Outdoor and Survival Skills Seminar

Two Day Seminar on Outdoor and Survival Skills

 

If you are an outdoor enthusiast, you should not miss the upcoming two day seminar to be presented by L. Woodrow Ross at Brickhouse Campground, near Whitmire, SC, on March 7 &8.

This will be a fast paced two days covering topics such as fire starting (bow drill, ferro rod, solar), flint knapping, water purification, cordage making from natural fibers, archery skills, atlatl skills, trapping tips, cast iron cooking information and a lot of general information vital to those interested in survival skills.

Cost for the two days will be $79 per registrant. Save $10 each by registering with a friend and sharing a campsite.

For more details, or to request a registration form, contact me at lross3871@charter.net or 864-238-1944. Payment of 50% required to reserve a spot. Cancellation prior to Feb. 29, 2020, will receive a full refund, but after that date only 25% will be refunded.

L. Woodrow Ross is an author/photographer and outdoorsman from upstate South Carolina with 30 books on Amazon Kindle. He has more than 500 newspaper articles published in the Anderson Independent Mail and Travelers Rest Chronicle. He has also contributed to a number of southeastern magazines and is a current board member of the South Carolina Outdoor Press Association. He has participated in hunting with firearms, but more recently has concentrated on primitive archery for deer hunting. He has trapped, camped and participated in many outdoor activities such as kayaking, fly fishing, fly tying, outdoor photography, camping, cast iron cooking and more.

Big catfish on the move

Big catfish are active in the bigger lakes. Chris Cade, an Abbeville resident, has a farm at Clark Hill and he often goes on weekends to hunt and fish. This is the time of year when he and friends target big catfish. They are very successful and have a ball.

Chris Cade with 35-lb catfish taken last weekend

A little later in the spring, the carp will be spawning and bowfishing will be the consuming sport. The carp make good targets as they move through the shallows. Many hunt them at night with lights.

Special arrows with barbs are used to keep the carp from detaching from the arrow when they struggle. A line is attached to a reel on the bow and the arrow and fish can be retrieved after shooting.

L. Woodrow Ross with carp on bow in 2013

Turkey hunting is just around the corner and will be on the agenda for the month of April.

Chuck Mulkey with nice gobbler taken in 2013

Bow hunters need to practice year-round so that they maintain their skills for deer season. That is one reason that bowfishing is a good practice. It removes some of the fish that not many fish for and it provides a fun was to stay sharp for deer hunting with a  bow.

Primitive Wilderness Survival Skills

We are in a time of transition here in the southeast. Deer season is history and turkey season is still a couple of weeks away. We have our turkey tags in hand and are looking forward to the season. The recruitment in spring/summer 2013 was poor, so we may see fewer gobblers this season, but personal observations are that the population held its own, even though nesting conditions were poor.

I visited with the Cathey family at their Skeeter Branch Hunting Preserve near Lavonia, Georgia on Saturday, March 15. They have a neat duck hunting operation there and were hosting a number of hunters earlier that day. I was there to interview Mr. Jack, an 86-year-old gentleman who was a mentor to Bob Cathey and is a treasure of turkey hunting lore. We talked and he showed us some antique turkey calls as well as a turkey beard from a gobbler with 6 beards that his son Tommy killed.

Mr. Lombard regaled us with stories about his turkey hunting history. He lives in Mountain Rest, SC, and worked at the Walhalla fish hatchery for 35 years. He had the unique good fortune of killing the first turkey at Parsons Mountain hunt unit when it opened for turkey hunting in the 1960's. He has harvested more than 150 turkeys in his hunting career. The only camouflage that he used was a simple face net.

We will be featuring Mr. Lombard in an upcoming magazine article and will post that information when available.

If you are interested in traditional archery and deer hunting, check out my article in the April/May issue of Primitive Archer magazine titled "Learning to become invisible". It give some important tips on avoiding detection when hunting whitetail deer. Also, Chris Cade, a good friend, has an article about "Catch and release deer hunting" in the same issue.

Fly fishing is picking up and reports are positive. The water flow is excellent and fish should be in good shape. One of our favorite delayed harvest streams in NC has been closed due to logging in the immediate area. It will be questionable as to the quality of the fishing after it reopens. I hope silting is not a problem, but it is likely.

The lakes are in good condition with the bountiful rainfall that we have experienced. Casey Ashley of Donalds, SC had a great Elite Series tournament on Lake Hartwell recently. It is always good to see a home boy do well.

As the weather improves, we will be hosting another primitive crafts seminar. I will post more information as soon as the details are set. In addition, Sunrift Adventures in Travelers Rest will be resuming their Tuesday  night free clinics in April and they will run throughout the summer. I will be doing a couple, but the dates are not set yet. These will be posted as they become available.

Flintknapping is still an ongoing pastime and some interesting projectile points have been knapped from bottoms of bottles. If you haven't tried this, select a bottle with a reasonably flat bottom. Drop a large nail in the bottle, point down. Place your thumb over the top of the bottle and shake vigorously. The bottom should break free, reasonable intact. With care, this can be knapped into some nice, little arrow points.

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