It was a hot August evening many years ago. I’d been plying my time catching rock bass and pumpkinseed sunfish at the Old Baptizing Hole south of Moscow. I’d stayed a little late, and it was getting very close to dark when I packed up my fishing equipment, ready to head up the farm lane. It was one of those quiet, humid, still nights, where there wasn’t a breeze or a single leaf moving.

Just as I started up the farm lane, I was surprised to see one of my neighbors, Tom Lanter with fishing rod in hand, headed down to the river.

“Little late for fishing…isn’t it, Tom?”

“Nope… just right.”

Curious, I stashed my fishing tackle along the lane and walked with Tom back to the Baptizing Hole.

I watched as he stepped up to the edge of the river and made a long cast toward the far bank. The little black lure he cast hit the water with a pronounced “splop,” and he hesitated just a little bit before he started a slow, deliberate retrieve.

In the pale light from the stars, I could see the lure cutting across the river’s surface and hear it making a steady “plop, plop plop” sound.

It didn’t make much sense to me to be fishing so late unless you were fishing for catfish, and Tom was definitely not fishing for catfish.

My attitude was about to quickly change.

On Tom’s third or fourth cast across the black waters there was the sound of a huge splash, and his fishing rod doubled up as he set the hooks and began fighting a 3-pound smallmouth to the bank.

eaching down and picking up the fish, Tom said, “Still think it is too late?”

It was my first experience witnessing night fishing with a Jitter Bug. I was amazed how the little black lure with the metal cups on its front made a distinct vee across the top of the water making a  “plop, plop, plop” sound smallmouth bass couldn’t resist.

Tom caught two more fish over the next hour and had an impressive stringer to take home.

More than three smallmouth were hooked in the evening light, as I quickly became a faithful follower of the Jitter Bug bunch.

Patoka Lake dove hunting

Patoka Lake will host two on-site dove hunting draws on September 1 and 2 beginning at 6 a.m. ET. The drawings will be held at the Patoka Lake Archery Range Shelterhouse, which is off South Ramp Road in Newton-Stewart State Recreation Area (SRA).

The drawings will be for staked positions within a dove hunt field on the property. Approximately 17 stakes will be drawn each day. To be eligible, hunters must possess the proper licenses, stamps, and their federal HIP number.

Drawn hunters will be allowed a maximum of two firearms per stake, and no more than 50 shells per hunter. Hunters must use nontoxic shot size 6 or smaller, and have their firearms plugged to where they can contain only three shells at any time.

Shooting hours on September 1 and 2 are from 6:50 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET; the shooting fields are closed afternoons and evenings. All fields surrounding the sunflowers and buckwheat on South Ramp Road will have the same time restrictions September 1 and 2. There will be no standby or refilling of stakes for early departures.

Beginning September 3, the fields along South Ramp Road will open to regular in-season shooting hours of one half hour before sunrise to sunset, and hunters must sign in at one of the property’s check stations and sign out when they conclude their daily hunt.

For more information on hunting dove at Patoka, go to on.IN.gov/patokalake under Activities and click on Hunting. More information on dove hunting in general is at on.IN.gov/huntingguide. Hunters may also call the Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement at 812-837-9536 with specific questions on federal or state laws, statutes, and rules regarding hunting.

Conservation Officer Lt. Duane Englert

Lt. Duane Englert, who in 1999 earned the Pitzer Award as state’s conservation officer of the year, is retiring after 38 years of service with the DNR Division of Law Enforcement.

The seven-time District 7 officer of the year also is a graduate of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Leadership Academy and the FBI Leadership Academy.

In 2011, Englert was promoted to corporal and then to District 7 lieutenant in 2013, overseeing Knox, Davies, Martin, Gibson, Pike, Dubois, Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Spencer counties.

Englert’s DNR career started in 1985, when he was assigned to Posey and Gibson counties and served as an emergency vehicle operation instructor, firearms instructor, and public safety diver for 24 years.

Originally from the Huntingburg area in Dubois County, he holds an associate degree in conservation law from Vincennes University and later earned a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University.

Readers can contact the author by writing to this publication, or e-mail to jackspaulding@hughes.net.

Spaulding’s books, “The Best of Spaulding Outdoors,” and his latest, “The Coon Hunter And The Kid,” are available from Amazon.com in paperback or as a Kindle download.