The Outpost Magazine

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POACHERS

O’Neill Williams

ICE FISHING

TURKEY HUNTING

RADIO FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS

HOW TO

RECIPES, GEAR, THE OUTPOST MUSIC & MORE

THE DEVIL’SBACKBONE

CATCH AND COOK

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SHED RALLY DEVIL’S BACKBONE

PREPARE FORANYTHING

42

26 BIGGEST BEAR IN FL

28 WILDLIFE PROGRAMS

34 RECORD RAINBOW

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58 CATCH AND COOK

60 O’NEILL OUTSIDE THE BOX

54 RECIPES

62 GEAR 68 HOW TO’S67 POACHERS

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84 OUTPOST MUSIC

88 CAMO CASKET

92 GUIDES 98 THE BACK WOODS


FEATURE STORIES

TURKEY HUNTINGNative American’s were feasting on wild turkey long before Chris-topher Columbus convinced the Queen of Spain to finance his little trip to what he thought was the Far East. Generations of Indians had learned that bringing back one of these tasty gobblers to the home fires required some serious hunting stealth.

PAGE 16

O’NEILL WILLIAMSThis month, we begin pub-lishing some of the insights about the great outdoors from a man whom some be-lieve has the greatest job in the world. He gets to partici-pate in and talk about hunt-ing and fishing and get paid for it! And he’s been doing it for almost 35 years. “O’Neill Outside” is one of the most popular outdoor TV and radio shows in Atlanta, and throughout the Southeast because of one man: O’Neill Williams. Recently, we wel-comed him to the Outpost.

PAGE 36

ICE FISHING

Any hard-core an-gler who lives near a lake in Canada or the northern states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas knows that the winter months are the perfect time to get out the auger, drill through the ice, set up the tent or shack and drop a line. While the conditions are some-what nippy, the catch can be worth the shiv-ers.

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W W W . T H E O U T P O S T L I F E . C O M

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For decades, my father, his father and his father did everything they could to suppress fires on their farm and pasture land in West Texas. Ironically, (there’s that word again), this effort degraded these ecosystems and have changed the perception of fire and its role in our landscape. Prescribed fire can be an effective management tool to restore and maintain the habitats for wild game.

States like Louisiana have established guidelines for the use of prescribed fire as a tool for managing acre-age and can also help landowners with funding and guidance on the correct way to use this tool. They also help sportsmen/land owners with native grass estab-lishment, tree planting and invasive plant control pro-grams.

While we’re on the subject of fire, this issue features answer to many burning questions. For example, who’s that good looking guy on the cover? His name is O’Neill Williams and he’s one of the nation’s most popular outdoor commentators. He’s also lending his expertise to this very magazine.

We also have the cold, hard facts about ice fishing. We introduce you to Tim MacWelch an author and expert on how you can prepare for anything. If you looking for some reading material for those cold nights around the fire, we found an amazing new novel which fea-tures some characters from Texas in the 1880’s called “The Devil’s Backbone” and we talked to the author, Bill Wittliff and the illustrator Jack Unruh.

Stay warm, sit back, enjoy this issue and keep the fire burning.

Later,

Art YoungManaging Editor

email me at: [email protected]

Editor’s Letter:

Late winter is a time for deep thinking. Basically, it’s something to do before spring turkey season finally gets here and we can start fishing without four layers of clothing!

Recently, while I was navel gazing one afternoon, I chanced upon the consideration of the great ironies of nature. There are way too many to list here, but one stood out for me because I had been research-ing techniques for wild game habitat improvement. I realize the very fact that a grown man is spending his time noodling about the irony of habitat preservation, while there are other, more pressing matters such as snoozing on the Barco-Lounger in front of a warm fire, he must surely be considered a nerd and beyond re-demption.

But hey, that’s the way I roll.

Speaking of fire, this element is one of those natural ironies I alluded to in the second paragraph. Most peo-ple think of fire as a destructive force but the irony is: it can be a safe and effective, science-based land man-agement tool. Prescribed fire reduces the risk of wild-fires by decreasing fuel loads on the ground. That’s not just my opinion. I got this burning wisdom from the land management folks at the Louisiana Natural Heri-tage Program.

When used properly, prescribed burning can restore, enhance and sustain the ecosystem health of the fire-dependent systems such as open pine systems, wood-lands and prairies. This includes almost all wild game areas of the Southeast and even some wetlands.

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FIELD NOTES FROM OUTPOST READERS I’ve been subscribed to The Outpost for four months now. I pull out my hunting knowledge I gain from you guys on my husband every now and then and I can tell he is impressed! Thanks!!

Kate - Augusta, GA

Recently I decided I wanted to take my son on a hunt-ing trip and thanks to The Outpost I was able to find a place that is not too far from the city, affordable, and tons of fun. We had a blast. Thank you for helping us build those memories.

JeffAtlanta, GA

The kids were getting tired of the same ole same ole every night for dinner. I saw a recipe for venison stew on The Outpost, tried it, and everyone loved it! Defi-nitely a new staple in our home.

Nancy - Montgomery, AL

I learn more and more from yall each month. Great stuff!

Jared- Asheville, NCTHE OUTPOSTGorilla Marketing, LLC • 770-675-7200Jason Martin, Partner • Art Young, Editor in ChiefContributing Writers: Art Young, Jason Martin, Phil HallPhoto Credits: Jason Martin, Flickr Commons, Kirk Driscoll, Burnt Pine Plantation, Art Young, Sandy Earle, Tony Eckler, Sam Klement, Max Fonseca, Amy Elrod, Green Acres Sportsman ClubGarrett Whitworth, AL Flickr, Southern Swamp Slayers, Kalyn Laura, Team RIP, LA Waterfowl, Halo Waterfowl, Sam Lashlee, Bostic Photography - Mike Ernst, Troy Childers, Jay Bradshaw, Avery Outdoors, Predator Gear, Cover photo: Gaines Smith

THE OUTPOST© is produced and copyrighted 2014 by The Outpost Media Group Reproduction in whole or part without permission is expressly forbidden.

Just wanted to let yall know you are doing a great job. This last January I made my way back to the marsh land for duck sea-son and I didn’t imagine it would be that fun. Thank you to The Outpost for encour-aging me to get back out there!

Andy - Knoxville, TN


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If you love to hunt sheds, mark your calendar for March 7, 2015. That’s when the world’s largest shed hunt returns.

According to press advisories, Whitetail Properties and Realtree are inviting men, women and families who love the outdoors to get outside on March 7 and hunt for shed antlers, upload creative photos and videos to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram along with the hashtag, #ShedRally.

“#ShedRally was started so America could shed hunt together,” said Michael Turbyfill, Whitetail Proper-ties PR & Marketing Director. “The hashtag lets us show the world, in real time, how much we love the outdoors.”

The #ShedRally 2015 Official Trailer at Youtube.com/WhitetailPropTV explains more.

EVERYBODY CAN HUNT SHEDS

“At Realtree, we’re about family, friends and the outdoors are very important to us,” said Dodd Clifton, Realtree marketing coordinator. “Guy or girl, young or old, shed hunting is something anyone can do while enjoying time outside.”

Last year during the inaugural #ShedRally, thousands of users uploaded photos and videos during the event. Shed hunters from the East Coast to the West Coast participated. The winning photo was submitted by an active-duty soldier stationed in Kuwait.

Throughout February, Whitetail Properties and Realtree are posting shed hunting tips, tactics, and exclu-sive photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.


A GREAT WAY TO LEARN ABOUT DEER

Shed hunting is an excellent way to learn about the land, how bucks use a hunting property and what bucks sur-vived hunting season and winter. It’s also a great way for family and friends to exercise and enjoy a few hours outside. Shed hunting is the perfect time to teach young hunters about deer signs and scout for the fall.

To top off the event, Whitetail Properties will judge all uploaded photos that use the #ShedRally hashtag and pick the most original and creative users to win prizes from Whitetail Properties, Realtree, Scentlok, Buck Knives and Legendary Whitetails.

For more information about #ShedRally – The World’s Largest Shed Hunt, visit www.Facebook.com/WhitetailProperties or www.Facebook.com/RealtreeOutdoors.

THE OUTPOST: SHED RALLY

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Spring ForwardGetting Ready

For Turkey Season


Native American’s were feasting on wild turkey long before Christopher Columbus convinced the Queen of Spain to finance his little trip to what he thought was the Far East. Generations of Indians had learned that bringing back one of these tasty gobblers to the home fires required some serious hunting stealth.

A lot has changed since the first turkeys were hunted in North America – guns, equipment, game calls – but the stealthy tactics remain a prerequisite for success. Some hunting guides swear that taking a turkey in the spring is even more challenging than getting one in the fall.

HOW SPRING TURKEY HUNTING DIFFERS FROM FALL

Understanding the habits and motivations of wild animals is inextricably tied to food, water and pro-creation. These are the most basic elements of the survival of any species and a successful hunter will always take them into consideration.

In the case of wild turkeys, the fall season finds the hens and their broods sticking together. They forage for food, avoid predators and build up strength for the upcoming winter. The young male turkeys – also called “jakes”- hang out together and do whatever teenagers do to pass the time. The older, more ma-ture gobblers also pal around with their buddies who are the same age a probably talk about deep subjects (see above).

In the spring, all of this buddy-buddy camaraderie changes and as usual, a female is involved! Spring is when turkeys make whoopee…or whatever turkeys call this romantic interlude. Mature turkeys – either young ones or older ones – are not welcome in the presence of the dominant birds. This sexual tension suggests several strategies for the hunter to employ.

Male turkeys are polygamous, mating with as many hens as they can. Male wild turkeys show off for females by puffing out their feathers, spreading out their tails and dragging their wings. This behavior is most commonly referred to as strutting. The color of their heads and necks which are normally red, blue and white can change with the turkey’s mood. For example, an excited bird’s head and neck can change to solid white head.


They use gobbling, drumming/booming and spitting as signs of social dominance, and to attract females. Court-ship begins during the months of March and April, which is when turkeys are still flocked together in winter areas.

TYPES OF TURKEY

It may surprise some hunters to know that there are at least six subspecies of wild turkeys. They are all a little different in appearance and even temperament. Here’s a brief look at each type of wild turkey from the classic book on birds, “Game Birds of North America.”

EASTERN WILD TURKEY

This was the turkey that was first seen by the settlers of Jamestown and one must assume was featured in the first Thanksgiving. The natural range covers the entire eastern half of the United States from Maine in the North to Northern Florida and extending as far west as Michigan, Illinois, and into Missouri. In Canada its range ex-tends into Southeastern Manitoba, all of Ontario, all of Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces. They can grow up to 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. The upper tail coverts are tipped with chestnut brown. Males can reach 30 pounds (14 kg) in weight. Because of its wide habitat, the Eastern Wild Turkey is heavily hunted in the eastern part of the U.S. and is the most hunted wild turkey subspecies.


THE OUTPOST: TURKEY HUNTING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz7r-bvULG8&feature=youtu.be

OSCEOLA WILD TURKEY OR FLORIDA WILD TURKEY

This bird is most common in the Florida peninsula and wildlife biologists estimate that they number from 80,000 to 100,000 birds. This bird is named for the famous Seminole leader Osceola, and was first described in 1890. It’s smaller and darker than the Eastern Wild Turkey with the wing feathers being very dark with smaller amounts of the white barring seen on other types of turkeys. Their overall body feathers are an iridescent green-purple color. They are often found in scrub patches of palmetto and occasionally near swamps, where amphib-ian prey is abundant.

RIO GRANDE WILD TURKEY

The Rio Grande Wild Turkey ranges throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, and was introduced to central and western California, as well as parts of a few northeastern states. It was also introduced to Hawaii in the late 1950s. Population estimates for this subspecies range from 1,022,700 to 1,025,700. This subspecies is native to the central plain states and has relatively long legs, better adapted to a prairie habitat. Its body feathers often have a green-coppery sheen. The tips of the tail and lower back feathers are a buff-to-very light tan color. Its habitats are brush areas next to streams, rivers or mesquite, pine and scrub oak forests.

MERRIAM’S WILD TURKEY

The Merriam’s Wild Turkey ranges through the Rocky Mountains and the neighboring prairies of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and recently introduced in Oregon, as well as much of the high mesa country of New Mexico, with numbers that wildlife biologists estimate to be from 334,460 to 344,460 birds. Merriam’s Wild Turkeys live in Ponderosa Pine and mountainous regions. The subspecies was named in 1900 in honor of Clin-ton Hart Merriam, the first chief of the U.S. Biological Survey. The tail and lower back feathers have white tips and purple and bronze reflections.


GOULD’S WILD TURKEY

Native from the central valleys to the northern mountains of Mexico and the southernmost parts of Arizona and New Mexico, Gould’s Wild Turkeys are heavily protected and regu-lated. The subspecies was first described in 1856 and while they exist in small numbers in the U.S., they are abundant in northwestern portions of Mexico. A small population has recently been established in southern Arizona. Gould’s are the largest of the five subspecies. They have longer legs, larger feet, and longer tail feathers. The main colors of the body feath-ers are copper and greenish-gold.

