I attended my first NHFD in 1978 at Fort Richardson Alaska. I was the Military Police Federal Game Warden giving fishing classes to the kids. Things haven’t changed much. Looks like we had about 5000 participants at the Cenla National Hunting and Fishing Day at Woodworth Louisiana. This was a beautiful event.
They had everything you can think of in the hands on Hunting and Fishing world. You could fish in the Lake, Picnic, Shoot just about any kind of gun you want, Bowfishing, 3-D Archery, and Crossbow. There were all kinds of Experts there including Biologist from the La Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries, big name sponsors and of course one lonely National Outdoor Writer “Uncle John” I even gave a speech.
In the Fishing Department I liked the “Crappie Guys” Cliff Fuqua and Chuck Bravel with their decked out Fishing Boat that showed these cool long rods and how to catch the best tasting fish in the lake.
For Hunting it was the Crossbow range where I gave my speech on Crossbow Hunting as it was the most difficult outdoor project I ever attempted, to legalize the crossbow for hunting in Louisiana. Here we see John Sturgis the Hunting Heritage Director for the State showing young Zak Johnson personally how to shoot that crossbow. John Sturgis insured along with many Uncle John articles that we would have the crossbow.
The big surprise came when I met Jeffery Cutts who told me a fantastic hunting story. It was true vindication when I found out Jeff had taken a 173 B&C White tail with his Crossbow. It may be the new Louisiana State Record crossbow harvest. Don’t worry there will be a big feature on this one in ODU Magazine and Crossbow Connection Magazine so we can tell you just how important this is. Pass it on.