Welcome to More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty KLVI. This is Chestermore. You know, a few months back, I found myself off in kind of the Bessie Heights area in a spot that was you know, I've seen on maps of fish near and I found myself on the Lonesome Game Sportsman's Club. And I'd heard about this place before. It's kind of like one of those places like behind the scenes, you don't know what's going on out there, and come out there and to find these beautiful lakes
and they're full of fish, and there's ducks. There's saw model ducks out there at the time, and there's alligators and it's just a really beautiful, beautiful area. And my connection to this were really two people. My good friend Brian Johnson, he was just on talking about duck hunting dogs and Andy Hill, and we're gonna talk about this kind of local treasure here and how local people can access kind of a sportsman's dream type place here in
Southeast Texas. Welcome to the program, guys, thank you glad to be here. So let's start with you. Andy. Just tell us about the Lonesome Game Sportsmen's Club, what it's used for its size and kind of like when this place was founded.
So the Lonesome Game came in to existence under its current name three years ago. Prior to that, it was already an established club known as the Natures River Sportsmen's Club. So initially the Bass Reservoir, which is roughly three hundred and twenty acres, was dug out into the marsh i'd say late fifties, early sixties, and they used a dragline and they built up a big levee just out into the marsh. It is completely freshwater inside. And then we're
surrounded by seventeen hundred acres that we also own. That is the brackish marsh between the Energy power Plant as the eastern southern border and the Nail the Stark Wildlife Management Area on the north.
And you know, that's really like if you're if you're someone from southeast Texas, you've always kind of heard about that area, the Bessie Heights Marsh and the Naturever Sportsman's Club. My mentor as a writer, Ed Holder, was a member of Nature Server Sportsman's Club back in the day. Even as they had a cool story about how there was some protests and they wanted to start Florida string bass because a lot of the local guys said Florida's are too nitpicky and there and they get shy too much
as keep the basst easier to catch, you know. So a lot of history going into that. But uh so you guys you know have have this now and it's open for membership. That is correct. Mm hm. So how does someone god, I remember you got to like do a blood oath.
Or what's going on?
How do you do this?
Blood required?
Yay, I wouldn't be a member for it.
Was easiest way is to reach us on our Facebook page, Yeah, Lonesome game. You can contact me Andy Hill at three two five six six ' nine two six seven five. Reach out to you, reach out to Brian, reach out to some of our other members, word of mouth. That's the best way to get you to the right people and we'll go from there. We like to cap our
membership at two hundred and fifty members per year. Currently we have two hundred and thirty five, so we're not quite there, but that's the easiest way to get a hold of us. Join our Facebook page, follow us, and all of our announcements and everything is on there.
So Brian, you the one to connect to me with this at first talk told me, you know, I met Andy years ago because like this kid's wild kids fishing thing. Yep, you brought kids in from like San Antonio Urban Connection, Urban.
Connection, which was awesome.
And this kid Ricky every once in a while that I fished with, will still send me a message.
Yes, yeah, that was really cool. So I remember to Andy from that.
But man, you're about catching the fish, and that's the thing about you is like Brian. Like me and my friend Paul Fazenski were talking about Brian this weekend and he's like, he's like, you know, look, man, Brian's not only these guys out here fiddling with the little one pounders. Brian's after the beasts. Brian likes to catch fish. So obviously, what is your perspective of the club in terms of its fishing quality?
So I love this club.
A couple of things I like about At one, it's it's local, you know, although I live in Winny, I can be here in forty five minutes and versus going to Rayburn in two hours. And it's private, which means there's this good chance I'm gonna get to fish my favorite spots. At three hundred and twenty acres. The way that this property is cut up on the fresh water side, you can fish as long as I want to fish
and never fish the same place twice. It's got reeds, it's got lily pads, it's got eel gras, it has several different types of grass and I've just.
Really enjoyed that going out there.