SOUTH MEXICAN WILD TURKEY

The South Mexican Wild Turkey is the only one that is not found in the United States or Canada. Pre-European invasion, the Aztecs domesticated the southern Mexican subspecies, giving rise to the domestic turkey. The Span-iards brought this tamed subspecies back to Eu-rope with them in the mid-16th century; from Spain it spread to France and later Britain as a farmyard animal, usually becoming the center-piece of a feast for the well-to-do. By 1620 it was common enough so that Pilgrim settlers of Massachusetts could bring turkeys with them from England, unaware that it had a larger close relative already occupying the forests of Mas-sachusetts. It is one of the smallest subspecies and is best known in Spanish from its Aztec-derived name: guajolote. Biologists in Mexico have noted that this wild turkey subspecies is thought to be critically endangered.

SCOUTING FOR TURKEYS

One of the most important tasks associated with a successful hunt is also the one usually forgot-ten by hunters who are busy with other things. It’s scouting.

According to a study conducted in the state of Missouri in 2010, wild turkeys are more likely to gobble on days with clear skies and the aver-age number of gobbles observed diminished with the amount of cloud cover. Plus, gobbling frequency decreased the day after a rain by almost 75 percent.

Fascinating, right? So, what does this mean to someone who’s just trying to get a gobbler on the table? It means that the best bet for preseason scouting is to listen for gobbling on a sunny morning following a dry night. With spring turkey season just around the corner, it’s time to get out the binoculars and start some reconn.

HOW TO TALK TURKEY AND BECOME INVISIBLE

Turkeys have two powerful senses as defense mecha-nisms: incredible sight and excellent hearing. Unlike deer, turkeys do not have a particularly good sense of smell. With some planning and skill, these defenses overcome.

The most challenging and fun part of a spring turkey hunt comes from mastering the ability to call a turkey to within range of a shotgun. Because of their unusually good hear-ing and are naturally paranoid about their surroundings and predators, turkeys are some of the most difficult of all animals to fool with a man-made call.

The most easily mastered turkey call is the box call. If a hunter is new to turkey hunting, this is the best choice because it’s simple to use. The box call sounds are created by the hunter striking a pivoting lid on one of the sides of the box. One side of the box mimics the high-pitched mat-ing call of the hens and the other produces a “yelp” that is associated with a tom. Both sides can make soft, come-hither “clucks” that drive big gobblers nuts!


Old school turkey hunters tend to favor the “peg and slate” or “striker” calls. The slate is set in a wooden frame and the hunter runs the peg across the slate producing a turkey “cluck” and soft “whine.” This is also a simple call and is usually avail-able at any hunting store or online.

The most challenging and effective of the turkey calls are the “mouth” calls. These include mouth diaphragm, wingbones, suction and tube type calls. These types of calls require some training and a great deal of practice. However, if they can be mastered, they give the most life-like sound and, because they are used in the mouth, the hunter’s hands are free to handle the gun.

In order to overcome the laser-like vision of turkeys the hunter must try to blend into the natural surroundings. This requires season-appropriate camouflage clothing, hats, gloves and even face-paint. In the spring, this type of camo tends to be more olive green and less brown or tan. Because turkeys can pick up any kind of motion, it is also critical that the spring hunter remain perfectly still, especially when the prey is in the optimal shot zone.

GUNS AND AMMO FOR SPRING TURKEY HUNTS

Most turkey hunting guides suggest that hunters apply the KISS principle to gun selection. A 12-gauge pump shotgun, fully-choked is the gun of choice for most turkey hunters. Since there is lots of walking involved, the weight of the gun is also important.


When it’s trigger time, the hunter should always try for a head shot. This is because turkeys are covered with dense, tough-to-penetrate feathers that seems like Kevlar to first-time hunters. This means that the shot must fall within a 3-inch target from a typi-cal distance of 30-40 yards.

In order to make this difficult shot, guides suggest using #4 shot in a high-velocity load. #2 shot are not likely to pattern densely enough to be consis-tent at this distance, especially with the turkey’s head in constant motion. Unlike other bird hunting, a shot for turkey is more like a rifle than a shotgun. The gun is aimed rather than a pointing swing. Shots on flying turkeys are seldom hit and if they are, they usually just cripple the bird and he is lost.

RULES OF THE ROOST

Wildlife experts note that wild turkeys tend to forage for food over 3-4 square miles daily. They leave their roost at daylight and return at sundown. Finding these roosts is the key to being successful in a spring or fall turkey hunt. The roosts tend to be in wooded areas, near water and offer the turkeys a good view of the surrounding areas and potential predators.

Skilled turkey hunters spend a great deal of time scouting the hunting property in an effort to find turkey roosts. This can be accomplished by early morning or late evening calls and observation. Once the roost is found, it is advisable to set up a hunting blind at least 300 yards away from the site of the roost. This allows the hunter to ambush the turkeys as they are on their way out or back from foraging for food.

It is illegal, unethical and incredibly dumb to shoot at turkeys while they are on their roost. Even if one or two turkeys are taken, all of the other birds will immediately pack up and hit the road, never to return to this roost site. Shooting at turkeys while they are on their roost is usually grounds for be-ing evicted from a hunting lease.

A GREAT EXPERIENCE

Spring turkey hunting is one of the great outdoors sports experiences. The turkeys are usually smarter than the hunters. However, since they don’t have shotguns hunters get to enjoy the challenge without the repercussion of being shot by an angry gobbler!

Depending on the part of North America where the turkey hunt taking place, the landscape is usually filled with wildflowers and the smells of spring and the weather is pleasant. And, if one is lucky enough to bag one of these majestic birds, the meat is some of the tastiest of all wild game.


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DONUTS USED TO CAPTURE THE BIGGEST BEAR IN FLORIDA’S HISTORY

Officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) euthanized the largest-documented black bear in the state’s history on January 25, 2015. According to officials, the 740-pound male bear was captured days before while roaming through populated neighborhoods in Seminole County, making a brief foray to an area elementary school!

This beast weighed almost 500 pounds more than the av-erage male black bear in Florida and this led experts to speculate the animal had gotten to its size by ransacking dumpsters and other sources of human food. Officers also discovered that the animal was injured, which led them to decide to euthanize the animal.

PUBLIC SAFETY WAS AT STAKE

“We don’t want to kill any animal, especially an impres-sive and majestic animal like that,” Mike Orlando, a FWC biologist, told The Orlando Sentinel. “But public safety is paramount.”

According to press reports, the bear was lured into a trap in Alaqua Lakes and sedated before being trans-ported to a holding facility. For bait, wildlife officers used a method that proved highly successful for catch-ing bears in the wild: a long sock filled with donuts and drenched in syrup. A similar technique was used to capture the state’s previous largest bear, which was a 620-pound bruin. This big boy was found rummag-ing through trash bins near Ocala National Forest. That bear was relocated to the wilderness successfully, but officials stress that bears finding food in populated ar-eas can be very dangerous.

“We don’t always rush out and capture them just be-cause they’re big,” Orlando said. “No bear—not big ones, little ones or the medium-sized ones—should be comfortable in neighborhoods.”

Black bears numbers are rising in the state of Florida and some lawmakers are calling for the return of the state’s bear hunting season. There has been no recre-ational hunting season in the state since 1994, but the increase in bear sightings and nuisance bears is leading game officials to reconsider the issue.

File image from janebelindasmith on the flickr Creative Commons


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President Asks for More Money for Fish and Wildlife Programs

Requests $1.6 Billion for Fiscal Year 2016


February 2, 2015, was a good day for outdoor sports-men, at least in terms of the federal budget proposed by Barack Obama. The President's Fiscal Year 2016 discre-tionary budget request supports $1.6 billion in programs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an increase of $135.7 million over the 2015 enacted level to fund the agency's high-priority needs. The budget also contains an additional $1.4 billion available under permanent ap-propriations, most of which will be provided directly to states for fish and wildlife restoration and conservation.

"Investing in the conservation of our wildlife and habitat resources results in myriad health and economic benefits to U.S. communities," said Service Director Dan Ashe. "Investing in the next American generation is also criti-cal, so we are creating new ways to engage young audi-ences in outdoor experiences, both on wildlife refuges and partner lands. With 80 percent of the U.S. population currently residing in urban communities, helping urban dwellers to rediscover the outdoors is a priority for the Service."

This budget invests in the science-based conservation and restoration of land, water and native species on a landscape scale, considering the impacts of a chang-ing climate; expansion and improvement of recreational opportunities — such as hunting, fishing and wildlife watching — for all Americans, including urban popula-tions; increased efforts to combat illegal wildlife traffick-ing, which is an international crisis; and the operation and maintenance of public lands.

AMERICA'S GREAT OUTDOORS

This initiative, which is a Service priority, seeks to empower all Americans to share the benefits of the outdoors, and leave a healthy, vibrant outdoor legacy for generations to come. In 2016, a total of $1.5 billion in current funding is proposed for the Service as part of the Administration's initiative to reconnect Americans to the outdoors while developing a landscape level understand-ing of a changing climate. This includes $1.3 billion for Service operations, an increase of $119.2 million over the 2015 enacted level.

A critical component of America's Great Outdoors is the National Wildlife Refuge System, which offers reward-ing and convenient outdoor adventures to an increasingly urban society. Funding for the operation and maintenance of the Refuge System is requested at $508.2 million, an

increase of $34.0 million above the 2015 enacted level. Included in that increase is an additional $5.0 million for the Urban Wildlife Conservation Program, which will extend opportunities to engage more urban youth and adults.

The budget also requests $108.3 million for grant pro-grams administered by the Service that support America's Great Outdoors goals. Programs such as the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants are an important source of funds for the conservation and improvement of a range of wild-life and the landscapes on which they depend.

THE WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING CRISIS

Wildlife trafficking has emerged as an international cri-sis, imperiling some of the world's most recognized and beloved species as well as global security. The poaching of African elephants and rhinos for ivory and horn stands at unprecedented levels, and illegal trade is undermining the conservation of scores of other species.

The President is requesting an increase of $4.0 million for the Service to combat expanding illegal wildlife traf-ficking and support conservation efforts on the ground in Africa and across the globe, and an additional $4.0 million to expand the Service's wildlife forensics capabil-ity to provide the evidence needed for investigating and prosecuting wildlife crimes.


ECOLOGICAL SERVICES ARE INCLUDED

The President's budget includes $258.2 million to conserve, protect and enhance listed and at-risk wild-life and their habitats, an increase of $32.3 million compared with the 2015 enacted level. These increases include a $4.0 million program increase to support conservation of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem, which extends across 11 states in the intermountain West.

Conservation of this vast area requires a collaborative effort unprecedented in geographic scope and magni-tude. To achieve sustainable conservation success for this ecosystem, the Service has identified priority needs for basic scientific expertise, technical assistance for on-the-ground support, and internal and external coor-dination and partnership building with western states, the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and other partners.

Additionally, the budget request contains a $4.0 million increase to ensure appropriate design and quick ap-proval of important restoration projects that will be oc-curring in the Gulf of Mexico region in the near future. The Gulf of Mexico Watershed spans 31 states and is critical to the health and vitality of our nation's natural and economic resources.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill dramatically increased the urgency of the Service's work in the Gulf and our leadership responsibilities. Over the course of the next decade, billions of dollars in settlement funds, Clean Water Act penalties and Natural Resource Dam-age Assessment restitution will be directed toward projects to study and restore wildlife habitat in the Gulf of Mexico region. The Service is in high demand to provide technical assistance and environmental clear-ances for these projects, and this funding will ensure that this demand can be met.

FISH AND AQUATIC CONSERVATION

This budget request includes a total of $147.5 million for Fish and Aquatic Resource Conservation, a program increase of $4.9 million from the 2015 enacted level. Within its fisheries program, the Service is requesting an additional $1.0 million for fish passage improve-ments to help make human communities and natural resources more resilient by restoring natural stream channels, which helps alleviate flood concerns.

This partnership program also generates revenue and jobs for local communities. The Service is also request-ing an additional $2.4 million for efforts to control the spread of invasive Asian carp.This budget also


CONSERVATION OF THIS VAST AREA REQUIRES A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT UNPRECEDENTED IN

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE AND MAGNITUDE.

maintains the funding increase provided to the National Fish Hatchery System by Congress in the 2015 appropriations bill. This level of funding allows the Service to continue hatchery operations that are key to the conservation of our nation's fish and aquatic species.

LAND ACQUISITION IS A PART OF THE PLAN

The 2016 Federal Land Acquisition pro-gram builds on efforts started in 2011 to strategically invest in the highest priority conservation areas through better coordi-nation among Department of the Interior agencies and the U.S. Forest Service. This budget includes $164.8 million for federal land acquisition, composed of $58.5 mil-lion in current funding and $106.3 million in proposed permanent funding. The bud-get provides an overall increase of $117.2 million above the 2015 enacted level. An emphasis on the use of these funds is to work with willing landowners to secure public access to places to recreate, hunt and fish.

Additionally, the budget request includes $69.7 million, an increase of $12.2 mil-lion above the 2015 enacted level, for landscape level science and conservation. Global and national conservation chal-lenges such as development pressure, cli-mate change, resource extraction, wildfire, drought, invasive species and changing ocean conditions require an unprecedented effort to better understand threats and inspire coordinated action to address them.

