Here are this year's winners of the Don Q Awards for all kinds of reasons:
Best Big Game Hunters: Sal Quilici, his son David and his daughter Tina, who each bagged a trophy bull elk during the recent big game hunting seasons. Congrats to all!
Best White Bass Fishing: Lahontan Reservoir in mid-summer. On a number of fishing trips, Rich Bachle, Don Hettrick and I stopped counting when we had each caught and released 100 White Bass. The bass were hitting all kinds of lures, from super little to super big.
Best Eager Beaver: NDOW Fisheries Division for publishing fishing regulations (for the second year in a row!) for an urban pond at Fuji Park. If there is a pond there, it is cleverly disguised as a dirt field.
Best Fisherman: Dan Hannum of Dayton for his world-record 25.38 pound (36.5 inches) Wiper caught on 12-pound test line at Lahontan Reservoir on July 15.
Best Fishing Results: Don Hettrick, Rich Bachle, Elaine, and I for our Halibut and King Salmon fishing trip to Sitka, Alaska in late June. The four of us scored a "Grand Slam" with each of us catching a Halibut over 100 pounds. Don H (206 pounds), Bachle (188), Elaine (148) and Don Q (115).
Biggest Pain In The Butt No. 1: The endless series of ads (I counted 16 in just one commercial break, with one ad running twice in the documentary "March of The Penguins") at every commercial break on every TV program. Geez, no wonder people watch VHS and DVD movies.
Biggest Pain In The Butt No. 2: Whoever times traffic lights for Carson Street and its side streets. That person must get paid by the hour because the light phases seem to change on that same hourly basis, especially at Carson/Fairview and Carson/Long.
Cactus Plants Can Hurt: Doug Busey who got nailed on his left ring finger by a Mojave Green Rattlesnake, while he was trying to get a close-up photo of a cactus plant at Lake Havasu. Ouch!
Favorite Pigeons: Dave Beronio of Douglas County, Norm Budden of Carson City and Elmer Bull of Yerington. Those three poor souls have been the targets of many hilarious cartoons and photos e-mailed to all of my contacts. Geez, it feels good to poke fun at them.
Favorite Place To Fish: The far south end of Walker Lake, while spincasting for cutthroat trout, as we stand in the water in our chest waders.
Most Awesome Experience: That special day at Sitka, Alaska when Elaine caught her 148 pound Halibut while we were surrounded by all kinds of Humpback Whales, surfacing amazingly close to our boat.
Most Unusual Sighting: Sitting on a high remote ridge top, one afternoon, on my Ely bull elk hunting trip, and saying, "What in the heck is that?" as a helium-filled, pink party balloon with a long trailing string slowly drifted over the top of our heads.
That prankster Norm Budden had released it from further down the ridge, in an attempt to dazzle the rest of us. He succeeded!
Most Unusual Statistics: Calif. DFG poisoned Davis Lake to rid it of Northern Pike. 75 percent of the thousands of dead fish were Catfish. Only 8 percent were Pike.
Sleepiest Person: Don Hettrick who fell asleep on the plane trip to Alaska, on the fishing boat (three straight days!) and on the plane returning home from Alaska.
Something Has To Give: Donny Works found out the hard way that when a tree branch is lower than the top left corner of his motorhome, something has to give.
Will He Ever Catch a Fish: Marty Martinez, who, according to his fishing partners, keeps getting skunked at Walker Lake.
Hey Marty, keep trying. Heck, even I can catch fish at Walker!
You Are Jinxed: Bob Fitz spend thousands of dollars planting some very large trees in his yard. Then he and his wife woke up one morning to find one of the largest trees lying on the ground, courtesy of a hard-working beaver during the night.
You Did What No. 1: Bob "Slick" McCulloch forgot a bag full of days of dirty deer hunting laundry at an Ely motel. Then, he called them to mail the bag back to him. It cost that motel $9 to send back his dirty socks, T-shirts and shorts!
I would have burned those nasty clothes as hazardous material!
You Did What No. 2: On my recent elk hunt at Ely, five of us were huffing and puffing a steep mountain. Four of us were completely clad, head-to-foot, in camo clothing to try to sneak up on any elk. The fifth person, Jack Cooke, was also wearing head-to-foot camo, plus a blaze orange vest!
Geez, he stuck out like black wolf in a herd of white sheep.
And, last but not least:
Thanks For The Info: All of my contacts who provide detailed, weekly fishing reports for each of their areas. From Shasta County in Northern Calif. to Crowley Lake in the Bishop area to Wildhorse Reservoir in Northeastern Nevada. They make fishing reports easy to provide each week.
Special Thanks No. 1: All the readers of the weekly "Outdoors" page. You're the best!
Special Thanks No. 2: All the folks at the Nevada Appeal, who help bring the "Outdoors" page to you every Thursday.
Special Thanks No. 3: Cathleen "Cat" Allison and Rhonda Costa-Landers at the Nevada Appeal for their invaluable help with my photos and stories.
Happy New Year Everyone!
• Don Quilici is the Outdoors editor for the Nevada Appeal.