 Largemouth bass. Photo © Ken Schultz By Ken Schultz
Surely you have read articles and seen documentaries about invasive species and the effect that they’ve had on native flora and fauna throughout the world. Back in 2005, a sidebar to a National Geographic article on invasives listed the 100 least wanted invasive species worldwide, according to a global invasive species database maintained by the World Conservation Union. They were not listed in order of the degree of threat they imposed. Among the seven species listed in the fish group was Micropterus salmoides. Yep, the darling of the North American freshwater sportfishing community and the single-most popular predatory fish species in the U.S.: the largemouth bass. Which, by the way, was endemic to parts of the North American continent, yet is now found  The author drives a 4-stroke Suzuki on Table Rock Lake. Photo © Ken Schultz By Ken Schultz
I’ve been using a personal computer since about 1980. But that doesn’t mean I know much about Ram and ROM, processors and display drivers, or can do any more “programming” than I could back in college when I took a course in the now-ancient Cobalt and Fortran computer languages. But I can get normal things done on a computer just fine. I’ve been driving a car since I was 16. But I can’t repair one and I don’t know a piston from a manifold and I’m lucky if I can even point to the carburetor. But I’m a pretty good auto driver, even with those smaller rental cars I often have to use. And, I’ve been boating even longer than I’ve been driving a car or using a computer. I had a little hydroplane as a youngster and raced around the lake where my family summered, probably annoying fishermen there much like today’s personal watercraft users do. But I couldn’t tell you a thing about outboard engines other than how to start them, fuel them, and clean them. I retract that last item; I rarely clean the outside of my outboards. As with the computers and autos that I’ve owned, my boat must have an engine that runs flawlessly, and, in general, is a utilitarian device that I don’t have to spend time tinkering with. I just want to have it start whenever I turn the key, get me where I need to fish, and By Ken Schultz
Someone told me a few years ago about a person who was writing a book about his attempt to catch fifty species of fish on a fly. He was hoping to get an article about this published in a major magazine and the feat was allegedly going to qualify for a Guinness World Record. My first reaction, as it usually is with such stuff, was to dismiss this undertaking and wonder if this person doesn’t have some better contribution to make to mankind. Then it occurred to me that I have probably caught fifty or more species of fish on a fly, though |
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