And finally, the species recovery is an-other important Service priority addressed in this budget. For 2016, the President re-quests a total of $10.7 million, an increase of $4.8 million over the enacted level, for cooperative recovery. The focus will be on implementing recovery actions for species nearing delisting or reclassification from endangered to threatened, and actions that are urgently needed for critically endan-gered species.


HUNTING AND FISHING GROUPS RESPOND TO THE PROPOSAL

While support for this President has been lukewarm at best from men and women who hunt and fish, the groups who work for conservation programs in the United States were pleased with his budget proposal. Here are a few samples of their responses:

The budget also earmarks $78 million for conservation and restoration of western sage steppe landscapes, which support a vibrant outdoors-based economy as well as hundreds of species important to sportsmen.

"We are pleased that the administration has strongly invested in sage steppe landscape conservation," said Miles Moretti, president and CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation. "This investment will benefit this critically important ecosystem, protecting more than 350 species of plants and animals and ensuring a strong outdoor recreation-based economy in the West."

"Once again the Obama administration and Interior Department have demonstrated their enduring commitment to the Land and Water Conservation Fund with another strong budget proposal for FY 16," said Steve Moyer, vice president of Trout Unlimited."Trout Unlimited supports this proposal because the LWCF continues to be one of the nation's very best tools for protecting and restoring trout and salmon habitats."

"In recent decades, sportsmen have criticized the gradual erosion of federal support in conservation, particularly to programs critical to hunting and angling," said Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership President and CEO Whit Fosburgh. "We are heartened by this administration's recognition of the importance of these key mea-sures by its release of a budget that, while not perfect, represents a positive investment in the business plan for outdoor recreation."


Clearly, Larry Warren strongly believes in catch and release! The Idaho angler is re-ceiving praise for catching and releasing a giant rainbow trout in January which allegedly weighed almost eight pounds more than the current state record.

The sate Fish and Game agency released a photograph of Warren with his mam-moth catch and the image quickly went viral among online anglers.

According to Idaho Fish and Game, Warren caught the rainbow trout in the Clearwater River near Orofino on January 8 using a six-pound test line. At the time, he measured it to be about 28 pounds, but state records require that catches be documented on a certified scale.

Since Warren released the fish, it is in-eligible for submission as the new state record.

“This fish has been swimming in the Clearwater for years,” noted the Idaho Fish and Game on its Twitter feed. Our fisheries expert in the Clearwater Region estimates the fish at seven years old.”

A Potential Record-Setting Rainbow Trout is Caught...and Released!

As a “free fish” it’s like it will continue to thrive in the river and perhaps one day be caught by another lucky angler. If the boat-side weight of 28 pounds is accurate, then it would clearly beat the current state record of 20.2 pounds. That fish was caught by Michelle Larsen-Williams from the Snake River in 2009.

For comparison, the International Game Fish Association lists a 48-pound rainbow trout as the current world record. That fish was caught in Canada’s Lake Diefenbaker by Sean Konrad in 2009.

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ONE-ON-ONE WITH O'NEILL WILLIAMS: LEGENDARY OUTDOOR JOURNALIST

This month, we begin publishing some of the insights about the great outdoors from a man whom some believe has the greatest job in the world. He gets to participate in and talk about hunting and fishing and get paid for it! And he's been doing it for almost 35 years. “O'Neill Outside” is one of the most popular outdoor TV and radio shows in Atlanta, and throughout the Southeast because of one man: O'Neill Williams. Recently, we welcomed him to the Outpost.


O'Neill Williams: Well, thank you very much. I've been looking forward to our conversation, and I'm awfully flattered with your remarks. I just hope they're partially true at least [laughter].

The Outpost: Well, you know, do you have the best job in the world? At least, until that alarm goes off at 2:30 AM to wake you to go that early morning show at WSB Radio?

That is correct. I see an awful lot of people and a lot of outdoorsmen will call me and say, "I want to do what you do...What shall I do to get that done?" My first, very snobbish remark is, "Go to college and then learn how to write, and how to speak, and how to form a proposal, and how to pitch, and how to sell." Because hunting and fish-ing is easy. Supporting it with sponsorships and product and corporate associations is the hard part.

You were a high school and college athlete. You went to Emory, which is a very prestigious school in Atlanta. Have you always hunted and fished while you were growing up?

Yes, it was just one of those things. I kind of adapted to it. I can recall a local pond, Dollar Lakes, when I was 12 or 13-years-old and I had a buddy who also liked to fish. My mother would drop us off in the mornings on Satur-days and his mother would pick us up in the evenings on Saturdays and during the week in the summertime.

That's the way we made our spending money. We caught fish and sold them to the other people at the lake. We were just better at it and we had it figured out. I sup-pose-- I've written a couple of stories about it. It's funny how we started that way and after all these years, we're still selling our catch

How did you get in the radio and TV business?

Kind of by accident, really. In 1980, a producer for a local television channel telephoned a local sports writer for him to do for him to do a live interview show on local cable and that sports writer said, "I can't do it but I know someone who can." They called me and I just happened to find out that the red light on the camera is not frighten-ing. Just treat it like it's just another person standing there that you're talking to and that's what got it started - local cable. It got bigger and bigger and bigger.You've been at it for long, long time and you've seen a lot


of changes both in the media and the way media is distributed from the internet, to TV, to Instagram, to You-Tube. Is it amazing to you how many different ways people can get messages out?

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I would tell you it was a slow progression until five years ago. It was crawling, snails pace. Nothing much was changing, just adding cable networks like outdoor channels, sportsman, so on. It was moving in that direction.

However, in the last three to five years, I have had people emphatically state that outdoor television would not exist in three years. I personally don't believe that. But there will be additional ways for the guy on his cell-phone, on his tablet, on his television - he can watch what show he wants, when he wants to watch it. He doesn’t have to wait for it to be broadcast.

We're pretty much living proof of that. We've been doing this for three years, We decided to do a digital version because we didn't have the capital to do a traditional, print publication. This turned out to be a pretty good move because it allows us to get people like you on, get the audio track for podcasts and get the video for our digital magazine. It's a big advantage now that we didn't really think it was at the time.

Exactly. Just think about how much we are getting done right here electronically versus writing something down on a legal pad to take back to be typed, to be put in a magazine and put in the mail.

The pursuit of wild game has been around before religion. People were hunting and fishing a long time before anything else came about, and it's changed a lot also in the last 30 years since you've been involved in it. What do you think have been the good changes and maybe some of the not so good changes?

Well, the good changes are that we have so much land, lakes, streams and fields to be used and now we know more about them. It's not a secret and the outdoors are available to everyone. Plus, just think of the outstanding equipment we have that we take into the outdoors. The stream, the lake, the field, the mountain, whatever. Think of the equipment that we have now. It's beautifully done, high quality and we are completely outfitted now.So we are very fortunate, all of us, to be supported with innovation and craftsmanship that makes the outdoors even more comfortable and more enjoyable.


The bad thing? I don't think the seasoned veterans of the outdoors are passing along the interest, and stories about the outdoors to the next generation as well as we should.

That's a very good insight. I think you're exactly right.

Say a 12-year-old kid wants to go deer-hunting. Some adult takes him or her out to the stand and they sit there wait-ing. I am not throwing rocks at the guy that wants to take his grandson, or son, deer hunting at noon, but what has he learned that day about whitetail deer? Nothing. He learned how to be quiet and pull the trigger, but that's about all.

He needs to learn about whitetail deer, How do they see? How do they smell? How old are they? How do they live their lives? What signals do they give us, that they even live there in those woods? When should you hunt? When is it a waste of time to hunt? Yeah, there are so many things that go into that glaring little example, that teach the youngster so many more things about what he's about to do.Sitting in a deer stand and pulling and the trigger is target practice. That's not hunting.

That's so true. I think it may be a combination of a lot of factors. We always hear about kids wanting to play video games and they don't want to get outside and go fishing and hunting. I think if they did what you just described, it would make it so much more interesting. It makes it so much more fun. You feel like you've learned something. You feel like you've accomplished something. All of those things require time and we've just got to make time to do it.

Team sports like little league or summer baseball, which I played until I gradated from college, are good for what they are, but they are team sports. It's the team's win. It's the team's loss. You make outdoor sports between you and your son, or daughter, and it is one on one. It's the two of you. It's not the team. The team is good, but it is better if you spend the time individually. Not with the team. I recall dozens if not hundreds of days with my two grandfathers hunt-ing and fishing. The team sports, I remember the team. I remember the team's success or the team's failure. But I don't remember as much of my parents' association with that. Outdoor sports are much more of a learning experience. Not to dismiss the other, but this is an addition to and preferred.


Another big change that you've noted on your shows and we've seen it very plainly over the past few years, is the number of women who are getting into outdoor sports. What do you think about that?

I think it's marvelous. Thank goodness for that movie, “The Hunger Games.”

That brought an entire generation of young girls into the interest in archery. And I applaud Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, and these other channels that have, not only men and women in the shows, but there are some shows that are only women. And there's nothing but good that can come from that. You don't have to be a big, strong man to enjoy the outdoors!

Do you have a favorite outdoor pursuit and if so what is it?

Well, my favorite outdoor pursuit is fishing, because fishing is generally non-consumptive. I can fish all day, if I catch 10 or 12 or 20 bass they all go back alive. They all go back and I haven't consumed anything. Hunting, I can hunt for a week and never pull the trig-ger and it's just as enjoyable. Most people can't, so its consumptive.

If I had to choose, fishing is my favorite. I can fish year-round. I fish in 50 different ways, so every fishing trip can be different. The challenges are there whether its cold water or hot water, fishing at night, fishing in the daytime. Generally, whitetail deer hunting is whitetail deer hunting. It doesn't change that much. You hunt deer in the rut. You interrupt the breeding cycle if you can. You hunt where the does are. Here are the scrapes, here are the rubs, and it's the same thing it was last year. So there's only one or two ways to do it.

Fishing? I mean, my goodness - bass, trout, stripers, highbridge, crappie, bream. In each one of those, you fish two dozen different ways. So the intricacies, and the styling, and the challenge of fishing is greater than it is for hunting. After all, after you pull the trigger on a hunt, the hunt's over.

Pretty much. I guess there is some variety in the way you fix it for the table? Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, in my show I preach that. "Hey, you going to spend an afternoon hunt-ing with your 15-year-old, and you're going to take a deer?" Besides all the preliminary work that makes you hunt in this particular location, that 15-year-old needs to field dress that deer. That 15-year-old needs to butcher that animal. And that 15-year-old needs to be involved in the cooking process and serving it at the table. That completes the hunt.

Otherwise, just go to Kroger and get a tenderloin.

We're so pleased about your joining the Outpost team this month. And we're so pleased to have your insights, because they're unique. Tell us what can we expect from O'Neil Outside the Box on the Outpost?


Well, I hope to be able to offer some insights. Kind of like I have today that makes a little bit of a different look to the outdoors. Whether it's hunting or fishing, camping, hiking, whatever. A reminiscence, a recommendation, thoughts during the day. So that what I send to the Outpost won't be “this is what I did at Lake Lanier,” “this is what I did on the Gulf Coast in March.” “And here are the photos from it.” It might be who I spent my time with on the coast that day and what kind of an individual that was. Or maybe what happened that day and how it relates to an experience of another day and so on. It'll be first person and I hope people will get something out of it and encourage them to make their own first person, and create their own first person experiences.

That's great.

For goodness sake if you love participating in out-door sports, if you can, write down your experienc-es and take photos. The photos on the wall in my trophy rooms-- when people visit my trophy rooms, of course they look at the trophies, but they also look at the photos. And it reminds me, "Oh that was 1995 at a tournament", or "That was in a trout fishing trip I took with so-and-so in the mountains of West Virginia." What a great thrill that was. Take photos so that you can be reminded of the trips. The trip are the golden leaves of remembrances that we have that we can share with others.

Take a glance at our new feature on the Outpost: O'Neill Outside the Box in this issue. He's the genuine article and we look forward to your com-ments about his insights.


MEET THE TWO MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BEST STORY OF 2015:

The Devil's BackboneOutdoors sportmen love a good tale. In fact, most of the fishing and hunting stories are very colorful fiction! This month's Outpost interview guests have collaborated in one of the of the most original novels of the year entitled “The Devil's Backbone.”

The author of this riveting story is Bill Wittliff. He is a screenwriter and producer of such classics as “Lonesome Dove,” “Perfect Storm” and “Legends of the Fall.” He's also a world class photographer.

If you've read the Outpost, you may have met our other guest, Jack Unruh, who illustrated this amazing book. He's one of the best known illustrators of wildlife in the world with work in Southern Living, National Geographic, Field and Stream, and many other magazines.

The Outpost: Gentlemen, you have succeeded splendidly.

Bill Wittliff and Jack Unruh: Thank you. That's a good way to start! [laughter].

Bill, let's start with you. After reading this book, I found myself reverting to the dialect I grew up with in the hill country of Texas near Brady.

You have ruined all those speech lessons and radio an-nouncer training I took as a young man with the pitch perfect Texas dialect in this book. I have to know - was this hard to keep this speech pattern consistent throughout the book?

Bill Wittliff: No. What I did was just cut loose the pencil and whatever came out the end that's what I went with. And the truth is, this is the way most of my people talk. It wasn't like I was out there doing research on how people talk in the hill country.

