Great Feedback From Last Month’s Giant Bass Story

Dear GON,

It’s always special when a writer receives positive feedback from a story, but I was a bit overwhelmed when the Nickie Rich story came out in the September GON. I immediately started receiving e-mails and Facebook posts from Nickie’s three daughters, Carol, Sharon and Lisa, as well as many of their friends and family members, who were thrilled to see the story about Nickie’s record bass.

At the end of the story, I noted how Nickie’s wife and three girls were devastated as teenagers in 1988 when their dad passed away at 47. Today, almost 30 years later, all three daughters are married with families of their own, but their father’s memory is just as strong as it ever was. Coincidentally, the girls noted that Nickie would have been 77 years old on Aug. 30, so the timing of the story was perfect. To see that kind of love in a family renews one’s faith in humanity.

Back in 1996, Carol had the darkened and stained old mount deep cleaned and coated by Cherokee Taxidermy in Canton. Today, it looks like it just came out of the water.

Duncan Dobie, Marietta

The Nickie Rich bass was caught in 1965, and his daughter Carol had the mount restored in 1996.

Three Decades With GON!

Dear GON,

Thanks for truly a great magazine. My only problem with GON is I always finish reading it too soon. I just can’t make it last all month until the next issue comes out. You have been part of my life for 30 years. Keep up the good work.

Jerald L. McLeod, Jackson

If It’s Brown Gray, It’s Down

Dear GON,

I am 73 years old, and I have been hunting in Georgia since I was 12 years old. When I was in my 20s, coyotes were brought to Georgia by the fox hunters because the fox population suffered some kind of disease. They wanted to run their hounds, and they needed something to chase. So this foreign species of canine was brought across the Mississippi River and introduced to our state. Boy, was that a mistake, sort of like kudzu! But kudzu doesn’t eat deer, turkey, rabbits, quail and other game animals we hunt.

It is strange to me that the DNR denied the impacts of coyotes for years, and the hunters had to prove it with their trail cameras. We need to quit killing so many deer and start killing every coyote we see.

Thank you for your time,

Ed Arnold, Warner Robins      

GON Social

GON Instagram: Brayden Barnes, of Douglasville, went fishing with his grandpa Scott Postell at the Christian Catfish Hole in Lithia Springs. The photo was sent in by grandmother Kimberly Postell, @kokostwin.

GON Twitter: Thanks for tagging us, @danalb3!

GON Facebook: Chad Hargrove messaged GON and said, “Birds flew good Sunday afternoon (Sept. 4) in Oconee Co.”