Outdoors

A few years back I bought a good-sized place in rural St. Clair county with a big house and two cabins on it, intending to make a retreat for small churches that had a youth group but didn’t have the money to send them to a church camp. It was all free, no one who

Taberville report By Bobby Dains Dains Fish Farm Afer hours 660-781-8020 They are still catching flatheads and blue cats. Flatheads only bite live bait. Blue cats will bit about anything. Bigger blue cats bit live bait. There aren’t many people fishing yet. Lots of people say they are going to fish in October. We are

Coleman Wilson thought his toes could shatter during the bitter cold of the early youth portion of firearms deer season in Nov. 2025. Rather than lose his appendages to frostbite, however, he brought home a 16-point buck, 8 of which were abnormal points. Coleman Wilson poses with his first harvested buck Nov. 2, 2025, in

Myrtle Kelly lived in a little farmhouse about six miles west of town on the best stretch of the Big Piney River. She and her husband Fred had been long-time friends of my grandmother and grandfather. They would fish together for catfish on the river, and play cards together. Grandpa made a johnboat for them

Taberville Report by Bobby Dains Dains Fish Farm After hours 660/781-8020 The river is still about a foot low. We got 2.2 inches of rain. Non of it made it to the river. The bank soaked it up. You have to go down to the Sac-Osage to find moving water. The weather is hot but

Readers of this column may recall that weeks ago I wrote that I was going to have a big sale here on Lightnin’Ridge on September 26. I have decided, because it may be so hot then, to postpone it to Saturday, October 24. If it rains we will have it a week later. The list

Trotlines are productive, and they are enjoyable this time of year when the heat makes nighttime activity more acceptable. But trotlines are hard work, and they are dangerous. It has been said that trotlining isn’t “sporting.” I can agree with that if you are after a small catfish. Trotlines set in shallow, flat lake coves

Taberville Report by Bobby Dains Dains Fish Farm After hours 660/781-8020 The river is still about a foot low. You have to go down to the Sac-Osage to find moving water. The weather is hot but I’m still selling bait for flatheads and blue cats. We are open from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. Closed

By Emma Becker, Missouri News Network New changes are coming to Missouri hunting regulations, with a focus on keeping infection rates low and simplifying regulations for hunters. Starting this year, hunters will be asked to do mandatory sampling for chronic wasting disease in deer, with the requirement cycling among counties every four years. This year,

It was a nice little cove with clear water, and it looked to be a good place to fish a topwater lure, late in the evening as the hot sun dipped below the horizon. There was a nice little rock cliff not far away, some timber sticking up out of the water nearby, and no