As always, the Fourth of July Holiday weekend is likely to be one of the busiest boating weekends of the year in Tennessee, and officials from several state agencies are urging boaters to use caution on crowded waterways.

There have been 70 boating accidents in Tennessee already this year, resulting in 28 injuries and 11 fatalities. Conservation officers from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have also issued 59 citations for Boating Under the Influence (BUI) in 2008.

It’s important to remember that alcohol and water don’t mix, especially if you’re the one driving the boat. Operating a boat with a blood-alcohol content of .08 or higher is illegal in Tennessee – and it’s easier to reach that level than you might think.

When you’re out in the sun and the heat with the boat rocking underneath you, the effects of one beer can sometimes be equivalent to drinking three beers in a normal, dry-land situation.

I once did an experiment in Columbus, Ga., to see how many beers it took to get me “legally drunk” on the water.

Under the supervision of a Georgia conservation officer and a designated driver, I drank six beers and blew a .09 on the breathalyzer. If I had actually been operating the boat, it would have been a ticket straight to the drunk tank, in handcuffs.

From what I hear, judges don’t view BUI any differently than DUI. So the misery won’t end when the handcuffs come off.

Don’t let alcohol ruin your three-day weekend. Don’t take a chance of hurting yourself or someone else. Don’t allow yourself to become one of those statistics I mentioned above.

When I write about you on the outdoors page, I’d rather you be listed under “High Fives” instead of “Facts & Figures.”

In Sunday’s outdoors story about the ongoing search for northern snakehead fish in Arkansas, I mentioned that conservation officials unearthed a critter known as an “amphiuma.”

Since then, I’ve had several calls and emails from people wondering what the heck an amphiuma is.

Actually, they’re pretty hard to describe.

To me, they seem to be part snake, part eel, part salamander, part fish and part mutant creature from another planet.

Amphiumas are the largest amphibians found in Arkansas.

Sometimes referred to as “Congo eels” or “Congo snakes,” amphiumas have elongated bodies and stubby little legs that don’t serve much purpose on land. They have a snake-like physique and sometimes reach lengths of 3-4 feet. But they’re thicker than snakes, kind of like freshwater eels.

According to Lee Holt, a fisheries biologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, they spend most their time walking around on the bottom of lakes and streams. That’s why a lot of people have never seen one. They eat pretty much anything they can catch, including frogs, snakes, fish, crustaceans and insects.

They’re creepy looking critters - and if I came across one while wading, I probably wouldn’t be comforted by the knowledge that they’re completely non-venomous and pose no real threat to humans.

Just in case this description doesn’t paint the picture for you, I’ve included an actual picture of Lee Holt holding the one they found last week near Brinkley, Ark.

BASS officials announced Tuesday that the Bassmaster Elite Series’ River Rumble, originally scheduled for June 26-29 on the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa, has been relocated due to unsafe river conditions.

The new site for the event will be Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tenn., just three hours from Memphis. But if you’re a local tournament angler hoping to land a spot as a non-boater, you’re out of luck.

Despite the urgent relocation of the event, the co-angler slots filled up quickly. There’s already a waiting list of about 70 fishermen on the co-angler side.

For those who don’t know, Elite Series tournaments feature some of the top names in professional bass fishing - guys like Michael Iaconelli, Gerald Swindle and Kevin VanDam. Those guys are paired each day by random draw with amateur anglers (known as co-anglers) who have no control over the boat.

It’s often a good opportunity to learn from the most polished anglers in the business. But unless you’re already registered, you won’t get that chance on Old Hickory.

Sorry, guys and gals.

If you’re merely interested in following the event, daily weigh-ins will be broadcast at Bassmaster.com. The tournament has been renamed the “Tennessee Triumph.”

Old Hickory, which has hosted BASS events seven times during the organization’s 40-year history, will also host a Women’s Bassmaster Tour event this week, Thursday-Saturday.

Weigh-ins for the women’s event will also be broadcast live online.

During the next three weeks, Mid-South adults will have ample opportunities to take a kid (or 2 or 10) fishing.

The schedule of fishing rodeos in and around the Memphis area begins in earnest this Saturday and runs through June 21.

Here’s a complete list of children’s fishing events scheduled in West Tennessee. If you need more information on any of these events, visit the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency web site.

