Speaker 1: Welcome to More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty KLVI.
Speaker 1: This is Chestermore. You know, a few months back, I
Speaker 1: found myself off in kind of the Bessie Heights area
Speaker 1: in a spot that was you know, I've seen on
Speaker 1: maps of fish near and I found myself on the
Speaker 1: Lonesome Game Sportsman's Club. And I'd heard about this place before.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like one of those places like behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, you don't know what's going on out there,
Speaker 1: and come out there and to find these beautiful lakes
Speaker 1: and they're full of fish, and there's ducks. There's saw
Speaker 1: model ducks out there at the time, and there's alligators
Speaker 1: and it's just a really beautiful, beautiful area. And my
Speaker 1: connection to this were really two people. My good friend
Speaker 1: Brian Johnson, he was just on talking about duck hunting
Speaker 1: dogs and Andy Hill, and we're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: kind of local treasure here and how local people can
Speaker 1: access kind of a sportsman's dream type place here in
Speaker 1: Southeast Texas. Welcome to the program, guys, thank you glad
Speaker 1: to be here. So let's start with you. Andy. Just
Speaker 1: tell us about the Lonesome Game Sportsmen's Club, what it's
Speaker 1: used for its size and kind of like when this
Speaker 1: place was founded.
Speaker 2: So the Lonesome Game came in to existence under its
Speaker 2: current name three years ago. Prior to that, it was
Speaker 2: already an established club known as the Natures River Sportsmen's Club.
Speaker 2: So initially the Bass Reservoir, which is roughly three hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty acres, was dug out into the marsh i'd
Speaker 2: say late fifties, early sixties, and they used a dragline
Speaker 2: and they built up a big levee just out into
Speaker 2: the marsh. It is completely freshwater inside. And then we're
Speaker 2: surrounded by seventeen hundred acres that we also own. That
Speaker 2: is the brackish marsh between the Energy power Plant as
Speaker 2: the eastern southern border and the Nail the Stark Wildlife
Speaker 2: Management Area on the north.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's really like if you're if you're
Speaker 1: someone from southeast Texas, you've always kind of heard about
Speaker 1: that area, the Bessie Heights Marsh and the Naturever Sportsman's Club.
Speaker 1: My mentor as a writer, Ed Holder, was a member
Speaker 1: of Nature Server Sportsman's Club back in the day. Even
Speaker 1: as they had a cool story about how there was
Speaker 1: some protests and they wanted to start Florida string bass
Speaker 1: because a lot of the local guys said Florida's are
Speaker 1: too nitpicky and there and they get shy too much
Speaker 1: as keep the basst easier to catch, you know. So
Speaker 1: a lot of history going into that. But uh so
Speaker 1: you guys you know have have this now and it's
Speaker 1: open for membership. That is correct. Mm hm. So how
Speaker 1: does someone god, I remember you got to like do
Speaker 1: a blood oath.
Speaker 3: Or what's going on?
Speaker 1: How do you do this?
Speaker 4: Blood required?
Speaker 3: Yay, I wouldn't be a member for it.
Speaker 2: Was easiest way is to reach us on our Facebook page, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Lonesome game. You can contact me Andy Hill at three
Speaker 2: two five six six ' nine two six seven five.
Speaker 2: Reach out to you, reach out to Brian, reach out
Speaker 2: to some of our other members, word of mouth. That's
Speaker 2: the best way to get you to the right people
Speaker 2: and we'll go from there. We like to cap our
Speaker 2: membership at two hundred and fifty members per year. Currently
Speaker 2: we have two hundred and thirty five, so we're not
Speaker 2: quite there, but that's the easiest way to get a
Speaker 2: hold of us. Join our Facebook page, follow us, and
Speaker 2: all of our announcements and everything is on there.
Speaker 1: So Brian, you the one to connect to me with
Speaker 1: this at first talk told me, you know, I met
Speaker 1: Andy years ago because like this kid's wild kids fishing thing. Yep,
Speaker 1: you brought kids in from like San Antonio Urban Connection, Urban.
Speaker 3: Connection, which was awesome.
Speaker 1: And this kid Ricky every once in a while that
Speaker 1: I fished with, will still send me a message.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, that was really cool. So I remember to
Speaker 3: Andy from that.
Speaker 1: But man, you're about catching the fish, and that's the
Speaker 1: thing about you is like Brian. Like me and my
Speaker 1: friend Paul Fazenski were talking about Brian this weekend and
Speaker 1: he's like, he's like, you know, look, man, Brian's not
Speaker 1: only these guys out here fiddling with the little one pounders.
Speaker 1: Brian's after the beasts. Brian likes to catch fish. So obviously,
Speaker 1: what is your perspective of the club in terms of
Speaker 1: its fishing quality?
Speaker 3: So I love this club.
Speaker 5: A couple of things I like about At one, it's
Speaker 5: it's local, you know, although I live in Winny, I
Speaker 5: can be here in forty five minutes and versus going
Speaker 5: to Rayburn in two hours. And it's private, which means
Speaker 5: there's this good chance I'm gonna get to fish my
Speaker 5: favorite spots. At three hundred and twenty acres. The way
Speaker 5: that this property is cut up on the fresh water side,
Speaker 5: you can fish as long as I want to fish
Speaker 5: and never fish the same place twice. It's got reeds,
Speaker 5: it's got lily pads, it's got eel gras, it has
Speaker 5: several different types of grass and I've just.
Speaker 3: Really enjoyed that going out there.
