Goin fishn...confessions by Gary Fultz

" I'm going fishing" It's biblical you know...Peter said it a few days after Jesus was crucified. Personally I don't need any excuse to make that kind of announcement in our house...Amen?
    We all go fishing in one way or another. It's no different  illustration for our lives than the old "Scavenger hunt" so many youth groups do for a fun time. Are we not always looking for something...bigger? better? fun? challenging? learning? growing? outwitting the competition? enjoying the hunt? ...we are fishing! Yes.. you tweeters and bloggers are fishing! (admit it).
    I am a very simple man and getting more adamant about it. Bought the sign and the T-shirt and thinking about the business..."Gone Fishn".
    Some of us have passions that run deep. Mine do...just ask anyone who knows me (I have a list of those people and everyone else is stretching the truth!). Hi...ummm. I'm Gary and I like to fish.

 It's taken 55 years to get towards the tipping point where I can sometimes say I am in control of my passions. I am driven toward but not driven by....Fishing, hunting, photography, wilderness adventure, story telling, and hobnobbing with people who do!
     I know that family, jobs, and other relationships are vitally important and it has been my  most important relationship (with my creator - Jesus Christ) which has led the quest to harness (not balance...that tower tipped a long time ago) and excel in the passions I was created to have.
    I have a few roads "not taken" in life but I have to say not as many as most people when it comes to adventure and risk taking ventures in the wild (I have been where that link takes you by the way).This brings to mind one last point before I head out of the house to go stand on the ice and fish with some guys who don't know yet they need to go fishing today....Why take the easy route? After 55 trips to my beloved BWCAW area (these pictures were taken there), I have learned and relearned the greater value by far lies in going where most people will not (at least 55% of the time).

From this campsite...I have watched the sun rise
   
   
  fog lift...
sun turn to...rain...to sleet...to snow...from 60 degrees to 19 degrees in 48 hours. caught limits of wall hanging walleye, pike, and lake trout, watched a monster whitetail buck jump off this small rock cliff into the lake and swim between the islands and disappear. We were left with what-ever was chasing him. Around the corner a moose charged out of the brush and swam by one of our canoes. Nearby my brother caught and released a 36" lake trout (his first ever and no camera), notched the paddle to measure later (I'm compiling 4 trips worth of stories from this campsite alone as it's one of our favorite way-points to many other adventures). Oh...I forgot to mention that there is a little lake nearby with no trail to it (bull through the heavy brush with a canoe in tow) to find more big pike (our smallest is about 8 pounds so far) and another hair raising moose story for another day.
   My wife and I were on a couples trip when 2.5 million trees were downed in 100mph winds.  One of our teen trips rescued a drowning man in a rapids area, A guys trip helped 2 guys out who had stages of hypothermia, lost packs, and a holy (literally) canoe from trying a waterfall (they thought it was a rapids (deadly whoops...). A Youth Directors Training Trip was bestowed huge amounts of food. Seems a couple of guys who decided two days out of their 10 day trip was enough adventure (benefits of four inches of heavy snow mixed with surfers from California)....there I go... story telling again!
    My point is this...harness your passions to accomplish the things God has created you for. To know Him, acknowledge Him in all you do, who you are and who you are becoming, and help others in this adventurous journey we call Life. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the  life..."
    So now I'm Goin Fishn...gonna take somebody along...

you like trout?
Gary D