With the opening day of muzzleloader season set for Saturday, the Tennessee woods are about to become much more crowded.

Those of us who were too lazy to do all of the scouting and planning necessary for a good bow hunt are finally going to climb into a stand, hoping for a shot of about 50 yards or less.

But before we invade the bow hunters’ space, I’d like to give you an overview of the fun they’ve been having.

As of Tuesday afternoon, according to the TWRA Online Harvest Report, archery and crossbow hunters have killed 24,199 deer. That’s 18 more than they had killed at this point last year.

The top 10 counties were as follows:

1. Stewart 669
2. Giles 598
3. Cumberland 591
4. Hawkins 532
5. Franklin 532
6. Lincoln 507
7. Henry 481
8. Montgomery 453
9. Meigs 417
10. Rhea 407

Perennial top-10 finisher, Fayette County, is just outside the rankings with 400 deer. That’s good for 11th place.

These numbers tend to be a little sketchy, and they’re certain to change rapidly when the guns start firing this weekend.

But it’s always interesting to take a look.

By winning last week’s Women’s Bassmaster Tour Championship on Lake Hamilton and securing the WBT Angler of the Year award, Kim Bain became the first woman ever to qualify for the Bassmasters Classic.

The Classic, of course, is the big one.

Through the years, Classic winners have included fishing legends like Rick Clunn, Denny Brauer and Kevin Van Dam.

In February, Bain could add her name to that list and super-charge a sport that many believe has passed its peak.

If a woman was to win the Bassmasters Classic, it would prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that fishing is a sport for all people.

Let’s face it.

A woman won’t be scoring the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl anytime soon. She won’t hit a walk-off homer to win the World Series or sink a trey to win the seventh game of the NBA finals.

Danica Patrick and Annika Sorenstam have had their moments, but they haven’t won the ultimate championship in their respective sports.

Until Danica wins the Indy 500 or Annika wins The Masters in Augusta, they haven’t come close to what Kim Bain would accomplish if she wins the Bassmaster Classic on the Little Red River four months from now.

Obviously, I’m not saying she has to win on her first try.

By simply reaching the Classic, Kim Bain has already lifted the spirits of female outdoorsmen everywhere.

By cranking her boat on Feb. 20, 2009, she’ll be blazing a new trail for all female anglers.

If she can make a solid showing – and actually beat some of the boys – no one will ever say again that women don’t belong in the Classic.

But if Kim Bain could find a way to win what has historically been a very tough tournament, her accomplishment would literally spawn a new generation of little girls who want to go fishing with their dads.

People don’t get that kind of chance very often.

I hope she gets it done - and gives the guys fits in the process.

While I’m killing time at Memphis Motorsports Park waiting for the Nationwide Series race to start, I thought I’d pass along an interesting tidbit I picked up last night.

According to MUS coach Bobby Alston, last night’s game at ECS marked the first time all season the top-ranked Owls have played on natural grass.

That’s amazing to me.

They’re nine games into the season, and they’ve played only one game on grass?

What happened to the days when high school football was played on a nasty mix pof mud, grass and white paint?

No matter what happened to those days, I’m glad they’re gone. Teams like MUS and ECS deserve better.

By the way, ECS coach Jim Heinz spent all day Friday getting his field ready after Thursday’s heavy rains. The field looked great.

Perhaps returning the favor, Alston chose not to add a late fourth-quarter touchdown that would have increased the score to 29-10 MUS.

Instead, his quarterback took a knee at the ECS one-yard-line.

Both coaches are classy guys.

If you’re up early Saturday morning taking part in Tennessee’s special youth deer hunt, be sure to turn on “Outdoors with Larry Rea” on AM-79.

The show starts at 6 a.m., and I’ll be in the studio with Larry for the entire 90 minutes.

He’ll have interviews with TWRA hunter education specialist Gene Smith, and a nice list of other folks, including:

** Alex Rutledge, a pro-staffer for Hunter Specialties

** Danny Van Pelt of the Mid-South Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association

** Memphis realtor Linda Arnold, who recently landed a 25-inch trout on the Little Red River

** Ernie Lenzt, a natural resources specialist at Arkabutla Lake

** C.J. Davis, who will talk about ThermaCell’s wildly popular new earth-scented mosquito repellent

They’re all interesting folks – and Larry is always worth listening to.

