Ice Ready

It's official: I'm ice equipped. With the recent purchase of an auger, a few accessories like a scoop and bait pucks, and even a sled to drag stuff onto the lake, I now own the basic stuff needed to point the car north and go ice fishing on my own. I still don't own loads of gear or possess years of experience, but I have enough and know just enough to go and am excited about that idea.

 

I haven't set any ice plans in stone yet for this winter, but I have a couple of likely plans going. I'm certain I'll make it north at least a couple of times, and I'll likely do so by driving and try out my own gear at least once.

 

I'm actually debating traveling to the St. Paul Ice Show the first weekend in December to meet folks and learn much more, so if the ice is well in place by then I might add a couple of hard-water play days at that time. I've never been to that show, but it's the biggest one out there, and from what I can tell, the whole US ice community pretty well gathers on one place that weekend. It's a long drive to Minnesota, though, so we'll see.

 

First things first. The catfish are biting on the Santee Cooper lakes, and I'm headed that way tomorrow!

Banged Out a Drum

 

Most bass fishermen grumble when the fish at the other end of the line turns out to be a drum. Not me. But then again, I'm not necessarily a bass fisherman. I'm just a fisherman, and I like catching fish if all shapes and colors.

 

Freshwater drum, much like their saltwater cousins, are hard fighters that I really believe many anglers would like to catch if it weren't for the often random seeming designation of "trash fish." My guess is that many fish that get looked at in that sort of way originally got that label based on eating qualities, which is ironic if you're releasing bass anyway.

 

Oh well. I think they are fun, and yesterday's drum was species number 29 for this years fish species list.

A Few More Favorite Things

Yesterday, I blogged about a few of my favorite things from the Rebel Trout Trek. Specifically, I shared my favorite wildlife sighting, forest, mountain range and fish from the trip. I'd like to jump in where I left off and continue with trip favorites for one more day.

Favorite Fish I Caught
Although my favorite fish of the trip were a couple of fat rainbows that Asher caught, I also had a clear favorite fish of my own. Oddly, I'm not positive what species it was. I initially dubbed the big trout I caught from one of the Delaney Butte Lakes as a rainbow, but from closer examination of the colors and looking at reference photos, I sort of think it was Snake River cutthroat. Whatever the species, it was a whopper that hammered a Rebel Wee-Craw, fought hard, and barely fit in the net.

Favorite Landscape

In terms of overall scenery in a single place, nowhere comes close to Yosemite Valley in my mind. From El Capitan (highest sheer cliff in the world) to Half Dome to all of the waterfalls, everything is just so grand. In truth, everything towers so far above the valley that it's hard to grasp how big any of it is. Our visit was too brief, and visiting such a popular national park during a weekend probably wasn't the best strategy. Nevertheless, seeing the valley again and fishing between the cliffs still ranked as one of my favorite overall trip experiences.

Favorite River
I should say "favorite rivers," I suppose, because this one remains a tie in my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed fishing the Madison River in Montana and the Provo River in Utah, and both left me longing to have more days to explore other river sections. Both produced really good action from quality trout and offered outstanding public access. Also, at both rivers, Asher and I were pretty much the only anglers who were not fly fishing, which to me spells opportunity for showing the trout something different.


Favorite Lure
Asher and I caught fish on a bunch of different Rebel Lures and at times stream size or conditions dictates using some specific lure. Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnows were the top producers, though, and the lures we ended up using the most frequently. A Ghost Minnow's slender profile makes it look like an easy meal to most fish, and reeling steadily causes a tight wiggle that's fairly subtle. That said, the weighting of this bait helps it handle fairly strong currents nicely, and twitching the rod tip makes the action much more erratic and prompts reaction strikes.
 

Favorite Fishing Accessory
Asher and I were repeatedly impressed by the design of the Cabela's Burl-Handle Landing Net that we used throughout the trip. The handle itself is comfortable in hand and doesn't slip when it's wet. Plus, the netting is rubberized, which make it easier on fish, and makes the hooks less likely to get caught in the net. The best feature, though, is a stretchy lanyard with a magnetized break-away design. I could hang the net out of my way from a vest or pack loop, but it was still in easy reach, and if Asher needed it or I wanted to go beyond the stretch range to land a fish or hold it in the water for photos, we could simply separate the magnet from the metal.