Speaker 5: People think you go into a private place. It's like
Speaker 5: fishing in a barrel. It's one hundred percent not that.
Speaker 5: You can go out there and you can catch nothing
Speaker 5: if you don't know what you're doing, or you can
Speaker 5: go out there and you.
Speaker 3: Can load the boat. I mean this this.
Speaker 5: Year, the biggest bass I've caught anywhere that I fished
Speaker 5: this year was on that place, and I caught a
Speaker 5: nine pounder. So so there are big fish out there.
Speaker 5: They're healthy fish, and it's it's like I like to
Speaker 5: fish everything is it's it's shallow, so I'm not fishing.
Speaker 5: I don't I don't really want to go fishing thirty
Speaker 5: foot of water in the middle of the lake. If
Speaker 5: I'm interested in going in the middle of the ocean, off,
Speaker 5: just go in the middle of the ocean. So, you know,
Speaker 5: I really love it man frog fishing, chatter bait, swim jigs, flukes,
Speaker 5: everything that the way that I like to fish. It
Speaker 5: sets up out there. The people have been really nice.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's just a great, great opportunity. And there
Speaker 5: are some giant bass out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really the key. Someone thinks that
Speaker 1: they're going to get a private lake membership, they want
Speaker 1: at least the hope of catching one of those big fishs.
Speaker 1: What are some of the bigger fish from the pass
Speaker 1: that you're aware of that been caught there?
Speaker 2: So talking with past members, I know Riley Harris pulled
Speaker 2: in one. He did not have a scale, but looking
Speaker 2: at measurements and the scale of this bass was eleven pounds.
Speaker 2: Captain Randy I to believe y'all are both familiar with him,
Speaker 2: local God, he caught a verified thirteen pound bass on.
Speaker 1: A scale shri lunker size bass right there, a lonesome game.
Speaker 2: In our reservoirs, and that was about five years ago.
Speaker 1: That's like thirteen that's like the last ten bass I've
Speaker 1: caught on the fly combined. You know, it's like, can
Speaker 1: I count with as one fish? No? But that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I think it was a monster, you know, And I
Speaker 1: think that most people understand that you go fishing, that's
Speaker 1: not the normal cash, but they want that chance to
Speaker 1: do that because, let's face it, Toledo, Raburn, all these
Speaker 1: places are getting pressured, pressured, pressured, pressured, pressured, and it's
Speaker 1: getting harder to find some of those big fish sometimes
Speaker 1: because of that fishing pressure. And those places have ebbs
Speaker 1: and flows. So at least if you've got a place,
Speaker 1: you know, okay, there's some big ones out there, but
Speaker 1: along the way, we're just gonna catch some good quality
Speaker 1: bass and that's some good fun family time.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, personally, I've pulled three double digit baths out of there.
Speaker 2: All everything was catching release. Frequently we have members pulling
Speaker 2: four to six pound bass on the regular.
Speaker 3: It's a great fish.
Speaker 1: By the way, Online, if you see those on Instagram,
Speaker 1: those are your fours or your eights on Instagram, and
Speaker 1: your sixes are your tens on Instagram. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's what the translation on Instagram is, those are actually
Speaker 1: really big fish. People will be like, you know, holding
Speaker 1: them way out, you know, but those are those are
Speaker 1: great fish. Now, Brian, you mentioned the variety of grasses
Speaker 1: and habitats in this place. To me, that just says
Speaker 1: healthy fishery because you've got to have diversity in those.
Speaker 3: Grasses, so it's healthy.
Speaker 5: And from a fishing standpoint, you when I go out there,
Speaker 5: that's that's how I fish it. I'm like, Okay, let's
Speaker 5: check the eel grass. There's nothing in the eel grass,
Speaker 5: all right. Or let's fish the wind blown edge of
Speaker 5: the eel grass, and then let's go to maybe some hydrilla,
Speaker 5: or let's go to the reeds.
Speaker 3: And so that's how you fish it. The lily pads,
Speaker 3: you fish and you eliminate.
Speaker 5: They're not in the lily pads today, so let's.
Speaker 1: Go to this.
Speaker 5: So it makes it fun to fish. But not only
Speaker 5: does the place have big fish in it, but I've
Speaker 5: gone out there. When I go fishing a lot of times,
Speaker 5: I'll just count what I personally catch. And a day
Speaker 5: fishing for me is not an eight hour days. It's
Speaker 5: usually two or three hours, maybe four hours. I take
Speaker 5: a shift, you know, And I've gone out there in
Speaker 5: an evening and shift and caught thirty five bass personally. Yeah,
Speaker 5: And so man, I've got a camp at Ravern. I
Speaker 5: love Ravern there are not many days that I catch
Speaker 5: thirty five bass in the evening at Rayburn. And what
Speaker 5: I'll tell you here, when Rayburn and Taleda, when they're.
Speaker 3: On fire, they're on fire.
Speaker 5: Sure, But a bad day for me at the lakes.
Speaker 3: Is zero or one. Okay, that's what a bad day is.
Speaker 5: And I just my bad days here are so much better,
Speaker 5: you know, a bad day here for me, I might
Speaker 5: catch a half a dozen in that couple hour period
Speaker 5: versus going to the lake and catching zero.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's really the key, is that opportunity and
Speaker 1: also to have fun and a good thing about this.
Speaker 1: It's a place that you can take your family. And
Speaker 1: we come back on More Outdoors. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about family fishing opportunities, other cool stuff you can do
Speaker 1: out at Lonesome Game, and we come back on More Outdoors.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty
Speaker 1: klv I. This is Chester Moore. Follow me at the
Speaker 1: Chester More on Instagram That's the Chester More. Follow the
Speaker 1: podcast of this program. iHeartRadio and all the places you
Speaker 1: listen to your podcast. Listen to me here sixty seven
Speaker 1: pm Friday Central Standard Time on More Outdoors. Have to
Speaker 1: put central standard time. Got a lot of listeners that
Speaker 1: listen from all over the place via the streaming at
Speaker 1: KLVI dot com, follow my blog at Hirecalling dot net,
Speaker 1: and there's a pile of other ways I can take
Speaker 1: you to contact me later on. But right now we're
Speaker 1: talking about the Lonesome Game Sportsman Club. We got my
Speaker 1: friends Andy Hill and Brian Johnson here. Now, Andy, this
Speaker 1: place isn't just for trophy bass seekers, but it's also
Speaker 1: a great place for families to come. And honestly, what
Speaker 1: you guys are charging if you look at all the
Speaker 1: opportunities available, and Brian mentioned some other things here kind
Speaker 1: of adds and it kind of it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a money saver thing.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. But what I really want to hit on is
Speaker 2: what you said about family. So our motto is we
Speaker 2: are a sportsman's club for present and future generations. Our
Speaker 2: organization is family oriented. We're a group of like minded
Speaker 2: outdoorsmen who just love everything about the outdoors and what
Speaker 2: that encompasses. So our club is not just a fishing club.
Speaker 2: We offer duck hunting. We have twenty five established blinds
Speaker 2: on the property, no guest fees. We want you bringing
Speaker 2: your family, your friends out there, your kids getting involved
Speaker 2: in loving the outdoors, whether that be fishing, duck hunting.
Speaker 2: We manage alligators out there. All of our tags are
Speaker 2: at a minimal cost to our members. Basically you're just
Speaker 2: paying for the cost of the tag from Texas Parks
Speaker 2: and Wildlife. We have four wheeler rights. You can drive
Speaker 2: around our levees. Literally, make one cast into the saltwater marsh.
Speaker 2: You might pull up a redfish, walk to the other
Speaker 2: side of the levee, cast in the reservoirs, and you
Speaker 2: can be pulling out basts and perch.
Speaker 4: Uh. So it's it's a unique place right in.
Speaker 2: Our backyard where it feels like you've gone somewhere far away,
Speaker 2: even though you've only done a ten or fifteen minute drive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great opportunity, O bron You mentioned something,
Speaker 1: you know during the in the break here where you
Speaker 1: mentioned the fact about filling your bass. That was a
Speaker 1: great point talking about membership versus like what you're gonna
Speaker 1: spend on fuel.
Speaker 3: Right, So, some of.
Speaker 5: My friends have you know, they've made the comments of boy,
Speaker 5: it must be nice to be able to afford a
Speaker 5: private fishing club and the club the dues right now
Speaker 5: are currently one thousand dollars a year, and I'm like
Speaker 5: one thousand dollars a year, and I can go catch bass,
Speaker 5: I can catch salt water fish, I can catch red fish,
Speaker 5: I can catch crabs. I can duck hunt, I can
Speaker 5: dove hunt. And I said, let's just maybe I get
Speaker 5: it on an alligator hunt. All these different things I
Speaker 5: can do for one thousand dollars, I said, guys, that
Speaker 5: bass boat that I take to the lake, it's got
Speaker 5: a fifty gallon tank in it. Okay, and at some points,
Speaker 5: depending on what's happening in the economy, that non ethanol
Speaker 5: fuel that I run in it, it's.
Speaker 3: Four and five dollars a gallon.
Speaker 5: I have spent two hundred and fifty dollars on my gas,
Speaker 5: and then that oil that goes into oil reservoir, that's
Speaker 5: another thirty to fifty dollars, depending on which one. So
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, I've got three hundred dollars in
Speaker 5: fuel in my boat, and that's sitting and winning. And
Speaker 5: now I got to get that boat to the lake
Speaker 5: in my truck. And I've spent five hundred dollars on
Speaker 5: a trip in fuel alone going to the lake and fishing. Okay,
Speaker 5: now what that does sometimes that makes you not want
Speaker 5: to go fishing as much. But when you can be
Speaker 5: right here, especially for these guys who live in Mid
Speaker 5: County the Golden Triangle there, I mean you're literally just
Speaker 5: right here. And the way this club is set up,
Speaker 5: you can take a mudboat out there, you can run
Speaker 5: an outboard, or you can just drop with a trolling
Speaker 5: motor at the boat ramp and start catching fish zero
Speaker 5: cost once.
Speaker 3: You get in the door.
Speaker 1: Kayakers, Yes, yeah, I mean kayakers. It's a great spot now,
Speaker 1: a lot of allocators, but other than that, we're good
Speaker 1: at it's access for any kind of fishing like that,
Speaker 1: and affordable. I mean I look at it like this. Why,
Speaker 1: I mean, you pay money for a deer lease, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot more than a thousand dollars for a
Speaker 1: deer lease these days, and even in a crappy East
Speaker 1: Texas lea it's not a really good one is more
Speaker 1: than that most of the time, you know. So it's
Speaker 1: great to have those things. And you mentioned family and
Speaker 1: things like that, so like family could come out here
Speaker 1: and have a picnic and then have a couple of
Speaker 1: kids with some hot dogs on or a cork or
Speaker 1: some nightcrawlers and catch catfish and whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, we actually have not caught me catfish in
Speaker 2: these reservoirs.
