The soul of bowhunting

Working in an archery shop, we see it all, the gadgets, advancements in shooting technology. There are many products out there that will truly help a hunter enjoy his or her experience in the field, and perhaps have more success. But there are even more products out there just designed to "catch a hunter," as we say. Everyone has their own style and appreciates different things about hunting.

Bow hunting has a certain allure, a certain mystique. It is unbelievably hard to explain to others how much more fulfilling the challenge is, how you can enjoy the experience of it even without success. This time of year we are presented with the full arsenal of the industry, luckily this evening I was blessed to find something that excited me way more than some highfalutin new trail cam, a crazy new broadhead, or the 355th new RealTree camo pattern ever could. I found a video by Clay Hayes, a traditional bowhunter who makes his own bows and relies on woodsmanship to close the gap between him and his quarry. Trust me, you have 17 minutes to watch this video where Clay examines why we hunt, and why reducing the challenge of it might not be all it's cracked up to be.

Readers of this blog may recall I attempted to address these things as well in an earlier post- Why do we do it?

Please take the time to enjoy and share the fruit of Clay's hard work!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwGGyC8XXV8&sns=tw

Practice?! We're talking about practice!

August is dwindling; you’ll hear no complaints from me! To put it plainly the heat and humidity make me sad. I enjoy the warm times of year, but I’m always chomping at the bit for autumn. You’d be hard pressed to find a hunter from the north east who has an issue with the crisp air and changing leaves. Jeeze, I even opened one of my hunting packs yesterday and was hit with the smell of my year old doe urine scented candles, some people might have gagged, I reveled in the moment! …then again I just might be weird.

Having put a little more effort into property I have permission to hunt I moved a stand to a different location last weekend. One trail cam showed a lot of traffic; Spike bucks, 6 pointers, fawns, yearlings, and most important, multiple Doe. For a meat hunter like me there was no contesting the fact I needed to put the stand closer to that cam.

I felt it was important to actually shoot from the new stand location. The night after I moved the stand I was overcome by worries of shooting lanes and misjudged distances. I had put all the labor in of hauling 90 lbs. of awkward metal through the brush but failed to consider the all-important details of shooting from the dang thing! I think this is something we all should consider. And much to consider there is.

Arrows, Target, and treestand in the background-a beautiful August sight!

As mentioned it is late August, hunting season is getting closer and closer. My personal strategy is to regularly scope things out through the summer but then not disturb the stand area for the few weeks prior to the season. If I wanted to practice from the stand it was this weekend or not at all.

Today’s high temps being only mid 80’s the morning was a little cooler. The first thing I considered was NOT beating the heat and going in too early. This was not a stealth mission so I wanted to make sure the deer weren’t on the move while I was there. Whether checking cams or looking for sign make sure if you’re going on the deer’s turf this time of year it is during a time of day you can safely assume they are bedded down somewhere.

Number two, scent control. Even though hunting season is still weeks away you don’t want to risk them being aware of your presence, so “de-stink” yourself the same as you would in October. This morning it was particularly important as I was going to be touching a lot of cover in the area, and though my clothes were treated I couldn’t stop the sweat, so I tried not to get to grabby with limbs and brush. (As I understand it a deer can smell dead human skin cells that flaked off us 24-36 hours later!)

Now on to the fun part, the Shootin’!

If you’re not aware by now, suspending your target is a great way to extend its life. Whether a $32 bag target or a $150 one, hang it and it’ll last longer. My practice session today would be no exception. I used a spare haul line to suspend the bag between trees. Just a little off the ground to represent the area a deer’s vitals would be. There are 5 possible places I can shoot a deer from this stand, so I moved the target to each one and put multiple rounds in each time, some standing, and some while seated.

Using a rangefinder helped today, just for reference though. I use a single pin sight and leave it locked in at 25 yards for any shot up to 30 yards. I find when shooting from an elevation the true accuracy of your shot comes from knowing how low to aim at varying distances. Some people invest a ton of money into range finders that account for the angle and stand elevation…that still doesn’t mean I have time to fiddle with my pin setting when a deer is moving through my effective range, so not too unlike a recurve shooter I’m just going to get to know my bow and arrow and what they do.

