I am not a world traveler. As a matter of fact, I can count the number of times I have been out of this state on both hands. I do not keep up with other cultures much so I can’t comment on the ego’s of other nationalities. However, I can comment on the fact that the good old American male has a fascination with the size of his EGO. Bigger is always better seems to be top priority when in line to purchase any item where others will see and comment on. If you have the biggest, baddest and best on the block, it is an ego builder that nothing else can come close to. This especially pertains to hunting and fishing paraphernalia as well as what vehicle it takes to get you there.

Not long after I started hunting, a vehicle arrived on the scene that has forever changed the way we move about in the field. This vehicle was the Honda 90 three wheeler. By today’s standards, it was a rather crude machine and most wouldn’t be caught even associating with somebody that owns one much less be caught riding one in today’s society.

It was small, only had 3 wheels, and to make matters worse, only two of them that pulled. However, it would haul an average size man to his deer stand and back to the truck and sometimes even carry out his deer. It came in the color of red and it could also be special ordered in RED. Today, you have to have a 4 wheel drive ATV (with 4 wheels) complete with a winch, oversize super aggressive mud tires, a lift kit, all types of add on accessories, front and back racks, camouflage kit, and on and on. The accessories are endless. They have grown from 90cc to over 700cc and it is rumored by a friend that is supposed to be "in the know" that Polaris is coming out with one somewhere in the 1000cc range. Several of my friends and I drove these in high school, except we called Jeep CJ-5’s. How big do we want to go with these? Is there a stopping point?

In the last month on Caney Lake, I have checked two boats; both of them were 22’ Champion bass boats. Both were equipped with 300 hp Mercury outboards. On the last one, I just had to ask how fast his boat was. He broke into a smile that looked like he had just won the classic. You could tell by his demeanor, that this is what he live for. He said his last GPS reading was 87mph. I don’t know how true this is but it is definitely possible. Even if you order one with 300 hp that will run close to 90 mph, you still can’t order one with BRAKES.

I can remember if you had a boat with a 115 hp motor, you were king of the water. Now they could remove 3 plug wires and still have you beat by 35HP. Is a bass tournament really this important? It all hinges on EGO! No they very seldom catch any fish BUT they look good, especially going across the lake with a 100 ‘ "rooster tall" behind them. Besides Caney Lake is only about 5 miles from one end to the other, I’ll let you figure this one out. Most people I check fishing from aluminum boats catch far more fish than these guys do, they just don’t look good doing it.

Hunting gear is no different. Whatever happened to the days of wearing the old military type camouflage and toting an old 30/06. Today, everything has to match from head to toe. There are a million camo patterns out there to cover any type of cover you are hunting in. This all looks good until you cover it all up with an orange vest and climb into a box stand. Portable deer stands now will allow you to hunt in any terrain, and box stands equipped with electricity, coffee makers, microwaves, and television. On Sunday this allows you to look out over a wheat patch with one eye and watch the Saints lose with the other. The 30/06 that has killed a jillion head of game has been replaced by one of the super-duper hopped up magnums in your choice of the ultra or short mag calibers. Why you could want more gun when the average deer hunter can’t make a clean kill on a broadside whitetail at 200 yards to start with- could it be EGO?

Duck hunters can’t go with out a dozen spinning wing decoys or some other type of mechanical device along with a $1200 camouflage shotgun complete with matching gun case and waders, a couple of $150 duck calls and a dog that they just spent $2000 at a boarding school learning to retrieve with hand signals. It would be un-American to hunt from a $ 10,000 blind without a couple of propane heaters to keep it a toasty 60 degrees inside the blind while it is 25 degrees outside. And what duck blind would be equipped without at least one cell phone ringing while that big group of mallards are on their final approach? It’s back to the EGO thing again.