Because I Have To

This is a post I never intended to write, it is about something I have done for many years for reasons of my own and until recently very few knew about. This week I was asked again by my buddy Ben from the UK to tell others and I gave in. I finally decided to talk about it not because I want people to know about it and then tell me what a good person I am but in hopes that others will follow suit.

For many years I have grown a garden far bigger than I need, kept more fish than I can eat and taken enough deer each year to feed a large family. Many times I have heard about how good I was on the lake or in the woods which might be the case but only because I have had years of practice. People would tell me how good it was to have a full freezer with fish, game and vegetables I provided myself. All true enough but the real reason behind the numbers I kept and the size of my garden is I provide food to needy families in my area. I only had help one year in memory of my brother when some generous people sent some money to expand the garden for one season, which I did. After that year I have made it larger in hopes of having more to give but never accepted any further help and won’t again.

Part of what I brought home on a trip this year. I am still sharing them.

This one doe went to help three families.


This is how it works, I find families in my area that are having a tough time and make a list, as food in available I take it to each family in turn. They don’t know most of the time I am doing this and many times I simply leave vegetables on their porch by the bag full, as I have more I take it to the next family. The fish and game I take to them when they are home so I know it won’t ruin but they never know it is coming. I do the same in winter with frozen vegetables when I have them. If at all possible I will do it so that I can leave without them ever having a chance to say thanks or being embarrassed by needing help, I don’t do it for the thanks or praise. I don’t know how many families I have given food to over the years I only know it was no where near enough.

Why do I do it? Simple. I’ve been hungry. I’ve been poor. I’ve been broke. I’ve sat dejected wondering how I would eat that day. I have lived on a dollar or less a day for food and sometimes didn’t have that. I still have very little in the way of money after three years without a job, I don’t care, I scraped up money to buy seeds and plants, I struggled to buy my license this year, I planted my garden, I fished, I am hunting and I am helping feed people. I don’t care one bit about praise or acknowledgements about what I do, in fact, I would rather have continued doing it without anyone knowing since it was a private and personal act. The people that asked me to write about it had a point, if I would tell others maybe they would do the same. Fair enough. Just as my online name implies I tend to stay out of sight on a personal level but this is not about me but about people that need our help.

If you hunt, fish, grow a garden, whatever then you have the means to do what I do. I know all about the big organizations that provide food on an impersonal level to people but I refuse to work with them. I don’t need some group that doesn’t care who I am to do what I can do on my own. I have no trouble finding people that need help as close as my own neighbors.

So here is what I want to ask for all those people that are right down the street from you, help out. If you are mainly a catch and release fisherman, please, take a few home now and then to clean and help feed someone. When you harvest a deer take a ham or backstrap to a family going hungry. Plant an extra row in your garden then take what you have leave it on a doorstep. Freeze what you can to hand out during the winter when the need is even greater. Do it yourself not through some food bank or organization. Know where your food is going and see the results, it is a hands on experience not a drop it off and forget it one.

Please take a bit of time to think about this post, a few fish or a couple of pounds of venison will mean that someone gets to eat tonight that might not otherwise. Vegetables fresh from your garden might be the only good food they get for days. The money they save on food might be needed to keep their lights on, water running or gas in their car. I have been on that end and believe me when I say it is a miserable end to be on. We, as outdoors folks have the ability to help easier than others and I hope my friends that read this join in my quiet mission to help where I can.

Cajun Seasoning Pt Duex

It is time for another review. This time a quick look at more from my friend and now my first sponsor, lets have a round of applause for Mr. Camp Dog himself, Papa Scott!!

I am happy to say that my little bit of getting the word out seems to have helped many folks find out about Cajun Seasoning. Now I want you to take a look at the other goodies Papa Scott turns out down there in the great state of Louisiana.

When last we met we looked at Original Camp Dog, this time I have a three part treat for you. First is Non Typical spice mix. Comes packaged like the Original but with a different flavor. In this one it isn’t quite as warm and the celery is gone. As much as I like the first one I really use more of this now. It goes on just about everything and my friends are using it on even more than I am. From eggs to mule deer tenderloins to fries it works. I love it on squash, either fried or on the grill, oh and green onions grilled and….umm ok you get the picture, this stuff is good.

Next is something near and dear to me, Fish Fry Batter. Being from the south fried fish done right is a tradition and we know when it is wrong. I got some of Papa Scott’s recipe and tried it several ways to see how it would do. Since it has a bit of spice I tried it on some fairly strong catfish I had, it tamed it down so that you could eat it without tasting river. I found out because of the spices you have to cook at a lower temp than you do if you are using cornmeal. If you aren’t careful you wind up with charred fillet rather than tasty fillet. Don’t ask how I know this. I tried it out on my favorite bluegill fillets but just lightly dusted since they are so mild. They came out crisp with just enough zip without overpowering the fish.

I also used a couple of different dips to see if it would work with them. I dried catfish fillets, dusted them with batter mix, dropped them into an egg wash for one batch and a buttermilk wash for another then dredged them in the batter mix. A couple of each batch were dipped into the liquid again and dredged a second time to create a thick crust. All were cooked in an iron skillet using vegetable oil until golden brown. Again each and every way I tried it worked. Light crust, thick crust, egg or milk, all tasted great. I haven’t tried this trick yet but a little bird told me to use it on vegetables like eggplant (I am thinking squash, I love me some squash) to have another way to add flavor to them.

And finally Hush Puppy Mix. I will admit this is nothing like what I think of as hush puppies. Here it is cornmeal, a bit of sugar, a tad of minced onion, mixed with buttermilk and an egg. Papa Scott’s has some tasty stuff in it that reminds me of the spices and tastes in crab boil. One pound of hush puppy mix will make around 60 tasty little balls of goodness. Add a cup of milk and one egg, let sit for 30 minutes and cook in a deep fryer at 300 degrees, let them drain on a paper towel and cool a bit, consume.

The first time I tried these Scott told me he made a meal from them, I thought “Yeah right.”. Well I will tell you this, I was eating on the couch watching TV and had to get up and take them back in the kitchen to stop eating them. They are worse than potato chips. They aren’t your normal hush puppy which shouldn’t surprise anyone that has tried his other products. Scott hit another one out of the park with these. I try not to cook them often to be honest about it because I tend to eat far too many no matter how much I promise not to.

For those of you that have tried the spice rubs here is a list of things you will want to order, Scott really has these down. If you haven’t tried any and especially if you like fish and hush puppies, give those a try for a Cajun twist for your table.

Here is a link to get your order in from Papa Scott's Cajun Seasoning

Camp Dog, Review

When you are a famous internet and social media personality such as myself hardly a day goes by when something doesn’t darken your door from companies wanting you to try, wear, taste, endorse some product or other…..oh crap. Sorry I was ghost writing this for someone else.

Let me start over. Only a couple of times have I ever gotten anything from a company to try as far as our outdoor community goes. I know people that get everything from shirts and hats to rods, reels, guns, you name it, they just seem to attract merchandise like some weird freebie magnet. I am not one of those people. I have on rare occasions, by that I mean a total of 2, been offered something. In both cases I told them they didn’t have to send anything since I know they get hit up for samples a lot. Both sent something saying they wanted me to try it and give an honest opinion. That I can do, actually, the only thing I will do. No shill here. If it is good I tell you, if not you get that, too. If you send me something and it sucks don’t get mad when I tell people. Hmm, maybe that’s why I don’t get stuff. Anyway.

Now that the explanation/disclaimer/warning is out of the way let me tell you what I got. I opened the mailbox to find a manila envelope inside. I was only expecting one thing other than bills and the return address confirmed it. Straight out of the great state of Louisiana I had my first container of Papa Scott’s Original Camp Dog Cajun Seasoning. I love me some spicy and couldn’t wait to try it. I read the cool/funny back story on the container then headed to the kitchen.

It was just about supper time and according to the label it works on anything that “flies, walks, crawls, swims or jumps”. I happened to have some bluegill fillets waiting so they won the “Wonder what to try it on first” contest. To be fair I didn’t read the ingredients, wanting the taste to stand on its’ own. The other thing I did was to make two piles of fillets, one got just Camp Dog Seasoning while the other was coated in Camp Dog then breaded with self rising cornmeal. Hey, sue me I’m southern, we bread everything in cornmeal and fry it.

