding facility and relocated to the Arizona mountains from Central Mexico.

  “This is an important step in bringing wild turkeys back to their natural habitats across North America,” said Dr. James Earl Kennamer, National Wild Turkey Federation senior vice president for conservation programs. “The Gould’s is staging a comeback in Arizona. This project will give the Gould’s population a boost and allow us to learn more about this little-known subspecies.”

  Called Go for the Gould’s, the project began in Sonora, Mexico in mid March. The 39 wild turkeys were captured using rocket nets and transferred to a special quarantine facility in the Chiricahua Mountains. The turkeys were then held in quarantine for 30 days.

  During that time, the turkeys were aged, divided by sex into 12 gobblers and 27 hens and fitted with leg bands. They were also inoculated for Exotic Newcastle Disease, an infectious and deadly poultry disease.

  In addition, 20 of the birds were equipped with radio transmitters. These turkeys will be observed to determine their home ranges, habitats they use and factors that affect nesting success and mortality rates.

  “We plan to learn a lot about the Gould’s wild turkey,” Kennamer said. “By using the radio transmitters, this gives us the opportunity to observe them from a distance.”

 The Gould’s subspecies was nearly extirpated from the United States in the early 1900s and now occupies only a few remote mountain ranges in Arizona and New Mexico. Depending on continued funding and partnerships, the NWTF is expected to trap more birds in Mexico and release them in Arizona over the next five years.

 More about the Go for the Gould’s Project

  … For centuries, wild turkeys played an important role in the traditions and culture of the American Indians in the southwest. For some tribes, the wild turkey was sacred and not eaten while in others it was a main source of food. In addition, turkey feathers were used to decorate clothing, fletch arrows and were used in religious ceremonies.

  … The Gould’s wild turkey was also an important food source for those who settled and worked the rugged lands of southern Arizona. Between the Civil War and World War I, miners working in this region killed Gould’s wild turkeys for their next meal. By the time Arizona set legal hunting seasons in 1929, the Gould’s wild turkey had already disappeared.

 … Today’s regulated hunting opportunities will benefit Gould’s populations. For example, in 2002 a New Jersey man purchased the right to be the first person to hunt the Gould’s wild turkey in the United States in modern times. The winning bid of $17,500 at the NWTF's 2002 Grand National Auction is being used to help fund Gould’s restoration efforts.

  … As the populations continue to increase and stabilize, the Go for the Gould’s project will provide economic benefits to local community businesses such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations as additional hunting opportunities become available.

  The NWTF's Making Tracks Program

  … The Go for the Gould’s project is part of the NWTF's larger Making Tracks program, which is a cooperative effort between the NWTF and state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies to restore wild turkey populations to all suitable habitat in North America. The reintroduction of the Gould’s wild turkey has always been part of the NWTF’s turkey restoration plan; however, recent developments have made the international transfer a reality in 2003.

  The Go for the Gould’s project was made possible through the work of the NWTF, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, WingShooters Lodge in Mexico, the Mexico Secretariat of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife, the NWTF Arizona State Chapter and the NWTF Tucson Local Chapter.

  For more information about the Go for the Gould’s Project or about the NWTF, call1-800-THE-NWTF or visit the website at www.nwtf.org.

  When attending survival training during my years of the military we often trekked through miles of difficult country. And, as you may guess, the weather was always terrible. Discarded equipment often littered the trail. Our equipment in most cases was what we could design and make by hand. Often we used parts of parachutes to construct backpacks, belts, and other useful tools for survival. We used parachutes because since I was in the Air Force they were always available. The parachute line (called cord) was sometimes weaved into ropes or cut open and the smaller lines inside (called inner cord) were used in various ways. The handmade packs were heavy and would dig into our shoulder blades and were difficult to balance correctly. It taught us that you can make many things around you, but most importantly, it taught me that weight while hiking is a serious consideration.

  All of us who hike much learn that weight is a problem after a few hours. How many times have we taken stuff along that we really didn't need? Well, what do we take and what do we leave? I have developed a system that always seems to work for me. After each hike or overnight camping trip I lay all of my equipment out for cleaning. I make a list of all items. As I go over my list I make a check mark on things I did not use at all. Then I make an x mark by the name of items I used only once or twice. I then consider if I could really do without the item in the future. An exception to my rule is my survival manual and my first aid kit with manual. They are emergency items and will always be taken, used or not. I then remove those items not used at all or very often. I do not take them on the next trip. If on the next trip I need them, they go back into my inventory for re-evaluation on a future trip. Each item is constantly being evaluated for usage versus weight.

