Posts by Daryl Kirby
Editorial Opinion – December 2023
Is there still a Miss America pageant? Haven’t heard mention of it in years, but I thought of the pageant interview question this morning… a nervous contestant alone on stage, and she’s asked a question. “World Peace!” Turns out those who answered with what was thought of as a shallow cliche were right all along.…
Read MoreDefining Navigable Streams In Georgia
About the only thing more difficult than pronouncing the word navigable is defining it. But define it we might. Lawsuits, unprecedented last-minute midnight action at the capitol, and now public meetings across the state conducted by a who’s-who of legislative heavyweights… all are currents pulling a creaky old wooden raft toward treacherous waters. Those waters…
Read MoreIt’s Not Easy, And We Aren’t Pretty, But… GON
It’s not uncommon when putting these GON magazines together each month to take a pause and recognize how blessed and fortunate we are. Seeing all of these articles is a much-needed reminder that we are blessed and fortunate in many ways. We could talk endlessly about the incredible hunting and fishing opportunities in this state, …
Read MoreGHFF Gets The Job Done For Sportsmen
If you are one of the many sportsmen who have walked through the doors of an Outdoor Blast in the past two and half decades, you probably met or at least noticed a group of men and women in hunter-orange t-shirts. They volunteered at the Kids Zone, at the venue doors, or they met folks…
Read MoreFirst And Foremost, GON Makes A Magazine
First and foremost, GON makes a magazine. We’ve been at it for 37 years. Quite a bit has changed and we’ve weathered some storms since that first tabloid-newspaper style GON hit the store racks with a cover picture from a West Point crappie tournament. The storm of the century began as barely a ripple in…
Read MoreAt All Costs
Go big or go home. That’s all good and well, great advice. Unless, of course, the impacts of going home are far worse than the potential rewards of going big. Stating the obvious there, but there seems to be an ever-escalating ‘at all costs’ mentality in all walks of life. A young hunter seems desperate…
Read MoreYellow Jacket Shoals Still Closed To Public Fishing
Shoal bass anglers gearing up to fish Yellow Jacket Shoals need to put the brakes on those thoughts. After hearing that new legislation designed to protect fishing access to navigable streams has passed its final step, some may have thought that section of the Flint River was back open to public access. Although Senate Bill…
Read MorePublic-Access, Navigable Stream Status Coming To A Head
In three and half decades of making outdoor magazines in Georgia, I can’t remember the idea of a group of politicians getting together that has me more interested—and fearful—than a House of Representatives Study Committee that will be meeting this summer. If you own land in Georgia with a stream or river flowing through your…
Read MoreLawsuit, Legislation Muddy The Waters On Access To Flint River’s Yellow Jacket Shoals
Currently, anglers who fish the Yellow Jacket Shoals section of the Flint River without landowner permission are trespassing. The state of Georgia on March 23, 2023 settled a lawsuit brought by landowners along the banks of the Flint River at Yellow Jacket Shoals that appeared to resolve the long-simmering issue of whether the public could…
Read MoreFox Lake At Marben PFA
A solid bass right off the bat is always nice—takes some pressure off when you need a picture fish. On the contrary, it’s a bad feeling when hours tick by and cast after cast go unnoticed. We know that feeling too, because after a bass that hit in the first 10 minutes of our morning,…
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