Did you grow up in hill country?

Bill: I did. In Blanco, Texas.

That's perfect for the book then. That's the area featured in the book.

Bill: Yeah. Blanco and Fischer Store and the ac-tual Devil's Backbone. All of that area.

Bill, I don't think I've seen a phrase that my father and my grandfather used to use consistently. It's "purtnear".

Bill: Yeah, purtnear [chuckles]. I don't think that word is in there.

Well, you need to put that in the follow-up.

Bill: I can work it in the next one. I really mean that. I just trusted what came out at the end of the pencil, and that did not come out, or it would be in there.

I was just being careful, trying not to force any-thing in there.

What's really wonderful is, if a character pops out on the paper and he or she is real enough to you and they start talking and you just go with them. That's what I did in this one.


Jack, this is very close to a graphic novel. Your illustrations are a great addition to the story. Did you grow up reading comic books or study novel illustrations from the old days?

Jack Unruh: First of all it was Bill's idea to put 25 illustrations in there. I've illustrated book covers but I've never illustrated the inside of a book until this project. I was just flabbergasted by the idea. I orginally said “you don't need 25 illustrations for the damn thing.” But this really intrigued me, because back in the early days of novel publishing they put a lot of illustrations in books like The Last of the Mohicans and others.

So that was a big hook for me. Then I got a chance to read it. I just started making notes, and lordy, I came up with a bunch of possible drawings. We really had to do a big edit just to get it down to 25. He writes with so much imagery and spooky stuff in there.

It was really intriguing and I just brought out a lot of possible images. Some things you didn't have to draw literally. Recently, somebody said, "Well where'd you get all these characters?” I said, "Well just go look in the newspaper." They've got the five “most wanted” criminals there. They're just mugshots, but you can find some great faces. And Bill seemed to have a lot of those for friends, so you know.Bill: Our family [laughter].Jack: Yeah our family [laughter].

Jack: It was a pure joy to work on and just because all the possibilities that Bill offered in his writing. That doesn't come along very often-- it has never come along before to me.

I had a year doing it along my other stuff too. So there's a ton of work that had to be done in a relatively short period of time but it was a joy to do. I just met Bill a couple of weeks ago. We've talked on the phone a lot but I never saw his smiley face until a couple weeks ago [laughter].


Bill, without giving away the twist and turns of the plot, because I hate when people do that, the Devil's Backbone. Can you give us just a brief synopsis of the plot and what goes on here?

Bill: Not really.

Not really [chuckles]?

Bill: I don't think of it that way. Essentially, the lead character is a boy whose name is “Papa” and he has a very mean daddy. The daddy abuses a horse and his mother runs off because of this abuse.

The book is essentially about Papa, as a boy, trying to find his mother and what happened to her because she disappeared. And along the way, he meets a bunch of characters who knocked on my door to be in the book. And I made the same deal with all of them, which was, you can come in and be a part of this story, so long as you're not boring. But if you get boring, the next guy through the door is going to shoot you, hang you, or run you out of town!

For me, that's pretty much what happened. I tried re-ally hard not to think and plot it and so on. I trusted that if I had the itch, I also had the ability to scratch. And as silly as that might sound, that's exactly how I wrote it. So I didn't plot it. Certainly there is a plot, every story has a plot. But I just said, “let's go!”

That's fascinating. It took me a few pages to real-ize that the person narrating the story was a child. Actually, the person narrating the story is the child of Papa. So, the next generation that comes along is sharing the story. And that's kind of an interesting perspective.

Bill: And, again, that was nothing that I planned out. It's just when I started writing, then the differ-ent voices would come in. I thought, well, this guy's telling the story, but who is he telling that story to? And then, that guy became the guy who's telling the story that Papa tells. But, again, truly, I didn't try to think this thing. I just trusted it and went with it. And there it is.

Well, it is a tour de force, I think.

Bill: Thank you.

The Devil's Backbone is published by the University of Texas Press It's a beautifully produced book.Jack you noted earlier that you had never illustrated a novel.

Jack: No, never had-- never done one project that had so many drawings that were related. Most often with maga-zines, you do an opener maybe a quarter page or a half page thread and then that's the end of the thing and it goes off into never never land. This had continuity and this is a good news/bad news situation. I had to figure how to draw a guys head from a little bit of a different angle and I've never been swell at doing that.

One very good thing was I was able to use my grandson as a model for Papa. So that was handy and his price was right. (chuckle)

Well these characters are stunning Bill. I mean aside from checking the family album did you do any deep research on the setting or the history of the 1880's in Texas?


Bill: I'm from that part of the country and before me, my people lived in that part of the country. My people were big on sitting around the supper table telling stories. So that was all just natural part of my upbringing. Fischer-Hall is prominent in the story and that's where my family had, and still has, our family reunions. Going back well over a hundred years.

So again, there's nothing really thought out. I know it sounds kind of silly but I just figured that if I had the itch to write this, I'll also have the ability to scratch that itch. So I just went with it.

You have been in the movie business for many years. And most people know you as the screenwriter for Lonesome Dove.

Bill: It's not a real business. (chuckles)

No, it's not a business. [chuckles] It's not an industry. It's something preachers say is a “calling” or something.

Bill: Yeah. It's a nightmare.

Maybe it's just me, because I love the story, but do you think there is some potential for a movie from this?

Bill: You know this is the first volume of a triology. So I am writing two more. I am on the second one now. Then there will be a third. So I don't even want to think about the possibility of doing a series or a movie of this.

I do like the to see Jack's pictures and, incidentally, a while ago you said , "Jack when you took this assignment." The truth it wasn't an assignment. Jack could not have done this for any reason other than he simply wanted to because they're certainly was no money in it. Jack jumped in for the same reason I did, I guess, which was we liked these sto-ries. But it wasn't an assignment in the ordinary sense of that word. Do you think Jack?

Jack: Well yeah, other than I made an agreement that I'd do it. In the end, it was just done really because it was some-thing different. I'd never done anything like that. And I could afford to take the time to do it. And it was fun. Gee whiz, it was a lot of fun.


Who found whom? Bill did you find Jack or vice versa?

Bill: I don't know. What happened was when Dave Hamrick, who's the director of the University of Texas press, and I started talking about publishing this book and the next two as well I said to Dave, "Boy I would love for this to be illustrated like a late 1800's book would've been illustrated." And he readily agreed, so I called a mutual friend of ours, DJ Scott-- who's a wonderful graphic designer here in Austin-- and, instantly, he said, "Well, you should talk to Jack Uruh”

So, he called Jack first and told him about my novel and then I talked to Jack and sent him a copy of the manuscript. Jack and I got to be telephone friends and Jack said, "Yeah" and away we went!

We had this wonderful back and forth relationship, Jack would send me prelims, and we'd talk about it a little bit. Which ones to illustrate and which ones Jack wanted to illustrate. It was just a nice, easy, fun, venture.

Jack: And sometimes when I'd throw him a curve and he would adjust his writing to fit the curve. That was really helpful.

That's fascinating. Give me an example, in the book where the story was changed to fit an illustration?

Jack: I think I made this Indian with a blind eye, and Bill said, "Well he doesn't have a blind eye." And I said, "But he does now." [chuckles]

Bill: Yeah, and I said, 'well okay, I got an Indian with one blind eye.'[laughter]

Man, I love it. That's great.Well Jack, I've said this a dozen times, but you have the best job in the world. You spend a whole bunch of time in the outdoors fishing, hunting, and camping and people pay you to illustrate what you see. Besides this book, what have you been up to?

Jack: I was in South Dakota in October and Kansas just a couple of weeks ago, bird hunting. And I just finished a project for Gardens and Guns which dealt with the starting of the bone fishing camp down off the Florida coast, the first of the bone fishing stuff back in the late 50's.

Bill, in terms of the rest of the things that you do with your time everyday besides photography, writing, producing, you founded the Wittliff Collection at Texas State University in San Marcus. Do you have day to day work on that or what's that all about?

It's one of those things that my wife Sally and I found-ed. I really thought that we would found it, get them started and then once a year so they would pull us out and we would get a little shine. But the truth is, you get so addicted to the whole idea of those collections or we do. So we're involved, not on a daily basis. But yeah, we really involved. Absolutely.

And you know, I guess we're probably more proud of having founded those collections than anything. Be-cause those things go forward through the generations if you do them right when you start. And in addition to collecting cultural artifacts of the region, the other purpose is that they are places of inspiration. They're where somebody with the itch to create, but maybe not yet the courage, can go and see how others struggle to find just the right word, just the right sentence to express themselves.

For example, I always wanted to be a writer, but I thought books came from across great oceans. If I'd walk into a place like Texas State and see how Dobie and John Graves and Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry all those guys had struggled, then I would say, "Well I can do that, I can endure through that." So we're really proud of it.

If you're looking for a great read around the fire-place on these cold winter nights, you will find the Old West yarn of The Devil's Backbone, hard to put down. The Devil's Backbone is available from your local bookstore or from Amazon.com.


IT MAY BE COLD, BUT THE FISH ARE STILL BITING HOW TO HAVE FUN

AND STAY SAFE WHEN YOU’RE ICE

FISHING


Any hard-core angler who lives near a lake in Canada or the northern states such as Minne-sota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas knows that the winter months are the perfect time to get out the auger, drill through the ice, set up the tent or shack and drop a line. While the conditions are somewhat nippy, the catch can be worth the shivers.

Here are some tips on having fun and staying safe when you're ice fishing.

THE COLD, HARD FACTS

Ice fishing is more complicated than just driving out to a lake and casting a line. First off, there’s the ice. It has to be penetrated. Most people use an auger designed for this chore, but a chisel or ice saw can also be used to cut a circular or rect-angular hole in the ice. Some hearty souls even use an ax, but this involves a lot more physical labor than most sane fishermen care to exert!

Most ice fishermen also bring along some type of shelter. These can be as rudimentary as tents or tiny wooded shacks and as elaborate as rooms with multiple bunks, cooking stoves and refrig-erators. Most anglers call them ice shacks or (the more literary of the group) call them “ice shan-ties.” Whatever they’re called, they pretty much reflect the personality of the angler.

Regardless of how fancy or basic his ice shanty is, just about every ice fisherman brings along a small heater. This is used for two reasons: keep-ing the angler warm during the hours spent over solid ice and keeping the fishing hole from freez-ing over. If the temp falls to -29F, it becomes dif-ficult to keep the recently dug hole from freez-ing over. At this temperature, it is also difficult to keep the fisherman’s nose from freezing and fall-ing off!

BE SAFE

There’s also the question of safety. That ice is made of water, which comes in various degrees of solidity. When you put a 200-pound angler and his/her shelter on top of a not-so-thick layer of ice. Well, you can see the potential for an ice-cold dip in the lake!

Each year about this time, the Fish and Wildlife agen-cies in most states where ice fishing is possible put out a list of “Dos and Don’t s” about the sport and be-fore you venture out on the ice, you might want to read them. Here’s an executive summary to think about be-fore hitting the ice or the cold water below:

• Leave your car or truck on the shore. Every year, somebody’s vehicle goes through the ice and some-times anglers drown in the process.• Leave info about your fishing plans – when, where, etc. – with someone and make sure they’re capable of calling out the cavalry if you don’t make it home when you said you would.• Wear a personal flotation device and don’t fish alone.• Since ice varies in thickness and condition, always car-ry a chisel or ice spud to check the ice as you proceed.• Be very cautious when you’re crossing ice near river mouths, points of land, bridges, islands and over reefs and springs. The current causes ice to be thinner in these areas.• Avoid going onto ice if it has melted away from the shore. This indicates that melting is underway and the ice can shift position as wind direction changes.• Waves from open water can quickly break up large areas of ice. If you see open water in the lake and the wind begins to pick up, get off the ice pronto!• Bring a fully-charged mobile phone with you.• Carry a set of hand spikes to help you work your way out of the surface of the ice if you happen to fall through. Holding one in each hand, you can alternately punch them into the ice and pull yourself up and out. These spikes don’t have to be fancy. You can make a set from large nails.• Always carry a safety line that can be tossed to someone who’s gone through the ice. Some experts suggest that ice fishermen use the “Reach-Throw-Go” approach if someone should fall through the ice. If you can’t reach them from shore, throw them a flotation de-vice or rope. If you still can help them quickly – Go for help. Don’t walk out on the ice to help your buddy be-cause you might fall through the ice.• Heated shanties must have good ventilation to pre-vent carbon monoxide poisoning. Always open a win-dow or door part way to allow fresh air in.


THE OUTPOST: ICE FISHING

DROPPING A LINE: TECHNIQUES FOR ICE FISHING

There are as many variations on ice fishing as there are fishermen. However, most folks use one of these three methods for this chilly sport.

The easiest method is to use a standard fishing rod and reel rigged with brightly colored lures or jigs. Live bait such as large worms, crappie and shiny minnow is also used. The angler raises and lowers the lure or bait to give some motion to the presentation.

Another popular ice fishing strategy involves using “Tip-Ups.” These are made of wood or plastic, and have a spool of line attached, with a thin piece of metal that goes from the spool to a flag. Black line is on the spool and a swivel is placed at the end of the black line. A piece of fishing line with a hook is attached to the swivel. Worms or small minnows are placed on the hook. The hook with bait is placed into the water under the ice and the fun begins.