I cooked both piles the same, dropped into vegetable oil in an iron skillet. I used the vegetable oil since it doesn’t add flavor. Once they were a nice toasty brown I was ready for the tasting. I only added a bit of chow chow to cut the oil some between bites, again to keep from adding other tastes from slaw, fries, hush puppies, a slice of onion, dang I should have fixed all that it sounds good. But I digress. To be honest I am not a big fan of fish that isn’t breaded but wanted to see how Camp Dog held up without help. I started with the unbreaded and it worked, good flavor, not too salty and a bit of heat at the end. Next was the breaded batch. These really worked for me. The added crunch with Camp Dog flavoring the cornmeal was what I was hoping for. It was good, really good, just the taste and texture I like. I found out later that I had used too much oil on the unbreaded fish which should have been more blackened than what I did so anything wrong there was on me.

First batch in.

One of my favorite sights.

According to the package you can also use this on critters that walk and fly, not just swim. Since I had already fried something I decided to grab a chunk of bovine, fire up the grill and see what we had. Finding a likely looking bit of cow critter ( I grabbed a small pack of chicken thighs ,too) I headed back to get it ready. I got a chuck roast because it isn’t the most tender cut. Camp Dog is supposed to work as a tenderizer, we’ll see. I added seasoning to the chicken the night before to let it have time to work. For the beef I put it on about 7 hours ahead of cooking to see if it will tenderize the meat as per Papa Scott‘s instructions when we talked. I only added Camp Dog, no salt, pepper, Worcestershire, beer, nothing else to season the meat. Again we are testing here. Kick ‘em out of the nest, fly or die, no help.  I know the smoke will add some but that was part of my test, too. At times seasonings can turn bitter when grilled. I’ve heard other people besides me like to grill, who knew, so thought I should see what that did to the taste.

I use a charcoal grill not one of those gas thingies (sorry to get so technical). I had some hickory chips and decided to add some during cooking, that would be the only help besides regular smoke from the coals, besides I like hickory smoke. When they were ready I got the meat on, top closed and let the smoke roll. The worst part, the wind kicked up and blew all that good smell away while it was cooking. 45 minutes later we were ready to go. Both meats had taken beautiful color and smelled great, the chicken was done through, beef was at medium, let the eating begin.

Note the green onions right out of the garden on the top shelf. Pic is in focus that is smoke you see.

I started with the chicken. Many times when I season chicken the spices will just sit on top, once the skin is gone so is most of the taste. Not this time. It was flavored all the way through with a nice even taste. Nothing bitter from grilling, the seasoning held up great to the smoke. Luckily I had done my part by not over cooking the chicken which I am prone to do. This was just plain old good. Flavored but not too hot or spicy and with the smoke….well good thing there was only a couple of pieces since I still had the beef to try and couldn’t keep eating chicken.

My other side was sweet potato, boiled then finished on the grill for a few minutes.

The beef could have come off a couple of minutes earlier but wasn't past medium. Chuck roast can turn tough on the grill but not this one. I let it rest for maybe 10 minutes before cutting and when I did it was perfectly tender. The seasoning had made a light crust, taken good color and just like the chicken, tasted great. The difference, to me, with the beef the little heat from the seasoning wasn’t as pronounced which makes sense with the heavier beef taste. Now when I say heat don’t panic if you don’t like hot, this isn’t hot just a bit of spice that you taste near the end of a bite.

A good thing with Camp Dog is the fact that it isn’t salt based which helps the other flavors come through and allows people to use it on low salt diets. They have another flavor that takes the celery and heat out for those that might not care for them. There are several products I think you will want to try from Original like I have to Fish Fry Batter, Hush Puppy Mix and more. Click their link here Camp Dog Cajun Seasoning and take a look, nice looking site with all types of goodies even gift baskets for the hard to buy for cook in the family.

Well, there it is a quick look at Papa Scott’s. Not only is it as good as it says, works like it should but the folks that make it are some of the best around. I tried to find a way that it wouldn’t work as advertised but it came through. I can't wait to try it on other critters and I hope you give them a try rather than just more off the shelf stuff from the grocery store you won‘t be disappointed.

On the Rocks

Stripers, rockfish in this area, for years caused some massive traffic jams on local lakes and below area dams. I can remember acres of boats side by side on Percy Priest centered over a huge school of rockfish. They would drop live bluegill down and wait for a strike. Below dams, people would line up shoulder to shoulder by the hundreds throwing 1 ounce jigs into the tailwaters, drifting them with the fast flowing current. This was the heyday of rockfishing, when a 2 fish limit was common enough and fishing could be fast and furious. It was a blast to head to the lake at dusk to wait for schools chasing shad to the surface. A big top water bait made out of an old broom handle produced great strikes. The fish were predictable, fairly easy to catch and I miss those days even though the crowds could be trying. The addition of hybrids just added to the fun.

