It is time for the 3rd Annual Southern Sportsman Open Archery Tournament at The Deer Stand archery range. The tournament consists of one shoot monthly beginning this Thursday night at 6:30.The competition is designed for the whole family and has a new division for the 2007 season, the cross bow division.

Not only will we have the button bucks division for the children up to 12 years old, but we will also have the youth division up to 16 and the adult divisions that are split into the open and hunter division. The newly open division of cross bows is for adults only and will be paid out just as the compound bow divisions are.

Children are free to enter and shoot with everyone getting ribbons with the youth divisions getting trophies; the youth entry is only $5 per shooter. The adult divisions are $10 each with half of the entries being paid back as prize money.

The shoot dates are found in the Southern Sportsman Calendar of events and are may 17, June 14, July 19, August 16 and the final shoot for the top gun trophy on September 22 at the yearly “Hunters Appreciation Night” hosted by The Deer Stand. The top average shooters will shoot a three round deciding match for the title.

Be sure to put these dates on your calendar and come join the fun. The nightly shoots will begin 6:30 with sign up beginning at 6pm. For more information please call The Deer Stand at 601-799-0778.

Lake Fork Roadtrip

Just like the hunters that hit the road looking for the big bucks or huge gobblers, devout fishermen and women will do the same. The allure of huge bass, crappie or catfish is just to much for avid anglers and the two words, Lake Fork, are all you have to say to get the truck packed and the boat hooked up for a road trip. Speaking of road trip, that is just what several local anglers did, and man it paid off.

Lake Fork is a well known bass lake in Texas that is known for huge largemouth and is worth the ride. A group of four local anglers, Jay Breland, Jimmy Gipson, Sidney Mitchell and C.D. “Preacher” McKinley, made the trip and proved that lake fork not only has great bass fishing, but can give the catfishermen a good time also.

As I mentioned, Lake Fork is known for bass fishing and Jay Breland hooked up with the huge 9 pound largemouth. Jay is known for fishing the local bass tournaments and doing well, so it is no surprise that he makes the best of Lake Fork.

When it comes to catfish, the most famous and prolific is the channel catfish. The channel cat is usually caught on trot line and on rod-n-reel and a good weight for us locally on the rivers and lakes is around 4-5 pounds, but not on Lake Fork. C.D. “Preacher” McKinley hooked up with this10 pound channel cat. Not to be outdone, the duo of Gipson and Mitchell hooked up with this huge 57 pound flat head, better known as a “tabby cat. It is not unusual to catch big tabby cats in south Mississippi but the normal “big” weigh is around 25-30 pounds. Anytime you net and close the deal on a fish over 50 pounds in the3 freshwater, it is going in the photo album, and probably will make the local outdoor page.

And as always, get outdoor and enjoy what God has given us