I’ve read a lot through the years about scent and how different ones tend to trigger different memories.

I really believe that.

Every time I smell Golden Rule Barbecue, I’m reminded of mid-summer fishing trips with my father and grandfather.

Every time I smell honeysuckles, I think about the spring days I spent swimming and fishing on the Cahaba River near Birmingham.

But no scent triggers my memory like the sweet smell of dirt.

For me, it will always mean hunting.

That’s the biggest reason why I like the new earth-scented mosquito repellent from Thermacell.

It’s the same old butane cartridge that fits into a portable unit - the same one that’s been helping hunters avoid mosquito bites for years. But instead of smelling like bug repellent, it smells like dirt.

When I say it smells like dirt, I don’t mean the nasty, musty dirt you smell during the third quarter on a high school football field.

It smells like fresh, damp earth with a hint of fallen leaves. It’s the same wonderful scent you smell every time you enter the woods before daylight. The same scent you’ll smell as you track your first deer on the opening day of the muzzleloader season (I mean, once the smoke clears from the black powder).

The smell of corn dogs will always remind me of the fair.

The smell of gasoline and freshly mowed grass will always remind me of my garage, the inner-sanctum of my home.

But dirt, fresh earth, will always mean it’s time to go hunting.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission has voted on changes for the state’s 2009 sportfishing regulations, but there doesn’t seem to be anything really earth-shattering for West Tennessee.

The Commission decided to maintain the minimum length limit of 15 inches for smallmouth bass on Kentucky Lake. That’s a perfectly reasonable limit. As far as I’m concerned, they could have gone with 16 or more.

The Commission also decided to establish a daily creel limit of 30 crappie per person for West Tennessee fisheries, including Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, but excluding the Mississippi River. The creel limit will remain 50 on the Mississippi.

There was a big scare a few months ago over a TWRA proposal that would have lowered the daily limit for crappie to 15 per person on Kentucky Lake. But area anglers made such a fuss that TWRA changed its mind.

It was the right choice. A limit of 15 would have been too constricting. Many out-of-town anglers would have marked Kentucky Lake off their lists because it wouldn’t have been worth the trip for 15 measly crappie.

That would have cost guides, hotel owners and restaurant owners on Kentucky Lake a lot of money, and long term, I don’t think it would have helped the lake’s crappie population that much.

The changes will take effect March 1, 2009.

When fishermen see this picture of a largemouth bass with a Dance’s Eel in its mouth, some will automatically think I caught the fish on something else and stuck the eel in its mouth just for the photo shoot.

But I actually caught this bass and several more like it on a Dance’s Eel during a recent weekend fishing trip to a private lake in Fayette County.

The Dance’s Eel or “Dancing Eel” as people sometimes call it, must be one of the least popular lures in the history of bass fishing - and I really don’t know why.

I hear people chuckle about it all the time, and I can’t remember a day when I actually saw someone using the bait.

You never see the guys from the Bassmaster Tournament Trail or the FLW Tour using a Dance’s Eel during a major competitive event, and besides Bill Dance, the guy the lure is named for, you never see an outdoors celebrity using one on his TV show.

Before last week, I had never used one either. But with an opportunity to fish a great lake full of hungry fish, I was determined to find out why people are so quick to turn up their noses at this lure.

After using it for a few hours, I still don’t know why.

It has a great action in the water, kind of like a crankbait with a long, plastic tail. It’s heavy enough for easy casting and light enough for an easy retrieve.

The only drawback I found is that you miss quite a few strikes.

The Dance’s Eel is a long bait, and it only has one treble hook. That hook is located on the front of the lure, so if a fish hits the back of the bait, it’s easy to miss him.

I admit, I was fishing a private lake - and that certainly makes everything easier.

But I saw enough good qualities in this lure to know it should work pretty much anywhere.

Why are people so quick to use it as a punch line?