I saw an article on NOLA.com that posed this question. If, for the rest of your days, you could only do one or the other, which would it be? For me, the answer is pretty easy. Fishing. You can do it year round and I like the taste of saltwater fish better than any deer or even duck. But it really comes down to being able to fish whenever I want. Plus, you are much more active in fishing. I don't like sitting for extended periods doing nothing.
For me, my hunting is limited (unless I want to travel long distances). I live on the Coast. I love to hunt, but fishing is in my blood. I do not consider myself a "hunter" (although I've hunted and killed many different types of game). I do, however, consider myself a fisherman.
I enjoy both a lot but not nearly as much since losing my dad/partner. With two daughters it's not the driving discussion here. I used to lose my freakin mind when hunting season rolled around. Duck hunted dam near every day during teal and first split. Never thought I'd say this but I would choose fishing. Reason being, I fish year-round and I can be more selective on the weather when I do choose to go.
Year round is exactly why I chose fishing. When I was hard core duck hunting, I went every chance I got, regardless of weather. Now I have a lot of fun just making a lap around my parent's small lake in their front yard catching bass and bream. I truly love saltwater fishing, but it's an all day thing and it's rare that I have that kind of time to invest anymore.
I used to hunt pheasant, duck, canadian goose, rabbit, squirrel and ocassionally deer... but all of those things have seasons and sometimes the weather ain't the most enjoyable to get out in to to do so. Not only that, the gear for hunting is much more expensive than fishing gear (for the most part). But I have always fished, mainly for largemouth bass and white perch and enjoy spending time with my 9 yr old doing so... Bass fishing is what I spend most of my outdoor time doing these days, but that damn 10 pounder is still eluding me although i've come close to it a few times.
You must have never bought any big game fishing equipment. It's easy to invest a small fortune. But, I guess all hobbies are as expensive as you let them be.
Yeah, the fact that deer hunting is during the football season f'n sucks, too. I killed my first deer in Kemper County, MS (Near Meridian which is kinda/sorta close to Tuscaloosa) in the evening. I woke up early that morning and drove all the way to Baton Rouge and went to the Arkansas game. That's when they had McFadden, Peyton Hillis and Felix Jones. We lost to them in double OT. I then drove back to my crib. After that weekend was over, I was beat down. I felt like I had to chose between football and hunting b/c both was too hard.
A friend of mine once told me that if you don't use a gun or a rod and reel, it ain't a sport. This was at a Superbowl party and his team was getting killed. Hunting is too much work. I have been deer hunting maybe 10 or 12 times in my life, usually at the urging of some friend who was a fanatic about it and I have never even seen a deer in the woods during hunting season, much less gotten a shot. Duck hunting was fun when I was a kid. My grandfather had a camp in the marshes of Southwest Louisiana and we would hunt from a blind with decoys in the water. My Grandad would call the ducks in, we would shoot them and his dog would go get the dead ducks and bring them back. By the time I was 13 or 14 he was getting old and he gave up his hunting lease. Flash forward to when I was about 35, the last time I went duck hunting. Two friends and myself took a freezing boat ride for about an hour until it was starting to get a little bit of light outside. We stopped by a cypress swamp/forest near Lake Maurepas and the guy driving the boat said we were there. Two steps after getting out of the boat I sunk waist deep in quicksand. After making my way to a small clearing and sinking in more quicksand three more times I didn't want to go any further and risk getting lost or dying in quicksand. (My friends had each gone off in separate directions.) I could hear a lot of shooting and a little bit of quacking and finally a very scared duck flying very fast flew over my little clearing among the tall cypress trees. I shot him and I think I hit him but he didn't go down right away and there was no way I was willing to die just to try to find a dead or dying duck. Give me fishing any day. Even on a bad day I usually catch something, even if its just a cold.
