My 2024 outdoor adventures, by the numbers

Another year come and gone.

It’s time to get nerdy and put some numbers to my time in the outdoors in the past year.

I am sincerely delighted by how many of you check out this article each year. It makes me less conscious about my tedious number keeping.

For those of you who may be new to this tradition, I share this information to provide some context to the articles I post on this site each year. It is important to me that you know the depth of my experiences in the outdoors that my perspectives are rooted in.

Here is a look at how my 2024 shook out, by the numbers:

219.5 – Hours spent in the outdoors

For the second straight year, I spent the time equivalent of just over nine full days fishing, hunting, or dip netting this year. This is the highest total of hours I’ve spent participating in these three activities since 2022.

570 – Fish caught

For the first time since 2022 and the third time since 2020, I managed to break the 500-fish plateau hook-and-line fishing. I landed 22 different species of fish this year, including my first-ever brook trout. This is my second-highest yearly fish total to date.

I’ve caught 3,147 fish since I started tracking in 2020.

Here’s my 2024 fish count, broken down by species:

Species	Number Caught
Smallmouth Bass	198
Rock Bass	121
Bullhead	92
Bluegill	70
Round Goby	14
Golden Redhorse	13
Northern Pike	12
White Sucker	9
King Salmon	8
Largemouth Bass	6
Rainbow Trout	5
Brown Trout	5
Yellow Perch	4
Brook Trout	2
Sheephead	2
White Crappie	2
Pumpkinseed	2
Common Shiner	1
Carp	1
Lake Trout	1
Silver Chub	1
Creek Chub	1

99.1 – Percent of my fish that were released

I promise that I am not becoming increasingly against keeping fish. I just did very little “meat fishing” this year. Bass were my primary target species and I don’t keep them often. Most of the panfish I caught simply weren’t keepers.

67- Suckers caught dip netting this spring

The sucker run was strange this year. My theory is that the bulk of it occurred during high water when dip netting wasn’t really possible. Maybe that’s just what I’m telling myself to feel better. Our best night of the year produced 43 suckers in a little over two hours.

The highlight of my season was netting my first-ever longnose sucker.

39 – species of birds spotted and logged into eBird

While I didn’t keep up with submitting my checklists as well as I have in prior years, I now have 88 different species of birds on my life list, including the first snowy owl I’ve seen in-person.

4- Deer harvested on our annual deer drive weekend

We were missing a couple key members of our group, but the deer drive crew still managed to put venison in the freezer. In the last four years, this group has harvested 22 deer on drive weekend.

14 – Bodies of water fished

This is the first time in the last four years that my fishing adventures haven’t led me outside of Wisconsin. But I still managed to fish two bodies of water I have never fished before. My fishing adventures spanned seven different counties As is typical, the Sheboygan River was my water body of choice, encompassing 41.5 percent of my trips this year.

10 – Points on the buck I harvested this year

During this gun deer season, I was fortunate enough to harvest the largest buck of my life, a 10-pointer that boasts more points than any buck harvested by the line of hunters in my direct family.