Speaker 3: I'm shocked, lose during.
Speaker 2: Our shocking surveys with the American sports fish biologists. Uh,
Speaker 2: just some bullheads. That's the only catfish we've ever pulled
Speaker 2: out of there. Definitely, I'm shocked too being at the location.
Speaker 2: But it's a good thing for our bass population.
Speaker 5: But who needs catfish when you can catch a grennel?
Speaker 4: You do.
Speaker 1: Look, everybody knows if anything you're not gonna get, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna have a place locally with water that has
Speaker 1: any fresh in it without grennel, they're gonna be there.
Speaker 1: And if you're someone listening from out of it's a
Speaker 1: bow fin or a shoe pick, same fish, mud marlin,
Speaker 1: cypress bass, and that's all the local names I know
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 4: And they are equally as fun to catch.
Speaker 1: That's one of my goals on here is the catch
Speaker 1: one on the fly. Yeah, because I want to catch
Speaker 1: on the fly. I want to catch on on the fly.
Speaker 1: I've caught redfish on the fly. Can handle one of
Speaker 1: these things.
Speaker 5: Rental had had better representation, he'd be the number one
Speaker 5: sport fish. He's got big teeth, he fights like crazy,
Speaker 5: and I've heard people talk about how terrible they are.
Speaker 5: So the Cajun and me decided to cook one up,
Speaker 5: oh boy, and he tasted a lot like opellusis just
Speaker 5: a little soft crime a little longer. I'm telling you,
Speaker 5: been in a Cubian, you'd never known the difference.
Speaker 1: I know this is a man of the cloth over
Speaker 1: here saying this. We've got to make sure we've got
Speaker 1: everything right here. He just said it's kind of like
Speaker 1: an opellus, but he did put the caveat of being
Speaker 1: in a kubial, so that changes the dynamic of it.
Speaker 1: I got a friend of mine that swear that's his
Speaker 1: favorite fish to eat, his grintel, So you never know.
Speaker 1: But I don't think it was gonna sign up just
Speaker 1: for the grinnel opportunities. But it's it's the family, it's
Speaker 1: the fun, you know. In that access, then you mentioned
Speaker 1: the waterfowl hunting part right now, so you know a
Speaker 1: kind of a very important thing waterfowl hunters, especially maybe
Speaker 1: with those who are in public, worry about is fresh
Speaker 1: water access, right, you know, and this is fresh to
Speaker 1: bractie water access.
Speaker 2: So We actually have two launches. We have one main
Speaker 2: launch that goes inside the reservoirs, and then on the
Speaker 2: outside of our levee we have what we call our
Speaker 2: marsh launch. Both are concrete. You can launch a twenty
Speaker 2: two foot boat in either one to access your brackish
Speaker 2: mars side or your fresh water side. Now a lot
Speaker 2: of questions I get, well, you only have twenty five
Speaker 2: blinds and you have two hundred and fifty members, So
Speaker 2: how does that work. One thing that we've put in
Speaker 2: places we make it fair for all of our members
Speaker 2: to have an equal opportunity. We are a sweat equity club.
Speaker 2: So if you come out and contribute to bettering the
Speaker 2: property some way, we have scheduled work days throughout the year,
Speaker 2: then your name goes in a drawing each year and
Speaker 2: our blinds come up for drawing Chester. Let's say you
Speaker 2: didn't get drawn this year, but you wanted to go
Speaker 2: hunting with your daughter on Saturday. So you call up
Speaker 2: Andy and say, Andy, hey, can I hunt your blind?
Speaker 2: You're blind's number two. Maybe I have a t ball
Speaker 2: tournament or family function and I'm not able to hunt.
Speaker 4: I can't tell you no.
Speaker 2: That way, everybody has an opportunity at one of twenty
Speaker 2: four blinds. You also don't have to wake up at
Speaker 2: two o'clock in the morning, go sit in line, then
Speaker 2: race everybody to a spot you can.
Speaker 3: That's madness, and I've done it.
Speaker 2: It's fun for a younger man, but I'm not in
Speaker 2: that stage of my life anymore, and I like the
Speaker 2: comfort and the security of knowing I'm going to this spot,
Speaker 2: I'll have it, everything's good, and shoot some birds.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you Andy.
Speaker 5: So, since I've been on this club the last couple
Speaker 5: of years, this is the most under utilized resource for
Speaker 5: outdoorsmen's and their families in the Southeast Texas area.
Speaker 3: Hands down.
Speaker 5: Okay, I've never personally gone fishing that I can remember seeing,
Speaker 5: even though there's two hundred and fifty members, maybe I've.
Speaker 3: Never seen more than four other boats at the ramp.
Speaker 5: And with the exception of when they used to have
Speaker 5: a tournament and on the duck hunting there there is
Speaker 5: there's always a blind open. So if you're the if
Speaker 5: you're leaning toward the lazy side and you don't build
Speaker 5: a blind, go hunt one of the ones that's open.
Speaker 1: Good stuff. Talking about the lonesome game Sportsmen's Club with
Speaker 1: Andy Hill and Brian Johnson. You can find them on
Speaker 1: Facebook at Lonesome Game Sportsmen's Club. And when we come
Speaker 1: back on Laura Outdoors, we took a little bit more
Speaker 1: about the club. I'm gonna pester these guys about some
Speaker 1: of their outdoor adventures. There's a lot of dead stuff
Speaker 1: hanging up on the wall Andy's place. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about some of this on More Outdoors. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty klv I. This
Speaker 1: is Chester Moore. Don't forget to listen to the podcast
Speaker 1: in this program and go back several years and archives
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio app. You can also go to KLVI dot
Speaker 1: conflict on the podcast link and go to More Outdoors.
