Home / Sports

MUSCATINE, Iowa – Jerry Lee and Brian Phillips didn’t let the recent cold front scare them away from fishing the past weekend.

In fact, they believe the cold front actually improved the fishing by triggering a feeding spree.

They regularly fish a private farm pond for crappie, but until last weekend had never caught one more than a pound.

That all changed quickly.

Lee and Phillips used live minnows and No. 6 Eagle Claw red hooks fished 11/2 feet deep over four feet of water near some wood cover to catch seven large crappie and one nice bass.

The largest crappie weighed 2 pounds, 14 ounces and another weighed 2 pounds, 12 ounces.

The pond has a maximum depth of only five feet, which can be a big advantage in early spring. The entire water column will be equal in water temperature and the fish can’t move to deep water.

Crappie and bass in shallow ponds become active sooner than ponds or lakes with deeper water. The water warms quicker and the fish move shallow       earlier.

Lead ban in parks sought

According to Iowa BASS Federation President Tom Bowler, the National Park Service (NPS) may try to eliminate any lead component in tackle and ammunition from national parks.

On March 10, the NPS announced its intention to ban sport fishing tackle with lead components in national parks by 2010.

The announcement was made without prior consultation of the sport-fishing industry or the millions of recreational anglers who fish within the national park system.

In the normal course of events, the sport-fishing and shooting sports industries (lead component ammunition is also included in the ban) would have been notified by the NPS about this change in policy and would have been invited to discuss this decision with the NPS staff.

In a letter and a subsequent press release, ASA (American Sportfishing Association) vice president Gordon Robertson requested that the NPS withdraw the proposal and discuss the rationale for it with the appropriate stakeholders before taking further action.

During the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference held March     16-20, in Arlington, Va., William Shaforth, deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told conference attendees that the announcement applied to NPS staff and the 2010 deadline did not apply to the general public at this time.

ASA’s position remains that any change in federal policy that would affect the sport-fishing industry needs to follow appropriate rule-making guidelines.

Gun-toting teacher

According to WKOW-TV.com a Beaver Dam, Wis., middle school teacher, Betsy Ramsdale, has been put on administrative leave after another teacher saw a photo of her on Facebook pointing a rifle at the camera for a Facebook profile photo.

Beaver Dam Middle School superintendent, Donald Childs, told the TV station, “I’m unsure when Ramsdale will be allowed to return to teaching, and there most likely won’t be any disciplinary action taken.” Childs did say Ramsdale is a good and capable teacher.

In a statement, Christopher Ahmuty of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin said Ramsdale should not have been forced out of classroom.

“Absent any evidence that the teacher poses a threat, the district should not overreact to the sight of a gun in one of their employees hands,” said Ahmuty.

Johnnie Crain is an outdoors writer from Muscatine.

Contact: 563-263-2872 johnniecrain@machlink.com