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Thanks for visiting GameandFishGuides.com. My
name is Brad Jannenga and my goal is to create
the most extensive online directory of hunting
and fishing guides on the Internet.
I spent a good deal of time as a kid hunting
and fishing. I have to tell you that those created
some of the best memories I have; shore lunches
of fresh walleye with my family, afternoons spent
chasing rabbits and catching king snakes on the
way home from the bus stop in the rolling desert
foothills of Arizona. My parents had a great love
and admiration for the outdoors and instilled
a profound respect for Mother Earth in their kids.
The Jannenga Family circa 1983 - Ontario, Canada
The older I got the faster the modern world chipped
away at my time in nature. Sure we still got out
and fished now and then, spent a Sunday morning
here and there chasing quail with the dogs, but
slowly the timeless interaction with nature melted
away. I got involved with after school sports,
started paying a lot more attention to the girls,
and before you know it I was off to college. Granted
I maintained a certain level of interaction with
the outdoors with the occasional camping trip,
but unbeknownst to me my simple love of the outdoors
was being colored over by the encroaching dull
gray of the 21st century. Fast forward a couple
of years and there I was building million dollar
computer networks for some of the heaviest hitters
in the technology industry. I spent almost a decade
in the high tech industry, rode the dotcom coaster
through it's early days, and closed many companies
down when the layoffs came around. It was challenging
and sure the money was good, but deep down it
was eating away at my soul. Man is not meant to
toil under fluorescent lights, packed into carpet-padded
mazes of cubicle walls.
Years later while on a family vacation fishing trip
I had a journey back into my childhood fascination
with the outdoors. I jumped at the chance to join
my Dad on a fly fishing trip to Missouri to hang
out with my sister's in-laws. It was on this trip,
sitting in the woods with my newly-acquired teenage
nephew, that I had a moment of clarity. After
several days of yanking monster browns out of
Lake Tannycomo the next day we got up early and strolled
into the woods for the last few days of the spring
turkey season. I realized this was the first time I had hunted in
over 15 years. It was pre-dawn and Adam lead me to
his secret spot down the hill, across a small
but running stream. We set up a decoy and then
rustled around looking for a comfortable spot
to greet the raising sun, and, hopefully, a big
southern Tom.
After about 10 minutes of silence and a few good
yelps on the slate call, the woods around us came
to life. A deer behind us give an irritated snort
when he caught our scent drifting up the morning
thermals. We heard the distant gobble of a Jake
answering our call, while the morning dew glistened
on the leaves around us like broken glass. A cool
fresh breeze danced through the trees and brought
with it the mixture of a thousand different smells
of the forest around me. It was at that moment
I made my decision. I was going to break free
from my corporate oppressors and spend my days
doing what awoke my inner self. I'd trade in my
indecipherable router commands for a perfectly-timed
doe bleat. I'd sell off my database administration
books and use the money for a 8wt. fly rod and
a good set of waders.
Upon returning home from this trip I did some extensive research
on the Internet and found most of the information
about hunting and fishing to be patchy and inconclusive.
Sure there are some good individul sites out there but I
found nothing comprehensive that's when I had a vision to
pull it all together. So after many long nights thinking about
how to do this I came up with the concept for GameandFishGuides.com
I have set out to create a site that will help you, my users,
get into the outdoors.
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