Monroe Lake is hosting a work day to clean up trash at a waterfowl resting area on Saturday, May 19.

The North Fork Waterfowl Resting Area is littered with trash carried in from the main lake by flooding in recent years.

Volunteers should wear closed-toe shoes and meet Monroe Lake naturalist Jill Vance at the North Fork Service Area at 2 p.m. Trash bags, water, snacks and work gloves will be provided. The cleanup will end at 4 p.m.

North Fork is between Bloomington and Nashville. From the intersection of Indiana 46 and Indiana 446 on the east side of Bloomington, take Indiana 46 east toward Nashville for about 4.5 miles. Turn right (south) onto Kent Road. Go 0.3 miles, and then turn right onto the gravel McGowan Road. Continue on McGowan Road for about 1.8 miles until it dead ends at the North Fork Service Area.

For more information, contact Vance at jvance@dnr.IN.gov or (812) 837-9546.

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA), in cooperation with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Country Financial, Plano, the Forrest Lee Wood Company and other sponsors will host the statewide event beginning with Sectional competition on April 20.  The IHSA Bass Fishing State Finals will be conducted on Carlyle Lake on May 4-5.

This marks the fourth year of the competition, and the number of schools and high school anglers participating continue to grow.  A total of 231 schools will participate in 19 Sectionals at 18 locations (two Sectionals will be held on the Chain O’Lakes in northeast Illinois) on April 20.  Each participating school is allowed to enter two teams, and with as many as four student anglers on each team, more than 1,800 youth may compete in the tournament series this spring.

From the fishing competition at the 19 Sectionals, the top three teams from each Sectional will advance to the May 4-5 finals at Carlyle Lake.

“As the tournament continues to grow in the future, changes may need to be made such as creating a Regional level of competition leading into the Sectionals,” said IDNR Fisheries Biologist Dan Stephenson, who serves as the IDNR coordinator for the tournament.  “There is no class division in the tourney and it is co-ed, so young women and young men from schools small and large from border to border compete against each other.  We see great potential for getting more and more schools and students involved.”

Illinois is the only state that conducts a state high school bass fishing tournament, though others are in the planning stages.

“This is an incredible event that benefits hundreds of young people throughout the state with a fun, outdoor recreation activity and the experience of competition with youth from other schools,” Stephenson said.  “The added bonus is that this activity is available with very little cost to the school districts.  All 793 schools in the IHSA are welcome to participate.”

Participants in the tournament have impressed even veteran tournament anglers with their efforts in the IHSA Bass Fishing Tournament Series.

“While the students involved are young, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are novice bass anglers,” Stephenson added.  “For example in 2010, in the two-day, rain-shortened state finals tournament at Carlyle, 51 teams weighed in more than 600 pounds of bass averaging 2.2 pounds each.  Those are impressive numbers. Like the tournament logo says:  ‘The Future Fishes Here’.”

For more information on the Illinois High School Bass Fishing Tournament Series, check the IHSA website atwww.ihsa.org.

For more information on fishing – and great places to fish in Illinois – check the IDNR website atwww.dnr.illinois.gov/fishing or www.ifishillinois.org.

Hunters can report their turkey harvest through a computer, tablet or wide variety of smart phones and handheld devices without having to take the turkey to a designated check station for physical inspection.

However, hunters will still have the option of taking their turkey to a designated check station.

The CheckIn Game system was developed by IN.gov, the official website of the state of Indiana and a service of the Indiana Office of Technology.

“The CheckIN Game system allows hunters to quickly check in their game from the convenience of their home or directly in the field using their mobile device,” said Mark Reiter, Division of Fish & Wildlife director. “This free online system is a big step forward in giving hunters more options to check in their game.”

Hunters who use CheckIN Game will get an electronic confirmation receipt with a confirmation number. They will need to write the number on the temporary transportation tag for the turkey. Indiana Conservation Officers will use the confirmation number to check validity of the turkey. While printing the confirmation receipt is not necessary, hunters may want to do so for their records.

