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77 the " fish of a thousand casts," and catching muskies is not an easy task, even for seasoned professionals. Carson has been fishing with his fa­ther, Gary, since he was 2 years old and the two have teamed together the last two years while fishing the PMTT. This year, the pair fished three of the qualifying tournaments and caught one fish at the Fox Chain of Lakes in Illinois to qualify for the championship. After graduating from the Universi­ty of Wisconsin and playing profes­sional hockey, I moved to the coun­tryside south of Mt. Horeb, Wisc., and started farming. My neighbors happened to be Don and Lorraine Lehnherr and their sons, Gary and Mark. For much of the 70s and 80s, the Lehnherr's were my neighbors and friends, helping a dumb college kid who was trying to learn how to farm. Gary's father, Don, who passed away three years ago, was one of the nicest people that you could ever meet; the same can be said for Lorraine Lehnherr. The Lehnherr's worked hard farm­ing and milking cows. Don was a true outdoorsman and was always hunt­ing and fishing for something, be it deer, pheasants, turkeys, geese, trout or muskies when not working their farm. The bounty of game pro­vided many meals for the Lehnherr clan over the years and the sons were brought up hunting, fishing and in the outdoors. This was a time when children weren't glued to computer screens and Internet games, as we so often see these days. Much of my early hunting was also done on the Lehnherr farm, chasing pheasants, partridge and deer with Don and his sons. This is also where Gary Leh­nherr learned to love fishing and hunting, which his father passed on to him and his brothers. Gary has passed that outdoor heritage on to his own son, Carson. Nowadays, one hears so much about the large number of baby boomers that have left the outdoor world for various reasons. As a result, many outdoor- orientated organiza­tions - DU and the NWTF to name a few -- are seriously trying to get the youth of today involved in the out­doors' many activities with new pro­grams geared to recruit children. The state of Wisconsin now has a youth deer hunt, a mentor hunt and a youth waterfowl hunt. Groups such as Pheasants Forever have a youth hunt too. Years ago, families -- and especially rural families -- instilled the outdoors in their children, and this is what Gary Lehnherr learned from his father and has done with his own son, 7- year- old Carson. I asked Gary's wife, Danita, about what it means to Gary to have Car­son in the boat fishing with him. She replied that he loves it and this is what Gary and his father used to do all the time when Gary was grow­ing up. " He would rather have Carson in the boat any day over anyone else," Danita said. " Gary gets to do what he loves: teach his son all the as­pects of fishing while also giving Danita a break from the kids and spending time one- on- one with his boys." Gary Lehnherr also has another 2- year- old boy " nipping at his heels." PMTT Continued from Page 20