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SOUTHERN OUTDOORS, JULY 15, 1946
Where Friends and the Outdoors Meet
Phone MAin 7137 * Pryor at Auburn, Atlanta 3, Ga.
JOHN MARTIN Editor and Publisher
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
CHARLES ELLIOTT EDDIE FINLAY DEAN HUNTER
LOU WILLIAMS B. M. ATKINSON, JR. PARSON S. GUNN
HENRY P. DAVIS GENE WIKE JACK PICKEREL
Southern Outdoors is a trade and technical newspaper, publishing trade and technical news
for sportsmen, sporting goods dealers and the industry. Issued semi-monthly by Southern
Outdoors, Pryor at Auburn, Atlanta 3, Ga.
YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $1.50; SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS
'rr’i HARD TO START A. FIRE' WITH JUST ONE STICK °F WOOP
■
Tarpon Run
Oii Georgia
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responsible for advance payments to representatives or agents. All publications are entitled
to use for republication all news credited to Southern Outdoors. Entered at the Atlanta post
office in May, 1940, as second class matter under Act of March 3, 1879.
We’re Not Ready
We shall always be alert to any opportunity to hail the
virtues of the South from every tree top. And we believe
the South offers its native citizens a wider variety of hunt
ing and fishing and recreational facilities than any other
section of this country.
But we cannot join in the notion that the South is ready
to entertain the world and grab the dollar of millions of
tourists and fun-seekers. We cannot subscribe to the popular
belief that the bobwhite quail is a money crop. The quail
is not a money crop in the South and it will never become
one. Land use is going in exactly opposite directions to
those required for the production of more quail.
Our fishing perhaps is in worse shape than our hunting.
Neither is good enough to satisfy our native citizens. If
the fellows at home are not pleased, how may we expect
to attract visitors and have them go home satisfied?
Dismissing the possibility of entertaining hunters on a
large scale as something that we shall never see realized in
the South, let us consider fishing and scenic attractions.
Several states, notably Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and
Louisiana, have made a success of the tourist-sportsman
trade. But these states didn’t do the job with rundown tour
ist camps and a juke organ.
The traveler wants above everything else appetizing
meals and clean, comfortable beds. Taking Georgia as an
example, perhaps a poor example, how many places in this
state can you name that would offer you pleasant surround
ings, comfort and good food tonight? That poses a hard
one to answer.
It seems to us that the establishment of more and better
motor courts, restaurants and tourist camps is in order be
fore a majority of the Southern states can make a con
scientious play for visitors. This is just the first step, and
accomplishing it perhaps is a long way off. Then must come
the task of providing better fishing and organized guide
service.
Our recreational advantages sound pretty at luncheon
meetings and on paper, but we are just ribbing ourselves
when we say we’re ready to offer anything worthwhile to j
more than one boatload of fishermen, hunters or tourists.
We sincerely hope these conditions will not always exist.
Short Season Trend
The trend is toward shorter seasons and lower limits on
game birds and animals in Southern states. Sportsmen them-:
selves are playing an important role in these reductions,;
just as some of their friends who overshoot game—in and
out of season—have helped hurry the decline of important j
species.
In Mississippi drastic cuts have been made in the shoot-1
ing of deer, turkeys and quail. Action of the game and fish
Commission was provoked by aroused sportsmen who want;
to protect the game supply and thereby insure their own:
future sport. Mississippi has closed turkey shooting for two j
years. Deer hunting was slashed to 13 days with a season’s
limit of one buck. The quail season was cut to 62 days and
the limit from 12 to 10 birds.
North Carolina is expected to reduce its season on
bobwhites from 71 to 45 days. There are many arguments
for and against these reductions, but we must admit that
the changes alone indicate more active interest in conserva
tion. There are few, if any, who know where we’re headed in
the business of game production. The Georgia Game and
Fish Commission has seen fit to allow the 101-day quail
season to remain. South Carolina and Georgia have the long
est upland shooting seasons in the world.
A few more years will tell us how much effect the lengthj
• ; seasons has on game populations.
A letter from Charlie Hood, at
Waycross, (Ga.) brings the infor
mation that tarpon are striking off
the Georgia coast. Charlie is one
of the best fishermen in the south
ern part of the state. A tarpon is
one fish that Waltonite Hood
dreams about at night and about
which he talks during the hours
he is awake.