Speaker 1: Follow my blog at Higher Calling dot net. And you
Speaker 1: know that local cougar thing that happened just a week
Speaker 1: or two ago. Everybody's talking about the cougar import author
Speaker 1: you to follow my blog you'd heard the real story
Speaker 1: on that. Also follow me at d Chester Mora Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm here my good friend Brian Johnson and I'm in
Speaker 1: here with Andy hillsm a Lonesome Game Sportsman's Club. Now
Speaker 1: we're at Andy's like little like I don't know, man
Speaker 1: cave or something here. It's a pretty cool spot here,
Speaker 1: and there's like turtle shows and aks. To me, those
Speaker 1: are fallider antlers and white tails and alligator skulls. So
Speaker 1: a lot of cool outdoor stuff here. And me and
Speaker 1: my friend were my two friends. It was Captain Steve
Speaker 1: Stuby and Paul Is. We're talking about like our ultimate
Speaker 1: fishing trips. And I always like to ask this guy.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna start with Brian, if you could go
Speaker 1: on any fishing trip in the world, budget wasn't an issue,
Speaker 1: what would it be?
Speaker 5: So, you know, I've thought about El Salto bass fishing
Speaker 5: down in Mexico. But then I I want to go
Speaker 5: on a trip that I can feel real confident that
Speaker 5: I'm gonna come back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I'm.
Speaker 5: Ninety percent sure on that.
Speaker 3: It's the old ken that's getting me.
Speaker 5: But chester I think that my brother and I are
Speaker 5: about to go on that trip. Really this December I
Speaker 5: saw on Facebook where Roland Martin himself is gonna be
Speaker 5: guiding on Okachobe rolling. Martin's got to be in his eighties,
Speaker 5: but he's you know, nine time bass years Hall of fame.
Speaker 1: He was the man.
Speaker 5: So so we're going down to okachobe in December and
Speaker 5: we're gonna fig one day with his son, Scott Scott
Speaker 5: Martin Scott, who's awesome current right now, and we're gonna
Speaker 5: fish one day worth Rolling Martin. So I'll have my brother,
Speaker 5: a current bass winner and the nine time bass angler
Speaker 5: of the Year, kind of one of the legends of
Speaker 5: the game, all in that one trip. So now, the
Speaker 5: truth is, I don't know how good the fishing is
Speaker 5: at Okachobee right now. That place has had some pressure,
Speaker 5: it's had some grass issues and everything else.
Speaker 3: And winning in lonesome game.
Speaker 5: I might be leaving better fishing than I'm going to,
Speaker 5: but it's a bucket list because for me, at the
Speaker 5: end of the day, it's who's in the boat that
Speaker 5: makes it legendary.
Speaker 3: Man, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean rolling In, Scott Martin, I mean just both
Speaker 1: incredible anglers. And I would say the bass fishing world
Speaker 1: wouldn't be what it is today without Rolling Martin. He's
Speaker 1: one of those guys that was a game changer. And
Speaker 1: I've got to meet him a few times. Different you know,
Speaker 1: like icst different shows, always really nice and engaging and
Speaker 1: obviously nine time angler of the year ain't a bad
Speaker 1: you know, that's not a bad statistic there.
Speaker 3: So Andy, give me your dream fishing trip.
Speaker 4: Dream fishing trip.
Speaker 1: I don't call these bucket lists. I call them rapture list.
Speaker 1: By the way.
Speaker 4: To me, it's about the total experience.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So the catching the fish is obviously what you go,
Speaker 2: that's your primary reason. But what else the body of
Speaker 2: water or wherever you go can offer. So my dream trip,
Speaker 2: if it was a possibility, amazon peacock bass, just for
Speaker 2: the total immersion in a different ecosystem where you have
Speaker 2: black Cayman, where you have jaguars on the river banks
Speaker 2: trailing your boats, giant peacock bass, a million different types
Speaker 2: of BirdLife and insect life, and just the whole experience
Speaker 2: and catching a thirty inch peacock bass would be my ultimate.
Speaker 4: And then sharing that with some friends and family.
Speaker 3: That would be awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I did Venezuela back in ninety nine, and it's
Speaker 1: the peacocks there aren't as big as the ones in Brazil,
Speaker 1: but I caught I think a twelve something like that
Speaker 1: nice and I had a hard time catching big ones
Speaker 1: I call a lot of medium sized ones, but it was,
Speaker 1: like you said, it was an immersive experience, you know.
Speaker 1: But the trips are running down in the Amazon right
Speaker 1: now are pretty intense, man. I mean they're catching some monsters, yeah,
Speaker 1: because they're pushing into some new areas, some of the
Speaker 1: guys I've talked to, and going into some kind of
Speaker 1: unexplored areas.
Speaker 3: So that would be a lot of fun, you know.
Speaker 1: For me, you know, I've thought a lot about this
Speaker 1: a long time ago. Would have been the peacock thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I did that, but I think it would
Speaker 1: be in the Bahamas about a week fly fishing for
Speaker 1: bone fishing permit in the Bahamas.
Speaker 3: That would be that would be absolutely amazing. But I
Speaker 3: know there was going to be a fly.
Speaker 1: Well look man, look already my dream fish, no matter what.
