FISH OF THE WEEK: It arrived under the heading ''Why I don't golf. ...'' That's bonus points right away. Of course, it helps that it was a good-looking largemouth bass caught with one of my favorite methods (scum frog), and you have a Fish of the Week for Dan Beam. I know it has been wintry, but let's think back to late summer. Oh, there's some fun at the end of Tim O'Meara's e-mail on Sept. 4 about his friend. ''This is my friend Dan Beam who caught this monster at a quarry in McHenry County last weekend. It took several swipes at the scum frog but finally hooked her up. Go Cubs!'' Oh, the boys of summer.

Stagnant economy or not, two new shows have been added to the Chicago outdoor shows this winter.

With Joel Greenberg, I once sat in a blind near the Downstate home of Burl Ives and watched the flamboyant courtship of prairie chickens. I enjoyed that so much that I later offered to drive on a quest across the length of northern Illinois on back roads to document the state's first great gray owl.