HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED….?
By Bob Jensen

As a person who spends quite a bit of time outdoors, it’s kind of interesting to see how anglers and hunters go about their days in the outdoors. We really do some very strange things. For instance, have you ever noticed…?

How much some folks complain about getting up early to go to work, but not to go hunting or fishing. We grumble when the alarm clock goes off at six a.m. for work, but when that same alarm starts making its annoying noise at four a.m. on a hunting or fishing day, we bail right out of bed.

Along those same lines, goose hunters seem to be particularly anxious to get into the field. They’re out there setting up decoy spreads at five a.m. even though the geese never start flying until seven or seven thirty. Then, once the sun comes up, the goose hunters have to re-set the decoys just to make the spread look halfway decent.

Have you ever noticed that most of the time anglers have to go to the other side of the lake to fish? They put in at the boat ramp way on the west side of the lake, then travel to the east side of the lake to fish.

At the same time, the anglers who put their boat in on the east side go to the west side to fish.

Have you ever noticed that anglers who are fishing from shore cast their lures or bait as far as they can out into the lake, while anglers in boats cast their lures as close to shore as they can?

Have you ever noticed that outdoors-people sometimes have their priorities out of whack when it comes to the cost of things? I’ve heard outdoors-folk complain about the high cost of health insurance, then they spend hundreds of dollars on a parka that will keep them warm up to thirty below zero, even though they don’t go outside if it’s colder than ten above zero.

Have you ever noticed that some people are extremely tidy in the kitchen, they wash their hands several times and get all uptight about cleanliness while preparing a meal? Then, in the boat, they’ll eat a sandwich with worm dirt and fish slime all over their hands and not even think about it. I’m that way.

No one ever said that outdoors-people weren’t quirky. Heck, our idea of a good time is too sit in a boat during the hottest days of summer or on a bucket on the ice during the coldest days of winter hoping that a fish bites. And we think that’s normal behavior. If you watch us closely, you might notice that from time to time we do things that are really odd, like those mentioned above.

For more fish-catching information, visit fishingthemidwest.com