Hunters must have their customer ID number ready when using the CheckIN Game system. Customer ID numbers can be found on spring turkey licenses or any hunting, trapping or fishing license from Indiana. Lifetime license holders will have the option of looking up this number in the CheckIN Game system. Hunters exempted by law from needing a license can also check in their game through this online system by entering some basic information.

To access CheckIN Game visit: hunting.IN.gov/7365.htm.

Directions for using the system will be posted on the CheckIN Game website; however, the system has a user-friendly design.

“The simple drop-down lists and the automatic filling in of information allows hunters to quickly and easily check their game,” Reiter said.

CheckIN Game will be available this weekend during the two-day youth season and when the regular spring turkey hunting season begins on April 25.

This fall, CheckIN Game likely will be expanded to include checking in white-tailed deer and fall-season turkey.

Spring turkey season begins with the youth season April 21-22. The regular spring turkey season is April 25 through May 13.

Backs is forecasting a spring turkey harvest of 11,000, plus or minus 1,000. His prediction is about 6 percent less than the 11,669 birds harvested in 2011, and 20 percent less than the 2010 spring harvest, when hunters bagged a record 13,742 turkeys.

Expectations are lower this year for two reasons, several years of below normal brood production and the advanced progression of vegetation.

Indiana has experienced seven consecutive summers of below normal turkey production primarily due to above normal precipitation in June. Several other states in the Midwest and south have experienced similar or worse drops in production.

Due to the record warm weather, the spring progression of vegetation is three to four weeks ahead of schedule. More greenery will make seeing and hearing turkeys more difficult, but also provide more concealment for hunters.

“The increased concealment gets us into a potential hunter safety issue,” Backs said. “Hunters are going to have to be very vigilant in correctly identifying their target and also recognize that the hunter’s presence may not be as easily detected by another hunter in the same area.”

When hunters do hear a turkey, they could be more likely to overestimate the distance to the bird and may end up spooking or “over-running” the location of the gobbler as they approach, Backs said.

“It may be just a different year,” he said. “Anybody that’s been around turkey hunting realizes you can’t predict the weather, you can’t predict the timing of spring green up, you can’t predict how turkeys will respond.”

Hunters shouldn’t get too discouraged.

There are reasons for optimism this year, Backs said. Mushroom season came early, and morel hunters are likely to be out of the woods by the time turkey season comes. Additionally, hunters might find some extra gobblers in areas where flooding limited hunting last year.

Hunters are allowed one bearded or male turkey. A wild turkey license and a game bird habitat stamp are required unless otherwise exempted. Exemptions are detailed in the online Turkey Hunting Guide (www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/6417.htm).

The online Turkey Hunting Guide also contains license requirements, bag limits, hunting hours, equipment regulations, a comprehensive list of public hunting areas, and contact information for DNR district wildlife biologists and DNR law enforcement districts.

People interested in supporting Monroe Lake are invited to an informative volunteer call-out session on Sunday, April 22.

The call-out is from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the Paynetown State Recreation Area Interpretive Center. Interpretive Naturalist Jill Vance will discuss Monroe Lake’s new volunteer program and answer questions. Light refreshments will be available.

“Monroe Lake is a beautiful, diverse property,” Vance said. “There are lots of ways volunteers can support our efforts to maintain and improve it.”

One way volunteers can get a start on improving Monroe Lake is to attend a work project, also on April 22, to help restore the flood-damaged Paynetown SRA Interpretive Center.

The work project at the interpretive center starts at 2 p.m. and will last about 90 minutes. Volunteers will tackle a variety of building restoration projects. The center’s interior was destroyed by flooding in May 2011. The goal is to reopen the center this May.

People are welcome to participate in the work project and then stay for the volunteer call-out, or just show up for the call-out.

Although no R.S.V.P. is required for the volunteer call-out, registration is requested by 4 p.m. on April 20 for the work project. To register, email Vance at jvance@dnr.IN.gov or call (812) 837-9546.

“We need to prep for the work project in advance,” Vance said. “The number of volunteers planning to participate will dictate which specific tasks we’ll be able to tackle.”

Paynetown SRA is located at 4850 S. State Road 446, Bloomington, 47401.

Several Indiana communities, college campuses and electric utilities have earned recognition for the planting, care and management of urban forests through the DNR Division of Forestry’s Community and Urban Forestry program and the Arbor Day Foundation.

Sixty-seven cities earned the title Tree City. Four campuses earned the title Tree Campus. And four electric utilities earned the title Tree Line. Combined, these honorees planted more than 20,000 trees throughout Indiana in 2011.

To be recognized as a Tree City, a community  must have a public tree care ordinance, a tree board that advises the municipal department charged with the tree care program, a budget for tree planting and care of at least $2 per capita, and an Arbor Day observance.

The 67 Tree Cities are: Anderson, Angola, Auburn, Avon, Bedford, Beech Grove, Berne, Bloomington, Carmel, Chesterton, Columbia City, Crown Point, Culver, Decatur, Dyer, East Chicago, Edgewood, Edinburgh, Elkhart, Evansville, Fishers, Fort Wayne, Fortville, Franklin, Fremont, Goshen, Greencastle, Greendale, Greenfield, Grissom Air Reserve Base, Huntington, Indianapolis, Kendallville, Lafayette, LaPorte, Madison, Merrillville, Michigan City, Middlebury, Mishawaka, Montpelier, Mount Ayr, Muncie, Munster, Nappanee, Nashville, New Harmony, New Haven, Noblesville, North Manchester, Rensselaer, Richmond, Rising Sun, Rochester, Russiaville, Salem, South Bend, Syracuse, Terre Haute, Tipton, Valparaiso, Wakarusa, West Lafayette, Westfield, Whiting, Winamac and Zionsville.

These Tree Cities planted 15,423 trees in 2011.

In addition, 12 of the Tree Cities have been awarded the Tree City Growth Award for expanding their urban forestry programs through education, partnerships, resource planning and management, and tree planting initiatives. They are: Anderson, Carmel, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Goshen, Greencastle, Indianapolis, Middlebury, Noblesville, Rensselaer, Syracuse and Westfield.

Tree Campuses must have a campus tree advisory committee, a tree care plan, a tree care program with suggested dedicated annual expenditures of $3 per enrollee, an Arbor Day observance, and a service learning project.

The four Tree Campuses are: Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Purdue University in West Lafayette, and Vincennes University in Vincennes and Jasper.

These Tree Campuses planted 1,280 trees in 2011.

Tree Lines are required to provide annual training for their crews on tree care, tree planting and public education, and also participate in tree-based energy conservation projects, and Arbor Day celebrations and events throughout their electric service territories.

The four Tree Lines are: Indianapolis Power and Light (IPL), Northern Indiana Public Service (NIPSCO), Mishawaka Utility and Vectren Energy.

These utilities donated more than 3,500 trees and tree seedlings to the communities and schools they serve.

Tree City, Tree Campus and Tree Line are sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, the USDA Forest Service, and the National Association of State Foresters. Applications are reviewed and approved each year by the DNR‘s CUF coordinator.

For more information on the programs, contact Pam Louks, CUF coordinator, at (317) 591-1170 or plouks@dnr.IN.gov.

Does it atract fish to effectively? Does it have too many hooks?

The rig has five spines or wires which can pull five hooks or baits. It has been ruled illegal in a few places and has been prohibited from the Bassmaster Elite bass tour and Bassmaster Classic tournament.

However, Indiana natural resources officials as well as those in Kentucky and Illinois have given the rig an OK, at least temporarily.

Indiana DNR director Robert E. Carter Jr. has signed a temporary rule that establishes a limit on the number of hooks allowed on a rig or lure array used for sport fishing, essentially making so-called umbrella rigs legal through the remainder of this year, according to a news release from the IDNR.

