Kyle Giella couldn't imagine four years of college without an opportunity to pursue his favorite pastime.

"My family has fished for as long as I can remember," the Georgia Southern student said. "I heard about colleges making up fishing teams, so we checked into it."

Giella and another student got the ball rolling and created Southern Bass Anglers, Georgia Southern's official collegiate fishing team. It is in its third year and has 14 members.

"We got started in 2006 but we didn't really compete until 2008," said Giella, a Lincolnton resident. "We had to approach the Student Government Association, write up a charter and come up with a constitution. Then we needed a minimum of 10 people to get it sanctioned."

With graduation just around the corner in 2010, Giella is now president of the team, which he hopes will become a permanent part of his school even after he leaves.

"College fishing is definitely growing," he said. "From my last count, there are more than 250 recognized schools with fishing teams. It's becoming huge."

This spring, the team won its highest honor to date. Giella and fellow team angler Oakley Walrave landed a second-place prize -- and a $5,000 purse -- at the FLW Collegiate Tournament at Alabama's Lake Wheeler earlier this month.

Half the prize money goes to the school; the winning anglers split the other half.

Kiella, who is majoring in mechanical engineering, said the fishing team attracts a diverse group of anglers.

"It's a little bit of everything," he said. "We have people come into the club who know nothing about tournament fishing and some who do. But we're always eager to teach people about fishing and get them out on the water."

In addition to fishing tournaments, and the opportunity to travel, Georgia Southern's anglers also preach conservation and try to get others interested in the outdoors.

"We always stress to new members, and current members, that conservation is important and how catch and release works," he said, "and why we need to take care of our environment."

DADDY LONGLEGS: I've always heard the myth, going back to childhood, that the daddy longlegs spider was supposedly the most venomous of all, but that it has no teeth -- and therefore cannot deliver its deadly bite.

It is, however, just a myth. Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division, which sends out a weekly "wild facts" sheet to journalists, sums it up this way:

"Daddy-longlegs (also called harvestmen) have eight legs like other arachnids, but they are not true spiders. True spiders have two body parts and eight eyes. Daddy-longlegs have one body part and two eyes.

"You will never find a daddy-longlegs spinning a web because they cannot make silk. Also, daddy-longlegs eat decomposing plants and animals since they have no fangs, no venom glands and no other way to attack prey."

S.C. DEER: Whitetail hunters in South Carolina took 4 percent more deer this past season than the previous year, according to harvest data released last week.

The annual report estimated the total harvest of 248,778 deer -- including 131,346 bucks and 117,432 does, according to Charles Ruth, Deer/Turkey Project supervisor for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

"Although the deer harvest was up slightly in 2008, it may simply be a response to a slight increase in hunter participation last season rather than a substantive increase in deer numbers across the state," he said.

The majority of deer (192,057) were taken with centerfire rifles in 2008. Shotguns (29,605 deer) and archery equipment (17,663 deer) also contributed significantly to the overall deer harvest, whereas muzzleloaders, crossbows and handguns combined (9,453 deer) produced less than 5 percent of the total statewide harvest.

In South Carolina, small yearling bucks comprise the largest portion of harvest and hunters kill far more antlered bucks than does.

Georgia encourages hunters to harvest more does, and it has laws requiring that at least one of each hunter's two-buck limit have four or more antler points on one side.

South Carolina, by comparison, has no rules to encourage opportunities for quality bucks and sets no limits on bucks in the lower part of the state.

WARRIOR ANGLERS: Soldiers recuperating from combat injuries here in Augusta were treated to an unusual outing last weekend at the fishing ponds at Whiteoak Preserve near Appling.

"The soldiers were from the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Gordon, and there were 30 of them who came out," said Crawford McConnell, who owns the preserve and its large ponds. "They caught about 120 fish."

Wal-Mart stores in Evans and Thomson donated rods and reels, Sam's Club sent food and Kathie's Special Ts and Hall & Hall Associates donated T-shirts.