Ice fishing guides have a couple of theories about the optimal depth that the bait is to be dropped for this Tip-Up method. One thought is the bait is placed about a yard or one meter under the ice. The second is that the bait is placed two to three meters under the ice. Yet another opinion is that the bait is suspended one foot (30 cm) above the bottom of the lake.


When the fish strikes the bait, the flag is lifted sending the message that every fisherman want to hear. There is an opportunity for the angler to play the fish and tire it before retrieval of the line. When the angler can see the fish's head through the hole in the ice, the fish is can be hoisted onto the ice.

Spear fishing is also a popular way to ice fish. This re-quires a larger hole in the ice and the deployment of fish decoys. A dark hut or ice shanty is also required for this tactic. The angler closely watches the water while hold-ing a large spear which has four or five points and is attached to a secured line. This method is often used for lake sturgeon fishing. There are some restrictions in the U.S. for this spear fishing and local regulations should be checked before using this method.

WHAT’S DOWN THERE?

When a lake or reservoir freezes over in the winter, the fish that were enjoying the autumn and summer weather a few months ago are still there, just swimming deeper. So, the types of fish an ice angler is likely to catch are the same species that inhabit the waterway year-round. Lake trout, walleye, muskie, pike and other hearty fish are all there for the taking. However, different fishing tac-tics are necessary when they are swimming under 3 feet of ice.

LAKE TROUT

Some experts believe that lake trout may be the easiest fish to snare on an ice fishing expedition. They are prowl-ing predators and are always on the look-out for baitfish such as silvery ciscoes, whitefish, smelt, shiners, and perch. They also take advantage of sunken structures – stumps, debris – to trap their next meal. So, if the angler has knowledge of the lake and some idea where these “traps” are located, there’s a better than zero chance of finding lake trout.

Where are the best depths to catch these lake trout? It depends on the time of year. In the early winter, the ice is not a thick and an angler can find this species in depths of 20 to 60 feet. Later in the winter – say this month of February – the ice is thicker and the rays of the sun don’t penetrate into the water as much. This results in the plankton and other tiny plants, which feed smaller fish, rising closer to the diminished sunlight. When smaller fish such as perch follow its food, the lake trout follow.


In addition to hanging around the structures on the bottom of the lake, these fish respond best to move-ment. As a result the best lures are tube jigs, Jigging Rapalas, airplane jigs, or spoons. Plus, fishing guides say that any action that simulates a dead or dying cisco, smelt, or perch is the ticket to catch lake trout. This action is typically erratic so the presentation should follow suit.

WALLEYE

It’s not necessary to be a brainiac biologist or crusty old fishing guide to understand how the walleye got its name. All one needs to do is shine a jacklight into the water when one of these fish is swimming by. The name comes from the fact that their eyes, like those of lions, reflect white light.

As online reference Wikipedia notes, “This eyeshine is the result of a light-gathering layer in the eyes, which allows the fish to see well in low-light conditions. In fact, many anglers look for walleyes at night since this is when major feeding patterns occur. The fish's eyes also allow them to see well in turbid water which gives them an advantage over their prey. Thus, walleye anglers will commonly look for days and locations where there is a good "walleye chop" or rough water.” Most guides agree that the Tip-Up method of ice fishing works best for walleye and the most popular baits are jigs, including the Jigging Rapala; Nils Master Jigger, Nils Master Jigging Shad, and Baby Jig-ging Shad. These lures imitate the profile and swimming action of baitfish and when the angler adds movement such as lifts and wiggles, the walleye go nuts.

Where walleye hang out is based on the fish’s tendency to forage for baitfish such as perch. Walleye will try to “flush” these smaller fish from the bottom of the lake and then grab one when they scatter. For this reason, the best depth for the lure is about 4 or 5 feet above the floor of the lake.


PIKE & MUSKIE

Two of the largest fresh-water fish are related. Both pike and Muskie come from the from the pike fam-ily of Esocidae. Both are ambush predators and did we mention they are both BIG. Since they live in fresh water and are massive, they are almost irresistible to most ice fisherman. Unfortunately, they are also wily which makes difficult to catch, but also enhances the challenge for the anglers who choose to pursue them.

Because these fish are large and therefore need to constantly on the hunt for their next meal, the time of the season – especially as it relates to ice thickness – is a large determinate on their location. In the early winter season, when the ice is not as thick, pike and Muskie tend to forage in the shallow water and this is the best place to catch them. Midwinter, when the ice is much thicker, these fish are found in much deeper water.

Both of these fish spawn in early March and begin to stage their move to favorite romantic rendezvous areas in February, at the end of winter. Their movement is also encouraged by full moons. Fishing guides who work the U.S. Midwest note that the areas where these fish were born and will then spawn are near marshlands in lakes, eutrophic bays, creeks, and rivers. Ice fishermen who have knowledge of these ar-eas (which are not always easy to find given weather conditions) can drill their holes accordingly and have a better chance of successfully hauling in one or more of these monsters.

Most pike and muskies have been caught on tip-ups using dead bait. Since they have to eat constantly to maintain those large bodies, these fish are not too choosey when it comes to eating. The best size for these dead baits is 8 to 9 inches and many ice anglers prefer herring for this.

IT’S IN OUR DNA

There’s something very primal about ice fishing. Early humans obviously had to eat whether it was sun-shine or freezing. If they lived near a water source, they had to figure out how to catch enough fish to survive.

This survival DNA was likely passed on to those of us who walk the planet now and it’s been enhanced by a sense of adventure that modern man doesn’t get to experience very often. Overcoming the cold and figur-ing out where the fish are under all that ice is a challenge that the hearty souls who love this sport live for.


THE OUTPOST: RECIPES

Wild Turkey White ChiliINGEDIENTS • ½ cup minced onion• 1-½ tablespoons minced garlic• 4 teaspoons ground cumin • 1-½ pound un cooked wild turkey breast, cut into cubes (or leftover pre-cooked meat)• 4 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt broth• 2 tablespoons chopped seeded jalapeño chilies• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram• 1 teaspoon dried savory• 1 16-ounce can Great Northern beans, rinsed, drained• 1 16-ounce can navy beans• 2 medium-sized potatoes, pealed and diced• Several dashes of hot pepper sauce • Chopped green onions• Grated cheddar cheese• Sour cream

Preparation

Heat vegetable oil in heavy large sauce-

pan over medium heat. Add onion and

garlic and sauté until tender. Add cumin

and stir about 30 seconds. Add turkey

breast. Sauté until about 4 to 5 minutes,

or until no longer pink. Add chicken

stock, jalapeños, marjoram and savory

to turkey mixture. Add beans and pota-

toes to chili. Simmer covered until chili

is thick, about 45 minutes. Season with

hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper. Add

green onions, cheese and sour cream

separately as desired.


& PARTIES

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THE OUTPOST: RECIPES

The Outpost is pleased to announce that we have partnered with outdoor icon O’Neill Williams. He will be providing some incredible recipes as well as other content throughout the year. Be sure to tune in to his televion show each week as well as listen to his radio show on The Outpost Radio. You can also visit his website at www.oneilloutside.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQy_4GaKbXs

CEDAR PLANK RAINBOW TROUT

http://www.oneilloutside.com


LIFE IN THE GREAT OUTDOORSWWW.THEOUTPOSTLIFE.COM

EASY BLACKENED WALLEYE INGREDIENTS

• 4 walleye fillets

• ½ cup butter, melted

• 1 tbsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

• ½ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper

• 2 tbsp Dizzy Gourmet®

Viva Caliente Seasoning™

• Fresh lemon, halved

METHOD

• In a plastic bag add the melted butter, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, pep per and Viva Caliente Seasoning. Add the fish and marinate while preparing the grill.• Set the EGG for direct cooking at 400°F/204°C with a Cast Iron Cooking Grid, flat side up.• Place the walleye on the grid and grill for 4 minutes per side. Squeeze lemon juice on the fillets and serve.


YOU CATCH ‘EM AND LET SOMEBODY ELSE COOK ‘EM

Do you enjoy fishing, but hate to cook up your catch? A new proposal in Louisiana will allow anglers there to hand over their hard-fought catches to their favorite restaurants and chefs to cook. The fish must be cleaned and processed by anglers beforehand, and can only be served to the fishing party that caught the fish. The proposal is expected to go under review by the Louisi-anaWildlifeand Fisheries Commission later this week.

“Catch and cook” programs have been popular in other states such as Michigan where state agencies and local associations implemented the program in 2012. By giv-ing anglers the option to enjoy their fish prepared at a restaurant or fishing lodge, the program benefited local economies and boosted tourism. Fishing charters also favored the program, and the Michigan Charter Boat Association was one of the main backers of the state’s catch and cook initiative.

WIN/WIN

“It’s a win situation for everybody,” said Michigan charter captain Denny Grinold told in 2012. “It’s great

for charter boats because it enhances the customer’s ex-perience, it’ll create more repeat business. It’s also great for the restaurants.”

Louisiana’s charter industry is not so sure about this proposal. This is due to the strict guidelines that come with the state’s program. According to press reports on this proposal, many fishing lodges already serve fish to their clients they feel the rule will actually prohibit them from cooking fish. According to the first draft of this proposal, fish received from anglers in Louisiana have to not only be cleaned and processed, but also placed in food-grade, single-serve packaging.

Daryl Carpenter, a charter captain with the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, told New Orleans Times-Picayune that such regulations are difficult for fishing lodges that receive a high number of fillets every day.

“We’ll sometimes have a party of six (fishermen),” he said. “We simply do not have the ability to pack their fish in food-safe packaging in individual serving sizes.”


DATE AND BROTHER GO FISHING

It was during my 19th summer that I decided it might be worthwhile to take my younger brother, 11 years old at the time, and my girlfriend of recent vintage out for an evening of fishing. I was an experienced fisherman and not many guys were at that age. I felt I needed to impress her with my knowledge and aptitude.

Okay! Maybe I did not think things through. It turned out to being a learning experience for us all that would foreshadow the future.

I had been catching a few crappie from around the docks at Norris Lake near Lithonia, Geor-gia. A short trip, from 7pm to midnight, did not seem too difficult. Knowing about the lake, docks, and general layout served us well and we soon located a small 14 foot aluminum boat. With lanterns and gear in hand, off we went into the gathering darkness.

First off, my brother lost the only paddle overboard, never to be retrieved. Eleven year old boys are rarely known for their coordination. However, refusing to give in, we scrounged a lengthy 2x4, about 12 feet long, and I rowed on; ‘kayak’ style, toward a destination not yet realized. That necessary paddling style unfortunately wet the matches in my shirt pocket. That situation unfolded as we reached the dock.

No matches for the lanterns. What now?

Press on; we were there, so fish anyway. As hands and feet scrambled in the darkness on the uneven planks, my tackle box was kicked into the water and floated away. This frazzled 18 year old, trying his best to impress his beautiful date, attempted to decide who should take the blame. Well, it seemed important at the time.


No light, no tackle, little resolve! Give up! Live to fish another day. Paddle back to the dock.

As I tied a stern line to the post at the dock, I was assured by my date that they bow was like-wise secured. The lone female on this little jaunt needed to visit the little girl’s room. She hur-ried away, privacy and all that. “No problem, I’ll unload, go ahead”.

Alone now, I placed the remaining gear on the dock and stepped out. Secured bow line? No, and I quickly did an acrobatic split and plunged into the dark water head first. My returning date noticed the soggy foot prints on the pavement, and recalled the part about the bow line. Teen-age giggles mounted into infectious laughter as she surveyed the scene. Remember now these people were only 18-year olds.

There I stood, no glasses, they were lost during the impromptu dive, soaked to the bone, dignity dripping wet! Hardly the impressive conclusion I had envisioned.Anyway, we got through that evening, sense of humor finely tuned, knowing a great deal how we would react to and eventually overcome adversity.

It was kind of a rehearsal, I guess, that first fishing trip. We are still paddling, that girl and I, sometimes ill-equipped, but always willing to go back and start over, during some of the darkest times, with love and shared humor. We have been together now for 53 years.


OUTPOST GEAR Skeletool CX

The sleek new Leatherman Skeletool CX gets you back to basics...very cool basics. The Skeletool CX has only the most necessary of multi-tool features, because sometimes thats all you need. With a 154 CM stainless steel blade, pliers, bit driver, pocket clip and carabiner/bottle opener, you’re set. Lightweight, low volume, perfect size. The Skeletool CX: who says more is better? The Skeletool CX is made of high carbon, high alloy, and corrosion resistant stainless steel that holds its edge three times as long as 420 stainless steel. This steel is used on some premium Leather man tool features, such as knife blades and wire cutters.

The tool’s carbon-fiber strength to weight ratio is very high, which is ideal for maintaining strength while shedding ounces. The properties of carbon fibers, such as high stiffness, high tensile strength, low weight, high chemical resistance, high temperature tolerance and low thermal expansion, make this material very popular in high-end equipment.

And its DLC is a carbon-based coating that displays some of the unique properties of natural diamond. It is applied for scratch and corrosion resistance.

