sports

outdoors with Lou Rodia

Hunting Clubs Give Sport New Dimensions

New Jersey's 1985 deer season will be a day away from over by the time you read this, flow much or how little success hunters will have had will be recorded when all of the tallies are in. All indications point to a good season. New Jersey's deer herd has been in good shape for a number of years. It is a credit to the management

programs instituted at the state level which keep deer hunting a viable sport in this densely populated state. Jersey hunters have a long season. Archery, shotgun and black powder seasons combine to give the avid hunter lots of days in the woods New Jersey hunters traditionally outscore Maine hunters

when it comes to numbers of deer killed annually IF VOL" ARE a deer hunter and have not received a permit for the antherless deer season coming up or the black powder season which starts Monday, it is too late for 1985 If yob are planning to go into black powder hunting in the future, it is necessary to secure a rifle permit to hunt with a primitive weapon. That takes time and the best thing to do is to start now to plan to take the necessary course which precedes issuing of a state rifle permit To get information on when the classes are offered, call the Inskip Tract District Law Enforcement office at 809-629-0555 Get dates and locations of classes and copies of the application form so you can enroll. PREVIOUSLY licensed hunters can be licensed annually without taking another Hunter Safety Course for either shotgun or bow. If you are a newhunter or have lost your previous license and have to renew, you must pass a hunter safety course to qualify to hunt in NewJersey. Make sure your current license is safe and available so you have it when you renew for 1986. Some may say that 1986 hunting is a whole year away and there is plenty of time. Not so. really. The winter bow season opens Jan. 4 and ends Jan. 18. 1986 That's less than a month off AND IN CASE you have to take hunter safety courses, be aware that the classes fill up quickly and you may be disappointed if you wait too long. The classes are held all year long, so get your name on the list as soon as possible. Don't be left out This time of year, activity heightens around New Jersey hunting clubs. Some of the clubs are closed most of the year and open up only for the week of deer season. Others like ours are open year round with lots of ongoing

activities, of which deer hunting is but one. Many hunters prefer to hunt with a club because of the cameraderie. Others enjoy the social aspects of being a member of a club. Still others like the convenience of staying at a club close to where they hunt. Others started hunting with a club as youngsters and kept up with it through the years. Many hunters prefer not to hunt alone. THERE ARE pro's and con's. A lot of hunters enjoy ^jpiting by themselves. For tnem, hunting success is heightened by the singular effort. It does not call for attending meetings, and it avoids the time spent in club activity Some people are not joiners. Many do not have the time to give to a club. Which ever the approach, deer hunting is a fascinating sport. Group hunting had its start in prehistoric times Groups gathered to hunt game for food and driving the game was one way of assuring success for the hunt. Clubs still participate in deer drives. The clubs divide into-two groups, the slanders and the drivers. The slanders are posted a distance away and the drivers start through the woods to get the deer moving toward the standers. After a drive is over, the two sides reverse and the standers take over the driving duties and the drivers become standers. THIS SHARES the driving duties as well as giving all an equal opportunity to be standers. Most clubs have a few members who have infirmities which preclude them from making drives. In some cases it is age. Older members move over into the ranks of the permanent standers. Some have other disabilities which make walking difficult. Some clubs affectionately refer to the permanent standers as the "Over the Hill Gang" and others call them the retirees or the retreads. But that's part of club banter and the able do not mind helping those who are less able to do for themselves. What ever success the club has is shared. The club with which I hunt divides the deer in this manner: The hunter who bagged the deer automatically gets the head, the hide and the tail. All of the meat is pooled Some is used for the club get-together the day after the season closes when we all meet at the club facilities to skin and cut up the deer meat. SOME OF THE meat is set aside to be used at future club functions. The remainder is divided into shares. The shares of meat are based on the number of days a hunter participated in the hunt. It has been an equitable way for us to divide the meat. It assures all who participated a share. Why do the head, the hide and the tail go to the individual? First. the hunter may want to have the head mounted as a trophy The hides can be tanned and used in a number of ways. The tails