I once went on a tarpon trip
with Charlie and his Commission
er dad in South Florida. We
passed up winter trout on the
flats, big snook and reds in the
edge of the mangroves, for the big
silver fish. The two Hoods taught
me the rudiments of tarpon fish
ing, how to point my rod at the
fish to take up slack when he
jumped, how to handle him in
shallow water. I caught some of
their enthusiasm, too, and in spite
of weather, mosquitoes and insuf
ficient sleep, the trip W’as one of
the most enjoyable I ever had.
LONG WAIT
For years now, Charlie has been
watching for the tarpon in the St.
Mary’s river, between St. Mary’s
and Fernandina. The other day he
received a telephone call, advising
that a school of big fish had been
spotted at the mouth of the river.
He had on his hat before he hung
up the telephone. He arrived too
late for the best fishing, but
caught six of the silver kings.
His letter was no surprise to
me. For some time the Game and
Fish Commission has been trying
to finance plans to make a big
game survey off the Georgia coast.
We believe that the big game fish
are there. The Gulfstream, 50
miles from the tidal flats and
marshes, is the best bet, of course.
Tunas, broadbills and other big
game fish which migrate north
from the Bermudas and the Span
ish Main, go by the route of the
Gulfstream.
Last year, in a conference be
tween the coastal authorities, the
fishermen and others, it was mu
tually agreed to provide a fund to
make the game fish survey off the
coast. Incidentally, there was a
thought that a school of shrimp
such as was discovered a few
years ago out in the Gulf of Mex
ico, might be found off the Geor
gia coast.
The state was never able to put
up its share of the funds and the
project fell through.
BIG FISH—BIG BUSINESS
Charlie Hood has definitely
proved that tarpon fishing in our
salt waters is a fact. Some of the
other states, with vision, and
enough money to promote their
big game fishing, make millions
out of the anglers who seek out
that type of sport. A man fishing
for broadbill swordfish, and tuna,
and sailfish, doesn’t spend pennies
for his fun. Boats and tackle are
expensive items, and he is willing
to pay for the privilege of their
use.
There is big business in the big
fish off the Georgia coast. There
remains only someone with enough
foresight to develop it. The rec
reational possibilities would far
surpass the amount received for
the meat itself, which, in 100- or
200-pound fish, is no small item.
Sometimes I wonder why it is
that we cannot see any further
than the edges of the freckles on
the ends of our noses.
Surface Strikes
By B. M. ATKINSON, JR.
Here’s to the “week-end widow,”
In the summer, a lonely lass.
For news of her true love,
She has to ask a bass.
We’ll probably get our poetic license revoked for that limping bit
of doggerel, but there’s truth in them thar lines, if not meter. It
was a snake that betrayed Mistress Eve, but a fish does wrong by
the “week-end widow” whose mate heads for the fishing grounds
at the drop of a tackle box.
More men would take their wives fishing, if the gals were not
such good swimmers. It wouldn’t go well in court, should it be
revealed that your wife was weighted down with the anchor before
she accidentally fell overboard.
It takes a brave woman to dare a man to choose between her
and a trout stream. Both may babble all the time but one runs
to the sea and the other to the beauty parlor.
The biggest batch of fish landed this year must be credited to
Mike Jacobs. The fight fans were such suckers they were sporting
gill slits before the bell.
The weather has been just right. Too hot to do anything useful
around the house and ideal for casting. Medicine men are still trying
to figure how a man can get a sun stroke mowing the lawn in 80
degrees and goose pimples fishing in 100.
As usual, a lot of the boys are having to get off work to bury
grandma. That’s another puzzler for science. Why are more grand
mas buried when the calendar shows black.
At least we have a hint as to what becomes of the antlers that
buck deer shed. They are being harvested to flavor some of this
Mexican beer on the market today.
If you are worrying about the price of pork and beef going up,
think how a rabbit must feel. He’d better get his “doging” shoes
retreaded before this fall.
These high prices will probably cause a sharp reversal of opinion
about the edibility of coastal catfish.
The whole business makes you long for the day when there were
more spineless specimens in the ocean than in Washington.
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