Features include: -Needlenose Pliers -Regular Pliers -Hard-wire Cutters -Wire Cutters -154CM Knife -Caribiner/Bottle Opener -Large Bit Driver

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OUTPOST GEAR

Browning Nitro Max Output LED HeadlampBrowning’s brightest and most powerful headlamp, the Browning® Nitro Max Output LED Headlamp Next G-1 Vista® provides a bright 100-meter beam with the option of red and blue LED light for great night vision options. This powerful headlamp cranks out an impressive 255 lumens of bright, hands-free light with its Luxeon Rebel LED. his lightweight headlamp also features two red and two blue LEDs for better night vision. Features lockout switch, O-ring seals, and an aluminum ring to protect the LEDs and lens. Built-in clip makes attaching light to your ballcap a breeze. Luxeon® LED runs for 3 hours on one CR123A battery (included) on high setting, 8 hours on low setting.

If you are searching for a durable, unique product to give you an edge look no more. The long reaching, focused beam of the Nitro stretches 100 meters and makes finding trail markers, or whatever else is in the dark, easier. The lithium batteries are great because they last longer and are less affected by the cold than alkaline batteries. The CR123A battery operates in temperatures reaching almost -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Features include:

-Lightweight, hands free LED light

-Powerful Luxeon Rebel LED - 255 lumens

-Two red and two blue LED’s for better night vision

-Lockout Switch

-O-ring seals

-Aluminum ring protects LEDs and lens

-Built in cap clip

-Runs on one CR123A battery

http://www.basspro.com/Browning-Nitro-Max-Output-LED-Headlamp-Next-G1-Vista/product/101505/

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OUTPOST GEAR Cabela’s Guidewear® Men’s Xtreme

Bibs with GORE-TEX® – Regular

When your outdoor adventures take you into wet conditions, turn to the pro- level waterproof protection of Cabela’s GORE-TEX® Guidewear® Xtreme. The 200- denier Guidewear shell is built of super-durable polyamide filament yarn and laminated with waterproof, breathable GORE-TEX. GORE-TEX seam tape and a durable water-repellent treat ment lock water out. 3M™ reflective fabric enhances visibility and safety. Crotch gusset adds mobility. Zip-to-thigh leg openings. Hook-and-loop adjustments at cuffs. Heavy-duty shoulder straps and quick-release buckles. D-ring for tiller attachment. Durable scuff patches add durability. One inner zip security pocket, leg pockets and multiple gear pockets

Wind-driven rain, icy spray and sleet – it’s just another day on the water. Cabela’s Guidewear Xtreme Rainwear Collection will keep you fishing through the absolute nastiest conditions that can crop up while you’re on the lake. The proven waterproof protection of GORE-TEX® fabric teamed with tough 200-denier super-durable, high-tendency rein-forced fabric will stand up to years of wear in the roughest weather.

For decades, GORE-TEX technology has shielded anglers around the world from rain spray, sleet and snow. Still con-sidered the standard for waterproof technology, the GORE-TEX membrane completely blocks outside moisture but is breathable so interior moisture vapor quickly escapes.

Features include:

-100% waterproof, breathable GORE-TEX membrane

-GORE-TEX seam tape

-Articulated knees deliver comfort and mobility

-zip to thigh leg openings

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Gobbler Vest A holster for your calls. The Gobbler Vest is by no means another vest with lots of pockets and a cushion to sit on. It’s a custom designed call holster. Primos designed the Gobbler Vest around all that we turkey hunters want with us in the field, our calls, gloves, mask, clippers, water bottle, shells and a deep back pocket to carry out that gobbler. The Gobbler Vest organizes your calls by having specific places designed to hold certain styles of calls, so you will always know where they are when you need them. There is no fumbling through random pockets searching frantically for your calls when it’s crunch time. The Gobbler Vest utilizes a combination of mesh and Tree Hide to bring you the most comfortable and functional turkey vest available. Tree Hide is molded waterproof foam that takes on the appearance of a tree’s bark. Tree Hide is waterproof and durable providing excellent protection for your gear. The Tree Hide shoulder pads also reduce the felt recoil produced by heavy turkey loads. The mesh pockets on the inside of the vest allow you to see what is stored in them at a glance.

Features include: -Pockets designed for specific calls to keep you organized -Molded foam striker organizer that secures striker tips with 6 slots hold strikers, shells and call conditioner -Quick-Grab pockets for gloves, masks, or clippers -Detachable cushion with clip buckle provides comfort during down time -Tree Hide shoulder pads reduce the felt recoil produced by heavy turkey loads

OUTPOST GEAR

If you’d like to win great gear like this,

keep watching The Outpost

Facebook page for more

details. Just LIKE the page and watch for the

contest.

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Mexican Poaching Becoming a Real Problem in South Texas Waters

Back in December, the Coast Guard interdicted another Mexican fishing crew poaching in South Texas. Author-ities noted this has become a recurring problem.

According to press reports, at approximately 10 a.m. on December 29th, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi sighted a Mexican fishing boat, also known as a lancha, 29 miles offshore of South Padre Island and 1 mile north of the United States/Mexico maritime border with fishing gear and bait fish on board.

The aircrew notified Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi watchstanders, who diverted a Coast Guard Station South Padre Island boatcrew aboard a 33-foot law enforcement boat. After a 9-mile pursuit, the boatcrew stopped the lancha with four people, baitfish and longline gear aboard. All persons and confiscated gear were turned over to Customs and Border Protection.

ILLEGAL FISHING AFFECTS RECREATIONAL AND COMMERICAL ANGLERS

Since Oct. 1, 2014, the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Depart-ment have detected 78 lanchas, all of which were suspected of poaching in U.S. waters. The Coast Guard has interdicted eight of them.

"All of our state and federal boats and aircraft work in a coordinated effort to combat illegal fishing along the United States/Mexico maritime border," said Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Allen, chief of law enforcement for Sector Cor-pus Christi.

If you witness suspicious or illegal fishing in state waters (out to 9 miles offshore), please contact Texas Parks and Wildlife "Operation Game Thief" at 1-800-792-GAME (4263). For all suspicious or illegal fishing occur-ring in federal waters (out to 200 miles offshore), please contact the U.S. Coast Guard at 361-939-6393.


ANOTHER ICE COLD SIX-PACK OF HOW TO’S

Every month, we scour the internet to find tips, tricks, screw-ups and embar-rassing moments that you can use in your pursuit of the bounty of the great outdoors. We call this feature A Six-Pack of How-To’s. It’s time to open a few cold ones.


Keith Warren, host and producer of The High Road, shows you how to drop a monster whitetail deer with a revolver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwOCDDiMj4I

This is one of the coolest, or maybe hottest, survival techniques ever. Watch closely. Here’s hot to start a fire with a chewing gum wrapper and a flashlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LAunryCu9c


The pigs have invaded paradise. The state of Hawaii is beginning to experience the de-struction from feral pigs that the mainland states have been dealing with for some time and some in the state are ready to call in the hunters.

As any outdoor sportsman can attest, the combination of a fast breeding cycle, ag-gressive rooting habits, and adaptability make feral pigs a land-owner’s, even one who considers himself a conservationist, worst nightmare. Because of this the city of Kaneohe, Hawaii may soon be joining forces with a local sportsmen’s association to deal with its feral hog problem.

PIG PROBLEMS ON THE ISLANDS

The swine are wreaking their usual havoc in the 400-acre Hoomaluhia Botanical Gar-den, a piece of land valuable not only for its value as a collection of rare and endan-gered plants, but also as flood protection for the city. While Hoomaluhia is still a popular


Robin Hood would have had no problem with the Sheriff of Nottingham if he knew these tricks. Here’s how to shoot an arrow fast...real fast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk

Raccoons get very little respect but it turns out they know how to stare down a bobcat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbk_VqkgFcY


Have you been hog hunting and have a giant pig to prepare for the table? How about making the Cajun delicacy cochon de lait. Here’s how to prepare it in a hot tub. By the way, if you cook your cochon de lait in a hot tub, you might be a redneck. A well-fed one, but still a redneck!

If you’ve read our article on “Ice Fishing” in this issue, you may want to know how to use a hand auger to drill that fishing hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTtPG72gra0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufdjhw0IP6Y


The Outpost Radio is the first radio station dedicated to hunting, fishing, and the great outdoors. You can hear us on your smartphone, desktop or tablet…just about anywhere. The Outpost Radio is a mix of great music and information that celebrates the outdoors! Give us a listen. Click on The Outpost logo below to listen now!

RADIO FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS


AUTHOR TIM MACWELCH HAS WRITTEN THE DEFINITIVE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT AND HE'S ADDED SOME HUMOR TO SPICE UP THE GLOOM

Whether you are a prepper or just another person who loves to be out in the woods hunting and fishing, there's a good chance that sometime in your life, you will be confronted with a life or death situation. How you handle this will determine whether or not you sur-vive.

Tim MacWelch runs a wilderness survival school in Virginia and is an expert on these matters. He along with the editors of Outdoor Life, have put together a manual that could save your life in the event of an emergency. It's called, Prepare for Anything Survival Manual: 338 Essential Skills.

The Outpost: We counted them. There are 338 skills in this book! Tim, it seem to me that this book comes down to two words: Be prepared.

Tim MacWelch: It really does. And that saying has lost a little bit of traction over the years. A lot of people use it. Different organizations and different people use that phrase and sometimes with overuse, those words can lose impact. But that's really what my book, Prepare for Anything, boils down to. It is about actually being prepared for all different types of emer-gency scenarios.

I don't think of myself as a prepper, by any stretch. Before I read this book, I had a less than positive impression of the people who talked about “bug-out bags” and the “end of times.” However, being prepared for an emergency makes sense. It's really about something bigger and more likely to happen than the big bomb hitting. What motivated you to write this book?

I have been into survival for decades. This is something that I have enjoyed since I was a teenager. When I first got into this line of thinking and this amazing assortment of skills, I was just a teenager doing camping, backpacking, fishing, and hunting. And I realized, "You know what? I'm going out by myself. I'm going out to remote places. What would I do if I got hurt? What would I do if I got lost? What would I do if some kind of emergency occurred?" And that jolted me. It caused me to set things in motion, to start researching, learning, practicing skills, and trying to figure out what was important and maybe what was not so im-portant.

Through the course of study in all different kinds of sur-vival, I realized that I just was obsessed with it and I also found out that I enjoyed teaching it. So I spent quite a few years volunteering for scout troops, church groups, all dif-ferent types of people, and all different age groups.

In 1997, I started a business, actually teaching survival in weekend classes that just opened to the public. You didn't have to be part of any group or anything. You could just find out about the class and sign up. Over the past 18 years, I have taught thousands and thousands of people how to survive in the woods, and it just never gets old.

I've been writing for Outdoor Life magazine for a few years and when they approached me and said, "Hey, listen. We really want to do a broad and well-rounded emergency sur-vival book. Will you do this for us?" Of course, I jumped out of my chair and cried [chuckles], "Yes! Yes! Yes! Please don't pick anybody else. I'll do it! I'll do it!"


I spent quite a few months working on this book with the help of the editors at the magazine and the good folks at Weldon Owen Publishers. I think we put together a phenomenal book. And it's not about zombies. It's not about the end of the world. It's about the basic emergencies that people could face in their lifetime, and the skills and equipment that people would need to come out of that okay.

I think on the surface, the book is about emergencies. But when you dig into it, it's really about self-sufficien-cy. Was that the intent?

It really is. That's kind of the nuts and bolts of emergency preparedness. You have to be able to provide for yourself. Self-reliance, self-sufficiency, self-defense, self-preservation, these are all basically the same thing. It's you taking action to not be injured or die. So at the heart of it all, it's about you being alert to dangers, and you being prepared for dangers.

Prepare For Anything: Survival Manual has very serious subject matter. But you're a funny dude, Tim. It comes through in the book. Most of us don't think of preppers or survivalists as people with a sense of humor.

Thanks. My publisher was kind enough to let me be me. I am actually trying to keep the subject of survival kind of light. It's not a grim humor. It's not the kind of humor that you might occasionally hear from soldiers, firefighters, and lawmen. Because those are some pretty hard folks, so they have a really bleak sense of humor sometimes.

My sense of humor's a little bit different. I try to make lemonade out of these lemons you might encounter in a survival situation. I try to keep my classes light, friendly, and funny. And I try to have a good time with it. That's just how I live my life. I don't live in a dark, gloomy bunker, and just think sour thoughts all the time. If you're not having fun, then something's wrong.

Let's get down to a couple of nitty-gritty things. One of the things that most people know about survival or they've heard about it maybe from friends is a “bug-out bag.” Let's talk about that a little bit. What could be in a typical bug-out bag, Tim?

Well, that is going to vary quite a lot. This is a point of debate among preppers, disaster preparedness enthu-siasts, and zombie apocalypse people. Your bug-out bag is basically a assortment of gear and supplies that would sustain you for a short period of time, should you have to evacuate from your home, or should you get caught in some kind of an emergency.

So if we turn this situation on a different angle, we can look at the bug-out bag almost like a backpacking trip. You're going to be living out of a bag for a few days on a backpacking trip. So what would you need to live out of that bag? Well, you need shelter. This is typically your top survival priority.