are a sought after commodity, since many of our club members also fish. The tails wind up as part of the lures used for summer fishing. Any unclaimed hides are taken to a nearby taxidermist who sends them to be processed and made into gloves, purses and jackets. FOR CLl'B HI NTING to be a success, there are woods captains. These are usually drawn from the better hunters in the group. They spend lots of time in the woods scouting out the places which offer the best chances for success. They learn the lay of the land so that drives start and end in places where lines can be kept straight and hunters do not get lost. The leaders set out the standers and choose the places where the club is going to hunt. In the selection of spots, clubs maintain a secrecy which is not unlike the planning for a military operation. Sections of woods find their place into club lore. Hunter successes or misses get told and retold around the dinner table at the club house or in gabfests around the fireplace. CONTRARY TO the popular opinion that hunting clubs are really a place to go to drink, gamble and stay up all night, most clubs we know tolerate little, if any of that kind of behaviour. Hunting is a safe sport — but only as safe as the individual makes it. Our club has a safety officer. He lectures the group each morning about safety rules. No drinking is allowed by anyone in the woods. Our club requires that all guns are unloaded all the time until the hunter is actually posted on the stand. When two or more hunters meet up in the course of hunting club safety rules require that they empty their guns and keep them open so that is is obvious that they are unloaded. The club rules call for strict adherence to the hunting laws. Violations of the law are reasons for dismissal from the club. Unsafe hunters are unwelcome Drinkers are equally unwelcome OUR CLUB IS highly family-oriented. A good number of the club activities call for family participation. Our dinners are attended by families and friends. Fathers bring their sons to the club at an early age to join in club activities We have several grandfather, father and son combinations in the group. Youngsters are taught the rudiments of hunting at an early age. Their early exposure to firearms and firearms training serves them well when they are old enough to hunt. When they first go into the woods, they are accompanied by the father and they hunt in close proximity together until the youngster has matured enough to be able to hunt on his own. Our oldest member (age 82) has been a club member since he was in his teens. No one is sure howold our club really is. Club history is not recorded anywhere beyond the last 30 or 40 years.

Most of the older members and the original founders have died. A fewold pictures record hunts in the '30's. Recent years are recorded in the many photos framed and hung around the clubhouse walls. OUR ASSOCIATION with the club started in 1946. We have watched youngsters come into the club with fathers who have departed. Today, they are fathers and their kids come with them to the club. My sons began to visit the club as toddlers and still maintain a close relationship there. They show up in the photographs and many of their earlyoutdoor adventures started from the club. We would stay over night, cook breakfast, and head out to fish in the nearby ponds and lakes in fishing season or to the woods to hunt rabbits, quail, pheasants and deer in hunting season. Many times, the purpose of the visit was to get away for a day or two to enjoy the out of doors. The club trap range allowed them to develop a skill with the shotgun which soon surpassed mine. It is still one of their delights to beat me in a round of trap, especially since I still end up paying for the shells. HUNTING IS NOT for everyone. Some vehemently oppose it. Others care not one way or another. We make no apologies for our hunting. We grew up in it. having started at the age of 10. We hunt today with kids we grew up with. We have friends who go back in time for 30 and 40 years and with whom the common thread of interest is hunting and/or fishing. This is being written on the eve of the 1986 deer hunting season. Weather, infirmities and work pressures notwithstanding, come Monday morning. I plan to be with my club for the 40th consecutive year. There has been an anxious hustle and bustle around the club. The leaders are reporting good signs in the areas where we will be hunting. I have been offered a spot on the "Over The Hill" Gang by some of our younger members. Perhaps not earlyMonday morning, but by the end of the day. the idea might be more appealing.

