There is definitely a heavy mix of hunting and fishing around our area, but hunting seems to be the powerhouse outdoor activity of this part of Wisconsin. I get this impression after interviewing a few students from the high school.
Both hobbies have proven to be very easy to get into, mainly because of the fun aspect of them. The issue with getting into the hobbies is the expense. Everyone who has developed a love for either hobby knows the expense of getting into it. Senior Prestion Steiner said that it takes so much more expensive gear to be successful in hunting and, “you can get by with very little gear for fishing.” Senior Cooper Emler also said, “hunting is the more pricey hobby because of the amount of gear you need to be succesful.” I myself agree with Cooper as I have spent the majority of my money on hunting because of all the different tools you can buy to make you a more succesful hunter. Things like calls, high quality camo, high efficiency bows, arrows, and broadheads, treestands, etc. There are so many small expensive tools that can make you more successful.
Senior Ethan Kerkhoff has spent more money on fishing than he has on hunting. He says, “It’s really hard not to spend a lot of money on fishing with all of the litte gadgets that are out nowadays.” Both hobbies clearly have their own expenses that vary from person to person is what I took away from the conversations I had.
There is no doubt about the huge culture of hunting and fishing in Southwest Wisconsin, but is there one that is maybe a bit more cultural or popular?. The cultural part of hunting is the amount of people who do it and do it in the same way. Cooper Emler says that hunting is more cultural because of the amount of people that hunt compared to fish. Kerhoff says, “there is so many more opportunities to hunt around here because of all the farm land and woods.” He also said, “all we have to fish is the river, which does not always produce the best fishing. The lakes up north are where the great fishing spots are.”With all of the land around this area that is mostly taken up by agriculture fields and woods, the opportunities to hunt are limitless.
There are also many different kinds of animals to hunt in Wisconsin, so you can pretty much hunt all year round. The hunting options are deer, turkey, squirrel, waterfowl, coyotes, raccoons, and grouse. At the same time you can fish all year round through spring, summer, and fall, and then ice fish through the winter. There are all kinds of fish you can catch, but it is so much different from hunting. The reason hunting is said to be more cultural is because days like opening day of gun season, there are so many people going into the woods and gathering over that weekend. With fishing, everyone just goes out on random days hoping that the fish are biting.
Cooper Emler mentioned that he thinks hunting takes a lot more effort to succeed. He said “The amount of time you have to put in to prepare for the hunting seasons is way more than anything you have to do for fishing.” I would have to agree with Cooper; I have spent a lot of my time just getting ready for deer season in particular and I have never had to really prepare much to go fishing. For hunting people make foodplots, shoot bow all year around, put up deer stands, put out trail cameras to pattern deer, and many different things where as fishing I just string a pole and buy some bait or lures and go out. Preston Steiner also agrees, as he said, “the amount of time people spend trying to grow young bucks into more mature buck takes a lot of effort, whereas fishing you’re really just looking for the good spots.”
On the other hand, Kerkhoff said that fishing takes more effort. He said, “you have to be so patient to be a good fisherman and you have to know where to go and what days to go”. He thinks that all the little skills the fisherman have to use takes more effort than hunting. Ethan, who is more of a fisherman, also spends more of his time and money on fishing, so he obviously puts more effort into fishing than hunting. The effort you put into each hobby just depends on how passionate you are about it. From what I understood from talking to both fishermen and hunters, there is no certain hobby that takes more effort.
There is no definite answer about either hobby, but for the students I interviewed, hunting is the more dominant hobby. I found that hunting is more expensive than fishing because of all the tools you need to be a successful hunter. I also found that hunting takes more effort because of all the preparation and time spent. The last idea I confirmed is that in this part of Wisconsin, hunting is definetely more of a cultural hobby, as each person I interveiwed confirmed this. This was an interesting topic to look into, and after interviewing a few people, I understood that either hobby takes a lot of money, effort, and passion to really be successful.