Ep. 005: *One from the Vault* Sporting Diversity with Kirk Deeter of Trout Unlimited and Sam Nelson of Bar-U-Eat
Jun 28, 2023
Spoke Hollow Outdoors
Welcome back, BunkHaus community! We're about to embark on a breathtaking journey into the heart of the great outdoors. Sharing their experiences with us are the seasoned veteran Kirk Deeter of Trout Unlimited and the eager enthusiast Sam Nelson, co-founder of Bar-U-Eat. We'll hear their stories of hunting and fishing - the thrill of setting decoys, the joy of watching ducks, and that special bond between man and nature.
Let's be honest; we've all had moments of hesitation, those first-time jitters. Remember when Sam was too scared to pick up his first bird? Yeah, we do too. Yet, with patience, encouragement, and a touch of humor, we've discovered that learning the ropes isn't nearly as daunting as it first seems. We'll be delving into the significance of mentorship, ethical hunting, and how humility and grace play a crucial role in fostering a healthier outdoor culture. And as you listen, you'll find that failure isn't an end but an invitation to learn and grow.
But we're not just here to reminisce. We're here to inspire and encourage those hesitating at the edge of the great unknown. To our experienced outdoor enthusiasts, we urge you to extend a helping hand to newcomers. To those of you who are new to this world, don't be shy to reach out and ask for support. After all, every seasoned hunter was once a beginner. So, buckle up and join us as we explore the rich tapestry of stories, experiences, and wisdom embodying outdoor life. Let's make the outdoors a place where everyone feels welcomed and cherished.
Welcome back, BunkHaus community! We're about to embark on a breathtaking journey into the heart of the great outdoors. Sharing their experiences with us are the seasoned veteran Kirk Deeter of Trout Unlimited and the eager enthusiast Sam Nelson, co-founder of Bar-U-Eat. We'll hear their stories of hunting and fishing - the thrill of setting decoys, the joy of watching ducks, and that special bond between man and nature.
Let's be honest; we've all had moments of hesitation, those first-time jitters. Remember when Sam was too scared to pick up his first bird? Yeah, we do too. Yet, with patience, encouragement, and a touch of humor, we've discovered that learning the ropes isn't nearly as daunting as it first seems. We'll be delving into the significance of mentorship, ethical hunting, and how humility and grace play a crucial role in fostering a healthier outdoor culture. And as you listen, you'll find that failure isn't an end but an invitation to learn and grow.
But we're not just here to reminisce. We're here to inspire and encourage those hesitating at the edge of the great unknown. To our experienced outdoor enthusiasts, we urge you to extend a helping hand to newcomers. To those of you who are new to this world, don't be shy to reach out and ask for support. After all, every seasoned hunter was once a beginner. So, buckle up and join us as we explore the rich tapestry of stories, experiences, and wisdom embodying outdoor life. Let's make the outdoors a place where everyone feels welcomed and cherished.
Welcome to the Bunkhouse podcast broadcasting from the confluence of outdoor recreation and nature connectivity. I'm your host, Josh Crumpton, founder of Spokalo Outdoors and the Los O'Vallé food truck. My life as a rancher, guide, foodie and conservationist has provided the opportunity to meet some really great people, And the Bunkhouse is where we get to introduce them to you.
Speaker 2:
Bunkhouse. This is Matthew.
Speaker 1:
Matthew, it's Josh.
Speaker 2:
Hey, josh, where have you been? We've got a podcast to record.
Speaker 1:
I'm in Colorado. I got stuck fishing. Actually, I'm right now at almost 10,000 feet looking out over a meadow at an awesome trout stream. I'm just fishing F-I-S-H-N. But I've got an idea for the podcast. I was thinking about sporting diversity. Remember when we went to Colorado?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we ran into Kirk Dieter.
Speaker 1:
Yeah and Sam, why don't we pull that one out of the vault? Give people a listen? It was a really good one And, in honor of me being out here in Steamboat, let's play it. What do you think? All right?
Speaker 2:
Well, that sounds like a good plan.