Cape May County ALMANAC 1 I.KCKMBKU, ISX.i MOON PHASES/POSITIONS CORRECTION TIMES r hp Moon's effect on the Tide i% Compute approximate times greatest when closest to Earth o/ hiffh t low water for your tin perigee I and when in direct urea by adding or tubtracting alignment with Sun & Earth the following number of ifull S- new moon phase-. I On mimilej /or each tide phate in <mil ubnul these dates, low the Tide Table pressure ivsfemi and /or strong winds tdeprnding upon direr , (ion I mov result in flooding and/or extremely low tides , Moon I'hjM-s um UK. II I jni ouuiiri J Great Egg Harbor Inlet MooB 11 Plus 12 plusto EuU Moon'1" 27 Ocean City (9th St Bridge' plus 35 plus 22 Xpnger 23 Corson Inlet ( bridge i I'erigrr ■» plus 21 plus? Sea Isle City TIDE TABI.E , ' Thoro Bndge ■ Computed for Cape Mov Cifv Plus<* Plus43 beochfmnt. for other areas see Sea City Beach Correction Timet minus2 minus 21 DATE IIHHI l.oW Townsend Inlet am. p m. a.m. p.m plus 21 plus-) 27 Wed 7 24 7 P. 12 57 I 41 Seven Mile Beach 28 Thu 7 56 8 22 I 33 2 2» plus 15 0 28 Kri 8 :tl 9 <■' 2 1" 2 56 Stone Harbor :» Sal Hi# 9 4n 2 43 t '4 'Great Channel Bridge' , .. plus 43 plus 40 • Mim in IV 18 I v j .4 Hereford Inlet I Anglesea ' 7 W n n i» H P'"" 11 4 Wed 12 u 12 I i V39 643 Wildwood Beach Thu i nr. i i ! •. 5K 7 44 Minus2 minus 17 .. Kri 2 '»■ 2 18 Mil 8 41 West Wildwood 7 Siii s ( 24 9 1 4 9 45 'Grassy Channel bridge) 8 Sun 4 III 4 2H I" 12 I" 21. p^^ plus 43 V" Tue 7 !£ In'. " "" .2 IM , ('al* Ma> Harbor It Wed 1.49 7 12 12 in I mi P1^ 1 minus 4 12 Thu u. 8 trj I in I 5t Five Fathom Bank ii Kri 8 jr. 8 -V. 1:56 2 44 plus II plus I 14 S.d 9 18 9 48 2 47 I (4 Cape May Point I'. Sun III III 10 47. 3' 39 4 22 plus 46 plus 34 16 Mmi II lM 11 41 4 32 5 13 McCrie Shoal IB Weil t' 35 12 50 S 29 7 IC plus 28 plus 22 19 Thu I 27 I 41 7 33 7 56 Delaware Bay 2" Kri 2 22 2 .K 8 33 k 46 Bays bore Channel 21 Sat 3 14 132 9 25 9:13 < Bay-Canal Junction' " 22 Sun 4 07 4 28 10:15- HI 15 plus 47 plus 36 21 Mon 4 56 5 19 1MB II ill Miami Beach s w i'i :s"7 ,, 9; Thu 6 Vi 7 '8> I'* C7 I 19 Dennis Creek Entrance 27 Kri 7 36 8 1*15 1 10 2 01 plus 114 plus 97 28 Sat 8 13 R 44 I 2 41 Brandywine Shoal Eight 29 Sun 8 7.2 9 25'4f\3K 3 18 plus77 plus 52 Hi Mon 9 31 to III 3 nr. 3 56 31 Tue to 14 III 57 3 45 4 313 J. ^

MONAGHAN'S _ AUTO TIRE CENTEI^_m UONACHAN r \ ■ >3^ J I EXPIRES DECEMBER 24TH | EXPIRES DECEMBER 24TH I "Diet nMlLO. loon BK I I 1 /VI CI Front-End Alignment ! Oil Change i ^ J & Filter I |||p2lggj| s15 iipsj PvasSvn ■■■■ I f) • vsa KIVIWJVjfJjM MA II /I £11 A II AUTO TIRE CENTER llfH IHII 11 H U !■ 315 Delsea Dr.- Rio Grande - 886-1116 ■ ■ o vvI Open Mon Tmu Fri 7 30 to 5

First Place To Morey's CAPE MAY - Will Morey Development Co. moved into first place after sweeping its four games against The Potter 15-9. 16-14. 15-10 and 15-8. In the other match in Cape May Men's Power Volleyball. Whippoorwill Campground moved to within one game of first place by defeating LibraryIll. 15-2, 15-10. 15-8 and 15-10. STANDINGS Will Marts Dt-trlopmrnl ( timpani it.* Whippoorwill Campground 18-10 The Poller 17-11 library- III.. . ,. --zt