Editor’s Letter

May Flowers

Way back, a crusty fish guy told me, “Redbuds bloom, stripers are spawning.” There’s probably no one seeing blooming redbuds and thinks about stripers…except me”.

In the early 1980’s, Bus Hartley, pioneer Kansas fish farmer told me, “Bass spawn when bullfrogs croak.”

Guys like me preach temperature as a key, unlocking nature.

It dawned on me years ago…redbud trees bloom a few days before bullfrogs start to croak. Temperature.

Spring is an awakening. So is knowledge and experience.

Spring. New leaves, fresh rains, baby wildness from bass to birds to deer to skunks. Nature doing what nature does, and we learn.

Those are a few reasons I love putting this magazine together. Practical life science experiences. Our writers explain their stories, tell their tales, express opinions—many profound—to our readers.

Lately, I’ve been using a phrase stolen from good friend and client, Freeman Sawyer. Most who read this magazine are involved with land, either as owners or stewards, or both. Freeman says, “I like to learn—to keep from paying too much ‘dumb tax’”. Dumb tax. That phrase carries merit. Too many times I’ve sat around a fire pit, on the porch, or riding around to hear the owner start a conversation with, “I wish I’d done this a little differently.” Part of our mission to help you become better stewards of land and water is to minimize the dumb tax. We “don’t know what we don’t know.”

We’ve launched a new online premium content educational curriculum. It’s stuff you can’t otherwise find online. Many of you know about the Bob Lusk Institute of Higher Pondology. We’ve held two of those, so far. In these days of lockdowns, Zoom meetings, and hunker-down lifestyles, we decided to make this prime content available to the general public at a fair price. Learn more, pay less dumb tax. See the ad inside.

Enjoy summer, take care of your water, catch fish, send pictures. We love pictures.