HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS: PERFECT OUTDOORS PRESENTS : A TIDY LIST FOR THE ADVENTURIST.

Byline: Daily News and Wire Services

With all the scrambling around these days to meet demands of work and family, time spent outdoors has become a precious commodity.

Fortunately, manufacturers work hard to develop gear and gadgets that make such adventures as pleasurable and productive as possible. Fishing hooks are sharper, backpacks are lighter, tents set up faster and outboards run smoother.

As usual, there is no shortage of outdoors products and services for that special someone on your holiday gift list. Some suggestions:

Fishing reel pit stop:Salt, sand, dirt and jelly doughnut debris can seriously hamper the performance of a reel and shorten its life span. But few anglers have their gear regularly serviced. Surprise that favorite worm-dunker with a tune-up; most bait and tackle shops charge $10 to $20.

While you're at it, have that old fishing line changed out; fresh line improves chances of fishing success. The cost is $8 to $40 to fill a reel, depending on line quality.

Stay found: Losing your bearings can turn a fun day into a long night. Thanks to the wonders of the Global Positioning System, or GPS, you'll always know where you are and where you need to go.

Although it doesn't have the fancier features of more expensive products, moderately priced GPS units, like the $99 Magellan Pioneer, have everything you need to stay on track.

The hand-held machines allow the input of 100 landmarks.Anglers can save the coordinates of productive fishing holes. Hikers can figure out the most direct route from point A to point Z. Hunters can save the locations of favorite tree stands and duck blinds, then find their way back to them in the predawn darkness before a hunt.

Proper documentation: 1999 fishing licenses are on sale. An annual residential license runs $27.55. Talk about the perfect stocking stuffer.

Softer is better: With their increased versatility and option of switching internal storage compartments to suit the game, soft-tackle packs are making the traditional steel or hard-plastic tackle boxes obsolete. The cloth-shell containers are sold by Plano, Shimano, Extreme, Tackle Logic and other manufacturers for $35 to $75.

Guiding light: A half-day of fishing with a professional guide is an excellent way to learn new tricks for about $75 to $150. Tackle shops can make recommendations, or call the Department of Fish and Game's License and Revenue Branch at [phone] for a list of licensed guides.

Good reads: If you can't be outdoors, you can at least enjoy nature by sitting down with a book.

Paul Brown's ``Wild Visions'' (True Exposures Publishing; $39.95) takes you places most of us have never been with its 122 wildlife photos highlighting big game, with plenty of massive white-tailed deer, elk and bear, but also depicting everything from wolverines to the anhinga - a fish-eating relative of the cormorant.

``101 Uses for a Lab'' (Willow Creek Press; $14.95) is a light-hearted look at one of the most popular dog breeds in the country, the Labrador retriever. Photographer Dale Spartas captured Labs in all sorts of settings and circumstances to come up with the 101 uses in 112 pages. For example, a Lab can be a pillow, a weed killer, an alarm clock, something to help pick up girls and something to help pick up guys.

A book that will make you glad you stayed indoors is ``Dancin' With Shirley'' (Pease Mountain Publications; $17.95) by humorist Alan Liere, who has an uncanny knack for seeing the lighter side of outdoor experiences, both good and bad, but in his case, mostly bad - broken fishing rods, bird dogs that eat what they retrieve and leaky waders. The 205-page title - his third and best collection of wilderness misadventures - has several thoughtful, thought-provoking pieces among its 55 stories.

Also in print: Plumb out of ideas? A $25 subscription to a fishing or hunting magazine could get you off the hook. There are dozens of periodicals to choose from on the racks at newspaper stands and book stores.

Cool idea: A Koolit cooler is good to have on hand when you catch that fresh fish dinner that you didn't expect. The lightweight, leakproof, re-usable plastic foam cooler is collapsible, yet tough. Its insulation is so good you can keep things cold with or without ice. $4.95 at Wal-Mart.