FINS, FEATHERS, FUR

Coming up:

March 27-28 Central Pro-Am Bass Tournament, Lake of Ozarks. (417)-881-2158.

March 28 VELO Girardeau Bicycle Club ride, Egypt Mills Hills, 18 miles, meet at Kent, 1:30 p.m.

April 2-4 Old Greenville Blackpowder Rendezvous, Greenville Recreation Area, Wappapello Lake.

April 24 Annual Missouri Beautification Association Spring Roadside Cleanup, Lake Wappapello.

May 22-24 Silver Bullet National Drag Boat Races, Lake Wappapello.

July 2-4 Waterfest, Lake Wappapello.

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BENTON A Hunters Education course will be held at the Benton American Legion Post, #369 Saturday.

The class, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation, in cooperation with the American Legion, will start at 8 a.m. The day-long course will end about 7 p.m.

Included in the training will be gun safety, information about firearms and ammunition, the role of the hunter and hunting in wildlife management and conservation, responsibilities of the outdoorsman, outdoor ethics and hunter preparedness.

In Missouri, any person born on or after January 1, 1967, is required to complete the course before purchasing any type of firearm hunting permit.

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MARION, Ill. The fifth annual River Country Outdoors Bass Tournament will be held at Lake of Egypt near here May 2.

"This will be a two-man buddy tournament," said Mike Estel, a spokesman for the tournament.

Starting time for the tournament is 7 a.m. with a closing time of 3:30 p.m. Tournament headquarters and weight-in site will be Egyptian Hills Marina, located on the north side of Lake Egypt.

The team entry fee is $65 until April 28. Late-entry fee will be $80.

Additional entry and registration for the tournament is available by contacting Mike Estel, P.O. Box 529, Anna, Ill., 62906.

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The VELO Girardeau Bicycle Club will conduct its Egypt Mills, 18-mile ride, Sunday, starting from Kent Library at 1:30 p.m.

The first April ride will be the Thebes Historical Tour, a 24-mile ride into Southern Illinois, from McClure to Thebes. This is the first Sunday of Daylight Savings Time, and the ride will start at 2 p.m., from McClure Elementary School. Judy Cureton is ride leader.

The Velo Club will hold its next meeting April 5 in the Hirsch Community Room at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, starting at 7 p.m.

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GREENVILLE The 15th annual Old Greenville Blackpowder Rendezvous will be held at Greenville Recreation Area April 3-4.

About 200 people area expected to participate in rifle, pistol and smooth bore trade gun shooting, knife and tomahawk throwing and fire starting with flint and steel during the 15th annual

Competitions will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 3 and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 4. Entry fee for competition is $8 for entrants in primitive dress and $10 for participants in non-primitive dress.

Traders will exhibit such wares as pre-1840 era rifles, knives, tomahawks, clothing and leather goods.

Additional information is available by calling (314)-222-8562.

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JEFFERSON CITY Below average reproduction and a tardy spring could make spring turkey hunting less rewarding this year than Missouri hunters have experienced in recent years. But hunters will find some places in the state where the big birds are doing just fine.

Turkey season runs from April 19 through May 2. Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Wildlife Research Biologist Larry Vangilder said state-wide turkey population trends are not encouraging.

Wild turkey hens produced an average of 2.2 young each for the second year in a row last year, considerably below the long-term average of 2.9 "poults" per hen.

Hunters bagged 33,046 gobblers last spring. That's just a shade less than the all-time record of 35,951 set in 1987. Thirty-two percent of the birds harvested last spring were jakes -- year-old gobblers.

Vangilder said it is too early to tell whether recent snow and cold killed many turkeys. Lingering winter weather could make hunting tough even if most survived.

Vangilder said the 1991 fall archers' survey (in which archery deer hunters report wildlife sightings) showed a 30-percent drop in turkey numbers in northeastern Missouri compared to the peak year of 1987. They reported a 70-percent decrease in the eastern Ozarks region.

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JEFFERSON CITY The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will sell four tracts of land in Pike, Shelby, Montgomery and Cass counties in April and May, according to Ron Thoma, MDC land acquisition superintendent.

Thoma said the four tracts, totaling 73.2 acres, no longer fit in MDC's land-management goals.

"One tract is a tower site where we no longer need an observation tower for fire control," said Thoma. "We don't have adequate public access to the other tracts."

The first auction will begin at 10 a.m. April 22 at Hunnewell Hatchery on Highway Z north of Hunnewell. At this auction, Thoma will auction 15 acres near Pin Oak Conservation Area in Shelby County.

The second auction will begin at 10 a.m. April 23 at the MDC Forestry office, Highway 47 N., Warrenton. There, MDC will sell 20 acres near Ranacker Conservation Area. The land is west of Highway 61 in Pike County seven miles north of Bowling Green. At the sale, Thoma will auction the 23.2-acre Mineola tower site adjacent to Interstate Highway 70 in Montgomery County.

The final auction will begin at 11 a.m. May 11 at Montrose Conservation Area Headquarters off Highway 18 southwest of Clinton. Bidders at this auction will have a chance to buy 15 acres of land, a house and outbuildings near Settles Ford Conservation Area south of Dayton in Cass County.

Additional details can be obtained by calling (314) 751-4115 and asking fore Land Acquisition office.