Ethan Settlemires, a 17-year-old from Walnut, captured the gold medal at the recent 2007 National Junior Olympic 3-Position Air Rifle Championship.
Ethan’s coach, Nathan Hendrix of the Cross Roads Sport Shooting Association of Glen, talks about the young shooter’s accomplishments.
Low water continues to play havoc with fishermen all over North Mississippi, with problems still being reported at the four major reservoirs.
The low water caused the state Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks to place restrictions at Enid, Arkabutla and Sardis reservoirs. Beginning Aug. 6, it’s 12-inch crappie and five poles. Grenada has been three poles and 12 inches.
At Lake Tom Bailey, however, they are pulling in big ones. Lake Manager Charles Vaughn reported that a 4-pound white crappie was caught. It was over 17 inches long.
Crappie fishing has been excellent at the Lauderdale County lake. There’s been no word on how the drought has affected Tom Bailey, although Ross Barnett has been feeling its share of dry ground.
Lake Monroe in Monroe County has seen some good crappie lately, as evidenced by Larry Pugh’s photograph on the MDWFP forum. It’s a small, pretty lake that can be fished easily with a jon boat and a trolling motor.
At least, that’s what I’m aiming to do.
(From the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action)
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it will significantly revise a recent proposal for new “explosives safety” regulations that caused serious concern among gun owners.
OSHA had originally set out to update workplace safety regulations, but the proposed rules included restrictions that very few gun shops, sporting goods stores, shippers, or ammunition dealers could comply with.
OSHA had already issued one extension for its public comment period at the request of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
In a letter from Kristine A. Iverson, the Labor Department’s Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, to Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), Iverson said it “was never the intention of OSHA to block the sale, transportation, or storage of small arms ammunition, and OSHA is taking prompt action to revise” this proposed rule to clarify the purpose of the regulation. Future revisions to the standard “will be subject to substantial review and scrutiny to ensure that the revisions are prudent and the intent is clear,” Iverson said in her letter.
The OSHA proposal would have defined “explosives” to include “black powder, … small arms ammunition, small arms ammunition primers, [and] smokeless propellant,” and treated these items the same as the most volatile high explosives.
Under the proposed rule, a workplace that contained even a handful of small arms cartridges, for any reason, would have been considered a “facility containing explosives” and therefore subject to many restrictions. For example, no one could carry “firearms, ammunition, or similar articles in facilities containing explosives … except as required for work duties.” Obviously, this rule would make it impossible to operate any kind of gun store, firing range, or gunsmith shop.
State license sales increased 6.9 percent from 2006 to 2007, meaning more federal dollars for Mississippi conservation.
The increase comes from more younger sportsmen. The new apprentice license is bringing more people outdoors to see if they like what they see.
Last year, anyone between 12 and 16 years old was required to complete a hunter education course before they could hunt by themselves in Mississippi. If they were supervised by a licensed or exempt resident hunter at least 21 years old, they did not have to have a hunter education certificate.
Under the apprentice hunter system, however, anyone older than 15 did not have to complete a hunter education course if they bought a one-time one-year apprentice license and hunted with a licensed or exempt resident hunter.
Last year, 462 people bought those licenses.
For more information, see today’s Daily Journal.
Olin Corporation, through its Winchester Division, is recalling several lots of:
If you have any questions concerning this recall please call toll-free 866-423-5224 (U.S. & Canada) or visit their Web site at www.winchester.com.
JACKSON – The Commission of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks voted Wednesday to set new crappie regulations on Sardis, Enid, Grenada and Arkabutla reservoirs.
The regulations place new size requirements and creel limits at these reservoirs. Starting Aug. 6, the creel limit at the four flood-control lakes will be 20 per person and each fish must be at least 12 inches in length. Each boat may have no more than five poles per person.
Grenada has a 12-inch limit on crappie and three poles per person based on a previous public notice. The 20-limit creel is also in effect in the spillways of the four reservoirs, but there is no size limit in the spillways.
“We’ve experienced drought conditions the past three years and this year has been the most severe,” said MDWFP Fisheries Bureau Chief Ron Garavelli. “We want to take a proactive approach and not be reactive. These regulations are designed to not only improve crappie numbers, but keep the reservoirs producing the quality of fish they’re known for nationwide.”
The Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks will decide Wednesday whether to place new restrictions on crappie fishing at four North Mississippi fisheries because of the recent drought.
The meeting will be at the commission headquarters in Jackson.
Among the restrictions will be to change the length limit to 12 inches, the creel limit to 20 and the pole limit to three.
The request is reasonable and necessary.
The three reservoirs — Sardis, Grenada and Enid — and Arkabutla Lake have been devastated by the lack of rain. Taking advantage of the situation by damaging the waterways’ greatest resource would be criminal.
Mississippi has been holding off making any changes in crappie fishing because it is so popular here. Grenada is the No. 1 crappie fishery in the nation.
If the regulations are not imposed, however, the fisheries and the fishermen both will suffer in the long run.
Tony Mason is a 76-year-old crappie fisherman from Tupelo who has been making what many fishermen say is the best jig they’ve seen.
Here’s a slideshow of a recent visit. Click here.
In the biggest showcase for his profession, Gerald Swindle made a mistake.
That’s all it was — a mistake. Seen by millions of people around the world over and over.
That’s what happens when the mistake occurs within range of boats carrying ESPN photographers. Those photographers were the ones who notified BASS tournament director Trip Weldon of Swindle’s boat maneuvers.
Randy Howell of Trussville, Ala., was the focus of the photographers, and Howell felt bad about the disqualification because he had waved Swindle through. And Howell didn’t worry about it until he found out from Swindle when they returned to the boat launch.
It didn’t seem like a big deal to the anglers involved. But they weren’t the only people involved, unfortunately.
I’ve been in boats going 90 mph with professional anglers who are flying down a waterway trying to win a bass tournament. This was more than a tournament, so the split-second decision by Swindle got more than just a casual glance.
Swindle, whose photograph is plastered all over the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center because of his many sponsors, has been the anointed good guy at BASS. He is part of the cast on the ESPN show “Bass Cast.”
I spent an afternoon with Swindle before the 2003 Bassmaster Classic in New Orleans. He had a lovable wild streak and an engaging smile that he still shows today. And I’m sure that he’ll survive this incident if he can keep the support of his sponsors.
Missing the final day of the Classic may also strengthen his resolve to win more tournaments.
If that happens — and for Swindle’s sake, I hope it does — his career just may be seeing a new beginning.
One highlight of activities before the weigh-ins has been the 82nd Airborne Chorus, which performed Friday and today.
The first selection Friday, however, got mixed reviews from the Bassmaster Classic audience.
Whoever chose the song “Rocky Top” to sing before a predominantly Alabama crowd either had a sense of humor or wanted to create “a situation.” “Rocky Top” is the fight song for the Tennessee Volunteers, and most of the audience had Alabama or Auburn in their background.
But these guys looked like they probably could have handled themselves in any kind of skirmish.