This post is not going to give you the magic code for pushing tacks from an elevated position at varying distances, rather I am just trying to impart on you that being able to do it requires practice. At 20 yards I need to aim 2.5 inches low, at 23 yards it was 2 inches low, at 16 yards it was probably 4 inches low, mind you this was all with my pin set to 25 yards. If you want to google this topic you will find a ton of neat little drawings with triangles and grids and arcs and all of that. You can try wrapping your brain around it or you can simply get in a tree and see for yourself. I don't recommend shooting at a deer until you do.

No two hunters set up is exactly the same. Me shooting my bow from 18 feet up at a 22 yard target means I need to aim 2-3 inches low, this doesn’t mean you will too, so this is an exercise that EACH and EVERY hunter needs to practice on their own. Additionally, anytime something about your rig changes, ie. draw weight, arrow weight, tip weight, you can be sure your trajectory will too!

Shooting from the stand also helped me understand any pruning I had to do to clear shooting lanes. Most of the little stuff will be dead or dying come hunting season, but any branch I could see while shooting that was even 3/16” was getting eliminated. Brush still has time to grow so I'm not taking any chances.

Consider this exercise a dress rehearsal. You are after all getting up there with some of your gear and you darn well better be wearing your harness too. Any stand maintenance or necessary adjustments will become evident while shooting out of it, so make sure you take an extra ratchet strap and some tools in case you need to do a little work while you’re there.

Elevated shooting can be tricky; it’s probably the most intimidating part of bow hunting to me to be honest. The true distance given elevation, the arc of the arrow, it’s enough to make my head hurt. In the end the best shots I made on the bag were the ones where it just felt right to let the arrow loose, overthinking can be detrimental to your experience afield.  The closest range I practiced actually didn’t require aiming terribly low, how’s that for confusing? My guess is between my pin being set to 25 yards and the bag only being at 12 yards (halfway) the arc of the arrow got to its peak at that range…or not, trigonometry was never my strong suit anyways. Point is I know where to aim at that range now.

Pretty steep shooting, took me multiple arrows to figure out where the pin should go, but it's priceless knowledge!

I hope some of my experiences from today help you all too, especially if you’re using a single pin like me. I love the adjustable HHA for 3D shoots, but in the field it’s locked in and the rest is on me.

A few pointers-

• Even though we’re trying to be scent free, bug spray isn’t a bad idea!
• Take plenty of arrows, it's no fun having to climb up and down too much.
• Don’t do this exercise from your actual hunting stand unless it’s a time of day when the deer aren’t coming through, even if that means dealing with August heat.
• When pruning and trimming shooting lanes don’t radically change the landscape, just take off what you need and leave the area still appealing for deer.
• Your first shot at each target location should be lower than you think it needs to be, this helps you understand the shot better and will cost you fewer arrows sailing through the woods.

Be safe out there and keep shooting, the season isn’t too far off!

Off Season Scouting

Hello All!
The below post was also posted to my other blog  Woody's Place that I will be authoring on behalf of the archery shop I work at. You can enjoy it here, but I also hope you hop on over and follow the blog. You can also check out our facebook page and our Website!

For me scouting begins at the close of the previous season. The deer find themselves at desperate odds with the environment. Their survival habits will be more evident as they struggle to make it through the winter. Late season hunters get a preview of this, especially in the aftermath of rifle seasons. A hunter willing to put some frozen ground under heel, use trail cameras, and glass deer during the winter, will be privy to habits earlier observations may not have shown them. Chances are a hunter will see sign more than actual deer, with the leaves bare and the ground hard we need to focus more on turned leaves, scrapes, and scat. I think it goes without saying to get your rear in the woods after a snowfall and study those tracks! 

I've often thought of the winter scouting as a great way to figure out my "wild card" stand location, that option for where to be when deer sense more pressure in the woods come fall and I'm not seeing as many as I'd like to from normal stand locations. 

Then of course comes shed hunting season. For some of us this is incredibly exciting! Maybe we get lucky and find a shed that tells us the buck that was consistently one step ahead of us survived. Or it can alert us to other bucks in the area. Coming up empty shouldn't dishearten anyone, however. Finding a shed is merely a sign that a buck was there, the best thing to do is consider where that shed was found in proximity to food or bedding areas and make a mental note.

Spring into Summer scouting can be fun. As temps get friendlier and nutrients become more plentiful deer move from the recesses and security of the deep woods more frequently. Obviously this makes them easier to observe. This is usually a time when many of us begin our scouting. Early summer scouting only serves to get me excited for the fall by reaffirming deer are in my hunting areas, but it's important none the less, because who doesn't want that confidence heading into bow season? It also shows us how many deer survived and how many new deer were born, and I can't imagine a hunter not wanting to see a healthy herd.

