Outdoors notes for April 10

The bad news continues to come in dark, cloudy patches.

Citing difficult economic times, Mercury Marine has laid off salaried personnel, apparently across pay grades from office assistants to directors. The company says it's reacting to tough economic times. And apparently, this one-time giant in the marine industry is not isolated from the tough times many other U.S. companies have experienced.

It's only a 3 percent reduction in the approximately 7,000-worker force, but another sign that boats are feeling the pinch of an economy that is reeling from high fuel prices and market uncertainties.

Fish story: True to the spring-break spirit, there is one group of college students that has been spending its getaway time on the water, but doing so in bass boats instead of in the stereotypical beach-party setting. The group is college anglers, and they have been busy taking full advantage of recent spring tournaments being held especially for them.

The latest event was the Arkansas Tech University College Bass Invitational held recently on Lake Dardanelle. It was filmed by Careco Multimedia and will air this fall as part of the Boat U.S. National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship (NCBFC) series on the Fox College Sports network.

With 89 anglers, representing 19 schools and involving a total of 46 teams, it turned out to be one of the largest college tournaments held to date in the young but rapidly growing sport of collegiate bass fishing. While many of the participants were from Arkansas and surrounding states, several teams also traveled farther, including Wisconsin-Whitewater, Purdue, Alabama, Nebraska, Eastern Kentucky and Murray State (Kentucky).