Fiesta Passed the Trek Test

I won't deny that as the Rebel Trout Trek gear amassed on the dining room table I wondered a bit about the decision I'd made to travel in our smallest family car, a 2012 Ford Fiesta hatchback. Beyond what we would pack the night before leaving on our 3 /12-week trip, we would be picking up rods and reels, float tubes and their accessories, and a tent and sleeping bags from Cabela's along the way. The only other option had been my Expedition, though, and based on my estimates, the cost difference in gas would be about $600. Good enough for me.

Having now returned from 8,008 miles of travel, I can say that the Fiesta, which I jokingly call my go-cart from time to time, worked wonderfully. Despite its small overall size, the design is very space efficient, and with the seats down, it actually holds quite a bit of junk. And the front seats are big enough for comfortable travel, especially with a 10-year-old passenger. We had to maintain at least somewhat of a system for placing stuff, but that's not a bad thing when you're toting that much gear, even if you have a bunch of extra space.

The Cabela's folks had put the float tubes and all their accessories in one big soft duffel and the camping gear in another, and we kept them that way, storing them atop or beneath our personal duffels, and that system worked really well. We generally sought to keep waders and stuff like vests and tackle boxes right in the back so they were easy to access from the hatch, and we only kept the two rods and reels that we were using out of the rod tubes most of the time.

I reset the car's MPG calculator before we left, and we got 41 miles per gallon for the total trip. The Fiesta also did fine on some steep, rough dirt roads and had no problem climbing to some pretty high passes. There are quite a few things I would plan differently if I was starting over, but the car I would drive is not one of those things.

One Rod Trek

Over the past few week, Asher and I have fished everything from creeks we could leap across to fairly large lakes, and have used everything from tiny Rebel Micro Craws and Micro Minnows to 4-inch Rebel Minnows. Fish likewise have ranged from tiny wild creek trout to a thick-bodied cutthroat that probably weighed close to 7 pounds. Despite all the variety, I fished the entire Rebel Trout Trek with a single rod and reel: a medium light 6 1/2-foot Cabela's Fish Eagle 50 travel spinning rod and a 2000 series Cabela's Verano 2000 spinning reel.

Both rod and reel performed flawlessly, and I spent a bunch of time with them in hand to really put them to the test. The rod cast my tiniest offerings amazingly well but still had enough muscle to battle fish in the current and to land my biggest fish. I also would never know it was a four-piece rod from fishing it. It truly handles like a one-piece rod, but it could be broken down an put in a travel tube and carried on virtually any fishing trip.

Digging My Duffels

As Asher and I were packing the car for our cross-country trek, I was reminded how much I like my XXL Cabela's Ripcord Duffels. I use one for all but my shortest trips, but Asher and I each packed one for this trip. I like these duffels because they hold an enormous amount of clothes and other gear, but unlike other bags I have owned, they have virtually weight of their own, and because they are fully flexible, they really don't take up any more space than whatever gear I tote on any given space. That's extra important for this trip because 3 1/2 weeks of travel and fishing calls for a lot of stuff and because we are traveling in my Ford Fiesta, which though roomy for its size is not exactly a giant car.

I've also owned one of these duffels for three years, and I've never gotten a tear in either or had any problem with zippers, despite extensive use.

The Basic Route

If you check out this blog from time to time, you've likely learned by now that a little later this summer (beginning July 20), my 10-year-old son Asher and I will be making a 3 1/2-week, cross-country trip to explore western trout waters and will be blogging our journey for Rebel Lure Company. The above mapquest route planner provides a look at where we'll be traveling.

The route depicted is far from exact. I typed in several places where we will stay in sequence, but it doesn't include things like the three-day loop around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington or various fishing side trips. For similar reasons, it may not be that actual route I'll end up choosing in some cases. That said, it does depict the basic flow of travel fairly well.

The western loop portion begins and ends at Cabela's worldwide headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska (Point P), where we'll pick up some gear we will be using on our trip. Fishing, excepting Asher's stop at Dry Run Creek in Arkansas, begins in Deadwood, South Dakota (Point D) and ends in Laramie, Wyoming (Point O). By my best estimate, with side trips included, we'll travel between 7,500 and 8,000 miles.

Best places to follow the Rebel Trout Trek will be at rebellures.com and on the Rebel Lures Facebook Page, but I'll also be posting thing's here, on the Jeff Samsel Fishing Facebook page, on my Twitter and Instagram feeds and on the North American Fisherman website. Asher will also be blogging our travels, so if you want to keep up with things from a 10-year-old's perspective, bookmark Asher's Blog.

