Anyone hunt or fish for everything available?

I try to go hard as my free time will allow after everything I can.

I fish for whatever is open and able to be caught, I net smelt in the spring. Pike in the spring, bass in summer and walleye in the fall. Rainbow trout in early spring, and Lakers in winter.

Trap everything that's open as time allows, foot snare bears, and snare wolves in winter. Fisher and marten are always fun! Nuisance animal control spring through fall. When snowshoeing and snowmobiling my favorite activity is snaring varying hare in the snow.

I bowhunt bear and deer. And make sure to take a few grouse a year too.

Really enjoy shooting diver ducks late fall too, and get a few geese and puddle ducks as well early season. Nothing like decoying bluebill, ringneck, goldeneye, bufflehead, and hooded merganzer.

About the only thing I haven't been able to do is hunt moose. Just a time thing. Getting time off work is tough at that time of year.

Anyone else do their best to enjoy hunting, fishing and trapping as much as possible?

You're lucky. You have access to a lot of game.

Not any more.
Hardly hunt or fish much anymore. Actually my daughter has started hunting and when her husband can’t go with her I have. ..and carry a custom rifle I built for Dad but he never scored with before he passed.

Yes i fish in spring and summer and hunt and trap in fall and winter

Me and my kids do our fair share of chasing as much as we can. Turkeys, fishing, and bowfishing in the spring and summer. Then ducks and deer in the fall to early winter. First of the year we start trapping and chasing rabbits.

3 of seven dinners each week are from the wild. It would be more but being the sole builder of our retirement home time for cooking is limited.

Since a young kid, I hunted n fished my tail off until just a few years ago.
Never went out for sports, no prom, none of that.
Gun,bow,slingshot or fishing rod.
I have slowed down a "bit" last few years. Not sure why?

I hunt moose,caribou, elk,deer,bear,waterfowl,grouse,turkey,rabbits with beagles,bobcat and bear with hounds,open water and ice fish,trap,and find moose and deer shed antlers.When not doing all that I'm scouting.

Time and weather are my biggest enemies. But I enjoy hunting for mountain goats, ptarmigan, blacktails, ducks/geese and black bear (in that order). I fish for salmon, halibut, ooligan for sport and commercial fish for king salmon, blackcod, shrimp and crab. I also enjoy beach combing in the spring and prospecting after trapping season ends. I primarily target wolves but marten, mink and otter are more frequently caught. I also trap beaver for myself and nuisance beaver for the forest service or private. Last fall I helped trap/collar a wolf for the fish and game to monitor with hopes of being included on kill site sweeps in a helicopter but never got approved for that. The collared wolfs territory overlaps my trapline so I’m waiting to come across a wolf print with a long toenail.

I don't waste my time any more fishing for sport. If I fish, I want to take fish to eat. hunting is too hard for me any more. So try and trap a little. I can't trap all of the things I used to... so now, trap a few coon, a few rats (if any around) and and a mink or 2. Prices are so bad there isn't any money in it and it doesn't seem like much of a sport to take something you can't or don't use. Tanning what I now trap and trying to perfect that chore. One day will make some wearable pieces.

Garry-

Most of my life Hutchy,living in Abitibi Canyon hunting fishing and trapping was 24/7/365.

Yep everything possible.

I lived a vicious cycle when I was in Alaska, I chased anything with fins, fur or feathers year round. Now it's mostly deer.

Yep. Everything is fair game for me wherever I am on this world. Different seasons, different states, different animals.

That's always been my goal, but at this stage in life work and family usually take precedence. When the stars and schedule align though, there's always something to chase or catch. Spring bear, fall moose and winter trapping are my main goals.

yes !!!, I'm outside chasing some thing all the time , and keeping the freezer full ,

Really great replies so far. I realize the luck that ensured i was born here as opposed to in the city somewhere, to have had the mentors and opportunities I have had.

I am 34, and thinking about having a kid or two now, so things will likely slow a bit because of that but the goal is to do this forever.

It seems like we're either hunting, fishing or trapping or planning to. It starts with spring turkey and ends with ice fishing and then the cycle starts again. My favorite fall days are duck hunting the morning, fish mid-day and bow hunt the afternoon- our annual triathlon.
Turkey, grouse, bear, deer, ducks, pheasants catch & release smallies and muskies- keep and eat walleyes, cats and panfish. I'm having as much fun managing our deer hunting property than hunting, my legacy - their future.

I don't hunt much. I did. I got bored. I'll still hunt small game with my son. When he's out of the house, I'm probably done.

I fish a lot for whatever I can fish for. Salt or fresh water. My son would tell you I don't catch fish, I just fish. I catch some. If I spend an afternoon fishing and come home empty handed, I still had a good time.

