75 Rules for the Modern Outdoorsman Part 2: Respecting the Wild, the Law, & the Skill

Part 2 brings more rules for the modern outdoorsman, from Jimmy Houston, Chad Belding and two legends in their own minds: Mark Chesnut and Nino Bosaz.

Rules for the modern outdoorsman continue in Part 2 with Jimmy Houston, Chad Belding, Mark Chesnut and Nino Bosaz.

If Part 1 focused heavily on fun, camp life, safety, fishing and hunting tradition, this half digs into reading water, respecting game, learning the law, avoiding social media nonsense and remembering that skill is earned, not claimed.

These rules for the modern outdoorsman range from serious to hilarious, from Houston’s fishing wisdom and Belding’s call for accountability to Chesnut and Bosaz, our own legends in their own minds, adding a few camp-tested lessons of their own.

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Together, they round out the full list of 75 rules every modern hunter, angler and outdoorsman should hear.

PART 2

Jimmy Houston’s Fishing Rules for the Modern Outdoorsman

Jimmy Houston kisses a largemouth bass, living by one of his own rules of the modern outdoorsman

Houston’s rules for the modern outdoorsman prove that technology helps, but it still doesn’t replace fishing skill.

39) Garmin LiveScope is a wonderful technology, but don’t rely on it for all of your success. Really learn to read the water, find fish and catch them consistently. Guys who can really fish are going to be better than the ones just scoping.
40) Be positive about fishing. So many people talk about negative stuff or complain about other fishermen or equipment. We have such a wonderful thing in the outdoors, I don’t believe in putting any negatives on it at all.
41) Always keep your safety on in the field until you’re ready to shoot. If my dad asked me once, he asked me 100 million times, “Is the safety on? Is the safety on?”
42) One surefire way to catch bigger bass is to use bigger baits.
43) There’s a process to determine the proper depth to fish a spinnerbait. I like to fish a spinnerbait just before or just right after it goes out of my sight. That’s a good place to start.

Keep it fun. We want more people shooting, more people fishing, more people hunting.

44) The most common mistake made when fishing a crankbait is just throwing it out there and winding it in. You need to be doing something with that bait at all times: differing speeds, jerking the rod tip, sweeping the rod tip, cranking slow, cranking fast, stopping.
45) Fish are junction-oriented. That means where something meets something else: muddy water meets clear water, bare bank meets rocks, end of tree meets lake, tree limb meets log. Concentrate on these junction areas, and you’ll catch more fish.
46) I’ve always believed in fishing as close to the fish as possible. Most people fish too far away from the fish and spend too much time with their bait in a place that won’t have a fish. The simplest way to alleviate that is to move close to your fish.
47) Let young bucks walk. I really believe that far too many hunters are infatuated with telling their buddies they killed their buck. We’ll never have larger bucks if we don’t give them three or four years, or even five or six.
48) Keep it fun. We want more people shooting, more people fishing, more people hunting. We need to keep the industry alive by making it fun, as we’ve had it all our lives, and not take everything quite so seriously.

Chad Belding’s Rules for Conservation, Safety and Respect

Chad Belding wades through knee-high water while duck hunting

Belding’s rules for the modern outdoorsman center on accountability, conservation, safety and earning credibility the right way.

49) Be careful of how you display that harvested animal. Be keen and compassionate about what you’re showing because in the end, it’s the animal that provides everything for us to have this opportunity.
50) Learn how to be a hunter, an outdoorsman, a fisher, a gatherer. There’s a misconception in the outdoor world of instant credibility that social media tends to foster. As with anything in life, I think the credibility of an outdoorsman or woman must be earned.
51) Be a hunter-gatherer conservationist. It’s hunters, our sweat equity and our efforts that have put more elk on the mountain, more turkeys in the woods, more fish in the water, more geese in the flyway, more mallards in the breeding grounds.
52) Don’t hang your hat on social media likes. The best hunters in the world that I know don’t even have a social media page. The best hunters in the world, you don’t even know who they are.
53) Be a wild game chef. I think that becoming a complete woodsman and learning the culinary part of the craft of cooking wild game the right way is important. Be creative with it, serve that bounty to family and friends, donate meat to Hunters for the Hungry or other charitable organizations.
54) Never stop learning. As soon as you think you know it all, the animal will humble you. As soon as you think you’re the best woodsman in the world, mallards will start to land 100 yards from you and raft up, and you’ll never decoy another duck that morning.

Never stop learning. As soon as you think you know it all, the animal will humble you.

55) Be accountable. The things I learned in college baseball I still apply to my life: self-discipline, accountability, keeping the pressure on myself. And in my hunting career, I do the same thing. I want to do the right thing when nobody’s looking.
56) There’s no ignorance of the law. You can’t just say, “Oh, I didn’t know that.” I hunt 18 to 20 states a year, a couple of Canadian provinces and sometimes South America. It’s my responsibility to know the laws and always follow them.
57) Always choose safety. A good woodsman puts his or her family first. That’s why we’re hunting: to either teach them values, to provide a bounty for that table, because our grandfathers and our forefathers and our trailblazers before us taught us that.
58) Use good etiquette. Don’t think that being a rebel or an outlaw or whatever is the smart way to go. Be respectful of other hunters. We’re in this for the same reason.
59) If you’re going to be a duck hunter, learn to identify them. Get so good at identifying ducks that you can do it on a sunny day, a cloudy day, when they’re 100 yards away or five feet away.
60) You don’t have to grow up as a “redneck” to be a hunter. You can be born into any kind of family situation and become a hunter. And that’s what I love about it. Getting to know somebody at hunting camp is more different than anywhere else in the world.
61) Don’t ever say, “I’m the best hunter in the world.” There are 8-year-old duck callers in Arkansas that would mop me up. They grew up with a duck call in their mouths instead of pacifiers. Keep in mind that there’s somebody who’s way better than you.
62) Stop the infighting. I don’t care how you do it. If it’s legal, don’t judge somebody because they did it differently than you might be doing it. Stop the judging. Stop the critiquing. Stop all this trash-talking on social media. Do it for the right reasons.
63) Show respect. Respect the people who came before you. Respect the man upstairs. Respect Mother Nature. Respect the animal. Respect the lifestyle.

Mark Chesnut’s Camp Rules for the Modern Outdoorsman

Hook & Barrel Magazine's Senior Editor Mark Chesnut — *From hunting to fishing to field trialing, Mark Chesnut's life revolves around the outdoors, especially when adventuring with family.*

Chesnut’s rules for the modern outdoorsman are practical, camp-tested and built around kids, manners and common sense.

64) I’ve long told my kids that when at hunting camp, always cook breakfast, if there’s no designated cook, and always wash the dishes. Do these two things every time, and you’ll always be invited back.
65) Cut kids some slack when deer hunting. When my kids were little, they felt pressure from watching TV shows concerning what a “shooter” was. I told them to shoot whatever made them happy. They killed some really small deer, but in every picture, they had a big smile.
66) Rather than telling newcomers how to do something, show them how instead. There are many words that are specific to hunting and fishing that many people outside those sports don’t understand. Show them instead of telling them. They’ll remember it a lot longer.
67) If handled improperly, knives can be as dangerous as guns. Flippant knife handling has probably resulted in more stitches than any other hazard in the outdoors.

If you make a decision to pass on a good whitetail buck, don’t sit around second-guessing yourself.

68) If you make a decision to pass on a good whitetail buck, don’t sit around second-guessing yourself. You can ruin the rest of your hunt worrying about what you “should have done.”
69) Leave no trace. If you pack something in, pack it out. If a landowner is gracious enough to let you hunt his property or fish his pond, leave it cleaner than you found it.
70) When preparing big or small game at home, a little cleaning goes a long way. I’ve butchered dozens of deer on my wife’s kitchen counter, and as long as I leave it cleaner than I found it, she’s never minded.
71) To keep peace at home, don’t always leave your significant other at home taking care of the kids. When my four kids were younger, I found that if I took at least half of them with me, I could be gone anytime and anywhere I wanted.

MORE FROM MARK CHESNUT: 5 Best Tips For Training Retrievers

Nino Bosaz’s Rules for Camp Life, Turkey Hunting and Hard Lessons

Nino Bosaz, Hook & Barrel Magazine's Editorial Director — A legend at what, we’re not sure, but Nino Bosaz certainly has hunted with many legends during the course of his outdoor career. Above left: It was 1990-something when Dick Kirby called in a Texas Rio for Bosaz to take with Kirby’s 10-gauge. Above, top right: Bosaz at the Massachusetts “Ketchup-Gate” camp with Gerry Bethge (third from left) and Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Famer Ray Eye (fourth from left).

Bosaz closes the list with rules for the modern outdoorsman that are equal parts turkey wisdom, camp etiquette and hard-earned comedy.

72) A wise man once told me that if you’re hunting a heavily pressured turkey spot and you have limited time to hunt, “Make no mistake, and take the Jake if that’s what comes to your calls.” Pardon me if this tip contradicts one of the real legends featured in this article.
73) When it comes to playing music at the camp or lodge, avoid these genres: gangsta rap, disco, EDM and show tunes. Also, leave the earbuds at home. Hunting and fishing camps are social events you’ll want to be a part of, fully in tune with!

Ninety percent of the hunting game is half mental, so when you see a fork in the trail, take it.

74) Remember the trick of windmilling a near-empty plastic bottle of ketchup to bring the dregs up to the top of the lid? Don’t ever do that when you’re a guest at someone’s camp or home. I learned that lesson the hard way when my red kitchen ceiling art wasn’t appreciated. I got banished from that particular Massachusetts turkey camp for life. PS: Sorry, Gerry Bethge!
75) I’m stealing this jewel of wisdom from the late, great Yogi Berra, kinda. Ninety percent of the hunting game is half mental, so when you see a fork in the trail, take it.