Frankfort, Ky. – We have experiences in the outdoors that can be transcendent, although the conditions are rough. Catching crappie after crappie in cold March sleet, bagging your biggest turkey ever in a chilling April downpour or taking a limit of ducks in weather so cold hot coffee quickly freezes on the rim of your cup make great memories.

  Although these encounters test your mettle and enrich your life, few outdoor pursuits compare to December fishing for smallmouth bass in the snow. The activity seems incongruent – floating in a boat on ice-free water with white frozen snow lining the banks. You seem completely out of place, casting a hair jig, the float and fly or a shiner with snow in your eyelashes. You feel you should be at home; that it is dangerous to fish in such weather.

  Except it may be the best weather condition for catching the largest smallmouth bass you’ll ever hold.

  "On an overcast snowy day, light will be greatly diffused," said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "This brings the smallmouths up shallower and they can be easier to fool. They are more likely to strike an artificial lure because of less light penetration."

  Anglers should take advantage of this. In our premier winter smallmouth lakes such as Lake Cumberland, Dale Hollow Lake and Laurel River Lake, anything than can get smallmouth out of their usual deep-water lairs is a blessing. These lakes are so clear you can see where you chipped paint from your jig head in 10 feet of water. This water clarity pushes smallmouths deep for most of the year during the day, but snowfall and a leaden sky bring them up to feed.

  "I also think it is a pressure-related thing," said Ted Crowell, former assistant director of fisheries for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. "Snow brings along with it low barometric pressure. It is just like when it rains in summer. This turns fish on."

  Crowell has spent many a winter day chasing smallmouths at Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow. "It is unbelievable, the fish you can catch in December in the snow," he said. "There’s nobody else on the lake. There’s nobody in the parking lot. It’s great."

  Also, unstable weather places predators at an advantage over prey. The changing weather of a snow storm and the cold of winter disorient baitfish and smallmouth bass gobble up all they can. This is especially true for larger female smallmouths who must store up fat reserves for egg development in early spring. They need to eat.

  The plummeting water temperatures of December also stress baitfish such as shad or alewives. They swim in circles and quiver as they fight death. This is why the float and fly technique is so deadly in winter. A small, light craft hair or duck feather jig suspended on light line 8 to 12 feet deep perfectly imitates baitfish in their death throes.

  Another highly productive technique is suspending a large crappie minnow or medium-sized shiner under a bobber 6 to 10 feet deep off points. The bobber flutters on top until it abruptly torpedoes toward the bottom. Smallmouth bass that hit live bait in winter don’t fool around. They strike fiercely.

  Both of these techniques produce, because the baitfish suspend in the water column in tightly packed schools in winter. Smallmouth bass cruise under these schools looking for those alewives or shad acting peculiar and pick them off.

  A black 1/8th to 3/8th-ounce rabbit fur or bucktail jig swum just above bottom and down those main lake points produced winter smallmouths for your grandfather and they do the same today. The old-school pork rind is still the best trailer. Find the smallest pork rind possible or cut a bigger one in half. Although the soft plastic chunk trailers prove much easier to handle and take on and off the hook, pork is still the best choice in cold water.

  Main lake points from Beaver Creek down to the dam are great places to try on a snowy December day on Lake Cumberland, while the Spruce Creek area is tops for Laurel River Lake. Try main lake points and cuts near Phillips Bend in the mouth of Wolf River on Dale Hollow Lake. You’ll be fishing the same waters that produced David Hayes’ 11-pound, 15-ounce world record smallmouth bass in 1955. Those cuts and points closest to the old Wolf River channel are best.

  Don’t let snowfall scare you from chasing bronze this winter. Don some waterfowl hunting clothing or coveralls and a pair of warm boots. Grab some hand warmers, a thermos of strong coffee and your fishing rod. Five-pound smallmouth bass are waiting for you if you brave the elements.   For more information about the great fishing and hunting in Kentucky, visit the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources web site at www.fw.ky.gov.

   It seems every opening day we are always running late leaving camp and this past season was no exception. We weren’t that late but by the time I had my stuff packed on my 4-wheeler the sky was getting light in the east. I drove out to my blind without using the headlights. Not that it was that light, it was because I knew exactly where I was going and knew the obstacles in my way. There aren’t too many in the middle of a gravel road or in the middle of an open field.

  I parked where I always do and started unloading. I always get the feeling I take too much stuff with me but I usually use everything I tote out to my blind or treestand. It didn’t help that I had left my backpack at home and had to pack everything into my bucket seat. So snapping my fanny pack containing my lunch around my waist, throwing the bucket’s carrying strap over one shoulder, my gun’s sling over the other, my coat under one arm, my blanket under the other and my box of deer decoys in my hands (doesn’t sound like much, does it?) I set off on the 200 yard walk to the blind.

  By the time I got to the blind and unloaded it was really getting light and I cursed myself for being so late.

  I knew down one edge of the field the blind was setting on had a scrape line so I grabbed my little bag containing my scents and my decoys and set off to check the scrapes and to set the decoys.

  It took a bit of looking but I found the first fresh scrape about 75 yards up the field. By the looks of it, the buck that made it had probably been there the day before freshening it up so I poured in some Max 44 Doe-in-heat Pellets (there’s a plug). Knowing I was running late I wanted to get the decoy set and get back to the blind as fast as I could so I didn’t go any further up the field to check the next scrape.

  I walked back toward the blind and stopped about 35 yards from it and set up my Renzo’s Buck Decoy (there’s their plug) in the middle of the field. I hung a scent wick on it soaked with dominant buck scent, grabbed up the box and hustled back to the blind.

  After getting everything in its place, my gun locked and loaded I was ready to hunt so I glanced at my watch. It was 6:20 am. Five minutes after legal shooting time started. I wasn’t worried though. In the past when I hunted this area it seemed the deer showed up between 7:00 and 7:30 or closer to 9:00 so I had plenty of time.

  I heard a few shots early on and knew the deer were on the move. I just hoped I at least got a shot this year. I was working on a two year drought and hadn’t fired a shot at all last year so I was just praying for a chance. It is one thing to shoot and miss but to hunt for two seasons and never getting a chance to at least miss is really disheartening. But knowing that sooner or later we’d get that chance is what keeps us coming back as I was soon to find out.

  This particular blind I was hunting from is located about 5 yards in the woods at the back of a field roughly 70 yards wide bordered on each side by trees and open on the far end to a road running along a ditch and woods on the other side. The deer can come from any direction here and you have to be constantly on the watch.

  I’m not sure what time it was but I guessed it to be around 6:40 when I heard some rustling up behind me. I turned around to my left and saw 3 deer entering the woods from another field up a hill around 60 yards away.

  "Alright! I might get a shot early on," I thought to myself.

  I twisted myself around, sitting half on my chair and brought my Remington into position waiting for a clear shot. I watched the biggest of the three deer chase one of the others around for a minute. The first thing I thought of was “buck”! But it wasn’t a buck. It was a doe. She finally stopped about 30 yards away with her head behind a tree but broadside to me. Putting the crosshairs on her I pulled the trigger.

  She jumped when the slug hit her and then she staggered forward and fell into a low swag running down the hill and rolled down it a short distance kicking slightly before finally expiring. Needless to say I pumped my fist in jubilation and then said a pray of thanks to the Big Guy for blessing me with good fortune.

  My son Josh and I had a plan that if we heard each other shoot that we’d turn on the radios we carried and remembering that I turned mine on and hit the call button. Josh quickly responded to the call with the statement "Did ya get him?"

  "Scratch one slick-head!" I told him. And then just as quick added, "The other two haven’t run off yet. I’m going to try and get another shot. Hold on."

  The other two deer were still on top of the rise looking down my direction and at the doe lying in the leaves. There’s a big oak tree directly behind the blind so I lowered myself down and took a couple of steps to the left so I could get a clear look. One of the deer was just standing there so I put the scope on her. It was standing behind some small trees and part of a bush so it wasn’t a good shoot. I then shifted back to my original chair and turned it around part way to get more comfortable.

  I kept sifting around trying to get a clear shot at one of the two deer for several minutes when out in front of the blind, which was now behind me, something made a loud snap, rustling noise. Of course I had to have a look and turned around in time to see a deer crossing the field 230 yards in front of me. I saw it was a buck and quickly turned my chair back around forgetting the two deer behind me.

  The buck was about half way across when he saw my decoy and came to halt curious about the buck in his territory. I could see his rack shining in the rising sun and knew he was a nice one.

  I quickly grabbed my grunt call and blew it several times loudly. That seemed to get his attention and he started walking toward the decoy. He walked about 5 yards and stopped so I grunted again. He walked closer and stopped again. I then grabbed my Primos 'The Can' call (another plug) and hit it 3 times hopefully making him think that this strange buck had a hot doe corralled at the back of the field. It worked as he walked closer.

