Going on a bear hunt
By ‘THE GREAT INDOORS’
By Ralph Hardin S orry, it’s me again, your intrepid editor with another attempt at providing you with some outdoors news.
I remember in kindergarten, we used to have “music time” with Miss Kirkendoll. She taught us a bunch of songs about all sorts of things, many of which I still remember, but one that always stand out in my head that made an impression on 5-year-old me was “Going on a Bear Hunt.” It was a clap-clap-sing sort of deal, kind of like “We Will Rock You” by Queen.
While doing a slap-your-knee, slap-your-knee, clap, clap sort of rhythm, the class in unison would say, “Goin’ on a bear hunt, goin’ on a bear hunt” and then Miss Kirkendoll would point to one of the kids and they would pick out something to encounter on our journey, like “Come to a fence, Come to a fence.”
Then the class would have to _gure out how to overcome this obstacle, all the while keeping the cadence of the song … “Can’t go under it, can’t go under it … can’t go around it, can’t go around it … we’ll have to climb over it, we’ll have to climb over it.” The class would then pantomime climbing over a fence and go right back to the bear hunt chant before coming to the next obstacle, which might be a river (We’ll have to swim through it) or a mountain (We’ll have to hike over it) or a big tree (We’ll have to go around it).
Eventually, Miss Kirkendoll would announce “Come to a cave, Come to a cave” and a worried hush would fall over the class, because after the _rst time we sang the song, we all knew what it meant … the bear was in the cave.
We all dropped to a whisper as we sang, “Go in the cave, go in the cave.” And sure enough, there would be a bear, at which time, Miss Kirkendoll would growl, and we’d all scream and run back through all the obstacles we had encountered along the way, frantically pantomiming our way back to safety.
I said all that to say this … even now, more than 40 years later, when I’m driving and I encounter an obstacle, I will still say something like, “We’ll have to go around it, we’ll have to go around it.” It also reminds me of a time I actually did go hunting (yes, I said last week that I don’t hunt, not that I’ve never hunted).
Anyway, about 25 years ago, my father-in-law got a few of us menfolk in the family a special permit to hunt deer on the White River. Again, I was, even then, not an avid huntsman, but I was happy to give it a shot and hang out with the guys, who at the time, I was still getting to know.
It was late October or early November and we had our pop-up camper set up along the river.
We were hanging out by the _re eating some burgers and hot dogs when the game warden stopped by.
He was just checking everyone’s permit and letting all the hunters know that there had been a few black bears spotted in the are so we should be aware.
My brother-in-law asked if we were allowed to shoot them if we felt threatened. The warden said only if we thought our lives were in immediate danger. And, he added, “If you shoot one, you better have claw marks on you.”
That was enough to convince me that maybe I didn’t need to go deer hunting after all, but I went anyway, partnering up with my uncle- in-law. We didn’t see any deer that next morning, but we did, in fact, come within maybe 100 yards of a black bear. We weren’t too nervous, because I don’t think it ever even knew we were there, but I still chuckle at what my uncle-inlaw said as we waited for the bear to pass through.
“Keep moving, buddy. I don’t want to kill you and you don’t want to be dead.”
Anyways, here’s a few _shing news items for this week: Caleb Free, 16, of Marion, landed a nice 3 1/2–
pound smallmouth bass while on a family _shing trip near Mountain View last week. After getting a quick pic, he turned the _sh back out into the water.
Gurdon Lake, a 50-acre waterbody in Clark County near Gurdon, recently received a stocking of Florida largemouth bass _ngerlings. The Andrew Hulsey State Fish Hatchery in Hot Springs provided 5,809 _ngerlings for the recent stocking. The AGFC has stocked Gurdon Lake with Florida largemouth bass nearly annually since its renovation and re_ll back in 1990, when the lake became AGFC property. Biologists conduct interval electro_shing surveys to evaluate the bass population density and size structure. This lake has a strong tendency to produce some very nice bass.
The Lake Ouachita Project Of_ce of the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will be closing public access to the Twin Creek boat ramp, campsites and _shing pier Aug. 9-11 to replace a road culvert on the entrance road to the area. Lake Ouachita users and anglers should plan accordingly.
Going _shing this weekend?
Catch a _sh, snap a photo, and send it to us at news@theeveningtimes. com or text it to (209) 771-1855 and see it right here in the paper!
Local angler Caleb Free landed this nice smallmouth bass while fishing Sylamore Creek over the weekend with his family.
Photo by Mandi Burns
