Favorite Outdoor Rec Activity

Obviously we all love fishing, but what is your favorite outdoor recreational activity? I suspect that it will be fishing for most of you, and if so, clarify it by technique, species. For me, pheasant hunting is my favorite outdoor rec activity. To me there’s just nothing that beats being alone in the open prairie watching a dog work. Watching my lab get birdy, flush a rooster, hopefully I connect on the shot, then him making a retrieve to hand is as good as it gets. If I did not have a dog that I love like I do, then I suspect walleye fishing would be my #1 spot.

Some examples of activities… snowmobiling, swimming, skiing, slow pitch softball, hiking, camping, kayaking, archery, field goose hunting, deer hunting, photography, bird watching, etc. Any activity you do outside.

Aside from fishing, I’d say sitting around a camp fire on a early spring or fall evening sipping a few brews. Very relaxing!

-J.

I don’t know that I have one favorite, but I enjoy fishing, pheasant hunting, shooting, camping, hiking, swimming, boating, waterskiing, stand-up paddleboarding…

Spin-casting for good sized toothy critters. But I love catching them all perch, walleyes, bass, L-trout. For walleye and L-Trout I usually troll. For pike, musky, tigers and bass I usually cast and for perch I usually use live bait. I also enjoy camping. Primitive camping is fun with no amenities.

As you might guess from my name, I LOVE to canoe. I have often pondered if I like the small rivers I canoe in Iowa, or the big lakes of the BWCWA better?? No real answers, it is what ever I can do at the time. Of course being able to canoe and then FISH is the best, but I enjoy canoeing even without the fishing. Fishing just makes it better. I think some of my life time highs have been in a canoe, a family member with me, and life is grand.

It’s so hard to pick! I love fishing for panfish, grouse hunting, pheasant hunting, shooting, camping, campfires, picking up rocks and logs looking for bugs while strolling through the woods, and I love taking pictures during all of that! I deer hunt, but I REALLY don’t enjoy getting up that early and sitting still and quiet in the cold. I’d say that’s only fun if I’ve got my cross hairs on a shootable deer. I’d have to say it’s a tie between grouse hunting and pheasant hunting. There’s nothing like being in the woods in the fall.

Catten
Sturgeoning
Having a Hamm’s outside
Eating Spam outside
Sturdiwheat pancakes or fish fry outside (which I seldom get to do the latter)
Yacking on the net from the picnic table.
Researching stuff I don’t know about. (this takes up a ton of time)
Exploring by boat new areas of Pool 3 and 4. (There is a whole ‘nother world out there you folks that only fish the dam/Red Wing area)

Putting a newbie on a big fish

Complaining about AIS laws/Excessive catfish limits in the WI border waters to anyone that will listen…outside of course.

Talking to people after they come off the water from fishing.
Watching sunsets.
Watching the river continually flow by.
Watching the eagles. More so when they are catching.
Watching the turtles heading up the sand hill to lay eggs.
Can’t wait to share all the above with the FGD soon!

And finally,
Watching the buzzards hang around Kerry Harvey’s camper now that he’s a year older.

sitting on the front porch of an old farm house 5 miles outside of Ipswich SD in late October staring out over the prairie sipping beer for 4 days while my wife thinks I’m pheasant hunting.

No favorites for me either. I’ve cycled thru so many things over the years. I’m in a constant state of picking them up, setting them down or looker for a different way to do them. One thing I was exposed to that was super cool was winter camping/backcountry telemark skiing on powder. I can see why some people turn into ski bums.

I don’t get to fish enough so that’s numero uno for me,
but other than that just watching my kids doing the outdoor thing is awesome. Doesn’t happen enough nowadays

Waterfowl hunting. Specifically late season diver hunting.
DT

Obviously being a site member fishing is great but it’s no where close to number 1.

Downhill skiing, more specifically there’s nothing better than a powder day!!!!

I spend more of my free time running ATV’s and sleds than fishing and I usually get out fishing at least once a week most of the year.
In most instances I would rather be out trail riding machines than fishing but cant imagine not doing both.

I really get a kick out of the mini fluke Walleye and Sauger bite in the fall. I wait all summer for that bite, then again all winter to do it again in the spring.

Fishing and doing things with my kids. I also enjoy driving my car. I used to be really big into airsoft but got out of that. Had a Harley but sold it this year. Was too worried about leaving my kids fatherless or having to wipe the drool off my chin. Plus it took time away from the boat (or it really didn’t and I never rode anymore)

Sitting in a tree on a crisp fall afternoon, with my bow.

What season is it? Lol but seriously I love calm mornings and nights summer fishing until I’m in the bow stand and nothing gets the heart pumping like hearing something coming right. Toward. Your. Stand! Then again hearing wings whistling above your head while waiting for day to break maybe one of the coolest sounds In the world! But that is closely followed by the pounding silence of a calm winter day and also love breaking the serene silence of winter with the auger and spending quality time on the ice with friends and family! Or seeing my pup figure out What a pheasant Is and Get birdy after them is probably one of my prouder moments that must be akin to fatherhood. So like others I can’t choose just one but am sure thankful for the awe inspiring beauty of the outdoors and the amazing opportunities we have to enjoy them especially in MN!

I have two actually. One is casting the Two Harbors breakwater early in the morning in heavy fog….absolute serenity.

The other is sitting in the deer stand taking it all in. I’ve shot enough deer over the years so whether I have to gut or not is a moot issue. I carry sunflower seed and lure chickadees in to keep me company. Then there’s turkeys and other critters that wander underneath me or down the deer trail. I’ve been in that same stand for years and years and it seems that every fall I find something new.