Speaker 1:
All right. Well, let's get this thing started. Welcome to Sporting Diversity, where we talk bird dogs, fly rods, conservation, inclusion and all things outdoors. If you're looking for inspiration, advice or ideas to help you get out there to do the things in the wild places, then pull up a chair, sit for a spell, join the campfire with me, josh Crumpton and Davin Tobol, as we swap stories and explore the narratives with our friends and guests. While we were in Steamboat Springs, colorado, we had the opportunity to visit with two people, both important to me personally. One of them I recently met, the other an old friend, one a long time veteran to the hunting and fishing industry, the other a newcomer to the sporting world. These guys, coming from separate ends of the hunting and fishing spectrum, are connected through the thread that is the Sporting Diversity Podcast and a love of the outdoors. Listen along today as we talk about mentorship, gatekeepers and gateways with industry veteran Kirk Dieter and newcomer to hunting and fishing, sam Nelson. We'll start off by introducing you to Kirk.
Speaker 3:
This is Kirk Dieter, and I'm the Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Trout Media, which is the communications arm of Trout Unlimited National. I'm also the Editor-in-Chief of Angling Trade that covers the business of fly fishing and an editor at large for Field and Stream Magazine, and we're here in Steamboat Springs, colorado.
Speaker 1:
Kirk and I had met on one other occasion down in Texas at the Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited's annual Trot Fest. We really didn't have time to swap field notes, so I was looking forward to catching up with him in Steamboat Before the recorder was running. As we swapped stories, i realized we both grew up in Telluride, colorado. It's a small world, but fitting to be speaking to a fellow Tellurider about mentorship, because Telluride is where my sporting journey began, with a fly rod on the banks of the San Miguel River. The conversation led to talking about entry points, so I asked Kirk to share his point of entry into the world of gun dogs and fly rods. Kirk's family had a background in the outdoors, so in many ways he was born into the life, but fly fishing and upland hunting were modalities that he picked up from outside of his primary family unit.
Speaker 3:
I was dating a girl and she invited me to her family cabin and I went to visit Her dad had me start the day by fishing with a fly rod. I wasn't a fly fisherman, i was a gear fisherman from Wisconsin and this was in Michigan where I was visiting the cabin. I went down the creek and three hours later she went to find me. They thought I was lost. I said do I have to come back? I was catching fish and she sulked away and told her dad, at which point he knew I was the one. We've been married for over 30 years now.
Speaker 3:
But my father-in-law was my point of entry for fly fishing. My dad worked for Johnson Outdoors and so was the point of entry for gear fishing and some of the other stuff hiking and cross country skiing. Then, as I embarked more on the writing career, i got assigned different things. I had different mentors, like John Merwin and Charlie Myers from the Denver Post. John Merwin was a field and stream. They taught me different types of fishing in different places and so forth. Hunting I did on my own. I was a student in college and it was really good at blowing off class or else finding excuses to do that. So I bought a shotgun and I went pheasant hunting all the time and eventually stumbled my way through school and stuck on hunting. My father-in-law was also a mentor. That way too, he was a duck hunter. I don't do as much duck hunting now as I did when I lived in the Great Lakes region, but it's all good, i just love it all.
Speaker 1:
At the very mention of duck hunting, a glint appeared in the eye of my duck obsessed friend, davin, which took us down a brief but passionate conversation about why we hunt and what it's all about.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, i got my start in Utah too, and it wasn't the best place to get a start. We're not exactly in the flyaway, but it still took a hold of me.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:
Something about it watching the dogs work and setting the decoys and talking to the ducks and telling them to come.
Speaker 3:
Talking to any of the animals right.
Speaker 2:
It's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3:
Like a little bugle, yeah. When the ducks are cupped up and coming in over your blocks, yeah, i mean, it's literally getting goosebumps right now.
Speaker 2:
It's that magic time Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and whether you're hunting or you're fishing or all those things. the other thing I've learned through all of that is it's really not about the animals I mean, it's the beauty of the animals and all that but it's really about the places and the people that you meet along the way. I'm a real big believer that it's the miles that you roll and the things that you see and the people you talk to along the way.
Speaker 1:
The people, the shared experience and the travel. Our conversation naturally switched over to the pandemic. We lamented about how difficult it has been for us, our friends, the country, the entire world, and how so many things have changed. We talked about how the pandemic has shrunk our social circles and how many people are spending more time with their immediate family units, and a lot of that time is being spent in the outdoors. We were searching for the silver lining, the good and the tragedy, the golden ray of sun on a stormy day.
Speaker 3:
Well, i've always what I thought was cool, this phenomenon, for sure, everyone found water and open space and it's underscored the need to keep water clean and open space public, that those are things that you know we work on daily, so I think it's really been wind in our sails. You know it's been a crummy summer, crummy year for everybody, but if you look at the silver lining getting young families especially, out in the outdoors and the prospects of next year or the year after the year making some of that stick, you know, and the appreciation of the outdoors this might end up being a renaissance for hunting and fishing when it needed it most.
