Youth Outdoors -May-June 2007

Ali Coombes, Age 8
First trout

Nicky Coombes, Age 5
First fish

By Alexis Coombes

I have been fishing since I was 3 years old. I’m 9 years old now. My dad took me fishing my first time. I like fishing. I knew I was going to catch a fish on this day. I don’t eat fish but I would like my job to be fishing. I went trout fishing with Bob, Coop, my brother and my mom. Bob took us to a river in PA. When we got to the right spot it was beautiful. It looked like little water falls. We had to wear tall boots and still got wet which was great. My brother is 5 years old and wanting to just play in the water. I was afraid he would scare all the fish away. After a little while I felt a little tug on the string. It was so exciting. I was like “I got one, I got one!!”.
This was my mom’s first time fishing for trout. She just put her pole in the water and lifted it up and caught a big ole trout. She said it was like fly fishing because it was so easy and fast. The boys were mad because us girls caught the fish and they didn’t.
Some people don’t like fish. They should try it again because they might like it even more than me. So grab a pole and Start Fishing!!

Logan Willoughby, Age 15
Shotgun, Carroll County, OH

By Logan Willoughby

The date was November 27, 2006. We arrived before daylight around 6:30. We had to wait for my uncle. He arrived ten minutes later at our little hot spot in Carroll County. We all set up at different spots far form each other, but still in walkie talkie range. We sat until lunch time, and headed in. Exchanged stories, and returned for more. While the other two sat on the same location, I moved on a steep hill. After about two hours of that spot I rang my dad up, and told him I would be moving to the tree stand. So I circled around the hill down to the tree stand. I climbed in, but the daylight was fading to fast for me. When of my mind blowing amazement what I thought was a decent six point stood up from a brush pile sixty yards away.
The crazy thing is that to get to the top of the hill when I first entered I walked with in ten feet of this deer because the road was right beside the brush pile. So I pulled up my Mossberg model 535 with a 2-3/4 inch Breneke rifle slug. The deer was heading on a trail to circle right to my stand. Instead I saw an opening he hopped the log right before it, and I stopped him with a whistle. At an estimated 75 yards the pin hit the primer, and down he went. I approached with excitement, and realized he was much bigger thirteen points to be exact. I have always saw mounts with the bullet they shot the deer with so I looked, and found it. To my amazement the bullets point and rifling were still visible even with a shoulder pass through. So from there we tagged, showed it off, check it in, sent to get mounted, and also processed. I would have to say it was a very good second