What are your 2018 outdoor goals?

[BeastMan]

Mine:

-Fish a kayak tournament
-kill a deer with an arrow
-film video footage of catching fish from the yak

[LandDawg]

Do u mean 2018? Or the rest of 2017? Not being a smartass.

For 2018....
- kill a buck on the property I just bought (1st piece of land ever owned)

- kill a turkey on above property

- kill turkey with a bow

[BeastMan]

Haha totally meant 2018. I’m a dubmass

[Randolph Dupree]

-Green heads in Arkansas (should check that this weekend)
-Nice buck from new property (20? main beam minimum) and one for the boy too.
-turkey w/bow and another for my 9-year old
-freezer full of specs and reds (already have a few, and caught them all with my son on his birthday...it was awesome)
-Elk meat in the freezer (will have to wait until October)

**if I can get a gator tag this would be my best year ever.

[WeWillScrewItUp]

-Get the Homochitto Forest turkey monkey off my back in the spring.

-Guide little brother in law to first turkey

[Barking 13]

Just to get the opportunity to fish

[Howboutdemdogs]

Welp, same as 2017:

- move the shooting houses in April ( which are still in the same spots as 2016-2017 season)
- insulate all shooting houses so the girls will not bitch about it being too cold ( still have the same sides up as last year)
- put windows in all shooting houses ( still have open holes for the cold to get in and allow the buzzards to roast)
- get more motivated to accomplish my list.

[Prediction? Pain.]

Since my outdoor time in 2018 will be just as limited as it was in 2017 -- my kids turn 4 and 2 next year -- my goals are pretty modest:

1. Find a way to hike more often and visit some of the waterfalls and vistas I've been neglecting

2. Do No. 1 without screwing up my prematurely aging knees

3. Spot a salamander or two on a trail, preferably with a kid in tow

4. Figure out a way to skew my kids' hiking:carried-by-dad's-out-of-shape-carcass ratio in my favor.

[BeastMan]

Since my outdoor time in 2018 will be just as limited as it was in 2017 -- my kids turn 4 and 2 next year -- my goals are pretty modest:

1. Find a way to hike more often and visit some of the waterfalls and vistas I've been neglecting

2. Do No. 1 without screwing up my prematurely aging knees

3. Spot a salamander or two on a trail, preferably with a kid in tow

4. Figure out a way to skew my kids' hiking:carried-by-dad's-out-of-shape-carcass ratio in my favor.

Man I’m right there with you on the finding time issue b/c of kids. I have an 11 month old and an any day now.

[BrunswickDawg]

Man I’m right there with you on the finding time issue b/c of kids. I have an 11 month old and an any day now.

Been there Beast and Pain. Mine were a little farther apart at 20 months, but it ain't easy. My wife made up a song about it - "Two kids under the age of 2, two kids under 2; Oh, my God what the **** did we do? Two kids under the age of 2!"

I'm on the other end of that now. Spent this past year driving to Starkville too many times for Senior testing, band tryouts, orientation, and moving my daughter. I'll spend 2018 taking my son on college visits. He can't decide between MSU, UGA, GT, or MTSU and can't decide on computers or music. I spent exactly 1 day on the water this year.

The trick is finding the right way to get your kids hooked on fishing, hiking, or whatever you do outdoors. Some love it, some don't. The thing I found with fishing was that the first 2 real trips I took them on - one for Rainbows in North Georgia, the other an in-shore charter here on the coast - the fishing was amazing. I spent all my time baiting their hooks and pulling fish off the line. They caught their limits, it was exciting, and they had fun. As well all know - that ain't always fishing.

[Prediction? Pain.]

Man I’m right there with you on the finding time issue b/c of kids. I have an 11 month old and an any day now.

Congrats on your second kid, Beast. The rumors you've heard are true -- yes, the second will probably be completely different than the first, and, double yes, having two is much more than twice as hard as having one.


Been there Beast and Pain. Mine were a little farther apart at 20 months, but it ain't easy. My wife made up a song about it - "Two kids under the age of 2, two kids under 2; Oh, my God what the **** did we do? Two kids under the age of 2!"

I'm on the other end of that now. Spent this past year driving to Starkville too many times for Senior testing, band tryouts, orientation, and moving my daughter. I'll spend 2018 taking my son on college visits. He can't decide between MSU, UGA, GT, or MTSU and can't decide on computers or music. I spent exactly 1 day on the water this year.

The trick is finding the right way to get your kids hooked on fishing, hiking, or whatever you do outdoors. Some love it, some don't. The thing I found with fishing was that the first 2 real trips I took them on - one for Rainbows in North Georgia, the other an in-shore charter here on the coast - the fishing was amazing. I spent all my time baiting their hooks and pulling fish off the line. They caught their limits, it was exciting, and they had fun. As well all know - that ain't always fishing.

That's good advice. I've done my damnedest to get my kids out on the trail with me as much as possible and cultivate an appreciation for the outdoors. I think (or at least hope) that my efforts have had an impact. My daughter loves waterfalls, streams, big trees, mushrooms, rock formations, and all the other stuff we're lucky enough to see those regularly where we live. Hell, she even spontaneously decided to go camping in our back yard over the summer and did it up like a champ, gawking at fireflies and gazing at stars through our tent's mesh roof. And every time we go outside, my son either wants me to pick him up and take him over to touch tree trunks and branches, or put him in my kid-carrying backpack and just walk wherever. (Beast, if you don't have on of those backpacks, I highly suggest that you look into it. I've had great luck with my Osprey (https://www.osprey.com/us/en/product/poco-ag-plus-POCOPLUS_609.html), especially with our youngest, and use it all the time. Hikes, walks around the neighborhood, out running errands, at the rare outdoor social event we're able to attend, or just around the house if he's being fussy and not letting me get stuff done (which is pretty much all the time).)

Good luck with y'all's college decision, Brunswick. I can't even imagine doing that with my toddlers, who are more like drunken gnomes than future 18-year-old humans. Sounds like your son's got some pretty good options and will be picking from two pretty interesting areas of study.

[SapperDawg]

1. Attend Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Rendezvous in Boise, ID.

2. Elk hunt in CO or pronghorn hunt in WY.

3. Kill one turkey in North AL.

4. Catch a smallmouth bass.

5. First camping trip with my six year old daughter.

[basedog]

Headed to Jackson Hole in Feb for a 3 day guided snowmobile trip in Yellowstone.

See more of the Country, mostly mountain tops.

Ride my bike at least 50 miles, maybe 60.

Kill another wall hanger.

[SpeckleDawg]

- Get my son a lot of practice shooting with his BB gun and get him in the stand more

- Roosterfish in Costa Rica - Already have this one booked and can't wait.

- And, as usual, hoping to catch that 10lb speck...it's not going too well. Really though, just anything bigger than my current best.

[louisvilledawg]

1. Kill 1 drake mallard. Don't get to hunt ducks much since I'm from Louisville and live in Madison now. I've gone a couple times at the PR WMA but only tagged along with buddies that have boats, and even then, didn't have many (if at all) mallards work.
2. Continue the streak of killing a deer with my bow. Going on 5 years now
3. Kill a turkey. My line of work doesn't allow for much time spent in the turkey woods so I will have to be efficient.

[Offshore Dawg]

To get out of the woods at the end of the season without getting shot or shooting somebody. This is the minimum.

[Uncle Ruckus]

Run a marathon
Run a marathon
Run a marathon

And catch a triple tail