The lure (or lures, there are multiple baits and hooks) appears to be loosely based upon the “umbrella rig”, which has been used to catch strippers. The first one I saw was a few years back at Lake Cumberland. They were trolled behind the boat and were meant to resemble a school of bait fish.

My friend Gerald Savage is an avid bass fisherman, who pursues the largemouth most every day. And he has spent considerable time studying the Alabama rig. He stopped by to show me a couple of rigs and explain their use.

(Photo by Phil Junker) Angler Gerald Savage holds an Alabama rig, which is one of the hottest items for bass fishing. It has been determined to be legal in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and a number of other states, while in several states it’s five hooks can not be used.

Andy Poss was the inventor/developer of the Alabama rig, and it exploded onto the fishing scene last November at the FLW bass tour event on Lake Guntersville.

Pro angler Paul Elias started throwing one in practice and began landing big and multiple fish. The word of Elias’ success spread like wildfire. He won the tournament with a four-day total of 102 pounds of fish. Eight of the top 10 anglers in the tournament used the rig. From that point on, it was difficult to obtain one. They quickly became scarce.

According to Gerald, the Alabama rig will catch fish anytime of the year, but appears to be especially effective in the fall and early winter when bait fish are schooled or “balled up”. The rig with multiple baits is designed to look like the schooling baitfish.

The rig doesn’t work in all conditions. It is best used in open water and doesn’t work well–at least for most anglers–in vegetation.

The rig itself is light and has five arms or wires which hold five baits, which can vary in size and weight. For most anglers, it requires somewhat of a sidearm cast. It requires a seven-foot plus stiff rod, and a reel loaded with 50-60-pound braided line.

An Alabama rig costs around $25 from a retail store or on-line, plus then there is the cost of the baits or hooks added to the rig. Lures vary from jigs and swimming baits to larger lures. Most success comes from matching the lures to the bait fish in the area, often translucent colors. However, brighter colors work well in stained water.

The bait can be cast and worked either deep or shallow during the retrieve, and one rig can land multiple fish. There have been reports of five bass being caught on a single rig.

“They are not a cure all,” says Savage, who not only makes his own rigs, but adds, “they will catch fish. I really don’t know how it will work in the spring and the summer, because they really haven’t been extensively fished then.”

Gerald is experimenting with a crappie lure, which would pull three jigs, and the Alabama rig folks (Mann Bait Company) reportedly also are working on a crappie rig.

Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society (BASS), the FLW’s rival tour, announced in January that umbrella rigs cannot be used in the Bassmaster Classic or the Bassmaster Elite Series.

In the meantime, states have been scrambling to see if umbrella rigs fall inside or outside of their fishing regulations.

Indiana’s existing rules do not adequately describe whether or not umbrella rigs are legal. The ambiguity with the umbrella rig is whether it should be defined as one lure with many parts or many lures on single line.

As DNR officials continue to study the issue, the temporary rule adds a fourth option to the existing regulation that allows “one rig or lure array for use with multiple artificial baits with not more than five hooks.”

The temporary rule expires on Jan. 1.

“This gives Hoosier anglers an opportunity to gain first-hand experience with the use and effectiveness, or drawbacks, of how umbrella rigs actually perform,” Carter said. “It also gives the DNR time to gather information on what, if any, future definitions or restrictions need to be considered.”

The temporary rule does not apply to trout and salmon streams that are tributaries of Lake Michigan or to the St. Joseph River downstream of the Twin Branch Dam in Mishawaka.

Lee McClellan, spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, said the Alabama rig was discussed at a recent meeting of the Kentucky Fish & Wildlife Commission, and “as of now is considered legal.”

However, McClellan said the KDFWR will continue to monitor the use the the Alabama rig and its impact of the fishery resource.

Illinois Department of Conservation officials bounced the question of the legality of the Alabama rig to several people, including to the legal department, but an officer in the enforcement group said “It is usable in Illinois, except in streams or lakes where there is a two pole limit.” That includes some state waters and lakes like Jackson and Springfield.

