Finding the Outdoors Within . . . with Tyler Ripper – Reelin’ in the Years

In week three of our Sunday Blog Series, Tyler shares his story on how he got his start in fishing and where it’s led him today . . . We apologize for this blog being a little late, you can expect next week’s blog to be posted in its normal time slot of between 12 – 5 pm, Sunday afternoon! Remember to share your story by sending us your blog on how you found the outdoors within to smalltoutdoors@gmail.com . . .

. . . There’s no doubt that archery is my passion when it comes to the outdoors. Between practicing year-round in my back yard and at 3D shoots where I try to better my technique, to taking it to the woods in October where it comes down to that one shot on a Whitetail deer, archery is my favorite hobby and I have a ton of fun doing it.

IMG954987

With that being said, before I started hunting or even shooting a bow, my start in the outdoors really began with fishing.

I remember going fishing on the first day of PA trout with my dad most years when I was younger. It would be either just him and I, or us 2 alongside our closest family friends Ralph and Dylan, and we’d go to Two Mile Run at the lake where we always tried to get there early enough to ensure a decent spot. I always had a blast on that first day, especially reeling in a few Rainbow Trout here and there along the way.

As the years went on, going out on that first day of trout took more of a back seat for me. Now granted, I still go trout fishing on occasion with Tate or our close friend Aaron, but fishing for bass is what I’ve really grown to love. There’s nothing like having a bass hammer your set-up and putting up one heck of fight after you set the hook.

Wading out into different spots on Oil Creek in the late evenings of summer with my dad or friends is always a treat. There have been times where we find a honey hole and will hammer bass for a couple hours, catching a few around 18” and are fat.

9559

Note: this is not one of those fat, 18″ smallies.. though this guy here was 15″ fighter and was the most recent picture I have of fishing on the creek.

Then there’s fishing local lakes – like Two Mile – or different parts of the Allegheny river where I run into some larger bass fishing off of a boat or from my kayak.

FB_IMG_1543846014716

IMG_20181007_161615

This pig was caught during a fall fishing trip with Ethan, close friend of Tate and I’s.. He’ll have blogs on here in the near future.

Here at Small Town Outdoors, Tate puts the most time into bass fishing and he’s became a damn good at it too. You’ll see that along the way as he shares his fishing stories. But, I put in time on the water when I can and enjoy casting some lines, rippin’ some lips and reelin’ in the years!

And that’s just another way of how I found the outdoors within.

P.S. – There was a couple pictures I couldn’t find of a couple of the bigger bass I’ve caught before, so hopefully I find those soon and have them ready for the next fishing blog!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: