Fishing Guide to Trapline: Going Full Time Outdoors
Most of us live the outdoor life on weekends and holidays. This episode is about finally making the jump.
I go back to where it started, a fishing trip with my dad when I was six, and to growing up when there was no easy button: if you got stuck, you got yourself unstuck. Then why I finally stepped off the "work hard, retire at 65" track, what a summer of fishing guiding taught me about the gap between the fantasy and the reality, and my plan for this winter: trapping from November through February, a long way from any help.
Listen to the episode
In this episode
My earliest outdoor memory, and my dad's rule: go where nobody else is
Street smarts from a childhood with no cell phones and no Starlink
Why it took half my life to go full time outdoors
The fishing guide season as the first real step
The fantasy vs the reality: how sore and exhausted you get doing it for a living
Winter trapline plans, and using the whole animal
Living with the seasons: fish, hunt, trap, repeat
The real challenges: motivation, catching fur, gear that won't break, being alone far from help
Discipline, and my advice if you're thinking about chasing a life of adventure
Can you actually make a living out here?
Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:29 Welcome
0:47 Where it started: fishing with Dad
2:50 No easy button
3:59 Why go outdoors full time
5:03 Guiding: the first real step
5:35 The fantasy vs the reality
5:53 Winter on the trapline
8:17 Living with the seasons
9:13 The challenges
10:38 Discipline
11:09 Advice: chase the life of adventure
13:38 Making a living from it
14:42 The Wild Ways website & Trapline Report
15:35 Wrap-up
Missed the summer? Watch My First Season as a Fishing Guide on the main channel.
Get the Trapline Report, one email a week from the line: sign up here.
Watch more on YouTube at Wild Ways Podcast and Lyman's Wild Ways, or follow the podcast on any app through the podcast feed.
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