That hot, dry spell played havoc with the live worm harvest. Curt Yeater of Tom`s Pro Bass Shop in East Moline, Ill., reports an alarming increase of dead dew worms in shipments.
”We`re throwing away more worms than we sell, and a lot of the live ones aren`t big,” he said. ”We`ll find a dozen good ones in every box of two or three dozen that we get.”
That`s why worm prices are rising, he explained, with containers that formerly sold for 90 cents now as high as $1.25 in some places. Maybe the recent rains will help.
This `n that:. Top archers Fred Lutger of Freddie Bear Sports and Myron Rutledge of Martin Archery will conduct a free bow-hunting seminar at Goose Lake Prairie State Park for Heidecke State Fish & Wildlife Area from noon until 4 p.m. on Sept. 13. Topics will cover deer, bear, blood trailing and equipment. For times and details, call 815-942-2899. . . . Naperville`s chapter of Ducks Unlimited has set its fundraiser for Sept. 11 at the Sheraton Hotel there. Call 357-8328. . . . Also, the Northern Fox Valley Ducks Unlimited group will dine Sept. 19 at the Snuggery on Ill. Hwy. 20 east of Elgin. Call 584-4383 or 741-1539. . . . Trout fishing has been depleted in Wisconsin`s Castle Rock Creek and its Doc Smith branch near Boscobel because of a fish kill resulting from a four-inch downpour last month. Some 8 1/2 miles of Class II trout waters were depleted of oxygen.
The successful birth of that U.S. Open goose-calling championship in Michigan City, Ind., this month should add dimension to a competitive goose-calling scene that has been overshadowed by duck-calling, according to Dave Santeramo, one of the organizers.
Santeramo said more judging should emphasize effective calling in the field rather than instrument virtuosity.
”The calls you hear in a lot of contests are not close to anything that you`ll hear in blinds and pits,” Santeramo observed.
New Hampshire wildlife officials have folded under public pressure and dropped their proposal for a mourning dove hunting season.
While hunting doves has a ”sound biological basis,” state fish and game director Allen Crabtree argued in a statement announcing the decision, officials nevertheless bowed to an outpouring of 1,200 unfavorable responses. ”There`s an awful lot of emotion out there and not a whole lot of common sense,” said Howard Nowell, the state`s chief of game management and research.
Nowell said the public is wrong to believe the mourning dove is a domesticated songbird, calling it ”the No. 1 game bird in the United States” with 36 of the 48 contiguous states having regular dove hunting seasons.
Of the estimated 350 to 600 million mourning doves nationwide, hunters kill about 50 million each year.
