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A healthy dose of skepticism is always critical to any product appraisal. When John Stuart of the Garland, Texas-based Scent Shop approached me this past April at the Rockport Spring Fling media event, I told him up-front that before I could write anything about his products I had to see the results for myself.
Stuart respected that, only asking that I give his Skeeter Screen products an honest evaluation. Now, a little over four months later, I can assure you with all due confidence that the Scent Shop’s repellent products … Skeeter Screen Reed Diffusers and Skeeter Screen Personal Mosquito Deterrent spray … do everything they promise. Enterprising outdoorsmen will probably, like me, discover that they do substantially more.
I don’t care if you are sequestered in a freshly-brushed duck blind or kicking back in the back yard hot tub, mosquitoes are some of Mother Nature’s most obnoxious denizens. Living in Seabrook, Texas, less than a mile away from Upper Galveston Bay and some of the state’s premier mosquito breeding grounds, I possess a deep appreciation for anything that can repel the things.
Both of the products Stuart gave me at the meeting do exactly that. This coming Christmas, I expect to buy more than a few packages of both items to share as “stocking stuffers.”
Neckties are fine, I suppose, but even the finest Neiman Marcus accessory can’t help you when bloodthirsty insects invade your turf.
We were, for the better part of the summer, a virtually mosquito-free zone here in Seabrook. The city does a great job of fogging the neighborhoods. When I hear those trucks coming, it’s like detecting beautiful strains of classical music. Unfortunately, though, even intense fogging efforts fall short when mosquito breeding conditions fall into place with the proper amount of rainfall collected in just enough untended back yard planter pots and open containers.
About a week ago, worn out and sore from running my boat on some choppy waters the day before, I attempted to take a dip in my back yard Jacuzzi. I realized before I touched the water that the long-anticipated and highly-dreaded mosquito infestation had finally become reality. The nasty things chased me inside, and I was on the verge of opting for the bathtub when I remembered the container of Skeeter Screen Reed Diffusers sitting on a shelf in my study.
 It took about 20 seconds to set it up. If you have ever been to Pier One and bought room-freshening scent sticks in various fragrances, you have already seen Stuart’s products. Inside the box is a small glass vase filled with clear solution, a chrome ring that is placed atop the container in place of the cap and a rubber-banded sheaf of 10 wick sticks. Uncap the vase, slide on the ring, immerse the sticks and you’re in business.
 Actually, if you are going to be using one of the devices fresh out of the box I recommend giving it at least an hour for the sticks to thoroughly absorb the repellent. A less-patient fishing buddy of mine places the sticks in the solution for a few minutes and then re-inserts them the other way down.
 I placed the setup on the fringe of my hot tub and went back inside to do a little writing. Just an hour later I went back outside. The bugs were gone.
 I don’t mean diminished. I mean gone.
 It wasn’t insignificant that the night air was as still as a fence post that evening. Common sense tells me that a brisk breeze would reduce the efficiency … but then again, that’s why Stuart sells Skeeter Screen Personal Mosquito Deterrent. I have used that product as well, and am similarly impressed with the results.
 Yesterday evening, after a half-day of drift-fishing Upper Galveston Bay with my fish-farming friend Kenneth Henneke of Hallettsville and his family, I found myself on the driveway swatting mosquitoes as I gave the 225 Mercury its customary post-trip freshwater flushing. The mosquitoes were unusually thick, and every bit as hungry as ever.
 I went into the study once again, pulled out the bottle, applied a light spray, went back outside, and bingo … no more bites. What’s really surprising … and, of particular interest to people with sensitive skin … is the fact that Stuart’s repellents contain zero DEET. Long acknowledged as the hands-down defeater of attacking mosquitoes, DEET is nonetheless a pretty harsh chemical. People will tell you that it’s worth it, that any insect repellent that does not incorporate the stuff will not do the job.
 In this case, people are wrong.
 Stuart is quick to note that his products are not limited to mosquitoes alone. In fact, the purpose that I find almost as appealing as a skeeter-free hot tub is the prospect of only having to kill the yellowjackets in our Lavaca County deer stands once a season.
 We are not unique in this regard, I am sure, but Post Oak Savannah yellowjackets are notorious squatters. Build a deer stand, and soon, they will come. Kill them with wasp spray, and within a month, they will come back. We spend half as much time hunting for yellowjacket and wasp nests as we do hunting.
 Not this season. We’re whacking the ‘jackets one time and then affixing a vase of reed diffusers in a corner of every stand we hunt. Stuart has many testimonials to back it up (including one from an intrepid engineer who works in the jungles of Peru), but I am confident that when he says the insects won’t return, they won’t.
 We’ll be clearing the yellowjackets and wasps out of those stands within the next several weeks. Give me two months and I’ll be able to fully verify the product’s propensity to keep a confined area like a box blind clear of insects … and not just yellowjackets, wasps and pesky mud daubers, but all insects … including the growing horde of bees that in the past couple of years has taken a liking to stinging us (Africanized, I am convinced, but that is another story).
 Skeeter Screen is designed for both indoor and outdoor use. One set of reeds will protect up to 200 square feet … around 184 square feet more than the typical box blind. Stuart claims the product will maintain its efficacy for a full four months.
 At this point, based on experience and having exhausted ample skepticism, I am no longer in the mode to doubt John Stuart’s claims.
 (Note: For more information on the Scent Shop and its product lineup, or to buy direct, check the web at www.scentshop.com. Call 1-800-527-4190 or email john@scentshop.com.)