Saturday
Mason’s Dock Fishing Rodeo, Mason’s Boat Dock, Humphreys Co.
Mousetail Landing Fishing Rodeo, Mousetail Landing State Park
Big Sandy Kid’s Free Fishing Rodeo, Big Sandy Boat Ramp
Whiteville Lake Fishing Event, Whiteville Lake
Jackson/Madison Co. Youth Fishing Rodeo, Muse Park
Steve McCadams “Casting for a Cure,” Carroll Lake
TWRA Mid-South Junior Fishing Rodeo, Johnson Road Park, Germantown
Herb Parsons Lake Fishing Rodeo, Herb Parsons Lake
Chester Co. Fishing Rodeo, Gene Record Park
Hardin County Free Fishing Rodeo, Crump, TN
Reelfoot NWR Youth Fishing Rodeo, Reelfoot Refuge Headquarters
City Park Youth Fishing Rodeo, Martin, TN
Henderson Co. Fishing Rodeo, Club Lake, Natchez Trace State Park
Holley Fork Fishing Rodeo, Holley Fork Shooting Complex
June 14
5th Annual Free Take a Kid Fishing Rodeo, Birdsong Resort, Kentucky Lake
June 21
Houston County Fishing Rodeo, Danville
City of Bartlett Childrens Fishing Rodeo, Appling Lake, Bartlett

With turkey season over and the spring crappie spawn about done, many outdoorsmen seem to be taking a breather.

There’s just not a lot going on outdoors, except for catfishing.

There was a Cabela’s King Kat Tournament held Saturday on the Mississippi River in New Madrid, Mo. - and despite high, muddy waters, Daryl and Jason Masingale of Paragould, Ark., caught 89.25 pounds of catfish to win the event.

They earned $3,000 for the victory. The two, who are regular winners on the major catfishing trails, said they caught their fish using skipjack herring behind dykes in medium to heavy current.

Lindsay Sample of Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Chris Tramm of Lebanon, Ind., finished second with 85.15.

The three-man Mississippi team of Phil King, Tim Haynie and Lealan Harris placed third with 65.25.

I haven’t seen the results from the Bass Pro Shops Big Cat Quest event held Saturday at Paris, Tenn. But I’ll try to pass those results along when I get them.

I took this picture of a water snake trying to swallow a live bluegill at the pond behind my house earlier this week.

I’ve always heard that snakes have the ability to unhinge their jaws and swallow food that is much larger than their mouths.

I’ve seen rattlesnakes trying to swallow whole cottontail rabbits, and I’ve seen lots of snakes with big bulges in their bellies, suggesting they swallowed large items.

But I’d like to hear what you think about this picture.

Do you think this snake actually managed to swallow this fish? Or do you think the snake choked to death trying?

Before taking this photo, I was seeing this snake on a pretty regular basis. I have not seen it since.

So I’m really wondering.

I’d like to hear some thoughts from other folks.

As you may have read on the May 4 outdoors page, a breeding population of the dreaded northern snakehead fish was recently discovered in Lee County, Arkansas.

Obviously, this is bad news. But it may not be nearly as bad as some people think.

Since the northern snakehead was discovered in the United States back during the 1990s, myths and misconceptions about the fish have spread much faster than the fish themselves.

I’ve heard people say snakeheads can walk great distances to find new homes once they’ve eaten all of the fish from their original host reservoir. I’ve heard people say it’s unsafe to swim in a pond that’s inhabited by snakeheads because they will attack humans.

None of that stuff is true. It’s just exaggerated garbage that gets blown farther and farther out of proportion every time a story is passed from one person to another.

It’s true, northern snakeheads can survive for brief periods out of water. In fact, according to reports from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, that’s how this particular population was discovered. A farmer actually noticed one wiggling along a gravel road near a ditch.

“Wiggling” is a much more accurate assessment of what the fish can do out of water. They don’t have legs, so they don’t actually walk. You won’t see one jogging along the shoulder of I-40, and you certainly don’t have to worry about one walking up your driveway, ringing your doorbell and attacking you when you open the door.

As far as I know, there is no record of a northern snakehead having ever attacked a swimmer in the United States.

I’m sure humans have been bitten by snakeheads. But it was probably during the hook-removal process after the snakehead was landed by a fisherman - and that’s nothing new for anglers in the Mid-South.

The same thing can happen easily with gar, bowfin or even trout. We’ve been catching those fish - and swimming in waters loaded with them - for years, and we’ve never had any problems.

The difference with snakeheads is that they’re relatively new to us. They made their way into the U.S. from Asia sometime during the early 1990s when some brain donor brought them in for sale in the aquarium trade. When that happens with an exotic fish species, it will almost always make its way into the wild at some point.

It’s been happening for years with fish like Oscars and pacus. The difference is “Oscars” and “pacus” don’t sound nearly as menacing as snakeheads.

Be honest. If they were called rabbitheads, do you think they’d still be as feared as they are now?

Don’t get me wrong. Just because these fish have overblown reputations doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. If they escape into the major reservoirs of Arkansas, they could do immense damage to native fish populations like crappie, bass and bluegill.

For that reason, anyone who finds a northern snakehead in Arkansas is asked to call the AGFC regional office in Brinkley at (877) 734-4581 or the Fisheries Division in the Little Rock Office at (501) 223-6428.

They do pose some major dangers.

But no matter what you’ve heard, they’re not gonna come running up to bite you on your next family outing.