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PAGE 2B THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008 Outdoors With Skipper An unusual fish which ended up on the grill I t all started off last Friday morning by my being able to mow the yard and till up the garden for the first time, before the rains came later that afternoon. Then I called my office, check ing on any incoming calls, and found out I had a voice mail leav ing me a nice fire protection order. I had also received a big order on Thursday the day before, along with a tax refund check. So things were going along great for the past couple of days. Around noon on Friday I headed up to the Soque River to see what was taking place there. It had started to rain a bit when I arrived but the water had not muddied up yet. My first fish was a stocker size which I quickly released. Trying different casts and posi tions, I soon hooked up with a bigger fish. The line was pulled rapidly off the spool, as the drag did its job. It was a nice fish, but an unusual one, as I saw its out line in the swift water. I moved closer to the water to bring it in, as I was lacking my net. The trout looked like a foot ball. Instead of being long it was more round in shape. I gently brought it to the edge of the river, and reaching down worked on reviving it. The water was freezing on my hand, as I worked with the fish. Each time it wanted to belly- up when I would try to release it. I certainly didn’t want to have a fish like this just float on downstream to die. I figured, that being so large and so unusual in shape the fight had just plum worn it out. This fish would have to go into the ice chest and onto someone’s table. With no more activity, I headed to another spot and had it all to myself, with the rain com ing down. I had heard it had been stocked so I wanted to check that out. With no vehicles there, I figured it hadn’t, but worth a try anyway. At my second spot, I hooked onto what I believe was a fish, as I saw a flash of white. My four pound test line broke. Normally, I use six. Perhaps the line was frayed or it was a big fish. I like to think it was a big one. I tried different things but couldn’t get another hit from any size fish. Well, time to head home. I stopped by Homer Hardware, and found there was a taker for the fish. It weighed five pounds, and would be good cooked on a grill. I checked this morning and the cooker reported that the fish tasted real good, even though it wasn’t as pretty as most trout are. Well, how pretty a fish is has nothing much to do with how good it tastes. This fish proved that. Friday was great, Saturday was filled with my weather radio sounding every hour, as we kept alert and prepared to take shelter in the stairs. Thank goodness we didn’t have to. Turkey season opens this Saturday. Let me know about the gobbler you get. Skipper Smith is an outdoors columnist for The Banks County News. His column appears weekly. Let him know about your hunting or fishing adventure at 706-677-1520. AN UNUSUAL CATCH Skipper Smith, outdoors columnist for The Banks County News, shows off this odd-shaped catch he reeled in this past week end. LI skipper smith JUNIOR VARSITY DIAMOND LEOPARDS Members of the 2008 Banks County High School junior varsity baseball team include, front row, from left, Trent Mathis, Eli Autry, Jessy Hudgins, Cameron King, Brandon Ruark, Jared Clark, Jay Coen, and Seth McEntire; (back row, from left) Coach Brent Howell, manager Michael Alford, Cody Gowder, Brian Mathis, Kieffer Hellmeister, Tim Cox, Kris Hellmeister, Jason Sexton and Andrew Berry. Junior Varsity Baseball Leopards fall in high-scoring contest BY CHRIS BRIDGES The Banks County High School junior varsity baseball team had plenty of offense in a matchup against Lumpkin County earlier this month. Unfortunately, host Lumpkin County had even more pop in its bats. By the time the day was over, Lumpkin had emerged with a 17-7 win. Despite the setback, BCHS JV coach Brent Howell saw improve ments from his team from its open ing game to the second. “Our players came out and made the right adjustments at the plate and put seven runs on the board by the fourth inning,” the coach said. The inning that would cost BCHS was the bottom of the fourth as Lumpkin pushed 13 runs across. “It was a very tough inning for us,” Howell said. “We had a tough time getting outs. We would throw a strike and then make an error. Our players learned a lesson in the game, however. If we give up more than three outs in an inning our opponent will make us pay.” Keiffer Hellmeister was 2-for-2 at the plate for the JV Leopards with a double, single, run scored and RBI. Kris Hellmeister was 2-for-3 with a double, single and RBI. Eli Autry finished the game 2-for-4 with a double, single and two runs scored while Jason Sexton added a 2-for-4 performance with two runs scored. Also contributing offen sively were Brian Mathis (1-for-2, RBI) and Jessy Hudgins (1-for-2, run scored). Autry, Seth McEntire and Cameron King each pitched for BCHS. “We will continue to learn and improve,” Howell said. “It is not how we start but how we finish. I want to see us improve from game to game. The guys played hard and are eager to get back to work to get better.” BCHS Class of 1995 establishing memorial scholarship The Banks County High School Class of 1995 is establishing a scholarship in memory of classmate Shawn Smith. Smith, who was a standout athlete for the BCHS Leopards, died fol lowing a car accident last summer while attending a basketball camp in Alabama with members of the North Oconee County High School team. The annual football game between BCHS and North Oconee has been named the Shawn Smith Bowl in his honor. Those wishing to make dona tions or obtain additional informa tion can contact Nicole Blalock at 706-658-7014 or Heather Cotton at 706-654-7683. 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