This is also a good time of year to consider pruning a path to your stand or blind. Why not get a jump on this? I've been lax some off seasons and it is no fun needing to "machete" your way through to put up a stand or camera. You will make yourself less detectable with a clearer path and strategic trimming around your stand offers deer a path of less resistance, which they happen to appreciate as much as us!

The end of summer can be dicey, as this is when we really want to try and pattern deer, but should not disturb the hunting grounds too much. Trail cams are especially useful in late summer for those reasons, but as we go to check them it should be with little frequency and we should practice the same stealthy tactics we do while hunting.

For any seasoned hunter it is easy to know roughly where the deer are and when under "normal circumstances." Most of us understand natural funnels, bedding areas, feeding areas, and cover areas, but with all that in mind I'd also use scouting to think out of the box. What I'm getting to is understanding where to be under "abnormal circumstances," like say, a Saturday during the season when a multitude of hunters descend upon the woods. You're not just trying to get ahead of the deer, but other hunters as well. This means having a great plan A, but also a B, C, and D, with each giving you a worthwhile opportunity. 

It may seem trivial but even understanding common wind directions and topography of an area will help with stand location and travel routes to stands. Try to find a route allowing a downwind approach, that also avoids deer paths. Some hunters like using a side hill to avoid their outline being detected by the ever watchful eyes of deer, but be cautious in this as deer also use side hills for the same reason, so avoid them at times of day a deer will perhaps use that same hill en route to your stand. This is all part of off season scouting because figuring things out on the fly rarely works to be a successful hunter. I've been known to spent quite a few summer evenings sitting at great distances from my potential stand with binoculars just watching where deer come and go from.

I won't go much into using attractants because not everyone likes the tactic. In the end I like them because it brings deer to my camera or area where I'm considering sitting. With that in mind I am always mindful of natural food sources and usually use attractants in close proximity to them. In PA there is no baiting allowed, so all deer candy has to be gone within so many weeks of the season opener, so I'm hedging my bets with things like acorns and clover anyways.

In the end I believe all these things just help me create a bit more luck for myself. As a self taught hunter I have made alot of mistakes, the one thing I have learned about hunting, public lands in particular, is to think one step ahead. Deer are a living breathing and THINKING being. They are always in survival mode and will not give up too easily. Always be thinking and be creative. Chances are that one extra step you thought was just you "over thinking" a situation, could be the very idea that has you drawing back on a nice buck or doe this fall!

Happy Scouting,
Tom

SCD Story Submission

Earlier today I submitted a "very" short story to 'Sporting Classics Daily' for their new contest of hunting stories totaling a mere 200 words. The stories could be fact or fiction and the contest runs through October. It didn't take me long to think of a story, then I just polished it up a bit.

I wanted it to be unique. Here it is...exactly 200 words.

*Awake and moving, I step gingerly through the briar. The early morning shows my breath frosty in the air. A light slumber and the biting chill of night might have these bones a little rickety, I might be slightly grayer than seasons past, but I am wiser too. My instinct tells me it is time to go. I walk, stop, look and listen, my senses on fire as I scan the woods with dawn’s light upon me. Through many a season I have learned the art of being unseen, I have learned to trust the wind, and I have learned that patience will rule the day. I know these woods well, from the moss covered rocks to the countless rotting stumps; those lingering ghosts that whisper tales of their past glory. Warming up slightly I continue to slowly move; walk, stop, look, listen. The woods are alive, but still, and movement betrays all of its treasures. I close in on a clearing I know well, where oaks grow tall. The winds mysteriously shift, therefore so do I and a new scent catches my attention. The acorns will wait and I move on undetected, while the man in the tree remains.*  

Hopefully you realized the plot twist at the very end. I gather the majority of those who would ever read that passage are hunters and would easily assume the narrator was also a hunter. Not until the very end do we realize the story is being told from the perspective of the deer. Sure, that helped me make a unique story, but it also helped me explore something I have long considered, the similarities between predator and prey. With a trace amount of ambiguity I was able to mask the true identity of the narrator.
I think if I ever have the time, this "very" short story might turn into a longer more in-depth study, but for now hopefully some of you can enjoy it, since this might be the only way it will ever see the light of day. But hey, if I win, there is a pretty sweet LL Bean jacket in my future.

I welcome any feedback.

Chesapeake Bay - Fiction and Fact.

The following is a semi-refined draft of the article I will be submitting for our next Trout Unlimited newsletter. Lately I seem to be making a habit of using other authors work as a Launchpad for my own. This is a truly baffling thing, since I hardly have time for writing, where the hell am I finding the time to read???

 

James A. Michener was a native of Doylestown PA. A museum in his name stands in his hometown, on display there are works from local, well known artists. Born in 1907 he obtained a Master’s degree, became an educator, ran for public office, and served in the Navy during WWII. He also earned The Presidential Medal of Freedom and served on the NASA Advisory council. Impressed yet? Well, despite all the above, James Michener is actually more known for his more than 40 published novels. Most of his books are recognized as a perfect blend of fiction and history. His stories typically span generations and employ a remarkable amount of historical research that take readers on a palpable journey through time.

Michener, despite his many accomplishments was not, to the best of my knowledge, a fly fisherman…I’m writing about him today because not only is he one of my favorite authors, but because of his book “Chesapeake.” In the chapter titled ‘Voyage Eleven: 1886,’ he describes the effects on the Chesapeake Bay from a massive sea born storm that lands in central Pennsylvania. While actual historical occurrences drive his tales, Michener is careful to not cross the line, he is a story teller not a text book writer or record keeper. Did a massive storm leapfrog from Norfolk to the Susquehanna Valley that year? While Michener’s reputation for research is more notorious than mine, I cannot find much…what I can confirm is that was one hell of a year for hurricanes on the Atlantic coast. But that’s not the point, because storms happen all the time. Obviously they generate in the south and where they make landfall depends, and the bay can take a real beating even if the storm doesn’t drop right on it. The Susquehanna River does flood, and that water goes to the Chesapeake.

Michener starts by breaking down the Bay into its various parts; North, South, East, West, and its bottom and top layers. Each part having its own characteristics and roles within the ecosystem; the northern part being fed by the mighty Susquehanna that pushes in fresh water, to the southern portion which takes on salt water from the ocean, the western side being fed by smaller rivers of fresh water, the east being nutrient rich and dense marshes of brackish water inlets, and then the deeper parts being colder with more salinity than its higher oxygenated top layer that is warmed and replenished by the sun.  

In ‘Chesapeake’ a massive storm results in the Susquehanna River flooding the bay with an abnormal amount of both fresh water and silt deposits. Michener brilliantly breaks down the impact of these factors on the delicate balance of the bay’s diverse ecosystem. The usual equilibrium of salinity, temperature, sunlight and sediment are thrown out of kilter. He evokes our sympathies for the oysters suffocating under sediment deposits, and blue crabs who despite their advantage of mobility over the oysters, struggle to breed and survive in lower salinity. But it doesn’t end there, for by 1886 the local economy was dependent on the bay and also suffers with the loss of its cash crop normally bound for consumers in the cities to the north.

The reader sees that this onslaught was brought on by natural forces. As our hearts are torn by the personification of crabs and oysters, we think we clearly have mother nature to blame; after all we are, along with crabs and oysters, just a pawn in a much larger game. It is as the chapter closes and we feel like we’ve slipped the jab, Michener delivers a blow that puts us on the ropes. He reminds us that our hands too, are bloody. He describes in the last few paragraphs how the Susquehanna did not only carry silt to the bay, but human and industrial waste also. Sewage, oil, poisons…some of the oysters might have survived the silt, but the bay could not dilute the toxicity of human contamination that would ultimately kill the rest of them. Consuming any product of the bay that could be salvaged resulted in death or pestilence such as typhoid. This is a lesson in accountability, realizing our own activity can have exponential impacts on our environment. Since humans have not and probably will not master a “leave only footprints” way of doing things, we need to at least be responsible.

If you have read this far I will reward you by wrapping up shortly. On a very grand scale Michener teaches us that our river systems are more than just the stretch of water we can see at any given place. We can, and do, have an immediate positive or negative impact on our own local streams, but we need to remember they also go to other places. The Chesapeake Watershed is one of the biggest you will find anywhere in the world, which means it can be effected by so many different things, in so many ways. Today we have many threats to maintaining healthy potable and life supporting water. We can always rely on industrial pollution to spoil the party, and though we seem to control that better nowadays, along comes “fracking” to keep us on our toes.

Michener is no doubt a good read, and I’m sure as you read my synopsis you couldn’t help but be reminded of the BP oil spill some years back. Groups like TU, and of course with respect to the very topic of this article, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, strive to have a positive impact on our water ways. As we are coming up on our annual banquet we are pleased to think how part of our fundraising efforts is to ensure the education of conservation to future generations. We can only hope the message gets out to others as well.

Why do we do it?

"Go afield with a good attitude, with respect for the wildlife you hunt and for the forest and fields of which you walk. Immerse yourself in the outdoor experience. It will cleanse your soul and make you a better person".- Fred Bear

-Sometime after 6 am, I’m not sure. I don’t want to check my phone to see, because I really don’t care. It’s cold, damn cold. I awoke in the cabin at 4:30 am and began the process of getting to the top of the mountain. The tree stand was waiting for me, frozen, coated in ice like everything else in the woods. I’m strapped in and sitting, watching, waiting. The sun is trying to make its way over another ridge, miles from my perch. Hmmm, must be closer to 7am. When emerging light becomes more than just a backdrop and starts to illuminate the woods I begin to feel more relaxed and yet more tense at the same time. Relaxed because this is my element, tense because my senses are heightened; the slightest motion or sound commands my attention. It could be any moment now. A few minutes pass and the overcast challenged sun is reinforced by the snow on the ground. I ask myself, “could I see well enough to make the shot…at this moment?” Then a muffled blast reaches my ear from somewhere in the distance. It doesn’t always take long to hear that first shot. Someone else walks into the woods and spooks a bedded deer, which ran 100 yards, where a blaze orange figure awaited it, maybe even expected it. Its rifle season in Pennsylvania and the woods are alive.

What makes a person hunt?

Ask hunters, why do you do it? You’ll most like hear many versions of the same few answers; for food, for the experience, for constructive use of my time. Some, and I believe especially those who have hunted their entire life as a family tradition, might say “if I have to explain it, you wouldn’t understand.” You might, and I sincerely hope not, find someone so bold as to say they do it only for the “trophy.”

If you don’t hunt, or know anyone who does, chances are your only exposure to this activity is on TV. I’ve probably made this point before, but the TV hunting personalities (they’re not all created equal), are not always the best representation of hunting. Just ask yourself the question, “how does this person get to be a paid TV hunter?” Well, it is endorsements. You see it all the time if you’re watching close enough. The earlier footage of their careers was more about the method, the game, the experience, and the simple truth; you don’t always get your quarry. Then due to quite a bit of marketing effort, the footage catches the attention of manufacturers who think that hunter might be a good representative for their brand. Here comes the money…and the pressure to produce. Would YOU want to pay someone to endorse YOUR product if THEY couldn’t get the desired results??? No way. Instead of real hunting the now “professional hunter” will take to high fenced ranches and private properties with feeders. All they need to do is show up and wait for the buck they paid for, a gargantuan beast of epic whitetail legends that grew so big because he was fed nutrients he couldn’t have obtained on his own in the wild. The magic of editing makes it glamorous….maybe even exciting. But it’s not realistic, and to me, it’s not hunting. And if it is, it is not very sporting.

But as usual, I digress.

The motivation to hunt is a personal one. Perhaps like religious or political views. What we can clearly understand is that 5% of the U.S. population is hunters. This is not much, and unfortunately on the decline. We as a society have gotten away from this activity, and yes, that is a bad thing.

I recently read an amazing book by Allen Morris Jones titled ‘A Quiet Place of Violence; Hunting and Ethics in the Missouri River Breaks.’  With only a mere 5% of America hunting, that leaves a lot of others. The majority are neutral to hunting, while a sizable portion is anti-hunting. The fight to preserve the tradition and opportunity for future hunters is underway. Jones discusses ethics in his work because the anti-hunting argument is predicated largely on the idea that they are on the moral high ground. Ethics can be debated, what cannot be debated is the big picture. This is where Jones masterfully introduces readers to what so many have so easily forgotten, the cycle of life.