People think you go into a private place. It's like fishing in a barrel. It's one hundred percent not that. You can go out there and you can catch nothing if you don't know what you're doing, or you can go out there and you.
Can load the boat. I mean this this.
Year, the biggest bass I've caught anywhere that I fished this year was on that place, and I caught a nine pounder. So so there are big fish out there. They're healthy fish, and it's it's like I like to fish everything is it's it's shallow, so I'm not fishing. I don't I don't really want to go fishing thirty foot of water in the middle of the lake. If I'm interested in going in the middle of the ocean, off,
just go in the middle of the ocean. So, you know, I really love it man frog fishing, chatter bait, swim jigs, flukes, everything that the way that I like to fish. It sets up out there. The people have been really nice. I mean, it's just a great, great opportunity. And there are some giant bass out there.
Yeah, I think that's really the key. Someone thinks that they're going to get a private lake membership, they want at least the hope of catching one of those big fishs. What are some of the bigger fish from the pass that you're aware of that been caught there?
So talking with past members, I know Riley Harris pulled in one. He did not have a scale, but looking at measurements and the scale of this bass was eleven pounds. Captain Randy I to believe y'all are both familiar with him, local God, he caught a verified thirteen pound bass on.
A scale shri lunker size bass right there, a lonesome game.
In our reservoirs, and that was about five years ago.
That's like thirteen that's like the last ten bass I've caught on the fly combined. You know, it's like, can I count with as one fish? No? But that's the thing.
I think it was a monster, you know, And I think that most people understand that you go fishing, that's not the normal cash, but they want that chance to do that because, let's face it, Toledo, Raburn, all these places are getting pressured, pressured, pressured, pressured, pressured, and it's getting harder to find some of those big fish sometimes because of that fishing pressure. And those places have ebbs
and flows. So at least if you've got a place, you know, okay, there's some big ones out there, but along the way, we're just gonna catch some good quality bass and that's some good fun family time.
Absolutely, personally, I've pulled three double digit baths out of there. All everything was catching release. Frequently we have members pulling four to six pound bass on the regular.
It's a great fish.
By the way, Online, if you see those on Instagram, those are your fours or your eights on Instagram, and your sixes are your tens on Instagram. So yeah, so that's what the translation on Instagram is, those are actually really big fish. People will be like, you know, holding them way out, you know, but those are those are great fish. Now, Brian, you mentioned the variety of grasses and habitats in this place. To me, that just says healthy fishery because you've got to have diversity in those.
Grasses, so it's healthy.
And from a fishing standpoint, you when I go out there, that's that's how I fish it. I'm like, Okay, let's check the eel grass. There's nothing in the eel grass, all right. Or let's fish the wind blown edge of the eel grass, and then let's go to maybe some hydrilla, or let's go to the reeds.
And so that's how you fish it. The lily pads, you fish and you eliminate.
They're not in the lily pads today, so let's.
Go to this.
So it makes it fun to fish. But not only does the place have big fish in it, but I've gone out there. When I go fishing a lot of times, I'll just count what I personally catch. And a day fishing for me is not an eight hour days. It's usually two or three hours, maybe four hours. I take a shift, you know, And I've gone out there in an evening and shift and caught thirty five bass personally. Yeah, And so man, I've got a camp at Ravern. I love Ravern there are not many days that I catch
thirty five bass in the evening at Rayburn. And what I'll tell you here, when Rayburn and Taleda, when they're.
On fire, they're on fire.
Sure, But a bad day for me at the lakes.
Is zero or one. Okay, that's what a bad day is.
And I just my bad days here are so much better, you know, a bad day here for me, I might catch a half a dozen in that couple hour period versus going to the lake and catching zero.
