Hunting and fishing has changed so much since I was a kid. Of course that’s been considerably over 50 years.
That can probably be attributed to all the various rules and regulations put in place by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation over a period of time.
It seems at times that has made and still does make hunting and fishing more complicated. This isn’t to criticize that agency though. Without what the state agency has done throughout the years we wouldn’t have some of the many hunting and fishing opportunities we enjoy today.
When I started going along with my dad as he hunted doves and ducks, I wasn’t aware of many other species to hunt. I tagged along from the time I was 3½ or 4 to pick up the doves he shot.
I was around 4 or 5 when I was sitting in a duck blind with him thinking to myself why am I here doing this nearly freezing to death. Guess because I wanted to be with him though I couldn’t even see what he and his hunting buddy were trying to shoot.
Fishing was simple. My grandfather Doc and Uncle Eddie really taught me how to fish. Dad tagged along some as I recall.
We went to farm ponds of relatives either out in the Deer Creek area west of Edmond or to my aunt and uncle’s acreage off of S.E. 89th Street east of Sunnylane Road in south Oklahoma City. We used worms, frozen shrimp or minnows for bait in those days.
When I was around 10, I guess, I started carrying my first gun, a bolt action .410 and shot my first dove at that age on a farm owned by my great grandmother. At 12, I began quail hunting and if doves weren’t challenging enough, quail for sure were.
I got my first 20-gauge, a side by side, as an eighth grade graduation present from dad and mother. That made hunting doves, ducks and quail a little easier. Not as easy though as when I advanced to a 12-gauge over and under and then on to a 12-gauge pump shotgun.
At about the age of 24 I finally bought my first semi-automatic, then at 25 my second one.
I was aware other species were available to hunt but about the only one I heard much about was deer. Where we hunted doves, quail, rabbits and ducks, we only occasionally came across a deer.
The first really big buck I saw was out west hunting Black Kettle land when I was a high school sophomore.
My deer hunting was limited and it was the mid-80s before I began really hunting them.
It was 1985 when I went on my first wild turkey hunt and I successfully bagged a gobbler in northwestern Oklahoma.
Never did much lake fishing either. Went striper fishing for the first time in 1986 and caught a 20-pounder the following year. I have been striper fishing lots of times, though, since I began doing it.
I still like fishing in farm ponds.
All the changes in the rules and regulations have made for better and more abundant opportunities for hunters and fishermen to enjoy. Not that I agree with all of them. At least I know there is a reason for them whether I like all of them or not, and there are plenty of rules and regulations I don’t know about because I don’t pay attention to most of those unless they impact what I hunt and fish.