Read: Mosquitoes or Yellowjackets, Scent Shop Skeeter Screen Passes the Test »

This just in from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department … waterfowl hunting regulations for the 2008-2009 season.
The older I get, the more I appreciate the magnificence of a squadron of teal zipping overhead, wheeling into the wind, dropping their webbed  “landing gears” and settling into a carefully-placed block of decoys.
My brother Bill and I cut our duck-hunting teeth on small farm ponds in Lavaca County. We didn’t have dogs, so any bird that hit the water presented a challenge.
One, in particular, I will never forget.
I had knocked down a big, fully-plumed widgeon drake. The pond ducks always came in late, so it was only about 15 minutes shy of the close of legal shooting time when the curious bird detected the dekes and made its final approach toward the landing pad.
The bird went down hard, squarely centered in a dense pattern of number-four shot fired through a modified choke (back before steel shot had become mandatory). It smacked the water with a loud and resounding splash.
However, it was around 60 feet from the pond bank, with no cooperative wind to help push it to shore. It was cold, a misty late-November evening, and I had no intention of walking out into the frigid water, especially since I was wearing insulated waders.
So instead, I relied on the best option available. I had a 6-foot Skyline Graphite fishing rod sequestered in the bed of my truck, and in case the ducks were not cooperative, a tackle box laden with an assortment of lures.
The one that immediately caught my eye was a black Arbogast Jitterbug. In case you are too young to remember, the Jitterbug was at the time the established go-to surface-scratching plug for largemouth bass. Many other topwaters have since been manufactured and marketed, but to this day the Jitterbug remains a wonderfully effective option in the bass angler’s arsenal.
 As for the rod, Skyline was, at the time, leading the pack in the production of graphite fishing rods. The Dallas-based company was in charge of numerous military contracts involving the high-tech material known as “graphite,” and added Skyline fishing rods to the mix in anticipation of the coming wave of emphatic angler demands for more sensitive and lightweight rods.
 It was indeed sensitive. As for being “light,” at the time, it was. Nowadays, the average fiberglass popping rod weighs less than some of the initial Skyline production models, but this was new technology. Common to new technology, it was also expensive. This was the mid-70s. The rods averaged better than a hundred bucks apiece, which in today’s economic model would no doubt equate to at least three times as much. The real downside was the rods’ fragile nature. In the early era of graphite fishing rod production, blanks were about as sturdy as pencil leads.
 Anyhow, the Jitterbug went on the line. I strolled down to the bank, made a targeted cast toward the floating duck and was completely unprepared when the surface plug virtually detonated amidst an explosion of shattered pond water.
 Memory-bank fish are invariably larger. Even factoring that in, however, the bass that hammered the stationary lure had to have been at least a 5-pounder. This was, again, a different time, a time when a 5-pound largemouth still ranked as a “trophy,” especially when pulled from the constricted waters of a stock pond.
 In a sheer nanosecond, any thought of snagging that duck yielded to a volley of relentless casts intended to elicit the same thrilling result.
 It never happened. In retrospect, I realize now that the unanticipated adrenaline jolt caused me to work the ebony-bodied fishing lure at about five times the speed at which it should have been retrieved. That … the need to keep a cool head and make calculated retrieves … remains a challenge for every fishermen who receives an unexpected strike.
 With light conditions almost gone and a full moon eclipsing the horizon, I refocused my efforts on the duck. After a few casts I managed to snag its wing with a treble and pulled the bird to the shoreline.
 That night, it became part of a wild game stew cooked by Capt. Herschell Gollott of Freeport, a longtime partyboat captain who was also my father’s best friend, and who was a treasured fixture every year at camp during deer season. My brothers and I would have walked barefooted on the proverbial hot coals for Herschell and my dad, guys who just by being who they were forever changed our lives, and for the better.
 I mention this anecdote only because in the years since I have never failed to buy, along with my state licenses/duck stamps (now incorporated via the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s “Super Combo” license) a federal waterfowl stamp. Some years I barely hunted; others, I went a dozen times or more.
 But, every year, I carried an appreciation of waterfowl hunting that only blossomed with time. And I learned that the monies I spent were benefitting not just waterfowl, but every living creature that inhabits or visits flooded terrain.
 My brothers and I were, and are, very fortunate to have such a place at which to fish and hunt. For those who do not own land, however, there are nonetheless surprisingly productive duck hunting options available on national wildlife reserves.
 For information, call the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s toll-free information line, 1-800-792-1112, or go to the web at www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
 If you get the chance to take a youngster duck hunting, during either the specially-relegated youth season time frame or during the regular open