Yeah, And that's really the key, is that opportunity and also to have fun and a good thing about this. It's a place that you can take your family. And we come back on More Outdoors. We're going to talk about family fishing opportunities, other cool stuff you can do out at Lonesome Game, and we come back on More Outdoors. Welcome back to More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty klv I. This is Chester Moore. Follow me at the Chester More on Instagram That's the Chester More. Follow the
podcast of this program. iHeartRadio and all the places you listen to your podcast. Listen to me here sixty seven pm Friday Central Standard Time on More Outdoors. Have to put central standard time. Got a lot of listeners that listen from all over the place via the streaming at KLVI dot com, follow my blog at Hirecalling dot net, and there's a pile of other ways I can take you to contact me later on. But right now we're talking about the Lonesome Game Sportsman Club. We got my
friends Andy Hill and Brian Johnson here. Now, Andy, this place isn't just for trophy bass seekers, but it's also a great place for families to come. And honestly, what you guys are charging if you look at all the opportunities available, and Brian mentioned some other things here kind of adds and it kind of it's kind of like a money saver thing.
Absolutely. But what I really want to hit on is what you said about family. So our motto is we are a sportsman's club for present and future generations. Our organization is family oriented. We're a group of like minded outdoorsmen who just love everything about the outdoors and what that encompasses. So our club is not just a fishing club. We offer duck hunting. We have twenty five established blinds
on the property, no guest fees. We want you bringing your family, your friends out there, your kids getting involved in loving the outdoors, whether that be fishing, duck hunting. We manage alligators out there. All of our tags are at a minimal cost to our members. Basically you're just paying for the cost of the tag from Texas Parks and Wildlife. We have four wheeler rights. You can drive around our levees. Literally, make one cast into the saltwater marsh.
You might pull up a redfish, walk to the other side of the levee, cast in the reservoirs, and you can be pulling out basts and perch.
Uh. So it's it's a unique place right in.
Our backyard where it feels like you've gone somewhere far away, even though you've only done a ten or fifteen minute drive.
Yeah, that's a great opportunity, O bron You mentioned something, you know during the in the break here where you mentioned the fact about filling your bass. That was a great point talking about membership versus like what you're gonna spend on fuel.
Right, So, some of.
My friends have you know, they've made the comments of boy, it must be nice to be able to afford a private fishing club and the club the dues right now are currently one thousand dollars a year, and I'm like one thousand dollars a year, and I can go catch bass, I can catch salt water fish, I can catch red fish, I can catch crabs. I can duck hunt, I can dove hunt. And I said, let's just maybe I get
it on an alligator hunt. All these different things I can do for one thousand dollars, I said, guys, that bass boat that I take to the lake, it's got a fifty gallon tank in it. Okay, and at some points, depending on what's happening in the economy, that non ethanol fuel that I run in it, it's.
Four and five dollars a gallon.
I have spent two hundred and fifty dollars on my gas, and then that oil that goes into oil reservoir, that's another thirty to fifty dollars, depending on which one. So all of a sudden, I've got three hundred dollars in fuel in my boat, and that's sitting and winning. And now I got to get that boat to the lake in my truck. And I've spent five hundred dollars on a trip in fuel alone going to the lake and fishing. Okay, now what that does sometimes that makes you not want
to go fishing as much. But when you can be right here, especially for these guys who live in Mid County the Golden Triangle there, I mean you're literally just right here. And the way this club is set up, you can take a mudboat out there, you can run an outboard, or you can just drop with a trolling motor at the boat ramp and start catching fish zero cost once.
You get in the door.
Kayakers, Yes, yeah, I mean kayakers. It's a great spot now, a lot of allocators, but other than that, we're good at it's access for any kind of fishing like that, and affordable. I mean I look at it like this. Why, I mean, you pay money for a deer lease, and there's a lot more than a thousand dollars for a deer lease these days, and even in a crappy East Texas lea it's not a really good one is more than that most of the time, you know. So it's
great to have those things. And you mentioned family and things like that, so like family could come out here and have a picnic and then have a couple of kids with some hot dogs on or a cork or some nightcrawlers and catch catfish and whatever.
