Outdoor living

Last weekend was one to forget for Larry Dean of Columbia,Mo.

Dean passed up a fishing trip to Table Rock and Taneycomo so he could stay home and watch the St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs win their playoff games and move closer to the Super Bowl next month.

It didn't happen, as everyone knows, and what made it worse for Dean was he missed a great fishing trip.

It seems his fishing buddies, who weren't football fans, caught lots of fish and the weather was very good for January. Tom Fisher landed a seven-pound bass from Table Rock and another friend, Fred Goodman, caught 11 nice crappie before both men caught limits of trout on Taneycono.

Dean said, "I'm heading out this week to catch some fish and forget about football for awhile."

Speaking of fishing, here's a "Trew" story. You can decide if it's true or not.

Anglers are known for stretching the truth. A fish weighing three pounds over the years tends to up the scales at six pounds. Every angler is guilty of doing it at least once, myself included.

If you fish for largemouth bass, you know about George Perry's standing record bass caught back in 1932 which weighed 22 pounds-4 ounces, perhaps the most sought after world record in the sport of fishing. That fish is worth a million dollars in endorsements alone. Let's say that one day, bang, you have it in your hands. What do you do with it? In the case of Leaha Trew, you take a photo and let it go. On August 24, 45-year-old Trew of Santa Rosa, California was fishing Spring Lake with her 21-year-old son Javad and a friend when she caught a big bass, weighing 22 pounds and 8 ounces, on a scale certified accurate by the International Game Fish Association ( IGFA). Her son snapped one photo before she released it.

Leaha and Javad knew a fish this large was indeed a new record, so they submitted an application to the IGFA, along with the photo as proof of the catch.

The record is under scrutiny by the IGFA and the bass world is screaming for blood.

You can learn more about the story by typing Leaha Trew on any Internet search engine.

We were pleased to see the booth promoting morel mushrooms at the Kansas City Sportshow recently.

After the untimely death of the "Mushroom Man," Larry Lonik last April, the tradition of promoting morels was taken over by a Parkville couple, Theresa and John Maybrier.