Doing The Best We Can With What We Have

Doing The Best We Can With What We Have

Mission Statement

With the expanded use of social media today, it is easy to look at others' lives and wish you were them. There are a handful of fortunate individuals who get to hunt and fish for a living. There are others who's circumstances allow them to spend more time in the outdoors than most. The truth is.. the majority of us are average people. Average men and women who do the best we can with what we have. For us, every hunt is public land. Every hunt is DIY. We will most likely never own a Yeti, our Igloos will have to do. Never look down range through the lens of a Swarovski or wear anything adorned with the Sitka logo. We will never have a hunting magazine, never be the stars of our own hunting show, become prostaff members, or receive free gear. We have a limited number of days off each year, and limited funds to spend. This does not however crush our spirit or curb our enthusiasm for the great outdoors. We will take every opportunity we get to enjoy the Streams, Lakes and Mountains.

We do not criticize those more fortunate than us. Our hope is to appeal to hunters just like us. Those with limited time, limited assets, limited resources, marginal gear, yet, 100% passion.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

1st of Many Spring Trip Posts

I feel like we have a pretty good handle on the spring trip and what it takes to make it a success. (we are still tweaking the Loa trip, but this one we pull off easily) The purpose of this post is to review some of the staples that make this trip such a good one and see if any of you have any other ideas...

1. Outfits/costumes
This is a perennial favorite of the trip! Who knows what we are going to see every year?? I have no reason to believe that this year will be any different

2. Good Food - as long as we remember the eggs for our fish fry night
3. Hot Rod and Evolution - just wouldn't be the same without them because we can't ever seem to get the t.v. working
4. The scooter to get down to the bathroom
5. Mike Vick
6. Apple Juices in the wine fridge
7. Plenty of new tackle (most of my brand new lures end up at the bottom)
8. Bryce
9. Funny Barnacle hose, and Billy the Bass comments
10. Farts
11. Bryce always surprises us with hot wings from the restaurant when our spirits are down
12. Uncle Donnie
13. Matt providing the food (this year we have come across some new buffalo chicken strips that will be making their SLAM Outdoors debut at the spring trip)
14. The annual spring trip t-shirt (now in the designing phase)

We have had some successful and some not so successful trips but when we have something go wrong (ie.. an in-line fuse go out) we are still able to have a good time. After last year though, I feel like when the fishing is slow, we are knowledgeable and skilled enough to make adjustments and still catch fish in some way.

And now.... a quote from the end of last year's spring trip post:

"Is Slam Outdoors' luck beginning to change??? It's hard not to believe it is after this trip. I just can't say enough about my gear! And I can't stress enough the importance of off season meetings.

So, as you can see, the vice president and I have now landed our first 3+ pound large mouths on the same trip!!!"

That's all I have to say about that... now, please realize that this trip is going to be on top of us before we know it.... It would behoove us to start preparing now. But, no matter what, this year's trip is sure to be the best ever!

Please feel free to add any items I may have over looked that make this trip such a success for us so that we don't forget anything important or anything different you would like to see implemented this year.

4 comments:

  1. We could probably do without the kite flying this year. I really enjoyed the long drive competition. I might try to integrate a new movie into the lineup this spring. Great post! Thanks for the jump start.

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  2. I agree the kite flying didn't go so well and really we have no business flying kites. The long drive challenge is always a hit and we should probably make sure Mike Vick is ready to go. I have a feeling he is just a few onside kicks away from having his laces pop.

    I'm real excited about the 2012 shirts, and also looking forward to some striped bass fillets on the grill.

    As far as the movies go, Evolution is a must if for no other reason than for the Lake Powell references.

    Special thanks again to the Metcalf's for the 5-star living quarters.

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  3. Wow!!! I feel honored to have made the list. I am looking forward to another great trip. Hopefully there won’t be a need for any pick-me-up wings. I would like to complement Matt on the food last year, outstanding! I have two buckets of golf balls for the longest drive competition, and for the kite flying, I personally liked flying a kite in hurricane type winds. This year we shouldn’t do anything Cody suggests. I would also like to thank the Metcalf’s for their kindness and support on our adventures. Lets do all we can to make this year bigger and better than last year. I’m always up for a trip to Cabela’s or Smith and Edwards, so let me know if we need anything. SLAM cove, here we come!!

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  4. We should tell the restraunt to change the name of their wings to: "Pick me up wings". That is exactly what they do! I have yet to play phase 10. I just barely noticed Pete's "Rico" picture! ha ha. Thanks for the laugh Bryce.

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