With the bass fishing on Clear Lake being tougher than it has been in years, a lot of fishermen are getting discouraged. But what is considered success when it comes to fishing or hunting?
For many people a successful trip is enjoying the fresh air and being outdoors. However, others will not settle for less than bringing in a limit of fish or bringing home a wild turkey or a big buck. For example, some hunters won”t even consider anything but a record four-point buck. However, others consider the day a success if they just see a few deer and don”t even fire their gun. I place myself in the latter category.
For years I have said that too many fishermen and hunters take their sport too seriously. If they don”t get a limit of ducks or fish they feel the day is wasted. A good example was a few years ago during the annual Lake County junior pheasant hunt. The purpose of the hunt is for father and son or daughter to enjoy themselves and do some bonding. The hunt provides the perfect vehicle for this. In fact, in addition to the actual hunt, the Lake County Rod and Gun Club provides trap shooting for the young hunters and the Konocti Rod and Gun Club hosts a barbecue for the young hunters and their parents.
On one particular hunt a father, who had two boys in the hunt, came up to me asked if the hunt would be over by 10 a.m. because he had a golf tee time at noon. When I explained to him that the purpose of the hunt was for the parents to spend a day in the field with their youngsters, the man stormed off. The good news is the 90 percent of the parents in the hunt enjoyed spending the day with their kids.
While the actual killing of an animal is part of the hunt, it shouldn”t be the only part. I was fortunate to have a father who loved to hunt and fish, but he also respected all the creatures in the wild. Spending a day in the woods with my father was like a trip to Disney World. He would point out various birds, wildlife and even plants and explain their existence.
My most vivid memory of a hunt was when I was 15 years old. I was hunting on a cold morning in Minnesota and I spotted a huge buck. My heart was beating so fast I thought I would pass out. I raised my rifle and fired. The buck took off running, completely unscathed. I was furious that I had missed the buck. Later in the day when I told my dad about the buck and how I had missed it, he just smiled and said, “Hunting is a game just like baseball. If you win, the animal has lost everything, including its life. However, if you lose, the animal has won and best of all you”ll get to hunt him another day and you have actually lost nothing.”
I have never forgotten those words spoken to me more than a half-century ago.
In that same spirit I recently spoke with a hunter who had just returned from a deer hunting trip in Wyoming. He said he had seen a lot of bucks and even elk and moose, yet didn”t fire a shot. He also said the country was beautiful and it was one of the best hunting trips of his life.
On the flip side, I recently had a duck hunter who leases an expensive duck blind in the Sacramento Valley brag about how he and his partner killed more than 700 ducks from their blind last season. He measured his success by the number of birds he killed, not by the hunting experience. His statement was, “If it flies it dies.”
Many fishermen also measure their success by the number of fish they catch. For some, five fish per day is considered very good. However, others aren”t happy unless they catch 30-40. Fishing is supposed to be a relaxing sport and the purpose is to wind down from a high-pressure job or other stressful activities. It”s an activity for a person to get back to nature and relax.
That”s not to say that bagging on a big buck or catching a limit of bass or trout shouldn”t be done. In fact, it”s the icing on the cake. The lesson is not to take yourself too seriously. It”s also a lot cheaper to buy that Thanksgiving turkey from the local supermarket than to go out in the woods and shoot it. Most hunters know the experience is worth a million dollars.
