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Into the Outdoors: Good Feelings About Outdoor Activities

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This time around, let’s take a look at some of the really good feelings that go with outdoor activities. The first one involves your favorite drink, whatever that may be. It is especially good if you are at a camp. After a whole day spent outside hunting or fishing, especially if it’s cold, there are few things better than, after supper, sitting down in front of a nice fire, sipping your drink as you reflect upon the day’s activities and just plain relax. Often, your eyelids get heavy, and you doze by the fire. Sometimes, in fact, you don’t even finish your drink, but the feeling of relaxation is hard to beat. It’s not about how much game you bagged, or how many fish you caught, but rather about the fun you had engaging in one of your favorite activities with your friends.

Here’s another thing that feels really great. You get up early, really early, in the morning to go fishing. You have a good catch, and you’re home before noon. You clean your fish, put them in the freezer and head for the shower. After that, you get a bite to eat and take a nice long afternoon nap. Sleep never felt any better.

Here’s another closely related good time. If, like me, you like to occasionally fish for catfish or walleyes at night, you sometimes find yourself out on the water all night long. Isn’t it great to hear the birds singing at dawn to welcome a new day? Then, you go home, clean your catch, then yourself, and head for the sack. It’s pretty hard to top, although, I must admit, I no longer do it very often. It seems as though it takes an antique body a bit longer to recover from being up all night.

Over the years, I’ve dealt with more than my share of cantankerous outboard motors. If I had a quarter for every time I’ve pulled a starter rope in my life, I’d have a nice chunk of change; I can tell you that. When the motor starts on the first or second pull, it is absolutely exhilarating, at least for me. This is especially true when you’re far from the dock.

Here’s another one. When you’re fishing for trout with dry flies, and you pick the right pattern, then place it so perfectly that a trout takes it, you get a real feeling of accomplishment, and if it’s on the first cast, it’s just that much better. That hasn’t happened to me that often, but when it has it has been great.

In order to experience one of the best day’s endings of all, it is necessary to travel to the north. Often, on Canadian fishing trips, or while fishing in Minnesota or New York, I have heard the haunting call of a loon on a lake at sunset. That stirs a mixture of feelings within you that it is almost impossible to describe. You just have to experience it for yourself. It’s lonely and comforting at the same time, if that makes any sense.

Something I’ve done for many years is to keep a journal of outdoor experiences and the feelings they generate. It’s really a lot of fun to look back at something that happened years ago and relive the memories it evokes through your written and photographic records.

And here’s the final one. A while back while fishing for panfish, I did very well with an old ultralight spinning reel by Herter’s, Inc. Many of you probably remember this company and the huge mail order catalog they put out. The company has been out of business for some time now, but they used to be a major source of sporting goods for me. I had a reel like the one referred to earlier many years ago. I don’t really remember what happened to it. When I found one on ebay, I just had to have it. Using it successfully brought back a flood of memories, in themselves well worth the price I paid for the reel.

I hope you enjoyed reading this column about the sentimental side of the outdoors. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Next week, we’ll look at catfishing, as we have reached the “height of summer.”

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