Freshwater hall is hard to miss

HAYWARD, Wis. --- When it comes to big fish, Emmett Brown has the best seat on the planet.

"There had to be a reason to get people to come here," said the executive director of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. "We needed a landmark."

The choice for such an icon was a muskie -- Wisconsin's signature fish. It needed to be big, and it was.

The resulting sculpture, which has watched over the museum complex for decades, is four stories tall and half a block long.

In its toothy jaws, an overlook can hold enough people for a small wedding. Inside are some of the site's numerous exhibits.

"People will come from a thousand miles away to see it," he said. "We get about 50,000 people a year through here from mid-April to October."

The rest of the year, it is too cold. After all, it is in northern Wisconsin -- a 17-hour drive from Augusta.

The mammoth muskie, however, is just part of the Hall of Fame and its function.

Inside its four museum buildings, there are collections that hold more than 50,000 angling artifacts from antique lures to taxidermy to displays about notable anglers -- and outdoor writers, too.

"Probably one of the biggest draws, and you wouldn't think it would be this way, is our outboard motor collection," Brown said. "People are fascinated by them."

The collection has almost 1,000 motors, including prototypes, Ole Evinrude's first production model from 1909 and an array of manually propelled devices.

Even Georgia is represented among the halls of fish and fish records with a replica of the 22-pound, 4-ounce George Perry largemouth bass, which has reigned since 1932 as the world record.

That particular display might soon have to be reworked in the wake of a Japanese angler who reportedly landed a 22-pound, 5-ounce largemouth from his country's Lake Biwa.

"Of course, we've heard about this fish, but until someone actually applies for record status, there isn't much we can do about it," he said. "Certainly, though, we would give it all due consideration."

Beyond its museum collections, the Hall of Fame is also the international headquarters for education, recognition and promotion of fresh water sportfishing. The non-profit organization maintains programs for compiling and publishing all freshwater sportfishing records, and also has a recognition program for anglers and others whose contributions are important to fishing.

The original idea for the Hall of Fame came from Bob Kutz, of Hayward, Wis., in 1960, and fundraising began in earnest in 1969. A major early donor was Jim Beam distilleries, which -- through a commemorative fish decanters -- helped the effort along to reality.

You can visit the hall's Web site at: www.freshwater-fishing.org.

women AND BIRDS: Looking for a girlfriend? Try birdwatching.

According to a new study by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the "average" bird watcher in the U.S. is likely to be female, and with an above-average income and education.

The South is home to a third of the nation's bird watchers, more than any other region, the study said. But states in northern U.S. ranked highest in participation rates. Montana led with 40 percent of residents 16 and older fitting the survey's definition of birders, people who traveled a mile or more from home to observe birds or closely watched or tried to identify birds around their home.

Georgia's participation level was 15 percent.

MORE DUCKS: Speaking of birds, an annual report released this month by Ducks Unlimited and the Fish & Wildlife Service estimated total U.S. waterfowl populations at 42 million -- a 13 percent increase over last year's estimate of 37.3 million breeding birds.

That figure is also 25 percent above the longterm average, compiled from 1955 to 2008.

The increase is likely due to a single factor: water.

"History has repeatedly shown that when water returns to the breeding grounds ducks respond with a strong breeding effort."

"The increase in duck numbers in relation to the increase in habitat conditions is consistent with what we would expect to see in U.S. and Canadian breeding grounds this spring," DU Vice President Don Young said.

Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.