Feb 21, 2026 5 min read

When was the last time you took a kid fishing?

How about a deer hunt? Stomping for pheasants at the Game Lands? Even a nature walk or shed hunting?

I am neglecting my duties as a mentor more than ever. I’m retired. I’ve never had more time (supposedly) than I have right now. But I have doctor appointments. I’m not around kids as much as when I was a classroom teacher and my relationships are dwindling. I just don’t have the energy I once did. I can continue with the cheap excuses but that’s all they really are. Excuses.

What I really need to do is find a way to include a youngster. Make time. Overcome the temptation to let someone else do it. Go out of my way to bring a kid along for the ride. We think that introducing a kid to the great outdoors has to involve some elaborate setup culminating in the harvesting of a monster buck. In our mind’s eye, we romantically picture such an occasion, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. There are dozens of ways to capture nature for a youngster that don’t involve a great deal of time or expense but will plant seeds of interest for the would-be outdoorsman.

As I ponder 60 years in the field, I can boil down my core experiences to a handful of days, if not outings that were instrumental in cementing my fascination with the outdoors. They were not complicated nor were they overly drawn out. These are the experiences I encourage you to give kids which will pay dividends for decades if not generations to come.

Taking a walk with my dad in the evenings was an uncommon pleasure. He worked constantly so making time to simply wander the woods was an unexpected treat. I can’t say that we took part in these woods walks with any great frequency but I always learned something from him. Plant identification, woodscraft, land navigation were all instilled, merely through exposure. This was no specific curriculum and certainly never taught in any formal setting but rather learned via casual exposure.

Catching bluegills at Uncle Blair’s Waynesburg Lakes was certainly the humble beginnings of my fishing interests. Baiting a hook, removing a fish, playing out a fighter, exhibiting a little patience, examining the environment, were all learned on the water. While it seemed like an all-day affair, it was probably more like a couple of hours on the dock followed by a cookout with our family – some of my favorite memories as a kid. The one scene that I found most fascinating was when we ran out of bluegill bait like cheese, bread, worms, etc. I can recall Dad pulling apart a cigarette butt and dipping it in a bottle of cod liver oil he kept in his tackle box. It saved the day for a few more casts and a couple more fish, but the awe with which he handled the situation was something special that has lived on in my memory.

When I was 17, I got a job as a summer camp counselor. Daily walks with our camp naturalist, John Mangus, proved instrumental in promoting my love for and knowledge of the woods. We learned so much by simply strolling through the forest and listening to John’s encyclopedic knowledge as a forester come to life. Be assured every lesson contained a hands-on example of slimy frog, stinky plant or colorful mushroom. Walking along from time to time as a grown adult, I’ll be reminded of one of John’s pearls of wisdom, even some 40 years later.

Think you have a little one who is too young, too impatient, too whatever? Put them in the front seat of a kayak or canoe, paddle down a stream and let the vista unfold around each bend. Spotting ducks, a blue heron, muskrat, eagles, deer, beaver, etc. will add to their personal mystery of the woods. Each encounter will help reinforce the quiet necessary for the prospect of seeing something new and exciting and unknown that lies ahead. Junior has to do relatively nothing but hang onto the gunnels and be amazed. When things get a little antsy on the water, pull over and get out to stretch the legs, have a snack, make a fire, turn over rocks, climb trees, or fish. The possibilities are endless and as flexible as you’d care to make them.

Take a “practice hunt” to prepare your youngster for the coming big day. Go through the preparations and schedule ahead of time that you would normally keep for a deer hunt. Since one needs no rifle on a practice hunt, there is one less item to provide distraction from the task at hand, which is more or less to control the environment when it comes time to hunt for real. If you find that their attention span begins to fade as the sun gets higher in the sky then you can always shift gears and turn the affair into a woods walk, lasting as long as their focus does. Lunch at McDonald’s provides a great forum to discuss the morning’s experience. My bet is that it will make the actual coming deer hunt a bit more pleasurable.

The future of hunting and fishing is now. The best activity is anything active and anything that peaks a kid’s interest. And the best time to engage in such an outing is now.

Dave Bates writes a weekly outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at alphaomegashootingsolutions@gmail.com