In waters where only two poles may be used, the Alabama rig can be utilized, but it can contain no more than two hooks.

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Contact writer Phil Junker by email at: outdoorscribe@yahoo.com

For more outdoors with Phil Junker, contact his blog at: outdoorscribe.blogspot.com(possible cutline)

Every turkey hunt is one to remember, regardless of the outcome, but the one at the top of my list took place just last year. I began my spring turkey hunting in famed Pike County, Illinois with my son, Nicholas, who was just nine at the time. It was guided hunt with an outfitter I have hunted with for years in pursuit of both deer and turkeys and I just can’t imagine a spring turkey season without making the trip.

The first morning of our hunt found us in a ground blind overlooking a clover field which was surrounded on three sides by deep draws where multiple gobblers were roosted and sounding off to greet the new day. Good friend and guide, Justin, and I made the decision to stay patient, as we felt confident that birds would eventually work their way to the field as they had on previous mornings. As bad luck would have it that was probably the only morning it didn’t happen, and in hindsight, we probably should have opted to for a little running and gunning instead, but sometimes you just can’t switch locations fast enough while other times your best bet is to hold tight and play the patience card.

The second morning of our hunt found us hunting with co-owner and guide Herb Schulz. Again, daybreak found us nestled in a ground blind situated in a narrow green field bordered by timbered draws. The weather wasn’t as friendly as the day before with strong winds whistling through the draws, which incidentally helped to shield us from the much of the wind’s force. Only a sparse few gobblers were vocal that second morning, and those that were happened to be anywhere from one-quarter to one-half mile away. Schulz’s confidence in this field, coupled with the fact that a nine year-old isn’t as mobile as an adult, kept us in the blind for the first hour of daylight when we may have otherwise ditched it in an attempt to move in on a bird; it’s a good thing we didn’t.

Moments after Schulz stated that he had just seen too much activity in this field to give up on it just yet, we spotted a longbeard as it stepped into view from the timber. We were confident that once he saw the decoys in front of the blind that that he would march right in. But this wasn’t the case. Rather, the gobbler simply maintained his position in the field and began pecking and feeding. This continued for approximately 20 minutes without the bird coming any closer. He would stare towards the decoys occasionally, and even interacted with a deer, but just wouldn’t commit. This baffled both Schulz and I as neither one of us had ever encountered a bird with the will power to resist these particular decoys.

Suddenly, his reason for not advancing became obvious as another longbeard stepped out from the timber about 50 yards away and broke into strut. This was obviously the dominant bird in that area and the distant gobbler knew better than to approach the lifelike decoys for fear of getting thumped. As a matter of fact, once the second bird came upon the scene, gobbler number one made a hasty retreat. I’d say he had probably been on the receiving end of a good spurring by gobbler number two before.

After breaking in and out of strut for a few minutes, trying to impress the fake ladies and jake in front of our blind, we gave a few soft yelps and purrs to convince the old gobbler that he should join the party. He obliged by confidentially strutting right into the set-up, and just before he had the chance to give the jake decoy a right hook, Nicholas anchored him with a perfectly executed shot at a mere 12 yards! Further inspection revealed that this truly was a great trophy for my son. Besides the 11-inch beard, his longbeard weighed a whopping 27 pounds and packed 1 ¼ inch spurs!

The rush of emotions we all felt at that moment is indescribable. The whole thing seems surreal, but it wasn’t. This wasn’t Schulz’s first rodeo in terms of introducing newcomers to the trills of turkey hunting either because my first turkey fell while on a hunt with Bernard making him a part of introducing two generations of my family into the right of passage as turkey hunters.

Contact Sue Vernier at  rsavcaver@yahoo.com, 812-385-5058, for further information.  Directions:  From SR57/SR64 intersection at Oakland City, go 13.6 miles east on SR64 to junction with SR257 and turn left.  Go about 0.2 miles to CR775E (just past church and cemetery).  Turn left and go 1.3 miles to Dillin Bottoms parking area.