Rebel Trout Trek Prep

I've made passing mention of summer western travel plans -- plans for a trip dubbed as the Rebel Trout Trek. For now, whenever my 10-year-old son Asher and I fish together in a stream, sit to gather fishing gear, do photo work or travel any distance in the car, I consider it part of our preparation.

The Rebel Trout Trek, which will begin July 20, will put Asher and I on the road for three and a half weeks, during which time we'll log more than 8,000 miles and see a seriously big slice of the United States. Preparation is ongoing.

We'll initially drive to Arkansas, where Asher will get to follow his brother's footsteps and fish the trout-filled special regs waters Dry Run Creek. We'll also visit Rebel Lures in Fort Smith while we're in Arkansas, and we'll check out the original Cabela's in Sidney, Nebraska on our way west. Excepting Dry Run, our fishing will take place in the American West, and we'll hit as many of the region's classic trout fishing destinations as we reasonably can in that amount of time. Best I can tell, as of right now, Asher and I will fish together in eight different states.

The starting point for the western fishing will be Deadwood and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Farthest from home will be Olympic National Park, just outside of Seattle. We don't plan to fish with guides or take drift boats or anything like that. Instead, we'll focus on waters where we can just wade in, walk the bank or slip float tubes into the water and start fishing.

I'll be blogging the journey for Rebel Lures, so you'll be able to track our trek though blog posts (mine and Asher's), photos and video clips. I don't know yet exactly what will be posted where, but there will be multiple ways to follow the trip, and I'll definitely keep everyone up-to-date as that gets better defined. I'll also share more about some of the destinations we intend to visit as I work through the planning. I have the entire trek roughed out and know basically where we plan to be each day. However, there's much to fill in related to where we'll stay and which actual waters we'll fish. Of course, I know that no matter how much I try to plan, a fair amount will have to remain flexible because of the unknowns of weather, access that is not what I'd imagined, can't-miss spots I won't discover in my planning and other variables.

I'm pretty sure neither of us can comprehend just how many hours we'll spend sitting in a car or just how weary we'll get at times. And I prefer to not think about practical stuff like laundry and vehicle service needs partway through such a journey. At the same time, I know cannot begin to comprehend the grandness of the scenery, the uniqueness of the places, the quality of the fishing, or the value of experiencing it all together. For now, we can only anticipate, and I hope that in some way, you'll share in our anticipation.

#RebelTroutTrek

A Favorite Fish

Do you have some favorite individual fish that you have caught? I sure do. I can't say I have a single favorite, but a handful of fish I've caught over the years definitely stand out from the rest.

The dolly varden pictured above is one such fish. I was reminded of it the other day when I noticed the "Yukon" folder in my old slide files. Trip was to a spectacular fly-in lodge deep in the Yukon Territory, when I got to play the guest part for an episode of at Cabela's TV show.

We'd caught numerous grayling on dry flies and 3-weights early and had abandoned that game in search of bigger fish and different footage for the show. The guides spotted a couple of big dollies in a pool and beached our rafts so we could wade for them. We grabbed 6-weights rigged with weighted fly lines and marabou streamers and chunked the big flies out into the pool.

I soon hooked a fish, but it didn't feel like much, and when it came to the surface it was an 9- or 10-inch grayling.

That was when things got interesting.

A dolly showed up out of nowhere and started slashing at the grayling. Camera guy beside me, of course, was eating it up. The grayling went down and the dolly too. When I got the grayling back to the top the dolly was still after it. Then they went down again and my load got heavier! The grayling was gone and the dolly varden was hooked. Five minutes later, the guide helped me land a big and beuatiful fish that was hooked in perfectly in the corner of the mouth.

The whole thing made for a really cool segment on the TV show and remains one of my favorite fish I've ever caught.

Cabela's Greenville Visit

Cabela's Greenville, SC. Photo courtesy of Cabela's

A couple of weeks ago I had mentioned that I hoped to visit the new Cabela's store in Greenville, S.C. on the way to Columbia for the Forrest Wood Cup. I did indeed get to make that visit happen and had a big time exploring the store. Upon arriving in Columbia, I jumped straight into Cup coverage, and I've sort of been playing catch-up ever since I get home. Thus the delayed report. Still, I'd be remiss to not share a bit about what I saw.

I turned right, upon entering Cabela's. That led me toward the camping department, which has a cool and distinctively regional décor. Wall displays highlight state parks and wilderness areas throughout South Carolina's mountainous Upcountry. Each includes images, basic park information and a piece of a topo map that provides a sense of what's there. I appreciated added the local flavor, and having enjoyed time in most of the highlighted areas, I found myself lingering there a while before continuing through the store.

Regional displays in camping area. Photo courtesy of Cabela's

Like any Cabela's, the Greenville store has everything an outdoorsman could ever want, a Bargain Basement, the feel of a giant outpost and gazillions of fish and game mounts throughout (including full-body mounts of North American game animals on a mountain side the back of the store). My favorite parts, though, and the places where I hung around the longest, were the fly tying section and in front of the aquariums.

The tying stuff actually caught me. My supplies at home lacked olive, which is pretty important to the way I like to fish, so I was unable to escape without olive bucktail, marabou and thread (plus a few other things) finding their way into my basket. I also made good use of the opportunity to pick from a lot of jigheads and get the head shapes and sizes and hook sizes that would work best for the bugs I like to tie. I've already had fun playing with that stuff since getting home.

Giant aquariums filled with game fish always fascinate me, and I can spend way too long watching the fish, dreaming about those I'd like to encounter in the wild and seeing how the species are true to their normal distinctive behavior patterns, even in a big tank. At Cabela's I thought it was cool that they had distinctive warm- and cold-water tanks, which together offered glimpses of a large representation of the freshwater fish we catch in this part of the country. I also had fun playing with my GoPro and got a couple of photos that I thought were pretty cool for aquarium shots.

GoPro view of the warmwater aquarium. Jeff Samsel photo.

Beyond specific highlights and sections, I liked just roaming around Cabela's, looking up, looking around, and happily realizing I was only an hour and a half from home. Next stop for me is the Acworth, Georgia store, which is even newer than Greenville and about the same distance in a different direction!

Greenville Cabela's Demands a Detour

I've not yet had opportunity to explore the Greenville Cabela's, which opened earlier this year, but as of now, it looks like I'll be able to change that in a couple of days.

Tuesday plans have me traveling to Columbia for the Forrest Wood Cup, but my part doesn't begin until late Tuesday afternoon. Unless something changes at that end, or I end up with too much prep stuff to finish at home to leave sufficiently early, my plan is leave plenty of time to roam around and enjoy the closest Cabela's to home (and probably to pick up a few new jig-tying supplies).

The straightest route to Columbia would turn south just shy of Greenville, and Cabela's is actually on the other side of town. It's well worth the detour in my mind, though, and I'm excited about the chance to visit the new store. I might even plan my visit around lunchtime and grab an Elkburger while I'm there!

Cabela's Guidewear BOA Wading Boots

A big part of the plan in Deadwood was an opportunity to try out cool Cabela's gear that ranged from waders to rods and reels in a big variety of settings. Everything performed extremely well and was nicely suited for the fishing we did, but the thing that got my attention the most was the BOA system on my wading boots.

If you wade-fish much, you'll understand. Laces and Velcro get muddy and tattered, and it doesn't take long before they don't function as well as they should. You get halfway across a chest deep run and realize your boot has come untied and is looser than you'd like for it to be -- and there's no possible way to retie it for a while.

Cabela's Guidewear BOA Wading Boots use a really cool ratchet and wire system for snugging the boots. To tighten, you just turn the little dial like a jar lid. To release, pull out the dial. It's really that simple, and while I admittedly only have couple of days of use in these boots so far, I was definitely impressed by how well the system worked and how comfortable the boots felt.

The BOA boots don't come with felt soles, which admittedly makes me a little apprehensive about use in Southern Appalachian waters. They come with lugged vibram rubber soles and cleats that can be added. I need to install the cleats and give the cleated sole a fair chance in local streams. With more and more states banning felt, I'm going to have to learn to learn to walk on slick rocks without it. At least I know I won't trip over my shoelaces or step out of a loose shoe!

Deadwood: Thawed

Because I get the opportunity to travel to a lot of cool places, folks often ask me about favorite trips and destinations. As an all-species fisherman and a fan of rivers and lakes alike, I find a unique draw in many different places, and I honestly don't think I could pick a favorite. Still, a trip I find myself telling folks about quite frequently is one I took to Deadwood, South Dakota a few winters ago. We fished through the ice on several small lakes, all mountain shrouded, and caught about 10 kinds of fish. Between days on the water, we hung out in the Old West town of Deadwood.

