Outdoor mentors

In the world of the outdoors, there are so many people to look up to, pioneers in their fields, those who taught us to hunt and fish, and those from whom we learned a love of the outdoors in general. I do not think that I am alone that a parent was my first influence into the outdoors. My Dad was hunting and fishing long before I came along. I grew up in the country, and would much rather spend time outside than inside. Unfortunately, I was horribly allergic to mosquito bites, which forced my Mom to keep me inside sometimes in the summer for many more days than I care to remember. But, with large red welts on various places of my body and a fever, even I understood there were times I would be stuck inside, likely reading.

There are so many people to whom I look up to in the outdoor space. There are people like Ray Scott, who truly created tournament bass fishing and brought it to where it is now. There are people like my Dad, who first taught me to bait a hook. There are people like Jerry Apps, an author from Wisconsin and a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association. In reality, he was what brought me to the Association, where I now serve on the membership committee.

As I write this, I am watching a series on Apple TV+ called, “Dear…” It is about just the things I am talking about. It is about those who have inspired others to follow their own example, those who have not allowed the barriers the world has set in place to stop them. This theme, “barriers,” carried over from my last post. But I felt it important to reiterate. If we do not see barriers, but love of what we do, I do not believe those barriers exist. Once we get to the other side, I think we can look back and realize what we overcame to get where we are, but not seeing those things as we bull our way through them, I think, is a benefit.

Looking at people like Ray Scott, Al and Ron Lindner, Gregg Bohn (Mr. Slip Bobber) and others, I can see they did not see any barriers, either. They had a passion and they simply followed that passion. I had the honor of not only attending Greg Bohn’s induction into the Fishing Hall of Fame, but also to interview him for a newspaper for which I was working. He was such a class act. He had no bad word to say about anyone he had ever met. He was full of stories. He was full of fun. While I am sure he deeply understands the contribution he made to the fishing industry, he was so humble regarding how the idea came about.

“I just wanted people to catch fish,” he said about creating the slip bobbering method of fishing. My first thought was – who knew that did not always exist? But, of course, it didn’t. It needed to be invented, just like everything. And here I was, some fairly new journalist, sitting at a table with the man who invented the technique and sold it to the Linders. Incredible!

It is great to look at those who come before me, as anyone in any field can look at those who have come before them. It is fascinating to me to think about how these people came up with their ideas and how those ideas caught on and blossomed to become some of the biggest things in the outdoors. I owe a lot to them, and to their dedication to their visions. It has allowed me to be dedicated to my vision and to believe in myself as well.

The things you will find here

Welcome to my newest blog! You will find a great many things in the blog as time goes along. I am a freelance writer. I write in the spaces of the outdoors and the environment. I am not what a person would call a “tree hugger, necessarily, but I do understand we are taking undo advantage of the planet and eventually it could be our undoing.

I also enjoy bass fishing and fish many tournaments each year. I run a bass team tournament trail with my boyfriend, Chet, and we also run our own soft plastic bait making company. As you may already see, some of these things do not seem to fit with one another. I am a bit of a conundrum in that respect.

I am a learning gardener. I hope to always be learning in that area of my life. We recently bought a house and I am working at getting some gardens going here. The photo attached to this post is the home we bought. Several changes have already been made. In the same vein, I am also very interested in self-sufficiency and shortening personal supply chains. Once my gardens are established next year, I will be looking to preserve the herbs and vegetables I am able to grow to help feed the two of us over the winter.

My gardening endeavors are also bird and pollinator driven. I have planted many native plants in the front flower beds and have taken out all but one chunk of the trailing nightshade that was taking over both beds when we moved in. I have kept a piece of it for food for the birds this winter. I will monitor that and see if it is worth keeping for next year.

I am also starting to get interested in permaculture, and you will likely find information about that here as well. Permaculture is not simply the shortening of a supply chain, but building back an ecosystem that works with the land, rather than against it, and that provides for the people on that land as well.

Citizen science is another area of interest for me. It started as being a weather spotter for NOAA. From there I moved to the Clean Boats Clean Waters program. I am now also involved in the Water Action Volunteers (WAV) stream monitoring program, the Wisconsin Frog and Toad Program, the Wisconsin Mussel Program and birding/phenology projects such as Feeder Watch and the Great Backyard Bird Count. I have also been involved in the wolf tracking program in Wisconsin and may look at getting back into that program again, time permitting.

I have my own podcast, which can be found most anywhere you listen to podcasts. It is called Fish Like a Girl, which is my personal brand I have been working under for many years now. I have a YouTube Channel @fishlikeagirlus as well.

I am looking into getting into more videography and film making. I am sure my successes and failures in that area will be chronicled in this blog as well.

So, welcome to my world – our world – and everything in it. For those interested in the outdoors and keeping wild spaces wild, or combining humans and nature in the best ways possible, I hope you will stop back often to read new posts and leave comments as you see fit.