Kevin Tate

In the same way a driver on the road should be prepared for fellow motorists to do the dumbest things they can think of, boat operators should expect

If an area of your yard that had previously been smooth suddenly appears to have been plundered by treasure seekers hunting one small shovel-full at a time, chances are the culprit was a nine-banded armadillo.

We put in from a muddy side road with easy access to the water, then ran down the Tombigbee at a comfortable pace. River levels were up from a recent rain but not dangerously so. As captain, the Boy was rightfully cautious. He drove with deliberate care. I sat in the front seat the Old Man so long occupied while the Boy followed any line he chose, one hand on the tiller, the other resting on a knee. Here and there, trees leaned in from eroding banks, their leaves tickling surface tension on the move. I watched the birds and listened to the echoes of the engine, listened to the echoes of the years.

There's a reason the green Coleman two-burner has been riding in the back of pickup trucks and boat hulls for the better part of a century.

Water from the hose made the big enamel pan ring with a sound that said another night's work was done. It had been a good day on the lake and a long evening under the carport lights, turning a tub filled with bream into fillets.

In the span of a few weeks this summer, the young shooters of Square1 Outdoors have logged hundreds of miles in pursuit of national competition, and they aren't finished yet. With the Daisy Nationals in Rogers, Arkansas, just days away and a state championship to follow shortly after, coach Rodney Murphy of Booneville is keeping his competitors sharp and his schedule full.

T he path wound upward, around rocks and out of sight, past deadfalls that lay steeply downhill, beside thickets of rhododendron carpeting mountainsides, past views that took what remained of our breath away.

Whether it's worms and minnows in fresh water or shrimp and pin fish out on the salt, the chance to let live bait do the work can be the key to

The black and green caterpillars we always called “catalpa worms” after the trees on which they hatch have filled thousands of freezers with catfish over the years, but not without their difficulties.

Whether it's worms and minnows in fresh water or shrimp and pin fish out on the salt, the chance to let live bait do the work can be the key to filling limits and freezers, but keeping live bait alive can sometimes be a challenge. That's where knowledge from the live bait providers themselves can help.