Speaker 1: My whole life's always been a bone fish. And I
Speaker 1: caught one on spinning and it's got an upgrade. And
Speaker 1: you know, the Bahamas a little more my style because
Speaker 1: the ones in Biscayne Bay were I caught one on spinning.
Speaker 1: Gotta bill, it's it's next level casting, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a whole hard thing. But down there it
Speaker 1: probably takes me a week to get close enough to
Speaker 1: a permit to cast one. Those are a little spooky fish,
Speaker 1: you know, But yeah, fly fishing, of course. We went
Speaker 1: to the Winning flats before and caught some large large
Speaker 1: mouths and so looking forward to the to the Bridge
Speaker 1: City flats here real soon over a loon someome game
Speaker 1: doing that. So yeah, so we've got enough time in
Speaker 1: this second. Let's let's switch this to the hunting side
Speaker 1: of things. Dream hunting trip go with you first.
Speaker 2: Andy, Wow, I've been very fortunate with my upbringing and
Speaker 2: family to hunt all across Texas.
Speaker 4: Some of my funner hunts have been alligator hunts.
Speaker 2: Oh cool, and that's as of recent with some of them,
Speaker 2: some of the members out there.
Speaker 4: Last year we pulled a twelve to three it's a gator.
Speaker 4: Before we pulled.
Speaker 2: An eleven nine, those were our records. Now we pulled
Speaker 2: multiple other But the excitement that that brings in watching
Speaker 2: people that haven't ever experienced it before. When when you
Speaker 2: pull up a twelve foot alligator, just the immense.
Speaker 3: Size of it's a monster man.
Speaker 4: Throws people off.
Speaker 2: But gator hunting, I've always had a special place for it,
Speaker 2: and it's just it's fun.
Speaker 3: Just go get a crock in Africa.
Speaker 4: I would love to extreme size difference.
Speaker 3: A different way to hunt them too, you know over.
Speaker 4: There, get the retrieving.
Speaker 2: It would be the difficult part there, I think, because
Speaker 2: you know in those waters where there's one, there's going
Speaker 2: to be more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they're not quite our gators. I hate to
Speaker 1: say this, the kind of sissy is compared to the
Speaker 1: crocs over there. You know, these eyes are a little
Speaker 1: more gentle.
Speaker 4: I don't disagree with that.
Speaker 1: So what whitetail hunt is your dream hunt?
Speaker 5: So I shot that deer that was right at two
Speaker 5: hundred and nine inches, and that was free range with
Speaker 5: my bow, free permission, So that that ended my white
Speaker 5: tail pursuit like that. I've always if I could shoot
Speaker 5: one animal, I love hog hunting. And I was Steve
Speaker 5: Colemas I think is his name Safari Club. He's an
Speaker 5: editor for Safari Club. I believe that's his name. We
Speaker 5: were talking one day and he had hunted around the world,
Speaker 5: and I was telling him how much I liked hog hunting,
Speaker 5: and he told me about the giant forest hog, and
Speaker 5: so I went and researched it and watched some videos,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, if I could now I'd go to
Speaker 5: Africa and shoot ten animals over this.
Speaker 4: But if I just get.
Speaker 3: To pick one animal, the giant forest.
Speaker 1: This is why I hang out with cool people alligators
Speaker 1: and forest hogs, because I've always said I'm not really
Speaker 1: that interested in Africa. But if I did, it would
Speaker 1: be like the pigs, the bush pig, the forest hog,
Speaker 1: the lord hog, the red river hog. You know that's cool.
Speaker 1: Those are kind of an under you know, appreciated animal.
Speaker 4: Is there a word slam for species?
Speaker 1: There's gotta be.
Speaker 4: I think we should one.
Speaker 1: We should make one. We could do the Southeast Texas Slam.
Speaker 1: You know, you could do the spotted hog. You know
Speaker 1: there's white ones occasionally the old black one and then
Speaker 1: the one with the most lights on them, you know,
Speaker 1: like the light's covered up, the lights covered hog. But
Speaker 1: if I had to pick, you know, it would be
Speaker 1: I mean, Brian don't know this, it would be some
Speaker 1: sort of wild sheep in America, if I could, you know,
Speaker 1: no budget, I guess the stone sheep up in British
Speaker 1: Columbia would be the ultimate. But that would be and
Speaker 1: I'm hunting exotic sheep, you know, and that's always fun.
Speaker 1: But a true wild sheep or like a mountain goat those.
Speaker 4: Thet's that makes the difference. You got my mind raising,
Speaker 4: no budget. That's the met African antelope I want to
Speaker 4: go after. It's the bongo.
Speaker 1: Bongos are awesome man.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, cave three tips, extremely elusive, hard to hunt.
Speaker 4: That's that's what I would like.
Speaker 5: I think the bongo in the giant forest hall and
Speaker 5: share habitat.
Speaker 3: Yep, there are more of that.
Speaker 1: You know, you think of Africa hunting, it's mainly savannah,
Speaker 1: but bongos are forest animals. They're in Cameroon in places
Speaker 1: like that, and Uganda and Congo, which I wouldn't wan't
Speaker 1: go into Congo.
Speaker 5: Well, Chester, you're you're okay with climbing that mountain for
Speaker 5: the sheep. Now, I had a hunting buddy and he
Speaker 5: always wanted to track him down.
Speaker 3: But I'm I've got a body that's I'm built.
Speaker 5: For ground blinds, okay, and tree stands. That's I'm built
Speaker 5: for a ground.