You know, we actually have not caught me catfish in these reservoirs.
I'm shocked, lose during.
Our shocking surveys with the American sports fish biologists. Uh, just some bullheads. That's the only catfish we've ever pulled out of there. Definitely, I'm shocked too being at the location. But it's a good thing for our bass population.
But who needs catfish when you can catch a grennel?
You do.
Look, everybody knows if anything you're not gonna get, you're not gonna have a place locally with water that has any fresh in it without grennel, they're gonna be there. And if you're someone listening from out of it's a bow fin or a shoe pick, same fish, mud marlin, cypress bass, and that's all the local names I know of it.
And they are equally as fun to catch.
That's one of my goals on here is the catch one on the fly. Yeah, because I want to catch on the fly. I want to catch on on the fly. I've caught redfish on the fly. Can handle one of these things.
Rental had had better representation, he'd be the number one sport fish. He's got big teeth, he fights like crazy, and I've heard people talk about how terrible they are. So the Cajun and me decided to cook one up, oh boy, and he tasted a lot like opellusis just a little soft crime a little longer. I'm telling you, been in a Cubian, you'd never known the difference.
I know this is a man of the cloth over here saying this. We've got to make sure we've got everything right here. He just said it's kind of like an opellus, but he did put the caveat of being in a kubial, so that changes the dynamic of it. I got a friend of mine that swear that's his favorite fish to eat, his grintel, So you never know. But I don't think it was gonna sign up just for the grinnel opportunities. But it's it's the family, it's
the fun, you know. In that access, then you mentioned the waterfowl hunting part right now, so you know a kind of a very important thing waterfowl hunters, especially maybe with those who are in public, worry about is fresh water access, right, you know, and this is fresh to bractie water access.
So We actually have two launches. We have one main launch that goes inside the reservoirs, and then on the outside of our levee we have what we call our marsh launch. Both are concrete. You can launch a twenty two foot boat in either one to access your brackish mars side or your fresh water side. Now a lot of questions I get, well, you only have twenty five blinds and you have two hundred and fifty members, So
how does that work. One thing that we've put in places we make it fair for all of our members to have an equal opportunity. We are a sweat equity club. So if you come out and contribute to bettering the property some way, we have scheduled work days throughout the year, then your name goes in a drawing each year and our blinds come up for drawing Chester. Let's say you didn't get drawn this year, but you wanted to go
hunting with your daughter on Saturday. So you call up Andy and say, Andy, hey, can I hunt your blind? You're blind's number two. Maybe I have a t ball tournament or family function and I'm not able to hunt.
I can't tell you no.
That way, everybody has an opportunity at one of twenty four blinds. You also don't have to wake up at two o'clock in the morning, go sit in line, then race everybody to a spot you can.
That's madness, and I've done it.
It's fun for a younger man, but I'm not in that stage of my life anymore, and I like the comfort and the security of knowing I'm going to this spot, I'll have it, everything's good, and shoot some birds.
I'm gonna tell you Andy.
So, since I've been on this club the last couple of years, this is the most under utilized resource for outdoorsmen's and their families in the Southeast Texas area.
Hands down.
Okay, I've never personally gone fishing that I can remember seeing, even though there's two hundred and fifty members, maybe I've.
Never seen more than four other boats at the ramp.
And with the exception of when they used to have a tournament and on the duck hunting there there is there's always a blind open. So if you're the if you're leaning toward the lazy side and you don't build a blind, go hunt one of the ones that's open.