  I then hit the grunt again and the buck came running up the field toward me. I couldn’t believe this was working and wished I had a video camera to record the event.

  The buck stopped about 30 yards from the decoy giving it a close look. He stomped his foot a few times trying to get his rival to move. I watched all of this through my scope as I had my gun up and ready for a shot if he turned broadside instead of head on.

  Finally after what seemed forever he turned to his left and took a few steps. I then went "mah" real loud and he stopped. I placed the crosshairs on the sweet spot and pulled the trigger.

  The buck kicked his back legs when the slug hit him and I knew it was a good shot. He trotted to the edge of the field, into the trees and down into a ditch that runs through there. I saw him briefly through the trees and bushes bordering the ditch and lost site of him. I didn’t see him in the field on the other side and figured he had gotten in the ditch and couldn’t get out and fell back down. I didn’t look forward to dragging him out of the ditch but figured that was a good problem.

  I glanced at my watch. It was 6:55 am. I couldn’t believe it! I had filled both of my tags by 7:00 on opening morning! Words can’t describe the joy that flooded over me. I said another quick pray of thanks as I tried to control my heavy breathing and pounding heart.

  I hit the call button on the radio again and when Josh answered I stammered out the words, "Big buck down! I think I got him! I think I got him! I’ll call you back in a while."

  I usually like to wait ten minutes after shooting an animal to give them time to pass before going out to retrieve them. After 5 minutes I couldn’t wait any longer and headed for the doe I knew for sure was down.

  Getting to her the first thing I did was rub her head to make sure it wasn’t a button and then admired her size. She was a fair size doe that weighed 80 pounds field dressed. Not bad at all. My mind quickly turned to the buck and I set off to look for him.

  Getting to the spot in the field where he had stood when I shot him, I didn’t see any blood. I didn’t look real hard because I knew the direction he had taken in the trees plus the way he had reacted when I hit him. I entered the trees and eased my way down into the ditch where I took a good look up and down it to see if he was in it. As far I could tell he wasn’t and I turned my attention to now getting up the other side. I laid my gun up on the top pointed in a safe direction and climbed and crawled up the six foot high ditch bank.

  Making it out, I stood up and brushed myself off. I then retrieved my gun and had a look around and there to my left less than 10 yards away lay the buck right in some sticker bushes. It was his last great act of defiance.

  I picked my way to him and gave him a poke in the butt with my gun. Not a muscle twitched. I then turned my attention to the other end. His left main beam was broke at the nearest tine making him a 10 pointer but I call him an eleven. Plus one of his tines on the broke side was split slightly. I could only imagine the brute he had tangled with to cause such damage to him. The rack was tall with a couple of 11 inch tines. I forgot to measure the inside spread before dropping him at the taxidermist but it was at least 17 inches. When we weighed him back at camp he weighed 144 pounds. He is the biggest bodied deer I have ever taken.

  Again I hit the call button and told Josh I had got him but misinformed him the buck was a 9 pointer in my excitement. He offered his congratulations before signing off.

  I drug him out into the open and then headed back to the blind to get my knife and gloves and start the field dressing procedure on the doe. As I passed the decoy in the field I laid it down as I didn’t need any more deer coming to me. My thought was to get these two out as quick as possible so I didn’t mess up anyone else’s hunting. After all it was opening morning with lots of hunting time left though I’d have to wait another two weeks to try and fill my muzzleloader tag.

  After getting the deer and equipment back to the truck it was nine o’clock. I grabbed my phone and called my wife Maggie to fill her in on the news. My voice was full of excitement as she was the first person I talked to since the short conversation with Josh on the radio.

  I couldn’t believe it and still don’t. Taking two deer within 15 minutes and tagging out before 7:00 on opening morning. I’m sure it has been done before, just not to me or anyone I know. I never did find out what made the noise in front of the blind to make me turn around. I like to think it was my brother-in-law Steve who passed away in September telling me to "turn around dummy and look out front." I wasn’t even out there long enough to get cold. I didn’t get cold until I was back sitting in the truck waiting for Josh to come in for lunch.

  Don’t get used to this kind of story from me. After all this is my chronicle called My Series Of Unfortunate Hunts and the next deer season is only 10 months away. Of course it wouldn’t bother me if I had to come up with a different name for my tales in the woods. I guess that would be a good problem. Until next time, Jim Bob.

