The solitary sportsman

Fishing or hunting alone isn’t popular these days. Let’s face it: most sportsmen are gregarious by nature, not by necessity. They like other people around them. It’s like having friendly neighbors at home.

Most sportsmen love the camaraderie of being with other like-minded people, the sharing of nearby campsites or putting a canoe sneak on a bunch of bedded bluegills. Two or more sportsmen enjoy planning their next deer hunt, bear hunt or trout fishing trip … together.

There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is the preferred fishing or hunting method for most sportsmen. Many would feel lost if their friend or friends were not there to share in the excitement of a grand outdoor adventure.

Many would feel lonely by themselves but not me.

They enjoy sitting at a table, mapping out strategies, discussing who’ll do what and when it will occur, and everyone involved in the planning has a voice in how it will happen. It’s democracy at its finest.

Or perhaps, at its worst, depending on one’s  point of view. There are some bold sportsmen who feel joint fishing or hunting breeds outdoor mediocrity, which may be true. Who can’t argue the fact that the more voices raised in discussion or disagreement over who will fish which trout-stream hole can do nothing except create even more indecision?

I’ve spent 44 years writing outdoor copy for books, magazines and newspapers, and have hop-scotched across North America alone. Often  I’d be the only English-speaking bear, caribou or moose hunter in some remote Canadian 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 whenonet was necessary.

Going it alone can be a wonderful experience.

Camp people often asked if I wanted someone to come along, and the answer was always a polite refusal. Going alone was a habit and also something to look forward to. Being alone never bothered me, and being self-reliant was great fun. I knew I could count on myself.

The long hours on the road allowed me to write stories in my head. Stories would later be fleshed out on paper, but people often asked how I could write so many stories.

“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 is caught, its memory is captured by my mental camera, and recorded on paper later for a magazine or newspaper article.”

What benefits exist for solitary anglers and hunters? The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages of spending time with another person. Mind you, cutting up and packing out a moose isn’t any fun alone.

The benefits of going it along can outweigh the disadvantages.

The advantages of being alone are many. Solitary sportsmen never must consider another’s opinion when making vital decisions. They just act on a whim. If they err, it’s their fault. It wasn’t a two-person mistake.

If we fish Michigan’s AuSable River, one of us goes upstream and fishes down while the other fishes downstream and walks back up. I’m not selfish, but what happens if both people want to fish down or upstream?

A decision must be made. One person may be miffed. Of course, both anglers could fish together but to what purpose? Doing so makes no sense.

One person moves quieter, picks his spots with greater patience and wisdom, and never must argue or defer to the wishes of others. Two people means both must make a decision, and that requires time and discussion. Three people confuse the issue even more. Joint decisions create headaches for everyone involved.

The solitary sportsman doesn’t have this foolishness to contend with. He reaches a fork in the trail, and doesn’t have to discuss whether to go left or right. Taking the high or low road is a solitary decision, and one easily made. It becomes mentally easier to travel the path least traveled.

Making decisions is easy when you are alone.

I have great difficulty sleeping when someone nearby snores loudly. I’m tired daily from too little sleep. If it costs extra for a private room, I’ll hit the hip to avoid this problem. I’ve tried wearing ear plugs but they are uncomfortable and disturb my sleep.

How long one man hunts or fishes is a matter of  personal desire or stamina. There’s no reason another person should cut a trip short just so the other person can go home early. Is this petty or selfish? Not really. It’s being honest about personal desires and being realistic about our expectations and how we choose to spend our leisure time afield.

Modern sportsmen have only so much free time. If it is shared with others, and another person places 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 prefer the latter.

I suspect the solitary sportsman concept 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 others, and cuts a day short for personal reasons, how will friends feel about giving up some of their valuable leisure time? Not well, I suspect.

I hate riding with others because if they decide to quit early, you are stuck.

A common thing with me now is to always drive my own car. If the other person thinks they must leave early, it’s so long, have a good day. If you ride together in his vehicle, your personal trip is ruined.

My early travels were always alone. I could barely afford the travel myself, let alone take someone along. It became easy to spend nights in camp, after dinner, writing notes about the day. I would always take a mystery or spy novel along, and pass idle hours reading. Rather than watching television, my choice is to entertain my brain with a book.

There are too many decisions to be made on fishing or hunting trips, and discussing which end of the lake to fish first is an example of wasted time. Two anglers spend 30 minutes arguing the merits of fishing the north or south ends. It’s senseless. A solitary angler goes where he wants, and thereby has more productive time on the water.

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 the initial shot?

A brown trout rises with the regularity of a big fish. Every 30 seconds he tips up, rises, 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 with big black spots.

Who gets the first cast to this beautiful trout? Do we flip a coin or will one or the other of the two anglers push the brim of his cap back, look fondly at his buddy, and says “Go get him.”

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 diplomacy, generosity and good will. The solitary sportsman is never faced with such vexing problems to solve. He heads off alone.

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

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

One reason is that 10 years of guiding salmon and trout fishermen plus deer and bear hunters meant I’d done it all many times before. Once a person shoots several black bears, it’s much more fun to be generous and help a first-time hunter bag a nice bruin. Or a big buck or trout.

It’s fun putting an angler into his first steelhead, a 20-pound Chinook or a nice 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 event.

Solitary anglers or hunters can have a fine time alone.

My wife and I hunt deer together. She goes to her spot and I go to mine, but I go to pick her up. It’s 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.

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

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors