FINS, FURS, FEATHERS

Coming up:

March 13-14 Illinois Big Buck Expo, John A. Logan Community College, Carterville. Seminars Big Buck contests.

March 14 Blackpowder Rendezvous, Wappapello Lake.

March 14 VELO Girardeau Bicycle Club ride, Greensferry Road, 27 miles, tour outskirts of Cape Girardeau and Jackson, meet at Kent Library, 1:30 p.m.

March 21 VELO Girardeau Bicycle Club ride, Black Forest Bypass, 19 miles, meet at Kent Library, 1:30 p.m.

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 Recreaton 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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The VELO Girardeau Bicycle Club will conduct a 27-mile ride Sunday, starting from Kent Library at 1:30 p.m.

Ride leader for the 27-mile Sunday Greensferry Ride is Pat Boyd, 334-6390.

The club will hold a Black Forest Bypass Ride March 21, at 1:30. Ride leader will be Jacque Hooper, 339-0126.

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 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 Old Greenville blackpowder rendezvous, to be held Greenville Recreation Area April 3-4.

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. The event is scheduled by the Indian Creek Longknives and the Corps of Engineers.

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LAKE OZARK The Missouri Conservation Commission has approved the purchase of three parcels of land, including 200 acres in Madison County as an addition to Amidon Memorial Conservation Area.

Other acquisitions announced during the recent meeting held at Lake Ozark, include 80 acres in Dade County for use as a prairie natural area and 2.5 acres in Buchanan County as an addition to Sunbridge Hills Conservation Area.

The next commission meeting is set for April 6 at Department of Conservation headquarters in Jefferson City.

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JEFFERSON CITY If there was a prize for most unlikely animal in Missouri, the paddlefish would win going away. With a two-foot spoon for a snout and a thresher shark's tail on the other end, it looks like a surrealist prank.

But on March 15, hundreds of dead-serious Missourians will head for Lake of the Ozarks and Harry S Truman Reservoir on the upper Osage River, bent on snagging one of these bizarre leviathans for fun and food.

Missouri's month and a half paddlefish snagging season runs from March 15 through April 30, with a daily and possession limit of two, and a length limit of 24 inches measured from the eye to the fork of the tail.

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CARTERVILLE, Ill. The two-day, Illinois Big Buck Expo will be held Saturday and Sunday at John A. Logan Community College at Carterville.

The two-day event is sponsored by The Illinois Department of Conservation and the Williamson County Tourism Bureau.

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JEFFERSON CITY White bass usually are in the top the on the list of popular reservoir fish. Between mid-March and April that ranking should get a shot in the arm.

That's when white bass start to spawn, and anglers can find more fish to catch and bigger fish to haul in.

"During the spawning run a major part of the white bass population is concentrated in small areas, so anglers can catch more fish," said Greg Stoner, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) fisheries management biologist. "The average fish caught here is larger than those we hear about the rest of the year because only adult fish spawn, and they usually are 12 to 15 inches long."

White bass are found in most of Missouri's larger lakes, but not all of these are the site of large spawning runs each year. Stoner said one site he hears a lot about each spawning season is the Niangua Arm of Lake of the Ozarks.