Hello

Hello everyone! I hope this finds you well.  Since I am new to the blogging world I wanted to take a few short moments to let you know a little bit more about myself, as well as give you some information on what molded me into the outdoorsman I am today.  My name is Colin Hickey I am a hunter, fisherman, conservationist, and avid outdoorsman. I grew up on Long Island New York. Which most people would not think of as a place for the outdoors. However, if you know where to look it has some of the best hunting and saltwater fishing in the North East.  My love for the outdoors started at a young age when my dad would take my brother and me fishing. We would go to the beach and would spend countless hours with a push-button reel and a worm waiting, picking through what felt like millions of bluegill trying to catch a bass. Fishing was my first love in the outdoors on Saturday and Sunday mornings I would wake up early and sneak downstairs. I would sit right up against the TV and have the volume on low. I would sit there till my parents woke up and I would watch any fishing show that was on the outdoors channel.  

As I got older and my passion for fishing grew. My friends and I would be trying to fish every divot in the ground that had water in it or wherever our parents were willing to drop us off.  We would find ourselves in some pretty precarious situations having people from private ponds chase us out into the neighbouring woods. We always did manage to escape and we always managed to scrape up a couple of nice bass. Those are some awesome memories that I’ll remember forever.   

It was right about this time that I also got into hunting. I was fortunate enough to grow up right next to 6,000 acres of public land. All my childhood I would be riding my bike around the woods looking for big bucks. I spent my entire summer moving my trail camera around and getting all these amazing pictures of these beautiful bucks. Never EVER saw one of those beautiful bucks in person but that seems to be the way it goes. Some of my best memories of hunting were when my dad first started taking me. We would get out of the woods around eleven and not even twenty minutes later we would be sitting in the deli parking lot eating our egg sandwiches and I would be begging my dad to go back into the woods. Not realizing the midday lull was even a thing.  

After I fell in love with deer hunting I found my true passion which was waterfowl hunting. I got a shotgun for my 16th birthday and that was it, I was hooked. I remember my first opening day we hunted a roost, thousands of geese and teal making a racket once shooting light came it was lights out and I knew this was for me. Funny thing is I didn’t even hunt I was just an observer. I left my gunlock key at home and just watched all day and it still to this day was one of my favourite hunts I’ve ever been on.

I’m sure as this blog continues and grows you will learn a lot more about me and my background in the outdoors. I just wanted to give you a fraction of a taste of what developed me into the outdoorsman I am today.  Just to touch on the professional side of things I am currently a student at a university in Western New York. I have recently received a bachelors of science in education with a concentration in natural science. Currently, I am pursuing my masters in reading and literacy B-12. I am a certified teacher of childhood education grades 1-6 and special education 1-6. In completing my masters in education I will be able to be a certified reading and literacy specialist. In my time that I am not working on my school work. I work on a local farm, as well as a substitute teacher at a couple of local schools.

My true passion is the outdoors. Most days when I sit inside my brain runs a million miles an hour to what I could be doing outdoors. I always have a fishing rod or bow in my car.  Hoping for those 5 minutes a day I get to sneak a couple of casts or shoots in. I think this blog will be a great outlet to share my story as well as any tips, points of discussion, reviews, getting involved in the outdoors, as well as a way to communicate with people that share the same passion for the outdoors as myself. I look forward to this experience and hope you enjoy.