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.

One thing I’ve learned in all my years as an outdoors writer is that you can’t go wrong writing about snakes.

Whether people love them or hate them, everyone seems to be fascinated by them - and for that reason, stories like the one I published May 11 are always well-read.

Personally, I hate snakes - and I have for a very long time.

I know they’re good for the ecosystem, and they play a positive role for the environment. But I get shaky at the mere thought of snakes because of several incidents that took place when I was a child.

When I was seven or eight years old, my grandfather used to let me swim in the Cahaba River that flows through the heart of Birmingham, Ala. We also did some trotline fishing for catfish on the river, and one night he put out a minnow trap to catch small fish for catfish bait in the same spot where I had always swam.

When we came back the next morning, the trap was filled with small bluegill. But it was also holding a giant banded water snake.

The snake had swam into the trap and swallowed one of the bluegill whole. But with the big lump in its mid-section, it couldn’t get back out of the trap and it drowned.

Needless to say, that was the last time I swam in that spot - and that incident was the source of many snake-related nightmares.

A few years laters when I was about 10 or 12, I went blackberry picking with my grandfather. Snakes were a common occurrence on blackberry-picking trips because they like to sit near the bushes and catch birds that come to eat the berries.

On our way to the blackberry bushes one day, we encountered a snake so big that it stretched completely across the dirt road we were riding on. It had to be at least 10 to 12 feet long, and I’ll always believe it was someone’s pet python or boa constrictor that they had just released into the woods.

My grandfather ran over it with his Volkswagen, and the snake didn’t even slow down. When we rolled over the giant reptile, it was like rolling over a concrete speed bump. But the snake kept going. It crossed the road, crawled into the woods and disappeared. Even four tires and the weight of a car weren’t enough to stop it.

I demanded that my grandfather take me home right then - and now, more than 20 years later, I never take a bite of blackberry cobbler without thinking of the incident.

Like I said, I know snakes serve a purpose. I would never kill one just for the sake of killing it.

But every time I see one, I get chills.

Even as a seasoned outdoorsman, they are one of my greatest fears.

They have been for a long time - and they probably always will be.

Hey folks,

Sorry I’ve been off the blog for a while. But I had some surgery in late April, and the recovery was a bit tougher than I expected.

Anyway, I’m back near full strength now, and I wanted to update you on a couple of things.

Since my May 4 story on tilapia, I’ve gotten a lot of calls from people wondering where they can find these truly fascinating fish. The company I mentioned in the story, Southeastern Pond Management, can be reached at (888) 830-POND.

I haven’t heard about any public stockings of tilapia in Arkansas or Tennessee yet. But when I do, I will certainly publish an update.

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission did recently stock 180,000 pounds of other fish species into public lakes around the state.

Courtesy of the AGFC, here’s a complete breakdown of the species they stocked:
Read the rest of this entry »

After photographing the albino raccoon for Sunday’s outdoors story, I’ve added one more animal to a growing list of albino and/or strangely colored things that I’ve seen in person.

Here’s my latest count:

1. Albino ruby throat hummingbird (Manchester, Ga.) - It was solid white, and I actually got to hold it while the biologists banded its leg.
2. Albino bluebird (Columbus, Ga) - A really strange sight, considering its parents were normal bluebirds.
3. Piebald whitetail deer (Eufaula, Ala.) - I actually shot at it from a tree stand and missed. It was a stunning sight.
4. Albino corn snake (Fort Benning, Ga.) - I watched several of them hatching from their eggs, and they came out striking at everything in sight.
5. Melanistic spotted gar (LaGrange, Ga.) - It was solid black and looked like some kind of dinosaur.
5. Blonde mallard (northern Missouri) - I saw this bird during the snow goose conservation order. It really stood out among the normal mallards.
6. Albino raccoon (Cordova, Tenn.) - Super cool, especially sitting right next to a regular raccoon.