In a backpacking scenario, you might have a very lightweight, small tent and a good, warm, lightweight sleeping bag, and maybe a pad to go underneath of it. So that takes care of your basic shelter components. Then of course, clothing also counts as shelter. So most of the time, people have a season-appropriate set of clothes and maybe a little bit of outerwear, maybe even something for rain. So you could have a poncho in there or a full set of rain gear.

Now, just the stuff I mentioned is a lot of gear and it's heavy. When you add it all up, that's a lot of bulk, but that's how I approach it. I look at a bug-out scenario like a backpacking trip. You have to be self-contained. You shouldn't expect to find the stuff you need everywhere. You've got to come to the party with it.


You also want to have stuff for water. I like to have water that's ready to go - that's safe, drinkable water in the bag. You can buy bottles of water. Those have an expiration date on them. Most of the time, it's a year or two out. So the way those bottles are packaged and processed, that water stays safe to drink for quite a while. Then after the time is over, you can still disinfect it, just to make sure it's safe. So I like to have ready-to-drink water in the bag, and the equipment to get more water. That could be puri-fication tablets, which I can use to take groundwater and make that safe to drink. Or it could be some kind of filtra-tion pump, where I pump the water through and make it safe to drink that way.

Then we would want to have things in there for first aid, food, communications and things for morale. Some people put a little, tiny Bible in there or some other book of faith. Some people have pictures of loved ones or just some-thing in there for motivation. On the most extreme side of things, people have maybe a zip drive or some other digital storage device which has everything that they'd need to start over again, in a digital form. So it might be all your important documents that are scanned in. It might be all your family photos and family videos, just all the kind of stuff that you'd want to have and need to have if you never got to go back to your home again.

That takes us to our next point, which is defense. Not only do you want to defend your personal information, but you want to defend your person. So some people have dif-ferent types of weapons in their bug-out bag. It could be something as simple as a large hunting knife, or it could be the normal firearms that they carry, if they have an ev-eryday carry weapon - some type of handgun or whatever. Maybe they've got that on their person, and then they've got extra magazines and ammunition in the bug-out bag.

So the bug-out bag just depends on what you're ex-pecting to have happen. We also take into account the worst possible thing you could imagine. We also want to think about the most likely stuff to happen. And then, we just plan for that as best as we could.So it's kind of like the 72-hour kit, which a lot of dif-ferent agencies recommend. It's just a lot more in depth, and you want it to be as mobile as possible. But that's hard with all the gear that I just men-tioned. So you're trying to tap dance this fine line between having everything that you'd need, maybe just a couple of things that you'd want, and not hav-ing a 40-pound backpack or 40-pound suitcase or 40-pound duffle bag.

There's a lot to a bug-out bag. And in Prepare for Any-thing, we start to touch into all of these different as-pects. There are lists in here. There are off-the-wall items you may not expect to find in a bug-out bag, like vodka.

Vodka and cigarettes are included in your list. Those are pretty unusual “survival” items.

A lot of Americans smoke, and nicotine is an addic-tive substance. People that need it, really need it. So this could be a phenomenal way to barter. It could be a way to get things you need. They need a smoke. Maybe you need something that they've got. So may-be you can work it out in a friendly way where that's a barter item.


Cigarettes are also great tinder. They're phenomenal at fire starting. So this could be a tinder material that you could use to start a fire, if you needed to make a fire to cook food, boil water, generate warmth, what-ever. There's a number of different values to a ciga-rette, even if you're not a smoker. I'm not a smoker, but I've got a pack of Marlboro Reds in one of my bug-out bags. They're very lightweight. They don't take up much room. If they get smashed, they're still smokeable; they're still burnable. So in a dire situa-tion, that might be a valuable commodity.

And then, the vodka. What can't you do with vodka [laughter]? Obviously, you can drink it for a morale boost - for a little liquid courage. We can also disin-fect wounds and equipment with the vodka. If it's a high proof vodka, it's flammable. So this can help us to start a fire. We can deodorize things with it. We can use it as antifungal medicinal treatment, and the list goes on and on. We've got ten different things about vodka listed in the book. So that's one of those wacky little "don't get caught without this item" seg-ment.

You talk about fire and water in the book. Those are two pretty critical elements for survival. Let's talk about fire first. What are the essential elements nec-essary to build a fire in an emergency situation?

You have to have an ignition source. That's where things usually start going right or start going wrong. For the average person, maybe you're not that savvy at creating fire. Maybe you don't practice it that of-ten. Just a simple butane lighter is the best choice. Even if you're a fire master - if you're an expert in fire building - put a lighter in that kit. Just a simple butane lighter will work, if you only have one opera-tional thumb. I don't care how busted up the rest of your body is. If you've got one working thumb and a lighter, you've got an open flame. That is fire, and fire will breed more fire.

So all we need to do is find some dry tinder, some dry fuel, kindling sticks, tinder - all that stuff - and build it into a cone shape, use our lighter, and get it to burn. Even if the material is damp, the flame of the lighter will start to dry things out and begin to com-bust them. So that's my top pick.

THE OUTPOST: PREPARE FOR ANYTHING

And then, you can throw some matches in there too. There's really nothing a match can do that a lighter can't do better, except for offer you a little bit of kin-dling. So the paper matchstick or a wooden match-stick, it's got a little bit of a burn time - 10 to 15 sec-onds. It depends on the size of the match. But a little pile of those in your material, that could act as kin-dling. But there's only so many matches in a book or a box. There's a whole lot of fires in a lighter. You just can't top the lighter. Then maybe a third-string backup would be a spark rod. People know these as a flint rod. There's lots of different names for it. This is a little rod of metal alloys blended, where you'd scrape it and it makes sparks.

Sparks can light a lot of stuff on fire, especially if these are dry and flammable things. But what sparks won't light on fire is hard, solid items, flat-surfaced items. For example, sparks don't work that well on dead, dry leaves, paper - things where the sparks will bounce off.

This was true thousands of years ago; it's still true today. Once you get a fire, you just keep it going as long as you're in that place. This way, you don't have to restart it from scratch. Just keep feeding it. Build it up big enough at night to where it will still have sparks and embers for you in the morning. Just because the flame disappears doesn't mean your fire's out. You stir up the ashes, blow on them, and look for red sparks. And then, when you see that, you can just put more tinder on top of there, blow on it a little bit, and your flames come right back.


Let's talk a little bit about safe water supply. What are the most important things someone who's out, trying to survive should be looking for in terms of safe water?

Water is such a huge deal in survival. I would say that it is more important than fire in most scenarios. A lot of times, we have fire and water going hand-in-hand. You need the fire to boil the water, to make it safe. There are all kinds of different pathogens in the water sources around the world - all the groundwa-ter sources: rivers, lakes, streams, springs, creeks, ditches, puddles. Just assume that all of these are contaminated with different biological organisms, any number of which could make you very ill.

If we drank some dirty water, for example, and then we end up with diarrhea, now, we're losing water through our excretory system. We might even be vomiting. We might be sweating. So we're losing fluid, if we get ill like that. You're also losing a lot of calories, and calo-ries means life in a survival scenario. If you're not di-gesting your food, then you've got a major problem.

This is easy to prevent. All we have to do is disinfect the water before we drink it. And as I mentioned in the bug-out gear, you can have disinfection tablets which use chemi-cals to kill the waterborne pathogens. We could also use a filter device, which will screen out the pathogens. A lot of these bugs are large enough to get caught in the filter that you purchase. So get a water filter from a camping store or some kind of survival store or whatever, and use a filter that will screen out down to the bacteria level.

It's hard to get a filter that'll screen out viruses, because they're so much smaller than bacteria, but you can get filters with a disinfective element. It would either be io-dine or silver or some kind of antimicrobial element in the filter. So the big stuff gets screened out physically, and then the small stuff like viruses, they get zapped as they go through by that disinfecting element, but-- so the chemicals, the filters, and then just good old boiling.

Have a metal pot in your survival equipment. Doesn't have to be a big one. It can just be a little, small camp-ing pot that holds a pint or a pint and a half or a quart or whatever, and we scoop up the cleanest water you can find, and then boil it for ten minutes. Let it cool down, and then you're good to go. All the live stuff in there is now dead. The heat killed it.


In the event of some kind of modern technological disaster, where we have contaminated water-- maybe it's contaminated radiologically or with chemicals or who knows, Then boiling is not going to fix all those problems. The boiling will kill the biological stuff, but it won't evaporate certain chemicals, and it won't take out radiation. So then, we've got to look at a whole other set of processes.

For radioactive water, distillation is the best choice. Most of the radioactive particles are going to stick with the minerals and the other solids that are in the water. So the steam coming out of the water, that's relatively pure. It's not perfect, but it's relatively pure. And then, when that's condensed back down into water, that's about the safest option that you'll have in the event of a ra-diological emergency. But that'll also take out lead-heavy metals and different kinds of modern industrial pollutants.

In a disaster, odds are good that there will be some injury, either to the person trying to survive or people around them. In the book, you have a great list of medical supplies which should be stockpiled and ready. I think that it's worth the price of the book to get these lists that you have. You also have some unusual medical supplies - which I love - such as duct tape, feminine hy-giene products. What's up with that?

If we look at real life survival stories, real life emergency situa-tions, injury is often an element. Not always, but more often than not, you're dealing with some kind of medical issues, some kind of first aid need is there. So the standard list of stuff we've got - the bandages, the dressings, the ointments, the creams, and all the different normal first aid gizmos - these are all listed in the book. We've also got some off the wall stuff. The duct tape, duct tape can be a first aid item if you snip little small pieces of duct tape, and then use them as little, tiny butterfly sutures. These are like the small band-aids that you'd place over a deep cut.

If you have some kind of laceration, you need to close it. So if you don't have a suture kit or you don't know how to use a suture kit. That could be just as bad. By having a suture kit improperly used, it would be just as bad as not using it at all - in some cases. So if you don't know how to do all that stuff, then the butterfly strips come in handy. These can be purchased, just as is - these little butterfly strips. But you could also make them out of a duct tape. You'd cut little tiny strips. You'd fold part of the duct tape so that there's a center panel in each sticky strip that is not sticky. Because you don't want to have the sticky duct tape right at the edges of the wound. You want to have some adhesion further away from the wound.

We could place several of these over large cuts, deep wounds, and help to stick them together. It could be used just as an outer dressing, as a outer binding - a bandag-ing, if you will - to hold all different types of stuff together. People have used it in the field for all kinds of different emergen-cy medical items. A couple of sticks and some duct tape, and you got an effective splint. The list goes on and on.

And it's flammable. So crumble up a ball of duct tape. Take your lighter out, light the edge of it, and it's going to burn because it's got so much plastic and so many differ-ent flammable elements in there. So that could be a backup tinder source as well. I always try to have multipurpose items in my gear or think of other options, other uses for the gear that I have. It's just nice to have those options. It's better to have them than not.

As for the ladies' feminine hygiene prod-ucts. These are in there for a number of reasons. Of course, you have their intend-ed use. You could be a hero to a lady in need by having these. They've got their obvious function, but they've also got the ability to be used as dressings for wounds. So if you had some maxi pads, feminine hygiene pads, these pads make an absor-bent bandage or dressing for a number of different types of wounds. Also tampons can be used as a dressing.

THE OUTPOST: PREPARE FOR ANYTHING


They've actually been used in gunshot wounds, historically and in more recent times. You'd actually plug a gunshot wound with it, and make sure that you can retrieve it. Make sure that you can still pull it out of there. But there's that application. Then you can just lay the tampon sideways as an absorptive dressing for bigger wounds, or you can even tear it open and use the cotton batting that's in there as the fire starter. So lots of uses.

This book is fascinating. Let's talk a little about the way you illustrated some of these very grim concepts with comic book art. Who did the artwork on the comics to illustrate?

We actually had a couple of different artists working with us to create those graphic novel style segments in the book. I've got two favorites in there. My chief editor, Mariah, knew that I was a Star Wars fan. So I'll play my nerd card now!

Yeah, I fly my nerd flag boldly and proudly [chuckles]. In item number 63 in the book, it's the paracord escape graphic novel section. So it's like you've flipped open a comic book, all the sudden. This fellow's sitting in his living room, and he's got Star Wars stuff scattered all across. Some thugs bust in and tie him up with zip ties. They're looting his house. So my editor, Mariah, put all the little Star Wars goodies on the shelves and on the tables----just to kind of do a little shout out for me.

To finish our story - not to give away too much - but this fellow uses his bootlaces in a very creative way to actually cut through zip ties. This is something that not a lot of people know, and I actually did some training last week with some DEA folks. These are some gentlemen I've known for a few years, and they like to have all their bases covered. These folks are in the personnel recovery part of the DEA, so they have to get people out of dangerous areas around the globe. They need to know all different kinds of survival strategies.


One of the head guys pulls me aside, and he's like, "How did you know our trick for busting out of zip ties?" And I said, "Well, I don't know. I'm not supposed to say." I kind of hemmed and hawed. So he'said "Wherever you learned it, that's exactly how we teach our guys how to bust out of zip ties."

So that was kind of nice to have somebody who needs that for their very grim, serious line of work. And then, he stood up and validated this. It's some-thing that anybody can do. You can try it yourself, and prove to yourself that it works. Everything in this book has been vetted, tested, and it's Outdoor Life maga-zine, and Tim MacWelch approved.

How can someone get a copy of the book, Tim?

