Fish Like a GIRL

I was thinking about Christmas, and what types of things are usually on the wish lists of outdoorsmen and women. A good friend of mine’s wife bought him a Garmin watch for Christmas. She gave it to him early. I guess, like me, maybe she has a hard time keeping a secret. I am very bad about presents — it is difficult for me to not give them early. I am like a little kid; I get so excited, but I digress.

Field guides come in all shapes and sizes and make a great gift for the holidays. I have a few more on my wish list for this year.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

When I was thinking about that, I thought “Hey, do you know what would be great? A state parks pass.” Funny that just the next day I get a news release from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) stating just that same thing. I thought it would be cool to not only buy the state parks pass, or the state trails pass, but then to make up some kind of map or a “state passport” or something where friends or family could log their journeys. I think that would be especially fun for kids, but I also think anyone might enjoy it. On a side note, vehicle admission passes are now good for 12 months from the time of purchase, making them a great year round gift.

Alternatively, there are a ton of outdoor journals out there today. Most people know that I am big on keeping a fishing log, or fishing journal. We refer to it quite frequently, even for bodies of water that we know well. It is great to have on hand to look back and see what baits or colors were working with given weather conditions, or how things have maybe changed over the years. That said, there are a whole bunch of different styles and types of fishing logs out there, so there is likely something for every angler, but not every angler will utilize every style of journal completely, so it can take some looking around.

But outdoor journals do not stop there. There are camping journals, mountain biking journals, hiking journals, bird watching journals, foraging journals and, of course, hunting journals. There are plenty of garden and planting journals out there, too. And I have not even hit on any of the winter sports such as snowshoeing or skiing. Basically, if a person enjoys any outdoor activity, there are several types and styles of journals they can use to house those memories. I get that not all people are into writing things down, or into writing at all. But it is something I enjoy, obviously, so I am all about different types of journals for different adventures. 

I also take a lot of pictures. At the same time, I feel like those do not always convey the feelings I had at the time of a hike, for instance. I can look at the same picture years later and it will bring up different feelings or thoughts, maybe of something that has changed since then, or someone who is no longer here. To me, having that written record from the exact time and date that I went on an outdoor adventure is great to look back on. It also gives me more tangible data such as the difficulty or length of a trail, how long it took to complete it, and any other special considerations I might want to remember before heading out.

I suppose I cannot leave the topic of book-ish sorts of things without talking about field guides. As any person who loves the outdoors, many know, I cannot get enough of field guides. Some of them are horrible, I agree. But there are a lot of good ones, too, and price is not always the determining factor. As I mentioned in a talk not too long ago for the Lakeland Gardeners, there are some field guides by the Audubon Society that I would rather put a stick in my eye than use all day, but I have a $6.99 bird guide that I just love. So it is not always about the cost of a field guide. 

Often, I find that a field guide is laid out to work like my brain works and that winds up to be my favorite. After all, who does not love a good dichotomous key, right? Not all of my favorite field guides are set up that way, obviously, but one of the things that I like about dichotomous keys is that really anyone can use them to identify — birds, animals, invertebrates, lichen — whatever. It is simply a matter of answering questions about the subject until a person gets down to the identification of that particular thing. Even younger children can solve the identification puzzle with a dichotomous key.

I cannot promise that my favorite field guides will be the favorite field guides of someone on anyone else’s Christmas list, but maybe these ideas can at least give a gift-giver a place to start. Here are just a few:

I was turned on to one of my favorite native plant guides by Pat Goggin, who many may remember as the ubiquitous “plant guy” from the UW system. He has since moved on and started his own greenhouse called Yenny’s Wildflowers. It can be found through a simple Google search. But, before he moved on to that adventure, he imparted a wealth of plant knowledge onto hundreds of people, me included.

The title of the field guide is “Wildflowers of Wisconsin” by Black and Judziewcz. It starts out with the flowers separated by parts. I start by answering the question, does the flower have three parts? Five? Six? Once I get to that section of the guide, it is broken down by color, with a handy map of the state to show me where each flower is found, which helps me narrow it down even more. It has awesome pictures, and I have to say I have used this one more than many of the others.

Two I picked up most recently that I like is the “Mushrooms” field guide by Simon and Schuster and also their “Rocks & Minerals Guide.” One of the cool things about the mushroom field guide is the little “plate” icon next to each description. This lets me know if the mushroom is edible, suspect, or toxic. If it is edible, the number of forks on the plate lets me know how palatable it is. I thought that was kind of a cool feature. If there is a drawback to this guide it is the fact that all of the mushrooms are listed by their scientific name. I feel like common names may vary in some cases, so I understand why they are listed that way, and, quite frankly, I had no idea this many types of mushrooms existed and maybe they do not all have common names. In any event, it is a cool field guide for those interested.

The rocks and minerals field guide was one I bought on a recommendation from an instructor during my Master Naturalist training. As the name implies, the guide is split into two sections, one for minerals and one for rocks. I have been a rock nerd since I was a young kid, so this one was right up my alley as well. It was also one of the only guides I found that was dedicated to every day rocks, if you will. Guides for minerals and showy crystals and whatnot seem easier to come by.

The last topic of field guides I want to touch on are related to streams. There are three that I own that I find most useful and, if I am being honest, fun to just sit and nerd out with on a cold winter day. 

The first is the “Field Guide to Wisconsin Streams: Plants, Fishes, Invertebrates, Amphibians, and Reptiles.” I carry this field guide with me pretty much all of the time, but especially when I am doing stream monitoring as a WAV Stream Monitor. The book is broken down by category and one of the things I love is that it is basically all-inclusive. I can identify plants, aquatic invertebrates, and all the way up to fish, all with the same guide. Basically, if it is found near or in a stream, I can use the same book to ID all of those life forms. 

Another more recent purchase is the “Field Guide to Freshwater Invertebrates of North America.” Who does not love freshwater invertebrates? First of all, there are so many of them that live in the streams and waters around us that we may never see or think about — until we really start to look for them. Second of all, they have such cool lives and life cycles. To me, they are simply the most fun to learn about.

The third stream-ish sort of field guide I would call a favorite is the “Field Guide to Amphibian Eggs and Larvae of the Western Great Lakes.” I do not remember how I came across this field guide, whether I just stumbled across it or perhaps it was recommended at the Wetland Science Conference or something. But I am super-happy to have found it. I feel like it is not often that field guides are dedicated to the egg and larval life stage of anything, really, so making those identifications in the field can be more tricky. 

I could probably go on and on about field guides. One hard to find field guide within most people’s price range, for some odd reason, is one on crayfish. But I did find one out there that was not too badly priced. It is “The Field Guide to Crayfishes of the Midwest” by Taylor, Schuster and Wylie. This one has been incredibly helpful, not only from the standpoint of identification of species, but also as a bass angler and soft plastic bait maker.

Hopefully this column gave some readers an idea or two for those outdoor enthusiasts on their Christmas lists. Next week we will take a look at some more of the “must haves” for more hard core adventurers.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].