Posts by Daryl Gay
Living Life As A Georgia Shrimper
“We didn’t have depthfinders. We had a lead sinker with soap on a string.” The world—including the serene, salt-flecked beauty of the coast around Darien—was a different place 60 years ago. So was making a living, off the land or water. And sometimes both. Henry Arden “Skip” Skipper, Jr. is the current patriarch of that…
Read MoreOf Raptors And Rodents
Perhaps I’ve mentioned too many times in this space my love/(mostly) hate relationship with squirrels. Yeah, that had to be how word got out. On the other hand, who knew that hawks could read? This time of year, when about all I’m legally allowed to place lead into is a nasty pig or coyote, is…
Read MoreGON Youth Shoot-Out Winner Takes Dream Hunt
When 15-year-old Wyatt Coleman downed a Harris County buck the third week of the 2022 season, he was hoping a little luck was on his side. Little did he know… The gross 124-inch whitetail, which netted 117, turned out to be big enough. Big enough, that is, to earn Wyatt a spot in the Georgia…
Read MoreUn-Pasturized Porkers
Cows are just rude. Not to mention unsanitary. There ain’t a tree within 40 yards. I ain’t quite as spry as I used to be… Sorry, but you’ve been to this page long enough to know how I think. (Warning: seek psychiatric help immediately.) All that zipped through as I stood in the middle of…
Read MoreTurkeys Can Be Tough, Not As Tough As Gracie
As is typical with 14-year-old girls, Gracie Thigpen just wants to have fun. But this Bleckley County teen is anything but typical; for Gracie, having fun revolves around hunting, fishing and the outdoors. She’s learning that this hunting business is usually anything but easy, especially when it comes to harvesting a tom turkey. Unfortunately, she…
Read MoreRocks & Docks For Reds & Trout With Miss Judy Charters
How often do we drive over a body of water, gaze out and muse, “There ought to be fish there… and there, and there…” and wish we were in a boat checking out those hunches? Motoring over Lake Sinclair on 441, past Little River and Lakeside landings, drives me nuts. I’m crisscrossing the Oconee, Ogeechee,…
Read MoreWorks For Me!
It seems to be a fact of everyday life—EVERYDAY—that wherever breakfast is served in establishments open to the public, one can stumble upon, over, around and through a gaggle of gents confidently curing the world’s ailments. One by one. Despite the fact that they’re all talking at the same time. Did I say gaggle of…
Read MoreJake Cures March Madness
Consternation, I would say, aptly described the look on the old hermit’s face. Of course, I’d never say it to HIM, because we’re forthwith contemplating a dissertation of explanation. I can just hear him now: “Ye said what? I look how? Do I need to pick up a oak limb?” It struck me that consternation…
Read MoreMeet Mister B.O. Mock, 96-Year-Old Deer Hunter
The gnarled finger sweeps across a vista to instantly quicken the heartbeat of any south Georgia deer hunter: chest-high planted pines bordered by a pond, a field and a hardwood head, requisite creek trickling through. “There in those pines is where we got pictures of at least one really good 8-pointer, and the other one…
Read MoreA Fitting End
As frequently happens, the first things that caught my eye were those looong legs! Hmmmmm… That was my left eye. My right was laser-focused on the swaying hips. Kinda reminded me of a girlfriend back in high school: walking away decked out in Dodge County red, she looked just like a box of Valentine’s candy!…
Read More