Social distancing? No sweat!

(Photo by Brian Carroll)

Turn to hunting and fishing in the era of the coronavirus

Social distancing has been a big deal for about two months since the coronavirus sneaked into our lives like a turkey gobbler slipping in from the blind side without making a sound, then giving an alarm putt when he gets inside of 10 yards.

The neat thing is, there’s probably nothing better in terms of social distancing than the two things most outdoorsmen like to do: hunt and fish.

Unless I’m calling a turkey for someone else, the last thing I want invading my space in the woods or fields is another hunter. Six feet? How about 600 yards? Stay that far away and you’re probably not going to spook the big buck that’s on his way to my stand or bump the gobbler that’s coming toward me in as straight a line as a carpenter can draw.

Ditto fishing. When trout season opened in North Carolina in early April, I didn’t want to share the big plunge pool I found with anybody. Let me drift a nymph across the bottom or cast across it with a Panther Martin without having to worry about crossing lines with anybody. And as anybody knows, when you share an 18-foot bass boat with somebody else, if he’s on the front casting deck and you’re on the rear casting deck, that’s at least a 10-foot spacing. Traipsing around the banks of a golf course pond, spinning rod in hand and Senko tied on, rigged wacky style, I’m good, as long as you’re a good pitching wedge down the bank from me.

Stephen Flock Jr., of Greer, S.C., caught this 10-pound bass in a community lake in South Carolina’s Upstate in early March. The fish hit a Z-Man TRD CrawZ in bloodworm color on a 1/10-ounce Finesse BulletZ weedless jighead.

I can’t imagine two sports that are easily done with no onlookers than hunting and fishing. My boss told me the other day he has been seeing an awful lot of people out fishing by themselves, or out fishing with what he took to be a family member: father-and-son, husband-and-wife. This really underlines the old adage: two’s company, three’s a crowd.

Hopefully, as May approaches, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel as far as Covid-19 is concerned. Some of the people we rely on the most in our favorite pursuit haven’t exactly had a great 10 weeks: tackle shop owners and fishing guides. When the time comes — and it’s safe again — we need to get back in their businesses and boats. I have a cottage rented and a date with a speckled trout or two on North Carolina’s Outer Banks in mid-July. I hope we’re in the clear by then and I can buy shrimp to float under a cork.

As far as May goes, some of us have another week of turkey season left, which is why outdoor writer Jeff Burleson explores the advantages of hunting after  lunchtime. He also writes about cobia, an annual visitor to our waters who dares us to test him by casting a lure in his direction. Terry Madewell takes time out from killing his annual limit of turkeys to revisit tactics that catch crappie once their spawn is done. Phillip Gentry offers up some tips for catching sheepshead at the coast, and  he and Brian Cope examine the vagaries of targeting post-spawn largemouth bass. Cope says May is a great month to catch good numbers of fish. Gentry hashes out details of what he calls the “fry guarder bite.”

May’s got plenty for outdoorsmen across the Carolinas. It may be all we have to enjoy for a while.

About Dan Kibler 887 Articles
Dan Kibler is the former managing editor of Carolina Sportsman Magazine. If every fish were a redfish and every big-game animal a wild turkey, he wouldn’t ever complain. His writing and photography skills have earned him numerous awards throughout his career.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply