Win a FREE copy of Kerplunk!
The publishers of Kerplunk! were generous enough to send me some extra copies of the their book. That means, I have some to give away to our Muskoka Outdoors readers.
All you have to do is comment below and share (briefly) about your favorite moment in the outdoors. Each comment is given a system number and on January 19, 2008 I will randomly pick 4 winners. At that time, I will contact the winners by the email they leave with their comment to ask for mailing addresses.
I know you all have a story to share, I would love to hear about.
Good Luck.
Michelle – Your story needs to continue happening. A great reminder for all of us to take a kid fishing. Thanks for sharing!
-Bill
I think that my favourite outdoor memory has to be the day I helped my little cousin catch his first fish. He had been bugging the men of the family to take him out fishing for the better part of the weekend. They were all busy building a deck so I offered to take him. It was very obvious that he wanted one of the guys to take him and not a “girl” but eventually his desire to go fishing got the better of him and off we went.
I taught him to bait his hook and we played “the quiet game” for the better part of an hour but he had not caught anything. Finally a fish bit. The litte guy was so excited, he nearly dropped the rod! I talked him through reeling it in and it was actually a pretty good size. On his insistence, we brought it back to the cabin immediately to show off to his dad before making it into lunch (everyone else had to suffer through sandwiches).
Now over five years later, I am still his favourite fishing partner. We do, however, let the one or two of the guys come along once in a while.
These are great stories everyone! Thanks so much for sharing. There is always room for more.
One of my most cherished memories afield was when I killed my first Eastern wild turkey. I had been trying for several years, but without any luck. Finally my wife and I came up to SC for a weekend of camping and hunting, and it all came together.
We slept in due to rain, then headed out about 9am. We had to wade water every where we went but finally made it to our pre-scouted spot to set up about 9:30. We had been calling off and on for about an hour when a bird finally answered me. He was pretty far off, so we just kept up our light calling for about another half hour. Then, like a ghost, the giant bird just appeared about 75 yards off to my right. This would have been an easy shot for my wife (we were sitting about 50 yards apart), but since she does not carry a gun or like to kill things, he went right on by her. I let him continue circling around until I was pretty sure he was right out in front of us. But with a row of tall brush in my way, I just couldn’t be sure. So I lightly let out a yelp with my mouth call – the big bird hammered back from just 30 yards away.
However even with him so close, I still could not get a shot from my spot, so I Rambo crawled across a muddy firebreak and eased up behind a big pine. There he was, and looking straight at me! I quickly drew a bead on him and let him have it… I couldn’t believe it when he went right down.
But then he was back up and flopping all around. I was so scared that he was going to run off that I looked like Carl Lewis hurdling bushes and sprinting over to get him. Once there, I put my best wrestling move on him and held him down until he stopped moving – I knew we would want to mount him, so I did not want his feathers messed up!
My wife came racing over and gave me the biggest, best hug ever, and we just stood there in complete amazement over what a spectacular hunt we had just had. The 2 year old gobbler weighed 16 pounds, had a 9.5 inch beard and 7/8 inch spurs.That bird now stands in our living room and struts for all of our guests. It was truly a moment that I will NEVER forget!
My most memorable outdoor moment is and probably always will be catching my first trout. I grew up across the street from a good trout stream, but for the first couple of years I fished there, I never got more than a couple of follows. Then, I learned from an article in Field & Stream that I should cast my spinner upstream and retrieve it down, since fish look for food washing down in the current. For some reason, I never tried worm fishing for trout until a couple years later. Armed with this advice, I walked down to the creek at dawn on opening day 1978, shivering my butt off, and cast upstream into some likely looking pools. I got two strikes at the first one, and at the next one down, an 8″ brookie hit and held on. When I hoisted it on to the grass, I almost couldn’t stand for the adrenaline that hit me.
One of my favorite moments was fishing with my Dad over our Labor Day vacation. I wasn’t catching much of anything, but he was reeling them in like there was no tomorrow. He caught the biggest fish of the day, a nice rock bass I think. We were doing catch and release, so he let that fish go and cast out again. In seconds he had another fish. He reeled that one in and pulled a fish barely bigger than a minnow off his line. I have a picture of him, posing with that fish as though it were a trophy. Too funny. That fish also made up for the fact that what I mostly caught that day was brush piles.
Quite a generous giveaway!!! I’ve had so many great moments in the woods, so it’s hard to determine my favorite. I think for now I’ll go with the evening I shot my first deer – a button buck with a bow. Dad helped me track, and when we found him, he exclaimed, “There his is Bud!” For miles around you could hear us dancing and yelling and horraying!