Speaker 1:
We asked Kirk to share his advice for newcomers to the outdoors Where to go, what to do, how to begin that journey.
Speaker 3:
As far as someone's looking for advice on where to go. the cool thing, the lesson that we all learned this summer, was that the great adventures I write out your back door, or they can be if you want to make them out to your back door. It's a fishing hyper local. You know, i spent more time this summer fishing for carp and bass and other things When you're not flying off to Argentina or whatever. and then you realize, wow, this is pretty darn cool, right here And again, matching it with the people that you like to hang out with and meeting new people and all that. It all becomes a great big bundle. that is the package that sells outdoors The rubies and some of the stuff we were talking about earlier. So you know, and I also think, don't be afraid to fail.
Speaker 1:
Anyone that's listening, that's new, or thinking about getting into upland hunting or fly fishing or camping, hiking, rock climbing whatever it is that you're thinking about, take those words to heart. Adventure is right outside all of our back doors. Find some good friends, get out there And, most importantly, remember don't be afraid to fail, because it's how we all learn. We talked about the role of experienced anglers and hunters. Kirk definitely resonates our own feelings about the role the more seasoned, sporting person should play and how we should approach the newcomers. He had this message to deliver.
Speaker 3:
For those who are on serious anglers or whatever, say you get there? I've heard it many times there's a lot of people on the water now.
Speaker 1:
So you're going to get bumped out, you're going to get mad.
Speaker 3:
Are you going to be a gatekeeper, are you going to be a pointer entry or are you going to be a barricade? If you're a pointer entry, trust me, the health of the sport depends on you being a pointer entry and not a barricade. So if someone screws up they don't know, be nice to them, give them some advice, give them some flys talk and they'll learn. it'll come along. There are ways that we can foster that. The guides and the shops those types of folks are really important now And it's never been more important in terms of the relevance in the future of the sport.
Speaker 1:
Are you going to be a pointer entry or are you going to be a barricade? We all have our honey holes, we all feel like our upland covers are secret and many of us hold them tight to the vest. I asked Kirk, as an outdoor writer, to talk about how he approaches sharing areas. Here was his response.
Speaker 3:
It's always been a challenge for a writer or an editor. Do I want to kiss and tell? Do I want to talk about the spot? And I've always had to kind of balance whether I think the resource can take it. Like, if I'm going to put 100 people more on a certain stretch of river than saw it last year, can that work? Will it be okay? And it's just a judgment call And I don't always make the right call, but I try my best.
Speaker 3:
Having said that, there's no such thing as a secret spot, there's no such thing as a secret fly. This sport's been around a long time And when we think that we've got the secret spot, we were talking about this the other day, like back in Telluride where we fished and there was this secret spot that we would go to around the corner and up and over the bend and stuff, and you knew darn well exactly where I was talking about and you and I never fished there before. So to assume that it's your spot, especially if it's on public land or whatever, it's a little bit silly. So I think that, again, the better approach is to create more points of entry and to spread people around and get them excited about lots of different things and lots of different destinations.
Speaker 1:
We went on to talk about how this approach removes the pressure from specific places and redistributes it. I personally believe that sharing spots, especially the ones that are easy for a beginner to access, is the right thing to do That by sharing, we get more people into our sports and more people enjoying the outdoors, which creates more voices for conservation. I believe that, in the long run, taking the path of sharing knowledge will ensure that there will be more wild spaces and access in the future. Stop and think how you personally measure success in hunting or fishing. How do you approach sharing our wild resources?
Speaker 3:
Kirk sums it up eloquently You know, in this day and age, two words pop into my head over and over. It's something that we all need more of as humility and grace. If you can have a little bit more humility as you approach things, you're not on a seek and destroy mission. When you head out to the outdoors, it doesn't matter if you whack 20 grouse in a day with your crew or what, but if you can appreciate that humility hunters' humility or anglers' humility that's really important. I think that's going to be key for the future, as more and more people enjoy the rivers and lakes and fields and so forth.
Speaker 3:
We're not necessarily going to need to or want to have folks trying to bag so many. The more we can move the measure of success about the experience itself and less about numbers and size, the better and healthier we're all going to be. And then grace is just allowing people to learn and helping them and helping people along the way. I think that's really important. Those are really important factors right now In the world in general, but even more so in the outdoors.
Speaker 1:
Our time with Kirk was coming to a close, but before we signed off we started talking about the role of diversity, inclusion and representation and what that means to the future of the outdoors.
Speaker 3:
Diversity is one of the most, if not the most, important things that will safeguard the future of the outdoors and the sports we love, and, the point being, the more people are able to appreciate things wherever they are and the more that thread weaves together into a tapestry, the healthier the sports are, the healthier their environment is. Diversity is absolutely critical to all of this. In fact, it's not possible if we don't have diversity. So we might have had a booster shot in the arm based out of the tragedy of COVID and so forth, and there might be more people who are in the outdoors this summer and this fall, next summer, than have been in years past. But the only way that's sustainable is if we embrace the path of diversity.
Speaker 1:
Diversity. what is diversity? Oftentimes, when we discuss diversity, we are limited to thinking along the lines of race, ethnicity or gender, though these are central to the diversity conversation. I believe the modern discussion on diversity in the outdoors should include physical disabilities, heritage, education, sexual orientation, and that these factors, alongside socioeconomic, generational and geographic barriers, all produce unique hurdles and hesitations when gaining access into our outdoor spaces. Spokalo Outfitters and the Sporting Diversity Podcast are on a mission to make sure that all stakeholders are represented in the outdoors and that our primary sports of hunting and fishing are welcoming and inclusive of everyone. Take my friend Sam, for example.
Speaker 1:
Sam grew up outside of DC with no hunters or anglers in his immediate family. Sam comes from a generation that often shies away from hunting. Many of them view hunting through the lens of the grip and grin photos of our past. Sam's generational optic often stereotypes all hunters as trophy hunters and in many instances, assigns a set of values, views and mentalities to hunters they do not personally relate to. Oftentimes, sam's peer group does not understand the role that the hunter and the angler plays in the conservation cycle. Being a white male, sam didn't necessarily feel excluded from a racial standpoint or a gender standpoint, but he felt disassociated by a generational gap, distanced from access by the geography of his upbringing and unwelcomed through a misconception that his sociopolitical values are not represented in the hunting community. Without an access point or a real desire for one, sam was not destined to participate in the hunting world until he met me As a biracial, brown-skinned adult-onset hunter.
Speaker 1:
I was honored to be able to challenge Sam's views and be the gateway for him. Sam was 24 when we first met at a hostel in Breckenridge, colorado, in 2015. I was out there seeking the late-late season turns, which, in the ski world, is like being at the after-after-after party You meet some really interesting characters at that party. Sam was one of those die-hard travel bums roaming about seeking those last-of-the-season Mountain Town thrills. while planning his next adventure, sam had never been to Texas and, as I stated before, he had never been hunting or fired a gun. Shortly after our meeting, he somehow or another made his way to Texas and all those things changed.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, we hit it off real quick and, as you probably heard in other talks, josh lost his keys and or wallet. I helped him find them and that's how we knew we had something special.
Speaker 3:
That is it.
Speaker 4:
So two weeks later I was in Texas.
Speaker 1:
That's true? Yeah, no, so Sam, we actually didn't ski. Well, you skied, I didn't ski. So you were there checking out this hostel because you were going to like start a hostel or work there.
Speaker 4:
I was going to move to Bracken Ridge and work there.
Speaker 1:
Something like that. Sam had a beard that was down to his navel.
Speaker 2:
Oh, so he just like any other hostel manager.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, well, that's how I had character in the hostel scene. I had built that beard via the character route, as well as my hair and proper dirtbag. Hostel bum is really good He did.
Speaker 1:
He was serious hostel bum. So, sam, we meet. he doesn't ski, but we hang out, we have beers. One thing led to another, and I don't know how, but Sam wound up in Austin coming to visit, and so we hung out at the ranch for a while and then we finally went back into San Antonio and my family hadn't met Sam yet at that point in time. So Sam is passed out on my couch because we get in late. everyone's asleep.
Speaker 4:
Josh hadn't told his family that I was coming to visit or that someone would be staying on the couch.
Speaker 1:
No, i mean no. Why would I tell anybody what's happening at any point in?
Speaker 4:
time.
Speaker 1:
You lose the element of surprise. So Sam is sleeping on the couch. What happens is the kids like two of the younger kids walk downstairs and they see Sam and he's got scruffy hair, long straggly beard, and they're like there's a homeless person on the couch.
Speaker 1:
And so they sneak back up the stairs and they get the older kids. So they all go down, they check out Sam they may have poked him, he probably wouldn't have woke up. They all decide that there's a homeless person and they all go back upstairs and go back to sleep. They don't come wake me up.
Speaker 2:
They don't come out of the ordinary as they interrupt in households. They don't come and get anybody.
Speaker 1:
They're like dad's brought home another homeless person.
Speaker 2:
It doesn't smell as bad as the last one.
Speaker 1:
Well, apparently my family is very familiarized with my traveling ways and has come to expect that I'm quick to open our doors and invite in new friends. I can only hope that my kids go on to adopt this openness and a desire to experience all things in life, and I hope this mentality serves them as well as it has me. But I digress back to Sam's story. While he was down in Texas I took him hunting for the first time. It was for Dove. Since that time we've hunted many more times, but we've never really reflected about it until now. It was really great for me personally to hear Sam share his experience of that first hunt six years later.
Speaker 4:
I had never. I never hunted in any aspect in my entire life. I grew up outside of DC, wasn't even? I don't think I knew anything about hunting or probably even thought it was a thing, to be honest, played sports growing up. I ended up traveling kind of around the country and around the world for about six years And that's when I met Josh and Josh introduced me to hunting And a good story is, my introduction to hunting was Dove hunting And I'm hooked on it. But I didn't jump into it that quickly, This adult onset hunting that Josh has introduced me to.
Speaker 4:
We go. We go for opening weekend of Dove season And let me be clear, i've been doing opening weekend of Dove season for five plus years. I missed one season and I got a lot of crap for it. But the first season we go out and I'm watching I'm not ready to shoot the gun and I'm watching and they get some Dove And I've had Dove at this point and I know it's delicious, i want to eat it And I finally get this chance and I shoot a Dove And I'm excited and I go to the bird.
Speaker 1:
Let's take a pause so that you can better understand this story. Let me clarify that Sam is censoring to be sensitive to our listeners. As he was telling the story, i could see in his eyes how carefully he was choosing his words. But we're all adults here and wounded birds are part of what happens on occasion when hunting, especially when learning to hunt As a seasoned hunter, we learn to take better shots. We learn how to quickly and ethically expedite our quarry when things don't go as planned. So, with that said, by dead bird Sam means wounded bird And by breasting he means dispatching of said wounded bird.
Speaker 4:
And I can't get myself to pick it up, Like it's this dead bird and I know it's food and we're not wasting it, But I just can't pick it up. And Josh comes and he picks it up And I've already seen the whole process and he breasts it And it's starting to look like Sam. The next one you have to do on your own, Like I know, I know. So I shoot another and I'm trying to hype myself up and ready. I'm ready and I go up to it and I pick it up and I drop it. I look back and Josh is like these, like disappointed.
Speaker 2:
Disappointed and motivated.
Speaker 4:
And I pick it up. My eight-year-old son does this.
Speaker 3:
Right.
Speaker 4:
Well, everyone has their own process And it took about three times like picking it up and dropping it.
Speaker 1:
He did not want to touch it.
Speaker 4:
I did not want to do it To certain people. it's pretty graphic and uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:
By certain people. I'm pretty sure at this point in his hunting career Sam is referring to himself.
Speaker 4:
It is, but I did it and it was slow and Josh encouraged me. The next year I come down the first bird I shoot, i pick it up, pick it up, breast it, everything. He doesn't say a word. He's just like. I've never been so proud.
Speaker 2:
I cried, i was so proud.
Speaker 4:
I was like I've never been so proud.
Speaker 1:
Sam is now five seasons into his dove hunting experience and his shooting falls into the ethical and effective category, but on the off chance that he misses the mark, he has developed the skills to do what needs to be done. I asked Sam if there was a moment where hunting made sense to him, if there was a point in time where a light bulb went off and he became, in his mind, a hunter.
Speaker 4:
It definitely wasn't a moment, but it was time. I mean, josh, you and I have had a lot of conversations about every part of it. It's turning that animal into food, it's enjoying the hunt, it's being aware of where you are in the setting, what it takes, the environment. I think the whole process is what really got me excited about it. I love food. I'm willing to try any food Prior to hunting. Literally any food I'll try it. But that comfort with hunting definitely comes with knowing where the animals come from, what is their natural process, what we do to help that and educate ourselves and others Eventually I couldn't tell you the exact moment it clicked, but eventually I was in.