Started hobby trapping last year. So far, it's been a lot of fun. Wish I had discovered this 20 years ago when I got bored with hunting deer. Hunting deer is suspiciously like sitting in the cold all day. Trapping keeps me moving, exploring, trying to figure things out. Trying to figure out, within an inch or so, where an animal is going to stick it's head - is more interesting to me than trying to get a deer to come within 50 yards of me.

You guys better get as much in now as possible, cause there will come a day when everything hurts so much you'd rather sit next to the stove....

Don't you guys know there are grocery stores to get your food where no animals have to be harmed?

You could use all that time to watch sports instead.

Things wont slow down at all when you have kids,Hutchy.
They will become part of what you do and your life will be much fuller for it.
My son came bear hunting with me when he was 3 months old.
If trapping hunting and fishing is a way of life for your family that wont change when you have kids.Your kids will become a part of it.
You will make sacrifices if you put your kids into organized sports like hockey at a young age.

Lol

I never watched sports with any regularity now. What makes you think I would start?

It's been the driving force of my entire life. Always hard at it for as long as I can remember. When a wife then kids came along that now hunt, it really keeps me humping to make it all come together. My boy is still too young to help with stands, skinning and dragging. I've had nights with 5 or 6 deer on the truck and I'm the only one that skins and processes. I thought I might slow down coming up on 50 but I'm not sure that I can. My son wanted to shoot or catch everything from the time he could speak, just waiting until it's HIS turn to drag the ol man's buck![img]http://[/img]

I seriously can't think of anything (other than combat fishing for steelhead and chinook) that occurs within a hundred miles of me that I don't partake in, and that's pretty much 365 days of the year. Black bears, white-tails, elk, pronghorn, wolves, coyotes, red foxes, marten, mink, badgers, beaver, weasels, skunks, coon, cottontails, chukars, huns, blue grouse, ruffed grouse, spruce grouse, mourning doves, Eurasian collared doves, whitefish, smallmouth bass, crappie, rainbows, eastern brook trout, catfish, bullheads, yellow perch, carp, red squirrels, etc. Can't imagine life any other way.

Jack

No. I could not possibly eat everything I could kill. Some of it I wouldn't want to eat.

Things don't slow down with kids they pick up. Enjoy all the same things with them at your side

This is the truth. I haven't shot a deer all year and only a few in the last several. I'm to busy taking my boys. They are 8 and 10. The 8 year old shot 4 the 10 1 this year. The 10 has been letting several walk for the first time.

Awesome

Used to until a few years back. Especially on my rez.
When I was young big game was OTC and we could hunt small game and waterfowl in the city

I chased whatever was in season year round until a couple years ago when my body started falling apart. I still get out a lot but I am a lot slower. I was checking ice today for ice fishing and looking for a coyote. I don't get locked in on one thing whatever sounds good when I wake up.

Each year that goes by and the kids are getting older we are doing a lot more fishing than anything else. I really wanted to spend a lot of time trapping this year, but the kids only want to ice fish. None of them are wanting to go trapping.
I guess the heater in the ice shack is nice!

So now we are planning trips to lakes we’ve never fished before. So that will be fun!

I bow/rifle hunt deer. Shoot dove/ducks/geese. Live, work, and trap for turkeys, lol. Trap for anything that will put it’s little hands/paws in a DP or foot hold. And when’s nothing is in season or it’s too hot to trap I’m still outdoors walking and learning the land or looking for points.
I fish for bass/bream/catfish or whatever the pond/lake has to offer. I fish saltwater for trout and reds...care less about offshore fishing.
As long as I get to see the sunrise it really doesn’t matter to me what I’m doing outdoors.

I would disagree a little bit with a couple other guys here... I'm 32 with a 2 and 4 year old. It's my experience that things slow down before they pick back up. When the wife is 9 months pregnant and for a week or 2 postpartum, she really likes having you around more than usual, so I cut back for a few weeks then. When the first kid was an infant, it didn't matter too much whether I was around. But there's a period between say 6 months and 3 or 4 years when the kids miss you ( and you miss them!) if you're gone but they aren't big enough to bring all the time. Yes you CAN take them out, and I do, but it's simple logistics that you can't accomplish as much with a toddler along. It's hard to keep a 2 year old quiet in a tree stand, or warm on a snowmachine at 20 below while getting on and off to set traps. Field dressing big game in the bear woods requires enough vigilance without a toddler present. Maybe my problem is that I do pretty much everything by myself. I have packed both of my kids many miles, but of course it means less other gear I can carry.
During that baby-toddler period we still get outside a lot but we do easier, closer to home activities like grouse hunting and fishing, summer camping, prospecting, and projects around home. They love fur and "helping" with skinning, bait, trap prep, building boxes and boards, etc.

IMO, when kids get around 4 or 5 is when it really gets fun, they are big enough to take along, take part and hold up most of a day. Your mileage may vary.