The easiest way that folks can grab a copy of the book is to jump on Amazon and type in, "Prepare for Anything." You can also look up my name, Tim Mac-Welch - M-A-C-W-E-L-C-H. You can look it up under au-thor or under title.

When you look it up under title or author, Amazon is going to tell you that there's another book coming. So I actually have my second book out now. It is called,

The Hunting and Gathering Survival Manual. So we did another manual-style book that's going to look a lot like, Prepare for Anything, as far as the pictures, the layout, the way that it's built. But this new book is all about wild food, so it's what you would do if you had to feed yourself.

We cover hunting, trapping, fishing, foraging for wild edible plants, primitive cooking, making wild medi-cine in the field with natural ingredients, and the list goes on and on. As much as I love Prepare for Anything - this is my baby, this is my first book - I've also got a soft spot for this new book beause it's all about wild food, and that's one of my chief areas of study. This is one of the things that I spend the most time on, is foraging and harvesting wild game.

How do we keep up with you Tim?

You can follow me on Twitter. My handle is @timmac-welch

Whether you think we near the end of times or you just want to be prepared for the next natural disaster, Prepare for Anything is a fascinating and fun read.


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With lyrics and guitar riffs that would make you think you’re listening to ZZ Top or Lynrd Skynrd, and a sound unique to today’s Southeast, Atlanta based Blackberry Smoke has done it again with their new album. “Holding All The Roses” debuted on February 10, 2015 and features twelve tracks that contain everything from “Woman In The Moon” a slower song which seems to point to the groups source of inspiration, to the songs that show off their edgier, “smokier” side like “Payback’s A B*tch” and “Let Me Help You (Find The Door)”. The albums number two track, “Holding All The Roses” is sure to get you dancing in your boots no matter where you are. Some of y’all who grew up in the South might hear one of your grandaddy’s old sayings in their track “Wish In

One Hand”. And you can feel the groups ambition in tracks like “Fire In The Hole”. Due to their gritty, real, and not-care-what-people-think attitude, Blackber-ry Smoke has a number of songs that listeners are sure to relate to.

Charlie Starr (vocals, guitar), Richard Turner (bass, vocals), Brit Turner (drums), Paul Jack-son (guitar, vocals), and Bran-don Still (keyboard) have been together now for 15 years and do not look to be slowing down at all after this release. “Holding All The Roses” comes out only a year after the release of their live, 2 disc album “Leave A Scar: Live In North Carolina” which took nearly two years of tour-ing to complete. Their concert tour featured a full house what seemed like show after show and this kind of album is just what they need to elevate themselves above the rest of the Southern Rock genre.

As to being called “Southern Rock” Starr says this, “When people call us [Southern rock], I hope they don’t call us that with a smirk on their face,” he says. “And if they do, screw ‘em! I don’t care. We’ll fly that flag. … We’ll wear that hat — the South-ern Rock Band hat — because we’re a rock & roll band from the South, it’s what we do.” And as for up and coming artists like themselves, they are wearing that hat better than anyone else right now.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX4N8eIYbPg

Time will only tell of the nationwide success of this album, but one thing is for sure. For the lot of us who have listened to it, we have loved it. “Holding All The Roses” adds a new age twist to all the old, classic, southern, rock songs we all grew up listening to and love. Listen to the album and after two listens you’ll soon have your favorite song picked out and singing it on your way to work.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOYw1cOIps

“Bluegrass music makes people happy. I can’t think of anything on a Saturday morning that makes me feel better than finding a good blue-grass station on the radio” – Robert Earl Keen

No one has ever called Houston native Robert Earl Keen, “Bill Monroe” but he has been called a Texas version of Bob Dylan. He’s been kicking around the Texas music scene for decades. After 18 studio and live albums he is nationally and in-ternationally known.

I became a Robert Earl Keen fan the first time I heard him about 30 years ago. I think I still have my original red trimmed debut album No Kinda Dancer from 1984…somewhere. Few would have bet the son of a geologist and an attorney would end up in the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He plays a kind of music that few can do right and fewer really understand. Texas Country, progressive country, al-ternative country, outlaw, whatever. You know the sound. Willie infused, Austin bound, and a dash of swagger. Rob-ert Earl Keen is royalty in this genre. Those of us who love this kind of music respect, enjoy and appreciate his efforts and abilities. That’s the setup.

The latest effort is Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Ses-sions. REK says he’s always wanted to do a bluegrass album but the time wasn’t right until now. And, he’s damned good at it. He’s gathered the usual suspects for the music like longtime bass player Bill Whitbeck and the rest of his band of 30 years. But, he’s also added players like Nickel Creek fiddler Sara Watkins and banjo player Danny Barnes. To make it even better, as he whips up some truly enjoyable bluegrass music, he seems to main-tain his essence that makes us love his music.

Off the top of my head, I don’t know that anyone would think of Keen as a bluegrass singer. But he is. In fact, he truly feels and sounds the part. He sounds like he’s been singing bluegrass forever. He accomplishes this while still sounding uniquely like Robert Earl Keen.

Keen grew up around this music and you can feel his life-long passion for it. You can hear his roots when he opens with a song recorded by everyone from Flatt and Scruggs to Jerry Garcia: Hot Corn, Cold Corn. This is the first single (whatever that means) from the new album. His

Phil Hall is one of the partners of The Outpost Media Group and is the Program Director of The Outpost Radio

ROBERT EARL KEEN: HAPPY PRISONER: THE BLUEGRASS SESSIONS.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOYw1cOIps

bluegrass chops really shine through on the old Ernest Branch & the West Virginia Ramblers hit Footprints In The Snow and The Dillards favorite Old Home Place.

Producer Lloyd Maines includes a great story from Peter Rowan about how Walls of Time was written by Rowan and Bill Monroe. Keen does not disappoint with his version of this bluegrass classic. You can hear Keen’s sig-nature sound mixed with great bluegrass in Twisted Laurel and White Dove. His uptempo version of 52 Vincent Black Lightning lights up your speakers. His laid back versions of East Virginia Blues, Poor Ellen Smith, and Long Dark Veil showcase the ease he feels in this genre of music.

The duets on the album are all worthy of a listen. 99 Years For One Dark Day draws you in as Keen joins with Rowan on this classic. You can get lost in Wayfaring Stranger with Natalie Maines on harmony, and while Jim-mie Rodgers’ T for Texas is not exactly bluegrass, Keen teaming with old college friend and fellow Texas Hall of Famer Lyle Lovett gives the song a bluegrass feel. It’s laid back and easy to listen to.

THE MUSIC ON HAPPY PRISONER IS SUPERB.

Yes. I love this album. I’m contemplating on making it my favorite Robert Earl Keen album. Give it a listen even if you don’t like Robert Earl Keen and/or you don’t like bluegrass. This album is excellent for a windows rolled down or top down cruise in the mountains, reading the paper in bed on Sunday morning, or getting in right the state of mind at sunset on the back porch to truly appreciate what God’s gifts are.


Experts of popular culture have noted an increase in the number of people who want to customize their last event on earth – their funeral. Choosing the proper casket is an impor-tant part of this.

Several casket manufacturers offer custom-built caskets in a wide variety of styles and one of these will catch the eye of dearly departed who was a hunter. It's a hunting-themed, camouflage-lined casket. Layouts can range from the subtle, with only certain parts of the casket adorned with camo, to the fully wrapped.

According to Don Hall, who has been selling caskets for 40 years and currently owns Hall Caskets in Shreveport, Louisiana, business is brisk.

“It really gets popular this time of year—during hunting season—from September to Febru-ary,” Hall told The Shreveport Times.

Hall’s company sells caskets to licensed funeral homes, is not the only one that produces a hunting-themed design. Other manufacturers such as ‘Til We Meet Again, the Aurora Casket Company, and online marketplaces like Ultimate Memorials also offer their own variations.

How to be Stealthy in the Hereafter?Get a Camo Casket


MADE TO LAST FOREVER

These caskets are usually constructed out of 18 to 20 gauge metal or traditional hardwood. The only difference between these caskets and more standard ones are their designs. The level of detail depends on how much the buyer is willing to invest.

“The Hunter Oak features solid oak hardwood construction with a laser engraved deer plaque in the head panel and laser engraved deer on the lugs,” so say's the copy about the product found on Aurora Casket’s website. “The Natural Oak camouflage interior recalls a hunter’s affinity with nature and love of the outdoors.”

Buyers can order a wide range of different options. For example, there are designs for ani-mals other than deer, such as turkey, pheasant, and even bass for devoted anglers.

“In Arkansas they like to put a big gobbler in the back,” said James Flurry, sales manager for Hall Caskets. “We can sew a deer jumping the log in the background. Baby boomers re-ally love the camouflage look.”


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PHOTO OF THE MONTH

THE NEW OUTPOST RADIO IS LAUNCHEDRadio for the Great Outdoors

The stories in The Outpost Magazine are about the simple joys of living an authen-tic life. This includes outdoor sports such as fishing, hunting, camping, hiking and biking. It involves good food and strong drink and it also includes music – from every genre – that sportsmen and sports-women enjoy.

Unfortunately, most of the music you hear on traditional (terrestrial) radio is so sani-tized, analyzed and ‘peroxized’ that the tunes and words are cotton candy for the brain. Plus, most of the outdoor sports radio programs come on the stations be-tween 3 and 4 am. That’s a little too early for most of us.

It’s is for this reason that we joined some friends who are experts in the radio busi-ness and launched The Outpost Radio. We’re calling it Radio for the great out-doors and that’s more than just a catchy phrase.

A typical radio station would never play the diversity of songs you’ll hear on

The Outpost Radio. At any given time on this unique station, you can hear Stevie Ray Vaughan, followed by Blackberry Smoke, followed by George Jones. While all of this is going on you can be given a chance to listen to podcasts that feature tips on hunting whitetail deer, or catching crappie in the Atchafalaya Basin or learning why blue quail would rather run than fly.

In the words of more than one recently converted Outpost Radio fanatic: “I’ve never heard anything like this station.” Exactly. This combination of music and outdoor sports information, pre-sented 24/7, available wherever you are, worldwide on your mobile device has never been offered. Until now.

If you can do without the little girl pop stars and auto-tuned crap that passes for country and rock and roll these days, you might want to try The Outpost Radio. If you want to know the weather wherever you’re sitting in a duck blind, it’s here. If you’re on the way to hunt pheasant or fish for walleye and you’d like to know if anybody’s seeing any, this might be your new favorite radio station.


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P.O. Box 983, Reitz, 9810Free State Province, South Africa

Matt: +27(0) 72 540 0057Jacklyne: +27(0) 82 091 5903Fax: +27(0) 86 538 3660

[email protected] | [email protected]

www.likhulusafaris.com


(229) 251-9929WWW.GEORGIAALLIGATORHUNTING.COM


MICHIGAN U.P. GROUSE HUNTS &

FISHING TRIPSThese action-packed hunting & fishing trips are conducted in the game rich Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan at our Cast & Blast Lodge. We hunt on over a million acres of

“CAST AND BLAST” GROUSE HUNT AND FISHING PACKAGE• $1750 per person (parties of 4 or more only $1500 per person). • 5 full days of hunting and fishing - your choice.• Hunters are welcome to bring their dogs with them or hire a guide.• Upgrade to a fully guided trip for an additional $1000.00 per Group (includes dog handler, trained pointers and fishing guide).

premier grouse habitat - recognized by many as the top grouse hunting destination in North America! Both grouse and woodcock are plentiful in the surrounding aspen-filled forests.

Fishing takes place on Lake Superior and Lake Gogebic, the largest inland lake in Michigan. Lake Gogebic encom-passes 13,380 acres with 38 miles of beautiful shoreline and boasts more state angler awards than any other lake in the Upper Peninsula. Species on Lake Gogebic include Northern Pike, Walleye, Perch and Smallmouth Bass. On Lake Su-perior, the prized Lake Trout is the most abundant species and will be the primary species we will pursue. Coho Salmon is the next most abundant; Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Chinook Salmon and Lake Herring are occasionally caught.

INCLUDED IN ALL TRIPS• Lodging in our resort which consists of 7 completely furnished cabins overlooking Lake Gogebic. • All trips start with check in on Saturday afternoon and end with checkout on Friday morning.• Each day starts with a continental breakfast, a lunch at the lodge, and a home style dinner each evening.

MICHIGAN COMBO FISHING PACKAGE• $1575 per person (parties of 4 or more only $1250 per person). • 4 full days of semi-guided fishing on Lake Gogebic and then 1 day on a Lake Superior Charter Boat chasing Lake Trout and Salmon.• Trip can be upgraded to fully guided for $200 per day

• 17’ Crestliner Boats equipped with 90 HP motors.• The closest airport is Duluth, MN (2 hours from the camp).• Corporate groups and family reunions welcome - we can accommodate up to 30 people.• Additional Activities: o 4 public golf courses are located within a 30-45 minute drive from the resort o The Lac Vieux Desert Resort Casino is located in Watersmeet, MI – approxiately 40 miles from the resort

HTTP://CASTANDBLASTLODGES.COM

PHONE: (724)290-9338

http://castandblastlodges.com


Do you have a funny hunting or fishing picture? • Do you have a joke that everyone should hear?Email them to: [email protected]

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