Read: Texas Waterfowl Seasons Finalized, and Memories Prevail »

I just received this press release from Clay Jacobs, Sarah Cerrone and the hard-working crew at Anahuac’s Texas GATORFEST 2008. Generally, when out-of-staters think of Texas, the last thing that comes to mind is alligators … not to mention dinosaurian gators in the 10-foot range and bigger. (Come to think of it, I’ve met more than a few Texans who don’t have a clue as to the overgrown reptilian presence that flourishes throughout the Upper Texas Coast.) For those individuals and most anyone else who enjoys mixing East Texas cultural enlightenment with your basic Texas yard party, GATORFEST is a virtually required event at least once in a lifetime. 

I always think of my friend Capt. James “Frenchie” France when this part of the state is mentioned. Years ago, on a Winnie-area duck hunt, he explained to me that this region is actually known as “The Laplands” … the eastern quadrant where Louisiana “laps over” into Texas. It’s safe to say that the lap-over extends in both directions … just see how many pairs of alligator cowboy boots you can find among the typical gathering of festival-goers. GATORFEST is just one of the countless things I love about our state, typifying the kind of diversity that only Texans can appreciate. That diversity extends to the palate as well. If you have any degree of trepidation about eating gator meat, put it aside long enough to give at least one fried alligator dish a try. I don’t care what anyone says; it doesn’t taste like chicken. 

It tastes like alligator. Which, once you have sampled it yourself, I am sure you will agree firmly belongs in the pantheon of awesome Lone Star table fare. 

I’ve been to this event in the past, and can assure you that as family-friendly fun goes it’s a very tough act to beat. It’s also only an hour and change east of Houston. 

Port Mansfield, Texas, has always fascinated me in the sense that its human population is significantly outnumbered by its resident populace of white-tailed deer. Now I learn that alligators outnumber Chambers County citizens by almost 3 to 1. Plus, where else would you find the “Alli Theater?” 

No place but Texas …