Dave Richey Outdoors: tradition

One man -- me -- and my muskox.

A good case can be made for fishing or hunting alone. Let's face it: sportsmen are a gregarious sort by their very nature, not by necessity.

They love the camaraderie and excitement of the hunt, the sharing of nearby campsites or putting a canoe sneak on a bunch of bedded bluegills. Two or more sportsmen make a big deal out of planning their next deer drive, their next bear hunt or their next trout fishing trip.

There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is the preferred fishing or hunting choice for most sportsmen. Many would feel lost if their friend or neighbors were not along to share in the outdoor fun and good times.

Gregarious sportsmen are more common than those who go it alone.

They enjoy sitting around a table, mapping out strategies, discussing who will do what and when it will be done, and everyone involved in the planning has a voice in how it will be accomplished.

This is democracy at its finest. Or perhaps, at its worst. There are some bold sportsmen who feel joint fishing or hunting ventures breed a form of outdoor mediocrity, and this may be true. Who can't argue that the more voices that are raised in discussion or disagreement over who will fish which trout-stream hole will do anything except cause massive indecision?

I've spent 45 years writing magazine stories, newspaper articles, 25 outdoor books, and countless weblogs, and for most of those four-plus decades, I hop-scotched across North America pretty much alone. Many were the times when I'd be the only English-speaking bear, caribou or moose hunter in a far-northern Quebec hunting camp.

Years were spent driving or flying here or there to fish or hunt. There might be other sportsmen at the end of the trail, but when it came time to fish or hunt, I'd go it alone or go with a guide.

Countless times in camp people would ask if I wanted one of them to accompany me, and the answer was always a sincere but polite refusal. You see, going it alone had become a habit and as a result it also was something I looked forward to doing. Being alone didn't bother me.

I've always enjoyed the solitary fishing and hunting scene.

In fact, I enjoyed it. Even the travel was fine, and the long hours on the road allowed me to write stories in my head. Stories would be fleshed out on paper before bed, but people often asked how it was possible to write so many stories during my career, and the answer was always the same.

"I write while driving," I'd say. "I also write things in my mind while glassing distant alpine meadows for elk or rocky tundra for caribou. If a good fish was caught, it's image and memory is captured in my mind, and recorded on paper later on for an article."

What are the benefits of fishing or hunting alone? The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages of spending time with another person.
The advantages of being alone are many. Solitary sportsmen never have to consider another person's opinion when making decisions. They just act.

If we are fishing the Boardman River, fishing together means one of us goes upstream and fishes down while the other fishes downstream and walks back upstream. I'm not selfish, but what happens if both of us want to fish downstream? Or perhaps upstream? What if it is mmutually important for both of us to fish the same stretch of river?

A decision must be reached. One person may be miffed. Of course, both anglers could fish together but to what purpose?

The late Robert Ruark, he of the time-honored book, The Old Man And The Boy, "One boy is all boy; two boys is half a boy; and three boys is no boy at all." It's an easily understood philosophy.

One boy moves quieter, picks his spots with greater patience and wisdom, and doesn't have to argue or defer to others. Two boys means both must make a decision, and that often requires time and discussion. Three boys confuse the issue so much they forget what it was they are trying to decide. Making joint decisions can create a big headache for all.

Going out alone eliminates decisions, arguments and distrations.

The solitary sportsman doesn't have this foolishness to consider or have to deal with. He reaches a fork in the trail, and doesn't have to consult with others about going left or right. Taking the high or low road is his decision.

How long one man hunts or fishes is a matter of personal desire. There's no reason why one should cut a fishing trip or hunt short just so another person can get home to a bridge game or whatever. Is this petty or selfish? Not really. It's being honest about personal wishes and being realistic about our expectations and how we wish to spend our leisure time.

Modern sportsmen have only so much free time these days. If it is shared with another person, and that person places undue constraints on our mutual time, it becomes necessary to decide the issue. Is it easier to give in to a buddy's needs or go about our outdoor activities alone?

I suspect the solitary sportsman will become more common in future years. Many who truly love the outdoors will decide whether to fish or hunt with someone or not. Conversely, if one fishes or hunts with another, and cuts the day short for personal reasons, how will the friend feel about giving up some of his valuable leisure time to make an unnecessary trip home?

My early travels were alone, by necessity. I could barely afford to go myself, let alone take anyone with me. It became easy to spend nights in camp, after dinner, writing notes rather that sitting with foreign-speaking sportsmen who didn't care for my company.

There are too many decisions to be made on fishing or hunting trips, and a discussions on which end of the lake we'll fish first is a classic example of wasting time. Two anglers spend 30 minutes arguing the merits of fishing the north or south end. It's senseless. That time could be better spent mapping out a lake and locating hotpots.

Two hunters share a blind during goose season, and one talks a big honker out of the sky with pleading tones. Who takes the shot? Will the caller be a nice guy and toll in the bird for his buddy to shoot or does he believe he did the work and deserves first shot?

A brown trout rises with the regularity of an adult fish. Every 30 seconds he tips up, rises in the water column, drifts downstream under the natural, and once his suspicions disappear, he sips the spinner off the surface with a head-to-tail rise that shows golden-brown flanks.

It is great fun to be the nice guy and let someone have the first shot or first fish. My son David with a walleye.

Do we flip a coin or will one or the other of the two anglers push the brim of his cap back, look at his friend, and say "Go get him." Offering the first chance is a wonderful thing to do, but many people will be selfish and elbow their way past the other gent.

Sometimes it plays out that way but more often it doesn't. All too often one angler or hunter has a wealth of natural angling or hunting skills while the other does not. This calls for some generosity and good will. The solitary sportsman is never faced with such problems.

Note that this is not written about taking children along. This is about two or more adults. I strongly believe that adults should always take children fishing or hunting. The loner role does not apply when it comes to kids.

I played the solitary sportsman for many years, without ever feeling selfish, and enjoyed myself very much. In recent years, as glaucoma robs me of ever more vision, I find pleasure in being the Nice Guy.

One reason why guiding was so much fun for me for 10 years with salmon and steelhead, and another 10 years with deer and bear hunters, was because I'd done it all so many times before. Once a person shoots a goodly number of black bear or deer, it's much more fun to be generous and help a first-time hunter bag a nice animal.

I love to put a kid into a situation where he/she will score.

It's fun putting an angler into his first steelhead, a first 20-pound king or a first 10-pound brown trout. There is something fulfilling about the light flickering in their eyes, the smile on their face, a warm handshake that makes fishing or hunting together a memorable occasion.

My wife and I hunt deer together. She goes to her spot and I go to mine, but I usually go to pick her up. It's become a bit of a hoot for me to take some of the things I've been good at, and put them to work for someone else. It's part of why Kay shoots a nice buck every year.

It's one reason I mentor outdoor writers. I can help someone else when it pleases me (which is often), and when I need to face the woods and waters alone for an hour or a day, I can still do it.

The solitary sportsman is still a big part of my personal make-up, and even though in recent years more time is spent with others, there are days when being alone and experiencing things anew still provides me with that same thrill I first experienced many decades ago.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

The snow has finally arrived. We still have three weeks to hunt.

There are some fringe benefits that come from a day or weekend of deer hunting, but a hunter who is envious or jealous of another hunters success will never understand this concept.

Some sportsmen may wonder what those benefits may be. Here is a short selection of key things that can come from a hunt, and anyone who thinks about the topic for a few minutes will come up with others. Make up your own list.

*The opportunity to spend time outdoors. This means hunting in all types of weather condition, and while some seldom produce good results, we learn to appreciate those that do.

Be grateful for what we get, even in a bad season like this one.

*It's a father, mother, uncle or close friend who gives unselfishly of his/her time to help new hunters learn more about this sport. It's simple things like pointing out deer track, a rub on a tree or a ground scrape, that helps other hunters learn. We can’t just take it for granted that others, who are not hunters or from a hunting family, will know what we’re talking about.

*It's sighting in a rifle, and knowing how to do it with a minimum number of shots. It is taking the time to be certain your firearm is shooting accurately, and knowing that more deer are killed with a single, deliberate well-placed shot than by squeezing off several shots at a moving target that is more likely to wound than kill the animal.

*It means helping others and sharing in their joy and success. This may mean helping to blood trail a deer with another person during bow season or helping another hunter drag out an animal. It means doing your share to help around hunting camp including chores such as washing dishes, cutting and splitting firewood, bringing in fresh water, helping others to hang their deer from the buck pole, and countless other tasks. It means as much giving as it does receiving, and sometimes even more.

*It is the sight and smell of wood smoke curling from the chimney of deer camp. It is the distant glint of lantern light through the darkened trees as we make our way back to camp after a long day of hunting.

*It is that first breath-taking sight of a good buck, his antlers bone white, moving slowly and cautiously upwind of you. You track his progress, pick a hole through the cover that offers a small but open shot, and waiting patiently for the buck to walk into the opening and offer a clear shot at the heart and lungs. And don't forget to share some of your venison with others who were less fortunate during this year’s crazy seasons.

That first glint of sunlight off antlers tugs at our heart.

*It is the fragrance of cedar and pine needles, fresh backstrap tenderloins or venison liver and onions sizzing in the frying pan, old pine knots spitting and popping in the wood stove, and the pleasant warmth of a fire in deer camp after many hours out in the cold.

*It is the healthy exercise of walking, sitting, and still-hunting some more. It is seeing your breath on a frosty morning, seeing nothing clearly while hunting on a foggy day, picking up the sight of large and splayed tracks in the snow that could be a buck, and seeing a chickadee land on the brim of your cap while trail watching.

*It is the endless participation of hunters bragging up their favorite rifle cartridge, and the retort of another hunter claiming his round is more accurate and deadly, and never once laying this issue to rest. It's not so important to determine who is right or wrong, but that there is lively discussion pro and con on this or any other topic of deer-hunting interest.

*It's knowing that if you down a deer, that others will be there to help. It's also the knowledge that you'll do the same for your camp mates or even a perfect stranger. It's just one of the things that deer hunters do.

*Deer hunting is the knowledge that alcohol may be a deer-camp tradition, but it's never used until all firearms are unloaded and put safely away, and then used in moderation. Deer hunters must learn that alcohol, taken in moderation, doesn't give sportsmen the right to act loud and loutish during trips to town. Hunters should project an image of being caring and responsible individuals, not drunken louts with a loud, foul mouth.

All deer hunters will be judged by the actions of loud, rude sportsmen.

*Another benefit is the knowledge that members of our armed forces, by their presence in world-wide hell-holes are helping to guarantee our right to own and possess firearms and the privilege to use them while hunting in a safe and sane manner. Many of our countrymen and women have given their life, or have been critically wounded, to make our hunting possible.

*Last, but not least, use this hunting season to introduce someone new to the sport we love. Give freely of your time and knowledge, make women and youngsters feel welcome, and if helping them means giving up a day or two of your hunt, do it so hunting will continue to grow. Be selfish, and think only of yourself, and hunting as we know it will soon be on the ropes, and it will be you who helps destroy our tradition and our way of life.