Youth Fishing - Baseball - Deer - A First

Holr Smokes - Baseball, really?

Please hang in there - fish, random critter puncturing, and hopefully a bit of wisdom occur later in the story

 

Working with youth in any capacity is natural for your correspondent. Today he will cross pollinate outdoor blogvangelism with baseball.  The spring 2011 10U Orioles came roaring out of the losers bracket to the championship; losing to the #1 seeded White Sox.  It was hard to end like that but, just like I told them: "If you're gonna play, play the best team out there!"

 

 

Connor Hathaway is one of our most determined players.  Always attentive, a fast learner, thinking kind of young man - you love coaching kids like that. Here he comes sliding under the tag at home just like he was taught!

 

 

Connor's dad discovers this baseball coach dude has an outdoor addiction.  Chit chats ensue: guns, ammo, set ups, adjustments for youth, fishing and alot of baseball but that is self-evident from the beginning.  Mr. Hathaway is kind enough to peruse my blog at times.  He recently sent some pictures of a fishing trip.  Boys and men lean many things from chunking around in a stock tank.

 

 

A trusty Zebco, warm sun, life as you know it should be.  Time passes, it's just a "ho hum" kind of day.

The fish start cooperating. 

 

 

Those little buggers keep you busy, Connor is after bigger critters. 

His patience is rewarded.

 

 

 Moving further back in time, during our discussions this season, a.k.a telling hunting stories, I find out Connor took his first deer this year.  80 yards with a .243.  Attentive, fast learner, thinking kind of young man..........works in the deer blind as well.

 

 

 

We're making this a double day dream kind of thing.  Cool crisp weather, gun oil, freshly fired gunpowder, the great outdoors.  You can't find that on Xbox.  Connor is turning out to be quite an outdoorsman.  Way to go dad!

 

5 boys are at the ranch for a porcine puncturing mayhem weekend.   Updates in the near future will include fun.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  Mr. Hathaway found this thing on his hitch haul.  If you can identify it, send me an e-mail.

 

 

Small Boy with Laugh Lines

A.D.D. is AWESOME

Adultery Bull - Hypothesis - Brain Sucking Porch

Biblically speaking, adultery is a Feaux Pas.  

Often you will find me (if your were there, but you aren't there) sitting on the brain sucking porch.  If you were there it would appear I am wasting time.  But alas, I am not.  It takes effort to develop some hypothesis'.  What you see (but you can't see) is I am testing a theory:
"A quiet ecosystem and no schedule sucks negative data directly out of your brain.  This brain sucking activity (unlike Zombies or extra terrestrial brain sucking) improves overall health." 

Initial testing shows each byte of negative data exits the body via a small space around each hair follicle.  Results increase with a relaxed scalp.  Significant peacefulness leads to a relaxed the scalp, enlarging each tiny little space, improving results.   This mid-day I am deep in scientific discovery.

But first let's cover sin.

Every spring 3 to 5 Brahma Bulls are allocated to shameless adultery.  This is not an offense to Christianity, bulls are not mentioned.  200+ cows, subjected to an 8 week service objective, without their input.  The bulls can call this work.....but they better not complain much.  From what I hear, the estrogen crowd nags alot; throwing accusations of disloyalty around to include a few double dating sideswipes and foul language. Apparently, this young fella has discovered the brain sucking porch. 

He and I.

I and he.

Peaceful, follicular, oozing little bubbles of stress.

Then the moo'oing starts. 

Random cheap shots -  "You chunk of excrement!!!"

Then very clearly, "Shove that thing in your backside, excrement orifice!!!!" 

His reply is an exhausted, silent, glance. 

"You ladies just don't appreciate a reliable guy committed to all this hard work!"

The cheap shot game becomes the ignore and mumble game which we cannot hear.

He and I.

I and he.

Inner peace, puffy clouds, and silence. 

That is all for now.

Small Boy with Laugh Lines

A.D.D. is AWESOME

Carp Rigs - Small Rigs - Big Fish

Kids, smaller than full grown humans, have the whole small hands, short stature thing going on.  Given these challenges modifications to your fishing reel is pretty easy.  The Blogvangelist and his crew of local kiddoes use small spinning gear to whack some monsters.

Said monsters take alot of drag.  Runs of 50-100 yards and 30+ pound Buffalo are common when she decides to test your angling skills.  Over gun your kid with a heavy rig, the rig whoops the kid.  Give him your chronarch and $200.00 flipping stick, it will suffer a break somewhere within 5" of the rod tip or jump off the dock towed by a large critter.

This results in some cursing.

To help all situations I suggest a Penn 430 or Diawa BG 10 on a decent 6 foot medium action rod.  This tutorial is about the reel.  My 20 year old Penn 430ss is smooth as glass and been through many battles.  Line capacity says 300 yards of 20 pound braid.  Well, I choose half that and drop on 150 yards of 20lb braid as backing.

Step 2.  Trilene XL 10lb mono uni to uni knotted to the braid

Step 3.  Fill the spool.  This one is a bit front loaded, I'll sort that out on the first big one we catch.

Step 3 - go fishing

Step 4.

Pictures - yeah, I know, the video kid doesn't have a life jacket on - had to create excitement somehow.   He's caught a bunch of these guys and a few buffaloe's over 30. 

We've used this rig all over Texas including the surf for redfish.  Gear is the right size, line capacity can land a whopper, and the kids have fun.  Keep your reels clean, drag pressure moderate, and let the fish run.

Take kids fishing and build the next generation. 

Small Boy with Laugh Lines

A.D.D. is AWESOME

Youth Hunting - Rant - Complain - Fat Southerners

I promise not to do this too often.

But today is a "Special" day where I feel fiesty.  I am going to point the finger at the outdoor industry as a whole.  Why on this good green Earth are there no hunting and fishing shows or print articles focused on youth?   Why do MOST of the outdoorsmen and magazines all say "Take a kid fishing or hunting!" 

Like we're all supposed to do it.

Then they produce a whole year of content with NO KIDS.  As you well know, we have plenthora of fat, southern, camo clad, chin bearded yuckity, yucks out there encouraging us to do what they won't.  (Maybe I should get fat and grow facial hair - then people would listen to me!!!)

 

Yes, there are kid pictures in some of the print stuff - that's about it. 

Here's food for thought.  Apple puts their computers in every school possible.  Interestingly as I travel for my real job, I see more than half the young professionals (say under 30) dragging around a Mac.  It's called planning for the future, building a customer base, brainwashing is the 60's way to say it.

 

Oh, and by the way.  If one of you outdoor personalities, manufacturer's, or sales reps thinks putting kids on TV and in print is a good idea.

Forget that.

They are web, blog, you tube, and social media focused.  Print is going to die, TV has too many channels and in 10 years will evolve.  Why wait for TV when you pick and choose video clips on the web.  Your target market is also dying off - literally.   Follow my blog and holler at me sometime, I have some ideas to reach out to the youth hunting and fishing world.

Maybe those folks at Apple computer know what they're doing?

 

Small Boy with Laugh Lines

A.D.D. is AWESOME