What is success to a hunter or fisherman?

How do you portray success to our youth while taking them hunting and fishing?

http://www.outdoornews.com/October-2014/What-is-success-to-a-hunter-or-fisherman/

I try to let my grandkids know that hunting isn’t about killing and fishing isn’t always about getting the most or biggest or any at all. I think that one’s attitude about the quality of each experience is what determines the success of either in the long term.

Success doesn’t mean killing a big buck every year nor does it mean a limit of 10 pound walleyes every trip out. If issues like that are paramount to the adults, then perhaps the kids are going to be out there for entirely the wrong reasons. Kids should be taught to find the quality of each trip afield, whether hunting or fishing, and that success is the result of a lot of quality.

tom pretty much hit that bad boy right on the ole noggin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Tom, I think he has it spot on.

As I have aged, and as I have raised my kids, it has become more clear to me that the success in the field is more about being able to enjoy the outdoors and the company of family and good friends than anything to do with limits and trophies.

That having been said, if there was little if any success in terms of a harvest, I doubt my kids or many of us would still be hunting and fishing or as passionate about those things in our lives. Like most things, it is a balance that each person has to find and accept for themselves. I try to teach my kids the value of the outdoors and that it is okay to harvest what you can use but never more than you need or than you can use and to always know the rules and to follow them.

And, at least with fishing, you can always enjoy the catch-and-release aspect of the sport if you prefer that to an actual harvest.

Enjoy the outdoors and those that you share them with!
Dave

Being successful changes with whomever I take out fishing.

In regards to going out solo or with another avid fisherman, success does hinge on catching big fish that I’m targeting. A guy doesn’t wake up at 4am to enjoy nature, when I get to the lake/river its for one thing only, to catch big fish.
Don’t get me wrong if I end up catching a dozen walleyes under 20″, its fun, but its not the ultimate goal. And success is achieving that ultimate goal, maybe not this week, or month, or year, but when the time does come I will be screaming Success!! at the top of my lungs.

Confused at why every outing has to be successful. Maybe I’m taking the question to literally.

Success to me, is being able to clear your schedule for a day to enjoy life outdoors. If one can find contentment in opportunity, then no matter how many birds, how big of a buck, or how many/how large a fish caught are just bonuses. Expectations kill many a good thing, and it would be a shame to see the opportunity to be outdoors mulled over by expectations of something grander.

This is success to me. It’s not the deer he shot, it’s the smile that is on his face. He had the same smile the four previous days we hunted when he didn’t shoot anything.
DT

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I should add that it will only be a success until that smile goes away (if it ever does). I think it was Wade that posted about loosing the fire for awhile.
DT

Check out the video “Game of Inches” by RockHouse Motion. It is a pretty cool story of different views of success in deer hunting. If someone could post a link that would be cool, I think it is on Vimeo, not sure if it’s on YouTube.

Something to always keep in mind and to teach the little ones…

1) It could ALWAYS, be worse.
2) It is, what YOU MAKE IT.

Two values taught to me that i didn’t understand or learn to appreciate until i was older. Now they follow me everywhere.

Success from a fishing guides point of view:

3 stories from last weekends trips.

Saturday morning. Half day trip with 3 ladies. Asked them before leaving the dock if they prefer to catch big fish or eaters. All said they would prefer to catch eaten size fish and didn’t care about big fish.
Long story short, they caught a 3 person limit by 9:30am. Good thing to as all 3 came under dressed for the weather, which the weatherman missed badly. Rained on us for the first half hour of the trip and all 3 were cold by the time they caught there limit. Back at the boat landing, cleaned all there fish and sent them on there way by 10:45am.
Success? They sure thought so and I would have to agree.

Sunday morning. Half day trip in the morning with a father & son. Son was 30-something and pretty good fishermen. Asked them the same question only this time received the opposite answer. Couldn’t care less about eaters as they haven’t kept a walleye or sauger all year. And they also hadn’t caught a big one all year.
So off we go. First 3 hrs of the trip are uneventful with only a couple of smaller fish and one keeper. Last hour of the trip, Dad catches a 27″ walleye and son catches a 20lb flathead catfish. Couple pictures of each and back in the lake they go.
Success? They certainly thought so and I would have to agree.

Sunday afternoon. Half day trip with father and two sons, ages 8 & 11. Trip was Fathers birthday present from his wife. They’re dairy farmers and this would be his first day away from the farm in lord knows how long.
None of the 3 has any real fishing experience so they just wanted to catch enough fish for a meal for the entire family.
First spot we pull up to, I rig a live bait rod and give it to the younger son. He hauls in a keeper sauger before the other two can even get a line in the water, then proceeds to catch another shortly after. Dad catches a keeper also but the older son can’t seem to get a bite. He doesn’t complain at all, just keeps trying.
After about an hour or so, with 5 fish in the box, dad suggest maybe we should move as the boys are getting cold from fishing out in the wind. (it was pretty windy) Older boy has caught a fish but not a keeper. We make the move. New spot doesn’t have much going on and after another hour, we move again.
3rd spot is kind of windy but not as bad and I really want the 11yr old to catch a good fish. He still hasn’t complained one bit, just keeps trying to catch fish.
I get a hit, set the hook, and quickly suggest the older boy take my rod and reel it in. Unfortunately, by the time he grabs the rod the fish is almost to the surface and turns out to be a sheepshead. It was also pretty obvious that the boy didn’t really know how to hold the rod while reeling in a fish. We’ll work on that I thought.
Drop my bait back down and ten minutes later feel another, much more solid “kachunk” on the end of my line. Set the hook “Hard” and yell for Lane (oldest son) to take my rod again. This fish is much bigger and the boy is having trouble as he’s holding the rod totally wrong and trying to winch this fish in. I quickly move his hands to the correct positions on the rod and stick the rod butt into his belly button. He’s smiling and clearly having fun trying to winch this fish in. The pole is completely doubled over and his younger brother is screaming in the back ground. Two minutes later, I net a nice flathead catfish. When I lift it over the side of the boat, the younger brother lets out another ear splitting scream and runs up by his dad, who is just sitting in the bow seat with his jaw hanging, not sure what to do or say. Huge smile on older sons face says it all.
Camera’s come out, pictures taken, lots of laughs, smiles and high fives. Dad and sons decide not to keep the fish after a quick discussion on how it would taste and older son gets the honors of releasing the catfish. More smiles, laughter and silly talk from the boys.
No more fish caught on this trip.
Success? They thought so and let me know how much they enjoyed the trip.
Me? Best trip I’ve had all year. I don’t have any kids but seeing how much this kid enjoyed catching that fish, that made my day, week, month for that matter.

From a guides point of view…..

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I know that I am probably in the minority here, but I am over the “It was a nice day on the water” or the “It was a nice day in the woods” mentality. I fish to catch fish, and hunt to take animals. If don’t catch fish, or I don’t take an animal – it was not a successful trip.

Does that mean not catching fishing, or not taking an animal makes it a waste of time? Heck no! I would still rather be on an unsuccessful fishing or hunting trip, than at my cubicle! But at the same time, I wouldn’t call just sitting in a boat or the woods a successful day.

It probably has more to do with my general outlook on goals. If I have a goal, and I don’t accomplish it – it was not successful. Success, for me, does not simply come from the pursuit of a goal. It comes from successfully meeting a goal.

-Drew

Did I have fun?

“Did THEY(the kids) have fun?” That’s a successful trip, fish or game collected or no. Take them, teach them, show them stuff…but in the end, I find that my kids teach me a lot more about how to enjoy an outing than the other way around.
Don’t forget to kick the leaves, look for the crawdads(or snails, or clams or whatever), skip a rock, ponder the sky…get wet and muddy, come homed tired but relaxed and happy-with another memory that they’ll remember long after I’ve lost the ability to(right BK?). These days, that’s the best part-letting them help me keep the wonder and awe alive.

Any day out fishing is success to me, there are people out there who dont get that experience…that said, obviously in my head, the goal is a trophy any time I am out. A bad day fishing still beats most other things

Honestly for me, there is a difference between “seasonal success”, and “daily success”.

I don’t really have any daily goals set, at least not too often; but everyday fishing/ hunting is a good day. I spend about 110 days fishing and 10-20 hunting.

I do set seasonal goals though. So far I’ve found that putting in the effort and hours on top of driving to locations that increase odds as well as continued learning about the sport has yielded achieving personal goals every year.

Fish, and any wild game for that matter, has a tendency to prove you stupid on any given day. Sooner you except that, the sooner you’ll enjoy each day and eventually find seasonal success!

Achieving your goal.

Goals change frequently based on so many factors.

I have one goal and that’s to see a smile on the faces of the folks with me… everything else will follow.

I don’t feel that I have to portray success because I don’t view or present any aspect as a failure either. What I want my kids to understand is that I’m out there–we’re out there–for many reasons and none of these are held in judgement by a jury of numbers.

We are there for a love of nature and wildlife and the unique view of God’s creations that few these days beyond we hunters and anglers ever experience.

We are there because of tradition. I have fished and hunted in the places where my father, grandfather, great grandfather, and in my sons’ cases they will hunt where their great-great grandfather once hunted and they will carry the very shotgun he carried there over 120 years before them.

We are there because as humans we have been hunters longer by far than we have been anything else. There is a reason why we feel the rush of excitement when we see a deer, or flush a bird, or hook a fish. That reason is because we are hard-wired to be hunters. That thrill is confirmation that these things have special, ingrained meaning to us as humans. To be a hunter and a fisher IS to be human because for so, so long the measure of success was nothing short of survival.

Finally, we are there for the people. The people I love the most–love being with the most–they all do this. And the people that are gone, oftentimes I think about them when I’m out there. Often I’ve wondered why this is, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably because they are still out there. They loved it so much that they didn’t–maybe couldn’t–leave it behind, so instead they forever lend themselves to the spirit of it. I like to think we hunt or fish with them still.

Grouse

That was kinda beautiful Grouse.

very cool grouse. I just got goose bumps

I think it boils down to intention. If you intended to catch fish and didn’t after spending all day on the water, you were not successful.
If you intended on hanging out with friends and socializing then you were.
To teach kids that every fishing/hunting trip is a success, regardless of the outcome, is like handing out trophies for 10th place.

suzuki wrote:

I think it boils down to intention. If you intended to catch fish and didn’t after spending all day on the water, you were not successful.
If you intended on hanging out with friends and socializing then you were.
To teach kids that every fishing/hunting trip is a success, regardless of the outcome, is like handing out trophies for 10th place.

Best answer to this I have read so far…as the old school in me is obvious and I don’t apologize for it either. More and bigger the merrier!

It’s a combo split between that calm morning on the water watching the Sunrise hearing the birds sing and watching the waterfowl as you cast combined with the goal of 1st getting a big fish then catching numbers of fish. I’d say 50/50.

I am a highly competitive person. When I fish, I compete against myself, I compete against the fish. Sometimes success is catching fish, sometimes it is just enjoying the moment in nature. That being said, success never has to do with out fishing other people or getting a picture to splash around on the internet.