I've been dreaming about  a Deadwood return ever since, and in a week and a half those dreams become reality. Except this time, instead of walking out on the lakes with ice rods in hand, we'll be venturing out in float tubes with fly rods. We'll also spend some time wading Black Hills streams for trout. Apparently, Cabela's has some cool new gear that we'll get to put to the test!

I'm eager to see the landscapes thawed and the town of Deadwood hopping and to cast to trout and other kinds of fish instead of fishing vertically. I wonder what kind of flies the fish will favor and what species I might get to add to this year's tally!

Double Fun for Fly Rod Bluegills

Nymph or popper?

I carried two fly rods during a recent pond outing and had a terrible time deciding which to pick up to cast to any given spot. Yesterday, as Nathaniel and I prepared to hit the pond for an afternoon outing between the rains, I looked at the same two flies and fly rods and thought, "Why am I not fishing those flies together?"

Lacking any good answer to my own question, I snipped the Tellico Nymph off one leader and grabbed the fly rod that was already rigged with a Sneaky Pete. I then tied a foot and a half of 4-pound-test Gamma fluorocarbon to the surface fly's hook and tied the nymph to the end of my newly created leader. "Doubling" is actually one of my favorite ways to rig for warm-water fish, but for some reason the notion had never struck me the other day.

The tandem rig performed wonderfully, producing a dozen or so bream in about an hour and saving me from having to decide whether to throw a surface fly or a nymph. I caught all except three on the nymph, but I don't think I would have found the same success fishing it alone or even fishing it together with another subsurface fly. The Sneaky Pete gets their attention when you twitch it on the top, and then they see that little yellow nymph, which looks like such an easy meal, dancing or dangling beneath it. Most fish hit a moment or two after a series of twitches, about the time the nymph settles beneath the top fly. (Of course the Sneaky Pete also serves nicely as a strike indicator, which is a fly-fisherman's fancy term for a bobber.)

A Sneaky Pete is not a true popper because of its pointed nose, but you fish it the same way, with quick little twitches that cause it to dart on top like a misguided terrestrial insect and to create a bit of sound. It's one of my favorite flies for bluegill and bass. A Tellico Nymph, compact, seriously buggy and easy for fish to see with it's bright little body, simply looks like dinner to fish, whether you're talking about trout or warm-water pond fish.

Other poppers or floating terrestrial flies and other nymphs or wet ant patterns would work nicely as well. Those flies have just been very good to me over the years so I am quick to grab them when I look into my fly boxes. Take whatever combination you own, and give this approach a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

My Favorite Fishing Gloves

Once your hands get cold, the rest of you typically isn't too far behind. Finding good gloves, therefore, is important to any fisherman who spends much time out during the winter. Gloves have been especially important to me for the past couple of years as I have been spending more time sitting on the ice!

I own thick, heavily insulated gloves that will keep my hands warm in any condition, and when the temperatures turn severe and I simply need hand protection, there is no substitute for these. Most of the time, though, I prefer more finger mobility for handling my fishing equipment. I've tried various gloves made of neoprene and other modern materials and a few different types of "glommits," which are glove/mitten hybrids with mitten-like coverings that can fold back; however, most either are cumbersome or they aren't sufficiently warm.

The best gloves I found, and the ones I have with me on every trip north, are Cabela's Ragg Wool 1/2-Finger Gloves. They provide natural insulation and break the wind nicely and are extremely comfortable. Most importantly, I don't have to take them off to fish.

If it's really cold, I usually open a pair of Grabber Mini Warmers, which are air-activated handwarmers that last all days, and stick them in the hand pockets of my coat. Then, if the fingertips get a little frigid, I can alternate my rod hand or take a short break from fishing and warm my fingertips a bit.

Alaska Treasure Chest

"I'd suggest ordering something other than salmon or halibut," said Chuck Smock of Cabela's as we pondered menu options at The Flying Machine restaurant for our last dinner in Alaska. We all laughed in agreement, knowing the four huge boxes in the hotel freezer contained more than a few meals of delightful Alaska salmon and halibut.

One of many great things about spending a week on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula is the opportunity to bring home a portion of the trip in the form of fresh fish. Our treasure chests each contained nearly 50 pounds of sockeye and king salmon and halibut, all vacuum sealed in serving-sized packages and frozen by Ninilchik Outfitters. Staying shy of 50 pounds spares "overweight" charges, and allows you to fly a box of fish all the way home for the cost of an extra checked bag.
From a practical standpoint, that's a lot of fine meals. It's more than a box of meat, though. When we enjoy a meal of halibut baked with garlic butter and chives, I'll think about Capt. Al's funny lines, Colin's cod-catching prowess, the thrill of detecting a telltale halibut pump and the painful but laughable futility of reeling up 4 pounds of lead from 193 feet to learn the bait was not stolen after all. Grilling salmon "on the halfshell" will remind me of Chuck's last casts with the fly rod, Daniel's refined flossing technique, John's relaxed posture as he watched us try to conquer a king and of course the countless fishermen who back-trolled together in amazing harmony.
I'll also remember the bears on the trail, sandwiches from the General Store (incluing the one the dog stole from John), humpback whales, the great tractor launch, 11:30 sunsets, snow-capped volcanoes, stories shared around the dinner table... And as my family enjoys the contents of the treasure chest, one meal at a time, I must remember to share an added taste of Alaska in the form of trip tales.

Cabela's Stop Always a Family Favorite

For Eli, 2 1/2, it was his first visit to the giant Cabela's store in Dundee, Michigan (at least that he would remember), and his eyes opened as wide as a boy's eyes can open when we walked through the doors. Our other four children had all been there before, but they were no less fascinated by the giant aquariums filled with trout, bass, walleyes and other sport fish; the full body mounts of everything from elephants to polar bears to rattlesnakes; the endless-seeming aisles of fishing, hunting and camping gear; the giant lodge atmosphere...

It's hard to comprehend just how big a moose is until you are standing a few feet from one -- and the one in Cabela's stands shin deep (I guess moose have shins) in natural-looking stream that runs through the store and that is filled with big trout.

Swinging through Cabela's to stretch legs and explore during a family trip always adds an hour or two to an already-long day of travel. No one ever minds, though. In fact, we are always glad that we stopped.

On the Fly

Gusty winds and a big list of needed travel preparations didn't make today seem ideal for reacquainting myself with fly-fishing. However, when I opened my new Cabela's 5-weight LSi/WLx combo, it wasn't long before I found myself putting the backing on the reel and adding the fly line -- and then one thing led to another.

Nathaniel and I limited ourselves to one quick lap around the pond, but that was enough time for me to land six bream. I also broke off a chunky largemouth, which was careless on my part. I sort of forgot I was fly-fishing and had pretty light tippet and tried to get the fish canoe-side a little too quickly.

I'm really excited about the new fly combo. It has a great action and casts beautifully, even with the wind blowing and me doing the fly casting. It's also a 4-piece rod that came with a hard tube that's only a little longer than the sections. That makes it super portable and easy to tote along on fishing forays. In fact it's in the truck, just in case I need it in Tennessee or Arkansas this week!

Cabela's Celebrates 50 Years

When Plans A & B didn't work, Dick Cabela didn't give up.

The son of a furniture store owner in a small Nebraska town, Cabela had come across a vendor selling bulk fishing flies at a furniture trade show he attended with his father in 1961. He bought a couple thousand flies with plans to sell them in his dad's store. Finding little market there, he tried a classified ad in a local paper, offering a dozen flies for a dollar. That got one taker.

Then came Plan C:

Cabela changed the ad to read "FREE introductory offer!!! 5 popular Grade A hand tied flies. Send 25 cents for postage and handling to..." and placed it in a national hunting and fishing magazine. The response was big and immediate, and Cabela and his wife, Mary, began filling orders from their kitchen table. They also built their new business by reinvesting profits in various hunting and fishing gear and sending a list of offerings with every order of flies.

Within a couple of years the lists developed into the first true catalog, that about the same time that Dick and Mary Cabela convinced Dick's younger brother Jim to join the business. Cabela's, the World's Foremost Outfitter, was on its way. From the beginning, customer service and quality products were top priorities. Fifty years later, Cabela's is a $2.7 billion a year company with thriving catalog, Internet and retail store businesses and more than 14,000 employees.

As a self-employed writer and father of five children, each with unique gifts and interests, I appreciate Dick Cabela's entrepreneurial way and his unwillingness to give up when things didn't turn out as planned the first time.

Be sure to check out the Cabela's website. The company is offering some cool limited-edition 50th anniversary merchandise, doing a "Cabela's 50 Years, 50 Trucks Sweepstakes" and much more! Cool stuff.

Happy 50th, Cabela's