Speaker 4:
I was sold on everything we were doing. Josh really introduced me to not only the dove hunting and upland bird but fly fishing. When Jason came out and met us on that road trip, we went fly fishing on the St Joe up in Idaho. All that together has really tied us to nature in a whole other way. from a background of loving hiking and skiing and all these other realms, we're really loving the nature and the flora and fauna and the water. It's all tied together in a way we never understood.
Speaker 1:
Pretty done. Well said You taught me that Holy crap I'm going to cry.
Speaker 4:
I listed You tiering up. I listed that I'm tiering up.
Speaker 1:
I'm tiering up.
Speaker 4:
Conversations on the deck, overlooking the Blanco and Wembley, come on.
Speaker 1:
Davin could see that Sam's words had me off balance and he was quick to take advantage of the moment, flipping the relationship of interviewer and interviewee.
Speaker 2:
I want to ask you Josh obviously you got Sam into hunting What that feels like to be a mentor. You've mentored quite a few people. Sam's one of your best friends. Let's get an aspect from you as to what it means to you to be a mentor and to hear these stories and to see people progress.
Speaker 1:
I'll be honest, i do have tears in my eyes right now. I've. It's really been meaningful to me The ability to go from somebody who didn't have a mentor in the outdoors and didn't have really a gateway, kind of had to make that gateway myself, being able to impact other people and hear them with their passion and hear that they truly picked up the conservation element of hunting and fishing, because those are my two big things, although I do really love skiing a lot.
Speaker 4:
You used to love skiing a little more. I think I did.
Speaker 1:
I did used to be more on the mountain and over time I've kind of progressed into more of the hunting and fishing world. But really being able to see that it has had an impact on people means a lot to me. I mean, i can't even quantify it in words And really like being you know I said this in a podcast earlier but I'm going to say it again being up on Buffalo Pass and being there with all of you guys, all from different trajectories because I'm mentoring Ryan Campbell in hunting this year as well, and Dabin and I have been walking down a different direction of driving, of running dogs in the upland world It really makes me feel like I'm fulfilling a purpose.
Speaker 2:
So Oh, we appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
I'm learning a lot from you.
Speaker 2:
I mean, yeah, it means a lot to us as well.
Speaker 1:
Everything not to do. They're like just watch what he does, don't do that, don't do that.
Speaker 2:
No, not at all. No, we appreciate everything that you're teaching us And I know I've had you know mentors before, but you're taking me on another path of you know things that I didn't know and just getting me deeper involved And I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4:
And I'm sure, sam, oh yeah, i think the biggest thing, too, is learning new things is intimidating. Learning hunting is very intimidating because you have a lot of incredibly knowledgeable and talented people in that community. So to have someone like Josh, who doesn't come to you like, oh, you don't know that, it's just like let. There's just this excitement and passion with whatever he knows and is trying to teach you So that, from the get go, is great. You never feel intimidated, you never feel out of place. It's like no, let's go at your pace and you can do this. It's encouraging, it's open, there's a lot of knowledge. It's a good thing to be a part of.
Speaker 1:
As I've said on many occasions, i'm not striving to be the world's best fly angler or big game or upland hunter. My goal is to be the best teacher and mentor and gateway into the outdoors that I can be. So to hear my friends, people that I care so deeply for share the kindest words of how I have impacted them, i'm humbled and I'm honored. I want to thank them for their words and let them know that they are my motivation to give more, to reach out and to extend my hand to more people. Mentorship is a two way street, as Kirk Dieter pointed out. We, the seasoned, the more experienced, need to make sure that we play our role, to be inviting and to bring more people into our hunting and angling world. With that said, if you are seasoned, if you've been hunting or fishing or whatever in the outdoors for a while, make sure to give someone a call and invite them out with you. You won't regret it.
Speaker 1:
If you're new or thinking about getting out there, don't be afraid to ask someone to take you out. Let me be clear We are all, no matter at what level you are, an experience out here, learning every day. Even the most experienced sporting people I know are always teaching and learning from each other, so as a newcomer, you're not alone on the learning curve, just at a different point. If you need help finding someone to get you out there, drop us a line, dm us or give us a call. You can find us at wwwhookandfieldcom. Real quickly. Before we sign off, i'd like to thank Kirk Dieter of Trout Unlimited and Sam SK Nelson from Bar You Eat for taking the time to visit with us.