Photo credit: My friend Gary Hanson with one of his recent catches in Alabama.

There aren‘t as many as there were but during cold weather, I still head to Old Hickory or Priest to chuck jigs into the fast water. While you can catch them year round I like the cold weather fishing when there isn’t much to do.

7 a.m. I parked just above the steps leading down to the catwalk. Nice of TVA to pour this for the fishermen. I scan the area looking for the old men that are here almost every day during scheduled generation. If you don’t fish dams this is what they call the water release through the turbines. The rockfish and hybrids love it, they show up about 30 minutes after it starts. This day it was 6 a.m. till noon. I see the old guys, they have already moved down to the lower end of the catwalk leaving the boils where the water exits the turbines empty. Today there are only 5 of us here.

The water is literally roaring, spray filling the air as I get to the edge of the river then turn right to get to the spot I love to fish. It is even with the end of the wing wall where you are standing on big chunks of slippery rock. I can cast to the face of the dam and let my jig drift along the wing wall, brushing against it, then dropping into the eddy spinning at the end of the wall. I rig a favorite, a 1 ½ ounce white on white jig with a bit of silver tinsel for flash, take aim and deliver my first cast exactly into the corner. It drifts fast, makes it to the eddy in a few seconds and drops at the current break…..then stops. Nothing to hang up on here so I slam back on the rod and feel the head shake. Three cranks of the reel handle, get the rod tip down, hit him again and again. The head shakes get harder.

 I only had a 7 ½ foot spinning rod loaded with 14 lb test while most folks fish heavy surf rods up to 15 feet. I knew what was next, he turned and made the first run. Line was screaming from the reel . Between a big fish and fast water all you do is hold on and hope. If they head downstream you get the added fun of running across big chunks of rock till you get back to the catwalk then sprinting along trying to not get spooled. This fish ran straight across the river to stop within 5 or 6 feet of the far bank. Fine by me since I was down to maybe 8 loops of line on the reel.

I yell, “Fish on!“, so the guys downstream know to look out. This is a good fish, I can see his back out of the water, a wide tail breaking the surface. My green fluorescent line looks like ski rope in the sun as it stretches across the current. I start to slowly get line back, this part reminds me of ocean fishing, reel down then raise the rod to make a few cranks. I head back to the catwalk, I want a flat surface under my feet and to get closer to my net man. All the guys stop fishing, one grabs a net and all head my way. As they get even with me I have managed to get 50 yards of line back, they are asking how big, has he made a second run? They got the answer when the fish hits the heavy current at midstream, turns downstream and takes every inch of line back. The rod is popping, the drag protests against fish and current.

This repeats for what seems like 20 minutes but might have been 5. I work slowly down the walkway to the very end, finally making my stand. The fish decides to fight rod and current, fine by me, since I get the advantage. My net man is ready as the fish drifts to the bank, he does a good job, getting him on the first pass. A nice fish pushing the 30 lb mark.

I walk down to the edge of the river and get the hook out. The fish is in good shape, the old guys want to get a good look before I take him to the truck. I get him out of the net smiling to myself cause I have a surprise. Everyone says how good a fish it is, how they wouldn’t mind getting one that size, man he will cook up good…….then it dawns on them where I’m standing. I have eased back to the edge of the river while we talked, turned and to the shouts of “NO”, thanked the fish and put him back. I don’t like rockfish for the table. There were some long faces among my fishing buddies.

I have caught many rocks and hybrids from that spot. Some on my first cast, some on my last. Fishing for rocks this way isn’t easy or fast but I love to go when I get the chance, not often enough these days. During the winter the dams are where the rockfish run, when you find them it is a blast. I look for the shad running the banks. If the bait is there the rocks are, too. That is the reason for my favorite jig, it mimics the shad plus I use a heavier jig to fish part of the water column others miss. The down side to that is losing a lot of jigs to the rocky bottom.

My current rockfish arsenal. 9 1/2 ft Shimano casting rods. Top one of my favorite reels BPS Catmaxx. Bottom a reel I hate Shimano Catala.

If you have rockfish or hybrids in your area and haven’t taken advantage of them I hope you do. They are so much fun to catch and you can use a wide range of tactics to find them. From top water or downriggers, to chucking lead below a dam, even cut or live bait, they provide fishing during times of the year when other fish can be slow.