If you asked me personally, why Tom, do you hunt? In the past I would have said, “To connect with nature.” After reading AQPV I found a better way of expressing it, and that is, ‘To Participate in Nature.’ Jones begins his book by sharing with us what we all learned in grade school, the life cycle. Small organisms and plants grow, animals eat the plants, predators eat those animals, and predators die, returning to the earth and contributing to organic and plant growth. Scientific fact points out, and so does Jones, that for each and every step to occur, death must occur. In fact, the only thing that ensures the cycle of life continues….is death.

Steven Rinella, an accomplished outdoor author, hunter, and TV personality once made the point that given the entire history of modern man, a non-hunting lifestyle is still experimental. I agree, how can we so easily dismiss thousands upon thousands of years of food acquisition through hunting, when our “grocer” system has existed for what, a few hundred years? On a similar note it is accepted that man being a top level predator was a catalyst to our dominion and subsequent evolution over other species. If you’ve ever read the book ‘Ishmael’ by Daniel Quinn, and I suggest you do, you will read that from an anthropological point of view mankind’s first mistake was putting food under lock and key, instead of continuing working together for food as a community, through hunting and gathering. The way I see it, we stepped out of our natural role as predators, started to bend Mother Nature to our own will, by domesticating animals and cultivating our own food, society was formed and we shot ourselves in the foot.

In his own way Jones defends that point stating that complexities brought on by society, and technology have displaced us from nature, it alienates us from the “process” as he calls it. He further shows us the difference between hunters and those who are just nature enthusiasts. He uses an example of a hiker. For someone who has a passion for walking through the woods or mountains, the scenery is merely an object to be enjoyed and observed, whereas the hunter participates in the process of nature. The hiker eventually goes home, he or she may recall that deer they saw and say, “what a pretty animal.” The hunter seeks to understand the deer, its habits, and its instincts; and competes against it with their own instincts. They don’t see the deer as a pretty ornament, but for what it truly is, a living, breathing, thinking source of nourishment. Together, with that deer, the hunter becomes involved in a relationship, as Jones puts it, “bigger than them and the deer combined.”

AQPV goes much deeper on many aspects of hunting including sporting aspects of hunting, archery vs rifle hunting, religion, and philosophy. Who knew 5% of our population could tap into something so deep, something so vital to the entirety of humanity and our place in this world?

I’d like to think somewhere in every hunter is that carnal instinct to return to the process that made us. That whatever their response to our ‘Why Hunt?’ question, it comes from somewhere deep inside. I’d like to think one day anti-hunters will realize hunters are connecting to something deeper than they can understand. Also that it is hunters who protect the lands and the animals through conservation. We are stewards of the land and water. If it wasn’t for us sportsmen, certain activist groups would have nothing to try and "save," lest they want to switch their cause to housing developments and urban sprawl.

Why do we hunt? I didn’t answer that question, never meant to. I just wanted to give readers a little fruit for thought, and get the ball rolling.

–It’s got to be close to 9:30 am. I am cold but have resolved to sit and wait, I’m confident in my location. A strange noise at the top of the ridge, brush moves, four doe run out. Damn, they’re on the move. What to do? A good quarterback doesn’t throw to the receiver, he throws to where the receiver is about to be. I set the sight between two limbs of a forked tree further down the hill, where I think the doe will pass by. The first doe trots behind it; I "bark" for attention, the deer stops for a split second…the same split second that I squeeze the trigger.

Now the real work begins…

Feeling Foggy?

This isn't much of a post. Despite my better intentions and best effort, the time for blogging has not made itself known. Fortunately what has contributed to that is I have been able to hunt more this year. Have seen some limited action, hopefully I'll get my shot before the seasons are out. At any rate, I was in the tree one evening recently and saw an amazing site. The fog rolled in just at sunset and gave the woods a very ethereal feel. I sat as long as I could, surrounded by it. Aside from the quality time I spend with my family, it was the most content I've been in a long time. I snapped a pic from the ground. I had to brighten the picture a bit so you could see it better.

If heaven exists, mine looks a little like this.



Like something out of a fantasy movie.

4 to 1

Four hours...one fish. What a ratio!

oh well, I'll use the old cliché saying...I don't care how many I catch, it’s just being out there that counts...

If that were the case I'd go "out there" without my fishing rod....at any rate, it sounds nice.

Here is a pic of the one that didn't get away, complete with another cliché, the old "fly rod in the teethe pose!!!"

The true Joy of the day was my buddy Eric using a fly rod to fish for the first time, welcome to the brotherhood man!!!