Outdoors

This past Thursday, we sat down attables filled with food we usually don’tsee any other time of year. Turkey,ham, cakes and pies and all the trimmings are the meal that mostcelebrants enjoy with family andfriends on this special day.The more I thought aboutThanksgiving and all I have to bethankful for, the more thoughtsand special memories and miracles that have occurred …

I’ve been out of school for so long it’s hard to remember things I learned at Goldonna High School and Northwestern State. The years have erased or toned down much of the “book learning” I was exposed to way back then.  There is one thing, however, that as a writer, I keep at the forefront of my mind and that’s …

With political unrest festering acrossthe world, it may be difficult to eventhink about finding fun things to do.Nasty stuff is going on that is causingus to focus on just keeping ourheads above water and doingour best not to let negatives takeover. It’s time to think about relaxingand calming activities,things like hunting and fishing.Deer season is going fullswing in Louisiana and …

One of the things I really enjoy as anoutdoors writer is interviewing Louisianadeer hunters who have been successfulin downing a trophy buck. I getto vicariously sit in the standwith them as if I’m looking overtheir shoulders as they describejust what they see, includingwhen the buck steps out.Afterward, I transcribe whatthey tell me and convert their descriptionof the hunt into a …

Looking through the thousands ofphotos on my computer, I ran acrossone of my dad, and that put me in the frame of mind to share just what a spe-cial man he was to me. Thomas Ernest “Doc” Har-ris was born in the hamlet of Friendship, LA on March 5, His mom was Edna Strain;his dad William Austin Harris,older brother to …

Now that deer season is here, I amonce again enjoying the privilege ofinterviewing successful hunters andwriting stories for LA Sportsman magazineabout big bucks taken in thestate. Here’s one I did last weekthat had a couple of interestingtwists.Waylon Shackleford, 19 yearold who lives in Alexandria,a pre-engineering student atLSU-Alexandria, encountered acouple of strange and interestingthings that occurred beforehe could lay claim to …

It all started half a century ago andmy friend, the late Kinny Haddox,wrote about the birth of high schoolbass tournaments, how it got kicked offand the part he played in gettingthis circuit up and running.Louisiana Sportsman magazineran an article written byHaddox about the first everdocumented high school basstournament. Know where it washeld? At Jake’s Boat Dock onLake D’Arbonne 50 years …

After months of waiting, deer seasonsare on us. Archery season kickedoff October 1 with gun season followingin a few weeks. Hopefully, you’ll see thedeer you want, take the shot andfind the deer on the ground atyour feet. Now what?Too often, a deer hunter, novicehunters in particular, goesafield with tunnel vision. He’sthinking of nothing except bagginga deer and that’s about asfar …

Archery season for deer begins in less thana month. It seems fitting that we shine the spotlightonce again on Sterling Harrell, a man whopioneered bow hunting in our part of the country.Pine Bluff, AR native Ben Pearson, wasa pioneer and innovator when it came topromoting the sport of archery way backwhen. Pearson started the first companyin the U.S. to mass-produce …

I enjoy a good movie now and then. I’ll sometimeseven go to a concert and have been known toenjoy a stage production or two. These events serveas an avenue of entertainment; we need such occasionallyto get us out of our rut and offer a measureof change from the daily grind.For sheer entertainment, though, I’lltake what Mother Nature has to offer …