Daryl Kirby's GON Blog

About the only thing more difficult than pronouncing the word navigable is defining it. But define it we might. Lawsuits, unprecedented last-minute midnight action at the capitol, and now public meetings across the state conducted by a who’s-who of legislative  heavyweights… all are currents pulling a creaky old wooden raft toward treacherous waters. Those waters…

It’s not uncommon when putting these GON magazines together each month to take a pause and recognize how blessed and fortunate we are. Seeing all of these articles is a much-needed reminder that we are blessed and fortunate in many ways. We could talk endlessly about the incredible hunting and fishing opportunities in this state, …

If you are one of the many sportsmen who have walked through the doors of an Outdoor Blast in the past two and half decades, you probably met or at least noticed a group of men and women in hunter-orange t-shirts. They volunteered at the Kids Zone, at the venue doors, or they met folks…

First and foremost, GON makes a magazine. We’ve been at it for 37 years. Quite a bit has changed and we’ve weathered some storms since that first tabloid-newspaper style GON hit the store racks with a cover picture from a West Point crappie tournament. The storm of the century began as barely a ripple in…

Go big or go home. That’s all good and well, great advice. Unless, of course, the impacts of going home are far worse than the potential rewards of going big. Stating the obvious there, but there seems to be an ever-escalating ‘at all costs’ mentality in all walks of life. A young hunter seems desperate…

In three and half decades of making outdoor magazines in Georgia, I can’t remember the idea of a group of politicians getting together that has me more interested—and fearful—than a House of Representatives Study Committee that will be meeting this summer. If you own land in Georgia with a stream or river flowing through your…

Few events are more distressing than waking up to the news of some deranged idiot shooting people at a school or mall. Is there a solution—a magic wand move that would make it 100% certain we never wake up to that news again? The answer is no. But if we’re going to do something to…

It’s a sad day in America when a good man passes away yet we have to worry about labels like environmentalist and conservationist as being bad words. Long before there were terms to describe what we were doing, it was hunters and fishermen who protected and enhanced our lands and waterways. Regardless of the word…

Time to put a period on 2022 and turn the page on what we pray is a better New Year—that’s always that hope and promise this time of the year. Long-time readers have a treat this month, an excerpt written by GON founder Steve Burch, whose monthly musings in this space are certainly missed now…

Is it just me, or does it seem like nothing works quite as well as it did five or so years ago? From something as simple as ordering a meal and expecting to get what you ordered, to something big, like expecting the service department of a car dealership to actually fix your car.  I’ll…