In The Outdoors

The problem with fishing, hunting and other outdoor sports is stuff. No matter how much stuff we have, there always seems to be something else we need, never mind that our shelves are already full of other stuff we absolutely had to have but used only once or twice.

Low-hanging clouds and periods of heavy rain could not dampen the spirits of shooters who gathered Saturday at Desert Lakes Shooting Club in Boulder City for the second Las Vegas Sporting Clays Classic. Neither could the wind, which sometimes blew hard enough to carry huge raindrops into seemingly protected places where shooters and event volunteers sought shelter.

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with a friend about tag applications and discussing whether we each would put in for nonresident deer tags in Utah again this year. During our conversation, he told me about a rumor he heard that caught me by surprise on one hand and sounded feasible on the other.

During the past several weeks I have spoken with or received e-mails from several frustrated hunters who are looking for those one or two honey holes that might still hold a few quail or chukar. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any such places. Not in Southern Nevada, anyway.

From the frustration in Ray Granmoe’s voice, there was no mistaking things weren’t going the way he had hoped they would when the evening began. Granmoe, an auctioneer, was about halfway through the live auction at the annual fundraising banquet for the local chapter of the Safari Club International and already had called a pass on five of the first 16 items because the bidding was insufficient or nonexistent.

To my surprise, only a handful of vehicles were parked near the fishing pier at Boulder Harbor when I parked my truck in front of the sign that read “No Parking from here to the water.” It was about 4:30 p.m.

Anglers who enjoy fishing the upper reaches of Lake Mohave will be happy to learn the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery will resume its rainbow trout-stocking program on Jan. 16. The first plant will be made at Willow Beach, with second and third plants scheduled for Davis Camp and Riverside below Davis Dam. Those plants will occur the following week.

As the new year dawns, America’s sportsmen and the wildlife resources we treasure face an uncertain future.

Happy holidays to all. May the season be joyous for you and your family. And if you are one of the many who went fishing or waterfowl hunting this morning, I hope the dog house is dry and warm. You might need it.

In late November, I received an e-mail from Bill Schnuckel, a Henderson resident since 1981. Schnuckel, like so many Southern Nevadans during the past year or so, had fallen victim to the Bureau of Land Management’s off-highway travel closure that surrounds the greater Las Vegas area. He was preparing to make his initial appearance in federal court.