MY TALK WITH DISTRICT TWO
By: Stan Jordan
Here at the West Bend News we get all types of Wild Life Magazines and one of the good ones is “Wild Ohio” from Columbus Division of Wild Life. It tells me we are in District Two, with the office in Findlay.
So I called down to Findlay to discuss with them if they have received any reports of cougars in Northwest Ohio. He thinks they are only big cats or dogs.
Well, I told them of all of our wild life and the fact we are in the Maumee Water Shed and that we have about 6 eagles nest in about an 8 mile stretch of the Maumee River. The man agreed that we have a good supply of eagles in the entire Eastern United States.
I can tell by our conversation that he doesn’t know very much about this part of the district. He doesn’t know Defiance, let alone Paulding County and Antwerp. It sounds to me like DNR doesn’t even know we are here.
I asked about snowy owls and he said a few winters ago a few of them came down from Michigan and he said some of them stayed and built nests here. So we do have some nests here, that he knew about.
See ya!
HOW TO SPEND AND ENJOY A COUPLE OF HOURS
By: Stan Jordan
Some nice warm day, why don’t you and maybe your mate and maybe your kid(s) or grandkid(s) go down by the river water and commune with nature.
You can park your car and walk down to the river bank or the pond or creek and carry your everyday shopping bag or even a good solid five gallon bucket.
In that bag, you’ve got a clean shop towel, a tube of sun screen, a pair of dark glasses, a set of field glasses, bring yourself a drink of some kind, maybe some snacks for the kids or anybody, your bait and fishing license if you’re going to fish, a small screw driver, a pair of pliers and tape, some type of first aid or band aids and maybe your copy of the bird book in case you want to look up a new bird.
It is according to who goes, have some young person to carry your lawn chair and your pole if you are going to fish. But my idea is for you to get sat down and look. Look at the trees, the rippling water, the birds, maybe some wild life. Just sit in the warm sun and then maybe move over into the shade.
Let yourself enjoy this slow life for a couple of hours, that work back at the house can wait a little, you will always enjoy that day.
See ya!
A TALK WITH JIM PENDERGRAST
By: Stan Jordan
Jim came into the shop the other day and we had a very good discussion on the Zuber catfish.
As you know he lives right on the edge of that big ravine called the Zuber Cutoff, that carried the extra water from the Six Mile Reservoir to the Maumee River. Well, he said on Wednesday the 9th he had an occasion to be on the edge of CR 424 over the cutoff and he looked down into the water and he was amazed and so am I.
The water was fairly clear and he could see a lot of Alligator Gar in the water, they seemed to be just laying still. There were a few large catfish in the same area, the shovel head variety. The ditch was full of fish.
I understand that there is a lot of Alligator Gar in the river now. They get to be huge, a four foot one is a small one. It could be be that the Gar were laying their eggs and maybe the big catfish were eating them. That was just an assumption from Jim.
I know that the river is full of 40lb shovel head catfish. I wish one of my readers would bring me a catfish story. Authenticity would not be a problem.
See ya!
EVERYBODY HAS A STORY
By: Stan Jordan
Here it is May the 1st and it is over 80 degrees outside. Maybe spring has finally arrived. The air conditioner is on and two days ago the furnace was on. We have waited so long for warm weather and to put that winter coat away.
But all in all, the winter wasn’t so bad here, it was just long. We did have a decent day every once in a while. February was the warmest on record. I guess that month of February being a little warmer brings to mind a nice, warm February night back in 1945
We were in Belgium, but falling close to the German line and border. We had stopped beside a stone road and in a field with some kind of winter covering on it. We had a warm meal, as the ration truck was right along with us. We each had a two hour guard duty and my time was right after supper.
In an M3-A3 tank each man had a sleeping bag and it is carried along with our camouflage net in a rack at the back of the tank. So you take and fold this net big enough to have five guys sleep on it at one time.
So you take off your combat boots and put your glasses, billfold, pocket knife, matches and everything else in your helmet and place that inside the tank tracks and you are ready for bed.
Along about two a.m. we had that darnedest noise that I had heard yet. While we were asleep a 155 mm long Tom Artillery outfit had moved into the field beside our tank outfit and they had fired a settling round. Well, needless to say, there was no more sleeping, just smoked a lot of cigarettes.
The kitchen truck was with us so we had a breakfast of coffee and pancakes and marmalade shortly after day light. The Red Ball Express came along that morning and filled us with gasoline.
This was sleeping out doors in February.
See ya!
RESIDENTS OF THE MAUMEE RIVER
By: Stan Jordan
The Maumee River is certainly part of my life and even part of my very existence. I have written many times about we three boys, well in fact, all the boys who grew up in the east part of Antwerp. We spent hours in that beautiful park and wading and fishing in the river. The water was warm because of the hot days and shallow water.
I remember the river contained carp, bull heads, rock bass, suckers, red horse, channel catfish, blue cats, bass, eel pout, sun fish and various other species and nearly all would bite on night crawlers, garden type worms and crawfish. We all knew where the deep holes were, where the natural springs were, the good growth of pencil reeds and the good fishing holes were. We always took our catch home and Dad would clean them and Mom would fry them. I hate baked fish.
I was talking with our fine mayor His Honor Ray DeLong, who is long time Maumee River fisherman and is still active when he has time. He and most of his family are good fishermen, they lean more toward trying for the big catfish at night.
I asked Ray about what kind of fish was in the Maumee now and he said about all of the ones who have been there for years except the sunfish and rock bass and those small varieties, it seems that the big catfish and pike have eaten all of them.
He didn’t know about the Alligator Gar but he did know about some pike in the river, maybe a couple of varieties.
Mayor DeLong was a typical Antwerp boy, born here in 1941, graduated from Antwerp High School in 1959 and then served his country in the U.S. Army, but he never forgot his days of growing up on the Maumee. Ray, it was good talking to you.
See ya!
