2015 South Arkansas Hunting & Sporting Gazette

South Arkansas Hunting &Sporting Gazette
QandA: ‘Wildman’ Wilson
The Swilley family continues to pass a love of the outdoors through the generations. Pictured at their hunting camp in Lisbon are three generations of the family — Buck Swilley of El Dorado, son Randy Swilley of El Dorado, great-grandsons Beau (left) and Luke Russell of Edmond, Okla., and grandson- in-law Matt Russell. Photo courtesy of Swilley family.
Memories for a lifetime
Steve “Wildman” Wilson is one of the state’s most recognizable people. As public affairs coordinator for Ar- kansas Game and Fish Commission, he travels hither and yon to educate Arkansans on the sights, sounds and tastes of the outdoors.
He recently took time to explain his love of hunting and fishing and fried deer
steak. Q:
How did you get started in the out- doors? Parent? Grand- parent? Uncle? On your own?
Q: If you could only hunt one type of game or fish for one species of fish, what would it be and why?
A: I think my most favorite thing to hunt is the wild turkey. I didn’t start turkey hunting until 1980 and fell in love with it. I love communicating with wildlife. I will never forget the feeling I had when a gobbler actually answered my call. My favorite type of fish to fish for is bream — nothing like a cricket on a fly rod and a bed of big ole bluegills.
Q: These days, who is your favorite hunting partner?
A: My favorite hunting partner(s) are my son-n-law, Nathan Molsbee and my grandson, Luke. You can’t beat fam- ily when it comes to hunting partners.
Q: What is the best piece of out- doors advice you ever received?
A: The best piece of advice about the outdoors I ever received from my dad is to enjoy every outing. It could be your last.
Q: What piece of gear/equipment has changed hunting/fishing the most in your lifetime?
A: The best piece of equipment that has changed the way I hunt and fish is the smart phone. I can now stay on the deer stand longer since I can talk/text other people and can take photos of my deer and turkey immediately and even check them on my phone. It also gives me a since of security in case something bad happens.
Q: What is your favorite wild game meal?
A: Fried deer meat, mashed pota- toes and black eyed peas and sweat tea. Q: Is hunting/fishing better now than it was when you were a teenager? A: Better as far as the amount of game and fish but it doesn’t seem to be as much fun. Probably part of getting older more than anything else. Nothing seems to be as much fun as it did when
I was a teenager.
Q: If you could design a hunting
location or fishing spot, what would it be?
A: I would like to have about 1,000 acres with a ridge on one side full of wild turkeys, with a hardwood creek bottom on the other side of the prop- erty full of whitetail deer, and then a clear stream running through the mid- dle of it full of smallmouth bass. And, oh yeah, a one-acre pond full of big ole hungry bream. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Some families have holi- day traditions. Others have summertime vacation rit- uals. Many families in this part of the country include hunting and fishing in their family get-togethers.
The Swilley family is just such a family.
Patriarch Buck Swilley of El Dorado taught his sons to hunt and fish, and now he gets to enjoy grandchildren and great-grandchildren on the annual outings.
“I can’t find any other way to make kids do a whole lot better than to take them out in the woods and show them what is going on and show them to act right out there and be careful and partici- pate,” he said.
Swilley explained that his outdoor experiences with his children began as camp- ing events, first in a tent and then in a pop-up camper and then in a camper trailer. Now, the family’s hunting grounds
are at Lisbon, and they fish together at Felsenthal. An important part of their annu- al hunting experience is pre- paring for the coming season by working on stands and fill- ing corn feeders.
“I built them all a stand that they can get in, and they take some of the younger kids with them. They can sit there and watch these deer come up to the feeders,” he said. “I believe that it’s one of the best things you can do to take kids out and let them hunt and fish.”
When asked if he had a fa- vorite memory from years past, Swilley recalled one of his son’s first deer.
“I had him out on a stand one day, and I was pretty close to him. He shot, and he had killed a buck,” he said. “He said he could see the hair still moving so he kept shooting. He shot it several times before he ever came off the stand.”
His son, Randy Swilley of
El Dorado, agreed that the memories created in the woods are among the best.
“I remember going with my dad and his dad hunting. The memories I still have of my granddad. He has been dead almost 40 years, but I still remember us going squirrel hunting and looking up a tree for that squirrel,” he noted. “Those are memo- ries you don’t ever lose.”
Randy Swilley noted that the work of getting ready for hunting season really isn’t a chore.
“With Dad, he is getting older. I just enjoy the prepa- ration for hunting, cleaning the stands out and that sort of thing. You can take a lot of things away, but you can’t take those memories away.”
Great-grandson Beau Rus- sell, 4, said looking around for deer is one of his favorite family activities.
“It is my special thing to do.”
A: I have been hunting and fishing as long as I can remem- ber. In fact, I can’t remember when I didn’t go hunting and fishing. Both my mom and dad were avid out- door enthusiasts. Bream fishing, deer hunting, rabbit hunting were all part
of my life growing up.
Q: Enjoying the outdoors doesn’t
necessarily mean catching a lot of fish or bagging a buck, but success can make memories sweeter. What is the first success you remember having?
A: I think the world nowadays de- fines success according to the first, the biggest, the fastest, the heaviest, the most, etc., instead of what a good time we had. Some of my fondest memories were not necessarily when I killed a deer or caught a fish, but more about the times me and dad got soaking wet while walking in the woods or when dad fell out of the boat while bream fishing or the time I got lost in the woods while tracking a deer. But don’t get me wrong, I vividly remember when I killed my first deer back in 1966. Dad got to see me kill it, and now I’ve witnessed my daughter killing her first deer and can’t wait to see my 5-year-old grandson kill his when he gets a little older. You only have one first deer.
Steve “Wildman” Wilson
El Dorado NEWS-TIMES – Friday, August 21, 2015 – 1