Good stuff. Talking about the lonesome game Sportsmen's Club with Andy Hill and Brian Johnson. You can find them on Facebook at Lonesome Game Sportsmen's Club. And when we come back on Laura Outdoors, we took a little bit more about the club. I'm gonna pester these guys about some of their outdoor adventures. There's a lot of dead stuff hanging up on the wall Andy's place. We're gonna talk about some of this on More Outdoors. Welcome back to More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty klv I. This
is Chester Moore. Don't forget to listen to the podcast in this program and go back several years and archives at iHeartRadio app. You can also go to KLVI dot conflict on the podcast link and go to More Outdoors. Follow my blog at Higher Calling dot net. And you know that local cougar thing that happened just a week or two ago. Everybody's talking about the cougar import author you to follow my blog you'd heard the real story on that. Also follow me at d Chester Mora Instagram.
I'm here my good friend Brian Johnson and I'm in here with Andy hillsm a Lonesome Game Sportsman's Club. Now we're at Andy's like little like I don't know, man cave or something here. It's a pretty cool spot here, and there's like turtle shows and aks. To me, those are fallider antlers and white tails and alligator skulls. So a lot of cool outdoor stuff here. And me and my friend were my two friends. It was Captain Steve Stuby and Paul Is. We're talking about like our ultimate
fishing trips. And I always like to ask this guy. So we're gonna start with Brian, if you could go on any fishing trip in the world, budget wasn't an issue, what would it be?
So, you know, I've thought about El Salto bass fishing down in Mexico. But then I I want to go on a trip that I can feel real confident that I'm gonna come back.
Yeah, okay, I'm.
Ninety percent sure on that.
It's the old ken that's getting me.
But chester I think that my brother and I are about to go on that trip. Really this December I saw on Facebook where Roland Martin himself is gonna be guiding on Okachobe rolling. Martin's got to be in his eighties, but he's you know, nine time bass years Hall of fame.
He was the man.
So so we're going down to okachobe in December and we're gonna fig one day with his son, Scott Scott Martin Scott, who's awesome current right now, and we're gonna fish one day worth Rolling Martin. So I'll have my brother, a current bass winner and the nine time bass angler of the Year, kind of one of the legends of the game, all in that one trip. So now, the truth is, I don't know how good the fishing is
at Okachobee right now. That place has had some pressure, it's had some grass issues and everything else.
And winning in lonesome game.
I might be leaving better fishing than I'm going to, but it's a bucket list because for me, at the end of the day, it's who's in the boat that makes it legendary.
Man, that's incredible.
I mean rolling In, Scott Martin, I mean just both incredible anglers. And I would say the bass fishing world wouldn't be what it is today without Rolling Martin. He's one of those guys that was a game changer. And I've got to meet him a few times. Different you know, like icst different shows, always really nice and engaging and obviously nine time angler of the year ain't a bad you know, that's not a bad statistic there.
So Andy, give me your dream fishing trip.
Dream fishing trip.
I don't call these bucket lists. I call them rapture list. By the way.
To me, it's about the total experience.
Okay.
So the catching the fish is obviously what you go, that's your primary reason. But what else the body of
water or wherever you go can offer. So my dream trip, if it was a possibility, amazon peacock bass, just for the total immersion in a different ecosystem where you have black Cayman, where you have jaguars on the river banks trailing your boats, giant peacock bass, a million different types of BirdLife and insect life, and just the whole experience and catching a thirty inch peacock bass would be my ultimate.
And then sharing that with some friends and family.
That would be awesome.
Yeah. I did Venezuela back in ninety nine, and it's the peacocks there aren't as big as the ones in Brazil, but I caught I think a twelve something like that nice and I had a hard time catching big ones I call a lot of medium sized ones, but it was, like you said, it was an immersive experience, you know. But the trips are running down in the Amazon right
now are pretty intense, man. I mean they're catching some monsters, yeah, because they're pushing into some new areas, some of the guys I've talked to, and going into some kind of unexplored areas.
So that would be a lot of fun, you know.
For me, you know, I've thought a lot about this a long time ago. Would have been the peacock thing, you know, I did that, but I think it would be in the Bahamas about a week fly fishing for bone fishing permit in the Bahamas.
That would be that would be absolutely amazing. But I know there was going to be a fly.
Well look man, look already my dream fish, no matter what. My whole life's always been a bone fish. And I caught one on spinning and it's got an upgrade. And you know, the Bahamas a little more my style because the ones in Biscayne Bay were I caught one on spinning. Gotta bill, it's it's next level casting, and you know, it's it's a whole hard thing. But down there it probably takes me a week to get close enough to a permit to cast one. Those are a little spooky fish,
you know, But yeah, fly fishing, of course. We went to the Winning flats before and caught some large large mouths and so looking forward to the to the Bridge City flats here real soon over a loon someome game doing that. So yeah, so we've got enough time in this second. Let's let's switch this to the hunting side of things. Dream hunting trip go with you first.
Andy, Wow, I've been very fortunate with my upbringing and family to hunt all across Texas.
Some of my funner hunts have been alligator hunts.
Oh cool, and that's as of recent with some of them, some of the members out there.
Last year we pulled a twelve to three it's a gator. Before we pulled.
An eleven nine, those were our records. Now we pulled multiple other But the excitement that that brings in watching people that haven't ever experienced it before. When when you pull up a twelve foot alligator, just the immense.
Size of it's a monster man.
Throws people off.
But gator hunting, I've always had a special place for it, and it's just it's fun.
Just go get a crock in Africa.
I would love to extreme size difference.
A different way to hunt them too, you know over.
There, get the retrieving.
It would be the difficult part there, I think, because you know in those waters where there's one, there's going to be more.
Yeah, And they're not quite our gators. I hate to say this, the kind of sissy is compared to the crocs over there. You know, these eyes are a little more gentle.
I don't disagree with that.
So what whitetail hunt is your dream hunt?
So I shot that deer that was right at two hundred and nine inches, and that was free range with my bow, free permission, So that that ended my white tail pursuit like that. I've always if I could shoot one animal, I love hog hunting. And I was Steve Colemas I think is his name Safari Club. He's an
editor for Safari Club. I believe that's his name. We were talking one day and he had hunted around the world, and I was telling him how much I liked hog hunting, and he told me about the giant forest hog, and so I went and researched it and watched some videos, and I'm like, if I could now I'd go to Africa and shoot ten animals over this.
But if I just get.
To pick one animal, the giant forest.
This is why I hang out with cool people alligators and forest hogs, because I've always said I'm not really that interested in Africa. But if I did, it would be like the pigs, the bush pig, the forest hog, the lord hog, the red river hog. You know that's cool. Those are kind of an under you know, appreciated animal.
Is there a word slam for species?
There's gotta be.
I think we should one.
We should make one. We could do the Southeast Texas Slam. You know, you could do the spotted hog. You know there's white ones occasionally the old black one and then the one with the most lights on them, you know, like the light's covered up, the lights covered hog. But if I had to pick, you know, it would be I mean, Brian don't know this, it would be some sort of wild sheep in America, if I could, you know, no budget, I guess the stone sheep up in British
Columbia would be the ultimate. But that would be and I'm hunting exotic sheep, you know, and that's always fun. But a true wild sheep or like a mountain goat those.
Thet's that makes the difference. You got my mind raising, no budget. That's the met African antelope I want to go after. It's the bongo.
Bongos are awesome man.
Beautiful, cave three tips, extremely elusive, hard to hunt.
That's that's what I would like.
I think the bongo in the giant forest hall and share habitat.
Yep, there are more of that.
You know, you think of Africa hunting, it's mainly savannah, but bongos are forest animals. They're in Cameroon in places like that, and Uganda and Congo, which I wouldn't wan't go into Congo.
Well, Chester, you're you're okay with climbing that mountain for the sheep. Now, I had a hunting buddy and he always wanted to track him down.
But I'm I've got a body that's I'm built.
For ground blinds, okay, and tree stands. That's I'm built for a ground.
Blind and a tree. If I tell you this, Brian, if I could, if I can afford that, I can get the personal training, or I'm a decent shape, but I'm not mountain shape. We can get a personal trainer for a year and I'll be all right, well the little fun with these crazy guys, and we come back here on More Outdoors. Welcome back to More Outdoors on
News Talk five sixty klv I. This is Chester. We're gonna be wrapping up our conversation here with Brian Johnson, Andy Hill of Lonesome Game Sportsman's Club and Brian, you have some media outlets of your own, so give us your web address.
We can get ahold of you for stuff.
So duckdog trainer dot com.
Yeah, you were on just last week talking about duck hunting, and it's always great to connect with you because you know, I can't think of waterfowling without dogs, you know, I mean I've you know, I only had one a portion of my waterfowling career personally, my buddy's always had dogs. And really that gets to the part of it. I mean, like, at the end of the day, if you're meeting just that good person who likes to fish and hunt, enjoy the outdoors, there's that core family, but an even deeper
core and level as I think our faith. I mean, we're all all three of us here or followers of Christ and it's it's meant a lot to our life. But I wanted to ask you, as as Christ followers, how is it. How does the outdoors help you reach people they're maybe struggling, I mean, either one of your brain. Let's start there.
So you know, I'm a pastor and and I can't tell you how many times a lady in the church, for example, will come and say, brother Brian, my husband is struggling, he's going through something. Would you mind taking a fishing? Would you mind taking him hunting? And and here's the deal. Most guys, especially if it's a manly man, a macho guy, he's not coming into the office for counseling.
Okay he's not.
He's not.
If the initial setup is let's talk about our feelings, that's not interesting, Like I feel like doing something.
Else as well, you would say exactly.
But I take men and and and young guys. I take them out there and we get in the boat and we just start talking and we share our lives together. And that's where where I'm able to share Christ. And the truth is, you know, I tell people I want everybody to win. I want you to win in your life. I want you to win in your outdoor adventures. I want you to win in your family. I want you
to win in your walk with Christ. And so if I can share some things I've been through while we're in the boat, some things that might help you push you towards the finish line, then that's what I want to do. So the Apostle Paul said, I become all things to all men, so that by all means I might win some So I try to be pretty good at bass fishing, so I can help you with your bass fishing, and in so doing maybe be able to speak something else into your life that'll help you.
Andy, you and I connected over this urban connection thing, right, and that was probably fifteen years ago, fourteen years ago or something like that, And you know that was taking kids out out that are never in urban kids and stuff like that that maybe never experience any outdoors. So I know you know about this healing power of the outdoors, you have, any personal experiences, any observations you have about that in connecting people with maybe their faith and just hope.
For me personally, when I'm in the outdoors, no matter if it's out here at the club or if it's up in the woods off the river. You can't help but see God in everything out there.
Yep.
It gives you the.
Solace if you want to be alone out there and the relaxation if you go with a friend or a family member or a group, you have that camaraderie and it gives you the opportunity to talk with people on a one on one level and the conversations can go deep and have some really meaningful talks for people that maybe need that meaning and we'll talk at that time, or just with like minded sportsmen and Christians. It gives us the opportunity to converse with you with each other,
have that camaraderie because iron sharpens, aren't. We need that as Christians and men of faith. We need that camaraderie and being in the outdoors. I think it's just naturally.
And that's kind of what we see in our ministry with you know, our Kingdom's Wildlife Center and our Higher Colon wildlife outreaches. I mean just really just got back from Yellowstone doing an expedition for kids and had three different kids got to go in a Yellowstone and another young lady we got to connect with at the National Big Orn Sheep Center, and you know it's it's not handing a tract or even hand them a Bible or anything. It's number one, showing them quality time in a beautiful place.
