T. Edward Nickens - The Total Outdoorsman Manual: 408 Skills

THE TOTAL

OUTDOORSMAN

MANUAL

T. EDWARD NICKENS

AND THE EDITORS OF FIELD & STREAM

WITH SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY

PHIL BOURJAILY, KIRK DEETER, ANTHONY LICATA,

KEITH MCCAFFERTY, JOHN MERWIN,

AND DAVID E. PETZAL

Try to imagine your favorite hunting and fishing momentsthose memories big and small that stick in your brain and work their way into your heart, bringing a smile to your face long after theyve passed. I bet you cant keep the list to fewer than twenty.

If its April, one of the first things that may come to mind is a morning in the turkey woods. You climb through the timber in the pitch black, with the whip-poor-wills droning, and as you stand on the point of a ridge listening to the woods wake up you hear it: that first gobble rolling across the hollow like thunder. It makes the hair on your neck stand on end, no matter how long youve been turkey hunting.

A month later the top of your list may be when youre standing waist-deep in a cold river, the current pushing against your legs, as you stare at a bit of feather and steel as intensely as youve ever looked at anything in your life. You watch it drift next to fluttering mayflies as a shadow surges to the surface and turns into the fist-size head of a brown trout. It inhales your fly, which is always the goal, but when it happens its always a surprise.

Come fall there is the instant when there was nothing but thick brush and then suddenly, undoubtedly, theres a bucksteam pluming from his nose and the sun glinting off his antlers. Or when a flock of mallards, on a two thousand-mile journey from northern Canada, cups wings and glides in to your decoys.

You can probably conjure up hundreds of these glory moments, but Ill bet some of the things you think of are more mundane. A smushed sandwich pulled from your hunting coat, eaten on a stump and washed down with lukewarm coffee. The bouncing cherry of your buddys cigar as he launches into his one musky story for the 100th time while you wait for a channel cat to take the bait. Seeing a kid catch a frog with as much enthusiasm as he catches bass. The trembling of your dog right before the hunt. Watching the sun rise and set from the same tree. Staring at the dying flickers of the campfire and waiting to see who will be the first to break the spell, swallow the last mouthful of whiskey, and head to the tent. A good cast. The wind in the pines. The sun on the lake. Fresh snow.

The rewards of hunting, fishing, and camping are endless, and Field & Stream s mission is to make sure you drink deeply from these great activities. The Total Outdoorsman Manual is here to help you do thatto learn how to cast a fly line in the wind or set up the perfect camp. To call in a buck or land a truly big fish. Because the more that you can do, the more fun you can have.

This book fulfills this mission the way Field & Stream magazine has been doing it every month for over 115 years: by using great writing, photography, art, and design to capture the great big outdoors, the wildlife and wild places, the laughs and the drama, and the knowledge that often only comes from years in the field.

The vast amount of collected knowledge in this book comes from a team with true expertise and experience and the skills to share it. First is the books editor, T. Edward Nickens, Field & Stream s editor-at-large, who contributed three quarters of the material for this book. He writes the magazines annual Total Outdoorsman cover story, relying on a network of guides across the country and his own deep experience. There isnt much that this outdoorsman cant do. From paddling remote rivers catching walleye or salmon to decoying antelope and chasing rabbits with beagles, Nickens explores every corner of the outdoors and comes back with hard-won knowledge and great stories to share.

Next is outdoor skills editor Keith McCafferty. If I could pick one person to bring with me into the wilderness itd be McCafferty. This survival expert could get out of nearly any jam. Hes also a great hunter and fisherman and a heck of a storyteller, so getting lost with him might actually be kind of fun.

Shooting editors David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily are Field & Stream s Total Gun Nuts, and theyve forgotten more about rifles, shotguns, and shooting than most people will ever know. John Merwin and Kirk Deeter can catch any fish anywhere on any tackle, and following their advice will put more fish in your boat.

Finally, what turns all this great knowledge into a beautiful book is the vision of our photographers, illustrators, and designers. Many of the stunning images in this book come from photographers Dusan Smetana, Bill Buckley, and Dan Saelinger; the illustrations of Dan Marsiglio make complicated skills look beautiful.

We hope what you hold in your hands adds up to more than a book. Think of it as a tool that can take you into the backcountry and help you find the great experiences that come from hunting, fishing, and camping. Keep it on hand and return to it often, and I promise youll always be able to add to your list of favorite moments.

Anthony Licata, Editor

Field & Stream

W e dont think you approach the outdoors with half-hearted enthusiasm. We think you feel like we dothat being just good enough isnt good enough anymore. Few of us have time to waste. We dont want to lose a fish because we tied a sorry knot. We dont want to lose sleep because we pitched a tent in the wrong place. If youre reading this book, were betting that you couldnt care less about being a pretty good angler. Or a decent hunter. Or the kind of camper who gets just a little wet when the storms pound your tent. After all, being pretty handy with survival skills gets you only part of the way back to the truck. Then you die.

And quite frankly, we arent so interested in doing things half-way, either. Which is why you hold in your line-cut, wood-singed, blood-stained, and calloused hands a guide to getting you to the next level of outdoorsmanship. This is a mix of timeless skills, from lashing to finding survival water, and ingenious ways to use cutting-edge technology. Can you cast a flyline upside-down? Use a computer to calculate shot range? Theyll give you what you need to know to get it done all by yourself.

So what, exactly, is this book? And where did it come from? Most of these skills come from a special cover story published each May in Field & Stream called The Total Outdoorsman. Pound for poundor column inch for column inchthe Total Outdoorsman package packs in more know-how, more tricks to more trades, than any other publication out there.

In some ways, the Total Outdoorsman concept isnt all that new, really. Its just a new way to follow footsteps into the woods and out on the water. After all, most of us have followed a well-defined set of tracks into the places where we hunt and fish and camp. Most of us were blessed with a father, an uncle, a mother, frienda mentor who showed us how to launch a boat down a dark, skinny ramp and shoot a rifle and build a fire. Most of us followed someone around a farm pond or squirrel bottom like a puppy dog, hanging on their every word, taking in every movement and gesture.