Steve Merlo: Busby, Amble to be honored as Sportsmen of the Year
| Thursday, Sep 29 2011 04:41 PM
Last Updated Friday, Sep 30 2011 10:36 AM
Each year the "Sportsman's Night Committee" honors a "Sportsman of the Year" with an award dedicated to one or more deserving individuals they feel has promoted related growth, spread of information, diligence and hard work in the outdoor world. When this year's honorees take to the stage on Oct. 25 at the Kern fairgrounds, they'll look out at the audience and see plenty of people they know or have instructed in the past.
Congratulations to Jay Busby and Daryl Amble, workhorses for the popular Kern Shooting Sports Foundation. Both men have put in thousands of hours teaching local hunter safety courses to thousands of local individuals and are more than deserving of this prestigious award. More information about these gentlemen will appear in a later column.
This year's 60th Annual "Sportsman's Night" will once again highlight and benefit Kern County's sportsmen. Over 100 great prizes, including quality guns, fishing tackle, knives and other outdoor gear, will be given away to patrons, with half that total going to the kids. Prices remain the same as previous years--only a $30 donation--but only 800 tickets will be sold, giving the folks on hand a one-in-eight chance of winning a quality prize.
Families are invited to attend the gala event, which begins at 5 p.m., with dinner served at 7. Tickets are on sale at Galey's, 2nd Amendment Sports, Ammo Dump, Valley Gun, Ol'Boy Outdoors, Bear Mountain Sports or Bob's Bait Bucket. Contact Jim Roberts (661) 805-5766 more information on this popular event.
Ducks, ducks and more ducks
A lot of hunters insist that duck hunting is not about killing ducks, but being in tune with nature, enjoying beautiful sunrises and watching Mother Nature at her best. While I agree that being there does have its special moments, one can spend the same amount of time in a blind without a gun enjoying the same things and never have to pull a trigger. Therefore, I insist that the killing of birds makes the sport what it is and to my way of thinking, a proper day in the marsh needs to be done with a shotgun, decoys, dog and birds overhead.
No matter how pretty the dawn has been, I've always feel a whole lot better in my blinds when plentiful waterfowl wing, swish, whistle, quack and jet by closely overhead and the shooting remains good for my friends and me. Watching ducks warily circle overhead inspecting the blocks while we try to remain hidden from their incredible eyesight keeps us returning to enjoy the hunts shoot day after shoot day.
Waiting for ducks to commit, hearing them answer our calls and finally backpedaling into our spread while we lift our guns to salute them -- that's waterfowling -- not some weird notion of just spending time in the woods watching wildlife without actually taking part in the eternal circle of life.
Oh, yes, duck hunters definitely hear the heartbeat of the earth, too, and enjoy seeing the creatures that live where we hunt. But the dead birds on our leather straps are the validation of our special time in the field, our physical involvement in life's path, and we make no apologies for our legal harvest. Without us, the hunters, the managers of our woods, marsh and habitats, there would be no wildlife for anyone to enjoy.
And real hunters eat what they kill and are always more than willing to invite friends over for dinner for an evening of fun and camaraderie. Nothing beats a teal, mallard or pintail cooked rare to medium rare with the juice following the knife's cut, served with wild rice and washed down with splendidly aged wine.
Oh, yeah, that's also duck hunting at its finest.
Waterfowl season notes
Duck season opens Saturday, Oct. 8, with most regulations unchanged from last year and a ton of ducks on hand on our local clubs and ponds. Shooters will need a current California hunting license plus a state duck stamp validation and federal duck stamp. Hunters wishing to hunt on state wildlife refuges such as Kern will not be able to purchase any stamps, licenses, permits or whatever at the DFG trailer as in the past. Also, all prospective hunters must have already purchased their refuge permit and payment proof from a DFG License outlet before arriving. No money will be taken on site.
Also, the DFG has no immediate plans to refund the money if someone purchases a refuge permit and either does not use it or does not get drawn. Once again, the DFG desk folks really went out of their way to create a little money maker for the state without thinking of the economy, people's rights and the impact on our wildlife when a lot less people show up to hunt and the revenue sinks out of sight. I wonder who they'll blame then.