Speaker 1: Blind and a tree. If I tell you this, Brian,
Speaker 1: if I could, if I can afford that, I can
Speaker 1: get the personal training, or I'm a decent shape, but
Speaker 1: I'm not mountain shape. We can get a personal trainer
Speaker 1: for a year and I'll be all right, well the
Speaker 1: little fun with these crazy guys, and we come back
Speaker 1: here on More Outdoors. Welcome back to More Outdoors on
Speaker 1: News Talk five sixty klv I. This is Chester. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be wrapping up our conversation here with Brian Johnson,
Speaker 1: Andy Hill of Lonesome Game Sportsman's Club and Brian, you
Speaker 1: have some media outlets of your own, so give us
Speaker 1: your web address.
Speaker 3: We can get ahold of you for stuff.
Speaker 5: So duckdog trainer dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were on just last week talking about duck hunting,
Speaker 1: and it's always great to connect with you because you know,
Speaker 1: I can't think of waterfowling without dogs, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean I've you know, I only had one a portion
Speaker 1: of my waterfowling career personally, my buddy's always had dogs.
Speaker 1: And really that gets to the part of it. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, if you're meeting just
Speaker 1: that good person who likes to fish and hunt, enjoy
Speaker 1: the outdoors, there's that core family, but an even deeper
Speaker 1: core and level as I think our faith. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're all all three of us here or followers of
Speaker 1: Christ and it's it's meant a lot to our life.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to ask you, as as Christ followers,
Speaker 1: how is it. How does the outdoors help you reach
Speaker 1: people they're maybe struggling, I mean, either one of your brain.
Speaker 1: Let's start there.
Speaker 5: So you know, I'm a pastor and and I can't
Speaker 5: tell you how many times a lady in the church,
Speaker 5: for example, will come and say, brother Brian, my husband
Speaker 5: is struggling, he's going through something. Would you mind taking
Speaker 5: a fishing? Would you mind taking him hunting? And and
Speaker 5: here's the deal. Most guys, especially if it's a manly man,
Speaker 5: a macho guy, he's not coming into the office for counseling.
Speaker 1: Okay he's not.
Speaker 3: He's not.
Speaker 5: If the initial setup is let's talk about our feelings,
Speaker 5: that's not interesting, Like I feel like doing something.
Speaker 3: Else as well, you would say exactly.
Speaker 5: But I take men and and and young guys. I
Speaker 5: take them out there and we get in the boat
Speaker 5: and we just start talking and we share our lives together.
Speaker 5: And that's where where I'm able to share Christ. And
Speaker 5: the truth is, you know, I tell people I want
Speaker 5: everybody to win. I want you to win in your life.
Speaker 5: I want you to win in your outdoor adventures. I
Speaker 5: want you to win in your family. I want you
Speaker 5: to win in your walk with Christ. And so if
Speaker 5: I can share some things I've been through while we're
Speaker 5: in the boat, some things that might help you push
Speaker 5: you towards the finish line, then that's what I want
Speaker 5: to do. So the Apostle Paul said, I become all
Speaker 5: things to all men, so that by all means I
Speaker 5: might win some So I try to be pretty good
Speaker 5: at bass fishing, so I can help you with your
Speaker 5: bass fishing, and in so doing maybe be able to
Speaker 5: speak something else into your life that'll help you.
Speaker 1: Andy, you and I connected over this urban connection thing, right,
Speaker 1: and that was probably fifteen years ago, fourteen years ago
Speaker 1: or something like that, And you know that was taking
Speaker 1: kids out out that are never in urban kids and
Speaker 1: stuff like that that maybe never experience any outdoors. So
Speaker 1: I know you know about this healing power of the outdoors,
Speaker 1: you have, any personal experiences, any observations you have about
Speaker 1: that in connecting people with maybe their faith and just hope.
Speaker 2: For me personally, when I'm in the outdoors, no matter
Speaker 2: if it's out here at the club or if it's
Speaker 2: up in the woods off the river. You can't help
Speaker 2: but see God in everything out there.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 4: It gives you the.
Speaker 2: Solace if you want to be alone out there and
Speaker 2: the relaxation if you go with a friend or a
Speaker 2: family member or a group, you have that camaraderie and
Speaker 2: it gives you the opportunity to talk with people on
Speaker 2: a one on one level and the conversations can go
Speaker 2: deep and have some really meaningful talks for people that
Speaker 2: maybe need that meaning and we'll talk at that time,
Speaker 2: or just with like minded sportsmen and Christians. It gives
Speaker 2: us the opportunity to converse with you with each other,
Speaker 2: have that camaraderie because iron sharpens, aren't. We need that
Speaker 2: as Christians and men of faith. We need that camaraderie
Speaker 2: and being in the outdoors. I think it's just naturally.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what we see in our ministry
Speaker 1: with you know, our Kingdom's Wildlife Center and our Higher
Speaker 1: Colon wildlife outreaches. I mean just really just got back
Speaker 1: from Yellowstone doing an expedition for kids and had three
Speaker 1: different kids got to go in a Yellowstone and another
Speaker 1: young lady we got to connect with at the National
Speaker 1: Big Orn Sheep Center, and you know it's it's not
Speaker 1: handing a tract or even hand them a Bible or anything.
Speaker 1: It's number one, showing them quality time in a beautiful place.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of my most powerful memories I've
Speaker 1: had in my life yet. And I believe in more
Speaker 1: powerful of coming. But you know, to be you have
Speaker 1: someone like me. He's done a lot of great outdoor
Speaker 1: and stuff. It shows you God can do good stuff.
Speaker 1: Because I had a memory that just blows away stuff.