  Epilogue:

  Two weeks later a filled my muzzleloader tag by taking a doe on Saturday morning. She field dressed 92 pounds. I had to pay my dues before I took her though. I got cold Thursday afternoon. Almost froze setting in the stand all day Friday. I got up Saturday morning to blowing snow and wind. When I got in my stand I put on my coats and wrapped my blanket around me and hunkered down for a long cold morning.

  At 8:00 a doe snuck in on me while I was looking the other direction. She was only 30 yards away but I couldn’t get the case off my gun fast enough to get a shot. "There was my shot" I told myself. "At least I’ll have something else for the story."

  At 8:45 a doe and her fawn came from the same direction the first one had and I was able to take her at 50 yards. It was my first muzzleloader kill in Illinois. I had taken several with it in Oklahoma but this was the first one at home. Now I can justify to the boss (the wife) about getting a new muzzleloader this year. Yeah, right! Until next time – Jim Bob.

  Atlanta, GA - The recent excavation of a prehistoric American Indian burial site on Ossabaw Island revealed cremated remains, an unexpected find that offers a glimpse into ancient Indian culture along Georgia’s coast.

  State archaeologist David Crass of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said prehistoric cremations were rare, particularly during the early time in which preliminary evidence suggests this one occurred, possibly 1000 B.C. to A.D. 350. The remains also mark the first cremation uncovered on Ossabaw, a state-owned Heritage Preserve about 20 miles south of Savannah.

  "This interment broadens our knowledge about … the kinds of belief (involving) death within the Woodland Period," Crass said. "This is not something we have seen before on Ossabaw Island. Similar cremations on St. Catherine’s Island may point to this practice being more widespread than we have believed up to now."

  Crass said during this time American Indians in Georgia moved to the coast in the winter for shellfish, then inland in the spring for deer hunting and into uplands in the fall for gathering nuts. "This site may have been a winter season camp," he said.

  Erosion from natural causes exposed the burial on an Ossabaw bluff earlier this year. Scientists from the DNR Office of the State Archaeologist, the non-profit Lamar Institute and the Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns worked under the council’s direction to excavate the roughly 6- by 6-foot pit. As required by state law, Crass informed the council about the situation and organized the excavation at the group’s request.

  The work on Georgia’s third-largest barrier island revealed a cremation pit that had been lined with wood and oyster shells. The body had been placed on top of the wood and the contents of the pit burned. The human remains recovered were primarily from extremities, indicating that the deceased had been disinterred after cremation, possibly to be reburied elsewhere.

  The charcoal will be submitted for carbon 14 dating, but preliminary analysis of the pottery recovered from the pit suggests the cremation may date to the Refuge-Deptford Phases in the Woodland Period, c.a. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 350. A ground-penetrating radar survey showed many prehistoric American Indian features in the general area, Crass said. The bluff apparently had long been a focal point of prehistoric Indian life.

  After analysis, the remains will be reinterred in a secure location under the auspices of the Council on American Indian Concerns. Crass expects the carbon 14 dating results and details on the radar survey by early next year.

  Human history runs deep on Ossabaw. Shell mounds and other artifacts here date to 2000 B.C. More than 230 archaeological sites have been recorded. Spanish records indicate the island probably had an early Guale Indian village, according to The New Georgia Encyclopedia. But long before the first European contact on Ossabaw, possibly through the Spanish in 1568, small pox and other diseases unwittingly introduced by the Spanish in Mexico and South America had swept north, devastating populations of native Americans.

  Crass said it’s not known what Indians were on the island when the cremation pit was used. But because of its discovery thousands of years later, more will be learned.

  Access to Ossabaw is limited to approved research projects and hunts managed by the DNR’s Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. Details at www.georgiawildlife.com. Information on visiting the island for research and educational purposes is also available from The Ossabaw Island Foundation’s Jim Bitler, jim@ossabawisland.org.

  The Wildlife Resources Division works to protect, conserve, manage and improve Georgia's wildlife and freshwater fishery resources. The division’s mission also includes managing and conserving protected wildlife and plants, administering and conducting the mandatory hunter safety program, regulating the possession and sale of wild animals, and administering and enforcing the Georgia Boat Safety Act.

  The Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia DNR serves as Georgia’s state historic preservation office. The Historic Preservation Division’s mission is to promote the preservation and use of historic places for a better Georgia. Programs include archaeology protection and education, environmental review, grants, historic resource surveys, tax incentives, the National Register of Historic Places, community planning and technical assistance. For more information, call (404) 656-2840 or visit www.gashpo.org.