Rules changes

Hunting and fishing have changed so much since I was a kid. Of course that’s been considerably over 60 years ago.

That can probably be attributed to all the various rules and regulations put in place by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation over a period of time.

It seems at times that has made and still does make hunting and fishing more complicated. This isn’t to criticize that agency though. Without what the state agency has done throughout the years we wouldn’t have some of the many hunting and fishing opportunities we enjoy today.

I tagged along with dad from the time I was 3½ or 4 to pick up the doves he shot.

I was around 4 or 5 when I was sitting in a duck blind with him wondering why I was there shivering and nearly freezing. Guess because I wanted to be with him, though I couldn’t even see what he and his hunting buddy were trying to shoot.

Fishing seemed so simple back then. My late grandfather Doc and late Uncle Eddie really taught me how to fish. Dad tagged along some as I recall.

But we went fishing at farm ponds owned by our relatives either out in the Deer Creek area west of Edmond or to my aunt and uncle’s acreage off of S.E. 89th Street east of Sunnylane Road in south Oklahoma City. We used worms, frozen shrimp or minnows for bait in those days.

When I was around 10, I guess, I started carrying my first gun, a bolt action .410 and shot my first dove at that age on a farm owned by my great grandmother. At 12, I began quail hunting and if doves weren’t challenging enough, quail for sure were.

I got my first 20-gauge, a side by side, as an eighth grade graduation present from dad and mother. That made hunting doves, ducks and quail a little easier. Not as easy though as when I advanced to a 12-gauge over and under and then on to a 12-gauge pump shotgun and finally a semi-automatic.

At about the age of 26, I finally bought my first semi-automatic in 1974 at what was Baptist Hardware Store, then at 27 my second one from there.

We hunted doves, quail, rabbits and ducks and only occasionally came across a deer.

The first really big buck I saw was out west hunting Black Kettle land when I was a high school sophomore.

My deer hunting was limited and it was the mid-80s before I began really hunting them.

It was 1985 when I went on my first wild turkey hunt and I successfully bagged a gobbler in northwestern Oklahoma.

Never did much lake fishing either until 1986 when I went striper fishing at Lake Texoma, then the following year caught a 20-pounder. I have been striper fishing lots of times since.

I still prefer fishing in farm ponds. All the changes in the rules and regulations over the years have made for better and more abundant opportunities for hunters and fishermen to enjoy. I know there is a reason for them whether I like them or not.