Speaker 1: It's sitting kneeling over this bluff along the Lamar River
Speaker 1: in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone with two boys with
Speaker 1: me that have been through way too much in.
Speaker 3: Their life already.
Speaker 1: And they both got cameras and one of them, my
Speaker 1: buddy Seth, helped film the documentary on this was behind us.
Speaker 1: Got a picture of this, Thank the Lord. It's my
Speaker 1: Facebook cover profile now. And the one little boy's counting
Speaker 1: the bison and the other one's looking at the picture
Speaker 1: he just shot and I'm looking at them and the
Speaker 1: faces were just like overjoyed that they got to experience this.
Speaker 1: It's like they got to be in something they watched
Speaker 1: on Animal Planet, like they were in it, but they
Speaker 1: were in it and there's all these bison fighting rolling around.
Speaker 3: All kind of stuff crossed me.
Speaker 1: And we just got through watching a grizzly about a
Speaker 1: half mile away for like thirty minutes, and it was
Speaker 1: seeing how all being away from all the noise and
Speaker 1: being in what God's creation was really like, you know,
Speaker 1: like the original intent of God's creation out there brought
Speaker 1: to all of us, you know, and just seeing how
Speaker 1: that allowed me to sit there and pray for those
Speaker 1: boys and mother mom and do that, and that's what
Speaker 1: makes it all. That's what pushes me, leads me to
Speaker 1: spend more time.
Speaker 3: Outdoors, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's one thing I liked about when we're talking
Speaker 1: about Lonesome Game Sportsmen Club, about the family opportunities and
Speaker 1: things like that. So again, if someone's thinking about maybe
Speaker 1: getting connected with a place for them and their family
Speaker 1: or just then to go fishing or then to go hunting,
Speaker 1: tell us one more time, Lonesome Game Sportsman Club. How
Speaker 1: to get ahold of you, How to connect with being
Speaker 1: a member?
Speaker 2: Reach out to us on Facebook is the probably easiest
Speaker 2: way for all generations older and younger. You can always
Speaker 2: give me a phone call. My phone numbers three, two, five, six,
Speaker 2: six nine.
Speaker 4: Two six.
Speaker 2: I would love to talk with you about the club,
Speaker 2: show you our vision, the plans that we have for
Speaker 2: this place.
Speaker 4: It's only going to get better awesome.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's a beautiful place out there, and
Speaker 1: it's right here in Southeast Texas. And I'm someone who's
Speaker 1: been blessed to get to go kind of all over
Speaker 1: and do a lot of cool stuff. But it's nice
Speaker 1: to have places like this you can just kind of
Speaker 1: kick back and enjoy the beauty of nature.
Speaker 3: And might catch a big old giant fish.
Speaker 1: Process or maybe you pull a gator tag or get
Speaker 1: on one of the duck blinds. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: the things we all grew up doing here in Southeast Texas,
Speaker 1: you know, like we grew up duck hunting, fishing, deer
Speaker 1: hunting something, you know, and this place kind of represents
Speaker 1: that once again. The Lonesome Game Sportsmen's Club Look them
Speaker 1: up on Facebook. If you forget the info, you know
Speaker 1: you can know where to find me. You can always
Speaker 1: email me at Chester.
Speaker 5: If you just find doubt where it's at. Trespass, go
Speaker 5: to jail. The Game Warns will reach out and they'll
Speaker 5: get a hold of somebody.
Speaker 1: This is the voice This is the voice of Rian Johnson,
Speaker 1: the pastor by the way, who has a snarky sense
Speaker 1: of humor. But it's a lot of fun. So just
Speaker 1: kind of a final wrap up. We just got a
Speaker 1: couple of more minutes here in a thirty to forty
Speaker 1: five second synopsis. Tell me what the outdoors means to
Speaker 1: you at this stage of your life.
Speaker 5: And the outdoors in Romans chapter one, it talks about
Speaker 5: we can we can see the attributes of God in
Speaker 5: his creation. The outdoors for me is a place to
Speaker 5: get away and to reflect on God, just his power
Speaker 5: and his peace and the purpose that he has for us.
Speaker 3: That's what the outdoors is for me.
Speaker 5: I go outside, clear my mind, and I'm a better
Speaker 5: man when I've been.
Speaker 3: Outside, all right, Andy.
Speaker 2: For me, the point I'm at in my life and
Speaker 2: with lonesome game is creating a space where my kids
Speaker 2: can enjoy it, our future generations can enjoy it. Right now,
Speaker 2: it's just my turn managing this very unique property, and
Speaker 2: I want to make it better for not only my kids,
Speaker 2: but for all of Southeast Texas to be able to
Speaker 2: experience thirty forty fifty years from now, because who knows
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen. We have to get our kids involved
Speaker 2: in the outdoors. It's it's not an option.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: I agree, And that's the thing for me to wrap
Speaker 1: this up is getting the now generation of young kids
Speaker 1: plugged in so they can have the same and better
Speaker 1: experiences than us. And you know, when you do it
Speaker 1: for kids, the Lord always blesses you with something awesome yourself.
Speaker 1: You can always trust that God will take care of
Speaker 1: those that take care of the of the less fortunate.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for listening to the program tonight.
Speaker 1: Follow me at d Chester More on Instagram, Highercolling dot
Speaker 1: at my blog or my new blog, Golf Great Whites
Speaker 1: Blog at Golf great Whites dot com, Higher Calling Wilife
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Texas Fish and Game every issue.
Speaker 3: God bless and have a great outdoors weekend.