And you know, one of my most powerful memories I've had in my life yet. And I believe in more powerful of coming. But you know, to be you have someone like me. He's done a lot of great outdoor and stuff. It shows you God can do good stuff. Because I had a memory that just blows away stuff. It's sitting kneeling over this bluff along the Lamar River in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone with two boys with me that have been through way too much in.
Their life already.
And they both got cameras and one of them, my buddy Seth, helped film the documentary on this was behind us. Got a picture of this, Thank the Lord. It's my Facebook cover profile now. And the one little boy's counting the bison and the other one's looking at the picture he just shot and I'm looking at them and the faces were just like overjoyed that they got to experience this.
It's like they got to be in something they watched on Animal Planet, like they were in it, but they were in it and there's all these bison fighting rolling around.
All kind of stuff crossed me.
And we just got through watching a grizzly about a half mile away for like thirty minutes, and it was seeing how all being away from all the noise and being in what God's creation was really like, you know, like the original intent of God's creation out there brought to all of us, you know, and just seeing how that allowed me to sit there and pray for those boys and mother mom and do that, and that's what makes it all. That's what pushes me, leads me to spend more time.
Outdoors, you know.
And it's one thing I liked about when we're talking about Lonesome Game Sportsmen Club, about the family opportunities and things like that. So again, if someone's thinking about maybe getting connected with a place for them and their family or just then to go fishing or then to go hunting, tell us one more time, Lonesome Game Sportsman Club. How to get ahold of you, How to connect with being a member?
Reach out to us on Facebook is the probably easiest way for all generations older and younger. You can always give me a phone call. My phone numbers three, two, five, six, six nine.
Two six.
I would love to talk with you about the club, show you our vision, the plans that we have for this place.
It's only going to get better awesome.
And you know, it's a beautiful place out there, and it's right here in Southeast Texas. And I'm someone who's been blessed to get to go kind of all over and do a lot of cool stuff. But it's nice to have places like this you can just kind of kick back and enjoy the beauty of nature.
And might catch a big old giant fish.
Process or maybe you pull a gator tag or get on one of the duck blinds. And that's kind of the things we all grew up doing here in Southeast Texas, you know, like we grew up duck hunting, fishing, deer hunting something, you know, and this place kind of represents that once again. The Lonesome Game Sportsmen's Club Look them up on Facebook. If you forget the info, you know you can know where to find me. You can always email me at Chester.
If you just find doubt where it's at. Trespass, go to jail. The Game Warns will reach out and they'll get a hold of somebody.
This is the voice This is the voice of Rian Johnson, the pastor by the way, who has a snarky sense of humor. But it's a lot of fun. So just kind of a final wrap up. We just got a couple of more minutes here in a thirty to forty five second synopsis. Tell me what the outdoors means to you at this stage of your life.
And the outdoors in Romans chapter one, it talks about we can we can see the attributes of God in his creation. The outdoors for me is a place to get away and to reflect on God, just his power and his peace and the purpose that he has for us.
That's what the outdoors is for me.
I go outside, clear my mind, and I'm a better man when I've been.
Outside, all right, Andy.
For me, the point I'm at in my life and with lonesome game is creating a space where my kids can enjoy it, our future generations can enjoy it. Right now, it's just my turn managing this very unique property, and I want to make it better for not only my kids, but for all of Southeast Texas to be able to experience thirty forty fifty years from now, because who knows what's gonna happen. We have to get our kids involved in the outdoors. It's it's not an option.
All right.
I agree, And that's the thing for me to wrap this up is getting the now generation of young kids plugged in so they can have the same and better experiences than us. And you know, when you do it for kids, the Lord always blesses you with something awesome yourself. You can always trust that God will take care of those that take care of the of the less fortunate. So thank you so much for listening to the program tonight.
Follow me at d Chester More on Instagram, Highercolling dot at my blog or my new blog, Golf Great Whites Blog at Golf great Whites dot com, Higher Calling Wilife on Facebook, Texas Fish and Game every issue.
God bless and have a great outdoors weekend.