Opening Cast – January 2024

The Opening Cast

by Richard Simms

Life is tough!

If you are well-rounded sportsman, not just a diehard crappie addict, winter is a confusing time of year.

One friend wants me to come and share a duck blind for a few days.

Another asked me to go deer hunting (actually I asked to go with him… but for the sake of argument…).

And still another friend says he is smokin’ winter crappie on my home lake.

Deer hunting can be painful in the fearsome cold, when the thermometer does backflips. But the sunrises are a sight to behold.

Duck hunting in the swamps can be even colder! But the sight of cupped wings drifting down toward the decoys – it gets my blood pumping just writing about it.

Of course, it would be just as cold, or colder, on the water chasing crappie. Especially for my northern counterparts where the water is as hard as, well, ice!

But the crappie don’t seem to mind as much as ducks and deer if we pause to stomp our feet and clap our hands. And cold water crappie are the tastiest fish on a plate.

Yes, life is tough.

Whatever choice you make, resolve to do try something new – invite a new friend along, take a kid, fish a new lake or try a new technique. Just be happy you have made it to a New Year and the opportunity to enjoy our bountiful natural resources.

Richard Simms, Editor

“The outdoors is not a place, it’s a state of mind.”