Outdoors digest 4/25/03

MDC to discuss trout plan at meeting Tuesday

Mike Kruse, a fisheries management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, will present the MDC Trout Management plan -- the proposed blueprint for how trout will be managed in the future in Missouri -- at the regularly scheduled meeting of SEMO Trout Unlimited at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Kruse will seek comments from those in attendance.

It will be Kruse's second trip to talk with SEMO Trout Unlimited. Last year Kruse gave a program on Missouri's trout fisheries.

SEMO Trout Unlimited has a particular interest in the proposed trout management plan because there are provisions in the plan that can accommodate the group's goals, including establishing winter trout fisheries in Southeast Missouri and working closer with the MDC on trout enhancement and protection projects.

Seating is limited, but interested anglers who are not members of SEMO Trout Unlimited are welcome to attend.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. and will include regular business of SEMO Trout Unlimited before Kruse's presentation at 7:45 p.m.

Contact Michael Wells, SEMO Trout Unlimited president, at 335-6945 for information.

Crappie get their own national tournament tour

When it comes to tournament fishing, many outdoorsmen think of the Bass Anglers Sportsman's Society.

Now, a panfish cousin is getting his day in the spotlight.

The crappie -- that paper-mouthed fighter with a countenance that looks like he's just won Powerball -- has his own set of fans and his own tournament circuit.

The CrappieUSA Tour is in full swing across the country and is fresh off an event last week at Wappapello, Mo.

The tour is a function of the American Crappie Association, an organization founded following the 1996 purchase of the Crappiethon tournament program.

The ACA has roughly 15,000 members, as well as members in 15 affiliate clubs throughout the country.

"We will have, this year, 43 tournaments, broken up into four regions," said Max G. Wilson, secretary and treasurer of the organization. "First place in the amateur and pro divisions at each local tournament qualify directly for the Classic at the end of the year."

Wilson said anglers from each region can qualify for the Classic on a points system, and in the case of a few regions, by finishing in the top two in a smaller version of the Classic.

Wilson also said the organization added 20 events to the tournament schedule from Crappiethon's days.

The group's schedule is online at www.crappieusa.com.

MDC offers tips to state's turkey hunters

Officials with the Missouri Department of Conservation are reminding turkey hunters to follow a simple piece of advice as the first week of the season closes: Be safe.

Among their tips:

Always identify your target. Don't fire at movement or rustlings in the brush.

Make sure what lies beyond your line of fire. Especially in public-hunting areas, be certain you aren't setting up too close to another hunter.

Avoid wearing red, white or blue while in the woods. Those colors could be mistaken for the colors of a turkey's head by another hunter.

Popular morels speaker dies in ATV mishap

The name of Larry Lonik's Web site, which extols the virtues of wild mushrooms, is "Morel Heaven."

Friends and relatives say that name is particularly fitting this week after Lonik, one of the nation's foremost authorities on morels and a popular speaker at the Kansas City Sportshow each winter, passed away.

Lonik, 54, died April 15 following an ATV accident on an outing in eastern Missouri.

Lonik was a resident of Chelsea, Mich.

-- Staff and wire reports