Web site seeks sportsmen's feedback (Bass Pro jobs link)

4/1/2008

A growing Ohio outdoors information Web site, thenaturalresource.com , is seeking sportsmen's feedback as it enters its second spring of operation.

"We built this Web site for the sportsman," said Eric Kraus, of Maumee, who established The Natural Resource and went on-line in October, 2006.

TNR has links to and information on a staggering load of information, including broad topic areas of fishing, hunting, camping, boating and more, from public fishing and hunting areas to bait shops to bow dealers.

"We're managing about 6,000 resources in Ohio," Kraus said, noting that businesses, for example, can come and go. Even new public wildlife areas and fishing access sites are added periodically, and in the information business, currency is everything.

Kraus and company thus seek the eyes and ears of sportsmen who use TNR to help in adding new businesses or areas of interest they may know about but do not see on the site, or in updating information which may be outdated.

The TNR site is subdivided into nearly 60 subject areas, Kraus said. "We can update all of them every Friday. Every map has a deletion, correction, or addition form." So you can make a change right at a given site.

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Fishing - Ice cakes continue to bob in western Lake Erie, and areas of ice still stretch from Port Clinton toward the tip of Catawba Island peninsula, around the Bass Islands, and from Lorain east, the Ohio Division of Wildlife said yesterday.

But some anglers have been boating out of the Turtle Creek marina complex and jigging off the Camp Perry reefs with limited success. Water temperatures are still very cold - 35 off Toledo and 33 off Cleveland.

Western basin charter guide Steve Connor said that he is among the skippers trying to put their boats in the water this week, but the popular jig-and-minnow season appears to be about three weeks behind normal.

On the Maumee and Sandusky rivers, water levels are high but gradually receding, and high-water fishing sites continue to be the best bets through mid week at least. Water is muddy, visibility is poor, but water temperature is 40 to 42 degrees.

Gary Lowry at Maumee Tackle in Maumee said that plenty of fish seem to be in the rivers.

Through mid week such sites as the foot of White Street and Towpath in Maumee and Orleans Park and Fort Meigs in Perryburg, and the Miles Newton Bridge in downtown Fremont, should be the places to try. As water levels approach wadable levels, angling action should drift upstream on the Maumee toward Side Cut Metropark and Buttonwood Public Access, and downstream from the Newton Bridge.

John Jokinen at Jann's Netcraft said yesterday that anglers are switching to smaller sizes in floating jigheads, especially No. 2, down from the large, earlier favorite of 1/0. Favored colors are shifting to chartreuse glitter and silk chartreuse/white, with three-inch plastic grub-tails.

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A job fair is scheduled Monday through April 9 at the new Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Rossford.

Applicants should report to Gold Medal Indoor Sports, 10020 South Compass Dr., behind the Meijer store complex off U.S. 20 in the Rossford/Perrysburg Crossroads shopping complex between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. each day.

For other details visit online at basspro.com/job.

• Today Deadline for ordering tree seedlings, Ottawa Soil and Water Conservation District, Oak Harbor; call 419-898-1595.

• Today April Fool s hike, 4 p.m., Blue Heron Reserve, U.S. 6 northeast of Fremont, to register call the Sandusky County Park District 419-334-4495; also, Saturday, bald eagle tour, 10:30 a.m., meet at the park headquarters, Countryside Drive off U.S. 6 at U.S. 20 bypass, east of Fremont, must call to register.

• Tonight Trapshoot, 6 p.m., Lakeland Trap Club, State Rt. 163 west of I-280, Lake Township, singles and doubles, practice and protection shoots; also, Thursday, 6 p.m., practice and Oakleys; also, Sunday, noon, practice; call Lynn Witker 419-308-0287.

• Tomorrow 250-yard shoot, Sandusky County Sportsmen s Club, State Rt. 600 east of Gibsonburg, call Dave Imm 419-466-4976; also, Thursday, trapshoot, 6 p.m.; also, Sunday, Black Swamp Carbine shoot; call Jeremy Decker 419-618-7969.

• Tomorrow Program on managing nuisance blackbirds, 7 p.m., Ohio State University Cooperative Extension Service office, Sandusky County, 2000 Countryside Dr., off U.S. 6, east of Fremont at U.S. 20 bypass.

• Tomorrow Ohio Wildlife Council, 6:30 p.m., Ohio Wildlife District 1 headquarters, 1500 Dublin Rd., Columbus; call 1-800-WILDLIFE.

• Tomorrow Friends of Pearson, 7 p.m., Pearson Metropark/Packer-Hammersmith Center; also, Friday, night walk, 8 p.m., Wildwood Preserve Metropark/Visitor Center, call for reservations 419-407-9700; also, Sunday, walk along the Miami & Erie Canal, 2 p.m., Providence Metropark/historicarea.

• Thursday Wildflower hike, 9:30 a.m., Van Buren State Park, State Rt. 613 east of I-75, north of Findlay, call 419-348-7679.

• Friday Deadline to order tree seedlings and prairie seeds, Lucas Soil and Water Conservation District, Maumee, call 419-893-1966.

• Friday Certified charter captain license course, continues Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays weekly through April 20, downtown location, call North Coast Marine Services for registration and site, 419-474-5354.

• Saturday National Fishing Lure Collectors Club, northeastern Ohio antique fi shing show, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Galaxy Banquet Center, 201 Park Centre Dr., Wadsworth, Ohio; for details call Wayne Goss 330-699-3263.

• Saturday Gardening with native plants, 10 a.m., Kitty Todd Preserve/The Nature Conservancy, 10420 Old State Line Rd.; for details and to register call Kelli Krueger 419-867-1521.

• Saturday Shreve spring bird migration programs, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., from Shreve Elementary School, 598 North Market St. (State Rt. 226), Shreve, Ohio; workshops, displays, lectures, field trips at Killbuck Marsh, Shreve Lake, Brown Bog, Funk Bottoms; for details call the Wayne County Convention and Visitors Bureau 330-264-1800, or 1-800-362-6474.

• Saturday Wildfl ower program, 10 a.m., Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, 2514 Cleveland Road East, Huron; call the reserve 419-433-4601.

• Saturday Boating education courses, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Glass City Marina, Front Street, Toledo, sponsored by Western Lake Erie Safe Boating Council to register call city boating education office 419-936-3848; also, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Sentinel Career Center, Tiffi n, by U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, call Bruce to register 419-929-4154; also, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 5-Span Marina, Paulding County,

by Ohio Division of Watercraft; call the division at Maumee Bay offi ce 419-836-6003.

• Saturday and Sunday Bowshoots: Tomahawk Archers traditional campers weekend, register to shoot 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2085 Erie Rd., Temperance, Mich., call Jay Kimura 419-351-8190; also, Saturday, Winemeg Sportsmen s Club, Fulton County Road K, Delta, register 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 30 3-D targets, call Ray 419-874-7087; also, Sunday, Canvasback Gun Club, 3801 West Dunbar Rd.,

Monroe, Mich., register 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 30 3-D targets, call Tom Rudzinski 734-735-0729; also, Sunday, Lincoln Bowmen, 26245 King Rd., Romulus, Mich., register 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 30 3-D targets, call Matt Gibbons 734-283-5465.

• Monday Public trapshoot, 6 p.m., Wolf Creek Sportsmen s Association, 349 Teachout Rd., north of State Rt. 2, Curtice; voice-activated traps available; call Rick Ferguson, 419-836-5264.