  Another way to cut down on weight is to consider your water supply. Ask yourself two questions, where will my water come from and how much do I need? If you are going on a short afternoon hike a canteen will do. However, for longer periods of hiking or camping you will need more water than a canteen full. If you hike or camp in public designated areas water may, or may not be found on the site. If you want, you can even purchase water in plastic bottles or pouches for your trip. Remember to keep the weight idea in the back of your head. If you decide to use stream or other water make sure to purify it using water purification tablets.

  Food can be unpackaged and then repacked in many cases. If you use dehydrated commercial meals they are usually very light. Meals Ready to Eat (MRE's) are military surplus (cost is around five to seven dollars a meal) and come in a plastic pouch. I cut the pouch open, remove the items I will eat or need and then repack them in large zip lock bags. A typical MRE will contain gum/candy, toilet paper, a main meal, crackers, and other little goodies. One of my favorites in the MRE is the small bottle of hot sauce and it can be used to spice up any meal. MRE's can be eaten hot or cold and have been designed to give you lots of calories for any activity. Additionally, if you take dry goods, i.e., powdered milk, pancake mix, pasta, or other such items, repack them in zip lock bags. Make sure to mark the contents of each zip lock bag with a permanent marker. Cardboard boxes and cans have a tendency to poke into your back and for sure add to the weight.

  Two items that are always with me are my first aid kit, with emergency treatment manual, and my survival book. Both of these items I purchased at a military surplus store near Rolla, Missouri. The survival book is Air Force Manual 64-5 and my emergency medical manual is a pamphlet put out by the Red Cross. You can find many different kinds of publications out there, some free and some at a small cost. Make sure they are well written, easy to understand, and small. Once again consider weight. Read, not scan, both of these pieces of information. This is so you know what to do before you need to do it. Besides, it is not comforting to the victim of an injury if you are beside them reading a manual as you treat them. That seems to leave a bit of doubt pertaining to your proficiency in first aid.

  Always have a map of where you are going. Most importantly know how to read a map. Know the difference in magnetic north and true north. Learn to triangulate your position and how to count steps to give an idea of distances traveled. While many folks can read a map they have some problems with the contour lines on them. These lines indicate increases or decreases in terrain. That is important when you have to walk over the ground. Each climb will take strength away from you and make your pack seem to weigh that much more. Go around high spots or swamps and not through them. It is actually faster in the long run and much safer. I may cover map reading and navigation at a later date. It is too complicated to go into here.

  What about camping gear considerations? Well, first consideration should be the type of backpack you want. On short afternoon hikes it doesn't really matter much, I take a fanny pack made of nylon. But, on the longer trip you want a large, but light weight, pack that can handle all of your needed supplies. There are many commercial ones on the market so shop around. Also, I have found air mattresses to be heavy and not worth the sweat to carry them. I suggest a rubber/foam pad that can be rolled up and tied to the bottom of your pack.

  Additionally, tents are nice but they do add weight. If you absolutely have to have one get the best quality and lightest one you can afford. Make sure you try it in the back yard before you use it for real. A friend of mine once took a tent on a hike to discover it was a play tent for children. It only covered about half of his extended body once erected. And, it rained. I usually just use a tarp for shelter. But, it is your back that has to do the hiking and carrying of all items you want to take along, not mine.

  My cooking gear consists of a small pan and a small pot, both constructed of aluminum. I carry a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil and my eating utensils (metal spoon, pocket knife, metal plate, and small plastic bowl). That is pretty much it. I don't need a can opener, because I don't take cans. I can peel veggies with my pocket knife and I never need a bottle opener. Of course, like all true Missourians, I do have a coffee cup..and yep, it is aluminum.

  Hiking and camping is a constant evaluation for me. I keep what works and what I need. I judge usage against weight. I am willing to do without an item I don't use often or at all. I like to have a good time when I hike and camp and that is hard to do if you are exhausted after packing a heavy load all day long. I also like to rough it when I camp, so my way may not be for you. Regardless of your decision I assure you, you will pay in sweat for anything you carry. So, evaluate, discard, and then retain. It is a constant battle of mind over matter. Gary Benton

 About the author. Gary Benton is a retired United States Air Force Senior Master Sergeant. Sergeant Benton is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force water, desert, mountain, and jungle survival schools. He spent twelve years teaching parachuting techniques and survival skills to Air Force aircrew members. He has an Associates Degree in Search and Rescue, Survival Operations, a Bachelors Degree in Industrial Safety, and a Masters Degree in Psychology. Sergeant Benton retired from the USAF in 1997 with over twenty-six years of active duty. copyright - Gary Benton

ANSWER TO BACKWOODS TRIVIA:   A spider is not an insect. It is an arachnid. Spiders have 8 legs and 2 body segments; insects have 6 legs and 3 body parts.