I always figure the yellow leaves on the walnut trees tell me a lot about the upcoming fall. This year that yellowing foliage on the walnuts here on Lightnin’ Ridge is really late. Could be that is because we had so much rain in the middle of summer, but it has been very dry here since late August. But usually the later the yellowing of walnut leaves point to a late fall and a mild winter. I’ll bet we have a good colorful fall and it will come at the very last of October. I think a mild winter is coming too. And that will mean the mallards will come through a little later. Seems like there is always a problem with a mild winter. But most folks would sacrifice early duck migrations for a mild winter. But mild winters make for some good fishing up to the coming of spring.

Speaking of walnut trees, big walnuts are being cut at an alarming pace now, because of their increasing value. Likewise there is an increasing value in the walnuts, purchase in October by the Hammons Walnut Company headquartered in Stockton, Missouri. I thought last years price of 15 dollars per hulled hundred pounds was really good. But I have been told that this year, starting October 1, walnut prices will be 20 dollars per hundred pounds after hulling subject to change later in the month. Buying stations are set up all over the Ozarks. If you want to know the nearest one to you, call Hammons at 417-276-5181. I think that here on my ridgetop, I could accumulate about a thousand pounds by Oct. 1. That would buy me a lot of duck hunting shells. But I have a walnut thief living up on the corner of my property that can pick up a hundred pounds while I am still working on my first fifty. She is half owner of Lightnin’ Ridge -— my daughter Christy!

I know that when I wrote about how I am getting 10 free deer  hunting permits from the Missouri Department of Conservation, plus 75 dollars processing money from them for each one, lots of readers thought I was joking. But you can find out if you are eligible by calling Alicia Burke, phone 573-522-0141. You have to have at least 5 acres and I believe you need to apply before mid October.  You can give some of the ten permits to friends or family members, and yes, you can charge them for hunting on YOUR LAND! But you cannot sell the permits that are given to you free.

I saw a television broadcast out of Springfield Mo where they were talking about foxes become numerous in their city. They showed what was a red fox that you might not have recognized as such. That fox had a horrible case of mange, and a “MDC media specialist” saying that the foxes would have to be ‘tested for mange”. Country people would laugh at that. That is like saying that a mallard would have to be tested to see if he was a duck. That fox was so darn mangy he was living in misery, and he should have been destroyed. Mange is easily spread to dogs and other mammals, and if officials in that city do not begin to eliminate those foxes, they will make veterinarians wealthy, just by treating pets that get it. And though it isn’t common, humans can get mange too. It is spread by mites. Domestic animals can be treated and cured, but wild animals cannot, unless trapped and treated that way. If he is never treated, that wild fox, which has to live with microscopic mites burrowing into his skin, is doomed to awful misery before he dies. If you see any animal with mange, have mercy on it and kill it. Otherwise it’s misery will spread to other creatures.

 You might already know this, but in late September if you want to catch bass, you cannot use anything better than topwater lures, especially at dusk and dawn. As water cools there are lots of ways to catch bass, but I wouldn’t know about that because I just can’t stop using topwater lures or buzz baits. This week I will fish several different rivers that way, and you’ll be reading about those successes if I have one. And I will tell you about catching perhaps the biggest smallmouth I ever hooked. If it wasn’t the biggest ever, he was, as Dizzy Dean once said, “Amonst ‘em.”

Let me remind you folks that if you want a copy of our Fall outdoor magazine or the Fall issue of our Ozark magazine then you should call my secretary, Ms. Wiggins, to get on the subscription list. Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo 65613 or email lightninridge47@gmail.com. Visit my website sometime, www.larrydablemont.com.